Brabham BT25 Repco 760 by Mark Bisset…

Posted: July 4, 2026 in Features, MRD-Brabham-Ralt
Tags: , , , , , ,
0
(AOuld-MBisset-ChatGPT)

Motor Racing Developments’ first monocoque racing car, Brabham BT25-1 Repco Brabham 760 4.2-litre V8 Indianapolis 500 contender, breaks cover circa April 18- 22, 1968, not long before it was a-leavin’-on-a-jet-plane for Indianapolis.

The no-fuss press release comprised popping the car out front of the New Haw factory, backed by some enormous bits of paper (left), to ensure the photos ‘popped’ in MotorSport and Autosport. ‘Would you like a cup of tea, Mr Jenkinson, Mr Bolster? Don’t be too long, we’ve cars to prepare…’

While the first motor race won by a works-Brabham Repco was fitted with Repco Brabham Engines Pty Ltd’s simplest engine, the last was won by its most complex and publicly derided…

(A Lewis)

First and Last…

Peter Revson takes the plaudits of the crowd after winning the second heat of the Indy 200 in his Brabham BT25-2 Repco at Indy Racing Park in July 1969.

It was an important final win for the Motor Racing Developments, Brabham Racing Organisation and Repco Brabham Engines partnership which commenced five years earlier but had had a most troubled season in 1968 with both its 3-litre RBE860 F1 and 4.2-litre RBE760 Indy V8s.

Jack’s BT19 Repco and Denny’s BT22 Climax FPF in the East London pits during the non-championship 1966 South African Grand Prix at East London; the first race for chassis and engine (unatt-MBisset-ChatGPT)

The first race in the partnership was with an RB620 3-litre engine designed by Phil Irving and built in Repco’s Richmond Engine Lab, then fitted aboard Brabham BT19-1, a chassis built over the winter of 1964-65 for the stillborn Coventry Climax FWMW 1.5-litre Flat-16 engine for the 1966 South African Grand Prix at East London.

Whilst a non-championship race it was an important step in blooding the engine before the first 1966 Championship race at Monaco in May.

Ex-RBE engineer Nigel Tait checked the engine build sheets for E3, the 3-litre motor Jack used at Kyalami. Its first dyno runs were on November 12, 1965. Numerous tweaks were undertaken, the best tug being 279bhp @ 7,300rpm with the ignition set at 47 degrees BTDC.

The engine was air-freighted to England on November 16, then fitted to BT19 with exhausts made locally. Tested at Goodwood over 40 laps, Brabham’s best was a 1:17.3 compared to the existing lap record of 1:20.3.

BT19 was then shipped to South Africa, where Jack popped the car on pole and led by a good margin until nine laps from the end, when the metering unit cog belt came off; the lap record was encouraging! Phil Irving then redesigned the location of the metering unit to be within the engine’s Vee and driven from the rear of the jackshaft.

After Kyalami, BT19 was shipped to Melbourne, where the 2.5-litre 620 2.5-litre V8 engine E2 was fitted for the Sandown and Longford Tasman Cup events.

Then the busy chassis returned to the UK before heading to Italy for the non-championship race at Siracuse on April Fools’ Day, DNF after two laps, and then the BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone on May 14. Jack put BT19 on pole and won the 165 km race from the works Ferrari 312 of  John Surtees and three Cooper T81 Maserati V12s. The rest of the F1 world was on notice despite a power output at the time that was 300 bhp at best…

(Deviant Art)
BT25-1 looking absolutely shagadelic in its Specialised Mouldings fibreglass bodywork during the car’s launch at New Haw (AOuld-MBisset-ChatGPT)

Brabham BT25 Repco 760 4.2 V8…

Motor Racing and Sportscar (MRS) wrote that the decision was made to build BT25 in April 1967, but that construction didn’t begin until that November.

The chassis of the car is notable as Ron Tauranac’s first monocoque design, as noted above. He built it to comply with USAC rules, which required bag-type fuel tanks enclosed within metal panelling. That was easier to package in an aluminium monocoque rather than one of his trusty spaceframes. Not that they were past their use-by date, Jackie Ickx won two Grands Prix in 1969 with the BT26 Ford DFV, which was so equipped.

The engines are RBE760, that is, a combination of the 700 Series long block with 60 Series gear-driven, twin-cam, four-valve Lucas fuel-injected heads. The engine’s capacity was 4.2 litres, a bore of 96.2 mm and a stroke of 71.9 mm (4120 cc). Using methanol fuel, the engine’s output was quoted as circa 550 bhp @ 8,500 rpm. The gearbox was a Hewland LG600 five-speed transaxle.

Brabham and Cooper were the Indianapolis revolutionaries, of course. They tested one of their Grand Prix T53 Lowlines in October 1960, having been encouraged by Rodger Ward to do so during the 1959 US GP weekend at Sebring, and then returned with a bespoke Cooper T54 Climax the following May.

BT25-1 is well-progressed, BT25-2 at right (AOuld-MBisset-ChatGPT)
Jack Brabham’s Cooper T54 dives underneath Bob Christie’s Kurtis Offy during the 1961 Indy 500 (Twitter)

Leonard Lee was prevailed upon at Coventry Climax to build the biggest possible version of the FPF four-cylinder engine, which swept the F1 boards pretty much in 1959-60. By increasing the bore and stroke of the 2.5 FPF, they created a 251 bhp engine of 2.7 litres, well short of the 4.2 litre limit for normally aspirated engines; the Top Gun Offy of the day gave about 430 bhp.

Despite that, unsuitable Dunlops, and on a steep learning curve in every respect, including pitwork – one crewman cross-threaded a rear nut – Brabham finished ninth amongst the roadster leviathans and commenced the immediate trend to mid-engined cars. The 1964 Brabham BT12 Offy is hereby acknowledged, but is not a tangent for now, see here:https://primotipo.com/2022/12/10/brabham-bt12-offy/

Graham Hill up top in the staggering Lotus 56 Pratt & Whitney, with Jack and RBE mechanics attending to the needs of the 760 V8. Note the throttle linkage and Lucas/RBE slide injection (D Friedman)

Three RBE760 V8s were made for the Indy program: E34, E35 and E36. Rod Wolfe’s diary reveals that engine E34 came off the dyno on April 11, 1968. It seems reasonable to assume that the engine arrived at MRD on or about April 13-15, and that the car was tested at Goodwood about April 17-19, after which MRS reported that ‘Jack Brabham had fun testing the prototype at Goodwood before it was sent across the Atlantic, and found it exhilarating getting up to 170 mph half-way down the straight!’

When Jack and Ron fronted up to the laborious month-long Indy carnival in May 1968, the abject engineering conservatism of 1961 had been replaced with some very edgy technology, the prime example of which was the outrageous Lotus 56 ‘wedge’ powered by a Pratt & Whitney gas turbine engine and putting its power to the road via all four driven wheels.

The utterly conventional Brabham/Repco Brabham Engines response was no disadvantage at all. Bobby Unser won in an Eagle powered by a 2.8-litre turbocharged Offenhauser DOHC four, the first win for a Turbo, whilst Dan Gurney was second in an Eagle 68 powered by a stock-block 5-litre Gurney-Weslake Ford V8, then came Mel Kenyon in a Gerhardt Offy t/c followed by Denny Hulme in the other works Eagle 68 powered by the Ford DOHC Indy 4.2-litre V8.

Nigel Tait’s 3-litre, quad cam diagonal port V8. 16 inlet and 16 exhaust valves and an incredible cacophony of music but not a lotta power. None of these engines found their way into a chassis. Ferrari packaged and tested a diagonal port Dino V6 variant into a car, and it could be done but Ferrari walked away, as did ‘pioneers’ BMW eventually (NTait)

In search of the ‘Unfair Advantage’, with the new, powerful Ford Cosworth DFV V8 in his mind, RBE General Manager Frank Hallam sought to bridge the performance gap with a radial valve head design which used four diagonally opposed valves above each piston.

Way too much time was spent on this direction, Hallam pushed the 850 long after his Chief Engineer, Norman Wilson, told him he was flogging a dead horse. The motor simply did not make sufficient power wherever the plugs were placed and whatever timing was tried. And that, apart from the installation issues of inlets and exhaust pipes at all kinds of angles, presented a difficult challenge for chassis designer Tauranac, who had made his position clear to Hallam.

Finally, in November 1967, with time very much against them, RBE decided to use the conventional four-valve, crossflow ’60 Series heads’ drawn by John Judd with Wilson looking over his shoulders. For F1, 3-litre, use a shorter 800 Series block made from aluminium and magnesium alloy designed by Wilson as their 1968 F1 engine. The 4.2 Indy used the 700 block introduced by RBE in 1967.

Project RPO, one of the distractions…the Repco-Pontiac 5-litre Trans-Am engine intended for the Firebird on the Maidstone dyno. In summary, the design comprised a Repco cast iron block which mimicked the Pontiac original, aluminium SOHC, two-valve heads and fuel injection. The V8 was designed by Norman Wilson; an amazing mighta-been…(BHeard-MBisset-Wordpress)

Loaves and Fishes…

Much time had been lost, too much time, and Repco were stretched ridiculously thin in 1968.

They had a one car Tasman Cup machine to power for Jack in the Australian rounds, a two car F1 program, two car Indy 500 commitment, Australian customer 2.5 and 4.4-litre engines to service, 4.8-litre and 5-litre sportscar engines to build for Frank Matich to race in the Can-Am Series, engine performance kits to construct for the Volvo 120 sedan and a contract with Pontiac to build five Trans-Am V8 prototype engines by 1 January 1969. All of this with a headcount of 59 in May 1968.

Hallam tried to serve too many masters as above, he, and/or the Director to whom he reported, Bob Brown, should have said ‘No Way’ to some of these opportunities. The decision to pursue the radial-valve 850 engine for too long came at the expense of sufficient dyno time for the 860, so the 1968 F1 program was a disaster in every respect.

