Lance Reventlow front and centre with foot on the tyre. Scarab, Monaco 1960
Timing is everything in life, innit-like?
Love the Aston Martin DBR4 and Scarab as I do, they both missed the boat as new front-engined racing cars in the brave-new mid-engined GP world.
Lance Reventlow’s Scarabs really were crazy brave, but I guess you can be so, when money is no object. The Scarabs were beautifully designed, built and finished.
What is not to like about the slinky body, spaceframe chassis, bespoke four-cylinder 2.5-litre, desmodromic-valved, fuel-injected engine and four-wheel discs? The Corvette four-speed gearbox was a bit butch and last-minute in a GP car. See here for a piece on Scarab; https://primotipo.com/2016/01/27/chucks-t-bird/ This article is pictorial, making use of some great shots which have lobbed on the internet thingy recently.
Reventlow, and Daigh behind during Monaco practice. Cooper T51 Climax is Roy Salvadori in Tommy Atkins’ car, DNFReventlow about to be swallowed by Innes Ireland’s Walker-Lotus 18 Climax. The sheer economy of the Lotus says it all in terms of the front-engined-packaging-challenge. Arguably the Lotus 16 did this best albeit its results don’t suggest that…Scarab 2.5-litre, DOHC, desmo two-valve fuel-injected four. Note canting to keep the bonnet line low
Had Reventlow and team-driver Chuck Daigh lobbed on the Monaco GP grid in May 1958, rather than 1960, things may have been a bit different. Still, the team were there adding welcome variety.
The degree of difficulty couldn’t be higher. New car, new team, two drivers who had not raced at Monaco before – or contested a championship GP for that matter.
Colin Chapman, late to the mid-engined party himself, had upped the ante with his new Lotus 18, taking the Coopers-concept and running with it.
The 18 was the car of 1960, only it’s ‘Queerbox’ transaxle let it down. John Cooper’s/Owen Maddock’s/Jack Brabham’s ‘Lowline’ Cooper T53 wasn’t too shabby either. It was a much more reliable device than the Lotus, not the least of its improvements was the Cooper-Knight C5S transaxle. Wouldn’t ole-Chappers have liked to have gotten his hands on a couple of those!
Reventlow with a bit of push, as the Americans like to call understeer. A bit of Phil Hill’s Ferrari Dino 246 following The boss gets his hands dirty, Reventlow attacks the front suspension. Photos show plenty of understeer, perhaps that is the focus. Upper and lower front wishbonesMoss readies himself for a run in Reventlow’s chassis. Note Goodyear tyre and Halibrand wheel. IRS by upper and lower wishbones. Lance watches with paternal interest from alongside Daigh’s car. Quality of workmanship and finish clear
It was no surprise that the Scarabs were slugs.
“Just to see if it was the cars or drivers, Reventlow let Moss try one. He did 1min 45sec, which equalled Jimmy Clark’s time with the Lotus 18 FJunior, so the answer to the Scarab trouble was cars and drivers. However, there were other factors, such as first time out, first attempt at anything so exacting as Monaco, and the simple fact that their Goodyear tyres are not as good as the Dunlops tyres”, Denis Jenkinson wrote in his Monaco GP race-report.
Moss’ pole in the Rob Walker Lotus 18 was 1min 36.3sec.
Jenkinson mused about what may have been possible, “A set of Dunlops would certainly have given Moss 1min 43sec. If it had been his own car and fitted him properly he would have done 1min 42sec, and if he had been trying he would have got down to 1min 41sec, and if starting money had been involved he would have got down to 1min 40sec, which would have been a reasonable time for a new car to new conditions.”
Moss won the 100 lap, 314km race in 2:53.45 in his Lotus 18 from the similarly 2.5-Climax FPF powered Cooper T53 of Bruce McLaren with the best of the front-engines, Phil Hill’s Ferrari 246. The Scarabs didn’t make the qualifying cut, together with six others.
Reventlow from the Brian Naylor’s JBW-Maserati 250S during practice, both DNQ
Etcetera…
Reventlow, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at Monaco 1960. Man, didn’t he give it – sportscars and single-seaters – a red-hot go!
After Monaco, Scarab entered the Dutch GP in the Zandvoort dunes but didn’t race after a start-money dispute.
A pity as the fast flowing course would have given the team a better chance to optimise the car’s suspension before the flat-out challenges of Spa where lack of punch was always going to be problematic.
Chuck Daigh gives Jo Bonnier a lift back to the Spa pitsDaigh pushing hard thru Eau Rouge, hiking the inside-right
Reventlow qualified sixteenth and Daigh eighteenth (of 19) but both were out with engine problems after one lap and 16 laps respectively. Brabham’s Cooper T53 won the most-gruesome of GPs.
The final appearance of the Scarab in 1960 was at home in California, the US Grand Prix at Riverside in November.
There, finally, Chuck Daigh finished in tenth place, albeit five laps adrift of the winning Moss Lotus 18.
The last Scarab European hurrah were races at Silverstone, and here in a Goodwood Intercontinental Formula race in April 1961.
Daigh started his Offy powered chassis, 01, last on a grid of nine, finishing the 20-lap Lavant Cup eighth. Moss won in a Walker Cooper T53 Climax.
Daigh, Scarab- Offy 3-litre, Goodwood, April 1961
Wonderful colour butt-shot of the two Scarabs in the Spa paddock – #30 is Daigh – during the 1960 Ardennes Forest carnival of speed.
Note the offset to allow the driveshaft to pass alongside the driver’s left to keep his bulk nice and low.
Rear mounted fuel tank, big-comfy cockpit and beefy roll-bar for the period. The Scarab pilots wore a seat-belt.
Credits…
Don Orosco Collection, Denis Jenkinson in MotorSport
Tailpiece…
Daigh, Spa 1960
Chuck Daigh, Spa 1960. He did enough to be given some opportunities in a more current car.
