Allan Moffat does his best to avoid soiling his undergarments as Fred Gibson lines up his works-Ford Falcon 500 XC on Moff’s right-hip-apex of the swerve. Colin Bond is behind, with John Goss, Murray Carter and Ron Dickson the other unsighted members of the troupe.
The angle on the camera dangle heightens the excitement but there is still no way known I’d want to do it.
By 1973 Australian tariffs on manufactured goods were significantly reduced, this exposed the local products of Ford, Holden and Valiant (Chrysler) for the junk they were.
Holden responded, inter alia, with their RTS – Radial Tuned Suspension – HZ Holdens under the leadership of Peter Hanenberger aka ‘Handlingberger’. Hanenberger was a GM Opel-trained engineer who rose all the way through the GM Empire of Suits to be, in his second Australian stint, MD and Chairman of General Motors Holden.
Hanenberger, spunk-muffin and early Commodore (GMH)
RTS was all piece of piss stuff: changes to geometry, springs, bars, shocks, bushes, mounts etc. The exact specs are neither here nor there; the point is that Hanenberger instructed his staff to do what they should have done when the HQ was originally designed and developed way back circa-1971.
Hanenberger was a breath of fresh air at Holdens after a succession of crew-cut Americans on the corporate climb who ran the show without much savoir-faire.
Artificial Intelligence
Then I thought, hang on a minute, my currrent Trump inspired high level Anti-American stance is maybe clouding my judgement. So I put my favourite AI tool to work (CoPilot) to produce a list of GMH Managing Directors and then teased out of it, their contributions.
I use AI – when I do at all – very carefully and only where I have strong subject matter knowledge in order to exclude the bullshit. I don’t have the interest or subject matter knowledge of this stuff much at all; it’s all reproduced verbatim, including all the floral adjectives and American spelling, so I am in your hands, Holden experts…
Managing Directors of GM-Holdens
Managing Director
Tenure
Nationality
Notable Contributions or Context
A.N. Lawrence
1931
Australian
First MD after GM-Holden’s formation
H.W. Page
1930s–1940s
American
Oversaw wartime production and early expansion
Laurence Hartnett
1936–1946
British-Australian
Instrumental in developing the first Holden car (48-215)
Harold Bettle
1950s
American
Managed post-war growth and Holden’s market dominance
David H. Hayward
1960s
American
Expanded Holden’s export programs
John Bagshaw
1970s
Australian
Oversaw HQ Holden development and local engineering initiatives
Chuck Chapman
1980s
American
Promoted Commodore and Group A racing involvement
Bill Hamel
Late 1980s–1990s
American
Focused on global integration and platform sharing
Led VE Commodore development and global platform alignment
Mark Reuss
2008–2009
American
Later became GM President; emphasized global product strategy
Alan Batey
2010–2013
British
Managed Holden during restructuring and brand repositioning
Mike Devereux
2013–2015
Canadian
Announced Holden’s manufacturing exit
Mark Bernhard
2015–2018
Australian
Last Australian MD; led Holden through transition to import-only
Kristian Aquilina
2019–2020
Maltese-Australian
Final MD before Holden’s closure in 2020
The Shifting Helm of Holden : A Narrative of Leadership and Legacy
From its 1931 inception as General Motors-Holden’s Ltd, the company’s leadership mirrored its hybrid DNA: Australian in spirit, American in ownership. Each Managing Director brought a distinct lens—some engineering-driven, others commercially focused—shaping Holden’s trajectory through war, prosperity, global integration, and eventual closure.
Foundations and National Pride (1930s-1940s)
A.N. Lawrence (Australian) was the first to steer GM-Holden’s after its formation, laying the groundwork for a uniquely Australian automotive identity.
Then came Laurence Hartnett (British-Australian), whose visionary leadership birthed the first Holden car—the 48-215. Hartnett’s push for local design and manufacturing made him a national figure, often dubbed the “father of the Holden”.
Post-War Expansion and Engineering Dominance (1950s-1970s)
Harold Bettle and David H. Hayward (both American) managed Holden’s post-war boom, with the FX and FJ Holdens becoming cultural icons.
John Bagshaw (Australian) took the reins during the HQ Holden era, championing local engineering and design. His tenure reflected a shift toward Australian autonomy within GM’s framework, with Holden’s technical teams gaining global respect.
Commodore Era and Global Integration (1980s-1990s)
Chuck Chapman (American) embraced motorsport, aligning Holden with Group A racing and the rise of the Commodore.
Bill Hamel (American) began integrating Holden into GM’s global platform strategy, a move that would later define the VE Commodore’s architecture.
Engineering Renaissance and Strategic Realignment (1999-2013)
Peter Hanenberger (German), a former Opel executive, reignited Holden’s engineering culture. Under his leadership, the Monaro was reborn, and the VE Commodore became a world-class platform.
Denny Mooney and Mark Reuss (both American) continued this global alignment, balancing local innovation with GM’s broader product strategy.
Alan Batey (British) managed Holden during a time of brand repositioning and market uncertainty.
Decline and Closure (2013-2020)
Mike Devereux (Canadian) announced the end of local manufacturing—a seismic moment in Australian industry.
Mark Bernhard (Australian) became the last local MD, tasked with guiding Holden through its transition to an import-only brand.
Kristian Aquilina (Maltese-Australian) closed the final chapter, overseeing Holden’s wind-down in 2020 with a focus on dignity and legacy.
Each Managing Director’s nationality wasn’t just a footnote—it often shaped Holden’s priorities. Australian leaders like Hartnett, Bagshaw, and Bernhard emphasized local engineering and cultural relevance. American and European MDs brought global integration, technical rigor, and strategic realignment. Together, they formed a mosaic of leadership that reflected Holden’s complex identity: proudly Australian, yet forever tethered to Detroit.
Holden’s Leadership and the Pulse of Performance : Motorsport and Engineering in Motion
Holden’s Managing Directors didn’t just steer corporate strategy—they shaped the soul of the brand. Their decisions echoed across racetracks, engineering labs, and suburban driveways, where the roar of a Holden V8 became a symbol of national pride.
Engineering Identity : From FX to HQ
Under John Bagshaw, Holden’s engineering teams flourished. The HQ Holden wasn’t just a car—it was a declaration of independence. Designed and engineered in Australia, it featured a perimeter frame chassis, a bold departure from GM’s global norms. Bagshaw’s support for local innovation gave engineers like George Roberts and Leo Pruneau the freedom to craft a car that could handle Australia’s rugged terrain and reflect its cultural swagger.
The HQ’s success wasn’t just commercial—it laid the groundwork for Holden’s motorsport dominance. Its robust chassis became the backbone for touring car variants, and its V8 engines roared across Bathurst.
Motorsport as Brand DNA : The Monaro and Commodore Era
Chuck Chapman saw motorsport as a marketing weapon. Under his watch, Holden embraced Group C and later Group A racing, with the Commodore becoming a fixture on the grid. The Monaro’s rebirth in the early 2000s—thanks to Peter Hanenberger—was more than nostalgia. It was a technical triumph, blending heritage with modern performance. Hanenberger’s engineering-first ethos revived Holden’s credibility among enthusiasts and racers alike.
The VE Commodore, launched during Hanenberger’s tenure and refined under Denny Mooney, was Holden’s magnum opus. It was the first car developed on GM’s global Zeta platform, but it was engineered entirely in Australia. Its success in V8 Supercars and export markets (like the Pontiac G8 in the U.S.) proved that Holden could punch above its weight.
Strategic Shifts and Motorsport Legacy
As Holden’s global integration deepened under Mark Reuss and Alan Batey, motorsport remained a cultural anchor. Even as manufacturing wound down, Holden’s presence in Supercars endured—until Kristian Aquilina oversaw its final race at Bathurst in 2020, where Shane van Gisbergen gave Holden a fitting farewell victory.
Mark Bernhard, the last Australian MD, understood the emotional gravity of Holden’s motorsport legacy. His leadership ensured that Holden’s final years weren’t just about winding down—they were about honoring a legacy built on grit, speed, and national pride.
Holden’s story isn’t just about cars—it’s about the people who led it, the engineers who built it, and the racers who drove it into legend. From Bagshaw’s HQ to Hanenberger’s Monaro and Bernhard’s final Bathurst, each chapter reflects a tension between global strategy and local soul.’
These super shots of Bob Jane Racing cars contributed (mainly) by Russell Martin and James Semple to Bob Williamson’s Australian Motor Racing Photographs Facebook page are too good not to share more widely.
The machine above is the Can-Am McLaren M6B Repco 740 5-litre V8 in which John Harvey won the 1971-72 Australian Sports Car Championships. See here: https://primotipo.com/2018/09/09/sandown-sunrise/
(R Martin)
Many of Russell Martin’s shots were taken at what appears to have been a press day at Calder, perhaps in late 1970, given the cars present and their livery.
Jane’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL-1 is a Top 25 all-time Australian Touring Car, winner of the 1971-72 Australian Touring Car Championships, powered by an aluminium Can-Am 427 big block in ’71 and a tiddly 350 cast iron small block in ’72. CAMS did a parity pirouette at the end of ’71 and banned the 7-litre engine despite it being homologated, not that it made any difference to the ATCC results. What a car…
A list of all of the cars Bob owned and raced would be a mighty impressive one! There were a couple of Series Production cars in this era, the Holden LC Torana GTR XU-1 shown above and a Monaro GTS 350. Southern Motors was Bob’s Holden dealership. I wonder what the Bob Jane Racing headcount was in that 1970-72 period? More here, including my attempt at a list of Bob’s racing cars: https://primotipo.com/2020/01/03/jano/
(J Semple)
John Harvey on the way to winning the RAC Tourist Trophy at Wawrick Farm on April 30, 1972, the third round of the Australian Sports Car Championship
Harves was the primary driver of this car but Bob had the occasional gallop as well. At the end of 1972 the car was parked, Castrol – if I remember the story rightly – wanted the focus to be on the team’s taxis not its single-seaters and sports car so the Brabham BT36 Waggott, Bowin P8 Repco-Holden and the McLaren were set aside in the workshop. The BT36 was sold to Ian Cook and Denis Lupton, the Bowin P8 chassis went to John Leffler and its Repco-Holden F5000 V8 engine was lent to Ron Harrop to use in his Holden EH sports sedan.
Two Australian sports car star-cars were parked for commercial reasons in this era while still in their prime: Frank Matich’s Matich SR4 Repco 860 5-litre in 1970 and the Bob Jane McLaren, both could have won the ASCC for years had they raced on…
The M6B’s life from then on was as a display machine at Bob Jane T-Marts throughout the land, the family still own it.
(R Martin)
The following excerpt from Tony McGirr’s book, ‘Gentleman John Harvey : Memories of How it Was’ related Harvey’s recollections of the McLaren M6B Repco.
‘I would rate the McLaren and my 76 Offy (speedcar) as the best cars I have ever driven in terms of driver satisfaction. I enjoyed driving them. More, I loved driving them. I was always relaxed and felt part of each car. Obviously, I won a lot of races in each, they were just sensational.
With a car such as the McLaren, it was a purpose built racing car. The engine was in the correct position. The weight distribution was perfect. Now, I’m talking about the late 1960s and early 1970s, and this was simply a fabulous motor car.
Not only that, but being a sports car, with a full enveloping body, it had style. It was a stunning looking car. When we rolled it out of the back of the transporter, people would come for miles to look at it. They would just stand there with their mouths open. They had never seen anything like it.
So, that was an added element to its appeal. By that stage too, Repco had the 5-litre V8 engines working properly. In the early days of the Repco V8 2.5-litre engines, they had lots of problems. By the time of the McLaren, they had the engines working properly. The engine we had was very reliable and very powerful.
Another thing in favour of the McLaren was the fact that it had a full monocoque chassis. Most of the sports cars I was racing against at the time, including the Elfins and Frank Matich’s early cars, were all of tube-frame construction and subject to a bit of frame-flex and twist. In the later period of Frank’s development of his cars, the SR4 was the quickest car by far. It had a 5-litre twin-cam engine. The engine we were using was a 5-litre single cam version.
Now, I’m not making excuses here, I am simply outlining the relevant technical differences. Frank’s car had another hundred horsepower, and was much faster in a straight line. However, when we came to braking, and going through the twisty bits, the McLaren would catch up every metre he had gained on the straight. In a couple of cases, he could do the fastest lap of the race, and I could match it a little later, when my fuel load went down, and we had a bit better power-to-weight ratio.
But, the final word on the McLaren – fantastic. Plus, Bob Jane had a very deep affection for Bruce. They had known one another for some years. Bob also knew Pat, Bruce’s wife. As a tragic irony, Bob and I were with Bruce the night before he died. In fact, we were in London on business, mainly to see how the McLaren was being finished off.
Now, Bruce had made that car as ‘a special’ for Bob, and the Repco engine. Because, at the time Bruce was using the 7-litre Chevy engine as a stressed member of the car’s structure, and was hanging the rear suspension off the transmission. Because the Repco engine was not robust enough (more correctly, the engines weren’t designed to be used as stress-bearing members) to be used this way, Bruce built a couple of chassis members, or pontoons, off the back of the bulkhead, to accommodate the Repco engine. He got Ron Tauranac to bring around a spare engine block so he could use that as a dummy to set up the engine in the redesigned chassis.
