Fritz d’Orey in the Sebring pits, US GP December 1959 (MotorSport)
The ultra-light, disc-braked Maserati 250F-engined TecMec F415 was the ultimate development of the long line of 2.5-litre front-engined Maserati 250F Grand Prix cars which commenced in 1954; the preceding 2-litre Maserati A6GCM F2/Grand Prix machines of 1952-53 are duly noted.
In 1957 the works team’s Piccolo 250Fs took Juan Manuel Fangio to his record-setting fifth and final world title. Soon after, with the company on its financial knees, Maserati withdrew from racing. In the best of Italian traditions it wasn’t quite a final withdrawal. In the 1958 French Grand Prix, a special lightweight 250F appeared for Fangio in what became his his final race appearance. He was fourth, and with that the Maserati works-team was no more.
The team’s chassis and transmission engineer during the latter 250F years was ex-Ferrari man Valerio Colotti (1925-January 19, 2008). As the Cooper mid-engined ascendancy began he had a new super-lightweight 250F on his drawing board. Colotti left Maserati to form his own Studio Tecnica Meccanica in Modena.
Georgio Scarlatti, Maserati 250F during the 1959 French GP at Reims, Q21 and eighth (MotorSport)
Racer, Giorgio Scarlatti approached Colotti with a view to building the ultimate 250F. Valerio set to work, fabricating a light, multi-tubular spaceframe chassis made of small diameter steel tube. He scrapped the De Dion rear rear suspension, replacing it with an independent transverse top leaf-spring and lower wishbone set up. At the front was a very un-Italian pair of Alford & Alder uprights, supported by upper and lower wishbones and coil/spring damper units, an adjustable roll-bar was incorporated. Girling discs replaced the 250F’s finned drums but the wheels remained passé Borrani wires. Scarlatti provided an ex-works 2.5-litre six-cylinder engine.
Giuseppe Consoli, an ex-works mechanic, built the car for Colotti, working in the living room of his house near Modena’s aerautodromo. When workshop space was later made available the embryo Tec-Mec F415 was wheeled out through Giuseppe’s French windows!
The car was clad in a functionally attractive, tight fitting aluminium body, the height of which was constrained a bit by the relatively tall Maserati 270bhp, DOHC, two-valve, triple-Weberised six-cylinder engine.
(Colotti)The Tec-Mec F415 shortly after completion, date and workshop unknown (Colotti)Testing times, the boredom is palpable! (Colotti)
Bonhams wrote that, “In the meantime Hans Tanner, Swiss motoring journalist and entrepreneur, became involved with the project. He had been on the Modenese scene for years and was close to Maserati. He enlisted backing from Floridan racing enthusiast Gordon Pennington who lived then in Modena’s famous Hotel Reale.” Pennington intended to race an Italian car so Scarlatti sold him his interest in the Tec-Mec project.
Colotti, meanwhile, had gone into partnership with former Stirling Moss mechanic Alf Francis as ‘Gear Speed Development SpA’, with plans to build Colotti transaxles as the mid-engined revolution popped, and so too the demand for quality, reliable gearboxes.
While all of this played out, Consoli completed Tec-Mec in 1959, complete with engine #2523 purloined from a 250F Jo Bonnier had for sale.
“Under the Pennington-Tanner aegis, Studio Tecnica Meccanica changed its name to Tec-Mec Automobili. The car was tested at Modena by American driver Bob Said, Piero Drogo, Jo Bonnier and Scarlatti.”
Just like the front-engined Scarab and Aston Martin DBR4 programmes, this one was too late. The basically 1957-designed Tec-Mec became raceworthy in late 1959 just as Jack Brabham clinched the first World Championships for a mid-engined car aboard the Cooper T51 Climax 2.5 FPF.
Fritz d’Orey during the 1959 British GP at Aintree. Maserati 250F, Q20 and DNF accident (MotorSport)
The 1959 World Championship closed with the United States Grand Prix at Sebring, Florida in December. Given it was in Gordon Pennington’s ‘back yard’ the Tec-Mec F415 was entered for Brazilian amateur – and former 250F racer – Fritz d’Orey. He qualified the Camoradi team run car 17th of 19 starters but retired after seven laps with an oil leak/engine failure.
Jesse Alexander wrote this comment about Fritz d’Oley’s performance in the car in his Sports Cars Illustrated race report. “The Tec-Mec was never driven quickly enough to show up any defects. The only time we know of it being driven fast was when Jo Bonnier took it around the Modena Autodromo last summer. His comments were not all that favourable. He complained of, among other things, a flexing chassis.”
One race in-period only, D’Orey and the Tec-Mec at Sebring (MotorSport)
After repair, the car was taken Daytona Speedway for a record attempt but D’Orey was injured in another car. Then Pennington lost interest and the project was abandoned. The car lay on a trailer in a Miami garden until early 1967 when it was acquired complete with spares – including unopened boxes of new parts – by Tom Wheatcroft for what became The Donington Collection.
After restoration he drove the car regularly in open test days at Silverstone and Oulton Park before crashing it heavily into a parked ambulance after spinning-off at Silverstone. After the car was rebuilt it was driven by engineer/restorer Tony Merrick in VSCC events while residing in the Donington Collection. After sale by Wheatcroft in the 1990s the car has been a formidable historic racer.
Etcetera…
(Colotti)
Tec-Mec F415 – Tec-Mec Project 11 – on its first appearance, perhaps, after its restoration.
(Colotti)(Colotti)
Credits…
Bonhams, MotorSport Images, Colotti Transmissioni, Sports Cars Illustrated March 1960 via Stephen Dalton, colotti.com
How time flies! Its nearly 50 years since Holden’s LH Torana SL/R 5000 L34 (L34) took to the tracks and thrilled Australian racegoers with the raucous-barking-howl of its Repco-Holden F5000 influenced 308 V8.
Allan Grice teased race fans with the L34’s potential when he ran a 310bhp SL/R 5000 in some high-speed demonstration laps at Amaroo Park on Sunday April 19, 1974; the Amaroo shot of the same car above was taken during the June 2 meeting, with Fred Gibson’s XB GT Falcon Hardtop behind.
Peter Brock reinforced the SL/R 5000’s pace by winning the final two Australian Touring Car Champiosnship rounds in May/June at Surfers Paradise and Adelaide International in his Holden Dealer Team car, thereby securing the title, the bulk of his points being accumulated in the good ‘ole six-cylinder XU-1.
Allan Grice and Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000, demo laps at Amaroo Park on April 19, 1974(Auto Action)Colin Bond during the 1975 Phillip Island 500K in his Holden Dealer Team L34, DNF. Peter Brock won in the Gown-Hindhaugh L34 (Auto Action)
By mid-1974 enough L34s were built (total build numbers 263) to allow CAMS homologation and therefore competition in the Adelaide and Sandown Manufacturers Championship rounds in advance of the Bathurst 1000.
On August 25 Colin Bond famously won at Adelaide International on an HDT L34 wing-and-a-gearbox-prayer debut.
Bondy then followed up and won the 1975 Australian Touring Car Championship with Peter Brock and Brian Sampson delivering the Mount Panorama goods. The ’75 rout was complete when The General took the Australian Manufacturers Championship with the L34 winning four of the five rounds.
Things were a lot tougher in 1976 when the Allan Moffat/Colin Bond Ford Falcon XB GT351 ruled the roost, except at Bathurst where Bob Morris and John Fitzpatrick won a close finishing tear-jerker of a race in their L34.
It’s fitting that the Life and Times of the L34 are being celebrated en-masse at the Phillip Island Classic this weekend as the fast but fragile – axles, gearbox and differential – cars won there a few times: Bond in a Holden Dealer Team car in 1974, Brock in 1975 in the Norm Gown-Bruce Hindhaugh prepared car, and Bond again for the HDT in 1976. In 1977 it was the turn of the L34’s younger sibling, Allan Grice won in a new Torana A9X (Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback).
In a wonderful half-centenary 1974-2024 Phillip Island book-end, Rod Hadfield’s ex-Rod and Russ McRae Dustings of Burwood L34 – third placegetter in the 1974 500K – will be on-circuit throughout the Phillip Island Classic including morning parades on Saturday/Sunday along with 40 other race/road L34s organised by the L34 Fiftieth Anniversary Committee.
This is a not to be missed meeting for Holden, Torana and Group C fans!
Etcetera…
SLR/5000
Graeme Blanchard pushing hard in his Holden Torana SLR/5000 ‘at Winton on May 5, 1974,’ wrote historian Neil Stratton.
The first to race an SLR/5000 ‘was very close as Grice had his SLR/5000 debut race at the Oran Park ATCC round on April 28, 1974 and Blanchard first raced his on May 5. As you say (photographer Bruce Keys) Blanchard was the first to race one in Victoria.’
‘Peter Brock first raced the Holden Dealer Team version at the Surfers Paradise ATCC round on May 19, 1974, then at Calder on May 26.’
Blanchard Holden occupied one of the busiest intersections in Melbourne, on the corner of Dandenong and Springvale Roads Springvale – a decent drop-kick from Sandown – for decades.
I dare say it was easy for pretty-handy-racer Graeme Blanchard to convince his dad to have an SLR/5000 off the lot. ‘I’ll put stickers on on so in a couple of months we can remove them and flog it as a loved-usedee.’ Before too long he did of course upgrade to an L34…
Blanchard Motors in 1970. The featured car is a Holden HD 1965-66 poverty pack by the look; fire-breathing 149-six, three-on-the-tree manual tranny, and ‘say yer prayers’ drums all-around. It could well be still on the road mind you…built to last as they were (City of Dandenong)
L34
Believe it or not, I loved Touring Cars once upon a time when there was variety from one end of the capacity spectrum to the other…it all turned to shit for me when the ruling CAMS-Maxi Taxi Junta gave us the infinite boredom of same, same, and a bit more same, 30 or so years ago. Fuggem I thought, and still do. Those hopelessly-conflicted pricks are the tall-tree-in-the-Australian-racing-paddock that grab all the nutrient (money) for themselves leaving fuck-all for everybody else.
While I was in Oakleigh last week I had a snoop through some of Big Bad Brucie’s (Bruce Williams, Auto Action’s publisher/owner) archives and will gradually work my way through the more technical material about the way these cars evolved through 1974-75 with a view to expanding this piece.
I don’t know where this ad was placed but am intrigued to know?
Etcetera: Falcon GT 351 Coupe…
Interestingly, Auto Action published the ‘Super Bits’ FoMoCo homologated on August 14, before Bathurst that year, in its September 20, 1974 issue.
“The parts homologated include four-bolt main bearing blocks, forged aluminium pistons, a new slightly modified inlet manifold, modified cylinder heads, modified water pump, and an, as yet unused (by Allan Moffat) sump.”
“Moffat’s Falcon (at the Sandown 250) was modified at the rear suspension with the trailing arms being turned into leading links. Apart from all this, it was lowered more at the front, while still retaining enough ground clearance to pass over the ride height measure.”
