Carl Williams, McLaren M15A/3 Offy on raceday at Indianapolis in 1970 (Unatt-MBisset-WordPress)
I tripped over the shot above on that internet thingy and thought I know who that is! By the same token Carl Williams is far from the first name that would pop into my head if I was asked for a list of McLaren Works Pilots since day one; an obscurity, I love em!
Bruce McLaren and Teddy Mayer laid solid financial foundations for Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd during 1964-65 not least by signing with Firestone in time for Bruce’s Tasman Cup defence in the summer of ’65. Not far away in New Haw, Jack Brabham did a deal with Goodyear; Dunlop battened down the hatches as the Tyre Wars got underway right about then.
McLaren switched to Goodyear for 1967 and made rock stars of themselves by obliterating the Can-Am Cup in papaya coloured McLaren M6A Chevs steered by Bruce and Denny Hulme. The Bruce and Denny Show was underway.
Bruce McLaren is about to practise his Shelby 68 GE T58 turbine at Indianapolis in May 1968. It looked the goods! (IMS)
In 1968 Goodyear’s support of the papaya boys extended to F1, Can-Am and USAC racing…
Goodyear tipped Bruce and Denny into Carroll Shelby’s Indy 500 project in which British engineer Ken Wallis evolved the 4WD edgy-turbine-wedge concept that came within seven and a half laps of winning the 1967 500. The General Electric T58 helicopter turbine powered Shelby 68 ended up being under-developed and too little too late, hampered as all the turbines were that year by a change in USAC regs that reduced the permitted inlet area, measured at the first compression stage, from 23.999 to 15.99 sq. inches which nobbled their power.
Then Wallis got a bit cute with the regs and created a variable inlet device that made the car a bit quicker – but not enough – but magnified the throttle lag, and had various team members, not least the drivers and sponsors – Goodyear had underwritten the venture to the tune of $1 million – soiling their undergarments with fear about running a blatantly dodgy car. So the team did a midnight-flit from the speedway – literally – and didn’t attempt to qualify.
Ken Wallis contemplating what next? Uber rare colour body-off shot of the Shelby 68 GE chassis. Wasn’t variety a fantastic thing, let’s not think too hard about side intrusion protection. Being offered drives in stuff like this – well remunerated, as Bruce and Denny would have been – must have had an Eastern Front factor about it (Unattributed)
But Bruce could see the benefit of McLaren being involved in USAC racing, he cooled his jets in early 1969, and then via the usual McLaren communal design process tasked Gordon Coppuck to come up with a car for 1970.
Coppuck raided the parts bin to bolt onto the chubby, front radiator, aluminium monocoque chassis. The rear suspension was Can-Am M8 derived, and the 2.65-litre Offy turbo-engine’s power hit the road via Hewland’s four-speed LG500 trasaxle.
McLaren Cars at IMS in November 1969. M15A/1, Teddy Mayer at left; Bruce is on the RF with Tyler Alexander kneeling on the right. Is it Chris Amon at the wheel? (BCahier-MBisset-WordPress)
The first M15 was completed in November and was then shipped to McLaren Engines Inc, in Livonia, Detroit before being taken to Indianapolis and was immediately quick; Denny did 168mph, and Bruce 162. Three cars were built, see Allen Brown’s summary here:https://www.oldracingcars.com/mclaren/m15a/
McLaren’s campaign got complex when Chris Amon decided racing on closed speedways wasn’t his thing and decamped in favour of his March F1 and Can-Am, and Ferrari sports car commitments.
Poor Denny Hulme, while showing plenty of speed was outted from racing for weeks after a USAC mandated fuel filler mechanism failed and discharged methanol over its Kiwi driver and Offy engine, both of which went up in flames. That Denny was wearing leather rather than nomex gloves compounded his problems…
Amon aboard M15A/3 at Indy in May 1968. He’d been to Indy before in 1967? but decided it wasn’t for him (Unatt-MBisset-WordPress)Peter Revson poses for the standard IMS mugshot aboard M15A/2. Note the neat, far-forward rear wing installation, doubtless to accommodate the massive turbo-wastegate (IMS)
So Carl Williams and Peter Revson were drafted into the team as replacements. Both drivers qualified: Q19 and ninth for Carl and Q15 classified 22nd/blown engine for Revvie. Critically, McLaren had a good, close look at Peter Revson who became a key player in the immediate post Bruce McLaren Era; Bruce died testing an M8D Chev at Goodwood on June 2, 1970.
Carl Williams, McLaren M15A/3 Offy, 1970 Indy 500, ninth (IMS)
All things considered, it wasn’t a bad result, and critically it gave Gordon Coppuck a good idea about what it took to win in USAC racing, the M16 Offys that followed were rockets! The shot below shows Johnny Rutherford in a works M16C/5 Offy on the way to victory at Indy in 1974
(IMS)
Etcetera…
(McLaren Cars)
Carl Williams (24/8/1930-24/2/1973) in the McLaren Cars 1970 press release material.
An engineer away from racing, he competed in USAC sprint and champcars from 1965-72; 63 starts, 21 top ten placings, his best was a second place at Springfield in 1970, while his ninth with McLaren at Indy in 1970 was his best in six starts. He died in a motorcycle accident in 1973.
(D Friedman)
Chris had a crack at Indy in 1967, attempting to qualify this BRP 65 Ford (BRP-5-65). Allen Brown wrote that ‘Amon…topped 160mph unofficially in practice but crashed on 10 May and the car was “extensively damaged.” Clearly Indy was unfinished business for Chris, hence the second crack in 1970.
You’d think the chances of finding a shot of the original driver of M15A/3 and his replacement – Amon and Williams – would be slim, but never discount the breadth and depth of David Friedman’s Archive! Here they are in the Indy pitlane in 1967.
(D Friedman)
That year both drove BRPs owned by George Bryant. Williams had a cracker of a month in BRP-4-65 that sadly ultimately fell short. From Q23 he was running third in the 500, but then crashed on the final lap, and was classifed tenth. So near but so far to the podium!
I wonder if Chris suggested Williams to McLaren after he pulled the pin and returned to the UK?
(Hemmings)
Ken Wallis aboard his creation at Indianapolis in May 1968. Botany 500 was an American menswear manufacturer that went bust in 1973.
(Unattributed)
Bruce McLaren shots at Indy aren’t plentiful either. Both Shelby 68s are extant. That’s Dan’s works Eagle Ford behind, second place behind the winning Eagle 68 Offy raced by Bobby Unser.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Allen Brown-oldracing cars.com, Ebay, Hemmings, McLaren Cars, Bernard Cahier, David Friedman/David Friedman Archive, MotorSport
Parnelli Jones and the STP Team push his Granatelli 67 Pratt & Whitney Ferguson 4WD wedge onto the grid of the May 31, 1967 Memorial Day classic at Indianapolis.
The outrageous Ken Wallis built 4WD ‘Silent Sam’ – P&W ST6B-62 gas turbine on the left of the chassis, driver on the right – completely dominated the race, leading 171 laps but not the critical one. When leading comfortably, a small transmission bearing failed, gifting the victory to AJ Foyt’s Coyote 67 Ford.
(A Granatelli)Business end – make that side! – of Wallis’ magic machine (D Friedman)(Unattributed)
Magic shot of the Dieter Benz/Werner Brendel Porsche 911S on the way to 29th place in the 1967 Monte Carlo Rally.
Jim Clark – a wonderful portrait – just before the start of the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa on June 18, 1967.
Clark was sixth in his Lotus 49 Ford Cosworth, while Dan Gurney, in his Eagle Mk1 Weslake, made history up front by becoming a member of the small club of racers who won a Grand Prix in a car of their own construction: Alfieri Maserati (depending upon your definition of a Grand Prix), Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren and Dan.
Newbee Chris Irwin wrestles the challenging Reg Parnell Racing BRM P83 H16 around the Nürburgring during the 1967 German Grand Prix, Q15 and a meritorious seventh, albeit two laps adrift of the light and nimble Brabham BT24 Repcos raced by winner Hulme from Team Chieftain, Jack Brabham.
Sadly, it was on the Nurburgring that Chris’s impressive career came to an end during practice for the May 19, 1968 1000 km aboard a Ford F3L, see here: https://primotipo.com/2018/06/21/skin-deep-beauty/
(Unattributed)
The Mike Spence/Jim Hall Chaparral 2F Chev leaves the pits after a stop in the 1967 Sebring 12-Hours
Below, the McLaren/Andretti Ford Mk4 rumbles its way to an historic victory over the AJ Foyt/Lloyd Ruby Ford GT Mk2 and Scooter Patrick/Gerhard Mitter, Porsche 910.
The Spence/Hall Chaparral 2F Chev was classified 37th but was out after 145 laps with differential failure, while teammates Bob Johnson/Bruce Jennings in a Chaparral 2D Chev were classified 41st after ignition failure after 128 laps. Feature about the 2F here:https://primotipo.com/2014/06/26/67-spa-1000km-chaparral-2f/
(Unattributed)(Unattributed)
The Owen Racing Organisation in action during the French Grand Prix meeting at Le Mans in July. Helen Stewart and Bette Hill get to work with their copies of The Times to combat the summer sun. More on the meeting here:https://primotipo.com/2016/02/03/le-mans-french-gp-1967-powerrrr/
Team Sweden shot of a Volvo 144 and Saab 96 V4 place unknown…
(Unattributed)(Unatt-MBisset-WordPress)
The third-place Ford Cortina GT Mk2 crewed by Peter Hughes and Robert E Syder (yep, WordPress has fudged Syder’s name) during the March 1967 East African Safari. The Bert Shankland /Chris Rothwell Peugeot 404 won with the Vic Preston/R Gerrish Lotus Cortina second.
(Unattributed)
Jo Siffert, Dieter Spoerry, Rico Steinemann and Charles Vogele set five long-distance world records in a Porsche 911R #001R at Monza between 29 October and November 4, 1967: 72 and 96 hours, 15000 km, 10000 miles, and 20000 km, the latter at 130.02mph. They also bagged 14 international class records.
The victorious Jacky Ickx/Dick Thompson JW Automotive Ford Mirage M1 battles the elements of the Ardennes Forest during the May 1 1967 Spa 1000km. The Siffert/Hermann Porsche 910 finished second, and the Attwood/Bianchi Maranello Concessionaires Ferrari 412P finished third (below).
David Fox did some work on identifying the ‘red 906’. It’s one of the Racing Team Holland orange 906s: either the #51 Ben Pon/Gijs van Lennep car which didn’t survive practice thanks to Gij’s misfortune during practice after the car’s rear bodywork parted company with the chassis, or the #54 Gunther Huber/Ben Pon car which was popped on its lid by Huber on the first lap! All good for the Porsche spares dept but sub-optimal for the Dutch team’s budget.
(Unattributed)(Unattributed)
Council of war at Le Mans in 1967: Denny Hulme, Carroll Smith (I think), Paul Hawkins and Stirling Moss.
Paul Hawkins, at the wheel of the Shelby American Ford Mk2B he shared with Ronnie Bucknum during the race below. DNF at 6PM after 271 laps with a dropped valve. See here for a long feature on the race won by the Gurney/Foyt Ford Mk4:https://primotipo.com/2015/09/24/le-mans-1967/
(LAT)(Unattributed)
Mario Andretti togs up for the 1967 Indy 500: pole and DNF after 58 laps; lost wheel, Hawk 2 Ford V8. Nice watch. The bloke behind in the light yellow shirt has to be Mario’s brother, Aldo?
Andretti below on the way to third place in the Rex Mays 300 at Riverside on November 26, 1967.