So, in that way, Bob’s McLaren was a specially built one-off car. Anyway, we were with Bruce on his last night. We were heading off, and back to Australia. At that time, Bruce was the recipient of the Grovewood Award, and had to go to the function that evening to receive the award. This was a very prestigious award in those days. Anyway, Bruce had forgotten to bring his best suit, and it was too far to go home to get it. Bruce and Bob were about the same size. Both were short, stocky types, with solid shoulders.
Bruce was inclined to brush the whole thing off and said, ‘Ah well, it’s only a suit’. Bob insisted that he be able to lend Bruce his own new suit that he had in his bags. So, off went Bruce to collect the award in Bob’s new suit. He thought that was terrific.’
Repco-Brabham – Repco from 1969 – the RB740 all aluminium, SOHC, two-valve, Lucas injected 5-litre V8 is quoted by Repco as having 460bhp @ 7500 rpm and weighed 360 pounds (R Martin)
‘With the international time difference, and the time it took our flight to get back to Sydney airport, there on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald were the words, ‘Bruce McLaren killed’. We couldn’t believe it. We had been with him just the night before.
So, that was a really sad end to our trip. After that, the McLaren became an extra special car for Bob. Particularly so because he was the one who owned it. It became special for me for the period in which I drove it. I think Bob drove it a couple of times, but basically, that was my car for the whole period of its racing career.
We retired the car at the end of the ’72 championship, and the car has never been raced since. They have restored it twice. When I say ‘twice’, I mean the first restoration was pretty good, but the second was exceptional. The only person who has driven it since, was when Denny Hulme drove it at the ’85 Grand Prix in a parade lap (below). Bob wanted me to drive it last year, or the year before, at the Grand Prix at Albert Park. I was really looking forward to that, except that the engine had traces of water in the oil, and the whole thing was cancelled.’
(Bob Jane Racing Heritage)M6B sales chick. Bob Jane T-Mart, Parramatta Road, Granville in June 1976, with the nose of Jane’s Maserati 300S, which had been restored by Jim Shepherd (spelling? not John Sheppard) not long before (Cummins Archive)
‘Bob is probably the only person in the whole world who was an original owner of a McLaren race car, and who still owns it. It has never changed hands, and while ever Bob lives, it will never change hands.
Was the McLaren finicky’ to set up? I ask this in reference to modern Formula One cars, which they fool around with all the time. There are so may adjustments on modern cars, it seems to take them forever to set them up properly.
We didn’t have the same range of adjustments on the McLaren. Today, on almost everything, they have electronics. They have sensors all over the cars. The driver now has nowhere near the input we had in those days.
Mechanically, things are still somewhat similar. They still have suspensions with wishbones, springs, shock absorbers, roll-bars, and brake adjustments. The major difference is that we didn’t have any aerodynamic features to worry about, and we were on treaded tyres.
My first response when I sat in the McLaren was to say that the arches on the front mudguards were too high. Bruce had been using a much taller tyre. Technology was changing, and the result was we were using a smaller diameter tyre. We had the tyre sitting low down, and the crown of the mudguard up high. This made it pretty difficult to see your proper racing line.
We finally lopped the top off the big, tall radius of the front mudguards. We had a stylist do it, and I still think it was all for the better for the aesthetics of the car. It looked more balanced. It looked much nicer. Certainly, the newer rubber worked to enhance the performance of the car.
But, apart from that cosmetic change, we changed very little. Things like springs, we never had to change. Bruce had the springs made from this fantastic spring steel, and that meant that the springs never sagged. On other cars that I had raced with locally made springs, you had to be checking them all the time. You had to check them for installed height, static height, and compressed height. You had to take dimensions of these things all the time, because the springs would sag. This could lower your ride height, and all sorts of adverse things could happen as a result.
The springs in the McLaren – and the Brabham – we never had to touch. From that point of view, it was just shock absorber adjustments and wheel alignment. This was very important for the geometry of the front end. Adjustment of the rear ride height was also critical. Other than that, it was pretty much trouble-free. And as I said, by that time the engines were pretty reliable, so we had a good finish rate. It was a lovely car to drive. I just enjoyed driving it so much.’
Allan Moffat organised the purchase of a Shelby Mustang (car #3 above) for John Sawyer and Bob Jane in late 1968. Jane’s car was one car raced by Horst to victory at Riverside. VIN#8RO1J118XXX was the very last of the 1968 K-K/Shelby cars built and had only raced three times in the hands of Dan Gurney, Peter Revson and Horst.
Happily for both Jane and Moffat, it was soon on its way to Australia with Moffat expecting to race the hand-me-down Mustang GT390 in 1969 whilst his team-owner raced the near-new car, on the face of it the pair were a strong combination for the ensuing year…This story is told in the piece linked above.
Bob Jane, Ford Mustang 390, Phillip Island paddock circa- 1968 (R Martin)(R Martin)
The Jane V8 Repco was one of the few short-lived Bob Jane Racing cars.
The Bob Britton/Rennmax Engineering-built machine was campaigned by Harvey in the 1970 Australian Gold Star Championship, the last ‘Tasman 2.5 Era’ Gold Star.
When Harvey was first recruited by Bob after Spencer Martin’s retirement at the end of 1967, Harves inherited the Brabham BT23E Repco-Brabham 2.5 V8 Jane acquired from Jack Brabham at the end of the ’68 Tasman Cup.
John was nearly killed in it at Bathurst during that year’s first Gold Star round over the Easter long weekend. Harvey then raced it throughout 1969 and into early 1970 as related in this article:
John Harvey being looked after on the Oran Park 1970 grid by John Sawyer, Jane Repco V8. That’s Max Stewart alongside in Alec Mildren’s Mildren Waggott TC-4V
The Jane Repco V8 used the same pair of ex-Jack Brabham 295bhp @ 9000 rpm Repco 2.5-litre 830 V8s fitted to the BT23E, but the chassis – built on Britton’s BT23 jig – had revised suspension geometry to suit the latest generation of ever-evolving and widening tyres and other changes including the bodywork. As the story below relates, John could, woulda, shoulda won that Gold Star…The car has lived on, in ANF2 form, for many years in a WA museum I think.
Jane in the Jaguar E-Type Lwt at Calder, and the Elfin 400 Repco-Brabham 620 4.4-litre V8, perhaps on the same day below circa-1967, again with Bob at the wheel. See here for a piece on Bob’s E-Types: https://primotipo.com/2018/04/15/perk-and-pert/
(R Simmonds)
Elfin 400 Repco 620 620 4.4-litre V8 in Bob Jane’s hands at Calder circa 1967, above as I say, and in the Phillip Island paddock below, a little later 1968’ish; note the more substantial roll bar and rear spoiler in the shot below.
Bob Jane – yep, I know it’s Harves number – in one of his favourite cars, the John Sheppard built Holden Torana GTR XU-1 Repco-Brabham 620 4.4-litre V8 at Warwick Farm in 1972.
The Total and Castrol Bob Jane Racing thing seems to be a 1972-73 commercial relationship. I’m not sure how the two oil companies co-existed on the cars, but doubtless one of you taxi-fans will know the answer.
The Torana was born as a consequence of the growth in interest in. sports sedans and the availability of the Repco-Brabham 620 4.4 V8 in Janes workshop. After Bevan Gibson’s fatal Easter Bathurst 1969 crash in Bob’s Elfin 400 Repco 4.4, the remains, sans engine, were sold to Victorian Ken Hastings. Less than a year later the engine was put back into work…
Jane on the bonnet of the XU1-Repco (J Semple)(J Semple)
Harvey’s Torana sports sedan (above and below) leads Allan Moffat’s Mustang Trans-Am 302 and Bob Janes Holden Monaro HQ GTS 350 – both improved tourers – at Warwick Farm in 1972. The Monaro was another Sheppo build of course.
Ray Bell tells me that it’s the ‘November 5, ’72 meeting, Moffat won. Harvey retired after two laps in the early race, but not before he had pointedly moved over off the grid to block Moffat. In the second race Pete had diff troubles after forcing his way to second and dropped back so it was Moffat, then Harvey and Jane at the finish. This was when Moffat did a 1:37.5.’
(J Semple)(J Semple)
Beauty and The Beast Torana sports sedans.
The aluminium SOHC, Lucas injected 4.4-litre 400 bhp @ 7000 rpm, 360 pounds, Repco RB620 V8 powered, John Harvey driven, Bob Jane Racing Holden Torana GTR XU-1 chased by the cast iron, pushrod, Lucas injected 5-litre 475 bhp @ 7000 rpm, 485 pounds, Repco-Holden F5000 powered, Colin Bond driven, Holden Dealer Team Holden Torana GTR XU-1 at Oran Park. Ray advises that Harvey won both these encounters during the May 1973 meeting.
John Sheppard was prolific when he joined Bob Jane Racing, there were some seriously fast racing cars run by Bob in the Sheppo era including the Chev Camaro ZL-1, Holden Monaro HQ GTS 350, Holden Torana GTR XU-1 Repco, McLaren M6B Repco, Brabham BT36 Waggott TC-4V and Bowin P8 Repco-Holden. Sheppo scratch builds are the Monaro and Torana.
(J Semple)
Jane in the Monaro from Pete Geoghegan’s Ford GTHO Super Falcon 351 in its definitive, post-John Joyce-Bowin Designs rebuilt form at Warwick Farm in 1972. Probably the same race as three pics back, touring cars were sooooo fuckin’ good back then! Totally unlike the bullshit parity-sameness dog’s bollocks of today. Bob on the WF grid below on the same day.
(J Semple)(I Smith)
Calder March 1979, it looks like Janey is wearing the same Bell Magnum open-face helmet he was using a decade before – same Monaro but wilder sports-sedan specs – it was an improved tourer when first built way back in 1972.
(I Smith)
Bob Jane’s Pat Purcell built Chev Monza 350 at Dandenong Road, Sandown in December 1980. Amazing car, time to do an Auto Action under the skin piece on it with the unpublished shots we have…
Credits…
James Semple, Russell Martin, Ian Smith, Murray Thomas, Australian Muscle Car, Cummins Archive, ‘Gentleman John Harvey : Memories of How It Was’ Tony McGirr, Ray Bell
Every now and again I dip into Australia’s intercity record breaking era of crazy speeds over vast distances on incredibly poor unmade ‘roads’ and could never find a summary of these adventures until now!
I tripped over H.O. Balfe’s article about 25 years of Melbourne-Sydney record-breaking, published in the Sydney newspaper The Referee on April 26, 1933, while doing research on Harry Beith. It was somewhat laborious to digitise, but it’s great ‘document of record’ stuff.
‘Melbourne to Sydney by motorcar in in 25 hours! Just a little over one day 572 miles ! What a speed!
Yes, they said that a quarter of a century ago when Harry James and Charlie Kellow first set figures for a speed run between Melbourne and Sydney by motor car.
That was in January 1907. Both James and Kellow are still on deck, and there in nothing more interesting than to get Harry James talking about that pioneer journey in their 26 h.p. Talbot. The roads were just bush tracks, mainly, and on the New South Wales side the heat was so terrific that at Yass the petrol containers they carried were distorted into egg shape.
“It’s plain hell further on,” said the country folk. That was an accurate description. For miles, James and Kellow and the gallant Talbot fought their way through bushfires in blinding, choking smoke, striving desperately not to think of what would happen were it to spark to lodge on a splash of petrol.
But James and Kellow won through, compared with that nightmare drive, present-day assaults on the record are mere joy rides.
Sydney was reached after 23 hours and 40 minutes. James and Kellow held that record for nearly two years, and lost it in December 1909, when C.G. Day and S Custance, likewise aboard a Talbot 25, in December got through in 21 hours 19 minutes.
And now the desire to capture that record was a fever in the veins of motorists. Only a few months elapsed, and then Syd Day and Will Whithourn, driving a 20 h.p. Vinot, a make that is never heard of now, sped across the 565 miles in 20 hours 10 minutes.
That was not bad going, in three years, 5 1/2 hours had been lopped off the original record, and still the roads were so bad as to give the daredevils of those days a thorough gruelling. It was not an uncommon thing to lose hours through having to stop to open gates and railway level crossings.
Before the pioneers did their Job and faded out of the picture, the record was to be smashed once again. That was in April 1910 – a month after the Day-Whitbourn effort – when White and Custance in their 25 h.p Talbot reduced the time to 19 hours 47 minutes. That was only 23 minutes better than Day and Whitbourn’s time, but it set a new record on the books, for it was the first time that the one driver had ever held the honours on two occasions.’
AV Turner takes a gulp of beer during Sydney-Melbourne trials in 1914 (C Blundell Collection)
‘Then appeared one of the finest racing motorists who ever held a steering wheel – the late Arthur F Turner (actually Albert Valentine Turner) victim of a hill climb crash in N.S.W. some years ago.
In his first attack on the record, in May 1913, Turner had the most powerful car that had ever been tried out on the Sydney-Melbourne road – a 50 h.p. American Underslung. In spite of road surface difficulties and a good deal of tyre trouble, Turner reached Melbourne in 19 hours 2 minutes. But he was very disappointed, he expected to reduce the previous best time by at least two hours.
The outbreak of War put an end to record-breaking feats until March 1919, when Boyd Edkins, another whose name and fame as a racing driver will not readily be forgotten, drove a Vauxhall (1914 Vauxhall A-Type Prince Henry chassis A210 aka ’50 Bob’; in our pre-decimal currency days 50 bob was two-pounds, 10 shillings – the chassis number) between the two capitals in what was then the remarkable time of 16 hours 55 minutes. Edkins was content with his one smack at the record. He never did it again.’
