“Don’t even think about!” said Liz Stanton of the Mini Automatic. “It hasn’t got enough poke to pull ‘yer foreskin back, the Cooper S is the go for a studmeister like you,” or words to that general effect.
Pix photographer Bob Donaldson shot the Mini Matic launch at Surfers Paradise in September 1967 and five years before, a Morris Cooper test in October 1962, not to forget his November 1964 Zetland Grand Prix shots…
(Donaldson/SLNSW)Morris 850 at left, Cooper at right (Donaldson/SLNSW)
By the look of the backgrounds on some of the action shots, the drive and photos took place on the British Motor Corporation’s massive site centred on Zetland, six kilometres south of Sydney.
While common knowledge to Oz motor enthusiasts, some of you furriners may not be aware that a huge range of BMC cars were manufactured in full in Australia – bodies and engines included – until the favourable tariff treatment afforded the mother-country was eliminated in the early 1970s, after you bastards joined the EU…
Surely there has been no better small performance car on road, track, the hills and in the forests than the Cooper/Cooper S? Not to forget the iconic status of Alec Issigonis’ brilliant, original ADO15 (Austin Design Office) design.
Topsy grew in engine capacity – but critically not in size – from 997cc-54bhp to 998cc-54bhp, then 1071cc-69bhp, then for a while 970cc-64bhp, and 1275cc-75bhp, before settling at that 1275cc magic-number…
(Donaldson/SLNSW)
Note the factory extractors and twin HS2 SU carbs, the 997 gave circa 54bhp, not shedloads, but the thing weighed nothing and far more was easily capable of being extracted.
(Donaldson/SLNSW)
That instrument-pod never changed, thankfully. Coopers got a remote gearshift which was fast and great to use, the 850 got a long pudding-stirrer. The standard steering wheel was shit but no Cooper was complete without aftermarket Mota-Lita or Momo wheels and a Smiths tach. Oh yes, a racy mirror too, but only on the driver’s side.
(Donaldson/SLNSW)
The 7.5 inch front discs were effective, rare on small cars then too. Issigonis and John Cooper knew a thing or two about competition after all.
(Donaldson/SLNSW)
“Where is the other 5-gallon tank?” you ask. That came with the 1275cc S from 1966.
(Donaldson/SLNSW)(Donaldson/SLNSW)
“Oh no!” Those steel wheels have got to go, and usually did. The well heeled bought Minilites but I always thought a set of Cosmic wheels were hard to toss visually, and were a bit stronger for road use and abuse.
Paddy Hopkirk competes in the little known ‘Zetland Grand Prix’ in November 1964.
Factory BMC drivers Hopkirk – winner of the Monte Carlo Rally aboard a Cooper S partnered by Henry Liddon that January – John Fitzpatrick, Timo Makinen and Rauno Aaltonen were in Australia to contest the first Sandown 6-Hour enduro on November 29.
Evan Green at the left? Paddy Hopkirk in the centre, and John Fitzpatrick, perhaps, at right (Donaldson/SLNSW)(Donaldson/SLNSW)
Part of the promotional activities set up by BMC Oz while the visitors were in their grasp was this demonstration of the capabilities of the cars built by the Sydney workers right in their own backyard.
Note the content of the safety processes/briefings: to the workers, ‘keep an eye on the cars’ and to the drivers, ‘try not to hit anyone’…Mission accomplished I believe. What a blast that would have been.
(Donaldson/SLNSW)
Credits…
Bob Donaldson, Pix, State Library of New South Wales, The Sun UK, LAT, Ashley Tracey
Tailpieces…
(The Sun UK)
Paddy Hopkirk races around Monaco during the final 1964 Monte stage, and below after securing the historic win, with co-driver, Henry Liddon.
(LAT)(A Tracey)
Sandown 6-Hour 1964, the end of the first lap perhaps with the Barry Topen/Digby Cooke Fiat 2300 leading two of the three works-Cooper S.
These 1275 S were British built cars brought to Australia for the event by Zetland’s newly formed competition department, the idea of BMC PR Manager – and rally driver – the much respected Evan Green.
Alan Kemp managed the department, while the three Cooper S racers were prepared for Sandown by the legendary Peter Molloy – then working with Brian Foley in Sydney – at BMC’s Melbourne workshop in Moorabbin.
Peter Manton/Brian Foley were second, seven laps adrift of the victorious Alec Mildren Racing Alfa Romeo TI Super driven by Roberto Businello and Ralph Sach. The Hopkirk/Fitzpatrick car was sixth, while the Makinen/Aaltonen pair failed to finish after losing a wheel and rolling. See here for some footage of the race: https://youtu.be/LZiQ4PJSmyo?si=Sb39mqNzckopf-kK
Jack Myers may well have been the very first Holden Hero, but if not he was certainly an early bird in the very long line of touring car champs to race General Motors Holdens’ products.
Here he is in front of the pack aboard his very quick, self modified 48-215 during a South Pacific Trophy support race at Gnoo Blas, Orange in January 1956.
Hard chargers both, Stan Jones and Jack Myers at Mount Panorama during the October 1960 Craven A International weekend (C Lynch-SLNSW)(B Williamson Collection)Myers at Bathurst in 1958
The Kingsford, NSW racer/mechanic/engineer/retailer was up to his armpits in Holden 48-215s from early on, racing a 110mph cream Humpy from 1953.
Myers soon offered 100 mph Holden motoring to all for £130. His kit involved boring your block to 3 3/16 inches, new pistons and rings, a shaved-head, re-ground cam, 12 inner valve-springs, an additional Stromberg carb, Myers inlet manifold and extractors, sports air-cleaners and a Lukey muffler. Seems as-cheap-as-chips!
Bathurst’s first ‘Production Car Race’ was held in October 1950; the first Holden entered at Mount Panorama was R Isackson’s Uni Motors car during the Easter 1951 meeting, but he didn’t start the race. The first Holden finisher on this holiest of racing turf was the 48-215 driven by R Mitchell who was fifth in a six lap sedan handicap in 1954. He was timed at 91mph down Conrod.