Quick research of Allen Brown’s Old Racing Cars tells me Mario’s Indy chassis was a new for 1967 Hawk 2, whereas the chassis he mainly used on road courses that year was the Brawner Hawk Ford, one of two copies of Ron Tauranac’s Brabham BT12 commissioned of Clint Brawner, by BT12 owner John Zink after Jim McIlreath crashed it badly at Trenton in October 1964. So, on the balance of probabilities, Mario is in the Brawner Hawk Ford below. What a shot it is too…
(Unattributed)(MotorSport)
Jack Brabham raced BT19-1 – his 1966 championship-winning chassis – into 1967, fitted with Norman Wilson’s RB740 3-litre V8s until Ron Tauranac’s BT24 was ready. Brabham tested his BT24 740 at Zandvoort but elected to race ye-olde-faithful BT19 (above).
BT19-1’s final in-period race netted Jack third place in the November 12, 1967, non-championship Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama.
Below, Jack is working with two Goodyear technicians on his BT24 Repco 740 during the British Grand Prix weekend in July. Clark won from Hulme and Amon: Lotus 49, Brabham BT24 and Ferrari 312. Jack was fourth, having started from pole. More on the BT24 here:https://primotipo.com/2017/12/28/give-us-a-cuddle-sweetie/
(Unattributed)(LAT)
John Surtees blasts his hefty Honda RA273 V12 up the hill from St Devote during the tragic May 7, 1967 Monaco Grand Prix. Q3 and DNF engine after 32 of the 100 laps completed by the victorious Denny Hulme; Denny’s first championship GP victory.
Credits…
Andy Granatelli, David Friedman, eBay, from whence the rest of these unattributed photographs were sourced. In some cases, I’ve guessed the organisation from which the shot came, David Fox
Tailpiece…
(LAT-MBisset-WordPress)
The final F1 championship race win for the first of Repco’s F1 V8s, the Phil Irving-designed and drawn RB620, was in the back of Denny’s BT20 #F1-2-66 – his regular ’66 car – when the Kiwi won the 1967 Monaco GP (above). His first win of the season on the way to the 1967 World Championship.
Barry Nelson with Allan Moffat aboard his Brabham BT16 Lotus-Ford Formula B on the Road America dummy grid on June 17, 1967.
In a very limited campaign, he finished seventh in the Central Division of the SCCA-sanctioned championship.
(BryarRacingMagazine-MBisset-Wordpress)
Moffat’s primary program was running Ford’s Lotus Cortina program. The shot above shows him winning the Bryar Motor Sport Park 250 Trans Am round outright in London-Laconia, New Hampshire, in July 1966.
I’ve already written an epic about Moff’s single-seater racing, but my discovery of AI-enhanced photographs lured me back in this direction, as it meant I could do something with Barry Nelson’s old colour shots which were potentially very good. See here:https://primotipo.com/2020/04/14/allan-moffat-single-seater-racer/
Moffat two-wheeling his Lotus-Cortina at Sandown during the November 1964 6 Hour, he and Jon Leighton were fourth (unattributed)AM racing a works-Bud Moore Mercury Cougar, circuit unknown, 1967 (unattributed)(BNelson-MBisset-Wordpress)
AM ready to rock and roll in the most salubrious of surroundings! In the lane behind Bob Jane Racing, itself behind Jane’s Chrysler/Valiant dealership at 740 Sydney Road, Brunswick, Melbourne, with the ex-Jack Brabham 1968 Tasman Cup Brabham BT23E Repco-Brabham 740 2.5 V8.
Moff was entered in round three of the Australian Drivers Championship, the Gold Star, at Sandown on September 15, 1968, but things quickly turned to custard in practice when the just rebuilt car – from John Harvey’s Easter Bathurst accident caused by component failure – lost a wheel and did enough damage to end the weekend.
(B Nelson)(BNelson-MBisset-CoPilot)
Same time, same place, same car, but this time with John Sawyer, Jane’s team manager and chief mechanic. And a VE Valiant. In both enhanced shots, the car comes up well, but the facial features are much harder for the tool when the original is lacking…
(BNelson-MBisset-Wordpress)
Jack Brabham, below, earlier in 1968 racing the same chassis, BT23E, but fitted with the first 830 Repco-Brabham V8 during the February 25 Australian Grand Prix. DNF engine after 21 of the 55 laps; Jim Clark won the race – his last GP win – in a works Lotus 49 Ford Cosworth DFW.
(RBartholamaeusColl-MBisset-Wordpress)
Moffat exits Honda, maybe, in Bob Jane’s Elfin 400 Repco-Brabham 720 4.4 V8 at Phillip Island in November 1968. It’s a little-known event, and was probably a case of Bob throwing Moffat a bone.
He’d helped Sawyer and Jane buy the Shelby Mustang, and the deal supposedly was that AM would drive the old Mustang and Bob the newie. But Bob had racing drivers up to his armpits by that stage: there was Bob himself, Harvey recovering from his huge Bathurst prang, Ian Cook racing the Brabham and Elfin, and Bevan Gibson – arguably the most promising of the lot – sniffing around too.
(Rob Bartholomaeus Coll)
‘Take the Elfin down to the Island for a race or two and have a good time at the Isle of Wight.’ Before too long, Jane and Moffat had a parting of the ways, then Moffat pulled off the KarKraft Trans Am Mustang deal, and the rest is history…
How’d he go in the Elfin at the Island, folks? Rob Bartholomaeus sent me this magazine shot a decade ago. It’s a shit shot out of the December 1968 PIARC Notes magazine, but it’s amazing how well it came up with a tickle on WordPress. I even colourised it, something I’ve said to all and sundry I’d never do, but being the President of the Australian Society of Hypocrites, I just had to have a go. A brilliant job, too. And yes, the number could be 7. Apart from anything else, I’m intrigued to see how long it takes the colour shot to ‘do the social media rounds.’
(RBartholomaeusColl-MBisset-WordPress)Engine and cockpit of the Jane 400 – ratio change in progress – probably taken during the January 26, 1969 Phillip Island meeting when the car was driven by Bevan Gibson (N Chambers)(AutoAction-MBisset-WordPress)
Moffat hadn’t finished with single-seaters just yet.
Elfin ran a Calder test day for mainly BP-contracted drivers to have a lash in the brand new Elfin MR5 Repco-Holden F5000 car at Calder on Monday, September 13, 1971.
John McCormack finished second in the Sandown Gold Star round the day before in #5711, Kevin Bartlett won it in his McLaren M10B Chev. The steerers that day included Moffat, Henk Woelders, Garry Rush, John Harvey and David McKay, wearing his journo hat.
Moff did an undisclosed number of laps, and with too tall Sandown gearing, worn tyres and fullish tanks, did a best of 44 seconds neat.
There were rumours once or twice about a Tasman F5000 drive, but, sadly, that never happened.
(AutoAction-MBisset-WordPress)
Credits…
Barry Nelson, Rob Bartholomaeus, Neville Chambers, Auto Action
Tailpiece…
Things Go Better With…
Moffat with the Sandown hardware after winning the 1970 Sandown Three Hour aboard a works Ford Falcon GTHO Phase 2. Who is the bloke in the background?
Leo Geoghegan lookin’ not all that joyful in his ex-Clark Lotus 39 Climax on the Symmons Plains Gold Star grid, 13 November 1966. That’s Kevin Bartlett’s Alec Mildren Racing Brabham BT11A Climax alongside…
Geoghegan is swearing, in his mind at least, about the shitful Coventry Climax 2.5 FPF motor he bought from Team Lotus when he acquired Jim Clark’s 1966 Tasman Series weapon of war at the end of that summer. There was nuffin’ wrong with the chassis, but the tired ‘ole engine gave Australia’s Lotus concessionaire all manner of problems.
So he may well be dreaming of a Repco-Brabham V8, not that said acquisition proved drama free either into 1967 and beyond!
Look at the crowd, all well rugged up despite it being mid-November; all eyes are on the Cusack Lotus (perhaps it is he off to the left). I wonder what they’re doing to that car to arouse so much interest. Maybe it’s just a pretty lady standing beside the car; a few things fixate a group of males of all ages as much as a fine specimen of that particular species…
Leo’s Lotus is in Total colours: red and blue stripes on white, sensational too! The Total name could not appear on the car, of course, but I imagine the colour cues to the punters were pretty strong in the day.
That year of Australian elite-level single-seater racing is an interesting one as it represented a changing of the guard, which in the main shaped the grids to come for the next half decade or so.
Bib Stillwell, who raced for a looong time from just after the war, and peaked late in his career, retired at the end of 1965, having won four Gold Stars on the trot and proved on his day, with all of the planets aligned, that he was as good as all but the absolute cream of the international crop.
Spencer Martin won the Gold Star in 1966 with three wins in six rounds- he brought to the table twelve months and a bit of racing the challenging 2.5’s, having jumped aboard David McKay’s Brabham BT11A after Graham Hill vacated it when he returned to Europe at the end of the 1965 Tasman, having won the NZ GP at Pukekohe in the same chassis. Click here: https://primotipo.com/2015/04/30/spencer-martin-australian-gold-star-champion-19667
Spencer Martin, in the ex-SV, then Bob Jane Racing-owned Brabham BT11A Climax, on the Symmons pole. Car still owned by the Jane Family- or, more specifically, his Deceased Estate (R Dalwood)Bob Jane, Elfin Mono Mk1 Ford 1.5 t/c (R Dalwood)
Bob Jane bought the car in 1966 when McKay and Martin had a meltdown in their relationship. They patched up later in their lives, but things were a bit frosty at the time. Jane and McKay were both sponsored by Shell, so it was all kept in the family, but I suspect Jano paid full-tote-odds for the BT11A rather than nick-it the way he preferred to buy stuff…
Kevin Bartlett had done his time, having come into racing circa 1958 and been in Alec Mildren’s care for a year or so. He had been getting some big car experience in Alec’s Mildren Maserati 2.9 sports-racer and showed great speed in his Brabham BT2 Ford t/c 1.5 in the 1966 Australian Tasman rounds, including fifth in the AGP at fast Lakeside.
That KB chucked the BT11A about with the gay abandon he demonstrated in smaller cars surprised no one. The pointy end of the grid was usually these two similarly mounted Sydneysiders- that is, Bartlett and Martin, who were and still are good mates. Click here for Martin and Bartlett and BT11A speed: https://primotipo.com/2018/04/27/kbs-first-bathurst-100mph-lap/
Greg Cusack raced under the Scuderia Veloce umbrella with his Elfins and Brabham 1.5 but struck out on his own in 1966 with Clark’s 1965 Tasman car- a Lotus 32B Climax which had been acquired by Kiwi Jim Palmer after the Tasman and raced by him in New Zealand in 1965, and sold to Cusack after the 1966 Tasman in which Palmer showed plenty of speed.
Greg wasn’t entirely happy with the car, converting the front suspension from inboard rocker to conventional outboard wishbones and picked up the win at Symmons when poleman Martin retired with clutch problems, Bartlett’s Hewland played up, and Leo’s FPF issues did not even allow him to take the grid, hence the shitty look in photo #1!
Greg Cusack in the ex-Clark/Jim Palmer Lotus 32B Climax, Symmons 1966 (R Dalwood)Scratchy but still good in colour- from this side, Greg Cusack, Lotus 32B Climax and the two BT11A ‘twins’ Bartlett in Mildren Yellow and Martin in Bob Jane Racing Red on pole (E French)Ditto above- the nose is John Harvey’s RRC Phillips owned Brabham BT14 Ford t/c(oldracephotos.com/DKeep)
John Harvey was a speedway star before deciding longevity was a bit more likely if he switched to the circuits. After showing speed in Ron Phillip’s Cooper S, he graduated to the ex-Stillwell Brabham BT14 Ford t/c ANF1.5- he made his debut in the car at the Hordern Trophy Gold Star round at Warwick Farm in December 1965 and showed lots of speed and consistency in it during 1966, fettled as it was by Peter Molloy, who very sadly left us several weeks back.
