Chassis #840 was sourced from SEFAC, Ferrari’s racing department with the completed car presented at the Paris Salon in the October .
(unattributed)(Getty Images)
Here the cutie is being largely ignored by the world’s horsepower press at the launch of Ferrari’s new 3-litre Tipo 312 Grand Prix car at Maranello in March 1966. John Bolster’s Deerstalker stands out! More about that Ferrari 312 launch here: https://primotipo.com/2017/10/26/surtees-ferrari-312-modena-1966/
Charlie Dean in magnificent Maybach 1, then 4.3-litres in capacity, descending The Mountain.
The original machine of 1947, hillclimbed initially sans bodywork, has now evolved into a refined racing car in its middle age; the last hurrah for Maybach 1 was victory in the 1954 New Zealand Grand Prix held on the Ardmore airfield circuit on January 9.
Charlie was third at Bathurst behind Lex Davison’s Alfa Romeo P3 and Doug Whiteford’s Talbot-Lago T26C in the 6 lap over 1500 handicap, but didn’t finish the 3-lap scratch or start the Redex 100 mile – the Bathurst 100 became the Redex 100 with a few sponsorship £’s – feature with mechanical dramas.
As you will see below, by the October Bathurst meeting Stan Jones had bought the car from Dean and entered into a deal with Repco Research, of which Charlie was general manager/chief engineer, whereby the preparation and ongoing development of the car(s) was Repco’s responsibility.
These fabulous photographs were taken by FS Furness and posted on Bob Williamson’s ‘Motor Racing Photographs – Australia’ Facebook page recently by enthusiast Mal Elliot. With the help of John Medley’s Bathurst Bible ‘Bathurst:Cradle of Australian Motor Racing’ I have cobbled together a few words to go with the images. So large was Mal’s post that there are a couple more pieces to come. Many thanks Mal, information on FS Furniss would be most appreciated folks!
(FS Furness)
Tom Hawkes ex-Louis Chiron Talbot-Lago T26C #110007 had not been long in the country and was shared with, and soon sold to very experienced racer, 1950 AGP winner and fellow Victorian Doug Whiteford.
Whiteford soon had the big car going well that weekend, doing 136mph down Conrod. That combo, aided by Doug’s skilful preparation became the top-gun combination in Australia for the next few years. Hawkes was third in the Redex 100 feature, while Whiteford was third in the 3 lap scratch and fifth in the over 1500cc handicap.
The big blue, 4.5-litre six-cylinder Grand Prix car was ‘blooded’ in its first meeting in the Antipodes. That ding in the nose was caused when Whiteford gave Lex Davison’s Alfa Romeo P3 a tap-up-the-bum during the latter stages of the over 1500cc handicap won by Laurie Oxenford’s Alvis Mercury. Lex’s P3 Alfa brakes were usually problematic, a moments hesitation into Hell corner resulted in the hit. The blue and white T-L nose badge became lodged in the Italian’s perky rump, incensed after the race, Lex didn’t return it. Davo was fourth and Whiteford fifth. More about the Talbot-Lago here: https://primotipo.com/2022/05/04/doug-whiteford-talbot-lago-t26c-take-3/
(FS Furness)
Jack Murray had a great weekend aboard his Allard J2 Cadillac. Three J2s were entered by the NSW distributors, Gardiner Motor Service. The best result of the four Allards entered was Murray’s third place in the over 1500cc 6 lap handicap.
(FS Furness)
Dick Cobden had a great weekend in his MG TC Spl. He was third in the 6 lap under 1500cc handicap, and won the 12 lap 50 mile handicap for Redex 100 non-qualifiers.
The first four cars home were MGs; George Pearse’ TB Spl s/c, Curley Brydon’s TC Spl s/c, Cobden, and LG Barnard’s TC. MGs were in many years Australia’s ‘FF and F2 cars’, depending on specification, for decades of handicap racing.
Uber-rare shot of champion cyclist’s Nino Borsari’s Cisitalia from Alf Mazengarb’s Riley, neither car was well up in the closed production car handicap where French cars were to the fore: the M Rolls Renault 750 won from Citroens raced by Bill Buckle and P Damman.
(FS Furness)
Jack Saywell’s 1-litre JAP 8/80 powered Cooper Mk4. He did well, winning the 3 Lap Scratch from Frank Kleinig’s Kleinig Hudson Spl and Whiteford’s Talbot-Lago T26C.
(FS Furness)
Lyndon Duckett aboard the Ecurie de Pur Sang Bugatti Type 51A – T35B-4847 converted by the factory to a 51A- substituting for Peter Menere. The car doesn’t appear to have figured in the results.
Eldred Norman blasting his Maserati 6CM down Mount Panorama during the feature race, the Redex 50 Mile Championship held over 12 laps on October 1.
Colin Murray brought 6CM #1542 to Australia to contest the 1951 AGP held on the Round the Houses circuit laid out at Narrogin, a wheatbelt town 200km south-east of Perth. He failed to finish the race, then sold the car to Norman who also contested the GP, leading it for a while aboard his famous Double Eight, twin-Ford Mercury V8 engined special until it expired. Eldred sold that car to Perth’s Syd Anderson and ‘stepped-up’ to the Maserati. Quite why he bought a car he soundly belted with the Double Eight is intriguing.
Eldred had a baptism of fire with the Maserati. By the time he got to Bathurst he had already blown the Maserati’s 1.5-litre, six-cylinder twin-cam engine after a connecting rod came adrift at either Gawler or Glen Ewin and reconstructed it.
‘He fabricated up a new steel block and cast new detachable bronze cylinders heads. The detachable heads not only made engine maintenance easier but allowed the fitting of larger valves. The conrods are now 1500 Fiat and the pistons are from a BSA motorcycle,’ AMS October 1951 reported. See the Etcetera section below for more detail on Eldred’s engine reconstruction and ongoing developments.
How much testing the car had undergone before the tow from Adelaide to Bathurst is interesting. It was running well at that stage though, the weekend after Bathurst, on October 8, the Maserati/Norman duo were third in Australia’s first F1 race – The Jubilee Woodside Formula 1 Race – behind Whiteford and Jones.
