primotipo…

Bryan Faloon, Rorstan Mk1a Porsche during the 1971 New Zealand Grand Prix weekend, at Pukekohe, it’s practice, he didn’t race due to gear selector problems, twelve months hence he died in this car…

Its strange the stuff buried in the back of your head. This racer and car are a couple of fragments of my earliest racing memories.

By the summer of 1972 I was a motor racing fan even though I’d never been to a race meeting. My heroes were Kevin Bartlett and his Mildren Yellow Submarine, and Graeme Lawrence’s Ferrari Dino 246T- these attachments came via magazines.

Finally, I attended the Sandown Tasman meeting, the Australian Grand Prix that year. In anticipation of the big day, I was keeping a close eye on my heroes Tasman progress via press reports,  Sandown was the second last of the eight rounds.

KB was going well in an ageing McLaren M10B Chev. The ex-Niel Allen 1971 NZ GP winning car was doing its third Tasman, but Bartlett picked up points in three of the four rounds including a splendid wet weather win at Teretonga, before heading back across the Tasman to Surfers Paradise, for the first Australian round.

Things were not so hot at Team Lawrence however.

Graeme had a new Lola T300 Chev – arguably THE F5000 car of 1972 (McRae GM1 duly noted) – so he looked a good bet to take on Hailwood, Gardner, Matich, McRae and the rest of the hotshots in the best cars. The machine was assembled in NZ, an initial sortie at  Baypark yielded a first race win, and a DNF later in the day with fuel feed problems.

At the Pukekohe, NZ GP Tasman Cup opener he started sixth on the grid, about a second aft of McRae’s Leda GM1 Chev on pole. He went right to the back of the field on the first lap when his feet and pedals got tangled in the tight Huntingdon tub, and ran on at the Lion Hairpin, or copped a tap up the chuff, depending upon the race account- he let the field go and then started a long climb back through the field.

Up front, Frank Gardner’s works T300 took a lead he didn’t relinquish. By lap 52 Graeme and John McCormack, Elfin MR5 Repco had been in a torrid dice for 20 laps in a battle for eighth, and it was then that an awful racing accident occurred involving poor Bryan Falloon and Graeme, shown below.

Bruce Sergent described the accident thus “…Coming up the back straight on lap 52 Lawrence was slip-streamimg McCormack while Falloon, seeing the red Elfin bearing down on him, pulled to the left at the kink to let him through. At the same split second, Lawrence pulled out of the slipstream to pass McCormack, and ran into the back of the Stanton-Porsche at 155mph.”

“The Stanton was launched headlong into an earth safety barrier, taking to the air before crashing down onto its wheels again. The Lola was cartwheeled down the track, totally disintegrating on the way. The Stanton looked intact while the Lola was totally wrecked. The head injuries Falloon sustained in the impact proved fatal. Lawrence suffered broken legs, wrists and concussion.”

Back in Australia, I read about the high speed accident which befell Graeme and Bryan. Whilst relieved Lawrence would survive, it was the first time I realised this racing caper sometimes goes horribly wrong.

So, that incident and Bryan Falloon’s name have been in the back of my brain for decades. This batch of photos took me straight there, whilst I’ve seen a couple of photos of the T300, I’d never seen a photo of the Rorstan aka Stanton Porsche before, what an interesting car it was too.

Rorstan Racing was a partnership of quarry and truck fleet owner Ian Rorison, and Tauranga car dealer Feo Stanton. They had run a number of older cars for a variety of drivers for years, Bryan took the ride prior to the 1970 Tasman.

The car was one of eleven chassis built by Bob Britton on the Brabham BT23 jig he created when asked to repair the ex-Denny Hulme Brabham BT23-5 Ford FVA  F2 car destroyed in another awful Pukekohe crash in 1968. Denny collided with local racer, Lawrence Brownlie, destroying Brownlie’s Brabham, causing him grievous injuries and ending his career prematurely, but not instantly. The prang was one many regard as not exactly Hulme’s finest moment.