John raced this car with a twin-cam which progressively grew in size until Molloy squeezed an RBE640 2.5 V8 into its spaceframe chassis in time for the opening Gold Star meeting at Lakeside in June 1967- and then became very much an outright contender. By the time they had the package sorted, winning a feature at Oran Park, Bob Jane popped Harves into the Brabham BT11A seat vacated by Spencer Martin at the end of the 1967 Gold Star- he retired prematurely in the minds of many, but in one piece, at his peak.
Jane was in a very good place to observe the talent sharing the grids as he was and being passed every now and again by the 2.5’s in his ANF1.5 Elfin Mono Mk1…
Let’s not forget John McCormack either.
He raced the ex-Jack Brabham BT4 Climax to third place this weekend, albeit three laps adrift of the leading pair of Cusack and Harvey. This car was raced by thrice World Champ Brabham in the 1962 Caversham AGP and our Internationals that summer. It would be a year or three before Mac chased his dream nationally, moved to Adelaide and acquired an Elfin 600C, initially fitted with the FPF out of the Brabham, with his intent really shown when he and the Elfin boys fitted an RBE740 2.5 into that car in the dying days of ANF2.5 in 1970. Success in F5000 followed, of course.
Garrie Cooper didn’t travel across Bass Strait, but he contested four of the Gold Star rounds in his ‘works’ Elfin Mono- he too was stepping up a gear with the luxury of his own car in addition to looking after the needs of his customers.
Let’s not lose my original premise, though- 1966 and the ’emergence at elite level’ of Geoghegan, Martin, Bartlett, Cusack and Harvey shaped our Gold Star races for the next few years to come, with only KB and McCormack racing single-seaters a decade hence.
(R Dalwood)(R Dalwood)
The two photos above are just before the off and a few seconds after the drop of the flag.
In the lower of the two, Cusack on the left has gotten the jump on Martin on the right. Bartlett hasn’t left the line; look carefully, and you can see him mid-grid, arm in the air, praying nobody gives him a hit up the arse, so to speak. KB has Lynn Archer, Elfin Catalina Ford, at left and Stan Keen (I think), Elfin Mono Mk1 Ford, at right. The two cars in between are Harvey’s BT14 on the left and McCormack’s BT4 on the right.
Cusack won from Harvey, McCormack, McEwin’s Elfin Mono Mk1 Ford t/c, Glynn Scott’s Lotus 27 Ford t/c and Archer’s Elfin Ford 1.5 pushrod.
Etcetera…
(R Dalwood)
Symmons 1966 raceday scene.
The track is still in use, having opened on 13 March 1960 using a leased paddock on the Youl family’s Symmons Plains grazing property. The track is 2.41km long and located 30km south of Launceston, the ‘capital’ of Northern Tasmania.
I’m buggered if I know who this is, but I’ve arrived at Mike Champion’s ex-Dave Walker/Frank Gardner/Kevin Bartlett (how’s that for a pedigree?) Brabham BT2 Ford by a process of elimination.
Using good old racingcars.com as my reference source, it ISN’T Bob Jane, Mel McEwin or Stan Keen’s Elfin Monos; Glynn Scott or Les Howard’s Lotus 27s; or Lynn Archer’s Elfin Catalina Ford. Therefore, it is Mike Champion. Is it, though?
There’s More…
Shortly after I uploaded this article, Ray Bell, author/historian and race reporter in the day for Racing Car News and other publications, sent me this email, many thanks, Ray.
Hi Mark,
Your 'Times They Are A-Changin' was indeed how it felt at the time. All of a sudden the relatively new Spencer was up against Leo, Greg and KB. Spencer had been in the 2.5s since 1964, however, having had the joy of driving the BT4 for one season. Another young newcomer in a 2.5 was John McDonald.
Leo's problems are hard to quantify. I tried to talk to Sheppo about some of this, one meeting at the Farm a head stud broke, which he explained was because he'd had them plated. Hydrogen embrittlement was the cause of it breaking, he said that if he'd known he could have avoided it by putting them in the oven. So were the problems partially lack of experience with that engine? Shouldn't have been, but maybe Sheppo applying his perfection to things hit in other ways too.
The conversion of the 32B to Brabham suspension was done in pursuit of the ideal that Greg was used to the chuckability of the little Brabham. Both front and rear suspensions got the changes. See the pic (below). If you go through the RCN reports that year you'll see that Bruce Burr's contribution was pure amateur hour stuff. He told me at Longford that he'd been watching the cars coming down the straight to Mountford and saw that the Lotuses were doing the best job of holding a straight line and so he used Greg's money to buy the Palmer car - yet three months later (or less?) he was pitching the original suspension out.
For KB it was a slow start to the year. The car failed in practice at Bathurst and then didn't appear at the May Warwick Farm, so his first race was Lakeside. Then at Surfers he was showing JB and Jackie Stewart the way around. McDonald, meanwhile, was floundering. But a late start to Leo's and Greg's season wasn't helpful for the competition either.
The other thing about Symmons was that there was heavy rain for the last nine laps of the race, Harvey made good progress in those conditions but Greg still won. And it was Champion, who had a pit stop with engine trouble a few laps before pitting again for good. Funny thing, I don't remember him ever having those stripes around the front, the most memorable thing about that car being a very high exhaust pipe.
Ray
Bruce Burr aboard the ex-Clark/Palmer Greg Cusack Lotus 32B Climax, now with outboard front suspension rather than the factory-delivered rocker set-up used so effectively by others…(R Bell)
Credits…
oldracingcars.com, Reg Dalwood Collection, oldracephotos.com/DKeep, Ray Bell
Jack Brabham, Brabham BT17 Repco, leads John Coundley’s McLaren-Elva Mk 1 Olds and winner Denny Hulme’s Lola T70 Mk2 Chev during the 1966 Tourist Trophy weekend at Oulton Park on April 29, 1966.
It was the race debut of the big-banger 4.3-litre Repco-Brabham 620 V8-powered BT17, a car that only did two races in period before a later lash as a hillclimber: the TT and the Guards Trophy at Brands Hatch on August 29. At Oulton it retired with oil leaks after only two laps, and at Brands engine problems prevented it from starting the race. There is a little more about BT17 in here:https://primotipo.com/2019/02/22/rbe-by-the-numbers/
Given its sedentary life of two meetings, in only one of which it started, and then in the corner of MRD, finding photographs for an upcoming Brabham book is problematic. I was having a whinge to ‘me mate, fellow enthusiast/historian Stephen Dalton, who mentioned the image on eBay below.
Even after a tickle with WordPress, it won’t make the cut, but his idea got me looking at the eBay archive/website; problem solved! The one above will do nicely.
Then yer go looking of course, this article is the first in what will become a regular series. Some of the images are good to go, others need sharpening to use. The captions make clear when I’ve given them a tickle. Sadly, more often than not, the vendors selling the shots don’t disclose the photographer. I’ve disclosed them when I can; otherwise, I’ve listed eBay as the source.
(eBay-MBisset-WordPress)
(eBay)
(Miroir Sprint)
Hmm, WTF I thought? Clearly a 1971 spec 917K, close look, Derek Bell behind the wheel, not the usual Gulf signage package. Miroir Sprint image, so quite possibly a shot in France.
And so it turns out. Derek drove the #18 Gulf 917K #016 at the Le Mans Test Day on April 18, 1971, together with teammates Jo Siffert and Jackie Oliver. David Fox believes it’s the Ford Chicane.
I love Jean-Pierre Froidevaux’ shot of the 2-litre Honda V6 nestled in the back of one of the two works Honda RH6/81s that contested the Hockenheim European F2 Championship round on April 5, 1981.
Mike Thackwell was third, and Geoff Lees fifth in the Deutschland Trophy, a race won by Stefan Johannsson’s Lola T850 Hart 420R. Lees won the championship. More about the Ralt RH6 Hondas here:https://primotipo.com/2023/12/09/ralt-rh6-81-honda-v6/
(eBay-MBisset-WordPress)
Somehow, this poor-quality image of Jim Clark blasting through the Hockenheimer Hardt forest at Hockenheim on that day in 1968 is all the more poignant for it. Works Lotus 48 Ford FVA during the Deutschland Trophy, Euro F2 round on April 7.
Most Australians of a certain age think of the 1978 Sandown Fangio Meeting when you mention Jack Brabham and the Mercedes-Benz W196 in the same breath. Our Jack ‘diced’ in BT19 Repco with JMF in a W196S 3-litre-engined W196R on a day those who were there will never forget. More about that meeting here:https://primotipo.com/2018/08/21/juan-manuel-fangios-sandown-park/
So, what’s the story here? Does anyone know where and when this drive/demo took place? Perhaps the Mercedes test track at Unterkheim, David Fox suggests.
(C Williams)
Graeme Lawrence’s Ferrari Dino 246T leads the mob into Shell Corner – the first corner on the first lap – of the February 22, 1970 Sandown Park Cup, the deciding final round of the seven that comprised the 1970 Tasman Cup.
It was a season of change; F5000 was the future, but the traditional 2.5-litre cars were eligible, and indeed, Graeme won the series with a summer of consistent, reliable pace in the same chassis #246T/69-0008 that carried Chris Amon to victory a year before. The McLaren M10s of Graham McRae, Frank Matich and Niel Allen were faster but were brittle, so Lawrence’s single win triumphed over the GM and FM’s two, and Niel Allen’s one.
The order is Lawrence, I think the front row, poleman Matich and Allen M10A and M10B Chev, respectively, have gone; #3 is John Harvey, Brabham BT23E Repco 830 2.5, #5 is Kevin Bartlett’s Mildren Yellow Sub Waggott TC-4V 2-litre. Tucked up GL’s clacker is Mike Goth’s Surtees TS5 Chev and behind him is his countryman, Ron Grable, in the stars n’ stripes rear-winged M10A Chev.
Niel Allen won a 100-mile race of attrition – six of the eight F5000s that started retired – from Lawrence with third-place man, party-boy, Ulf Norinder, Lola T190 Chev, third but two laps adrift of the front pair. Lawrence won the Tasman in his 2.4; FM was second in his F5000 with the 2-litre Mildren twins – Bartlett and Max Stewart equal third, not a bad distribution of the spoils in a Tasman where the F1 drivers were sorely missed…
Oscar ‘Cacho’ Fangio aboard his Brabham BT15 Ford during the June 26, 1966, Monza Lottery F3 meeting.
Fangio raced his Chas Lucas BT15 Ford to 13th, one place behind Frank Williams’ BT18 Ford. Up front, soon-to-be Ferrari driver Jonathan Williams won in a De Sanctis Ford. See more about Cacho and Tonino Ascari here:https://primotipo.com/2019/08/27/tonino-ascari/
Another French mystery shot…If I knew that Simca had built a 2-litre F2 engine, I’d certainly forgotten! The vendor dated the fantastic shot to 1975, and I can see the Chevron insignia on the steering wheel, so that was enough hints to start with.
Quick search of Allen Brown’s oldracingcars.com race results suggests a Chevron B29, as to which chassis and race meeting, your guess is as good as mine…The shot of Xavier Lapeyre’s Chevron B29 #29-75-10 Chrysler-Simca-ROC at Hockenheim on the June 8 weekend (DNQ) below is there only to show you a B29 Simca; I’m not suggesting the engine shot is this chassis.
The 270-290bhp, DOHC, four-valve, Kugelfischer fuel-injected 1993c (92x75mm bore/stroke) engine was developed by Racing Organisation Course (ROC) from the production Simca-Chrysler 2-litre cast iron block used in the Chrysler/Simca range.
(LAT)
In 1975, the dominant BMWs: M12/6 and Schnitzer 20-4 were good for a reliable 290-300bhp. I’m not sure what a good BDA or BDG gave then, but they were towards the front with good steerers. Lapeyre’s eighth at Mugello and 11th at Hockenheim were the best results for the engine in 1975; Jean-Pierre Beltoise qualified his B29 ROC in the Top 10 thrice, but one of those was a non-championship round.