In Australia he raced the mid-engined Scarab RE Oldsmobile in the 1962 Sandown International, impressing all who watched his professionalism amongst the Reventlow/Jill St John sideshow with which the local press were fixated.
Eric Thompson’s works Aston Martin DB3S rounds a right-hander on the Dundrod 7.4 mile road course in Ireland. September 5, 1953 Tourist Trophy…
The new DB3S had a good day out. The Pat Griffith/Peter Collins and Reg Parnell/Eric Thompson machines finished first and second from the Stirling Moss/Peter Walker Jaguar C-Type in third- to make the Feltham marque’s dominance complete the customer DB3’s of Graham Whitehead/Tony Gaze and Robert Dickson/Desmond Titterington were fourth and fifth.
The winner’s time for the 111 lap, round six of the World Sportscar Championship was just over 9 hours and 37 minutes.
Kevin Bartlett, Lola T300 leads the Angus & Coote Trophy from John McCormack, Elfin MR5 Repco-Holden, Oran Park 1972…
Allan Horsley, the promoter of Oran Park Raceway in Sydney’s outer west, was an energetic, creative guy. Even though this event wasn’t a Gold Star Championship round, he attracted a good field of F5000s to drag in the punters, the Angus & Coote Trophy was provided by a retail chain of jewellers.
The 500bhp V8 roller-skates were spectacular at the (then) short circuit, with Lynton Hemer there to capture the action, his wonderful photos are the inspiration for this article.
Interesting bunch of three Elfin MR5 Repco shots, this one of John Walker with the just visible Max Stewart up his clacker and Garrie Cooper’s works MR5 at rear. Four MR5’s were built, the Ansett Team Elfin cars of Cooper and McCormack and customer cars for Walker and Stewart, all were built to identical specifications fitted with Repco Holden F5000 engines. Walker’s car has the aero as the cars were first built, the Cooper and McCormack (shot below) cars have the ‘Tyrrell nose’ first fitted from the ’72 Warwick Farm Tasman round. Garrie has an airbox fitted, Mac does not. JW, an Elfin man through and through didn’t race the MR5 for long though, he jumped into an A50 Matich which complied with the American regss – the Elfin did not- John did some L&M rounds in the A50. Walker, Matich, Muir, Stewart and Bartlett all competed in the US in 1973 (L Hemer)McCormack from Muir’s T300. J Mac got quicker and quicker didn’t he? Of the four MR5s, this chassis 5711 was the most successful- ’73 Gold Star and NZ GP win etc. It was a triumph of driving and Mac and Dale Koenneke’s development of what was not the most advanced F5000 design. Mac was further up the Repco queue once Matich retired (L Hemer)Walkers MR5 5724 note aero comments above. Blade front wing, Walker developed into a very fast F5000 pilot- ’79 AGP and Gold Star winner, the difference in him pre ’73 L&M and post was significant. Confidence is such a big thing! (L Hemer)
With the exception of Frank Matich and his Matich A50 Repco, Lynton has many fine, close-up shots of the Australian F5000 Class of 1972 – I wonder why FM wasn’t present, he was a Sydney boy after all? The answer is probably that he didn’t bother with this non-championship event on May 21, given the Belle Magazine Trophy Gold Star round was only a month hence, here in June.
By then he was on the way to comprehensively belting the Gold Star opposition – he won at Sandown, Oran Park, Surfers Paradise and Warwick Farm – with Kevin Bartlett winning at Adelaide International in his Lola T300, and John McCormack at Symmons Plains aboard his MR5. FM won the Gold Star with 36 points from Bartlett and McCormack on 24 and 20 points respectively.
John McCormack (above) led from the start of the 25-lap event from Kevin Bartlett and Gary Campbell in Lola T300 Chevs. KB’s was a new chassis (HU16) acquired after the Tasman Series, in which he raced his venerable ex-Niel Allen McLaren M10B.
Gary Campbell, ex-Gardner first production T300 HU1 (L Hemer)
Gary Campbell (above) stepped up from the Waggott 2-litre engined ANF2 Elfin 600B/E he raced in the Australian 1972 Tasman rounds into the T300 (HU1) Frank Gardner raced in the Tasman, Campbell took delivery from the final, Adelaide round.
Gardner had notionally retired from single-seater racing but did an event or two in the UK later in 1972 as he track tested the very first Lola T330 HU1, a car purchased by Max Stewart and oh-so-successful in his hands.
Interesting side profile shot of Bob Muir’s T300 accentuates the relative ride height of the T300 with the T330/2 which followed. The presentation of this car had to be seen to be believed. The T300s were always set up with plenty of ride height, as you can see here, Kevin Bartlett observed “It was to do with the wishbone angles, roll centre, etc. The cars were usually set up very soft as the old F2 tub flexed a lot into the bargain. You could feel the strain when the grip was at its best, which wasn’t too often” (L Hemer)
Bartlett passed McCormack for the lead on lap three, with Muir passing Campbell on the same lap.
Muir became a very fast exponent of F5000, perhaps his best work was in the ’73 L&M rather than at home. Bob’s Reg Papps & Sons prepared T300 – chassis HU4 ex-Niel Allen – after a practice crash ended Allen’s planned racing comeback, was easily one of the most beautifully presented and prepared racing cars in Australia, visually stunning, I waxed lyrical about it here; https://primotipo.com/2014/11/18/my-first-race-meeting-sandown-tasman-f5000-1972-bartlett-lola-and-raquel/
Muir and KB sluggin it out (L Hemer)
Muir passed Bartlett (above) and ran out the winner from Kevin, John Walker’s Elfin MR5 Repco and Gary Campbell with KB setting a new lap record of 40.2 seconds.
In many ways the story of Australian 1972 F5000 racing, the championship Gold Star Series and non-championship Calder based Repco Birthday Series (fiftieth birthday by the way) was FM’s absolute preparedness for the season.
