Bonnier/Abate Porsche 718GTR in the Sicilian Hills. (Yves Debraine)
Jo Bonnier victorious in the Porsche 718GTR together with Carlo Abate…
The 718 Porsche was a development of the earlier, successful 550A/RS61, the GTR coupe the ultimate expression of the 718 was developed for the 1961 Le Mans classic. It was fitted with either the earlier 1.5 litre 4 cylinder or as here, a 2 litre variant of Porsches’ flat 8, quad cam F1 engine developing around 210bhp all of which hit the road through a 5 speed gearbox. Disc brakes were used, torsion bar suspension, the car very light at circa 570Kg.
The 904 followed the 718 as Porsches’ next racer hence the family resemblance…
Very successful, 718 variants won Targa in 1959/60/63 and the Sebring 12 Hour enduro in 1960.
The Bandini/Scarfiotti/Mairesse Ferrari Dino 196SP looked a certain winner until Willy lost the car on the last lap, he recovered but fell short of victory by 12 seconds.
It wasn’t Willy Mairesse’ race, he had started in a 250P 3 litre 12 cylinder Ferrari co-driven by Ludovico Scarfiotti and managed to hit a bump which flattened a fuel line, ultimately putting the car out of the race.
John Surtees then blotted his copybook, chucking the leading 250P co driven by Mike Parkes into the bushes leaving Lorenzo Bandini to uphold Ferrari honours with the 2 litre V6 Dino.
Scarfiotti/Bandini/Mairesse Ferrari Dino 196SP. Nowhere quite surpasses the rugged majesty of this place? (Yves Debraine)
Scarfiotti was enlisted to assist in the Dino to uphold Maranellos’ honour, the Bonnier Porsche very competitive in the cool, experienced and fast hands of the Swede.
Abate wasn’t as quick as Bonnier, slowly the Ferrari gained the lead, Ferrari team-manager Eugenio Dragoni putting Mairesse into the car as a fresh driver for the last two laps. A fresh driver but perhaps not the most ‘calm’!
The Sicilian weather deteriorated, rain began to fall and poor Mairesse goofed under brakes as he approached the finishing straight and off the road he went. He gathered up the car, dragging the engine cover along the ground as Bonnier looked on, the Ferrari just falling short of Bonniers time by 12 seconds…
The Ferrari boys watch their clocks! Bonnier has finished, it’s all down to Willy Mairesse as the weather deteriorates. Bandini in the pale blazer beside the ‘Wallopers’ and Scarfiotti to the left of Lorenzo. (Bernard Cahier)
Mairesse finishes the race dragging the engine cover of his Ferrari behind …(Bernard Cahier)
Ferrari Dino 196SP: multi-tubular spaceframe chassis, 690Kg, 1983cc 60 degree V6, SOHC per bank, 3 Weber carbs. 210bhp @ 7500rpm, 5 speed transaxle. (Unattributed)
‘Ludovico Scarfiotti shakes the quiet Sicilian village of Campofelice in his 3 litre Ferrari 250P’, the first of 2 Ferraris’ crashed by Willy Mairesse, this one on on lap 4… (Stephen Dalton Collection)
Bibliography…
Automobile Year 11, Yves Debraine, Bernard Cahier, Stephen Dalton Collection
‘Polish rally ace Sobieslaw Zasada gave it all he had on the Numeralla to Hindmarsh Station stage, and the Porsche responded with the characteristic wail of its air cooled flat six engine. He improved from 9th to 5th place on this stage and ultimately took 4th place in the Marathon.’
The London-Sydney Marathon was run between 24 November and 17 December 1968. A field of 98 cars set out on a route covering 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometres) across Europe and Asia to Bombay, then from Perth to Sydney in Australia. It was the first in a series of epic transcontinental car rallies held in subsequent years, and possibly the most memorable of all. The event was sponsored by the London Daily Express and the Sydney Daily Telegraph and captured the imagination of the world, as the respective newspaper proprietors had hoped.
I was fortunate to be able to witness and photograph the final competitive stage of the event, over rough, unmade roads between Numeralla and Hindmarsh Station in southeastern New South Wales. This stage was designed to be a final, extreme test in order to find a clear winner.’
(Numeralla is a tiny little hamlet in sub-Alpine country not far from Cooma, between the national capital, Canberra and the NSW snowfields areas of Thredbo/Perisher Valley. The final run to Sydney was circa 420Km)
‘The Bianchi/Ogier Citroen was a clear leader on this final competitive stage from Numeralla to Hindmarsh Station. There were only easy transport stages then until the finish in Sydney. The Citroen had excelled on the rough, outback roads of Australia as other competitors, including Roger Clark in a very fast Cortina Lotus, succumbed to mechanical problems.
As it happened, the result was determined on the subsequent, easy transport stage when the leading car, the Citroen DS21 of Lucien Bianchi and Jean Claude Ogier, was put out of the event in a crash with an out of control spectator car. Andrew Cowan/Coyle/Malkin in a Hillman Hunter unexpectedly inherited the lead and won the Marathon. A total of 56 cars reached the finish line in Sydney.’
‘The Hillman Hunter seemed an unlikely contender, but Andrew Cowan had this low budget, works car in second place to Bianchi by the end of the Numeralla to Hindmarsh Station stage. He then simply inherited the lead when Bianchi’s Citroen was cruelly eliminated when it was hit by an out of control spectator car on the following transport stage’.
‘The mighty Zasada/Wachowski Porsche waits to leave at Hindmarsh Station. It finished in 4th place. Its interesting ‘kangaroo catcher’ was never tested.’
Check out Bruce Thomas’ photographs of the rest of the Numeralla to Hindmarsh Stage…
The first part of this article above was uploaded in April 2015.
In September 2018 Rod MacKenzie, a professional photographer whose work I have used many times offered to share the following photographs he took of the Cowan Hillman, crashed Bianchi Citroen and destroyed spectator’s Mini during the Nowra stage.
(R MacKenzie)
(R MacKenzie)
(R MacKenzie)
(R MacKenzie)
(R MacKenzie)
(R MacKenzie)
The final series of photographs are of scenes at the finish in Hyde Park, Sydney.
This is a very familiar place for many Australians- I lived in the CBD very close to this spot for 9 years, it is thrilling to think of the end of the Marathon all those years ago, the excitement of the crowd, the colour, noise. Wonderful evocative shots.
(R MacKenzie)
The Cowan/Coyle/Malkin Hunter above and the crew imbibing some of a sponsors product below- a well earned drop no doubt!
(R MacKenzie)
(R MacKenzie)
Australian Leg of the Marathon Map…
(Stephen Dalton Collection)
Etcetera…
(M Thomas)
The Zasada and Yannachas Porsche 911s at rest in Perth.
Resting place for the public to check out the cars was Gloucester Park trotting track.
(M Thomas)
(M Thomas)
(M Thomas)
(M Thomas)
(L Manton)
British Leyland press photographs…
This series of shots are from the collection of Luke Manton.
The first photo is on the start ramp at Wembley, Graham Hill just to the right of the flag.
(L Manton)
Evan Green, Jack Murray, did Miss World accompany them perhaps?
(L Manton)
(L Manton)
Cooper S and Austin 1800s in build at Abingdon.
(L Manton)
Credits..
Bruce Thomas photos and writing, Rod MacKenzie photos and Stephen Dalton Collection for the maps. Murray Thomas Collection, Luke Manton
Peter Whitehead kicks the tail of ERA R10B out on the dirt surfaced Mount Panorama circuit, Bathurst AGP 1938…
It was said in those far away pre-synthetic fabric days that Australia ‘rode on the sheep’s back’ :120 million of the critters roamed Australia in 1938, we clothed the world, with 50% of the wool clip sold to the United Kingdom.
Peter Whitehead was a member of a wealthy Bradford family with extensive interests in the textile industry including Australia. The family company, W & J Whitehead were worsted wool spinners making yarn for products ranging from clothing to furniture. Whitehead lived on a farm near Reading, ‘Motorwork’ of Chalfront St Peter was the base for his racing activities.
He was despatched to the Colonies in 1938 to help expand the family empire, his ‘tour’ creating enormous press and public interest as, in addition to his ‘sheep shears’ he brought with him ERA R10B the ‘fastest car in Australia’. During his visit he ran the car at every opportunity in addition to his well known victory in the 1938 Australian Grand Prix at Bathurst including several attempts on the Australian Land Speed Record.
Whitehead and his crew at Bathurst. Nice cockpit detail of R10B. ‘Although Whitehead dominated the AGP in terms of speed and equipment, he had to drive hard all the way, and vastly impressed onlookers with his style. He was allowed to drive bareheaded so he might better listen to his engine’ (History of the AGP G Howard)
Whitehead, born in Yorkshire on 12 November 1914, started racing in a Riley progressing to an Alta and soon the ERA,acquired new from Raymond Mays and Humphrey Cooks’ concern in 1936.
Peter was a ‘wealthy amateur’ but also a fast world class driver, a lifelong enthusiast who won Le Mans in a C-Type Jaguar in 1951 in a long, varied career in sports cars and single seaters. His life was cut short by a 1958 Tour de France crash, he was a passenger in a Jaguar Mk1 driven by his half-brother Graham.
But back to the start…he commenced racing a Riley, quickly progressing, he finished third in the Limerick GP, a Formula Libre race, which was the first major result for Geoffrey Taylor’s Alta firm. In 1936 he finished third in the Donington Grand Prix, sharing his ERA, with his driving partner in the car throughout, Peter Walker.
During the war he joined the RAF as a pilot. Once the war was over he was back racing, taking his ERA to second place in the British Empire Trophy on the Isle of Man in the summer of 1947. Later that year he raced at Lausanne as well. In 1948 he survived a plane crash at London’s Croydon Aerodrome being seriously injured. He had been preparing to fly to Milan to arrange the purchase of a Ferrari 125.
In 1949, after convincing Enzo Ferrari to sell him the car, he became the first Ferrari F1 privateer. With the green painted 125, he won the Czech GP, becoming the first Briton to win a major race abroad since Seaman. He almost won the French GP as well but gearbox problems pushed him back to third.
Victory at Le Mans in 1951 with Peter Walker, Jaguar XKC (unattributed)
In 1950 he won the Jersey Road Race and the Ulster Trophy at Dundrod and achieved a career highlight at Le Mans in 1951 sharing the winning Jaguar C-Type with Peter Walker.
He continued to race and win in Formula 2 events across Europe in 1951 and 1952 with an Alta, a Cooper-Alta and his Ferrari. In 1953 he shared victory with Stirling Moss in the Reims 12 Hour in a C-Type Jaguar winning the race again the following year in a D-Type, sharing with Ken Wharton, it was the ‘D’s first win.
Whitehead 7th in the Italian GP, Monza 1950. Ferrari 125 (unattributed)
In 1953 he won the French 12 Hours of Hyeres and added Ferrari single-seater victories in the Lady Wigram Trophy in New Zealand and in the Rand GP in South Africa. He returned to Australia in 1956 contesting the ‘Olympic Grand Prix’ at Albert Park finishing third in his Ferrari Super Squalo in the race won by Stirling Moss’ works Maserati 250F.
At Le Mans in 1958 he shared the second-placed Aston Martin DBR1 with his half-brother Graham then, a couple of months later, Peter lost his life during the Tour de France. Their Jaguar, with Graham at the wheel, crashed over a bridge parapet into a ravine, injuring Graham and killing Peter.
Lovely portrait of a happy driver, Peter Whitehead. Car, Alta? date and place unknown (unattributed)This is not R10B…or even a ‘B Type’, its actually a ‘C Type’, ignore the Porsche type front IFS and pretend it’s the beam axle of the A/B Types…otherwise the overall look is captured, too nice a drawing by Bob Shepherd of ‘Australian Motor Sports’ not to use I reckon! (Bob Shepherd)
ERA R10B…
ERA was founded by Humphrey Cook, Raymond Mays and Peter Berthon on November 6 1933 and established in Bourne, Lincolnshire next to Eastgate House, Mays family home.
Their ambition was to build a team of single-seaters capable of upholding British prestige in European racing. Given the cost of Grand Prix racing, they focussed on the smaller voiturette, 1500cc supercharged class, the Formula 2 of the day.
Humphrey Cook financed the operation. Peter Berthon was responsible for the overall design of the cars, while Raymond Mays became its principal driver, he had most recently raced the White Riley, the success of which inspired Cook to back its creators in founding ERA.
It’s said the first design drawing by Reid Railtons’ assistant Ralph Beauchamp was dated 23 October, before ERA was formally incorporated. The chassis, a channel section frame, was designed by Railton who had also successfully designed the Bluebird Land Speed Record cars for Malcolm Campbell. The frame was built by Thomson & Taylor at Brooklands.
The wheelbase was 96 inches, the front and rear track 52.5 and 48 inches respectively. Panel-beating brothers George and Jack Gray hand crafted the bodywork, to a design credited to a Mr Piercy who had previously designed ‘Bluebird’s body.
Peter Whitehead warming up the engine and transmission of R10B before his unsuccessful attempt on the Australian Land Speed record on the 90 Mile Beach, Victoria in September 1938 (EH Price)
Suspension front and rear (A & B types, the works team raced the A-Type in 1934/5, the B-Type had a slightly revised chassis and more reliable engine) comprised H-Section live axles forged by Hadfields, sprung by semi-elliptic leaf springs, dampers were Hartford friction type.
The engine was based on the well proven Riley 6-cylinder unit, modified in a number of significant ways. A stronger forged crankshaft with a large centre Hyatt roller bearing, three main bearings in all, was made and an entirely new aluminium cylinder head designed. The engine used a bespoke supercharger designed by Murray Jamieson which was fed by a single SU carburettor. One plug per cylinder was ‘sparked’ by a Lucas magneto. The engine was designed in three capacities: a base 1488cc, 1088cc and 1980cc. It ran on methanol, in its 1500cc form it produced circa 220-240 bhp with in excess of 275 bhp in 2000cc form.
The cars were fitted with Wilson four-speed pre-selector gearboxes, Girling mechanical brakes and 16X5.25 inch tyres, total dry weight was 2016 pounds.
The unveiling of ERA, R1A took place at Brooklands on 22 May 1934. After initial handling problems, which required a number of modifications, ERA had a winning formula. By the end of the year ERAs had scored notable victories against many more established marques.
R10B was built to Peter’s order in 1936 with a capacity of 1.5-litres. The price quoted was £1500. R10B remained 1.5-litres in capacity until Whitehead fitted a 2-litre engine and two-stage blower in 1949, but for the period we are covering was a standard-spec 1.5-litre B-Type ERA.