“All this adds up to around two seconds a lap at Sandown using what amounted to a development car.”
Allan Moffat, Ford XB Falcon GT351 Coupe at Bathurst in October 1974. DNF, the race was won by the John Goss/Kevin Bartlett XA Ford Coupe (R Davies)
Credits…
Auto Action, Neil Stratton, Robert Davies, Bruce Keys
One of my true racing loves is the 1970 F1 Ferrari 312B and its successors.
I’ve done it to death of course, this article tells its story in detail: https://primotipo.com/2016/02/26/life-is-all-about-timing-chris-amon-and-the-ferrari-312b/ But this series of shots of an engine change during practice in Clay Regazzoni’s 312B/001 during the 1970 German GP weekend at the Hockenheim Motordrom are too good to ignore. We’ll make this the first of a similar series of a largely pictorial nature.
Doug Nye characterises this Mauro Forghieri – and team – designed machine as one the best integrated F1 Ferraris. The photographs here convey clearly why this is so.
Clay Regazzoni and Jacky Ickx, Ferrari 312Bs sandwich the winning Lotus 72C Ford of Jochen Rindt during the early laps at Hockenheim (LAT)(LAT)
The four main-bearing twelve cylinder engine – a Flat-12 or 180-degree V12 – depending upon your engineering religion of choice – was a paragon of reliable power after the early challenges experienced largely by Chris Amon circa-September 1969 were overcome.
These shots show how low, wide and compact it was. All that weight sat low in the chassis with the wild monocoque carrying the engine ‘underslung’. At that early stage of its development, Ferrari quote an output of 450bhp @ 12000rpm, a capacity of 2991.01cc and bore/stroke of 78.5×51.5mm.
(LAT)
Devoid of tyres, Regga’s #312B/001 sits on its tummy.
Note the inboard rocker front suspension – Ferrari had used this set up continually since the 1963 156 Aero – and clever way in which the aero-element rollbar stay ‘triangulates’ the monocoque boom. Oh to have been there to watch the engine replacement!
Ferrari still used their ‘Aero semi-monocoque’ at this stage, in that the tubular steel chassis had aluminium panels riveted to it with the engine used as a semi-stressed member.
Five of these chassis were built: 312B/001 – #312B/004 albeit #312B/002 was re-tubbed after Jacky Ickx’ collision with Jack Oliver’s BRM P153 during the 1970 Spanish GP. All four cars exist, what lucky owners they are! See oldracingcars.com for chassis by chassis details: https://www.oldracingcars.com/ferrari/312b/
#312B/001 was Ickx’ usual chassis throughout that season: the Austrian, Canadian and Mexican GP winner. As the chassis number suggests, this machine was the first built. It was entered for Chris Amon in the 1969 Italian Grand Prix but failed to take to the track after engine failure in three test sessions at Modena in the lead up to Monza.
(LAT)
Jochen Rindt won the Hockenheim race that weekend during the mid-season run of victories – the Dutch, French, British and German GPs – that gave the fearless Austrian enough points to win the World Drivers Championship posthumously. With a little more luck it could have been Jacky Ickx, but karma, thankfully prevailed.
In Germany the top-three qualifiers were Ickx, Rindt and Regazzoni. While the Ferrari challenge was strong, newcomer Regga – who won the Italian GP in September – led laps 22 and 23 of the race and was then slowed and retired with gearbox trouble in the 50 laps race.
Rindt’s win from Ickx was a good one, Denis Jenkinson noted in MotorSport that “As was very evident in Zandvoort it was the Lotus 72 showing superiority over the other competitors, rather than the driver…he (Rindt) won by only 0.7 sec from Ickx but the win was convincing as he was able to pass the Ferrari whenever he wished…”
(LAT)
More often than not the floor is a key contributor to the structural rigidity of both spaceframe and monocoque chassis – glued and riveted as they often are – but apparently not so much with this Ferrari, the floor of which was seemingly located by removable bolts. There are rubber fuel-bags within the monocoque on each side, mandated by the FIA from 1970.
(LAT)(MotorSport)
Front suspension long top rocker and wide based lower wishbone, steering rack and steering arm mounting ‘ear’ on the upright on one of the 312Bs at Kyalami during the 1970 South African GP weekend.
Credits…
LAT Images, oldracingcars.com, Ferrari.com
Tailpiece…
(LAT)
Is Borsari the mechanic? I know the face of the longtime Scuderia man, I’m just not so sure of the name. Look how Forghieri is shifting weight to the very rear of the car: the Varley battery and neatly faired oil radiators. Outboard rear suspension is period-typical: cast magnesium uprights, single top links, inverted lower wishbones and twin radius rods, plus coil-spring/Koni dampers.
Ford Australia photo-shoot to amass material for the release of the new Cortina Mk2. The ski-bunnies are at Falls Creek in the Victorian Alps, 385km north-east of Melbourne during August 1967.
While the Going Ford is The Going Thing tagline days were a little after this, I always thought FoMoCo was a bit more edgy than their local competition with their marketing. The Sex Sells approach is consistent with that, bless them. Poor girls, it certainly would have stood the nippy-nips on end.
(R Donaldson)(R Donaldson)
My first car was a very fourth-hand Mk2 1600 GT which served me well in my student years and gave me a thorough grounding in the Kent engine and the foibles of Lucas electricals, both useful in my Formula Ford years later. I’ve always thought the Corty Mk1 was much the prettier car of the three Cortinas all the same.
In order that you won’t think I’m engaged in the wanton exploitation of the female form – goodness me, perish the thought – the shot below is of Paul Hawkins in an Alan Mann Racing Cortina FVA in 1967, circuit folks?
The Mk 1 Lotus Cortinas were built at Hethel (Lotus), while Ford built 4,032 Mk2 Lotus Cortinas and Cortina Twin Cams at Dagenham through until September 1970. Their use as Ford’s frontline touring car was relatively short as Ford homologated the Escort Twin Cam in May 1968, it was with the new car that Ford then focussed its marketing/competition efforts.
Ford Australia Ad in 1969 (FoMoCo)
The car shown – CTC24E chassis BA91GD12811 – was originally a Team Lotus car raced by Paul Hawkins and Jacky Ickx in the ’67 BRSCC Group 5 British Saloon Car Championship powered by the equally new Ford Cosworth FVA 1.6-litre F2 engine. Check out this website for some fantastic information: http://www.lotuscortinainfo.com/?page_id=101 and here: http://www.lotuscortinainfo.com/?page_id=4
Etcetera…
(R Donaldson)
Don’t do it, it can’t be that bad! I wonder if JUF-423 is still with us?
(R Donaldson)
Oops, nearly lost it.
(R Donaldson)
Cine camera as well, the footage would be interesting to see.
This is the second in an occasional series of articles plucked from the early issues of Autocourse, via the collection of my friend, racer and historian, Tony Johns.
In the unlikely event one could find Formula 1 articles of a technical type amongst all of the ‘Drive to Survive’ inspired dull, shit-boring, insipid dross in most magazines these days, one on racing spark plugs would be the last to expect!
These days they are a purchase-instal-and-forget item but once upon a time one’s méchanicien needed to be able to anticipate, read, and change plugs to suit the changing weather and other circumstances throughout a race weekend. Remember the shots of a mechanic labouring in the pits and paddock under big wooden boxes of plugs?
This article was written by Herr G Werner, a Bosch employee.
Oh yes, the opening shot is before the off, Spa, the Grand Prix de Belgique, June 17, 1951. Juan Manuel Fangio #2 is on pole in his Alfa Corse Alfa Romeo 159 with Giuseppe Farina alongside in another Alfa; the 1951 and 1950 World Champions of course. Farina won from the pair of Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 375 V12s driven by Alberto Ascari and Luigi Villoresi.
Car #12 on the second row is Piero Taruffi’s Ferrari 375 (DNF rear axle) and #8 Ascari. Farina took 2hr 45min 46.2sec to complete the 36-lap, 316-mile race through the daunting, high speed swoops and dives of the Ardennes road circuit.
Fangio finished ninth and last. He was gradually catching Farina in the lead, when he pitted for fuel and tyres after 14 laps but no amount of hammering by the mechanics of the left rear wheel would move it (below). In the end the poor technicians removed the brake drum and wheel assembly, losing nearly 15 minutes in total. Fangio rejoined last of the remaining ten runners and four laps adrift of Farina.
Autocourse notes the following in relation to the Fangio and Farina 159s, “Fitted with an oval-section petrol tank each side of the driver extending forwards to the bulkhead and an oval-section tank on the right-hand side of the engine under the exhaust manifold. Fangio’s car had a De Dion back axle.”
(MotorSport)(Autocourse)
The Racing Plug : Its selection and the factors which influence its efficiency
Much has been written about sparking plugs. A whole science has evolved around them and their correct choice, and they have been become an inexhaustible theme for discussion at large motor sport events. A glance at the problem of the correct choice of sparking plugs will prove ample justification for this.
The purpose of our article is the discussion of the “Racing Plug”. Although its construction and requirements are entirely different from those of a normal plug, they have nevertheless many things in common.
One thing is expected from every type of plug. At exactly the right moment it must produce a sufficiently powerful spark for the fuel mixture in the cylinder of the engine to be ignited and for the chemical energy of the fuel to be converted into heat and work, thus giving life to the engine.
For obvious reasons a racing engine makes more specialised demands on the construction and material of the plug than does an ordinary engine. The right choice of a racing plug for a particular race needs much experience and knowledge of the many factors which play their part in the functioning of the plug. These problems will shortly be considered.
For every race the type of track and its length are common knowledge. The tuning of the engine develops from these known facts and from the conditions laid down in the regulations.
The type of fuel to be used will be either prescribed or left to choice. On it depends the compression ratio, the carburettor adjustment, the degree to which the ignition is to be advanced and, of course, the sparking plug itself. The length of the race and the engine’s performance determine the fuel consumption and accordingly the number of stops required for refuelling during long races. Fuels with a high alcoholic content raise problems different from petrol, benzol or a mixture of these two.
A two-stroke engine using a fuel-oil mixture requires a different plug from a four-stroke engine.
The weather is also a factor to be taken into consideration, as changes may occur between practice days and the actual day of the race. Even the most ideal carburettor and ignition adjustments may have to be changed if, for example, it is raining on the day of the race whilst during practice it was bright and dry.
We need hardly tell the experts, whether firms or individuals, how to adjust their engines so as to be “fit” for a particular race, but there are the younger ones without the experience of the more seasoned enthusiasts to whom perhaps a few hints might be of value. If amongst these tips there is something new to the old hands, we shall be doubly rewarded.
We feel that perhaps fifty years’ experience of plugs has given us some authority and we make no apology for stating our views.
I. What sparking plugs are required when the length and conditions of the race are known ?
This question, in so far as heat value is concerned, will, in most cases, be resolved after practice, but to some extent the driver must know the sort of plug he requires, at least the plug thread-either 18 mm. or 14 mm. thread diameter and 12 1/2 mm. or 18 mm. reach.