860 engines went snap, crackle and pop all over Europe and North America, albeit Jochen Rindt proved the Brabham BT26 Repco ‘860’s speed with three front row starts, including one pole, Matich missed the Can-Am completely (not that the SR4 chassis was ready anyway), and Jochen Rindt’s Indy start in BT25-1 was over after five laps with piston failure due to fuel mixture issues and resultant detonation…

Jochen easily qualified with a lap of 164.144 mph set on Sunday, May 19, but he was well shy of Joe Leonard’s Lotus 56 P&W pole time of 171.6 mph.

Ian Lees, Jochen Rindt and BT25-1 (Unatt-MBisset-Wordpress)
Jochen Rindt and Masten Gregory in 1968

Jochen’s 1965 Le Mans teammate, Masten Gregory, the pair won the race in a Ferrari 250LM, didn’t make a qualifying attempt in BT25-2 as the car was late (it arrived on May 19) and not best placed to have a crack at that mighty challenge. Jack alternated between the two cars with his vastly experienced onboard computer diagnosing what the cars needed to improve.

No doubt Repco – and Goodyear, who sponsored Brabham’s Indy program – were more than miffed that Jack did not compete, given Indy was one of the ‘commitments which broke the camel’s back’ of the F1 program, which was far and away the most important to both BRO and Repco. Betty Brabham was well aware just how lethal the Indy 500 was at the time and ‘banned’ Jack from the race, albeit the wily character tested BT25 at Indy anyway…

In short, by mutual amicable agreement, the BRO/Repco F1 partnership ended after the 1968 F1 season. In 1969, the final events the two companies agreed to contest were an Australian Gold Star race at Mount Panorama that Easter – Brabham won it in Repco’s Brabham BT31 830 2.5 V8 – and three fixtures in the US: the Indianapolis 500 and the Indy 200 on the road course at Indianapolis, and the Rex Mays 300 at Riverside at end of the season.

Perhaps with an eye to 1969, Brabham contested the very last ’68 USAC Champcar race, the Rex Mays 300 at Riverside, a road circuit he knew well.

He popped the car sixth on the grid and ran well, but smote another car or a bit of the real estate and withdrew due to an oil leak after completing 27 of the 116 laps. Dan Gurney was up front in an Eagle Ford.

Brabham at Riverside in 1968, BT25-1
(G Hartman)

In the Spring of ‘69…

Jack convinced Betty he should drive at Indianapolis in 1969, which would have been an interesting chat over the morning’s toast, Vegemite and Coco Pops, with Jack engaging Peter Revson to drive the other BT25. The two fixtures in the US were the Indianapolis 500 on 30 May and the Indy 200 at Indianapolis Raceway Park on 27 July.

At the time, the talented Revlon heir was putting in good performances in Can-Am and USAC cars but was still regarded as somewhat of a dilettante, but after his marvellous fifth place from the rear of the grid at Indianapolis, pit-pundits took note.

Plenty of development at Maidstone turned the under-developed ’68 525-535bhp @ 7600rpm 760 4.2 into a competitive 550-560bhp @ 7800rpm engine in 1969. The focus (see Bibliography) was primarily on four areas: induction and mixture distribution problems, head changes, lubrication and crank, and cooling.

The Indy inlet manifold had uneven runner lengths and uneven mixture distribution at high RPM, with cylinders 2 and 7 running lean at sustained high load. Repco addressed this by reworking the inlet tracts and improving injector placement. More stable combustion allowed more ignition advance, better throttle response and ensured the engine ran reliably at higher RPM.

The heads came in for attention, too. Valve springs had proved marginal over 7000rpm, and the cam profiles were conservative to look after the springs. Improved spring metallurgy allowed more aggressive cams, while revised head castings (from Clisby in Adelaide) incorporated improved oil-return galleries to address slow oil drainage from the heads.

Improved crankshaft counter-weights, revised main bearing oil feed and better torsional damping resulted in less bearing wear and smoother running which gave the drivers the confidence to run the engine harder.

The quad-cams generated more heat than the SOHC Repcos so oil temps crept up. The fix was a mix of oil pump capacity, oil gallery routing, scavenging efficiency and the cooler layout.

Brabham in BT25-2 in 1969. Roy Billington – as always – in close attendance (GCritcherColl-MBisset-ChatGPT)
Jack’s car with the Hewland LG600 removed gives us a good view of the rear chassis bulkhead. The RBE760 was non-load-bearing; it was supported by the rear tubular steel frame, which in turn was attached to the rear of the aluminium monocoque (GCritcherColl-MBisset-ChatGPT)

Ron didn’t let the grass grow under his feet in terms of BT25 chassis development either.

Wider – slightly – fuel tanks were incorporated, and internal baffling was improved to enhance fuel pickup. RT revised the upper nose profile a tad and improved radiator ducting within it. Structurally, the front bulkhead was stiffened to improve steering precision on the ovals.

Front and rear suspension geometry came in for attention, too. Up front, minor changes were made to the upper pick-up points to finesse anti-dive characteristics and afford better stability over bumps. Brabham had diagnosed some flex from the rear, the fixes comprised reinforced rear radius rod mounts and heavier-gauge tubing for the gearbox cradle

In July, he gridded up at Indy Racing Park with a fresh 760′ for the two 100-mile heats, the combined results of which, comprised the Indy 200.

He was third in the first heat behind Dan Gurney’s Eagle Ford and Al Unser in a Lola Ford and won the other from Mario Andretti in a Brawner Ford and George Follmer’s Cheetah Chev. Revvies’ performances were beauts, the field also included AJ Foyt, Gordon Johncock, Lloyd Ruby and Art Pollard, there was no shortage of depth in the field.

These results for the 760 engine in the United States and crushing performances against light opposition by Frank Matich’s 4.8-litre 760-engined Matich SR4 sports-racer in Australia in 1969 were hugely important to the RBE team as they vindicated an engine – the 3-litre 860 – dismissed as a failure.

860 failures documented by Frank Hallam include dropped valve inserts, fuel pump, broken camshaft, centre main bearing, gudgeon pin, conrod, cam-follower, lubrication system and most critically, torsional vibrations in the gear-train of the type Cosworth experienced with the early 3-litre Ford DFV V8s.

All of these problems could have been solved with development; indeed, the fact that Revson completed 500 miles at Indianapolis and another two races of 100 miles suggests the problems were solved. A 3-litre 860 indeed finished two races, both Rindt and Brabham finished at the Nurburgring, a wet race in which gentler throttle applications aided engine longevity.

Finally, some sources write that the 760 did not have torsional cam gear vibration because the engine wasn’t revved as hard as the 860, but the power quoted by Repco for each engine is 500 bhp (760 4.2 litre) and 400 bhp (860 3 litre), in both cases, the outputs were produced at 8,500 rpm…

(D Friedman)

Ron Tauranac and Peter Revson in BT25-1. Note the differences in the nose of the 1969 cars compared with the year before.

(D Friedman)
(D Friedman)

Allen Brown’s Old Racing Cars full chassis by chassis race record of the BT25s is here:https://www.oldracingcars.com/brabham/bt25/

Etcetera…

(D Friedman)

The BT34 was visually challenging, but otherwise Tauranac’s Brabhams were all handsome beasts. Jack during one of the interminable Indy test sessions, in Jochen’s car.

Note the front winglets and knock-on hubs which were also used on the 1970 BT33, MRD’s first F1 monocoque design.

(D Friedman)
(D Friedman)

As you will have gathered from the narrative, a big part of the 1968 challenge was combustion, which seems to be reflected in many of Dave Friedman’s pit shots. The Champion man reads Jack’s plugs.

(D Friedman)
(D Friedman )
(unattributed)

Jochen with Scuderia Veloce boss David McKay keeping a close eye on things, wearing his journo hat.

(D Friedman)
(D Friedman)

Colin Chapman and Jack in 1968. What a tragic and bitter Indy for Team Lotus; Mike Spence dead and Joe Leonard seemingly with the race in the bag, only to suffer a snapped fuel pump driveshaft with only eight laps of the 200 to run.

(D Friedman)

Rindt in 1968. JB and RT were men of few words, but one suspects those that were used counted…and to an extent their level of mutual respect and knowledge of one another perhaps ensured stating the obvious was superfluous.

(D Friedman)

Bibliography…

‘Mr Repco Brabham: Frank Hallam’ Simon Pinder, ‘The Jack Brabham Story’ Jack Brabham with Doug Nye, Nigel Tait, oldracingcars. Com

Copilot for engine development between 1968 and 1969 sourcing USAC Technical Bulletins which corroborate changes to cam profiles, the injection layout and oiling system revisions.

Publications include Autoweek, Road & Track, the Indianapolis Star, Repco Recollections (some of which I have published), MotorSport, Racecar Engineering. Repco technical summaries and SAE style reports by Frank Hallam, Norman Wilson and John Judd covered, inter alia, the mixture distribution problems on the early 760, valve gear and spring metallurgy updates, crankshaft balancing changes and dyno figures 1969/1969. These papers were referenced by Repco’s own 1980s historical technical review and Malcolm Preston’s ‘Maybach to Holden:Repco The Cars, People & Engines’

Other sources include Brabham team notes and interviews, Tauranac’s oral history sessions with the National Library of Australia (note to self to follow up)

Credits…

Alan Ould, Getty Images, Gary Hartman, P Pelham, Deviant Art, Twitter, Brian Heard, Gary Critcher Collection

‘Brabham Cars 1961-1970’

I’ve written a book on Jack’s and Ron’s Brabhams, MRD to BT33, the publishers tell me the imaginatively titled publication will be on the market by Fathers Day, Christmas is realistic at worst I figure, pre-order here:https://autoactionmagazine.myshopify.com/products/brabham-cars-1961-1970

Tailpiece…

Brabham was full of joy and optimism after the first of many wins in the partnership between Motor Racing Developments, Brabham Racing Organisation and Repco Ltd. BRDC International Trophy, Silverstone 1966.

