Toj: John Tojeiro and His Cars

Born in Portugal but brought up in England, John Tojeiro is best known for the adoption of one of his sports racing car designs by the AC company to make the AC-Bristol which begat the AC Cobra. During his long career in racing this quiet self-effacing engineer not only produced his own cars but supplied chassis ‘to order’ to enthusiasts who wanted to create their own cars. In his early days he had a wealthy patron in John Ogier and later he produced a number of cars for Ecurie Ecosse, and also had links with Britannia Cars Ltd formed by Acland Geddes and Murray Beecroft. Unlike other engineers in modern motor racing John Tojeiro was never able to capitalise on his creations. He earned a mere pittance from his link with AC and virtually nothing for his other commercial designs, yet more Tojeiro cars exist today than were ever built by John Tojeiro. An entire section of the book is devoted to a register of many of these cars with unique photos of them when they were originally built and raced.