Alain Prost came, saw, and conquered the Calder Park circuit to win the 100 lap, 100 mile Formula Pacific Australian Grand Prix on November 8, 1982. His weapon of choice, a Ralt RT4 Ford BDA of course.
Bob Jane, bless the Melbourne entrepreneur, bagged the AGP for his ‘Melbourne International Raceway’ from 1980-84. Roberto Moreno was the dominant racer in that era, winning the Formula Pacific AGPs in 1981, and 1983-84. Alan Jones won the F5000/F1 event in 1980 aboard a Williams FW07B Ford.
The international stars in 1982 also included Roberto Moreno, Nelson Piquet and Jacques Laffitte, while the local hotshots were Alan Jones, John Bowe, John Smith, Alf Costanzo, Andrew Miedecke and Lucio Cesario. The whole lot of ’em were mounted in Ron Tauranac’s Ralt RT4s with the exception of Costanzo who raced an Alan Hamilton/Porsche Cars Australia owned Tiga FA81 with bags of modifications made by Jim Hardman. F5000 became Formula Lola and Formula Atlantic/Pacific became Formula Ralt from the day the first RT4 rolled out of Ron’s Byfeet Road, Weylock Works in Weybridge…
Prost, Laffitte, Costanzo obscured, Bowe and the rest thru Tin Shed on lap 1 of 100, AGP 1982 (R Berghouse)
The Renault team leader – victor of the South African and Brazilian Grands Prix that year aboard 1.5-litre Renault RE30B V6 turbos – bagged pole from Laffitte, Costanzo, Bowe and Piquet and then convincingly jumped-off well from the start and won the race from Laffitte, both of them in Bob Jane Racing owned and prepared RT4s. Roberto Moreno was third, Kiwi, Dave McMillan was next and Alf Costanzo fifth. Alfie’s points – and a spin by John Bowe – bagged him his third Gold Star, the Australian Driver’s Championship.
Moreno shot himself in the foot by stalling at the start, but then provided much of the event’s fizz by driving back through the field. Alan Jones was even less fortunate after his Ralt ‘broke its flywheel’ (WTF does that mean?). A great fifth place dice between John Smith and Nelson Piquet’s Ralts was ruined on lap 35 when a collision between Peter Williamson’s Toleman TA860 Toyota 2T-G and Graham Watson’s RT4 took all four off. Smithy was the only one to continue, he placed ninth.
Alain Prost ahead of Rene Arnoux in the 1982 South African Grand Prix at Kyalami, Renault RE30Bs (unattributed)(Twitter)
Of course Prost returned to Australia annually in the F1 Adelaide AGP era, winning the race – and his second World Championship on-the-trot – aboard a McLaren MP4/2C TAG-Porsche in 1986.
The shot above shows him ahead of Nigel Mansell’s Williams FW11 Honda at the end of Dequetteville Terrace – the main straight – site of Noige’s spectacular 180mph’ish Goodyear blowout, and William’s correct call for Nelson Piquet in the other William s to take a precautionary pitstop that effectively decided the championship in Prost/McLaren’s favour.
A useless Wiki statistic is that this victory made Alain the only driver to win both ‘domestic’ and World Championship AGPs.
Missed by that much…the great, four-time World Champ looking pretty chillaxed during the Pro-Am golf-day over the South Australian Open weekend at Kooyonga, Adelaide in 1986.
Credits…
Australian Motor Racing, Ray Berghouse on alainprost.net, Twitter, Rennie Ellis, State Library of New South Wales, ‘The Official History of the Australian Grand Prix’
Tailpiece…
(R Berghouse)
Prost about to flick Ralt RT4/81 chassis 263 through the Calder’s Tin Shed left-hander.
This car – raced by Jones in the 1981 AGP – was owned by Bob Jane/related entities forever until sold at auction a couple of years ago, who owns it now?
By the way, Cheviot, the primary sponsor of Alain’s car, was a prominent Australian mag-wheel brand that was acquired by ROH Wheels Australia in the late 1980s. ROH are located at 28 Sheffield Street, Woodville North, South Australia.
There is a British Racing Motors connection here. ROH Wheels, a wholly owned subsidiary of England’s vast vertically and horizontally integrated Rubery Owen manufacturing transnational, commenced making original equipment steel wheels in Woodville for the then nascent Australian motor industry way back in 1946. The assets of the bankrupt BRM Trust, the original manufacturers of BRM cars, were acquired by Rubery Owen in October 1952.
So…the reason the Owen Racing Organisation raced their superb BRMs in New Zealand, and later Australia too, was to help promote the parent group and its far flung colonial enterprises owned way-back in mother-England…
(SLNSW)
Here Jackie Stewart is rallying his BRM P261 on the exit of Peters during his victorious run in the February 27, 1966 Sandown Park Cup, Tasman Series round. Oh yes, he won the Tasman Cup too.
One of FM’s finest moments (above) was his victory in the November 21, 1971 Australian Grand Prix at Warwick Farm aboard the brand-spanking-new Matich A50 Repco-Holden F5000 (001/002) built just across town in Sydney, at Brookvale on the northern beaches.
Up close and personal at Peters/Torana corner, Sandown during the April 16, 1972 Victoria Trophy Gold Star round. FM won in A50-001/002 from Bob Muir and John McCormack, Lola T300 and Elfin MR5 (AMC)A50-001/002 on the grid at Warwick Farm, perhaps the Hordern Trophy Gold Star weekend on November 5, 1972. Matich popped the Gold Star in his pocket on that occasion. Note the multiple top pick-up points for the upper radius rod (AMC)John Walker, Matich A50-004 Repco-Holden being chased by Garrie Cooper, Elfin MR5 Repco-Holden during the ’72 Sam Hordern Trophy race at the Farm. A DNF for JW (battery) and troubled tenth and last for the Elfin boss (AMC)
The three A50s built were raced with great success from 1971-73 by FM and by Adelaide’s John Walker (004) who used their machines in Gold Star, Tasman Cup, and in JW’s case the 1973 US L&M Championship. Roy Woods bought (A50-003) one, on Carroll Smith’s recommendation, for George Follmer to race in the 1972 US L&M fitted with Al Bartz prepared Boss Ford engines. That program was interrupted by an early season crash and George’s appointment as driver of Team Penske’s Can-Am Porsche 917/10 after Mark Donohue’s bad Road Atlanta accident in July.
Matich, Matich A50 Repco-Holden, Warwick Brown, McLaren M10B Chev, Gary Campbell, Lola T300 Chev, the almost completely obscured Max Stewart, Elfin MR5 Repco-Holden and John Walker, Matich A50 Repco-Holden and an F2 car during the Hordern Trophy, Warwick Farm Gold Star round won by FM on November 5, 1972 (AMC)(AMC)
Of course, Matich’s plan to take on the Americans was hatched via his sportscar program. The shot above shows FM at Sandown during the 1967 Tasman round weekend aboard his new spaceframe-chassis SR3 Oldsmobile V8.
Behind him is Niel Allen in FM’s year old Elfin 400 Oldsmobile upon which the design of the SR3 was based. Some say the frame, fabricated by Bob Britton at Rennmax Engineering, was a tube-for-tube replica, with a few extra thrown in to strengthen areas Matich felt lacked torsional rigidity in Garrie Cooper’s Elfin design, four of which were built.
By the time Matich and his small team left Sydney to contest the 1967 Can-Am Cup he had sold the car above, SR3-1 to Marvin Webster, and another, SR3-2, to Kent Price, both Californians. Matich raced Price’s car at Road America and Elkhart Lake, and his own car SR3-3 for the rest of the series. SR3-2 and SR3-3 were fitted with 4.4-litre Repco-Brabham 620 V8s (SOHC, two-valve, fuel-injected).
AMC)(AMC)
The photographs above are of one of the SR3s – perhaps SR3-1 which was sold to Marvin Webster sans engine and transaxle – on the tarmac at Mascot Airport, Sydney being loaded onto a pallet and Qantas Boeing 707 before it’s trip to California in June 1967.
Laguna Seca Can-Am mid-field bunch on October 15, 1967. Skip Scott, McLaren M1C Chev (DNF) Matich in SR3-3 Repco (Q13 DNF oil leak), Chris Amon Ferrari 350 Can-Am (fifth) and a Lola T70. Bruce McLaren’s McLaren M6A Chev won (AMC)Race shop out back of Matich’s BP Servo on Eastern Valley Way, Castle Cove, Sydney. That’s the SR4 on the left, SR3-3 is in the middle, by that time probably owned by West Australian Don O’Sullivan and maintained by his friend/mechanic/engineer Jaime Gard in Sydney throughout 1969. The frame of SR4B-7 is at the rear. That looks like a Waggott TC-4V engine swinging in the breeze, we can date the shot by knowing when the Waggott replaced the original Lotus-Ford twin-cam originally fitted to this chassis…or is it a twin-cam? Two fuel cells sitting on the high storage rack (AMC)
While Matich had a hard time of it in the US, the intensive, highly competitive series ensured the team had developed the chassis of SR3-3 to a fine pitch before they returned to Sydney.
David McKay (Scuderia Veloce) bought one of the Ferrari 350 Can-Ams (#0858) raced by Chris Amon and Jonathan Williams in the later stages of the ‘67 Can-Am. Amon and Matich faced off in the sportscar support races at Surfers Paradise, Warwick Farm and Sandown in the Summer of ‘68 Australian Tasman rounds. Frank won each of the encounters, sprint races, unlike the 200 mile Can-Am events.
When Amon returned to Europe Bill Brown took over the Scuderia Veloce car but he was no match for Matich with McKay selling the 350 Can-Am to Australian international Paul Hawkins late in the year. See here for the lowdown on those cars: https://primotipo.com/2015/04/02/ferrari-p4canam-350-0858/
SR4 with no shortage of admirers at Warwick Farm in 1969 (AMC) (AMC)
Frank and his team set to work on their planned 1968 Can-Am weapon, the Matich SR4 which was to be powered by a 5-litre four-cam, four-valve Repco-Brabham 760 V8. Ultimately both the builds of the car and engine ran late, the machine didn’t appear until 1969. Even using the ‘tiddler’ 4.8-litre 760 the machine crucified the local opposition that year in winning the Australian Sportscar Championship. It raced on into early 1970 by which time it was fitted with a 569bhp 5-litre 760 engine built by John Mepstead who was seconded from Repco to Matich to look after the engines.
SR4 was then set aside – it could have won Australian Sportscar Championships for years – and was then sold by Matich to Repco in a prid-pro-quo deal that ensured Matich would focus his attention on his McLaren M10B Repco-Holden F5000 project; FM was Repco’s test driver and received works Repco-Holden engines for the balance of his racing career. That customer engine program, led by Malcolm Preston and Phil Irving, designer of the 1966 F1 Championship winning Repco-Brabham RB620 V8, was Repco’s key racing priority.