Finito…

Bluebird 5…

Posted: June 30, 2026 in Fotos
Tags: , , , , ,
1
(E Green)

Evan Green, Australian rally driver, motoring journalist, PR man/marketer and entrepreneur was a key member of Donald Campbell’s team that helped deliver the plucky Brit and his Balmy Army of friends, supporters and sponsors his World Land Speed Record aboard the Bluebird CN7 Proteus in 1964.

Evan’s slide collection recently came up for auction on eBay. Many thanks to my mate Stephen Dalton for flicking me the link. The low res images have been sharpened and enhanced with the help of WordPress, the end result should be reasonably kosher.

Bluebird on the way to the salt at Muloorina Station (big farm). I’ve done this topic to death, so lets allow the pics to do the talking, my main piece is this one:https://primotipo.com/2014/07/16/50-years-ago-today-17-july-1964-donald-campbell-broke-the-world-land-speed-record-in-bluebird-at-lake-eyre-south-australia-a-speed-of-403-10-mph/ Consequently, the captions are at the minimal end of things.

(E Green)

Setting up shop.

(E Green)
(E Green)

Lake Eyre in flood, May 4, 1964, nothing a set of wets on the ‘bird wouldn’t fix.

(E Green)
(Getty Images)
(E Green)

DC at the controls of an Aero Commander, Campbell and Tonia below.

(E Green)
(Getty)

This Elfin Catalina Ford #6313, was used for tyre testing/development. See here:https://primotipo.com/2022/04/17/bluebirds-elfin-catalina/

(E Green)

Car make and bloke’s name folks?

(E Green)
(E Green)

Fuel alchemy, hardness of salt test or a mix of home brew in process?

(E Green)

DC and Tonia, if you can help with any of the names do let me know.

(E Green)

Toyota Land Cruisers are revered in the bush, first winning their spurs as indestructible, reliable workhorses on the Snowy Mountains Scheme a decade before, at a time ‘The Japs’ was said with vitriol.

More here:https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-19/world-record-on-lake-eyre-1964/103746322?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=link and this:https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-28308864 and here:https://youtu.be/fqnHYACrVhQ?si=fW1Pf2qeZC-OaJvy and here:https://youtu.be/cruT46lzPr8?si=Wsc7Qo0s2YIaarS5

(E Green)

Sunrise and ready to rock…

Etcetera…

(L Shea)

Bluebird exits Lake Eyre stage left on May 18, 1963 due to weather. It returned…

(B Healley)

Museums Victoria, ‘Scale model of Donald Campbell’s ‘Bluebird’ which set a new world land speed record of 403.10 mph (648.783 kph) on Lake Eyre in South Australia on 17 July 1964.’

‘Power was provided by a Bristol-Siddeley Proteus gas turbine engine.’

‘This 1:12 model was built for the Museum in 1966. It was previously displayed with one of the original Dunlop wheels from the Bluebird which is held in the Museum’s collection.’

‘The original vehicle was built by Norris Brothers Ltd in the UK and was designated the Campbell-Norris 7 (CN7).’

Model-maker, RD Ramsay, St Kilda in 1966, the model was commissioned by Museums Victoria.

(B Healley)
(J Carter)

Credits…

Even Green photograps via the Stephen Dalton Collection, Getty Images, Museums Victoria, Benjamin Healley, Jeff Carter, Laurie Shea

Finito…

BRM Speedcar NSW 43…

Posted: June 26, 2026 in F1, Obscurities
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
2
TLMoore-MBisset-Wordpress)

A BRM obscurity for something different, not that Doug Nye didn’t cover it in BRM 2.

John Merrick, a Lithgow, NSW local, with his BRM Project 25-engined speedcar – ‘NSW 43’ – at Windsor Speedway, Sydney in 1965.

Merrick – Hughes – at Sydney Sports Ground in the late 1950s (K Moore)

Ken Moore, ‘My stepfather John Merrick started competing on a Douglas at Bathurst on dirt, later racing Speedway under the name ‘Johnny Hughes’ until the late 1960s. Later still, he raced in Historics, his last event was at Eastern Creek in 1995, aged 77.’

NSW 43 was an early spaceframe speedcar chassis design Merrick fabricated in his Wentworthville servo.

‘John in Catherine Street, Rozelle, the week before the accident. The BRM P25 engine had two dual-throat monoblock 50mm carbs, running on methanol,’ Ken Moore (K Moore)

In search of the Unfair Advantage, he bought the BRM P25, 2.5-litre four-cylinder, DOHC engine, #2595, that had been fitted to Arnold Glass’s BRM P48, circa 1964. Unsold, Glass had planned to fit it into a speedboat.

Glass raced two Project 25-powered ex-works BRM P48 – chassis #485 and 482 – throughout Australasia in 1962-63 before selling his cars, parts thereof, and spares after buying a Cooper. See here for a lengthy piece on these cars and Glass’s adventures with them: https://primotipo.com/2018/03/16/bourne-to-ballarat-brm-p48-part-2/

Gary DeWall recalls a conversation with Merrick, ‘If I could get all four carbies working at the same time, I’d be on a winner!’

Merrick and Bob Graham in the early stages of the terrible accident that could so easily have taken John Merrick’s life, before NSW 43 rolled, Westmead 1966 (Speedway 1967 magazine)

Merrick was involved in a bad accident at Westmead Speedway in 1966 during which the car rolled and broke in half. Tracey Moore, ‘Ken spent three months in hospital, with bleeding on the brain, a burst eardrum and other injuries. The NSW Speedcar Association provided my mother with money to live on donated by members. John took six years to regain his balance.’

As interest in historic racing and BRM generally grew, the engine was acquired by UK racer/restorer ‘Robs Lampslough in the late 1960s as a spare for his ex-Stow Type 25 rebuild, and then became the basis for a Type 25 tribute,’ wrote Doug Nye in BRM 2.

Other snippets from Facebook posts about Merrick are as follows. He was a lathe operator at Arrow Hart Engineering (later Crouse Hinds) in Moxon Road, Punchbowl, in the early 1970s.

Merrick poses with NSW 43 BRM at Windsor Speedway in 1966. Note the BRM badge on the bonnet. BRM fitted 58 DCO Webers to the Project 25 engines fitted to their Type 25 and P48 chassis. Are these carbs Amals? (K Moore)

NSW 43 was slowly rebuilt by Merrick in the early 1970s when he was living in the Punchbowl area and remains extant. Later in life, he operated Merrick Engineering and lived in Lithgow.

Credits…

Ken Moore, Lary Simons. Gary DeWall, Guy and Penny, ‘BRM: The Saga of British Racing Motors Vol 2’ by Doug Nye, Cec Lynch-State Library of New South Wales, autopics.com

Tailpieces…

(Guy & Penny)

Arnold Glass in BRM P48 #482 at Symmons Plains in November 1961. From memory, Formula Libre was a/the feature class during this ‘opening weekend’ of competition at Symmons. Who won, folks? Top Guns present, in addition to Arnold, included Stan Jones, John Youl, the landlord, of course, and Austin Miller.

The shot of Glass below was taken several months later, during the February 4, 1962 Warwick Farm 100 won by Stirling Moss’s Walker Cooper T53 2.7-Climax FPF. ‘Trinkets’ must have had problems, he didn’t set a qualifying time and was out after only eight of the event’s 45 laps due to overheating.

(C Lynch-SLNSW)

For the sake of completeness, Glass’s first BRM P48 was chassis #485, which is shown below in Graham Hill’s hands during the February 12, 1961 Victorian Trophy at Ballarat won by his teammate, Dan Gurney.

(autopics.com)

After the 1961 Australasian internationals, the P48s of Hill and Gurney returned to the UK. Arnold did his lease deal with the Owen Racing Organisation, and #485 was comprehensively rebuilt and then sent to Sydney with a host of spares: engine, gearbox, etc. Glass tested it at Warwick Farm, then took off to Adelaide for the Gold Star round at Mallala and wrote it off in practice. Insured, #482 was prepped in Bourne and sent to the colonies as the replacement.

Finito…

It’s a gas, gas, gas…

Posted: June 23, 2026 in Obscurities, Sports Racers
Tags: , , , , ,
1
(DHenryColl-MBisset-WordPress)

Not Jumpin’ Jack Flash but Edison Waters’s Bentley 4.5-litre s/c #SM3907 during the Bathurst Grand Prix weekend, March 25, 1940.

That fugly appendage on the rear of the lovely car’s expensive bodywork is a charcoal burner that produced gas to power a vehicle with a prodigious thirst at a time petrol was tightly rationed amongst the Australian populace.

Somehow, it seems wrong that some chaps were having a jolly good time back home in Oz, while others were having their balls shot off by the dreaded Hun. Having said that, John Medley points out that some of the racers were also servicemen. Most race meetings in Australia then, before the lights fully went out, raised money for the families of the war dead. I guess this one was no exception? Isn’t it a terrific view of officialdom on Mount Panorama’s pit straight?

(DHenryColl-MBisset-Wordpress)
‘What do you think, Jeeves?’ (T Johns Collection)

The beast only lasted two laps of the 37-lap 150-mile handicap event won by scratch-man Alf Barrett’s Alfa Romeo 8C2300 Monza from John Snow’s Delahaye 135CS and Chas Whatmore’s Ford V8 Special. Britain’s finest ran one of its bearings.

It’s surprising how many Bentleys, very popular with Australia’s Squatocracy for their on-bush road performance and reliability, that came here competed.