Other front-runners were Whiteford‘s Talbot-Lago T26C, Ron Edgerton’s ex-Alf Barrett Alfa Romeo 8C2300 Monza, Jones’ Maybach 1 and Davison’s Alfa P3 albeit Lex didn’t leave the startline with transmission failure.
Whiteford raced well, clear of Jones in second, then Edgerton who gave the Monza’s former owner Barrett a look at the Monza from close-quarters when Alf took Mischa Ravdell’s Cooper into fourth place before hitting a displaced sandbag and retiring.
Whiteford won in a large, quality field from Jones (above) and Edgerton.
(FS Furness)
Above, DA ‘Bill’ MacLachlan in a Bugatti T37A-37358 Ford V8 Spl – originally Bill Thomson’s 1930/32 Phillip Island AGP winning machine – from Clive Warwick Pratley in the George Reed Spl Monoskate 2 (Ford V8 Spl) and Clive Adams, Brad Holden. Pratley was fourth in the Redex feature and had won the Australian Grand Prix in George Reed’s ‘Red Car’, another Ford V8 Spl at Narrogin in March.
(FS Furness)
Reg Hunt in his Hunt Vincent 998 aka The Flying Bedstead, from Barrett in Ravdell’s Cooper Vincent 998 and DG Leonard’s MG-Vauxhall .
Medley records that Barrett took over the car after Ravdell and mechanic Harry Firth were injured in a road accident in Bathurst before racing began. Hunt ran fourth early on before brake troubles intervened.
(FS Furness)
Lex Davison, Doug Whiteford and Ron Edgerton aboard Alfa Romeo P3 #50003, Talbot-Lago T26C #110007 and Alfa Romeo 8C2300 Monza #2211134 respectively. Whiteford won the 6 lap 25 mile over 1500cc race from Davison and Frank Kleinig, Kleinig Hudson Spl.
(FS Furness)
DW McDonald Morgan Plus-Four leads the PG Harrison MG TD Spl and Holt Binnie MG TC Spl s/c.
(FS Furness)
Doug Whiteford’s monoposto Grand Prix 4.5-litre six-cylinder Talbot-Lago T26C above, and Stan Jones biposto 4.3-litre six-cylinder Maybach 1 below, through Forrest’s Elbow. This relatively rare shot of Maybach 1 from the rear shows just how capacious the cockpit was.
The Melbourne motor dealers had much in common, not least combative determination but were otherwise like chalk and cheese.
(FS Furness)
Etcetera…
The Narrogin Observer March 28, 1952
These three articles are for Maserati fetishists interested in the evolution of Eldred De Bracton Norman’s engine developments of his Maserati 6CM #1542 in the two and a bit years he owned it. He made changes to the chassis as well, hydraulic front shock absorbers being the most obvious but unfortunately these articles focus just on the engine, interesting as it is!
Note that the engine damage wasn’t sustained at Woodside ’51, he raced successfully that weekend, David Beaumont reckons the venues the engine popped are either Gawler Airfield or Glen Ewin Hillclimb. That June 11, 1951 meeting at Gawler was perhaps the car’s first appearance in Eldred’s hands. The article below says that Norman’s engine changes were made because ‘he was not happy with the car’s performance at Gawler,’ so maybe the internal haemorrhage didn’t actually occur.
The big races referred to are: Woodside, the ’51 Jubilee Formula 1 race, in Western Australia the March 1952 Great Southern Flying 50 at Narrogin, and at Bathurst, the April 1952 Australian Grand Prix. Clearly, the Maserati by then had a good level of reliability and performance.
One of the many apocryphal Eldred Norman stories was reported in the October 9, 1951 issue of the News Adelaide newspaper. ‘Norman had two purposes in mind as he hurtled around Woodside. One was to win the race, the other to get his lunch ready. Strapped to the exhaust pipe of his Maserati as it sped around the circuit were two cans of pork and beans – piping hot for lunch as soon as the race was over.’
Norman sold the car to Melbourne businessman/motor dealer Ted McKinnon in time for McKinnon to contest the November 1953 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park, DNF after 50 of 64 laps. #1542 was restored by Alf Blight between 1966’ish and 1982 when he raced it at Mallala. The car left Australia shortly thereafter and went through various European owners before Bernie Ecclestone swallowed it whole in 1997…and not been seen since, pending auction/sales duly noted.
Credits…
FS Furness via Mal Elliott, ‘Bathurst:Cradle of Australian Motor Racing’ John Medley, Australian Motor Sports, ‘A History of the Woodside Motor Racing Circuit 1947-51’ David Beaumont, Narrogin Observer, News Adelaide
‘Here’s an oldie my dad took when he came home from the war aged 20. He said he took this in 1946, it’s heading up Mountain Straight towards The Cutting,’ Wayne Greene said of his father, Ron Greene.
He’s a bit out, it’s actually 1948 John Medley tells us, and Alf Najar’s MG TB Spl is leading the pack on the parade lap before the start of the New South Wales Hundred, a race won by John Barraclough’s MG NE Magnette. Najar, winner of the event in 1946, was unplaced.
Bathurst pits, date unknown (VSCCA)
Chris Amon, Lotus 70 Ford in the Warwick Farm pitlane during the 1971 Warwick Farm 100 Tasman Cup round. He was second in the race won by Frank Gardner’s Lola T192 Chev.
Lotus shipped the car, Lotus 70-02, to Australia for works-driver Dave Walker to race in the 1970 Australian Grand Prix at Warwick Farm (below), he was fifth in the race won by Frank Matich’s McLaren M10B Repco-Holden.
Chris Amon and David Oxton then played swapsies during the 1971 Tasman Cup with a pair of STP sponsored cars: the Lotus 70 and a March 701 Ford DFW 2.5-litre. There is a bit about that at the end of this arcticle: https://primotipo.com/2024/08/11/new-zealand-racing-random-1/
Alec Mildren on his way to winning the 1960 Australian Grand Prix in the very clever Cooper T51 Maserati concepted by Alec and built up by Glenn Abbey in their Sydney ‘shop.