Fittingly, the first Mount Panorama Holden winner was Jack. John Medley anointed him “the Holden wonder-man of the mid-1950s, his black-roofed yellow car going progressively more quickly over the years.” 109.9mph down Conrod during the Easter 1956 weekend to be precise. He took that win in a six lap handicap in October 1955, the following year he was back in one of the swiftest Greys of all.
Myers aboard the Cooper T20 Holden during the 1957 AGP at Caversham. DNF in the race won by the Lex Davison/Bill Patterson Ferrari 500/625Aboard the more advanced, spaceframe chassis, but still Cooper derived, WM Holden Special on Pit Straight during practice for the the Craven-A International at Bathurst in October 1960. DNS in the race won by Jack Brabham’s Cooper T51 Climax 2.5 FPF
After campaigning the winning Holden far and wide: Mount Druitt, Gnoo Blas, Mount Panorama, Strathpine, Lowood, Fishermans Bend and Port Wakefield, Myers was up for the next challenge.
He bought Stan Coffey’s, rolled Cooper T20 (#CB-1-52) single-seater and repaired it at his Anzac Parade ‘shop. Then, together with Merv Waggott, he built and progressively developed the big-daddy of early Holden engined racers, the 2.4-litre DOHC Waggott-Holden WM Holden.
Stirling Moss was so fascinated by this home-grown application of technology to a Cooper type he knew so well, he did some demonstration laps in it at Sydney’s Cumberland Speedway whilst in Oz for the November 1956 AGP at Albert Park. Jack was twelfth at the Park and first Australian car home.
Myers was typical of so many Holden Heroes from the 1950s to 1970s, he serviced them for customers, modified them, made and sold hot-bits and raced them.
Myers Holden 48-215 at Mount Druitt, Sydney in the early 1950s.
Sitting up in the breeze! Myers, Cooper T20 Waggott-Holden, at Caversham, AGP 1957
Myers in the form-up area, or dummy-grid depending upon your religion, Craven-A International meeting at Mount Panorama in October 1960. That’s Austin Miller’s Cooper T51 at left.
While early on in his ownership of the ex-Stan Coffey Cooper T20, the car was rightly called a Cooper, but as Jack crashed and rebuilt the car/developed it, the machine became more Myers than Cooper, and fitted with that extraordinary twin-cam six fitted, more Waggott-Myers than Cooper!
Note the disc brakes above, albeit the front suspension still looks kosher-Cooper T20, the stylised Jack Myers brandmark in a neat touch. Myers didn’t start the car in the feature won by Jack Brabham’s Cooper T51 Climax.
Brabham was present at Bathurst for the first time since 1955, 6,000 people turned up for practice to see the twice World Champ. Unfortunately, as John Medley wrote, “Jack Myers crashed the newly disc-braked WM Cooper on top of the mountain, bending the chassis and destroying the suspension. There would be no overnight (or any) rebuilds this time. The motor was sold, the remains of the car sold separately, Myers borrowed the little Dalro Reno to run at this meeting, and would then turn his attention to his little hillclimb special – the ex-Saywell/Reynolds Mark IV Cooper with his Triumph ‘twin-twin’ engine.”
Tragically, Jack died at the wheel of the Cooper Triumph at Catalina Park, Katoomba on January 21, 1962 (7/1/18-21/1/62). The WM Holden was ultimately restored and lives at the National Motor Museum, Birdwood Mill campus, in the Adelaide Hills.
Myers – famous for racing in these horizontally hooped T-shirts – and crew in the Mount Panorama paddock, Easter 1959. Bonus points for crew-members names folks? That is a Cooper alloy wheel.
The boys push start that Waggott-Holden twin-cam six into life before the start of the 1959 Bathurst 100 on March 31. Stan Jones’ Maserati 250F is in the middle and race victor Ross Jensen’s 250F on pole at right. All the fun of the fair, look at that crowd! Jack was an excellent fourth behind Jensen, Len Lukey, Cooper T45 Climax, and Arnold Glass, Maserati 250F.
Stan is in the early stages of his best season and a bit ever, he was the reigning Gold Star Champion (1958) and at this stage of the year had won the Australian Grand Prix at Longford a month before. Jensen was seriously quick, he ran the Maserati at Bathurst in ’58, but failed to finish the 100, and finish the job he did a year later in convincing style!
WM Holden in the pits at Gnoo Blas, and again at the start of a race below, in February 1960. The ex-Whiteford Talbot-Lago T26C #110007 was raced by Barry Collerson.
While it is true that the WM-Holden was the sexiest and quickest Holden-powered racing car of the period, the most successful was Tom Hawkes’ Cooper T23 Repco-Holden (below). Chassis #CB/Mk2/1/53) was no less a car than the ex-Jack Brabham Redex Special – a Bristol 2-litre six cylinder powered T23 – albeit continuously evolved by Hawkes after Jack sold the car (to Stan Jones then on to Hawkes) when he left for Europe in early 1955. Its Repco Hi-Power crossflow headed engine was far less exotic than Merv’s twinc, but was more reliable.
Very late in its in-period competitive life the T23 was fitted with a Chev 283cid V8, a task commenced by Tom Hawkes and Murray Rainey, and finished by Earl Davey-Milne. It’s still owned by the Davey-Milnes and is shown below last week. Mighty fine it is too…
(C Lynch-SLNSW)
Back where we started, Gnoo Blas in 1956, how did Jack do in the touring car races that weekend, and who is at the wheel of in that little VW Beetle 1200!?
Credits…
Cec Lynch-Pix-State Library of New South Wales, Bob Williamson Collection, Les Mortimer, David Medley, Ken Devine, Kelsey Collection, Kaleda Family Collection, National Archives of Australia, ‘Bathurst:Cradle of Australian Motor Racing’ John Medley
Tailpieces…
(Lynch/SLNSW)
“Don’t even think about it kid, my 48-215 has been worked over by Jack Myers, you don’t have a chance!”
This shot is from a Pix puff-piece in 1955 promoting Italian toy cars for David Jones, a national department store chain. The little dude appears to be a handy-mechanic and would be 80’ish now. Chassis number and make of EV unknown…
I was flicking through some images and came upon a few photographs of Leo and Pete Geoghegan the other day, intriguingly, they were all shots taken in 1973. A good reason for a quickie article.
