The History of Samuri
Spike Anderson, ex public schoolboy and semi pro Dixieland trumpet player, had been in the high performance business for some years, three of which he had been at Broadspeed as a cylinder head specialist and, in 1973, in his mid 30´s, he decided to go it alone.
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He had owned a string of Austin Healeys, (including a 300BHP Chevy V8 powered one) and, after first acquiring a 1971 Datsun Sunny Coupe, modifying it into a quick little car, calling it a SAMURI®, he traded it in for a new Datsun 240Z.
The new car, whose UK registration number was FFA196L is universally known as FFA. Its potential was obvious and he, with the help of various ex Broadspeed mates, comprehensively modified it. They even gave it a special paint job and called it a SUPER SAMURI. It was sign-written to advertise his new company “RACE HEAD SERVICES” and that, really, was that.
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After Clive Richardson of “MOTOR SPORT magazine” saw it, and wrote two feature articles. The phone started ringing and Spike commenced producing replicas thus beginning the production of now 77 Super Samuri’s.
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During the course of 1973 ten Super Samuris were built for Clients and FFA featured in several more articles in the motoring press helping to cement Samuri’s growing reputation.
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After hill climbing FFA during the 1973 season, in 1974 an ex works 240Z rally car was acquired from Rob Grant. They turned it into a racer to compete in the up to 3 Litre class of the “National Modified Sports Car Championship". This car was christened “Big Sam”, and, driven by Win Percy, contested 18 rounds with FFA, Spikes own road legal car, doing the same races driven by Rob Grant.
After three engine blow-ups, one complete right-off requiring a new body shell, and learning on the hoof, Win won the 3 litre class championship, beating the AFN backed three litre Porches Carreras by one point!
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Despite this success, it had been an expensive exercise as the company had no financial help from Nissan and Spike was forced to sell FFA.
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Plans to compete at Le Mans in 1975 were dashed by lack of sponsorship so “BIG SAM” was sold to Bradburn Brothers, a Datsun dealer in the UK.
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Early 1975 SAMURI managed to do a deal with Toyota GB to run a 1600 Celica GT in the British saloon car championship. Again Win Percy drove and won the 1600cc class handsomely and so, for 1976 SAMURI ran two cars for Win Percy and Whizzo Williams. Again Win Percy won the 1600cc class with Whizzo Williams runner-up. At the time the company was racing the Toyota’s, they produced two Samuri Celica STs for road use.
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Also, during 1976, Spike extensively modified a Datsun 1200 Coupe by fitting a 6 cylinder 2.4 Z engine and 5 speed G/box, calling it the “Samuri Sukati”. With suitable upgrading of the brakes and suspension, the car was raced at Silverstone where, due to striped wheel studs, the car was totally destroyed.
As a result of this, Spike purchased an old 240Z and set about building it into another Super Samuri for his own daily transport and entered it into a World championship 6 hour Sports car race at Silverstone in May, 1977.
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To everyone’s amazement, the car, registration number LAL 909K and now always referred to as LAL, still in full road trim, finished 20th overall, Spike having driven it there and home again afterwards.
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Greatly encouraged by this, it was decided to enter another world championship race to be held at Brands Hatch in October. Suspension and engine were upgraded but, still in full road legal spec’, the car was driven in eight Modsport races by Clive Parker, and then taken to Brands Hatch In October to be driven by Win Percy and Clive Richardson.
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The race was run in the pouring rain on a flooded track and Win Percy drove the car up through the field to third overall at which point the race was stopped. This was, at that time, the highest position any Datsun had ever reached in any form of World championship race and it illustrated the Datsun’s phenomenal road holding Qualities in the rain and Win Percy’s supreme genius on a soaking wet track.
After a two and a half hours delay the race was restarted in the dry and LAL was unfortunately destroyed after leaving the circuit on spilt oil. Spike then managed to repurchase his old Super Samuri, FFA and refitted it with all the updated equipment from LAL.
FFA had now become a truly fearsome road and competition car and was immediately once again pressed into service as the Company race car, road demonstrator and personal daily transport.
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In 1979 the company relocated to Silverstone which was to become Samuri’s spiritual home.
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Over the next few years the company produced many more Super Samuris, Raced FFA and with Spike continuing to run his specialised Cylinder Head business.
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In 1986, the 240Z was accepted into historic racing with Samuri, over the next four years, winning no less than five outright championships. In 1990 the recession hit and unfortunately and, very reluctantly, after having produced 74 Super Samuris in 20 years, Spike closed the doors and moved to Spain.
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This, however, was not quite the end of the story….Three more Super Samuris were produced by proxy, the final one being for himself. The fact that Spike owned the first and the last does somehow seem appropriate.
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This brings the total number of Super Samuris built to 77 and over 40 of them are on the Samuri Register.
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Spike passed away in early 2024 surrounded by his friends and his wife Clara.