Matich aboard the SR4 in hi-winged spec at Warwick Farm, RAC Trophy, first Australian Sportscar Championship heat in 1969. He won the May 4 race. High wings were banned by the FIA/CSI during the May 18, 1969 Monaco GP weekend, a fortnight later (AMC)This relatively rare body off shot shows Matich aboard the SR4 in 1969. 4.8-litre Repco-Brabham 760 V8 and beefy spaceframe chassis. Originally fitted with a 5-speed ZF transaxle, later in the year a Hewland LG replaced it (AMC)
The Repco-Holden F5000programmes early successes were secured by Matich using a McLaren M10B, victory in the 1970 Australian Grand Prix at Warwick Farm was the first big win.
When the M10B chassis was damaged beyond economic repair in a private practice incident at Oran Park in June 1971 Frank decided his team should rebuild the tub rather than buy a replacement from Trojan Cars to provide them with the experience of making an aluminium monocoque before embarking on the build of what became the Matich A50s.
While Matich had great success in the A50: the 1971 AGP, 1972 Gold Star Series and two Tasman Cup round wins in 1972-73, the car ultimately fell short of Graham McRae’s machines which won the 1972 (Leda GM1 Chev) and 1973 (McRae GM1 Chev) Tasmans, not to forget the oh-so-talented Kiwis’ successes in US and European F5000 events.
The Matich A51 Repco-Holdens, 005 and 006, in the pits at Riverside in April 1973, DNF (C Parker Collection)(C Parker Collection)
Matich made an all-out assault on the US L&M F5000 Championship in 1973 comprising a two car team, flat-plane crank circa 515bhp Repco-Holden engines, mechanics led by Derek Kneller and locally based on-ground support.
The two A51s were evolutions of the A50 at a time the worlds best F5000s were the McRae GM1 and Lola T300. THE F5000 of 1973 was the Lola T330, variants of which were the greatest ever F5000 and central seat 5-litre Can-Am cars.
The downfall of the ambitious program was oil-scavenging problems with the hitherto bullet-proof Repco-Holden V8s. The constant radius, high speed corners of American circuits were cited as the cause of the issue which was identified and rectified later in the season when one of the A51s was sent back to the Repco Engine Development Company’s Maidstone headquarters. There the engines were tested replicating the effects of these types of corners, and changes to the units scavenging were made.
Interesting is that John Walker had no such problem with the Repco-Holden engines fitted to his very competitive car throughout that same series. That suggests, perhaps, that the problems may have been due to differences in the oil system tanks/plumbing between the A50 and A51 chassis.
Lella Lombardi aboard A51-005 Repco-Holden during the Australian GP weekend at Oran Park in 1974. DNF oil pump (AMC)FM during his dominant run – for 43 laps – at Surfers Paradise in September 1973. Glyn Scott Memorial Trophy Gold Star round won by John McCormack’s Elfin MR5 Repco-Holden. A52-006 Repco-Holden (AMC)
Influenced by the speed of the Lola T330s stateside, FM and the team quickly converted A51#006 into a side-radiator design designated A52, with changes to the suspension, and the wheelbase using a longer T330 bell-housing.
The car was a rocket at the Surfers Paradise Gold Star round on September 2, 1973. Up there on the Gold Coast on a family holiday I watched Matich piss-orf into the distance until the beautiful exhaust note of the flat-plane-crank 5-litre V8 instantly ceased. The engine’s fierce high-frequency vibrations simply shook the gizzards of the lightweight Varley racing battery to bits…an expensive lesson.
Matich in front of Bruce Allison’s Bowin P6 Hart-Ford ANF2 car – not Bruce’s favourite machine! – at Surfers. Bruce was fourth and second F2 behind Leo Geoghegan’s Birrana 273 Hart-Ford. Again Glyn Scott Memorial Trophy (AMC)Wonderful profile shot of FM and A53-007 at Adelaide International during the February 24, 1974 Tasman round, fourth (AMC)
The A52 lost its life in a testing accident while being driven by Bob Muir, who had shown stunning pace aboard a Lola T330 Chev in the L&M, at Warwick Farm shortly thereafter. Equipe Matich then built up the last of six identical monocoque tubs made by the team and the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation – #007 – into the A53, a further refinement of the A52 and intended as FM’s 1974 Tasman and L&M weapon of war.
A boating accident which gave Frank a near fatal electrical shock, and his wife Joan’s illness were catalysts for Matich’s retirement from racing at the end of the ’74 Tasman. Bob Muir raced the car at Oran Park (Q15/DNF fuel pump), and Matich at Surfers (Q4/third), Sandown (Q2/DNF water pump) and Adelaide (Q2/fourth; there was no shortage of pace.
To have seen the A53 battle the American T332 Chevs later in the year would have been something to watch, with the benefit of the character building visit and experiences the year before…
Credits…
Australian Muscle Car, Chris Parker Collection
Tailpiece…
John Goss from Vern Schuppan through Dandenong Road at Sandown in the later stages of 1976 AGP. Matich A53 Repco-Holden and Elfin MR8 Chev. What a thriller it was! (AMC)
While Matich retired, the cars raced on, most notably in the hands of talented sports and touring car driver/mechanic/engineer John Goss.
‘Gossy’ bought A53-007 from Matich in mid-1974 and later A51-005, he converted the latter to A53 spec and generally preferred that car. He took to the brutish 5-litre roller-skates like a duck to water winning a couple of Tasman rounds. While John had the pace to take a Gold Star he never seemed to have the reliability, maybe given the challenges of also preparing and racing Ford touring cars. But it all came good good at Sandown on September 12, 1976 when he beat Vern Schuppan’s works-Elfin MR8 Chev home in a nail-biter of an Australian Grand Prix finish.
Goss out of A53-005 and taking the plaudits of the Sandown grandstand crowd. Note the lack of an airbox, and radiator location ducting changes compared with the A53 in its original form during the ’74 Tasman (AMC)
There were still plenty of sportscar and sports-sedan wins for Repco-Holden F5000 V8s but it was the last hurrah for a Matich chassis, the first of which, Frank argued – and I agree – began with his highly modified Lotus 19 Climax in 1962.
Yes, yes I’m not a Kiwi but I like them, they are Our Bro’s across The Ditch after all. I know S.F.A. about their rich racing history, my interest goes way beyond our shared ‘Tasman Internationals’ history too.
There are a load of photographs doing the rounds on NZ’s racing social media sites, so it seems smart to capture and share some of them rather than lose them in the bowels of Facebook. The potential for cockups is great as I don’t have the same depth of knowledge – such as it is – as I do of Australian material, but just drop me a note on mark@bisset.com.au and I’ll fix up any boo-boos.
There is no order to all of this, so apologies to all you OCD-ADHD-On The Spectrum mob.
The more you look, the more you see of the shot above: from the left it’s Bill Hannah, Angus Hyslop’s mechanic with the big hat seated under the umbrella, to his left standing up with the peaked cap is Owen Steel, in the middle Jackie Stewart is talking to Kerry Grant, with Spencer Martin a little further to the right.
Stewart, Levin 1967. A non-championship round that year, the Levin International was won by Jim Clark’s Lotus 33 Climax FWMV 2-litre from Stewart’s 2.1-litre BRM P261 (R Cunningham)
This series of photographs were taken during the 1965 Tasman Cup, featuring Bruce’s new Cooper T79 Climax. The shot above shows Wally Willmott on the left and Pop McLaren in the Trilby during the Lady Wigram Trophy weekend where Jim and Bruce finished 1-2.
While Bruce won the Tasman in 1964 with his Cooper T70 Climax, the 1965 victor was Jim Clark, here in discussion with his mechanic, Ray Parsons, with their Lotus 32B Climax. Jimmy took four wins: Levin, Teretonga, Warwick Farm and Lakeside, and Bruce one win at Longford – the Australian Grand Prix – to finish the series second.
(M Waters)
The merriment is perhaps around getting Bruce’s new Firestones – he had just signed with them – to work with suspension geometry designed for Dunlops. It any of you Kiwis can explain exactly what changes were made I’d love to hear from you…
Wally Willmott, Bruce Harre, Bruce McLaren, Jim Clark, Tyler Alexander and Colin Beanland gathered around the Cooper T79, probably Wigram, 1965.
Why isn’t Jimmy ready to boogie? David Oxton remembers that “Graham Hill, Clark, Frank Gardner and Bruce flew direct from the South African GP in time for an unofficial testing session on the Wednesday. For some reason Jim didn’t take part in that, so that could be an explanation.” An alternative is offered by Milan Fistonic, “If it’s Wigram McLaren and Clark ran in different heats, so McLaren could be getting ready to go out in heat 1 while Clark still had time to suit up for heat 2.” Aren’t first-hand recollections gold, even 60 years later!
Peter Whitehead’s Ferrari 125 in the Wigram paddock, 1955. He won the race from Tony Gaze’s HWM Alta and Ken Wharton’s BRM P15 V16. This car was sold at the end of the summer, to Australian, Dick Cobden. More about Whitehead and the Ferrari here: https://primotipo.com/2023/12/13/peter-whitehead-ferrari-new-zealand/
I’ll be faarked how it complied with those regs with THAT engine, THOSE strengthening members and fabricated wishbones DEVOID of fixed bodywork and all. Holy Moses. But maybe it was all in evening up the show for the local poverty-pack against the well-homologated Mustang, Camaro et al. Do tell taxi-experts. Hmm, lets think…In the back of my brain this car was pranged twice at Adelaide International, the second hit was fatal. Perhaps after the first one it morphed into a Sports Sedan, in which case the modifications make perfect sense. One for you Taxi Experts.
It was a mega-car too, I’ll never forgot the sight of Mal Ramsay wrestling the thing around Shell Corner at Sandown (as below) bellowing its F5000 roar during the very first car race meeting I ever attended, the 1972 AGP meeting. With a little more development from the Birrana Cars boys it could really have been a good thing, what a crowd-pleaser it was all the same.
(G Richards Collection)
Chris Amon, Ferrari 246T on the cover of May 1968 Motor Manual. Ya gotta hand it to them, their coverage of the January-February Tasman Cup must have been considered, coz it sure wasn’t timely.
Amon won two of the seven rounds in the little Dino, he was bested by Jim Clark’s works-Lotus 49 Ford DFW. Chris went one better in 1969, taking four wins and the championship in 246T/69 #008. Ferrari then sold that car to Graeme Lawrence who repeated the achievement against a field of F5000/Tasman 2.5/2-litre cars in 1970. Lawrence won at Levin only, but his speed and consistency throughout was enough to beat the quickest F5000, Frank Matich’s McLaren M10A/B Chev which took two wins and placed second overall. More on the Dino 246T here: https://primotipo.com/2018/05/01/wings-n-dino-things/
(HEII)
1956 NZ GP grid, a 100 lap, 186 miles race of the Ardmore Airfield circuit won by Stirling Moss’ #7 Maserati 250F from the 3-litre Ferrari 500/625s of Tony Gaze #4 and Peter Whitehead on the front row.
