Titan

Roy Pike shows off the neat lines of the Mk3.
(Picture courtesy of Andy Antipas)

Charles Lucas Engineering started life at the ex-BRP workshops at Highgate before moving to King's Lynn and then Huntingdon as their engine preparation and engineering buusiness grew. The team were already very experienced in F3 having run the works Lotus team in 1966 and had continued into 1967 running a private Lotus and Brabham. At the end of '67 the team announced their own car, the Titan Mk3, the Mk1 was a 2.5 Maserati engined sports-racer raced by Picko Troberg, Mk2 an F2 project that was never realised. The car was a success winning quite a few races and for 1969 an updated model, the Mk3A, was produced, surprisingly only one car was built but the car was no longer as competitive and at the end of the year Titan withdrew from F3. Titan also had success with the MKs 4, 5 and 6 which were F Ford models, over 80 Mk6s were built.

The Mk 3A outside the Lucas Engineering factory.
(Picture courtesy of Andy Antipas)

The Titan 3 undergoing testing in 1967.

The Mk3 was designed by Roy Thomas and was a conventional late sixties spaceframe based car. Suspension was outboard with double wishbones at the front, at the rear it was a top link with a reversed bottom wishbone and double radius rods. Although the Mk3 did not appear until the dying months of 1967 success was immediate with Roy Pike winning at Brands and finishing second at Oulton Park.

Roy Pike in the Titan 3 at Brands Hatch.

The Mk3 continued unchanged into 1968 and with the late season sucesses of Roy Pike in the previous year several additional cars were sold. The works cars of Lucas and Pike were usually competitive and they won four races during the year with Leo Kinnunen also taking a single victory. However the privateer cars did have a reputation for not being the easiest cars to drive.

Charles Lucas in the Titan 3A during the Guards Trophy at Brands Hatch.

The wishbone-based front suspension of the Mk3A.
(Picture courtesy of Andy Antipas)

The rear end of the 3A.
(Picture courtesy of Andy Antipas)

The Mk3A appeared in the final race of the 1968 season, there were revisions to the suspension, magnesium uprights were fitted and the chassis was stiffened with sheet metal panelling. Only the single car was built and sold to Ben Moore who entered it for Charles Lucas. The car was still competitive, Lucas won at Silverstone, but Lucas Engineering seemed more interested in developing their growing engine building business and the car fell away as the season progressed.
Wheelbase: 94.5 ins.
Track: front 53.5 ins. rear 56.75 ins.
Wheels: 13 ins.

Drivers:

1967	3 Roy Pike.

1968	3A Roy Pike. 3 Trevor Blokdyk, Peter Gaydon, Leo Kinnunen, Charles Lucas, Roy Pike, Alan Stubbs, Tim Schenken, Ole Vejlund.

1969	3A Charles Lucas. 3 Mike Campbell, Bill Dunne, Alan Harvey, Leo Kinnunen, Per Kjellberg, Alan Stubbs.

1970	3 Terry Chawner, Mikko Kozarowitsky.