One of my true racing loves is the 1970 F1 Ferrari 312B and its successors.
I’ve done it to death of course, this article tells its story in detail: https://primotipo.com/2016/02/26/life-is-all-about-timing-chris-amon-and-the-ferrari-312b/ But this series of shots of an engine change during practice in Clay Regazzoni’s 312B/001 during the 1970 German GP weekend at the Hockenheim Motordrom are too good to ignore. We’ll make this the first of a similar series of a largely pictorial nature.
Doug Nye characterises this Mauro Forghieri – and team – designed machine as one the best integrated F1 Ferraris. The photographs here convey clearly why this is so.
Clay Regazzoni and Jacky Ickx, Ferrari 312Bs sandwich the winning Lotus 72C Ford of Jochen Rindt during the early laps at Hockenheim (LAT)(LAT)
The four main-bearing twelve cylinder engine – a Flat-12 or 180-degree V12 – depending upon your engineering religion of choice – was a paragon of reliable power after the early challenges experienced largely by Chris Amon circa-September 1969 were overcome.
These shots show how low, wide and compact it was. All that weight sat low in the chassis with the wild monocoque carrying the engine ‘underslung’. At that early stage of its development, Ferrari quote an output of 450bhp @ 12000rpm, a capacity of 2991.01cc and bore/stroke of 78.5×51.5mm.
(LAT)
Devoid of tyres, Regga’s #312B/001 sits on its tummy.
Note the inboard rocker front suspension – Ferrari had used this set up continually since the 1963 156 Aero – and clever way in which the aero-element rollbar stay ‘triangulates’ the monocoque boom. Oh to have been there to watch the engine replacement!
Ferrari still used their ‘Aero semi-monocoque’ at this stage, in that the tubular steel chassis had aluminium panels riveted to it with the engine used as a semi-stressed member.
Five of these chassis were built: 312B/001 – #312B/004 albeit #312B/002 was re-tubbed after Jacky Ickx’ collision with Jack Oliver’s BRM P153 during the 1970 Spanish GP. All four cars exist, what lucky owners they are! See oldracingcars.com for chassis by chassis details: https://www.oldracingcars.com/ferrari/312b/
#312B/001 was Ickx’ usual chassis throughout that season: the Austrian, Canadian and Mexican GP winner. As the chassis number suggests, this machine was the first built. It was entered for Chris Amon in the 1969 Italian Grand Prix but failed to take to the track after engine failure in three test sessions at Modena in the lead up to Monza.
(LAT)
Jochen Rindt won the Hockenheim race that weekend during the mid-season run of victories – the Dutch, French, British and German GPs – that gave the fearless Austrian enough points to win the World Drivers Championship posthumously. With a little more luck it could have been Jacky Ickx, but karma, thankfully prevailed.
In Germany the top-three qualifiers were Ickx, Rindt and Regazzoni. While the Ferrari challenge was strong, newcomer Regga – who won the Italian GP in September – led laps 22 and 23 of the race and was then slowed and retired with gearbox trouble in the 50 laps race.
Rindt’s win from Ickx was a good one, Denis Jenkinson noted in MotorSport that “As was very evident in Zandvoort it was the Lotus 72 showing superiority over the other competitors, rather than the driver…he (Rindt) won by only 0.7 sec from Ickx but the win was convincing as he was able to pass the Ferrari whenever he wished…”
(LAT)
More often than not the floor is a key contributor to the structural rigidity of both spaceframe and monocoque chassis – glued and riveted as they often are – but apparently not so much with this Ferrari, the floor of which was seemingly located by removable bolts. There are rubber fuel-bags within the monocoque on each side, mandated by the FIA from 1970.
(LAT)(MotorSport)
Front suspension long top rocker and wide based lower wishbone, steering rack and steering arm mounting ‘ear’ on the upright on one of the 312Bs at Kyalami during the 1970 South African GP weekend.
Credits…
LAT Images, oldracingcars.com, Ferrari.com
Tailpiece…
(LAT)
Is Borsari the mechanic? I know the face of the longtime Scuderia man, I’m just not so sure of the name. Look how Forghieri is shifting weight to the very rear of the car: the Varley battery and neatly faired oil radiators. Outboard rear suspension is period-typical: cast magnesium uprights, single top links, inverted lower wishbones and twin radius rods, plus coil-spring/Koni dampers.
This is the second in an occasional series of articles plucked from the early issues of Autocourse, via the collection of my friend, racer and historian, Tony Johns.
In the unlikely event one could find Formula 1 articles of a technical type amongst all of the ‘Drive to Survive’ inspired dull, shit-boring, insipid dross in most magazines these days, one on racing spark plugs would be the last to expect!
These days they are a purchase-instal-and-forget item but once upon a time one’s méchanicien needed to be able to anticipate, read, and change plugs to suit the changing weather and other circumstances throughout a race weekend. Remember the shots of a mechanic labouring in the pits and paddock under big wooden boxes of plugs?
This article was written by Herr G Werner, a Bosch employee.
Oh yes, the opening shot is before the off, Spa, the Grand Prix de Belgique, June 17, 1951. Juan Manuel Fangio #2 is on pole in his Alfa Corse Alfa Romeo 159 with Giuseppe Farina alongside in another Alfa; the 1951 and 1950 World Champions of course. Farina won from the pair of Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 375 V12s driven by Alberto Ascari and Luigi Villoresi.
Car #12 on the second row is Piero Taruffi’s Ferrari 375 (DNF rear axle) and #8 Ascari. Farina took 2hr 45min 46.2sec to complete the 36-lap, 316-mile race through the daunting, high speed swoops and dives of the Ardennes road circuit.
Fangio finished ninth and last. He was gradually catching Farina in the lead, when he pitted for fuel and tyres after 14 laps but no amount of hammering by the mechanics of the left rear wheel would move it (below). In the end the poor technicians removed the brake drum and wheel assembly, losing nearly 15 minutes in total. Fangio rejoined last of the remaining ten runners and four laps adrift of Farina.
Autocourse notes the following in relation to the Fangio and Farina 159s, “Fitted with an oval-section petrol tank each side of the driver extending forwards to the bulkhead and an oval-section tank on the right-hand side of the engine under the exhaust manifold. Fangio’s car had a De Dion back axle.”
(MotorSport)(Autocourse)
The Racing Plug : Its selection and the factors which influence its efficiency
Much has been written about sparking plugs. A whole science has evolved around them and their correct choice, and they have been become an inexhaustible theme for discussion at large motor sport events. A glance at the problem of the correct choice of sparking plugs will prove ample justification for this.
The purpose of our article is the discussion of the “Racing Plug”. Although its construction and requirements are entirely different from those of a normal plug, they have nevertheless many things in common.
One thing is expected from every type of plug. At exactly the right moment it must produce a sufficiently powerful spark for the fuel mixture in the cylinder of the engine to be ignited and for the chemical energy of the fuel to be converted into heat and work, thus giving life to the engine.
For obvious reasons a racing engine makes more specialised demands on the construction and material of the plug than does an ordinary engine. The right choice of a racing plug for a particular race needs much experience and knowledge of the many factors which play their part in the functioning of the plug. These problems will shortly be considered.
For every race the type of track and its length are common knowledge. The tuning of the engine develops from these known facts and from the conditions laid down in the regulations.
The type of fuel to be used will be either prescribed or left to choice. On it depends the compression ratio, the carburettor adjustment, the degree to which the ignition is to be advanced and, of course, the sparking plug itself. The length of the race and the engine’s performance determine the fuel consumption and accordingly the number of stops required for refuelling during long races. Fuels with a high alcoholic content raise problems different from petrol, benzol or a mixture of these two.
A two-stroke engine using a fuel-oil mixture requires a different plug from a four-stroke engine.
The weather is also a factor to be taken into consideration, as changes may occur between practice days and the actual day of the race. Even the most ideal carburettor and ignition adjustments may have to be changed if, for example, it is raining on the day of the race whilst during practice it was bright and dry.
We need hardly tell the experts, whether firms or individuals, how to adjust their engines so as to be “fit” for a particular race, but there are the younger ones without the experience of the more seasoned enthusiasts to whom perhaps a few hints might be of value. If amongst these tips there is something new to the old hands, we shall be doubly rewarded.
We feel that perhaps fifty years’ experience of plugs has given us some authority and we make no apology for stating our views.
I. What sparking plugs are required when the length and conditions of the race are known ?
This question, in so far as heat value is concerned, will, in most cases, be resolved after practice, but to some extent the driver must know the sort of plug he requires, at least the plug thread-either 18 mm. or 14 mm. thread diameter and 12 1/2 mm. or 18 mm. reach.
2. The higher the compression ratio, r.p.m. and consequently the engine pertormance, the higher the heat value of the plug must be, if self-ignition is to be avoided
3. Tracks which have no gradients and where corners can be taken without loss of speed present no great difficulty in the choice of the right heat value of the plug. Then, a high heat value and consequently a cold or hard plug is preferable as there is less danger of the plug becoming dirty or oily.
4. On tracks with steep gradients and many corners when brakes and accelerators are much in use it is different.
When decelerating and consequently pouring less fuel mixture into the cylinder a momentary depression results in the combustion chamber. This causes oil to seep through the piston rings which brings with it a danger of the plugs getting oily and the formation of a carbon deposit. If carbon enters the plug, it may well stop the plug from firing, as carbon is an electrical conductor. This conductor may cause a short and instead of the plug sparking, the impulse will be diverted to the secondary circuit. It will be seen therefore that conditions demand special care in the choice of plug, as it is important to ensure that the plug does not become overheated during long races on fast circuits.
On the other hand the plug must not become oily when braking at corners or descending slopes; it must reach such a temperature to ensure that all the carbon is burnt up thus avoiding the formation of a secondary circuit. This temperature is approximately 500 degrees centigrade at the points.
5. If the driver removes his plug during practice after a fast run and discovers (generally by means of a magnifying glass) that a fine light grey metal deposit, the size of a microscopic pearl, has formed on the electrodes and insulator, then there has been an error, even if, according to the driver’s opinion, the engine has been running well. This metal deposit means that the ignition was too advanced and that there is a burning of the piston. Here, too, it may be advisable to use a colder plug with a correspondingly higher heat value. But the most important factor of all is a correct ignition adjustment.
6. The metal washer between the plug and the engine must not be forgotten. This washer must fit well but not too tightly. If too tightly fitted, then the piece between the thread and the plug body will become strained and looseness will result. The looseness brings about a deterioration of the thermal conductivity in the inner part of the plug which causes overheating.
Plug-box to the fore on the scuttle of one of the Alfa 159s during the July 1951 British GP weekend at Silverstone (MotorSport)Bosch 1950s adPlug box atop the engine bay of a Ferrari 375 V12 again at Silverstone during the 1951 GP weekend. Twin-plug heads = 24 plugs, I wonder what a good time to change them all was? (MotorSport)
7. If the compression ratio of the engine is raised with a consequent increase in output, the temperature of the exhaust gas from the engine itself becomes relatively cooler. The ultimately greater output is due to the fact that more heat is converted into energy; thus proportionately less heat passes unused from the exhaust pipe.
The implication is that the engine would now appear to run cooler, and the most suitable plug would be one with a lower heat value. This, however, is not the case. Although the greater amount of heat converted into energy in the engine’s combustion chamber-the most economical use of the fuel-leads to a relatively lower temperature, the combustion gas temperature in the chamber itself and also of the plugs, pistons and valves become higher as the amount of heat being converted is greater. It will be realised, therefore, that a high compression ratio demands a correspondingly high heat value of the plug and therefore a colder one.
8. The amount that the ignition is advanced measured in the degrees of the angular movement of the crankshaft or in the mm. of the stroke, greatly influences the output and particularly the temperature of the plugs, the piston and valves. The more advanced the ignition, the longer the period of contact between the flame and the plug, the piston and valves, which naturally become correspondingly hotter. If the ignition is advanced then a colder plug with a higher heat value is necessary. It is, of course, well known that the ignition must be advanced when the amount of engine revolutions is increased.
9. No alteration can be made to the plug seat or to the position of the plug unless the cylinder-head is altered. Nevertheless it may be said that the shape of the combustion chamber as well as the position of the plug and of the ignition spark are of great importance to starting and accelerating and to the output of the engine.
10. The selection of the plug for a two-stroke racing engine, running on a mixture of fuel and oil should not be more difficult than the selection of a plug for a four-stroke engine. It has to be remembered of course, that fuel, to which oil has been added in the ratio of 1 : 15 or 1 : 20 requires a rather warmer plug as the danger of it getting dirty and of carbon forming is greater than with a four-stroke engine. Therefore a plug with too high a heat value should not be chosen.