Leo initially raced the first ANF2 Birrana, the 272 Hart-Ford 416B 1.6, in 1972. By 1973 he raced a works-car to the Australian Formula 2 Championship in the 273 shown above. He won six of the seven rounds, then doubled up and won again aboard a 274 in 1974 against much stronger opposition. More about the 272 here: https://primotipo.com/2019/02/01/this-is-hard-work/
Pete Geoghegan ahead of one of the Toranas in the final ATCC round of 1973 at Warwick Farm in July. He was third behind the Peter Brock and Bob Morris XU-1s (Auto Action)
Meanwhile, younger-brother, Pete was doing his thing as one of the country’s greatest exponents of touring cars. He ran a John Sheppard built Group C Chrysler Valiant Charger E49 in the Australian Touring Car Championship, then switched brands to co-drive a works XA Ford Falcon GT351 Coupe in the Bathurst round of the Australian Manufacturers Championship.
Pete was sixth in the ATCC, his bests, a second place at Surfers and a pair of thirds at Calder and Warwick Farm. Allan Moffat won the title in his XY Ford Falcon GTHO Phase 3 from Peter Brock, LJ Holden Torana GTR XU-1, and Graham ‘Tubby’ Ritter, Ford Escort twin-cam.
At Bathurst (below) Pete bagged an overdue 500-win for the brothers when he co-drove Moffat’s Coupe to a celebrated FoMoCo victory. Holden (Torana GTR XU-1) won the Manchamps with wins in three of the five rounds, Ford won two and were placed fourth in the title race, with Alfa Romeo (105 Series 2000 GTV) second and Mazda (Capella RX2) third.
How time flies! Its nearly 50 years since Holden’s LH Torana SL/R 5000 L34 (L34) took to the tracks and thrilled Australian racegoers with the raucous-barking-howl of its Repco-Holden F5000 influenced 308 V8.
Allan Grice teased race fans with the L34’s potential when he ran a 310bhp SL/R 5000 in some high-speed demonstration laps at Amaroo Park on Sunday April 19, 1974; the Amaroo shot of the same car above was taken during the June 2 meeting, with Fred Gibson’s XB GT Falcon Coupe behind.
Peter Brock reinforced the SL/R 5000’s pace by winning the final two Australian Touring Car Champiosnship rounds in May/June at Surfers Paradise and Adelaide International in his Holden Dealer Team car, thereby securing the title, the bulk of his points being accumulated in the good ‘ole six-cylinder XU-1.
Allan Grice and Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000, demo laps at Amaroo Park on April 19, 1974(Auto Action)Colin Bond on the way to winning the 1974 Phillip Island 500K in his Holden Dealer Team L34 (Auto Action)
By mid-1974 enough L34s were built (total build numbers 263) to allow CAMS homologation and therefore competition in the Adelaide and Sandown Manufacturers Championship rounds in advance of the Bathurst 1000.
On August 25 Colin Bond famously won at Adelaide International on an L34 wing-and-a-gearbox-prayer debut.
Bondy then won the 1975 Australian Touring Car Championship with Peter Brock and Brian Sampson delivering the Mount Panorama goods. The ’75 rout was complete when The General took the Australian Manufacturers Championship with the L34 winning four of the five rounds.
Things were a lot tougher in 1976 when the Allan Moffat/Colin Bond Ford Falcon XB GT351 ruled the roost, except at Bathurst where Bob Morris and John Fitzpatrick won a close finishing tear-jerker of a race in their L34.
It’s fitting that the Life and Times of the L34 are being celebrated en-masse at the Phillip Island Classic this weekend as the fast but fragile – axles, gearbox and differential – cars won there a few times: Bond in a Holden Dealer Team car in 1974, Brock in 1975 in the Norm Gown-Bruce Hindhaugh prepared car, and Bond again for the HDT in 1976. In 1977 it was the turn of the L34’s younger sibling, Allan Grice won in a new Torana A9X (Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback).
In a wonderful half-centenary 1974-2024 Phillip Island book-end, Rod Hadfield’s ex-Rod and Russ McRae Dustings of Burwood L34 – third placegetter in the 1974 500K – will be on-circuit throughout the Phillip Island Classic including morning parades on Saturday/Sunday along with 40 other race/road L34s organised by the L34 Fiftieth Anniversary Committee.
This is a not to be missed meeting for Holden, Torana and Group C fans!
Etcetera L34…
Believe it or not, I loved Touring Cars once upon a time when there was variety from one end of the capacity spectrum to the other…it all turned to shit for me when the ruling CAMS-Maxi Taxi Junta gave us the infinite boredom of same, same, and a bit more same, 30 or so years ago. Fuggem I thought, and still do. Those hopelessly-conflicted pricks are the tall-tree-in-the-Australian-racing-paddock that grab all the nutrient (money) for themselves leaving fuck-all for everybody else.
While I was in Oakleigh last week I had a snoop through some of Big Bad Brucie’s (Bruce Williams, Auto Action’s publisher/owner) archives and will gradually work my way through the more technical material about the way these cars evolved through 1974-75 with a view to expanding this piece.
Etcetera Falcon GT 351 Coupe…
Interestingly, Auto Action published the ‘Super Bits’ FoMoCo homologated on August 14, before Bathurst that year, in its September 20, 1974 issue.
“The parts homologated include four-bolt main bearing blocks, forged aluminium pistons, a new slightly modified inlet manifold, modified cylinder heads, modified water pump, and an, as yet unused (by Allan Moffat) sump.”
“Moffat’s Falcon (at the Sandown 250) was modified at the rear suspension with the trailing arms being turned into leading links. Apart from all this, it was lowered more at the front, while still retaining enough ground clearance to pass over the ride height measure.”
“All this adds up to around two seconds a lap at Sandown using what amounted to a development car.”
Allan Moffat, Ford XB Falcon GT351 Coupe at Bathurst in October 1974. DNF, the race was won by the John Goss/Kevin Bartlett XA Ford Coupe (R Davies)
Ford Australia photo-shoot to amass material for the release of the new Cortina Mk2. The ski-bunnies are at Falls Creek in the Victorian Alps, 385km north-east of Melbourne during August 1967.
While the Going Ford is The Going Thing tagline days were a little after this, I always thought FoMoCo was a bit more edgy than their local competition with their marketing. The Sex Sells approach is consistent with that, bless them. Poor girls, it certainly would have stood the nippy-nips on end.
