I love Stewart Johnson’s moody, evocative shot of Alec Mildren’s Alfa Romeo TZ-2 taken during the 1966 Surfers Paradise 12-Hour run over the August 21 weekend.
These cars were built for endurance events, not the five or ten-lap screamers prevalent in Australia, so it was a chance for the team to contest a 12-hour event of the type for which Autodelta designed the car.
(J Crawford)
Jackie Stewart is best away at the start in the Scuderia Veloce Ferrari 250LM from the David Piper/Richard Attwood Ferrari 365 P2 #1, the Peter Sutcliffe/Frank Matich Ford GT40, the Bartlett/Chivas TZ2 and then the first of the Lotus 23B Lotus-Fords driven by Frank Demuth and John Harvey.
Below, the third-placed Bartlett/Chivas TZ-2 is ahead of the Piper/Attwood Ferrari 365 P2 DNF. Up front was the winning Stewart/Buchanan Ferrari 250LM, one lap ahead of the second-placed Sutcliffe/Matich Ford GT40.
(B Williamson Archive)Ain’t they sweet…Kevin Bartlett TZ-2 and Spencer Martin in Bob Jane’s Jaguar E-Type Lightweight on the front row of the Country Club GT Trophy grid at Warwick Farm on September 18, 1966 (R Kaleda)
Chassis AR10511-750112 was built on a modified TZ-1 chassis; number 750072 was a chassis, not a complete car, and had an aluminium body, ‘presumed to be the only all-aluminium car and to have been used as the mould for the fibreglass cars,’ wrote zagatocars.com.
Registered UD111834, the works Autodelta machine was first raced by Roberto Bussinello and Andrea de Adamich in the April 25, 1965 Monza 1000km – round five of the World Sportscar Championship – finishing first in class and seventh outright. The race was won by the Mike Parkes/Jean Guichet Ferrari 275 P2.
It was then off to the Targa Florio on May 5. This time Bussinello was paired with Nino Todaro, but they failed to finish after an accident on lap 6 of 10. Up the front was the Vaccarella/Bandini Ferrari 275 P2.
Suitably repaired, 750112 was prepared for the Nurburgring 1000km a fortnight later, May 23, with Bussinello again at the wheel, this time paired with Teodoro Zeccoli, where they were 30th with 36 laps completed compared to winners’ Surtees/Scarfiotti’s 44 laps aboard a Ferrari 330 P2.
750112 in the Le Mans pits 1965 (unattributed)Le Mans 1965. Zeccoli plans his attack on the Mulsanne sand dune while the works-Ford GT40 Mk2s of Ken Miles and Phil Hill – DNFs both – rumble past on their second lap (unattributed)
The car’s final European outing before its sale to Alec Mildren was at Le Mans on June 19-20 where Zeccoli shared it with Jose Rosinski. The weekend looked promising enough but it all came undone come raceday when Teodoro went off at the end of the Mulsanne into the sand trap from which he never escaped.
He didn’t give up, though. The spectators were treated to a gritty two-hour performance where Zeccoli tried to dig the car loose, the final element of which involved stripping down to his jocks to use his race suit under a rear wheel in an attempt to get more traction. Unsuccessfully, unfortunately.
(Alfa Romeo)(Alfa Romeo)
Mildren then imported 750112 to replace the second of his GTAs in mid-1966 with its regular pilot, Kevin Bartlett, seen below giving the now yellow car plenty at Warwick Farm in 1966.
(K Bartlett Arc)(K Crump via E Holly)
Amongst the sprinters. Frank Demuth’s Lotus 23B from Kevin Bartlett, Alfa Romeo TZ-2, Niel Allen, Lotus 23B, Lionel Ayers, MRC Lotus 23B and Greg Cusack’s Lotus 23B then the obscured Les Howard’s Lotus Super 7 and Spencer Martin’s Ferrari 250LM on June 15, 1966
And below, Bartlett chasing Ron Thorp’s AC Cobra, again at Warwick Farm
(G Dowdle)
750112’s ownership roll call in Australia is fairly long, although most of them didn’t race it.
From Mildrens the car went to Roy Compton, then Max Brunninghausen in 1967, Compton trading the TZ-2 on Brunninghausen’s TZ-1. Max raced it extensively, including a trip to the Macau Grand Prix in 1968, where he finished a splendid third in the sports car behind Jan Bussell’s winning Brabham Lotus-Ford and Hengkie Iriawan’s Elfin 600C Ford FVA.
The robust TZ-2 was ideally suited to the rough road circuit, although Max had his challenges after differential failure during practice. Divine Intervention came via Alec Mildren and the Australian Government, who shipped a spare diff from Sydney to Macau via a Diplomatic Bag!
Max Brunninghausen at Macau in 1968 (Z Drummer)(N Wong)
Another Sydneysider, Denis Cribbin followed in 1969, the cars contemporary racing history, including two or three decent hits along the way, was then over.
The trail of ownership then goes something like this. Les Miller bought it in 1971, followed by Messrs. Robertson, Hopkins, and Whiting in quick succession (is this correct? I’ve never heard of them in connection with this car), then Royce Fullard of Eltham, Victoria. Royce may have sold it to Nick Langford, who lived not far away in Mitcham.
When I saw the car in Langford’s restoration business at Castlemaine circa 1978, it was in a million bits. Langford – an Alfisti through and through – would have done a great job with the restoration, but its sale as a result of his matrimonial earthquake shook the car loose, and it left our shores for good circa-1980. Current custodian folks?
Denis Cribbin at Warwick Farm in September 1969 (L Hemer)
Etcetera…
(Marouf Collection)
The Bussinello/Todaro TZ-2 #750112 during the 1965 Targa Florio.
Denis Jenkinson wrote in MotorSport about the new car’s Targa appearance. ‘The special bodied orange Alfa Romeo GTZ of Autodelta, the factory team, came screaming into sight at the far end of the village street, and snarled as it slowed and changed down for the corner in the square.’
The secret of the car’s success was the careful evolution of the TZ-1 chassis and engine. Later in its competitive life in Australia, the capacity of the twin-plug twin-cam four-cylinder engine fitted to 750112 was circa-1.9-litres rather than the 1.6-litre unit first fitted.
To reduce weight, the TZ’s aluminum body was replaced with a lighter fibreglass one, with the exception of ‘our’ 750112. Designer Ercole Spada created an erotic, lower, leaner, more aggressive body. All of the improvements resulted in a car that sat 140 mm lower, produced 20 extra horsepower and weighed 40 kg less than the TZ-1.
(Alfa Romeo)
Alfa Romeo historian/author Ed McDonough wrote that, ‘Unfortunately, by the time the TZ-2s made their race debut at Monza in 1965, Alfa management had already told Carlo Chiti, Autodelta’s director, that his shop was to concentrate its efforts on developing the GTA and the Tipo 33.’
‘This was done at the TZ-2’s expense, and soon the cars were sold off to privateers. The TZ-2 raced successfully for another two seasons and scored class and sometimes even overall wins in a variety of events, including sprints, endurance races, and hillclimbs. The TZ2 extended the TZ-1’s victories with wins in the 1600 GT class at Sebring, the Targa Florio, the Nürburgring 1000 km, Monthlery, Spa and Monza.’
(B Reid)
Max Brunninghausen in the Warwick Farm form up area above, and in the Surfers Paradise pits in 1968 below.
(J Gray)
‘There are constant arguments as to how many TZ-2s were built, ‘ wrote Ed McDonough. ‘According to Alfa expert L. Fusi, twelve were made from chassis 750.114 to 750.121, obviously leaving some numbers out. Author David Styles says ten were built, while Hull and Slater say twelve, as does Belgian Tony Adrieansens. Adrieansens argues eight were made in 1965, and four of the 1965 TZ-2 chassis were built with TZ-1 chassis numbers. For example, 750.104 is a TZ-1 chassis number but is an early TZ-2. 750.1106 is the same and was one of the early test cars. Possibly 750.112 is the only aluminium-bodied car.’
‘All the nine Zagato-bodied racecars are accounted for and most are in racing condition. Since the running gear is production based, they are relatively inexpensive to run in vintage racing. However, you’ll first need more than a million dollars to buy one, as that’s what the last one sold for at auction.’
Credits…
Stewart Johnson, John Crawford, Ray Kaleda, Zito Drummer, Natalino Wong, Geoff Dowdle, Bill Reid, Ken Crump via Ed Holly Archive, Kevin Bartlett Achive, John Gray, Lynton Hemer, Geoff Medley, Alfa Romeo Archive, Marouf Collection, zagato-cars.com, ‘Colour and Noise:40 Years of the Macau Grand Prix’ by Phillip Newsome, Ed McDonough ‘Alfa Romeo TZ2-Delta Force’ article on supercars.net.