Supercharged 1.5-litre inline six cylinder, cast iron block, alloy head Riley based engine of R10B at the 90 Mile Beach, Victoria in September 1938. Steering column and box, throttle linkage, magneto, super-charger, engine rocker cover detail and chassis rails all visible (EH Price)Cutaway drawing nicely shows the key elements of the very successful design (DMJ Illustration)
England to Australia : Maroubra Speedway: Sydney, NSW April 1938…
It’s not recorded from whence the Whitehead crew set sail in England but the first event for the car in the Southern Hemisphere was the Australian Grand Prix held at the new Mount Panorama circuit on the Easter Sunday weekend, 18 April 1938
That Whitehead tested his ERA or ‘ran in his engine’ on what remained of the Maroubra Speedway’s concrete bowl whilst in Australia does not seem to be in doubt. Perhaps it was prior to travelling to Mount Panorama. This is plausible if the car was shipped from the UK to Sydney, docking at King Street’s ‘Hungry Mile’, infamous as the place where thousands of unemployed labourers sought a days work in the long years of The Depression or Jones Bay Wharf in Pyrmont.
To test the car with the resources of the Sydney ‘fettlers’ closeby makes ‘racers sense’ after the ERA’s long voyage. The other possible time of the Maroubra test was perhaps after the failure of a piston and the engines rebuild or replacement after the car’s failed Australian Land Speed attempt at Gerringong Beach, NSW on November 10. That seems to have been the cars last event in Australia, R10B needed to be race ready for the two events in South Africa Whitehead contested in January 1939 on the way back to the UK.
Maroubra is a Sydney Southern Beaches suburb adjoining internationally known Bondi. Speedwayandroadracehistory describe the history of ‘Olympia (Maroubra) Speedway’ as follows…’The paved bowl Maroubra Speedway opened on the 5th of December 1925. It had the reputation as Australia’s most notorious ‘Killer Track’
‘Situated South of Sydney in a natural hollow in the Maroubra sandhills, it was an ideal area for the track as the natural landscape lent itself to a huge saving on the cost of earthworks and the large population of Sydney was just down the road. Once the track was completed claims of up to 70,000 spectators were made. The track was that steep through the turns that it was impossible to walk up the track face.’
‘Snakes were a major problem as they would come out during the heat of the day to soak up the sun’s rays on the race track, a bit of a worry with no protection from another cars wheels flicking up a Dugite snake into the open cockpit’. Hmm, yep!
‘Five competitors would lose their lives in just two years during the 1920s. In 1927 the great Phil Garlick driving his super-charged Alvis, blew a tyre and rode over the top edge of the race track, hitting a light pole and died instantly.’
Plagued with problems the short 5/6th of a mile venue closed in 1927, long gone were those two years of large crowds looking on in amazement at the motorcycle racers reaching speeds of up to 100mph side by side on the big banked oval.
Less sensationally, Graham Howard in an article for Motor Racing Australia remarked on the bravery of the promoters in building a facility unlike any in Australia before, the short concrete track having curves of 16 degrees and dizzying 48 degrees elevation built by contractors with no expereince in anything like it.
Crowds never matched any more than one third of the 60000-90000 estimated on the opening day, many spectators avoided paying for the entertainment on offer by making use of the local surrounding sandhills which attracted the investors in the first place. The original entrepreneurs went bust in 1926, subsequent management tried night racing for both cars and ‘bikes. The danger of the place caused competitor entries to decline, all the racer fatalities occurred on the same section of track after the north-east curve.
Maroubra’s last race meeting was held in November 1934, the original crown lease was assumed by the Housing Commission, by 1951 construction of dwellings had commenced and by 1961 the area was occupied by 4000 people. Sydneysiders can check out the area bounded by Anzac Pde, Malabar Rd and Fitzgerald Avenue as the site of actions of derring-do in the 1920’s…
I’ve not uncovered any photographs of Whitehead at Maroubra but have chosen a couple of period photos’ to provide the flavour of the place.
This shot of Hope Bartlett’s Bugatti Brescia chosen to show the steepness of the concrete bowl. 22 December 1926 (unattributed)Harry Cooper Ballot 2LS and Hope Bartlett, one of the stars of the day, Bugatti Brescia. Big crowd, date uncertain (unattributed)
Whitehead timed his stay in Australia around The Australian Grand Prix, held that year at Bathurst, Easter in April…
The daunting circuit was newly built and had a gravel surface. Whilst Whitehead’s ERA was the most advanced new car in the race, the AGP was held to Formula Libre and handicapped until 1953 due to the paucity of equivalently competitive cars, the sport very much an amateur activity at the time.
John Medley wrote the 1938 chapter of Graham Howard’s magnificent ‘History of The Australian Grand Prix’, Medley records…’The new circuit over Bald Hills near Bathurst was the sene of the 150 Mile AGP…The first ‘real’ AGP outside Victoria, it drew the largest field so far, 39 entries, it continued the trend towards larger engines, it had a multi-state entry (and two from the UK), it produced the first overseas winner of an AGP, and was run on the only one of the great traditional old circuits to survive to the present day’.
AGP field awaits the start, R10B in shot (History of The AGP)
The ERA dominated the entry list, the car had been raced by both Whitehead and Peter Walker, having finished third in the 1936 Donington GP, the 1936 Nuffield Trophy, the 1937 Junior Car Club 200 Mile event at Donington and the 1937 Empire Trophy also at the Leicestershire circuit.
Medley reports the quickest Australian cars entered were the McIntyre owned, Frank Kleinig driven Kleinig Special an eight cylinder Terraplane powered car based on an MG L-Type Magna chassis; the development of this amazing car over 15 years is a story in itself. Tom Peters was entered in the Ford V8 powered Bugatti T37A which won both the 1930 and 1932 AGPs at Phillip Island in Bill Thompsons’ hands. Colin Dunne entered an ex-Bira MG K3, Jim Fagan another K3, ex-Birkin/Don/Hall, and Lyster Jackson the final K3 ex-Hall.
Fellow Englishman Alan Sinclair joined Whitehead racing an ex-Winterbottom Alta 21S 1100…’The Alta an infrequent starter in Australia, being a temperamental beast-apparently like its owner who had a lively time whilst in Australia. The Alta non-started at Bathurst too, but that may have had something to do with Sinclair spending the previous Friday night in the cells on sundry drunk and disorderly charges’ Howard reports.
Other entries included Tim Joshua’s Gough engined Frazer Nash, the Mrs Jones owned Alfa Romeo 1750SS to be driven by future AGP winner John Barraclough, George Martin’s BMW 328,(this 328 won the 1948 AGP in Frank Pratt’s hands) Barney Dentry in the Riley which won the 1932 Brooklands 500 Mile Race, Dentry having competed in all but one AGP.
Limit man Ron Uffindells Austin 7 is away. AGP start 1938 (John Blanden Collection)
The importance of Australian Specials at the time is highlighted by the entry of George Bonser’s and Harry Beith’s Terraplane Spl’s. Wangaratta’s Jack Phillips’ entered his Ford V8 Spl, so too were Queenslander Charlie Whatmore and Arncliffe, Sydney garage proprietor Fred Foss similarly mounted.
Shanghai born Bob Lea Wright was remakable chracter, a WW1 fighter pilot, national swimming champion and a good boxer who rose to the rank of Major during WW2 in the Service Corps. He was in a Terraplane Spl as was Bowral, NSW, Hudson/Terraplane dealer Les Burrows.
Alf Barrett, about whom I wrote not so long ago entered his Morris Bullnose Spl for Colin Anderson and the ex-Jack Day 1927 supercharged Lombard AL3 for himself. New MG ‘T’s were entered for John Crouch, Alan Crago and R Kerr stripped of ‘guards and lights as was the 1934 Riley Imp of George Thame.
On the face of it the ERA was easily the fastest car in the race but the AGP was a handicap, anything can and did happen over the years the event was held to the F Libre/Handical format.
John Medley reported that, ‘Despite the bitterly cold morning over 30000 spectators thronged all parts of the circuit…After a grand parade, the limit marker, Ron Uffindell’s Austin 7 was away on its long journey. Over the next half hour the rest of the field left the line, scratch marker Whitehead leaving a blanket over the ERA radiator until the last moment’.
34 minutes after limitman Uffindell’s Austin 7 set off Whitehead is away, past the St Johns Ambulance. Grey, cold Easter Bathurst day (History of The AGP)
‘Already by the time of Whitehead’s raucous departure there had been pitstops and retirements’: Thames Riley Imp broke its crank, Barretts Lombard was out with either magneto trouble or run bearings but Alf was impressed by the ERA, the purchase of an Alfa Monza via Thomson and Taylor shortly thereafter the result of a desire to get a competitive, reliable car. Les Murphy lost time with a long stop and Frank Kleinig retired after throwing a fan-belt.
‘So through the dust and ruts and the flying stones Uffindell lead with Anderson and Pike in pursuit…the battling MG T’s were next from Crouch, Keir…further back Burrow’s Terraplane, the McKellar V8 but already Whitehead was looking the likely winner, lapping faster than expected’.
Shot shows the challenges of high speeds on the narrow, dirt surface of Conrod Straight, perhaps the Dentry Riley behind Whitehead’s ERA. The Esses/Forrests Elbow in the distance (Dave Sullivan Album)
On lap 20 Peter pitted for oil, fuel and water, by then the Norman Aubin Ford V8 Spl, Williamson Chrysler, Joshua Frazer Nash and Weir MG had retired.
‘According to the Bathurst Advocate…this intrepid Englishman apparently does not know the meaning of fear. Once or twice his car slid badly and began to waltz about on the road but he just smiled unconcernedly and set it racing on a perfect course again with the utmost simplicity’.
The Crago/Sherwood stripped MG T Type lead at the halfway mark. Here he is at the top of Mountain Straight turning into Quarry. Bathurst countryside as far as the eye can see (Bob King Collection)
At the 100 Mile mark, the Crago MG, driven now by John Sherwood, led Uffindell by a minute, Crouch and Burrows side by side across the line in third and fourth. ‘But the writing was on the wall-either Whitehead or Burrows would win’.
‘The race continued with the corners badly rutted and increasingly dangerous. The Foss Ford V8 Spl, Pike and Beasley Singers and Fagan’s noisy megaphoned MG K3 also fell out and the Burton Alvis in a race punctured by incidents spun again at the Esses’.
Paul Burton was a WW2 test pilot. His 1482cc supercharged FWD Alvis was ‘driven with enterprise’, the car survives today (John Blanden Collection)Ron Uffindell, Austin 7 Spl (GB Bevan)
‘On lap 30 Burrows lead by 8s from Sherwood with Whitehead in sixth place and 3m 40s behind…rapid calculations suggested that Burrows might beat the black ERA home-but it was not to be; a disappointed Burrows slowed, the Terraplane sounding woolly, and Whitehead, despite a windscreen broken by a flying stone 5 laps from the end, passed him during lap 35 to forge away. Burrows maintained his distance ahead of Sherwood in the Crago MG’.
Whitehead received the chequered flag from Whatmore and Sherwood. Many pitcrews disagreed with the official results, after protests the placings were: Whitehead in R10B, Les Burrows in the Terraplane Spl, Crago in MG T, T Peters in the MacKellar Spl s/c, John Crouch MG T and Jack Phillips, Ford V8 Spl.
Beith’s 3455cc straight-eight Terraplane Spl leads Kerr’s 3621cc V8 Ford Spl – his passenger working hard! Australian Specials were the essence of this race for so long. Hell Corner, the run onto Mountain Straight (Wheels)
Medley…’Whitehead received a tremendous ovation at the finish and afterwards was surrounded by a huge crowd. Dusty, dirty and deaf in a dark blue shirt, spotted tie and grey slacks, mug of beer in hand, he praised the circuit, fellow competitors, and the race itself: ‘I think it is a really fine track. It has the fast corners and the slow corners and a long straight that enables cars to make up lost time…when tar paving is carried out it will be hard to better it…some nasty bumps appeared down the Mount during the latter part of the race’. He said he had not been troubled by spectators walking on the track!
In the best traditions of motor racing Whitehead and Sinclair led the celebrations. Jim Leech in the Light Car Club of Australia History ‘…at the prize presentation His Worship The Mayor had just finished his address to the multitudes and was on the point of handing the winner’s trophy to Whitehead when he was squarely hit on the head by a large cauliflower. This being followed by a shower of similar vegetables resulting is His Worship, his two daughters and other Councillors retiring in disordered haste’.
John Medley, ‘The sporting newspaper The Referee had earlier predicted that ‘Englishmen Whitehead and Sinclair will add tone to the event…’
Peter Whitehead takes the chequered flag in Pit Straight in cold, dusty conditions, love the salute of the bloke on the right! (Frank Wetton in ‘Bathurst: Cradle of Australian Motor Racing’)Amazing photo of Peter Whitehead fettling R10B in between runs, first hand accounts suggest he would have attained the record had the timing equipment done its thing. Canberra in June is bloody cold! hence the cardboard – by the look of it – blind to assist in retaining some water temperature (Ted Hood)
Land Speed Record Attempt : Canberra, ACT June…
The Canberra Speed Trials were annual events conducted during the 1920s and 1930s featuring standing start and flying start time trials along a rural road which is now Northbourne Avenue, literally Canberra’s main street. I can find little reference to these events but the photos in Ted Hoods’ Collection in the State Library of NSW make up for the paucity of information otherwise.
Racer Arthur Rizzo, in an article about his Rizzo Riley Spl said of Whitehead’s attempt, ‘1938 saw us in Canberra to watch the attempts on the Australian records. Peter Whitehead’s ERA sounded terrific and was hand timed to around 150mph.’ (the timing gear refused to record his time)
‘Later the same year we saw the ERA at Bathurst on a circuit that was all dirt. We were at the top of Conrod looking up at The Esses and I remember the ERA coming down into Forrests Elbow in the deep wheel tracks, the fixed crank handle digging into the mound between the tyre tracks and making a noise like a machine gun’.
Tiny crowd, at least from this angle watching the record attempts. Its a hazy shot but its Whitehead on one of his runs. Road now Northbourne Ave, a main Canberra artery (Ted Hood)Whitehead in Canberra. Nice detail shot of forged ‘H Section’ beam axle, Hartford friction dampers, finned brake drum, fixed crank handle which received a serious workout on Bathursts’ late race rutted surface! (Ted Hood)R10B Rob Roy, June 1938 (Leon Sims/MGCC)
After the AGP the ERA journeyed from Central New South Wales to the outskirts of Melbourne to contest the Australian Hillclimb Championshipat Rob Roy in the Christmas Hills on 13 June…
Peter needed to run in some engine parts so did part of the journey in R10B from Canberra on the Hume Highway, the main road between Melbourne and Sydney! It’s hard to imagine Lewis Hamilton doing something similar in his ‘Benz whilst he was in Oz for the 2015 AGP. Mind you, according to one report the ERA was locked up for a bit due to this escapade. Such were those wonderful far away days.