(R Donaldson)(R Donaldson)
My first car was a very fourth-hand Mk2 1600 GT which served me well in my student years and gave me a thorough grounding in the Kent engine and the foibles of Lucas electricals, both useful in my Formula Ford years later. I’ve always thought the Corty Mk1 was much the prettier car of the three Cortinas all the same.
In order that you won’t think I’m engaged in the wanton exploitation of the female form – goodness me, perish the thought – the shot below is of Paul Hawkins in an Alan Mann Racing Cortina FVA in 1967, circuit folks?
The Mk 1 Lotus Cortinas were built at Hethel (Lotus), while Ford built 4,032 Mk2 Lotus Cortinas and Cortina Twin Cams at Dagenham through until September 1970. Their use as Ford’s frontline touring car was relatively short as Ford homologated the Escort Twin Cam in May 1968, it was with the new car that Ford then focussed its marketing/competition efforts.
Ford Australia Ad in 1969 (FoMoCo)
The car shown – CTC24E chassis BA91GD12811 – was originally a Team Lotus car raced by Paul Hawkins and Jacky Ickx in the ’67 BRSCC Group 5 British Saloon Car Championship powered by the equally new Ford Cosworth FVA 1.6-litre F2 engine. Check out this website for some fantastic information: http://www.lotuscortinainfo.com/?page_id=101 and here: http://www.lotuscortinainfo.com/?page_id=4
Etcetera…
(R Donaldson)
Don’t do it, it can’t be that bad! I wonder if JUF-423 is still with us?
(R Donaldson)
Oops, nearly lost it.
(R Donaldson)
Cine camera as well, the footage would be interesting to see.
Nice portrait of Allan Moffat during the September 9, 1979 Sandown 400K (Hang Ten 400) weekend.
Moff, Colin Bond and Carroll Smith had a season of incredible Australian Touring Car Championship/Championship of Makes/Bathurst 1000 dominance in 1977 with their Ford Falcon XB GT351/XC GS500 Hardtops but The General (General Motors Holden) changed all that with the introduction of the Holden Torana A9X 308 later that year – the car won on debut at the 1977 Hang Ten 400 driven by Peter Brock.
The Holden LX Torana A9X SS Hatchback was the ultimate Oz Group C era car. It addressed all of the weaknesses of the L34 Torana, not that those machines were exactly short of success.
The first three cars home at the completion of this ’79 Australian Championship of Makes 401km, 129 lap Sandown race were, inevitably, the A9X’s of Peter Brock, John Harvey and Peter Janson/Larry Perkins. Murray Carter was fourth in a Ford Falcon GS500 351, his machine was the only one of nine FoMoCo GS500s to go the distance. It wasn’t a happy time at all for we Ford fans!
Moffat and crew attend to the 351 Cleveland Ford V8 of the XC Falcon GS500 in Sandown’s pitlane. The ‘old’ Sandown pits were snug – fantastic for spectators – and dusty or muddy for the crews depending upon the mood of Melbourne’s weather.
Who was chief mechanic at this stage? Was Peter Molloy still building the engines?
Credits/Tailpieces…
Rennie Ellis – State Library of Victoria.
Rennie was a well-known ‘society snapper’ in Melbourne at the time, but he was pretty handy at a race meeting on the odd-occasion he slummed-it, as the two shots below taken during Sandown’s 1972 Gold Star round – the Victoria Trophy – on April 16 show.
(R Ellis)
The first shot shows Kevin Bartlett, Lola T300 Chev leading John McCormack’s Elfin MR5 Repco-Holden into Shell Corner – now excitingly called Turn One – while the one below is Clive Millis ANF2 1.6-litre Elfin 600B Lotus-Ford twin-cam. Frank Matich won the race, and the Gold Star that year in his Matich A50 Repco-Holden. McCormack was third, Millis eighth and KB suffered an ignition caused DNF.
Cathy Ford looking all pert and perpendicular in a Paula Stafford bikini, a mighty fine chequered flag design it is too. The car is a Valiant Charger R/T (road/track) at Surfers Paradise International Raceway in 1972’ish…
Once upon a time Australia had a motor industry. It was largely owned by the US Big Three, Chrysler was the smallest. Based in Tonsley Park outside Adelaide, the company punched well above its weight, the product, especially the Hemi-six cylinder engined cars were good in the context of the times.
The Big Three’s pony cars in 1971-72 comprised Ford’s four-door road Falcon GT 351 and Bathurst winning GTHO 351 variant, General Motors Holden’s mid-size 202cid six-cylinder road Torana GTR and Bathurst winning GTR-XU1, and the 265cid-six powered road Charger R/T E37 and Bathurst E38 in 1971, and E48/49 in 1972.
These amazing Australian designed and built road cars – in world terms they were fast and acccomplished – were fundamentally built to win Series Production races, especially the annual Bathurst 500 bash. Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday, it was that simple for the snappily dressed marketing men and their whiteshoe, sales foot-soldiers.
The David O’Keefe/ Jack Nougher Valiant Pacer VF on the way to a Class C win in the 1969 Sandown 3 Hour
Valiant put a toe in the competition water with mildly tuned ‘Pacer’ variants of their four-door VF and VG family man machines in 1969-70. Then they got serious with the new shortened 105 inch wheelbase Charger which was released two months after the mainstream 111 inch VH Valiant sedan in 1971.
The American styled VH suited guide-dog-owners, it’s big arse, cavernous overhangs, high waisted looks and narrow track weren’t a patch on the looks of the contemporary Holden HQ, Falcon XY or XA.
When Chrysler Oz CEO David Brown realised what a mutt his new car was going to be, he bundled up a tiny-budget and built a two door coupe, the design of which was led by Brian Smyth at Tonsley Park. It had to plug a hole in his range and grab some halo-effect for his four-doors.
I’ve cheated with photo selection here, the VH Pacer to me looked pretty good, all stripes and wide wheels. But the base models were very grim shit-fighters.
And what a horn-bag Smyth and the Chrysler International Design Studio, under Bob Hubbach, came up with. Charger was an immediate sensation when released in August 1971. The best bit of the Valiant, its front, was retained and otherwise the team crafted a low, squat, muscular, sexy machine that still looks great from every angle.