However, #SM3907 was primarily a roadie, imported from the UK by Tom Luxton – of the McEwans hardware chain – by that time, the car’s original Van den Plas four-seater sports coachwork had been replaced by this fetching March-designed two/three-seater body built by John Charles. Later owners included racers Ron Edgerton and Lex Davison.

‘No person being allowed on this road while closed for speed contests’ does seem sound advice.

(DHenryColl-MBisset-WordPress))
(Turner Studios courtesy of Henley Auctions)

The prodigious torque of the Bentley’s 4.5-litre four-cylinder 175bhp @ 3500rpm – when petrol-fed – engine hauls Waters out of Hell Corner for the long drag up Mountain Straight. It’s such a shame the car failed early in the race; it would have been very interesting to see how it performed. Doubtless, the power loss relative to a standard car was considerable.

John Medley had this to say in one of his bibles, ‘Bathurst: Cradle of Australian Motor Racing’. ‘The Edison Waters entry created a great deal of interest. Not only was it the first and only Bentley to race at Bathurst (until the modern era), but it ran on charcoal. The huge and ungainly charcoal gas producer was mounted behind the tail, the conversion having been done by National Fuel Engineers of Sydney, the fuel cost savings claimed being considerable: £1 for 150 miles as opposed to £15 or more for normal fuels.’

‘The fully equipped blower 4.5-litre Bentley (later owned by Lex Davison, Jack Jeffery and others) suffered the further indignity of having an extraordinary bundle of untidy unsilenced exhaust pipes reaching rearwards over the left mudguards “to deafen the passengers on the way to Bathurst”. The two-ton Bentley, radio playing, lasted two laps.’

Credits…

Darren Henry Collection, who bought a bulk lot of negatives on eBay containing envelopes of Bathurst images from 1938, 1939, and 1940.’ Many thanks, Darren, for posting them on Bob Williamson’s Old Motor Racing Photographs-Australia Facebook page. ‘Vintage Bentleys in Australia’ by Clare Hay, Bob Watson, Phil Schudmak and Tony Johns. Tony Johns Archive, Turner Studios, courtesy of Henley Auctions

Finito…

Pirelli 2…

Posted: June 20, 2026 in F1, Features, Sports Racers
Tags:
6

Alberto Ascari on the cover of a Pirelli technical information motion publication published in September-October 1953. What car is it, folks?

This is the second in a series of articles drawn from the Pirelli archives; the first is here:https://primotipo.com/2024/06/26/pirelli-and-alfa-romeo/

Lancia D50 on what looks suspiciously like its first test? Ten points and a bottle of Louis Roederer for the first of you to rattle off the names of the 10 dudes in the shot. Caselle Airport on February 20, 1954?

The Lancia D50s of Alberto Ascari and Gigi Villoresi await the start of the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix.

Maurice Trintignant took the win in the knarly Ferrari 555/625 from Eugenio Castellotti’s D50 with Jean Behra sharing Cesare Perdisa’s Maserati 250F, third. Villoresi was fifth while Ascari was a DNF after a swim in the harbour, while JM Fangio and Stirling Moss had failures on their Mercedes W196s. See here:https://primotipo.com/2022/01/09/alberto-ascari-and-paul-hawkins-monaco-harbour-submariners/

Eugenio Castellotti, Lancia D24 on the start ramp of the Mille Miglia in May 1954. His teammate, Alberto Ascari, won the race in another D24, Eugenio was a DNF with distributor failure. More on the race here:https://primotipo.com/2017/03/27/fearless-in-the-mille-morning-fog/

(Terreni)

‘Dorino Serafini going by in Ferrari 375 and Peter Whitehead in a Ferrari 125, 1951 San Remo Grand Prix on April 21.

Alberto Ascari won the 90-lap, 186-mile race from Serafini and Rudolph Fischer’s Ferrari 212; Whitehead was 10th. The Autodromo di Ospedaletti was a 2.073-mile street circuit.

The event was marred by the death of one spectator and injuries to four caused by Johnny Claes’s Talbot, which ran wide after brake pipe failure.

A sketch for advertising Pirelli raincoats circa 1920-25 (G Muggiani)
(A Teruzzi)

The rider and bike aren’t identified in this superbly composed moment during a motorcycle race held in Como, probably the Como-Brunate, which was held from 1905, or the Circuit del Lario on dirt tracks, which was held from 1921-1939.’

Luigi Villoresi and Pirelli Stella Bianca shod Ferrari 166 on the Gran Premio Bari GP grid on July 9,1950, perhaps. That’s Clemente Biondetti’s Maserati 4CLT/48 behind.

(Central Press Photos)

‘Mike Hawthorn, Vanwall with Pirelli Stelvio tyres at the seventh BRDC International Trophy (Silverstone) on 7 May 1955. British Formula 1 driver John Michael Hawthorn won three Grands Prix and was World Champion in 1958. He was the first British driver to win the world title.’

DNF in the race won by Peter Collins’ Owen Racing Organisation Maserati 250F. Louis Rosier, below, was fifth in a 250F rout: Collins, Roy Salvadori, Bira #8 below, Andre Simon and Rosier were all mounted on the finest racing car of the 2.5-litre era…

(Central Press Photos)
Bira 250F BRDC Intl Trophy (Central Press Photos)
(Anonimo)

Il pilota Alfred Neubauer, a rare photograph of the legendary team manager during his driving career.

It’s the October 1924 Italian Grand Prix weekend, both Neubauer’s and Christian Werner’s Mercedes M72/94s were withdrawn after Louis Zborowski’s death in another team car.

Alfa Romeo won in a rout, Antonio Ascari, Louis Wagner and Giuseppe Campari/Cesare Pastore finished first to third in their P2s.

(Calcagni)

Monza panorama during the 1955 Italian Motor Cycle Grand Prix – Gran Premio delle Nazioni – taken on September 4.

‘The event consisted of several competitions: Carlo Ubbiali on MV Augusta won the 125 and 250 classes, while the 350 and 500 classes were won respectively by Dicki Dale on Moto Guzzi and Unberto Masetti on MV Augusta. The sidecar category was won by the rider Wilhelm Noel and his passenger Fritz Cron on a BMW.’

(Publifoto)

‘Study for a sculpture intended for the Pirelli stand at the 1953 Turin Motor Show. Display of car tyres including the ‘Cinturato’, foam rubber armchair and chairs.’

Froilan Gonzalez, Maserati A6GCM, ahead of Eitel Cantoni’s similar car during the September 7, 1952 Italian Grand Prix. The race was won by Alberto Ascari’s Ferrari 500 over Gonzalez and Gigi Villoresi’s Ferrari 500.

La Scuderia Fiat during the September 9, 1923, Italian Grand Prix weekend. From left, the Fiat 805s of Felice Nazzaro, Pietro Bordino and Carlo Salamano.

Salamano won the 80-lap 497-mile race at Monza in 5 hours 27.38 seconds from Nazzaro and Jimmy Murphy’s Miller 122. I had a wonderful time on my own research journey about the fabulous Fiat GP cars of the era, see here:https://primotipo.com/2019/11/22/fiat-806-gp-1927/

(A Mendini)

Two illustrations for Pirelli technical publication number 4 in 1962. What it’s all about I know not!

(A Mendini)
(Publifoto)

Stirling Moss during his victorious September 8, 1957 Italian Grand Prix weekend at Monza.

Vanwall VW5 from JM Fangio, Maserati 250F second, and Wolfgang von Trips third in a Lancia-Ferrari D50. More on Vanwall here:https://primotipo.com/2014/09/05/vanwall-cars-and-the-moroccan-grand-prix-1958/

(Publifoto)
A beautiful unattributed November 1920 sketch for the advertising of Pirelli Stella shoe heels.
(Meurisse Agency)

Enrico Wild’s Itala 51S, DNF during the April 2, 1922 Targa Florio, the race was run on the medium Madonie that year. Giulio Masetti’s 1914 Mercedes GP car won from Jules Goux’s Ballot 2LS and Giulio Foresti’s Ballot 2LS, second and third.

1922 Targa and Ballot 2LS here:https://primotipo.com/2022/01/29/ballot-2ls-factory-racers/

Cover of the fourth Pirelli technical bulletin in 1954 (Ezio Bonini)
(Central Press Photos)

Piero Scotti, Connaught B-Type Alta in the Silverstone paddock during the 1956 BRDC International Trophy weekend, May 5.

Stirling Moss won in Vanwall VW2 from the Connaughts of Archie Scott-Brown and Desmond Titterington, with Scotti finishing seventh in a strong showing for the marque.

A couple more shots of Alberto Ascari, above alongside Nino Farina, aboard Ferrari ‘Indy LWB’ 375s during the Valentino Grand Prix meeting in Turin, April 6, 1952.

Both cars DNF, in the race won by Gigi Villoresi, Ferrari 375 won from Piero Taruffi’s Ferrari 500 2.5 and Rudy Fischer, Ferrari 212 2.6.

And below in a Ferrari 500 during the Gran Premio dello Autodromo di Monza held on June 8 1952. Giuseppe Farina won the two-heat event on aggregate from Andre Simon and Rudy Fischer, all aboard Ferrari 500s. More on the Ferrari 500 here:https://primotipo.com/2019/06/24/1956-bathurst-100-lex-davison/

Advertising sketch for the Pirelli Superflex Cord tyre in 1929 (N Nanni)
(Anonimo)

Juan Manuel Fangio and Ferrari 166 FL (2-litre, supercharged V12) in one of the South American races held in December 1949-January 1950.

Credits…

Pirelli Archive, Calcagni, Alberto Teruzzi, Terreni, Nino Nanni, Alessandro Mendini, Giorgio Muggiani

Tailpiece…

Pirelli Stelvio postcard 1956, ‘From racing experience, the tyre for your car.’

Finito…

Australian Racing Random 27…

Posted: June 15, 2026 in Features
Tags: , , , , , , ,
2
(LMRA-MBisset-WordPress)

Stan Jones and Len Lukey during their epic dice for the lead of the 1959 Australian Prix at Longford on March 2, Maserati 250F and Cooper T45 Climax FPF 2-litre.