Frank Matich and his Matich SR4 Repco 760 4.8 V8 about to blow off the high-winged Matich SR3 Repco raced by Don O’Sullivan, Bob Beasley’s Lotus 47 behind Matich and Glyn Scott’s Lotus 23B Ford at right and the rest blast off during Surfers Paradise Australian Sportscar Championship round in 1969.
Catalina Park, Katoomba grid in August 1962: David McKay in the #10 Scuderia Veloce Cooper T53 Climax, then Kevin Bartlett, Lynx BMC FJ, the obscured red BRM P48 of Arnold Glass and Leo Geoghegan’s dark Lotus by the KLG sign. It’s Greg Cusack in the older SV T51 Cooper on the second row, alongside him is the Gordon Stewart, Stewart MG and Frank Walters in the George Reed Special Ford V8 ‘So Cal’.
(G Moulds)
Swiss engine-whizz, Louis Morand provided the Chev engines which powered the Racing Team VDS Chevron B24s of Teddy Pilette and here, Peter Gethin, before the off at the Sandown Tasman round in February 1974.
Peter had a great weekend, winning the race from Graham McRae, McRae GM2 Chev and John Walker, Lola T330 Repco-Holden. He had a great series too, winning it with victories here at Sandown and at Pukekohe, the NZ GP.
(C Hyams Archive)(G Moulds)
Peter Gethin was one of the Kings of F5000 from its earliest days, winning the first British F5000 Championship in 1969, and then won it again in his F1 breakthrough year, 1970. He mixed F5000 with other single-seater and sportscar drives throughout his career; he was a very popular racer in Australasia with regular visits through until 1977.
The dominant F5000s of that era were the Lola T330/T332 and derivatives, but Chevrons B24 and B28 won their share of races steered by the likes of Gethin, Teddy Pilette – who won the 1973 Euro F5000 Championship aboard the same VDS B24 he raced that Australasian Summer of ’74 – Tony Dean, Steve Thompson, and Brian Redman until he threw in his lot with Jim Hall’s Chaparral/Lola outfit, dominant in the US of course.
Alan Hamilton about to launch his Porsche 906 Spyder #906-007 off the line at Collingrove in South Australia’s Barossa Valley in April 1967. He set a course record of 35.60 seconds that day.
The road cars of the day always provide valuable visual context for just how advanced a racing car is, don’t you think? Chrysler Valiant, Toyota Crown and Holden HD in the Collingrove paddock in 1967 (J Lemm)
The Bugatti Holden – T37-37209 – at Phillip Island circa-1958. Who is the driver folks, John Elkins or John Pyers?
#37209 gave Bill Thompson his AGP debut at Phillip Island in 1929, he only did two laps before blowing the engine. It had nine or so owners before ‘Bud’ Luke fitted a Holden Grey six-cylinder engine in time for the 1952 Bathurst Easter meeting. Bob King claims that Luke created the very first Holden engined racing special in so doing.
A lousy photograph before the start of an Easter 1970 Racing Car Scratch at Mount Panorama: John Harvey, Brabham BT23E Repco, Leo Geoghegan Lotus 39 Repco, and on this side, Niel Allen, McLaren M10B Chev.
But as Lynton Hemer wrote ‘an important bit of Bathurst history is about to start…Lap 3 of 3 in the Captain Cook Trophy was a 2.09.7sec’ journey. Nigel Allen set a lap record that stood for 32 years, see here: https://primotipo.com/2018/11/26/bathurst-lap-record/
(M Bradley)
Kevin Bartlett turns into Warwick Farm’s Esses in the iconic ‘Yellow Submarine’, the Alec Mildren Racing Mildren Waggott 2-litre TC-4V.
It’s the 1970 Warwick Farm 100 Tasman Cup round that KB won in splendid fashion ahead of a swag of 2.5-litre Tasman and 5-litre F5000 cars. Surely the Sub’s finest hour was on February 15, 1970? To make Alec Mildren’s day complete, Max Stewart, KB’s teammate and great mate finished second, a second back, in the Rennmax built spaceframe-Brabham BT23 copy Mildren Waggott TC-4V 2-litre.
Just can’t get enough of the Sub…originally Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 2.5-litre V8 powered, the Mildren Alfa was designed by Len Bailey and built by Alan Mann Racing for Frank Gardner’s 1969 Tasman Cup campaign. Then Bartlett took it over and won his second Gold Star with it later that year using Alfa Romeo and late in the year, Waggott TC-4V 2-litre power. See here: https://primotipo.com/2017/11/14/missed-it-by-that-much/
(Guy & Penny)
The best of the Maybachs…
The coulda-woulda-shoulda been Maybach 2, here in the Southport paddock before its untimely death the following day during the 1954 Australian Grand Prix on November 7.
A chassis weld broke pitching Stan Jones into the mother-and-father of an accident he was lucky to survive. His mount didn’t share his good fortune.
John McCormack awaits the start of the Sandown 100 Tasman Cup round in February 1975, Elfin MR6 Repco-Holden. To the right is John Leffler’s new Bowin P8 Chev.
It was a great day for SuperMac, he finished second behind John Goss’ similarly powered Matich A53 Repco. That ’75 Tasman was a bounce-back campaign for the understated Tasmanian, his new Elfin MR6 had problems, mainly with the also new Repco-Leyland engine, the development of which stalled when Repco withdrew from racing mid-year.
Frustrated with continuous engine failures, McCormack set the Repco-Leyland V8 aside and went back to reliable Repco-Holden power and finished fourth in the Tasman with a pair of seconds at Teretonga and Sandown. Finishes in all but one round was a further indication of a change in fortunes.
Then he brought home the Gold Star bacon for the second time winning the ’75 title in the MR6 Repco-Holden with two wins in the five rounds at Oran Park and Calder. See here: https://primotipo.com/2021/02/11/repco-rbe-980-series-billy-cart/ He would win a third ‘Star of course, Repco-Leyland-McCormack/Irving V8 powered…
(C Adams)
Jeweller Jack Robinson and a group of friends at a race meeting with his Jaguar XK120, chassis 660178, purchased on January 26, 1951.
Terry McGrath reports that he raced the car at Mount Druitt and Bathurst – winning a race at Mount Panorama in October’51 – in 1951-52 and was thought to have been sold before he built up his XK120 special,’ which is shown below at Bathurst in October 1955.