His Matich A50, so named in honour of sponsor, Repco’s fiftieth, had won on debut at Warwick Farm’s November 1971 AGP, but then had a disappointing Tasman Series, which he lost to arch-rival Graham McRae’s Leda LT27/GM1 Chev, Graham took four wins to FM’s one.
Frank Matich, Matich A50 Repco from John McCormack’s Elfin MR5 Repco at Surfers Paradise during the 1972 Tasman round, 3rd and DNF in the race won by McRae’s Leda GM1 Chev. Matich won the ’72 Gold Star in the same chassis- A50 ‘001’ (unattributed)
However, Matich was well and truly ready-to-rock at the domestic season’s outset with a very well developed car. Bartlett and Muir were more than capable of giving their fellow Sydneysider a run for his money, but neither had their T300s early enough to have them honed to the fine pitch Matich had A50 ‘001’.
I suspect Matich did more test miles at Warwick Farm, paid for by Goodyear – he was both a contracted driver and their agent in Australia – than the rest of his fellow F5000 competitors added together. His 1972 results reflected just that.
( L Hemer)
I wonder why Max Stewart (above) raced ye-olde-faithful Mildren Waggott, his ’71 Gold Star winner rather than the Elfin MR5 Repco he had run since the ’72 Tasman?
Maybe the distinctive yellow MR5 wasn’t ready or ‘praps he wanted to give the Mildren Waggott a gallop to showcase its potential to would-be purchasers, Allan Grice bought it shortly thereafter. Maybe he was inspired to do so by Max’s performance at this meeting? In any event this amazing, popular machine was finally outpaced by the post-McLaren M10B series of smaller, lighter F5000’s despite the efforts of its oh-so-talented, lanky pilot.
Gardner on the way to Warwick Farm 100 Tasman victory on 14 February 1971. Lola T192 Chev ‘190/F1/6’ or ‘HU14’- note the winglets aside the cars chassis. WF Esses, car following probably the Matich M10B Repco, brave ‘snapper is Lance Ruting. Car stayed in Oz- sold to Colin Hyams, then to US in 1972 (J Ellacott)
There are so many shots of the utterly-luvverly Lola T300 in this article it seems smart to expand a bit upon this seminal F5000 machine…
The Lola T190 F5000 wasn’t Lola’s best design but Frank Gardner evolved it into the longer wheelbase, and modified in many other areas T192, and won plenty of races in it in Europe and Australasia.
The car was far from uncompetitive into 1971 too. FG won at Warwick Farm during the Tasman Series, and European F5000 championship races at Silverstone, Mondello Park and Castle Combe. The old racer ran with and beat youngsters such as Brian Redman, Mike Hailwood, McRae and Allan Rollinson.
But the laconic racer/engineer wanted something smaller and lighter to stay ahead of the chasing pack, including the new McLaren M18/22, Surtees TS8 and coming Leda GM1.
Snetterton, August 30, 1971 (J Ballantyne)
In a moment of wham-bam-thankyou-maam pragmatic inspiration, Gardner and Lola Engineer, Bob Marston, married the existing Lola T240 F2/Atlanic chassis with a 5-litre Chev and DG300 Hewland transaxle. The production variant of the prototype became the T300 we F5000 nut-bags know and love. After some testing, the prototype T242 made its race debut at Thruxton on August 1, 1971.
FG plonked it on pole and finished third behind McRae’s highly developed McLaren M10B, and Hailwood’s works Surtees TS8. It was a statement of intent, the cars performance and looks were the subject of all the paddock chatter that weekend. The queue at Huntingdon started the morning after.
T242 was renamed T300 from the following Silverstone round on August 14, Gardner was again behind Hailwood, this time in second position.
This chassis was destroyed in an argument over real-estate that very weekend between Gardner, and Redman’s M18 McLaren on lap eight. The T242/300 was badly damaged, rooted in fact. Sad as that particular Lola was a very significant one for the company and F5000 as a class.
(Pinterest
The key elements of the design, its overall size and packaging, hip-mounted radiators, wedge shape and aerodynamics are all clear despite the poor quality of the drawing.
Autosport proclaims Gardner/Lola’s ’71 Euro F5000 victory
Gardner raced his replacement car, the first production T300, chassis HU1, to its first win at Hockenheim on 12 September, in front of Emerson Fittipaldi’s F1 Lotus 56B Pratt & Whitney turbine and Teddy Pilette’s McLaren M10B Chev. He brought it to Australia late in the year where he boofed it in practice for the Warwick Farm AGP. Repaired, it then contested the ’72 Tasman before sale to Gary Campbell
I hope Eric Broadley paid those two fellas, Gardner and Marston a bonus in 1971 because they created, arguably, the first of the most successful and profitable family of production racing cars ever. Lola built ‘a million’ T300/330/332/332C/332CS/333 cars and spares, those machines won countless F5000 and single-seat Can-Am races in the hands of just as many champions, journeymen and amateur drivers for well over a decade.
(G Ruckert)
The photo above is the business end of Bartlett’s T300 HU16 at Surfers Paradise in 1972, that’s Bartlett’s red driving suit and John Harvey’s purple crutch alongside!
Key elements of the machine are the injected 5-litre 500bhp Chevy V8, note the magneto and fuel metering unit. The rear of the aluminium monocoque chassis is to the right, the car was designed as an F2, it was a bit floppy.
Torsional rigidity was improved with the T330/332 which followed, but these were not machines in which to have a front-in shunt, as Bartlett experienced at Pukekohe aboard his T330 in early 1974. He was an early member of the Lola Limpers Club joining fellow Australasians Graeme Lawrence and Warwick Brown who came to grief in T300’s.