11. In general the heat value of a plug for an air-cooled engine should be somewhat higher than for a water-cooled engine. The plug should be cooler for the simple reason that with an air-cooled engine the rate of loss of temperature from the plug to the cylinder is smaller and therefore the cylinder and the plug seat become hotter.
12. It should be said that in principle the temperature of the water in a water-cooled engine has little influence on the temperature of the plug. Therefore the water temperature should have little bearing on the choice of the heat value of the plug.
13. The type of fuel used has the greatest influence, not only on the output of the engine, on the fuel consumption and on the number of refuelling stops during long races, but also on the carburettor adjustment. In view of the large output required, the adjustment of the carburettor must be generous. This adjustment may well cause the plug to get dirty and especially will have an influence on the temperature of the plug in use.
It is well known that a fuel with a high alcohol content allows for high compression and therefore an increased output. As alcohol possesses a high vaporization heat, the engine, and to a certain degree, the plug, remain cool.
Unfortunately, the self-ignition temperature of the alcohol fuels is considerably lower than that of petrol and benzol. Therefore, self-ignition may take place, in spite of the fact that the knocking resistance of alcohol is higher than of hydrocarbon fuels, i.e., petrol and benzol.
14. It is hardly necessary to mention that should the engine, pistons, piston-rings, cylinder sleeve, valves, etc., be in bad condition, this may be responsible for the plug getting oily or dirty.
15. The weather, in particular, has a great influence on the selection of plugs. Not only the team manager, the driver and the mechanics, but also those who are responsible for plug service, may consider themselves lucky if the weather during the actual race remains the same as during practice.
If during practice the weather is hot and dry and the plugs are selected accordingly, but on the day of the race it is cold and rainy, then in most cases a new plug which gets warmer, i.e., with a lower heat value, must be selected. Conversely, if the weather changes change from cold and rain during practice to dry during the race, a higher heat value, ie, a colder plug is indicated.
The weather indeed poses a problem for plugs, but generally it is fair to say that the height of the barometer is proportional to the height of the heat value of the plug.
It is beyond the scope of this article to go into the many factors which influence ignition and the many different stages of combustion. Theses subjects will be dealt with at some later date.
(Werkfoto Bosch)
From left to right a typical range of racing plugs shown in assembling order of hardness. It will be seen that the gas volume in the mouth of the plug decreases with the plug’s increasing ability to stand heat.
This photograph shows Bosch racing plugs with a thread of 3/4 and 1/2 inch. For alloy cylinder heads the longer thread is used to safeguard against stripping while the shorter thread is quite satisfactory for cast heads. The plug lying in the middle shows the centre and earth electrodes and the spark gap.
Credits…
Autocourse No 2 1951, Editor Stanley Sedgwick. Tony Johns Collection
Tailpiece…
(Rudy Mailander)
“Louveau’s car after running out of road and overturning’. Swiss Grand Prix, Bern, May 27, 1951.” It looks like quite an accident…
Bern’s 4.52-miles wasn’t for the faint heated either, especially in the wet. “Henri Louveau ran out of road on (lap 31) the fast corner after passing the pits, overturning his Talbot , and sustained a broken leg.” He qualified his Ecurie Rosier Talbot-Lago T26C 11th of 21 starters in his second and last championship GP start. The race was won by Fangio from Taruffi. More about Louveau here: https://www.f1forgottendrivers.com/drivers/henri-louveau/
Autocourse described the challenges of the place thus, “The Bremgarten Circuit at Berne is at the same time perhaps the most beautifully situated and the most exacting course in Europe. The bends, curves, corners and gradients make constant demands upon both drivers and cars and the thickly-wooded stretches leave no margin for error.”
(MotorSport)
This shot of the Henri Louveau and Louis Rosier Talbot-Lago T26Cs shows rather well some of the perils of Bremgarten.
The Gold Leaf Team Lotus rig is probably kosher as far as Bernie and the Liberty Media money-mob are concerned but the Pete Lovely VW Motors Kombi Ute and old Lotus 49B Ford would have made them choke on their canapés and Bolly.
Your average VW Dealer may have run a sportscar or touring car with his I’ll-gotten gains, not our boy from Fife, Seattle though, this lifelong racer contested US national events with his ex-Team Lotus/Mario Andretti 49B-R11 and took in the odd Grand Prix as well.
The shot above is in the Clermont Ferrand paddock during the 1970 French Grand Prix weekend.
(MotorSport)
The American took delivery of the car in time for the 1969 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch. He was sixth among 12 starters in the March 16 race won by Jackie Stewart’s Matra MS80 Ford, the second of the combos six championship and non-championship F1 wins that season.
Brands was the first of ten meetings Lovely did that year: five F1 races including the Canadian, US and Mexican GPs and five US national meetings. Seventh place in the Canadian GP was impressive.
In 1970-71 – living the dream – Pete, his wife and the Kombi did another eight meetings, all but one were F1 events, but by then the game had moved on, his efforts were littered with DNQ/DNS/UNC.
Pete Lovely during the 1971 Canadian GP weekend (MotorSport)(MotorSport)
Canadian GP, Mosport September 1971.
With his Lotus 49 increasingly uncompetitive Pete concocted the brilliant idea of bolting the back of his 49B – the engine, Hewland gearbox and rear suspension wheeled away as one unit – to an ex-Jochen Rindt Racing Lotus 69 F2 car (ex-Hill #69.F2.5).
Whoosh-bonk – in Bruce McLaren’s words – an instant more modern GP car! Lovely raced it in some US L&M F5000 rounds in 1971 and entered it in the 1971 Canadian and US Grands Prix. He was sixth at the Monterey GP (49B), fifth and seventh at the Seafair 200 at Seattle (69/49B). In the Canadian GP he was Q26 and unclassified, and at Watkins Glen Q32 and unclassified in both cases aboard the Lotus 69 Ford DFV as it was described in-period.
Pete historic raced the Lotus 49 later in his life and retained it until his death, at which point it was sold to a Seattle collector.
Ernesto Neves, Lotus 69FF ahead of the chasing pack during the Johnson Rally Wax Cup at Brands Hatch in October 1971 (Sportography)
Obiter…
Pete’s effort in turning his F2 Lotus 69 into a Grand Prix car gives the Lotus 69 a unique title. It is the only racing car model, I think, to ever compete in Formula Ford, F3, F2/Atlantic and F1. Pedants will rightfully point out that the FF and F3 69s used spaceframe chassis not monocoques…but they were still Lotus 69s!
Lex Davison and passenger – probably Lyndon Duckett – at Fishermans Bend, Melbourne, unleashing all of the power and torque of his 7.1-litre supercharged, straight-six 1929 Mercedes Benz 38/250 SSK, chassis #77643. It’s March 13, 1949.
(unattributed but I’d love to know who?)
Davison raced the car from 1946-49 and is shown here in front of Alf Barrett’s Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza through Quarry during his highly competitive run into third place in the 1947 Australian Grand Prix at Mount Panorama, Bathurst.
(Mercedes Benz)
Production numbers and Technical…
How Davison’s car came to Australia is still a bit of a mystery, but a West Australian, a Mr Everett imported it and sold it to Eric MacKay, more of this anon. #77643 was one of 33 SSKs, one model of four of this stunning series of S, SS, SSK and SSKL Mercedes Benz built between 1927 and 1933.
The production numbers according to Mercedes Benz were: S-Sport 146 units built until September 1928, SS-Super Sport 111 units until September 1933, SSK-Super Sport Kurtz (short – the wheelbase of theses cars is 2950mm) 33 units between 1928 and 1932.
The numbers of the SSKL-Super Sport Kurtz Licht (short light) cars produced is not quoted by Mercedes publicly, “it is extremely difficult to obtain a precise record of the production numbers, since, already at that time, chassis were being shortened and provided with different engines.” A perfect situation for fakers of course.
Racing triumphs of the cars include the 1927, 1928 and 1931 German Grand Prix, the Avus races in 1931-32, the Eifel race in 1931, the 1929 Tourist Trophy, the Irish Grand Prix in 1930, and Spa 24 Hours and Mille Miglia in 1931. Despite their size the cars were competitive in the hills too, winning the European Hill Climb Championships in 1930-31 and the ’32 German Alpine Championship…and plenty more.
The U-section pressed-steel frame chassis cars were designed by Ferdinand Porsche who had succeeded Paul Daimler as chief engineer of Mercedes in 1923, three years before the company amalgamated with Benz. The six-cylinder SS 38/250 Mercedes-Benz debuted in 1928 as a 7.1-litre development of the 6.8-litre S model launched in 1927. It was both exclusive and expensive, the SS retailed at 35,000 Reichsmarks (£2350) with factory tourer bodywork.
(Mercedes Benz)(Mercedes Benz)
The Mercedes M06 7065cc engine was a long-stroke – 100mm bore, 150mm stroke – SOHC, two-valve, 225bhp @ 3300rpm straight six, fitted with twin-plug ignition: one plug was fired by the magneto and one by the battery.
The big, thirsty beast was fed by twin-Mercedes updraught annular-float carburettors and was Roots supercharged. Mercedes pioneered the fitting of superchargers to road cars using technology developed for its Great War aero-engines. While other marques developed permanently-engaged superchargers that the sucked fuel/ air mixture in through the carburettor, Mercedes employed a supercharger clutched in at full throttle to boost engine power by force-feeding air through the carburettors to cram fuel and air into the combustion chambers.
This method could only be used for a few seconds at a time to aid acceleration or hillclimbing and was accompanied by a distinctive banshee wail that Motor described as a “threatening high-pitched whine that is such a joy to spectators at racing events”.
The chassis was period-typical: rigid axles and semi-elliptical front and rear springs, worm and nut steering, mechanical drum brakes at both ends, wire-spoke wheels, with wheel size 6.5/7 inches wide and 20 inches in diameter. The gearbox had four speeds and a dry, quadruple plate clutch and three alternative final drive ratios giving a quoted top speed of 188-192km/h.
The SWB SSK wheelbase was 2950mm and had tracks of 1425mm front and rear. It was 4950mm long, 1700mm wide, 1725mm high and weighed 2000kg.
(Mercedes Benz)(Mercedes Benz)
Hailed by its makers as “an ideal high performance car for sporting owner drivers”, the SS Mercedes was claimed to be the fastest sports car in the world. Tested by Motor in 1931 a fully-equipped 7.1-litre Mercedes SS 38/250, not yet fully run in, clocked over 103 mph at Brooklands despite a slight head wind.
Mercedes Benz, “The ‘SSKL’ was the glittering highlight of the legendary S-Series, which was to decisively shape the image of the Mercedes-Benz brand. In 1934, three years after the ‘SSKL’ had made its debut, it was time for the product line up at Daimler-Benz to be reshuffled. From now on success on the racetrack was in the hands of the new Silver Arrows…From mid-1927 to the beginning of 1933, the S-Series models had fulfilled the roles of sportiness and elegance in equal measure, demonstrating their credentials as genuine all-rounders capable of sustained success on both fronts.”
Lex Davison’s interest in these big Deutschlanders commenced with this Dr Ferdinand Porsche designed 33/180 K-model Mercedes he acquired in late 1945 or early 1946.
The 6.2-litre, SOHC, six-cylinder supercharged giant was soon christened ‘Jumbo’ and is shown during a home event, literally. The Vintage Sports Car Club ran several sprint events at Killara Park, the Davison family, 500 acre farm which abutted the Yarra River at Lilydale, in the immediate post-war period.
Lex is shown competing in the first of these – his maiden competitive event – on January 13, 1946. The competitive life of this car was shortened when Davo wrong-slotted, selecting first, rather than third gear at a subsequent Killara Park meeting.
All was not lost though, as the young proprietor of the family shoe manufacturing business – Lex was appointed Governing Director of AA Davison Pty Ltd upon the death of his father, aged 22 in August 1945 – was dabbling in various cars: converting the family Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 into a biposto-racer, trading his Talbot 75 for a 4 1/2-litre Bentley, then a Bentley 4 1/2 Blower, and a 4 1/2-litre Delage Indianapolis car. Lex well and truly had the bug and the means to pursue it.
“The 38/250 Mercedes in an early rebuild while in the ownership of Alan Roberts,” wrote Troy Davey-Milne (Davey-Milne Collection)
SSK #77643…
Graham Howard records in his sensational biography of Lex, ‘Lex Davison : Larger Than Life’, that the Mercedes had been a tourer which was damaged when dropped onto the wharf from a cargo-sling. Perhaps that occurred at Port Melbourne when the car was shipped from Fremantle, West Australia to Victoria.
