(D Simpson)
Bob Muir punches his Rennmax onto the straight at Oran Park during 1970…
Muir loved this car, it was initially built around a Coventry Climax 2.5 litre FPF engine and first raced at Oran Park in September 1969 and then through the Australian Tasman rounds and a bit beyond. One of Merv Waggott’s 2 litre, 275 bhp’ish engines was installed later in 1970.
Late that year it was sold to prominent Melbourne racer/engine builder Peter Larner who fitted a Lotus/Ford twin-cam, later still passing through the hands of a couple of other drivers ‘in-period’. It has been in Barry Singleton’s hands since the early 1980’s. With only a dozen or so meetings all up it would be a very yummy thing to have especially with a 2 litre Waggott fitted.
Bob later fitted his Waggott motor to the Mildren ‘Yellow Submarine’ which he raced for a year or so and rated the Rennmax the sweeter car- which is no small statement given the race record of The Sub.
As is well established, Bob Britton/Rennmax built a series of cars based on a jig he created from Denny Hulme’s Brabham BT23-5 which was crashed during the 1968 Tasman Series and given to Britto to repair. The most successful of these ‘BN3’s is Max Stewart’s Mildren Waggott, a chassis I have written about. Perversely Muir’s car has always been referred to as a BN2 but it is a BN3 in terms of its specification.
Where is that Rennmax book Ray Bell?!, Bob Britton, his cars and adventures are certainly worthy of a book.
(L Hemer)
Wings ‘n Things…
Lynton Hemer was at Warwick Farm in December 1969 when Bob Muir first fitted wings to this car during the Hordern Trophy Gold Star round in its original Coventry Climax engined form.
The first couple of shots are those below, he reasoned that they were taken in the morning without wings and engine cover to get a base level time and feel for the car. Between sessions they fitted all of the aerodynamic goodies and then Bob went out with Lynton observing ‘no wonder he had that (grimaced) look on his face, he must have found the car completely different’- as in faster!
An oil seal failed on the car during the race won by Kevin Bartlett- making the race debut of the 2 litre Waggott engine in The Sub- the car Muir would later own. Bob didn’t race the car sans wings ever again…
(L Hemer)
Credits…
Dick Simpson- oldracephotos.com.au, Lynton Hemer, oldracingcars.com
Tailpiece: In search of a wing…
Homestead Corner, big oil tank, angle on the exhaust dangle unattractive. I wonder who he bought the FPF from? (L Hemer)
Finito…
primotipo... 
Oddly enough, just yesterday I posted on ‘Old Motor Racing Photogaphs-Australia’ facebook site, some photos I’ve discovered in my collection of Bob Muir repeating the exercise of teyjng the car without the wings before the 1971 Tasman race at Warwick Farm. This time it was the Yellow Submarine. It may be of interest for you to contact him to see what his reasoning was.
Too funny Lynton,
I noticed your post yesterday- when I get a chance I will drop the second round of experimentation shots into the article. I’m not sure of Bob’s contact details but he sometimes pops up on FB, let’s see if he finds us. A compare and contrast with the BN2 and Sub would be interesting.
Mark
Trying not teying. Phone keyboard and thick fingers.
Thanks Mark,
Something special about a FPF open-wheeler, looks fabulous without the wings, except for the angle-of-the-dangle exhaust, as you say!
It looks like the oil tank was pinched off the Mildren sub?……but probably not.
So, if Ray Bell writes a Rennmax book, will Mark Bisset do one on Repco race engines?
I seem to recall, that a couple of decades ago, the late Graham Howard was planning on a book about the Repco engines. My bookshelf still has an empty space for one!
I’m sure a lot of the followers of your blog would rush out to buy a copy;-)
Martin
Martin,
Agree about anything with an FPF, and the oil tank may well have been fabricated by the same dude wo did the Sub’s as you say!
As to the ‘Repco Racing History’ I am writing it bit by bit- click into the ‘Rodway’s Repco Recollections’ section of the site- scroll to the earliest articles and then roll forward. In essence I started with the RB620 (with Rodway Wolfe’s fantastic input) and have gone, more or less with the features, in order the engines were developed.
The last feature, the F5000 Repco Holden was out of sequence. The next chapter which is done but not uploaded yet is on the Tasman 2.5’s with RB850 and 860, and the Indy 760 the ‘major’ chapters still to come.
The Repco story to me starts with the circa 1950 and on ‘Dean/Maybach Repco Research’ phase and then the circa 1961 and on ‘Coventry Climax/Repco’ phase- which also need to be written, mind you to a large extent the Dean/Maybach phase is in the first Stan Jones article I wrote 3 years ago- I will do a cut and shut of that to take the Stan career stuff out to ‘Repco-ise’ it!
There is probably 2 years in all of that- and i’ve promised a few Repco Brabham Engines guys I will get their recollections too- if only I was retired it would all happen sooner!
Anyway, it was a nice question as you have reminded me of all the work still to do on this fascinating topic!
Mark
Excellent Mark,
I’ve already read your Rodway Repco articles a number of times. There is a huge wealth of info scattered throughout your blog, which was what prompted the question.
Pleased to hear you are actually going to do one, another book to look forward to!
Maybe as a follow up you could consider a book on the Mildren team cars. Can even suggest a title ….”Mellow Yellow”
I think I’m pushing my luck here:-)
Martin
Martin,
I don’t know whether you remember the small ‘Cars in Profile’ ultra high quality ’20 page’ publications written by the likes of Doug Nye in the early seventies on a diversity of cars- Can Am McLarens, The F1 Repco Brabhams etc. Something like that may work for ‘The Rennmax Story’ or ‘Alec Mildren Racing’ but I know absolutely nothing about publishing a book(s), I do know how much time it would take, the beauty of what I do now is that I can do primotipo on my own wherever I am – my point being I am time poor and primotipo is easy to do- and I always seek the easy path my friend! But if someone out there knows about slappin books together I would be intrigued to talk to them.
Mark
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