Note that the Chrysler-Simcas were effective in endurance racing, for example, winning the 2-litre class at Le Mans in the back of Chevron B36s in 1977, 1978 and 1980, a story for another time.
‘Racing Organization of Races – ROC’ is the way the French Government describes (annuaire-enterprises.data.gouv.fr) the ‘public limited company (SA) with a board of directors.’ That entity, founded on January 1, 1973, appears inactive from 1999.
Fred Stalder’s (not Stadler, according to Official 24 Hours Le Mans Archives and other sources) business was founded on January 1, 1973 and was based at ZI Les Buchillions 74100Annemasse (Haute Savoie). Doubtless, he used other entities for his subsequent varied career as a builder/preparer/entrant of touring and endurance cars; Google away yourselves, my French, other than when inebriated, isn’t too flash.
(DPPI)
Well rugged up John Cooper watches as Roy Salvadori settles himself into the cockpit of Derrick White’s new Cooper T81 Maserati V12 for its first, or thereabouts, test at Silverstone in March 1966. Date folks?
He’d driven a Cooper T51 Maserati or two, but this beast – Cooper’s first for the new 3-litre Formula – was an entirely different beast. The wily, quick, entrepreneurial Salvadori’s role in the Maserati-Cooper deal is well-told by Allen Brown here:https://www.oldracingcars.com/cooper/t81/
The business end of John Surtees’ Cooper T81 Maserati during the July 16, 1966 British Grand Prix weekend. Q6 and DNF: rear axle failure; Brabham won in BT19 Repco 620.
Tipo 9 Maserati 60-degree, DOHC, two-valve V12. 2989cc – 70.4/64mm bore/stroke – two 10mm plugs per cylinder, Lucas port fuel injection, Lucas transistor ignition, c-360bhp @ 9500rpm. ZF five-speed transaxle.
(G Molter)
You can get the build-season sense of urgency in this Motor Racing Developments shot taken by Gunther Molter in 1964, 1965 or 1966. The question, for you Brabham historians, is whether the Cosworth SCA-powered 1-litre F2 cars in build are 1964 BT10s, 1965 BT16s…or 1966 BT18s.
The answer is important as I’d rather like to use the image in our upcoming Brabham book, and it would be nice to put it in the correct chapter!
(eBay)
Chris Amon contests the LA Times GP Can-Am round at Riverside on October 30, 1966, DNF dead battery from grid seven after 50 of the 62 laps, winner, John Surtees, Lola T70 Mk2 Chev; and subsequent Can-Am Cup victor.
Amon’s bests were third at St Jovite, second at Bridghampton. The other three DNFs were from the front couple of rows…the youngster was pretty handy in these big cars!
Francois and Jack were tenth in the race won by JW Engineering Porsche 917K driven by Pedro Rodriguez/Leo Kinnunen/Brian Redman. The best-placed 3-litre machine was the ex-works NART Ferrari 312P raced by Sam Posey/Mike Parkes, fourth. More here:https://primotipo.com/2024/07/31/jo-siffert-daytona-24-hours-1970/
(eBay)
Gordon Cooper and Jim Rathman with their Gerhardt 66 Ford during the Indy Month of May in 1967. Watch this space over the next couple of days…
(eBay-MBisset-WordPress)
1978 World Rally Champion, Bjorn Waldegard, was one of the most successful and revered Safari Rally competitors, having won the event five times: 1977 Ford Escort RS1800, 1984 Toyota Celica Twin-Cam Turbo on both occasions navigated by Hans Thorszelius, and in 1986, Toyota Celica Twin-Cam Turbo and in 1990 aboard a Toyota Celica GT-Four ST165, on the latter two occasions, navigated by Fred Gallagher. In the modern era, he won the East African Safari Rally Classis aboard a Porsche 911 together with his son Mathias in 2011.
However…in 1980 he was tenth in the Mercedes 450SLC above. Shekhar Mehta won in a Datsun 160J, Rauno Aaltonen was second in another 160J, and Vid Preston was third in the first home 450 SLC.
(eBay)
Sticking with the Formula 2 thread we seem to have going with this article, shown are shots of the victorious 1-litre Brabham BT18 Honda, which was as dominant in the ‘1966 European F2 Championship’ – there wasn’t one – as the Brabham BT19 Repco was lucky in the 1966 World F1 Championships. I have Ferrari and John Surtees shooting themselves in the feet in mind in saying that.
I love this Pau F3 GP shot taken during the April 17, 1966 weekend. Roby Weber’s Alpine A270 Renault is en route to third place in the 30-lap, 83km race won by Piers Courage, Lotus 41 Ford-Cosworth, from the similarly powered Brabham BT18 raced by Chris Williams.
Weber was second in both the French F3 Championship and the Challenger Craven A-France; Johnny Servoz-Gavin, Matra MS5 Ford-Cosworth, won the former and Courage the latter. There’s more about Alpine here:https://primotipo.com/2022/12/18/jean-pierre-jabouille/
Credits…
eBay, Miroir Sprint, Gunther Molter, Jean Pierre Froidevaux, F Prysen, Publifoto, Allen Brown and oldracingcars.com, David Fox
Garrie Cooper aboard Australian Racing Royalty, the ultimate Elfin 600, the car he built for himself to contest the 1970 Australian Gold Star Championship, Elfin 600D chassis #7012 powered by a 295bhp 2.5-litre Repco 830 SOHC, two valve V8
He’s in the shadows of the Wanneroo Park control tower during the May 3, 1970 Lex Davison Memorial meeting, the feature race of which was the 35-lap West Australian Road Racing Championship.
(SLWA-MBisset-WordPress)
The two raiding invaders were Elfin 600 mounted South Australians, the boss himself, Garrie Cooper, and long-time Elfin customer, the fast-rising John Walker in #6907, the first of his two 600Bs, #7018 being the other. Walker was the reigning WA Champion but had little chance of defending his title against the far quicker 2.5-litre car.
Racing Car News’ Mike Cuss wrote, ‘Both cars were magnificently prepared, and if evaluated point by point would leave many European cars we see here a long way back in second place. Detail design and standard of finish of the Elfin 600 series must be the best bar none.’
(CMunday-MBisset-WordPress)
The flag drops with Cooper on pole, Walker and Craig McAllister in the yellow Macon Ford on this side on the front row, then George Cole, Befa-Ford and Bob Ilich’s on row two
(C Munday)
Team Ilich with their heads chopped off, unfortunately; Brabham BT21B Cosworth SCB, chassis #16. Bob Ilich was a Brabham Racing Organisation mechanic during the 1964-67 glory years and returned to WA with this car, which he raced very successfully for many years. The west had a very strong local 1.5-1.6-litre scene; for most of the 1960s and 1970s, they didn’t have Gold Star rounds due to the tyranny of distance from the east coast. More about Bob here:https://primotipo.com/2026/03/28/australian-racing-random-24/
Ilich fettling his Cosworth SCB 1498cc SOHC, two-valve, twin Weber 40 DCM2 downdraught-fed engine, the 1.5-litre variant of Cosworth’s successful 1-litre F2 engine. Ford 116E block, Heron or bowl-in-crown combustion chamber, Laystall steel crank etc. The literature sez 175bhp, but that sounds like a hand-on-willy number to me? (C Munday)(SLWA)
Cooper led the race comfortably from Walker (above), the pair lapping comfortably in the 61-second bracket, about 3 seconds quicker than the locals. Cooper, Walker, McAllister and Ilich were out front, way ahead of George Cole, Befa-Ford and Bernie Zampatti’s, Zalfa, an Alfa Romeo-powered spaceframe chassis machine.
GC copped a bit of excitement on lap 2 when the right-rear of Ken Gardiner’s GR3 zipped across the ‘main-straightaway’ in front of him, ‘Shades of Barnes Wallis and his dam-busting bouncing bombs!’ as Mike Cuss wrote.
By lap 11 of 35, Cooper was lapping the tail-enders for the second time, ‘leaving a string of slower cars between him and second-placed man John Walker, who was easing the Elfin along with overheating problems.’ McAllister spun and let Ilich through into third place and that’s the way they finished: Cooper, Walker 34 laps, Ilich 33, McAllister 31 and Colin Ekert, Elfin, 29 laps.
Bernie Zampatti’s Elfin Mono-esque in appearance Zalfa, an Alfa Romeo-powered single-seater (C Munday)(C Munday-MBisset-WordPress)Gilbert Motor Bodies was the Walker family’s Adelaide auto body business. Rear wing was mounted unfashionably forward (CMunday-MBisset-WordPress)
John Walker, note the period-correct Marlboro in his gob, did well in his 600Bs, winning the Victorian Joseph Lucas/Stillwell-Davison Trophy in #6907, and finishing second behind Max Stewart’s Mildren Waggott in the one-race, 40-lap, 67-mile 1970 Australian F2 Championship at Lakeside in September aboard his new #7018.
He raced that car on into 1971, finishing fourth in the 1971 F2 championship won by Larry Perkins’ Gary Campbell-owned Elfin 600B/E, then refocused on the Elfin MR5 Repco-Holden F5000 car from late 1971. #5714 was delivered in February 1972. JW had been racing twin-cam Elfins – Mono Mk2 and two 600Bs from late 1966 – so the step up was timely and just the ticket for the new class.
(SLWA-MBisset-WordPress)Garrie Cooper gets the goodies, Bob Ilich behind (SLWA-MBisset-SLWA)
Noting that I am a hopelessly biased Elfin fan, I think the gist of the following piece I wrote a while back about the 1970 Australian Gold Star Championship was, in part, that Cooper’s – designed and built by him and his team – 600D Repco 830 V8 was the COTY (car of the year), albeit one that was under-developed and a tad unreliable, see here: https://primotipo.com/2019/07/05/oran-park-diamond-trophy-gold-star-1970/
Elfin 600 front uprights, please discuss! Alford & Alder (Triumph Herald etc) forgings on the 600, 600B and 600 Formula Ford, cast magnesium on the 600E and fabricated steel on 600C and 600D, as above…
The 600D has always been on my list of favourite Australian Racing Cars along with a Matich A53 Repco-Holden, Bowin P8 Hart-Ford 416B, Elfin 360 Repco 830 2.5, Birrana 374 Ford and the Mawer 004 Formula Ford. Hmm, if I can only have one, it’s the 600D, lucky Frank Arronis, the car’s current custodian.
Etcetera…
(SLWA-MBisset-WordPress)
Walker and Cooper on the Wanneroo dummy grid, I’ve never been to the place, it’s time to go.
(SLWA-MBisset-WordPress)
Howie Sangster took a couple of wins in his Pinocchio (Nightclub) Racing Team Lola T70 Mk2 Chev. #SL71/38 the ex-Jack Epstein machine raced by Paul Hawkins, was gussied up with some McLaren components by this stage and was dubbed the McLaren LT70 or McLola, depending upon your religion.
Howie was a busy boy that weekend, also taking victory in a scratch race for Minis in Jim Mullins’ Cooper S; who are driving the first two cars in the panorama below, folks?
(SLWA-MBisset-WordPress)Bob Ilich (SLWA)Team Ilich and Brabham BT21B Cosworth SCB. I’ll get in touch with Bob, third from the right, to put names to the faces (SLWA-MBisset-WordPress)
Cosworth SCA/SCB/SCC…
The following are the specifications of a Weber-fed 1964 Cosworth SCA F2 engine.
The SC series is a significant engine in Cosworth’s back catalogue and no doubt occupied a bullet point or three in Colin Chapman’s PowerPoint presentation to Ford’s Walter Hayes when our-Col pitched Keith Duckworth and Mike Costin’s outfit as the preferred designer/constructors of his planned 3-litre V8 Grand Prix engine in 1965-66…the Ford Cosworth DFV V8 was the result of the alliance.
Four cylinder engine, capacity 997cc bore/stroke of 81mm/48.36 mm, compression ratio of 12.5:1 giving 115 bhp minimum @ 8700 rpm and torque of 76 lb ft @ 6800 rpm.
