Way back in 2014 I was commuting by ‘plane weekly from Melbourne to Adelaide. It was a good job but without any mates I was bored shitless in the evenings. When Rodway Wolfe arrived in Adelaide with his collection of Repco Brabham Engines material, the die was cast, I owed it to him make public the material. Thanks again Rodway for being the catalyst for implementing what I had been procrastinating about for a while. My friend Dianne Ward set the site up and off I went.
We’ve had good staff retention, the senior scribbler is still with us and hogs the limelight, but thanks to Bob King and Stephen Dalton for their contributions down the years. The ‘sub-editors’ are critical in any publication, thanks here again to Stephen, and Rob Bartholomaeus for their enduring attention to detail and polite patience!
Here’s to another 10 I guess, onwards and upwards…
Lyndon Duckett on the way to winning the Longford Trophy in the Anzani Bugatti – Anzani R1 four cylinder, twin-cam engined Bugatti Type 35 chassis #4450 – on March 7, 1955.
Reportage of the early Longford meetings is pretty thin on the ground, so this contemporary summary of the weekend’s proceedings written by Brian Nichols for the May 1955 issue of Modern Motor is great to see, and share. Many thanks to Barry Oliver for posting it online.
Etcetera…
Geoff Smedley’s Triumph TR2 rounding Pub Corner, the Country Club Hotel more formally.
Pretty scratchy, shitty one of a favourite car, the Cisitalia D46 driven by Alan Watson; the machines Australian debut apparently. Through the viaduct in front of an MG T-Type Special. See here for more: https://primotipo.com/2023/09/08/cisitalia-d46/
‘No idea of time period, wife found them in a secondhand shop!’ wrote Robert Haines of this post on Bob Williamson’s Old Motor Racing Photographs – Australia page. Many thanks to Robert and his chairperson!
Mountford Corner, happily that magnificent tree still marks the spot!
The MG TF above is driven by longtime Tasmanian Senator, Peter Rae, still alive in his 90s.
And this T-Type special was raced either by Derrick Holden or Mike Winch.
Credits…
Paul Cross Collection via Neil Kearney’s ‘Longford: A Little Town with a Big Motor’, Modern Motor May 1955 via Barry Oliver Collection, Robert Staines, Rob Knott, Matthew Magilton
Jack Brabham from Bruce McLaren: a works Cooper T51/Climax 1-2 seemed likely for much of the race (MotorSport)
A thrilling race of course, Bruce McLaren took an historic win – as the youngest ever F1 championship GP winner, a title he held for yonks – after Jack Brabham’s Cooper T51 Climax ran out of juice on the last lap. Jack was fourth, Maurice Trintignant, Cooper T51 Climax was second and Tony Brooks, Ferrari Dino 246 was third.
Just before the off, Harry Schell, Jack Brabham and Stirling Moss all aboard Cooper T51s on the front row; Harry controversially so as he had taken a short cut during qualifying! #6 is Maurice Trintignant’s Walker T51, #2 Tony Brooks’ Ferrari Dino 246 (MotorSport)
The Americans entered F1 etc – Indy being part of the F1 World Championship from 1950-1960 duly noted – but the interesting thing was the mix of cars. Not just Rodger Ward’s utterly nuts and utterly wonderful, Kurtis Kraft Offy, but also Fritz d’Orey’s Tec-Mec F415 Maserati, Allesandro de Tomaso’s Cooper T43 OSCA Streamliner and Bob Said’s Connaught C-Type Alta.
(MotorSport)(MotorSport)
Fritz d’Orey in the one-off Valerio Colotti designed, Gordon Pennington owned Tec-Mec F415 Maserati at Sebring during practice.
Remember those days before carefully homogenised and pasteurised, hermetically clean and certified absolute sameness and dull-shit-boredom. Where did it all go wrong? See here for a story on this car: https://primotipo.com/2024/03/11/tec-mec-f415-maserati/
(MotorSport)
De Tomaso’s works Officine Specializate Costruzione Automobili entered Cooper T43 OSCA 2-litre was only ever going to be an also-ran given the modest displacement and endurance background its twin-cam, Weber fed four-cylinder engine. He qualified the car 14th on the 19 car grid and completed 14 laps before brake troubles intervened.
The car’s swoopy, beautifully finished and fitting body is far more attractive than any of the Coopers of that era, and more aerodynamically efficient? While said to be a Cooper T43, the chassis may be a copy, the wheels are also of De Tomaso’s design and manufacture. An interesting experiment, what became of the car?