Whatever the case, the car was acquired by VSCC member Alan Roberts, he had been slowly restoring it. A visit from Lex to encourage Alan to retain the car turned 360-degrees when Lex bought it! Davison then placed it in the care of Reg Nutt, a very capable mechanic/engineer, racer and AGP winning riding mechanic in the Phillip Island days.
(L Sims Collection)
By September 1946 Nutt had the car ready to test at his Whiteman Street, South Melbourne premises. Lex first ran it in unbodied form at Rob Roy that December (above) where he won the Vintage class.
That same month he ran it in a VSCC trial, by the time the car was entered for the January 1947 race at Ballarat Airfield – Victoria’s first post-war – 77643 sported a short, boat-tailed two-seater body built by Bob Baker. Howard records that at that time Baker was working out-back of Nutt’s workshop and would later become the doyen of Victorian panel-bashers; the man of choice for single-seater and sportscar bodies.
Two of Lex’ fellow competitors for the next 15 years made their race debuts that weekend: Bib Stillwell and Bill Patterson, both racing MG TCs. Davison’s first circuit meeting had been aboard the Little Alfa – Lex’ fathers 6C 1500 Alfa which had been lightened and modified from a four-door sedan to two-seat sportscar – at the October 1946 Bathurst meeting where he impressed in the 20-year-old Alfa which had over 100,000 miles on-the-clock!
Lex ahead of the Avro Ansons at Ballarat airfield on January 27, 1947. Here in the Alfa 6C 1500 ‘Little Alfa’ and below in the Mercedes, running sans side-bonnets in the heat (G Thomas)(G Thomas)
30,000 spectators starved of entertainment watched the event with “the Mercedes a handful through the corners and still running too rich. The tachometer was reading low and the top came off one piston which meant the car did not start the main race of the day,” Howard wrote. “Even so, the sight of the massive white Mercedes almost matching Barrett’s Alfa (Alf Barrett and his Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza were the Australian class-combo in the immediate pre and post-war years) for top speed caused something of a stir, as did the sharp scream of its throttle-operated supercharger.”
All wasn’t lost, the Little Alfa finished the handicap in ninth, but retired from its other race with fading oil-pressure.
Reg Nutt readied the car for the 1947 Championship of New South Wales to be held on the Nowra naval air base, on the coast south of Sydney, in June. The big-beast would have been suited to the 6.8km circuit as it incorporated two straights of over 2km, it really would have had a good gallop, but the rear axle failed in practice so the car didn’t race; Tom Lancey’s MG TC won the handicap 160km event in a field of good Gold Star depth.
#77643 at Rob Roy shortly after Bob Baker built its body (L Sims Collection)Isn’t it a big bit of real-estate?! #77643 at Bathurst in 1947 (D Flett)
Lex had the repairs to the Mercedes done by Rex Marshall’s Monza Motors – a business established by elite level racers John Snow and Jack Saywell immediately pre-war – in Darlinghurst, Sydney.
The October 6, 1947 Australian Grand Prix was to be held at Bathurst, fittingly, the last was conducted at Lobethal, South Australia in 1939; big-balls road circuits both.
The meeting marked the first anniversary of Lex’s racing career, his first too in an AGP, a race he almost made his own with victories in 1954, 1957-58 and 1961 aboard HWM Jaguar, Ferrari 500/625 twice, and a Cooper T51 Climax.
“The 24-year-old Lex Davison, at Bathurst in October 1947, would have been judged as not much more than an enthusiastic and well-heeled Victorian youngster with an unusual car: his career to this point comprised three race starts for two finishes in the 6C Alfa, and one race start and one practice appearance in the Mercedes with mechanical trouble intervening each time. He was keen enough, and undaunted by the big Mercedes; but it was too early to know what he might amount too.” Graham Howard wrote. Nonetheless, Lex could have won the 1947 AGP.”
Davison in front of Elliott Forbes-Robinson’s (yep, there were two of ’em) MG TC and the legendary Frank Kleinig aboard his evergreen, fast Kleinig Hudson Spl. One of the highlights of the weekend for the pundits was Davo’s wheel-to-wheel 10-lap dice with hardman, veteran Kleinig who never won an AGP but should have by any measure…(G Reed)
Davo was advantaged by a good handicap but that year was a bit of lottery with so many unknown combinations. Further, the handicappers, Graham wrote, didn’t believe Lex’s declared top speed of the car – 120mph, he was recorded at 119mph during the race – and the combo’s potential lap times.
Had it not been for blowback through the carburettor in top gear, which restricted the use of the supercharger to second and third gears, and a four-gallon splash-and-dash fuel stop later in the race Davison may well have won the race. Instead he was a fine third behind Bill Murray, MG TC and Dick Bland’s Mercury V8 Special. Critically, Lex’s result wasn’t due to a great handicap, it was his speed too, he did the fastest race-time and impressed all present with his skilful handling of a demanding heavy car car over 150 miles on one of the country’s most challenging circuits.
He had arrived, and with a cocktail of money, balls, brio and finesse, Lex would go far…
Diana Davison at Rob Roy in March 1948 (L Sims Collection)
With more than a sniff of an AGP chance, before too long Davison had done a deal to buy an Alfa Romeo P3/Tipo B from Arthur Wylie, racer/engineer and founder of Australian Motor Sports magazine. Arthur had sourced chassis #50003 ex-Scuderia Ferrari from Jock Finlayson in the UK, but was left holding-the-baby when his patron, Jack Day declared that at £1650 the car had to be trouble…
Davison hoped the 1934 Italian monoposto would be in Melbourne in time for the January 1948 AGP held at Point Cook, an RAAF airbase in the city’s inner-west, in the event it didn’t. Held in stifling over 100-degree heat, the 100 mile, 42 lap race was a killer of cars and men!
John Barraclough observed Davo from his MG NE Magnette, “From behind, I saw Davison, after a dreadful spasm of front axle tramp, barge straight through some hay bales without even trying to avoid them. He raised his arms in mock helplessness. You could see he just couldn’t be bothered slithering the Merc about in an effort to miss them – plumb out of muscle he was.”
After 16 laps Lex pitted and collapsed onto the steering wheel, Lyndon Duckett took the car out as Lex was carted off for resuscitation, but within a lap the Mercedes had boiled its fuel and was retired.
Perhaps the German did it to spite Davison, his new, red, Italian love arrived three days after the GP…As Lex got to grips with the faster, more sophisticated Alfa, the Mercedes was put to one side of the garage at Killara Park, having its final race in team hands driven by Lyndon Duckett at Fishermans Bend in March 1949. There the Davison Equipe: P3, 38/250 and MG TC was cared for by Bib Stillwell, now in partnership with Derry George in Cotham Road, Kew having previously worked, Graham Howard wrote, for Reg Nutt and A.F Hollins.
(J Montasell)
These three shots (above and the two below) are of the 38/250 at Fishermans Bend on March 13, 1949, the final meeting in Davison hands. Lyndon Duckett is the fellow with an asterisk above his head.
These shots bookend the first action shot in this article taken on the same weekend – I don’t doubt that Lex is at the wheel in that first shot, probably with Lyndon alongside – and allow us to see how the car was prepared in the day. While the heavy braking and slow corners of Fishos’ didn’t suit the Mercedes it still finished both of its races in Duckett’s hands.
(J Montasell)(J Montasell)Lyndon Duckett at the wheel during the March 1949 Fishos meeting (T Davey-Milne)(D White Collection via L Sims)
Post-Davo…
John Blanden in his ‘Historic Racing Cars in Australia’ recorded that little was heard of the Mercedes until it was advertised by a Mr Williams in the March 1951 issue of AMS. Ivo Robb was the buyer, he raced it at Ballarat in November 1951 but was unplaced.
Vin Devereaux offered the car for sale via AMS in January 1952 with Haig Hurst the buyer. He is shown above at Rob Roy in September 1955 where he was second to Ted Hider-Smith’s GN in the vintage class that weekend; note the Victorian road-rego JJ-933.
(G Edney Collection)
Hurst raced and ‘climbed it until 1955 when Laurie Rofe exchanged it for his Bentley Speed Six. Laurie used the car in full road trim as a fast tourer, and historic and vintage racer for about two years before selling it to Jeff Hoffert in late 1956 or early 1957.
(D Belford Collection via D Zeunert)
What an ignominious end for a racing car! From a near Australian Grand Prix winner to family chariot, what a chariot mind you! Every kid in the street wouldn’t have had as much cred as you did in the front seat of this thing.
David Zeunert circulated these photos of Jeff Hoffert family photos of the Mercedes Benz 38/250 at Hepburn Springs where Hoffert was a member of the organising committee of the Hepburn Springs Hill Climb, in the late 1950s.
(D Belford Collection via D Zeunert)(M Watson)
Hoffert sold the old stager to Len Southward in 1965, where it has been in his Paraparaumu, New Zealand museum since. The shot above shows it in recent times.
(M Watson)(Bonhams)
Etcetera…
(Bonhams)
Bonhams offered this rare sales brochure for sale in 2015.
Written in English, but printed in Germany in March 1930, it comprised 20 pages, Bonhams’ generosity did not extend, unsurprising, to reproduction of it in full! Many thanks to them for including the technical specifications page online.
The feature cover car, the “4-seater touring latest style,” is a 4.5-litre 32/90 perhaps.
(Bonhams)(Bonhams)
Credits…
VSCC Victoria Collection, mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com, ‘Historic Racing Cars in Australia’ John Blanden, George Thomas via State Library of Victoria, George Reed, Don Flett, Reg Nutt Collection via Greg Smith, David White Collection, David Belford Family Collection via David Zeunert, Michael Watson, James Montasell shots via the Leon Sims Collection, Bonhams, Graham Edney Collection, Stephen Dalton
Tailpieces…
(L Sims Collection)(SLV)
The First Lady of Australian motor racing, Diana Davison, launches the Mercedes off the line at Rob Roy #15, March 14, 1948.
Reg Hunt, Maserati 250F, on his way to winning the Victorian Trophy at Fishermans Bend on February 12, 1956
Context…
Australian motorsport’s governing body was the Sydney based Royal Automobile Club of Australia until 1953 when the Melbourne based Confederation of Australian Motor Sport took over. CAMS Ltd trading as Motorsport Australia (CAMS) still rules the roost today.
One of the CAMS’ rare acts of decision-making excellence was the creation of the Australian Drivers Championship – the Gold Star – from 1957.
Lex Davison, Ferrari 500/625 was the first recipient of the award for points gained in nine rounds spread across all states except Tasmania – remedied in 1958 – on an 8-5-3-2-1 points basis for first to fifth places in each round.
1956 Faux Gold Star Championship…
I’ve thought for a long while that it would be interesting to summarise our elite level Formule Libre racing results by seasons, if for no other reason than when I want to research one thing or another a summary of the competitor set exists. Why not, I thought, extend the idea to calculating notional Gold Star points?
Of course it’s a fucking stupid thing to do as it simply didn’t happen! In the words of that great Australian philosopher, ‘Sir’ Frank Gardner, “If yer’ Aunty had balls she’d be yer’ Uncle”. In other words, deal with what is/was, rather than what isn’t/wasn’t.
But of course CAMS run a who-gives-a-fuck-about-facts (WGAFAF, pronounced ‘woggafaff’) motor racing history model. They don’t recognise the January 1927 Australian Grand Prix at Goulburn as the first AGP, yet we have 1928 and 1937 Australian Grands Prix, apparently, neither of which actually took place then, as officialdom chooses to brand them now. So, in accordance with established Oz-racing fast-and-loose WGAFAF precedent, what follows is a summary of the 1956 Gold Star, Faux Division.
Officialdom awaits the ‘Champion of the Day’ of the 100 Miles Road Race at Phillip Island held on Saturday 31 March, 1928. Oopsie, sorry there were two 100 Mile Road Races that day. The morning one started at about 11am, oopsie again, sorry, B-Class started at about 11am, and D-Class at about 11.05am. The afternoon race, races really, started at about 2.25pm for A-Class and then C-Class at about 2.30pm. All ‘Akin to European GP practice’ is the favoured line of some
The readily apparent State-The-Obvious flaw in my Faux Gold Star award is that as there was no such championship, drivers didn’t enter meetings they may have otherwise if they aspired to win such a title. However, the rich/well-funded in every era raced far and wide beyond their local meetings, this was certainly the case for the 1956 motor trader front runners, so I’m not so sure the top-3 are impacted by this factor.