With Elle McPherson looks at an affordable price it was a sales smash aided and abetted by a brilliant marketing campaign. Hey Charger! was on everybody’s lips, young or old, male, female or confused. Winning Wheels magazine’s coveted Car of The Year award in ’71 was the cherry on the cake.
The range went from the poverty-pack 215cid, drum braked, three-on-the-floor Charger to the fire-breathing race-bred 265cid – a bored-out 245 Hemi – 1971 E38 280bhp @ 5000rpm and 1972 E49 302bhp @ 5600rpm R/T machines of interest to us.
For a while 70% of all Chrysler sales were Chargers, but they were far from niche. With a big back seat and a boot you could fit granny in, they were legit four-folk-family-cars. Read Mel Nichols’ account of what a great drive these competition bred Chargers were on the road; https://www.classicandsportscar.com/features/chrysler-valiant-charger-australian-odyssey
Chrysler competition chief, engineer John Ellis put together a strong development team in the Pacer days which included 1970 Gold Star champion single-seater racer, Leo Geoghegan who raced the cars and acted in a consulting capacity. Another sportscar/single-seater racer/mechanic, Ian Cook, a Chrysler employee was key too. This group, and others, concocted a potentially race winning car, the only missing ingredient in the formative stages was a four-speed gearbox…
John Ellis circa 1971 (CCC)A goal perhaps Leo? Geoghegan with a VG Valiant Ute at Mallala in 1971. Two Utes were cut and shut to replicate the upcoming Charger’s track and wheelbase, engine and big-tank location (autopics.com)
The A84 Track Pack option included a very direct 16:1 ratio steering box, Sure-grip LSD, a choice of tall 3.23:1 and short 3.50:1 diff ratios, light 14×7 R.O.H. cast alloy ‘Dragmag’ wheels and a huge 35-gallon tank with twin-fillers.
On paper, the big-Val had Bathurst shot-to-bits but the lack of a four-speed box was a big shortcoming; there was no Oz four-speeder available at the time, a situation rectified in 1972.
While it looked the goods, there were other shortcomings, as Mark Oastler outlines. “The Charger was built on a relatively short 105-inch wheelbase, which magnified the ‘see-saw effect’ of dynamic weight transfer from front to rear, resulting in excessive squat under acceleration and forward pitch under heavy braking.”
Leo with the real McKoy E39, again at Mallala. Squat at the rear, nose up a characteristic of the cars as per the text, the bonnet air duct doesn’t – it’s a styling addition only (autopics.com)Geoghegan practicing at Oran Park before the Chargers race debut in September 1971
“This was not helped by the high location of the big long-range fuel tanks fitted to the Bathurst cars. The VH Valiant’s bulbous bodywork ended up being more than 100mm wider than that of the VF/VG ute-based development mules, which added to the R/T’s lateral inertia and tendency to understeer in hard cornering. The Charger’s wheelbase was also quite short relative to its track. This wheelbase-track ratio created a car that was very responsive to directional change, but was twitchy and nervous at high speeds.”
The Charger’s track was similar to the GTHO but its wheelbase was six-inches shorter than the big Roaring Ford. It wasn’t stable on high speed Mount Panorama but was better suited to shorter, twistier tracks. The Chargers were dominant in NZ production racing for years, a status never accorded them at home.
The 11-inch non-power assisted ventilated front discs and calipers (which flexed badly) were marginal on track too. Ford’s similar challenges with the beefy 351 Cleveland powered HO were met late in the 1971 piece with Ferodo’s trick DP11-103 pads.
Oastler quotes Leo Geoghegan as saying that the Chargers could have beaten the Toranas in ‘the six-cylinder class battle’ and applied greater pressure on the HO’s had Chrysler sorted its front-disc problem. A set of pads was only good for 60 miles if given a hard workout.
Leo Geoghegan in the Charger E49 he shared with Peter Brown in the 1971 Bathurst 500 (Chevron Publishing)
In 1971 expectations were high after Doug Chivas won a 100 lap enduro at Oran Park a fortnight before Bathurst. While it was a great drive, Chivas was advantaged by Colin Bond’s HDT XU1’s race-long gear selector problems…the works HO’s were absent too.
With vastly inadequate Bathurst preparation: simulations to determine fuel consumption, brake and tyre life etc, Geoghegan’s Top 10 Q8 was great – quickest of the Class D cars including the XU1s – but was still six seconds off Moffat’s GTHO Phase 3 pole.
Moffat won by a lap with Geoghegan’s Charger seventh outright and second in class behind Bond’s HDT XU1. Impressively, eight of the 10 Chargers that started, finished. Geoghegan’s post-race list of shortcomings included tyre wear, fuel consumption far greater than that anticipated and brakes…
In the later rounds of the 1971 Australian Manufacturers Championship (Manchamps), Chivas was third at the Phillip Island 500K, while Geoghegan was second to Moffat’s HO in the Surfers Paradise 250 – ahead of the two LC XU1s of Brock and Bond – with Chivas sixth. Progress was being made.
Geoghegan’s E39 Charger from Colin Bond’s LJ XU1 at Warwick Farm during the 1972 Tasman Cup meeting (L Hemer)Leo did the final Bathurst 500 solo in 1972. E49 was Q6 and fourth (autopics.com)
Chrysler’s response for 1972 was the 302bhp @ 5600rpm E49 Charger variant…fitted with Borg Warner’s new four speed gearbox, the more aggressive cam-profile was possible thanks to a better set of ratios which could exploit the peakier power delivery.
Just as in 1971, the E49 was short on Bathurst development, in part as a result of the Supercar Scare, see here for chapter-and-verse on that important bit of Australian Motor Racing History: https://primotipo.com/2018/04/12/holden-torana-gtr-xu1-v8/
A byproduct of the Supercar Scare was Chrysler’s withdrawal from motor racing with factory cars, an incredible decision really after all the clever development and homologation. The better call would have been to contest that years Manchamps and then pulled the plug; but Chrysler was in big financial strife globally.