2. The higher the compression ratio, r.p.m. and consequently the engine pertormance, the higher the heat value of the plug must be, if self-ignition is to be avoided
3. Tracks which have no gradients and where corners can be taken without loss of speed present no great difficulty in the choice of the right heat value of the plug. Then, a high heat value and consequently a cold or hard plug is preferable as there is less danger of the plug becoming dirty or oily.
4. On tracks with steep gradients and many corners when brakes and accelerators are much in use it is different.
When decelerating and consequently pouring less fuel mixture into the cylinder a momentary depression results in the combustion chamber. This causes oil to seep through the piston rings which brings with it a danger of the plugs getting oily and the formation of a carbon deposit. If carbon enters the plug, it may well stop the plug from firing, as carbon is an electrical conductor. This conductor may cause a short and instead of the plug sparking, the impulse will be diverted to the secondary circuit. It will be seen therefore that conditions demand special care in the choice of plug, as it is important to ensure that the plug does not become overheated during long races on fast circuits.
On the other hand the plug must not become oily when braking at corners or descending slopes; it must reach such a temperature to ensure that all the carbon is burnt up thus avoiding the formation of a secondary circuit. This temperature is approximately 500 degrees centigrade at the points.
5. If the driver removes his plug during practice after a fast run and discovers (generally by means of a magnifying glass) that a fine light grey metal deposit, the size of a microscopic pearl, has formed on the electrodes and insulator, then there has been an error, even if, according to the driver’s opinion, the engine has been running well. This metal deposit means that the ignition was too advanced and that there is a burning of the piston. Here, too, it may be advisable to use a colder plug with a correspondingly higher heat value. But the most important factor of all is a correct ignition adjustment.
6. The metal washer between the plug and the engine must not be forgotten. This washer must fit well but not too tightly. If too tightly fitted, then the piece between the thread and the plug body will become strained and looseness will result. The looseness brings about a deterioration of the thermal conductivity in the inner part of the plug which causes overheating.
Plug-box to the fore on the scuttle of one of the Alfa 159s during the July 1951 British GP weekend at Silverstone (MotorSport)Bosch 1950s adPlug box atop the engine bay of a Ferrari 375 V12 again at Silverstone during the 1951 GP weekend. Twin-plug heads = 24 plugs, I wonder what a good time to change them all was? (MotorSport)
7. If the compression ratio of the engine is raised with a consequent increase in output, the temperature of the exhaust gas from the engine itself becomes relatively cooler. The ultimately greater output is due to the fact that more heat is converted into energy; thus proportionately less heat passes unused from the exhaust pipe.
The implication is that the engine would now appear to run cooler, and the most suitable plug would be one with a lower heat value. This, however, is not the case. Although the greater amount of heat converted into energy in the engine’s combustion chamber-the most economical use of the fuel-leads to a relatively lower temperature, the combustion gas temperature in the chamber itself and also of the plugs, pistons and valves become higher as the amount of heat being converted is greater. It will be realised, therefore, that a high compression ratio demands a correspondingly high heat value of the plug and therefore a colder one.
8. The amount that the ignition is advanced measured in the degrees of the angular movement of the crankshaft or in the mm. of the stroke, greatly influences the output and particularly the temperature of the plugs, the piston and valves. The more advanced the ignition, the longer the period of contact between the flame and the plug, the piston and valves, which naturally become correspondingly hotter. If the ignition is advanced then a colder plug with a higher heat value is necessary. It is, of course, well known that the ignition must be advanced when the amount of engine revolutions is increased.
9. No alteration can be made to the plug seat or to the position of the plug unless the cylinder-head is altered. Nevertheless it may be said that the shape of the combustion chamber as well as the position of the plug and of the ignition spark are of great importance to starting and accelerating and to the output of the engine.
10. The selection of the plug for a two-stroke racing engine, running on a mixture of fuel and oil should not be more difficult than the selection of a plug for a four-stroke engine. It has to be remembered of course, that fuel, to which oil has been added in the ratio of 1 : 15 or 1 : 20 requires a rather warmer plug as the danger of it getting dirty and of carbon forming is greater than with a four-stroke engine. Therefore a plug with too high a heat value should not be chosen.
11. In general the heat value of a plug for an air-cooled engine should be somewhat higher than for a water-cooled engine. The plug should be cooler for the simple reason that with an air-cooled engine the rate of loss of temperature from the plug to the cylinder is smaller and therefore the cylinder and the plug seat become hotter.
12. It should be said that in principle the temperature of the water in a water-cooled engine has little influence on the temperature of the plug. Therefore the water temperature should have little bearing on the choice of the heat value of the plug.
13. The type of fuel used has the greatest influence, not only on the output of the engine, on the fuel consumption and on the number of refuelling stops during long races, but also on the carburettor adjustment. In view of the large output required, the adjustment of the carburettor must be generous. This adjustment may well cause the plug to get dirty and especially will have an influence on the temperature of the plug in use.
It is well known that a fuel with a high alcohol content allows for high compression and therefore an increased output. As alcohol possesses a high vaporization heat, the engine, and to a certain degree, the plug, remain cool.
Unfortunately, the self-ignition temperature of the alcohol fuels is considerably lower than that of petrol and benzol. Therefore, self-ignition may take place, in spite of the fact that the knocking resistance of alcohol is higher than of hydrocarbon fuels, i.e., petrol and benzol.
14. It is hardly necessary to mention that should the engine, pistons, piston-rings, cylinder sleeve, valves, etc., be in bad condition, this may be responsible for the plug getting oily or dirty.
15. The weather, in particular, has a great influence on the selection of plugs. Not only the team manager, the driver and the mechanics, but also those who are responsible for plug service, may consider themselves lucky if the weather during the actual race remains the same as during practice.
If during practice the weather is hot and dry and the plugs are selected accordingly, but on the day of the race it is cold and rainy, then in most cases a new plug which gets warmer, i.e., with a lower heat value, must be selected. Conversely, if the weather changes change from cold and rain during practice to dry during the race, a higher heat value, ie, a colder plug is indicated.
The weather indeed poses a problem for plugs, but generally it is fair to say that the height of the barometer is proportional to the height of the heat value of the plug.
It is beyond the scope of this article to go into the many factors which influence ignition and the many different stages of combustion. Theses subjects will be dealt with at some later date.
(Werkfoto Bosch)
From left to right a typical range of racing plugs shown in assembling order of hardness. It will be seen that the gas volume in the mouth of the plug decreases with the plug’s increasing ability to stand heat.
This photograph shows Bosch racing plugs with a thread of 3/4 and 1/2 inch. For alloy cylinder heads the longer thread is used to safeguard against stripping while the shorter thread is quite satisfactory for cast heads. The plug lying in the middle shows the centre and earth electrodes and the spark gap.
Credits…
Autocourse No 2 1951, Editor Stanley Sedgwick. Tony Johns Collection
Tailpiece…
(Rudy Mailander)
“Louveau’s car after running out of road and overturning’. Swiss Grand Prix, Bern, May 27, 1951.” It looks like quite an accident…
Bern’s 4.52-miles wasn’t for the faint heated either, especially in the wet. “Henri Louveau ran out of road on (lap 31) the fast corner after passing the pits, overturning his Talbot , and sustained a broken leg.” He qualified his Ecurie Rosier Talbot-Lago T26C 11th of 21 starters in his second and last championship GP start. The race was won by Fangio from Taruffi. More about Louveau here: https://www.f1forgottendrivers.com/drivers/henri-louveau/
Autocourse described the challenges of the place thus, “The Bremgarten Circuit at Berne is at the same time perhaps the most beautifully situated and the most exacting course in Europe. The bends, curves, corners and gradients make constant demands upon both drivers and cars and the thickly-wooded stretches leave no margin for error.”
(MotorSport)
This shot of the Henri Louveau and Louis Rosier Talbot-Lago T26Cs shows rather well some of the perils of Bremgarten.
The Gold Leaf Team Lotus rig is probably kosher as far as Bernie and the Liberty Media money-mob are concerned but the Pete Lovely VW Motors Kombi Ute and old Lotus 49B Ford would have made them choke on their canapés and Bolly.
Your average VW Dealer may have run a sportscar or touring car with his I’ll-gotten gains, not our boy from Fife, Seattle though, this lifelong racer contested US national events with his ex-Team Lotus/Mario Andretti 49B-R11 and took in the odd Grand Prix as well.
The shot above is in the Clermont Ferrand paddock during the 1970 French Grand Prix weekend.
(MotorSport)
The American took delivery of the car in time for the 1969 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch. He was sixth among 12 starters in the March 16 race won by Jackie Stewart’s Matra MS80 Ford, the second of the combos six championship and non-championship F1 wins that season.
Brands was the first of ten meetings Lovely did that year: five F1 races including the Canadian, US and Mexican GPs and five US national meetings. Seventh place in the Canadian GP was impressive.
In 1970-71 – living the dream – Pete, his wife and the Kombi did another eight meetings, all but one were F1 events, but by then the game had moved on, his efforts were littered with DNQ/DNS/UNC.
Pete Lovely during the 1971 Canadian GP weekend (MotorSport)(MotorSport)
Canadian GP, Mosport September 1971.
With his Lotus 49 increasingly uncompetitive Pete concocted the brilliant idea of bolting the back of his 49B – the engine, Hewland gearbox and rear suspension wheeled away as one unit – to an ex-Jochen Rindt Racing Lotus 69 F2 car (ex-Hill #69.F2.5).
Whoosh-bonk – in Bruce McLaren’s words – an instant more modern GP car! Lovely raced it in some US L&M F5000 rounds in 1971 and entered it in the 1971 Canadian and US Grands Prix. He was sixth at the Monterey GP (49B), fifth and seventh at the Seafair 200 at Seattle (69/49B). In the Canadian GP he was Q26 and unclassified, and at Watkins Glen Q32 and unclassified in both cases aboard the Lotus 69 Ford DFV as it was described in-period.
Pete historic raced the Lotus 49 later in his life and retained it until his death, at which point it was sold to a Seattle collector.
Ernesto Neves, Lotus 69FF ahead of the chasing pack during the Johnson Rally Wax Cup at Brands Hatch in October 1971 (Sportography)
Obiter…
Pete’s effort in turning his F2 Lotus 69 into a Grand Prix car gives the Lotus 69 a unique title. It is the only racing car model, I think, to ever compete in Formula Ford, F3, F2/Atlantic and F1. Pedants will rightfully point out that the FF and F3 69s used spaceframe chassis not monocoques…but they were still Lotus 69s!
Lex Davison and passenger – probably Lyndon Duckett – at Fishermans Bend, Melbourne, unleashing all of the power and torque of his 7.1-litre supercharged, straight-six 1929 Mercedes Benz 38/250 SSK, chassis #77643. It’s March 13, 1949.
(unattributed but I’d love to know who?)
Davison raced the car from 1946-49 and is shown here in front of Alf Barrett’s Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza through Quarry during his highly competitive run into third place in the 1947 Australian Grand Prix at Mount Panorama, Bathurst.
