Bill Sadler and his Specials, Part 3

By John Wright

Read Sadler Part 1
Read Sadler Part 2

After the success of the Mark II, Bill started attracting some attention. First of all there was the sponsor Nisonger whose company imported KLG spark plugs among other items. By now, Bill was still driving but Nisonger also had Bob Said, father of racer Boris Said doing the driving.

Sadler MK III

Bill told me that the Mark III cost $10,000 to build versus an estimated $25,000 plus for the Scarab of Lance Reventlow. The Mark III was not as successful as the Mark II as Bill’s low budget car was up against the Scarabs, the Chaparral I and various other Birdcage Maseratis and Ferraris.

Sadler Mk IV

The Sadler Mark IV was built for Dave Greenblatt. Dave got his start in racing when he showed up at a track just outside Montreal Quebec in a yellow and black customized Triumph TR. He was upset when the organizers wouldn’t let him run. He didn’t have seat belts in the car, a rollbar or a helmet. So, somehow he persuaded Ole Bardahl to put out money for one of Sadler’s cars, the Mark IV.

The Mark IV was a less complex version of the Mark III and one which didn’t have the all independent suspension. However, what it did have was a Latham supercharged Chevrolet V-8 engine. Dave was a character and one of the first things he did with his Sadler was to drive it all out up the brand new superhighway which led from Montreal to the ski and resort area of Mont Tremblant. Here’s what happened. Dave made friends with some of the personnel who were in charge of not letting anyone drive on the new highway. He started off just past the barriers and floored the car. Dave told me he must have been hitting around 150 miles per hour when he noticed some cars coming in the opposite direction. The cars contained some dignitaries who were inspecting their newest creation. Dave when by them so fast they couldn’t identify the car or its owner. They did fire all the security persons though. There was a sad ending for the Mark IV. Dave Greenblatt told me that he had parked the tow car, the Mark IV on its trailer outside a hotel where he was staying. Some thieves cut off the front end of the Mark IV to get its Latham supercharged Chevrolet V-8 engine. They trashed what was left of the car.

Sadler F3

Sadler built a Formula 3 500 cc car, with a unique rack and pinion steering box, three brakes (two in front, one at the rear ala BRM) and powered by a Triumph 650 engine. History is sketchy but it is currently owned by Paul Marohn and son.

Sadler F Jr

About 12 Sadler Formula Juniors were built in the late 1950s, using the BMC engine and components. With body looking very similar to the Elva, most were front-engined.

Sadler Formula Libre

Bill started thinking about updating an idea which Ferdinand Porsche had come up with in the 1930s; putting the engine behind the driver. He thought he would experiment with one of his Formula Juniors, front engine small bore race cars he was selling to help pay the bills. By the bye, one of his first customers was Brock Yates, Editor Emeritus of Car and Driver. At any rate, he stuck a Chevrolet V-8 where the humble Austin Sprite engine went but discovered that there was no room for the transmission. No problem, as he just connected the engine directly to the differential. Bill told me that if you wanted to go, you started the engine and you went. However, like holding a 44 Magnum, you had better have the car going in the direction you wanted to go because you were going there, whether you wanted to or not! Bill told me that he never opened the throttle fully as the car scared him.

The next step was to build a new frame to accommodate the engine behind the driver. There were no tranaxles available he could afford and so he had a simple in and out box. The car weighed in at 1350 pounds and with a 283 Chevrolet pumping out serious horsepower the car promised to be fast. He took the car to the Glen for the 1960 Formula Libre race with Canadian Peter Ryan as his driver. He prevailed upon Stirling Moss to test the car but Moss said that the car had too much understeer for him and that it needed another gear in the transmission. In practice, so I am told, Ryan had an off with the car and scraped off the oil drain plug. He didn’t tell Bill and so the engine failed. The redoubtable Fejer brothers obtained the car and there are photos of its being raced at the St Jovite, Quebec track. The car passed through other hands and it ended up being drag raced before it went to Jack Boxstrom of RM/Sotheby’s. During its road racing days, the car was fast and it terrorized the smaller bore cars at the local tracks. Canadian racer Danny Shaw raced the Libre in various Canadian races.

Sadler MK V

Bill’s expertise drew the attention of Chuck Rathgeb of Comstock and Rathgeb convinced Comstock Engineering to sponsor two cars Bill would design. The result would be the mid-engined, revolutionary Sadler Mark Vs.

Bill started with a conventional frame but based on what he had learned from the Formula Libre, he again put the big Chevrolet V-8 behind the driver. The suspension was independent all round. Nothing too new there. But Bill experimented with the Halibrand rear axle. He added another gear to the Halibrand so he would have a first gear for starting off and another gear for the top end. In addition, the Halibrand quick change differential allowed Bill to be able to change gear ratios, given the nature of the track where he would be competing.

Now for the engine. Bill put a 377 cubic inch Chevrolet V-8 engine in the car he would drive. He achieved this displacement by stroking the crankshaft of course but also by using Cadillac pistons. He built a similar car which Canadian racer Grant Clark would drive. By the spring of 1961 the cars were ready but untested, except for a day at the old Harewood Acres track. The test would come at the first professional race – the inaugural Players 200 at the new Mosport racetrack. Their debut started in an interesting fashion. Grant Clark got into a drag race with Stirling Moss on the main straight and in his enthusiasm Clark kept on going at Corner Eight and went off the track. No damage done but Clark had to curb his enthusiasm. In the race, Clark finished 5th and Bill ended up in 14th. Moss of course won.

Later on at Meadowdale Peter Ryan who would win the fall 1961 Players race at Mosport, a result which impressed Colin Chapman, nearly won the main event after a race long duel with Roger Penske. Harry Heuer who was also in the race said the Sadler Mark V went by him as if he were nailed to the track.

In that fall race at Mosport, Bill had an off in practice doing some suspension damage to the car and while he stayed up all night repairing the damage, he felt the car was unsafe to race. His appraisal of the car’s safety angered team manager, Chuck Rathgeb who vowed to find a driver who had the courage to race the Mark V. Danny Shaw who had been racing the Sadler Formula Libre said he would give it a try. Bad move. Coming out of Turn 10 the Sadler went out of control and did some end over end somersaults. Shaw stepped out of the car shaken but unhurt. Bill decided right then and there to give up racing.

The wrecked Sadler was towed to a barn near Mosport in the town of Uxbridge. However, sometime later the barn burned down and the Mark V probably ended up in a land fill. The surviving Mark V was owned and raced for a time by Jack Boxstrom of RM/Sotheby’s and then it went to Julien Mazjub in England.

Just to roil the waters, Bill built a recreation of his Mark III and raced it in vintage events around the USA. In 2003 I met Bill at the Glen Vintage Weekend and we spent the weekend yakking. I got to sit in the Mark III but Bill drew the line at my driving it in the vintage parade held on the Friday night of the weekend. He also drew the line in my driving it on the track too! Rats. Julien Mazjub came around to Bill’s shop and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Now that car is in England too.

However the story is not over. Over the winter of 2014-2015 Bill constructed yet another Sadler Mark III for long time vintage racer Greg Meyers according to his wife, Linda and he raced it at the 2015 Monterey Historics. He didn’t have time to do a paint job and so the Mark III raced in unpainted aluminum.