(MotorSport)(MotorSport)
It made great commercial sense for the organisers to run the reigning Indy 500 champion, Rodger Ward, in the race. If you believe the hype, Ward thought his lightly modified Kuris Kraft Midget would give the ‘European Buggies’ a run for their money.
Jack Brabham related to Doug Nye, “The next day he, Bruce, and and I arrived together at the first corner of the track, and just as we jumped from brake to throttle pedal and streaked away from him he was astonished. To his credit he took it well.”
Ward’s qualifying time was well short of pole-sitter Stirling Moss in Rob Walker’s Cooper T51 Climax: 3 min dead vs 3 min 43.8 sec. Rodger lasted for 21 of the race’s 42 5.2-mile laps, getting as high as ninth as others retired, before clutch failure intervened.
A popular racer and a good sport, he became a Cooper convert overnight and worked on Jack and John Cooper to convince them to run a car at Indianapolis. After the 1960 US GP Jack ran his GP Cooper T53 Climax at Indy in a series of tests, aided and abetted by Ward; Coopers participation in the 1961 500 with a Climax powered Cooper T54 changed Indy history, and Rodger Ward played a key role.
(MotorSport)
Ward’s 1946 Leader Card Kurtis Kraft Midget, chassis #0-10-46 was powered by a 1.7-litre, DOHC, two-valve Offenhauser engine that gave away heaps of performance to the mainly 2.5-litre competition. It had a two-speed gearbox, a two-ratio rear axle, hand-disc-brakes and the usual other dirt-track accoutrements! Those Halibrand wheels are 12-inches in diameter and Firestone provided the tyres.
The beam front axle is sprung by a transverse leaf and located bt two radius rods. I’ll take your advice on shock-absorbers. Note the front discs, nerf protection in front of the rear wheels and high standard of preparation and presentation.
(MotorSport)
Jesse Alexander observed the following about the Kurtis Kraft in his Sports Cars Illustrated meeting report.
“The greater part of the two practice sessions was spent getting the car to run properly on Avgas (rather than the usual methanol). The several times that it did appear on the circuit it was obvious that the few modifications to the chassis to suit it better for road racing were worthwhile. Surprisingly stabile and getting through many of the corners as fast (in some cases faster) as much of the field.”
“The red and white Offy differed from normal midgets in having its engine fitted several inches farther forward in the chassis as well as having a supplementary 2-speed transmission installed. This meant that actually there were two 2-speed units, one behind the engine and the other in unit with the final drive gears. But these alterations could never possibly make up for the displacement gap between the parky Midget and her overseas competitors.”
“Rodger Ward deserves credit for his spirit and enthusiasm – it was great to see him at Sebring and lets hope it won’t be the last time out for an Offy-engined car.”
By late 1959 the car was owned by Florida man Gordon Pennington, he decided to enter the machine for its one-and-only race at Sebring.
With Brazilian wealthy-journeyman Fritz d’Oley at the wheel, the new car, being run for Pennington and D’Oley by the Camoradi Team, managed to qualify 16th, one grid-slot in front of the only 250F in the race driven by Phil Cade.
The Tec-Mec completed 7 laps before an oil leak forced Fritz’ withdrawal, while Cade didn’t take the start given the old-gal’s lack of pace: 3 min 39 sec in qualifying. While Tony Brooks’ front-engined Ferrari Dino 246 was third, and the Dinos raced on into 1960, Ferrari wheeled out a mid-engined prototype at Monaco that year.
Fritz d’Orey, Tec-Mec F415 Maserati during the race. “The Tec-Mec was never driven quickly enough to show up any defects. The only time we know of it being driven fast was when Jo Bonnier took it around the Modena Autodromo last summer. His comments were not all that favourable. He complained of, among other things, a flexing chassis.”
Fritz d’Orey, Tec Mec F415 on the hop (MotorSport)Bob Said in the Connaught C-Type Alta. Unusual and attractive body, Dunlop alloy wheels (MotorSport)
A bit like the Tec Mec, the Connaught C-Type Alta (chassis #C8) was also stillborn.
Rodney Clarke’s spaceframe chassis, disc braked, strut/De Dion tube rear suspension, double wishbone front suspension, Alta DOHC, two-valve four powered, Wilson pre-selector ‘transmissioned’ vast improvement of Connaught’s successful B-Type was tested but unraced when the assets of Connaught Engineering were sold in 1957.