Boyd Edkins aboard Vauxhall ’50-Bob’ in March 1916; the Prince Henry four cylinder 16-20 h.p. Vauxhall Type-A lives on. Not only did Edkins beat AV Turner’s time on this run, but also the Melbourne-Sydney Express Train time by 15 minutes (T Shellshear Archive)
Five years elapsed before Edkin’s record was broken, and it was the redoubtable A.V. Turner who did the breaking. Incidentally, Turner ushered in one of the most hectic periods in the history of the inter-capital dash. In his sports model Delage he flung the 565 miles behind him in 16 hours 47 minutes.
Two weeks later, Norman Smith appeared on the scene for the first time, and with Earle Croyadill, a clever mechanic beside him, cut the figures to 15.38, driving an Essex with a much higher compression ratio than was usual in those days.
The roads, particularly on the Victorian side, were better now than ever they had been, and the attacks on the record lost their one-time aspect of reliability trials and became furious races against time.
In a 30 h.p. Vauxhall, S.C. Ottaway, a Sydney owner-driver, was responsible for a remarkable piece of driving which brought the record down to 14.43. That was in January 1923. But the new time stood for only a fortnight before it crumbled to 14.28 under the onslaught of Smith and Earle Croyadill. The Essex came through without trouble or incident of any kind, but hardly had time to cool off before A.V. Turner, in a Delage owned by R Kirton, of Sydney, reduced the time to 13.47.
AV Turner reduced the record to 13.47 in February 1923 aboard this 25 h.p. Delage (C Blundell)
Smith, in the meantime, had taken the Essex to Tasmania, where, with Bert Henthorn as passenger, he drove from Launceston to Hobart and return (242 miles) in 4 hours 18 minutes. With Tasmanian dust still in his overalls, so to speak, Smith and L Emmerson, on Monday, December 24, 1923, burned up the Sydney-Melbourne road once again, and now the record was down to 12 hours 59 minutes.
Turner waited three months and then renewed the duel that had been of absorbing interest to motorists all over Australia. In March 1924, after completing the Dunlop 1,000 miles reliability trial, with a 20 h.p. Itala, determined to have another shot at the record in this car. He was successful, 25 minutes being chopped off Smith and Emmerson’s time. Arthur O’Connor was Turner’s mechanic on this occasion.
Turner and Arthur O’Connor after his March 1924 run (SLV)
Neither Smith nor Turner ever attacked the Sydney-Melbourne record again. As a matter of fact, times were being cut down to such an extent, and speeds were creeping up so high, that the Victorian Police and municipal authorities commenced to frown severely on record-breaking attempts, and even the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria issued a statement that no good purpose was being served by them.
Despite the text, this photograph suggests Wizard Smith set another record in December 1926. Car make folks, ditto the shot below? (SLV)First prize goes to the person who can cite the date, make, time and mechanics name…(SLV)
There was a lull, therefore, until March 1927, when E.J. Buckley and Harry J. Beith began another duel. Accompanied by C.E. Cooper, and driving a stock model Hudson, Buckley dashed over the route in 11.51. A great drive, but it was eclipsed a month later by Harry Beith’s 11.14 in a Chrysler 70.
Right on the heels of this came Buckley again, with a 10.51, also in January 1928, and two months later Buckley and Cooper reached an average of 53 m.p.h. in registering 10 hours 51 minutes. Beith did not wait longer than a week before dashing off again, and this time, in February 1928, he regained the record with 10.42.
The Buckley/Cooper Hudson Super Six in March March 1927 perhaps, slight discrepancy in times between this caption and the text (SLV)
Not to outdone, Buckley and Cooper pushed off again on April 10, 1929. They still had their stock model Hudson, but in the interim, it had been further “hotted up”, and an average of 55 miles an hour carved out the journey in 10.24.
In October 1929, the Chrysler 70 was brought out again. Beith set out from the Melbourne G.P.O. and, until after the Victorian border was reached, looked as though he was going to be the first to break 10 hours. He was well inside his schedule until Gundagai was reached, and there a broken fan belt held him up for an hour – a precious hour. His route on this occasion was 575 miles, and it is obvious that but for this mishap, he would have been the first to set single figures for the hour tally.
Harry Beith’s Chrysler 70, by the end of its record breaking career the car had done well over 40,000 miles! (SLV)
Beith and Buckley retired, and in March 1930, there appeared a new Richmond in the field – one Don Robertson of Vaucluse, N.S.W. Robertson, a Graham-Paige owner, was in Melbourne for a holiday, and found his car going so nicely that he determined to attack the inter-capital record. Going back to Sydney, he stripped her and fitted a three-ply chassis.
All went well on the dash from Sydney until after Robertson, past Mittagong. Then he ran into a fog bank that encompassed him for 70 miles. However, he was inside his schedule at Albury, where Harry Beith waited to pilot him through, but at Tallarook, on the Victorian side, a puncture delayed him for some minutes.
Splendid Average
In spite of all of this, Robertson reached Melbourne after 10 hours and 5 minutes – truly a wonderful feat for an amateur driver at his first attempt. He had the splendid average of 57 m.p.h.
Robertson was so fresh on reaching Melbourne that his friends had their work cut out to dissuade him from turning around and racing back to Sydney.
While the records for all-powers cars were steadily being whittled down, the light car drivers had not been inactive. The first to create a light car record was A Vaughan, who, in company with G McKennzie, in December 1923, drove a four-cylinder Citroen from Melbourne to Sydney in 15 hours 20 minutes, averaging 38 m.p.h. Some stretches of the road were very bad, and a 28-mile detour near Gundagai made the full distance 593 miles.
Several years elapsed before H. Drake-Richmond in a 30S Fiat, sped over the route in 14.20, and the next holder of the record was C.R. Dickason, who, with H.D. Burkill as passenger in a stock model Austin 12, drove all the way in top gear, registering 13.20, averaging 43 m.p.h. and reaching 70. The previous Sydney-Melbourne record for a car in top gear all the way was 21 hours.
Happy chaps, Cyril Dickason and Harry Burkill, Austin 12 in Sydney. Mechanic/driver Cec was a period typical elite level professional who could prepare, race, ‘climb and trial all of his employers’ – SA Cheneys – range of products (C Dickason Archive via Tony Johns)(C Dickason Archive via Tony Johns)
W.G. Buckle, in a Sports Triumph ‘super seven’, cut Dickason’s time to 14.16 in March 1930, and two months later J.E. Bray, of Sydney, in a standard sports Morris Minor, recorded 13.9 after experiencing heavy rain and bad road conditions on the N.S.W. side.
Bray held the record for only eight days, when it was wrested from him by previous holders in Dickason and Burkill in their ‘Baby’ Austin, their time being 12.30, after running into heavy gales and rain in places on the N.S.W. side, striking patches on the roads that were litte better than quagmires, and where they had to travel in low gear for many miles, and damaging a back wheel through a puncture at Seymour.
Then came Tragedy. On June 8, 1930, Reg Brearley and Albert Elliott, two of Victoria’s best-known drivers, set out from Sydney in a Bugatti (Bugatti T37.37146 was second in the 1929 AGP driven by Brearley and is now owned by Tom Roberts) to make a secret attempt on the record. While rounding a sharp bend on the approach to Howell’s Creek, nine miles from Gunning (N.S.W.), the car left the road, leapt an embankment and somersaulted. Brearley was killed instantly, and Elliott died in Yass Hospital the same day.
And now the light car record, made a couple of weeks ago by Arthur Beasley in his Singer 9 stands at 11 hours 59 minutes. That the “little fellows” will reach 10 hours is certain.’
Etcetera…
Racing Drivers
Most of the drivers mentioned in this article were professional drivers involved in the burgeoning motor industry as dealers and repairers or as employees of importers, dealers and repairers.
They were also competitors by nature or necessity, where the motorsport events of the day – say circa-1925 – comprised trials, hillclimbs, sprints, more serious stuff on the bankings of Maroubra or Aspendale, at Penrith or perhaps the dusty circuit at Lake Perkolilli. Not to forget intercity or cross-continental record breaking. The first Australian GP wasn’t held until 1927 with circuit racing as we now know it ‘common’ from the mid-1930s.
The roll call here of blokes in these categories includes – in rough order of Melbourne-Sydney appearances – AV Turner, Boyd Edkins, Wizard Smith, EJ ‘Joe’ Buckley, Harry Beith, Harold Drake-Richmond, Cyril Dickason and Reg Brearley.
Chrysler’s and Harry Beith’s Crowning Achievements
On February 4, 1928 The Armidale Chronicle reported that for the second time in one month Beith, lowered the Sydney-Melbourne road record in a Chrysler 70, on the last occasion down to 10 hours 42 minutes, an average speed of 58.88 miles per hour.
At that time, Chrysler, in addition to holding the Australasian 1000 mile speed record, also the 24-hour record, held every Australasian record between adjacent State capitals, an achievement never before attained by any other make of car. ‘Designed to Perform-Built to Endure’ indeed!
Needless to say, the Coroner reporting on the death of Messrs Brearley and Elliott (Mr J.W. Yoe in Yass) found the obvious, that they were killed (fatally injured in the wordy manner of legal folk) while attempting the light car motor record between Sydney and Melbourne, then added the following rider:
‘Immediate representations should be made to the authorities on the extreme urgency of action to bring in regulations to fix a reasonable speed limit and to prohibit absolutely motor car and motor cycle record breaking. Speed records are business propaganda and are of no public use , while they are a great source of danger to those making the attempts and to the travelling public.’
Speed Records and Their Significance : The Newcastle Sun March 31, 1927
The leader writer of The Newcastle Sun had an interesting philosophical and prophetic slant on speed.
‘The breaking of the motor speed record with a pace of 203 miles an hour (Sir Henry Segrave, Sunbeam) , though it may be received glumly by pedestrians, has certain Implications which are worth considering.
Of course until shire and suburban councils build roads equal to those which nature has built on the Florida beach, where the record was made, such speeds will be impracticable in any wheeled vebicles.
Vehicles not supported by wheels but by air, however, have no limit to their possible speed except that imposed by the ratios of structural strength to weight and weight to engine power.
This record car speed has again and again been exceeded by airmen. Speeds of between 250 and 300 miles an hour are not uncommon. A practicable speed of 250 miles an hour would girdle the earth in 100 hours, about four days. Within the space of time it now takes to reach New Zealand from Sydney by sea, a man might start at Singapore and flying east over the Phillippines, Panama, the Gold Coast, and India, return along the world’s greatest circumference to Singapore.
Puck’s forty-minute Journey (Puck’s line from A Midsummer Night’s Dream is I’ll put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes”), of course, has not been reached, and never will be reached. Such a speed would exceed the planetary speed, which melts the meteor in the upper atmosphere. But a four-day trip around the globe is as certain in the future as any human certainty can be.
Even now Jules Verne’s hustling traveller who made the circuit an 80 days one seems a leisurely fellow compared to Captain Cobham, who flew to Australia and back recently in six weeks out and a month back, with frequent long stoppages. In a few years this journey will be done without the long stoppages, and Australians will leave Sydney or Melbourne on Friday night and reach London on Tuesday morning.
Despite then the condemnation of the psychologist and the contempt of the philosopher, speed records insofar as they mark higher and higher peaks in mechanical efficiency and control, have a very definite practical meaning in the narrowing of what 25 years ago seemed a very large world indeed.
Whether we will be any happler or better when we can take a three or four day jaunt to London is a matter which may be left to philosophy. Probably we will not. The conveniences of life do not necessarily bring happiness. That, however, does not prevent them from being used.
Speed for the sake of speed seems rather a futile business, but speed harnessed to utility is the whole keystone of modern civilised progress. Old slow processes are continually being replaced by faster ones. The car in ousting the horse and the motor ‘bus the street railway, because of its higher speed of transit. The steam and oil driven vessel has driven the “wind-jammer,” its beauty and its leisurely acceptance of calm and storm, off the seas. Within a very few years, as we count the life of man, the air vessel of the future will make the passenger liner as obsolete as the wool clipper is today.
The Court of Public Opinion
SPEED RECORDS R.A.C.V. ATTITUDE The Age Melbourne June 21, 1930
Strong condemmation is expressed by the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria at attempts to make speed records such as led to the untimely death of Messrs. Reginald Brearly and Albert Elliott when endeavoring to lower the light motor car record between Sydney and Melbourne on 9th inst.
“The R.A.C.V. has always sets its face against such practices,” said a prominent office-bearer of the club yesterday, “and it has taken special pains to warn drivers against them.”
While adopting this attitude, members of the club point to the change of thought that has taken place respecting the enforcement of a general speed limit. This remarkable change of attitude in recent years regarding limitation of motor car speed is strikingly illustrated in a draft bill to regulate road traffic prepared last year for presentation to the British Parliament. The first schedule to the bill, dealing with motor cars and motor cycles used for passengers only, stipulates that if all the wheels are fitted with pneumatic tyres and the vehicle is not drawing a trailer and is constructed to carry not more than eight persons in addition to the driver, “there shall be no speed limit.” Or, “if all the wheels are fitted with pneumatic tyres and the vehicle is not drawing a trailer, and is constructed to carry more than eight persons in addition to the driver,” the speed limit shall be thirty miles an hour. In any other case – of such vehicles – the speed limit in restricted to twenty miles an hour.
