primotipo…

Not Jumpin’ Jack Flash but Edison Waters’s Bentley 4.5-litre s/c #SM3907 during the Bathurst Grand Prix weekend, March 25, 1940.

That fugly appendage on the rear of the lovely car’s expensive bodywork is a charcoal burner that produced gas to power a vehicle with a prodigious thirst at a time petrol was tightly rationed amongst the Australian populace.

Somehow, it seems wrong that some chaps were having a jolly good time back home in Oz, while others were having their balls shot off by the dreaded Hun. Having said that, John Medley points out that some of the racers were also servicemen. Most race meetings in Australia then, before the lights fully went out, raised money for the families of the war dead. I guess this one was no exception? Isn’t it a terrific view of officialdom on Mount Panorama’s pit straight?

The beast only lasted two laps of the 37-lap 150-mile handicap event won by scratch-man Alf Barrett’s Alfa Romeo 8C2300 Monza from John Snow’s Delahaye 135CS and Chas Whatmore’s Ford V8 Special. Britain’s finest ran one of its bearings.

It’s surprising how many Bentleys, very popular with Australia’s Squatocracy for their on-bush road performance and reliability, that came here competed.

Having said that, #SM3907 was primarily a roadie, imported from the UK by Tom Luxton – of the McEwans hardware chain – by that time, the car’s original Van den Plas four-seater sports coachwork had been replaced by this fetching March-designed two/three-seater body built by John Charles. Later owners included racers Ron Edgerton and Lex Davison, who famously used it as a tow-master during his Alfa Romeo P3 racing phase. See here:https://primotipo.com/2015/08/02/who-what-where-and-when/

‘No person being allowed on this road while closed for speed contests’ does seem sound advice.

The prodigious torque of the Bentley’s 4.5-litre four-cylinder 175bhp @ 3500rpm – when petrol-fed – engine hauls Waters out of Hell Corner for the long drag up Mountain Straight. It’s such a shame the car failed early in the race, as it would have been very interesting to see how the car performed; doubtless, the power loss relative to a standard car was considerable.

John Medley had this to say in one of his bibles, ‘Bathurst: Cradle of Australian Motor Racing’.

‘The Edison Waters entry created a great deal of interest.’

‘Not only was it the first and only Bentley to race at Bathurst (until the modern era), but it ran on charcoal. The huge and ungainly charcoal gas producer was mounted behind the tail, the conversion having been done by National Fuel Engineers of Sydney, the fuel cost savings claimed being considerable: £1 for 150 miles as opposed to £15 or more for normal fuels. The fully equipped blower 4.5-litre Bentley (later owned by Lex Davison, Jack Jeffery and others) suffered the further indignity of having an extraordinary bundle of untidy unsilenced exhaust pipes reaching rearwards over the left mudguards “to deafen the passengers on the way to Bathurst”. The two-ton Bentley, radio playing, lasted two laps.’

Credits…

Darren Henry Collection, who bought a bulk lot of negatives on eBay containing envelopes of Bathurst images from 1938, 1939, and 1940.’ Many thanks, Darren, for posting them on Bob Williamson’s Old Motor Racing Photographs-Australia Facebook page. ‘Vintage Bentleys in Australia’ by Clare Hay, Bob Watson, Phil Schudmak and Tony Johns. Tony Johns Archive, Turner Studios, courtesy of Henley Auctions

Finito…