Passed in at the auction, #C8 was later sold to Paul Emery (of Emeryson fame) and “keen amateur racing driver John Turner”. They soon did a deal with American driver, Bob Said, to race the car at Sebring.
Inevitably, shipping delays meant the project was knee-capped from the start. Poor Said had little testing time, with fuel injection difficulties adding to the challenge. He qualified the car a great 13th in the circumstances but had clutch problems in the race and then crashed it when he was caught out by the Alta engine’s erratic throttle response without completing a lap.
Jesse Alexander wrote, “The Connaught with Bob said driving drew many interested onlookers. This was the first racing appearance of the space-framed car that was under construction back when Connaught decided to cease building and racing cars. They never sold this one, which embodies many novel design features like a telescoping de Dion tube and servo-operated Lockheed disc brakes. Paul Emery got it running well enough for Said to turn a 3:27.3sec practice lap.”
Connaught C-Type #C8 in-build at Send. Note Alta engine and spaceframe chassis which looks very torsionally stiff in this photo and the one below. Double wishbone IFS and bespoke? uprights. Who are they folks? (W I’Anson Ltd)Dunlop wheels, diff clear but not the strut/De Dion arrangement. It all looks thoroughly modern and light, Wilson pre-selector box more weighty (W I’Anson Ltd)
While outside the scope of this article, the car was repaired back at the Send factory, near Guildford. With six inches added to the wheelbase, cut-down bodywork, a push-bar, and the Alta fuel injected engine tuned to 260bhp on methanol, Jack Fairman attempted unsuccessfully to qualify the car for the 1962 Indianapolis 500.
It’s such a shame this Connaught didn’t contest Grands Prix in 1957 as planned…
C8 was sold via a Road & Track ad and then lived in a private California museum from late ’62 until 1974 when Rodney Clarke repatriated the car to the UK. In another Tec Mec similarity, the car has been an historic racing front runner for decades, initially in Indy LWB spec and since the late 1990s in its original GP specifications.
Stirling Moss in the Walker Cooper T51 in front of the seventh placed Harry Blanchard’s Porsche RSK and Taffy Von Trips’ Ferrari Dino 246, sixth (MotorSport)
Stirling Moss’ Rob Walker Cooper started from pole but was out after only five laps with Colotti gearbox failure.
Alf Francis had modified the rear suspension from the standard Cooper transverse leaf setup to coil springs and ‘wishbones’ as shown in the shot below.
Jesse Alexander explains, “The new rear suspension had been tried out in the Fall back in England. Stirling liked its feel, then proved it by bettering the Goodwood lap record. Wire wheels at the rear, and the Colotti five-speed transmission were the only major differences bwtween the Walker cars and the works cars of Brabham and McLaren.”
(MotorSport)(MotorSport)
Bruce McLaren – with Jack in front of him – demonstrates the geometry of the standard T51 transverse leaf layout (at Sebring) where said spring performs that task, and locational duties. The 1960 Cooper Lowline (T53) quickly concocted by Messrs Cooper C, Brabham, McLaren and Maddock after the first race of the year, included among its successful bag-of-tricks a coil sprung rear end.
(MotorSport)
McLaren enroute to victory above. Alexander tells us that Brabham had initially practiced this car but “it had experimental settings for 1960” and Jack didn’t like the feel of it, so he and Bruce swapped chassis. “McLaren had not even expected to race at Sebring when I spoke with him in England in October. He expected to be in New Zealand for Christmas and participate in their Grand Prix. As it turned out, Masten Gregory’s injuries failed to heal in time for him to race at Sebring and Bruce replaced him.”
Didn’t fate play a couple of hands in Bruce’s favour!
(MotorSport)
Credits…
MotorSport Images, Jesse Alexander in Sports Cars Illustrated March 1960 via Stephen Dalton’s archive, William I’Anson Ltd
This pair of shots are of Jim Hawker at the 16th Rob Roy in June 1948 above, and the 10th Rob Roy meeting below, in 1946.
(G Thomas)(G Thomas)
Peeling out during a run at the Vintage Sports Car Club speed trials on June 16, 1947.
Spaceframe chassis, independent suspension front and rear, front wheel drive, and a complex four cylinder 1.1-litre, stepped bore, eight-piston, vertically opposed, supercharged two-stroke, twin-plug engine amongst its pre-war bag of tricks.
Fritz d’Orey in the Sebring pits, US GP December 1959 (MotorSport)
The ultra-light, disc-braked Maserati 250F-engined TecMec F415 was the ultimate development of the long line of 2.5-litre front-engined Maserati 250F Grand Prix cars which commenced in 1954; the preceding 2-litre Maserati A6GCM F2/Grand Prix machines of 1952-53 are duly noted.