On this question of speed limitation the Royal Commission for Transport in Great Britain, in its first report to Parliament in July, 1929, says:-“We have been at great pains to obtain all the relevant evidence possible on the question, and have received statements showing the practice in various countries abroad.”
Every one of the motor organisations (meaning thereby such bodies as the Automobile Association, the Royal Automobile Club, the Royal Scottish Automobile Club and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders) strongly advocates the abolition of a general speed limit for motor cars and motor cycles, and also of special speed limits in towns or villnges, holding that for the purpose of checking dangerous driving it is far better to rely on the powers given or to be given in the clauses of the Road Traffic Bill dealing with dangerous driving than on the rigid enforcement of speed limits.
“This,” the report says, “might have been expected, but the same view was put forward by, among others, the Country Councils’ Association, the Urban District Councils’ Association and the Association of Municipal Corporations.
“The police were divided on the question. The Commissioner of Police of the metropolis advocated a general speed limit of thirty-five miles an hour, as did also a majority of city and borough chief con• stables, while on the other hand thirty-seven out of fifty-five county chief constables were opposed to all speed limits other than those mentioned in the first schedule of the Road Traffic Bill.
The report proceeds to say that opponents of speed limits for motor cars and motor cycles put forward the view that the enforcement of speed limits diverts the attention of the police from watching dangerous corners and congested portions of roads and streets by compelling them to set traps on open stretches of road where little or no danger exists; that the psychological effect on motorist: speed limits is bad, in that it causes them to think that If they do not esceed the speed limit prescribed they are driving with safety, whereas forty miles an hour may be quite safe under certain conditions and five miles an hour may be dangerous in other cases; that speed in itself is not dangerous provided the car is under proper control; aud that the proper remedy is to subject the really reckless driver convicted of dangerous driving to very severe penalties which could not be inflicted on a man who had been found guilty of a technical offence only.
Epitomising the results of very careful consideration of all the evidence the commission’s report says:-“We have come to the conclusion that provided all wheels are fitted with pneumatic tyres there should be no general speed limit for motor cars or motor cycles.”
MOTOR SPEED RECORDS The Age, Melbourne June 12, 1930
‘Difficulties of the Police
The difficulties experienced by the police in preventing motor speed records between capitals being attempted over the public roads were seferred to yesterday by the Chief Secretary in commenting on the death of two men who were killed in trying to lower the Sydney-Melbourne record. One of the difficulties, he said, was to prove that the men who participated in the tests drove their car in a manner daugerous to the public, and the fact that two men had been killed during the week end seemed to indicate that the danger was with them.
Of course, high speeds might be dangerous to persons using the roads, but he could not recall a case of any person having been injured by record breakers. Unally the tests were quietly arranged, and the police did not know when they were being held. Even it they did it might be necessary to have policemen stationed all along the route to secure the necessary evidence that the record breakers were driving at a speed dangerous to the public. Instructions had been issued to the police to try to enforce the laws relating to speeding, and he was satisfied that the department was doing all it could to enforce them, but the difficulties were great.’
‘Attitude of the Light Car Club.
The honorary secretary of the Victorian Light Car Club (Mr. O. F. Tough) stated yesterdny that the policy of the Victorian Light Car Club was antagonistic to attempts to break motor car records on public roads, and that the club had always refused to assist, start or check in any of the competitors.
Mr. Tough anid the committee felt it was necessary to make this statement, as some persons thought the club was assiting these attempts owing to the fact that the late Mr. R. Brearley, who was killed while attempting a record, was a member of the club.’
MOTOR RECORDS. VICTORIAN BAN. PROSECUTIONS INSTITUTED. Sydney Morning Herald January 8, 1929
‘Commenting on an announcement that two Englishmen, Messrs. J. E. P. Howey and R.C. Gallop, had arrived in Sydney, and intended to attempt to break the motor car speed record between Sydney and Melbourne, the chief of the Traffic Control Branch, Sub-Inspector Salts, sald today that the proposal was against the law in Victoria, The names of the motorists would be taken. and prosecutions would follow.
Section 18 of the Highways and Vehicles Act expressly forbade the use of motor vehicles on public highways for purposes of racing or trial of speed, and made offenders liable to penalty not exceeding £50.
Sub-Inspector Salts added that the police had taken action against motorists attempting to break records on previous occasions.
Action would shortly be taken against two motorists who had left Melbourne in an attempt to break the record between Melbourne and Perth recently. The names of the motorists had been taken before they left Victoria.’
So, it seems clear from this piece that in Victoria at least, intercity record-setting was illegal.
Taking The Piss
LIGHT CAR RECORD Sydney to Melbourne The Argus Melbourne June 19, 1933
‘Driving a Bugatti car, Mr. J. Clements, of Sydney, accompanied by W. Warneford (mechanic), broke the record for a light car from Sydney to Melbourne on Saturday (June 17) by 20 minutes. The time for the journey was 10 hours 53 minutes (The Referee gave the time as 10 hours 50 minutes), giving an average speed of more than 50 miles an hour.
The previous record was established a few weeks ago by Mr. C. Warren.
Messrs. Clements and Warneford left the General Post-Office, Sydney, at half-past 6 o’clock on Saturday morning, and at 23 minutes past 5 o’clock in the afternoon they arrived at the Elizabeth Street, Melbourne post office where they were checked in by officials of the Victorian Junior Light Car Club.
If it had not been for a mishap between Gundagai and Albury, which caused a delay of an hour, the record would have been broken by a much wider margin. The car was ftted with eight P214 Pyrox sparking plugs, which were sealed before the attempt on the record was begun.’
In due course, Jack Clements was hauled before the courts. The Argus report of August 3, 1933, is almost impossible to read, but the gist of it is that he admitted the facts as presented by the wallopers and was fined £5.
The Bugatti Jack Clements used to take the light car Sydney-Melbourne record was Australia’s most famous Bugatti, the ex-AV Turner/Geoff Meredith 1927 Australian Grand Prix winning 2-litre straight-eight Bugatti Type 30 Special, chassis 4087, the very significant core components of which are owned by Melbourne Automobilists the Murdoch family.
Photo and Reference Credits…
The Referee April 26, 1933 article by H.O. Balfe, Col Blundell Collection, The Newcastle Sun, The Age, The Argus, and other multiple newspapers via Trove, Cyril Dickason Archive via Tony Johns, Tim Shellshear Archive, the State Library of Victoria, Robert Robinson
Tailpiece…
Joe Lyons, Devonport 1931 (R Robinson)
WILL PROBABLY BE BROKEN. SYDNEY-CANBERRA SPEED RECORD. Mr Lyon’s New Car. The Evening News, Rockhampton April 14, 1934
‘Records between Sydney and Canberra which are now held by the Prime Minister’s chauffeur, ‘Tracey’, will probably be broken by that driver when a new high speed British car, which has just been purchased for (Prime Minister) Mr. Lyons at a cost of £1000, is delivered.’
How cool is that, the Prime Minister of Oz and his chauffeur held an Australian intercity record!
‘This car has a speed range up to 80 miles an hour and will enable the Prime Minister to cover the distance between Canberra and Sydney in about four hours. A fast car is necessary for Mr. Lyons, who makes frequent official visits to Sydney. The car, which he is now using, enables him to return to Canberra in good time after a day’s work.
The Sydney car used by Federal Ministers in Melbourne is to be replaced by the car now used by Mr. Lyons.’
The question then is, of course, what the make and model of the cars was. The best I could find is the shot of Lyons above with one of his cars in Devonport during 1931, the year before he became PM (January 6 1932-April 7 1939, his date of death).
Graham Harvey, Elfin 400 Chev ahead of Jim Boyd Lola T70 Chev at Bay Park, New Zealand in 1969.
Elfin 400 chassis BB67-4, first owned and raced by Andy Buchanan, has lived all of its life in New Zealand and is now very close to completion, or has it already run? Where are those photos Alastair Grigg sent me!?
BP’s Les Thacker congratulates Larry Perkins after an F3 win at Brands Hatch and Man of The Meeting award.
The F2 Index tells me Larrikins won two races at Brands during his victorious Ralt RT1 Toyota 1975 European F3 Championship campaign, the Polydor Records Trophy on September 7 and the BARC-BP British F3 Championship round a fortnight later on September 21. The shot will have been taken on the latter weekend, Larry won that F3 Championship from Conny Andersson and Renzo Zorzi.
Larry on the Snetterton dummy grid, June 15. A lousy day, 19th. Gunnar Nilsson was up the front in a March 753 Toyota (JI Croft)(G Ruckert)
John Walker, Matich A50-004 Repco-Holden, at Surfers Paradise in 1972 or 1973. I’m not sure if it’s the Gold Star or Tasman rounds.
JW briefly raced an Elfin MR5 then jumped to the Matich which was US L&M Championship compliant – I can’t recall in what respect – doing very well with it in 1973. The Rise and Rise of John Walker really got going on that Stateside trip I reckon. Thoughts folks?
Only seven of 61 crews finished the gruelling 3560 km event out of Port Macquarie between October 9-14, the winners for the third year on the trot was the Mitsubishi Lancer GSR of Andrew Cowan and John Bryson.
Regarded as a sweet-handling big car in the day, she would have been a bit of a handful in the forests, the car didn’t survive, I’m not sure on which stage it stopped.
A rather brave and slow looking, well-nourished photographer shoots Jim Clark on the exit of the Northern Crossing during the Australian Grand Prix at Warwick Farm on February 19, 1967. Lotus 33 Climax FWMV 2-litre V8.
Jim won the Tasman Cup again that summer, but his close mate Jackie Stewart, BRM P261 2.1-litre, won the AGP with Clark 17 seconds behind him, with Frank Gardner third, Brabham BT16 Climax 2.5 FPF.
Geoff Brabham aboard the Jack Brabham Ford Bowin P4X Formula Ford at Warwick Farm in 1972, gimme a date folks it’s gotta be one of Geoff’s first gallops in a racing car.
Bob Beasley was the usual driver of this car, finishing in the fifth in the 1971 Driver to Europe Series and third in 1972. John Davis then won it in a raffle, and finished fourth in the 1975 title race, and then third with support from Grace Bros the following year.
Lank Lex, Stumpy Stan and Tall Timber Tony (unattributed)(R Burnett)
Surely one of Australia’s most evocative sports-racing combos of any era?
John Harvey aboard Bob Jane’s immaculate, John Sheppard prepared McLaren M6B Repco 740 5-litre at Symmons Plains in 1972.
Harves won the 1971-72 Australian Sports Car Championships with it. In 72 he won five of the six rounds, including the final one at Symmons on November 12. Glorious shot of a glorious car, see here: https://primotipo.com/2018/09/09/sandown-sunrise/ At the end of the season, Bob set it aside; the family retain it 50 years later.
Speaking of iconic Sheppo built/prepared cars, here’s another! The Bob Jane owned Holden Torana GTR XU-1 Repco 620 4.4 V8 was built by John in his home garage away from any prying eyes snooping around Bob Jane Racing’s Brunswick HQ.
Here it’s in the Wanneroo paddock in 1971, the A regular race winner in Bob’s, John Harvey’s and Frank Gardner’s hands from 1971-75, then Ian Diffen after that? There’s more Harves here: https://primotipo.com/2021/01/25/harves/
(Harkness & Hillier)
Wizard Smith and Don Harkness with the SWB (sic) Fred H Stewart Enterprise LSR car out front of the Harkness & Hillier factory, Five Dock, Sydney in 1931.
Michael Hickey writes that ‘The Harkness and Hillier background of the Wizard Smith Enterprise photo remains relatively unchanged 94 years later. It’s now Volvo Cars, Parramatta Road, Five Dock, the photo is in William Street.’
(K Starkey)
So disappointed to have missed out on racing or spectating at Catalina Park in New South Wales’ Blue Mountains, but it was well before my time.
Here Norm Beechey and Pete Geoghegan are wrestling their touring cars around the tight layout in January 1967: Chev Nova and Ford Mustang. I’ve got my money on Pete!? See here:https://primotipo.com/2019/09/26/norm-jim-and-pete/
A collection of these would be nice, I wasn’t aware of the publication until Bob Williamson put this up on his Facebook page; the LCCA’s ‘Competition Communicator’ magazine came later.
A decade later Jack was mid-way through his last F1 season, here contesting the July British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch. That front couple of rows from pole is Rindt, Oliver, Brabham, partially obscured papaya Hulme, and Ickx on the right: Lotus, BRM, Brabham, McLaren and Ferrari. V8s and a V12 and Flat-12 or 180 degree V12 if you prefer…
With a bit more luck Brabham could have won tbe World Championship for a third time in 1970. At Brands he was robbed of certain victory on the last lap after on his Brabham BT33 Ford ran out of fuel after the Lucas mixture control of the 3-litre Ford Cosworth DFV was left on the rich setting by mechanic, Nick Goozee. Having passed and driven away from Jochen Rindt’s Lotus 72C, the 1970 posthumous World Champ was gifted the win.
Another member of the small-block Chev family, the fuel injected 283 nestled under the bonnet of Tornado 2, is related to the much modified 305 fitted to WB’s F5000 Lola above.