Some criteria points. I’ve basically followed the equivalent 1956 meetings that CAMS recognised in ’57, even though some of the races are too short, in my mind, to be of championship length. Where there were two Formula Libre races of ‘championship length’ – over 75 miles – at the one meeting, such as the Albert Park Moomba meeting, the longer, feature event prevails. Results are scratch based only. I’m only awarding points for first to fourth placings as those are the records I have. If someone has more comprehensive records, spreadsheet skills and OCD knock yer’ socks off and I’ll update this masterpiece.
Away we go.
Reg Hunt on Gnoo Blas’ Main Straight while the 4.05pm to Sydney gets ready to depart. Maserati 250F (GB.com)
Gnoo Blas, Orange, New South Wales (NSW) : South Pacific Championship : January 30, 1956
This season opening race meeting on the Gnoo Blas road circuit at Orange, 260 km west of Sydney had become Australia’s only international meeting in prior years. The Australian Sporting Car Club always managed to entice a few of the drivers doing a full southern summer season In New Zealand across-the-ditch to the Great Brown Land before they headed back to Europe. As an aside, the Kiwis were five years or so in front of us in the Big Race Stakes.
Our Jack was the only international in ’56 mind you. He raced the 2-litre Cooper T40 Bristol that he built for himself at Surbiton to make his championship GP debut at the British Grand Prix at Aintree in July 1955. Brabham brought the car home at the end of the year, winning the AGP with it at Port Wakefield after frontrunners, Stan Jones in Maybach 3 and Reg Hunt’s Maserati A6GCM/250 (a 2.5-litre 250F engined A6GCM 2-litre F2 car) had problems, then did the Kiwi season and would sell it to Reg Smith before heading back to the UK.
To rub in his advantage, Reg Hunt brought along both the Maserati he raced throughout 1955 and his new 250F on the long tow from Melbourne to Orange, then disappeared into the distance, winning the 27 lap, 100-mile race in the 250F from Brabham.
Stan Jones gave vigorous chase, but blew the 3.8-litre Maybach SOHC six fitted under the long bonnet of Maybach 3 sky-high on lap 22 when 39 seconds adrift of his fellow Melbourne motor trader.
That blow-up proved a defining moment in Australian Motor Racing History of that era as it marked the end of the Charlie Dean/Repco Research/Stan Jones/Maybach period. Repco’s stock of 3.8 and 4.2-litre Maybach cylinder blocks was at an end, so the car couldn’t easily be rebuilt. In any event, Stan realised he needed a Big Red Car to remain competitive, taking delivery of a 250F later in the season. Ern Seeliger created the very fast Maybach 4 Chev V8 of course, it proved to have a surprise or two in 1958-59, but the big-blue Maybach sixes were no more.
Kevin Neal was third in his Cooper T23 Bristol, then came Curley Brydon’s ex-Peter Whitehead – present at Gnoo Blas in the previous two years – Ferrari 166 and then Col James’s MG Special. Jack was a non-resident by then so he doesn’t get Gold Star points for his second place, so we have our top-four below.
1.Hunt Maserati 250F 8 points 2.Neal Cooper T23 Bristol 5 points 3.Brydon Ferrari 166 3 points 4.James MG Special 2 points
End of an era. Jones aboard Maybach 3 – very Mercedes W196’esque in appearance – before the engine let go, South Pacific Championship, Gnoo Blas in 1956 (GB.com)
Fishermans Bend (once Fishermen’s Bend) Melbourne : Victorian Trophy : February 11, 1956
Top guns entered for the 24 lap, 52.8 miles Formula Libre race included Hunt’s Maserati 250F, Lex Davison’s HWM Jaguar (“now with latest D-Type head and Weber carbs” according to AMS), Doug Whiteford’s Talbot-Lago T26C, Stan Jones’ Cooper T38 Jaguar sportscar, Brabham’s Cooper T40, Tom Hawkes Cooper T23 Bristol and Bill Craig’s Alta Holden.
While billed as on international meeting to attract some spillover visitors to New Zealand that summer, the only ‘internationals’ were Brabham from New South Wales and Craig from South Australia…
Hunt romped away, Whiteford’s old T-L, somewhat surprisingly, proved quicker than Davison’s ’54 AGP winning HWM Jag, then Davo spun, while broken throttle linkages accounted for Jones and Hawkes.
1. Hunt, Maserati 250F 8 points 2.Whiteford Talbot-Lago T26C 5 points 3. K Neal Cooper T23 Bristol 3 points 4.W Wilcox Ford Special 2 points
Albert Park, Melbourne : Moomba Meeting – Argus Trophy : March 18, 1956
Albert Park – promoted by the Light Car Club of Australia – hosted a pair of international two-weekend carnivals in ’56: the Moomba meeting in March and Olympic meeting in November/December.
The feature on March 11 was the Moomba Tourist Trophy for sportscars. Tony Gaze won that 150-miler in his HWM Jaguar VPA9, from Bib Stillwell’s brand-spankers Jaguar D-Type and Ron Phillips’ Austin Healey 100S.
F.A.O. Gaze DFC and Two Bars, OAM had decided to retire from racing and sold his HWM and ex-Ascari Ferrari 500/625 to his good mate, Lex Davison before the meeting. Tony had raced both cars in New Zealand that summer together with Peter Whitehead. Davison’s deal included racing the Ferrari in the Argus Trophy, the Formula Libre, 48-lap, 150-mile feature on the following weekend, March 18.
Davo had some serious opposition though, not least Hunt’s 250F and Melbourne haulier, Kevin Neal, who had bought Hunt’s immaculate A6GCM/250. Other expected front-runners included Hawkes’ Cooper Bristol, Stillwell’s D-Type, not to forget Arthur Griffiths, who had bought the ex-Moss HWM Jaguar just vacated by Davison, and Reg Smith in the Cooper Bristol similarly vacated by Jack Brabham.
Somewhat predictably, Reg Hunt won the race in his current model Maserati 250F – one of the great GP cars of any era – from Davison, with Neal, Hawkes and Stillwell third to fifth.
Lex’s old-bus dated back to 1952 – in 2-litre spec it was Alberto Ascari’s main weapon of choice in his triumphant 1952-53 World Championship years – but fitted with a 3-litre DOHC four-cylinder ‘Monza’ engine it proved for several years to have the measure of the fastest cars in the country thanks to a combination of Davo’s speed and almost peerless reliability. Tony Gaze had the Ferrari prepared by Alan Ashton and his AF Hollins crew in High Street, Armadale. He implored Lex to continue the relationship, Davo did so and it was key to his ongoing success with this car.
Reg Hunt from Lex Davison during the Argus Trophy at Albert Park, March 1956. Maserati 250F and Ferrari 500/625 (D Meale)
Port Wakefield, South Australia : Easter Saturday : March 31, 1956
Not all the serious boys spent Easter at the traditional Bathurst fixture, some contested the 50-lap, 65- miles Wakefield Trophy at Port Wakefield, South Australia: Tom Hawkes, Cooper T23 Bristol, Kevin Neale, ex-Hunt Maserati A6GCM/250, Ted Gray, Tornado 2 Ford, and Derek Jolly, Decca Mk1 Climax FWA Spl included.
The weekend feature was for the 20 fastest cars. Soon after the start, the race developed into a Cooper and Maserati duel a lap in front of the rest of the field. Hawkes, in a great performance in the slower of the two cars, won from Neal’s Maserati, Ron Phillips’ Austin Healey 100S and TE Stevens, MG TC Spl.
Interesting are the top speeds recorded on Century Straight (all mph): Gray Tornado Ford V8 110.5, Neal Maserati 2.5 108.5, Hawkes Cooper Bristol 2-litre 104.7, Eldred Norman in the legendary Norman Zephyr Spl s/c 102.5, Murray Trenberth, Vincent 1000, 100, and Eddie Perkins, VW Spl s/c 99.5
The 26-lap, 100-mile handicap, Bathurst 100 had a huge field, “more entries from interstate than Bathurst has seen for some time” wrote Australian Motor Sports. Stan Jones and Jack Brabham weren’t at the meeting, Maybach 3 was dead and Stan’s 250F hadn’t arrived, while Jack had returned to the UK.
The handicap was won by Davison from Hunt, Bib Stillwell, Jaguar D-Type, and Paul England’s Ausca Repco-Holden. To be consistent, Gold Star points are awarded for the scratch results: Hunt, Maserati 250F, Lex Davison Ferrari 500/625 3-litre, Stillwell D-Type, and Tom Sulman’s Aston Martin DB3S.
1.Hunt Maserati 250F 8 points 2.Davison Ferrari 50/625 5 points 3.Stillwell Jaguar D-Type 3 points 4.Sulman Aston Martin DB3S 2 points
Port Wakefield Road Races : South Australian Trophy : June 4, 1956
Stan Jones took delivery of his Maserati 250F in May, demonstrating it in an untimed run at the Geelong Sprints meeting on May 27, Port Wakefield was chassis #2520’s Australian baptism of fire.
Other fast cars which took the trip to the desolate, wind-swept permanent race track included Davison, Stillwell and brilliant, intuitive Adelaide engineer, Eldred Norman in his Norman Zephyr Spl s/c. Most significantly, Ted Gray was present in the Lou Abrahams owned, Gray/Mayberry Bros/Abrahams built Tornado 2 Ford. Tornado 1 Ford died a terrible death at the October ’55 Bathurst meeting, Tornado 2 was a new car using few of T1’s bits, amongst the exceptions were the Ford Ardun/Abrahams fuel injected OHV V8 and Ford truck ‘box. Ted was ok after a very long convalescence too.
At this point of 1956 the key machines of Australian Formula Libre racing from 1956-59 were in place: the two Maserati 250Fs, Davo’s Ferrari and Tornado 2…two-litre Coopers were still to come.
Held in a big rainstorm, the 30 lap South Australian Trophy race, early on was a close contest between Stillwell – pretty comfy in his Jag sportscar – with Stan all over him, but unable to pass and see…
Davo spun on lap 3, so too later in the race did Gray, although another column in AMS says Ted didn’t even start the race due to a broken CV joint… The race was won by Stillwell from Jones, Norman and ??
Somewhat prophetically, Bob Pritchett wrote in the July 1956 issue of Australian Motor Sports, “Who said Ted Gray’s Tornado Special doesn’t handle. Ted was, I think, the only high-powered operator who did not spin off in the meeting (the guy that wrote the race report sez otherwise!) and in winning the A-grade scratch race 6-lapper, held Stan’s Maserati for four laps until Stan spun off in the wet.”
In the same column, Pritchett reported that Tom Hawkes was considering a Maserati four to get more speed out of his Cooper T23 Bristol, that engine being at the end of its development potential; a Repco-Holden Grey shortly thereafter provided a potent and more cost-effective solution.
Similarly, he mused about the possibilities of Maybach 3, “by dropping in one of those 300-plus USA V8 monsters that are now available.” – the very path followed by Ern Seeliger, and Ted Gray with hot 283 Chev Corvette V8s being popped under the bonnets of Maybach and Tornado before too long.
Yes, the little-tacker in the lower shot is Alan Jones. He has recounted over the years his disappointment in finding Dad’s new, red Italian car was a Maserati and not a Ferrari! Bob Chamberlain at left Bob King thinksTed Gray from Stan Jones during their Port Wakefield scrap in June 1956. Tornado 2 Ford V8 and Maserati 250F; plenty of scraps to come from this pair from 1956-59. Gray’s experience went all the way back to giving Peter Whitehead and ERA R10B a run for their money at Aspendale and Rob Roy in 1938 aboard a speedway-midget
Lowood Airfield Queensland : Lowood Trophy : June 3, 1956
“Queensland Racing Drivers Club conducted this year’s ‘Lowood Trophy’ meeting in typical Queensland winter sunshine, before a crowd of about 6000. The 2.7-mile circuit was in good condition…34 entries was received, including eight from NSW…” recorded AMS.
Top guns included Arthur Griffiths’ ex-Davison HWM Jaguar, Ken Richardson’s ex-Whiteford Talbot-Lago T26C, Steve Ames aka Count Steve Ouvaroff ex-Davison Alfa Romeo P3, John Aldis’ ex-Whitehead/Jones Cooper T38 Jaguar and Arnold Glass’ Maserati 4CL; it wasn’t a great entry of modern cars.
The 12 lap, 32 miles Lowood Trophy results were as follows:
1.Griffiths HWM Jag 8 points 2. S Mossetter Austin Healey 100S 5 points 3.R Weintraub Healey Silverstone 3 points 4.J Johnson MG TC 2 points
Bathurst : NSW Road Racing Championships : September 30, 1956
A crowd of 8-10,000 people fronted up to cold, blustery conditions for the second traditional Bathurst meeting a year, October fixture.