(I Arnold)
Robinson’s best race was a win in the handicap section of the October 1953 New South Wales Grand Prix at Gnoo Blas. He raced the car right through into the early-1960s including the first Warwick Farm meeting, the Warwick Farm Trophy event on December 18, 1960. What became of it?
Jack Hunnam’s Elfin Mono Mk2D Lotus-Ford ANF 1.5 #MD6574 was completed at Elfin Sports Cars Edwardstown workshop in January 1967 and is shown above upon its debut at Winton that March.
Hunnam was Elfin’s Victorian agent. He was third in the 1963 Australian FJ Championship at Warwick Farm aboard an Elfin Ford FJ #6312 behind Leo Geoghegan’s Lotus 22 Ford and Greg Cusack’s Brabham Ford.
(unattributed)
He was seventh in the 1966 Australian One and a Half Litre Championship in a Mark 1 Mono Lotus-Ford #M6443 and ninth in the ’67 Championship with the Mk 2D. He scored four Gold Star points in 1966 with his Mono Mk1 (at Calder above) and one point in 1967 with the #36 car above.
Operator of a Glenhuntly Road, Elsternwick servo in the period he raced the Elfins, by the early 1970s Jack Hunnam Motors (JHM) was in Wren Road, Moorabbin (below).
David ‘Chocolates’ Robertsons Ford Capri Boss 302 Sports Sedan awaits its turn on the dyno…What became of Jack after those years?
(M Leslie)Hunnam leads a gaggle of cars at Warwick Farm during the 1963 Australian FJ Championship race. His Elfin Ford FJ is being chased by the J Gates Lotus 18 (E Holly Collection)(A Thompson)
Graham Thompson in the ex-Doug Whiteford Talbot Lago T26C #110007 1952-53 Australian Grand Prix winning car going through Dandenong Road corner at Sandown circa 1963 in an historic event. Amazing given that Barry Collerson raced the car very skilfully in-period into 1961!
Thompson acquired the car from Arnold Glass’ Capitol Motors in Sydney in September 1962, here she is below in the driveway of his Bendigo home shortly thereafter.
Bill Anderson aboard the Prad Healey 100-6 at Lakeside during the Queensland Tourist Trophy meeting in November 1962. John Dickson advises that it’s Sid Sakzewski’s Porsche Carrera with Orlando ‘Tony’ Basile the driver while Sid was in Italy on a business trip.
Leo Geoghegan, Lotus 20 Ford and Gavin Youl, MRD Ford? at Lakeside in 1962. Geoghegan won the Australian FJ Championship at Warwick Farm in 1963 racing a Lotus 22 Ford.
Credits…
Ron Greene, Vintage Sports Car Club of Australia, Graham Ruckert, Glenn Moulds, Colin Hyams Archive, John Lemm, Janice Jamieson, Garry Woodward, Mal Bradley, Keith Trotter, Chantelle Adams, Terry McGrath, Paul Geard Collection, Ed Holly Collection, Ian Smith, Ian Arnold via Mark Arnold, Thompson Family Archive, Ray Bell, Monty Leslie
Have had a fun week or so with a few back to back events, the first of which was a drive and photo-shoot of Rob Alsop’s superb, just finished restoration of a Bugatti T23 Brescia.
The article is scheduled to appear in a February magazine, shall let you know when. We did the shoot between the bays – Westernport and Port Phillip – at Arthurs Seat, Flinders and Shoreham. The shot above was taken at Flinders Golf Club looking towards Cape Schanck, Phillip Island is to the left 10k or whatever away.
(M Bisset)
Andrew and Dave Hewison do their stuff at Arthurs Seat, there were lotsa rubber-necks from countries-to-our-north around even at 10am Thursday morning…
Clutch-throttle-brake pedals have their challenges as the daily driver of a manual car. So too the right-hand brake, which operates the two-wheel only, rear brakes. Bugatti gearboxes are fantastic, the lever is alongside the brake, the brake-downchange caper takes some thought and coordination.
T23-2063 turned 100 in May, a peppy 1.5-litre, SOHC, three-valve four cylinder engine is impressive for the day.
(R Alsop)(M Bisset)
The Motors and Masterpieces car show held at the Melbourne Showgrounds last weekend is the successor to the much-admired and now dead Motorclassica.
The Showgrounds can never match the Royal Exhibition Buildings for grandeur, but critically the rent is much lower, so hopefully the thing makes a dollar and will therefore survive. We should be kissing owner/promoter Carlos Piteira on the arse with thanks for persisting but the usual array of whinging-do-fuck-all mob are railing from the sidelines, where of course they belong.
I’m not a big one for Shiny Car Shows – once every three years at Motorclassica – especially when they are largely devoid of racing cars, but thoroughly enjoyed it. Long may it continue…
(M Bisset)
The only two racing cars present were the ex-Brabham/Bob Jane-John Harvey 1968 Brabham BT23E Repco 830 2.5 V8, and ex-Tony Martin/Paul England-Peter Larner-Larry Perkins Chevron B39/45 Ford BDA 1.6. The Porsche is a tribute car.
(M Bisset)(M Bisset)
I ‘spose the ex-Rupert Steele Bentley qualifies as a racer too, see here for a piece about the car, which is coming up for sale in Donington Auction’s next sale: https://primotipo.com/2021/07/18/sir-ruperts-bentley/
(M Bisset)
The Harry Firth built ex-Gavin Bailleu/Wes Nalder/Dianne Leighton et al Triumph TR2 Special aka Ausca Triumph never looked this good in period. Creative Custom Cars in Dromana and a generous budget have done an extraordinary job.
Apart from a decade or so sitting on display in the Country Club Hotel in Longford the car has had a hard racing life, a more sedentary existence seems entirely appropriate.
Dianne Leighton in the Sandown paddock 1962 (unattributed)oopsie, Ausca TR methinks (M Bisset)(Creative Custom Cars)(M Bisset)(M Bisset)
Fifty Shades of Grey. Ferrari 550 Maranello and Aston Martin DB2-4 (M Bisset)
The Pursang Rally is an annual one-dayer orgnised by the Ferrari and Bugatti clubs.
