(Rod MacKenzie)
Frank Gardner using all of his Mildren Alfa’s 310bhp chasing Jochen Rindt’s Lotus 49 ‘Warwick Farm International’ pole time, 8 February 1969…
Alfa’s Tipo 33 V8 sportscar engine was first used in elite single seater racing by Australia’s Alec Mildren Racing- a step on its way to F1 competition by the Arese marque.
Mildren, a Sydney Alfa Dealer, former Australian Gold Star Champion and Australian Grand Prix winner had one of the most professional teams in Australia. He had impeccable Alfa Romeo/Autodelta connections having acquired and raced two GTA’s and a TZ2 in the early to mid sixties, and in the process ‘polished’ Alfa’s Australian brand, one of the greatest of the ‘Grand Marques’ which was then relatively new to the ‘Oz market.
Click on these links to articles about Alec Mildren and the Mildren Racing Autodelta Alfa’s;
The Master of Opposite Lock: Kevin Bartlett: Alfa Romeo GTA…
Mildren’s 2.5 litre Coventry Climax FPF engined Tasman Brabham BT11A/BT16 being raced by Gardner on his annual trips home from Europe was being ‘flogged’ by the Repco Brabham, BRM and Coventry Climax V8’s in 1966/7, so he sought an appropriate response- a sprint variant of the Tipo 33 engine was the obvious choice given his Alfa connections and local marketing needs.
What a beautifully integrated bit of kit the Mildren Brabham BT23D Alfa was? Here just before it progressively grew wings. Kevin Bartlett drove the wheels off the thing, here at Hell Corner Bathurst during the ’68 Easter Gold Star round. KB was on pole by 9! seconds but DNF with a broken rear upright, Phil West took the win in the Brabham BT23A Repco. Bartlett won the ’68 Gold Star in this car and was equal 9th in the ’69 Tasman (Dick Simpson)
Mildren ordered eventaully three 2.5 litre Tipo 33 V8 engines which were initially fitted to a bespoke Brabham BT23D…
The car arrived in Australia in time for the final round of the domestic Gold Star Championship- the Hordern Trophy at Warwick Farm in 1967- FG won upon the cars race debut. He then contested the 1968 Tasman.
The motors were then installed 12 months later into the Mildren ‘Yellow Submarine’, a monocoque car designed by Len Bailey and built for the team by Alan Mann Racing for the 1969 Tasman Series.
Both cars were raced by Frank Gardner in the Tasman Series and then ‘handed over’ to Kevin Bartlett for the Gold Star Championship, when Gardner returned to the UK at the end of each Australasian summer.
Bartlett won the Gold Star in 1968 and 1969 with each chassis respectively- BT23D and ‘The Sub’ respectively.
In 1969 the ‘Sub’ was also powered by Merv Waggotts’s 2 litre ‘TC4V’ 4-cylinder, DOHC, 4 valve, Lucas injected 275 bhp engine for part of the season.
(Ian Peak/The Roaring Season)
Above is a beautiful photograph of the 2.5 litre, 2 valve, 4 cam, fuel injected, 2 plug Alfa Tipo 33 V8 installed in Alec Mildren’s Gardner driven Brabham BT23D at Teretonga during the 1968 Tasman.
Gardner was equal fourth with Graham Hill in the series behind Jim Clark, Chris Amon and Piers Courage in Lotus 49, Ferrari Dino 246T and McLaren M4A Ford FVA respectively.
Kevin Bartlett had this to say about the Alfa Romeo 2.5 litre Tasman V8 and Waggott DOHC 4 valve engine, both of which powered the Mildren ‘Yellow Submarine’…
‘My memory tells me the Alfa had around 350lbs (of torque) and the Waggott about 230lbs. The useable power range was quite different with the Alfa workable between 4500-8800 rpm and the Waggott 6800-8750rpm. Not perfectly accurate as i work from memory but around that kind of difference’.
‘The driving difference was the main change, as the power to weight felt little different behind the wheel, mainly due i suppose to the fact full throttle was used much sooner with the 4 cyl 2000cc Waggott.’
Kevin Bartlett won the Macau Grand Prix in 1969 in the Mildren Alfa ‘Sub’, here in the paddock. What a handsome bit of kit the car was and still is- restored by Lionel Ayers a decade ago to Waggott engined spec and retained by his family (Natalino Couto)
‘The turn in changed to a marked degree with the lighter power plant (Waggott) having less moment of inertia allowing the car to be literally flung into a turn. As it happens i am the only driver to experience both configurations. Frank Gardner having raced only the Alfa Romeo engined variant of each car’.
‘Len Bailey was the (Mildren’s) designer of the tub which flexed a little at the rear with the Alfa’s torque, less so when the Waggott went in, with suspension being a (Brabham designer) Ron Tauranac adaption’.
Mildren’s Glenn Abbey fettling the ‘Sub’ in the Singapore GP paddock , 1970 (Eli Solomon)
Alfa Romeo claimed 315bhp at 8800 rpm for the 2.5 litre variant of the engine. A similar 3 litre, four valve per cylinder, 32 valve engine (the Mildren V8’s were all chain driven two-valvers) was developed for Cooper in F1 but wasn’t used before the teams demise.
The F1 Alfa Romeo 3 litre V8…
Was an all aluminium unit with a bore/stroke of 86mm X 64.4mm for a total of 2998cc. Five main and camshaft bearings were used, the four camshafts driven by chains.