While Stan Jones was present to sharpen his skills in advance of the Australian Grand Prix two months hence, Lex Davison and Reg Hunt were notable by their absence, ‘preserving the machinery’ or whatever.
Bill Pitt was there in the Geordie Anderson/Westco Motors Jaguar D-Type and Jack Myers in the WM Special, a much-modified (by Myers, a highly skilled Sydney mechanic-cum-engineer) Cooper T20 fitted with a Waggott-Holden twin-cam, two-valve circa 200bhp ‘Grey’ six-cylinder engine.
Handicaps were still prevalent, if not the norm in Australian racing, with the 26 lap NSW Road Racing Championship (Racing Cars) no exception. Jones set a new lap record of 2min 44sec without being hard pushed. While ‘J Archibald’ (who was he?) won the handicap classification in his MG Spl, the scratch results and Gold Star points allocations are as follows:
Fishermans Bend, Melbourne : Astor Trophy : October 14, 1956
You might think the Victorian Contingent would be out in force in advance of the rapidly approaching AGP, but not so. While Hunt, Whiteford, Neal and Gray were present, Davison and Jones were AWOL.
Then, having satisfied himself that his 250F was all tickety-boo in a 5-lapper, Reg Hunt didn’t take the start of the start of the 24-lap, 52.8-mile Astor Trophy feature.
While Kevin Neal’s Maserati A6GCM/250 was a far quicker car than Doug Whiteford’s – relatively new to him, but geriatric – Talbot-Lago T26C, there was no way Neal was going to beat the aggressive, cagey, vastly experienced triple AGP winner! Ted Gray and Owen Bailey were/are the other recipients of Gold Star points aboard Tornado 2 Ford and ex-Whiteford Talbot-Lago T26C respectively: third and fourth placings.
“Tell him, he’s dreamin…’ Count Stephen Ouvaroff aka Steve Ames offers his ex-Scuderia Ferrari/Davison Alfa Romeo P3 chassis #50003 for sale, £895 is the ask. In 2024 dollars that is $A32,700, the value of a P3 is, however, in the ‘your guess is as good as mine’ categoryMoss Mastery – high speed drift at Albert Park, Maserati 250F, AGP December 1956
1956 Australian Grand Prix : Albert Park : December 2, 1956
120,000 people watched 22 starters contest the ’56 AGP held in the afterglow of Melbourne’s staggeringly successful Olympic Games.
Furriners included a five-car squad from Officine Maserati: three 250Fs and a pair of 300S (sportscars for the Australian Tourist Trophy contested and won by Moss from Behra the week before) for works drivers Stirling Moss and Jean Behra, while Peter Whitehead and Reg Parnell raced their 3.4-litre Ferrari 555s.
Moss disappeared into the distance, winning the 80-lap 250-miles race in 2hr 36min 15.4sec, over two minutes ahead of Behra, then came Peter Whitehead.
The battle-within-the-battle was a local Melbourne Holden Dealer Derby – Davo’s farming and shoe making interests duly noted – between the 250Fs of Reg Hunt and Stan Jones, and Lex Davison’s Ferrari 500/625.
Graham Howard points out in his 1956 chapter of the ‘History of The Australian Grand Prix’ that “It was to be, surprisingly, the first encounter of the Hunt and Jones’ 250Fs, and Davison – at that stage the only driver to beat the Hunt 250F – was also there in his Ferrari.”
“Hunt and Jones had, to be strictly correct, lined up against each other the weekend before, in a short sprint race in the supporting program to the Tourist Trophy, but it had been inconclusive. With Hunt on pole position and Jones right beside him, the race had an explosive start as Jones – ‘jockeying for position’, as AMS discreetly termed it – hit the kerb and then a tree on Hunt’s side of the course within a hundred metres of the start. The car was fortunately not too badly damaged and was ready for the AGP the following weekend.”
At the start of the Grand Prix, Moss led from Behra, the Whitehead and Parnell Ferrari Super Squalo’s, then the Trident Trio: Hunt, Neal and Jones. Davison was slowed by engine maladies.
By lap 5 Jones was behind Hunt, and after two fast laps, passed him, where he stayed – with Hunt pacing himself behind – for 35 laps, “With both driving with a concentrated ferocity, which was almost tangible – no errors, no let- up, certainly no smiles.”
When Stan’s Maserati started to blow smoke from under the bonnet, he eased on lap 40, gifting his place to Hunt. Post-race the problem was disclosed as a broken breather.
The Gold Star points go to the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth placed local finishers:
Reg Smith competing at Templestowe hillclimb outside Melbourne in May 1956. His Cooper T40 Bristol was Jack’s ’55 British GP car and AGP winner. He can’t have been enamoured of the Cooper, replacing it with one of Officine Maserati 300S sold at the end of the ’56 AGP weekend
Gold Star Championship Points and Observations…
Drum roll…the winner of the 1956 Australian Gold Star Faux Championship is Reg Hunt, Maserati 250F, with 40 points, well clear of Kevin Neal’s 21 points gained with Cooper T23 Bristol and Maserati A6GCM/250, then Stan Jones, third on 18 points in his new 250F. Fourth was Whiteford, Talbot-Lago T26C 15 points, then the Davison Ferrari 500/625 on 13 points with Bib Stillwell sixth, on 11.
What does it all prove? Absolutely sweet-f-all, but I enjoyed it, which is all that really matters here.
I wish I could show you a neato little points chart or a spreadsheet of results for the year but I don’t know how to do those, so this hand-job will have to do, a remedy with which many of you will be familiar. Since publishing this, Stuart Murray – bless him – has done the vastly better spreadsheet which appears further below.
In my mind I’ve long thought Reg Hunt was the rock-star in 1955-56 aided and abetted by having The Best Equipment in the country in those two years by far. I’ve not done this exercise for 1955 yet to further prove the point, I’ll get around to it some time.
Having ‘came, saw, and conquered’, Reg retired from racing at the end of the season, aged only 33, to focus on his family and in building a staggeringly successful motor-dealership empire centred on his ‘Golden Mile of Cars’ in Brighton, Melbourne. He returned to historic racing in the 1980s with a Maserati 300S and Talbot-Lago T26C and died just shy of 100 on August 22, 2022.
Fellow Melbourne motor trader and later four-time Gold Star champ, Bib Stillwell bought the Hunt 250F (chassis #2616) but couldn’t resist the temptation of a factory freshen-up, so didn’t see it for the best part of 12 months. It’s a long boat ride between Port Melbourne and Genoa and back, and Maserati had bigger fish-to-fry, not least a World Championship to win with JM Fangio at the wheel of factory 250F’s.
At the end of ’56 the stage was set, the key players in 1957 seemed likely to be Jones, Davison and Gray with a tight contest likely given all three were well-funded ‘pro-outfits’ by Australian standards of the day. In the end Davo’s Ferrari 500/625 crushed the opposition with five Gold Star wins in nine rounds, a story for another time…
Credits…
Australian Motor Sports all 1956 issues, ‘Bathurst: The Cradle of Australian Motor Racing’ John Medley, ‘The History of The Australian Grand Prix’ edited by Graham Howard, ‘A History of Australian Grand Prix 1928-1939’ John Blanden, VSCC Victoria Collection, David Meale-Collections Victoria, gnooblas.com, Paul Cummins/Cummins Archive, Stuart Murray
Tailpiece…
(Cummins Archive)
Champions cockpit…the 1958 one’s actually – Stan Jones’ Maserati 250F chassis #2520, not Hunt’s #2516.
Paul Cummins wrote, “On the back of the photo it reads – this is the cockpit of Victorian racing driver Stan Jones’ new 2 1/2 litre ‘250F’ model Maserati which he has just imported from Italy. When that revolution counter shows 7800rpm his engine is developing 270hp giving a speed in excess of 165mph. It is expected to be the fastest car in Australia. It cost £7,200, but with freight cost and spare parts (including a 3-litre 300S engine), the actual landed cost is expected to be nearly £12,000.”
“The Maserati which will be using Mobilgas Racing Fuel and Mobiloil exclusively was built in October last year (1955) and taken to South America for the Argentine Grand Prix Season, but it was never raced. Stan Jones will race it for the first time at Port Wakefield South Australia on 4 June.”
Veglia instruments, right-hand shift for the 5-speed transaxle, note the far-left clutch location given Stan sits astride the driveline tunnel – Jones has clearly specified a ‘conventional’ right-hand throttle and central brake setup.
Finally, while Maserati’s bullshit story to Stan may have been that #2520 was a new car, in fact it was slightly shop-soiled. It had been raced as a works-car by Froilan Gonzalez at Buenos Aires on 22 January 1956 (DNF) and by Pablo Guile at Mendoza on February 5 (eighth).
The nose of the car as landed in Australia in the earlier arrival photographs rather suggests the car was shipped straight from South America rather than via the Modena paint-shop. What is in no doubt is that 250F #2520 has one of the simplest, most straight-forward histories of all Maserati 250F’s, so too does #2516 for that matter.
Arnold Glass and Clive Adams involved in a real estate dispute at Mount Druitt in August 1956. Maserati 4CL, ex-Sommer/Vennermark/Warren #1555/1579 and HRG Holden, ex-Ravdell now Shane Bowden.
Australian Motor Sports wrote about the change in ownership of the Maserati to Glass as follows, “The Late Cec Warren’s 1 1/2-litre Maserati has at last found a new home in Sydney. New owner Arnold Glass is perhaps better known as the only person in Australia possessing a Mustang fighter for his own private flying. This is a very potent piece of equipment as its performance is far superior to its wartime counterparts now that all the armament has been removed. If my memory serves me right, Arnold and the Mustang hold the Australia-New Zealand record even in this age of jets.”
Arnold and Johnny Zero, Bankstown perhaps, August 9, 1954 (SMH-Mauritius Images)Bright-red VH-BVM Mustang Mk20 at Bankstown in 1954, complete with 1954 REDeX Air Trial (DNF) and Capitol Motors branding (H Morris Collection)
Glass’ Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation built Mustang – CAC CA-17 Mustang Mk20 c/n 1330 / A68-5 VH-BVM G-ARKD – was one of the first 80 CAC Mustangs (A68-1 – A68-80) assembled at Fishermans Bend, in Melbourne’s inner-west, from 100 sets of semi-completed P-51D components supplied by North American Aviation – powered by pre-loved Packard Merlins – shipped from the US.
Brought on by the RAAF as A68-5 at Laverton on July 6, 1945, after a sedentary life of storage at Point Cook, Benalla and Tocumwal, the plane was sold to Sydney’s Flt Lt James LD Whiteman for £100 pounds in January 1953, he planned a spot of record breaking. Those with an interest in the life of this aircraft should click here: https://www.goodall.com.au/australian-aviation/mustangs-civil/austcivilmustangs.html
Among his many accomplishments, Arnold Glass was an aircraft engineer, doing some of his time (mechanic and fitter and turner) at Butler Air Transport. During his motorcycle trading years, in 1947, he bought a Tiger Moth and learned to fly.
Enroute to building his Capitol Motors business into an automotive importing, wholesaling and retailing colossus, Arnold had plenty of cash to splash on cars, boats, babes…and aircraft. His Australian Aviation Investments Pty Ltd company bought the Mustang on May 31, 1954.
AAI’s base was at Bankstown Airport, Sydney. Amongst his early aircraft deals, he imported three Perceval Proctors from the UK for re-sale in 1951. Glass never lost his interest in aircraft, among his purchases down-the decades were Lear jets, two ex-RAAF Vampire jets in 1971, and in the days he was domiciled in Monaco, RAF Lightnings and other jet fighters…as one does.
Ron Edgerton’s caption: “Arnold (Trinkets) Glass, Ferrari, Mt Druitt” 3.4-litre Ferrari 555 Super Squalo #FL9002, November 1957Stan Jones and Arnold during the 1959 Bathurst 100 weekend, Easter. Motor traders and Maserati 250F exponents both; another 250F won that weekend, driven by Kiwi, Ross Jensen (R Donaldson)
‘Trinkets’ Glass didn’t use the Mustang much. He named it Johnny Zero in recognition of the racehorse which won him over £30,000 in partnership with Bill Duffy. During this 1955-early 1960s period his businesses grew dramatically – Capitol Motors was selling over 1000 cars a year by the mid-1950s – so too his racing, so spare time for flying would have been at a premium.