In 1957 the works team’s Piccolo 250Fs took Juan Manuel Fangio to his record-setting fifth and final world title. Soon after, with the company on its financial knees, Maserati withdrew from racing. In the best of Italian traditions it wasn’t quite a final withdrawal. In the 1958 French Grand Prix, a special lightweight 250F appeared for Fangio in what became his his final race appearance. He was fourth, and with that the Maserati works-team was no more.
The team’s chassis and transmission engineer during the latter 250F years was ex-Ferrari man Valerio Colotti (1925-January 19, 2008). As the Cooper mid-engined ascendancy began he had a new super-lightweight 250F on his drawing board. Colotti left Maserati to form his own Studio Tecnica Meccanica in Modena.
Georgio Scarlatti, Maserati 250F during the 1959 French GP at Reims, Q21 and eighth (MotorSport)
Racer, Giorgio Scarlatti approached Colotti with a view to building the ultimate 250F. Valerio set to work, fabricating a light, multi-tubular spaceframe chassis made of small diameter steel tube. He scrapped the De Dion rear rear suspension, replacing it with an independent transverse top leaf-spring and lower wishbone set up. At the front was a very un-Italian pair of Alford & Alder uprights, supported by upper and lower wishbones and coil/spring damper units, an adjustable roll-bar was incorporated. Girling discs replaced the 250F’s finned drums but the wheels remained passé Borrani wires. Scarlatti provided an ex-works 2.5-litre six-cylinder engine.
Giuseppe Consoli, an ex-works mechanic, built the car for Colotti, working in the living room of his house near Modena’s aerautodromo. When workshop space was later made available the embryo Tec-Mec F415 was wheeled out through Giuseppe’s French windows!
The car was clad in a functionally attractive, tight fitting aluminium body, the height of which was constrained a bit by the relatively tall Maserati 270bhp, DOHC, two-valve, triple-Weberised six-cylinder engine.
(Colotti)The Tec-Mec F415 shortly after completion, date and workshop unknown (Colotti)Testing times, the boredom is palpable! (Colotti)
Bonhams wrote that, “In the meantime Hans Tanner, Swiss motoring journalist and entrepreneur, became involved with the project. He had been on the Modenese scene for years and was close to Maserati. He enlisted backing from Floridan racing enthusiast Gordon Pennington who lived then in Modena’s famous Hotel Reale.” Pennington intended to race an Italian car so Scarlatti sold him his interest in the Tec-Mec project.
Colotti, meanwhile, had gone into partnership with former Stirling Moss mechanic Alf Francis as ‘Gear Speed Development SpA’, with plans to build Colotti transaxles as the mid-engined revolution popped, and so too the demand for quality, reliable gearboxes.
While all of this played out, Consoli completed Tec-Mec in 1959, complete with engine #2523 purloined from a 250F Jo Bonnier had for sale.
“Under the Pennington-Tanner aegis, Studio Tecnica Meccanica changed its name to Tec-Mec Automobili. The car was tested at Modena by American driver Bob Said, Piero Drogo, Jo Bonnier and Scarlatti.”
Just like the front-engined Scarab and Aston Martin DBR4 programmes, this one was too late. The basically 1957-designed Tec-Mec became raceworthy in late 1959 just as Jack Brabham clinched the first World Championships for a mid-engined car aboard the Cooper T51 Climax 2.5 FPF.
Fritz d’Orey during the 1959 British GP at Aintree. Maserati 250F, Q20 and DNF accident (MotorSport)
The 1959 World Championship closed with the United States Grand Prix at Sebring, Florida in December. Given it was in Gordon Pennington’s ‘back yard’ the Tec-Mec F415 was entered for Brazilian amateur – and former 250F racer – Fritz d’Orey. He qualified the Camoradi team run car 17th of 19 starters but retired after seven laps with an oil leak/engine failure.
Jesse Alexander wrote this comment about Fritz d’Oley’s performance in the car in his Sports Cars Illustrated race report. “The Tec-Mec was never driven quickly enough to show up any defects. The only time we know of it being driven fast was when Jo Bonnier took it around the Modena Autodromo last summer. His comments were not all that favourable. He complained of, among other things, a flexing chassis.”