Rob Roy is still in use, it’s a short climb and was then, as so many of our venues were, unsealed until the following year. The Melbourne Argus reported that 3500 people attended the pretty little hamlet and watched Whitehead clip 3.94 seconds off the previous record. His best time was 31.48 seconds, winning both the Australian and Victorian Hillclimb Championships from Jack Phillips’ Ford V8 Spl and Arthur Terdich’s Bugatti T37A.
Rob Roy, Christmas Hills panorama in 1947, looking down to the start. Not that much different today, its still rural despite being (longish) commuting distance from Melbourne (George Thomas)Whitehead at Rob Roy, Victoria (MG Car Club)Peter Whitehead battles an unfavourable tide. 90 Mile Beach September 1938. The relatively narrow patch left for the ERA of ‘solid’ sand is clear between the soft sand and the shallows (EH Price)
Land Speed Record Attempt : 90 Mile Beach, Woodside, Victoria Sunday 4 September…
The Perth Sunday Times expected the Australian record of 92mph to be surpassed at the 90 Mile Beach – as the name suggests – a long expanse of coast at Woodside near Yarram 210 kilometres from Melbourne. The attempt was made under the auspices and control of the Australian Automobile Association and a top speed of over 120 mph was expected over the four miles of pristine beach chosen for the attempts of Whitehead and others.
The Adelaide Mail in its pre-event report described Whitehead ‘as a pleasant young Yorkshireman, a shock headed wool buyer and amateur racing motorist’.
Whitehead was quoted as saying ‘ The car can do it if the conditions are good…You just sit there and tread on the gas, and hold tight to the wheel. On a good test run particularly, it is not the driver that counts but the engine. The ERA is good class here, but in England she is pretty slow. At the beach on Sunday I am not going to be a Segrave or a Campbell!! So do not be disappointed’.
Crowd scene at the 90 Mile Beach near Woodside, Victoria, September 1938. 6000 people a large number at this remote location far from any City of substantial size (EH Price)
That 6000 people ‘conveyed by nearly 2000 motor vehicles ‘attended the event at the time is remarkable given the distance from Melbourne, the small local population and the lack of public transport to access the then relatively remote location.
The Melbourne Argus reported that the attempts were stymied by a strong south easterly wind which prevented the usual fall of the tide. After Whitehead achieved 118.8 mph in the ERA waves washed over the track preventing any further serious attempts. As Peter’s speed was in one direction, the rules requiring a two way average, a new record was not recognised, the existing record set in Canberra some years before, by Bill Thompson’s Bugatti at 112.5mph remained. The report noted that Thompson was an interested onlooker.
‘The Sunday Times’ Perth 4/11/38.
I love the terminology of the day ‘…the crowd began to throng the sand hummocks along the picturesque track many hours before the events were timed to begin. Trials were impossible owing to the tide. When Whitehead warmed his engine up for the first run at 2pm officials expressed keen disappointment at the failure of the tide to fall to within 20 yards of the usual mark’
‘With only a few yards of wet sand between the flags and the waves on the four mile course, Whitehead pluckily started up so as not to disappoint the crowd. He was obstructed by water in his first run however, and although he averaged 118.8 mph in his next run, his car plunged through the lip of a wave, tearing away the apparatus for cooling the brakes, ripping off the oil filler cap, and partially flooding the crankcase with salt water. He maintained control but it was evident that he had no chance of putting the record up to 135mph which was his hope’.
Whitehead gently warms up the cars engine and Wilson pre-selector ‘box prior to a 90 Mile Beach run. The shot shows the packaging of car and driver in the day – collar and tie a nice touch! (EH Price)
Officials decided to allow other drivers some runs whilst Whitehead attempted repairs but the day was abandoned ‘with waves lapping the tent containing the electric timing apparatus and washing completely over the finishing point…there was a rush to get cars off the beach before the tide rose further’.
In an indictment of the morals of the men of the day The Argus on the same page breathlessly reported that ’55 men were arrested in Flinders Lane, Melbourne having been in a ‘common gaming house’, punting on the horses not allowed off course at the time!
Surfs not really up. Whitehead thwarted by bad luck, weather conditions, engine or timing gear failure at all four of his attempts on the Australian Land Speed Record in 1938 (EH Price)Peter Whitehead winning the feature event at Aspendale Speedway, Melbourne, Victoria in October 1938. ERA R10B. He also set the lap record (EH Price)
Aspendale Speedway : Melbourne, Victoria 1 October…
That Whitehead would run the car everywhere was shown again when he contested a ‘feature race’ at Aspendale Speedway in October. The venue was conceived as a horse racing track by James Crooke in 1891 but incorporated a track for ‘new fangled automobiles’ from 1906. In fact one of the very first races in Australia was contested at the venue that year.
Aspendale is a suburb 25 Km from Albert Park, also on Port Phillip Bay, which you can see from the AGP telecasts. When built, the facility was on Melbourne’s fringe but growing urban encroachment meant the track was subsumed for housing, the venue was used for motor racing into the 1940s.
The Argus reported that ‘The success of Peter Whitehead, the English racing car driver was a feature of the motor races conducted at the Aspendale Speedway on Saturday by the Light Car Club of Australia. Whitehead displayed the amazing acceleration and power of the car on the straights, especially the back stretch where he attained about 100 miles an hour. In the invitation race of 10 laps he completed 1 lap in 43.45 seconds at 82.79 mph. This established a lap record for the track.’
Whitehead won the feature from R Curlewis, MG and P Chain, Frazer Nash.
Other unidentified competitors at Aspendale Speedway during the 1938 meeting at which R10B competed (EH Price)Peter all loaded up and ready to go, Parramatta Park. His was one of a couple of practice accidents which gave ‘the coppers the wobbles’ and caused the events cancellation (unattributed)
Parramatta Park Grand Prix : Sydney 5 November…
It was the first time such an event was to be held in Sydney, a Grand Prix in Parramatta Park, an inner city suburb 25 kilometres from Sydney’s centre. The event, conducted by the NSW Light Car Club and Empire Speedways was to be held on 5 November 1938, the finale of a series of events which were part of Parramatta’s 150th Anniversary celebrations.
Interest from drivers and the public was enormous. Twenty five entries were received including Whitehead, Frank Kleinig, Les Burrows and Hope Bartlett. Jack Saywell’s Alfa Romeo and John Snow’s Delahaye, two of the fastest cars to have been brought into Australia were also set to oppose each other at the Parramatta Park track, described as being ideal with a good straight and challenging corners.
A grandstand with a capacity for 1100 spectators was built at the start-finish line, one thousand reserve tickets had been sold and about 50,000 people were expected to turn up to watch the event, which comprised three 20 lap heats and a 50 lap final.
Leading up to the race the safety of the track was reviewed. Graham Howard reported ‘some corners had been protected with sandbag walls, and spectator fences erected and at police request resited further back from the road. In practice Whitehead hit a sandbag wall, more worrying was Reed’s collision with an off course tree after the steering jammed in his Willys 77’
Peter Arfanis wrote ‘However, all the excitement of the event was transformed to astonishment then fury by 5.30pm Friday 4 November. At the eleventh hour Police Commissioner Mr. MacKay decided to ban the race. The decision immediately caused an outcry with the Mayor of Parramatta, Alderman Irwin, calling for a public inquiry into the decision. Crowds had begun gathering on race day unaware that the race had been cancelled. It was a major disappointment for the people of Parramatta.
The organisers were adamant that the race should continue and placed a fresh application for the race to be held on the following Saturday. Organisers were prepared to protect the public by erecting a ‘stout wire-meshed safety fence’ at any point that the police felt it necessary.
The police stood firm stating that the track with its difficult bends would have been dangerous to both the public and the participants’.
Graham Howard in his article in Motor Racing Australia about the circuit speculated, I suspect accurately, that the ‘twitchiness’ of the authorities about circuit safety was probably a consequence of the death of spectators at the privately owned Penrith Speedway (in Sydneys outer west) five months earlier. ‘Not on my watch etc!’
In practice Whitehead lapped the track in 1m 4.5 seconds ahead of Frank Kleinig (Hudson Spl) 1:7.6 and Jack Saywell’s Alfa P3 1:9.0, the circuit was 1.1 miles long. Several events were run post war. Stan Jones did 1.01 in Maybach 1 in 1952 and Jack Brabham 59.5 in his Cooper T23 Bristol in 1954 with no quicker car beating his time at the final meeting in the Park in 1955.
Not Whitehead’s ERA… but a group from 16 November 1929 to give the flavour of the place…L>R; Studebaker 8, Chrysler with outside exhausts, W Thompson Bugatti T37A and Hope Bartlett Bugatti T43. (MC Hinder, Sydney Morning Herald)
Land Speed Record Attempt : 7 Mile Beach, Gerringong, NSW 10 November…
‘Seven Mile Beach’ became known as the Gerringong Speedway, it was a popular outing to attend the races, and was the scene of a significant event in Australian motor sport history when the 100 miles per hour barrier was broken.
There were regular races throughout the 1920s and early 1930s. Around 2000 spectators were present at the Royal Automobile Club speed trials in March 1925, hoping to see the 100mph barrier broken. Don Harkness did so on October 7, 1925, his official speed was 107.75mph in a Hispano-Suiza V8 powered Minerva.
The crowds were excited by the car racing and land speed trials on Seven Mile Beach but in 1933 an entirely new era of transport began there. Local cars used their headlights to provide extra illumination for the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith used Seven Mile Beach as the runway for this flight between Australia and New Zealand and several thousand people came to watch the 2:30am take off.
The Canberra Times reported on 11 November 1938 of another attempt at the Australian LSR which continued to elude Peter ‘An attempt to establish an Australian Land Speed record by the English racing driver, Peter Whitehead on the Seven Mile Beach at Gerringong, yesterday failed at 132 mph when a piston broke.’
It would be interesting to know who rebuilt the engine in Oz, or perhaps he had a spare, probably did given the professionalism involved.
Whitehead returned to the UK…
I’ve not been able to ascertain exactly when Whitehead shipped R10B back to England, he travelled via South Africa on the way home. R10B contested two races, DNF with piston failure in the 5th South African GP at East London on 2 January 1939, the race was won by Luigi Villoresi in a Maserati 6CM. On January 14 he raced in the Grosvenor GP at Capetown again suffering piston failure, Franco Cortese won in another 6CM.
His third place in the Nuffield Trophy at Donington Park on 10 June 1939, the race won by Bira’s ERA R12C, appears to be his last success in the car before it was laid up for the long years of the War…
Peter returned to Australia to race post war as recorded earlier, he was a welcome visitor, but few racers have made the impact Whitehead and R10B did throughout 1938…
R10B Returns to Oz in 1978…
1978 was the 50th anniversary of the first AGP held on the dusty public roads of Phillip Island in 1928, fittingly there was a fantastic weekend of celebrations to recognise what is one of the oldest continuous Grands Prix in the world. A championship event only since 1985 granted, but a GP with a long history all the same.
I was a young university student at the time and camped there for the weekend, the Phillip Island circuit had not long since been reopened. In addition to the re-enactment runs on the public roads there was a fantastic weekend of historic competition bringing together many of the cars which contested the event, including the 1938 victor, R10B. At the time the cars custodian was Joel Finn, he provided a great demonstration of the sight and sound of these fabulous cars.
R10B returns to Oz again in 2015…
The current custodian of the car Paddins Dowling raced in the Phillip Island Classic in 2015, Stephen Dalton took these shots of the car.
Etcetera : Whitehead in Oz…
From the 1948 Bathurst program via Stephen DaltonThe ERA at the 90 Mile Beach , Victoria in September 1938 (Stephen Dalton Collection)‘The Mail’ Adelaide
Etcetera : Whitehead…
Whitehead warms up the engine and transmission of his ERA E-Type in the pits of the 1947 Jersey International Road Race. Charlie White standing beside the cockpit. Eighth on the grid, DNF on lap 1 ‘cracked tank’. Race won by Reg Parnell’s Maserati 4CL (adam@forgham.com)1950 JCC Jersey Road Race ‘Jersey GP’. Whitehead Ferrari 125 victorious. His half-brother Graham was seventh in good ‘ole R10B, then 14 years old. 9 July 1950 (George Thomas)Whitehead’s (pants tucked into his socks) Ferrari 125 alongside #11 Bob Gerards’ ERA R14B, 4th. Jersey Road Race 1950. Lord Freddy March sitting on the shooting stick (Doug Nye-The GP Library)Peter Whitehead races to victory in his Ferrari 125 # ’10-C’. Ulster Trophy, Dundrod, 12 August 1950. (unattributed)Whitehead #17 Ferrari 125 on the Silverstone grid alongside Giuseppe Farinas’ Alfa 158, 3rd and 1st respectively in the final. BRDC International Trophy, 26 August 1950 (unattributed)L>R The 1951 Le Mans winning #20 Whitehead/Walker Jaguar XK120C Type beside the #23 Biondetti/Johnson DNF oil pump and #22 Moss/Fairman DNF oil pressure, cars (Autosport)
Bibliography…
John Medley’s 1938 Chapter in Graham Howard’s ‘History of The AGP’. Howard’s Motor Racing Australia article on ‘Closed Circuit-Maroubra Speedway’, Arthur Rizzo interview via Ray Bell TNF, Illawarra Shire website, Parramatta City website/Peter Arfanis, ‘Closed Circuit:Parramatta Park’ article by Graham Howard in Motor Racing Australia, Whitehead career summary historicracing.com, vintagespeedway.com, ERA Club, The Nostalgia Forum, Guy Bond Bevan, ‘The Mail’ Adelaide 3/9/38, ‘The Argus’ Melbourne 5/9/38, 14/6/38, 3/10/38, ‘Sunday Times’ Perth 4/9/38, ‘The Canberra Times’ 11/11/38, Sydney Morning Herald 4/11/38
Research Assistance…
Stephen Dalton, enthusiast/historian for the advice, photos, sourcing some of the references, and ‘post posting’ errors detection!
Photo Credits…
Ted Hood, John Blanden Collection, Bob King Collection, Graham Howard ‘History of The Australian GP’, State Library of NSW, Leon Sims/MG Car Club, Stephen Dalton, Bob Shepherd, DMJ Illustration, Dave Sullivan Album, The GP Library, Autosport, Wheels magazine, Frank Wetton, John Medley ‘Bathurst: The Cradle of Australian Motor Racing’
Martin Stubbs of the Dacre Stubbs Collection for securing the use of the 90 Mile Beach and Aspendale Speedway images of the late EH Price from the Collection of John Hazelden. Thanks Martin and John for the use of these rare images.