Noel Hurd raced his E49 to fifth in the first round of that championship, the Adelaide 250 in August, while at Sandown, the traditional Bathurst curtain-raiser, the two cars raced by Victorians, Tom Naughton and Lawrie Nelson failed to finish.
Tom Naughton’s car was a Victorian meeting regular, here at Sandown in April 1972Geoghegan E49 at Lakeside during 1972
Off to Bathurst, Geoghegan was again the quickest of the Chargers at Mount Panorama, qualifying sixth. Again Moffat was on pole in an XY GTHO, but this time the margin to the E49 was 3.3 seconds. Leo led for a while early in the race but a faulty starter motor, loose battery lead and misfire late in the race ruined what could have been a good run. Geoghegan was fourth in the race won by Peter Brock’s GTR XU1, with John French’s GTHO second, with the Doug Chivas/Damon Beck E49 the best of the six Chargers entered, in third.
Tom Naughton was sixth at the Phillip Island 500K, while Leo was sixth in the Surfers Paradise 300. Chrysler placed fifth in the the Manchamps behind the GTHO, XU1, Ford Escort Twin-cam and Mazda 1300.
Pete Geoghegan enroute to third place in the final Warwick Farm ATCC round in July 1973. Look how nice and flat that Charger is with Sheppard’s suspension mods: geometry, spring and shock changes
With the end of Improved Production and Series Production in 1972, and adoption of Group C as the formula to which the Australian Touring Car Championship and Australian Manufacturers Championship were run in 1973, a group of New South Wales and Victorian Chrysler dealers supported the construction of a Group C-spec Charger built by ace engineer/mechanic, John Sheppard at his Monaro Motors workshop in Melbourne. It was to be raced by Leo’s brother, four-time Australian Touring Car Champion, Pete Geoghegan.
Pete finished sixth in the ATCC in this quick, often forgotten car, but switched camps to Ford for the Manchamps. Successfully so, he co-drove Moffat’s factory XA 351 GT Coupe – FoMoCo’s response to the two-door Monaro and Charger – to victory at The Mount. This Group C Charger is beyond the scope of this article but is a good one to pick up soon with some input from Sheppo, who is still razor sharp.
Etcetera…
In Chrysler’s own words above, “You’re watching Charger’s Hemi/Weber Six Pack during a dyno endurance test. After 480 hours at both ends of the rev range, it’s running red hot at peak revs for longer than it ever would on road or track. The Six Packs an unbelievable mill. But don’t get the idea it’s just a 265 cube Hemi with three double-barrel Webers bolted on.
The whole engine’s been tuned to the Webers. In fact, we flew a car (a VG Pacer driven by John Ellis from London to Bologna) over to the Weber factory in Italy. Breathings been freed up with a high overlap camshaft, bigger valves and tuned length extractors. And the crankshaft, conrods and valve springs have been shot-peened for high-speed strength.
But there’s more to a Six Pack Charger than just a great engine. The E37 Street version offers dual disc clutch, close ratio gears, 20:1 steering, 3:23 diff and pancake air-cleaners to pick up bottom end torque. The E38 Track Pack version picks up compulsory alloy wheels and special engine, brake and suspension mods. All of which make it ready to roll straight on to the track.
Your Chrysler/Valiant dealer has the Six Pack systems to make you believe in the unbelievable. And at Charger prices, you can’ attord not to.
CHRYSLER. GREAT IDEAS IN MOTION. BELIEVE.”
(L Nelson Collection)
Laurie Nelson’s Group C Charger E49 being harrasssed by an LJ GTR XU1 at Shell corner, Sandown circa 1973.
(J Edwards)
Following the privateer theme – these cars were very fine cars for those on a tight budget – here is Tim Slako’s car at Wanneroo Park circa 1971.
Credits…
Chevron Publishing, ‘Australian Touring Car Championship’ Graham Howard and Stewart Wilson, ‘VH Valiant:The R/T ‘Super-Charger’ that never made it’ Mark Oastler, Lynton Hemer, SS Auto Memorabilia, Graham Ruckert, Chrysler Car Club, Julian Edwards, John Lawton, Laurie Nelson
Tailpiece…
The ROH aluminium alloy ‘Dragmag’ was adopted by Chrysler for the Charger programme. It was made across town in Finsbury by Rubery Owen and Kemsley Pty Ltd one of the local subsidiaries of Owen Organisation/Rubery Owen, a global automotive UK based transnational of which the Owen Racing Organisation/BRM (British Racing Motors) F1 team was a part.
I wondered whether Chrysler inspired the design of the fabulous Dragmag – easily my favourite Oz Alloy of the period – for the Charger programme but Moff ran the wheels on his famous Boss 302 Trans-Am in 1970, and the ad above was in the June 1970 issue of Wheels so they were on the market at the time Charger was being developed.
Obiter…
It transpires – the power of internet searches – that the factory Rubery Owen Kemsley took over in 1946 dates back to WW2. After the British retreat at Dunkirk in 1940 the Australian Government decided to decentralise ammunition production away from the more populous eastern seaboard cities, Adelaide’s Finsbury/Hendon were two such locales.
The Finsbury ammunition factory was established on a massive 50acre/123ha site and commenced production in February 1941. It comprised about 20 buildings where up to 4000 people made cartridge cases and shell fuses for munitions, but not the explosives themselves. The castings and arms cases were sent by rail on a new spur line from Woodvile to Finsbury, to the Salisbury Explosives Factory for filling and assembly.
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.”
What an incredibly talented photographer Robin Lewis is!
Thanks to social media his archive is accessible. If you are a Facebooker just key in Robin Lewis and have a look for yourself. A serial motor cycle racer/historian/fan the Hahndorf based professional has an immense body of work from his days in Melbourne as a freelancer, staff-snapper with the Herald & Weekly Times and ten-year reign as Head of Visual & Graphic Arts with ad-agency USP Needham.
Rather than choke on his work, I figure bite-sized consumption is better, the texture and flavours can be appreciated so much better that way. It isn’t all racing either, there are some marvellous observations of Australian life too.
The first shot shows Robin in the passenger seat of David ‘Chocolates’ Robertson’s Elfin 300 at Sandown during filming of an episode of ‘Homicide’ a very popular prime-time weekly cop show produced at Crawford Productions, based in the Olderfleet Building in Collins Street, Melbourne from the mid-1960s.