One race in-period only, D’Orey and the Tec-Mec at Sebring (MotorSport)
After repair, the car was taken Daytona Speedway for a record attempt but D’Orey was injured in another car. Then Pennington lost interest and the project was abandoned. The car lay on a trailer in a Miami garden until early 1967 when it was acquired complete with spares – including unopened boxes of new parts – by Tom Wheatcroft for what became The Donington Collection.
After restoration he drove the car regularly in open test days at Silverstone and Oulton Park before crashing it heavily into a parked ambulance after spinning-off at Silverstone. After the car was rebuilt it was driven by engineer/restorer Tony Merrick in VSCC events while residing in the Donington Collection. After sale by Wheatcroft in the 1990s the car has been a formidable historic racer.
Etcetera…
(Colotti)
Tec-Mec F415 – Tec-Mec Project 11 – on its first appearance, perhaps, after its restoration.
(Colotti)(Colotti)
Credits…
Bonhams, MotorSport Images, Colotti Transmissioni, Sports Cars Illustrated March 1960 via Stephen Dalton, colotti.com
Jack Brabham being pestered by Frank Matich before the start of the Tasman Series Sandown Park Cup on February 16, 1969. Frank is after some tips on how to extract the best sponsorship deal from Repco Ltd management.
It’s intrigued me that Jack clearly forgot to bring his nice modern Bell Magnum helmet home with him when he jumped on his Qantas 707 at Heathrow for Sydney in December 1969.
When his Brabham BT31 Repco was finally offloaded at Port Melbourne and had its nice new RBE 830 V8 fitted at Repco Brabham Engines in Maidstone, he cast around for a skid-lid and – seemingly – this circa 1960 helmet and pair of goggles were the only ones available to head off to Calder to test the car two days before the Sandown race. See here for a BT31 epic: https://primotipo.com/2015/02/26/rodways-repco-recollections-brabham-bt31-repco-jacks-69-tasman-car-episode-4/
The lovely shot above seems to be the helmet in question sitting atop Jack’s noggin on the grid of the BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone nine years before, May 14, 1960: second in his works-Cooper T53 Climax behind Innes Ireland’s Lotus 18 Climax.
(unattributed)
Our very own Jack during the ‘69 Sandown Cup. He is on the run out of Peters above, and on the way into Dandy Road below, wearing the same 1960 helmet or one very much like it.
Small things as I say…mind you, I don’t like ‘yer chances of racing with a nine year old helmet in today’s homogenised, pasteurised over regulated times.
Brabham finished third in the race, proving brand-new BT31 was quick right out of the box, which was won – so too the Tasman Series – by Chris Amon’s Ferrari 246T. Jochen Rindt was second in his Lotus 49B Ford DFW.
(R MacKenzie)
Jack returned that Easter to fulfil his final Australian Repco commitments, winning the Gold Star round at Bathurst in BT31. This time (below) Jack remembered to pack the Bell Magnum but not his modern goggles…
Ouch. Wow, that’s daffy-ducked isn’t it!? Alan Cooper’s very dead 4.8-litre, straight-eight, 1919 Ballot 5/8LC lies on the front-straight of Olympia Speedway, Maroubra, Sydney on January 2, 1926.
Behind is his brother, Harold ‘Hal’ Cooper’s 2-litre Ballot 2LS #15. In the feature that night, relative novice Alan tried an outside pass on his vastly more experienced younger brother on the last lap, snagged a hub on the fence and cartwheeled along the track at over 100mph and into the sandy area between the track edge and the spectator compound. Alan walked away – shaken and stirred – but the poor riding mechanic wasn’t so lucky, the worst of his injuries was a pair of broken thighs.
Alan Cooper aboard #1004 earlier on the fateful day (Sherwood Collection)
Alan never raced again, but chassis 1004 was repaired by racer/mechanic/engineer John Harkness using an Australian Six chassis, and appeared again at Maroubra with Harkness at the wheel that August. Whatever thoughts I had about the original chassis being repaired have been well set aside…
The Cooper boys were from a family of 11 children. They were brought up in Melbourne’s Botanical Gardens where their father was Chief Gardner. Via a familial connection, Alan Cooper met the 30-years-older Stephen Brown not long after he returned from the Great War. The Brothers Brown owned a large vertically integrated Newcastle coal mining and distribution business named J & A Brown (now part of Yancoal Australia). Stephen treated Cooper as his son and lavished stupefying levels of wealth on him including the most exotic racing cars of the time; the Ernest Henry designed Ballot’s were the best there was, the 1919 ‘Indy’ Ballot undoubtedly one of the fastest cars on the planet.