The little Alfa Duetto’s DOHC 1570cc would have struggled ferrying this lot, even for a lap…
It’s the victory parade after the 1968 ‘Warwick Farm 100′ won by Jim Clarks’ Lotus 49 Ford DFW from teammate G Hill, with Piers Courage third in his little McLaren M4A Ford FVA.
What driving talent aplenty in this car!
Driving the car is 1960 Australian Gold Star Champion Alec Mildren, Mildren also an Alfa Dealer and incredibly successful and generous race team owner of the 1960-1970 period, the Dutto immaculate in white and wearing a set of ex-GTA wheels, I wonder who owns it now?
Behind Alec is a youthful Alfredo Costanzo, first local home in an Elfin Mono Ford 1.5 and later to be very successful in Australia’s latter F5000 days and the Formula Pacific era in cars owned by Porsche Cars Australia’s Alan Hamilton, another very generous benefactor of the sport.
Brabham, Moss and Clark needing no introduction…
Clark won the race, the Lotus 49 was the F1 standard from its 1967 Dutch GP launch, reliability cost Lotus the titles that year- the light, nimble beautiful handling Brabham BT24’s did the trick, Denny Hulme pipping Jack for the Drivers Championship and Brabham Repco winning the Constructors laurels.
In 2.5 litre ‘DFW’ spec the Ford Cosworth powered cars were formidable Tasman weapons, Clark won the 1968 title and Jochen Rindt was the fastest man of the series in 1969, if not the most reliable.
Jim Clark, Lotus 49 DFW, WF 1968. (Peter Windsor)
The Tasman Cup entries in 1968 were as interesting and diverse as ever
Moreso than previous years in fact- the interesting shot below was taken as the cars lined up for practice in Warwick Farm’s pit lane and shows the business end of the new Len Terry designed 2.5 litre V12 BRM P126. Its Hewland DG300 gearbox is just visible behind the Lucas fuel pump mounted to the rear of the ‘box, the Shell ‘el cheapo’ oil catch tank is a nice ‘in the field’ touch! Richard Attwood in the hotseat retired from the race with gearbox dramas.
Two of the P126’s were entered in the Tasman, Bruce McLaren raced a car in the New Zealand rounds and took a win at Teretonga, the cars were in the Southern Hemisphere to be race proven, after the abortive H16 program, before the European F1 season but there was always a scramble to drive the old, light, nimble and reliable 2.1 litre V8 P261.Pedro Rodriguez raced it at WF finishing sixth in a car which had so much Tasman success, Jackie Stewart took the title in a P261 in 1966.
In front of the BRM is Frank Gardner’s Alec Mildren Racing, one off, Brabham BT23D Alfa. This magic little car was powered by a 2.5 litre V8 developed via Alfas’ endurance racing Tipo 33 program. Its twin vertically mounted distributors fired two plugs per cylinder- a distinctive visual element of the little DOHC, two valve, injected engine. Later in 1968 the car won the Australian Drivers Championship in Kevin Bartlett’s capable, quick hands.
Forward of Frank is Piers Courage’ McLaren M4A Ford FVA- he came to Australasia with this car and two engines and did incredibly well, perhaps its not unfair to say he re-launched his career with this self funded Tasman effort. Numerous podium placings were surpassed by an heroic win in hopelessly wet conditions on one of the ‘biggest balls’ circuits of the world, Longford a fortnight after his strong third at WF ahead of many more powerful and equally nimble cars as his little F2 McLaren.
This McLaren stayed in Australia after the Tasman being bought by Niel Allen, and was also raced successfully by Warwick Brown in the formative stages of his career.
WF pitlane Tasman Series 1968. (Brian McInerney)
Graham Hill and friends, Warwick Farm paddock 1968. (Brian McInerney)
Graham Hill was perhaps not as focussed on a win as teammate Clark…get your hands off that young woman you bounder!
Was there ever a bloke from ‘central casting’ who looked more like a dashing, debonair driver than G Hill? He did not have the absolute pace of teammates Clark, Stewart or Rindt but was a driver of incredible ability, the only winner of motor racings World F1 Title/LeMans/Indy ‘Triple Crown’ of course.
His greatest moments were to come in 1968 when he picked Team Lotus up by the scruff of the neck, despite the loss of his good friend Jim Clark, providing the leadership the team needed whilst Colin Chapman recovered from his own grief at losing his driver, friend and colloborator in April, only months after this race meeting.
Lotus’ wins in the Drivers and Constructors Titles in 1968 owe a lot to Hill’s character as well as his determination and speed.
Hill from Amon and Courage. Lotus 49 DFW, Ferrari Dino 246T, and McLaren M4A FVA. 2nd, 4th and 3rd respectively. WF 1968, the majesty of the place clear in this shot. (Unattributed)
Jack Brabham had a short 1968 Tasman.
His Brabham BT23E was powered by Repco’s latest 740 Series SOHC V8 and competed in only the Warwick Farm and Sandown rounds.
In fact Repco, for all their F1 success didn’t ever have much Tasman glory in their own backyeard…to be fair the primary reponsibility of the Repco Tasman program each year was to sort out the engines for the coming Grand Prix season, but all the same, a few local wins should have been achieved given the resources deployed?
This fabulous car stayed in Australia, acquired by Bob Jane at the Tasmans’ duration, it was raced for him by John Harvey who was always fast in it, but also unlucky, surviving a high speed accident at Bathurst after a component failure, the low point for the team.
Brabhams BT23E Repco all ready to qualify with a fresh set of Goodyears. Car in front is the BRM P261 V8 of Rodriguez, Courages’ McLaren body on the deck behind Jack. WF pitlane 1968. (Brian McInerney)
Stirling Moss tells Clark about the fast way around ‘The Farm, both drivers loved the place and won there. ‘Lucas Opus’ spark-box prominent between the Vee of the Cossie DFW. Ford DFV famous as a load bearing member of the car, this shot showing the suspension componentry and its attachment to the engine and ZF ‘box. Suspension itself conventional for the day; inverted lower wishbone, single top link, twin radius rods and coil spring/damper, adjustable roll bar. Front suspension inboard; top rocker visible. Nice. WF Tasman 1968. (Brian McInerney)
The Eyes Have It.
Chris Amon (below) absolutely focussed on the task at hand. He came back with another two Dinos he ran with the assistance of David McKay’s Scuderia Veloce in 1969, lifting the title in a tremendous and very popular fashion.
In 1968 he was very competitive, winning the first two Kiwi rounds at Pukekohe and Levin but did not ultimately have the speed of the Lotuses of Clark and Hill. The car was a Ferrari 166 F2 (1.6 litre formula at the time) to which was fitted the 2.4 litre DOHC, two valve, injected V6 engine from the cars used at the start of the 3 litre Formula 1 in early 1966.
In the 1968 Australian Tasman Rounds Amon mixed the racing of the Dino single seater with McKay’s P4/CanAm 350 Ferrari i wrote about a week or so back.
Chris Amon, Ferrari Dino 246T, WF, Tasman Series 1968. (Brian McInerney)
This shot captures the atmosphere of the Tasman Series generally and Warwick Farm specifically…
There is no hassle of the drivers by the appreciative crowd and vice-versa, there would be uproar these days of course.
Piers Courage is looking relaxed and happy about his third behind the Lotuses of Clark and Hill, and Amon fourth, is still figuring he could take the title with two rounds remaining at Melbourne’s Sandown and Tasmania’s Longford- ultimately he fell short of Clark by 8 points, Amon taking two wins to Clark’s four.
Piers Courage and Chris Amon on the WF warmdown lap. McLaren M4A FVA and Ferrari Dino 246T. Australian summer male ‘fashion’ of the day on full display. (Bruce Thomas)
Jim Clark savouring the plaudits of the crowd and one of his last wins, Lotus 49 Ford DFW, 18 February 1968…
Jim Clark, Lotus 49 WF 1968. (wirra)
Grid and Results…
Etcetera…
(B Jackson)
Get a move on chaps…
And things go better with Coke it seems- brake bleed in process. Note the solid front rotor on Graham’s Lotus 49 rather than the vented ones first used in 1967. Nice shot of the front bulkhead and inboard front suspension mounting treatment.
(Peter Windsor)
Chris Amon in the Warwick Farm pitlane, Ferrari Dino 246T, 1968 was a useful exploratory season for the successful two car assault in 1969.
(Brian Jackson)
Piers Courage alights his McLaren M4A Ford FVA as Ray Parsons, in ‘Australian summer mechanic’s clobber’ awaits instructions for the next round of tweaks before the next session, one of which is to increase the size of the nose mounted duct to get a bit more cool air into the cockpit.
(John Ellacott)
Superb John Ellacott shot of Frank Gardner in the one-off Alec Mildren Racing Brabham BT23D Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 2.5 V8- she is puffing a bit of blue smoke in best Alfa tradition!
(Brian McInerney)
‘See you after the race then?’ Hill G dealing with another admirer of the feminine type.
(Brian Jackson)
First local driver home was Alfie Constanzo in his Elfin Mono Mk2B Ford twin-cam in eighth place, here shielding his eyes from the late afternoon sun- that’s Ian Fergusson in a Lotus 27 Ford twin-cam behind Alf, both of these cars are ANF 1.5s.
Photo and Other Credits…
Bruce Thomas, Peter Windsor, Brian McInerney, Wirra, John Ellacott, Brian Jackson
Stephen Dalton for the race program and ‘Racing Car News’ material
Terraplane Special at Lobethal in January 1939, with three enthusiasts watching from the ‘Grand Stand’ whilst sheltering from the hot summer sun…
Some of these older shots blow me away and take me back to a time of racing well before my own…It’s not possible to identify actually which car this is. The shot is more about the ‘atmospherics’ of the most challenging ‘race track’ in Australia than the car in any event.
It’s a photo i found in the State Library of South Australia Archive marked ‘Terraplane Lobethal 1939’. Ace researcher/historian Stephen Dalton reckons its the AGP meeting held at Lobethal on 1 January 1939, ‘The SA Junior GP’ had 3 Terraplane Specials entered for Les Burrows, H Beith and Bob Lea Wright..take your pick…
Terraplane Spl…
Terraplane was a car brand built by Hudson between 1933 and 1938 and were ‘rich pickings’ for special builders throughout the world as the 8 cylinder cars were supposedly the highest power to weight ratio production cars of the day…and favoured transport of US Gangsters John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson.
From AMS December 1947
Photo Credit…
State Library of South Australia, Stephen Dalton research
Robert Davies captures Alan Moffat is his Ford ‘Cologne Capri’ RS3100, exiting Dandy Road upon its Australian debut at the Sandown Tasman meeting in February 1975…
Whilst Alan Moffats’ car is well known by most Australian enthusiasts, the factory RS2600 campaigned by David Mckay in the 1972 Dulux Rally is a bit more obscure, we will come back to Moffat’s car, McKays’ was the first to appear.
The Dulux Rally was a unique event in the World, whilst influenced by the Tour de France was different in that competitors faced both the challenges of dirt rallying and circuit racing. The Rally only lasted 2 years, such was the cost of running an event over two weeks commencing in Queensland and finishing in distant Victoria.
The Dulux was promoted and run by the Sydney based Australian Sporting Car Club and worked commercially due to the support of ICI Australia, whose research showed the most effective way to promote the name change of ‘Balm Paints’ to ‘Dulux’ to the trade in 1971 was via motorsport. Re-finishers, panel and paint shop proprietors were interested in motorsport, so the key commercial support to get quite a radical event off the ground was made.
McKay very successfully ran an Alfa 1750 GTV powered by the 2-litre race engine out of his friend Brian Foley’s ex-factory GTAm circuit racer, a veritable 210bhp wolf in sheep’s clothing in 1971. McKay finished second to Colin Bonds’ factory Holden Torana LC GTR-XU1. No mean feat, as Bond was one of Australia’s most versatile drivers: a winner in open wheelers, on the dirt and on the circuits as both multiple Australian Rally Champion and a winner of the Bathurst 500 and many other circuit races.
For 1972 McKay was keen on a more competitive mount, the nature of the various hats he wore and his capabilities meant he was attractive to all of the local manufacturers/importers. McKay was invited to breakfast with Ford’s CEO Australia, Bill Bourke, on his departure from Australia who asked if there was anything he could do for McKay in his new appointment elsewhere in the Ford empire.
McKay recalled ‘Ford were running V6 Capris in European Rallies and perhaps Bill Bourke could collar one which wouldn’t be missed in time for the ’72 Dulux? This he did together with a mechanic to look after a car which had been run by Ford France. Howard Marsden (head of Fords racing program in Australia) was enthused and turned on his Ford works crew’.
The 1972 Dulux entry was not large at 27 cars…but included International, Edgar Herrmann, in a factory Datsun 240Z, Colin Bond and Peter Brock in factory Torana GTR XU1’s both of whom were equally at home on tar or dirt, Australian Rally Champion Bob Watson in a Renault 8 Gordini, Stewart McLeod, XU-1 and Bruce Hodgson, Ford Escort Twin Cam and many other top drivers.
The rally commenced after a run from Brisbane to Grafton at Surfers Paradise Raceway.
The Capri had a high speed miss which cost power, McKay finished third on a track tailor made for the car. Due in Sydney on the second night, David organised the SV Team to be on hand to rectify the problem, there, out of the rain which had accompanied the rally since it’s start, a condenser was identified as the cause of the misfire and fixed.
With full power the car won the Silverdale Hillclimb and night racing at Oran Park, then a circuit on Sydney’s Western outskirts. This put a smile on Ford fans faces and gave General Motors Holden and their Torana’s cause for concern…
McKay also won the Dapto Hillclimb, having time to divert to visit his ailing mother in Bowral Hospital enroute to Canberra!
McKay ‘passed’ as he put it on the Mount Ginn event, spitting the dummy over the condition of the track surface, even protesting the organisers conducting the Mt Ginn activity at all…he could do so as the Capri was comfortably in the lead at the time.
Based in Albury, on the New South Wales/Victorian border for several nights the car won the circuit events at Hume Weir, another lost circuit, and several nights of rallying. ‘The Capri was very quick on dirt surprising both (navigator) Garry Connelly who was doing the navigating and myself but it wasn’t to last’.
‘Apparently the wide Goodyear Ultragrips should have been fitted with tubes to give some protection against deflation over the rocky outcrops and we had tyre problems on one section. On another a rear coil spring became detached from its mountings and pierced a tyre. The final blow was hitting a rocky ridge in the middle of the dirt road with the front cross member and pushing the lot back out of alignment. ‘
‘No-one else had noticed the ridge, all driven safely over it as we had expected to do. In our jubilation after the wins at Hume Weir earlier in the day we had inadvertently forgotten to reset the ride height, consequently we were rallying with race track settings and it took the Ford boys a long time to straighten out the mess’.
