1965 Turner Mark III

Turner Sports Cars Ltd. was formed in 1951 in Wolverhampton, England (originally in a small shop in Seisdon, South Staffordshire, England), by Welsh engineer John H. 'Jack' Turner, with the purpose of building his own lightweight sports car. Since the 1940s, he had been preparing race cars, giving him the experience and knowledge to build a formidable competitor of his own design and creation. It was given a simple and conventional ladder frame, and a fiberglass body, with mechanical parts sourced from existing cars. They were lightweight, inexpensive, well built, durable, and achieved numerous competition victories over the years. In 1957 and 1958 Turners won the Sam Collier Memorial Trophy Race. They were class champions in the 1960 Autosport competition, and in club racing, they were frequent and regular winners in both the United States and the United Kingdom. They competed at Sebring in 1959 and 1960, with a Turner finishing fourth in class in 1959, ahead of a Triumph TR3, a Ferrari 250 GT LWB, an MGA TwinCam, and a Lotus Eleven Climax. They won 3 SCCA D-Production National Races in 1966 and won numerous SCCA F-Production National Championships over the years. John E. Miles and his Ford-powered Turner won 15 class victories in 1963 and overall wins in 17 outings.

Turner Sports Cars Ltd. produced sports cars from 1949 until early 1966. Throughout the years, the cars were powered by a variety of engines including 4-cylinder 1000cc units from Lea France, Vauxhall, or MG, and later, over 10000C engines from BMC, Coventry Climax, and Ford. The Ford Cortina engines were the largest, most refined and powerful engines which benefitted from the improvements Jack had made over the years. With 1500cc capacity and twin DCOE 40 carburetors, they produced plenty of power.

All of the Turner sports cars were hand built on tubular steel ladder frames and clothed with fiberglass or steel bodies. They all had a fully independent suspension setup with transverse torsion bars in the back, tubular shocks, a Panhard rod, and trailing arms.

The early 1590 two-seat sports car was followed in 1954 by a 2.0-liter Formula 2 racer. A year later, it was followed by the A30/803 sports car with a few receiving steel bodies. The 950S followed in 1958, then the Mark I in 1959, and three years later came the Mark II. Another three years brought about the Mark III. Total Tuner sports car production is estimated to be fewer than 700 examples.

Production of the MK III began in late 1963 and continued until the company went into liquidation in April of 1966 after approximately 100 examples had been produced. The standard engine was the Ford 1500cc powerplant.

by Daniel Vaughan | Feb 2020