(Mercedes Benz)
Production numbers and Technical…
How Davison’s car came to Australia is still a bit of a mystery, but a West Australian, a Mr Everett imported it and sold it to Eric MacKay, more of this anon. #77643 was one of 33 SSKs, one model of four of this stunning series of S, SS, SSK and SSKL Mercedes Benz built between 1927 and 1933.
The production numbers according to Mercedes Benz were: S-Sport 146 units built until September 1928, SS-Super Sport 111 units until September 1933, SSK-Super Sport Kurtz (short – the wheelbase of theses cars is 2950mm) 33 units between 1928 and 1932.
The numbers of the SSKL-Super Sport Kurtz Licht (short light) cars produced is not quoted by Mercedes publicly, “it is extremely difficult to obtain a precise record of the production numbers, since, already at that time, chassis were being shortened and provided with different engines.” A perfect situation for fakers of course.
Racing triumphs of the cars include the 1927, 1928 and 1931 German Grand Prix, the Avus races in 1931-32, the Eifel race in 1931, the 1929 Tourist Trophy, the Irish Grand Prix in 1930, and Spa 24 Hours and Mille Miglia in 1931. Despite their size the cars were competitive in the hills too, winning the European Hill Climb Championships in 1930-31 and the ’32 German Alpine Championship…and plenty more.
The U-section pressed-steel frame chassis cars were designed by Ferdinand Porsche who had succeeded Paul Daimler as chief engineer of Mercedes in 1923, three years before the company amalgamated with Benz. The six-cylinder SS 38/250 Mercedes-Benz debuted in 1928 as a 7.1-litre development of the 6.8-litre S model launched in 1927. It was both exclusive and expensive, the SS retailed at 35,000 Reichsmarks (£2350) with factory tourer bodywork.
(Mercedes Benz)(Mercedes Benz)
The Mercedes M06 7065cc engine was a long-stroke – 100mm bore, 150mm stroke – SOHC, two-valve, 225bhp @ 3300rpm straight six, fitted with twin-plug ignition: one plug was fired by the magneto and one by the battery.
The big, thirsty beast was fed by twin-Mercedes updraught annular-float carburettors and was Roots supercharged. Mercedes pioneered the fitting of superchargers to road cars using technology developed for its Great War aero-engines. While other marques developed permanently-engaged superchargers that the sucked fuel/ air mixture in through the carburettor, Mercedes employed a supercharger clutched in at full throttle to boost engine power by force-feeding air through the carburettors to cram fuel and air into the combustion chambers.
This method could only be used for a few seconds at a time to aid acceleration or hillclimbing and was accompanied by a distinctive banshee wail that Motor described as a “threatening high-pitched whine that is such a joy to spectators at racing events”.
The chassis was period-typical: rigid axles and semi-elliptical front and rear springs, worm and nut steering, mechanical drum brakes at both ends, wire-spoke wheels, with wheel size 6.5/7 inches wide and 20 inches in diameter. The gearbox had four speeds and a dry, quadruple plate clutch and three alternative final drive ratios giving a quoted top speed of 188-192km/h.
The SWB SSK wheelbase was 2950mm and had tracks of 1425mm front and rear. It was 4950mm long, 1700mm wide, 1725mm high and weighed 2000kg.
(Mercedes Benz)(Mercedes Benz)
Hailed by its makers as “an ideal high performance car for sporting owner drivers”, the SS Mercedes was claimed to be the fastest sports car in the world. Tested by Motor in 1931 a fully-equipped 7.1-litre Mercedes SS 38/250, not yet fully run in, clocked over 103 mph at Brooklands despite a slight head wind.
Mercedes Benz, “The ‘SSKL’ was the glittering highlight of the legendary S-Series, which was to decisively shape the image of the Mercedes-Benz brand. In 1934, three years after the ‘SSKL’ had made its debut, it was time for the product line up at Daimler-Benz to be reshuffled. From now on success on the racetrack was in the hands of the new Silver Arrows…From mid-1927 to the beginning of 1933, the S-Series models had fulfilled the roles of sportiness and elegance in equal measure, demonstrating their credentials as genuine all-rounders capable of sustained success on both fronts.”
Lex Davison’s interest in these big Deutschlanders commenced with this Dr Ferdinand Porsche designed 33/180 K-model Mercedes he acquired in late 1945 or early 1946.
The 6.2-litre, SOHC, six-cylinder supercharged giant was soon christened ‘Jumbo’ and is shown during a home event, literally. The Vintage Sports Car Club ran several sprint events at Killara Park, the Davison family, 500 acre farm which abutted the Yarra River at Lilydale, in the immediate post-war period.
Lex is shown competing in the first of these – his maiden competitive event – on January 13, 1946. The competitive life of this car was shortened when Davo wrong-slotted, selecting first, rather than third gear at a subsequent Killara Park meeting.
All was not lost though, as the young proprietor of the family shoe manufacturing business – Lex was appointed Governing Director of AA Davison Pty Ltd upon the death of his father, aged 22 in August 1945 – was dabbling in various cars: converting the family Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 into a biposto-racer, trading his Talbot 75 for a 4 1/2-litre Bentley, then a Bentley 4 1/2 Blower, and a 4 1/2-litre Delage Indianapolis car. Lex well and truly had the bug and the means to pursue it.
“The 38/250 Mercedes in an early rebuild while in the ownership of Alan Roberts,” wrote Troy Davey-Milne (Davey-Milne Collection)
SSK #77643…
Graham Howard records in his sensational biography of Lex, ‘Lex Davison : Larger Than Life’, that the Mercedes had been a tourer which was damaged when dropped onto the wharf from a cargo-sling. Perhaps that occurred at Port Melbourne when the car was shipped from Fremantle, West Australia to Victoria.
Whatever the case, the car was acquired by VSCC member Alan Roberts, he had been slowly restoring it. A visit from Lex to encourage Alan to retain the car turned 360-degrees when Lex bought it! Davison then placed it in the care of Reg Nutt, a very capable mechanic/engineer, racer and AGP winning riding mechanic in the Phillip Island days.
(L Sims Collection)
By September 1946 Nutt had the car ready to test at his Whiteman Street, South Melbourne premises. Lex first ran it in unbodied form at Rob Roy that December (above) where he won the Vintage class.
That same month he ran it in a VSCC trial, by the time the car was entered for the January 1947 race at Ballarat Airfield – Victoria’s first post-war – 77643 sported a short, boat-tailed two-seater body built by Bob Baker. Howard records that at that time Baker was working out-back of Nutt’s workshop and would later become the doyen of Victorian panel-bashers; the man of choice for single-seater and sportscar bodies.
Two of Lex’ fellow competitors for the next 15 years made their race debuts that weekend: Bib Stillwell and Bill Patterson, both racing MG TCs. Davison’s first circuit meeting had been aboard the Little Alfa – Lex’ fathers 6C 1500 Alfa which had been lightened and modified from a four-door sedan to two-seat sportscar – at the October 1946 Bathurst meeting where he impressed in the 20-year-old Alfa which had over 100,000 miles on-the-clock!
Lex ahead of the Avro Ansons at Ballarat airfield on January 27, 1947. Here in the Alfa 6C 1500 ‘Little Alfa’ and below in the Mercedes, running sans side-bonnets in the heat (G Thomas)(G Thomas)
30,000 spectators starved of entertainment watched the event with “the Mercedes a handful through the corners and still running too rich. The tachometer was reading low and the top came off one piston which meant the car did not start the main race of the day,” Howard wrote. “Even so, the sight of the massive white Mercedes almost matching Barrett’s Alfa (Alf Barrett and his Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza were the Australian class-combo in the immediate pre and post-war years) for top speed caused something of a stir, as did the sharp scream of its throttle-operated supercharger.”
All wasn’t lost, the Little Alfa finished the handicap in ninth, but retired from its other race with fading oil-pressure.
Reg Nutt readied the car for the 1947 Championship of New South Wales to be held on the Nowra naval air base, on the coast south of Sydney, in June. The big-beast would have been suited to the 6.8km circuit as it incorporated two straights of over 2km, it really would have had a good gallop, but the rear axle failed in practice so the car didn’t race; Tom Lancey’s MG TC won the handicap 160km event in a field of good Gold Star depth.
#77643 at Rob Roy shortly after Bob Baker built its body (L Sims Collection)Isn’t it a big bit of real-estate?! #77643 at Bathurst in 1947 (D Flett)
Lex had the repairs to the Mercedes done by Rex Marshall’s Monza Motors – a business established by elite level racers John Snow and Jack Saywell immediately pre-war – in Darlinghurst, Sydney.
The October 6, 1947 Australian Grand Prix was to be held at Bathurst, fittingly, the last was conducted at Lobethal, South Australia in 1939; big-balls road circuits both.
The meeting marked the first anniversary of Lex’s racing career, his first too in an AGP, a race he almost made his own with victories in 1954, 1957-58 and 1961 aboard HWM Jaguar, Ferrari 500/625 twice, and a Cooper T51 Climax.
“The 24-year-old Lex Davison, at Bathurst in October 1947, would have been judged as not much more than an enthusiastic and well-heeled Victorian youngster with an unusual car: his career to this point comprised three race starts for two finishes in the 6C Alfa, and one race start and one practice appearance in the Mercedes with mechanical trouble intervening each time. He was keen enough, and undaunted by the big Mercedes; but it was too early to know what he might amount too.” Graham Howard wrote. Nonetheless, Lex could have won the 1947 AGP.”
Davison in front of Elliott Forbes-Robinson’s (yep, there were two of ’em) MG TC and the legendary Frank Kleinig aboard his evergreen, fast Kleinig Hudson Spl. One of the highlights of the weekend for the pundits was Davo’s wheel-to-wheel 10-lap dice with hardman, veteran Kleinig who never won an AGP but should have by any measure…(G Reed)
Davo was advantaged by a good handicap but that year was a bit of lottery with so many unknown combinations. Further, the handicappers, Graham wrote, didn’t believe Lex’s declared top speed of the car – 120mph, he was recorded at 119mph during the race – and the combo’s potential lap times.
Had it not been for blowback through the carburettor in top gear, which restricted the use of the supercharger to second and third gears, and a four-gallon splash-and-dash fuel stop later in the race Davison may well have won the race. Instead he was a fine third behind Bill Murray, MG TC and Dick Bland’s Mercury V8 Special. Critically, Lex’s result wasn’t due to a great handicap, it was his speed too, he did the fastest race-time and impressed all present with his skilful handling of a demanding heavy car car over 150 miles on one of the country’s most challenging circuits.
