Make sure you buy the August 2024 issue of The Automobile, it contains a piece I wrote about Dan Gurney’s win at Ballarat Airfield in a BRM P48 on February 12, 1961.
That Victorian Trophy victory was the only international win for a P48 in Dan’s last drive for the Owen Racing Organisation.
There are some fantastic, never-seen-before colour shots taken by Australian Lotus ace/works-driver and Australian importer Derek Jolly at the meeting, courtesy of Lotus historian/restorer Mike Bennett.
Further ‘Australian content’ comes in the form of the cover car, Bugatti Type 35 chassis 4450. Better known to many of us as the Lyndon Duckett/Bob King Anzani Bugatti, the car is the subject of a long feature celebrating the centenary of the landmark T35. See here too: https://primotipo.com/2021/09/17/werrangourt-archive-9-lyndon-duckett-by-bob-king/
Towards the end of his 52 years of use on the road and in competition Bob restored the 4450 to its original, ex-factory specification. The same spec as that when it was delivered to first owner, George Pearson Glen Kidston in Molsheim on February 16, 1925. In a neat book-end of history Simon Kidston, Glen’s nephew, is the current custodian of #4450, not that it looks much like it did in Australia clad in its road-going garb.
Another fascinating article for proponents of Oily Rag Restoration, is a report on the Best in Show award going to an unrestored Alfa Romeo 8C2300 at May’s Concorso d’Elegance Ville d’Este.
It’s the first time the premier award in a ‘Grand Prix Concours’ has gone to a Preservation Class car. Great stuff, as Jörg Sierks ended his piece, ‘We can only hope that such appreciation of patina and preservation will be upheld and leave its mark on the future of Ville d’Este and other world-class concours events.’
The Automobile is in-store now in the UK, and two months away on the slow-boat to the Antipodes, other than to subscribers who should have it about now. Why not subscribe here: https://www.theautomobile.co.uk/subscribe/
Credits…
Derek Jolly via Mike Bennett, The Automobile
Finito…
primotipo... 
How about an article of the Pontiac-Brabham SOHC engine
Cheers Zoltan,
I wrote such an article some years ago but so far haven’t been able to flog it to a magazine. One day…
Mark
Do you know when the mag will arrive in the newsagents here Mark: sounds too good to miss this one.
Thanks Mark for another interesting story. I was particularly interested in the gearbox mounted rear brake in the last photo. Peter Holinger had a similar set up on his Holinger Repco hill climb car. I was at Camperdown the day the rear brake seemingly locked or jammed going into the hairpin. This tipped the car off the track and it came to rest against a fence. Peter apparently was okay but didn’t run again that weekend. I am reasonable sure the next time I saw Holinger competing the car had changed to a conventional rear brake set up.
Cheers Paul,
That would have been spectacular! I’ve seen photographs of the car in that spec – one at Collingrove springs to mind – and must find and post it/them.
From memory – I don’t have BRM 2 to hand – the final iterations of the P48 had conventionally mounted discs on all four corners of the cars!
Mark
Just my two cents on the Bacon Slicer – years ago I volunteered to do a brake job for a friend of a friend sight unseen.. he shows up in a late 60’s Volvo sporting inboard discs on the front axle, uh-oh! Buried, never serviced since new.. absolute nightmare.Lotsa adult beverage, hah. Anyway, I marveled at the accessibility of this stout unit in comparison!
-love yer writing style, especially the sly double -entendres’ 🍻
Cheers Keith,
I’ve managed to steer clear of Volvos in every respect! Tony Rudd was an amazing designer and development engineer but he wasn’t perfect. To be fair, they engineered the single-disc into effectiveness but the simpler path they eventually followed made more sense!
And yes, my writing style here is loose, I can channel my inner bogan, whereas you haveter write properly like on the Real Magazines!
Great to hear from you.
Mark