A couple of fantastic Browns Lane, Allesley, Coventry, Jaguar factory shots.
The one above is of Briggs Cunningham’s D-Types after Le Mans in 1955 before shipment to New York, and the one below is a production run of XKDs, surrounded by XK140s in 1956; the factory fire was on February 12, 1957.
(Jaguar)
Cunningham’s cars were painted white with a blue stripe: they are XKD507 and XKD508.
XKD507 was driven by Phil Walters/Bill Spear at Le Mans on June 12, DNF with valve or ignition problems in the seventh hour with 43 laps to their credit.
Cunningham’s D-Types were ‘works blessed’, meaning Jaguar New York – Briggs Cunningham and Alfred Momo – had factory support to represent Jaguar on U.S. tracks.
The machine was first in the GP of Watkins Glen, at the SCCA National at Hagerstown, Maryland and the Nassau Production Sports Car race driven by Sherwood Johnson that year. John Fitch drove it to a win at Nassau the following year.
Walt Hansgen raced it to the Sports Car Club of America’s (SCCA) D-Modified championship in 1956 and 1957. On Bonneville’s Salt Flats it hit 185 mph.
These days, XKD507’s custodian is the Revs Institute.
The Walters/Spear XKD507 at Le Mans in 1955, DNF (unattributed)The #8 Mike Hawthorn/Desmond Titterington XKD507 and #9 Hamilton/Bueb XKD508 at Sebring in 1956 (unattributed)
XKD508 was a works entry at Le Mans in ’55 for Don Beauman and Norman Dewis, accident and sandtrapped after 106 laps in the 11th hour.
Then shipped to Jaguar New York, fitted with Engine no. E3006-9 and painted in Cunningham colours.
It contested the 1956 Sebring 12 Hours, Duncan Hamilton/Ivor Bueb DNF. Hansgen won at Eagle Mountain and Thompson Raceway that year, and Walt was the Watkins Glen GP winner in it in September 1957. It remained with Cunningham and was modified by Momo. It was crashed, was returned to Browns Lane and scrapped.
For the sake of completeness, in March 1957, after the factory had withdrawn from racing, Jaguar sold XKD605, a used car, to the Cunningham team.
Briggs Cunningham in one of his D-Types, date and place unknown. Note the GenTex – General Textile Corporation – US military helmet (Revs)(Watkins Glen Historic)
Walt Hansgen and Ed Crawford start the September 21, 1957, Watkins Glen Grand Prix as Tex Hopkins does his thing. Walt won the 44-lap, 163 km race, and Ed was fourth. Cunningham was eighth in one of his D-Types.
Etcetera…
(D Morton)
Ivor Bueb aboard XKD605 shared with Mike Hawthorn at Sebring in 1957 and the engine bay of one of the team Ds at the same event.
(D Morton)(K Ludvigsen)
Mike Hawthorn at Sebring ahead of the Cunningham/Bill Lloyd D, DNF valve. Perilous nature of the 44’s marking the course readily apparent…and the cause/contributor to the death of Bob Goldich, Arnolt Bristol in this race.
Credits…
Jaguar Cars, coventryracers.com, Watkins Glen Historic, Revs Institute, Doug Morton via the Automobile Racing Club of Florida, Karl Ludvigsen
Paul Hawkins shared Jackie Epstein’s Ferrari 250LM in the 1966 Targa Florio. They were 30th in the race won by the Willy Mairesse/Muller works-Porsche 906.
Its funny where I’m finding photos, which give me the ideas for articles, in recent times. Ebay facilitates sales of lotsa things, including motor racing photos. So, Googling, ‘Paul Hawkins Ferrari’ up popped the two Ebay ad shots. Punters put the shots up at just about a sharp enough resolution to use. So there you have it, the photo credits here are all Ebay unless identified otherwise. And yes, the sellers rarely credit the original photographer, albeit I recognise many as LAT/MotorSport Images material…so I’ve just slapped LAT on the lot.
(LAT)
The Larry Perkins/Kevin Kogan/Derek Daly fourth placed TWR Jaguar XJR-9 V12 at Le Mans in 1988.
Jaguar’s 1988 Le Mans victory was an endurance racing defining moment, marking Jaguar’s return to the top after decades of Porsche dominance; they last won Le Mans in 1957: D-Type Ron Flockhart/Ivor Bueb.
Their weapon of war was Tony Southgate’s, TWR-built, carbon fibre XJR-9 7-litre V12. Jan Lammers, Johnny Dumfries and Andy Wallace won while Larry was fourth, his purple and white machine shared with Irishman Derek Daly and American Kevin Cogan.
The race was a long, tense Jaguar-Porsche duel with a light rain adding to the late race drama, allowing Hans Stuck’s 962 to close the gap. Jaguar’s lead remained intact despite a gearbox failure in the final hour. Jan Lammers kept the car in fourth gear for the balance, nursing the XJR-9 to victory and delirious joy from the army of Jag enthusiasts present.
Larry was an easy choice for Tom Walkinshaw. Both were on the slippery slope of the intensely competitive European scene in the early 1970s; Tom watched Larry rise to the top. F1. Not to forget that they had jumped into bed together via Holden Special Vehicles in Australia in 1988; Perkins Engineering were contracted to run Holden’s race program.
(LAT)
Frank Gardner testing the Ford F3L/P68 at Goodwood in 1968, date folks?
Meanwhile, Alan Mann gets the lowdown from Bruce McLaren below. 3-litre Ford Cosworth DFV in clear sight, Hewland DG300 gearbox not so. The engine, which was designed to be used as a stressed member, wasn’t, and that’s about where the problems started…
(LAT)
The John Raeburn/Nicholas Granville-Smith Ford GT40 during the 1968 Nurburgring 1000 km.
Melbourne-born John Raeburn raced sports cars briefly in Europe in the mid-1960s before retiring at the ripe old age of 32 at the end of ’68.
John raced Holdens and then made his name with his consistent winning pace in a Buchanan Holden from April 1960 to July 1961. Into the mix were drives in Jaywood Motors Appendix J Holden Humpy and FC.
He competed in the 1960-64 Armstrong 500 at Phillip Island and Bathurst, sharing a Singer Gazelle with Harry Firth in 1960, and then Firth’s works Ford Cortina GT, Zephyr MkIII and Falcon.
He took on the big-car challenge in 1965, finishing fifth in the one-race Australian Touring Car Championship at Sandown. His mount was the 7-litre Ford Galaxie left in Australia after the ’64 Sandown International by Sir Gawaine Baillie. He jumped on a ship for Europe with the intention of racing the car in the UK, but Baillie sold it before he got there.
Undeterred, he started working for Graham Warner’s Chequered Flag Motors in 1966, driving their Shelby Cobra in the 500 Zeltweg 500 km.
He raced Mike de Udy’s Porsche 906 with Roy Pike in the Reims 12 Hours in 1967, and took part in several 1968 World Sportscar Championship rounds at Monza, Spa-Francorchamps and Nürburgring. His car was a yellow Ford GT40, chassis #1001, owned by Andy Cox, ‘who had won money on the football pools and bought himself a GT40,’ wrote Doug Nye.
Among his driving partners were Nicholas Granville-Smith and another Australian tyro who did a stint at The Chequered Flag, Tim Schenken.
Reaburn reported his exploits back home via Racing Car News. Raeburn tested a Formula 3 car at Brands Hatch in 1966, matching Tony Lanfranchi’s times, and a works F2 Lotus 48 Ford FVA at Hethel in 1967, but, being a tall unit, decided to concentrate on sports car racing.
He quit racing at the end of 1968, aged 32. In recent years John lived in retirement with his wife in Mooroolbark, Victoria. He passed away from a stroke, on Saturday, 26 November 2016, aged 80.
Keep an eye out for a feature coming up on John thanks to my mate Gregory Smith…
(LAT)(LAT)
The Frank Gardner/David Hobbs Lotus Elite during the 23-24 June 1962 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Team Elite entered two cars, Hobbs/Gardner shared the #44 (chassis 1678) and Clive Hunt-Jesse Wyllie #45 (chassis 1792). #44 car finished eighth and #45 11th. That was again a win in the 1151-1300 cc class. There was also a double finish (first and third) in the Index of Thermal Efficiency. The #45 car finished eleventh.
This Le Mans is remembered for the clash of the titans, Colin Chapman and the ACO. Chapman entered his new Lotus 23 Lotus-Ford twin-cam 1.5 in the Experimental class.