The Toranas therefore skipped off into the distance. On the final leg towards Melbourne the Capri won a 20 lapper at Phillip Island, lapping the Toranas, McKay finally able to use its ‘moonshot-fifth gear’ on the Island’s long main straight.
The event finished at Melbourne’s Dallas Brooks Hall, the two works Holden Torana LJ XU-1s first and second from Stewart McLeod third, McKay and Connelly seventh in the exotic Cologne Capri.
The car does not seem to have been rallied again but passed into the hands of Melbourne’s Graham ‘Tubby’ Ritter, a noted engineer/driver who mated the car with donor parts from the March 751 F5000 left in Australia by John Cannon; engine, gearbox, suspension, and brakes all used in the cars conversion to a Sports Sedan, the March tub was attached to a VW transmission and sent to New Zealand to deal with the import duty issue which otherwise arose…
If memory serves the cars injected 5-litre Chev was later twin-turboed, if any reader knows of this RS2600’s ultimate destiny I am intrigued to know.
Moffat’s RS3100…
Allan Moffat made his name in Australia as one of our greatest touring car drivers but was born in Canada and emigrated to Australia with his father who was posted here for career reasons in the early 1960s.
Moffat commenced racing in Australia in a Triumph TR3A and progressed to a Lotus Cortina bought from Team Lotus at the end of 1964, Moffat having worked with the team in the United States.
His racing of the Cortinas in both Australia and in the US is a story in itself, suffice it to say that at the end of 1967 he was competitive enough to be invited to join Ford’s KarKraft as a development driver.
Ford was fully committed to the Trans Am Series to promote its image. It was a hotbed of competition with Shelby American representing Ford. Allan co-drove the first two rounds (Daytona 24-Hours, Sebring 12-Hours) of the 1968 Trans Am, with Horst Kwech, the car did not finish either race.
He returned to Australia to work for Bob Jane after Jane purchased a genuine 1968 ex-Shelby Trans Am Mustang, Allan returned to Detroit in early 1969 and met with Jack Passino, Ford Racing Director who organised a brand new 1969 Trans-Am Boss Mustang.
Moffat brought the car to Australia and with support from Coca-Cola in one of the first commercial deals of its type here, and raced the car as a professional becoming one of the most iconic car/driver combinations in Australia.
Moffat and the Trans Am won 101 of its 157 starts but ironically not the coveted Australian Touring Car Championship for which it was intended. ATCC rule changes forced the Mustang into the Sports Sedan category in 1973. The Mustang was competitive but with new rule freedoms during 1974 wins became fewer against the mid engined cars now being developed. Moffat, to his eternal credit chose not to ‘hack the car about’, one of only seven genuine factory 1969 Trans Ams…but he needed a competitive mount to replace the famous car. His immaculate Ford connections secured one of the works Capri RS3100s at the end of Fords successful 1974 European Touring car championship campaign…
This is a slightly truncated version of Mark Oastlers tremendous article about the car in ‘Shannons’ magazine…if you have a hankering for Touring Cars its worth signing up to the Shannons site just to get access to Oastlers’ excellent articles, http://www.shannons.com.au/club/
Why Ford built the ultimate RS…
‘The catalyst for creation of the RS 3100 was the 1973 ETCC, when BMW fended off a gallant season-long challenge by Ford’s less powerful RS 2600 Capris to win the prestigious title.
BMW had caught Ford by surprise that year by equipping its 3.5 litre CSL coupe with a huge boot-mounted inverted rear wing, made even more effective by a full-width scoop mounted along the rear edge of the roof to feed it clean air flow for maximum downforce. Not surprisingly, the big CSL coupe soon earned the nickname ‘Batmobile’!
Ford rightly figured that to overcome the CSL challenge in 1974, the Capri would firstly require more power. However, the RS 2600’s German 2.6 litre V6 engine, which had already been bored out to 2.9 litres capacity and was producing around 320 bhp, had reached the peak of its development.
By comparison, the capacity of BMW’s potent 3.0 litre in-line six had been increased to 3.5 litres under the FIA’s liberal Group 2 rules, providing a big power advantage over the Fords. The obvious answer was a switch to the larger capacity 3.1 litre British-built Essex V6 as used in UK-built Capris.
The CSL’s inverted rear wing also provided a considerable edge in traction and high speed stability so Ford had no choice but to join the aero wars with a large rear spoiler of its own. Wind tunnel and track testing of various designs proved how effective a large ducktail spoiler could be.
As a result, Ford committed to production of a ‘homologation special’ called the RS 3100 that would serve as the road-going production basis for its full-house Group 2 competition cars for the 1974 ETCC attack.
Built in a batch of 250 (the minimum number required for FIA homologation) the British-built RS 3100 came with front and rear spoilers and the 3091cc Essex V6. Use of this engine of course would allow the 1974 race car to increase its engine capacity to 3.5 litres to match the BMW.
The small batch of RS 3100 road cars went on public sale in November 1973 with FIA homologation approved on January 1, 1974. Surprisingly perhaps, these rare homologation cars proved hard to sell. Evidence of that fact is that 50 of the 250 built were shipped to Australia as late as June 1974 where they were eventually sold through selected Ford dealers.
Cosworth to the rescue…
Michael Kranefuss was the man in charge of Ford’s ETCC program. Given Ford’s long and successful association with Cosworth, in particular its 3.0 litre V8 DFV Formula One engine, he approached the Northhampton firm to design the new RS 3100 race engine. Initial discussions between Ford and Cosworth about this engine had started back in 1972.
The Group 2 rules required use of the manufacturer’s standard cylinder block, but a timely change that allowed use of alternative cylinder heads for 1974 left Cosworth with the task of designing new aluminium heads with dual overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder and an initial power target of 400-plus bhp.
The Cosworth GAA-V6 was designed by Keith Duckworth and Mike Hall, featuring cast aluminium heads that could be used on either bank. The four overhead camshafts operating 24 tiny valves were belt driven by toothed pulleys at the front of the engine, with one spark plug per cylinder and Lucas mechanical fuel injection.
Cosworth needed to increase the cylinder bore size of the Essex block, but wayward casting tolerances meant that few of these mass produced blocks survived the machining process. They settled on 3412cc as the safe limit. Cosworth also beefed up the bottom end with rugged four-bolt main bearing caps.
In-house dyno testing of the new 3.4 litre GAA-V6 began late in 1973 and it produced 420 bhp straight up, instantly meeting Ford’s 400 bhp plus target. With on-going development these engines reached 450 bhp at a spine-tingling 8750 rpm.
The RS2600’s five-speed ZF gearbox was carried over and matched with a rugged Borg & Beck triple-plate clutch in a feather-weight magnesium bell housing.
The RS 3100 Cologne Capris were built with a win-at-all-costs approach at Ford’s German competitions department in Cologne, under chief engineer Thomas Amerschlaeger. The exotic materials, quality of workmanship and attention to detail evident in the construction of these factory race cars was beyond belief.
The emphasis was on minimising weight, as the lightweight fiberglass doors, bonnets and boot lids used on the RS 2600 were no longer allowed and the new Essex V6 was slightly heavier than the German engine. This resulted in a 50 kg weight increase in the new cars, which would be offset somewhat by the more powerful 3.4 litre Cosworth engine.
They started with standard LHD steel body shells taken from the production line which were rumoured to have spent time in an acid bath to remove some excess metal before they arrived at the workshop.
Large aerodynamically shaped fiberglass wheel arch flares were installed at each corner to shroud huge wheels and tyres and lightweight laminated window glass was fitted throughout the cabin. The large front and rear spoilers, which under Group 2 rules had grown considerably from the road car versions on which they were based, were fitted front and rear.
The increased weight of the Essex V6 altered the car’s critical front to rear weight distribution, which Amerschlaeger’s team addressed by mounting the engine’s dry-sump lubrication oil tank and fuel injection pumps inside the boot area, where the battery and huge 120-litre long distance fuel tank also resided.
Oil cooling radiators for the gearbox and rear axle were also moved to the tail end and mounted directly behind the rear wheels, with oil circulation controlled by a pump driven directly by the tailshaft via a toothed belt and pulley arrangement. The engine oil cooling unit was mounted in the nose where it was fed fresh air through the grille.
The engineers also experimented with a rear-mounted engine radiator but found that there wasn’t sufficient air flow available because of the effectiveness of the huge front spoiler in stopping air from flowing under the car. Amerschlaeger eventually opted for twin side-mounted engine radiators mounted just ahead of the rear wheels.
The standard dashboard pad and door trims had to be retained but the rest of the interior was stripped bare, leaving a full set of competition gauges, remote switch panels, massive roll cage, on-board fire extinguisher system plumbed to every corner of the car and lightweight Nomex covered driver’s seat.
To minimise weight, many suspension components were made from aluminium or magnesium.
Under Group 2, a touring car’s suspension had to keep its original ‘architecture’ so the RS 3100 was equipped with strengthened front suspension towers, Bilstein aluminium McPherson struts with gas-filled adjustable dampers, a wrist-thick anti-roll bar, magnesium hub carriers and solid aluminium replacing rubber in all suspension bushes.
Likewise the Capri’s live rear axle and leaf spring design had to be retained, but Ford got very creative in its rule interpretation. It complied by fitting leaf springs, but they were made from lightweight composite materials and had no springing function at all.
This was performed instead by big coil springs and adjustable gas-filled Bilstein shocks. Ford’s homologation paperwork stated that these coils were simply ‘additional springs’ and the FIA duly agreed!
The rear axle was located fore and aft by upper and lower trailing arms and laterally via a Watts linkage that also allowed adjustment of the car’s rear roll centre.
The brakes were huge with four wheel discs permitted under Group 2, even though the road car had rear drums. The ventilated front rotors measured 12 inches (305mm) in diameter and more more than 1.0-inch thick, clamped by powerful servo-assisted calipers.
The front brakes were also fitted with an automatic water cooling system connected to a large tank in the cockpit which could spray a fine mist onto the disc rotors to cool them down each time the brake pedal was pushed. The rear discs were slightly smaller 10.5 inch diameter units.
The racing wheels and tyres were enormous given the size and weight of the car, capable of generating such huge cornering forces that the works Capris were often seen in the ETCC cornering with their two inside wheels clear off the deck.
German BBS composite rims (magnesium centres with aluminium rims) were secured by a single central locking nut and fitted with tailor-made Dunlop tyres that measured a staggering 16 inches (405mm) wide at the rear and 12 inches (305mm) on the front.
With top shelf drivers the calibre of Niki Lauda, Jochen Mass, Toine Hezemans and Dieter Glemser on the team, Ford was ready for all-out war.
The 1974 ETCC…
‘Unfortunately, the timing could not have been worse for what promised to be the battle of all battles for the ETCC crown between Ford’s new RS 3100 Capris and BMW’s mighty CSL ‘Batmobiles’.
The world’s worsening energy crisis, which had been triggered by the Arab-Israel war, forced car companies to quickly change priorities in their marketing and product development strategies. Motor racing programs were hit particularly hard during this time, including Australia where Ford withdrew its factory support in January 1974.
Sadly BMW also began to scale down its racing activities during the ETCC which left easy wins to the new Capris at several rounds. Even so, despite these outright victories and the vast sums of money spent designing, building and developing the new RS 3100s, it was the German Zakspeed-prepared RS 1600 Ford Escorts which ended up winning the manufacturer’s title for Ford due to a points system that was heavily weighted in favour of smaller capacity cars.
The last time an RS 3100 Cologne Capri competed in full works guise was when Jochen Mass and Toine Hezemans were sent to Kyalami in South Africa to compete in a gruelling non-championship 9-Hour endurance race as part of the Springbok series that featured many sports cars. The Capri was fast and faultless again, winning the touring car class and finishing an outstanding fifth outright.
The same car – chassis number GA ECPY19999 – would not return to Germany after the race, though, as it was destined for a very different life in Australia.’
The Moffat era…
‘In late February 1975, GA ECPY19999 arrived at Allan Moffat Racing in Melbourne after being shipped directly from its last race as a works car in South Africa.
Although the stunning European thoroughbred won first time out at Sandown it soon became apparent that the Capri, which was built for long distance racing on high speed European tracks, was going to be doing it hard against lighter and more powerful V8 competition on Australia’s tighter tracks in short sprint races.
Its V6 engine just couldn’t match the explosive power and torque outputs of rival V8s. And it was restricted to the local maximum wheel width of 10 inches, which was a substantial drop in traction given the car was designed to race on massive 16-inch wide rears and 12-inch fronts in Europe.
It was also comparatively heavy given its touring car racing origins, competing against increasingly sophisticated purpose-built local designs that featured mid-mounted V8 engines, space-frame chassis, Formula 5000 suspension and featherweight composite body panels.
Moffat had his sights set on winning the inaugural Australian Sports Sedan Championship (ASSC) in 1976, so when it became clear he would need V8 power to do it he sourced a state-of-the-art DeKon Chevrolet Monza from the US. With 6 litre Chevrolet V8 power, it was immediately more than a match for the best sports sedans in the land.
Even so, the RS 3100 Capri still had an important role to play as the controversial Monza was sidelined midway during the ASSC due to questions over its eligibility. So while that was being sorted, Moffat dusted off the Capri for two crucial rounds at Wanneroo in Perth (which he won) and A.I.R in Adelaide (where he came second). The Capri proved it was still highly competitive, effectively sealing the title for Moffat and finishing its Australian career on a high note.’
Moffat retained the car, as he did the Mustang for decades before finally selling it to a lucky collector in New Zealand.
The Kiwi Connection…
For the sake of completeness there were only two other, I think, ‘Cologne Capris’ which raced in Australia, both originated from the ‘other side of the ditch’, the colloquial name we Australasians give to the Tasman Sea, which separates Australia and New Zealand.
Grant Walker raced the ex-works RS2600 imported into New Zealand by Paul Fahey which won the NZ Touring Car Championship in 1975 converted to Cossie GAA power.
Don Halliday raced the GAA powered car he and his equally talented brother built up in NZ with many factory parts as well as local ingenuity.
Both scored points in the 1976 Australian Sports Sedan Championship, ironically won by Allan Moffat in the Chev Monza which replaced his Capri. As Mark Oastler points out above the Capri did play a vital role in that series victory.
Bunch of three photographs of David McKay in his RS2600 during the 1972 Dulux- I don’t know the venues though, assistance appreciated. Colin Bond’s Holden Dealer Team Torana GTR-XU1 lined up beside him in the shot below.
The last shot is the same car but has none other than Kevin Bartlett at the wheel, date and place unknown.