The gearbox is of course the ubiquitous Hewland DG300. Originally designed for ‘effete’ F1 engines, the prodigious torque of 5-litre motors made the ‘box marginal. Sticking to maintenance and lifing cycles of gears, dog rings, crown wheel and pinions was critical to avoid DNFs. The Hewland in yer little namby-pamby Formula Ford (Mk9/LD200) or Formula Pacific (FT200) was set-and-forget to an extent, not so in one of these big, heavy muvvers.
The uprights are magnesium, disc brakes inboard at the rear and suspension period typical – single upper links and inverted lower wishbones, two radius rods – you can see one on the right threading the exhaust system. The adjustable rear roll bar is clear as is the engine oil tank to the right of the left exhaust outlet.
A superb, fast, race winning bit of kit in every respect but nowhere near as forgiving – if that is ever a word to be used in the same sentence as F5000 – as an McLaren M10B KB notes…
Bartlett, Harvey and T300 from the front. Not sure if this is the ’72 Glynn Scott or ’73 Tasman weekend (G Ruckert)
Etcetera: The T300 and it’s father before the 1971 AGP @ Warwick Farm…
This is a pre-race publicity shot by Fairfax media. The only trouble was Frank Gardner boofed HU1 in practice so did not start the race. He would have given Frank Matich a run for his money that day given the speed of the T300 in Europe. But ‘ya gotta be in it to win it’, and FG was not that weekend, despite a stellar record of prior success at the ‘Farm.
The car was rebuilt in Oz around a new tub freighted in from Huntingdon, and raced to an NZGP win at Pukekohe, and three second places during the 1972 Tasman before being sold to Campbell after the Sandown round.
(R Davies)
There’s More…
Speaking of chassis, Robert Davies has superbly captured this rare photo of a nude T300 Chev, it’s the Allen/Muir/Brown ‘HU4’ in the Sandown paddock during 1972.
I won’t repeat the technical summary from above, devoid of bodywork the small light aluminium monocoque and minimal front impact protection is abundantly clear. The only deformable part of a racing car of this period was the body of the driver…
(unattributed)
Far-canal, that really is a mess, it’s the same chassis HU4 shown above. If you thought about the physics involved in a Formula Ford shunt you probably wouldn’t do it, but Jesus the big single-seaters of this period, F1 and F5000 really were lethal devices. Balls of steel to race them springs to mind.
I don’t usually publish shots of rooted racers but this one had a happy ending, and adds some colour and reality to the glib Lola Limper line used earlier on.
Young Australian thruster Warwick Brown graduated from the McLaren M10B Chev with which he cut his F5000 racing teeth in 1972, to the ex-Allen/Muir Lola T300 prior to the 1973 Tasman. Third at Levin and second at Wigram showed his mettle and immediate pace in a competitive car, but it all came undone at Surfers, the first of the Australian Tasman rounds.
His car got away from him on the fast, demanding circuit spreading bits of aluminium and fibreglass over the grassy undulations of the Nerang countryside and broke both Warwick’s legs. He got wide onto the marbles on the entry to the flat-in-fifth right-hander under Dunlop Bridge, and bounced across the grass into the dirt embankment surrounding the circuit.
The light aluminium tub folded back, in the process doing horrible things to Warwick’s feet and lower limbs. He had a very long recovery, made somewhat easier by the promise of a new car from his near-neighbour-patron, mining millionaire Pat Burke. In that T332 – HU27 – he won the 1975 Tasman Series, becoming the only Australian ever to do so.
It’s a story for another time, but WB had another two Lola big-ones in the US in a T332C and T333. If there was a President for Life of the Lola Limpers Club I suspect it was Mr Brown.
The photo above is of WB at Levin only a couple of weeks prior to its Surfers demise. Terry Marshall has captured the Sydneysider nipping a right-front during the 13 January Levin International. Warwick was third behind McRae’s GM1 and Matich’s A50, two of the toughest F5000 nuts.
(unattributed)
Calder in 1972. Bob Jane had no Gold Star round that year but did promote the ‘Repco Birthday Series’ for F5000 and ANF2.
By the look of the clothes of the hardy Victorians it’s winter’ish, Calder in the winter is not a particularly pleasant place usually, I’m figuring the October 15 round with the assistance of oldracingcars.com though.
It looks as though Gary Campbell #4, has made a corker of a start and is seeking a way past KB #5 but then again maybe KB got off like a rocket and and Gary is giving him room as KB jinks right for a way past John McCormack’s Ansett Elfin MR5 Repco. Over by the aptly placed Repco sign is the Repco-Holden F5000 engined Matich A50 #25 of John Walker, perhaps some of you American readers saw JW race this car in several L&M rounds in 1973 so well?
Bartlett won this 30 lapper in a smidge under 21 minutes from Walker and McCormack, then came Stewart, Elfin MR5 Repco and Campbell. Bartlett also won this five round series from Matich and Muir.
L Hemer)
Who would have thought the T300 as a rally car? KB negotiates the Warwick Farm paddock during the famously wet 1973 Warwick Farm 100 Tasman round, Steve Thompson Chevron B24 Chev won that day.
(unattributed)
The angle on the dangle.
And they are all angles, just the wildest looking thing at the time, even the Lotus 72 looked conservative alongside one of these babies. Bartlett on the Calder grid alongside McCormack during the 15 Ocober meeting referred to above.
Photo Credits…
Lynton Hemer, John Ballantyne, oldracephotos.com.au, Graham Ruckert, Terry Marshall, Pinterest, John Ellacott, Fairfax Media
References…
oldracingcars.com, The Nostalgia Forum
Tailpiece: Double T300 Trouble – Muir from Bartlett, Oran Park 1972…
Greg Cusack exits Newry Corner, Scuderia Veloce Brabham BT6 Lotus-Ford Twin-cam, South Pacific Trophy, Longford, 2 March 1964…
Cusack was the second ANF1.5 car home in the Tasman round, Frank Gardner was ten seconds up the road in Alec Mildren’s similar Brabham- it was a good showing and indicative of his pace.