The new Corvette V8 was supplied to car owner Lou Abrahams via his Holden connections and built locally using the best over the counter US performance parts. Abrahams developed the fuel injection using Hilborn parts.
Ted Gray and Tornado 2 Chev at rest before the start of the 1958 Australian Grand Prix at Bathurst at which point it was arguably the fastest, if not the most reliable, racing car in Australia. That’s Lex Davison’s Ferrari 500/625 and crew at left with Ted Gray looking this way behind the right-rear.
(R Edgerton Archive)
Ted Gray, Lou Abrahams and Bill Mayberry – key Tornado men, the other Mayberry brother is the only one missing – during the 1956 AGP weekend at Albert Park. Ted’s first race in the new Tornado 2 Ford.
Another one from Tony Johns below. Ted – still in Tornado 2 Ford – at Fishermans Bend over the 12-13 October 1957 weekend, where he won a five-lap preliminary and led the 20-lap feature until rear axle failure intervened. Stan Jones’ Maserati 250F won that from Bib Stillwell’s similar car and Doug Whiteford’s 300S.
(D Lowe)
Alec Mildren and Lex Davison during their epic race long dice for victory in the 1960 Australian Grand Prix at Lowood, Queensland on : Alec’s very clever Cooper T51 Maserati 250S and Davo’s wonderfully daft Aston Martin DBR4 3-litre.
Those with an interest in Australia’s Aston Martins should buy the latest copy of Auto Action Premium #1909 on sale since Thursday, August 7. Eight pages and a lot of photos you won’t have seen before. International readers see the website here: https://autoaction.com.au/issues
(I Smith)
Peter Jones Cheetah Clubman Toyota 1.3 was, I think, regarded as the ‘Winningest’ car in Australian motor racing for much of the period Jones raced it, say, 1976-80, when Formula Pacific beckoned Peter.
The Cheetah Racing Triumvirate comprised Cheetah designer/builder/racer Brian Shead, racer Brian Sampson, and Sampson’s motor engineering business, Motor Improvements.
MI built most of the Toyota Corolla 1.3-litre race engines fitted to ANF3 and Clubman cars in this era. Peter Jones was the MI Foreman forever, so when Jonesey suggested to Sheady he build him a Clubman, it was game on!
Shead built two of these cars, a ‘turnkey’ one for Peter and another for Victorian Formula Vee ace, Derek Fry. Fry either had access to the drawings or perhaps Brian sold him the bits for Fry’s Tubeframes business to assemble. If one of you know give me a buzz.
Racer Brendan Jones, Peter’s son, has his old car and memory, again, suggests Fry’s was destroyed and scrapped?
Credits…
Les Thacker, Kevin Lancaster, Graham Ruckert, Jack Quinn Collection, Colin Wade, Rob Burnett, Ken Starkey, Terry Martin, Harkness & Hillier, MotorSport, JI Croft, Victor Oliver, Tim Perrin Archive, Bob Young, Brier Thomas-AMHF Archives, Racing Ron Edgerton Archive, Ian Smith, Roger Herrick, David Lowe
Gaze waved goodbye to both of his cars that weekend upon his retirement from racing having sold them to Lex Davison. Davo wasn’t a big fan of the HWM if my recollection of Graham Howard’s Lex biography is correct, but he loved the ex-Ascari Ferrari 500/625 3-litre and didn’t he make it sing, two AGP victories and the rest.
Tyler Alexander at left with Phil Hill’s Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Cooper T70 Climax FPF 2.5 at Pukekohe, Auckland during the January 9, 1965 New Zealand Grand Prix meeting. Car #17 is John Riley’s Lotus 18/21 Climax.
This car was an updated version of a chassis Bruce and the late Tim Mayer raced the year before – T70 FL-1-64 – while The Chief raced a new design designated the T79: T79 FL-1-65. It’s pretty familar turf to us, see here: https://primotipo.com/2016/11/18/tim-mayer-what-might-have-been/
(D Shaw)
That’s the chassis of the T70 above at Pukekohe – with a Brabham BT4 in the foreground – while Bruce is settling himself into the T79 at Levin, the second Tasman round below.
Bruce and Jim Clark collided in one of the Pukehohe heats. While Jim started the GP in his works Lotus 32B Climax, Bruce’s Cooper’s T79 was hors d’combat for the weekend, so he commandeered Phil’s T70 but succumbed to gearbox failure after 13 of the race’s 50 laps. Clark lasted only 2 laps before suspension problems, leaving Graham Hill to win the race aboard his Scuderia Veloce Brabham BT11A Climax.
(unattributed)
McLaren was fifth at Levin, with Jim Clark’s Lotus 32B Climax the race winner. Jim was the Tasman Cup victor too, with four wins from the seven championship rounds or five wins from eight races, including the Lakeside 99 non-championship round. Not to forget, however many heats Clark won.
Bruce’s Tasman plans were thrown somewhat up in the air. The two Coopers were designed around 13-inch Dunlops but Bruce had signed a contract with Firestone for supply of tyres. Defining though the deal was commercially, in the short term the hard, American 15-inch covers were shite for road racing.
The bigger wheels resulted in handling problems which would normally have been sorted before the long trip south. As it was, the necessary makeshift modifications were made between races.
NZ GP at Pukekohe, Bruce didn’t start the T79 having collided with Jim Clark in a heat. Note the Hewland HD 5-speed transaxle and tall Firestones (D Shaw)(unattributed)
The Levin International start on January 16, with Phil and Bruce alongside Clark despite problems adapting Bruce’s new Firestone tyres to a chassis designed with Dunlops in mind.
Despite these difficulties McLaren did Wigram and Teretonga races in faster times than those which gave him his 1964 victories.
In Australia, once 13-inch wheels were available, McLaren was fourth at Sandown and won the Australian Grand Prix final round at Longford from pole to finish the Tasman series runner-up to Clark, while Phil Hill was a well-merited third. There is no doubt that if pre-trip testing time had been on their side, the Cooper-Climax drivers would have made a much better showing in New Zealand.
Pop McLaren, Wally Willmott, Bruce Harre, Bruce McLaren, Jim Clark, Tyler Alexander and Colin Beanland David Oxton informs us, in the Wigram paddock, over the January 23, 1965 weekend.
Showing real progress, McLaren, below, was second to Clark’s Lotus with the well-driven Brabham BT7A Climax of Jim Palmer in third.
(CAN)(A Horrox)
Teretonga, above, was better still with a team two-three – McLaren from Hill – but Jim Clark was still the man in the front of the field with three wins on the trot, only Graham Hills Scuderia Veloce Brabham BT11A Climax win in the New Zealand Grand Prix at Pukekohe at the start of the month ‘rained on Jimmy’s Lotus parade.’
(K Wright)
Bruce McLaren leads Graham Hill and Jack Brabham early in his victorious run in the AGP into Longford village: Cooper T70, and Brabham BT11A’s by two, all Coventry Climax FPF 2.2-litre powered. McLaren and Brabham below.
(GP Library)(MotorSport)
Every Dog Has its Day – perhaps every car too!
At the end of the Tasman, Bruce McLaren sold the T79 to South African ace, John Love. The shot above shows him on the way to a brilliant second place in the 1967 South African Grand Prix.
The machine was a star-car in Africa, winning the 1965, 1966 and 1967 South African National F1 Championships, co-credits to Love’s Cooper T55 Climax and Brabham BT20 Repco in 1965 and 1967 duly noted.
Mike Imrie’s Ford Falcon V8 sports sedan gets the jump on Alfie Costanzo’s Porsche Cars Australia Lola T430 Chev into Shell corner, Sandown during a Formule Libre race in 1979.
Maybe not. How bout they shared an early Sunday discretionary practice session, it’s an interesting juxtaposition of car types all the same.
The trouble with building the world’s best Formula 5000 car, the Lola T330/T332/T332C, is how Eric Broadley and his band of merry men could better it!
Alan Jones, Lola T332 Chev ahead of Peter Gethin’s Chevron B37 Chev during the February 1977 Sandown Park Cup, two DNFs, with Max Stewart’s Lola T400 Chev the winner below. All of the first three shots Shell Corner (B Forsyth)(R Steffanoni)
The 1975 Lola T400 (above) oozed smart thinking, including variable or rising-rate suspension. Initially it was labelled a dog, but by mid-1975 an update kit and setup guidance had customers who persevered with the cars on the right track: Teddy Pilette’s VDS T400 won the 1975 European F5000 Championship from his teammate, Peter Gethin, while in Australia Max Stewart’s T400 won the 1975 Australian Grand Prix and many Gold Star and Rothmans International rounds from 1975-77.
The ultimate F5000 test was of course, the US Championship, where Eppie Wietzes was the best of the T400s in 1975 with fifth place in the standings. The Americans and Australasians loved their T332s, some like the Jim Hall-Chaparral T332Cs raced by Brian Redman were very highly refined and developed, and prodigiously fast.
Frank Gardner all cocked up in the Esses during the February 1971 Warwick Farm 100 Tasman round won by FG’s works Lola T192 Chev (L Hemer)Kevin Bartlett, Lola T300 Chev, Glyn Scott Memorial Trophy Gold Star round, Surfers Paradise 1972
Broadley then took a leaf out of his own F5000 playbook. The Frank Gardner developed Lola T192 Chev was still winning races in 1971 when Broadley, Gardner and designer John Barnard went smaller by building the 1972 model-year Lola T300 Chev.
Essentially, Gardner felt a car based on an F2/FB T240 aluminium monocoque chassis would provide a lower centre of gravity and improved aerodynamics. Fitted with big radiators mounted beside the drivers shoulders, a 500 bhp Chev and Hewland DG300 five speed transaxle where a Ford FVA and FT200 five speed transaxle once lived, the T242, and a little later the renamed T300 was a luscious looking racing car!
Once refined by Gardner in the late 1971 season races the T300 won a lot of races around the world and sold like hot cakes in ’72. The 1973-74 T330/T332 refined the package into one of the most successful series of customer racing cars ever built. Probably the most successful if you account for the central-seat 5-litre Can-Am T332CS and T333 variants as well.
For 1976 Lola planned to do ‘a T192 to T300 all over again’.
Teddy Pilette testing a Lola T450 F2 chassis fitted with a Chev V8, DG300 Hewland etc at Paul Ricard. Note that a front radiator is fitted at this stage. In the later shot of Teddy below, the radiators have been moved to the rear, parallel with the radius rods (Lola)Note the ‘brackets on brackets’ front suspension assemblies as per the text (Auto Hebdo)
Lola initially built and tested a car based on an F2 T450 tub, but ultimately, went with a monocoque based on the T360 Formula Atlantic, which was also a narrow design.
The T430 had a full-width nosecone, unlike all of the T300-series cars, but the radiators were mounted at the rear, having initially, as the photos above show, experimented with a front-mounted radiator.
The suspension was different to the T360 in that the quite conventional mix of magnesium uprights, upper and wide-based lower front wishbones, Koni/coil spring damper units and an adjustable roll-bar. were attached to brackets that in turn were attached to the tub.
The rear suspension comprised Lola magnesium uprights, a single upper link, two parallel lower links and a pair of radius rods doing fore and aft locational duties, and again Koni/coil springs and an adjustable roll bar. VDS’s chief mechanic, Steve Horne, christened the car The Flying Bracket!
In essence, as Allen Brown described it, the T430 has ‘T332-style suspension geometry. Essentially, Lola had built a smaller version of the T300/330/332 design.’ Teddy Pilette wrote cryptically on Facebook, ‘Eric Broadley wanted to make a small, narrow car to get the advantage of straight-line speed…but no good on the curve!!!!’
Steve Horne added (in relation to a Riverside photograph) ‘The drivers swapped cars that weekend and didn’t change much. I normally looked after the B37 (see results summary below), but that weekend was demoted to the 430! The Chevron was one of the best F5000s I worked on. It didn’t really have any development done on it, and the biggest downfall for both cars (T430s and B37) were the Morand engines, which just weren’t competitive in the USA.’
SCCA-USAC Formula 5000 1976…
Three Lola T430s were sold, two to Count Rudy Van Der Straten’s Racing Team VDS, and one to Jim Hall’s. In addition to his pair of Lolas for the 1976 US F5000 Championship – the last – VDS also acquired Derek Bennett’s last F5000 design, the Chevron B37 Chev, having successfully run B24/B28s previously; Peter Gethin won the 1974 Tasman Cup aboard a VDS Chevron B24 Chev.
It must have been quite an expensive year for the beer-baron, carrying chassis spares for different makes of cars. To add to the mix, he also appears to have acquired the T332C HU55 that Warwick Brown was racing for Bay Racing until its demise. WB’s first appearance for VDS was at Road America on July 25.
Pilette raced T430 HU1 and Gethin and Brown HU2, Gethin’s preferred mount was the B37, but Teddy grabbed it once or twice too…
Teddy Pilette, Lola T430 Chev HU1 at the Pocono 1976 US F5000 season opener – the T430’s first race – in May 1976 (B Featherly)Oil radiators mounted either side at the rear (B Featherly)(B Featherly)
As to results: Pocono, May 9, Teddy was Q5 and third and fourth in the heats, then 12th in the final won by Redman’s T332C. At Mosport on June 20 Teddy was third from Q7 in the race won by Alan Jones’s T332. Jackie Oliver had a memorable win for Dodge at Road America on July 25, Shadow DN6B with Pilette sixth from Q11. Gethin was ninth from Q8. Redman won again at Mid Ohio on August 8 with Gethin seventh from Q11. Pilette was fifth overall, and second in his heat from Q7 in the Chevron B37…
The dominance of the Lola T332C was again confirmed with Redman’s win in the Hall-Haas entry at Road America on August 28, where Pilette was Q2 – easily the best qualifying performance of a T430 all year – and fifth, with Brown Q6 in T430 HU2 and DNF, while Peter was Q8 and fourth in the B37.