Credits…
Robert Davies, Jerry Melton, autopics.com, spooky21, Green Machine, Bruno Betti, oldracephotos, David McKay’s ‘Scuderia Veloce’ autobiography, Mark Oastler/Shannons for the RS3100 article, snooksmotorsport.com, The Roaring Season, Stephen Dalton for the research assistance and material
Phil Hill, Ferrari Dino 246, Italian GP Monza 1958. His debut GP for Ferrari
Phil Hill looking fairly relaxed on the occasion of his Ferrari Grand Prix debut…
Hill had been part of Ferraris’ sports car squad since 1955 and ‘shamed’ the chief into promoting him by making his Grand Prix debut in the French GP in Jo Bonniers’ Maserati 250F.
He justified Ferrari’s faith in him placing 3rd in his Dino 246. Tony Brooks Vanwall won the race.
Love Hill’s natty race safety attire! Check, short sleeved blue shirt his first line of defence against fire, mind you the prevailing wisdom of the day was to be thrown clear of the car in the event of a ‘big one’.
It’s interesting to reflect on how far safety advanced in the following ten years- in cars advances included monocoque chassis, roll bars, six-point harnesses and fire extinguishers. In terms of driver safety ‘Nomex’ fire retardant ‘suits with Bell introducing the first ‘Star’ full face helmet in 1968 spring to mind.
Mind you the cars were far faster over that decade, the GP field was ‘winged by the end of 1968 with another leap in performance as a consequence. The circuits hadn’t kept pace though, the Jackie Stewart led Grand Prix Drivers Association crusade to improve circuit standards and safety was just underway, he was a pariah in the views of some traditionalists but many drivers lives were saved as a result.
We lost some of the visual splendour of classic circuits and Phils’ striped blue shirts…
Enzo Ferrari & Phil Hill Monza 1958- ‘just do as i say and you will be fine…'(Jesse Alexander)
1958 Italian GP Start…# 28 Tony Brooks & # 30 Stuart Lewis-Evans, both in Vanwall VW57’s & Mike Hawthorns’ Ferrari Dino 246. Brooks the winner of the race from Hawthorn & Hill. Lewis-Evans DNF. (Unattributed)
Phil Hill Ferrari Dino 246 Italian GP Monza 1958- that steering wheel is so ‘period’! (Jesse Alexander)
Etcetera…
Phil looking very youthful, 25 years of age, at Torrey Pines, California in July 1952, car is a Ferrari 212 Export- a win it seems!
This fantastic shot of Lex Davisons’ Alfa Romeo P3 ahead of Doug Whitefords’ Ford V8 Spl ‘Black Bess’, Nuriootpa, in South Australia’s’ Barossa Valley on 23 April 1949…
Look at the hay bales, stone houses characteristic of South Australia, the ‘Stobie’ light poles are still a feature of SA streets and the relaxed crowd. Captures the flavour of the day doesn’t it?
It’s funny where you find stuff. I was researching my article on Alf Barretts’ career and Alfa Monza a while back and tripped over this shot of Davo on the ‘South Australia History Hub’, but no details were provided. I knew who it was but not exactly when or where, Stephen Dalton fellow enthusiast/historian identified the place, date as well as the event.
‘The Vintage (as in wine vintage, the Barossa is a world renowned wine region) Festival Championship’ was a 25 mile event, 8 laps of the Nuri road circuit, it was reported in Graham Howard’s biography of Lex Davison, from which this article draws heavily.
As you will see from the cars described, the bulk of our elite fields were Australian Specials in the main, we are still several years away from a reasonable number of European GP cars on our grids and 5 years away from the ‘Red Car Period’ of the mid to late fifties, the factory cars then dominant.
The last AGP win for an Australian Special was the 1951 Narrogin event in WA…
It was won by Warwick Pratley’s Ford ‘Flathead’ V8 powered George Reed Special.
The last AGP win for an Australian built car was John Goss’ victory at Sandown in 1976 in a Matich A53 Repco F5000 car- Australian built but not a ‘Special’ in the sense meant above!
‘The Vintage Festival Championship…’
‘Non-starters included Jack Days Talbot Darracq, Barracloughs Delage and Alfa Mercury. Cars were marshalled with the fastest at the back, Whiteford made the cleanest start. On his hammer was Jim Gullan Ballot Olds with Davison, Neale Ford V8 Spl, Wilcox Dodge Spl and Robinson Sunbeam Mercury, his car the 1922 GP Sunbeam fitted with a Ford V8 and with a body reminiscent of the Segrave 200mph car.’
‘In the next lap Davison passed Gullan and was right behind Whiteford, whose Ford V8 Spl was going very well, this car winning the 1950 AGP at this circuit, I covered this car a while back. Wilcox was close to Neale and behind Robinson.
Davo passed Whiteford by lap 4, the order remained unchanged from then. ‘Doug Whiteford did everything but tie knots in the Ford keeping up with the Davison Alfa and it was the first time he has been seeing really trying. The two leaders outstripped the rest by over a minute and a half and lapped the last man home…’
A great race and a portent of things to come from the two Melburnians…
Davison the wealthy industrialist from Clendon Road, Toorak in the aristocratic GP Alfa and Whiteford the garage proprietor from Carlisle Street, St Kilda in the self built/developed but incredibly clever, quick Ford V8 Spl…several suburbs and poles apart but very much racing enthusiasts and champion drivers both.
4 AGP wins for Davison and 3 for Whiteford, some splendid racing was to follow in the ensuing decade from these two great competitors…
Credits…
SA History Hub, Graham Howard ‘ Lex Davison:Larger Than Life’, Stephen Dalton research
‘This is the prettiest car I have ever snapped’ said Dick Simpson. Hard to argue…
This is one of four Ferrari P4s built; chassis numbers 0856, 0858, 0860 and 0846, the latter a converted P3.
At the end of the 1967 endurance season two of the cars were lightened and modified to run in the ’67 Can-Am Series in the US, chassis 0860 and 0858. The latter was then acquired by Scuderia Veloce’s David McKay for one fabulous season in Australia. I wrote an article a while back about SV, David McKay and his 250LM #6321, have a read of it rather than repeat the background here.
Simpson’s shot is of Aussie Bill Brown at the wheel on 5 May 1968, the shot taken at the left hander after Warwick Farm’s (Sydney) Shell Bridge, it captures the curvaceous beauty of the thing!
The photographers and their artistry inspired this article, acknowledgement of them all but especially Dick Simpson, John Ellacott, Roderick MacKenzie, Ellis French and Lindsay Ross.
As Mike Spence buckles up his seatbelt in the Chaparral 2F Chev, he is surrounded by FoMoCo vehicles; #1 the victorious Gurney/Foyt, #3 Bianchi/Andretti and Hulme/Ruby Mk4s, and the #5 Gardner/McCluskey and Schlesser/Ligier Mk2s…not a Ferrari in sight! (unattributed)
1967 was a halcyon year of sports car racing, the high point of the ‘Unlimited Formula’…
A 5-litre limit for sports cars and 3-litres for prototypes was imposed by the FIA for 1968 so Ford had one more year to race their 7-litre Mk 2 and 4s.
Chaparral returned to Europe with the fabulous 2F Coupe after an exploratory endurance year with the 2D in 1966. Lola competitors struggled with engine reliability to match the excellence of the chassis, and Ferrari returned with 4-litre engines but with three-valve heads after a year of austerity in 1966. Ferrari mainly entered one P3 at each race while coping with widespread industrial unrest in Italy that year.
The season wasn’t all about just the big three; Alfa raced their T33, Porsche the 907, Matra their M630 V8 BRM engined cars, but in reality the season was about the big outright cars. It was an unforgettable year of sports car racing arguably caused by Enzo’s rebuff of Fords’ desire to purchase the Italian autocrat’s company five years before and the Lola GT/Ford GT40 program which followed.
The Ford Mk4 incorporated all the company learnings, the early failures of the GT40 and Mark 2 in 1964/5 and the triumph at Le Mans in 1966, where Kiwis Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon ‘won’ over the Ken Miles/Denny Hulme Mark 2 in Ford’s farcical Form-Finish.
The Mark 4 was of aluminium honeycomb construction and had much more advanced aerodynamics than the Mk 2, developed as it was from extensive testing of many variations of shapes to get the appropriate mix of top speed and downforce. The mechanical package was largely carried over and incorporated a 7-litre OHV Ford V8 fed by 2-four-barrel Holley carburettors giving circa 530bhp @ 6200rpm. The four speed Kar Kraft gearbox was again used after experiments with a two speed auto. Weight was circa 1100Kg.
All of the major contenders suspension layouts were similar; upper and lower wishbones at the front with coil spring/damper units and adjustable roll bars. And at the rear, single top link, twin radius rods, lower wishbone, coil spring/damper units and adjustable sway bars.
All three big-cars also had rack and pinion steering, and of course cast iron disc brakes front and rear.
The Chaparral 2F Chev was the most exotic of the three carsdespite its pushrod OHV 7-litre Chev V8. Fed by four 58mm Weber down-draught carburettors, the engine developed 575 bhp @ 7500rpm. The chassis was made of fibre-glass, weighed 793Kg dry, the advanced specifications extending to its three speed General Motors automatic transmission and advanced aerodynamics including distinctive high rear wing. The Texans had incorporated all they learned on their European campaign in 1966 with the 2D into the new 2F.
Ferrari’s P4 ‘aero-chassis had slightly wider tracks than its P3 forbear and was the result of evolution over previous seasons. Ferrari’s first mid-engined sportscar was the V6 engined 246P of 1961. Doug Nye records that chassis #0796 was cut up and lengthened slightly to accommodate a two-cam 3-litre Testa Rossa engine. The 1963 Le Mans winning 250P evolved from this prototype. So too did the 1965 winning 250LM, which was essentially a 250P with a roof and 3.3-litre V12, making it a 275LM in the eyes of many…
The 3.3-litre two-cam 275P followed in 1964, 275P2 and 4-litre four-cam 330P2 in 1965. The P2s departed from earlier Ferrari space-frame practice by utilisation of the ‘aero’ tube-frame semi-monocoque structure, whereby the frame was stiffened by rivetted sheet steel panelling. The model range is more complex than this as it also includes different engine/chassis combinations for customers. I will stick to the works cars for the purpose of this article.
The 4-litre P3 followed in 1966 with much improved suspension geometry to address inadequate camber control and to suit the latest generation of ever widening tyres. The 4-litre engine, adapted for Lucas fuel injection developed circa 420bhp @ 8000rpm. As outlined above, Ferrari’s 1966 season was impacted by industrial problems in Italy as well as team leader John Surtees midseason departure. The sports car and quite probably the World F1 Titles which were theirs to take with an ace at the wheel…and some luck with reliability.
The stiffness of the chassis was improved as Nye describes ‘…previous P-series Ferraris had carried their engines on four simple mounts plus plus two for the gearbox, the new P4 engine featured a stiffer crankcase and could be mounted as a semi-stressed structural member, picking up on four carefully triangulated mounts at the front, two each side and four at the rear.’
The engine, the block stressed as above, featured the three-valves per cylinder (two inlet and one exhaust with the inlets between the two camshafts of each bank) layout developed by Franco Rocchi in late 1966, as developed for the F1 cars. There were two plugs per cylinder still fired by good old fashioned coils, four of them. Lucas fuel injection fed the fuel. The engines capacity was 3967cc and developed 450bhp @ 8000 rpm.
Also new was a five speed gearbox made by Ferrari to replace the earlier ZF unit, the ZF5DS25 units as used in the Ford GTs, had been unreliable in 1966. Weight was 965Kg. Firestone replaced Dunlop as the teams tyre supplier.
And so the scene was set…the prototype completed 580 laps at Firestone tyre tests at Daytona in December 1966, Amon was the quickest ahead of Parkes, Bandini and Scarfiotti, the P4 timed at 338kmh along the back straight.
Quick, but as it was to transpire, but not quick enough.
The Parkes/Scarfiotti P4 0858 passes the #18 Casoni/Martini Ferrari Dino 206S, pursued by the Mike Spence/Phil Hill Chaparral 2F Chev, DNF with driveshaft failure. 0858 was second, the win was taken by Bandini/Amon in another P4, 0856 (unattributed)
1967 Endurance Season…
In the first race of the season, at Daytona the new Ferrari was immediately successful leading the race from the fourth hour and taking the first two places, Amon/Bandini ahead of Scarfiotti/Parkes and a modified P3/4 entered by Luigi Chinetti’s North America Racing Team . All of the 7-litre Fords retired or were delayed by maladies.
The Scuderia did not enter Sebring, but Amon and Bandini won again at Monza with Scarfiotti and Parkes second, the factory Fords again did not enter the race. With practice laps only three-tenths of a second apart, Bandini’s Ferrari and Spence’s Chaparral raced wheel to wheel from the off, but Spence retired early leaving Ferrari the rest of the race.
Bandini took the lead with Scarfiotti second in 0858, Rodriguez was third for NART and Vaccarella in the Filipinetti car in fourth. Ferrari’s four-litre prototypes now dominated the first four positions. A failed attempt by Rodriguez at overtaking the second-place works Ferrari resulted in his retirement. Note that RM Auctions in their sale dossier of the car several years ago claim Bandini and Amon won driving 0858, other independent sources say 0858 finished second.
Parkes and Scarfiotti fifth and best of the P4s at Spa in 0858. Ickx won in a Mirage M1 Ford (L’Automobile)
At Spa, ‘Rainmaster’ Ickx prevailed in John Wyers 5.7-litre Mirage Ford, Scarfiotti and Parkes could do no better than fifth in 0858. Vaccarella crashed out of the Targa lead in his P4 at Collesano, his home town…
And then came Le Mans.
As noted above this was the last Le Mans run under the unlimited formula. Ford won the previous year but at Daytona they were well and truly beaten by the P4s. Ferrari missed the Nurburgring 1000Km to be better prepared for La Sarthe. Three P4s were entered by the factory, the fourth an Ecurie Francorchamps entry.
The big V8s had the legs in practice, as proved to be the case in the race, but the Scarfiotti/Parkes P4 0858 was never far behind. A crash eliminated three Fords, the Mairesse/Beurlys P4 moved into third with the works cars chasing the leading Ford Mk4 of Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt. That vastly experienced pair drove a superb race taking Ford’s second Le Mans. Nye noted ‘…the race was decided on the Mulsanne. All the 7-litre Fords topped 320kmh. The 330P4 could not better 310kmh and the poorer breathing of the 24-valve 412Ps left them gasping, slower still’.
The works Ferrari finished four laps behind, the first Ford and second and third placed (Mairesse/Beurlys) Ferraris covered a distance unprecedented at Le Mans. Mike Parkes said to journalist/Le Mans Winner Paul Frere after the race ‘Never in my life have I driven a car so hard for so long’.