In a successful weekend for Scuderia Veloce, Graham Hill won the Tasman race in the teams Brabham BT4 Climax IC-1-62 which is shown relaxing in the paddock at left alongside Greg’s BT6 FJ-15-63.
And don’t they look pretty, in fact quite a few of you will be salivating about the ‘Rice’ Trailer too, what about the tow car, wotizzit?
Brabhams galore; Brabham’s BT7A, Hill’s winning BT4 and Matich’ third placed BT7A, all Coventry Climax 2.5FPF powered (unattributed)
IC-1-62 is quite a significant car commercially in the Brabham pantheon. It was Ron Tauranac’s first ‘Intercontinental’ (‘IC’) design which was derived from the F1 BT3 Coventry Climax FWMV.
Built for Jack’s 1962 AGP appearance at Caversham, outside Perth – Brabham led until he and Arnold Glass tripped over each other, the fault more Glass’ than Brabham’s- racing it throughout that summer in Australasia before sale to David McKay, and later Kerry Grant in New Zealand, and then later still to John McCormack in Tasmania on his racing ascent. A UK consortium owned it in 2017.
The point is that the Intercontinental BT4, BT7A and BT11A’s were all ripper cars as race winning tools, and important commercially for the nascent Motor Racing Developments Ltd coz they sold plenty of them, it all started with IC-1-62.
The laurel wreath atop the Hill Brabham proves just what a good weekend they had…
Whose red Jaguar? is that on the transporter behind?
Etcetera…
(D Williams)
The boss awaits his driver- David McKay at far right in the Warwick Farm dummy grid area during the 1964 Warwick Farm 100 meeting. Jack Brabham (I think) offers advice.
(unattributed)
Graham Hill had two very happy seasons in Scuderia Veloce Brabham Climaxes. He won one Tasman Cup round in 1964 and 1965. McKay tends to Hill while lanky Spencer Martin stands by the left-rear, Warwick Farm 1964.
Credits…
Historic Racing Car Club of Tasmania, oldracephotos.com, Dennis Williams
Glyn Scott supervises Leo Geoghegan who is about to have a guest steer of Glyn’s P3 at Oran Park in 1968 (Bowin Cars)
When Bowin founder, John Joyce returned to Australia after a four year stint working for Lotus Components, he built this Bowin – P3-101-68 for Glyn Scott.
Scott raced the 1.6-litre Ford FVA engined car from July 1968 until May 1970, he then ran an Elfin 600 until his untimely, sad death. See here for a story on Glyn; https://primotipo.com/2020/07/24/glyn-scott/
This article is intended to be read in conjunction with my feature about Joyce’s early Bowin years including construction of three P3s published in this fortnight’s Auto Action #1810, published May 6-19, 2021. Click here to buy it; https://autoaction.com.au/issues/auto-action-1810
Editor Bruce Williams will pickle my testicles if I cut-his-lunch. This piece uses extra material relating to Bowin #1 we couldn’t fit in the more general 2,000 word AA piece. Much of the information was provided by Adelaide’s Ian Peters who has owned this marvellous car since 1983.
Merv Waggott engines were very successful in 1969. Glyn Scott had seen first-hand just how potent and reliable they were chasing Max Stewart’s 1.6-litre powered Mildren Waggott, so he ordered a 2-litre TC-4V for his new Elfin 600.
He and Norm Mellor removed the ex-Piers Courage Ford FVA #7044 and FT200 Hewland transaxle from the Bowin and installed them in Glyn’s Lotus 23B. The extra 30bhp or so over and above that of the Lotus-Ford twin-cam fitted to the 23B gave that old beast a useful performance kicker.
P3-101-68 was sold as a roller to Edward Scauster of Annerley, Queensland a fortnight before Glyn’s death – and from him to Wayne Newton in Sydney’s Pennant Hills that October 1970.
Rebuilt as an ANF3 car, he raced it for three years before selling to Taren Points John Crouchley, he raced it for a further two years before moving it on to Burwood Auto Electrics – still in Sydney.
They only hung onto it for a couple of months before P3 became a South Australian in October 1975 – it has resided there ever since. D Manfield of Brooklyn Park raced it for a couple of years, then Home Autotune Services in Prospect from March 1978.
When Ian Peters acquired it the car was fitted with one of Brian Sampson’s Motor Improvements prepared Toyota Corolla F3 engines – one of the top-gun choices during the 1.3-litre F3 days.
P3-101-68 in Burwood Auto Electrics ANF guise (I Peters)P3-101-68 in Adelaide as purchased by Peters at auction in 1983 (I Peters)
The car wasn’t butchered too much along the way albeit the bodywork was modernised and a rear wing added in the quest for speed.
The nose looks a bit Cheetah Mk6 but is not, the rear wing in its final yellow livery is Birrana 274.
By then the distinctive four-spoke Bowin mag-alloys were gone but “the quality of the car shone through just looking at the beautifully made aluminium tub” recalls Peters after first spotting it amongst the road cars in Kearns Auctions, Prospect, showrooms.
“There was no interest, it needed a lot of work, I bought it well. I didn’t have much money at the time so it was a great project where I could add some value and learn along the way. I’d been club racing a Lotus Elan and a Seven and wanted to get into a racing car.”
“I pulled it down and worked out what I had. The plan was to restore it as an historic Group O car. CAMS were a bit more accommodating then, I was allowed to build it with a Lotus-Ford twin-cam even though P3-101-68 hadn’t raced as such, but Ian Fergusson’s P3 had.”
“It had a four-speed VW box, the wrong wheels and body. The driveshafts with donuts had been replaced by whoofing-big Hooke-type joints. The suspension was original but brutalised, the rear cast uprights were good – the oil tanks were gone and tough to recreate.”