He had arrived, and with a cocktail of money, balls, brio and finesse, Lex would go far…
Diana Davison at Rob Roy in March 1948 (L Sims Collection)
With more than a sniff of an AGP chance, before too long Davison had done a deal to buy an Alfa Romeo P3/Tipo B from Arthur Wylie, racer/engineer and founder of Australian Motor Sports magazine. Arthur had sourced chassis #50003 ex-Scuderia Ferrari from Jock Finlayson in the UK, but was left holding-the-baby when his patron, Jack Day declared that at £1650 the car had to be trouble…
Davison hoped the 1934 Italian monoposto would be in Melbourne in time for the January 1948 AGP held at Point Cook, an RAAF airbase in the city’s inner-west, in the event it didn’t. Held in stifling over 100-degree heat, the 100 mile, 42 lap race was a killer of cars and men!
John Barraclough observed Davo from his MG NE Magnette, “From behind, I saw Davison, after a dreadful spasm of front axle tramp, barge straight through some hay bales without even trying to avoid them. He raised his arms in mock helplessness. You could see he just couldn’t be bothered slithering the Merc about in an effort to miss them – plumb out of muscle he was.”
After 16 laps Lex pitted and collapsed onto the steering wheel, Lyndon Duckett took the car out as Lex was carted off for resuscitation, but within a lap the Mercedes had boiled its fuel and was retired.
Perhaps the German did it to spite Davison, his new, red, Italian love arrived three days after the GP…As Lex got to grips with the faster, more sophisticated Alfa, the Mercedes was put to one side of the garage at Killara Park, having its final race in team hands driven by Lyndon Duckett at Fishermans Bend in March 1949. There the Davison Equipe: P3, 38/250 and MG TC was cared for by Bib Stillwell, now in partnership with Derry George in Cotham Road, Kew having previously worked, Graham Howard wrote, for Reg Nutt and A.F Hollins.
(J Montasell)
These three shots (above and the two below) are of the 38/250 at Fishermans Bend on March 13, 1949, the final meeting in Davison hands. Lyndon Duckett is the fellow with an asterisk above his head.
These shots bookend the first action shot in this article taken on the same weekend – I don’t doubt that Lex is at the wheel in that first shot, probably with Lyndon alongside – and allow us to see how the car was prepared in the day. While the heavy braking and slow corners of Fishos’ didn’t suit the Mercedes it still finished both of its races in Duckett’s hands.
(J Montasell)(J Montasell)Lyndon Duckett at the wheel during the March 1949 Fishos meeting (T Davey-Milne)(D White Collection via L Sims)
Post-Davo…
John Blanden in his ‘Historic Racing Cars in Australia’ recorded that little was heard of the Mercedes until it was advertised by a Mr Williams in the March 1951 issue of AMS. Ivo Robb was the buyer, he raced it at Ballarat in November 1951 but was unplaced.
Vin Devereaux offered the car for sale via AMS in January 1952 with Haig Hurst the buyer. He is shown above at Rob Roy in September 1955 where he was second to Ted Hider-Smith’s GN in the vintage class that weekend; note the Victorian road-rego JJ-933.
(G Edney Collection)
Hurst raced and ‘climbed it until 1955 when Laurie Rofe exchanged it for his Bentley Speed Six. Laurie used the car in full road trim as a fast tourer, and historic and vintage racer for about two years before selling it to Jeff Hoffert in late 1956 or early 1957.
(D Belford Collection via D Zeunert)
What an ignominious end for a racing car! From a near Australian Grand Prix winner to family chariot, what a chariot mind you! Every kid in the street wouldn’t have had as much cred as you did in the front seat of this thing.
David Zeunert circulated these photos of Jeff Hoffert family photos of the Mercedes Benz 38/250 at Hepburn Springs where Hoffert was a member of the organising committee of the Hepburn Springs Hill Climb, in the late 1950s.
(D Belford Collection via D Zeunert)(M Watson)
Hoffert sold the old stager to Len Southward in 1965, where it has been in his Paraparaumu, New Zealand museum since. The shot above shows it in recent times.
(M Watson)(Bonhams)
Etcetera…
(Bonhams)
Bonhams offered this rare sales brochure for sale in 2015.
Written in English, but printed in Germany in March 1930, it comprised 20 pages, Bonhams’ generosity did not extend, unsurprising, to reproduction of it in full! Many thanks to them for including the technical specifications page online.
The feature cover car, the “4-seater touring latest style,” is a 4.5-litre 32/90 perhaps.
(Bonhams)(Bonhams)
Credits…
VSCC Victoria Collection, mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com, ‘Historic Racing Cars in Australia’ John Blanden, George Thomas via State Library of Victoria, George Reed, Don Flett, Reg Nutt Collection via Greg Smith, David White Collection, David Belford Family Collection via David Zeunert, Michael Watson, James Montasell shots via the Leon Sims Collection, Bonhams, Graham Edney Collection, Stephen Dalton
Tailpieces…
(L Sims Collection)(SLV)
The First Lady of Australian motor racing, Diana Davison, launches the Mercedes off the line at Rob Roy #15, March 14, 1948.
Nice portrait of Allan Moffat during the September 9, 1979 Sandown 400K (Hang Ten 400) weekend.
Moff, Colin Bond and Carroll Smith had a season of incredible Australian Touring Car Championship/Championship of Makes/Bathurst 1000 dominance in 1977 with their Ford Falcon XB GT351/XC GS500 Hardtops but The General (General Motors Holden) changed all that with the introduction of the Holden Torana A9X 308 later that year – the car won on debut at the 1977 Hang Ten 400 driven by Peter Brock.
The Holden LX Torana A9X SS Hatchback was the ultimate Oz Group C era car. It addressed all of the weaknesses of the L34 Torana, not that those machines were exactly short of success.
The first three cars home at the completion of this ’79 Australian Championship of Makes 401km, 129 lap Sandown race were, inevitably, the A9X’s of Peter Brock, John Harvey and Peter Janson/Larry Perkins. Murray Carter was fourth in a Ford Falcon GS500 351, his machine was the only one of nine FoMoCo GS500s to go the distance. It wasn’t a happy time at all for we Ford fans!
Moffat and crew attend to the 351 Cleveland Ford V8 of the XC Falcon GS500 in Sandown’s pitlane. The ‘old’ Sandown pits were snug – fantastic for spectators – and dusty or muddy for the crews depending upon the mood of Melbourne’s weather.
Who was chief mechanic at this stage? Was Peter Molloy still building the engines?
Credits/Tailpieces…
Rennie Ellis – State Library of Victoria.
Rennie was a well-known ‘society snapper’ in Melbourne at the time, but he was pretty handy at a race meeting on the odd-occasion he slummed-it, as the two shots below taken during Sandown’s 1972 Gold Star round – the Victoria Trophy – on April 16 show.
(R Ellis)
The first shot shows Kevin Bartlett, Lola T300 Chev leading John McCormack’s Elfin MR5 Repco-Holden into Shell Corner – now excitingly called Turn One – while the one below is Clive Millis ANF2 1.6-litre Elfin 600B Lotus-Ford twin-cam. Frank Matich won the race, and the Gold Star that year in his Matich A50 Repco-Holden. McCormack was third, Millis eighth and KB suffered an ignition caused DNF.
Reg Hunt, Maserati 250F, on his way to winning the Victorian Trophy at Fishermans Bend on February 12, 1956
Context…
Australian motorsport’s governing body was the Sydney based Royal Automobile Club of Australia until 1953 when the Melbourne based Confederation of Australian Motor Sport took over. CAMS Ltd trading as Motorsport Australia (CAMS) still rules the roost today.
One of the CAMS’ rare acts of decision-making excellence was the creation of the Australian Drivers Championship – the Gold Star – from 1957.
Lex Davison, Ferrari 500/625 was the first recipient of the award for points gained in nine rounds spread across all states except Tasmania – remedied in 1958 – on an 8-5-3-2-1 points basis for first to fifth places in each round.
1956 Faux Gold Star Championship…
I’ve thought for a long while that it would be interesting to summarise our elite level Formule Libre racing results by seasons, if for no other reason than when I want to research one thing or another a summary of the competitor set exists. Why not, I thought, extend the idea to calculating notional Gold Star points?
Of course it’s a fucking stupid thing to do as it simply didn’t happen! In the words of that great Australian philosopher, ‘Sir’ Frank Gardner, “If yer’ Aunty had balls she’d be yer’ Uncle”. In other words, deal with what is/was, rather than what isn’t/wasn’t.
But of course CAMS run a who-gives-a-fuck-about-facts (WGAFAF, pronounced ‘woggafaff’) motor racing history model. They don’t recognise the January 1927 Australian Grand Prix at Goulburn as the first AGP, yet we have 1928 and 1937 Australian Grands Prix, apparently, neither of which actually took place then, as officialdom chooses to brand them now. So, in accordance with established Oz-racing fast-and-loose WGAFAF precedent, what follows is a summary of the 1956 Gold Star, Faux Division.
Officialdom awaits the ‘Champion of the Day’ of the 100 Miles Road Race at Phillip Island held on Saturday 31 March, 1928. Oopsie, sorry there were two 100 Mile Road Races that day. The morning one started at about 11am, oopsie again, sorry, B-Class started at about 11am, and D-Class at about 11.05am. The afternoon race, races really, started at about 2.25pm for A-Class and then C-Class at about 2.30pm. All ‘Akin to European GP practice’ is the favoured line of some
The readily apparent State-The-Obvious flaw in my Faux Gold Star award is that as there was no such championship, drivers didn’t enter meetings they may have otherwise if they aspired to win such a title. However, the rich/well-funded in every era raced far and wide beyond their local meetings, this was certainly the case for the 1956 motor trader front runners, so I’m not so sure the top-3 are impacted by this factor.
Some criteria points. I’ve basically followed the equivalent 1956 meetings that CAMS recognised in ’57, even though some of the races are too short, in my mind, to be of championship length. Where there were two Formula Libre races of ‘championship length’ – over 75 miles – at the one meeting, such as the Albert Park Moomba meeting, the longer, feature event prevails. Results are scratch based only. I’m only awarding points for first to fourth placings as those are the records I have. If someone has more comprehensive records, spreadsheet skills and OCD knock yer’ socks off and I’ll update this masterpiece.
Away we go.
Reg Hunt on Gnoo Blas’ Main Straight while the 4.05pm to Sydney gets ready to depart. Maserati 250F (GB.com)
Gnoo Blas, Orange, New South Wales (NSW) : South Pacific Championship : January 30, 1956
This season opening race meeting on the Gnoo Blas road circuit at Orange, 260 km west of Sydney had become Australia’s only international meeting in prior years. The Australian Sporting Car Club always managed to entice a few of the drivers doing a full southern summer season In New Zealand across-the-ditch to the Great Brown Land before they headed back to Europe. As an aside, the Kiwis were five years or so in front of us in the Big Race Stakes.
Our Jack was the only international in ’56 mind you. He raced the 2-litre Cooper T40 Bristol that he built for himself at Surbiton to make his championship GP debut at the British Grand Prix at Aintree in July 1955. Brabham brought the car home at the end of the year, winning the AGP with it at Port Wakefield after frontrunners, Stan Jones in Maybach 3 and Reg Hunt’s Maserati A6GCM/250 (a 2.5-litre 250F engined A6GCM 2-litre F2 car) had problems, then did the Kiwi season and would sell it to Reg Smith before heading back to the UK.