Cylinder Head. Cast aluminium alloy; cylinders, cast iron – bored in block. Bore dia. 3.1890/3.1895
Crankcase. Cast iron (Ford 116E) – monobloc type, crankshaft forged-nitrided steel (Laystall), end play .002 – 011″, thrust taken by two half washers. Main journal dia. 2.1255/2.1360″ Conrod journal dia. 1.9370/1.9375″ Stroke 1.903/1.906″ Main bearings shells – ‘Vandervell’ lead-indium, steel backed. Cosworth Part No. F0012 Main bearing caps are special steel, housing bored .015″ o/s
Camshaft. Monikrom, run in five bearings. Driven by a train of seven gears from the crankshaft. Bearings – white metal shell type ‘Vandervell’
Valve Mechanism: Inverted piston-type tappets, running directly on the camshaft. Chill-cast iron. Valve Timing F1 – 102 deg Cosworth camshaft 1O 58 deg BTDC IC 82 deg ATDC EO 82 deg BTDC EC 58 deg ATDC Valve lift .400″ Ramp .010″
Valves. Inlet material: austenitic steel. Head dia. 1.45 “; seat angle 45 deg; stem dia 9/32”. Exhaust. Material: austenitic steel. Head dia. 1.25 “; seat angle 45 deg; stem dia 9/32″. Valve Springs. Double springs, outer variable-pitch wound. Rate 260 Ib/in. Free length 1.65”. Fitted length 1.29″ (both measured on outer). Close coils to be fitted at head end.
Connecting rods material EN.24 Length centre to centre 5.434″ End Play .002 / .006″ Bearings Trimetal (steel backed)
Pistons. Special Cosworth/Hepolite, forged in RR59, one compression, one oil control ring. Gudgeon pins: hollow taper bored. Ground o/d 13/16″ dia nominal Clearance .0002 – 0005″ Retained by flat circlips Compression Ring Material Cast iron. Plain, high radial pressure. Ring gap .019″. Oil control ring Two separate scrapers in single groove
Water Pump, Cosworth, driven from front of jackshaft
Lubrication: dry sump full-pressure system. Main bearings – pressure fed. Connecting rods – pressure fed. Gudeon pins – splash. Cylinder wall, camshaft bearings – pressure fed. Tappets – splash. Timing gears – jet and splash. Oil Pump ‘Hobourn-Eaton’ type, Cosworth designed, mounted on side of cylinder block. Oil Filter. Not supplied with engine; should be full flow with special felt cartridge, and by-pass valve blanked off.
Distributor Lucas 40731 10 deg – 1000 rpm. Rotation anti-clockwise, Firing order 1 3 4 2. Contact breaker arm spring tension 32 oz. Centrifugal advance 20 deg on crank. Contact breaker gap .010 / 012″
Carburation: Two 40 DCM2 Weber. Choke size 32mm Jetted to suit the engine whilst being tested on a dynamometer. Inlet Manifolds: Cast Aluminium alloy, machined to house ‘O’ rings for flexible mounting.
Credits…
Chris Munday, State Library of Western Australia, Racing Car News July 1970, Autocar April 16, 1965, John Marsden, John Scott-Davies
Jack Brabham, with jaw firmly set, looks for his braking and turn-in points for Shell Corner at Sandown during the February 16, 1969 Sandown Park Cup in the one-off Brabham BT31-1 Repco 830 2.5 V8.
He was third in his only Tasman Cup appearance that summer, up front was Tasman winner, Chris Amon in a works Ferrari 246T with Jochen Rindt second in a works Lotus 49B Ford DFW.
(MildrenFilms-MBisset-Wordpress)
David McKay keeps an eye on Derek Bell’s works Ferrari 246T with Jack Brabham’s Brabham BT31 Repco as the field is assembled prior to the start of the Sandown race; the horsey nature of the place is readily apparent. The angle of incidence on Jack’s wing is on the shallow side; still, it’s a fast track.
(A Ould Collection)
BRM mechanic Allan Ould, Jack Brabham and a Goodyear rep looking pretty happy with BT31-1 in the Sandown paddock.
Post Brabham, Ould built several Aztec racing cars and then had a very successful career in the retail motor trade. Can anybody put me in touch with him? I want to invite him to a catch-up of the Repco Brabham Engines crew in November.
(JBrookfield-MBisset-WordPress)
A couple of days before, having finally got their hands on the car which had been stuck on the Port Melbourne docks as a consequence of a wharfies strike, BT31-1 is being race-prepared in RBE’s Mitchell Street, Maidstone factory. That’s John Brookfield at left, Jack alongside, then RBE’s GM Frank Hallam and Michael Gasking on the right.
(R Wolfe)
Shortly thereafter, on Friday the car was taken to Calder Raceway for systems checks. Jack is focused on the job at hand, while watched by John Brookfield leaning on the back of the car, Michael Gasking in grey and John Mepstead on the right.
And below off on another lap. The session was famously brought to an end when a farmer adjoining the Keilor property cracked-the-shits with the Repco boys who were running the car after a curfew which limited the hours during which race engines could do their thing. Gotta look after the sheep, after all…
(RWolfe-MBisset-Wordpress)Brabham on the way to BT31-1 victory in the Bathurst Gold Star round over the 1969 Easter weekend (oldracephotos.com/DSimpson)
BT31-1 is the lowest-mileage works Brabham of all. It contested the Sandown Tasman event and the Bathurst Australian Driver’s Championship Gold Star round over Easter in 1969, and was won by Jack in what was his final in-period RBE-powered win in a long relationship that commenced with Repco-prepared Coventry Climax FPFs at the dawn of the 1960s.
(unatt-MBisset-Wordpress)
Bathurst Gold Star grid on April 7, 1969. Leo Geoghegan in the white Lotus 39 Repco 730 on pole, with Niel Allen’s McLaren M4A Ford FVA and Max Stewart, Mildren Waggott TC-4V 1.6 comprising the front row.
Brabham is off grid seven; his task of winning the race was made easier when Stewart and Allen had an argument about the same bit of real estate in the Dipper that took both out on the spot on the first lap. Brabham won from John Harvey, Brabham BT23E Repco 830 and Henk Woelders, Elfin 600B Lotus-Ford.
Jack focused at the start (BFrankel-MBisset-Wordpress)(Unatt-MBisset-Wordpress)
I’m not sure that Jack practised without wings, but he certainly tested bi-winged and the set-up above, which is how he raced.
Down through the Dipper above and at rest below. The Brabham-Repco relationship concluded during 1969 with meetings at Sandown Park and Bathurst in Australia and stateside at Indianapolis and the Indianapolis Racing Park.
In the latter, Peter Revson brought the business relationship to an end in the best possible way by winning the IRP 200 from strong opposition, his Brabham BT25 powered by the 4.2-litre RBE760, the four-cammer redeeming itself with a splendid win against strong opposition…
(RWolfe-MBisset-Wordpress)(Repco)
RBE engineer, Brian Heard commented on this photograph, ‘This pic is of a 830 2.5L RB engine. Constructed specifically for the Aussie Tasman series. Great little engine, using the 800 block (cast in magnesium) which was essentially the same dimensionally as the 700 series block, but had a deck height 1.190″ shorter that the 700, making it very compact.’
‘The 30 series heads were earlier than the 40 series, but were very similar except for the exhaust ports, which exited outside the V. This engine had a 55mm stroke and weighed just 250lbs, meaning that it gave a little over 1hp/lb. It begs the question: why was it not used to make a 3L F1 830? Hmmm, can’t answer that; maybe others can?’
RBE 830 Tasman 2.5-litre V8. SOHC, two-valve, Lucas fuel injection, circa 295bhp @ 9000rpm.
Credits…
Ampol, Allan Ould Collection, oldracephotos.com/Dick Simpson, Brian Heard, Bob Frankel, Mildren Films
Jack Brabham, Cooper T53 Climax on pole of the Longford Trophy grid, March 5, 1961
He is surrounded by Cooper T51s: Bill Patterson‘s white one, that’s Patto walking away from the grid, Stan Jones blue machine, the nose of Roy Salvadori’s car is #12. Car #4 on row three is Lex Davison’s front engined interloper, Aston Martin DBR4/250 3-litre.
Salvadori won the Longford Trophy race aboard an Ecurie Vitesse – Jack Brabham Motor Racing – Cooper T51 Climax from Patterson, John Youl, and Austin Miller, all Cooper T51 mounted, then Davo’s Aston Martin. Brabham had a driveshaft break after completing 14 of the race’s 24 laps.
We’ve done this before of course, but a whole swag of Maurice Monk photographs justifies another crack I think, see here for the previous effort:https://primotipo.com/2018/02/22/roy-salvadori/
(J Richardson)(A Lamont Collection)(M Monk)
Brabham chewing the fat with Longford Motor Racing Club Supremo, Ron MacKinnon. Given Salvadori’s presence we can probably call that years Longford meeting the first international one, for cars at least
The other Australian Internationals that summer were the Warwick Farm 100 won by Stirling Moss in Rob Walker’s Lotus 18 Climax, and the Victoria Trophy held at Ballarat Airfield won by Dan Gurney’s BRM P48. I guess the Longford Motor Racing Association didn’t have the readies to pay the start money to Walker or BRM.
Roy had better luck in Australia than he did in New Zealand where he raced a Yeoman Credit Lotus 18 Climax at Ardmore, Levin, Wigram and Teretonga, his best a second place at Teretonga. He had gearbox problems twice and a leaking radiator in the other events.
(B Wright)
‘Salvo’ crossed the Tasman Sea to Australia and raced the Cooper used by Ron Flockhart that Australasian season, in Tasmania and two International races a day apart at the new Hume Weir circuit outside Albury on the New South Wales/Victoria border. He was fourth in one, DNF the other, both races were won by Brabham’s Cooper T53 ‘Lowline’ photographed in this piece.
In this pre-Tasman period the Longford Trophy was an Australian Drivers Championship – Gold Star – event. It was one of the five rounds in 1961 albeit the very full calendar had 15 Formula Libre events.
Bill Patterson took the title with victories at Bathurst, Lowood and Caversham. Lex Davison nicked the AGP at Mallala from David McKay after a very ropey jumped-start call, and Salvadori won in Tasmania.
Stan Jones, Cooper T51 FPF, Bib Stillwell, Aston Martin DBR4 3-litre before one of the Saturday preliminaries(A Lamont Collection)(M Monk)
Grid of a mixed touring car and GT race.
Leo Geoghegan, Lotus Elite from David Lewis’ Holden Grey, Gavin Youl, Porsche 356, David McKay, Ferrari 250 Pininfarina, #39 Ron Marshall, AC Bristol, #30 Alan Ling, Holden, #121 Davison, #26 Doherty, #34 Maguire, #66 Gorringe, #130 H Cape, #40 Beechey and the rest! And below, McKay, Geoghegan and Youl charge across Long Bridge.
(B Wright)(M Monk)
Grid of ‘The Examiner’ sports car handicap on the Monday morning. Murray Carter’s Carter Corvette V8 on pole from John Ampt in the ex-Whitehead/Jones/Phillips Cooper T38 Jaguar, Bob Jane’s Maserati 300S, Alan Jack, Cooper Climax, #13 Geoff Smedley, Le Mans Jaguar Spl, Gavin Youl’s Porsche 356B, #20 JW Barrie, Zephyr Spl and the #16 MGA of RS Ward towards the rear.
Maurie Monk, Austin 7 Spl, Aust Motor Sports Club speed trials, Geelong Road, September 1947
Etcetera…
Maurice Monk, who took many of these marvellous photographs, was co-founder of the Confederation of Australian Motorsport, CAMS, along with Donald Thomson.
‘Maurie’ was awarded the CAMS Award of Merit for his contribution to motorsport as a competitor, organiser and administrator. He was CAMS first President in 1953 and served again in that role in 1956.