In a fitting dose of karma, Stan finally bagged the AGP win he deserved, while Len won the Gold Star.

As you will see in this link to my ’59 AGP piece, the image above was filched from the cover of the 1960 Longford program: https://primotipo.com/2024/05/08/omg-stan-jones-and-len-lukey-longford-1959/ The WordPress AI device hasn’t managed to fuse these two pages below successfully, but here ’tis anyway.

(McNeill Art-MBisset-WordPress)
(ADick-CAN)

I do have a BRM fetish, always have. The Brits’ Ferrari and all that. That nice Mr Nye has nearly finished BRM Vol 4, can’t wait.

Allan Dick posted on his Classic Auto News FB page these fabulous colour shots of Arnold Glass’s BRM P48 during the 1962 New Zealand Grand Prix weekend at Ardmore.

Australian Arnold Glass was an NZ Grand Prix regular, first bringing the ex-works/Parnell Ferrari 555 Super Squalo – #555/2 and FL9002 – to Ardmore in 1958, where he was 12th, a performance he repeated in the same car the following year. He got on very well with the ex-works/Hunt/Stillwell Maserati 250F #2516, sixth at Ardmore in 1960, reflected the bond between man and driver-friendly machine.

(ADick-CAN)
Brue checking out the BRM, McLaren was third in the NZGP behind Moss and Surtees; Lotus 21 and Cooper T53 by two (ADick-CAN)

He got with the Cooper strength in 1961, finishing eighth in his Maserati-engined T45 before returning in 1962 in a BRM P48 #482. The model had impressed him in the hands of Graham Hill and Dan Gurney during their 1961 Australasian tour. He qualified #9 midfield but retired in the race. He was seventh at Wigram a fortnight later.

He was back in ’63 with the BRM, which was by then fitted with the 3.9-litre Traco modified Buick alloy V8 that had powered the Scarab RE raced by Chuck Daigh at Sandown in 1962. Glass didn’t compete as a consequence of a water skiing injury. Allan Dick wrote that ‘The car was still here at the next national meeting at Pukekohe and it was given a run — and a victory — by Ross Jensen, showing he’d lost none of his old touch, winning after an early battle with Forrest Cardon in the Lycoming.’

‘Trinkets’ returned in 1964, this time with a Lotus 27 powered by a Cosworth-built Lotus-Ford twin-cam engine, but he crashed the 1.5-litre car in practice, and that was that. More on Arnold’s BRM here:https://primotipo.com/2018/03/16/bourne-to-ballarat-brm-p48-part-2/

(BForsyth)

Andrew Miedecke, climbing the mountain in his Peter Brock, Perkins Engineering-built Holden Commodore VN during the 1991 Bathurst 1000.

He shared Brock’s car to seventh place, see this interesting sidebar on their journey:https://www.v8sleuth.com.au/how-racecam-rescued-brocks-car-at-bathurst/ The race was won by the Jim Richards/Mark Skaife works Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R.

(EAdamson-SLV)

Edwin Adamson’s shot of John Barber’s Lancia Lambda, on the way to winning the ten-day 1520-mile RACV Great Alpine Trial held in the high country of Victoria and New South Wales starting on March 10, 1926.

39 cars started the event, which took in Melbourne, Wangaratta, Mount Hotham, Omeo, Tallangatta, Tumut, Mount Kosziusko, Canberra, Eden, Lakes Entrance, and Mornington. Barber won from RJ ‘Herb’ Beith’s Chrysler, WA Terdich’s DFP, AW Bernadou’s Austin and JCB Hutton’s Alvis Sports. More here:https://primotipo.com/2026/06/12/1926-alpine-trial/comment-page-1/

(LangdonFamColl-HRCCTas)

The March 4, 1963, South Pacific Championship at Longford is about to start.

Winner of the 25-lap, 100-mile race, #10 Bruce McLaren, Cooper T62 Climax is on pole with Bib Stillwell, Brabham BT4 Climax and Lex Davison, Cooper T53 Climax on the outside. That’s the yellow helmet of Tony Maggs’ Bowmaker Lola Mk4 Climax and David McKay, Brabham BT4 Climax on row two, then the rest. McLaren won from Stillwell and John Youl in Cooper #5, a T55 Climax. Frontal view, WordPress has given the Olympic logo on the starter’s seat a lick of Mandarin, hopefully it doesn’t say anything rude.

(SWilliams-MBisset-WordPress)
(RBell-MBisset-WordPress)

Australian Tourist Trophy action at Lakeside on the November 14, 1965 weekend.

From the left it’s Frank Gardner, Mildren Maserati from pole, then Pete Geoghegan, Lotus 23B Lotus-Ford and Ken Miles’ works Shelby Cobra 427 on the outside. Then Greg Cusack’s Lotus 23, back a bit to Spencer Martin in the SV Ferrari 250LM, then the red Lola Mk1 Climax of Frank Demuth and Glyn Scott in Ann Thompson’s Lotus 15.

Let’s not get too carried away, though. Frank Gardner’s presence tells us this is a heat. The Maserati engine in the Bob Britton-built Mildren let go in the biggest possible way, about where it is now in this heat, so FG didn’t make the final.

(TRS-MBisset-WordPress)

The star of the show was Miles in the works-Shelby American Cobra #CSX3002. Despite his presence, the 83-lap 125-mile race was won by the nimble Lotus of Geoghegan from Cusack and Martin, with Bob Jane’s Jaguar E-Type fourth (below in front of Gardner in the heat).

Miles, from grid 3, gave the crowd a helluva show until lap 34 of 85 laps when the rear suspension failed. Interestingly, as Steve Holmes observed, the only other races Miles did outside the US that year were the Le Mans classic and Monza 1000kms; DNF gearbox on lap 45 in a Ford Mk2 shared with Bruce McLaren, and third in a Mark 2 again shared with Bruce.

(RBell-MBisset-WordPress)

What has always intrigued me is why Shelby/FoMoCo bothered freighting this car/driver to an event in Australia of no real consequence at all. Paul Newby answered those questions in an Australian Muscle Car feature some years back and summarised the salient points on The Nostalgia Forum in 2019.

‘There was no direct sponsorship from Shell or Ford. Shell may well have underwritten the meeting programme and the Thursday night social event, but that was it. There was no appearance fee, just freight costs to get the Cobra there and back and expenses for Ken Miles and mechanic Ron Butler. I asked QMSC Secretary David Harding whether any documentation was retained, like copies of letters or Committee Minutes, but alas, there isn’t.’

‘Harding told me that Miles and Butler were put up at the Travelodge at Kangaroo Point, like the Tasman drivers were. However Richard Croston’s Lakeside, the early years, says that the duo were accommodated at the Coronation Motel near the Brisbane River. So I didn’t mention that detail in the story.’

‘Why did Shelby agree to send Miles and the Cobra 427 Competition to Australia? I can’t answer that, but I’ll make the following observations:

1. The 427 Cobra was an obsolete race car, so there was no risk to an existing race program. Miles had graduated to the Ford GT program by then and Bob Grossman was Shelby American’s works driver in the 289 Cobra. (He raced at Nassau in December 65.)

2. With a full order book for the Cobra 427 and Mustang GT350 plus being bankrolled by Ford for the GT program, Shelby didn’t need an appearance fee nor the $$$ to offload the Cobra 427 Competition to an Aussie hotshot.’

(RBell-MBisset-WordPress)

‘John Harvey having his first open-wheeler drive on bitumen’, is a quote among quotes from Ray Bell!

Harves is at the wheel of Ron Phillip’s ex-Stillwell Brabham BT14 Lotus-Ford #FL-1-65 during the Lakeside ATT meeting on November 14, 1965. A date to pop into the diaries of John Harvey fans. Harves proved rather adept in cars of all types: https://primotipo.com/2021/01/25/harves/

The nose band of the repaired image isn’t quite right, but I’ll take it all the same (RBell)
(DOverend)

Norm Beechey, Chev Nova from Bryan Thompson, Ford Mustang, Norm’s old car, at Calder in 1967. A little bit more here:https://primotipo.com/2019/09/26/norm-jim-and-pete/

(unattributed)

In amongst dominating the 1973 Australian F2 Championship in his works Birrana 273 Hart-Ford 416B Leo Geoghegan squeezed in a pair of visits to South East Asia.

These shots are in Macau; the one below was way out-of-focus made acceptable by AI, take in the car if not the decals…

(MBisset-WordPress)

Leo was fourth in the race won by John McDonald’s Brabham BT40, from Sonny Rajah, March 712M/732, and Graeme Lawrence, Surtees TS15.

Geoghegan opened his tour at the Malaysian Grand Prix held at Batu Tiga on April 13, DNF, then went to Singapore on April 22 for Q3 and a problem-filled ninth, before taking the car back to Macau in November.

Hong Konger John MacDonald and Kiwi Graeme Lawrence were the Toppish Guns in South East Asia in this period.

(SCMP)

Kevin Bartlett, Vern Schuppan and David Brabham are the Australians who’ve won the Macau GP. Here’s KB with Glen Abbey, longtime Alec Mildren Racing mechanic, after his 1969 victory in the sub; Mildren Alfa Romeo 2.5 V8.

I don’t have a race report for this event, but the missing bit of bodywork suggests a late-race splash-and-dash for KB to get The Yellow Submarine home. Those with a better RCN Collection than mine will have the answer.

(SCMP)

It’s an all-Brabham front two rows in some ways…KB’s Mildren on pole is chockers with Brabham bits bolted onto Len Bailey’s chassis, alongside is John MacDonald’s BT10 Ford Cosworth FVA; #66 is Albert Poon’s Brabham BT30, not to forget the two Mitsubishi Colt F2-Cs of Osamu Masuko and Soohei Kato, which are Brabham BT18/21 chassis or BT 18/21 copies built by Mitsubishi.

