We met Roger in the paddock at the wonderful Croft Circuit Nostalgia Weekend on Sunday 5th August 2012. After striking up a conversation about the beautiful Mini Cooper S he was racing, Roger shared the story behind the car......
In the early 1960's I was busy designing and building a racing car with friends, which was based on a Lotus 23, called the Pandora, which when built, I used to tow to races with my Cortina GT. I was involved in racing and through being connected to the BMC competitions department, I was offered a brand new 1275 Mini Cooper S. At the same time, I sold the Cortina for a Zephyr Zodiac, which was fun for the 1st week, but after 6 weeks it proved to be pretty awful, a huge car with great big fins, it neither suited my driving nor my image!
So I bought the Mini. It was supplied and delivered by Jacksons of Godalming who were the agents of the BMC competition department. I agreed a deal to exchange the Zephyr for the Mini and to meet the garage owner half way at a village pub between our locations and swap cars. We duly met up, filled in the paper work and off I drove in my new Mini Cooper S, registration number DPE 608B. He called me the next morning to check all was okay and mentioned that he too had got home okay, eventually....after he told me just how late back he had been, I asked him why it had taken him so long, he then pointed out that I'd driven off with the Zephyr keys as well as the Mini....he'd had to hot wire the Zephyr....!
So now I had my hands on a beautiful little car, which unbeknown to me, would play a big part in my life.
This was back in the days of having to run cars in, no more than 30 miles an hour. Whilst clocking up the miles 18 days after purchasing the car, I met a beautiful girl in a pub called the White Horse in Chichester. I asked her for a date and she said yes, so off we toddled in DPE608B at 30mph. That first date went well and all these years later we are still together as that particular girl became my wife.
With the car run in and ready to race, any race meeting I took the Pandora to that also had a Saloon Car race (they didn't call them Touring Cars then) I would take the Mini along and race that too.
I'd drive the Mini to the circuit, take the mats out, tape up the lights and go racing. My final race with the car was in 1965 when I emigrated to the Bahamas and sold her.
Returning to England many years on, I embarked on trying to find DPE608B. I had a house 3 miles from Goodwood and heard of the plans to start a Goodwood Revival meeting. I went and spoke with my friends there and struck a deal that if I could find the car, it could run at the meeting. It had taken me 12 years to track it down, but eventually I found her.
40 years on from my last race in her at Goodwood, my wife and I once more drove through the gates of Goodwood, taped up the lights and I raced DPE608B. I still enjoy racing her in the Historic Touring Car Championship to this day. She has a few war wounds at the moment, which will be ironed out again shortly!
Roger Phillips
Memory added on August 20, 2012
1 Comment (Add your voice)
Hi I owned DPE 608B in the early 1970's and at the time it was black with a white roof. I bought it off a guy who had entered it in the RAC rally and I modified it further and entered stage rallies (Lindisfarne, Mintex, etc) all over the country. It participated in the Welsh Rally in 1972 as no. 225 (did not finish - front suspension failure) and in 1973 as no. 217, finished 126th. I have lots of photos if Roger is interested. I sold it in approx. 1976 to a rally colleague, John Green who lived in Rustington, Sussex. From the photo of the car at Goodwood, it looks like it has had a new bodyshell? Phil Barnes
– Philip Barnes, November 19 2012 at 16:10