Glass got to know works-BRM racer Ron Flockhart on his trips to Australasia and was happy to sell A68-5 to him for Ron’s planned international record breaking attempts; the deal was done on August 25, 1960. This plane is the first of Flockhart’s two Mustangs, not the one in which he died when he crashed into Melbourne’s Dandenong Ranges shortly after takeoff on April 12, 1962. That story is told here: https://primotipo.com/2018/05/31/flockharts-flights/
Arnold Glass raced plenty of interesting racing cars: among them a Ferrari 555 Super Squalo, BRM P48 and BRM P48 Buick V8 and a couple of Coopers but he was perhaps most at home in Maserati 250F chassis #2616, a low mileage machine raced initially in Australia by Reg Hunt in 1956, then Bib Stillwell before Arnold bought it.
Despite being a bit dated amongst the new-fangled Coopers in 1959, he and his forgiving Maserati finished fifth in the Gold Star with a pair of second placings in the South Pacific Championship at Gnoo Blas and the Bathurst 100 that Easter, both standout performances.
Still in the Maser, he was equal fourth in the Gold Star in 1960 with Lex Davison and his Aston Martin DBR4/300, the front-engined pair were behind four Cooper T51s driven by Alec Mildren, Bib Stillwell, Bill Patterson and Jack Brabham.
Arnold aboard the Maserati 250F during the Queensland Road Race Championship, Gold Star round at Lowood in September 1960. Sixth in the race won by Alec Mildren’s Cooper T51 Maserati – Gold Star winner that year (B Thomas)Glass and BRM P48 #482 Buick V8 during the November 1962 Australian Grand Prix at Caversham, WA. Q7 and fifth – and a zig when he zagged type collision with Brabham’s BT4 Climax on lap 50 destroying Jack’s dice with Bruce McLaren’s Cooper T62 for the lead (K Devine)
Glass’ last Gold Star points were won in a Lotus 27 Ford twin-cam 1.5 at Sandown and Lakeside in 1964. He was second in the one-race ANF 1 1/2-litre Championship at Warwick Farm on September 26 sandwiched behind the first and third placed Brabham BT6/BT2 Ford twin-cams of Greg Cusack and Roly Levis.
By 1976 Capital were selling over 23,000 Datsuns a year, primarily from a massive seven-hectare site on Parramatta Road, Auburn, Sydney. The scale of the operation attracted suitors, and in 1977 Australian National Industries Ltd bought the company for $A28.43 million. Arnold owned 49%, he walked away with $A13.47 million or $84.5 million in today’s dollars, big-biccies.
Reporting on the sale The Bulletin characterised “Capitol’s chairman, Arnold Glass as a gregarious , flamboyant former racing-car driver and divorcee, with a stable of girlfriends, a taste for high living and a fleet of powerboats moored in front of his harbourside pad at Cremorne.”
Glass joined the ANI board as deputy-Chairman, ‘retired’ to Monaco in 1984 but regularly visited Sydney, where he died aged 83 on January 16, 2009. A man who lived life to the full…and then some!
Glass getting ready for the off during the October 1960 Craven A International weekend at Bathurst. Jack Brabham won aboard a Cooper T51 Climax, with Arnold sixth in his Maserati 250F. It was his last race in a car which had been kind to him; a Cooper T51 Maserati was it’s replacement. David McKay is the easy pick, who are the others present? (R Donaldson)Arnold Glass in 1977 (The Bulletin)
Credits…
Australian Motor Sports October 1956, Sydney Morning Herald-Mauritius Images, Geoff Goodall’s Aviation History Site, Howard Morris Collection, The Bulletin July 2, 1977, Brier Thomas, Ken Devine, Bob Donaldson, Obituaries Australia, Paul Cummins-Cummins Archive, Ron Edgerton Collection, oldracingcars.com
Tailpieces…
(Cummins Collection)
The Bathurst win that got away on the last lap, Ferrari 555 Super Squalo…
The Bathurst 100 was the feature race of the 1958 Easter weekend meeting. Arnold led a good field which included Ern Seeliger, Maybach 4 Chev V8, Alec Mildren’s Cooper T43 Climax, Bill Pitt’s Jaguar D-Type and Doug Whiteford’s Maserati 300S.
Looking good, the big Ferrari four-cylinder engine blew on the last lap, Arnold was able to roll up the rise and over the line (below) but not before Whiteford took the chequered flag, Glass was second.
Paul Cummins wrote, “The 3 1/2-litre 860 Monza engine was sent back to the factory, but it wasn’t until the end of the year that a replacement was sent back. It was a 2 1/2-litre GP engine and Arnold wasn’t happy with the performance and later sold the car.” The 250F was soon in his garage…
Charlie Dean’s Maybach 1 at Rob Roy in January 1949. The equipe behind is Micha Ravdell’s van and #38 Wyliecar Ford-A Special, still driven by its builder, Arthur Wylie. Number 9 on Maybach is a rego-disc (L Sims)
Even the contrarians amongst knowledgable Australian racing historians generally answer “the Maybach” when questioned about which racer was our greatest Australian Special.
It isn’t the Maybach though, but rather Maybachs – four of them – with no shortage of variants across the three chassis built. Whenever a photograph of a Maybach is uploaded onto social media there is always plenty of uninformed yibba-yabba about the specifications of the car in shot.
(Brian Caldersmith)Charlie Dean and the brave Jack Joyce aboard Maybach 1 at Rob Roy in November 1947. The body is still to come. Wild road car! (L Sims)
One of our friends, John Ballantyne, prompted this article which I assembled to address the lack of accessible, accurate information about the specifications of Maybachs 1-4.
What follows is a copy of the technical specifications and evolution of the Charlie Dean and Repco Research built Maybach 1 published in an article of the Australian Motor Sports Annual 1958-59. The author’s name isn’t cited, but I’ve credited the editor of the book, Mr John Goode. The other two chassis – three cars – Maybachs 2, 3 and 4 will follow in my next post.
The article is focussed on technical information, not race results: this one that does that best, ponderous as it is: https://primotipo.com/2014/12/26/stan-jones-australian-and-new-zealand-grand-prix-and-gold-star-winner/ I hadn’t planned many photographs, but, as usual, my enthusiasm got the better of me…the period Repco ads are a visual device to assist in splitting one evolution of Maybach 1 from the next.
The photo choices are mine, so too are the ‘Notes’ sections, albeit almost all of that information is sourced from the same AMS article. I’m taking as-read a general knowledge of Maybach, if you need a refresher, click on the links at the end of this piece.
Six years later (from the 1947 shot) Stan Jones bolts away from the Europeans to win the October 1953 Victoria Trophy at Fishermans Bend in Maybach 1 S3. Behind is Doug Whiteford’s Lago Talbot T26C, George Pearse’s Cooper Vincent, and to the right, Ted Gray aboard Alta 21S Ford. Lex Davison’s Alfa Romeo P3 is partially obscured behind Maybach (L Sims)John Fleming’s copy of The Argus report of the 1953 Victoria Trophy – the preceding shot
One final contextual word from Australia’s greatest motor racing historian, John Medley, about the Maybachs and their place in the Australian pantheon before we set off, quoted from the ’50 Year History of The Australian Grand Prix’, specifically John’s 1948 AGP chapter.
“HC (Horace Charles) Dean’s car, powered by a captured German scout-car engine, was little more than a year old, and had only been given a proper body in 1947: even so, in its brief career of trials, hillclimbs and sprints it had already attracted a lot of attention for its very willing performance and for its relatively advanced specification. It was, for example, one of just four runners in the 1948 AGP with independent front suspension, and of those four the Maybach was the only Australian special – the other three were factory-built cars of pre-war design: John Crouch’s Delahaye, Frank Pratt’s BMW, and Cec Warren’s Morgan.”
“The Maybach and Delahaye (135CS) actually had a lot in common, not least that both had been laid down not as pure racers, but as big-engined road cars with competition potential although another point which should not be overlooked is that both were essentially very conservative designs.”
“The significance of the Maybach was that it was Australian built, by a man at the centre of a small but talented team, and that the car had development potential – just how much was not realised at the time. Between 1948 and 1960, Maybachs in various forms were to contest eight AGPs and to lead – if sometimes only briefly – five of those races.”
Maybach 1 during June 1949, Charlie Dean and Jack Joyce on the way to FTD (D Stubbs)Maybach 1 during Rob Roy #16 in May 1948 (D Stubbs)
MAYBACH 1 (1946-1949)…
ENGINE: 6 cyl. inline single oh. camshaft. Bore and stroke: 90 × 100 mm. Capacity: 3,800 c.c., Compression ratio: 6.43 to 1. Output (initially on pool petrol: 69 octane) 100 B.H.P. at 3,000 г.p.m.
Single casting cast iron cylinder block and crankcase, with sump joint well below the crankshaft centre line. Crankshaft machined all over and fully counter balanced, running in eight white metal lined bearings, one between each crank throw and an extra one behind the camshaft drive pinion situated at rear end of crankshaft. Wet liners fitted to cylinder bores with lightweight balanced connecting rods and other reciprocating parts.
Single camshaft running in seven white metal bearings, opening valves by means of rocker arms fitted with eccentric bushes which could be rotated and locked to adjust valve clearances. Rockers had roller cam followers. Valves inclined at 65 degrees in hemispherical head and located on opposite sides. Helical timing gears with idler (originally compounded fabric, but replaced by steel).
Wet sump lubrication through filter with pressure fed oil supplied to centre main bearings, then to other caps, and through the crankshaft to big end bearings. Also fed to valve rocker shafts and camshaft bearings. Carburettors: Two marine Amal.
Charlie Dean and Maybach 1 during the January 26, 1948 AGP weekend at Point Cook RAAF Base just west of Melbourne. It was the cars first appearance with a body fitted, and painted white. DNF magneto failure on lap 12, the passenger decamped before the off. Note the Studebaker steel wheels at the front (AMS Review 1958-59) Maybach 1 at Rob Roy in May 1948. A swag of these sensational, uber-rare Dacre Stubbs’ shots appear to have been taken immediately after Maybach was repainted, in the front garden of Dean’s Kew, Melbourne, home. Six Amals at this point, in November 1947 there were two…(D Stubbs)(D Stubbs)
TRANSMISSION: Clutch: Fichtel and Sachs. Gearbox: Four speed crash type from a Fiat Model 525. Rear Axle: Lancia Lambda Series VIl in standard form.
CHASSIS: Frame: Tubular steel consisting of two parallel 4″ dia. steel tubes with independent suspension at the front (Dean’s own design) and conventional twin half elliptic springs at rear.
Suspension: Front Independent with transverse semi-elliptic spring and wishbones. Mainly 1937 Studebaker Commander parts. Steering: Cam and roller box (Marles) with two piece track rod.
Wheels and Brakes: Front: Studebaker bolt on pressed steel wheels with standard Studebaker brakes. Rear: Lancia centre lock 19″ dia. wIre wheels and brakes.
(D Stubbs)(D Stubbs)
BODY: Two seat from welded sections of aircraft belly tanks.
LATER MODIFICATIONS: Included 6 carburettors, reduction of weight achieved by new front end. Minerva brake drums fitted with specially fabricated shoes, and new cast steel liners, mounted on light steel backing plates. Centrelock wire wheels with adapted hubs to replace Studebaker wheels. Body frame lightened.
(D Stubbs)While all the one-liners down the decades credit Frank Hallam with the body, there is no way that’s correct. FH was apprenticed as a mechanic. Who built the body, it was clearly executed by a talented specialist, surely? (D Stubbs)(D Stubbs)
NOTES: The car’s engine came from a German half-track vehicle that had been captured during the Middle East campaign and shipped to Australia for technical study by the military. Dean acquired it from a wrecker. Built as a sportscar, Dean was cajoled into turning it into a racing car by George Wade, a Repco mechanic/engineer, after recording 100mph in a Vintage Sports Car Club trial. The body was constructed in time for the 1947 AGP at Point Cook using aircraft belly tanks cut and shut by Frank Hallam, another Repco employee – so the story goes.
Cockpit shot shows the car was a ‘reasonably generous’ biposto in early spec. Twin-tube frame chassis, note diagonal bracing of the forward driver bulkhead. Revs, oil pressure and water temperature at a guess. Attractive – ahem – steering wheel, what is it off? (D Stubbs)Neat remote shift – and locating stays to ensure easy accurate changes – to modified four speed Fiat 525 gearbox (D Stubbs)(AMS Annual 1958-59)Dean in Maybach 1 S2 competing in the Mornington Motor Races at the Balcombe army training base on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula in June 1950 (D Stubbs)
MAYBACH 1 Series 2 (1949 -1950/1)…
Basically the same two seater sports/racing body and chassis with the following changes made from the original car.
ENGINE: 4.2-litre Maybach adapted to take developed parts from 3.8-litre original. Reground camshaft and special new main bearings. Original lead bronze bearings retained for big ends.