“We used mostly an Arriflex ‘S’, all 16mm…we played a very fast game, there was none of this three-take bullshit. Two takes at most and it’s in the can! We shot an episode a week with only one up the sleeve.”
David Lee, Homicide director sussing Robin’s shot (R Lewis Collection)
“Having shot nearly a years worth of Homicide there was never a dull moment. Dave Robertson is driving his Elfin, but the eye-opener was being in the other ‘camera-car’ Ted Brewster’s 1310cc Cooper S, it was the first time I’d experienced ‘hitting a brick wall’ under brakes!”Robin’s self-deprecating comment is wearing two different cravats on the one Sandown day.
“Having shot nearly a year’s worth of Homicide there was never a dull moment, long hours, hard work, non-stop! Particularly going to the Tok H (Toorak Hotel) or any pub with George (Mallaby, the young actor who played Detective Peter Barnes obscured by the camera in mission-brown) who was a pussy-magnet. Len Teale (‘Detective David Mackay’ raced Toyota Corollas in the early 1970s) was less colourful in many ways.”
(R Lewis)
Got him in one, the money shot! Classic Allan Moffat cockpit shot captures the ‘Canadian’ young professional in intense concentration in the Calder form-up area in 1970.
Marvin the Marvel was famous for his ‘don’t f’kin talk to me’ mode at race meetings. Most of his competition were businessmen at play on weekends, AM was one of the few true full-time driving professionals in Australia at the time and he needed the cash-register to ring on the weekends to fund his Malvern Road, Toorak operation. Works Ford drives duly noted.
Here is the BP magazine ad derived from Robin’s in-car shot above (R Lewis Collection)(R Lewis)
Lewis said of this work for BP, “it was my introduction to ad-agencies while working at the newspaper, I never had to do shift work again…”
(R Lewis)The tribal nature of taxi fans (shot above) is something we open-wheeler wally-woofdas can only dream of; Beechey and Geoghegan circa 1970 (R Lewis) (R Lewis)Yes it is a different number, noted (R Lewis)(R Lewis)
In the best of company here. Robin as cinematographer for legendary Australian/Hollywood film director Fred Schepisi, then in his formative days directing a documentary for Kodak. See here; https://fredschepisi.com/
(R Lewis)
The whole country went crazy – especially the huge local Italian community – when Giacomo Agostini turned up to race a works MV Agusta 500/3 for the first time in Australia in 1971.
Melbourne entrepreneur/racer Bob Jane brought him out to put bums on seats at Calder for the Melbourne GP Cup and secured the Australian distribution rights for the marque in the process. ‘Jano’ is looking uncharacteristically grumpy at Calder below.
(R Lewis)(R Lewis)(R Lewis)
Alf Costanzo frying the front brakes of Alan Hamilton’s Lola T430 Chev F5000 car on the entry to Peters/Torana at Sandown in 1980.
One of our greatest ever, the little Italo/Australian won the Gold Star with this car in 1979, then with the succeeding McLaren M26 Chev in 1980 and two more with Hamilton/Porsche Cars Australia Tiga Formula Pacific cars in 1982-83.
(R Lewis)
When Costanzo graduated to Hamilton’s McLaren M26 Chev ground-effect F5000 Melbourne’s Bob Minogue bought the Lola and took to the old beast like a duck to water.
The shot above has the feel of Calder’s November 8, 1981 AGP support race in which Minogue was fourth behind John Wright, Lola T400 Chev, Rob Butcher, Lola T332 Chev and Garrie Cooper’s Elfin MR9 Chev. Here’s Minogue at Calder below a good few years earlier in an Elfin Mono Lotus-Ford twin-cam.
(R Lewis)
Robin’s quip, “Hey Bernie, how’s your memory?”…
(R Lewis)
XW Ford Falcon and sheep near Dunkeld in Victoria’s Western District circa 1969. The sheep dogs are sizing up the baa-baa’s with the intent of a Kiwi shepherd, where, for an optimist, “there is always a pretty-one to be found…”
(R Lewis)
Having a go in his Austin Healey 100S (chassis 3907) at Rob Roy circa 1963. Doug Whiteford’s mechanic, Bob Kitchen “had drilled most things on the 100S and lightened and balanced the rockers, rods and crank, polishing all to a shiny finish like chrome.” Chassis number folks?
And below, getting stuck into the slops after a Templestowe meeting in a manner most unacceptable to officialdom these days. Such wowdy-wascal behaviour would result in some sort of “bringing the sport into disrepute” charge from the blue-blazer mob.
(R Lewis)Robin in the 100S at Fishermans Bend circa 1963 “with Herbert Johnson helmet, a gift from my mentor, Doug Whiteford.” (R Lewis)(R Lewis)
Talk about livin’ the dream…
Austin Healey 100S roadie, road and race bikes, surrounded by spunk-muffins in adland with all of the associated fringe benefits…and being paid to photograph chicks without too much on. I’m trying to work out the problems of being Robin Lewis in that particular era! At Narrapumelap Homestead, Wickliffe, Victoria 1980.
(R Lewis)(R Lewis Collection)
This one of Doug Whiteford in Black Bess has me tossed as to place.
Dicer Doug won the 1950 Australian Grand Prix in the Ford V8 Ute based special in 1950 and later sold it. Not one of Robin’s, but probably given to him by Doug, he dates it as 1955. Where and when in Melbourne is this? It’s an unmistakable Mexican winter’s foggy day; Albert Park and Richmond Boulevard are both possibilities? The vapours from the exhaust suggest a freshly started engine, so some sort of promo-shoot perhaps?
A very youthful Ken Blake being interviewed by ‘Freddy Mercury’ at Bathurst, circa 1975. More on this great Australian rider in Lewis 2.
(R Lewis)
Big Dick.
The Dick Johnson Ford Falcon XD 351 V8 during the Sandown 400 Endurance Championship round during the wonderful Group C period of taxi-diversity, September 13, 1981.
The Ford frontrunner – successor to Allan Moffat – was always a crowd-pleaser but yielded to Holden’s favourite son that weekend, Peter Brock won the 119 lap race in a VC Commodore from Johnson.
