Turner Mk1 (race)
The Turner Mk1 is the giant-killer of late-1950s club racing: a featherweight glassfibre sports car from Wolverhampton that embarrassed MGs and Sprites on both sides of the Atlantic and remains a front-running FIA historic mount today.
History
Jack Turner built sports cars the club racer's way: a simple ladder chassis, proprietary BMC A-series (and later Coventry Climax or Ford) power, and a glassfibre body so light the whole car undercut 600 kg. The 950 Sports and the Mk1 of 1959 refined the recipe — trailing-arm rear suspension, sensible geometry, and a price and parts bill an amateur could carry.
On track the formula worked immediately: Turners took class wins in British club racing and the marque's US importers ran successful SCCA programmes, where the cars fought Sprites, Midgets and Alfas in the small-production classes through the early 1960s. Around 670 cars of all Turner types were built before the company closed in 1966, and survivors raced on continuously in club hands.
That unbroken history is today's opportunity: Turners hold FIA Appendix K eligibility for pre-63 GT grids — Goodwood Revival's small-capacity races, the HSCC's Guards Trophy paddock, US vintage racing — where a well-built Mk1 runs at the front of its class. Values remain far below Lotus and Elva equivalents, making the Turner one of historic racing's honest bargains.
Palmarès
British club racing class wins from 1959 into the mid-1960s; SCCA small-production class victories and championship placings across US regions in period; sustained success in modern historic racing — Goodwood Revival small-GT grids, HSCC Guards Trophy class wins and FIA Appendix K events across Europe.
What to check before you buy
Chassis identity through the Turner registrars is the starting point — the register community documents most survivors, and continuous-history cars with period competition records command the premium. Check the ladder chassis for corrosion and crash repairs at the front rails, verify which engine the car legitimately carries (A-series versus rarer Climax units — the latter double the value and the papers must support them), and insist on current FIA HTP for Appendix K grids. Glassfibre condition matters less than fit: original-mould bodies are known and copies are detectable. A race-ready car with fresh papers outsells a prettier static example.
Did you know
- Turner's US East Coast importer raced the cars so successfully that period SCCA results sometimes listed more Turners than the factory's monthly production.
- The company built roughly 670 cars in total — fewer than Lotus made Elans in a single good year — yet survivors appear at nearly every major historic small-GT grid.
- Jack Turner refused outside investment to scale production; when ill health forced closure in 1966, the marque died solvent — a rarity among 1960s British sports car makers.
In the marketplace now
View all →No exact Turner Mk1 (race) listed right now — here is closely related machinery on the market.