0858 on the way to second place at Le Mans in the hands of Ludovico Scarfiotti and Mike Parkes albeit four laps behind the winning 7-litre Ford Mk4 of Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt (unattributed)
The Brands Hatch BOAC International 500 was the final race of the endurance season and was to determine the championship for the year. Jackie Stewart joined Chris Amon in the works team to bolster Ferrari chances, Mike Parkes having badly injured his legs in an F1 crash at Spa.
Both chassis 0858 and 0860 had been converted to Spiders by the factory, removal of the roof and lightening the body saving around 40Kg. (Two independent sources claim 0858 was driven by Jonathon Williams and Paul Hawkins to sixth in this race, and that Amon/Stewart raced 0860 to second)
The race started at noon on Sunday under grey skies. John Surtees took an initial lead before Paul Hawkins replaced him in the third P4. After the first hour, Stewart had Spence’s Chaparral in his sights. Scarfiotti was behind him in another P4, followed by Jo Siffert in a Porsche 908. With regular driver changes and pit stops, the running order was continually evolving over the ensuing four hours. In the final hour, Amon was second.
With ten minutes to go, Stewart took the wheel, held the position and finished the race, securing the Manufacturers Championship for Ferrari, its 12th, defeating Porsche. Mike Spence won the race, the Chaparral 2F Chev finally taking a long promised win.
Factory CanAm 350 3/4 front . (Ferrari)
From P4 to Can Am 350…
With the endurance season over and regulation changes precluding the cars competition in the 1968 championship the factory modified two of the P4s, as mentioned earlier, 0858 and 0860 to better compete in the Can-Am Championship by lightening and modifying the cars, naming them 350 Can Am to contest the prestigious series in their most important market.
The cars were lightened considerably by becoming curvaceous Spiders instead of more curvaceous Coupes! Weight was reduced from 792Kg wet to 700Kg wet. The engine capacity was increased to 4176cc raising the power to 480bhp @ 8500rpm, the cars mechanical specification is as described above otherwise.
Fundamentally it was not enough.
It’s 1 September 1967, Brit Jonathon Williams is about to test an F1 Ferrari 312 for the first time at Modena. In the background is one of the P4/CanAm 350s, still with headlights fitted, also on Williams’ menu for the day – lucky boy. The first Can-Am round was at Road America on 3 Sept, the Can Am 350s first raced at Laguna Seca in Williams/Amon hands on 15 October, there was much work to be done yet! (Pete Coltrin)
Bruce McLaren had been contesting sports car races in the US since his Cooper days in the early 1960s. His first M1 McLarens were quick cars hampered by light but not powerful enough aluminium Oldsmobile engines. For 1967, he and Robin Herd designed and built the monocoque M6 powered by 5.9-litre, circa 525bhp iron Chev V8s and rewrote the record book in terms of dominance of this series.
The Bruce and Denny Show was underway. The Ferraris contested the series entered by Harrahs Casino who were also Ferrari distributors, and were comprehensively blown off along with the rest of the grid.
Factory 350 Can Am butt shot. Absence of lights clear in the weight saving process. Ferrari ‘box in P4 replaced problematic ZF unit of P3, gorgeous if not quite as as much as the P4 parent! (Ferrari)McLarens’ papaya M6A Chev looms in Jim Hall’s Chaparral 2G Chev mirrors. #21 is Parnelli Jones’ Lola T70 Ford and Dan Gurney’s partially obscured Lola T70Mk3b Chev, ALL DNF! The race was won by Surtees’ Lola T70Mk3b Chev (unattributed)
0858 From the US to Australia via Italy…
David McKay had raced his 250LM 6321 in Australia since 1965 but the car was getting older and ‘she was often racing out of class and racing against pure prototypes…During a visit to Maranello I broached the subject with Mike Parkes and the factory’s General Manager Ermano Della Casa. I had seen the P4s at Le Mans in 1967 where Mike and Scarfiotti had finished a gallant second to Fords’ 7-litre steam roller and had fallen in love with the car’.
‘To me it typified all the art, beauty and grace of the old world pitted amongst the brashness and might of the new…In due course I received word that I could buy 0858 for the considerable sum of US$30,000.
Riverside CanAm 1967. #12 Roger McCluskey Lola T70 Chev, #27 Williams Ferrari Can Am 350, #19 Bill Amick McLaren M1C Chev, Jerry Entin McLaren M1C Chev (unattributed)
The car which raced unsuccessfully in the States at Laguna Seca, Riverside and Las Vegas would be fully rebuilt and shipped to Sydney by Christmas 1967. This would be in good time for the Australian Tasman rounds where Amon would conduct it in the sportscar support events and surely set a cat amongst the pigeons…’
Chris Amon raced a Ferrari 246T looked after by Scuderia Veloce during The Australian Tasman that summer and in 1969, the year in which he was Tasman Champion.
McKay ‘The less charitable said the factory wanted the car as far away as possible so that they could forget the ignominy of the Can-Am venture. The car had managed a fifth at Laguna Seca, eighth at Riverside and a DNF at Las Vegas with Amon who had surely wrung everything out of it’.
Note that some sources say Jonathon Williams raced 0858 and Amon 0860 in the Series, another source suggests Amon raced the car twice, at Laguna Seca and Riverside, and by Williams at the final round at Las Vegas. Australian Sports Car World magazine in a feature about the car published in 1985 wrote that who drove which car cannot be accurately determined.
Take your pick…I am inclined to either uncertainty, or, I imagine Amon would have related directly to McKay at the time which car he drove, and by the time McKay wrote his autobiography he had no vested interest in the car his financial investment in it having ended in 1968, vendors or their agents and their claims should be treated with the Caveat Emptor dictum in mind…
The two 350 Can Ams at rest, Riverside paddock 1967. #23 Amon #27 Williams eighth and DNF…0858 and 0860 or…0860 and 0858 take your guess (unattributed)Chris Amon using the big twelves horsepower to good effect at Riverside 1967, eighth. All the drivers who raced the P4 commented on how sweet the chassis was (unattributed)
McKay ‘This should have turned me off but I comforted myself with the thought that there were no 8-litre McLarens in Australia and certainly no Bruce or Denny to worry us. Alas, it only required a local in his own device powered with a local 4.4-litre V8 to unravel our dream. (Frank Matich in his Matich SR3 Repco 4.4 V8).’
In fact the performance of Frank Matich in his self built car should not have been a surprise to either McKay or Amon. Matich had contested most of the 1967 Can-Am, including the three events in which Amon participated and was also flogged by the McLarens. Matich didn’t finish a race in fact…but the Sydney built, space-frame chassis, 400bhp Repco 4.4-litre V8 engined Matich was slightly quicker than the 350 Can Am and was match fit after a tough season in the US.
The Ferrari was not to have it easy in Australia that summer.
Frank Matich, wife Joan, his team and Firestone technicians on the pit apron at Riverside, 1967 Can-Am. Grid 20 DNF accident. Matich SR3 Repco; space-frame chassis car powered by Repco 620 Series 4.4-litre SOHC V8 400bhp @ 7000rpm. Surtees’ Lola T70Mk3B Chev behind (unattributed)
Again David McKay picks up the story ‘As starting money was imperative for such an expensive undertaking I sounded out all the major circuits. All were enthusiastic and all promised to pay a modest enough $350 a start. It goes without saying that when Geoff Sykes (Warwick Farm boss) set the standard, a ‘yes’ on the phone was sufficient to seal the agreement’.
‘There was great excitement at the wharf when the open crate carrying the plastic wrapped P4 was lowered over the liners side. There were a couple more huge wooden crates I hadn’t expected. These turned out to be another engine, gearbox, transaxle, suspensions, disc brakes, all manner of rose joints and sixteen wheels-in reality a second P4 apart from the simple tube-chassis and the brief, skimpy fibre-glass bodywork. That US$30000 was immediately halved in our minds and much of my initial disappointment at seeing the rather unattractive Can Am bodywork evaporated’.
0858 shortly after its arrival in Sydney at SV’s workshop, Wahroonga (WOT)
‘Engineer Bob Atkin and I were keen to get the crate and boxes home to Wahroonga to prod the beast into life. This we did and again I felt disappointment. Where was the distinctive wail I heard in the cold air at Le Mans? It was now deeper, throatier but somehow more common, less exciting.
Unfortunately I never felt any warmth for the P4, certainly not its fault for the car was out of its milieu, away from the understanding hands which cared for it and probably thinking it was back in that coarse country, America, of which it had nothing but bad dreams.
I hoped a reunion with Amon would be beneficial but Chris was more involved with his Tasman Dino and his forthcoming battle with Clark and Hill in their Lotus 49 Ford DFW’s.’
Jim Clark, Chris Amon and their respective mechanics share a joke around Chris’ Ferrari 246T at Longford, March 1968. Clark won the series in his Lotus 49 DFW, Piers Courage the race in a gutsy wet weather drive in his McLaren M4A FVA F2 car. Clark fifth and Amon seventh. Clark was killed that April and Amon returned to take the 1969 Tasman Championship…the P4 was by then sold (oldracephotos)‘Don’t pick your nails Chris!’ Amon and McKay in the cockpit of 0858 at Sandown, Melbourne, February 1968. McKay first assisted Amon in the 1963 International Series, Amon drove the SV Cooper T53 Climax (Rod MacKenzie)Scuderia Veloce Team at Warwick Farm 1968; 250LM 6321, Brabham BT23A-1 Repco and the P4/Can Am 350 0858. This shot was taken at the 18 February Tasman Meeting, 250LM I am guessing was not raced, Greg Cusack in the Brabham was a DNF in the Tasman race won by Clarks’ Lotus 49 DFW, Amon raced the P4 (David McKay’s Scuderia Veloce)Amon gets the drop from Matich in the SR3, Surfers Paradise, February 1968. Ordinary crowd numbers, surfs up at Main Beach maybe? (wolseley680)
Australian race record of ‘0858’…
Ray Bell was a journalist for Racing Car News magazine in the 1960 and 1970s, he wrote evocatively about the car’s race record on The Nostalgia Forum in 2002…
‘The first race for the car in Australia was February 10 at Surfers Paradise.It was the Saturday and it was clear that there were some shocks headed for the lap record after Matich recorded 1:10.2 in practice.
Matich dudded the start, however, but scorched around to be the first to take the lap record over the 100mph mark with a 1:10.6 (101.98mph) to Amon’s 1:10.7, reeling the Ferrari in after four laps and diving under it when a slower car baulked Amon.
Two more 5-lappers were scheduled for Sunday, with Matich and his 4.4-litre tube-framed SR3 leading away and getting a full second advantage on the first lap. The record was equalled as he took another win. In the second, Amon was a non-starter.
Rod MacKenzie’s shot of the Surfers race one start from a different angle. ‘Spare tyre’ on Ferrari was mandated by dopey Australian sports car rules of the day. The Matich carries its spare under the driver’s front screen. Beefy spoiler on the SR3, its 1968 the ‘Year of Wings’ is just getting underwaySuperb John Ellacott shot of Chris Amon looking as relaxed as he can be with Frank Matich ‘up his clacker’! Homestead Corner Warwick Farm, February 1968 (John Ellacott)
A week later at Warwick Farm came the race I speak of so often.
The report says Matich ‘left the Ferrari breathless…’ as he led Amon a merry chase. That they came past us side by side, with a Tojiero between them being lapped and grass clippings flying on one lap in the race shows that it wasn’t all that breathless!
Again, Matich was pressed to a new circuit record (these are outright records, faster than the Lotus 49s and the Amon Dino managed on the day) of 1:28.5 in staving off the Ferrari. Amon retired with reported ignition trouble on lap 7 or 8. (McKay advised the ignition leads were plucked off one bank of cylinders having been taped carefully out of reach of a half-shaft)
Check out the YouTube footage of this race…
WF start. Both Matich #1 Matich SR3 Repco and Niel Allen in the white Elfin 400 Chev get the jump on Amon’s Ferrari at the start. WF is a horse racing facility still, it ceased as an International car race venue after the 1973 Tasman Series (Wirra)Amon leads Matich into Shell Corner, lap 1 , Sandown Tasman Round Sports Car race, 25 February 1968. car with white stripe down the nose at left the Bob Jane Racing Elfin 400 Repco (Rod MacKenzie)
The opening gambit of the Sandown Park report, the next week (February 25), was ‘This was the first time the Sandown crowd has had a chance to see Frank Matich really trying. The reason was, of course, that he had Chris Amon and the P4 Ferrari to worry him.’
Matich bogged down at the start (‘nearly burned a hole in the startline with wheelspin…’) and Chris led away, but after a lap or two ‘braking late for Peters, Frank closed on Chris and went under him as they accelerated out onto Peters (the back straight).’ Matich won by four seconds, took the sports car record down to 1:07.2 (Clark nobbled the outright record in the Australian GP on the same day with a 1:07.1) and Matich bowed out of any further contests. He wasn’t happy to go to Longford.
Matich SR3 Oldsmobile in the Sandown Park paddock in 1966 (Mike Feisst Collection/The Roaring Season)‘Longford March 1968. The wet Monday morning after Amon set off a lap down on the field after battery failure on the grid. The road was wet from the first shower of the day that turned into a deluge later for the Tasman race (won by Piers Courage in his F2 McLaren M4A FVA). The overcast conditions, wet road and river in the background combine to give perfect lighting to highlight the car. Location is coming off Kings Bridge, the shot taken from the old Longford water pump-house station. The 1880s railway bridge is in the background’ So said ‘austmcreg’ on The Nostalgia Forum, photo credit Jim and Pat Smith. Amazing shot and commentary!
There, Longford, of course, Amon had the fastest time ever through the trap on the flying mile and lapped at 2:14.4 in practice to easily take pole.
In the Saturday race Amon set a new outright lap record of 2:12.6, four tenths quicker than Clark had done in the earlier preliminary event for the Tasman cars in the Lotus 49. This was 12.2 seconds better than the previous record, held by Bob Jane.(Elfin 400 Repco 4.4)
At that stage, it was only reasonable to conclude that Amon wouldn’t hold the record over the whole weekend, but the heavens opened and deluged the circuit for Monday, his P4 suffered a battery failure (McKay wrote that mechanic Bob Atkin simply overlooked to charge the dry cell Varley battery) and didn’t even start the soggy sports car race, and the open-wheelers paddled round with Piers Courages’ McLaren M4A FVA 1.6 taking the win.
Longford pit counter scene with the curvaceous Can Am 350 centre stage. Both Amon and Bill Brown drove the car at this meeting. Matich did not enter, having safety concerns about the circuit in the SR3. Little yellow stickers on Fazz rump say Gatto Verde, gifts from Alf Francis to David McKay (Harold Ellis)
In his book, McKay (David McKay’s autobiography ‘Scuderia Veloce’) describes the torment of choosing a driver for the car for the ensuing year. His choice might have been Big ‘Pete’ (Ian) Geoghegan, but there was pressure to give Bill Brown a go. There was also the possibility that Pete’s huge frame might not fit… he was put into the team’s 250LM for the year.