To rub in his advantage, Reg Hunt brought along both the Maserati he raced throughout 1955 and his new 250F on the long tow from Melbourne to Orange, then disappeared into the distance, winning the 27 lap, 100-mile race in the 250F from Brabham.
Stan Jones gave vigorous chase, but blew the 3.8-litre Maybach SOHC six fitted under the long bonnet of Maybach 3 sky-high on lap 22 when 39 seconds adrift of his fellow Melbourne motor trader.
That blow-up proved a defining moment in Australian Motor Racing History of that era as it marked the end of the Charlie Dean/Repco Research/Stan Jones/Maybach period. Repco’s stock of 3.8 and 4.2-litre Maybach cylinder blocks was at an end, so the car couldn’t easily be rebuilt. In any event, Stan realised he needed a Big Red Car to remain competitive, taking delivery of a 250F later in the season. Ern Seeliger created the very fast Maybach 4 Chev V8 of course, it proved to have a surprise or two in 1958-59, but the big-blue Maybach sixes were no more.
Kevin Neal was third in his Cooper T23 Bristol, then came Curley Brydon’s ex-Peter Whitehead – present at Gnoo Blas in the previous two years – Ferrari 166 and then Col James’s MG Special. Jack was a non-resident by then so he doesn’t get Gold Star points for his second place, so we have our top-four below.
1.Hunt Maserati 250F 8 points 2.Neal Cooper T23 Bristol 5 points 3.Brydon Ferrari 166 3 points 4.James MG Special 2 points
End of an era. Jones aboard Maybach 3 – very Mercedes W196’esque in appearance – before the engine let go, South Pacific Championship, Gnoo Blas in 1956 (GB.com)
Fishermans Bend (once Fishermen’s Bend) Melbourne : Victorian Trophy : February 11, 1956
Top guns entered for the 24 lap, 52.8 miles Formula Libre race included Hunt’s Maserati 250F, Lex Davison’s HWM Jaguar (“now with latest D-Type head and Weber carbs” according to AMS), Doug Whiteford’s Talbot-Lago T26C, Stan Jones’ Cooper T38 Jaguar sportscar, Brabham’s Cooper T40, Tom Hawkes Cooper T23 Bristol and Bill Craig’s Alta Holden.
While billed as on international meeting to attract some spillover visitors to New Zealand that summer, the only ‘internationals’ were Brabham from New South Wales and Craig from South Australia…
Hunt romped away, Whiteford’s old T-L, somewhat surprisingly, proved quicker than Davison’s ’54 AGP winning HWM Jag, then Davo spun, while broken throttle linkages accounted for Jones and Hawkes.
1. Hunt, Maserati 250F 8 points 2.Whiteford Talbot-Lago T26C 5 points 3. K Neal Cooper T23 Bristol 3 points 4.W Wilcox Ford Special 2 points
Albert Park, Melbourne : Moomba Meeting – Argus Trophy : March 18, 1956
Albert Park – promoted by the Light Car Club of Australia – hosted a pair of international two-weekend carnivals in ’56: the Moomba meeting in March and Olympic meeting in November/December.
The feature on March 11 was the Moomba Tourist Trophy for sportscars. Tony Gaze won that 150-miler in his HWM Jaguar VPA9, from Bib Stillwell’s brand-spankers Jaguar D-Type and Ron Phillips’ Austin Healey 100S.
F.A.O. Gaze DFC and Two Bars, OAM had decided to retire from racing and sold his HWM and ex-Ascari Ferrari 500/625 to his good mate, Lex Davison before the meeting. Tony had raced both cars in New Zealand that summer together with Peter Whitehead. Davison’s deal included racing the Ferrari in the Argus Trophy, the Formula Libre, 48-lap, 150-mile feature on the following weekend, March 18.
Davo had some serious opposition though, not least Hunt’s 250F and Melbourne haulier, Kevin Neal, who had bought Hunt’s immaculate A6GCM/250. Other expected front-runners included Hawkes’ Cooper Bristol, Stillwell’s D-Type, not to forget Arthur Griffiths, who had bought the ex-Moss HWM Jaguar just vacated by Davison, and Reg Smith in the Cooper Bristol similarly vacated by Jack Brabham.
Somewhat predictably, Reg Hunt won the race in his current model Maserati 250F – one of the great GP cars of any era – from Davison, with Neal, Hawkes and Stillwell third to fifth.
Lex’s old-bus dated back to 1952 – in 2-litre spec it was Alberto Ascari’s main weapon of choice in his triumphant 1952-53 World Championship years – but fitted with a 3-litre DOHC four-cylinder ‘Monza’ engine it proved for several years to have the measure of the fastest cars in the country thanks to a combination of Davo’s speed and almost peerless reliability. Tony Gaze had the Ferrari prepared by Alan Ashton and his AF Hollins crew in High Street, Armadale. He implored Lex to continue the relationship, Davo did so and it was key to his ongoing success with this car.
Reg Hunt from Lex Davison during the Argus Trophy at Albert Park, March 1956. Maserati 250F and Ferrari 500/625 (D Meale)
Port Wakefield, South Australia : Easter Saturday : March 31, 1956
Not all the serious boys spent Easter at the traditional Bathurst fixture, some contested the 50-lap, 65- miles Wakefield Trophy at Port Wakefield, South Australia: Tom Hawkes, Cooper T23 Bristol, Kevin Neale, ex-Hunt Maserati A6GCM/250, Ted Gray, Tornado 2 Ford, and Derek Jolly, Decca Mk1 Climax FWA Spl included.
The weekend feature was for the 20 fastest cars. Soon after the start, the race developed into a Cooper and Maserati duel a lap in front of the rest of the field. Hawkes, in a great performance in the slower of the two cars, won from Neal’s Maserati, Ron Phillips’ Austin Healey 100S and TE Stevens, MG TC Spl.
Interesting are the top speeds recorded on Century Straight (all mph): Gray Tornado Ford V8 110.5, Neal Maserati 2.5 108.5, Hawkes Cooper Bristol 2-litre 104.7, Eldred Norman in the legendary Norman Zephyr Spl s/c 102.5, Murray Trenberth, Vincent 1000, 100, and Eddie Perkins, VW Spl s/c 99.5
The 26-lap, 100-mile handicap, Bathurst 100 had a huge field, “more entries from interstate than Bathurst has seen for some time” wrote Australian Motor Sports. Stan Jones and Jack Brabham weren’t at the meeting, Maybach 3 was dead and Stan’s 250F hadn’t arrived, while Jack had returned to the UK.
The handicap was won by Davison from Hunt, Bib Stillwell, Jaguar D-Type, and Paul England’s Ausca Repco-Holden. To be consistent, Gold Star points are awarded for the scratch results: Hunt, Maserati 250F, Lex Davison Ferrari 500/625 3-litre, Stillwell D-Type, and Tom Sulman’s Aston Martin DB3S.
1.Hunt Maserati 250F 8 points 2.Davison Ferrari 50/625 5 points 3.Stillwell Jaguar D-Type 3 points 4.Sulman Aston Martin DB3S 2 points
Port Wakefield Road Races : South Australian Trophy : June 4, 1956
Stan Jones took delivery of his Maserati 250F in May, demonstrating it in an untimed run at the Geelong Sprints meeting on May 27, Port Wakefield was chassis #2520’s Australian baptism of fire.
Other fast cars which took the trip to the desolate, wind-swept permanent race track included Davison, Stillwell and brilliant, intuitive Adelaide engineer, Eldred Norman in his Norman Zephyr Spl s/c. Most significantly, Ted Gray was present in the Lou Abrahams owned, Gray/Mayberry Bros/Abrahams built Tornado 2 Ford. Tornado 1 Ford died a terrible death at the October ’55 Bathurst meeting, Tornado 2 was a new car using few of T1’s bits, amongst the exceptions were the Ford Ardun/Abrahams fuel injected OHV V8 and Ford truck ‘box. Ted was ok after a very long convalescence too.
At this point of 1956 the key machines of Australian Formula Libre racing from 1956-59 were in place: the two Maserati 250Fs, Davo’s Ferrari and Tornado 2…two-litre Coopers were still to come.
Held in a big rainstorm, the 30 lap South Australian Trophy race, early on was a close contest between Stillwell – pretty comfy in his Jag sportscar – with Stan all over him, but unable to pass and see…
Davo spun on lap 3, so too later in the race did Gray, although another column in AMS says Ted didn’t even start the race due to a broken CV joint… The race was won by Stillwell from Jones, Norman and ??
Somewhat prophetically, Bob Pritchett wrote in the July 1956 issue of Australian Motor Sports, “Who said Ted Gray’s Tornado Special doesn’t handle. Ted was, I think, the only high-powered operator who did not spin off in the meeting (the guy that wrote the race report sez otherwise!) and in winning the A-grade scratch race 6-lapper, held Stan’s Maserati for four laps until Stan spun off in the wet.”
In the same column, Pritchett reported that Tom Hawkes was considering a Maserati four to get more speed out of his Cooper T23 Bristol, that engine being at the end of its development potential; a Repco-Holden Grey shortly thereafter provided a potent and more cost-effective solution.
Similarly, he mused about the possibilities of Maybach 3, “by dropping in one of those 300-plus USA V8 monsters that are now available.” – the very path followed by Ern Seeliger, and Ted Gray with hot 283 Chev Corvette V8s being popped under the bonnets of Maybach and Tornado before too long.
Yes, the little-tacker in the lower shot is Alan Jones. He has recounted over the years his disappointment in finding Dad’s new, red Italian car was a Maserati and not a Ferrari! Bob Chamberlain at left Bob King thinksTed Gray from Stan Jones during their Port Wakefield scrap in June 1956. Tornado 2 Ford V8 and Maserati 250F; plenty of scraps to come from this pair from 1956-59. Gray’s experience went all the way back to giving Peter Whitehead and ERA R10B a run for their money at Aspendale and Rob Roy in 1938 aboard a speedway-midget
Lowood Airfield Queensland : Lowood Trophy : June 3, 1956
“Queensland Racing Drivers Club conducted this year’s ‘Lowood Trophy’ meeting in typical Queensland winter sunshine, before a crowd of about 6000. The 2.7-mile circuit was in good condition…34 entries was received, including eight from NSW…” recorded AMS.
Top guns included Arthur Griffiths’ ex-Davison HWM Jaguar, Ken Richardson’s ex-Whiteford Talbot-Lago T26C, Steve Ames aka Count Steve Ouvaroff ex-Davison Alfa Romeo P3, John Aldis’ ex-Whitehead/Jones Cooper T38 Jaguar and Arnold Glass’ Maserati 4CL; it wasn’t a great entry of modern cars.