(KDevineColl)

The ex-Peter Whitehead Cooper T38 is a favourite car of mine. I’d love to have that sucker in my garage and use it as Ian McDonald did, as an occasional fast roadie and a regularity competitor, rather than racing it, given its value.

Ron Phillips racing it above during the 1958 Australian Tourist Trophy at Bathurst, and Stan Jones in his first meeting with it in the Albert Park March, Moomba meeting in 1956. Stanley didn’t like it much and moved it on pretty smartly. Ron liked it and won the ’59 Australian TT at Lowood in it, amongst other successes.

(REdgertonColl)

The radiator is to keep VB bottles and Chiko roll packaging away from the radiator. Tom Sulman in the following Aston Martin from memory?

Phillips in the Cooper T38 Jag on the way to winning the ATT at Lowood in 1959.

I did a feature about the car in MotorSport a few years ago:https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/april-2022/137/home-away-a-cooper-jaguars-racing-adventures/?srsltid=AfmBOopoJW16bmVp1TzpdbUOZX9dS9rj_md0E778DXtve5AqUURxFBzh There are quite a few bits and pieces on the car within primotipo, so just key in Cooper T38 Jaguar into the search bar on the home page.

(SElliott-MBisset-WordPress)

Bruce Allison leads Ken Smith at Bay Park during the January 3, 1977 New Zealand Formula Pacific Championship, Ralt RT1 Ford BDA and March Ford BDA.

Allison was Q3 and second in the race behind Steve Millen’s Chevron B35. He was third in the five round series behind rising star Keke Rosberg’s Fred Opert Racing Chevron B34 and Tom Gloy’s Tui BH2.

At rest below, I’ll take your advice as to circuit. Results here:https://www.oldracingcars.com/newzealand/1977/ and Rosberg here:https://primotipo.com/2015/10/18/keke-rosberg-attacks-the-pukekohe-chicane-new-zealand-grand-prix-january-1978/

(RSteffanoni)

John Leffler on a fairly rare visit to Mexico (Victoria) with his works-supported Cooper S sports sedan, Calder, August 1971.

Paul Knott’s name on the door proves just how far back that successful partnership extended. Does this car still exist? More here:https://primotipo.com/2019/03/01/cooper-s/

(RSteffanoni)

Credits…

Longford Motor Racing Association, Allan Dick-Classic Auto News, Bill Forsyth, Edwin Adamson-State Library of Victoria, Historic Racing Car Club of Tasmania, Ray Bell, The Roaring Season, Darren Overend, Ron Edgerton Collection, Australian Motor Sports, South China Morning Post, Steve Elliott, Warwick Clayton, Rod Steffanoni

Finito…

1926 Alpine Trial…

Posted: June 12, 2026 in Features, Obscurities
Tags: , , , ,
4
(JBeatson-SLV)

Jean Beatson’s shot of John Barber posing in a Lancia Lambda in 1927. He was the winner of the ten-day 1520-mile RACV Great Alpine Trial held mainly in the high country of Victoria and New South Wales starting on March 10, 1926.

39 cars started the event, which took in Melbourne, Wangaratta, Mount Hotham, Omeo, Tallangatta, Tumut, Mount Kosziusko, Canberra, Eden, Lakes Entrance, and Mornington. Barber won from RJ ‘Herb’ Beith’s Chrysler, WA Terdich’s DFP, AW Bernadou’s Austin and JCB Hutton’s Alvis Sports.

Initially I thought it was a shot of the winning car, but Rob Alsop set me straight; #26 is the 1926 winner, whereas #31 above is a LWB machine. If any Lancia Fanciers can tell me which event is depicted above, I’d love to hear from you.

Albert Valentine Turner, AV to his mates, won the first Australian Alpine Trial aboard an Itala T51 Tourer in 1921, that event, more or less continually held since, pre-dates the first, Australian Grand Prix held at Goulburn in January 1927 so its an important event in this part of the world. See here for more about AV:https://primotipo.com/2022/11/08/av-turner-itala-1924-sydney-melbourne-record/

John Barber in his Lambda First Series (B Jamieson)

The Sun News Pictorial Melbourne covered the ‘26 Alpine this way in its Friday, March 26, issue.

‘MR. J. BARBER, of Coliban Park, Elphinstone, winner of the Alpine motor trial, said yesterday that his Lancia Lambda was the first sold in Victoria, and had travelled 21,000 miles before the trial.’

‘He attended personally to the adjustment of the car before the race, and did not have it specially overhauled in any way. He has always driven it himself. Vacuum Oil Co products – Plume petrol and lubricants – were used on the trip. His electrical equipment included Bosch plugs, starter and magneto, and gave no trouble whatever.’

Nine Punctures

‘His tool kit was never opened during the trial. He had to use the jack, however. “I had nine punctures,” he said, “thanks to the extraordinary roads. Many others fared worse.”

‘Far too much, in his opinion, had been made of his hill-climbing exploit on the summit of Mt. Talbingo, when he passed the leading car at the bend with his off wheels practically over a precipice. “I had plenty of room to pass,” said Mr Barber. “There was really nothing in the incident, and when I cut the bend it looked far more dangerous to those at the finishIng point than it actually was.”

‘There are three Laucia cars at the Coliban Park merino sheep station. Barber’s sister has a Lambda saloon, while his elder brother favours a 35 Kappa. They also possess a Ford and a Fordson tractor.’

‘The secretary of the Royal Automobile Club (Mr C. J. Hodges) advises that the statement published yesterday, to the effect that the Oakland car would have won the test had it not been disqualified, was incorrect. Even if the Oakland car had not been disqualified, it would not have been the outright winner of the contest. In fairness to the car that won the context. He pointed out that it could not have been displaced from it position by any of the cars which were disqualified.’

(EAdamson-SLV)
(The Argus, March 29, 1926)

‘Spark Plug’ commented on the results and made some post event observations in The Leader (Orange, NSW) on April 2, 1926. His comments are interesting, a century on, about where the automobile was at back then in the minds of Joe Public.

Salient is that, ‘Beyond question, the first matter that will excite comments from a layman is that the reliability of modern reputable makes has been vindicated.’ (35 of the 39 starters finished). There has been a most remarkable absence of major mechanical defects throughout the tests.’

‘True, there have been one or two electrical faults, which have embarrassed the driver, and in some cases, springs have broken, but as for vital defects of mechanism, these have been conspicuous by their absence. 1500 miles is in itself a sufficiently long tour to make offhand, but when the itinerary is laid out to cover the worst of gradients, and some of the roughest roads in the Commonwealth, then indeed we may describe it as an acid test.’

‘Whilst paying a tribute to all the cars that came through with flying colours, it is justifiable, in view of the prejudices which exist in some quarters, to make special allusion to the light British and Continental models.’

‘For instance, the outright winner on aggregate points was the Lancia Lambda, a comparatively light Italian product. The success of this vehicle is very interesting, by reason of the fact that it is equipped with an unusual type of front springing, consisting of individual hydraulic cylinders and coil springs fitted to each front wheel.’

‘Then too, one must not lose sight of the fast times achieved in the hill climbs, which demonstrate clearly that both American and Continental manufacturers, as well as paying attention to top gear performance, also realise that cars require from time to time, to maintain good speed in second gear, and plan their designs accordingly.’

Bill Jamieson wrote of Barber’s achievements, ‘In distant Australa, without any encouragement or even awareness from Lancia & C., the Lambda was also making its presence felt. John Barber, a Victorian grazier and motoring enthusiast, acquired one of the earliest First Series Lambdas to reach that country, and campaigned it with great success.’

‘In March, 1926, the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria held an Alpine Trial over eight days, involving hill-climbs, speed, and acceleration tests on some of the roughest and most remote roads in the country. In a large field, Barber won first in formula and fastest time in every section, finishing with a virtually clean sheet. His success was used to good effect by Shields Motor Co., the local Lancia agents, in promoting the sale of the Lambda.’

Oodnadatta, South Australia 1927 (JBeatson-SLV)

Jean Beatson, the snapper who took the first shot, was a driver and mechanic of considerable repute, here she is fettling her Lambda.

More research required on my part but her Wiki entry is a start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Beatson

Beatson’s photo archive is held by the State Library of Victoria, for those interested in her exploits, try this:

https://find.slv.vic.gov.au/discovery/search?query=any,contains,Jean%20beatson&tab=searchProfile&search_scope=slv_local&vid=61SLV_INST:SLV&offset=0

Kingston, South Australia (JBeatson-SLV)

Etcetera…

(Barber Family Archive)
(Barber Family Archive)
(Barber Family Archive)

Amazing stuff from the Barber Family Archive via Tim Barber, with thanks to Rob Alsop.

(Barber Family Archive)

More shots from the Barber family’s archives, I’ll give you the events and dates when I have it.

(Barber Family Archive)
(Barber Family Archive)
(Barber Family Archive)
(Barber Family Archive)

Credits…

Jean Beatson-State Library of Victoria, Edwin Adamson-State Library of Victoria, Capolavoro: The Design, Development and Production of the Lancia Lambda’ by Bill Jamieson and Barber Family Collection via Tim Barber by courtesy of Rob Alsop, The Argus

Finito…

Warwick Farm by Bryan Henderson…

Posted: June 9, 2026 in Fotos
Tags: , ,
3
(B Henderson)

Where’s ’me helmet Sheppo?

Why not start an article about Warwick Farm with a couple of pics of Leo Geoghegan at Oran Park aboard his Lotus 39 Repco circa-1968? Who is Leo speaking to in the shot below?

(B Henderson)
(B Henderson)

The bulk of this batch of shots, published by Sydney photographer, Bryan Henderson, on Bob Williamson’s Australian Motor Racing Photographs Facebook page, were taken during the 1968 and 1969 Warwick Farm 100 Tasman rounds I’ve well ventilated before. But why not go again?

