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This car chassis No. DS3GT 1001 was one of the two 301 coupes which were built for, and ran at Le Mans in 1964. This car was the one that actually took part in the race, the other being seriously damaged at White House in practice.
It has been totally re-built by Chris Lawrence with the help of a partial road car kit from the Rabagliati Collection and is wholly authentic with total documented history and FIA papers.
Although the car has a Mini Cooper 1320cc engine mounted in the rear, except for the wheels, the Mini connection ends right there. The chassis is a central backbone sheet metal design carrying the Lawrence Link Suspension System, at that time under patent. The other unique feature of the design is the Lawrence Tune designed dry sump system for the Mini engine.
Other features of the car are: electrically heated and partially tinted windscreen in laminated glass; heated glass rear window; new interior trim throughout in leather and carpet; new paintwork; new oil, water and hydraulic pipe work, new radiators and tanks.
The gearbox was originally built for the car by Jack Knight in 1964 with a 2.9 : final drive for the 4.5-mile long Mulsanne Straight. The current box, again built by Jack Knight has a close ratio straight cut baulk ring gear cluster, but only a 3.2 : 1 final drive. This has reduced the top speed, recorded at the Houdinieres time trap on the Mulsanne Straight in 1964, of 152mph, down to 138mph, as for the car's return to the Le Mans Classic in 2004 the circuit is now very different with no straight and a much higher requirement for acceleration.
The Deep Sanderson 302 Coupe is a unique example of a very rare marque bristling with innovative design features all ready to go in suitable races for small engine classic car racing.
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