Supercharger: Ex G.M. diesel Roots type with three lobe rotors, mounted beside the motor driven by triple V-belts from the crankshaft nose; output 7 lb/sq. inch. Carburettor: Originally Claudel Hobson aircraft type replaced by Bendix-Stromberg aircraft type. Cooling System: Later sealed at blow off pressure of 4 p.s.i. Magneto: Adapted V-12 type but burnt out, subsequently Lucas.
TRANSMISSION: Differential: American Power Lock (1922 vintage truck) limited slip type fitted in modified Lancia housing.
CHASSIS: Rear Brakes: Special drums of original design using two leading shoes hydraulic system but replaced with leading trailing shoe hydraulics.
When Charlie Dean obliged Dacre Stubbs for the undated The Age (I think) article below he didn’t take Maybach 1 S2 too far, this shot is at the Willsmere Mental Institution in Kew. I grew up closeby, there were many occasions when Dad threatened to take us kids to The Nuthouse, as he sensitively referred to the place, when we misbehaved…(D Stubbs)(J Fleming Collection)Maybach 1 S2 at Rob Roy in June 1949 when Dean and Joyce bagged FTD. Wylie A-Ford Spl behind (L Sims)(AMS Annual 1958-59)Stan’s muscle-shirts were famous, here during the 1953 AGP at Albert Park. DNF with a variety of problems while leading in Maybach 1 S3 (S Griffiths)
MAYBACH I Series 3 (1951 – Early 1954)…
Fundamentally similar in appearance to the two previous models, still a two seater but with suspension changes, three feet of rear chassis rails removed.
Modifications listed in order of introduction:
June 1950 – April 1951
Front suspension rebuilt: Studebaker parts replaced by Oldsmobile upper wishbones with integral shock absorbers. Transverse leaf spring redesigned to three leaf to reduce weight. Rear Suspension: Axle mounted on trailing quarter-elliptics with radius rods. It was this which necessitated cutting the rear end of the chassis.
Stan Jones awaits the off at Templestowe in September 1952, Maybach 1 S3, see photographer/racer/engineer John Fleming’s comments about his shot below(J Fleming)Posed The Age shot published on November 18, in the week before the ’53 AGP at Albert Park. Taken at Jones’ home garage in Yongala Road, Balwyn. From left, Ern Seeliger, Jones, Reg Robbins at the back, Charlie Dean and Lloyd Holyoak ‘working’ on Maybach 1 S3. Note the Oldsmobile top wishbones and (unsighted) lever arm shocks and transverse bottom leaf spring. One of the three big SUs is obscured by Stan’s armYou can feel and smell Albert Park! Dacre Stubbs has tightly focussed his 1953 AGP start shot on Lex Davison, Jaguar powered ex-Moss HWM #3 and on Jones’ Maybach 1 S3; the ‘snappers framing of the shot heightens the drama. #7 is the legendary Frank Kleinig and Kleinig Hudson Spl with Cec Warren’s Maserati 4CLT alongside and #10, W Hayes’ Ford V8 Spl (D Stubbs)
Carburettors: Three marine Amals. Supercharger removed. Other Mods: Mild steel sheet head gasket fitted to engine raising compression ratio to 9 to 1.
Bodywork: Few obvious changes but considerable minor modifications. Framing modifled and lightened. Lighter radiator grille fitted, front cowl modified to give lower bonnet line.
June 1951 – September 1952
Carburettors: Three 1 3/4″ S.U. replacing Amals. Three special 2 3/16″ S.U. carburettors (originally designed for Lago Talbots) later fitted.
Tyres – Rear: 16 x 6.50 touring type (six ply). Subsequently four ply specially manufactured.
NOTES: Stan Jones bought the car off Charlie Dean in June 1951. Reports that the 1952 AGP would be held to F1 regs – 1.5-litres blown and 4.5 unblown, 1952-53 2-litre GP formula duly noted – meant the Maybach in 4.2-litre supercharged specs would have been ineligible so Repco Research developed a 3.8-litre unblown engine as noted above; three marine Amals fed the engine initially. Ultimately the ’52 AGP was held, as usual, to Formule Libre.
One of Jones’ pitstops at Albert Park in the 1953 AGP, Maybach 1 S3, Jag XK120 passes (D Stubbs)
The 1955 New Zealand Grand Prix programme recognised the achievements of Stan, the Repco Research team and Maybach 1 S3 in winning the 1954 event at Ardmore against international opposition the year before.
(AMS Annual 1959-60)
Etcetera…
(G McKaige)
Maybach 1 on Kew Boulevard at Studley Park, Melbourne before the start of the September 1947 VSCC One Day Trial. Alex Bryce’s Bentley 3-litre is behind. Note the twin-Amals, lump of wood to keep Charlie in-situ and slicks fitted up front!
(G McKaige)
By the time the VSCC Killara Park sprints were held at the Davison Lilydale farm in November 1947, Maybach 1 had grown four more Amals. The message to be taken is that Maybach(s), like all great racing cars, were in a perpetual state of development.
(J Montasell)
Charlie Dean at Rob Roy in January 1948, Maybach 1 obviously now bodied. Note the Studebaker pressed steel wheels and front drums compared with the shot of Maybach 1 in almost the same spot a year later below, with wire wheels and bespoke Minerva/PBR drums. Patons Brake Replacements – PBR – was another Repco Ltd subsidiary.
(J Montasell)(G McKaige)
Charlie Dean cornering hard on Hurstbridge Hillclimb in April 1949, Maybach 1. He was second in the over 3-litre racing car class, Hurstbridge, to Melbourne’s east was used several times post-war.
(G McKaige)
Dean, Maybach 1 S2 competing in the Mornington Motor Races at the Balcombe military camp in June 1950.
Stan Jones in Maybach 1 S3 chasing Jack Murray’s Allard J2 at Parramatta Park, Sydney – the first meeting at the venue – on the Australia Day weekend in January 1952.
(J Fleming Collection)
Maybach 1 S3 this is The Age shot shown earlier, with the article as published. If somebody has a photograph of the Victoria Trophy we would all know if the annual for many years event was the Victorian, or Victoria Trophy. Both names are bandied around…
(Repco ad in the Motor Manual Australian Motor Racing Year Book No 4 1953-54)
Just how strongly Repco used the Maybach programme to promote their engineering excellence to the broader populace is unclear to me.
This ad in the horsepower-press below promotes some of the Repco subsidiary produced components used in Maybach, but pointedly fails to note that the car and driver shown are winning the 1954 New Zealand Grand Prix at Ardmore. Time to sack the ad agency and/or the internal copy-boy/girl!
Repco ad from the back cover of the November 4, 1952 Australian Hillclimb Championship, Rob Roy programme
Clearly – to the extent you can see the cars – Motor Manual’s cars and drivers of the year were Stan Jones and Maybach 1 S3, and Jack Brabham and his RedeX Special, aka Cooper T23 Bristol.
Reference and photocredits…
Australian Motor Sports Review 1958-59, Brian Caldersmith, ‘The 50 Year History of The Australian Grand Prix’, John Fleming Collection via Tony Johns, George McKaige and Chester McKaige via their superb two ‘Beyond The Lens’ books, Stan Griffiths, David Zeunert Archive, sensational and rare Dacre Stubbs photographs via Martin Stubbs, VSCC Vic Collection, John Montasell, Clem Smith, Motor Manual, Ivan Pozega Collection, Peter Moore
Tailpieces…
(C Smith)
The Maybach reality: Australia against the Europeans – ignoring the country of origin of the engine! – with Stan as often as not leading as chasing. Here Jones is aboard Maybach 1 on the Adelaide Hills, Woodside road circuit in October 1951, chasing arch-Melbourne-rival come fellow rough-nut, Doug Whiteford’s Lago Talbot T26C. Whiteford won this encounter in what were Stan’s early days in Formule Libre.
(I Pozega Collection)
Maybach 1’s mortal remains were tracked down or found by Jack McDonald in a South Melbourne wrecking/junk-yard in the early 1960s. He rebuilt the car – all of the required donor bits were easier to obtain back then – and soon the old-gal was back on track, in this case a Calder Drags meeting in 1968. Jack is being blown off by Des Byrne’s E-Type Ford V8.
For the last 32 years Maybach 1 has been in the very safe, caring hands of Melbourne racer/historian Bob Harborow, shown below competing at Goodwood in 2006.
Jack Brabham’s Cooper T45 Climax (F2-10-58) enroute to the hold of P&O Line’s 30,000 ton SS Arcadia while Stirling Moss’ similar Rob Walker car (F2-9-58) awaits its turn at Tilbury Docks.
It’s October 20, 1958, seven weeks before the Melbourne Grand Prix at Albert Park on November 30 where this pair of drivers and cars were the star attractions in a 19 car field. The Arcadia arrived 11 days before the race allowing plenty of pre-event promotion.
I was contacted by P&O Heritage in June last year requesting assistance in identifying the cars and the event to which they were travelling, with the assistance of my good friend, Cooper expert Stephen Dalton, that wasn’t a drama. With their exhibition now well over we can share the shots.
(P&O Heritage)
Arfur Daley! was my first reaction, look at them all with their peaked-caps to ward off the brisk River Thames air. It’s Stirling’s Rob Walker owned T45, chassis F2-9-58, no less than the car in which Maurice Trintignant won the ’58 Monaco GP, and with which Moss was victorious in the non-championship F1 Aintree 200 and Caen GP that year.
Brabham’s F2-10-45 was acquired from the British Racing Partnership: Alfred Moss and Ken Gregory. It had been raced in 1.5-litre F2 events continuously throughout 1958 by Stuart Lewis-Evans in between his Vanwall F1 commitments and Tommy Bridger otherwise. Lewis-Evans had many top-5 placings and one win at Brands in June.
Maurice Trintignant during the 1958 Monaco GP. The Walker T45 F2-9-58 won from the two works Ferrari Dino 246s of Luigi Musso and Peter Collins (MotorSport)Stuart Lewis-Evans on the hop at Goodwood during the April 1958 Lavant Cup. He was fourth in BRP’s T45 F2-10-58 behind Brabham’s works Cooper T43 and Graham Hill and Cliff Allison’s works Lotus 12s; all cars 1475cc Coventry Climax FPF powered (unattributed)
Still fitted with 1.5-litre Climax FPF, BRP entered Bridger in the Moroccan Grand Prix at Ain Diab. His only GP start, in a six-Cooper F2 race within a race, ended in tears after Tommy spun and crashed on oil dropped by Tony Brooks’ Vanwall the lap before, Bridger completing 30 of the 53 laps. He wasn’t badly hurt, but poor Lewis-Evans died from burns sustained after a separate accident caused by his Vanwall’s engine seizure.
BRP returned the car to Coopers for repair, Brabham then bought it and installed a 2.2-litre Coventry Climax FPF to race in the Antipodes, while the Moss car was fitted with an Alf Francis built 2015cc Climax.
(AC Green)
The trip from Tilbury to Port Melbourne back then took on average, four-six weeks, here the new Arcadia (b1953-d1979) is tied up at Station Pier, Port Melbourne in late March 1954. The trailer leg to transport the cars to Albert Park is a short 6km.
(B King Collection)
The 32 lap, 100 mile Melbourne GP was the eighth of nine Gold Star rounds that year, Stan Jones in the #12 Maserati 250F won the ‘58 title.
Brabham is in #8, #7 is Moss, while another Jones, young Alan is the small white clad figure leaning on the nose of the Ford Zephyr. Moss won the race from Brabham with the very quick Doug Whiteford, Maserati 300S in third
Bib Stillwell was fourth in another 250F with Len Lukey fifth in a Lukey Bristol – Len’s evolution of a Cooper T23. Car #10 is Tom Clark’s 3.4-litre Ferrari 555, the car alongside him is Ted Gray, Tornado 2 Chev.
Moss and mechanic, name please? and T45 F2-9-58 on the Albert Park grid. That November 30, 1958 event was the last at Albert Park until the modern AGP era commenced in 1996 (S Dalton Collection)NZGP, Ardmore, January 10 1959. The Schell, Bonnier and Shelby Maserati 250Fs used their 2.5-litre torque to lead for a bit on lap one. #4 is Brabham’s Cooper, with Moss #7 behind and between Jack and Carrol – and the rest (LibNZ)
Both cars were then shipped across the Tasman to contest the Kiwi Internationals. Moss won the New Zealand Grand Prix at Ardmore from Brabham in a big field that included Bruce McLaren, Carroll Shelby, Jo Bonnier and Harry Schell on Maserati 250Fs, and Ron Flockhart’s works-BRM P25.