Jim Clark wowed the pundits with a staggering Lotus 23 performance in front of the V6 and V12 engines in the May 27 1000 km Nürburgring before problems intervened.
Clark/Taylor Lotus 23 Lotus-Ford twin-cam 1.5 DNF Nurburgring 1000 km 1962 after 11 of the winners 44 laps. Jim at the wheel
The #47 Lotus 23 was fitted with a 997cc Ford Cosworth MAE twin-cam engine as a potential Index of Performance winner in the hands of works F1 drivers Clark and Trevor Taylor. The other #48 Lotus 23 (below) was a UDT Laystall entry for Les Leston and Tony Shelly.
The Les Leston/Tony Shelly UDT Laystall Lotus 23 Coventry Climax FWM 747cc. ‘Refusé au pesage’ by the ACO (unattributed)
Both cars looked odd because of the required front window dimensions, but they weren’t allowed to be scrutineered due to insufficient ground clearance, an illegally oversized fuel cell and non-conventional fixation of the wheels (four bolts in the front and six at the back).
Chapman flew Frank Costin from London to plead his case that a four-bolt wheel affixation sufficed; the team made the change in the paddock. He offered a stress test, but the scrutineers still said no, so the two Lotus 23s couldn’t take part! Chapman was incandescent with rage, swearing that never again would a works Lotus race at Le Mans.
(LAT)(LAT)
Horst Kwech in the Alfa Romeo T33/2 he shared with John Martino in the July 14, 1968 Watkins Glen 6 Hour.
Ok, Horst was born in Austria, lived in Cooma during his formative years and spent most of his adult life in the US, but he always wore a ‘Roo on his helmet, so we’ll claim him…
The then Alfa GTA Trans-Am star was out after only 17 of the winner’s 286 laps (Lucien Bianchi/Jacky Ickx JW Ford GT40), having qualified the car 11th, he got up to 10th before the engine cried enough. The best placed 2-litre car, the fourth placed Frank/Trieschman Porsche 906.
Earlier in the year, Kwech shared a Shelby-prepared Ford Mustang in the Daytona 24 Hour with then US-based Allan Moffat. We’ll claim that Canadian too!
The shot below shows Kwech on the outside of the Paul Vestey/Roy Pike Ferrari 250LM. Car #1 is the fourth placed! Jerry Titus/Ronnie Bucknum Shelby Mustang. Horst and Allan were out after 176 of the winners 673 with a rear suspension problem. Up fromt was two 2.2-litre Porsche 906s: driven by Vic Elford/Jochen Neerpasch/Rolf Stommelen/Jo Siffert/Hans Herrman! and Siffert/Hermann.
The works-Porsche 910 Paul Hawkins shared with Gerard Koch to second place in the May 28, 1967 Nurburgring 1000 km is about to be monstered by the 7-litre Chev powered Chaparral 2F driven by Phil Hill and Mike Spence, DNF.
Tim Schenken aboard the Ferrari 312PB 3-litre flat-12 he shared with Carlos Reutemann at Le Mans in 1973
Tim had a big year with Surtees in F1 in 1972 and did the full endurance season with Scuderia Ferrari, usually sharing his Ferrari 312PB with good mate Ronnie Peterson. They won the 1000 Km Buenos Aires and the Nurburgring 1000 km and were second at Daytona, Sebring, Brands Hatch and Watkins Glen and third in the Monza 1000 km in a solid contribution to the points haul that won Ferrari the Munufacturers Championship 160 points to Alfa Romeo, 85, and Porsche, 66.
Tim returned to Ferrari the following year, but the Matra MS670/670B had bridged the performance gapso his best results were two second places in the car he shared with Carlos Reutemann at the Vallelunga 6 Hour and Monza 1000 km.
At Le Mans, the pair were out in the 12th hour with engine troubles; the Ickx/Redman machine followed suit in the final hour, leaving the Art Merzario/Carlos Pace 312PB second, but six laps adrift of the victorious Henri Pescarolo/Gerard Larrousse Matra-Simca MS670B. More about the Matra here:https://primotipo.com/2023/09/19/matra-random/
(LAT)(LAT)
The only other Australian works-Ferrari driver was Paul Hawkins who shared a Ferrari P4 with Jonathan Williams in the 1968 Brands Hatch 6 Hour. Sadly, it was Paul’s only Scuderia Ferrari drive, but far from his last drive of a Ferrari! More about the 1967 ‘World Sportscar Championship’ and the Ferrari P4 here:https://primotipo.com/2015/04/02/ferrari-p4canam-350-0858/
The Donald Healey Motor Company, Lola, Porsche, Ford and Ferrari isn’t a bad list of works outfits to have raced for!
Speaking of the DHMC, here are some shots of the Hawkins/Timo Makinen Austin Healey Mk3 during the 1965 Targa Florio with Hawkeye at the right, ready to jump aboard. The pair were 21st in the race won by Nino Vaccarella and Lorenzo Bandini’s works-Ferrari 275 P2.
(LAT)(LAT)(LAT)
Brian Muir co-drove this Allan Mann Racing Ford GT Mk2 with Graham Hill at Le Mans in 1966
In 1966 Muir did a full season in a Willment Racing Ford Galaxie in the British Touring Car Championship. At the Norisring-Rennen in Germany, he won the GT race in Willment’s AC Daytona Cobra and finished third in the sportscar race in the team’s Lotus 30-Climax, setting the fastest lap.
Given his pace, Muir was signed to steer the Ford MkII with Hill. During the race, the pair ran in the top six before the front suspension broke during the eighth hour. More about Muir here:https://primotipo.com/2022/09/03/brian-muir/
I think the only other Le Mans entry Graham Hill shared with an Australian was with Derek Jolly in a Lotus Engineering 2-litre Lotus 15 Coventry Climax FPF in 1959.
Vern Schuppan in the Gulf Mirage GR8 Ford Cosworth DFV he shared with Jean-Pierre Jaussaud to finish third at Le Mans in 1975.
Up front was the other team car driven by Derek Bell and Jacky Ickx, in second was the similarly powered Ligier JS2 crewed by Jean-Louis Lafosse and Guy Chasseuil.
Nearly a decade later, Vern shared a Kremer Racing Porsche 956B with Alan Jones; the pair finished sixth in the race won by the Joest 956B raced by Henri Pescarolo and Klaus Ludwig.
Vern in a sports car of a completely different type, an Elfin MR8C Chev F5000 converted into a central seat Can-Am machine, here at Riverside in 1977, resplendent in brand new John Webb aluminium bodywork. I’ve prattled on about this car before, see here: https://primotipo.com/2018/10/02/hit-with-the-fugly-stick/
Credits…
Ebay-LAT-MotorSport Images, Larry Roberts, Gardner Lotus Elite-History Racing Pedia, F2Index-Fastlane, Getty Images, Racing Sports Cars
Jack Brabham’s screaming Matra MS650 3-litre V12 and the rumbling Henry Greder/Jean-Pierre Rouget Chev Corvette 7-litre V8 (eighth) blast past the Le Mans pits during the 1970 Le Mans 24-Hour on June 13-14.
By all accounts, the triple world champ enjoyed his races with Matra on an all care and no responsibility basis rather than his chief cook and bottle washer responsibilities at Motor Racing Developments and the Brabham Racing Organisation, with all due deference to Ron Tauranac
He shared Le Mans mount with young French thruster, Francois Cevert, who, in addition to his endurance responsibilities, took his GP debut aboard a Tyrrell March 701 Ford that year. They failed to finish at La Sarthe, as did the other MS650s raced by Jean Pierre Jabouille/Francois Cevert and Henri Pescarolo/Jean-Pierre Beltoise; a real who’s-who of French GP winning drivers of the mid-late 1970s.
Up the front, Hans Hermann and Richard Attwood took Porsche’s first outright win aboard a 4.5-litre Porsche Salzburg 917K; the best of the 3-litre cars was the Martini 908/02 raced by Rudy Lins and Helmut Marko.
Brabham and topless Cevert watch as Bruno Morin hand on wing, Philippe Chasselut engine man, in checked shirt standing, Georges Martin crouching, with Guy Prat behind him in the Elf jacket, Gerard Ducarouge also crouching at right, behind him is Dominique Codreanu, with the head leaning in front of the gendarmes Michel Polard (J-P Fabre Collection)Brabham ahead of Derek Bell’s works Ferrari 512S during the long Le Mans night (LAT)
That year, Brabham and Dan Gurney were the two GP winners on the Equipe Matra-Elf endurance program payroll. It would be fascinating to know what those two senior citizens and noted driver/engineers thought of the Matras overall and especially its two key constituent parts: the chassis and engine. Do any of you Frenchies have anything documented in relation to this? Dan only did Sebring but Jack did the season, enough to have provided input into the development direction of the cars.