He constructed a line of some 17 competition cars for motorsport events ranging from mud-trials to sprints and hillelimbs. These were successful in his and other family member’s hands.
(A Wylie)
Maurie Monk and Harry Firth with their HL Firth entered Standard Vanguard before the start of the 1957 Mobilgas Round Australia Trial. Car damaged at Mt Isa-Gloncurry as below.
(A Wylie)(M Monk)(M Monk)
Stan, Anita and Michael Monk in the Longford paddock in 1961. Gotta be a Ronson Stan, surely?
(M Monk)
Longford was born to host the February 27-28, 1953 Australian Motorcycle Tourist Trophy.
The key men to get the event out of the water were local identity, Martin Coombe, and Longford councillor, Ray Chortle. Then local landowner Ron MacKinnon added his weight and muscle…and agreement to use his land.
Maurie Quincey won the Unlimited TT on his Norton Manx. The 12-lapper was reduced to four laps as the program was running late, so the race was shortened to ensure the Launceston-Hobart evening train crossed the track unimpeded!
The 1955 meeting included Geoff Duke on the final leg of his Australian Tour, so I guess his works-Gilera participation constitutes the first International Longford.
Geoff Duke’s Gilera 500-4 at Longford during the 1955 meeting (B Young Collection)
Jim Scaysbrook wrote that ‘Duke was timed at 144mph on his works-four cylinder Gilera on The Flying Mile, and despite severe misgivings about certain aspects of the track, he won both his races.’
‘Duke noted that the planks used to surface the bridges ran in the direction of travel, and had sizable gaps between them! In the first start, magneto trouble knocked 1600rpm off the Gilera’s maximum of 10,600 set in on lap 6 of the eight-lap race, allowing local star Max Stevens on the ex-Quincey Norton to close within nine seconds when the chequered flag came out. A replacement magneto was flown across from Melbourne, and after a quick trip to Launceston to fit it, he returned to win again and raised the lap record to a 92mph average.’
Maurie Monk and Arthur Wylie via the Anita Monk Collection, John Richardson, Andrew ‘Slim’ Lamont, Bob Wright via Kay Wright, Ron Lambert, oldracingcars.com, ‘Longrod. Fast, furious, friendly.’ by Jim Scaysbrook, Old Bike Australia, February 2019, Bob Young Collection, Ellis French for car identification, George Thomas via Tony Johns Archive
Nurburgring 1000km Paul Hawkins competing with S221, the Cyril Simson owned, Healey homologated, ‘Sebring Sprite’ in the pit area during 1960. The Team 221 machine Hawkins shared with Simson machine was 38th.
John Whitehouse-Bird wrote, ‘Then again, during 1961, following the car’s extensive reworking, as one of just five, John Sprinzel marketed, Williams & Pritchard Ltd, alloy-bodied, Sebring Sprite’ coupes. The car survives.’ The same duo shared the J Sprinzel entered car but failed to finish. See more on Hawkins and Healeys here:https://primotipo.com/2020/09/25/hawkeye/
Isn’t it a pretty car! The two Lotus Elites are the #93 Greenall/Baillie, DNF, and #97 Busch/Schmitz Lotus Elite, DNF engine (J Whitehouse-Bird)(C Jack Collection-MBisset-WordPress)
Ayrton Senna, Van Diemen RF82, sneaks a look in his mirrors in the March 8, 15 lap round of the 1982 British Formula Ford 2000 Championship. That’s Aussie, Colin Jack in the #9 Reynard SF82 alongside.
Colin picks up the story, ‘I was second on the grid in my third race in England, Silverstone, British Formula Ford 2000 Championship in 1982. I was in the new Reynard Super Ford, while all around me were Van Diemens, Senna was seven-tenths of a second quicker in qualifying and drove away after I tried to hustle him into Copse. Still my claim to some little fame is that I came second to one of the best ever. I also beat a couple of others that went into F2 and F1. Great memories.
I started racing in 1977, in a 250 Supercart, then switched to cars with a Bowin P6F. I had a hard shunt at Surfers, rebuilt it with some mods, before being offered the Birrana (F2) drive with Paul Liston, Wrangler sponsorship was secured by my girlfriend Liz Ainsly and after a learning year in F2, I decided to see what I could do against the best from around the world. Great experience and eternal memories!’
(C Jack Coll-MBisset-WordPress)
Colin first caght my eye when I was ‘helping’ Alan Bisset with his Bowin P4A FF and Colin was rattling around in a P6F, not exactly the thing to have by then in the Bridgestone RD102 road-radial days when P4A’s were the duck’s guts.
Paul Liston’s 1974 Birrana 274-012 (shown here) was long in the tooth by 1980 but it was wings and slicks – ground effect tunnels even! – progress which Jack’s skills behind the wheel pursuaded it into equal seventh position in the 1980 Australian F2 Championship; all of the cars in front of him were much more modern.
Steve Wiessner built Ford 711M 1.6-Crossflow with all-steel internals, fed by a pair of 45DCOE Webers would have given 160bhp or so in the day. ‘Box looks like a Hewland Mk9 rather than the FT200 fitted ex-factory (C Jack-MBisset-WordPress)
Birrana 274-012 was ex-Wolfgang Prejawa. The car was originally fitted with a Lotus-Ford 1.6-litre twin-cam for the then ANF2 1.6-litre twin cam rules, and then Wolfy fitted a Ford BDA to race in the 1976-77 New Zealand Formula Pacific Championship.
Several of the Birranas competed there, BDA powered: memory suggests that Graham Baker bought and raced Chas Talbot’s 274-016 and Graeme Crawford raced his 273-010, the 1976 ANF2 Championship winner.
(W Clayton)
Bueselmann contesting the the 1977 New Zealand Formula Pacific Championship aboard Birrana 274-012 Ford BDA qualifies him as an Aussie Abroad of course; above, circuit unknown.
The place of a journeyman-racer amongst That Grid in That Year was a challenge: Keke Rosberg, Tom Gloy, Bruce Allison, Steve Millen, David Oxton, John Nicholson, David McMillan, Andrew Miedecke and others were a take-no-prisoners bunch of young thrusters! Rosberg won the five round series aboard a Fred Opert Chevron B34 from Gloy and Allison.
Enno didn’t have the happiest times of it in New Zealand with brake problems at Baypark, a DNS at Pukekohe, he was 14th at Manfield, had engine dramas at Teretonga, and didn’t enter the final round at Wigram.
(Birrana Cars via Steve Bannister-MBisset-WordPress)
I love this 1972 Birrana magazine ad, I wonder if the comedian was Mal Ramsay or Tony Alcock…or another member of the team? It’s Mal aboard the #51 272 Ford.
(M Bowyer)
Frank Gardner in the SCA European Freight Services Chev Camaro ZL-1 he raced in Europe during 1973, here at Silverstone during the July British Grand Prix weekend.
The engine will be familiar to Oz Taxi Fans as the 427cid/7-litre Reynolds 390 silicon aluminium block – note the McLaren Chevrolet rocker covers – run by Bob Jane in his ZL-1 until CAMS cracked the shits with him and changed the Improved Touring rules at the end of ’71. And yes, he won the Australian Touring Car Championship with a ‘little-350’ in 1972. The Holley 850CFM fed monster gave somewhere north of 600 bhp and lb/ft of torque…more than adequate as Rolls Royce would say.
(M Bowyer)
Brian Muir shared the touring car grids with Gardner aboard a 385bhp 3.5-litre BMW CSL. I was thinkin’ it would be an ETCC round and therefore the results would be easy to find, not so! Who won the tourer events that weekend folks? More about Brian’s 1973 here:https://primotipo.com/2022/09/03/brian-muir/
(M Bowyer)
The shot below is of Brian five years earlier with Francisco Godia-Sales having won the April 7, 1968 Barcelona 6-Hour, at fabulous Montjuïc Parc in this Escuderia Montjuïc Ford GT40
In a great weekend for Muir, he popped the car on pole, set fastest lap and won it, game over! John Fitzpatrick and Allan Rollinson were second in a Porsche 910.
(J Vinals)(M Bowyer)
Alan Jones had a great 1973 season, finishing second in the British F3 Championship in this DART – Dennis Dobbie’s Dobbie Automobile Racing Team – GRD 373 Ford-Vegantune. Tony Brise beat him by only two points in a similar GRD. He finally broke free from F3 that year, and then his rise and rise was rather rapid.
Malcolm Bowyer took this British GP 1973 shot where AJ was third in the race won by Tony Rouff, GRD, with fellow Aussie, Buzz Buzaglo a great seventh in a leased March 723 Ford, while Larry Perkins was a DNF in his Ensign LNF3 Ford after an accident.
A few more shots of the Jones boy’s GRD – chassis 060-F3 – rare as they are, at Oulton Park, April 2, second round of the BRSCC John Player British F3 Championship.
Group Racing Developments was founded by ex-Lotus Components folks after Colin Chapman closed it: notable David Lazenby, Dave Baldwin and Gordon Huckle. The Jo Marquart designed cars were quick. Van Diemen acquired acquired the business in late 1975.
(R O’Reilly)(R O’Reilly)
The Oulton front row comprises Jones, Russell Wood, March 733 Ford, and Tony Brise, GRD 373 Ford. Wood won from Jones with Brise a DNF accident.
Brise won heat one from Wood, and Jones heat two from Larry Perkins, GRD 372 Ford, with Larry a DNF in the feature after an accident on the first lap.
(Barratt Press)
Joan Richmond and Margaret Allen at Brooklands in 1934, Joan’s ride is a Ernest Henry designed Ballot 3/8 LC 3-litre, straight-eight built for the 1921 Grand Prix season; the ex-Malcolm Campbell/Jack Dunfee 100bhp @ 4000rpm beautiful bolide was hardly a State of the Art machine by ’34.
She bagged one fastest lap at Brooklands in a somewhat frustrating season with chassis 1006 before the exotic Frenchie threw a rod at warp speed and punched an expensive hole in the crankcase at about 103 mph.
The same thing happened to the pair of Stephen Brown/Cooper Brothers Ballots. Jim Gullan had the ? fail in his ex-Louis Wagner Ballot 5/8LC chassis #1004 in January 1939 AGP at Lobethal. He related in his book, ‘As we approached the end of Kayannie Straight (during practice) around 120 mph, there was an enormous crash under the bonnet and the air was filled with pieces of flying metal. The crankcase had a huge hole, the sump had been carved in half by an errant rod, and the Scintilla magneto was hanging by its plug leads.’ Not to forget that poor Jack Nelson had the crankshaft of the ex-Jules Goux 2LS #15 blow up the year before during the 1938 Albany Grand Prix.
The Richmond 3/8LC is owned by an Austrian, the remains of the 2LS are in the hands of an Australian marque enthusiast. ‘Racing Ron Edgerton’ ‘woggerised’ the 5/8LC a bit is his 1970-80s restoration but it was a runner when sold to a UK owner about 40 years ago and hasn’t seen the light of day since.
(G Moores)
Ron Barnacle was a Melbourne advertising executive who raced a Wren F3 machine before ‘stepping back’ into Formula Ford for some years before winning the 1984 Driver to Europe Series in a Royale RP31.
Here he is in the Brands Hatch paddock during the 1985 Formula Ford Festival weekend, his mount, a Van Diemen RF85, I’m not sure how he went. Johnny Herbert won the event in a Quest FF85, from Jonathon Bancroft, Damon Hill and Mark Blundell. Other notables on the grid included Eric van de Poele, Frank Biela, Perry McCarthy, Tim Harvey and Roland Ratzenberger.
AS a Victorian I saw a lot of his racing, he did well in an ex-Charlie O’Brien Ralt RT1 Ford BDA (RT1/78-145) in the early years of Ralt RT4 dominated Formula Pacific and lived the dream by contesting an the AGP in 1981 (13th).