Allen Brown wrote that ‘With two rounds to go, Alan Jones and Jackie Oliver were tied for the championship lead, but when Oliver retired at Road America and Jones had to miss the race to be at the Dutch Grand Prix, Redman won and leapt into a significant points lead.’
Teddy Pilette leading the field in the wet at Watkins Glen in ? 1976 DNF on lap 14 with engine failure (Lola Heritage via T Pilette)Warwick Brown, T430 Riverside 1976 and below (unattributed)
At Mid-Ohio on August 8, Redman won again with Gethin seventh in HU2 and Teddy fifth in the B37. In the final round at Riverside on July 17, VDS were again busy with three cars. Up front, it was Al Unser in a T332 Chev with WB sixth in HU2 from Q11, Gethin 10th from Q16 in the B37 and Teddy 12th from Q10 in HU1.
Redman won the championship from Unser, Oliver and Jones, the best of the T430 pilots was Warwick Brown in seventh, but most of WB’s points harvest was aboard the Bay Racing Lola T332C.
Lift Off: Surfers 100 1977. L>R WB T430, Peter Gethin Chevron B37, Vern Schuppan, Elfin MR8-C, with John Leffler’s white Lola T400 correcting his start slide and perhaps looking for a run between Gethin and Schuppan. The first three were Brown, Gethin, and Leffler (D Simpson)
1977 Rothmans International Series Australia…
Given the scale of the investment, and success of VDS it was a poor season, best to cut ‘yer losses, take the cars to Australia, win the series, then flog them at the end of it. Which is exactly what happened!
Warwick Brown won two of the four Rothmans International rounds – Oran Park and Surfers Paradise – and the championship from Peter Gethin, in the VDS Chevron B37 Chev and Alan Jones Lola T332 Chev.
Jones was the star of the series but a jumped start in the AGP at Oran Park and writing off a T332 at Surfers cruelled his chances. Yip’s boys leased KB’s T332 for that race.
At the end of the series, VDS sold the two T430s to Porsche Cars Australia/Alan Hamilton, who had had one season of F5000 in 1971, and with business booming, thought he would have another crack.
Bruce Allison bought the Chevron B37 and had a fantastic year in it, contesting the British F5000/Group 8 Championship, winning many fans, some races, and the prestigious Grovewood Award.
‘Hammo’ in the Sandown pitlane during the 1978 AGP weekend (B Atkin)
Porsche Cars Australia Alan Hamilton…
Brown raced HU2 to wins in the Australian Grand Prix at Oran Park and in the Surfers Paradise 100, while Max Stewart took his final win in his Lola T400 Chev HU3 at Sandown the week later.
Alan Jones’ Sid Taylor-Teddy Yip Lola T332 Chev was the fastest combination in the 1977 Rothmans Series, with AJ redeeming himself in the final round at Adelaide International. Jones was pinged for jumping start at Oran Park, bent a Lola in practice at Surfers, then led at Sandown before retiring.
In his ’77 Gold Star campaign aboard HU2, ‘Hammo’ was second at Sandown, fourth at Calder and second at Phillip Island for fourth overall behind John McCormack’s McLaren M23 Repco-McCormack Leyland.
Hamilton also contested the 1978 Rothmans Series for fifth at Sandown, tenth at Adelaide International and sixth at Surfers Paradise before vacating the seat for Derek Bell at Oran Park, where the British all-rounder was eighth from Q11.
Warwick Brown won the series again with a VDS machine, this time a Lola T333 Chev Can-Am car (HU2) converted to a T332C F5000 car, amusing to me at least, given the number of T332s that made the conversion journey the other way…
Derek Bell ahead of Kevin Bartlett at Oran Park at Oran Park in 1978. Lola T430 Chev and Brabham BT43 Chev (C Snowden)Alan Hamilton aboard his immaculate Lola T430 Chev during the 1978 Australian Grand Prix at Sandown before That Lap. Note the very neat T332-based nose fitted by then
While grids for the Rothmans International Series were still adequate, the domestic Gold Star was a different matter. The case for a change to Formula Pacific was being put, with F5000 hanging on. Alan Hamilton missed the opening round of the Gold Star at Oran Park but entered for the Australian Grand Prix at Sandown on September 10.
That ‘Fangio Meeting’ was mega with the great man demonstrating a 3-litre W196S-engined Mercedes-Benz W196R Grand Prix car with much brio throughout the weekend and ‘racing’ Jack Brabham in Jack’s 66 F1 Championship-winning Brabham BT19 Repco 620 V8.
The utter excitement of the sight and sound of that legendary car-driver combination was to a large extent ruined by the accidents that befell Garrie Cooper and Alan Hamilton, and to a lesser extent Vern Schuppan, in the Grand Prix won by Graham McRae, McRae GM3 Chev.
Alan lost control of the twitchy, unforgiving Lola on the fast left-hander off The Causeway then went backwards into the Dunlop Bridge breaking the car into two and breaking a leg, his pelvis and sustaining serious head injuries.
While there that day, I was nowhere near the accident, which was in a no-spectator area on the inside of the track. The vibe of the place that day, with three big hits and limited information flow to us punters, is something I still remember.
It took a long time for Hamilton to recover, he carried maladies related to that accident for the rest of his life, not least the diabetes that prevented him from ever holding a full competition licence again.
Hamilton supported a lot of drivers along the way, it’s beyond the scope of this article. When he decided to continue to race the other T430, HU1, he chose Italian Australian Alfredo Costanzo, then 35 years old.
Costanzo in the Sandown dummy grid. Flying Bracket factor front and rear is clear (D House)This shot shows the low frontal area presented by Costanzo’s T430 compared with Brown’s T332 further back; Perkins’ Elfin MR8 looking as slippery as the T430. Oran Park 1979 (B Forsyth)
Costanzo’s first race was at the Sandown round of the 1979 Rothmans Series on February 4, where he won, what a debut! He took the Adelaide round as well.
The shot above shows Costanzo, Lola T430 Chev, ahead of Larry Perkins, Elfin MR8C Chev, and Warwick Brown, Lola T332C Chev in the final Oran Park round on February 25, 1979.
Rob Newman, racer and in John Walker’s AGP and Gold Star winning 1979 year, the preparer of JW’s Lola T332, observed: ‘Poor Alfie had a driveshaft failure and lost the race and the series. Perkins went on to win the 1979 Rothmans series without winning a race, and Warwick salvaged one race win from what had been an awful 1979 Rothmans series for him, his last season as a professional driver, if I recall correctly.’
Shortly after the Rothmans, the Gold Star commenced with the Australian Grand Prix at Wanneroo Park on 11 March. Costanzo bagged pole, then he and Perkins took one another out in a first-lap, first-corner battle for victory. Another perennial battler, John Walker, won the day in Martin Sampson’s Lola T332 Chev; the duo took the Gold Star that year, too, with Alfie the winner of the Sandown round.
Take No Prisoners. Classic dive and chop manoeuvre between Perkins’ Elfin MR8 and Alfie’s T430 eliminates both at the start of the 1979 AGP at Wanneroo Park. A great pity, as that joust could have been really something (unattributed)AGP victor John Walker is licking his lips in the #25 white Lola T332 behind the Wanneroo Air Show (unattributed)
Into 1980, the Hamilton-Costanzo-T430 combination finally came good in a Gold Star season of many different winners, winning the coveted award from Jon Davison and John Bowe and taking victory in the Sandown and the Rose City 10000 at Winton in T430 HU1.
Alfie’s last hurrah in the old car was in the Australian Grand Prix at Calder on November 16. By then, the conversion of McLaren M26-4E to a ground-effects Chev-engined F5000 car in PCA’s workshops was a bit behind schedule, so Hamilton’s crew dusted off the T430 for one last time, finishing fourth in the race behind Alan Jones, Williams FW07B Ford, Bruno Giacomelli, Alfa Romeo 179 V12 and Didier Pironi’s Elfin MR8 Chev. Alfie and Didi gave one another a bit of hip-and-shoulder that day!
Bob Minogue, Lola T430 Chev, Shell Corner, Sandown 1981. From memory, the lack of airboxes at this stage was the notion of the entrants/penniless sponsor Arco Graphite to make F5000 cars look more contemporary (R Lewis)
The car didn’t move far with Brighton racer Bob Minogue, the purchaser. He had been out of racing for a while but proved very much up to the task and not intimidated at all, racing the car in the 1981 Gold Star and into the Arco Graphite Series in 1981-82 as Formula Pacific finally took over as Australia’s National F1.
All three T430s live in New Zealand with T430 HU2 rebuilt around the chassis plate, which ‘took pride of place’ on Alan Hamilton’s office pin-board for a couple of decades.
(A Mitchell)The Costanzo T430 Chev at Surfers Paradise in 1979 and below at Sandown. Circa 520bhp in the day (M Strudwick)(C Jewell)
Rod Steffanoni, Chris Jewell, Bill Forsyth, Lynton Hemer, Michael Strudwick, Chris Snowden, Auto Hebdo, Lola Heritage, Teddy Pilette, Bob Featherly, Neil Laracy, Chris Parker, Robin Lewis, Alex Mitchell
Tailpieces…
(C Parker)
I was there somewhere, that day, every day over that Sandown Sunday, February 20, 1977, weekend.
Raceday wasn’t a good day for WB, he had qualified fourth but boofed the T430 into the Dandy Road fence on the warm-up or parade lap, Max Stewart won from Alfie and Garrie Cooper: Lola T400, Lola T332 and Elfin MR8-C all Chev powered.
Look at the crowd…And below? Surfers perhaps? Racing cars are like magnets for little tackers and bigger blokes alike, aren’t they!?
Colin Anderson and riding mechanic at Hell Bend on the Victor Harbor-Port Elliott road circuit during the Australian Grand Prix-South Australian Centenary Grand Prix held on December 26, 1936.
The pair are racing the Morris Special owned by Alf Barrett, one of Australia’s greatest racing drivers. He was a star of the immediate pre and post-war period aboard an Alfa Romeo 8C2300 Monza he raced from 1939. The car behind Anderson is George Martin’s AC 16/80.
Barrett entered three cars that Christmas 1936 weekend: a Lombard AL3 acquired from Jack Day in late 1935 for himself, an MG P-Type for Bryant & May family member Tim Joshua, and the Morris for another friend, Colin Anderson a principal of still respected Toorak based, multi-office real estate agency RT Edgar.
Alf retired the 1.2-litre Lombard after the supercharger pop-off valve blew off and could not be found despite a half-hour search! Colin Anderson wasn’t classified in the 1.5-litre Morris with overheating problems and a spin, but Tim Joshua had better luck. He was second in the P-Type behind the similar car driven by the winner, Les Murphy. Joshua led the race for some laps before a seven minute stop for unidentified maladies.
Alf Barrett alongside his Morris Special early in its life circa 1933, perhaps outside the family home in Armadale. Note the differences in bodywork and chassis undercut mentioned below (D Zeunert Collection)Barrett aboard his Morris at Kayannie Corner Lobethal during the January 3, 1938 South Australian GP weekend. Alf raced the Morris only once at Lobethal and used #30 in the race. Perhaps this is an early practice shot while still running a number used in a previous meeting, the Victorian rego plates were removed by raceday too (N Howard)
Barrett was born in 1909 to a wealthy family who made their fortune in malt. Today Barrett Burston Malting is part of the publicly listed United Malt Group Ltd. He grew up in Armadale in Melbourne’s inner-east and started messing around with petrol engined devices with his brother Gib (Julian) in the large grounds of their home.
Not far away, a young man destined to become a master-mechanic, preparing cars for Barrett, Tony Gaze and Lex Davison amongst others, Alan Ashton, was serving his time as an apprentice at AF Hollins Motor Engineers in High Street.
The three youngsters met and were soon messing around with cars and bikes which they tested at Aspendale Speedway.
Alf, Gib and Alan built their first racing car out of a Morris Cowley in 1933, initially hillclimbing the purposeful, attractive biposto. It was competitive in the handicap race events of the day too, winning the Light Car Club of Australia’s Winter 100 from 14 other competitors at Phillip Island in June 1935.
While the Lombard was the Morris’ successor, Alf had lots of trouble with it. John Medley wrote that ‘Pretty though it was, it was a nightmare for Barrett, a later owner discovering water jackets filled with bronze to heal unimaginable horrors. Never reliable , it was later re-engined with Vauxhall power.’
Amidst entries in the Lombard, he raced it in the Easter 1938 AGP at Bathurst won by Peter Whitehead’s ERA B-Type, Barrett continued to race the Morris which proved its pace with a great second place among much heavier metal in the 150 mile March 1937 Phillip Island Trophy.