Held last Sunday, the start was at Snapper Point, Mornington – where these shots were taken – and then proceeded down the Mornington Peninsula to St Andrews via Arthurs Seat, Boneo, Red Hill, Shoreham, Flinders and loops thereof.
A great day was had by all, the rain stopped, it’s not the go to name the owners of these cars other, perhaps, than Joe Killeja whose ownership of this sensational AC Cobra #CSX2522 is in the public domain.
(M Bisset)
The car is one of two Slalom Special/Slalom Snakes built in 1964. As the names suggests, they were factory built club competition specials fitted with a swag of desirable goodies: front and rear roll bars, Konis, American brand mag-alloy rather than wire wheels, high performance Goodyears, brake and bonnet scoops, side exhausts and bumper bars deleted. Yes, I can see bumperettes in the pic above.
Jack Quinn, the lucky prick, had command of the car for the day, the AC had promotional filming duties in the afternoon for Jack’s upcoming Rippon Lea Concours, see here: https://ripponleaconcours.com/
(M Bisset)
Ford 289 small-block Windsor with four downdraught Weber IDA’s and lots of trick internals. Quoted at 385bhp ex-factory but this baby gives plenty more.
Delahaye 135M (M Bisset)Brescia by two (M Bisset)
The largesse rolled on with Mark Johnson and Jack Quinn’s X-Mas bash in North Melbourne and Donington’s pre-event viewing of the cars of the late Ric Begg in Brunswick. See here: https://www.doningtonauctions.com.au/ Not too many alcohol free days at all in the last 10 I’m afraid…
(M Bisset)
The owner of this car sold his Cameron Millar Maserati 250F and bought this Ferrari 250TR Replica, there won’t be too many of these in Portsea this summer.
(M Bisset)
This pair of Sunbeam Specials were impressive, mind you there is about $A200k to spend on the one below after you buy the car Grant Cowie reckons…
John Surtees and works-Norton Manx 500 prior to the start of a race at the International Meeting, Silverstone 9 April 1955…
Born in 1934 (11 February 1934-10 March 2017) at Tatsfield, Surrey, Surtees famously grew up working in his dad’s South London motorcycle shop. Jack Surtees was a former bus driver turned sidecar racer, it was on his father’s Vincent 1000cc sidecar-outfit that John first competed at 14.
As a school leaver at 15, John contested grass track races at Brands Hatch on a Excelsior-JAP B14 500, soon graduating to road racing, initially aboard a Triumph Tiger 70 250, at Brands in April 1950. After commencing his apprenticeship with Vincents’ Stevenage factory the same year he soon commenced racing a self-prepared Vincent Grey 500 single, taking his first win at Aberdare Park, South Wales.
Jack and John Surtees on Jack’s Vincent 1000cc outfit at Brands Hatch in 1952 (J Topham)On the Vincent Grey Flash 500 single, circuit folks? (John Surtees World Champion)
In 1951 he hit the headlines after giving World Champion Geoff Duke’s factory twin-cam Norton curry on his pushrod single at Thruxton, soon establishing himself as one of Britain’s future stars, graduating from the Vincent in 1952 to a 500cc Manx Norton on which he contested his first World Championship race, finishing sixth in the Ulster GP.
In 1953 John made his Isle of Man debut having been loaned a pair of factory Nortons by race chief Joe Craig. But he got himself in Craig’s bad-book as he’d already committed to run Dr Joe Ehrlich’s works 125cc EMC two-stroke, only to crash it in practice and break his wrists after front-fork failure.
John Surtees at right during the June 1954 IOM TT weekend: 15th in the Senior and 11th in the Junior TTs on his privately entered machines. #5 is perhaps the 350
Craig cracked the shits when he couldn’t race his Nortons so John raced a pair of customer Norton 350/500s with great success in 1954. On these bikes he was 11th in the IOM 350cc Junior race and 15th in the 500cc Senior, also taking the British 250cc championship that year by winning 15 races of 17 starts on the unique R.E.G. 250 DOHC parallel-twin built by talented businessman Robert E Geeson.
As a consequence of that great season, Craig finally gave Surtees his first works Norton rides in what proved to be the British manufacturer’s final season of racing what were by then outclassed singles in 1955. John won 69 of 75 races that he started in Britain and raced regularly on the Continent, but it was on an NSU Sportmax that he recorded his first GP win, the 250cc Ulster GP at Dundrod on August 13.
Surtees, NSU Sportmax, 250cc Ulster GP winner, Dundrod August 13, 1955 (unattributed)Surtees, works-Norton Manx 500, Ulster GP, Dundrod, 1955 Senior TT. Led until his fuel stop then DNF with mechanical failure. Bill Lomas won both the 350 and 500 races on Moto Guzzis (A Herl)
With Norton’s end-of-season retirement from racing imminent, John finished the year by twice beating reigning 500cc World Champion Geoff Duke’s Gilera 500-4 at Silverstone and then Brands Hatch. Gilera, Moto Guzzi and BMW (for whom he’d ridden in the German GP on an RS500 Boxer) all chased his signature on a contract for 1956.
Instead Surtees began a five-year association with MV Agusta – after Count Domenico Agusta’s elderly mother had inspected him to decide whether she liked the cut-of-his-jib – winning his first seven races on the sonorous Italian in early-season British national races before winning the Isle of Man Senior TT, his debut World Championship Grand Prix race on the MV 500-four. And the rest, as they say, is history…click here for my article on the champion: https://primotipo.com/2014/11/30/john-surtees-world-champion-50-years-ago/
Surtees testing an MV, date and place unknown (unattributed)Surtees on the way to winning the Senior TT at Kates Cottage on the Isle of Man in 1956, MV 500 (ttracepics.com)
Credit…
Central Press, ridersdrivemag.com, A Herl, ttracepics.com, ‘John Surtees-World Champion’ by John Surtees and Alan Henry, J Topham-TopFoto, Rodger Kirby
Evocative shot of Jack Phillips’ Ford V8 Special ascending Rob Roy hill in the Christmas Hills, 50km east of Melbourne
This car was one of the fastest and most successful racers in Australia – where handicap events then were standard fare – in the immediate pre and post-War period. Built by Phillips and Ted Parsons, his riding mechanic and partner in a Wangaratta Ford dealership, I’ve written about the combo before: https://primotipo.com/2023/03/07/jack-phillips-ted-parsons-ford-v8/
I’d love to know the date of the meeting and how Jack went? Before the January 13, 1939 Black Friday fires it seems?
