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In a Battle of Melbourne Motor Dealers, Stan Jones struggles to keep Maybach 3 in front of Reg Hunt’s Maser A6GCM during the first lap of the 1955 Australian Grand Prix at Port Wakefield, South Australia, October 10…

The two cars were arguably Australia’s fastest special and production racing car at the time. Mind you the ‘special’ descriptor belies the tool-room quality of the Maybach series of cars in terms of both design and execution by Charlie Dean and his team at Repco Research in Melbourne. The Maserati A6GCM/250 and 250F family are members of one the greatest series of production racing cars ever built. Not that either car won this particular contest!

Jack Brabham returned home from his first season in Europe replete with a self-built Cooper T40 Bristol, winning the Port Wakefield race in the 2-litre, 150bhp, 1100lb, mid-engined car. Was it the first time a modern-era post-war mid-engined car won a national Grand Epreuve?

Brabham had luck that weekend in South Australia in a car which later became notorious for its unreliability. He won the race after the retirement of, or problems encountered by some of the event’s heavy-metal including Jones works-Repco 3.8-litre Maybach, Hunt’s Maser 250F engined Maserati A6GCM – A6GCM/250 to some – and another Melbourne motor-trader, Doug Whiteford’s 4.5-litre Talbot-Lago T26C.

Hunt and the Maser were the form combination at the time. Reg took the lead from Jones on lap one and led the race convincingly until the failure of a finger type cam follower forced the Maser onto five-cylinders, Brabham was soon past and into a lead he held for the races duration. Jones had clutch dramas, with Whiteford third, behind Hunt, in a car which raced too late after it’s initial arrival in Australia – devoid of some of the trick bits Doug paid for – shifty furriners! See here: https://primotipo.com/2022/05/04/doug-whiteford-talbot-lago-t26c-take-3/

The 80 lap, 104 mile event was the twentieth AGP and is noteworthy as the first on a purpose built circuit. Port Wakefield is 100km north of Adelaide in flattish, coastal, saltbush country. Previous AGPs were held on closed roads or airfields. ‘Wakefield, 1.3 miles in length, was used from 1953 to 1961, when Mallala, built on a disused Royal Australian Air Force airfield, became the main South Australian circuit.

Not especially clear, but an interesting panorama with Hunts A^GCM in the foreground and a ‘cine-camera’ atop the pits. Makes you wonder if some footage is still kicking around somewhere.

Stan Coffey, Cooper T20 Bristol from Murray Trenberth, Vincent Spl and John Cummins, Bugatti T37 Holden in one of the qualifying heats. Stan again below, this time having passed the spinning Cummins Bugatti in one of the qualifying heats. Cummo did not take the start in the GP.

Etcetera…

Charlie Dean beaming with pride aboard his latest creation, or rather the Repco Research team’s latest. Maybach 3 with its fuel injection system dominant atop the heavy, cast iron Maybach SOHC, two-valve 3.8-litre straight six laid-over at 65 degrees.

Greg Smith notes that the fuel injection system clearly shows the fuel rail and injectors, and that the throttle-bodies are actually single-choke 36DO2 units which were later (after the engine blew at Gnoo Blas with Stan at the wheel in early 1956) used on the Norman Wilson built Laydown Holden Special. See here: https://primotipo.com/2024/01/08/stan-jones-won-the-1954-nz-gp-70-years-ago-today/

Reg Hunt’s Maserati A6GCM above and below. This model is a 2-litre F2 car of the 1952-53 Grand Prix formula fitted with a 250F 2.5-litre SOHC, two-valve, triple Weber fed straight-six. About 240bhp at this early stage of the engine’s development. Hunt raced the car for little more than a year before progressing to a 250F in 1956, his final season in an oh-too-short elite level career. See here: https://primotipo.com/2017/12/12/hunts-gp-maser-a6gcm-2038/

Melbourne businessmen/racers/Light Car Club of Australia supremos Bill (left) and Jim Leech admire the brand new Austin Healey 100S, chassis #3905 perhaps, in the Port Wakefield paddock. Stephen Dalton advises that this car, the first 100S in Australia was driven from Sydney to the meeting by motor dealer and 1949 AGP winner, John Crouch.

Bill Craig’s Alta Holden – 1952 chassis F2/5 ex-Peter Whitehead – (above and below), with its distinctive alloy wheels, and perhaps, BP’s Tom Stevens the onlooker. Ken Devine advises the car was later owned and driven by Murray Trenberth, Jack Ayres and David Rockford in Western Australia before being sold overseas.

Two shots of the famous Eldred Norman built Zephyr Spl s/c. Tony Johns, “The starting grid photo shows the Zephyr alongside #8 Tom Hawkes’ Cooper T23 Bristol, probably a preliminary race.”

Credits…

State Library of Victoria, Reg Fulford Collection, Graham Howard and others ‘The 50 Year History of The Australian Grand Prix’, JA Denniston via Tony Johns, Edward Gobbel, Cummins Collection via Paul Cummins

Tailpiece…

The ’55 AGP third qualifying, 20 lap heat is underway. As a cursory glance of the mix of competitors shows, the race is a Formula Libre event.

On the second row is Brabham’s streamlined, central-single seater Cooper T40 Bristol and thrice AGP winner Doug Whiteford’s Talbot-Lago T26C. It’s rather a neat contrast of post and pre-war technology. On the next row is the Austin Healey 100 of Greg McEwin and Bill Wilcox’ Ford V8 Spl, South Aussies both.

Desolate flat, saltbush country clear.

Finito…