Barrett, at Lobethal before the start of the January 3, 1938 South Australian Grand Prix (N Howard)Tony Ohlmeyer, MG T-Spl, Jim Boughton Morgan 4-4, Barrett’s Morris Cowley Spl and Ron Uffindell’s Austin 7 Spl
He also raced the Morris in the 100 mile January 3, 1938 South Australian Grand Prix at Lobethal, but DNF in the handicap race won by Noel Campbell’s Singer Bantam from Colin Dunne’s MG K3 and Tony Ohlmeyer’s MG T-Type.
He also contested the 148 mile Interstate Grand Prix/Albury Grand Prix at Wirlinga near Albury that March. Alf was pretty handy behind the wheel, he was quite spectacular in the long suffering Morrie at Wirlinga despite the side-valve machine having a top speed of no more than 90mph, but again he failed to finish.
Barrett at Wirlinga in March 1938, the event was variously called the Interstate Grand Prix and Albury Grand Prix, the programme says the latter. Jack Phillips and Ted Parsons, local Wangaratta boys won in their Ford V8 Special (L Egan)
Little is known about the mechanical specifications of the car, but Stephen Hands wrote that ‘For many years Graeme Steinfort (a Melbourne lawyer/racer/restorer/historian had the block from Alf’s car. It had several interesting modifications, one was to reduce the reciprocating mass in the valvegear. Alf had cut away half the mushroom head of the cam-follower to leave only a bit directly over the cam lobe. It was prevented from rotating by a small block of metal screwed onto the block.’
‘Alf later modified the body somewhat, the photos show the dropped down radiator and cutaway body for more elbow-room. Some of the photos clearly show that Alf dropped the chassis under the rear axle. It would be interesting to see photos without the bodywork to illustrate how he did it.’
John Medley noted that the Morris was destroyed in a bushfire with only the engine surviving. It seems to have been fitted with a Laystall steel crankshaft, and the engine was fitted to Geoff Russell’s Russell Morris Special.
(Mildenhalls)
Etcetera…
A Bullnose Morris Cowley with the proud owner in Canberra, date unknown. Ideal car for a public servant no doubt.
WR Morris, the Morris Company founder spent nearly a month in Australia in February/March 1928, accompanied by his chief designer, Mr Seaward, learning, Morris said ‘many things about tracks, clearance and other details that were required of the roads of Australia. It was up to him, when he returned to the old country, to do his best to supply the Britishers on this side of the water with what they required.’
Interestingly Morris said, ‘he could not leave Australia without saying he had never seen a better organised body works in the world than Holdens (then a body builder)’, which hw had seen in Adelaide that morning.
It’s easy to think of Morris as a marque that disappeared within the British Motor Corporation, but ‘the output of Morris products is approximately half the output of the whole of the British motor industry,’ The Register reported on April 2, 1927.
By November 1928 The Register reported that Morris products now embody many improvements as a result of WR Morris’ visit. Chief amongst these was enhanced pulling power of the new Morris Cowley engine, ‘in the past a second gear car for hill work but now having top-gear performance comparable with any four cylinder car on this market. Such improved performance and other engineering refinements makes the Cowley very desirable for country or city use.’ I wonder what Alf Barrett would have made of this lot!?
(Anderson Family Archive)
Credits…
Ron Blum Collection, Warwick Anderson, John Medley in ‘The Official 50 Race History of the Australian Grand Prix’, Norman Howard, Stephen Hands on Greg Smith’s Pre 1960 Historic Racing in Australasia Facebook page, David Zeunert Collection, Len Egan, Mildenhall’s Canberra, The Register March 7 and November 7, 1928.
My ignorance of what is right under my nose never ceases to amaze me.
Despite the Trafalgar Holden Museum celebrating its tenth birthday in 2024, I was unaware of its existence until invited along to the official opening of the Neil Joiner Heritage Centre Building on the site of the old Trafalgar Butter factory, 74 Waterloo Road, 125 km north of Melbourne on the Princes Highway.
My invite was as Big Bad Brucie Williams’ bitch, publisher of Auto Action.
250 of the Holden party-faithful attended in a mix of old and new buildings, which house a collection of 150-200 Holdens and memorabilia. The ceremony was performed by the Victorian Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Steve Dimopoulos.
Dimopolous recognised and applauded the passion of Neil Joiner and his family, he told Auto Action that ‘It’s a magnificent facility, a really important part of Victoria’s industrial and automotive history. We were proud to provide $470,000 to assist in building a museum that will be good for the local economy.’
Local businessman Joiner, who died in 2024, was a dedicated Holden enthusiast who focused on transforming the old butter factory into a Holden museum after his retirement in 2007.
I was aware of Holden’s past as an Adelaide coach builder of horse-drawn buggies long before its automotive growth, but not its far-distant past as a saddlery. This aspect is cleverly explored in an older building recently made over for that purpose.
Joiner’s vision wasn’t just about the cars. It was telling the whole story from the early saddlery and buggy era, armaments made during World War 2, the Frigidaire range of home products and the cars from Holden-bodied Buicks to the last ZB Commodores.
Joiner tipped in his entire collection of cars and memorabilia and Holden came to the party too, with 27 of about 80 cars they have spread throughout Australia.
There was a strong presence of Holden identities including Chris Payne, Paul Beranger, Richard Ferlazzo, author/historian Norm Darwin, Erebus’ Chris Payne, Jason Bargwanna, Garry and Barry Rogers, plus an army of enthusiasts.
Rogers owns a farm closeby and has supported the museum with two cars on display, a 2002 Nations Cup Monaro CV8 427 (foreground) and the ZB Commodore Supercar (at rear) raced by Tyler Everingham and Jayden Ojeda to 19th place in the 2019 Bathurst 1000. The car looks magic in as-finished-Bathurst condition.
Holden Monaro CV8 2002 Nations Cup Specifications (yellow car)
GRM-built chassis with integrated chrome-moly roll cage
7-litre (427 cubic inch) all-alloy Gen III V8 engine built by GRM a specific racing version of the Chevrolet LS engine with capacity increased from 5.7-litres. Holinger 6-speed sequential gearbox, AP triple-plate 7.25″ carbon clutch
Fully independent rear suspension developed by Harrop Engineering, Ohlins shock absorbers. AP 6 piston mono block front calipers / 4 piston mono block rear calipers. Front rotor – 375 x 35mm, rear – 343 x 35mm
18″ x 13″ OZ Racing rear wheels / 18″ x 11″ OZ Racing front wheels-centre-locking nuts, Dunlop GT racing tyres (FIA specs)
120-litre FIA-approved racing fuel cell with Siamese dry-break refuelling system. GRM-designed and developed carbon-fibre / Kevlar composite aero package. Motel onboard engine and dash management system. 4 onboard air jacks
The museum is a must-visit for all car nuts, not just the rusted-on Holden diehards. I’m a Ford man, I’ve never owned a Holden, but Dad had plenty of them as company cars – remember that pre-FBT perk?! – So I’ve plenty of experience driving them as well as having plenty of firsts inside Holdens! Like most of us over 15, I suspect.
What did he have now I think of it? EH Wagon three-on-the-tree and then autos: HD, HR and HK wagons, then HG and HQ Premier sedans before switching to the dark side with an XB Fairmont and Fords thereafter.
What follows is a random potpourri of shots of cars and exhibits that caught my eye. The verbiage is the Museum’s not mine. Do go up and have a look, its really great.
‘Throughout Holden’s 158-year history, SA has been the source of horse drawn coach and automotive body manufacturing engineering development and production for the company.
First automotive bodies were designed and manufactured in 1917, meaning Holden was in the automotive manufacturing business for 100 years by the 2017 closedown of manufacturing.
Established in 1919, known as Holden’s Motor Body Builders Ltd. (HMBB) manufactured bodies at its King William St Adelaide factory and at Woodville from 1925 where it employed 5,500 people.
HMBB made bodies for 40 different brands of cars. Over half a million bodies were made before the Holden 48-215 was launched. Exporting of bodies commenced in 1939.
Within the first few years of operation Woodville became one of the biggest body manufacturers in the world as well as being the sole supplier of car bodies for General Motors in Australia. GMH was formed by the merging of HMBB with the assembly plants previously operated by GM Australia.
Forced by Australia’s isolation during WW2, the need for innovation, improvisation and invention was paramount in all Holden plants. Woodville became the largest producer of war related equipment and supplies within GMH.
After the war, major advances in body manufacturing engineering, sheet-metal press tooling, body assembly jigs and fixture design together with press and body assembly production systems centred around Woodville.’
Fishermans Bend, Melbourne…
‘Head office was transferred from SA to Fishermen’s Bend, Melbourne. Opened in 1936, Fishermans Bend (correct spelling) became Holden’s headquarters, as well as its product design and product engineering centre.
During WW2 it produced a vast array of war equipment, including the development and production of many types of trucks. Critical to Holden’s future was the introduction of a world class foundry duringWW2 to produce engine blocks and heads.’
‘The plant assembled the first Holden car, the 48-215, based on fully trimmed bodies being supplied from Woodville, South Australia, and most mechanical components being made in Fishermans Bend plants. It produced the vast majority of the mechanical components in the car including the engine, transmission rear axle and suspension components. This was at a time when the Australian automotive supplier industry in Australia was not well developed, so Holden manufactured a lot more of the car internally.’
‘In 1956 vehicle assembly in Victoria was relocated to a new Dandenong plant. The Fishermans Bend plant was reconfigured to concentrate mostly on engine manufacture for domestic and for 4-cylinder export territories. It became Australia’s largest exporter of elaborately transformed goods. The famous 6 cylinder in line and V8 Holden engines were produced here.’
‘Fishermans Bend went on to produce a peak of 960 engines per day up until November 29, 2016, when it was closed after 76 years of engine manufacturing.’
Export…
‘Holden had a significant program running for many decades beginning with the FJ exports to New Zealand in 1954.
In later years exports were most significant in the Middle East and America with both the commodore and Statesman nameplates being altered to both Chevrolet and Pontiac, but the vehicles were Holden.
Over the years Holden exported completely built-up cars (CBU’s) cars in parts and assemblies to be assembled at their destination (CKD packs) and of course engines and other componentry. These programs added billions of dollars of income to the Australian economy and validated Holden as a producer of world class vehicles, automotive engines and componentry.
As well, Holden exported its incredible expertise and knowledge in the design and development of cars for its parent company in the USA, General Motors.’
The Holden Emblem : The Lion…
‘As an emblem, the Holden Lion relates to the time when coach builders engraved their company name or trademark on the door sill, or on a plate fixed to the instrument panel.
In the early 1920s Holden Motor Body Builders used a large brass plate embossed with a winged figure representing industry against a background of factory buildings. In 1926 the company decided to downsize the brass plate and emulate the practice of Fisher Body in the USA, which attached a neat replica of its coach trademark to the lower part of the cowl. Because the existing emblem was too detailed to be embossed on a small plate, a new design was commissioned to be based on the Egyptian-style ‘Wembley Lion’, symbol of London’s 1924-25 British Empire Exhibition. Fashion themes of the time from clothing to furniture, films and songs all were influenced by Egyptian antiquity.
According to fable, the principle of the wheel was suggested to primitive man when observing a lion rolling a stone. Thus inspired the pre-eminent Australian sculptor of the day George Rayner Hoff, to create the ‘lion and stone’ sculpture. This was replicated in a pressed metal plate that was fixed to all bodies built by Holden’s Motor Body Builders from 1928.
More than 75 years later the evolution of the lion and stone symbol can be traced through series of badges proudly worn by a cavalcade of cars, some recognised by early GM model enthusiasts but most dear to the hearts of generations of Australians since 1948 advent of the 48-215 or FX Holden.
The chrome-winged surround on the FX/FJ grille badge was Cadillac inspired.
The classic Egyptian lion design gave way in 1972 to a more modern interpretation of the symbol, which in turn was replaced in 1994 by the powerful Holden brand we are familiar with today.’
Holden 132 CID Grey motor…
Powered cars such as the FJ Ute above.
‘The introduction of the first Holden car in 1948, the 48/215, saw the first mass produced car engine in Australia.
Designed in 1938 by GM for Project 195-Y15, it was only used in the Holden car and all production Holden’s were fitted with engines made in a purpose built facility at Fisherman’s Bend, Melbourne.
Though small in capacity, the use of six cylinders ensured a smooth, efficient engine with good torque, giving the lightweight 48/215 more than adequate performance.
Dubbed the Grey motor on account of their paint, about 650,000 of these 132 motors were made from 1948 to 1960 and many were sold for use as stationary engines to drive generators, pumps and the like.
Type 6 cylinder, 7 port head. Capacity 132.5 cid, 2171cc. Inlet valve size 1.28, 32.5 mm. Power 60bhp, 44.5kw @ 3800rpm.’
The search for Power…
‘This display is the 3-litre model 186 engine which was produced from 1966 to 1970 and is fitted with a ‘Cyclone cylinder head’ designed and developed by Phil Irving and Bob Chamberlain.
The head is one of the six that were made of cast steel. Later another 25 were made of alloy before the project ended. Development started when the Holden engine driving a new boat drive, that Bob Chamberlain designed, did not have enough power pull the skiers fast enough.
Phil Irving had previously designed a cylinder head that was thought would give the extra power required. So together they decided to develop it in their Port Melbourne workshop where the first two were cast and machined.
The head is a ‘Heron type’ which has the combustion chamber in the piston and not in the cylinder head. The head has the Inlet ports at 30degrees and the hydraulic valve lifters are replaced with solid lifters. It is fitted with an inlet manifold similar to the E-Type Jaguar and has three SU carburettors. Two other manifolds were tried out with a Stromberg and another with a 4-barrel Holley carburettor.