Frank Gardner aboard Alec Mildren’s Mildren Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 2.5 V8 – aka The Yellow Submarine – during practice for the 1969 Warwick Farm 100, won in shocking wet conditions by Jochen Rindt’s works Lotus 49B Ford DFW, the Austrian demonstrating his mesmeric wet-weather skills throughout. Rindt, ’69 Tasman:https://primotipo.com/2018/01/19/rindt-tasman-random/

FG was third behind Rindt and Derek Bell, Ferrari Dino 246T, and sixth in the series won by Chris Amon’s 246T. DNF’s at Pukekohe, Wigram and Lakeside cost Gardner while the car was unwinged/under-winged for half the series, which cost him a bit, arguably, in ultimate pace.

(B Henderson)
(B Henderson)

Bob Jane and FG chew the fat during practice. I guess Bob ran his Shelby-built Mustang Trans-Am in the touring car supports.

On Tasman point, John Harvey returned to racing after his huge ’68 Easter Bathurst accident at Sandown the following week. Harves ran Jane’s Brabham BT23E Repco 830, the same machine he crashed after the breakage of a rear upright at Mount Panorama. More on the BT23E here:https://primotipo.com/2015/12/22/jack-brabham-brabham-bt23e-oran-park-1968/

(B Henderson)

Graeme Lawrence, McLaren M4A-14 Ford FVA, eighth at the Farm and equal ninth in the series with Niel Allen’s similar M4A.

While the FVAs lacked the mumbo to be competitive in dry ’69 Tasman Cup 2.5 events, Graeme won the 1969 Singapore and Selangor Grands Prix in this car while knitting together a Big Deal.

The Lawrence family, with great support from Shell, bought Amon’s Tasman-winning Dino 246T/69-0008 from Ferrari and splendidly won the 1970 Tasman series from some very quick F5000 and 2-litre machines. More on the Dino here:https://primotipo.com/2022/02/01/ferrari-dino-166-246t-take-4/

(B Henderson)

Graham Hill during dry practice on the Friday or Saturday, Lotus 49B Ford Cosworth. Graham and the ’69 Tasman here:https://primotipo.com/2022/02/26/lotus-49b-ford-chassis-r8/

(B Henderson)

The talented Roly Levis, Brabham BT23 Ford FVA 1.6 was at Warwick Farm and in the Tasman Cup

Kiwi Gold Star Champion in 1969, ‘69 was the only year in which Levis did the whole Tasman tour; it was a seven-race, two-month commitment that year, a biggie for a privateer; he was 12th in BT23C-7, the ex-Frank Williams car raced by Piers Courage in the 1968 Euro F2 Championship.

(B Henderson)
(B Henderson)

The last few shots were taken during the February 18, 1968, Warwick Farm 100 race day.

Bib Stillwell and a mechanic roll Jack Brabham’s Brabham BT23E Repco-Brabham 740 2.5 V8 onto the grid – the car Bob Jane bought for John Harvey at the end of its ’68 Tasman campaign.

Jack was seventh in the race won by Jim Clark’s Lotus 49 Ford DFW.

(B Henderson)

Stirling Moss getting the lay of the land from just minted 1967 World F1 Champion Denny Hulme, Brabham BT23 Ford FVA, he was fifth. More on the ’68 WF100 here:https://primotipo.com/2018/08/01/warwick-farm-100-1968-take-three/

(B Henderson)

Warwick Farm chief Geoff Sykes, Moss and race winner Jim Clark during the 1968 WF100 prize giving.

Credits…

Bryan Henderson

Finito…

Australian Racing Random 26…

Posted: June 5, 2026 in Features
Tags: , , , ,
6
(Unatt-MBisset-Wordpress)

Frank Matich tests his new, very late to the party, Matich SR4 Repco, Bruce McLaren Style, sans bodywork – and six-point harness – at Warwick Farm on a date I’d love you to assist me with.

Sitting very close behind FM’s shoulders is RBE E41, a 4.8-litre 760 four-cam V8 being dyno-tested by its builder, John Mepstead, in Repco Brabham Engines’ test cell at Maidstone in the photograph below.

(JMepsteadColl)
(RWolfe/JBondini)

‘Meppa’, much admired, respected and liked by his Repco peers, died this week on Monday, June 1. May I offer my condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. He was very kind to me when I met with him and was enormously helpful with this article about the SR4, as well as with another published by Auto Action. See here:https://primotipo.com/2016/07/15/matich-sr4-repco-by-nigel-tait-and-mark-bisset/ RIP John Mepstead.

Funeral details from Rod Wolfe, ‘John Mepstead funeral details, Friday 12th June at 2.30 at Bunurong Memorial Park in the Stratus Reflection Space, live streamed. Celebration of John’s life afterwards at the Sandown Park Hotel.’

See here for the footage from which the still above was filched;Frank Matich & The Matich SR4 Repco, Shannons Legends of Motorsport:https://youtu.be/YL-n7S_OexU?si=vG_avWRf2FJwL2hE

Matich, SR4, Catalina Park below, perhaps in early 1970, by which time the car/driver combo was the Australian Sports Car Champion.

(JMepsteadColl)
(PHouston-MBisset-Copilot)

Peter Houston’s shot of Kevin Bartlett and Niel Allen is a fantastic Warwick Farm battle between KB’s Alec Mildren Racing Mildren Waggott TC-4V and Niel’s Peter Molly prepped 5-litre McLaren M10B Chev.

I thought the shot was a David vs. Goliath contest during the February 15, 1970, Warwick Farm 100 Tasman Cup round, but Lynton Hemer has set me straight.

‘The photo with KB and Niel Allen was taken at the July 1970 AJC Trophy Warwick Farm meeting during the 15-lap Racing Car support race. Niel knocked the wingtab awry during his dice with Bartlett early on.’

‘This was the race when Niel’s harmonic balancer came adrift, cutting a brake line and sending him into the back of Frank Matich later in the race. Garry Rush and KB came together at Homestead as the Mildren attempted to lap the Formula Ford. It was Bartlett’s last ride in the Submarine.’

‘At the (1970) Tasman round, Max Stewart was never more than a few car lengths back from Bartlett as they took the race for Mildren with a one/two cleansweep.’

These two shots show the car, fitted with Merv Waggott’s 2-litre TC-4V engine, were taken during KB’s victorious February 1970 Tasman round.

The bathtub monocoque designed by Len Bailey and built by Alan Mann Racing is shown below. I’ve written about one of my favourite racing cars often, here is a starting point:https://primotipo.com/2017/11/14/missed-it-by-that-much/

(PHouston-MBisset-Wordpress)
(unattributed)

Two shots of Bob Jane’s Elfin 400 Repco-Brabham 620 4.4-litre V8 with the man himself at the wheel at Sandown circa-1967 and with Bevan Gibson up on that fateful day during the Bathurst Easter meeting in 1969. More here:https://primotipo.com/2018/04/06/belle-of-the-ball/

(unattributed)

Dressed like that, Frank Williams must have just arrived from Essendon Airport, his suitcase full of start and prize money amassed by Piers Courage during a very successful 1969 Tasman Cup campaign, during which he finished third overall and won the Teretonga round aboard Williams’ unique Brabham BT24 Ford DFW 2.5 V8.

There is no shortage of spectators in the Sandown Park Cup paddock on February 16. It was Amon, Rindt and Brabham in the race. Piers broke a driveshaft on lap three, so he was a DNF, but he had shown great speed and intent that Australasian summer, which was delivered in spades aboard Frank’s Brabham BT26 Ford Cosworth DFV in the ensuing Grand Prix season.

More on Piers here:https://primotipo.com/2015/10/20/longford-tasman-south-pacific-trophy-4-march-1968-and-piers-courage/

(oldracephotos.com/DSimpson)
(JSemple)

I do love an LJ XU-1.

Colin Bond during the Thursday, November 9-Saturday, November 18, 1972, Dulux Rally. Photographer, James Semple, is NSW-based, so I guess it’s somewhere – a hillclimb? – up there, thoughts folks?

The reigning Dulux Champions, Bondy and George Shepheard, won in the Holden Dealer Team Holden Torana GTR XU-1, from teammates Peter Brock/Frank Kilfoyle, and Stewart McLead/Adrian Mortimer in another XU-1. More about the Dulux here:https://primotipo.com/2015/04/09/australias-cologne-capris/

(PHouston-MBisset-Wordpress)

Peter Houston has captured a very rare car/driver combination in what must have been one of Gary Campbell’s last drives? A couple of LJ XU-1s or GTRs are clearly favoured by the flaggies too!

Here the popular, generous Sydney car dealer – a big supporter of Larry Perkins before and after he got to Europe – is drowning aboard his new Lola T330 Chev HU4 during practice for the 1973 Warwick Farm 100 Tasman round on February 11 and won by Steve Thompson’s Chevron B24 Chev.

GC didn’t start the race as he crashed it, so this is either practice or race day warm-up? HU4 was bought by Bob Muir, rebuilt and raced by him with great speed in the 1973 US L&M F5000 Championship. More on the T330/T332 here:https://primotipo.com/2025/01/12/lola-t332-factory-specification-information/

(PHouston-MBisset-Wordpress)

Bill Brown blasts across the top of Mount Panorama aboard David McKay’s Scuderia Veloce Ferrari 350 Can-Am during the 1968 Easter Meeting.

Bill won a race and set the fastest straight-line speed record at a heady180.722 mph. The quickest sports car that weekend was Niel Allen’s Elfin 400 Chev. See here:https://primotipo.com/2023/08/18/ferrari-350-can-am-take-4/

(N Johannsen)

Ulf Norinder from Max Stewart and Leo Geoghegan during the early laps of the February 22, 1970 Sandown Park Cup Tasman round: Lola T190 Chev, Mildren Waggott TC-4V 2-litre and Lotus 39 Repco 830 V8 2.5.