Jack on the Daytona banking, just imagine the sound of that fabulous raucous V12 echoing around its vast confines! (unattributed)That’s the rather talented Gerard Ducarouge and Jack at Daytona, Jack and Francois were tenth in the race won by the Pedro Rodriguez/Leo Kinnunen Gulf-Wyer Porsche 917K
The best results for Matra’s sports car squad that year were wins for the MS630/650 in the 1000 km of Buenos Aires-Beltoise/Pescarolo, for the MS650 in the Tour de France-Beltoise/Depailler/Jean Todt and for the MS660 at the 1000 km Paris at Montlhery-Brabham/Cevert.
Brabham had been under pressure from his wife, Betty, to retire for several years. He would have too, had Jochen Rindt returned to Brabham for the 1970 season, but Chapman offered him the earth, moon and stars to stay at Lotus, so Jack tore up the Austrian’s contract and convinced Betty he had to do one last season. Further proof of Jack’s intent was that he had sold his stakes in BRO and MRD before the end of 1969.
Doug Nye advises that when Jack’s father tapped him on the shoulder and called time, that was decisive…So Jack fitted as much as he could into that final pro-season: F1 with BRO, some F2 – John Coombs Brabham BT30 – and endurance racing with Matra.
Brabham, MS650 during the Brands 1000 km, noting the wing in search of more front bite, and the car’s rear below (M Charles)(A Damfreville)
Jack opened his Matra racing account at Daytona on February 1, where he and Cevert were 10th at the start of a season of utter domination by Porsche.
Where the 12-cylinder 917Ks didn’t win, the flat-eight 908/03 did, except Sebring, where the Ferrari 512S driven by Ignazio Giunti, Nino Vaccarella and Mario Andretti prevailed. Porsche won the International Championship of Makes, 63 points to Ferrari’s 37, Alfa Romeo’s 10 (T33/3 3-litre V8) and Matra-Simca’s four.
Brabham was pretty chipper at Brands Hatch on April 12 as he had won the South African Grand Prix in early March, showing the new breed – the array of 1970 F1 newbees included Emerson Fittipaldi, Francois Cevert, Ronnie Peterson and Clay Regazzoni – there was life in the old dog yet!
He was paired with JPB in an MS650 in the Brands 1000 km, the pair finishing 12th, 34 laps adrift of Pedro Rodriguez, who blew the minds of onlookers with his handling of the JW Automotive Porsche 917K in the most atrocious weather conditions.
Brabham in the MS650 he shared with JPB at the April 25 Monza 1000 km in 1970. Aerospace company knew a thing or two about aerodynamics. This angle allows a good look at what they thought worked, the only tacked-on ‘appendage’ is the front wing, that seems to be unique to this particular chassisMS650 at Monza in 1970. The Matra 3-litre V12 in MS12 endurance spec gave about 410 bhp @ 10400 rpm
The same duo were fifth in the Monza 1000 km, then came Le Mans, and that season-ending Paris 1000 Kilometres win for Jack and Cevert at Montlhery on October 18. The Aussie-Franco duo won this non-International Championship of Makes round aboard a new MS660 monocoque by three laps from the Jose Juncadera/Jean-Pierre Jabouille Ferrari 512S and the Larrouse/Chasseuil/Ballot-Lena Porsche 908/02. More about their Montlhery victory here:https://primotipo.com/2016/09/09/jack-and-francois-matra-ms660/
It was Jack’s final pro-race win, as against mucking around in touring cars in Australia in the mid-late 1970s, he ‘retired’ after the Mexican Grand Prix on October 25, so that Montlhery win would always have been memorable as he very soon felt, strolling around his Wagga Wagga paddocks and Bankstown Ford dealership, that he had retired too early…
I’m not so sure about that. He is one of the few who retired at the top of his game; had fortune favoured him, he would have won the Monaco and British Grands Prix, if not one or two others that season. His timing was immaculate…and he was alive.
Beltoise/Pescarolo Matra M630 Ford, Montlhery, Paris 1000 km, October 1967 DNF gearbox (Matra)
Matra M630-MS650…
Matra entered racing with the F3 monocoque MS1 in 1965, the MS3 Djet was their first sports car launched the same year, whereas their first sports-racer, the MS4/620, was built in 1966. More about the MS620 here:https://primotipo.com/2015/11/15/matra-m620-brm-le-mans-1966/
The MS630 spaceframe coupe succeeded it in 1967, and was powered by a 2-litre P60 BRM V8 as a prototype (all three ’66 Le Mans entries DNF) and with a Ford 289/4.7-litre V8 as a sports car. In 1968, it raced as a 3-litre prototype fitted with Matra’s new V12 engine. While both cars again failed to finish the all-important race at Le Mans, Q4 and Q5 were indicative of race pace.
For 1969, chief engineer Bernard Boyer designed and built the MS640 coupe and MS650 spyder around the same key components inclusive of the MS630 spaceframe chassis but fitted with a comprehensive evolution of the V12 engine.
The MS12 had relocated intake ports which had been placed between the camshafts on the 1968 MS9. The MS12 ports were within the 60-degree Vee, a more conventional ‘crossflow’ position. Twin camshafts actuated four valves per cylinder and Lucas fuel injection was retained. The endurance spec engines were slightly detuned in comparison to Matra’s F1 units and produced about 410 bhp at 10,400 rpm. A robust ZF five-speed transaxle was also specified.
The Guichet/Vaccarella M630 Coupe ahead of the Courage/Beltoise MS650 at Tertre Rouge during Le Mans 1969 (unattributed)MS9 Matra V12 in the Guichet/Vaccarella MS8/M630 at Le Mans in 1969 (A Damfreville)
The MS640 Coupe was ready for the Le Mans test on March 30. The striking car featured a very curvaceous, slippery body, inclusive of a pair of tail-mounted vertical fins and partially enclosed rear wheels.
While Choulet’s body was slippery, it produced bulk lift over 300 km/h, the Matra got away from Henri Pescarolo before he had done many laps. He escaped from a massive accident with ‘only’ serious burns, but that chassis was destroyed, and the other MS640 was probably rebuilt as an MS650 spyder.
Matra MS20/640, early test with Henri Pescarolo in 1969, venue folks? (F Hurel)Piers Courage looks pretty happy with fourth place at Le Mans in 1969, MS650. Didn’t he have a sensational F1 year with Frank Williams’ Brabham BT26 Ford (Matra)
At Le Mans, Matra entered and raced a 1968 spec M630 Coupe, a pair of M630/650 hybrids and a new MS650. The updated 1968 cars and MS650 were fitted with spyder/roadster bodies that were low, wide, long-tailed and incorporated a small rear spoiler; learnings from Pesca’s accident.
Piers Courage and Jean-Pierre Beltoise raced the MS650 from grid 12, while one of the M630/650s was a bit quicker and started eleventh. The JPB/Courage MS650 was fourth, the Jean Guichet/Nino Vaccarella MS630 fifth, and the surviving Nanni Galli/Robin Widdows M630/650 was seventh.
Following Le Mans, the MS650 and an M630/650 were raced in select rounds of the World Championship, with the first real success at the Paris 1000 km at Montlhéry, where Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Henri Pescarolo drove the MS650 to victory, followed home by the MS630/650 crewed by Pedro Rodriguez and Brian Redman.
Beltoise/Pescarolo MS630/650 winners in the Paris 1000 km Montlhery 1969 (P Vauvert)Two more Daytona shots help us with the MS650’s (M Lebold)Brabham chopped and changed his helmets in 1970 between ye-olde-faithful Bell Magnum, as here, a Bell Star, and US military-derived Gentex SPH-4 (L Galanos)
Two further MS650s were produced and campaigned at Sebring, Daytona, Brands Hatch, Monza, and Le Mans during 1970.
Given the pace of other 3-litre prototypes: Porsche 908, Alfa Romeo T33 and Ferrari 312P Matra’s the MS650 raced at Le Mans alongside its replacement MS660 (Beltoise/Pescarolo DNF gearbox). While outwardly similar, it featured an all-new aluminium monocoque chassis. It was a step forward, but it took the 5-litre to 3-litre engine regulation change for the new for 1972 Matra MS670 to deliver the goods at Le Mans from 1972-74.
Henri Pescarolo on the way to 1972 Le Mans victory aboard a Matra MS670 shared with Graham Hill. A great day for France (LAT)
Etcetera…
(A Damfreville)
Matra MS620 (MS620-01) BRM 2-litre V8 during the April 3, 1966 Le Mans test weekend.