“I got in touch with John Joyce at Bowins, he was delighted the first Bowin was being made-good. I soon had drawings on the way and a body being made by GS Motor Bodies in Brookvale, who had made them in the day. Magnesium technologies cast some new wheels”
“After Glyn’s death, the Lotus 23B, still with Ford FVA fitted, was sold to Alan Ling and Bruce Gowans in Tasmania for Bruce to drive. They later fitted a Waggott engine, in that deal the FVA was traded to Paul England Engineering in Melbourne. My research ended when I discovered the engine had been fitted in a speedboat which sank, the engine was not recovered!”
“The FT200 gearbox was sold at the same time as the engine – it ended up in one of Peter Turnham’s Turnham sporties in Tasmania.”
“I wanted to fit an FVA but they were hugely expensive, so I gradually began buying bits from about 2007, whenever I saw them advertised or had a lead. I sold the MI Corolla motor and bought the Lotus twin-cam from Bob Holden in Sydney. He claimed it was one of his ex-Bathurst engines and had also been fitted in Peter Hopwood’s race-Elan. The head had Waggott stamped on it, so at some stage Merv ministered to it – it was a good engine. I initially fitted Webers and then mechanical fuel-injection later on.”
“The FT200 box was expensive, there was no easy way out there! By early 1984 I had the car ready to test, first racing it at the Sporting Car Club of South Australia’s Historic meeting at Mallala that Easter.”
P3-101-68 as it is now in Peters’ Adelaide workshop with dummy FVA fitted (I Peters)
“The more I got to know the car and Joyce the more absorbed in all things Bowin I became. Ashley Joyce and I put together the (excellent) Bowin Cars website. Included in the detailed specs of each car section, I added ‘ex-Piers Courage Ford FVA #7044’ in the list. You can imagine my surprise when Perth’s Graham Brown contacted me to say he had the motor! After about twelve months of negotiations I bought the engine.”
“I last raced the P3 in an historic support race during the 1989 Adelaide AGP carnival. I hit the wall when a front upright broke doing enough damage to get Chas Talbot in Melbourne to rebuild the tub.”
“By then I’d decided to progress to an ex-Alan Jones Ralt RT4 Ford BDA Formula Pacific car and then a Reynard 91D Holden Formula Holden. That ex-Birrana Racing machine won me two CAMS Silver Stars in 2003 and 2004. I put it to one side forever ago, but have it for sale at the moment.”
“After that is off my plate I’ll complete the rebuild of the P3 to FVA engined spec. It’s currently fitted with a dummy FVA, but all of the hard work is done so it shouldn’t be too long before it’s all done.”
There was only a tiny number of resident 1.6-litre F2 cars which raced in Australia in period. The only one which was victorious in a Gold Star round was P3-101-68, Glyn triumphed at Sandown in September 1968 on a day the 2.5s fell foul of technical dramas.
This car is a magnificent machine, we Bowin-nutters look forward to its return to the circuits soon.
Look carefully, a Bowin racing car is listed! (I Peters)
Credits...
Many thanks to Ian Peters, Bowin Cars
Tailpiece…
Ian Peters, Reynard 91D #028 Holden circa 2002, circuit unknown (I Peters)
Jochen on a charge, huntin’ his friend Jack Brabham down…
‘Twas a famous victory this one. Jochen wasn’t a happy camper. The brand-spankers Lotus 72 wasn’t fast out of the box. It made its race debut in Spain on April 19 and by Monaco was already in B-spec. Team Lotus got there soon enough mind you, Rindt won in Holland on June 21 in a 72C.
But he wasn’t happy at Monaco.
The Lotus 49 made its race debut at Zandvoort ’67 and even with a few 1970 tweaks; suspension geometry, 72 wings et al, it was an old beast so he started the race from grid 8 in a cruise-and-collect mindset having slept badly on a yacht shared with his manager, Bernie Ecclestone.
Stewart’s March 701 Ford leads Chris Amon’s similar car, Jacky Ickx’ Ferrari 312B and Denny Hulme’s yellow McLaren M14A Ford (Gulay Berryman)
Early in the race; Brabham’s BT33 from JPB’s Matra MS120, Ickx’ Ferrari 312B, Hulme’s McLaren M14A Ford, Rindt’s Lotus 49C Ford and Pescarolo’s Matra MS120 (Automobile Year 18)
Stewart led for the first third of the race, than retired with engine electronics problems, leaving Jack and Chris Amon in positions one and two. Jochen was seventh, but thanks to typical Monaco attrition he moved up the lap charts.
Ickx and Beltoise retired – then the Austrian fired up and passed Pescarolo and Hulme, leaving only Amon and Brabham up the road.
Rindt’s charge is underway. Here #3 Rindt is lining Denny Hulme’s McLaren M14A, behind is Pescarolo’s Matra MS120, Courage’ De Tomaso 505 Ford, Siffert’s March 701 Ford and in the distance Bruce McLaren, McLaren M14A Ford (The Cahier Archive)
Amon retired on lap 61 leaving only Brabham, not too traumatised even with four laps to go, with a lead of nine seconds.
On lap 77 Black-Jack was baulked by Siffert’s March 701, the Swiss was suffering from fuel feed dramas – losing five seconds – Jochen was lapping in 1:23s, Jack 1:24s.
At Tabac Brabham came upon three back-markers, and then into the hairpin on the last lap the struggling Piers Courage – in 1969 he was up-front in one of Tauranac’s BT26 Brabhams, in 1970 aboard the shitbox De Tomaso 505 – Brabham went off-line onto the marbles to pass Piers, applied the brakes and boofed the fence allowing Jochen, shaking his head in disbelief, to pass into the lead.
Brabham soon got his BT33 going to take second from Henri Pescarolo’s Matra MS120 in third.
