Love the Bugeye Sprite, but feel like they’re just too common? You need a Turner. And not just any Turner – a former-race-but-now-street Turner. Jack Turner was born in 1916 in Wales, and he grew up with a strong fondness for cars. His first job was in a garage, but he rapidly moved to a position as a toolmaker for an aircraft company. In the late 1940s, Turner began crafting one-off racers, sitting on his own chassis, variously-motor’d. By 1951 he had founded Turner Sports Car Company Ltd in shabby Wolverhampton quarters, formerly occupied by a blacksmith. His first model was the A30 Sports, powered by Austin’s 803 cc four-cylinder. Next came the Turner 950, running BMC’s 948 cc A-series four. His cars were largely made of fiberglass, though the occasional example had aluminum doors. A light curb weight, near endless tunability, and frisky handling helped the Turner perform well at the track. In 1960, the body and chassis were revised, a choice of engines was offered, and the Turner Sports Mk I was born. Today’s 948-powered Mk I is listed here on eBay at $24,500 or best offer. The seller is a knowledgeable mechanic who has built the car at least twice – once for race and once for street.
Here’s that nearly endlessly malleable A-series engine, decked with tiny twin SU carburetors. Ok, you’re not going to get 200 hp from it, but certainly something north of 50 hp (up from the factory’s rough estimate of 46) is a baseline. The original four-speed gearbox has been replaced by a Datsun five-speed dog-leg, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The brakes are upgraded; the car has a rebuilt dual master cylinder; external oil cooler; larger oil pan; and the aluminum radiator is like a jewel. In the rear, the Panhard rod is alloy, and the stock gas tank is now a fuel cell. A SuperTrapp tunable exhaust hangs on the left side. The wiring and fuse box are new.
A Kirkey racing seat takes care of the driver, but the car’s factory seats come with the sale. The windshield is Lexan. Yes, it’s RHD, and that’s a quick-release steering wheel. The stay-fast fabric convertible top appears to have a couple of repairs, but the tonneau is spiffy-looking. A fire suppression system and electrical cut-off switch are reminders that once a roll bar is installed, this car could shake its tail at Lime Rock in short order. Just one note: all these changes might mean the gauges are no longer very useful, unless they’ve been recalibrated.
This car was run through another auction venue a few years ago in full race trim, where it was bid to $15,400 and did not sell. It’s now located in New City, New York, with a clean title. Turners are fun cars, and at a production count of fewer than 700, far less common than Bugeyes. The later Kent-engined cars can pull more money than these little BMC variants, but I prefer the baby-round looks of the earliest Turners. Fairly or not, I think the right-hand drive will hurt this one in the market; what do you think?
One of our SCCA drivers had a Turner. Even with the 948 the light weight of the car really moved around the course.
Supertrap Is the worst exhaust you can ever put on a car. It’s second from the bottom of the list of effective systems just above the Cherry Bomb. You go slower rather than faster with these.
But it sounds great on a V8 with a cam that has some lope. I haven’t seen a car with Supertraps for decades, they are perfect for coffee and cars
Steve R
We used to install Supertrap mufflers on the various brands of small diesel engines powering the auxiliary pumps on wildland fire apparatus- they were required for spark suppression. On a diesel, soot builds up between the plates if you don’t maintain the muffler. I had an apparatus come into our shop that had an auxiliary diesel engine pump that wouldn’t start. The muffler was completely plugged with soot. Disassembled it, cleaned it and put it back together. Problem solved.
Very popular exhaust on motorcycles, and tuneable..add discs if you want more sound.
I vintage raced and rallied a Bugeye for a while, we built it with a SuperTrapp. Sounded cool, looked fabulous. I never knew any different, I thought it was fine, but the car was a leisurely performer compared to everything else I drove anyway. I might not have noticed a better exhaust.
I used to joke that I could do my nails in the time it took to get down the front straight (pre-chicane) of PIR….
Very good write up from Michelle. If you´ve ever been to Wolverhampton, you would find a place totally devoid in glamour, former home to heavy engineering including great car marques like Sunbeam (it its GP and LSR, pre-Rootes form).
The Turner was always better as a race car than a road car, but wrote the book for Donald Healey on how to build a sports car around A series components.
I may be wrong, but the wheels look like period J.A.Pearce magnesium wheels, which would be both incredibly rare and dangerous. These wheels deteriorate in composition and would not be safe to use 50-60 years later albeit a bonus point for static shows…..
Interesting you bring up the mag wheel danger. Friend and Vintage car racer was killed 3 years ago changing tires on his British open wheel car. As he was putting air in the tire after mounting the wheel blew apart killing him. He bled to death. These also burn fast and hot if subjected to fire. Sad.
Back in the early 70s , a group of enthusiasts ran a dealership for Turner that Ithink was 1 of 2 in the USA. They would find modifications that made the racecar faster and tell Turner about them, and he would issue a part #. Larry Moulton, the longest serving master Porsche mechanic in the country drove one to, I believe 2 national championships. The group had a couple of great stories about driving them on the street.