The 12 lap, 32 miles Lowood Trophy results were as follows:
1.Griffiths HWM Jag 8 points 2. S Mossetter Austin Healey 100S 5 points 3.R Weintraub Healey Silverstone 3 points 4.J Johnson MG TC 2 points
Bathurst : NSW Road Racing Championships : September 30, 1956
A crowd of 8-10,000 people fronted up to cold, blustery conditions for the second traditional Bathurst meeting a year, October fixture.
While Stan Jones was present to sharpen his skills in advance of the Australian Grand Prix two months hence, Lex Davison and Reg Hunt were notable by their absence, ‘preserving the machinery’ or whatever.
Bill Pitt was there in the Geordie Anderson/Westco Motors Jaguar D-Type and Jack Myers in the WM Special, a much-modified (by Myers, a highly skilled Sydney mechanic-cum-engineer) Cooper T20 fitted with a Waggott-Holden twin-cam, two-valve circa 200bhp ‘Grey’ six-cylinder engine.
Handicaps were still prevalent, if not the norm in Australian racing, with the 26 lap NSW Road Racing Championship (Racing Cars) no exception. Jones set a new lap record of 2min 44sec without being hard pushed. While ‘J Archibald’ (who was he?) won the handicap classification in his MG Spl, the scratch results and Gold Star points allocations are as follows:
Fishermans Bend, Melbourne : Astor Trophy : October 14, 1956
You might think the Victorian Contingent would be out in force in advance of the rapidly approaching AGP, but not so. While Hunt, Whiteford, Neal and Gray were present, Davison and Jones were AWOL.
Then, having satisfied himself that his 250F was all tickety-boo in a 5-lapper, Reg Hunt didn’t take the start of the start of the 24-lap, 52.8-mile Astor Trophy feature.
While Kevin Neal’s Maserati A6GCM/250 was a far quicker car than Doug Whiteford’s – relatively new to him, but geriatric – Talbot-Lago T26C, there was no way Neal was going to beat the aggressive, cagey, vastly experienced triple AGP winner! Ted Gray and Owen Bailey were/are the other recipients of Gold Star points aboard Tornado 2 Ford and ex-Whiteford Talbot-Lago T26C respectively: third and fourth placings.
“Tell him, he’s dreamin…’ Count Stephen Ouvaroff aka Steve Ames offers his ex-Scuderia Ferrari/Davison Alfa Romeo P3 chassis #50003 for sale, £895 is the ask. In 2024 dollars that is $A32,700, the value of a P3 is, however, in the ‘your guess is as good as mine’ categoryMoss Mastery – high speed drift at Albert Park, Maserati 250F, AGP December 1956
1956 Australian Grand Prix : Albert Park : December 2, 1956
120,000 people watched 22 starters contest the ’56 AGP held in the afterglow of Melbourne’s staggeringly successful Olympic Games.
Furriners included a five-car squad from Officine Maserati: three 250Fs and a pair of 300S (sportscars for the Australian Tourist Trophy contested and won by Moss from Behra the week before) for works drivers Stirling Moss and Jean Behra, while Peter Whitehead and Reg Parnell raced their 3.4-litre Ferrari 555s.
Moss disappeared into the distance, winning the 80-lap 250-miles race in 2hr 36min 15.4sec, over two minutes ahead of Behra, then came Peter Whitehead.
The battle-within-the-battle was a local Melbourne Holden Dealer Derby – Davo’s farming and shoe making interests duly noted – between the 250Fs of Reg Hunt and Stan Jones, and Lex Davison’s Ferrari 500/625.
Graham Howard points out in his 1956 chapter of the ‘History of The Australian Grand Prix’ that “It was to be, surprisingly, the first encounter of the Hunt and Jones’ 250Fs, and Davison – at that stage the only driver to beat the Hunt 250F – was also there in his Ferrari.”
“Hunt and Jones had, to be strictly correct, lined up against each other the weekend before, in a short sprint race in the supporting program to the Tourist Trophy, but it had been inconclusive. With Hunt on pole position and Jones right beside him, the race had an explosive start as Jones – ‘jockeying for position’, as AMS discreetly termed it – hit the kerb and then a tree on Hunt’s side of the course within a hundred metres of the start. The car was fortunately not too badly damaged and was ready for the AGP the following weekend.”
At the start of the Grand Prix, Moss led from Behra, the Whitehead and Parnell Ferrari Super Squalo’s, then the Trident Trio: Hunt, Neal and Jones. Davison was slowed by engine maladies.
By lap 5 Jones was behind Hunt, and after two fast laps, passed him, where he stayed – with Hunt pacing himself behind – for 35 laps, “With both driving with a concentrated ferocity, which was almost tangible – no errors, no let- up, certainly no smiles.”
When Stan’s Maserati started to blow smoke from under the bonnet, he eased on lap 40, gifting his place to Hunt. Post-race the problem was disclosed as a broken breather.
The Gold Star points go to the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth placed local finishers:
Reg Smith competing at Templestowe hillclimb outside Melbourne in May 1956. His Cooper T40 Bristol was Jack’s ’55 British GP car and AGP winner. He can’t have been enamoured of the Cooper, replacing it with one of Officine Maserati 300S sold at the end of the ’56 AGP weekend
Gold Star Championship Points and Observations…
Drum roll…the winner of the 1956 Australian Gold Star Faux Championship is Reg Hunt, Maserati 250F, with 40 points, well clear of Kevin Neal’s 21 points gained with Cooper T23 Bristol and Maserati A6GCM/250, then Stan Jones, third on 18 points in his new 250F. Fourth was Whiteford, Talbot-Lago T26C 15 points, then the Davison Ferrari 500/625 on 13 points with Bib Stillwell sixth, on 11.
What does it all prove? Absolutely sweet-f-all, but I enjoyed it, which is all that really matters here.
I wish I could show you a neato little points chart or a spreadsheet of results for the year but I don’t know how to do those, so this hand-job will have to do, a remedy with which many of you will be familiar. Since publishing this, Stuart Murray – bless him – has done the vastly better spreadsheet which appears further below.
In my mind I’ve long thought Reg Hunt was the rock-star in 1955-56 aided and abetted by having The Best Equipment in the country in those two years by far. I’ve not done this exercise for 1955 yet to further prove the point, I’ll get around to it some time.
Having ‘came, saw, and conquered’, Reg retired from racing at the end of the season, aged only 33, to focus on his family and in building a staggeringly successful motor-dealership empire centred on his ‘Golden Mile of Cars’ in Brighton, Melbourne. He returned to historic racing in the 1980s with a Maserati 300S and Talbot-Lago T26C and died just shy of 100 on August 22, 2022.
Fellow Melbourne motor trader and later four-time Gold Star champ, Bib Stillwell bought the Hunt 250F (chassis #2616) but couldn’t resist the temptation of a factory freshen-up, so didn’t see it for the best part of 12 months. It’s a long boat ride between Port Melbourne and Genoa and back, and Maserati had bigger fish-to-fry, not least a World Championship to win with JM Fangio at the wheel of factory 250F’s.
At the end of ’56 the stage was set, the key players in 1957 seemed likely to be Jones, Davison and Gray with a tight contest likely given all three were well-funded ‘pro-outfits’ by Australian standards of the day. In the end Davo’s Ferrari 500/625 crushed the opposition with five Gold Star wins in nine rounds, a story for another time…
Credits…
Australian Motor Sports all 1956 issues, ‘Bathurst: The Cradle of Australian Motor Racing’ John Medley, ‘The History of The Australian Grand Prix’ edited by Graham Howard, ‘A History of Australian Grand Prix 1928-1939’ John Blanden, VSCC Victoria Collection, David Meale-Collections Victoria, gnooblas.com, Paul Cummins/Cummins Archive, Stuart Murray
Tailpiece…
(Cummins Archive)
Champions cockpit…the 1958 one’s actually – Stan Jones’ Maserati 250F chassis #2520, not Hunt’s #2516.
Paul Cummins wrote, “On the back of the photo it reads – this is the cockpit of Victorian racing driver Stan Jones’ new 2 1/2 litre ‘250F’ model Maserati which he has just imported from Italy. When that revolution counter shows 7800rpm his engine is developing 270hp giving a speed in excess of 165mph. It is expected to be the fastest car in Australia. It cost £7,200, but with freight cost and spare parts (including a 3-litre 300S engine), the actual landed cost is expected to be nearly £12,000.”
“The Maserati which will be using Mobilgas Racing Fuel and Mobiloil exclusively was built in October last year (1955) and taken to South America for the Argentine Grand Prix Season, but it was never raced. Stan Jones will race it for the first time at Port Wakefield South Australia on 4 June.”
Veglia instruments, right-hand shift for the 5-speed transaxle, note the far-left clutch location given Stan sits astride the driveline tunnel – Jones has clearly specified a ‘conventional’ right-hand throttle and central brake setup.
Finally, while Maserati’s bullshit story to Stan may have been that #2520 was a new car, in fact it was slightly shop-soiled. It had been raced as a works-car by Froilan Gonzalez at Buenos Aires on 22 January 1956 (DNF) and by Pablo Guile at Mendoza on February 5 (eighth).
The nose of the car as landed in Australia in the earlier arrival photographs rather suggests the car was shipped straight from South America rather than via the Modena paint-shop. What is in no doubt is that 250F #2520 has one of the simplest, most straight-forward histories of all Maserati 250F’s, so too does #2516 for that matter.
John Crouch plunges downhill on the Albury-Wirlinga road course – ‘on the border’ of Victoria and New South Wales – aboard his Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Le Mans during the June 12/13, 1939 Albury and Interstate Gold Cup meeting.
Australian racer/entrepreneur John Snow imported this car to Australia in 1938, John Crouch acquired it shortly after it was offloaded in the Port of Sydney.
John Crouch aboard the booming 8C 2300 LM during the 1939 Australian Grand Prix at very fast, undulating Lobethal, South Australia (B King Collection)#2311202 during scrutineering at Le Mans in 1933 (Alfa Romeo Archives via Simon Moore)
8C2300 Le Mans chassis #2311202 was one of nine cars built to this specification, five of these long-wheelbase machines with Touring bodies were built in 1933, ‘our car’ was the second of these and was registered by Alfa Romeo on June 6, 1933 MI43972.
Simon Moore wrote in ‘The Legendary 2.3’ that “We will never be 100% sure, but I think it is really almost certain that this (2311202) was the Chiron (1933) Le Mans car,” raced by Louis Chiron and Franco Cortese …” The car ran amongst the leaders until after dawn, leading on several occasions before Cortese lost control and crashed the car in the Esses after completing 177 laps/2388km; the winning Sommer/Nuvolari 8C 2300 MM covered 3144km.
These straight-eight, supercharged, 2336cc, circa 165bhp Alfas are Le Mans royalty, winning the 24-Hour classic four years on the trot: 1931 Lord Howe/Tim Birkin 8C 2300 LM, 1932 Raymond Sommer/ Luigi Chinetti 8C 2300 LM, 1933 Raymond Sommer/Tazio Nuvolari 8C 2300 MM and 1934 Luigi Chinetti/Philippe Etancelin 8C 2300.