#19 is Ron Roycroft’s Bugatti T35A Jaguar 3.4 (sixth), #6 is Peter Whitehead’s Cooper T38 Jaguar that was raced to sixth place when Reg’s works-Aston Martin DP155 lunched an engine in practice, while #22 is Tom Clark’s Maserati 8CM 3-litre (eighth). #39 is either David McKay or Tom Sulman’s Aston Martin DB3S and #10, Norman Hamilton’s Porsche 550 Spyder awaiting pilot Frank Kleinig (ninth).
Roberto Moreno, Ralt RT4 BDA on pole before the start of the 1982 New Zealand Grand Prix at Pukekohe, January 9, 1982.
Steve Millen #7 and David Oxton in #18, RT4s as well. Moreno won the first heat from Millen, Millen won the second from Moreno while Roberto won overall.
(D Bull)(D Bull)(S Taylor)
Jim Clark, Lotus 49 Ford DFW 2.5 at Teretonga in 1968, Bruce McLaren won the Teretonga International from Jimthat January 27th in a works-BRM P126 2.5 V12.
Bruce didn’t run a car that summer, the deal came about as a result of McLaren’s use of customer BRM V12s during the 1967 Grand Prix season. It would be interesting to know (a) What Bruce thought of the 3-litre V12 (b) What Bruce thought of Len Terry’s P126 chassis and (c) What Bruce thought of the 2.5-litre variant of the V12. If anybody has a contemporary magazine article that covers any of that lot, I’d love to hear from you!
(J Inwood)
Aussie Terry Allan, Chev Camaro SS at Baypark during Easter in 1970.
Allan was the first bloke to race a Camaro in Australia, at Calder in May 1967. Fitted when delivered with a 327 cid V8, the machine was fitted with a worked 396 before it left the states for Oz. What became of it folks?
The Repco Research Maybach 1 success in the 1954 New Zealand GP at Ardmore is a real triumph over adversity effort told in this piece here;
When the car threw a rod and punched a hole in the block, “Charlie Dean phoned Australia for parts, but they couldn’t be landed in Auckland in time. Nothing daunted, the crew started scouring the city for makeshifts. They got a GMC conrod from Ray Vincent, a machine shop made up a new cylinder-liner – B Johnsons as above – while patches were fabricated for the crankcase,” related Naomi Tait.
Peter Donaldson related that his father, “Dawson Donaldson was dressed to go to the GP ball on Friday night but left mum standing at the front door in her ball-gown to head to Johnsons to work all night making parts including a new conrod.” In a tragic sidebar, “Dad was killed during an event in the Ostrich Farm Road hillclimb in December 1958 racing the Austin 7 Ulster that had been Bruce McLaren’s first car.”
“All Friday afternoon and night the crew toiled in Shorter’s garage while Jones slept in preparation for the race he might not run. At 10.40 in the morning the miracle happened. The motor was turned over, coughed and sprang into life. It was test run for a few minutes, hurriedly taken out to Ardmore, and the finishing tuning done on the course. And this was the car that won the race.”
Lex Davison’s ex-Moss/Gaze HWM, by then fitted with a Jaguar 3.4-litre XK engine with C-Type head, below, in the Ardmore paddock.
It wasn’t the quickest or most reliable of Davo’s cars, but it did deliver his first Australian Grand Prix at Southport Queensland a few months hence. Jones gift-wrapped the win after the chassis of his nearly-new Maybach 2 broke during the race giving Stanley the wildest of Gold Coast rides but luckily not killing, or badly injuring him. See more here: https://primotipo.com/2018/03/01/1954-australian-grand-prix-southport-qld/
(B Ferrabee Collection)(M Fistonic)
Start of the 1963 Mount Maunganui sportscar race Frank Matich, Lotus 19 Climax. John Riley, Lola Mk1 Climax and Garry Bremer, Jaguar D-Type on the front row.
Frank Matich, Lotus 19 Climax and again below (A Boyle)(M Fistonic)
(unattributed)
(HEII)
Chris Amon and David Oxton did swapsies with this March 701-3 Ford DFW 2.5 – Mario Andretti’s STP 1970 F1 car – and the Lotus 70 Ford 5-litre F5000 machine shown below at Levin during the 1971 Tasman Cup. STP’s Vince Granatelli is steering the car.
Steel Brothers, the Christchurch based NZ Lotus agents organised a deal for David Oxton to race the car – chassis #70-02 was the car raced by Dave Walker in the November 1971 Australian Grand Prix at Warwick Farm – but Chris wasn’t happy with the March, he was third in it at Levin, so STP bought Oxton’s Lotus.
In that he was Q9/ninth at Pukekohe, Q6/fifth at Wigram, missed Teretonga, then Q4/second at Warwick Farm and Q12/fourth at Sandown. Chris then flew to France to meet his new commitments with Matra, and John Cannon raced the Lotus in the final round Tasman round at Surfers paradise to Q6/seventh.
(HEII)
David Oxton’s races with the Lotus 70 yielded Q11/DNF half shaft at Puke, and Q10/seventh at Teretonga, maybe David could let us know the respective merits of both cars!?
Credits…
Bob Homewood, Gerard Richards, David Bull, Sean Taylor, Russ Cunningham, Jack Inwood, Naomi Tait Collection, Ross Cammick, Alan Boyle, Brian Ferrabee Collection
Tailpiece…
(N Tait Collection)
Jochen being bolted into his Lotus 49B Ford at Levin, January 11, 1969.
He boofed chassis R9 in the race – won by Chris Amon’s works-Ferrari 246T – so Colin Chapman flew another car, chassis R10 out the following week, and in which the staggeringly-quick Austrian took his first Team Lotus victory, in the Lady Wigram Trophy on January 18, 1969. See more here: https://primotipo.com/2018/01/19/rindt-tasman-random/
‘Michael Turner painting of Raymond Mays at Shelsley Walsh in 1949 with his famous 2-litre ERA R4D‘…
Mays was the King of Shelsley Walsh from the 1920s to the late 1940s, taking numerous FTDs and outright records in this period. He was ERA’s founding force ‘which was the first commercial racing car maker in Great Britain in 1934 and the rock upon which Britain’s current billion dollar racing car industry is built,’ wrote Simon Lewis. Mays won the first two British Hillclimb Championships in 1947-48 aboard R4D.
Ray Mays at Donington during the April 9, 1938 Empire Trophy meeting, the first time this chassis appeared in ‘D-specification’ .
Of the rest of the articles within the April 1962 issue of Motor Racing I rather liked the coverage of Stirling Moss’ dominance of the Warwick Farm 100.
Credits…
Motor Racing April 1962, ERA Facebook Group, Adam Ferrington, Adam Wragg and Vlad Shnur Collections
Tailpiece…
(A Wragg Collection)
While R4D features on the cover of the 1939 South African Grand Prix programme, it didn’t race.
Gigi Villoresi won the 18 lap race held on the 11 mile Prince George Circuit around East London aboard a Maserati 6CM, but the 15 starters included four ERAs: Roy Hesketh in R3A was fourth, Earl Howe R8B, fifth, while Peter Aitken raced R11B to seventh, with Peter Whitehead the only ERA DNF, he blew a piston on R10B. Perhaps the car was a little tired after its extensive tour of Australia – inclusive of an AGP win at Bathurst – throughout 1938.
Chris Amon sneaks a look in his mirrors, no need to worry too much! Ferrari Dino 246T/69 #0008 (MotorSport)
Unlike previous years when the cars had been shipped across The Ditch – the Tasman sea – from New Zealand to Australia, in 1969 they were air freighted as there was only a week between the Teretonga and Lakeside rounds, that year the site of the 1969 Australian Grand Prix held on February 2.
Top Guns were the Scuderia Ferrari/Chris Amon/Scuderia Veloce run Ferrari Dino 246Ts of Chris Amon and Derek Bell and the Gold Leaf Team Lotus Lotus 49B Ford DFW V8’s of just minted World F1 Champion Graham Hill and The Hunter-Jochen Rindt, with everything to prove.
The 1969 Tasman Cup gets underway at Pukekohe on January 4 with the gig-two on the front row. Chris Amon, Ferrari Dino 246T and Jochen Rindt, Lotus 49B Ford. Amon won from Rindt and Courage (MotorSport)
At the end of the four Kiwi rounds Amon was looking the goods for Tasman Cup honours, having won at Pukekohe and Levin and picking up third place points at Wigram and Teretonga. While the Lotuses were the fastest cars, they weren’t as reliable as the Ferraris: Amon and Bell had six out of seven point scoring finishes, while Rindt, Hill and Piers Courage – in Frank Williams Brabham BT24 Ford DFW – scored off only four races. Chris won the cup with four race wins (his two in Australia were at Lakeside and Sandown) to Jochen’s two (Wigram and Warwick Farm) and Piers’ one (Teretonga).
Rindt, Lotus 49B Ford #R10 heads towards The Karussel with Lake (MotorSport)
Practice…
Of the internationals, Only Ferrari and Piers Courage managed to get themselves sorted out in time, Bruce Sergent wrote. “While Lotus had all sorts of problems with customs and freight. It was apparent that Ford Australia weren’t behind the Lotus effort this year, for they had to do most of their own organising right from administration down to transport for drivers and mechanics.” Ferrari, of course had the well drilled David McKay/Scuderia Veloce organisation to deal with the logistics, and it showed throughout the weekend.
The new stiffer rear springs Amon was after from the start of the series were waiting for the two Ferraris in Brisbane, and with these fitted the cars were out early on Friday and soon showed it would be a tough round Lotus to even make a clean breast of. While Amon and Bell were making hay on a clear track, Lotus had only just received their cars and both needed attention. Rindt’s engine was misfiring, and Hill’s blew up shortly after starting up in the garage. Even with getting an engine back from Courage, it still left them with one very sick car, Rindt’s.
On Saturday, Amon comfortably took pole pole from Courage. Gardner had fitted a bi-wing set-up to his Mildren Racing Mildren Yellow Submarine Alfa Romeo V8 like Courage’s in unofficial practice but didn’t have the time to evaluate it and had to remove the front one and save it for testing on home turf at Warwick Farm, Sydney, the following week. Hill broke his wing in practice – the curse of Team Lotus at the time – but still managed fourth fastest, while Rindt was only able to push his Lotus 49B to fifth, creditable under the extreme circumstances.