(B King Collection)
Phillips/Parsons (above and below) on the way to a win in the South Australian Hundred on formidable Lobethal in 1940.
Emilio Materassi and mechanic (above and below) on the way to winning the 3.5-4.5-litre class of the 1920 Coppa della Consuma aboard a Fiat 20-30 HP. Up front it was Fiat as well, Paolo Niccolini won the event in a Fiat 120 HP.
This amazing hillclimb event centred on the village of Consuma, 35km east of Florence, was first held in 1902 and has existed with a few hiccoughs along the way to the present, as an historic meeting since 1990.
(coppadellaconsuma.com)(coppdellaconsuma.com)
It’s said that the alpine pass was created by the Consumi family who were forced into political exile in Florence in 1482 and ten years later founded the town around an ancient spring and a church dedicated to San Domenico di Guzman.
In more modern times, the opening of the Baccelli road transformed the area into a popular holiday resort for poets, writers, journalists, entertainers and racing motorists, via the good graces of the Automobile Club of Florence.
Tazio Nuvolari, Alfa Romeo 6C1750 GS in 1930 (coppadellaconsuma.com)1952 winner Piero Palmer, crosses the line in his Ferrari 225 Vignale (coppadellaconsuma.com)
Over many years the hillclimb race hairpins have witnessed heroic deeds and victories by some of the greats including Vincenzo Lancia, Fiat in 1904, Antonio Ascari, Fiat in 1919, Tazio Nuvolari, Alfa Romeo in 1931 and Ludovico Scarfiotti, OSCA S1550 in 1959.
Into the 1960s the event became a round of the European Hillclimb Championship with up to 80,000 spectators lining the roads, but the Automobile Club of Florence shifted its energy to growing Mugello as the closure of the road between Florence and Casentino became increasingly untenable. The last in-period Coppa della Consuma was held in 1964 and was won by Edward Govoni’s Maserati Type 60, he completed the 12.5km course in 6 min 54.170 sec.
Credits…
Pirelli Archive, coppadellaconsuma.com
Tailpiece…
(The Cary Collection)
Prince Domenico Cerami Rosso focuses on the job at hand – winning the 2-litre class of the Coppa della Consume in 1930 – while his mechanic is very much enjoying the ride, Maserati 26B MM 2-litre supercharged straight-eight.
Jo Siffert’s night-time Porsche 917 pitstop at Daytona made more dramatic by the exposure used by photographer Dave Friedman…
You can see Seppi’s distinctive helmet in the murk to the left of the car as Brian Redman gets ready to rejoin the race.
It was not to be Siffert’s race, the first in which the dominance of the 917 generally and John Wyer entered cars specifically was displayed in the Sports Car Championship that year. The Ferrari 512S (Ignazio Giunti/Nino Vaccarella/Mario Andretti) took a Sebring victory in March but otherwise it was a Porsche year, what the 4.5-5 litre flat-12 917 didn’t win, the 3 litre flat-8 908 did on courses for which it was designed.
Siffert/Redman led the race until after the three-hour mark. Not long after a driver change to Redman, Brian came into the pits with a punctured tyre, worse was the brake-pipe broken by the rotating tyre tread. It took a critical 17 minutes to make the car good. The pair’s day of drama wasn’t over yet though. They lost an hour to replace the clutch, and later still had another stop to ‘straighten the Porsche after a wall-scraping episode.’
Pedro Rodriguez and Leo Kinnunen won the race in the sister John Wyer entry, 45 laps ahead of Siffert/Redman with the Andretti/Merzario/Ickx Ferrari 512S three more laps in arrears, third.
Seppi in the 917 cockpit with old school Bell Magnum helmet and chinstrap (D Friedman)(MotorSport)
I love the variety of cars in these events putting aside the performance differential arguments and issues. The Siffert/Redman cat-amongst-the-pigeons 917 amidst the Fleming/Johnson/Fleming Fiat 124 Coupe and Wonder/Cuomo Ford GT40.
And below in the midst of the Waldron/Lanier/Barros MGB and Clutton/Tatum Ferrari 275 GTB/C. Eyes on your mirrors folks…
(MotorSport)(MotorSport)
Seppi again, this time in front of the Patterson/Sanford Porsche 911T.
Bibliography…
Automobile Year 18, Team Dan, MotorSport, Dave Friedman Archive
Tailpiece…
(MotorSport)
‘I’m leavin’ on a jet plane…that’s Daytona Beach International Airport behind. DC9.
I imagine the colour of the underwear of the photographer was changing at this moment, protected only by a layer of Armco as he was. Still, if the worst happened he could decamp into the dam behind…Shots from this spot at Sandown, outside Peters/Torana Corner are rare after about this time as the spot was made Verboten!
Norm Beechey, Holden Monaro HT GTS 350 from the Pete Geoghegan (left) and Bob Jane Mustang 302s, with a smidge of Jim McKeown’s Porsche 911S behind Pete, and then most of Brian Foley’s, and the rest. 1970 Australian Touring Car Championship, round three, April 19.
While Allan Moffat started from pole (where is he in this shot!?), Stormin’ Norm had a great day at the office, leading from start to finish and setting a lap record. He took his second 1970 ATCC round win of the season, victorious from Geoghegan and Moffat (Mustang Trans-Am 302) on the way to an immensely popular series win in his big, booming, Shell-yellow Monaro GTS 350; the first time an Oz built car had won the title.
(G Feltham)
These two shots are of man and machine at Symmons Plains circa-1970, not sure of the meeting date, the number doesn’t work for the ATCC round.
(G Feltham)
Ray Barfield races his ex-works/David McKay Aston Martin DB3S, chassis 9, at Caversham in 1959, meeting date folks?