The Rorstan Partners bought the Brabham wreck sans engine and sent it to Sydney for repair. They received back a new BT23 copy they called Rorstan Mk1, chassis number ‘RMR1’ to which they initially fitted a Coventry Climax FPF 2.5-litre four cylinder engine.

Britton’s own copies were called ‘Rennmax BN3’, Alec Mildren’s a ‘Mildren’. Whatever the name, the cars were built by Britton at Rennmax Engineering on the ‘BT23-5’ jig.

Australian enthusiast/historian Terry Sullivan wrote an interesting story on the Rorstan Partners cars and drivers on ‘The Roaring Season’, click here; http://www.theroaringseason.com/showthread.php?1824-RORSTAN-TASMAN-SERIES-RACER

For 1969, Rorstan engaged Jim Palmer to drive the machine on the basis that it was to be powered by a 2.5 litre Repco V8. He exited stage left when it became apparent that the car was to be Climax FPF powered- its days were long since past as a competitive Tasman engine.

Dennis Marwood then took the drive. With prior Cooper T66 Climax experience in 1966-1967, he was well aware of the challenge. He achieved little in the way of results, retiring from the Levin and Wigram rounds. He too decamped, out of the fat and into the flames one might say, in the shape of a fairly agricultural old F5000 Eisert JE67 Chev owned by Ian Rorison.

Bryan Faloon was then approached to drive the Rorstan Climax. He  had experience of the demanding 2.5-litre cars aboard an old ex-Stillwell Brabham BT4 Climax in some 1968 and 1969 NZ Tasman rounds. Bryan struggled against a 1970 field of good depth and breadth- a fast mix of 2-litre, 2.5-litre and 5-litre cars.

He was seventh and tenth at Wigram and Teretonga, with DNFs in the other two rounds, both due to engine problems at Levin and Pukekohe.

Without funds to buy a new car, the Rorstan partners parted ways. Feo Stanton then looked at alternative, more competitive engines, and decided upon a Porsche flat-eight from Alan Hamilton, racer and head of Porsche Cars Australia – from that point the car was known as the Stanton 1 Porsche.

Alan picks up the story “We assisted Feo Stanton in the purchase of the Type 771 eight-cylinder engine from our Porsche 906 along with a large amount of spare parts.”

“The type 771 engine was developed from Porsche’s attempt at Formula 1 participation. They first modified an
RSK sports car to be a central seater for the then new Formula 2, still using the 1.5-litre four-cylinder quad-cam engine. This car then developed into an open-wheeler F2 car with the cooling system modified to a horizontal fan on the air-cooled four-cylinder engine.”

“In the meantime, Porsche were working on a completely new 1.5-litre, eight-cylinder engine to use in the new F1. Dan Gurney won the French GP, and the GP of the Solitude (a non championship race) with this car/engine combination, known as the Porsche Type 804.”

“Whilst the 1.5-litre version of the engine was retired into history, it spawned the development of its bigger sisters in 2- litre and 2.2-litre capacities. These engines were very successful winning in both under 2-litre, over 2-litre and prototype categories.”

“My original ‘Bergspyder’ 906-007, ran at the Targa Florio as a 2-litre, eight-cylinder prototype, finishing second overall.”

“These engines in both 2 and 2.2-litre capacities were used in the Type 907. It should be remembered that in those days, our premier formula was F5000, but the regulations also provided for cars with pure race engines of a maximum capacity of 2 litres.”

“Bobby Britton did all the chassis modifications necessary to fit the engine. The engines were quite complex being the
ultimate development of the original four-cylinder, quad-cam Carrera engine. Just the setting up of the bevel gear drive camshafts took a long time. The factory used to allow about 240 hours to assemble an engine from scratch.”