Matra Sports Type List and Designations
MS630 and a couple of MS7 Ford FVA F2 cars. Perhaps, thanks to reader, ‘Pete, ‘it looks like the location might be Marigny airport (in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France) where they did testing ahead of Le Mans.’
(Matra)
1970 Le Mans pit panorama.
#32 is the Brabham/Cevert MS650, #31 the Beltoise/Pescarolo MS660 DNF transmission in the seventh hour. The other obscured MS650 was raced by Patrick Depailler/Jean-Pierre Jabouille/Tim Schenken, it too was out in the seventh hour with an engine problem. If my memory of a conversation with Tim serves, he did very few practice laps and didn’t get a steer in the race.
Let’s not forget that Matra – Matra MS80 Ford – were the reigning World F1 Champions in 1970, both Constructors and Drivers.
This Elf PR session at Montlhery in October 1969 shows Jackie Stewart in his 1969 World Championship winning MS80 Ford DFV from Henri Pescarolo’s MS7 Ford FVA F2 car, then Jean-Pierre Beltoise aboard an MS650, then, perhaps Johnny Servoz-Gavin, MS630/650 and finally an MS630…
Eric della Faille, Jean-Pierre Fabre Collection, Francois Hurel, Michel Charles, Marc Lebold, Revs Institute, Antoine Damfreville, Louis Galanos, Patrick Vauvert, Matra Sports Facebook group, F2Index-Fastlane, racingsportscars.com
Dan Gurney’s winged Lotus 19B Ford V8 during the 1964 Times Grand Prix aka Riverside 200 on 20 October…
Ok, it’s only a little one but Dan is still testing a front wing on the nose of his Lotus 19B. Remember the year folks, 1964, the year the Chaparral lads were getting serious about spoilers but not a wing like this, even if it’s of poverty pack dimensions.
I wonder that he thought of it? He raced it so it can’t have been all bad? I am intrigued to know what contemporary reports made of the experiment.
This one of a kind Lotus 19 variant, the very last made, chassis number 966, was designed by Len Terry for Dan to accept the ubiquitous Ford 289cid pushrod V8 via the relationship created between the two men through the Lotus/Ford Indy program. It culminated in a win for Lotus, Ford, Colin Chapman, Len Terry and not least Jim Clark. Len joined Dan’s All American Racers after the historic 1965 victory.
Colin Chapman and Dan Gurney at Indy in 1963966, Riverside paddock in 1964Dan, and Roger Penske’s Chaparral @A Chev at Nassau in 1963
966 was delivered from Cheshunt to Dan’s new Costa Mesa, California workshop as a rolling chassis and built up by his team before its first race at Nassau in late 1963 (above).
966 is still extant, racing at elite level as late as 1969 in two Can-Am events at Riverside and Texas as the ‘BVC Mk1’- the poor little spaceframe must have been groaning under the strain of a 5.7-litre ‘hevvy Chevvy’.
Dan’s car was hardly the first of the Anglo-American V8 lightweights but it was a mighty quick car in its day, a better car than Chapman’s backbone chassis Lotus 30 and ‘ten more mistakes’ Lotus 40 successor.
Fast but unreliable is a fair description of it. In December 1963, it was 16th in the Nassau Classic and DNF in the blue riband Nassau Trophy, which AJ Foyt won in a Scarab Mk4 Chev.
The Weber fed 4.7-litre Cobra engine produced circa 360bhp @ 6500rpm in period, the gearbox was a ZF. It evolved continuously of course, below in its original guise.
Laguna Seca, Ed La Mantia’s Genie Mk 5 Corvair, DNQ, about to be passed by Gurney during practice. Look at the practice crowd, FFS!Penske, Chaparral 2A Chev and Gurney, Lotus 19 Ford, Laguna Seca 200 Miles October 1964
Parnelli Jones won the 1964 LA Times GP in a more developed and robust Cooper King Cobra from Roger Penske in Jim Hall’s Chaparral 2A Chev and Jim Clark’s works Lotus 30 Ford. The following weekend Dan was second to Penske in the 200 mile Monterey GP at Laguna Seca.
Gurney shared the All American Racers entered car at Daytona and Sebring in 1965. He led at Daytona for 211 laps before retiring at two-thirds distance with engine problems. At a very soggy Sebring he again ran up the front for a bit until the oil pump ended a valiant run. The car, by then entered as a Lotus 19J Ford, raced in Shelby American colours as below.
966 Lotus 19J Ford at Sebring in 1965 (L Galanos)
Louis Galanos wrote of Sebring (this group of photographs), ‘Gurney had an arrangement with Carroll Shelby to be ‘the rabbit’ and get the Chaparrals and Ferraris to chase him and hopefully retire early. This would leave the door open for either Shelby’s Cobra Daytona Coupes to win or one of the GT40s taking home the trophy for the overall win. Unfortunately it was Gurney who retired early with a broken oil pump chain drive. Gurney’s co-driver Jerry Grant never got the chance to drive. Jim Hall’s Chaparral won the race.’
Gurney negotiates Sebring’s Webster Turns – be interesting to know who built the body, Shelbys I guess? – whoever it was didn’t rate the little front wing…
Etcetera…
In the beginning…
The delicate little flower as it arrived from Cheshunt, here (above) at Daytona in February 1964 still fitted with skinny Lotus wobbly-web magnesium alloy wheels. Dan took the view that 360 odd bee-aitch-pee needed more rubber on the road so a call to Halibrand was made.
The car was quick, on pole for the SCCA American Challenge Cup, he led the 15 February 400km race for 12 laps before stalling during a pitstop and was then disqualified for a push-start from his crew, a breach of the rules. Clearly Gurney had concerns about the cars endurance as he chose to contest this shorter race rather than the Daytona 2000km, as it then was, the following day.
Laguna Seca 1964. Gurney’s Lotus with Bruce McLaren, McLaren Mk1 Elva Olds at left, #8 is Jerry Grant’s Lotus 19 Chev and the white helmeted driver is probably Parnelli Jones’ Cooper King Cobra.
Penske won from Gurney and Bob Bondurant then Ronnie Bucknum- here dicing with Gurney in the photograph below the week before at Riverside.
Ronnie Bucknum, Shelby prepped Cooper King Cobra Ford, DNF, from Gurney’s Lotus 19 – 19G – in some texts, Riverside 1964
Dan and Mickey Thompson take shelter from the Laguna Seca, California, heat under Gurney’s beach umbrella. I wonder what plan they are hatching?
That roll bar is braced (removed in this shot) but is still a bit limp. Note the Lotus chassis and Weber fed 289 Ford V8, these little, light Windsors were and are gems of things, at 302cid they were the last ‘real production’ engines to win Le Mans outright in 1968 and 1969 in the back of JW Ford GT40s??
Between session changes at Laguna Seca. Note the Lotus 18 parts bin front suspension, and vestigial roll-over bar. Car #81 is Allen Grant’s Cheetah Chev, 14th.
Riverside again, at a glance the pretty car looks like a beefy Lotus 23. Team plagued with multiple mechanical issues over the weekend so did not finish.
Driver Bruce Campbell with his Ecurie Vickie Racing Team BVC Mk1 Chev 5.7 at Riverside in October 1969.
The car was given this name as a ruse to try and ensure race organisers didn’t know the derivation and age of the car. He qualified twentieth of 35 starters 14 seconds off the pace of Denny Hulme’s McLaren M8B Chev pole time and finished fifteenth 14 laps down. After his impressive qualifying time, race winner Denny spoke to Bruce and suggested a more modern car for the coming season!
At Texas International, Houston, the following weekend Bruce was 20 seconds off Denny’s pole and DNF. Hulme won aboard his M8B with Bruce winning the ’68 Can-Am Drivers championship and McLaren the Constructors of course.
Credits…
Getty Images, The Enthusiast Network, Louis Galanos, Bob D’Olivo, Pat Brollier, Vickie Callouette, Bill Stowe. Sorry about most of the photo credits, folks, I drafted this years ago and have long since lost those notes
Tailpiece: 1964 LA Times GP, Riverside…
Sadly for Dan it’s just the end of qualifying not the end of the 200 mile race the following day! Lotus 19B Ford.
I’m not sure of the date of Dan’s last drive in the car, but it seems Joe Leonard crashed it whilst tyre testing. It then passed through the hands of Steve Dulio, Dick Callouette, Wayne Linden, Gordon and Nancy Gimbel, then back to Steve Dulio, who is the last name I can see online. The car is still historic raced in the US, which is wonderful.
Peter Macrow gives a row of poplars a fright as he runs wide at Newry during the March 1968 Longford Tasman Cup weekend, Argo Chev V8.