These days he operates a commercial 900 acre cattle property (vealers and dairy heifers) in South Gippsland after retiring from the top of the ad industry, including a stint as Chairman of the Clemenger Group, in 2010.
(Schenken Collection)
This has a late 1971 feel about it to me. Tim Schenken tests the Ferrari 312PB he raced as part of the Scuderia Ferrari squad in 1972-73, here at Modena.
(G Hoffman-MBisset-WordPress)
Cruising through the Brands Hatch paddock with great mate, Ronnie Peterson here, during the ’72 Brands 1000k – second in the race won by teammates Jacky Ickx/Mario Andretti – and below, on the hop at Le Mans in 1973 in the car he shared with Carlos Reutemann, DNF engine in the 12th hour. The race was won by the Henri Pescarolo/Gerard Larrousse Matra-Simca MS670B.
Tony Gaze set an early precedent and benchmark for Aussies racing abroad post-war, here in a press conference over the 1956 New Zealand Grand Prix weekend, at Ardmore, near Auckland.
From the left it’s RM Grierson, President of the Auckland International Grand Prix Inc, Gaze, Stirling Moss, Reg Parnell, Peter Whitehead and Leslie Marr.
Gaze and Whitehead raced 3-litre Ferrari 500/625s, Moss, the family Maserati 250F, Parnell the Aston Martin DP155 ‘F1 prototype’ and Leslie Marr, a 3.4-litre Jaguar XKD spec powered Connaught B-Type; Moss won from Gaze, Whitehead, Marr and Parnell.
(Bonhams)
Gaze aboard the HWM Alta s/c, chassis #52-107, during practice at Wigram in 1954.
Beautiful pan of Gaze out in the breeze, HWM #52-107, Wigram 1954 (J Manhire Collection)(R Moormann)
Rolled Gold Australian Formula Ford shot from Romain Moorman taken during the October 22, 1972 Formula Ford World Cup race meeting at Brands Hatch.
1971 Australian Formula Ford Champion (Driver to Europe) Larry Perkins in the very first Elfin 620, and behind him, the just minted 1972 Champ, Bob Skelton in the very first Bowin P6F. The Elfin 620/620B/623/622 – Formula Ford/ANF3/ANF2 – were a very successful series of cars for Garrie Cooper while the variable-rate-suspension P6F/P6 – Formula Ford/ANF3/ANF2 – were successful in the right hands, for John Joyce.
Larry’s international career started right here. Note ‘Team Elfin’, it was a works-entry (chassis #7248 was deliverd to Perkins in July 1972, early enough for him to do a DTE round or two before it was shipped to Ye Olde Dart) that was returned to Edwardstown post-trip, and the open-face Bell Magnum helmet. David Oxton reckons the bloke striding purposefully between Skelton’s car and the pit counter may be ace mechanic, Bruce Richardson.
The Norman Reeves Motor Group – signage on each car – was a prominent Ford dealer with multiple outlets, I’ve no idea what the connection to Larry or Bob was.
Skelton, Bowin P4A, Bob Skelton, Bowin P4X, Larner, Wren and an Elfin 600, circuit dunno. Bowins won all eight rounds of the 1972 TAA Formula Ford DRiver to Europe Series (Colin Anderson-RCN)
The decision for Bob Skelton as 1972 wore on was what car to take to England. His championship winning Bowin P4A or the modern as tomorrow, edgy-wedgy, variable rate suspension P6F; the known and trusted, or, maybe, The Unfair Advantage. What would you have done? Bob chose the latter. More about him here:https://primotipo.com/2020/03/24/bobs-on-the-job/
Skelton took delivery of his new P6F-119-72 on September 8, 1972 and had time to test it at Sandown, Melbourne (below) – Bowins were made in Brookvale, Sydney – before plonking it on a boat/plane for the UK.
Bob Skelton in his brand new Bowin P6F #119-72, Torana Corner, Sandown, date unknown in August/September 1972. The Goodyear RR12 was the Oz FF control tyre then (autopics.com.au-MBisset-WordPress)Bob Skelton, Bowin P6 Hart-Ford 416B, ahead of Leo Geoghegan’s similarly powered Birrana 273-006 during the August 18, 1973 ANF2 Championship round at Amaroo Park. Leo and Bob qualified one-two and finished the 41-lap race in the same order (J Payne)
The really neat thing about the whole exercise was that when Skelton returned to Australia he took the car back to Brookvale and John Joyce converted that same spaceframe chassis machine above – P6F-119-72 – from Formula Ford to Australian National Formula 2 spec.
Out with the Ford Crossflow, Hewland Mk9, solid rotors and Ford calipers and on with a Hart-Ford 416B, Hewland FT200, Girling calipers, wings etc. Hey presto, a car quick enough to best 1973 ANF2 Champion’s, Leo Geoghegan’s dominant Birrana 273 Hart-Ford – following Skello at Amaroo Park above – occasionally in qualifying during that dominant year for Leo. Geoghegan won the title from the similarly mounted Enno Buesselmann with Skelton a distant third.
The two Bowin P6 Formula 2 cars were P6F-119-72 and Bruce Allison’s P6F-129-73, a car Bruce disliked intensely. Both became hillclimbers in their mid-life, powered by Leyland P76 V8s. Have either been restored?
Allan Grice shared this Paul Vestey/Charles Ivey Racing Porsche 956 with Chris Craft and Alain De Cadenet at Le Mans in 1984, DNF engine in the fifth hour, and below in the Nissan R88C he shared with Mike Wilds and Win Percy at La Sarthe in 1988 to 14th place.
The performances of the touring car ace late in his career, DOB October 21, 1942, in these very demanding, powerful, ground-effect cars was really something to behold. It makes you wonder what he could have achieved had Howard Marsden/Allan Heaphy or whoever got him over-yonder a little earlier. A bit more here:https://primotipo.com/2025/09/18/aussie-porsche-le-mans-racers-random/
Here’s the John Reaburn/Geoff Russell Mk3 Ford Zephyr three-wheeling through the Dipper on its way to second in class and fifth outright in the 1963 Bathurst 500. It bagged the same result the previous year at Phillip Island.
Credits…
Jonathon Whitehouse-Bird, Colin Jack Collection, Birrana/Steve Bannister, Romain Moormann, Malcolm Bowyer, J Vinals, J Manhire Collection, Warwick Clayton, Greg Moores, Barratt Press Agency, Ric O’Reilly, Auckland Library, John Payne, John Reaburn Archive, autopics.com.au
Australian auto and aero engineering genius and ace racing driver, Donald Harkness set the first official over 100 mph Australian Land Speed Record in front of about 1,000 people in a self-built Minerva Hispano Suiza V8 special at 107.14 mph on Seven Mile Beach, near Gerringong, New South Wales on October 17, 1925.
Smith’s Weekly, covered the story in its motoring column, on Saturday October 31, 1925.
HIT A SAND RIDGE at 120 MILES P.H. How Don Harkness Won The Guardian Cup.
INSIDE STORY OF THE RECORD BREAKING HISPANO SUIZA
HIS FIRST APPEARANCE on a speedway gained Don Harkness the reputation of being one of Australia’s most fearless racing drivers, and those who have seen him in action at Penrith Speedway have had their fill of thrills from him. As he bangs his clutch in at the start of a race down comes his other foot on the gas and stays there until the finishing post is reached.
ONCE HIS FOOT SLIPPED off the accelerator, just when he was hot on the tail of another competitor. But only once. Since then he hss had a leaden sole fitted to his boot to prevent the vibration from shaking it off the pedal.
WHEN THE SYDNEY GUARDIAN offered a £50 Cup to the first Australian motorist to cut out a speed of 100 miles an hour Don set his mind on decorating his sideboard with it, even if it cost him £1,000 to get it. lt probably cost him and his friend, F. E. Colbert, more, and it nearly cost a good mechanic into the bargain. But he got the Cup.
HOW HE WENT AFTER IT is told in the following story.
As a feeler and to get used to the going on Gerringong Beach, Harkness tried out his little Overland special “Whitey,” which has put up such phenomenal speeds on other tracks. Her limit was an average of 84 miles an hour for the measured mile, although at one time she touched 100 m.p.h., and he realised that be would have to get more power to maintain a very high speed on a beach which under the most favourable conditions was tricky.
A big engine and a heavy chassis to hold it down was the only solution, and an aeroplane engine struck Harkness as being a likely power unit that be could doctor up. So he and Colbert looked around and bought a Hispano-Suiza 8-cylinder aero engine, which although only rated at 80 hp would develop in the vicinity of of 200 hp at full revs, providing the chassis was strong enough to hold it in captivity.
THE MYSTERY TOUCH
The next job was to get a chassis strong enough to harness it into. A Minerva filled the bill admirably, and Harkness set to work ln a closely-guarded corner of his Ashfield engineering works to build what is now Australla’s super speed car.
Fearing that be would be worried by friends and perhaps rivals during the weary weeks that he worked on this speed eater. Harkness decided to keep the whole business strictly secret. He took only one man into his confidence, C. Prestage, a skilled mechanic who could make any special parts and keep his mouth closed between meals.
Work on the mystery flyer started each night when the staff left the works and often continued on until daybreak. Many special jigs had to be made, forged and machined, and various experiments in timing and gearing carried out.
(Smith’s Weekly-MBisset-WordPress)Gerroa, Crooked River and Seven Mile Beach c-1930 (Kiama Library)
After nearly two months work this Goliath of the car world was ready for its initial trials. Two days before the car was shipped on the train for Gerringong the news leaked out that Harkness had built a car that was going to be the fastest automobile in Australasia. He didn’t mind them however, for he felt confident that his speed baby was going to be a success.
The next step was the beach trials or what amounted to a full dress rehearsal of what he wanted to show the timekeepers of the R.A.C.A. the following day.
LEAPT 40 FEET
The beach was deserted as Harkness climbed into the driver’s seat, adjusted his goggles and signalled his mechanic to follow. His foot touched the accelerator and the engine, which had been purring like a cat a few seconds before, sprang into life with a deafening roar.
Harkness pulled his cap more tightly around his ears, save an adjusting touch to his goggles, then, with an ear-splitting note, the clutch was let in.
Instantly the huge machine leaped forward. A quarter of a mile was thrown behind when the mechanic saw the hand of the speedo climbing over the 70 mark Another few yards and it registered 75, then 80, 90, 100, 105, 110, 115, 120, then, crash, and a shower of sand and salt water that stung like lead pellets flew up into the air and the car followed, bounding about three feet off the ground and continuing its flight in mid air for 40 feet.
When it hit the ground again Harkness took a quick glance at his mechanic who, not being ready for the bump to earth again. was thrown into the air. As he seemed about to go overboard, Harkness’ hand flew out, grabbed his coat, and wrenched him back into his seat.
It was a close shave. The car had hit a tiny sand spit which, although hardly visible to the naked eye, was enough to throw the machine into the air at such a terrific speed.
Don Harkness – perhaps according to the ABC, I’m not so sure – on a solo test run of the Minerva Hispano Suiza at Gerringong (Kiama Library)
TURNING AT 80 M.P.H.
The incident took the driver’s mind off his work for a second and caused a greater thrill. At the end of the beach is a dead end banked with sand, and at this the machine raced at 120 miles an hour. To hit it at that speed would mean a killing and a burial in one, and to pull up before hitting it was an impossibility. Harkness did the next best thing. He switched off his engine and swung the car completely around at 60 m.p.h. a dozen yards from the bank.
When the car pulled up, Harkness and Prestage shook hands and cancelled their orders to the undertakers.
The following day the car was officially timed over a measured distance by Harry Kerr, R. V. Hodgson, and G. Henderson, secretary of the R.A.C.A. From about a quarter of a mile off the line the car touched 50 miles an hour and reached 120 miles an hour as it crossed the finishing line. The average speed was 107.14 m.p.h., or 83 3/5 sec. for a measured mile.
