Malcolm Ramsay’s Birrana S74 VW s/c Speedcar in the backyard of his house in the Adelaide suburbs in 1974. I’ve written about this radical car before, so no point repeating myself:https://primotipo.com/2025/04/12/birrana-s74-volkswagen-midget/
Here’s a lovely portrait of Birrana supremo, Mal Ramsay – his business partner and designer/engineer was Tony Alcock, as most of you know – with his Birrana 272 Lotus-Ford F2 car in 1972.
What I didn’t realise until Ann-Maree Ramsay posted these photographs on Facebook a while back was that Mal’s father, Aub Ramsay, was a noted racer in South Australia. He was in on the ground floor of Speedway racing there in 1935, racing a JAP Special built by Alex Rowe. By November 1936, he was the State’s star midget car driver, according to The Advertiser, Adelaide.
The shots below show him aboard a Riley Brooklands owned by Dr Cliff Downing during the South Australian Hundred meeting at Lobethal, on New Year’s Day 1940.
Ramsay was eighth in the 12-lap 100-mile handicap race won by Jack Phillips’ Ford V8 Special. Car #17 is Tom Lancey’s fifth-place MG T-Type Spl.
Aub Ramsay hands over the silverware to a very youthful Jack Brabham, who has just won the 1948-49 Australian Speedcar Championship at Kilburn Speedway in Adelaide. Aub was a state champion, and so was a well-credentialled presenter!
Hengkie Iriawan in the Batu Tiga paddock during the 1970 Selangor Grand Prix weekend in Kuala Lumpur on April 5, with his Elfin 600C Ford FVA.
Graeme Lawrence won the 60-lap 202 km race in his Ferrari 246T from John MacDonald’s Brabham BT23C Ford FVA with Iriawan, fourth.
Iriawan’s Elfin 600 is unique in the sense that 600C-6910 was the only Elfin factory fitted with the ubiquitous, dominant Ford Cosworth FVA 1.6-litre F2 engine. He took delivery of the car after a Mallala test session in August 1969 and d’yer reckon I can find the colour shots from that day that were once pinging around on that internet thingy…
Speaking of rare Elfins…Garrie Cooper built two ground effect cars before his untimely death, the MR9 Chev F5000 and this GE225 VW ANF2 car, which probably should have won the four-round 1980 Australian F2 Championship; carbed, two-valve, no more than SOHC 1.6-litres in John Bowe’s hands.
Here he is flinging the car around Amaroo Park during its May 25 meeting won by arch-rival John Smith’s Ralt RT1 Ford Kent. In a tight championship, the other rounds were won by Graeme Engel’s Cheetah Mk6 Ford Kent (Winton), Richard Davison, Hardman JH1 Ford Kent (Calder) and Bowe (Sandown). Davison won the title from Smith by three points, 15 to 12.
The 1.6-litre SOHC F2 years were great, with lots of different car/engine combinations and big grids of drivers comprising an interesting mix of category stalwarts and younger thrusters on the way up.
Bruce Hodgson and Fred Gocentas blast through Bright’s main street in their Ford Falcon GTHO Phase 4 during the 1973 Alpine Rally. They were sixth after suffering a couple of punctures and overheating. Frank Kilfoyle and Mike Osborne won in a works Datsun 180B SSS.
In the words of that great philosopher, Basil Fawlty, ‘Don’t mention the war. I did once, and I think I got away with it!’ Ford’s fabulous Phase 4 351 was at the centre of Australia’s 1972 Supercar Scare That Killed Australia’s Fastest Cars, and nothing gets taxi-fans of the era – including me – all hot under the collar than that particular clusterfuck…
Bob Jane’s legendary McLaren M6B Repco 740 V8 on Bob Jane T-Mart display duties on June 24, 1976 in Parramatta Road, Granville, Sydney.
By that stage, the car had been retired for three years, having bagged the 1971-72 Australian Sports Car Championships for John Harvey. That’s the nose of Bob’s Maserati 300S. More about the McLaren here:https://primotipo.com/2019/10/16/sex-on-wheels/
Stirling Moss is about to put a lap on Bill Pitt during the 100-mile, 32-lap Formula Libre 1958 Melbourne Grand Prix at Albert Park on November 30; Cooper T45 Climax and Jaguar D-Type.
Moss won the race from Jack Brabham’s similar Cooper with Doug Whiteford’s Maserati 300S third, and Pitt was sixth. The event was the last at the Park until the modern era. See here:https://primotipo.com/2024/01/12/coopers-aloft/
Kevin Bartlett, Lola T300 Chev during the 1972 Hordern Trophy Gold Star round held at Warwick Farm on November 5. He was second in the race, and in the Gold Star behind Frank Matich, Matich A50 Repco-Holden with Max Stewart third.
