About Tough to crack car puzzle #179: DGS Firecrest

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Yep, last week’s puzzle proved to be a difficult one. Several of you wrote just that. Alan Spencer: “Well, you've certainly got me this week! What I discovered too late is that this car is probably documented in ‘Maximum Mini’ (volume 1), perhaps under the section ‘The Cars That Didn’t Make It’. Anyway, based on your clues, and absent hard proof, I can only surmise that this Mini derivative must be the vehicle that St. Patrick used to drive the snakes out of Ireland!”

He had the clues right: this is a Mini derivative, which did hail from Ireland and it was featured in Maximum Mini (not volume 1 but volume 3 though). So which one is it, as there have been several Mini based sports cars from Ireland? Fritz Hegemann: “Ooh that was very difficult today - as a non-Mini-specialist without one of the marvellous Maximum Mini books I can only guess and say: Davenport, kit car from the sixties, based on a BMC-Mini, built on the green island.” Well it’s not that, as the Davenport was built in Birmingham. Henk Visscher: “Tough puzzle, indeed. Too tough for a Sunday evening. The first hint suggests a Mini connection. March 17th is St. Patrick’s Day. The second hint, therefore, might well point to Patrick Fitch, who was largely responsible for the popularity of GTM kit cars. However, the car clearly deviates from common GTM models by its dual headlights.” Good thought, too, but GTM’s Patrick Finch had nothing to do with this one. Oh - Maximum Mini 2 and -3 are still available here guys! 

That left just two of you who did have it right. This is the DGS Firecrest, built by Irishman Douglas Glover. Gerd Klioba found just that. He wrote: “This is the 1963 Firecrest, a Mini-based sportscar with a fiberglass body, built in Dublin by Doug Glover. He was production manager of Lincoln & Nolan (Austin distributors for Ireland since 1927, assemblers since 1936). One prototype, initially called DGS (Doug Glover Special or Sports), and three cars were built. The prototype was used in competition, two cars were roadsters (one of them registered RZD407) and the third car (KZE999) was the hardtop coupe Firecrest GT. Racing driver PJ Wilhare crashed his Firecrest at the Knockalla hillclimb in 1970. The Firecrest project stalled when Doug Glover left the company.” That’s just lovely. But so was Gerry Barrett’s reply: “This is a Firecrest. Irish based sportscar based on Mini running gear. Initiated by Doug Glover when working at Irish Austin assembly plant Lincoln and Nolan, the first prototype in 1961 was the DGS, the Doug Glover Special with different front styling, reg LZC 775. Only three reputedly built in 1963 including one hardtop. 2 other regs I know were RZD407 and KZE999. One was written off at a hillclimb in 1970 in Dongeal by PJ Wilhare on a left hand bend at Knockalla subsequently named after him.”

That makes it hard to appoint a winner. The two runners-up might like to know that PJ Wilhare’s racer was ‘RZD 407’, as seen above, which also happened to be the demonstrator and PR car used for some lovely publicity shots earlier in its life, while ‘KZE 999’ was the hardtop. The third car, another roadster, was registered ‘LZD 774’ - very close to the prototype, which was indeed registered as ‘LZC 775’and did have a very different front styling. Gerry Barrett knew that and added the bend named after Wilhare’s crash, so we think he should be the winner for this time. But well done to you, too, Gerd!

(Pictures Jeroen Booij archive, main picture courtesy Richard Heseltine)

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