The trial went off without a hitch, and the car pulled up in good order. There were no thrills. They had happened the day before.
The Daily Guardian Cup (Harkness Archive-Powerhouse Museum)
The Hispano-Suiza V8 chosen by Harkness, an easy one given his aeronautical knowledge, was a Type 8, water-cooled, SOHC engine, ‘the most commonly used liquid-cooled engine in the aircraft of entente powers during the First World War.’
The original Type 8A (11.76 litres/717.8 cid) was rated at 140 hp, and the later larger displacement Type 8F (18.5 litres/1128.94 cid) reached 330 hp.’ Harkness’ engine was a Wolseley Viper variant, 3,050 of which were built. The engine shown below is a H-S Viper W.4a unit of 1918 vintage rated at 210 bhp.
(Powerhouse Museum)(The Referee-MBisset-WordPress) July 9, 1930)
Five years after setting the Australian LSR, Harkness had designed, built and was testing the Harkness Hornet, a water-cooled, inline four-cylinder, SOHC, two-valve aero engine which used one cylinder bank of his favourite Hispano-Suiza engine married to a crankcase of his own design. See here:https://collection.powerhouse.com.au/object/208620
Donald James Harkness, December 1898-November 11, 1972, shown here in the 1930s (Fairfax)
Willys Overland…
The Smith’s Weekly article makes mention of Harkness’s Overland racer nicknamed Whitey, two of which Don raced circa 1924-26, so let’s take a high-level, as against race-by-race look at them.
Over time Harkness seems to have become the ‘Overland Dealer Team’ in the way Harry Firth (and others) managed to attach themselves to a manufacturer or importer to prepare competition cars to help build the brand.
A cursory Trove search reveals that Harkness ran Overland 15/18hp’s in NSW Reliability Trials (the rallies of the day) from circa 1922, before getting more serious with the construction of the Willys-Overland 91 based (1923-26), four-cylinder, 154 cid, three-bearing, side-valve – but OHV soon enough – Whitey (lets call them W1 and W2) racers circa-1924.
A variety of ex-factory body styles all sat on a 100-inch wheelbase chassis, Willys-Overland produced their own diff, but outsourced the standard artillery wheels from Hayes. Type 91 suspension was Overland’s ‘trick’ ‘Triplex’ system, a three point cantilever design front and rear which comprised a pair of quarter-elliptic springs mounted to the chassis at angles rather than the more conventional set-up of springs being parallel to the frame.
The racers were built and prepared at Harkness & Hillier. Don Harkness did his apprenticeship at JC Hillier’s garage in Bridge Street, Drummoyne, the pair became business partners in 1922-23. (also H&H Ltd and H&H Pty Ltd depending on the date). Their involvement in the Australian Six car project resulted in the move to much bigger premises on the corner of Parramatta Road and William Street, Five Dock.
Whitey 1, place and date unknown (Harkness Archive- Powerhouse Museum)Harkness & Hillier factory and foundry at Parramatta Road, Five Dock, Sydney undated (Harkness Archive-Powerhouse)
Whitey 1 was immediately competitive with the French Blue Bloods – Bugatti and Ballot – and the quicker British and American marques at Penrith, Maroubra, Gerringong and elsewhere.
The Daily Telegraph reported in its October 11, 1924 issue, under the headline, OVERLAND SPORTS: A Very Fast Car, that, ‘There has been quite a lot of discussion in motor circles lately regarding the Overland special sports car driven by Mr. D. Harkness in the recent Artillery Hill Climb and in the car race at Penrith on Monday last. Which latter race it won. On Tuesday last, in his account of the Penrith: races, the writer described this car as being a “Miller-Overland,” and “Miller-engined Overland,” being under the impression that it was a special job,’which had been converted into a racing chassis, outside of the Overland factory, by the fitting of a Miller-head with overhead valves and two Miller carburetters.’
D.R. (Daniel R) Noonan was a Paris, Illinois, American machinist, inventor and racing driver famous for high-performance heads and aftermarket modifications for Ford and Overland. He was a Californian Overland dealer (G Murnane Collection)
‘To this, Messrs. Overland, Sydney, Ltd., have taken exception, stating that this special Overland sports is a product of the Willys-Knight-Overland factory, in America, and is one of six recently supplied by that factory to its Sydney agents. Whether Miller is the maker of the special cylinder-head and overhead valve gear, they are unable to say, but, in any case, the product was assembled in, and sent out from, the Overland factory, and has every right to be termed an Overland Sports.’
‘As a matter of fact, except for the modification mentioned above, as well as a special high-pressure lubricating system and lightened reciprocating parts, the sports chassis is identical with the chassis of the standard chassis of model 91, selling at £190. In addition, Gabriel Snubbers have been fitted, as well as wire wheels, and, naturally, the gear ratios have been altered to fit the chassis for racing purposes. The chassis thus modifled can be purchased by anyone desiring it at a sum of £400. The engine is said to “rev” at 5000 r.p.m., and with a top gear ratio of 3.5 to 1, and 80-inch wheels, a speed well over 100 m.p.h, should be attained on this chassis under favorable conditions.’
‘The writer was informed by a representative of Messrs, Overland, Sydney, that Mr. Boyd Edkins had issued a challenge for a race between a 30-98 h.p. Vauxhall and the Sports Overland, and that this race would probably take place shortly, on the Penrith Speedway.’
CABLE FROM AMERICA.
Since writing the above, the writer has been notified by telephone that Messrs. Overland, Sydney, Ltd., have received a cable from the factory in America, stating that the head on the Overland Sports “is not a Miller head” (but WAS a Noonan two-OHV head).
Harkness taking Wizard Smith for a serious spin during a R.A.C.A. 1926 Royal National Park Hillclimb meeting in one of his beloved Overlands (Milton Kent-Harkness Archive-Powerhouse Museum)Harkness and passenger aboard Whitey 2 at Penrith circa-1925 (unattibuted)
Whitey 2…
Whitey 2 had broken cover by January 1925 when the motor-noter of the Lithgow Mercury remarked upon ‘the consistency and speed given at Penrith on New Year’s Day by Mr D. Harkness in the Overland Sports Model Whitey II.’ Did W2 have some carry-over components of W1? Dunno.
‘Matched against the fastest ears in New South Wales, the Overland Sports cleaned the programme by completely outclassing every car in each event. The 10 miles Championship of New South Wales was easily won from the Vauxhall and the Itala. The much discussed Challenge Race between the Vauxhall and the Overland Sporta resulted in an easy victory for the Overland, the 5 miles being covered in the phenomenal time of 4 minutes 51 seconds, which is a track record for the course.’
‘Overland Whitey II, the victor, is the successor to the once famous Whitey I, which some years ago beat the same Vauxhall in the Queensland Automobile Club’s hill climbing championship.’
‘The Overland referred to is a special sports model and differs only from the famous model 91 inasmuch as it is fitted with overhead valves, high pressure lubrieating system, two Miller carburettors and a Noonan (Willys Knight representative) head. All reciprocating parts, connecting rods, pistons, ete., are standard, but machined down to secure lightness, as is usually the case in all sports models or racing cars. Overland Sydney Limited, 148 Castlereagh Street, Sydney, are the agents.’
In February 1925 the Managing Director of Overland Sydney Ltd was R Cobden. I wonder if that’s Dick Cobden’s father?
By May 1925 the capacity of Whitey 2 in a ‘paper report of Penrith race results was 2672cc, in August, 2260cc. By May 1926, if not earlier, W2 was supercharged. John Medley suggests that the Overland was probably the first car supercharged locally. I’ve no under-bonnet shots of either Whitey, I’ll gratefully receive them if any of you can oblige…
The Whiteys won over 50 races including the first race at Maroubra on November 21, 1925 a match race between Harkness and Hal Cooper’s Stephen Brown financed ex-Jules Goux Ballot 2LS 2-litre, ‘a magnificent Ballot racing car, which it’s said, cost £4,000.’
Don Harkness settles himself behind the controls of Alan Cooper’s 1919 Ballot 5/8 LC 4.8-litre straight-eight; chassis #1004 was Louis Wagner’s Indy 500 mount. H&H rebuilt the car – see text- probably using an Australian Six chassis, and fitted the other body acquired with the car and spares when purchased by Stephen Brown, of the enormous J & A Brown Newcastle coal mining and distribution business, from E.Ballot et Cie in mid-1925 (ClarkeFamilyCollection via VSCCA)
Harkness was in the news again in August 1926 when he took to the track at Maroubra in Alan Cooper’s Stephen Brown financed Ballot 5/8 LC. Cooper destroyed the chassis and much else of the car – ex-Louis Wagner works 1919 4.8-litre straight-eight Indy racer – in a massive Maroubra January 2, 1926 accident from which he survived ok but broke both of his riding mechanic’s thighs. It’s thought the car was rebuilt around an Australian Six chassis. Harkness & Hillier were up to their armpits in that project at the time in an attempt to recover unpaid debts incurred as a supplier before F.H Gordon & Co’s insolvency. See here:https://primotipo.com/2023/10/27/ballots-and-coopers/
There are so many strands to Don Harkness’s life, great grandson, Stephen Ottley’s biography will be well worth the read when finished!
On December 11, 1926 Don had a tyre failure and spun to the inside of Maroubra into the soft sand. Phil Garlick, close to him at the time reasoned that ‘it turned several complete circles before the deep sand brought it to a standstill, and Harkness was thrown out in the process.’ He was uninjured.
A month later Harkness contested the first Australian Grand Prix at Goulburn on January 15, but Whitey 2 was beaten by Morgan’s Rajo Ford in the first heat, and by Jack O’Rourke’s Bugatti T39 in a match race. Geoff Meredith won the final in a Bugatti T30.
Three weeks after Goulburn, Harkness loaned the car to seasoned 27 year old Glebe racer, Fred Barlow to race at Maroubra on February 5, his car was hors d’ combat. Barlow lost control on the last lap of a night race when in contention for the lead, and ‘crashed over the embankment into the darkness beyond, at the exact spot where Phil Garlick met his death a few weeks ago.’ The poor racer survived the accident but died overnight.
I’m not so sure Don Harkness raced after this. I can’t see anything about a fiery accident in 1935 that various sources say caused his retirement from racing?
I’ll take marque experts advice as to the existence of the mortal remains of the Whiteys or parts thereof. Gerard Murnane wrote that, ‘the head was foe sale in Sydney in 1945. Prior to that is was raced by many different members of the Dirt Track Club of NSW 1933-34 as the Miller Special at Ascot, Granville etc.’
(Daily Pictorial November 21, 1930)
Don Harkness at far right on the occasion of a test flight of the first All-Australian built plane, the Genairco Harkness Hornet at Mascot on November 20, 1930.
From left to right is Mr Childs, Commissioner of Police, Capt Leggatt, pilot, Geo Beohm, designer of the plane, the Governor, Sir Phillip Game, Mr Boyle, the MD of General Aircraft Co, and Harkness. More on the plane here:https://collection.powerhouse.com.au/object/372510
You’ve got to hand it to Harkness, not content with running a company that built and serviced buses and timber jinkers, stationary and marine engines and gas producers, engaged in automotive and contract manufacturing, a spot of motor racing and record setting for a large US auto-maker, so why not start the build of a Secret Car that Should Skim the Earth at 300 m.p.h, a story for next time…
(The Sun November 16, 1930)
Credits…
Smith’s Weekly, Kiama Library, Don Harkness Archive in the Powerhouse Museum, Wikipedia, Lithgow Mercury February 9, 1925, many contemporary newspapers of the day via Trove, Gerard Murnane Collection, Stephen Ottley, Clarke Family (as in JAS Jones) Collection via the VSCCA courtesy of Tim Shellshear
Tailpiece…
(The Sun November 16, 1930)
The Don Harkness designed, Harkness and Hillier built, Wizard Smith driven Fred H Stewart Enterprise Napier Lion W12 LSR contender.