James Semple’s shot below shows the grid. Matich and obscured Max Stewart, Elfin MR5 Repco-Holden on the right. Gary Campbell’s Lola T300 Chev is behind Matich – and Bartlett behind him – with an obscured warwick Brown, McLaren M10B Chev and Jack Bono’s Elfin 600B Lotus-Ford F2 car with the Tyrrell nose on the right, and the rest…
John Snow blasting his recently imported Delahaye 135CS around the Lobethal countryside during the 1939 Australian Grand Prix held in stifling January 2 summer heat.
Snow was fourth in the 150-mile, 17-lap handicap race aboard the 3.6-litre OHV sports car. Up front was Allan Tomlinson’s MG TA Spl s/c, Bob-Lea-Wright’s Terraplane Spl with Jack Phillips’ Ford V8 Spl third. More here:https://primotipo.com/2020/12/04/tomlinsons-1939-lobethal-australian-grand-prix/
Dave Walker, Brabham BT2 Ford 1.5 pushrod at Lakeside, perhaps during the September 13, 1964 Gold Star round, DNF oil pressure.
DW imported FJ-12-62 new via Alec Mildren, the Brabham agent, and raced it from 1963 to early 1965 before going to Europe. Fitted with a Lotus-Ford twin-cam, the chassis was raced by Frank Gardner and Kevin Bartlett in 1965-66. Having passed through many hands, it was restored in Mildren spec and is still in Australia.
Start with this one on Dave, then follow the links at the end of the piece:https://primotipo.com/2022/01/05/walkin-on-water/
Thommo Doing it in the Dark at Oran Park circa-1974, I’m in your hands as to the meeting date.
Within 12 months, it was all over for one of Australia’s most iconic and crowd-pleasing cars. Vince Gregory was the buyer, wasn’t he? This is the Auto Action advert in the December 4, 1975 issue. A snippet about the McLaren M10B-derived car is here:https://primotipo.com/2018/11/17/dr-who/
Jackie Stewart made a quick visit to Australia in 1966 to contest the Gold Star round and 12-Hour race that were part of the opening carnival of Surfers Paradise Raceway by Serial Entrepreneur, Keith Williams.
He raced the ex-Stillwell/Mildren/Scuderia Veloce Brabham BT11A Climax #IC-2-64 and Ferrari 250 LM; DNF oil loss in the Gold Star round and a win in the 12-Hour, sharing the Ferrari with Andy Buchanan. More here:https://primotipo.com/2015/02/13/jackie-stewart-at-surfers-paradise-speed-week-1966-brabham-bt11a-climax-and-ferrari-250lm/
Would you buy a used car from this man?! Stan Jones sitting in his Maserati 250F #2520, surrounded by stock in his Superior Cars emporium of fine used cars only driven by little old ladies to church on Sundays…
It’s more likely the 408 Victoria Street, Richmond, than the Keilor Road, North Essendon site. Given the way it looks, I wouldn’t mind guessing the car with which he would do some great things, has only just arrived from Italy, which makes it April 1956. More about Stan and his 250F here:https://primotipo.com/2024/05/08/omg-stan-jones-and-len-lukey-longford-1959/
This Fishermans Bend panorama caught my eye. It’s Ben Guzzardi in the Molina Monza Repco-Holden and Ben Miller’s Jaguar E-Type. It looks more like a car club sprint meeting than the Riverside Drags. I’ll take your advice as to the occupants of the factories. More here:https://primotipo.com/2016/04/15/fishermans-bend-melbourne/
Very shitty RACV archive shot made tolerable with some AI assistance. Keith Laity or Ivor Blackmore’s Mercury Special, Mount Tarrengower perhaps?
This car is notable for ‘doing an Ascari (or Hawkins)’ in Blackmore’s hands in the Rob Roy dam. Car still with us?
The purchase of Leo Geoghegan’s 1974 Australian F2 Championship-winning Birrana 274 Hart-Ford 416-B relaunched Alfie Costanzo’s career.
That’s the little fella in the car; to his right is longtime friend/brother in law/partner in Auto Sprint Motors, Marino Ciuffetelli. I’m not sure about the other dudes. It looks awfully like out front of Costanzo’s Bulleen, Melbourne home.
Relaunched in the sense that Alfie bought an old Elfin T100 Mono Lotus-Ford after having a sniff around Italy for some race-drives circa-1969. He made that old thing sing, but his performances in 274-15 in 1975 reminded everyone of his blinding pace, which was carried forward in a duck-to-water F5000 debut thereafter, and the rest, as it’s said, is history.
See here for a piece on Alfie’s Lola T430 Chev Gold Star win:https://primotipo.com/2025/07/23/lola-t430-chev/
Credits…
Ramsay Family Collection via Ann-Maree Ramsay, Jean Tesseyre, Cummins Family Archive, Peter Houston, Eli Solomon, James Semple, Norman Howard, Dave Walker Archive courtesy of Marc Schagen, John Stanley, Norm Darwin Collection, Jarrod Bryant Collection, RACV Archive, Costanzo Family Collection, Pat Ryan
Finito…
primotipo... 