Indy 500 1919. #4 Ralph DePalma, Packard, #32 and 31 are the Albert Guyot and Rene Thomas Ballot 5/8LCs, #3 is Howdy Wilcox – the winner – Peugeot, and #33 Paul Bablot’s 5/8LC. The pace car is a Packard Twin Six V12 (IMS)Louis Wagner, Ballot 5/8LC #1004 before the off (IMS)
Louis Wagner raced 1004 at Indianapolis 1919 as part of a four-car factory assault on the race. The Ballots where the quickest cars too, but the hastily built machines were geared too-tall. The quick fix, in the absence of an alternative diff-ratio, was the use of smaller diameter locally made wheels and tyres – Goodrich instead of Michelins. These failed, Wagner was out with a broken wheel after only completing 44 of the 200 laps while running third, then Paul Ballot crashed when a wheel failed after 63 laps, so the other two 5/8LCs of Albert Guyot and Rene Thomas cruised home in fourth and 11th places.
While it was a bad day for Ballot all wasn’t lost for Ernest Henry, the winner was Indiana boy Howdy Wilcox in one of Henry’s old Peugeot GP cars. Indy was/is tough and dangerous. Of the traditional 33 cars that started, 18 didn’t finish, four of whom crashed, two fatally: Louis Le Cocq and Arthur Thurman both lost control aboard Duesenbergs. Robert Bandini, Thurman’s mechanic died as well.
As a result of the rise in pole-time speed to nearly 105mph in 1919, and one suspects, perhaps the three deaths, the Indy Formula engine size was reduced from 300cid in 1919 to 183cid for 1920. Ernest Ballot immediately had four very expensive racing cars surplus to requirements, just the thing for a bright-young-colonial with somebody else’s dosh jangling loose in his pockets.
By the time Brown and Cooper swung past Paris’ Boulevard Brune to acquire 2LS #15 – the ex-Jules Goux second-place 1922 Targa machine – Monsieur Ballot was using #1004 as a swish, speedy roadie. Fitted with Perrot brakes, mudguards and a windscreen, he cut quite a dash on the Boulevard St Germain.
Thelma – quite tidy too – at the wheel of #1004 at what became known as Safety Beach, Dromana on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula in December 1928 (B King Collection)
That’s why the car before Alan Cooper crashed (pic 2 above) it looks road-equipped, it was. When shipped to Australia it supposedly arrived with three bodies, the one shown and destroyed in the prang, a slipper body which Harkness fitted (or built) when he rebuilt it, and another, a shot of which I’d love to see…
Harold Cooper raced 5/8LC 1004 for a while south of the Murray at Aspendale, the Melbourne Motordrome and other venues. He was described as “Victoria’s best known racing driver” by the Melbourne Herald before racing on the 2-mile 163 yards rectangular gravel course at Safety Beach, Dromana in December 1928, and duly set the fastest time.
Unfortunately Harold didn’t contest the 1927 Australian Grand Prix at Goulburn, nor did he ever give the 2LS a gallop in any of the early (2-litre supercharged and under) Phillip Island Road Races/Australian Grands Prix. Had he done so he would have been a red-hot favourite, he is the most underrated and forgotten Oz driver of the period…
Melbourne racer Jim Gullan and mechanic during practice for the January 2, 1939 Australian Grand Prix at Lobethal, South Australia. The exotic eight let go at warp speed, a rod carved the block in half with expensive shrapnel being spread across the Adelaide Hills countryside. It would be 40 years before the chassis was reunited with another Ballot engine (N Howard)1004 in the Edgerton suburban garage, date unknown. Other than the Dino I’ve no idea of the identity of any of the other machines (R Edgerton Collection)
Both Ballots raced on. The 2LS’ svelte twin-cam 16-valve four was replaced by a succession of V8s and raced in Western Australia for decades, its mortal Ballot remains survived and are well cared for in Australia. The 5/8LC was restored after being tracked down to a northern Victoria farm by ‘Racing Ron’ Edgerton in the 1970s. The ‘Edgerton’ branded crankcase side covers were a tad vulgar for most but he got the car running and competed in it, a state to which it has never returned in the hands of the UK owner for the last three decades or so.