All three when tested on a dynamometer gave similar results of around 150bhp as against 90 bhp in the stock standard 186 engine. Other than that the rest of the engine is standard.
While the engine performed well in the stock car mode it was found to overheat in the boat due to the constant high revs required to keep the boat planing, whereas the changes of speed allowed some cooling in the car.’
Holden Bodyworks…
‘If cars could talk, few would have as many stories to tell as this stunning 1928 Buick Speedster.
Built by Holden Bodyworks in 1928, the car was shipped to England for performance improvements and to compete in the Brookland Time Trials. Calculations confirm the car would have been capable of 140mph at just over 5000rpm. This is far in excess of top speeds that were being achieved at that time for any production type car.
The car was noticed in the Brooklands track car park by two Vickers test pilots and they were encouraged to take the car for a spin around the track for a bit of fun. The recorded oncaged to attain an unofficial top speed of 138mph without crashing. This is 20mph faster than anything But things turned sour for the record-setter, with police closing down the track after several high-speed crashes had resulted in death.
Unable to continue racing, the Buick returned to Australia and was sold to a private buyer in Mildura who saw porentia in its speed.
Painted matte black, with its headlights removed and holes cut into its body to accommodate barreis, the car was used to run moonshine (illegal alcohol) across the Victoria-NSW border between Mildura and Echuca. Travelling only at night using moonlight for navigation, the Buick became known to locals as the mocnight speedse The dutlaw car evaded police until its eventual capture in 1964.
Seizure under the new proceeds of crime laws saw its demise, with the car crushed and puched into a creek, a mere lay forgotten for 20 years forgotten.’
Is this for real?? Sounds like a touch of the Donald Trumps to me?
Five years before I finally made it to a race meeting in 1972 the Holden Precision Driving Team blew my tiny mind at the Royal Melbourne Show.
‘We all saw them’ perform around Australia wherever we lived. Monaro GTS sedans above, and coupes below, venues folks?
This one gave me a chuckle too.
Blanchards Holden were on one of Melbourne’s busiest intersections, the corner of Springvale and Dandenong Roads, Springvale, only a drop-kick from Sandown.
It’s a mega corner of about six bits of road these days, but that roundabout in the late-1950s – the line-up of FCs makes it 1958-60’ish – looks pretty lame…
James A Holden’ saddlery, King William St, Adelaide (D Zeunert Archive)
Etcetera…
Don’t miss the latest, June Auto Action, on-sale for only the next few days, see below for the contents. The July 132-page monthly, issue #1908, will be in store this Thursday/Friday.
I’m not sure of the full content of that one yet, but my historic bits are a short piece on the museum, a ten-pager on the Tasman Cup from 1964-69. This is the first of two parts and has many ‘unseen’ photos taken by John Ellacott and Paul Cross. There is also an eight-page under-the-skin piece on Jim Richard’s Murray Bunn built Ford Falcon Hardtop Guney-Eagle 351 sports sedan. This one has Auto Action photos taken in the day that have never been published. It’s amazing what lurks in our files! Finally, Lord Alexander’s Hesketh outfit won its one and only championship F1 race, the Dutch Grand Prix in June 1975 . We have a two-page look at the unlikely but totally professional Peer, Bubbles Horsley, James Hunt and Harvey Postlethwaite.
Photo Credits…
M Bisset, Holden, David Zeunert Archive
Tailpieces…
This coach-built, immaculate HR Hearse caught the eye.
The skeleton in the front seat was predictable enough, but the Ford banner atop the coffin in the rear was amusing to the Blue Oval Brigade present!
Bob Jane and Pete Geoghegan hard at it during the Warwick Farm Tasman meeting in February 1966. Jaguar E-Type Lwt and ex-McKay Lola Mk1 Climax. What were the results of these encounters folks?
The 31st place Fiat 2300 of Bill Burns, Brian Lawler and Bruce Kaye at the end of the 11,260 km 1964 Ampol Round Australia Trial, Queen Elizabeth Drive, Bondi Beach on June 28.
Stirling Moss giving the ex-Jim Clark-Leo Geoghegan Lotus 39 Coventry Climax 2.5 FPF a gallop during the 1984 Tribute to Jaguar meeting at Amaroo Park in the Summer of 1984.
Allan Moffat – who had an open-wheeler phase in his distant past – at the wheel of a Wren Formula Ford during the ‘Race of Champions‘ at Calder on August 15, 1971.
Australian Nationals drags racing meeting at Calder in October 1968. Peter Brock lines up in his famous Austin A30 Holden 179.
He was knocked out by Ken Spence’s Ford Zephyr 289 in the first round, no Top Eliminator that weekend, but there would be plenty of those to come! Article about this car, slightly!, here: https://primotipo.com/2018/05/07/brocks-birrana/
(MotorSport)
Tim Schenken was living the dream by 1972, his third year in F1 – Surtees that year – and a member of the victorious Scuderia Ferrari 312PB squad in 1972-73.
The shot above shows Tim on the approach to Druids, where the pair were second in the Brands Hatch 1000km run on April 16, a lap ahead was the winning Jacky Ickx/Mario Andretti 312PB.
His driving partner was usually his mate, Ronnie Peterson in ’72. That year the pair won the 1000km of Buenos Aires, Nurburgring 1000km on the way to Ferrari’s crushing World Sportscar Championship victory that season.
They dipped out at Le Mans – that is they piked, didnt enter – knowing the F1 derived Flat 12 engine wouldn’t last the distance, Graham Hill and Henri Pescarolo won there in their Matra MS670, its F1 derived V12 lasting the distance rather well! Noting it wasn’t their first attempt with said engine.
Matra won again the following year with a Ferrari 312PB second, six laps in arrears: Henri Pescarolo/Gerard Larrousse MS670B and Arturo Merzario 312PB.
The only things missing are fatties and dice swinging’ from the mirror…two of these HT Holden Monaros were trialled by Victoria Police but rejected as fleet-mainstream additions.
Very hard for the crooks to get out of the back seat I would have thought, but maybe hard to get the corpulent ones in there. The cars would have been nice props on Homicide or Matlock Police…
(K Devine)
Len Lukey, Cooper T23 Bristol on the way to fourth place in the Australian Grand Prix at Caversham, Western Australia.
Ellis French tells us the pilots of the first four Humpy Holdens are Messrs Warner, Mather, De Pauli and and Wilcox in this fabulous, panoramic Symmons Plains shot.
‘Make sure you keep it on the black-stuff Vern for chrissakes!’ may well have been Sid Taylor’s instructions to his driver: Yip-Theodore-Taylor Lola T332 Chev.
It’s the Oulton Park Euro F5000 round over the March 28 weekend in 1975 I believe folks. Vern was 11th, Gordon Spice won in another T332 Chev. More about Vern here: https://primotipo.com/2022/01/17/vern-schuppan-3/
This chassis was Jack’s 1966 weapon of war in the Tasman and F1 championship and non-championship events, owned for decades by Repco Ltd or whatever the retailer is called these days.
(Stupix)
The second placed Mauro Baldi/Stefan Johansson Sauber Mercedes C9 5-litre V8 turbo during the Lucas Supersprint Sandown 360 over the November 20, 1988 weekend
While the entry for this race wasn’t as broad and deep as the 1984 Sandown 1000k the scale of the Fiscal Disaster for the Light Car Club of Australia was similar, see here: https://primotipo.com/2024/05/25/sandown-1000-1984/
(Stupix)
From the left, third place Martin Brundle and Eddie Cheever, Jaguar XJR9 7-litre V12, winners Jochen Mass and Jean-Louis Schlesser, and second men Johannsson and Baldi, Sauber Mercedes C9.
Jochen had a busy weekend not only racing his hi-tech C9 but also demonstrating a 1937 Mercedes Benz W125 Silver Arrows, very spectacular it was too!
(Stupix)(S Dalton Collection)(P Bowen)
Jochen with the Porsche Museum 550 Spyder in which he had an enjoyable Historic category win in the 1996 Targa Tasmania.
Credits…
Bob Williamson Archive, Ern McQuillan via Jim Strickland, Mike Harding-Auto Action, Ken Devine, Australian Muscle Car, John Shingleton, Stupix, Peter Bowen, John Brock, State Library of Victoria, Stephen Dalton Collection
Tailpiece…
(SLV)
Australian Auxiliary Territorial Services Driver, Gladys Pollard, on assignment in the UK during 1942, summer by the look of it…
The grid for the Australian GT Championship at Lakeside, Queensland on 8 July 1962…
Bill Pitt, Jaguar 3.4 alongside John French in the Centaur Waggott-Holden, then the two Lotus Elites of Tony Osborne #16 and #7 Brian Foley. On the row behind is #21 Les Howard, Austin Healey Sprite Ford-Cosworth, in the middle is the partially obscured #31 Porsche 356 of Tony Basile and on the left the white #30 Renault Floride of Terry Kratzmann .
The light-coloured Sprite further back is #51 Sib Petralia, #60 Paul Fallu, Karmann Ghia, whilst the #4 Wolseley has long-time competitor Ken Peters at the wheel. The unmistakable outline of the grey Renault Dauphine is #6 M Hunt. Dennis Geary #22 was also entered in the HWM Jaguar – then in two-seat Coupe form but with the very same chassis and mechanicals of the car raced by Lex Davison to win the 1954 Australian Grand Prix – ‘just down the road’ at Southport on the Gold Coast.
Denis Geary aboard the ex-Moss/Davison HWM Jaguar – the 1954 AGP winning single-seater chassis fitted with a coupe body – from the French Centaur Waggott during the GT Championship (B Williamson)The pit crew provides scale, isn’t the Centaur a small car? Lowood (B Thomas)Les Howard, Kevin Bartlett – looking after Howard’s car that weekend – the victor, John French adjusting his helmet, Antony Osborne and Brian Foley before the off.
The 50 lap 75 mile race was won in 62:6.06 minutes/seconds by French from Basile, Pitt, Howard then came Foley. Sib Petralia won the under 1-litre class, Basile the 1000-1600cc , French the 1600-2600cc and Pitt the 2600cc class and over.
The race was the third Australian GT Championship for Appendix K cars, the first was held at Bathurst during the October 1960 meeting and was won by Leo Geoghegan’s Lotus Elite, the 1961 event was at Warwick Farm in July, and Frank Matich won in his Jaguar D-Type.
Lowood Merv Waggott built 2440cc Waggott-Holden twin-cam, two-valve, triple Weber 40 DCO fed circa 200 bhp six-cylinder engineLakeside
Toowong, Brisbane, University of Queensland Mechanical Engineering graduate Tim Harlock built his first car in four years, from concept to completion, commencing when he was barely out of his teens.
‘I was always mechanically inclined,’ Tim told Mildred Eden in 1962. ‘But beyond toying with a metal building set and making model aeroplanes, I had never before tackled anything of this magnitude.’
Car racing became Tim’s main interest while still at school.
Keith Turner in the Centaur Mk1B Ford at Lakeside circa-1964 (P Lefrancke)Tim Harlock racing his Centaur Mk4 at Lowood in October 1964 (B Williamson)
‘I saw my first race about 10 years ago in England, where we lived while my father, a soldier, was stationed over there. It was at Boreham Wood, but I don’t even remember who was racing at thc time. I did not become a real enthusiast until later.” –
He was determined to race himself but couldn’t afford it so he decided to build himself a car. ‘I’d learnt the basic theory in engineering, but all the practical knowledge came from friends with years of racing experience.
‘Wal Anderson, who is a retired racing driver, was a fund of information, and my friend Keith Turner worked with me on the construction. Incidentally, we have built two cars now, one each.’
The chassis of the Centaur/Centaur Mk 1B is a multi-tubular spaceframe, with the front suspension comprising upper and lower wishbones, modified Alford & Alder uprights and coil spring damper units. The rear comprised a well located BMC A-series rear axle diff assembly.
The engine was a Ford 105E 997cc, an Anglia also provided the gearbox, drum brakes were Morris Major 9-inch front and 7-inch rear.
The nose is Lotus 11-esque!, I can read your minds. Tim did a deal with Chas Whatmore after he damaged the nose of his Lotus 11 at Lakeside, Harlock took a mould from that car, the rest of the body aluminium.
Tim and Keith began to race their cars in June 1961. It wasn’t too long before Wal Anderson introduced John French to Tim Harlock, and shortly thereafter, the 1962 Australian Championship-winning Centaur-Waggott project commenced; the championship C-W was the third of 11 Centaur sportscars built.
Centaur Waggott-Holden GT…
Bill Tuckey, one of Australia’s greatest motoring writers of the 1960s-70s, wrote this fantastic article about the car in the September 1962 issue of Sports Car World, easily my favourite Australian mag until its untimely demise in the 1980s.
Etcetera…
(J Campbell Collection)
Waggott-Holden engine dummy installation in the Centaur chassis. The shot below more fully describes the engine specifications, and the bottom one is a collage of in-period Waggott Engineering photographs with Merv at top right.
(G Smith Collection)”(B Williamson Collection)
Credits…
Sports Car World, the Brier Thomas photographs are courtesy of Graham Ruckert, Mildred Eden Australian Women’s Weekly, Peter Le Francke Collection, Bob Williamson Collection, Greg Smith Collection, John Campbell Collection
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