The cars are on the blast from Dandenong Road towards the fast right-left combo of the Causeway and Dunlop Bridge. Niel Allen, McLaren M10B Chev won from Graeme Lawrence, Ferrari 246T and Norinder. Lawrence won the Tasman in the same chassis, 246T/69-0008, in which Chris Amon triumphed the year before.

And one of the Formula Vee support races below, I’ll take your advice as to competitors.

(Orange Photography)

Jeremy Browne’s rally Cooper S opposite locking its way around Collingrove in 1972 and gets no shortage of admiring glances from the punters in the process!

(Unatt-MBisset-Wordpress)

John Harvey in Bob Jane’s Bowin P8 Repco-Holden at Warwick Farm during the September 3, 1972 weekend in which he contested the two-heat Motor Show Trophy.

He was fifth in the first heat from the back of the grid, and collided with Kevin Bartlett’s Lola T300 Chev at the start of the second so didn’t finish. Matich won overall with victories in both heats, with John McCormack second and Warwick Brown third: Matich A50 Repco-Holden, Elfin MR5 Repco-Holden and McLaren M10B Chev.

Shots of P8-118-72 in its original form are rare; this photo resurrection exercise was reasonably successful. Such a small, handsome and innovative car, John Joyce!.

Harves spoke favourably about the P8 Repco-Holden to Tony McGirr for his ‘Gentleman John Harvey’ book.

‘Then the Formula 5000 car arrived. It was a Bowin car. We actually took a bit of a gamble on that. If Bob (Jane) couldn’t get what he wanted overseas, he was always happy enough to try an Australian-made product. If – always ‘if’ – he thought they were good enough. Bob was one of Garrie Cooper’s staunchest supporters. He had in the past bought a few cars from Garrie. But, Bob always wanted to win. If he thought Australian-built cars were not up to scratch, he bought whatever it took to win.’

‘The Formula 5000 car – built in Sydney – had a revolutionary suspension system. Around the traps, in racing circles, people were saying it won’t work – it can’t work. At that time, the designers of race cars were getting into technical areas that had not been explored before. Even in the Formula One McLarens, they were still experimenting with this rising-rate suspension and the variable spring rates.’

‘They had this system-or a similar system-on the front of the McLaren (M19), and it was working fairly well. Bowin – I should say John Joyce – built this Formula 5000 with these variable suspensions on both front and rear. Everyone said it was all too revolutionary and couldn’t work. Actually, it was all quite simple, and it worked extremely well, particularly off the start line. You could get really good traction with it.’

Warwick Farm September 3, 1972 meeting. Repco-Holden F5000 V8, Hewland DG300 5-speed transaxle, and look closely and you can see some of the variable rate suspension linkages (TGlenn)

‘The reason the whole deal did not work out was that Bob lost interest. We also had a crash with the car at Warwick Farm. I got a ‘ripper’ of a start. I forget the exact details of what happened to cause the accident. Somebody spun, and I got a front wheel knocked off the car. 1 slid off the track, and that was the end of my race. Essentially, that was also the end of that adventure.’

‘We did do a couple of more races with it, and we were still developing the car. The car was showing a lot of promise, but Bob lost interest. It was just as simple as that. “Forget the Formula 5000. Park it over there”. Castrol don’t want to know about it. So, we parked the Formula 5000 and got on with Touring cars.’

‘My whole open-wheeler career came to a halt, there and then. But, I must add, I wasn’t all that impressed with the Formula 5000 category. By comparison to the original Formula cars I had driven (Tasman 2.5 Brabhams), the Formula 5000s were just ‘trucks’. So, the decision was made to concentrate on Touring cars, and that is how the remainder of my career was spent.’

(KRankine/BColechin)

Start of the March 18, 1956, 48-lap, 150-mile Argus Trophy held at Albert Park during Melbourne’s annual Moomba Festival. Bryan Colechin’s images captured from Kenneth Rankine’s film show all the fun of the fair to great effect!

The three red cars are the victor, Reg Hunt’s Maserati 250F at left, second-placed Lex Davison, Ferrari 500/625 3-litre at right, and third-placed Kevin Neal, Maserati A6GCM 2.5-litre, partially obscured in between the two.

The white central seat sports-bodied car is the ex-Brabham, Cooper T40 Bristol, raced by Reg Smith, while the red car in front of Smith is the ex-Brabham Cooper T23 – then Repco-Holden powered – raced to fourth place by Tom Hawkes.

(KRankine/BColechin)

Reg Hunt, the star of Australian racing in 1956, on one of Albert Park’s high-speed swoops in his 250F during that Moomba weekend. All too soon, he retired from racing, see here:https://primotipo.com/2024/02/10/australian-gold-star-championship-1956/

(unattributed)

1969 JAF Japanese Grand Prix action with Aussie Glyn Scott, Bowin P3 Ford FVA having a look at Sohei Kato’s Mitsubishi Colt F2C 1.6 during the May 3 race.

It’s a battle for third place resolved in favour of the Japanese twin-cam, four-valve, fuel-injected powered Brabham/Brabham copy chassis. The race was won by Leo Geoghegan’s Lotus 39 Repco 830 2.5 V8 from Roly Levis’ Brabham BT23C Ford FVA.

Scotty’s Bowin was powered by the dominant 1.6-litre F2 engine of the era, the Ford Cosworth FVA as below in this circa-1969 trailer shot. Equally ubiquitous is the Hewland FT200 five-speed transaxle.

(PHouston)

More on the Bowin P3 here:https://primotipo.com/2021/05/06/ian-peters-ex-glyn-scott-bowin-p3-101-68/ , Geoghgan and the Lotus 39 here:https://primotipo.com/2016/02/12/jim-clark-and-leo-geoghegans-lotus-39/ , and Mitsubishi here:https://primotipo.com/2023/05/28/mitsubishi-competition-formative-days/

(Autoweek-MBisset-Wordpress)

Allan Moffat’s two big victories in the US were in the March 21, 1975, Sebring 12 Hour classic aboard a factory BMW CSL 3.5 Batmobile shared with Brian Redman, and then later in the race, Hans Stuck and Sam Posey jumped into the car after their own failed.

Moff’s other big triumph was in the Bryar 250 Trans-Am round held at Bryar Motorsport Park on July 10, 1966. He raced that 250-mile race event solo aboard a Ford Lotus Cortina prepared by his team; that must have been icing on a big cake?

See here:https://primotipo.com/2025/12/04/allan-moffat-rip/ and here:https://primotipo.com/2020/03/06/moffats-shelby-brabham-elfin-and-trans-am/

(BryarMotorsportPark)
(primotipo archivio)

Frank Gardner on the way to winning the December 3 Hordern Trophy, the final round of the 1967 Gold Star, on debut of the Alec Mildren Racing Brabham BT23D Alfa Romeo 2.5 V8, and below, Kevin Bartlett racing it to victory in the first round of the 1968 Gold Star at Bathurst on April 15, 1968; luvverly symmetry in that lot. KB won the Gold Star too. More here:https://primotipo.com/2021/07/25/hordern-trophy/

(PHouston-MBisset-Wordpress)

Credits…

Peter Houston, Neil Johannsen, Orange Photography, Autoweek, James Semple, John Mepstead, Bryar Motorsport Park, Kenneth Rankine’s film with individual frames made by Bryan Colechin, Tony Glenn, ‘Gentleman John Harvey’ Tony McGirr, Rodway Wolfe, Jay Bondini

Finito…

Shell Methyl Benzine…

Posted: June 1, 2026 in Obscurities
Tags: , , , , ,
2
(unattributed)

It’s not often a ‘chemical name’ has an addictive ring to it, but this is one of them. I’m old enough to remember the advertising mantra of the day too…

Watch out for the drums, Jim! Clark’s Lotus 33 Climax V8 2-litre at Pukekohe during the 1967 NZ GP. Clark was second behind reigning Tasman Cup Champion, Jackie Stewart’s BRM P261, with Richard Atwood’s P261 third. More here:https://primotipo.com/2014/11/24/1967-hulme-stewart-and-clark-levin-new-zealand-tasman-and-beyond/

Methylbenzene – yes, it seems Shell used a bit of poetic licence – (commonly called toluene) is a clear, colourless, water-insoluble liquid aromatic hydrocarbon that does lots of cool things, but in an automotive sense, was/is added to petrol to improve octane ratings and performance.

(Chevron-MBisset-Wordpress)

Shell sponsored Spencer Martin has the inside line at Murray’s, or is it Hell corner, from BP-sponsored Kevin Bartlett in one of the memorable Brabham BT11A Climax battles between the Bob Jane and Alec Mildren cars throughout the 1967 Easter meeting at Mount Panorama, Bathurst, during which KB was the first to break the 100mph lap average; Spencer achieved it too, only shortly/minutes later. See here:https://primotipo.com/2018/04/27/kbs-first-bathurst-100mph-lap/

(MBisset-Wordpress)

Spencer Martin’s boss, Bob Jane, had a pretty good Bathurst meeting as well. In only his second meeting with his brand-new Ford Mustang 390 GT, he bagged two race wins and one second place in the improved touring car races. The WordPress AI tool shot a load with excitement here; this looks more like it below…More here:https://primotipo.com/2020/01/03/jano/

(unattributed)

Australian designer Frank Eidlitz created a series of cool posters for Shell via ad agency USP Benson about 1964, in which Graham Hill features with his ‘stackpipe’ BRM V8. More about Eidlitz here:https://recollection.com.au/biographies/frank-eidlitz and BRM here:https://primotipo.com/2016/02/05/motori-porno-stackpipe-brm-v8/

Credits…

Classic Auto News, Chevron, Shell

Finito…

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