Check out the May 2021 issue of The Automobile. I wrote a never-published-before long yarn about the Coopers, Ballots, the elusive Stephen Brown and the staggering lifestyle he afforded them, and their later second lives as Captains of The Turf. See here to purchase; https://www.theautomobile.co.uk/may-2021-issue/
(R Edgerton Collection)
Ballots up. Frying tyres, rings or bearings? Ron Edgerton attacks Shell corner (Turn 1 in today’s vulgar parlance) at Sandown on one of 1004s relatively few outings – partially restored by the look of it – before the car was sold overseas. The following Ballot is Wes Southgate’s 2LS, now restored to original bodywork and owned by publisher/hotelier/renaissance-man Douglas Blain, who keeps the car in fine fettle in Victoria. Those Rothmans brake markers are circa 1978-79’ish, so a meeting about then?
Etcetera…
(AD Cook Collection)
Harold Cooper aboard #1004 at La Turbie Hillclimb in 1925. Hal did four ‘climbs: three venues near Nice including this one, and another in Monaco, before the car was shipped from Le Havre to Melbourne. Quite why this slipper-body was removed back at Ballot HQ at Boulevard Brune for the ‘Indy’ body before shipment to Australia is anybody’s guess. The body above is different to the form in which the car emerged Harkness’ workshop after Alan Cooper’s Maroubra accident.
While Alan Cooper makes much of his racing career in the Smiths Weekly serialisation of his life story – a grand, rollicking, bullshitty yarn it is too – in fact he did relatively few competition miles. Harold, on the other hand, competed a lot from 1922 when the 2LS arrived and was a man of great skill. He was far more competent than Alan, had competed in the 5/8LC in France already, so had a level of familiarity with it.
The car was ministered to in Sydney by Giulio Foresti, Ballot factory racer/dealer/mr-fixit who tested it at Maroubra and schooled the brothers in its use and mechanicals. We know from contemporary reports that a planned early Maroubra test by Alan was thwarted by steering problems. Harold should have raced the 5/8LC and Alan the 2LS that fateful night; letting Alan loose in it at Maroubra was akin to a modestly credentialed Formula Ford driver have a lash in Oscar’s F1 McLaren. Alan Cooper was kissed-on-the-dick-by-tinkerbell – to use vulgar Oz slang – many times during his long life, not least on that fateful 1926 evening.
The Argus December 10, 1928
“Thrilling motor-racing was witnessed at the Aspendale Speedway (Melbourne) on Saturday afternoon. The best display of driving was that given by Harold Cooper, who is shown here negotiating a corner at speed in his eight-cylinder Ballot car. He defeated Albert Edwards who drove a front-wheel-drive supercharged Alvis.”
Credits…
Peter White Scrapbook via Colin Wade, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, The Argus, AD Cook Collection, Ron Edgerton Collection, Norman Howard, Bob King Collection, John Sherwood Collection from the wonderful ‘A Half Century of Speed’ by Barry Lake
Tailpiece…
(R Edgerton Collection)
The essential element of Edgerton’s rebuild of #1004 was locating one of the very exotic, Ballot 4.8-litre DOHC, four-valve, straight eight engines or the bones thereof.
As luck would have it, Briggs Cunningham had one, and wanted a Cottin & Desgouttes, Edgerton was happy to oblige. Here is Ron’s (at right) pride and joy (with Silvio Massola) – didn’t he have a lot of those in his automotive lifetime – on a 1977 rally in Tasmania, Australia’s South Island.
The lighting of this shot of Ted King’s Rajo Ford is poor but it also makes the shot, so very evocative!
Historian Nathan Tasca chased up a fellow who posted another photograph on Facebook and was rewarded with some other shots including these two,. At this point ‘Prof’ John Medley came to the rescue and identified the car, as he does…
As luck would have it, my loan-copy of a ‘Half Century of Speed’ has the shot below of King “after winning a championship at Penrith in 1927.” What follows is a truncated version of the late-great Barry Lake’s narrative.
Ted King lived in Newcastle (NSW) and raced mainly on dirt tracks in that area. King used to ship his car by steamer to Sydney and back to attend meetings. In the mid-late 1930s groups of speedcar drivers would do the reverse of this trip; travel overnight on Friday, race in Newcastle on Saturday, then return overnight on Saturday to be home in Sydney on Sunday.
Is this Ted King at his Newcastle area servo? Ring a bell folks (Ro Ander Family)
In the first half of the twentieth century road travel between cities was long and arduous. Roads were narrow, rough, winding and dusty, with many ferry crossings. Coastal steamers were cost effective alternatives right up until the early post-war years; Sydney to Adelaide an example.