David Mckay again picks up the story ‘After the Tasman Series and Amon’s departure I decided to put Bill Brown behind the wheel despite certain misgivings. I liked Bill, he was a pleasant and helpful fellow who could be faster than some but rather more accident prone than others. He damaged the LM rather too frequently through overdriving…Yet I hoped Bill would mature, the red mists would disappear and he would conduct the P4 in accordance with my instructions. I had no illusions he would run with Matich, Amon hadn’t managed to…I had chosen the easy option rather than taking a chance and putting in perhaps the only local who would have given Matich a run for it-Pete Geoghegan.’
Here is Pete Geoghegan hustling McKay’s 250LM 6321 around Bathurst at Easter 1968 in the manner the SV boss liked so much (Dick Simpson)
‘Pete was already four times AustralianTouring Car Champion and was sweeping all before him in his Mustang. More important, was his driving of the ‘old red lady’ (McKay’s 250LM) in which, despite his big weight disadvantage (Pete was a very big lad, morbidly obese, the medicos would describe it) he was re-writing her lap times. Perhaps had I not been so occupied with other events that year, had not been out of the country so much I would have bitten the bullet, asked Bill to step aside and given Pete the hot seat-but could he have fitten into that little space? We’ll never know now but in the light of subsequent events I was wrong and I am sorry Pete…’
Pete Geoghegan in that car would have been worth travelling a very long way to see, a driver of awesome world class ability as McKay alludes to, if you go back into the early days of Pete’s career he drove the Geoghegan family Lotus single seaters and 23B but in essence most of his career was spent in Touring Cars and other cars with roofs
Another of Dick Simpson’s stunning shots. Bill Brown, Mount Panorama, Hell Corner ,Bathurst , Easter 1968 (Dick Simpson)
Ray Bell…’Bathurst was the first outing on April 14 & 15, which I would have thought daunting enough. With wire fences, rough surface, two serious crashes injuring top drivers in the Gold Star event’s practice sessions and all, one might be a little careful in such a fast car.
But Bill was out to show his stuff. The first race was a 3-lapper mixed in with the open-wheelers. Bartlett won that in the Brabham BT23D Alfa with Bill second about 11 seconds adrift and just 1.6 seconds clear of Niel Allen in the Elfin 400 Chev after Allen had spun on the first lap. Bartlett had fastest lap in 2:19.1, Allen did 2:19.4 and Brown 2:21.6. Maybe he was being careful after all…
As the report points out, ‘The last time anyone went really fast on Mt Panorama was back in 1962, when both David McKay and Bib Stillwell equalled Bill Patterson’s flying eighth time of 169.81mph. It has been said often since that it would probably take a sporty car to better it.’
As mentioned above, Brown took the speed up to 181 mph, a big hike, but he was in pursuit of Allen at the time. The Elfin lapped in 2:18.4 but was parked at the top of the mountain when Brown scored his lucky win, with Geoghegan second in the LM, which improved its personal best time from 2:34.2 to 2:30.8 this first time the big fella got into it. Brown lapped in 2:19.6, just shy of the 100mph mark.
0858 in the Warwick Farm paddock February 1968…the start of wings on the front, added since original factory build (WOT)Bill Brown in the RAC Trophy, Warwick Farm, May 1968. Sand in the throttle slides of the car so DNF (Rod MacKenzie)
Warwick Farm’s annual RAC Trophy race was on May 5.
This was a prize event on the best circuit. Matich lapped in 1:29 for pole, Allen did 1:32.9, Brown 1:33.0 for the outside of the first row. But the Ferrari managed to get ahead of the Elfin off the line and was second into the first corner and stayed there as Matich built up a lead of about ten seconds over the early laps. Sand got into the throttle slides of the V12 engine, however, and the Ferrari retired to give Allen second spot.
This was the race where Matich ‘unwound a blinder on the last lap just to prove the car was still ‘with it’, chopping 1.2 seconds off his Tasman meeting record and leaving the new time at a staggering 1:27.3′
The boss himself having a tilt during practice at Warwick Farm. David McKay in the big car, not so sure he mentioned this in his book (G Lanham)0858 sans rear bodywork, shot at SV workshop in Sydney (WOT)
Lakeside on May 12 brought a pair of Scuderia Veloce 1 – 2s,but the opposition had died in the pre-race buildup. Matich cracked the lap record in practice with a 53.7 in his first appearance at the circuit since his crash there in 1965. Allen did a 55.3, Brown a 57.2.
The minor race came first, with Allen scoring a win and Matich fastest lap (55.2, new record anyway) with the Elfin taking the lead from the start as Matich eased away with a sick engine. Matich pitted, but continued, the Repco suffering a loose valve seat, which prevented him getting top horsepower as he nailed it to get that record in the book. Brown finished 1.5 seconds behind Allen and actually lapped two tenths faster at 56.3, both of them under Allen’s old record.
The main event was a twenty-lapper, and in the minutes before the race Matich declared himself a non-starter and Allen trickled back into the pits with a bolt out of the steering. Brown was able to walk it in (best lap 58.4) as Geoghegan showed all his abilities at the helm of the 250LM to fill second ahead of a Lotus 23B. His best lap was 59.3 and he was less than nine seconds behind at the finish.
0858 cockpit shot taken at Surfers Paradise by Rod MacKenzie. Momo steering wheel, Veglia Borletti instruments all very Ferrari period-fitments. Note venting of wheel arch to release air pressure (Rod MacKenzie)
There was yet another race, an eight-lapper, at the end of the day, with the 2.5 open-wheelers combining with the fastest sports cars. The report doesn’t clearly explain how Allen got to be behind Phil West’s Scuderia Veloce Brabham BT23A Repco, but he was and seemingly couldn’t do anything about it. Brown won as he liked, scoring another SV 1-2 with West second this time.
I would say that West got away best, then the brute force of the bigger engined cars overpowered him, only Allen was stuck behind him as Brown got through to the lead. Anyway, Allen spent the rest of the race back there in a frustrated third, ‘perhaps over-flushed with determination, hounded West in the best showing of brute tactics seen for a long while, the big Elfin almost running over the Brabham into BMC lap after lap as West stopped to look at the view and Brown scampered up over BP. Allen tried to go under into KLG, avoiding disaster by a hair’s breadth, and pushed the Brabham wheel to wheel round the Eastern Loop. This excitement was too much, added to by Geoghegan who forced the 250LM to the front of Scott’s Lotus 27 to fill fourth spot.’
Des White wrote well, didn’t he? He pressed on. ‘The big battle looked worse as the backmarkers were lapped, disaster being forever imminent as very slow cars found themselves caught up in the 140mph battle between Allen and West, the Elfin being stopped and pointed with a dexterity seldom seen these days. Allen failed to get through, perhaps through trying too hard, and it was disappointing to see him slipstream to the flag. Should the big power of the Elfin have carried it from Shell to the flag first? Maybe, and there been breathing space for the initial build up.” Best lap to Brown, 56.6, Allen did 56.7, West 55.9, winning margin less than two seconds (1.6, actually).
SV lined up on the Surfers Paradise dummy grid prior to the 6 Hour in 1968. L.R; Leo and Pete Geoghegan 250LM which won, Des West/Bill Reynolds 275 GTB ninth, and Brown/Palmer 350 Can Am DNF accident (Rod MacKenzie)
Ray Bell, ‘Probably the event dearest to McKay’s heart was the Surfers Paradise 12-hour…
And he had Jim Palmer over from New Zealand to co-drive with Brown. But Palmer wasn’t up to it, lapping over five seconds slower than Brown in practice and wearing himself out in the process. Matich, who was racing quite a lot during this year, even entered the SR3 in this race with Glynn Scott as co-driver (only 2.3 seconds behind Frank’s times), so this car was the pace as the race got going, Brown following it through the field after both started slowly (Le Mans start). Lapping slower cars soon after the start, Brown was pushed off line and ran over some tyre markers on the edge and holed the radiator. The P4 was out…
David McKay saw the race slightly differently ‘…I had asked NZ Champion Jim Palmer to co-drive with Brown. Jim was a fast, safe driver very much in the Spencer Martin mould. I erred by not having Palmer start the race…The field as in the past, was composed of fast and slow open and closed cars and as always the onus is on the overtaking car. A second or two lost by backing off the throttle to make sure the tortoise knew he was about to be swamped was sensible driving…Less than 15 minutes into the race, Brown came up behind a Fiat 125 saloon, on the approach to Firestone, a fairly quick left hander. The Fiat driver, unaware Brown was diving down the inside held his line. The P4 had nowhere to go but over the grass and a white tyre marker demolishing the nose and oil cooler…Brown bought the mortally wounded P4 to a halt in front of our pit’.
Bell, ‘Matich’s Repco engine dropped its bundle very late in the race and Geoghegan and his brother Leo won the race in the Scuderia Veloce 250LM.
‘That was the end of the P4’s racing in Australia. Matich was to debut his SR4 with its 5-litre quad-cam engine in November, cementing his position as top dog in the field and enabling him to go on and take more outright records.’
‘0858’ in cigarette company Team Gunston colours in Bulawayo, South Africa 1969. Note the car now has lights refitted – installed in Australia for the Surfers 6 Hour (unattributed)
Sale of ‘0858’ to Paul Hawkins…
Due to an error in paperwork, the car was invoiced to McKay rather than in Amon’s name, bringing forward the impost of import duty. The Customs Department provided extensions of time with the assistance of the Italian Chamber of Commerce who wanted the car to race in the Surfers 6 Hour and form the centre-piece of a Sydney trade show.
Under pressure to pay the duty, which was close to 100% of the cars purchase price!, or export it, McKay put the word out ‘…dear old Paul Hawkins had heard about the car being for sale from Chris Amon at an Oulton Park meeting. I was in the workshop when ‘Hawkeyes’ call came through ‘Is the car for sale?’ ‘Yes’, ‘How much?’ ‘US$30,000’. ‘If I buy it will you go me halves in a return ticket to Sydney?’. ‘Yes, ok’. ‘I’ll be there the day after tomorrow’. I’ll meet you Paul’
‘Simple and straightforward. Paul was making a name for himself as a successful sports car and GT racer and had been a favourite of Firestone…The car was to be shipped right after Surfers for Paul would drive it in South Africa’s sports car series with tobacco sponsorship and he would win’.
350 Can Am in the East London pits, front lights now faired. The car won this 500km race (royckdboats)
Paul raced the car in South Africa from November 1968 to January 1969 winning the Cape Town 3 Hour, GP of Bulwayo, Pietermaritzburg 3 Hour and the East London 500 Km.
As McKay mentioned above Hawkins was an Australian International plying his trade via his own team and as a ‘hired gun’ by works teams. He was racing a Lola T70 Mk3B Chev during the Tourist Trophy at Oulton Park, his car ending up in the trees, after probable suspension failure, poor Paul dying in the particularly gruesome accident and ensuing fire.
Both Hawkins and Alberto Ascari, the only two drivers to ‘Scuba Dive’ at Monaco both died on May 26, in an arcane bit of trivia. Mike Hailwood raced ‘0858’ at Magny Cours, first and Dijon DNF in May.
Gearbox fettling perhaps, prior to the East London event. 4.2-litre DOHC three valve per cylinder Lucas fuel injected V12. Ferrari 5-speed ‘box with ZF limited slip diff. Battery of coils clear to see (royckdboats)
The car was sold in the realisation of the Hawkins Estate,through David Piper, who raced so many mid sixties sports Ferraris’ of his own, and occasionally as a works-driver, to Alastair Walker who raced the car back in South Africa in November-December 1969 with sometime GP driver Rob Widdows as his co-driver.
The car was uncharacteristacally unreliable, perhaps tired, ‘0858’ failed to finish the Kyalami 9 Hour, Cape Town and Bulawayo 3 Hour events. ‘0858’ was second at the Lourenco Marques, Mozambique.
In 1971 David Piper bought the car from Walker, still with its extensive inventory of spare parts, enough as McKay states to make a second car less chassis…which is what Piper did. Ferrari provided him with all the necessary P4 blueprints in 1974. Piper, Nye says ‘had the chassis made by the original people in Modena. Ferrari gave it the number ‘0900’, a serial number also applied to a Chinetti parts built 312P in the US’. Several run-on cars have been built by Piper since.
David Piper sold 0858 to Florida real estate man/Ferrari collector Walter Medlin in 1971. He retained it until it was offered for sale – having been seized by the US Internal Revenue Service to pay Medlin’s outstanding tax debt – via RM Auctions in 2009. The car was eventually restored by Talacrest in the UK, somewhat controversially in the eyes of some, to its Spyder/Barchetta specification.
At the outset I wrote that four P4s were built, three P4’s and one converted P3 ‘0846’...
In the best traditions of historic racing there are now more P4s than in period…there are three or four ‘run-on’ cars built by Piper’s concern. In addition, ‘0846’, written off by the factory after a crash and fire at Le Mans in 1967 has been reborn, recreated or replicated depending upon your view of it.
I’m not suggesting ‘the experts’ necessarily know it all either.
Etcetera…
Amon at Warwick Farm (G Paine)Chris consulting with his crew in the Sandown pitlane, David McKay in shirt and tie (G Paine)Bill Brown, who drove the car after Amon’s departure back to Europe also had a steer of the Can Am 350 at Longford in both practice and a preliminary race (David Keep)(Rod MacKenzie)
That ‘Australian’ spare tyre which was fitted as a consequence of our local sports car regs at the time. SV solution was a neat one even if the weight is well outside the cars wheelbase, where else to put it!? The yellow ‘Gatto Verde’ stickers were a gift from Alf Francis to McKay. McKay makes mention of it in his autobiography but not actually what the stickers mean/represent. Ideas anyone?
Bibliography…
David McKay ‘David McKays Scuderia Veloce’, Paul Frere ‘Cars in Profile 246SP-330P4 Ferraris’, Doug Nye ‘The Potent P4…A Ferrari Fierce and Fine’ Sports Car World July/Sept 1982
Thanks to Stephen Dalton for the assistance in research material sourcing
Photo Credits…
Dick Simpson, Roderick MacKenzie, John Ellacott, wolseley680, WOT, Jim and Pat Smith, Ellis French, The Roaring Season, David Keep, oldracephotos, royckdboats, Mike Feisst Collection, Pete Coltrin, Harold Ellis, Glenn Paine, Geoff Lanham
Tailpiece…
Lets go out as we came in, with a fabulous shot, this time by Harold Ellis of Bill Brown, the sun gleaming off 0858 before blasting down the Longford public roads, big V12 howling at 180 miles per hour in February 1968…
primotipo... 