Piers Courage, Brabham BT24 Ford DFW from Jochen Rindt, Lotus 49B Ford DFW thru the kink. The start-finish line is just out of shot (MotorSport)They are off: Amon and Courage, Hill and Bell partially obscured by Courage, then the two yellow winged Mildren entries of Gardner and Bartlett (G Ruckert)
Race…
Amon won the jump from Courage and streaked off into the afternoon sun while Hill, Courage and Bell lined up for battle behind, then followed Gardner, Rindt and Kevin Bartlett aboard the Brabham BT23D Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 2.5-litre-V8 that Gardner raced in the ’68 Tasman and was then driven by KB to victory in that years Gold Star, the Australian Drivers Championship. Next was Niel Allen’s ex-Courage McLaren M4A Ford FVA. It was Niel’s first drive at Lakeside after his huge accident during the Gold Star round in July 1968, the car’s monocoque having been rebuilt/replaced by Bowin Cars.
Positions remained static for a bit until Courage closed in on Hill and tried to pass on the outside as they ranged under brakes for BMC bend. But Piers didn’t quite make it and there wasn’t enough room left for both cars, Graham didn’t give way, being on-line for the corner so the two cars touched and Courage suddenly ran out of track and retired the car on the dirt with slightly bent front suspension. Hill lost four seconds giving Bell his opportunity and he went through into second position to make it a Ferrari 1-2 for the first time in the series.
Bartlett retired on the following lap with no water and blown head gaskets, giving away his position to Niel Allen. Then he overdid it under brakes, the front set locked, and he lost four places getting things in hand. He picked up one of the lost places immediately and set out on a long hard haul back through the field.
Rindt hustles his Lotus – engine problem duly noted – into BP Bend, Q5 and DNF. With fresh engine he made good and ‘blew the field off the planet’ in the Warwick Farm 100 one week henceFrank Gardner, Mildren Alfa Romeo V8 aka the Mildren Mono/Yellow Submarine (MotorSport)
Jochen Rindt made the next move when he displaced Leo Geoghegan’s ex-Clark Lotus 39 albeit with a Repco Brabham V8 rather than the Climax FPF four, on the 13th lap for fifth spot, but Geoghegan was hanging on grimly and didn’t let the Austrian get away from him. But Rindt pulled out every horse he could find in the ailing Cosworth V8 and slipped by Frank Gardner on lap 19, making the order Amon and Bell in Ferrari Dinos, Rindt’s Lotus 49B, Gardner’s Mildren Alfa, Geoghegan’s Lotus Repco, Max Stewart, Mildren Alfa 1.6 F2, Allen, Glyn Scott, Bowin P3 Ford FVA F2 and Malcolm Guthrie, Brabham BT21B Lotus-Ford 1.6.
Rindt held onto this position, trailed by Gardner, who was becoming concerned over oil pressure. His fears were confirmed when the Alfa Romeo engine blew an internal oil line and he was forced out of the race on lap 12. Gardner’s demise brought everyone up a place but Jochen Rindt’s forceful run ended when the Cosworth Ford V8 engine lost power and he quickly shut off and headed for the pits.
Derek Bell, Ferrari Dino 246T/69 #0010. No adjustable wing for Derek (MotorSport)
Chris Amon was busy lapping all but his team mate, Derek Bell, while Leo Geoghegan was sitting in a wonderful position behind Graham Hill in fourth spot. Col Green, ex-Hill/Gardner Brabham BT16 Climax 2.5 FPF was in and out of the pits with gearbox and engine problems while Alf Costanzo, McLaren M4A Ford FVA F2 had retired after a spin over the back of the circuit, then stalled and was unable to restart.
The rear wing on Hill’s Lotus 49 had looked shaky for a few laps and finally it broke and folded over his rear wheel. He tried to keep the car as steady as possible so not to be black flagged, and finally pitted to have the offending piece of iron cut from the car. Geoghegan, meanwhile, seeing Hill’s problem, had speeded up and went by as Hill was having the operation finished to his wing. He came back into the fray bent on getting his third spot back from Geoghegan, but the Lotus was suffering from oversteer with the now, light rear end, and he steadily lost ground.
Graham Hill’s 49B #R8 with the rear wing mount problems that Lotus never satisfactorily solved. No bodily harm caused on this occasion. Ultimately the FIA solved Lotuses problem for them with their intervention over the 1969 Monaco GP weekend (G Ruckert)Niel Allen, McLaren M4A Ford FVA. #M4A/2 is the ex-John Coombs/Courage ’67 Euro F2 entry, then, in Pier’s ownership his ’68 Tasman machine, and Longford round winner (MotorSport)
Niel Allen, worked hard to make up time lost in two spins and managed to catch Max Stewart in the surviving Alec Mildren Racing entry, the Mildren Alfa/Autodelta 1.6 four-valve F2 car and, now in fifth spot, went on to win the battle of the F2’s. Englishman, Malcolm Guthrie, having sat behind Glyn Scott on the Queenslander’s home circuit, finally made a last-minute burst and finished ahead of the Bowin. Scott was still waiting for a set of rods to come from Cosworth for his FVA engine, he was running on a set borrowed from Allen.
With two rounds to run, Amon’s win put him into an almost uncatchable Tasman Cup points lead. Only Piers Courage, with a bit of luck and by winning the final two races, could take the championship from the New Zealander. Rindt and Hill, equal on 15 points, were at that stage relegated to fighting out second spot.
Ain’t she sweet, Graham Ruckert has captured the car with its unloaded left-front off the deck. Note the hydraulics to operate Chris’ rear wing
Etcetera…
(MotorSport)
Graham Hill blasts through the hole left for him by Glyn Scott at Lakesides flat-knacker Kink.
It’s a David and Goliath shot. John Joyce’s superb monocoque was Lotus inspired too, he had a number of senior engineering posts at Lotus between 1963 and late 1967 when he returned home to start P3 – Project 3 – his first two cars (Projects 1 and 2) built before he left for his stint in the UK were a modified Cooper and the Koala Formula Junior. More about Glyn and the Bowin P3 here: https://primotipo.com/2020/07/24/glyn-scott/ and here: https://primotipo.com/2021/05/06/ian-peters-ex-glyn-scott-bowin-p3-101-68/
(MotorSport)
Nah, its too skinny to be Sergeant Schultz! It must be Jochen Rindt with a touch of the Adolfs, not the best protection for the searing Queensland summer sun, and with a smile on his face despite the challenges of the weekend.
Piers Courage took up where he left off in the ’68 Tasman, as a front runner in the clever car Frank Williams assembled for him. Brabham BT24-3 was ex-Brabham/Rindt/Gurney/Ahrens, with its F1 3-litre 740 Series Repco Brabham V8 removed and a 2.5-litre Ford Cosworth DFW installed the bi-winged Brabham was a very competitive car raced ably throughout. Piers ultimate pace was reinforced during that years GP season where he proved one of the quickest men around…he arrived that year big time.
Courage, Brabham BT24 Ford. Generally, but not completely, Ron Tauranac’s wings remained where he intended them from the start to the finish of the weekend (MotorSport)(MotorSport)
Frank Gardner’s (above) Len Bailey designed, Alan Mann Racing built Mildren Alfa used many Brabham BT23 components and was ‘best of the rest’ behind the big-five. Gardner arrived in New Zealand ‘under-winged’, he scored in four of the seven rounds and would have gained a bit with more downforce from the start of the series.
It’s one of the most iconic and instantly recognisable single-seaters ever raced in Australia by – in turn – FG, Kevin Bartlett, Bob Muir and Ray Winter with Tipo 33 2.5 V8 as here, then Waggott 2-litre TC-4V and finally 1.6-litre Lotus-Ford twin-cam in ANF2 spec.
Derek Bell drove well throughout the series, a pair of seconds at Lakeside and Warwick Farm his bests. He was fourth at Pukekohe, and fifth at Wigram, Teretonga and Sandown. Depending upon your source, Scuderia Ferrari provided four of the latest spec 2.4-litre, DOHC, four-valve fuel injected V6s for the two-car touring team. Bell was given less revs to play with than his team-leader!
I truncated and added to Thomas B Floyd’s race report in the Australian Motor Racing Annual 1969, Sutton, MotorSport Images, Graham Ruckert Photography, Bruce Sergent on sergent.com, oldracingcars.com
My friend Tony Johns lent me a couple of early AutoCourses that I turned into a couple of interesting posts. I’ll continue with that but thought I’d add an occasional piece based on my own collection of Automobile Years.
It’s the beauty of the some of the ads that really caught my eye. The reproduction of small monochrome racing shots isn’t that flash so I’m sharing the best of the relatively small number of colour shots and a few monochrome photographs within the mix of ads.
The artwork on the cover has a name but I can’t read it, nor is it disclosed elsewhere. The cars shown are a Fiat 8001 Turbina, Renault Shooting Star, General Motors XP-500 gas turbines.
Superb Yves Debraine shot of the start of the 1956 Monaco Grand Prix.
The two Lancia-Ferrari D50s of JM Fangio and #22 Eugenio Castellotti sandwiching Stirling Moss in a works-Maserati 250F. #16 is Harry Schell, Vanwall VW1, #30 Jean Behra, 250F, #24 Luigi Musso, Lancia-Ferrari D50, #32 Cesare Perdisa in another works Maserati 250F.
(Yves Debraine)
‘Stirling Moss had been in the lead from first to last and gave a faultless display of brilliant driving and faultless race strategy (being under great pressure from Fangio’s Ferrari late in the race). The discovery of the day was Peter Collins (Ferrari second) . Behra drove a steady race into 3rd place, with no incidents (250F).’ See here for more: https://primotipo.com/2014/08/21/stirling-moss-monaco-gp-1956-maserati-250f/
(Y Debraine)
Le Mans 24-Hours.
‘The privately entered Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar D-Type driven by Ron Flockhart and Ninian Sanderson gave Jaguar an unexpected victory – the fourth since the war – after bad luck had struck the works team.’
‘Mike Hawthorn was in magnificent form and held the lead (of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone) for 15 laps.’
‘The BRM (Type 25) showed again that it is probably the fastest of all current Grand Prix cars, but Hawthorn was eventually passed by Moss (Maserati 250F) and others before being forced to retire at 23 laps by loss of lubricant to a rear universal joint, which produced incipient seizure.’
Moss the led until the 68th lap when misfiring intervened with Roy Salvadori driving the race of his life in the Gilby Engineering 250F, holding second place for 30 laps in front of all of the works cars! Fangio, Lancia-Ferrari D50 led to the finish after Moss retired, with Peter Collins/Alfonso de Portago second and Jean Behra, Maserati 250F third.
(B Cahier)
JM Fangio’s F1 Drivers Championship winning Lancia-Ferrari D50.