The Argo is a special built from the bones of an uncompetitive Cooper T53 by Ray Gibbs, a Melbourne racer/mechanic who had a stint at Cooper in his CV, for grazier/racer/car owner Tony Osborne.
With a long gestation period, it was first raced by Ian Cook in 1967. When Ian bagged an Elfin 400 drive with Bob Jane Racing, another Melbourne up and coming single seater pilot, Peter Macrow got the ride.
Look how those trees have grown! They were saplings when Jack Brabham and Bib Stillwell raced each other on the same stretch of road out of Newry, in the Longford Trophy eight years before.
The freshly minted World Champion won there in 1960 aboard a Cooper T51 Climax 2.5 FPF, from the similar chassis of Alec Milden and Stillwell: Alec’s car was powered by a Maserati 250S four, Bib’s by a 2.2-litre Climax FPF.
Macrow eases Argo into the viaduct at Longford, on wet race day. The aluminium body was built – very slowly – by Murray Carter in Moorabbin, a legendary racer of all manner of things, mostly touring cars.
I wrote a feature on the Argo Chev, now owned by my good friend, Peter Brennan, a while ago. Have a read of it, it’s an intriguing tale of twists and turns: https://autoaction.com.au/2023/11/05/argo-chev-v8
Etcetera…
(G Fluke)
Chris Amon tips his ex-works/Scuderia Veloce Ferrari P4/350 Can Am into the uphill apex of Newry during the 1968 weekend, Chris won the sportscar races. He is about 50 metres behind the spot where the Argo is in the first shot.
(G Fluke)
Pedro gives us another look at the Newry poplars and his 2.5-litre BRM P126 V12 during the very soggy ’68 South Pacific Trophy race. He nicked second from Frank Gardner’s Brabham BT23D Alfa Romeo in the event’s final stages. The race was won in ballsy fashion by Piers Courage’s McLaren M4A Ford FVA F2 car.
Credits…
Osborne Family Collection via oldracephotos.com, Lin Gigney, Guy Fluke
Tailpiece…
(L Gigney)
Tony Osborne, Cooper T53 Climax leads Graham Hill, Brabham BT4 Climax – race winner – off Long Bridge during the March 2, 1964 South Pacific Trophy weekend.
This car, T53 #F2-17-60, ex-Brabham/Lex Davison provided some of the parts to build Argo. Both Argo and the Cooper exist and are occasionally raced in historic events.
Vern Schuppan had plenty of excitement towards the end of his victorious run at Le Mans in 1983. With two hours to go he sped down the Mulsanne in Porsche 956 #003) – shared with Al Holbert and Hurley Haywood – when the left-hand door flew off.
He kept circulating while a replacement door was readied, but the engine began to overheat as air was no longer being forced into the radiator on that side by the duct built into the door.
(T Walker)
After four laps a non-opening door was fitted. After rejoining, the car was ordered to return to the pits to have an operational door fitted on safety grounds. This meant the second-placed Bell/Ickx (005) above was able to make up its three-lap deficit with the cars on the same lap as the final circuit began.
Holbert’s overheated engine was now smoking, and Bell was closing rapidly – having been twelve seconds quicker in practice – but despite gaining on the lead car, the order remained the same at the finish.
(T Walker)
As usual, I found these photos by accident, researching something else, and up popped the ‘Porsche Pictures Past’ website porschepicturespast.com, which is fantastic, do have a look.
(T Walker)
That’s the 934 shared by John Goss (#9306700153) with car owner, Belgian ‘Jean Beurlys’ (Jean Blaton) and Nick Faure in 1976.
They started 27th and were still running at the finish but were too far behind the winner (181 laps completed) to be classified.
The story goes that the car was delivered to Blaton just before the race in Belgian racing yellow, but a last-minute sponsorship deal with Citizen Australia and Harley Davidson resulted in the car being hurriedly repainted into the colour scheme seen here, apparently with aerosol cans!
#69 was a Swiss entry for Claude Haldi/Christian Vetsch, DNF engine on lap 219 of 350, while car #17 was the Joest 908/3 (#008) driven by Ernst Kraus/Gunter Steckkonig; the 1970 Targa Florio-winning chassis was seventh on its Le Mans debut from grid 23.
(T Walker)
Tim Schenken shared this Georg Loos-GELO Racing 934 (#9306700175) with Toine Hezemans (driving) in 1976; they looked set for a GT category win until a transmission problem intervened.
After this setback, they were 16th outright and second in class after starting 15th. Tim competed at Le Mans five times, this was his sole finish.
Tim first raced for Gelo in 1974 and did full seasons in Georg Loos Porsches in 1975-76 with his best results as follows: 1975 – first in the Euro GT round in a 911 Carrera, and in the ETCC round at Zandvoort and 200 Km Jarama, while his wins in a fearsome Porsche 917/10 in the Zandvoort, Nurburgring Supersprint and Hockenheim Interserie round puts him am an elite group of drivers who won a race in these challengine cars.
And in 1976 aboard 934s, first in the DRM Hockemheim Preis der Nationen and the DRM Nurburgring Supersprint, while he shared the victory in the Monza 6-Hours with Toine Hezemans and Klaus Ludwig.
(T Walker)
The marshal pauses as the Charles Ivey Porsche 956 (#110) races past during 1984.
Crewed by Chris Craft/Alain de Cadanet and Allan Grice, the ex-John Fitzpatrick Racing machine had a DNF engine only two hours from the end when in 13th place.
Gricey returned to Le Mans in a works-Nissan R88C, finishing 14th, sharing with Win Percy and Mike Wilds.
(fotoracing.co.uk)
Larry Perkins had a crack at Le Mans in a Charles Ivey-entered car too. His 911 Carrera RSR (#9114609064) was having its second of two attempts at Le Mans in 1978.
After retirement the year before, it finished 14th from grid 47 in the hands of Perkins/John Rulon-Miller/Gordon Spice and was second in its class. Above, the winning Alpine-Renault A442B of Didier Pironi and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud prepares to pass the Porsche again, eventually finishing 91 laps ahead.
(T Walker)
There was no shortage of Australian drivers in the 1984 race including the Peter Brock/Larry Perkins Team Australia (John Fitzpatrick Racing) 956 #102.
The car was running 28th from Q18 when Larry ran off the road in a ‘he zigged when I zagged’ high speed passing move, ended its race after 145 laps.
(T Walker)
And yes, I know some other Australians also raced Porsches at Le Mans.
Comprehensive road tests of the 300 SLR Uhlenhaut are rather thin on the ground, so this article, written by Gordon Wilkins and published in the January 1957 issue of Motor Racing, seems like a good one to share. Gordon explains the circumstances surrounding the test in the opening paragraphs, so here it is.
Etcetera…
What I hadn’t realised until reading the spiel about these two cars on Mercedes Benz’ fantastic website, is that the first of the cars built was the very first W196S – 300 SLR – built, in November 1953.
Because Benz were running behind completion of the W196R Grand Prix car, resources being devoted to the sports car were redeployed to ensure the W196 race debut at Reims in July 1954 could be met.
Mercedes had planned to build a mix of 300 SLR coupes and spyders to driver preference, but when it became clear to Alfred Neubauer that most of the drivers preference was to race an open car – noise inside the car was the perceived issue – the build program was amended accordingly with the first of the open cars finished in June 1954.
(Mercedes Benz)(Mercedes Benz)
The 300 SLR Coupé made its first public appearance in August 1955, with Rudolf Uhlenhaut at the wheel during practice for the Swedish Grand Prix in Kristianstad.
By then 300 SLR spyders had already clinched a spectacular one-two in the Mille Miglia and in Sweden. The 300 SLR build program was completed in late summer 1954 after the successful start of the Formula 1 season.
In the 1955 World Sports Car Championship, which began for Daimler-Benz with the Mille Miglia on 30 April-1 May in Brescia, only the open-top version initially appeared.
(Mercedes Benz)Carrying #1 as the car did during practice during the Targa weekend in 1955 (Mercedes Benz)
Mercedes planned to race in the Carrera Panamericana in Mexico in November 1955 and in 1956, and therefore reactivated production of the coupé version in the summer of ’55 when two cars were completed.
For long-distance races, the aim was to give drivers the option of open or closed cars, but the two exotic machines weren’t raced after the Daimler-Benz Board withdrew from motorsport on October 11, 1955 after the Le Mans disaster.
As a consequence the 300 SLR Coupé’s motorsport outings were limited to practice and test drives at the Swedish Grand Prix, at Monza, the Tourist Trophy in Ireland and the Targa Florio.