Brabham with ‘bruised nose’ has recovered and drives to the line, retaining second place. Brabham BT33 Ford (unattributed)
For the first 40 laps of the race Rindt’s average lap time was 1:27, for the last 40 1:24.9, one-second quicker than he qualified.
Mind over matter and the sniff of victory.
(unattributed)
Brabham’s loss of the Monaco GP provided the base upon which Rindt built his 1970 World Championship, albeit tinged in absolute tragedy.
YouTube Last Laps…
Credits…
Gulay Berryman painting, Automobile Year 18, The Cahier Archive
Tailpiece: Even the wiliest and most experienced can have lapses of judgement. Brabham in BT33 Monaco 1970…
In recent times I’ve been writing for a few ‘real magazines’ in addition to my primotipo fix.
It’s been an interesting learning exercise writing to a 2,500-3,000 word limit. That about maxxes things out in print-land, rather than my 5,000-11,000 word (FFS) rambling epics.
I’ve had no formal training in this journo caper as you would have worked out. But in the last couple of years I’ve been beaten into shape a bit by some great mentors/advocates/supporters in Tony Davis, John Smailes and Geoff Harris.
Editors Bruce Williams, Gordon Cruickshank, Jonathan Rishton and Steve Normoyle have been great in giving me a crack, the hardest bit in any new gig is getting a foot in the door.
Funnily enough, the first commission I bagged was with MotorSport- no harm in shooting for the top-end after-all!
Elfin T100 Clisby 1.5-litre V6
The timelines for the international publications are long though, my 7-page piece on the only All-Australian F1 car – the 1965 Elfin T100 Clisby 1.5-litre V6 appeared in the April 2021 issue, I wrote it last June.
It’s long gone from the United Kingdom shelves and probably still a month away from being in-store in Australia, and maybe elsewhere.
Given newsagents are now an endangered species, and that MS is carried by only a tiny number of that endangered species, you might want to buy one online, or even better, subscribe for a year see here; Subscribe to Motor Sport Magazine • All Access from £5/month
Its a ripper piece.
Car owner James Calder, and Clisby Project Engineer Kevin Drage became friends via the lengthy process. KD is the only one of three (together with designer Harold Clisby and machinist Alec Bailey) who built the engine still with us, “On the right side of the turf” as he amusingly puts it. So it’s chockers with first-hand stuff and a swag of photographs never printed before.
The timelines of AA, a 62-70 page news magazine, are much tighter than those of MotorSport or The Automobile. The production process might be of interest to you?
The absolute sub-edited, and approved by editor Williams, deadline is 9pm, every Monday fortnight in Oakleigh, Melbourne- much over that incurs financial penalties from the printer.
The design files go up the cloud-thingy to the printer in Windsor, 60km north-west of Sydney (they were under several metres of Hawkesbury River water a couple of issues ago). They print the magazine in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Pallets of magazines are in the hands of the Liverpool, western Sydney, distribution house before lunch on Tuesday. They go onto trucks heading around this rather large country before the end of the day.
A couple of bundles of the mag are at AA HQ after lunch on Wednesday, and in the shops on the east-coast on Thursday morning – the South Island and the West receive it on Mondays.
I’m writing an historic, newsey column called Chronometric every other issue and features in every issue so keep an eye out- the historic content of Auto Action is now usually no less than 10-pages.
The Automobile is one of many successful magazines founded, or made by Australian automotive publishing giant, Douglas Blain.
My feature in the current, May issue, is about a topic I tripped over by accident.
Harold and Alan Cooper raced Ballots 2LS and 5/8LC in the twenties and thirties at Aspendale and Maroubra and all-points in between. Alan’s life of staggering excess was funded by his much older ‘man-friend’, in the polite yibba-yabba of the day.
It’s an eight-page, never before told story chockers with material and photographs from the archives of my partners in crime; Alistair McArthur, Brian Lear, Bob King, Stephen Dalton, Tony Johns and David Rapley- a team effort indeed.
In most of Australia your chances of buying The Automobile on a news-stand are five-eighths of bugger-all, so you might want to jump online; http://www.theautomobile.co.uk/subscribe/
Alan Cooper, Ballot 4.8-litre straight-eight 5/8LC ‘Indy’ at Maroubra in 1925, not long before it had a high-speed capsize
I can’t believe the paucity of newsagents in this country! While I have had my head up my bum creating content, and not buying too many magazines since 2014, news-agencies have dropped like flies in February. I had not realised how many have closed and how many have halved, or less, their size.
A small sample.
I live in trendo-funko inner-Melbs, Windsor. It’s a great place to live, there are spunk-muffins as far as the eye can see, if you like that sort of thing.
The best Chapel Street can muster is the standard pissant mum and dad pocket-shop size newsagent selling copies of the fascist-daily (Herald-Sun), Womens Weekly, bugger-all-else and a few corn-ball cards.
I’ve got no answers of course, questions are my strong-suit and post-event sagacity is a specialism.
The internet has a lot to answer for. It’s democratised the masses. We can all have our say. Even that primotipo dickhead hops-in-for-his-chop. Everyone expects everything for free.
For gods-sake support a couple of magazines, it doesn’t have to be the ones above, but buy a couple you like, coz if you don’t, very soon they won’t be there. Like newsagents.
c’mon Alec won’t even notice, our helmets are much the same. Its gotta be quicker with that Eyetalian V8- lookout ‘yerv fried the left front though FG…
Denny Hulme trying to convince Frank Gardner to give him a few Warwick Farm laps in FG’s new Mildren Racing Brabham BT23D Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 V8.
The new World Champ raced a Brabham BT23 that summer too- albeit a Ford FVA powered F2 chassis which really didn’t cut the mustard amongst the 2.5s.
Denny was fifth in the 1968 Warwick Farm 100 won by Jim Clark’s Lotus 49 Ford DFW, while Gardner’s Italian motor busted a camshaft.