‘Front engine, V8 mounted at an angle. Bore and stroke 76 x 68.5mm, 2495cc. Maximum power 285bhp @ 8500rpm, 4-overhead camshafts, chain driven. 4 downdraught Solex twin-choke carburettors. Dual ignition: 2 magnetos, 16 plugs. Clutch at rear in unit with 5-speed gearbox and differential. Front suspension by double wishbones with transverse leaf spring. Rear suspension De Dion, with transverse leaf spring. Drum brakes. The tanks in the wheel fairings are no longer used, all the fuel being carried in the tail.’
(Y Debraine)
The Big Red Cars to the fore at the start of the French GP, Reims, July 1: Peter Collins, Eugenio Castellotti and JM Fangio in Lancia-Ferrari D50s ahead of the Moss Maserati 250F, Harry Schell’s Vanwall VW1 #22, and Jean Behra’s 250F, then one of the Gordinis, and the rest…
Fangio led until he pitted on lap 40, but he joined the fray after a change of plugs. Harry Schell raced brilliantly, retired his own Vanwall, then took over Hawthorn’s while it was in seventh place, and then chipped away at the leading Ferraris passing all but Fangio until injection pump trouble intervened.
Collins won from teammate Castellotti by three-tenths after 2 hr 34 min of close racing, then Behra 30 seconds back.
Sebring 12-Hour
‘The victory of the Fangio-Castellotti team (in the Sebring 12-Hour) was largely the work of the young Italian. Fangio, feeling unwell, had handed the car to him for the last hours of the race. The 3422cc four-cylinder Ferrari (860 Monza) covered a distance of 1008.72 miles in twelve-hours and put up a new record by doing twelve more laps than the winning Jaguar (D-Type) in 1955.’
Luigi Musso and Harry Schell were second in another Scuderia Ferrari 860 Monza with the Bob Sweikert/Jack Ensley Jaguar D-Type third.
Mille Miglia 1956…
I was going to give the shot below the same treatment as the rest and then I read the prophetic piece that went with it…not too long before the 1957 Mille disaster. It’s worth sharing in full I thought, an insiders view of the time clearly expressed.
‘For a long time after the catastrophe at the Le Mans Twenty-four Hours in 1955, motor-racing circles feared that the XXIInd Mille Miglia had been the last of the series. That race, in which 365 cars competed over 1,000 miles of roads lined by hundreds of thousands of spectators, is the most dangerous of all motor races for the drivers and even more so for the spectators.’
‘Therefore those who love the sport were all the more pleased when, after long and bitter disputes, the XXIII edition of the race was permitted-for it was a triumph over the enemies of motor racing-but they felt some uneasiness nonetheless. So few changes had been made in the regulations that the old risks were still there. The competitors were still to start off in the pitch dark and charge at headlong speed along roads lined – and in some places obstructed – by enthusiastie spectators many of whom had taken up their stand at the most dangerous points.’
‘The rain that fell incessantly throughout the race made the surface slippery in the extreme. Several cars left the road and the day closed with 7 fatal casualties – two of them among the spectators – and 16 injured. Indeed it was really only by sheer good luck that there were not a great many more. For these reasons we are against the Mille Miglia in its present form.’
‘Sooner or later it is bound to lead to a catastrophe fraught with the direst consequences because it could be so easily avoided. There must be fewer starters with a severe selection of the entries, and the most dangerous points-especially where the cars come out of a bend-must be closed to spectators. If these conditions, which without eliminating all danger would reduce the risk to reasonable proportions, cannot be satisfied the Mille Miglia will have to be considered anachronistic. We have nothing against the organizers. We simply believe that in common sense it must be admitted that the pleasure and interest of a limited number of people together with the technical advances brought about by the event are no justification for the terrible risks involved in a race where for 20 hours on end thousands of spectators without the slightest protection are within arm’s length of meteors unleashed at terrific speed.’
(‘A fine colour study which catches the typical atmosphere of many Mille Miglias. Rain pelting down from a leaden sky, spectators huddled together under umbrellas, and a brilliantly coloured car, headlamps blazing, as it roars on towards the finish at the end of the long day. The car is Collin’s Ferrari (860 Monza Scaglietti), taking second place in the XXIIIrd Mille Miglia with photographer and journalist Louis Klemantaski acting as navigator’ Y Debraine)
‘The XXIIIrd Mille Miglia was run in appalling weather which prevented the repetition of performances on a par with those recorded in 1955. The times chalked up by all the classes were slower than last year with the sole exception of Michy on RENAULT 750 c.c, who broke the record set up by Galtier in 1955. All in all one may say that the small, and therefore less speedy, cars were less severely handicapped by the rain than the powerful machines capable of doing over 125 m.p.h.’
‘Victory smiled on Eugenio Castellotti on a 3 ½-litre 12-cylinder FERRARI (290 MM Scaglietti). He took 1 hour 29 minutes 22 seconds more than Moss last year to cover the 1,597 kilometres of the course but his average speed was most impressive in view of the atmospheric conditions he was up against. Second place was taken by another FERRARI – a 3 1/2 litre 4-cylinder model – driven by Peter Collins whose passenger was our contributor Klemantaski, a bearded British journalist like Jenkinson.’
‘FERRARI won all the laurels taking 3rd, 4th and 5th places with Musso, Fangio and Gendebien, the latter being the winner of the “Grand Tourisme” class. In the next three places we find three MERCEDES 300 SL privately entered but prepared by the works. The MASERATIs were a disappointment although Scarlatti took first place in the class for sports cars under 2,000 c.c., while Perdisa was first in the under 3,000 c.c. class but only 28th in the general classification. Stirling Moss, No. I member of the team, whose car was not quite up to scratch, ran off the road before Rome and withdrew from the race.’
‘The ALFA ROMEO GIULIETTA which had disappointed in 1955 put up a magnificent show this year. As usual PORSCHE took first place in the “Grand Tourisme” class under 1,500 c.c. but was defeated in the sports class by Cabianca’s OSCA 1500 and Jean Behra’s MASERATI. All four RENAULT DAUPHINES entered by the works finished the race although Paul Frère capsized when leading the team. The winner was Gilberte Thirion at an average of 65.85 m.p.h. Our contributor Bernard Cahier, at the wheel of his own DAUPHINE – a production model in every respect – covered the course at 58.28 m.p.h. Michy on a modified 4 H.P. RENAULT produced a fine performance, as already mentioned, by lowering the record for his class established in 1955 on a dry surface by Gaultier with a car of the same type.’
‘Of the 427 entries, 365 started but only 182 reached the finish – a wastage of 50 per cent.’
‘The Frölander and Lindbergh, shortly after take-off, on their flight to the Midnight Sun in a single-engined (?) Austin Healey.’ This crew didn’t finish in the top-10, the May 29-June 3, 1956 event was won by a VW 1200 driven by H Bengtsson and navigator A Righard.
Credits…
Automobile Year, Yves Debraine, Louis Klemantaski, Junior, Bernard Cahier, B Gronlund
Tailpiece…
I’ve long thought the power of an ad is inversely proportional to the word count…particularly if the visual imagery is up to snuff!
Ernesto Maserati looks on as Giuseppe Furmanik readies himself and his lightweight, streamlined, four cylinder 4C powered Maserati 6CM, chassis #1136 for a run during several speed record attempts he made at Tassignano on the Firenze-Mare Autostrada on June 2-3 1937.
Furmanik set the 1001-1500cc Flying One Kilometre record on June 3 at 148.4mph/237.568kmh (or 148.2/238.6 depending upon your source).
The car’s special aluminium bodywork was designed by the Centro Sperimentale Aeronautico di Giudonia and built by Carozzeria S. A. Viotti of Torino. Furmanik used the machine – also referred to as 4CM #1536, for which no factory build sheet exists – and another 4CM, chassis #1120, in record attempts.
Giuseppe Furmanik before a run in #1536, Pirelli tyres (Pirelli)
Of Polish descent Joseph Furmanik was born in Switzerland in 1903 then moved to Italy with his father circa 1919-20. He adopted ‘Giuseppe’, became an engineer, co-designed a parachute named the Salvator and married money.
Settled in Rome, he became a prominent figure in 1930s Italian motor racing with his competition exploits probably funded by parachute royalties. He succeeded Count Vincenzo Florio as President of the Royal Automobile Club of Italy (RACI) in 1937.
What a big arse you have my dear…I wonder what the insignia on the tail represents? (Pirelli)
4CM Technical Specifications…
Furmanik took delivery of 4CM #1120, a four-cylinder, twin-cam, two-valve, Roots-supercharged 125bhp at 5000-6000rpm 1100cc Maserati 4CM monoposto, on August 12, 1932.
The 4CM was avant-garde for its time, Maserati followed Alfa Romeo’s single-seater lead set by Vittorio Jano and his team with their Grand Prix Alfa Romeo Tipo B/P3 Monopostos.
Very light, the car’s two parallel channel section chassis members were only 620mm wide with bodywork tightly proportioned around the key mechanical components. Hydraulic brakes were fitted, again, leading edge for the time. The car had a four speed gearbox and period typical suspension comprising solid axles front and rear sprung by semi-elliptic leaf springs, friction dampers were fitted. The wheelbase was 240cm, track 120/120cm and weight circa 520-580kg.
4CM early competition…
The 4CMs looked great and were fast in a limited number of outings in their first year of competition, 1932. In the German Grand Prix held on the Nurburgring in July, Ernesto Maserati and Amedeo Ruggeri were third of 15 Group 2 800-1500cc cars in the race won by Rudy Caracciola’s Alfa Tipo B 2.6. Maserati followed up with fourth of the Voiturettes – Ernesto’s little 1100cc Maser was surrounded by 1500cc cars – at the Masarykuv Okruh at Brno in September.
Giuseppe Campari’s Maserati 4CM 2-litre ahead of Jean-Pierre Wimille’s Alfa Romeo Monza during the August 6, 1933 Nice GP (MotorSport)This shot and the one below shows the earlier Furmanik 4CM #1120, with body designed by Mario Revelli di Beaumont (RACI Motor Sport February 1936)
Furmanik’s Record Breaking…
Furmanik raced #1120 throughout 1933 finishing third in the Coppa Ciano Junior and Coppa Acerbo Junior in July/August and missing the final of the Monza Grand Prix in September and DNF in his heat.
Into 1934 Furmanik started the Coppa Ciano as favourite in the Voiturette class but didn’t finish after a slight accident on the first lap. He was fourth in the Coppa Acerbo Junior.
Giuseppe does not appear to have raced #1120 in 1935 (see change of ownership to Gino Rovere shortly) and then decided to plan an attack on the World Speed Record.
#1120’s power was increased (output not specified) and a lighter more streamlined body was designed by Mario Revelli di Beaumont – ‘the most prolific car designed you’ve never heard of’ – and the front brakes removed, the result about 470kg/1036lbs. He also adapted the gearbox to provide for three tall gears.