2311202 was third in the 1933 Tourist Trophy at Ards in the hands of Tim Rose-Richards and was later owned by Peter Mitchell-Thompson – Lord Selsdon.
#2311202 at Le Mans in 1933 Louis Chiron/Franco Cortese DNF accident, also shot below (MotorSport)(MotorSport)
John Medley wrote in his ‘John Snow: Classic Motor Racer’ that Aussie racer/entrepreneur Snow brought a large number of cars acquired in Europe to Australia in the immediate pre-war years, single-handedly improving the quality of our grids in the process. This Alfa Romeo was one of them, its shipmates were a Hudson convertible phaeton, 5-litre Bugatti Type 46 sedan and a Delahaye 135CS sports-racer (#47190) for Snow’s own use.
He then shipped the car via coastal steamer to Port Adelaide and entered the 1939 Australian Grand Prix held at Lobethal in the Adelaide Hills on January 2. He was seventh in the race won in celebrated fashion by West Australian, Allan Tomlinson’s MG TA Spl s/c. Most of the big cars had tyre troubles in the extreme heat that day, Crouch had an off or two for this reason. He was a fast driver, but his pace with a still unfamiliar car wasn’t going to win him the race that weekend.
Other strong placings pre-war included fourth in the April 1939 New South Wales GP/150 Miles Road Race at Bathurst, and third fastest in a hillclimb and flying quarter-mile event at Mount Panorama in June. He was seventh in the NSW Road Race at Bathurst in October, a period in which he mixed his road racing with speedway events aboard a 4WD Skirrow.
Into 1940, with events getting a bit skinnier as the War impacted, he was fifth in the 150-miler at Easter Bathurst, and at Albury-Wirlinga in June he was second and again set the fastest time of the race.
While clearly a very potent racing car, John Crouch regularly used it around town (rego’ EO772), having the machine maintained by Jack Saywell and John Snow’s Monza Motors emporium-of-speed in East Sydney.
Tom Lancey checks his MG TA’s mirrors before being eaten by John Crouch and passenger and Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 during the 150 mile race at Bathurst during Easter 1939 (Terry McGrath via Simon Moore)Alfa Romeo 8C2300 cutaway (R Roux)Crouch, again at Lobethal in 1939 (B King Collection)
Victorian Colin Scott bought it in 1944 and had it fettled by Alf Barrett’s mechanic, Alan Ashton and his team at AF Hollins & Co in High Street, Armadale. Barrett and his 8C 2300 Monza were the fastest combination in Australia in the immediate pre and post-war periods. Scott was a frequent class winner at Rob Roy hill climb and a regular Vintage Sports Car Club competitor.
In 1949 #2311202 was bought by racer/pilot/dealer John Barraclough who onsold it to Tom Luxton. He raced and hillclimbed it, sometimes using the pseudonym James McEwan; McEwans was the family company, a 140 year old, national, retail hardware-store chain that was ultimately swallowed by Bunnings in the 1990s.
Howard Kiel owned the car next. Simon Moore wrote that Kiel was introduced to Louis Chiron at London’s Swallow Club by Tony Gaze. Chiron confirmed the car was French blue at Le Mans and “remembered it well and exalted its performance.”
Owner impressions are gold, Simon published Kiel’s impressions of the 8C 2300 outlined in an exchange of letters between the pair. “I well remember 2311202 as one of the most beautiful cars to drive. In fact I often drove it to work on the outskirts of Melbourne and raced Tony Gaze back to town many times. Through the streets the car was had to beat and exhilarating to drive. I sold the car when it became apparent it needed a comprehensive restoration.”
The next owner, Tom Roberts took great care of the car between 1958 and 1963 after which it joined the mouth-watering Doug and John Jarvis collection of 8C Alfas in Adelaide.
Australian Alfa Romeo owner/historian David Wright wrote in the February 2023 issue of Alfa Occidentale that “Doug Jarvis was particularly enamoured with this car and drove it at Mallala on several occasions. Following the death of Doug Jarvis, the 8C 2300 Le Mans was used regularly by his son, John, until, in 1975, it was acquired from the Jarvis Estate by Lance Dixon.”
(Reid Family)
Dixon, a successful Melbourne motor dealer and enthusiast reintroduced the car to VSCC events. Here Lance is taking then Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Fraser – a very tall bloke for a polly – for some quick laps in the car at a Sandown meeting in 1977.
In 1982 Lance’s restoration team, led by Ian Ruffley, were commissioned to comprehensively rebuild the car in Dixon’s Eltham workshop. The colour reverted to its original French blue, having been red for its entire life in Australia. #2311202 was sold via auction in 1986 to a Dutch enthusiast who continues to actively campaign it.
Nice close up profile shot of John Crouch in the 8C 2300 during the Easter 1939 Bathurst 150 meeting. The car lost its best years of racing in Australia thanks to the war, not that #2311202 was alone in that respect, far from it…(F Pearse)
A Driven Man and Driving Force Behind Motor Sports…
Is the title of the late Barry Lake’s obituary of John Crouch – 15/8/1918-30/5/2004 – published in the Sydney Morning Herald on June 17, 2004. Lake was a talented racer, journalist, historian and publisher; his beautifully written tribute is reproduced in full.
In the 1930s John Crouch was widely known as Australia’s youngest racing driver. In 1949 he won the Australian Grand Prix driving a French Delahaye. Even before his retirement from active racing in the mid-1950s, Crouch was heavily involved in the administration of motor sport in this country. By the time he died, at 85, he was recognised by many as the elder statesman of Australian motor sport.
Throughout all of these achievements, Crouch was the consummate gentleman, always immaculately dressed, always driving a late-model performance car (usually Mercedes-Benz in his later years) and always he was polite and softly spoken.
His father, Cecil, had his own new car sales company for 10 years before John was born in 1918, and the elder Crouch dabbled in motor sport when he raced a Metz car at Victoria Park racecourse in Sydney.
After leaving Sydney Church of England Grammar School (Shore), to which he walked every day from the family home in Wollstonecraft, Crouch went to work for his father. So it was hardly surprising he developed a keen interest in cars and motor racing – although his father strongly opposed the latter, having realised it consumed vast amounts of money.
Crouch began racing an MG TA sports car when barely 18. Two years later, he finished fifth in the 1938 Australian Grand Prix at Bathurst. In the late 1930s he drove a wide variety of cars including a supercharged Alvis, a Fronty-Ford, a Skirrow four-wheel drive speedway car, and an ex-Louis Chiron Le Mans Alfa Romeo 8C 2300.
With the Alfa, Crouch set fastest time in the Albury and Interstate Gold Cup races on the Wirlinga road circuit in 1939 and 1940, along with a third place and two fifth places on corrected times in the last three major events held at Bathurst before World War II.
After the war, Crouch left his father to start his own business. “I wanted to buy and sell performance cars but my father was never interested in them,” he once said.
He imported cars from England, including the high-class Bristol and the inexpensive but loads-of-fun Dellow sports car, as well as many new and used examples of exciting sports cars. In 1953 he gained the Australian distributorship for Austin-Healey sports cars, when the local Austin distributors rejected it as a folly. Crouch described it as a bonanza that sold beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.
The grid of the 1947 NSW Championship, Nowra airfield, June 16. #5 Jack Murray Mackellar-Bugatti Ford s/c, then #3 John Crouch Delahaye 135CS, #14 Alec Mildren Ford V8 Spl, #4 Frank Kleinig, Kleinig Hudson Spl and Alf Barrett, Alfa 8C2300 Monza. The handicap race was won by Tom Lancey’s MG TC, Crouch was eighth (J Hunter)
Immediately after World War II Crouch had bought a fast and reliable French Delahaye sports-racing car. It had a fastest race time at Bathurst to its credit, and Crouch scored second-fastest there with it in 1946.
But the one race to win then, as the Bathurst 1000 is today, for Australian drivers was the Australian Grand Prix. In 1948 the event was held at Point Cook in Victoria in blazing heat. The Delahaye scored third-fastest time but the handicap start resulted in his finishing only eighth.
The following year the race went to Queensland, on a wartime airstrip at Leyburn. Also for the first time, it was run from a scratch start, as is the case for today’s major events. Crouch was ready to pounce when the early pacesetter faltered. The blue Delahaye crossed the line a clear winner and John Crouch had achieved his life’s ambition.
In the early 1950s Crouch began to import and sell small, lightweight rear-engine Cooper racing cars. He sold the Delahaye and raced Coopers to promote them. He was ahead of his time. By the end of the decade Coopers were dominating Australian racing as they were the world championship. In Crouch’s time, however, they were fast but unreliable. In 1951, for example, Crouch’s Cooper set fastest race lap in the Australian GP, but retired with mechanical problems. In retrospect, he sold the Delahaye, had he kept it, would have been capable of winning the GP again in 1950 and 1951.
In 1953 Crouch sold a more modern, faster and more reliable Cooper-Bristol to Tom Brabham, for his son, Jack. The latter made his name in that car and went on to win world championships in 1959, 1960 and 1966.
Crouch’s final outings as a driver were in the Redex Round Australia Trials in 1953 and 1954, and the 24-Hour Race at Mount Druitt in 1954. He had planned to race in Europe before quitting the sport, but ran into financial difficulties when he expanded into importing tyres and tractors.
He retired from racing, closed his business and used his remaining resources to buy land and build apartment blocks in suburbs such as Dee Why. “Real estate was going so well at that time,” he said, many years later, “Any idiot could make money out of it.” He was comfortably well-off by the time the bust came in the 1970s – unlike many of his friends, who, he said, “had borrowed to the hilt and lost everything”.
Crouch had been the NSW state councillor for the then newly formed Confederation of Australian Motor Sports in 1953 and continued in various capacities with this organisation for many years, receiving awards for his contributions to motor sport. He also acted as clerk of course at a number of major events.
Crouch had two sons, John and David, with his first wife, Vivian. They eventually divorced, but remained good friends. Crouch’s second wife, Valerie, died in 1995. They had two daughters, Caressa and Penelope.
Crouch was reluctant to marry again, fearing a third would brand him a “womaniser”, but eventually he met June, whose lust for living a full life matched his own. They married and spent much of Crouch’s final few years travelling in South-East Asia and Europe, as well as attending various motor sport functions in Australia as honoured guests. That came to an end when Crouch suffered circulation problems that led to a series of strokes and heart attacks. He died in a hospital in Gosford.
Etcetera…
Sydney Morning Herald June 13, 1939(Motorsport)
Another shot of Louis Chiron or Franco Cortese at Le Mans in 1933 aboard #2311202.
(S Dalton Collection)
Credits…
Max Dupain-SLNSW, ‘John Snow: Classic Motor Racer’ and Bathurst: Cradle of Australian Motor Racing’ by John Medley, ‘The Legendary 2.3’ Simon Moore via the Bob king Collection, Robert Roux, MotorSport Images, Reid Family Collection, John Hunter Collection, Fred Pearse, Sydney Morning Herald – Barry Lake, Stephen Dalton Collection
primotipo... 