thecountrydriver 

ARE there any Clan cars in Australia, or New Zealand?

 

The Clan Owners Club, formed in 1978, says it is ‘hosting over 150 members in the UK, Europe, New Zealand, Canada and Australia’ and it has a Facebook page too – but its last entry was in mid-2014.

 

The lithe little vehicle could and should have been one of the stars of British sports cars of the mid-1960s.

 

With lots of ex-Lotus expertise it made quite an impact when it was launched at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London’s Park Lane, in September 1971.

 

It was the work of engineer Paul Haussauer and designer John Frayling, who decided to leave Lotus to develop their own ultra-lightweight sports car.

 

The first model was the Clan Crusader, based on a bespoke monocoque designed by Brian Luff, also ex-Lotus, and one the key people behind the sensational Lotus 72 Formula 1 racer.

 

Haussauer worked on the Lotus Elan, Elite and S4 and had risen through the ranks at Lotus to the extent he had the confidence to go it alone with his own car company.

 

He, Frayling and Luff didn’t want to compete with Lotus, instead taking aim at entry-level sports cars of the time such as MG’s Midget and the Triumph Spitfire.

 

The Crusader was a sharply styled two-seater with a rear-mounted 875cc Hillman Imp engine, transmission and suspension, making it light, agile and quick, and frugal in its fuel use.

 

The body shell was made in two parts that were joined together using a revolutionary clamshell moulding technique.

 

It was very light but also immensely strong and when the Crusader was crash tested at 30mph (48km/h) there was a mere 0.8 inches of cockpit intrusion, whereas a full five inches was allowed. Damage was so minimal that the crash-test car was later rebuilt and put on the road.

 

The Clan looked like nothing else before or since, with a very low nose, a pair of squared bug-like headlights and trim overall proportions.

 

With the 51 hp (38 kW) Imp Sport motor pushed to 6100 rpm, top speed was 99 mph (159 km/h).

 

Brimming with ambition, by spring 1971 the Clan Motor Company had already switched from its initial premises to a larger 24,500sq. ft factory built to its own design.

 

Before long the company was employing 29 people and producing five cars a week.

 

The first one rolled off the line on July 21, 1971.

 

The Clan Crusader sold for £1350 but could be bought in kit form for £1125.

 

The company said that with the right equipment and technical knowledge, the kit car could be assembled in four hours.

 

It was a high-quality, thoroughly developed car, built to standards far better than for most low-volume sports cars. the glass fibre panelling was superb and so was the paint finish, but it was the engineering that impressed the most.

 

Performance was pretty good too.

 

Clan Crusaders could accelerate from 0-60 mph (100km.h) in 12 seconds and boasted 56 miles per gallon at a cruising speed of 40 mph (4.2litres/100km at 64km/h.).

 

They were eagerly bought by enthusiasts and did well in competition.

 

Andy Dawson claimed second place on the 1972 Manx Rally, while Alan Conley took first place on the 1972 Tour of Mull and 1973 Derwent Star Rally; he was also on the podiums for the 1972 Lindisfarne Rally and the 1973 Rally of the Vales.

 

Crusaders also claimed first place in the 1973 BARC Production Car Trials, the 1973 Jim Clark Memorial Rally and the 1974 British Caledonian Mod-sports and Sports and Special GT Championship.

 

The Clan got good media reviews too.

 

The authoritative Autocar magazine said: ‘The Crusader’s price of £1399 looks high, but it includes a respectable equipment standard, and the cars we have seen are exceptionally well finished.

 

‘It offers the appeal of a new body shape which, as we discovered, attracts a lot of attention, most of it seemingly favourable, with good performance and excellent road manners, while sticking to a well-tried mechanical formula.

 

‘If the quality can be maintained and a reasonable service network established, the Clan Crusader has sufficient good points to do well.’

 

Two years later the global oil crisis arrived and with it came a long-term economic effect on the entire world.

 

Clan, with a good many orders in its book, needed some capital injection, but the banks were not lending, the property market collapsed and many companies, Clan included, were suddenly in deep trouble.

 

Within weeks production had to be suspended due to supply difficulties and by Christmas 1973 the Clan Motor Company went into liquidation with debts of UK£52,000 still with many outstanding orders. Ironically, demand for the cars had increased because of that year’s fuel crisis.

 

It had built 331 cars in the two years.

 

There were several attempts to resuscitate the brand.

 

Greek-Cypriot millionaire Andreas Kaisis, whose company assembled KMC trucks using Chrysler components in Cyprus, bought the remains of Clan parts and a four-seater version was envisaged – but the deal came to a halt in the wake of both the continuing fuel crisis and the Greek-Turkish war and that was finally that.

 

So total Clan Crusader production finished at some 358 cars all told.

 

But wait: The parts languished for several years in Cyprus before being brought back to Britain by Ian Hopper, a colleague of Paul Haussauer and the ex-managing director of the Clan Motor Company.

 

He then sold everything on to Peter McCandless, a Clan enthusiast and owner of an original Clan.

 

In 1982 McCandless incorporated Clan Cars Ltd in Newtownards, Northern Ireland, where he took advantage of government development grants that were available.

 

So, Clan Cars revamped the Crusader, which was now simply called the Clan, but known by marque enthusiasts as the Irish Clan.

 

It was sold in three levels of kit form: basic, deluxe and complete, still using the Imp Sport engine and major parts, but now with retractable headlights, moulded-in bumpers, a glass sunroof and a choice of two engine options from tuning firm Hartwell.

 

Both featured a 998cc engine, which in ‘E’ form produced 65bhp, or there was an ‘S’ option rated at 78bhp. Some fully trimmed shells were also sold for customers to fit their own engine, transmission and running gear.

 

Although the number of cars produced in Ireland is not known, it’s assumed that around 130 road and 10 competition cars were made.

 

It was always Clan Cars’ intention to replace the Imp-engined model with an updated car, and in 1985 the Clan Clover came with an Alfa Romeo 1500cc flat-four engine and gearbox. Just half a dozen or so kits were sold prior to the production of about 21 fully built Clovers.

 

Then Clan Cars ran out of cash again and ceased trading in 1987, a full 16 years after the Crusader had first been shown.

 

The Owners Club says it has ‘over 150 members UK, Europe, New Zealand, Canada and Australia’ but other reports say the brand never left Britain.