Furmanik’s first runs, on November 28, 1935 were made on the Lucca-Altopascio section of the Firenze-Mare Autostrada, then on the Pescara road circuit on January 8, 1936, and then again on the same section of the Firenze-Mare Autostrada on January 29, 1936.
Gino Rovere aboard Maserati 4CM #1120 at Brooklands on May 6, 1935 (MotorSport)
Gino Rovere…
Gino Rovere was a wealthy enthusiast who became Maserati’s President. He supported Furmanik’s efforts, making available funds to increase the engine’s output and further improve aerodynamics.
With a 4C engine then developing some 150bhp at 7,200 rpm and the Centro Sperimentale Aeronautico di Giudonia/Carozzeria closed aero body fitted to 6CM chassis #1536, Furmanik set the Flying Kilometre record mentioned at the outset in June 1937.
Along the way #1120’s ownership changed from Furmanik to Rovere and the car was returned to Maserati’s Bologna factory where it’s said it was fitted with a 1.5-litre engine for Rovere to race in selected 1935 Voiturette events: Brooklands in the May 6 JCC International Trophy (results please), then at Dieppe and finally Modena.
Gino Rovere lines up #1120 before the start of the Junior Car Club International Trophy , Brooklands, May 6, 1935 (MotorSport)Dieppe GP grid #30 P Veyron Bugatti T51A, the Rovere 4CM, #6 Humphrey Cook, ERA A-Type, #50 Ippolito Berrone, Maserati 4CM – note the standard grille compared with Rovere’s machine – #48 Eddie Herzberger, MG K3 Magnette and #28 Maurice Baumer’s K3. Pat Fairfield’s ERA A-type won from Bird’s B-Type and Veyron’s Bugatti (Bonhams)Beautiful shot of Giuseppe Farina aboard the Rovere 4CM #1120 at Dieppe (Bonhams)
In the GP de Dieppe on July 20, Rovere qualified seventh on the 19 car grid and finished eighth, handing his car over to ‘his protege’ Giuseppe Farina late in the race, Farina promptly set the fastest time of the day despite the car’s quoted 1.1-litre capacity. Rovere also contested the Circuit di Modena Junior on September 15 for Q5 and DNF, again the capacity is quoted as 1100cc in the goldenera.fi results.
In 1936 Rovere’s team competed under the works banner given his status as Maserati’s President. #1120 was raced by various works drivers early that year and then sold to Scuderia Impero. Agostino Prosperi and Mario Colini drove it, then Rovere had a return bout with his old car at Pescara.
In the modern era, #1120 has been a regular part of the UK historic scene in 1100cc and 1500cc form raced by many drivers including Sean Danaher, Martin Stretton, Barrie Baxter and Stefan Schollwoeck.
Build numbers…
Maserati built 16 4CMs between 1932-35: Nine 1100s – chassis numbers #1115, 1116, 1118, 1119, 1120, 1122, 1125, 1127 and 1128 (note that #1120 and 1125 were both later fitted with 1500cc engines), Six 1500s – 1514, 1521 (also fitted with an 1100cc engine), 1525, 1526, 1527 and 1528, and One 2000cc – 2011.
Etcetera…
(MotorSport)
Two more shots of Rovere in the Brooklands 1935 paddock, #1120 in profile and three-quarter rear for a pitstop.
(MotorSport)(coachbuild.com)
A rendering of the Centro Sperimentale Aeronautico di Giudonia design, and below #1536 in one specification in which the car ran. Compare and contrast with the first three photographs in this piece.
(unattributed)Ad for AGIP’s Robur fuel 1936, Furmanik aboard #1120
Credits…
Anonymous photographer within the Pirelli Archives, MotorSport Images, Leif Snellman’s superb The Golden Era of Grand Prix Racing – goldenera.fi, The Nostalgia Forum, thanks to Maserati historian Kevin Tjeerdsma for advice on correction of facts and chassis numbers
John Surtees is chasing Jack Brabham hard in the latter stages of the 1963 Australian Grand Prix at Warwick Farm on February 10, 1963. He is racing a Lola Mk4A Climax 2.7 FPF chassis #BRGP44.
Jack’s Brabham, Brabham BT4 Climax passed him late in the race, John fell short by 12 seconds in a race run in intensive heat, but he had a good southern summer, winning two of the eight Australasian internationals, the NZ GP at Pukekohe and the Lakeside International.
Dick Ellis cutaway of an F1 Lola Mk4 Coventry Climax FWMV 1.5 V8Surtees, Team Lotus Lotus 18 Climax at Ardmore during the 1961 NZ GP, DNF (M Fistonic)
1963 wasn’t his first trip Down Under. Il Grande John did the Kiwi Internationals with Team Lotus in 1961 when Innes Ireland, Jim Clark and Surtees raced Lotus 18 2.5 FPFs fitted with the dreaded Queerbox. In a grim tour for the team, Surtees didn’t finish any of his three races at Ardmore, Levin or Wigram.
He was back again in 1962, running a Reg Parnell Cooper T53 2.7 in Australia, finishing second at Sandown and winning from Jack Brabham’s Cooper T55 2.7 on Longford’s daunting mix of roads, undulations, railway viaduct and barbed wire.
Parnell ran a pair of Lola T4 Climaxes, 1.5 FPF powered early on, then 1.5 FWMV V8 engined when the engine became available in Grand Prix racing that year. Surtees finished a great fourth in the World Drivers Championship during the season in which the monocoque Lotus 25 Climax rewrote the chassis design rulebook.
Surtees winning Lola Mk4A and Bruce McLaren, Cooper T62 on the front row at Pukekohe, NZ GP 1963. That’s Brabham’s #4 BT4, and Tony Maggs in the other Parnell Lola Mk4 at far left (D Oxton)Later Kiwi Ace, David Oxton attends to a Colotti ratio change on Surtees’ car, Pukekohe (D Oxton)
Reg (Bowmaker-Yeoman Racing Team) fitted 2.7FPFs to two of his T4s in place of the smaller F1 V8 for the 1963 Formula Libre Australasian Internationals for Surtees and South African driver, Tony Maggs use. Parnell knew the local-ropes, having raced a Ferrari Super Squalo 3.4 as part of a two car team together with Peter Whitehead in the 1957 New Zealand Internationals. He did well too, winning the NZ GP and the Dunedin Road Race in what was his last hurrah as a driver before taking on Aston Martin team management duties.
Other hot-shots that summer included Jack Brabham in his new F1 BT3 derived BT4 2.7 FPF, while Bruce McLaren raced the similarly powered Cooper T62 with which he won the 1962 Australian Grand Prix at Caversham, near Perth that November. Graham Hill (and Innes Ireland in some NZ races) raced the radical, fast Ferguson P99 albeit he lacked the mumbo of his completion, running 2.5 FPF’s rather than the more fancied 2.7 ‘Indy’ variant.
Young Cooper T53 mounted thrusters included Chris Amon, Jim Palmer and Angus Hyslop. In Australia the local quicks included David McKay and Bib Stillwell in new BT4s, while Lex Davison and young grazier John Youl raced Coopers T53 and T55 respectively.
Surtees’s Lola Mk4A #BRGP44 was quick everywhere, starting the tour with a bang by winning the NZ GP at the new Pukekohe circuit near Auckland, then gearbox problems caused DNFs at Levinand Wigram. He failed to finish at Teretonga as well, albeit Maggs placed second behind McLaren at the track near Invercargill at the very south of the South Island.
Surtees in the Wigram – RNZAF airfield – paddock. That Ferrari 250 SWB belonged to ‘Richardson’ for those wanting to do further research (W Collins)Surtees and handsome Mk4A at Teretonga, ninth after undisclosed problems (G Woods)
There was then a fortnight to ship the cars across the Tasman Sea to Sydney Harbour for the AGP to be held on the challenging, technical Warwick Farm on February 10.
Surtees put down a marker, popping his Lola on pole in Jack’s backyard. He then led the race until Brabham – who started well back on the grid having sorted a new BT4 chassis during practice – passed him with 14 laps to run, the Brit suffering along with many others in the intense heat. John had the consolation of meeting fastest lap.
Then it was off to Lakeside, north of Brisbane. There Surtees started from Q3 and won from Hill, bagging the P99’s best result for the tour, with Stillwell third in his new Brabham BT4. Chris Amon was fourth and impressing pit-pundits with every drive. At the end of the summer Reg Parnell took the 19 year old off to Europe where he did rather well…initially racing #BRGP44 FWMV powered throughout 1963.
Shell drivers at Warwick Farm: David McKay, Tony Maggs, Graham Hill, John Surtees, Jim Palmer and Chris Amon (C Galloway)Surtees hooks into the right-hander at the end of Pit Straight, Paddock, at Warwick Farm 1963 (B Donaldson)
Surtees returned to Europe to meet his new Ferrari team commitments, missing the final two races at Longford and Sandown, with Tony Maggs, sixth and second in the Parnell Lolas respectively.
Had there been a Tasman Cup that summer – the first was contested and won by Bruce McLaren in 1964 – Bruce would have won it. Brabham won at Levin and Warwick Farm, Surtees at Pukekohe and Lakeside, while McLaren was victorious at Wigram, Teretonga, Longford and Sandown.
The Lolas had proved very competitive Formula Libre machines but were thoroughly outclassed in ’63 GP racing: Amon, Maurice Trintignant, Lucien Bianchi, Mike Hailwood and Masten Gregory all failed to bag a point for Reg Parnell Racing.
Surtees Mk4 during 1962. The idea of that yellow enamelled spaceframe chassis was to make it easy to see any cracks that arose (unattributed)
Etcetera…
(MotorSport)
Pretty car. Surtees during the soggy German Grand Prix was second behind Graham Hill’s BRM. He first raced the chassis he used throughout his 1963 Australiasion Tour, T4A #BRGP44, at Karlskoga in August, there he led until a valve spring broke.
(MotorSport)
Main Men. Reg Parnell, Surtees and who? during the May 1962 Dutch Grand Prix weekend at Zandvoort. John popped his car on pole but crashed in the early laps after a wishbone failure.
(MotorSport)
More Main Men. Surtees and Lola’s Eric Broadley at Aintree during the British GP meeting in July. And below, John with the car in the paddock. FWMV is on Webers, a bit cheaper, but less powerful than the Lucas injected alternative.
Lola had a fantastic weekend with Surtees qualifying and finishing second in the race. The cars gained pace after the cockpit area was found to be flexing by Surtees in the lead up to the Belgian Grand Prix, when additional tubes were added to the suspect area.
(MotorSport)(N Beresford Collection)
Don Beresford – father of engineer Nigel Beresford of Ralt, Tyrrell, Penske Cars et al fame – working on a T4 at Bromley during 1962. It’s after the chassis cockpit section was strengthened, note the additional tubular section which has been added, so it’s probably the chassis Surtees raced carrying #6 in the December 29, 1962 South African Grand Prix at East London, DNF.