Mercedes Benz, ‘The first completed coupé covered more than 10,000 kilometres; Rudolf Uhlenhaut was mainly at the wheel; Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips, a newcomer to the Mercedes-Benz racing team, was given the opportunity to familiarise himself with the 300 SLR on the trip to the Tourist Trophy in Ireland. With a third place, which he achieved in a team with André Simon in the open-top version, the talented young driver contributed to the Mercedes-Benz one-two-three victory in this race.’
(Mercedes Benz)(Mercedes Benz)
Uhlenhaut, a master test driver, had already demonstrated the reliability and suitability of the 300bhp racer for everyday use with his extensive journeys across Europe and thought it sensible to make the spectacular car available to the press for an extensive test.
‘In July 1956, journalists from the Swiss Automobil Revue magazine, led by its editor-in-chief Robert Braunschweig, subjected the 300 SLR Coupé to a long-distance test covering a total of 3500 kilometres. One concession to road traffic was the huge exhaust silencer on the right-hand side of the vehicle, which reduced the deafening background noise to a more bearable level. At the beginning of July and in mid-September, high-speed test drives and top speed measurements were carried out with both examples of the coupé in the presence of Rudolf Uhlenhaut.’
From the left: W196S Uhlenhaut, 300SL-W198, 300SL-W194, 300SL-W194-011. Ditto below (Mercedes Benz)(Mercedes Benz)
‘The “Uhlenhaut Coupé”, as the car has been called by car enthusiasts since the late 1980s, is considered one of the most important icons of the Mercedes-Benz brand and also the most valuable car in the world. In May 2022, one of the two vehicles built in 1955 was sold to a private bidder for 135 million euros at an auction in the Mercedes-Benz Museum. The proceeds are used to finance the “Mercedes-Benz Fund” – a global scholarship program that aims to encourage a new generation of schoolchildren and students to develop new technologies, in particular for decarbonisation and resource conservation. The second vehicle has been on display at the Mercedes-Benz Museum for many years and is one of the most spectacular exhibits there.’
Credits…
Bob King Collection, Motor Racing January 1957, Mercedes Benz
These super shots of Bob Jane Racing cars contributed (mainly) by Russell Martin and James Semple to Bob Williamson’s Australian Motor Racing Photographs Facebook page are too good not to share more widely.
The machine above is the Can-Am McLaren M6B Repco 740 5-litre V8 in which John Harvey won the 1971-72 Australian Sports Car Championships. See here: https://primotipo.com/2018/09/09/sandown-sunrise/
(R Martin)
Many of Russell Martin’s shots were taken at what appears to have been a press day at Calder, perhaps in late 1970, given the cars present and their livery.
Jane’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL-1 is a Top 25 all-time Australian Touring Car, winner of the 1971-72 Australian Touring Car Championships, powered by an aluminium Can-Am 427 big block in ’71 and a tiddly 350 cast iron small block in ’72. CAMS did a parity pirouette at the end of ’71 and banned the 7-litre engine despite it being homologated, not that it made any difference to the ATCC results. What a car…
A list of all of the cars Bob owned and raced would be a mighty impressive one! There were a couple of Series Production cars in this era, the Holden LC Torana GTR XU-1 shown above and a Monaro GTS 350. Southern Motors was Bob’s Holden dealership. I wonder what the Bob Jane Racing headcount was in that 1970-72 period? More here, including my attempt at a list of Bob’s racing cars: https://primotipo.com/2020/01/03/jano/
(J Semple)
John Harvey on the way to winning the RAC Tourist Trophy at Wawrick Farm on April 30, 1972, the third round of the Australian Sports Car Championship
Harves was the primary driver of this car but Bob had the occasional gallop as well. At the end of 1972 the car was parked, Castrol – if I remember the story rightly – wanted the focus to be on the team’s taxis not its single-seaters and sports car so the Brabham BT36 Waggott, Bowin P8 Repco-Holden and the McLaren were set aside in the workshop. The BT36 was sold to Ian Cook and Denis Lupton, the Bowin P8 chassis went to John Leffler and its Repco-Holden F5000 V8 engine was lent to Ron Harrop to use in his Holden EH sports sedan.
Two Australian sports car star-cars were parked for commercial reasons in this era while still in their prime: Frank Matich’s Matich SR4 Repco 860 5-litre in 1970 and the Bob Jane McLaren, both could have won the ASCC for years had they raced on…
The M6B’s life from then on was as a display machine at Bob Jane T-Marts throughout the land, the family still own it.
(R Martin)
The following excerpt from Tony McGirr’s book, ‘Gentleman John Harvey : Memories of How it Was’ related Harvey’s recollections of the McLaren M6B Repco.
‘I would rate the McLaren and my 76 Offy (speedcar) as the best cars I have ever driven in terms of driver satisfaction. I enjoyed driving them. More, I loved driving them. I was always relaxed and felt part of each car. Obviously, I won a lot of races in each, they were just sensational.
With a car such as the McLaren, it was a purpose built racing car. The engine was in the correct position. The weight distribution was perfect. Now, I’m talking about the late 1960s and early 1970s, and this was simply a fabulous motor car.
Not only that, but being a sports car, with a full enveloping body, it had style. It was a stunning looking car. When we rolled it out of the back of the transporter, people would come for miles to look at it. They would just stand there with their mouths open. They had never seen anything like it.
So, that was an added element to its appeal. By that stage too, Repco had the 5-litre V8 engines working properly. In the early days of the Repco V8 2.5-litre engines, they had lots of problems. By the time of the McLaren, they had the engines working properly. The engine we had was very reliable and very powerful.
Another thing in favour of the McLaren was the fact that it had a full monocoque chassis. Most of the sports cars I was racing against at the time, including the Elfins and Frank Matich’s early cars, were all of tube-frame construction and subject to a bit of frame-flex and twist. In the later period of Frank’s development of his cars, the SR4 was the quickest car by far. It had a 5-litre twin-cam engine. The engine we were using was a 5-litre single cam version.
Now, I’m not making excuses here, I am simply outlining the relevant technical differences. Frank’s car had another hundred horsepower, and was much faster in a straight line. However, when we came to braking, and going through the twisty bits, the McLaren would catch up every metre he had gained on the straight. In a couple of cases, he could do the fastest lap of the race, and I could match it a little later, when my fuel load went down, and we had a bit better power-to-weight ratio.
But, the final word on the McLaren – fantastic. Plus, Bob Jane had a very deep affection for Bruce. They had known one another for some years. Bob also knew Pat, Bruce’s wife. As a tragic irony, Bob and I were with Bruce the night before he died. In fact, we were in London on business, mainly to see how the McLaren was being finished off.
Now, Bruce had made that car as ‘a special’ for Bob, and the Repco engine. Because, at the time Bruce was using the 7-litre Chevy engine as a stressed member of the car’s structure, and was hanging the rear suspension off the transmission. Because the Repco engine was not robust enough (more correctly, the engines weren’t designed to be used as stress-bearing members) to be used this way, Bruce built a couple of chassis members, or pontoons, off the back of the bulkhead, to accommodate the Repco engine. He got Ron Tauranac to bring around a spare engine block so he could use that as a dummy to set up the engine in the redesigned chassis.
So, in that way, Bob’s McLaren was a specially built one-off car. Anyway, we were with Bruce on his last night. We were heading off, and back to Australia. At that time, Bruce was the recipient of the Grovewood Award, and had to go to the function that evening to receive the award. This was a very prestigious award in those days. Anyway, Bruce had forgotten to bring his best suit, and it was too far to go home to get it. Bruce and Bob were about the same size. Both were short, stocky types, with solid shoulders.
Bruce was inclined to brush the whole thing off and said, ‘Ah well, it’s only a suit’. Bob insisted that he be able to lend Bruce his own new suit that he had in his bags. So, off went Bruce to collect the award in Bob’s new suit. He thought that was terrific.’
Repco-Brabham – Repco from 1969 – the RB740 all aluminium, SOHC, two-valve, Lucas injected 5-litre V8 is quoted by Repco as having 460bhp @ 7500 rpm and weighed 360 pounds (R Martin)
‘With the international time difference, and the time it took our flight to get back to Sydney airport, there on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald were the words, ‘Bruce McLaren killed’. We couldn’t believe it. We had been with him just the night before.
So, that was a really sad end to our trip. After that, the McLaren became an extra special car for Bob. Particularly so because he was the one who owned it. It became special for me for the period in which I drove it. I think Bob drove it a couple of times, but basically, that was my car for the whole period of its racing career.
We retired the car at the end of the ’72 championship, and the car has never been raced since. They have restored it twice. When I say ‘twice’, I mean the first restoration was pretty good, but the second was exceptional. The only person who has driven it since, was when Denny Hulme drove it at the ’85 Grand Prix in a parade lap (below). Bob wanted me to drive it last year, or the year before, at the Grand Prix at Albert Park. I was really looking forward to that, except that the engine had traces of water in the oil, and the whole thing was cancelled.’