Andrea de Adamich, McLaren M14D Alfa Romeo during 1970 (unattributed)
The valves were inclined at 30 degrees, the inlets were 32mm and exhausts 27mm in size, Alfa Romeo/Autodelta claimed an output of 400bhp @ 9000rpm in sportscar form. Modified with gear driven camshafts for F1 use, Autodelta claimed 430bhp @ 10,500 rpm at a time the 3 litre F1 competition- Ford Cosworth DFV gave circa 440, the Matra V12 445-450 and Flat-12 Ferrari 460bhp @ 12,000 rpm.
It was not enough really, not without impeccable reliability, but Alfa had put their toes back in F1 waters with McLaren in 1970 and then March in 1971- and would return with Brabham in the mid-seventies, as they had started with Mildren’s Brabham BT23D a decade before.
Etcetera…
Another photo of the Tipo 33 V8 in the spaceframe BT23D- FT200 gearbox clear as are the four coils and two distributors for all those plugs- 2 per cylinder. Car had a chequered history but still exists happily in restored form in Australia (Ian Peak)
Frank Gardner in the BT23D during the 1968 Warwick Farm Tasman round- very soggy outfield that year, this is in The Esses before Shell Bridge (oldracephotos.com/DSimpson)
Just to show the ‘Sub’ was yellow! Bartlett the cover boy of this terrific seasonal publication of the 1969 Australian Racing Season. Here the car is in 2 litre Waggott spec
Bartlett all ready to go- BT23D with Alec Mildren at right
Bibliography…
Kevin Bartlett, Doug Nye ‘History of The GP Car’
Photo Credits…
Dick Simpson, Rod MacKenzie, Ian Peak Collection/The Roaring Season, Eli Solomon, Natalino Couto, oldracephotos.com/Dick Simpson
Tailpiece: Rod’s initial Frank Gardner ‘Yellow Sub’ photo at the articles outset, uncropped…
Finito…
primotipo... 
Thank you Mark,
Fabulous photo of the wingless BT23D, it just looks so right.
Recall seeing it at The Farm and Bathurst back in the day, and of course both the Sub and BT23D raced together during the 1969 Tasman series. It was nice to see it restored and with Spencer Martin driving at EC Tasman Revival meeting back in 2006.
As well as winning the Macau GP in the Sub, KB came within a poofteenth of winning the 1970 Singapore GP.
Can’t have too many Mildren articles!
Martin
Thank you Mark.
Interesting story on the “Tasman” Alfa Romeo V8. Kevin Bartlett told me that the Mildren Alfa V8 was probably the sweetest car he ever raced and Spencer Martin, who drove the Brabham BT23D Alfa in the 2006 Tasman Revival absolutely loved the power and delivery of the 2.5 V8.
However the late Phil Kerr in his excellent “To Finish First” memoir tells a different story of McLaren’s tie up with Alfa Romeo in 1970. McLaren had enough on its plate with F1, Can Am and Indycar and didn’t really want to take on another project – it all came down to budget. There was a shortfall that was topped up from Alfa’s road car marketing budget – two 1750 GTVs delivered to Bruce and Phil sweetened the deal!
Autodelta optimistically claimed that their V8 was on a par with the Cosworth V8 – 420hp vs 430hp. However these were “Italian” horsepower. The Alfa Romeo equipped McLaren M7D and M14D with Andrea de Adamich at the wheel were not even close to the works M14 of Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme and Peter Gethin.
However at the Italian GP de Adamich split the Cosworth McLarens of Hulme and Gethin. Finally the Alfa Romeo V8 was competitive! Then Kerr saw the Autodelta mechanics changing the Alfa engine in the paddock. He implored them to stop but the chief Autodelta mechanic insisted that it had to be changed – “if we don’t change it we don’t have a job on Monday.” Kerr twigged and let the mechanics get on with it. On Sunday de Adamich was nowhere, finishing seven laps behind in 8th place.
Kerr never found out what was going on nor did he proffer a theory for the increased performance of the Alfa Romeo V8 engine at Monza. My theory is that they slipped in the 4.0 “Can Am” V8 for practice to make it look good for their Italian bosses, but didn’t want to risk getting caught running a “cheater’ in the race. As it was Nanni Galli was also entered for the GP in the old M7D Alfa but failed to qualify…
Paul
Great stuff Paul,
I missed this in the pre-Xmas work flurry. KB said the same to me about BT23D a couple of years ago when he was AROCA Vics guest for an annual dinner.
The Monza story is entirely believable! Ans as you say they had a 4 litre V8- which reminds me about Fred Gibsons drive of the T33 4 litre Coupe during the 1975 Australian Sportscar Championship at Phillip Island- it was one of the very first primotipo articles I wrote.
Mark
The Cooper T86 Alfa referred to above was for sale in Unique Cars in the early 1990’s. Not sure if it was actually in Australia at the time but it interested me enough to keep the ad for all these years.
[…] https://primotipo.com/2018/11/30/motori-porno-alfa-romeo-tipo-33-tasman-2-5-litre-v8/ […]
[…] The one-off Brabham BT23D Alfa was Alec Mildren’s response to the growth of multi-cylinder engines, as in more than four, in the Tasman Cup, as an Alfa Romeo Dealer Autodelta were more than happy to build some special 2.5 litre versions of their Tipo 33 sportscar V8- that engine story is here; https://primotipo.com/2018/11/30/motori-porno-alfa-romeo-tipo-33-tasman-2-5-litre-v8/ […]
[…] KB’s own shot of his car with its new wing in the Lakeside paddock that July 4 weekend. Lets focus on the wing, not the engine, which is covered here; https://primotipo.com/2018/11/30/motori-porno-alfa-romeo-tipo-33-tasman-2-5-litre-v8/ […]
[…] More on Alfa’s race 2.5 V8’s here; https://primotipo.com/2018/11/30/motori-porno-alfa-romeo-tipo-33-tasman-2-5-litre-v8/ […]