The ’63 New Zealand GP was a week later on January 5, no rest for the wicked!
Credits…
Bob Donaldson-State Library of New South Wales, Dick Ellis, Colin Galloway, Milan Fistonic, David Oxton Collection, Graham Woods Collection, Warner Collins, Lynton Hemer, Dick Simpson-oldracephotos.com, Michelle Glenn, Nigel Beresford Collection
Tailpieces…
Surtees, Surtees TS8/9 Chev, Alan Hamilton, McLaren M10B Chev, Colin Bond, McLaren M10C Repco-Holden and Graeme Lawrence, Brabham BT29 Ford FVC (L Hemer)
John Surtees was a busy lad throughout the 1960s with Grand Prix, World Endurance Championship and Can-Am programmes in most seasons, so he never did do a Tasman.
Scuderia Ferrari had plans afoot for Surtees to race a Ferrari Dino V6 – the ‘Surtees Tasman Special’ Ferrari 246 #006 – in 1966 but a late season Can-Am accident at Mosport in a Lola T70 Chev hospitalised him that winter so that didn’t happen. Chris Amon subsequently went rather well with updated 246 variants in 1968-69.
(M Glenn)
By 1971 Surtees’ commercial imperatives had evolved somewhat. Not only was he contesting Grand Prix racing with a two car team, he was also a constructor of customer racing cars, including Formula 5000 machines, which had been adopted as the Tasman Formula from 1970.
So it made sense for Surtees to contest the November 1971 Australian Grand Prix at Warwick Farm in a Surtees TS8/TS9 Chev, perhaps selling a car or two, then leave the car here for his protege, Mike Hailwood to race in the following 1972 Tasman.
Surtees in front of Max Stewart’s Mildren Waggott TC-4V in the Farm’s Esses (D Simpson-oldracephotos.com)
Surtees qualified ninth after fraught practice sessions sorting handling problems, then had a miserable race without his preferred Firestones, but he still got as high as fourth before pitting for a new left-front tyre, losing three laps in the process, before having another puncture late in the race, finally finishing 14th. “He certainly gave the crowd good value while he was going, “The History of The Australian Grand Prix” recorded.
Frank Matich triumphed that day in his brand new Matich A50 Repco-Holden with Kevin Bartlett and Hamilton second and third in their McLaren M10B Chevs.
Finally, Mike Hailwood did well in the 1972 Tasman Series, he was second to Graham McRae’s Leda GM1 Chev despite not winning round, and was then the best of Team Surtees F1 drivers that season; eighth in the World Championship.
One thing leads to another. I was researching Giuseppe Luraghi, a longtime CEO of Alfa Romeo. Apart from mega talent as a corporate leader he was somewhat of a renaissance man, a gifted writer and poet. He initiated the Pirelli magazine way back in 1948 when he headed up Linoleum, a Pirelli Group subsidiary.
Pirelli, “Addressed it to the general public, it was a way of reaching out to the consumer with much more than a simple advertising message. Above all it was a way of conveying business culture.”
So, then yer go digging on that internet thingy and find Pirelli’s archives, these shots are the amazing result. I’ve mixed them up, they aren’t placed in chronological order so I’ve visually separated them by choosing Pirelli magazine covers or impactful or clever advertisements so you know when we are onto another subject. I’ve kept the words to a minimum, let the pics do the talkin’…
Gastone Brilli-Peri, by winning the Italian Grand Prix, gave Alfa Romeo the four-round 1925 Manufacturers World Championship in an Alfa Romeo P2.
Pete DePaolo won the Indy 500 in a Duesenberg 122, Albert Divo the French Grand Prix in a Delage 2LCV, while Alfa’s P2 won at Monza and at Spa, where Antonio Ascari drove the winning machine in the Belgian Grand Prix.
Brilli Peri, enroute to his Italian GP win and Campari below, in another P2 in the pits. Brilli Peri won from Giuseppe Campari/Minozzi/Sozzi with Meo Costantini third in a Bugatti T39.
Poster 1977
Antonio Brivio after winning the 1935 Targa Florio in a Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeo Tipo B.
Sticking with the P3 theme, Luigi Fagioli stands beside his car during the September 1933 Spanish Grand Prix weekend. The race was won by Louis Chiron’s Alfa P3 from Fagioli, and held on the Laserte road circuit near San Sebastián.
Mock up for a 1952 ad by Pavel Engelmann
Piero Taruffi and navigator Isidoro Ceroli with Alfa Romeo 6C2500 Sport during the first Carrera Panamericana from May 5-10 1950.
They finished fourth behind three American crews driving an Oldsmobile and two Cadillacs.
Piero Taruffi, again, but a little earlier, here with a shock of dark hair! and his Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeo 8C2300 Monza after finishing second in the April 1932 Rome Grand Prix.
The race, held on the 4km Circuito del Littorio, was won by Luigi Fagioli’s works-Maserati V5 5-litre V16.
Pirelli White Star, sketch for an exhibition stand in 1931
Pirelli wrote that of all the motor racing films, “there was only one racing driver who was called upon time and again to play himself in front of the camera – the Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio.”
“It was in 1950: in the photos now in the Pirelli Historical Archive, the film is referred to with its provisional title Perdizone. It was actually released the following year as Ultimo incontro (last meeting).”
“We are on the Monza racetrack, with the protagonists Amedeo Nazzari, Alida Valli and Jean-Pierre Aumont. It is a sombre tale of betrayal and blackmail in the world of motor sport, in which the driver Fangio plays…the driver Fangio.”
“That year the Argentine was racing with the mighty Alfa Romeo team along with legends of speed such as Nino Farina, who went on to win the (1950) world title.”
“The long P-logo of Pirelli, which supplied the read Alfa Romeo cars with Stella Bianca tyres, is embroidered on their overalls, underneath the cloverleaf symbol.”
“In Perdizone/Ultimo incontro, Fangio was already on his way to becoming a legend, but his serious, watchful look is that of a true actor. The driver from Balcarce stopped racing in the late 1950s, with five world championships under his belt.”
“During his career his name appeared a number of times next to that of Pirelli: it happened again in 1965, and once again there was a camera there to record it. This was a spot produced for Carosello TV commercials with reportage by Ugo Mulas.”
“The driver once again played himself, the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio now clocking up the laps in his Alfa Giulia GTC.”
“When he gets out, he looks into the camera and recalls: ‘I used to race with the Stelvio, but now this Cinturato is really different from the rest. Extraordinario!’ And in his magnificent Italian-Argentine manner, Fangio goes on to tell the audience on the television screen about his endless string of successes.”
75th anniversary poster
Benito Mussolini and pet pussy aboard an Alfa Romeo in 1923. What model is it I wonder?
Meanwhile poor old Tazio is tasked with amusing Ill Duce’s sons in his P3, Bruno in the driving seat and Vittorio behind.
Mussolini with Nuvolari again, and the director-general of Alfa Romeo Prospero Gianferrari (both in the centre). “The P3 is probably the car with which Nuvolari won the August 14, 1932 Coppa Acerbo.”
1971
Antonio Ascari in the P2, with designers Luigi Bazzi in the light coloured overalls at left, Vittorio Jano and Giorgio Rimini during the 1924 Italian Grand Prix weekend.
Before the start of the race: Antonio Ascari’s Alfa P2 #1 Christian Werner’s Mercedes M72 #2 and Jules Goux’ Rolland-Pilain Schmid #3.
Alfa Romeo won in a rout taking the first four placings: Ascari, Louis Wagner, Campari and Bruno Presenti, and Fernando Minoia.
Scuderia Alfa Romeo: unidentified in the overcoat, mechanic Giulio Ramponi, drivers Minoia and Campari, the engineer and entrepreneur Nicola Romeo, and driver Antonio Ascari.
Ascari and Ramponi go for a greet-the-punters wander.
Giuseppe Campari and P2.
(Federico Patellani)
Gigi Villoresi, Nino Farina and Alberto Ascari in 1950, this photo was published on the cover of the January-February issue of the Pirelli magazine. Nice portrait of Gigi in a Ferrari below.
(Ferrucio Testi)
Scuderia Ferrari shot of Luigi Arcangeli, Tazio Nuvolari and Enzo Ferrari sitting on an Alfa Romeo P2 during the European Hillclimb Championship in June 29, 1930
The Pirellis are Stella Bianca’s, the venue is Cuneo-Colle della Maddalena. While Pirelli wrote that Tazio was first and Luigi third, Rudy Caracciola won the day on a Mercedes.
And below walking to the start alongside an Alfa – a modified P2 of the type Achille Varzi used to win the Targa Florio in 1930 Bob King reckons, a quick look at Hull & Slater confirms this – circa 1930. Does anybody recognise the venue?
Antonio Ascari and a mechanic aboard, “probably an Alfa Romeo P1”, venue unknown.
I’m not so sure about the P1 theory…Giuseppe Merosi’s Fiat 804 copy wasn’t much chop. His engine had most of the same features as Fiat’s Type 404: DOHC, 65x100mm bore/stroke 1991cc six so the power output was about the same but the Gran Premio Romeo was longer and heavier. Its aero was inferior too, the epochal Fiat had a staggered mechanics seat which slimmed down its profile, the Alfa did not.
While P1s were entered for the 1923 Italian Grand Prix – for Ugo Sivocci, Alberto Ascari and Giuseppe Compari – after Sivocci crashed to his death in practice the team withdrew from the meeting as a mark of respect, the P1s never raced.
The car shown above carries #18, the Monza P1s used numbers, 6, 12 and 17, so the shot wasn’t taken on or about that weekend.
Is the car shown a P2, an early one? The Golden Era of Grand Prix Racing is my reference site for the results of the major races in this era, I cannot see an Alfa P2 number 18 entered in any of the races the site covers in either 1924 or 1925. A mystery…
Pirelli sponge ad 1922 by A Franchi
Oscar Galvez fettles the engine of his 3-litre supercharged straight-eight Alfa Romeo 308 in January 1949, can’t quite read the chassis number…
He was third in the Buenos Aires Grand Prix behind the Maserati 4CLT’s raced by Alberto Ascari and Gigi Villerosi.
Achille Varzi’s Mille Miglia winning Alfa Romeo 8C2600 Monza Spider Brianza on the Carozzeria Brianza Stand in 1934.
The first four cars home were (2654cc) 8C2600 Monzas: Varzi/Bignami, Nuvolari/Siena, Chiron/Rosa and Battglia/Bianchi.
Fangio plugs Cinturato’s in 1965
Classic shot of Nino Farina on the way to winning the July 1950 British Grand Prix in an Alfa 158.
A month later the circus is on the grid at Pescara for the August 19 Grand Prix on the road circuit of the same name.
