Bowin Cars
Encyclopedia
History
The car company was founded by John Vincent Joyce (1938–2002), a successful designer and builder of racing cars and in later years gas appliances incorporating Low NOx TechnologyLO-NOx burner
A LO NOx burner is a type of burner that is typically used in utility boilers to produce steam and electricity.-Background:- The first discovery :...
. John Joyce travelled to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and joined Team Lotus
Team Lotus
Team Lotus was the motorsport sister company of English sports car manufacturer Lotus Cars. The team ran cars in many motorsport series including Formula One, Formula Two, Formula Ford, Formula Junior, IndyCar and sports car racing...
as a Project Engineer, later to become the company's Chief Development Engineer during the mid to late 60's. While at Lotus Cars
Lotus Cars
Lotus Cars is a British manufacturer of sports and racing cars based at the former site of RAF Hethel, a World War II airfield in Norfolk. The company designs and builds race and production automobiles of light weight and fine handling characteristics...
his responsibilities included design and development of all aspects of formula type
Formula racing
Formula racing is a term that refers to various forms of open wheeled single seater motorsport. Its origin lies in the nomenclature that was adopted by the FIA for all of its post-World War II single seater regulations, or formulae. The best known of these formulæ are Formula One, Formula Two, and...
race cars; Indianapolis 500
Indianapolis 500
The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, also known as the Indianapolis 500, the 500 Miles at Indianapolis, the Indy 500 or The 500, is an American automobile race, held annually, typically on the last weekend in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana...
, sports
Sports car
A sports car is a small, usually two seat, two door automobile designed for high speed driving and maneuverability....
, rally and high performance road cars. His projects at Lotus Cars
Lotus Cars
Lotus Cars is a British manufacturer of sports and racing cars based at the former site of RAF Hethel, a World War II airfield in Norfolk. The company designs and builds race and production automobiles of light weight and fine handling characteristics...
included the famed Lotus Europa
Lotus Europa
The Lotus Europa was a two door mid-engined GT coupé built by Lotus Cars from 1966 to 1975. In 2006 Lotus began production of a totally new, Lotus Elise-derived design, a mid-engined GT coupé named Europa S....
, Type 41
Lotus 41
The Lotus 41 was a Lotus Formula 3 and Formula 2 racing car which ran between 1966 - 1968.John Joyce, Bowin Cars founder, was the Lotus chief designer and was assisted by Dave Baldwin. They started with a clean sheet of paper. The chassis was a welded tubular steel space frame...
and Type 40
On return to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in 1968 he started his own company, Bowin Designs Pty. Ltd., which designed and built racing cars for sale in Australia. Fifty six cars were built in total between 1968 and 1976. During this period he carried out several projects for Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
and Leyland Motors on suspension
Suspension (vehicle)
Suspension is the term given to the system of springs, shock absorbers and linkages that connects a vehicle to its wheels. Suspension systems serve a dual purpose — contributing to the car's roadholding/handling and braking for good active safety and driving pleasure, and keeping vehicle occupants...
design, to improve road holding of Ford Falcon
Ford Falcon (Australia)
The Ford Falcon is a full-size car which has been manufactured by Ford Australia since 1960. Each model from the XA series of 1972 onward has been designed, developed and built in Australia and/or New Zealand, following the phasing out of the American Falcon of 1960–71 which had been re-engineered...
, Ford Escort and Leyland Marina
Morris Marina
The Morris Marina is a car which was manufactured by the Morris division of British Leyland in the UK throughout the 1970s, which was a period of great turbulence and difficulty for the British car industry. It was known in some markets as the Austin Marina, Leyland Marina, and Morris 1.7...
cars.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and South East Asia. Bowin Cars have raced successfully in these countries as well as Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
Bowin Cars are best remembered for dominating the Australian Formula Ford
Formula Ford
Formula Ford is a single seater, open wheel class in motorsport which exists in some form in many countries around the world. It is an entry-level series to motor racing....
scene with 16 podium finishes
Podium
A podium is a platform that is used to raise something to a short distance above its surroundings. It derives from the Greek πόδι In architecture a building can rest on a large podium. Podia can also be used to raise people, for instance the conductor of an orchestra stands on a podium as do many...
from 1970 - 1983. It took the UK car maker, Van Diemen
Van Diemen
Van Diemen International, Ltd. is a British race car manufacturer based in Snetterton, Norfolk, England.The company has a reputation for high-volume production runs of its cars, the most well-known of which is its series of Formula Ford chassis, which have been at the forefront of that class of...
until 1993 to surpass Bowin's all-time Australian Formula Ford
Formula Ford
Formula Ford is a single seater, open wheel class in motorsport which exists in some form in many countries around the world. It is an entry-level series to motor racing....
ranking
Ranking
A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either 'ranked higher than', 'ranked lower than' or 'ranked equal to' the second....