The second placed car at Le Mans in 1956 (Stirling Moss/Peter Collins) was initially raced in Australia by McKay with success, before passing briefly through Stan Jones’ hands and into Barfield’s, where, I believe, it remains. More about the car in this article: https://primotipo.com/2017/09/28/david-mckays-aston-martin-db3ss/
(G Russell-Brown)
Gary Russell-Brown very kindly sent in these shots of the Barfield/DB3S combination at Caversham during the June 6, 1960 Six Hour Le Mans. Ray was a DNF after completing 60 laps, the winner, Jack Ayres/Lionel Beattie did 178.
(G Russell-Brown)(unattributed)
John Harvey under brakes on the entry to Creek Corner, Warwick Farm 1972. His mount is the brilliant – small, variable rate suspension, side-radiator, edgy-wedge – work of John Joyce, the Bob Jane owned Bowin P8 Repco-Holden F5000
P8-118-72 was completed at Bowin’s, Brookvale, Sydney factory in August 1972 to Bob Jane’s order, fitted with a Repco Holden V8 for John Harvey.
It practiced at the Surfers Aug 27 Gold Star round but didn’t start with fuel problems. Harvey then raced in a non-championship event at Warwick Farm a week later (above), where he was fifth in the first heat but collided with Kevin Bartlett at the start of second.
At that point, major team sponsor, Castrol, directed Jane to put most of the team’s energies into racing their touring cars: the Camaro, Monaro and Torana’s, while the Bowin and McLaren M6B Repco V8 sportscar were largely set aside.
In mid-1974 the car, less engine and gearbox, was sold to John Leffler to replace his damaged ANF2 Bowin P8 Hart-Ford #P8-136-74. Leffler pranged his new Bowin on its debut at Amaroo Park.
Converted to ANF2 specification – fitted with a Hart-Ford 416B 1.6-litre engine, Hewland FT200 gearbox etc – he raced P8-118-72 in the Australian F2 Championship and in Gold Star events. Once sorted, the car was a jet, winning the Phillip Island F2 round late in the year.
Sue Ransom leased and raced it at Calder and Wanneroo Park in 1975. The car remained in Western Australia, perhaps owned by Rod Housego and Ian Wookey, before reappearing at Wanneroo in Rob Richards hands between 1980-82 in Formula Pacific – Ford BDA engined – specification.
Perth Bowin fan Matthew Lloyd did a superb job restoring the car to ANF2 spec, but he died in 2008 just as it was being finished. Bought by Dean Saunders in 2009, I believe it is being slowly re-restored to Repco-Holden F5000 spec, do get in touch if you have more recent information. .
I just like this pair of posters to promote brand new Surfers Paradise International Raceway in 1966.
While it was a fabulous circuit, and at the time built in the-sticks, the incredible growth of the Gold Coast made it irresistible to developers, which was its fate circa August 1987.
John Harvey’s Brabham BT23E Repco 740 in the foreground, while Niel Allen jumps aboard his McLaren M10B Chev at Bathurst during the Easter 1970 weekend.
In the shot below Niel jumps off the line, it’s Leo Geoghegan’s Lotus 39 Repco on the far side.
Ain’t she sweet…John Harvey’s Bob Jane Racing Jane Repco 830 2.5 V8 at rest in the Warwick Farm paddock during the Gold Star round on September 6.
Harves was out with fuel pump failure, Leo Geoghegan won the race, and ultimately the title aboard his Lotus 59B Waggott TC-4V 2-litre.
This car was built on Bob Britton’s (Rennmax Engineering) Brabham BT23 jig to replace Jane’s ageing BT23E with many mods but notably changes in suspension geometry to suit the latest generation of ever-widening tyres. It exists in a West Australian museum.
I love Graham Ruckert’s superb shot of John French on the limit in Pete Geoghegan’s recalcitrant but very powerful Ford Super Falcon in front of Brian Foley’s superb in every respect Alfa Romeo GTAm at Lakeside on July 25, 1971.
It was Lakeside’s Australian Touring Car Championship round that weekend. Pete gave the car a gallop in a support race but elected to race his trusty Mustang in the championship event, having French – a Ford factory racer – drive the Big Henry.
It seems right to show you furriners what a standard Ford Falcon GTHO looks like…here it’s Allan Moffat easing his beast – an XW Phase 1 GTHO – out of Peters Corner at Sandown during his victorious Sandown 3-Hour win on September 14, 1969.
Moffat/John French won from two other similar cars crewed by Tom Roddy/Murray Carter and Fred Gibson/Barry Seton.
Jim Clark, Lotus 49 Ford DFW ahead of Chris Amon, Ferrari Dino 246T at Dandenong Road, Sandown during their epic dice for the lead of the 1968 Australian Grand Prix in February 1968.
Geoff Brabham – 1975 Australian F2 Champion – raced his Birrana 274 Hart-Ford 416-B 1.6 ANF2 car twice at Calder in May and August 1975.
While Brian Sampson’s Cheetah Mk5 Toyota ANF3 car behind makes sense the Alan Gissing Holden sporty does not, so I guess it’s a practice session. Geoff won three of the seven rounds, and the ’75 title, with Alf Costanzo second and Andrew Miedecke third. See here: https://primotipo.com/2018/09/20/brabs-gets-the-jump/
Garrie Cooper won that day at Mallala – GC’s only Gold Star victory – in his superb Elfin 600C Repco 830 V8 from Geoghegan and Max Stewart’s Mildren Waggott TC-4V 1.6.
Kevin Bartlett won the Gold Star that year aboard the Mildren Yellow Submarine which was powered by Alfa Romeo T33 2.5 V8s until the final round when he won the Hordern Trophy at Warwick Farm armed with the first of Merv Waggott’s 2-litre TC-4Vs.
(MotorSport)
Paul Radisich (above and below) tips his Holden Special Vehicles Commodore VE into Shell Corner during the Sandown 500, the ninth round of the 2007 Australian V8 Supercar Championship on September 14-16.
He shared the car with Rick Kelly to second place, the following machine is the Will Davison/Steve Johnson Ford Falcon BF. The race was won by Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes’ Triple Eight Falcon BF.
Garth Tander (HSV Commodore VE) won the 2007 drivers title – by two points from Whincup – and HSV the team championship.
