The Iota cars shared their name with the 500 Club's monthly magazine and were the brain child of the original CAPA members, notably Dick Caesar. The principle was to provide a kit of parts to assist home builders. In 1947 a batch of 12 chassis and special components, such as the rear axle assembly, wheel hubs and front springs were produced. Individual builders could then add Morgan front suspension, an engine, and construct their own bodywork. These Iota's were usually given individual names, such as Freikaiserwagen (Fry and Dunsterville), Stromboli (Adrian Butler and Bruce Mardon), Buzzie (Jim Bosisto), Hell's Hammers (Wally Cuff), Zephyr (J Breese) and Milli-Union (Gerry Millington). Non of the Iota chassis cars achieved a great deal of competition success (at least not in unmodified form) but that wasn't the main point. The 500s could have easily floundered if sufficient cars had not been produced in the first year so and the Iota kit allowed impecunious enthusiasts to race for a few hundred quid. This was the primary intent of the sponsors and in this regard the project was certainly successful.

Roy Clarkson's Iota

Iota P1

In 1949 the chassis was redesigned by Dick Caesar and complete cars were produced by Iota Racing Cars of Alma Vale, Bristol.  Partners in the firm were J. Fry, Dick Caesar and Jim Bosisto. Unfortunately they could never really compete with the likes of Cooper, JBS and Kieft. The Iota's major race success was Frank Aikens' win in the support race to the 1950 "Royal" Silverstone meeting, pipping Moss. The consistently best performing Iotas were Tiger Kitten II of Clive Lones who set a new hill record at Prescott in September 51

The production Iota

Winco Frank Aikens on the grid.

Review of the Iota car in Iota.