. Bowin Cars still stand as the best Australian built Formula Ford
Formula Ford
Formula Ford is a single seater, open wheel class in motorsport which exists in some form in many countries around the world. It is an entry-level series to motor racing....
, winning a total of four Australian Formula Ford "Driver to Europe" Series in 1972, 1974, 1976, 1978. The company also built and competed in the Formula 2 & Formula 5000
Formula 5000
Formula 5000 was an open wheel, single seater auto-racing formula that ran in different series in various regions around the world from 1968 to 1982. It was originally intended as a low-cost series aimed at open-wheel racing cars that no longer fit into any particular formula...
class, however, the cars were never able to achieve the same success as it had in Formula Ford
Formula Ford
Formula Ford is a single seater, open wheel class in motorsport which exists in some form in many countries around the world. It is an entry-level series to motor racing....
. A number of these cars can still be seen racing successfully in Australia today.
In 1976, when the demand for racing cars
Racing Cars
Racing Cars are a Welsh pop band, formed in the Rhondda Valley, Wales in 1973.-Career:They were signed to one of the biggest British record labels of the time, Chrysalis Records. Racing Cars's debut album yielded their only hit single with "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"...
declined in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, the company changed its core business, branching out into making a wide variety of home appliance
Home appliance
Home appliances are electrical/mechanical machines which accomplish some household functions, such as cooking or cleaning. Home appliances can be classified into:*Major appliances, or White goods*Small appliances, or Brown goods...
products from a new type of industrial cookers
Pressure frying
In cooking, pressure frying is a variation on pressure cooking where meat and cooking oil are brought to high temperatures while pressure is held high enough to cook the food more quickly. This leaves the meat very hot and juicy. A receptacle used in pressure frying is known as a pressure...
called the set n forget cooker to railway lighting systems. In the early 1980s the company concentrated its design, engineering and entrepreneurial expertise on developing a range of gas appliance products for domestic, institutional and light commercial markets world wide. In 1985 a modern gas appliance manufacturing
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...
facility was built replacing the old car factory site. During this time the company won a contract to supply gas-heating systems to government schools in Australia with a gas burner
Burner
Burner may refer to:* Gas burner or oil burner, a mechanical device that burns a gas or liquid fuel into a flame in a controlled manner* Hot-air balloon device, a device to inflate a hot air balloon* Burner * Burner, West Virginia...
designed to reduce emission and improve air quality called the LO-NOx burner
LO-NOx burner
A LO NOx burner is a type of burner that is typically used in utility boilers to produce steam and electricity.-Background:- The first discovery :...
.
John Joyce the founder of Bowin Cars died of a heart attack in June 2002 and is survived by his wife Pam and three sons.
Earlier Models
In fact, two Formula JuniorFormula Junior
Formula Junior is an open wheel formula racing class first adopted in October 1958 by the CSI . The class was intended to provide an entry level class where you could use inexpensive mechanical components from ordinary automobiles...
s were designed and built by John Joyce prior to the formation of Bowin Cars.
- (P1) - A Cooper-based car in 1959
- (P2) - The Koala in 1962.
Bowin Models
- Bowin P3Bowin P3The Bowin P3 was a 1968 project that gave Australia a fully professional monocoque racing car. The P3 was designed for the Australian National Formula and the Australian 1½ Litre Formula. After the capacity limit for Australian Formula 2 was increased from 1100cc to 1600cc at the beginning of 1969,...
- 1967-1968 P3 Australian National Formula Car - Bowin P4Bowin P4Bowin P4 was a Formula Ford class of race car designed and built by John Joyce founder of Bowin Cars.The Bowin P4 went on to win four Australian Formula Ford Championships in the 70's. Many of the cars still race today in the racing class called The Historic Formula Ford series....
- 1970-1974 P4 Formula Ford Car - Bowin P6Bowin P6Bowin P6 was a Formula Ford & Formula 2 class of race car which was designed and built by John Joyce founder of Bowin Cars.-Specifications:...
- 1972-1974 P6 Formula Ford & Formula 2 Car - Bowin P7 - 1973-1975 P7 ?
- Bowin P8Bowin P8The Bowin P8 was a Formula 5000 and Formula 2 class of race car, which was designed and built by John Joyce, the founder of Bowin Cars.-Specifications:...
- 1973-1975 P8 Formula 2 & Formula 5000 Car
External links
Official Sites- http://www.bowincars.org
- original car drawings for download in PDF : /index.php/Car_Drawings Bowin Car Drawings
- listing of the Car Owner Chassis Register No.
Websites Featuring Bowin Cars
- Australian Formula Ford Association
- Australian Formula Ford Championship Results
- Photo Gallery of Bowin Cars
- Historic Racing Car Club - Qld Australia
- Tasman Racing Series
- A Bowin P6 that competed in the Canadian Canon/Yokohama Formula Ford series
General External Links Related to Bowin