Frontenac ‘Fronty’ and Rajo manufactured overhead valve conversions for T-Model Ford engines. They both used crossflow heads, but Frontenac Fords had the inlet ports on the left and exhaust ports on the right hand side of the car. All Rajo-Fords had the inlet on the right and exhaust on the left.
The Morris bull-nose radiator was a common fitment to locally assembled T-based racers which used Fronty or Rajo parts as they looked like the US built cars of the time at less cost.
Many Fronty and Rajo Fords were raced in Australia but few were fully imported complete cars. Heads, engine parts and other hot bits were brought in then built up with locally sourced T-Model parts to build copies of the US built cars. There are still about 35 on register in Australia.
After posting this piece the following material arrived from David Smallacombe, photo of King at Penrith, and from Andrew Webb, who has the remaining bones of the King machine; the front wheels, Rajo head, Solex carburettors, chain drive magneto and water pump, and log book.
Ted King, Rajo Ford, Penrith, date unknown (D Smallacombe)Ted King Rajo BB engine (A Webb)(A Webb)(A Webb)(P White Collection)
Ted King in his Rajo Ford at Maroubra, date unknown.
Credits…
Nathan Tasca, John Medley, Ro Ander Family, ‘Half a Century of Speed’ Barry Lake, Tony and Pedr Davis, David Smallacombe, Andrew Webb, Peter White Collection via Colin Wade
Bruce McLaren piloting the works Isuzu Bellett at Goodwood during practice for the St Mary’s Trophy race over the April 19, 1965 International Trophy weekend.
In a busy weekend McLaren raced his Cooper T77 Climax to fourth place in the F1 feature, the Sunday Mirror Trophy, and his 4.5-litre Elva McLaren Oldsmobile to third in Lavant Cup, both races were won by Jim Clark, in Lotus 25 Climax and Lotus 30 Ford respectively. The power to weight ratio of this Nippon Racing, British Saloon Car Championship entry would have been the lowest of his mounts I suspect…
It was the first time a Japanese car appeared at a BSCC round, so it was an historic occasion. The Autosport report of the race records that a piston failed in the 1471cc four-cylinder engine in practice, so Bruce didn’t take the start of the event won by Jim Clark’s Team Lotus, Lotus Cortina and Jack Sears’ sister car.
(unattributed)Bruce about to go out with the fourth placed John Willment Racing Lotus Cortina of Frank Gardner behind (Goodwood Sixties)
John Sprinzel raced the Bellett at Crystal Palace on June 7, albeit not in the BSCC race, how did he go?
MotorSport Images, ‘Motor Racing at Goodwood in the Sixties’ Tony Gardiner, Stephen Dalton, Jack Inwood, Brent Benzie, Doug Nye
Tailpiece…
(J Inwood)
No doubt Bruce had ‘plenty’ of touring car form – don’t bother with an essay on the topic whatever you do, they were of no consequence to him – here with a works, I think, Morris Cooper at Pukekohe during the January 5, 1963 NZ GP meeting.
McLaren DNF’d that race after magneto failure in his Cooper T62 Climax on lap 24, John Surtees won aboard a Lola Mk4 Climax. I wonder how he went with the Mini? He brought this car out on his Australasian Tour that summer, racing it only in NZ, does it still exist?
Etcetera…
(B Benzie)
A few days after I posted this article I had a great email from Brent Benzie.
“I read with great interest the post about Bruce McLaren and the Mini Cooper he raced in the Tasman series support races (at least in New Zealand) back in 1962-63.”
“During the mid-late 1960s I owned and raced this car mainly at Teretonga, Wigram and Ruapuna. The late Wally Willmott, wh I got to know quite well in the 1970s, told me a lot about the details of the car and its history with Bruce, and that he (Wally) had quite a lot to do with its original preparation.”
“It had an interesting a very special engine that was basically a BMC Formula Junior unit. It was fitted with two 1 1/2 inch SU carbs with no provision for chokes and sure was hello get started in that South Island climate I can tell you.”
“I sold the Cooper to fund my move to Australia but I’m pleased to say that the car still exists in New Zealand and has been restored by a gentleman who lives in or near Auckland. See the photo.”
“Incidentally, before your post I had never heard of Bruce driving an Isuzu Bellett and it brought to mind a story I read several years ago about a company that, back in the 1990s, had just leased an abandoned warehouse near the docks in Los Angeles. Inside was a huge stock of Bellett parts – including complete engines, transmissions and body parts etc – all brought into the US by Isuzu but never distributed to their dealers before they ‘pulled the plug’ on that model.”
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