Johnson and John French triumphed at the Mountain three weeks later, Dick also won the Australian Touring Car Championship that year in this car built from the TV-crowd-funding contributions of race-fans when Johnson’s previous Falcon XD was felled while in the lead of the Bathurst 1000 by an errant-on circuit-rock in 1980.
(R Lewis)
A couple of wonderful portraits of touring car icons of the earlier golden-era.
Ivan Tighe, perhaps, Tighe Vincent s/c at Templestowe circa 1959. Not so sure about that…Peter Holinger maybe, all bids taken…
(R Lewis)
I love this moody portrait of London born American Suzuki TR750 star Ron Grant who is lost in setup change thoughts at Calder in 1972. He won the Pan Pacific Series that year.
Not much moves the corpuscles of an Oz FoMoCo fan more than the two fabulous Lot 6 built, works-Super Falcon GTHO 351s.
Robin’s shot captures Moffat’s Improved Production car with XY look – FFS don’t write to me and bore me shitless with the differences of the XW and XY clips on these cars – barrelling onto Calder’s back straight during the March 1971 ATCC meeting.
Jack Brabham presenting the Tasman Cup to Kiwi great Graham McRae at Sandown after he took the first of three such wins on the trot -1971-73 – that year aboard a McLaren M10B Chev. See here; https://primotipo.com/2018/09/06/amons-talon-mcraes-gm2/
(R Lewis)
The inherent beauty of Australian (Melbourne) 1970s streetscapes.
(R Lewis)
Mind the post. The perils of Bathurst in 1974, this is Gringo apparently. Who is he and what is he riding? Magic shot.
(R Lewis)
A couple of world class touring car drivers hard at it at Calder circa 1978.
Jim Richards has the inside line aboard his Murray Bunn built, 351 injected Gurney-Weslake headed powered Ford Falcon Coupe Sports Sedan (Australia’s anything-goes tourers) from Peter Brock in Bob Jane’s 350 Chev engined Holden Monaro GTS. The Munro is still with us, is that Kiwi built Ford?
Hmmm, clipping an apex, nah, more creating an apex. I wonder if Bobby invoiced them for damage inflicted on the real estate!? (R Lewis)(R Lewis)
Jimmy Watsons in Lygon Street, Carlton is a Melbourne wine bar-noshery institution.
An age old ritual is being played out here in the late 1960s, with the old bugger – younger than me I might add – thinking of conquests past as he assesses the beauty of the twenty-somethings.
Credits…
Robin Lewis
Tailpiece…
(R Lewis)
Robin fizzes up a cardiologist’s-nightmare roadside enroute to Bathurst in 1974. These days of course the glitterati would get Maccas delivered to their Valiant on the Hume via Uber-eats app.
Many, many thanks for your work Robin, if one of you has his email or mobile number please send him a link to this homage to his greatness and a life being lived well!
Australia’s incipient love of touring cars started about here at Phillip Island on October 21, 1962, or in the first event two years before anyway.
These State Library of Victoria shots are showing signs of age but are all the more potent for it, so evocative as they are of a time long ago.
The group above is the tiddler – cars costing less than 900 pounds – class, the other three classes have already been flagged away. The #51 Triumph Herald is crewed by Hoot Gibson/Paul England/Jack Madden, #49 is the Doug Whiteford/Lou Molina VW, the Morris 850 was raced by George House/Clarrie Head. ‘Row three’ comprises the #48 George Reynolds/Jim McKeown VW – who won the class – #47 the Stan Martin/Les Park Triumph Herald, #50 the VW of Tony Theiler/Bob Foreman/Reg Lunn and the Graham Hoinville/Kevin Burns Ford Anglia. The #40 and #43 Minis are crewed by Jack Hunnam/John Hartnett and D Hooker/Terry Allan, finally, the #45 Triumph Herald in between those two Minis is the George Poulton/R Poulton/M Watson car.
There are plenty of fellas among this lot who were or became prominent in the sport; drivers – Paul England, Doug Whiteford, Lou Molina, George Reynolds, Jim McKeown, Jack Hunnam. Administrator/co-driver/team owner/engineer – Graeme Hoinville, Hoot Gibson, John Hartnett and Paul England.
Nice! Stephen Dalton’s programme complete with autographs of the victors, Messrs Firth and Jane(SLNSW)
It’s not a big deal flagging the cars away separately by class, back in the day there was no overall winner, the awards were entirely class-based. But the taxi-lobby needed a winner as the race is part of the Bathurst continuum, and not having a winner wasn’t an option for them. So decades later, the car that did the quickest time was adjudged the winner, the Ford Falcon XL driven by Harry Firth and Bob Jane. Car 20B above is another of the works-Falcon entries, this one driven by Ken Harper, John Raeburn and Syd Fisher. The chasing #49 Volksy is that crewed by Whiteford/Molina.
(SLNSW)
Hmm, where is the wayward Bill Buckle/Brian Foley Scuderia Veloce Citroen ID19? It could be the area to the right as you exit Siberia perhaps, but if that is the case WTF is the driver doing there? Whatever the case, that car’s suspension would have absorbed the worst of the Island’s infield without difficulty, they finished fifth in Class A too, so no damage was done. Doesn’t it still look futuristic 60 years later, the French made distinctive cars then?
(SLNSW)
Yet another car in need of a compass is the fifth in Class A, Wal Gillespie/Vic Croft Chrysler Valiant. That’s Kildunda in the distance, I think he is off to the right on the entry to Southern Loop (turn one in the dull shit-boring parlance of today). Mind you, if you lost it on the way in there, that spot is not the likely one where physics would take you, but perhaps he copped a Rock Hudson on the way-in? Thoughts?
(SLNSW)
Harry Firth or Bob Jane – winners aboard the Firth prepared works-Ford Falcon XL – in search of an apex at MG, or is it Honda? I’ve done hundreds of laps at Phillip Island but the undergrowth is a good deal different in recent times than not long after the circuits opening in 1956.
Credits…
State Library of New South Wales, Wikipedia, Stephen Dalton Collection
Tailpiece…
(SLNSW)
Simpler times, not a hospitality pantech or marketing-stroker to be seen. The Copse is in the distance and main straight to the left of the finish line, wasn’t the latter a staggering statement of the obvious that is positively feminine…
primotipo... 