Brabham aboard F2-10-58 at Ardmore in 1959, second to Moss (T Marshall)
Moss (and the Cooper) then returned to Europe for his other commitments while Brabham did the Lady Wigram Trophy and Teretonga International for second/third, then returned home to New South Wales where he won the South Pacific Trophy at Gnoo Blas.
Jack then travelled to Cordoba to begin his F1 season with the February 16 Buenos Aires GP, but not before selling F2-10-58 to Len Lukey. The Melbourne Lukey Mufflers manufacturer used it to good effect to win the 1959 Gold Star, the highlight of which was an epic dice between Len and Stan Jones’ 250F in the AGP at Longford (AMS cover below) which was resolved in Stan’s favour.
The T45 remained in Australia forever, and in a nice bit of Cooper T45/Albert Park symmetry, Stirling Moss drove his Dad, and Jack’s old car in the historic car demonstrations during an Australian Grand Prix carnival in the early 2000s. Both cars are extant…
Etcetera…
(MotorSport)
An unmistakable Aintree shot of Stirling Moss aboard Walker’s T45 F2-9-58 on the way to victory in the BARC 200, April 1958.
(unattributed)
Tommy Bridger holding off Bruce McLaren’s works Cooper T45 Climax and Ivor Bueb’s Lotus 12 Climax aboard the BRP T45 F2-10-58 during the May ’58 Crystal Palace Trophy. He was second, bested only by Ian Burgess’ works Cooper T45, in a great performance.
Credits…
P&O Heritage, Allan C Green-State Library of Victoria, Bob King Collection, Stephen Dalton Collection, sergent.com.au, MotorSport Images, unattributed shots via Bonhams photographers unidentified, Terry Marshall, National Library of New Zealand
Tailpiece…
(MotorSport)
Tommy Bridger in the 1.5-litre F2 BRP Cooper T45 Climax F2-10-58 chasing Gerino Gerini’s Centro Sud Maserati 250F at Ain Diab during the October 19, 1958 Moroccan Grand Prix. Gerini was 11th from Q17 and Bridger DNF from Q22 after the accident described earlier.
The race-within-a-race of six Cooper F2 cars comprised T45s raced by Salvadori, Brabham, McLaren, Bridger and Andre Guelfi, plus Francois Picard’s older T43. Bridger qualified behind the works-Coopers of Roy, Jack and Bruce…he was pretty handy. See more about him here: https://500race.org/people/tommy-bridger/
When Stan Jones took the chequered flag at Ardmore to win the New Zealand Grand Prix seventy years ago today – on January 9, 1954 – he became the first Australian car racer to win an international Grand Prix. His weapon of war was the Charlie Dean built, then Dean/Repco Research developed and maintained Maybach 1.
That’s Ken Wharton in the BRM P15 V16 behind, he pitted with mechanical problems and finished second with Tony Gaze’ HWM Alta s/c third.
Victory spoils that much sweeter after the adversity of the previous 24 hours – Charlie Dean all smiles at right rear. Sportscar derivation of Maybach 1 clear (Lib NZ)Maybach 1, Ardmore 1954. HC Dean in the light, short sleeve shirt. ‘Ecurie Australie’ is the sign below the tonneau. Repco always seemed pretty cute about their lack of signage on Maybachs 1-3 while noting the no-advertising-on-cars rules of the day (N Tait)
I’ve done Stan and this topic to death over the years, see the links at the bottom of this article. So much so, I’ve no photos on this race I haven’t already posted so let’s recognise the occasion and scale of the achievement and then jump to the very end of the Maybach program, in terms of the three cars being Maybach six-cylinder powered at least.
With Repco’s stash of blocks in short supply, Maybach 3 – first raced at Templestowe Hillclimb on April 11 1955 - was powered by a 260bhp @ 5000rpm, 3.8-litre variant of the German SOHC, two-valve engine, albeit the motor was now fuel injected, such work done by Phil Irving and Charlie Dean.
With Big Red Cars growing locally in number – Davison Ferrari 500/625, Hunt Maserati A6GCM and 250F – the big silver beast was hard pushed despite Stan’s undeniable skills at twiddling its steering wheel.
Jones on-the-hop, as always, aboard Maybach 3 at Gnoo Blas in January 1956 before she let go at bulk-revs. Mercedes Benz W196 stylistic influence clear from this angle (R Donaldson)3.8-litre, direct-injected Maybach-six was mounted 60-degrees to vertical. Port Wakefield AGP paddock in 1955. Dean – the very fast Charlie Dean – at the wheel, Jones DNF in the race won by Jack Brabham’s Cooper T40 Bristol (E Gobell)
1956 opened with the international meeting at Gnoo Blas on January 30. Reg Hunt’s new Maserati 250F set the pace and won the South Pacific Championship easily against skinny opposition compared with previous years. Squeezing all that Maybach had to offer, on lap 23, with Stan 38 seconds adrift of the 250F, the engine let go in a major way.
Jones then got with the strength and bought a 250F. #2520 was demonstrated by Stan at the Geelong Sprints on May 27, first racing at Port Wakefield the following weekend.
While Stan got to grips with his new Italian Stallion, his mate, the brilliant engineer/racer Ern Seeliger set to work turning Maybach 3 into Maybach 4 inclusive of modified Chev 283cid V8, de Dion rear suspension and other mods.
Stan had an occasional steer of Maybach 4 Chev, winning a Gold Star round in it at Port Wakefield in 1959, but in essence, the Maybach Program of 1946-56 was at an end…oh-so-critical bits of Repco and Oz racing histories.
As Paul Cummins put it, “Stan with the NZ Trophy in one hand and a glass of champers in the other; or is that a martini shaken not stirred?” (Cummins Archive)(Motor Manual May 1954 T Johns Collection)
Credits…
Auckland Star, Libraries NZ, Bob Donaldson, State Library of New South Wales, Naomi Tait, E Gobell, Tony Johns Collection, Cummins Archive
Tailpiece…
(R Donaldson)
Look out ladies!…
Stan was a good-lookin’ Rooster at 32, that portrait is the best! He’s at the wheel of Maybach 3 during the ’56 SouPac, Gnoo Blas meeting. With hair Brylcreemed back, Raybans and terry-towelling T-shirt sourced from Buckley & Nunn, Stanley really looks-the-goods. Jones had a life of great achievement, he was not a bloke who died guessing, bless him.
Superb shot of British International Peter Whitehead’s Ferrari 125 (#0114) enroute to winning the Lady Wigram Trophy in 1954.
He won the race from Tony Gaze’s HWM Alta 2-litre s/c and Ken Wharton’s BRM P15 1.5-litre V16 s/c. Whitehead’s mechanic brings the car back into the paddock to a most appreciative crowd below.
Upon reflection, nobody did more to build the Ferrari brand in New Zealand way back then, than Peter Nield Whitehead. Others quickly followed mind you!
Whitehead had a nice little earner going with his Grand Prix Ferraris. By carefully specifying his ex-F1 Formule Libre cars he made a nice little earner from start and prize money post-war, visiting New Zealand from 1954-57 and doing exceptionally well.
In 1955-56, Peter and his Australian buddy, Tony Gaze raced a pair of F1/F2 2-litre Ferrari 500s fitted with 3-litre Monza engines. With these Ferrari 500/625s they did rather well: at Ardmore Whitehead was second in the’55 NZ GP, and Gaze third, while Whitehead won at Wigram and Ryal Bush, and Gaze at Dunedin in 1956. Peter was third in the NZ GP that year in the race won by Moss’ Maserati 250F.
Whitehead at Ryal Bush in 1956, Ferrari 500/625 (J Manhire)Ferrari 625 cutaway (G Cavara) Whitehead’s Ferrari 500/625 in the Wigram paddock in 1956 (T Adams)(K Brown)
The grid at Wigram in 1956 with the partially obscured Reg Parnell at left aboard the one-off Aston Martin DP155. Then Whitehead’s Ferrari 500/625, Lesley Marr’s Connaught B-Type Jaguar and Tony Gaze’s Ferrari 500/625. On row two is Ron Frost, Cooper 500, and Ron Roycroft’s Bugatti Jaguar
With no shortage of quick Maserati 250Fs racing in non-championship F1 and Formule Libre racing around the globe Whitehead returned to Maranello for a faster car. Unsurprisingly, wily Enzo Ferrari palmed Peter – no fool by any stretch – off with a pair of 3.5-litre Monza engined 555 Super Squalos, one of the unsuccessful series of cars that led Enzo to beg for the Lancia D50 programme after Gianni Lancia’s profligacy drove his family company into the wall at warp-speed.
These Ferrari 555/860s were driven with great skill by Whitehead and his new ‘teammate’ Reg Parnell. The factory Aston Martin racer was another worldly businessman who enjoyed his tour of NZ with an uncompetitive Aston Martin DP155 the year before and was keen to return for more with a competitive mount.
The pair finished one-two in the NZ GP with Parnell ahead of Whitehead after 120 laps/240 miles. Reg repeated the dose at Dunedin, while Whitehead won at Wigram and Ryal Bush.
Parnell in front of Whitehead at Ryal Bush in 1957, Ferrari 555/860 – chassis 555/2, later FL/9002 from 555/1 later FL/9001. Whitehead won from Parnell (Manhire/Woods)Whitehead’s winning Ferrari at rest, Wigram 1957 (N Logan)Ferrari 555 Super Squalo (G Cavara)
I love this ‘the times are a changin’ shot below, not that said paradigm shift was clear at the time. The big beefy Ferrari 555/860s of Reg Parnell and Peter Whitehead stand at left with no shortage of presence in the Ardmore pitlane during the January 1957 New Zealand Grand Prix weekend.
#3 is Jack Brabham’s Cooper T41 Climax 1.5 FWB, and at far right is Alex Stringer’s similar Cooper T41 Climax FWA 1100 he had leased from the by then dead Ken Wharton. #2 is Horace Gould’s Maserati 250F. It’s the sheer economy of the Cooper’s packaging – and ride height – that grabs the eye.
(B Sternberg)
Parnell won from Whitehead and Stan Jones’ Maserati 250F. Brabham and Stringer were 10th and 12th, while Gould dropped a valve in the 250F. As the Cooper’s Climax engines approached 2-litres the mid-engined packaging advantages became abundantly clear.
Tom Clark with the engine of his ex-Whitehead Ferrari 555 Super Squalo’s 860 Monza 3.5-litre four-cylinder, DOHC, two-valve engine (unattributed)
Etcetera…
(N Tait)
The front row of the Lady Wigram Trophy grid in 1954. Ken Wharton, BRM P15, Whitehead’s Ferrari 125, then Tony Gaze’ HWM Alta and on the far side, #12 Fred Zambucka, Maserati 8CM.
(G Woods)
Peter Whitehead ahead of Leslie Marr at Ryal Bush in 1956, Ferrari 500/625 and Connaught Jaguar. And below being pushed into the dummy grid.
(J Manhire)Ryal Bush 1956 (G Woods)(J Manhire)
Whitehead with the spoils of victory at Ryal Bush in 1956, and below aboard his Ferrari 555/860 in the two shots below in 1957.
(J Manhire)(J Manhire)
Credits…
John Manhire, Graham Woods, Vic Browne, Tony Adams, Kelvin Brown, Gordon Nimmo, Milan Fistonic, Nigel Logan, Giuseppe Cavara, MotorSport Images, Naomi Tait, Robert Sternberg
Tailpieces…
(MotorSport)
Peter Whitehead didn’t start 1958 as he had the previous four years, but had one more great result before his untimely death.
Peter and his half-brother, Graham Whitehead contested the June 1 Nurburgring 1000km in a privately entered Aston Martin DB3S and finished eighth in a warm up to Le Mans, which was held three weeks later. Peter had won at Le Mans with Peter Walker in 1951, taking Jaguar’s first historic win aboard a C-Type.
There, the Whiteheads finished a magnificent second behind the winning Olivier Gendebien/Phil Hill Ferrari TR/58 – the two cars are shown in the shot above. It was an amazing save for Aston Martin after all three of the works DBR1 300s failed to finish.
(MotorSport)
On September 20 the pair were contesting the fourth stage of Tour de France Auto in a 3.4-litre Jaguar Mk1. They were leading the touring car category when Graham lost control on a dark, foggy transport section between Mont Ventoux and Pau. The Jag plunged off a bridge in Cros landing upside down in a stream in a ravine 35 feet below. Poor Peter, still only 43, was killed instantly, Graham survived with minor leg injuries.
It was a sad end for the popular, talented wealthy sportsman who served his country in the war and barely bent a panel on any of the cars he raced…
primotipo... 