“I’m sure that the first race for the car was at Sandown, and some of my staff and I joined Feo’s team to watch practice. Bryan Faloon was Feo’s accomplished driver and we all watched as Bryan commenced his first laps. At the start of the second or third lap, a great plume of oil smoke belched from the car as it went past the old pit area between Shell Corner and the start of the back straight. We all kept thinking that Bryan would see the smoke and stop, but the trail continued up the back straight, around Dandenong Road corner and onto the main straight, continuing into the paddock area.”

“My specialist mechanic, Eddy Hackel, quickly removed the oil filter and found it full of bearing material. There was a quick conference, with confirmation that we had spare bearings etc, and the decision was made that Eddy and I would try to rebuild the engine in time for the race.”

“Porsche racing engines were not only air cooled but also oil cooled. They circulate a vast amount of oil compared to conventional race engines. Not only were the oil pipes between the engine and the cooler too small, they had also not been swaged. These restrictions had caused the oil hoses to dislodge from the steel tubes. Never having had any experience with this type of engine, Eddy and I managed to totally dismantle and reassemble the engine overnight, and get it back to Sandown in time to be put in the car for the race. I have no recollection of what happened in the race or even if the car raced at the meeting.”

The car missed the first 1971 Tasman round at Levin, had gear selector problems prior to the NZ Grand Prix and failed to start- and also missed the last two rounds at Wigram and Teretonga. That is, it was entered but did not start.

Hamilton, “Subsequently, in the 1972 NZ Grand Prix, Bryan, driving the Stanton Porsche and Graeme Lawrence, driving an F5000, collided, with Graeme sustaining critical injuries. Bryan’s car finished up in the in-field, somewhat out of sight over a rise. When rescuers approached, it was clear that Bryan was dead, probably from the first impact with Graeme’s Lola, the engine was still running and the nose of the car was buried into a bank and a tree.”

“I obtained the damaged car from Feo Stanton as I wanted the engine and transmission. The chassis went to a friend of mine who wanted to rebuild the car to it’s original condition, before the Porsche installation. The damaged body was given to ‘Women For Wheels’ for fire-fighting practice.”

“And finally, what happened to the engine? In the rebuilding of the engine after the Sandown incident, Eddy and I discovered that it was really a 2.2 litre-unit with around 285 hp. This engine, complete with the type 907 transmission, was sold to Pat Burke who had purchased the Bingham Cobra, my original 906-007 1965 Targa Florio factory Porsche.”

“Pat had also purchased from me, a new 771 engine, but without the air cooling ducting, the whole of the fuel injection system, exhaust system, generator and distributor. Pat had sent the Bingham Cobra to Bill Bradley Racing to restore 906-007 back to its Targa condition, and now there were original engines available to complete the restoration. Pat had the restored car at one of the Adelaide F1 meetings before it was sold overseas.”

Follow this link for an article about Alan Hamilton and his Porsche sports-racers; https://primotipo.com/2015/08/20/alan-hamilton-his-porsche-9048-and-two-906s/

The story/summary of all of the Rennmax BN3s, inclusive of the Rorstan is told here on Allen Brown’s oldracingcars.com; https://www.oldracingcars.com/rennmax/bn3/

Etcetera…

Donn Anderson’s tribute to Bryan Faloon from the February 1972 issue of ‘Motorman’.

Photo and Other Credits…

Terry Marshall, Rorstan Racing thread piece by Terry Sullivan on ‘The Roaring Season’, oldracingcars.com, Classic Auto News, Stephen Dalton Collection

Special thanks to Alan Hamilton for his recollections

Tailpiece: Rorstan Climax…

Terry Marshall captures Bryan in a nice Rorstan Mk 1 Climax slide during the 3 January 1970 Levin Tasman round- DNF engine after 25 of the 63 laps, Graeme Lawrence won in his Ferrari 246T.

Bryan was a talented driver. With the Stanton Porsche better sorted it would have been fantastic to see what he could have achieved in New Zealand that summer of 1972. Very sadly, at 28 years young, the planets and gods were not aligned in his favour on January 8.

Finito…