(Bob Jane Racing Heritage)M6B sales chick. Bob Jane T-Mart, Parramatta Road, Granville in June 1976, with the nose of Jane’s Maserati 300S, which had been restored by Jim Shepherd (spelling? not John Sheppard) not long before (Cummins Archive)
‘Bob is probably the only person in the whole world who was an original owner of a McLaren race car, and who still owns it. It has never changed hands, and while ever Bob lives, it will never change hands.
Was the McLaren finicky’ to set up? I ask this in reference to modern Formula One cars, which they fool around with all the time. There are so may adjustments on modern cars, it seems to take them forever to set them up properly.
We didn’t have the same range of adjustments on the McLaren. Today, on almost everything, they have electronics. They have sensors all over the cars. The driver now has nowhere near the input we had in those days.
Mechanically, things are still somewhat similar. They still have suspensions with wishbones, springs, shock absorbers, roll-bars, and brake adjustments. The major difference is that we didn’t have any aerodynamic features to worry about, and we were on treaded tyres.
My first response when I sat in the McLaren was to say that the arches on the front mudguards were too high. Bruce had been using a much taller tyre. Technology was changing, and the result was we were using a smaller diameter tyre. We had the tyre sitting low down, and the crown of the mudguard up high. This made it pretty difficult to see your proper racing line.
We finally lopped the top off the big, tall radius of the front mudguards. We had a stylist do it, and I still think it was all for the better for the aesthetics of the car. It looked more balanced. It looked much nicer. Certainly, the newer rubber worked to enhance the performance of the car.
But, apart from that cosmetic change, we changed very little. Things like springs, we never had to change. Bruce had the springs made from this fantastic spring steel, and that meant that the springs never sagged. On other cars that I had raced with locally made springs, you had to be checking them all the time. You had to check them for installed height, static height, and compressed height. You had to take dimensions of these things all the time, because the springs would sag. This could lower your ride height, and all sorts of adverse things could happen as a result.
The springs in the McLaren – and the Brabham – we never had to touch. From that point of view, it was just shock absorber adjustments and wheel alignment. This was very important for the geometry of the front end. Adjustment of the rear ride height was also critical. Other than that, it was pretty much trouble-free. And as I said, by that time the engines were pretty reliable, so we had a good finish rate. It was a lovely car to drive. I just enjoyed driving it so much.’
Allan Moffat organised the purchase of a Shelby Mustang (car #3 above) for John Sawyer and Bob Jane in late 1968. Jane’s car was one car raced by Horst to victory at Riverside. VIN#8RO1J118XXX was the very last of the 1968 K-K/Shelby cars built and had only raced three times in the hands of Dan Gurney, Peter Revson and Horst.
Happily for both Jane and Moffat, it was soon on its way to Australia with Moffat expecting to race the hand-me-down Mustang GT390 in 1969 whilst his team-owner raced the near-new car, on the face of it the pair were a strong combination for the ensuing year…This story is told in the piece linked above.
Bob Jane, Ford Mustang 390, Phillip Island paddock circa- 1968 (R Martin)(R Martin)
The Jane V8 Repco was one of the few short-lived Bob Jane Racing cars.
The Bob Britton/Rennmax Engineering-built machine was campaigned by Harvey in the 1970 Australian Gold Star Championship, the last ‘Tasman 2.5 Era’ Gold Star.
When Harvey was first recruited by Bob after Spencer Martin’s retirement at the end of 1967, Harves inherited the Brabham BT23E Repco-Brabham 2.5 V8 Jane acquired from Jack Brabham at the end of the ’68 Tasman Cup.
John was nearly killed in it at Bathurst during that year’s first Gold Star round over the Easter long weekend. Harvey then raced it throughout 1969 and into early 1970 as related in this article:
John Harvey being looked after on the Oran Park 1970 grid by John Sawyer, Jane Repco V8. That’s Max Stewart alongside in Alec Mildren’s Mildren Waggott TC-4V
The Jane Repco V8 used the same pair of ex-Jack Brabham 295bhp @ 9000 rpm Repco 2.5-litre 830 V8s fitted to the BT23E, but the chassis – built on Britton’s BT23 jig – had revised suspension geometry to suit the latest generation of ever-evolving and widening tyres and other changes including the bodywork. As the story below relates, John could, woulda, shoulda won that Gold Star…The car has lived on, in ANF2 form, for many years in a WA museum I think.
Jane in the Jaguar E-Type Lwt at Calder, and the Elfin 400 Repco-Brabham 620 4.4-litre V8, perhaps on the same day below circa-1967, again with Bob at the wheel. See here for a piece on Bob’s E-Types: https://primotipo.com/2018/04/15/perk-and-pert/
(R Simmonds)
Elfin 400 Repco 620 620 4.4-litre V8 in Bob Jane’s hands at Calder circa 1967, above as I say, and in the Phillip Island paddock below, a little later 1968’ish; note the more substantial roll bar and rear spoiler in the shot below.
Bob Jane – yep, I know it’s Harves number – in one of his favourite cars, the John Sheppard built Holden Torana GTR XU-1 Repco-Brabham 620 4.4-litre V8 at Warwick Farm in 1972.
The Total and Castrol Bob Jane Racing thing seems to be a 1972-73 commercial relationship. I’m not sure how the two oil companies co-existed on the cars, but doubtless one of you taxi-fans will know the answer.
The Torana was born as a consequence of the growth in interest in. sports sedans and the availability of the Repco-Brabham 620 4.4 V8 in Janes workshop. After Bevan Gibson’s fatal Easter Bathurst 1969 crash in Bob’s Elfin 400 Repco 4.4, the remains, sans engine, were sold to Victorian Ken Hastings. Less than a year later the engine was put back into work…
Jane on the bonnet of the XU1-Repco (J Semple)(J Semple)
Harvey’s Torana sports sedan (above and below) leads Allan Moffat’s Mustang Trans-Am 302 and Bob Janes Holden Monaro HQ GTS 350 – both improved tourers – at Warwick Farm in 1972. The Monaro was another Sheppo build of course.
Ray Bell tells me that it’s the ‘November 5, ’72 meeting, Moffat won. Harvey retired after two laps in the early race, but not before he had pointedly moved over off the grid to block Moffat. In the second race Pete had diff troubles after forcing his way to second and dropped back so it was Moffat, then Harvey and Jane at the finish. This was when Moffat did a 1:37.5.’
(J Semple)(J Semple)
Beauty and The Beast Torana sports sedans.
The aluminium SOHC, Lucas injected 4.4-litre 400 bhp @ 7000 rpm, 360 pounds, Repco RB620 V8 powered, John Harvey driven, Bob Jane Racing Holden Torana GTR XU-1 chased by the cast iron, pushrod, Lucas injected 5-litre 475 bhp @ 7000 rpm, 485 pounds, Repco-Holden F5000 powered, Colin Bond driven, Holden Dealer Team Holden Torana GTR XU-1 at Oran Park. Ray advises that Harvey won both these encounters during the May 1973 meeting.
John Sheppard was prolific when he joined Bob Jane Racing, there were some seriously fast racing cars run by Bob in the Sheppo era including the Chev Camaro ZL-1, Holden Monaro HQ GTS 350, Holden Torana GTR XU-1 Repco, McLaren M6B Repco, Brabham BT36 Waggott TC-4V and Bowin P8 Repco-Holden. Sheppo scratch builds are the Monaro and Torana.
(J Semple)
Jane in the Monaro from Pete Geoghegan’s Ford GTHO Super Falcon 351 in its definitive, post-John Joyce-Bowin Designs rebuilt form at Warwick Farm in 1972. Probably the same race as three pics back, touring cars were sooooo fuckin’ good back then! Totally unlike the bullshit parity-sameness dog’s bollocks of today. Bob on the WF grid below on the same day.
(J Semple)(I Smith)
Calder March 1979, it looks like Janey is wearing the same Bell Magnum open-face helmet he was using a decade before – same Monaro but wilder sports-sedan specs – it was an improved tourer when first built way back in 1972.
(I Smith)
Bob Jane’s Pat Purcell built Chev Monza 350 at Dandenong Road, Sandown in December 1980. Amazing car, time to do an Auto Action under the skin piece on it with the unpublished shots we have…
Credits…
James Semple, Russell Martin, Ian Smith, Murray Thomas, Australian Muscle Car, Cummins Archive, ‘Gentleman John Harvey : Memories of How It Was’ Tony McGirr, Ray Bell
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