(MotorSport)(E Solomon)
All antipodean front row at the start of the 1969 Selangor Grand Prix. Roly Levis’ Brabham BT23C Ford on pole, then Graeme Lawrence’s McLaren M4A Ford FVA in the middle, and Garrie Cooper’s Elfin 600C Repco 830 V8 2.5 on the right.
Lawrence, surely with John McDonald the ‘winningest’ of drivers in South East Asia in the period, won the race from Levis and Australian, Tony Maw, Elfin 600 Ford.
Ron Marks and Graham Gillies aboard Marks’ Lancia Stratos HF in the Samford Forest on the press day before the start of the 1976 Lutwyche Village Warana Rally, the final round of six in the Australian Rally Championship that year.
The pair finished fourth, first was Murray Coote and Brian Marsden in a Datsun 1600. The ARC was won by Ross Dunkerton and Jeff Beaumont aboard a Datsun 240Z; four wins and one second placing.
Ex-water-skiing champion, Marks’ other rally credits included starts in the 1976 Holden Dealers, SEV Marchal and Southern Cross, and 1978 Southern Cross and the Castrol International rallies.
(G Ruckert)
The shot above shows the car out front of the Annand & Thompson Lancia and Fiat dealership in Newstead, Brisbane, before the ’76 Warana Rally.
Graham Ruckert, “I was selling Fiat/Lancia cars for the dealership at the time, they provided some sponsorship for the event and we got to display the car during the week before the event…I had a short run in the passenger seat with Ron Marks on the Press Day at Samford which was pretty memorable!”
(B Keys)
And above demonstrating the style for which the Stratos was famous during the October 1976 Holden Dealers International Rally held in the forests around Moe and Traralgon. Those large chimneys in the background belong to one of the coal fired power stations in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley.
(T Parkinson Collection)
MG TC Specials to the fore at the start of the Lobethal 50, a support race for the 1948 South Australian 100, held at Lobethal on New Years Day, January 1. #32 is Ron Edgerton, #29 is Harold Clisby, #31 is WJ Mentz, while car #34 further back is raced by AK Eadie.
The 100 mile, 12 lap, handicap feature race was run in front of 10,000 spectators in cool conditions and was won by Jim Gullan’s Ballot Oldsmobile from Granton Harrison in the Phillips Ford V8 Special, then Edgerton’s TC.
(K Drage)
Speaking of the great Harold Clisby, here he is a few years later at left with the equally talented Phil Irving at Sandown on March 2, 1962.
Harold would have been up to his armpits designing his F1 Clisby 1.5-litre engine, while Phil’s Repco Brabham RB620 2.5/3-litre is still a couple of years away…Mind you, Jack Brabham took more than a passing glance of the aluminium 3.9-litre Buick V8 fitted in the back of Chuck Daigh’s Scarab RE only yards away.
The F85 Oldsmobile V8 that Jack pitched successfully to the Repco Board as the basis of his new Tasman 2.5 litre engine was the Buick’s brother, different only in the number of head retention studs. See here: https://primotipo.com/2016/01/27/chucks-t-bird/
Derek Kneller has just finished assembling Bob Muir’s – Bob and Marj Brown owned – Chevron B35 Ford BDX 2-litre F2 car in Chevron’s Bolton factory in early 1977.
Barry Randall’s Ex-Doug MacArthur Rennmax Repco 2.5 V8 blasting out of MG Corner at Phillip Island as a car in the background makes the downhill plunge into it.
Car then raced for many years in Victoria by the Gibson family out of Benalla, and for many years owned by Jay Bondini.
Battle of the ‘1.6-litre Four Valvers’ during the May 3, 1969 J.A.F. Grand Prix aka the Japanese GP.
Sohei Kato’s third-placed Mitsubishi Colt F2C R39B ahead of Glyn Scott’s fourth placed Bowin P3 Waggott TC-4V at Fuji International. Up the front, Leo Geoghegan won in his venerable ex-Jim Clark Lotus 39 Repco 830 2.5 V8 from Roly Levis’ Brabham BT23C Ford FVA. More here: https://primotipo.com/2015/03/02/leo-geoghegan-australian-driving-champion-rip/
(B Dickson)
A random internet find, a decent drawing of the Alec Mildren Brabham BT23D Alfa Romeo T33 2.5 V8 raced throughout 1968-69 by Frank Gardner and Kevin Bartlett.
KB is shown below in grand style by Dick Simpson at Bathurst during Easter 1968. Kevin was the quickest man on the mountain that weekend but was ousted with a broken rear upright, Phil West won his only Gold Star round aboard the Scuderia Veloce Brabham BT23A Repco V8. See here for more: https://primotipo.com/2021/07/06/mellow-yellow/
(Dick Simpson-oldracephotos.com)
Credits…
Peter D’Abbs, Greg Feltham, Gary Russell-Brown, Jock Alexander, Lance Ruting, Graham Ruckert, David Blanch-autopics.com.au, Repco, MotorSport Images, Eli Solomon Archive, Bruce Keys, Tony Parkinson Collection, Derek Kneller, Kevin Drage, Graham Ruckert, Bob Dickson, Dick Simpson-oldracephotos.com
Tailpiece…
(G Ruckert)
Marks and Gillies again in the Warana Rally.
Does anyone know the history of this car before it came to Australia? My Stratos owning friend, Phil Allen tells me he thinks there are only two Stratos resident in Australia at present and this isn’t the other one…
Smokey Yunick looks on as famed GM Engineer and ‘Father of the Corvette’, Zora Arkus Duntov awaits the Daytona Beach start on 1956…
Zora was always seeking to build the Corvette brand. Ford and GM were in a performance battle at the time, his GM paymasters were keen to support his attempt to top 150mph in an ‘essentially stock’ Corvette having just attracted considerable press with a class record run at Pikes Peak.
In the photo above Zora is in #A81, the car with the head fairing, and John Fitch in A82 behind.
Zora Arkus-Duntov chatting to officials after one of his runs. Chev Corvette, Daytona Beach February 1956 (Racing One)
Three cars were prepared for the attempts at Daytona Beach in early 1956, they were driven by Arkus-Duntov, racer John Fitch, and aviatrix Betty Skelton.
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