From the left is Fangio’s #34 Alfa 158, then the similar machine of Luigi Fagioli’s, with Louis Rosier’s Talbot-Lago T26C on the right. The race was won by Fangio from Rosier and Fagioli.
(F Patellani)
Paddock scenes at Monza during the September 1950 Italian GP weekend.
The Consalvo Sanesi 158, and Giuseppe Farina #10 Alfa Romeo 159 above, and Fagioli’s 158 below. Farina won the race from Alberto Ascari’s Ferrari 375, then Fagioli.
(F Patellani)
Below mechanics attend to the engine of Fagioli’s 158.
1959(Publifoto)
Prince Raimondo Lanza di Trabia inspects his left-front Pirelli, Alfa Romeo 1900 TI during pre-event scrutineering in Milan before the start of the 1952 Monte Carlo Rally.
He was 72nd in the event won by Sydney Allard/Guy Warburton Allard P1, the best of the Alfa’s was the 17th placed Andersson/Lumme 1900TI.
Pirelli Stelvio tyre ad 1956 (L Bonzi)
Count Leonardo Bonzi alongside his Alfa Romeo in Bicocca, Milan before the start of the Mato Gross Rally in 1952.
Pirelli Coria soles resist the passage of time Ezio Bonini 1953 (INCOM)
Mille Miglia 1955 start with the Santo Ciocca Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint on the ramp DNF. The race was of course won by the Stirling Moss/Denis Jenkinson Mercedes Benz 300SLR.
View of the pits during a soggy August 1949 Pescara Grand Prix weekend. Franco Rol won in his Alfa Romeo 6C2500 SS from Robert Vallone’s Ferrari 166S. Car 10 is Henri Louveau’s third placed Delage D6, #4 Louis Rosier’s Talbot Spéciale (DNS) and car #50, Bormioli’s ?
Asmara December 1938, site of the first Coppa di Natale. Behind the Pirelli sign is the Beata Vergine del Rosario church
Credits…
All images are from the Pirelli Foundation archives. Leonardo Bonzi, Publifoto, Federico Patellani. ‘Alfa Romeo A History’ Peter Hull and Roy Slater
Don Wright with his eyes riveted on the apex of a corner at Sydney’s Mount Druitt circuit aboard his Citroen Special in 1956.
Racer/engineer/restorer/historian Dick Willis in his fabulous book, Optimism, describes the Citroen Light Fifteen (Light 15) based monoposto as “Probably Australia’s only front wheel drive racing car of the fifties…it had a successful career especially in the late 1950s and early 1960s when it raced as a Division 2 car in NSW having many memorable dices with the Nota Major.”
At the 1951 Easter Bathurst meeting, Bill Buckle, a member of the noted motor dealer family – then the holder of the Sydney Citroen franchise amongst other marques – raced a Light 15 to second place in the Production Closed Car Handicap.
Suitably impressed by the competition potential of his product, he cast around for a crash damaged car and commenced construction of a monoposto racer to accept the road cars core mechanicals.
Working with his close school friend, and fellow auto apprentice, Charlie Buck, they built a simple twin-tube ladder chassis to which was mated the Citroën front subframe, steering, 2-litre OHV engine and gearbox, and rear beam axle.
Before the car was finished Buckle decided to visit France and sold the project to Don Wright to help fund his trip.
Wright and Buck then set to work in Wright’s Castle Hills workshop to finish it including fabrication of a stainless steel fuel tank and a slinky body made together with Stan Barrett. The 1911cc Light Fifteen engine was fitted with special valves, a pair of 1 1/2 inch SU carbs fed by an aircraft fuel pump and 17 inch stub exhausts. Those radical looking wheels were options Citroen offered in Europe but not here: light Michelin made ‘Pilote’ shod with the French tyre manufacturers new X-radial tyres
Don Wright, King Edward Park, Newcastle hillclimb circa 1953. Bob Winley, “In this shot the Citroen Special is very new with its original beam axle rear suspension and short nose.”
After several drives the cars shortcomings were laid bare and addressed. The duo modified the gearbox by eliminating reverse gear and machining and fitting a fourth forward gear in the space so released.
Unhappy with the rear suspension, Wright replaced the Citroen beam axle and transverse torsion bars with Morris Minor longitudinal (front) bars and bottom arms. “Uprights and top wishbones were fabricated to suit, the original rear stub axles having that convenient eight-bolt attachment,” Bob Winley, a later owner, and ultimately the car’s restorer, wrote
The car soon became a common sight on the hills and circuits of NSW including Foleys Hill, King Edward Park, Mount Druitt, Gnoo Blas, and then Bathurst in 1955. That year Don won the NSW Hillclimb championship at King Edward Park, Newcastle; quite a triumph for the sweet handling machine.
King Edward Park, Newcastle 1954. Winley, “The Citroen Special early on but after it was fitted with IRS: parallel wishbones and longitudinal Morris Minor torsion bars. Note the 17-inch stub exhausts. It seems to have grown an oil cooler too. I haven’t seen the ‘Mickey Mouse ears’ before. The front wheels could certainly throw rocks and water at the driver on any but clean tracks.” (J Moxham Collection)Wheels‘ caption, “Don Wright’s FWD Citroen Special was one of three cars which broke 60 seconds at the 1955 NSW Hillclimb Championship. It is seen in our picture rounding the hairpin at Newcastle where the climb was held.” Covering the same meeting Modern Motor observed that “Speed, roadholding and showroom finish have made Don Wright’s Citroen Special a favourite with racing fans.”Photographer Bruce Moxon wrote, “The Citroen Special at Castlereagh Airstrip on August 21, 1960 with girlfriend, Pauline at the wheel. It was owned by Geoff Thorne, with whom I worked at GE Cranes in Glebe, Sydney. Geoff was a toolmaker, but also a professional ice skater and musician.”
Later, Don sold the car to dentist lan Steele who raced at Bathurst circa 1957, the car passed it to Geoff Thorne, a genius ice-skating clown amongst his other talents. He raced it extensively and then Don James did well on new tracks such as Oran Park and Catalina Park from circa 1963. By then the machine was fitted with a crossflow DS cylinder head, extractors in lieu of the stack-exhausts, and Big Six front brakes. He did well in the Division 2/Formula Libre races common at the time.
Ray Bell wrote, “In November 1968 Bob Winley bought it and started racing it but couldn’t wear his red shirt because CAMS required fireproof overalls and underwear from then on! Bob ran in ‘modern’ races and the newly created Historic Car races and club events, winning money and trophies and being accused of doing ‘rain dances’ before race days, such are the car’s abilities in the wet. Bob fitted extractors and a muffler.”
Lynton Hemer’s shots of Bob Winley racing the Citroen at Oran Park – sporting its crossflow DS engine – on June 27, 1970, and below, exiting Forrest’s Elbow at Bathurst during practice for the Easter 1970 meeting (L Hemer)(L Hemer)
After six years John Moxham, a Citroen fancier, bought the car and re-fitted an original type of cylinder head. The car sat unused, then John moved interstate, selling the car to another Citroen collector, John Vanechop. The car languished until Don Wright’s friends bought it in pieces and Don began its restoration. With Bob Winley’s help the car is now ready to re-join the Historic Racing scene with proud owner Perry Long at the wheel, Dick Willis wrote.
“It was on display at Eastern Creek in 2006 and underwent some testing by John Bowe at Wakefield Park (pic below in 2017) but hasn’t been seen since although its return to competition is believed to be imminent and we look forward to it with great anticipation as the Citroen Special is a really interesting and unique Australian Special.”
Etcetera…
(G Mackie)
Not a great photo of Don Wright but better than nothing! Greg Mackie observed of the man, “Citroen Special and Lancia Fancier.” Ray Bell spoke to Wright circa 2001, at that stage he was still operating an automotive repair business in West Pennant Hills, “his major pursuit these days is making replacement blocks for Lancia Lambdas, which he carves out of billets of aluminium! No castings…”
Citroen Special in its original form, a nice shot of the Michelin Pilote wheels and immaculate line of the car even in its original short-nose guise.
Don Wright coming down the mountain at Bathurst in 1955, he carried #20 in both the Easter and October meetings.
Bob Winley commented in an exchange on Facebook with Australian Gold Star Champion, Spencer Martin, about Spencer’s observation of the Citroen Special’s understeer, “Near the driver’s left hand is a slight bulge in the body for the gear lever and fuel filler for the stainless steel tank between the chassis rails, keeping the centre of gravity well forward. Spencer Martin I steered it ‘on the throttle’ in BP Corner at Oran Park. I found it a delight to drive (and I don’t enjoy understeer).”
Don Wright chasing Tom Sulman’s Maserati at Gnoo Blas or Mount Druitt, thoughts on venue folks?
(D Willis)
A couple of fabulous in-period colour shots by Dick Willis. The one above is the front row of the grid, perhaps the November 1956 meeting at Mount Druitt.
From the left, perhaps Greg Hunt in the ex-Tomlinson/Bartlett/Brydon MG TA Spl, Jim Johnson in the Cigar MG, probably Ian Steele in the light blue Citroen Special – with gleaming Pilote wheels – and on the right in the low-slung, mid-engined Stewart MG with Gordon Stewart at the wheel.
Below is a superb paddock scene at Silverdale, perhaps the June 1960 meeting.
Gordon Stewart in the Stewart MG at left, #47 is our Citroen with Geoff Thorne up, #3 is Jack Myers WM-Cooper Waggott-Holden, #42 Don Swanson’s Lotus 11 Climax – up from Melbourne or had it changed hands by then? – while the Sprite at the far left was run by Leigh Whitely.
(D Willis)(D Simpson)
Bob Winley in the Huntley Hills Esses during the December 1968 meeting. He recalls, “I found something out that day. I did my practice run without seatbelts and nearly got thrown out of the car towards the end of the run. Lesson learn’t!”
(J Moxham Collection)
A page from John Moxham’s photo album now in the custody of John Barass.
Credits…
The main image, the catalyst for this particular research journey, is courtesy of the Auto Action Archive.
The information was gleaned from Dick Willis wonderful book, ‘Optimism’ about Australian Specials, and demonstrates the potency of some Facebook groups. I carefully mined the comments of a whole lot of people on Bob Williamson’s Old Australian Motor Racing Photographs, and Greg Smith’s Pre-1960 Historic Racing in Australasia Facebook pages. Those photos and information are attributed to Ray Bell in one of Bob Winley’s posts, the Rick Marks, and Don Coe Collections, Nurk Daddo, John Moxham Collection via John Barass, Australian Motor Heritage Foundation via Brian Caldersmith, Bruce Moxon, Greg Mackie, Dick Simpson, Tim Shellshear, Bob Williamson and multiple, wonderfully informative posts by Bob Winley.
Wonderful teamwork! Let me know if I’ve cocked anything up on mark@bisset.com.au.
primotipo... 