Terraplane Special at Lobethal in January 1939, with three enthusiasts watching from the ‘Grand Stand’ whilst sheltering from the hot summer sun…
Some of these older shots blow me away and take me back to a time of racing well before my own…It’s not possible to identify actually which car this is. The shot is more about the ‘atmospherics’ of the most challenging ‘race track’ in Australia than the car in any event.
It’s a photo i found in the State Library of South Australia Archive marked ‘Terraplane Lobethal 1939’. Ace researcher/historian Stephen Dalton reckons its the AGP meeting held at Lobethal on 1 January 1939, ‘The SA Junior GP’ had 3 Terraplane Specials entered for Les Burrows, H Beith and Bob Lea Wright..take your pick…
Terraplane Spl…
Terraplane was a car brand built by Hudson between 1933 and 1938 and were ‘rich pickings’ for special builders throughout the world as the 8 cylinder cars were supposedly the highest power to weight ratio production cars of the day…and favoured transport of US Gangsters John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson.
From AMS December 1947
Photo Credit…
State Library of South Australia, Stephen Dalton research
primotipo... 
Mark,
I think you’ll find that Lobethal is in the Adelaide Hills rather than in the Barossa Valley.
Rob
Rob,
Silly bugger I am ! I’ve been there often enough to know that in my Adelaide work phase.
I was cruising the State Library of SA website whilst in Bali, I’ve a nice article on Bill Patterson inspired by a couple of pics in their archive comin up.
What I cannot find…
despite looking hard is shots of the Victor Harbour Centenary GP, in 1936, aka the ’37 AGP. Have you tripped over any such shots?
Go well, and thanks as always.
Mark
Mark,
I have copies of images of the Murphy, Lea-Wright, Poole, Dutton, Terdich, Anderson, Gullan & Dale cars on file. All are a bit average but it was over 80 years ago! Happy to email them if you wish.
Cheers,
Rob
Mark,
I forget to mention that I also have some images of pages from the Official Programme.
Rob
Thanks Rob,
It would be great to add them to the Victor article, there is not a lot written about this event. If you wouldn’t mind sending them when you have the time that would be terrific.
Thanks,
Mark
Mark,
Done.
Rob