That Italian engine: Tipo 33 2.5-litre DOHC, two-valve, twin plug, injected all alloy V8
After Gardner returned to Europe Kevin Bartlett drove BT23D to victory in the 1968 Australian Gold Star Championship, and in winged-form, very competitively in the 1969 Australian Tasman rounds.
The perky rump of FG’s new Brabham (below) on the way to Hordern Trophy victory on the cars race debut in the Warwick Farm Gold Star round in December 1967.
Spencer Martin took the second of his two titles that year after a spirited contest between he and his Brabham BT11A Climax, and the similarly mounted Alec Mildren entry driven by Bartlett.
(unattributed)
Photo Credits…
Brian Jackson via Glenn Paine, The Roaring Season, John Ellacott
Tailpiece: Gardner, Brabham BT23D Alfa, Warwick Farm Tasman, February 1968…
James Golding during practice at the Phillip Island Gold Star round, Ligier JS F3-S5000 Ford, March 2021.
How sweet it is to see these marvellous bellowing beasties – islands in a sea of maxi-taxis. With one round to go at Eastern Creek, Joey Mawson leads Tim Macrow and Thomas Randle.
It’s great to see dual-Gold Star champ Macrow doing so well in Chris Lambden’s car, JS F3 S5000-001, the prototype developed by Borland Engineering, Macrow and Lambden before handover to Garry Rogers Motosport for assembly of subsequent cars.
Officialdom, the Australian Racing Group, the largest shareholder of which is Rogers Motorsport Events Pty Ltd, released a new name for the chassis’ which contest the championship in the last few days, they are Rogers AF01/V8s now apparently. What a load of fuckin’ crap.
The chassis plates in the cars, affixed by their manufacturer, Onroak-Ligier, read Ligier JS F3-S5000, they are Ford engined. Correctly described, using the time honoured single-seater/sportscar naming convention of make/model/engine manufacturer they are Ligier JS F3-S5000 Fords.
All the mainstream media dickheads cut and polished (perhaps) their press-release and spat it out, without challenge, as usual. One pack of clowns, sydneynewstoday.com, couldn’t even manage to cut and paste the thing accurately, Chris Lambden has become Chris Ramden, perhaps he has become a citizen of Wuhan, tourist hot-spot that it is.
GRM are ‘garagiste’ as ole-man Enzo would have said. They assemble the cars using components made by others overseas and locally. Still they own the category, they can do what they like.
Ignore the GRM chassis plates in the wonderful car’s cockpits I say. See here for my piece on the machine’s development, ‘97.5%’ of which was substantively completed before GRM were selected/won the pitch to assemble the things two years ago; https://primotipo.com/2019/10/26/progress/
Three or thereabouts of the $A350,000 machines have been sold, the rest are owned by a Rogers entity.
I wonder what those owners (Messrs Lambden, Callegher and Wilmington) think of the name change? Perhaps they don’t give a rats, the main-game is commercial success after all. Maybe it’s only toss-pots like me who find the ego-trip offensive, and not reflective of the efforts of Lambden, Borland and his colleagues at Borland Engineering, and Macrow long before GRM sniffed a dollar in the breeze.
Don’t get me wrong, bless GRM for getting involved, no-one is a bigger fan of the Ligier JS F3-S5000 Fords than me…
David Finch’s Jaguar D Type, XKD520, circa 1960 anybody know the locale of the ex-Stillwell/Gardner car.
This time Jack aboard BT19 in-period at Longford in March 1966. Reg Thompson is at the ready with helmet.
It was the third race for the Repco RBE620 V8- the South African GP with 3-litre engine fitted was the first, and the Sandown Tasman round the weekend before, where a 2.5-litre engine was used preceded Longford.
At Kyalami the fuel injection metering unit drive failed, and at Sandown an oil pump. The car finished Longford but adrift of the BRM P261s of Jackie Stewart and Graham Hill.
Importantly, this valuable testing meant the engine was ready to boogie by the time the first championship F1 race of the year took place at Monaco in May.
Alf Barrett’s Alfa Monza in the Mount Panorama pits during the 1947 weekend.
In the Bathurst 100 feature race, he was the scratch-marker and was outted with valve-insert troubles.
The grid before the start of the November 1983 AGP at Calder.
Alf Costanzo’s Tiga FA81 is an island in a sea of Formula Pacific Ralt RT4 Ford BDAs. #19 is race-winner Roberto Moreno, John Smith and obscured Alan Jones are on row two and Paul Radisich and Jacques Laffitte in the read car on row three. And the rest.
It was a heart-breaker of a race for Alfie and the crowd, he was leading, and looked to have the race under control when the diff in his Hewland Mk 9 gearbox failed after completing 25 laps. Moreno won from Smith, Laffitte and Geoff Brabham, all aboard Ralt RT4s.
David McKay’s Jaguar Mk1 3.4-litre completes another lap at Gnoo Blas in 1960.
Holdens pretty much as far as the eye can see – what was it? ‘football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars’. The Paris end, as we Mexicans call it, of Collins Street, Melbourne in 1959.
That particular vista is much the same now, inclusive of parking dramas albeit the cars of course are more likely a mix of Asian buzz-boxes and top-end Europeans.
Le Mans start for the touring car feature race at Longford in 1965.
There was a twist on it in that the mechanics were doing the sprint and handing the keys to the driver. The smart boys, all of them no doubt, had spare keys…
Sir Gawaine Baillie up front in his 7-litre Ford Galaxie with Allan Moffat’s ex-works Lotus Cortina alongside. Who won folks?
Les Pound in a DFP pounding (sorry) up Wheelers Hill, at Mulgrave in Melbourne’s outer east circa 1928. He contested the 1928 AGP in this car at Phillip Island, finishing thirteenth and last.
Its funny how stuff happens sometimes.
Bob King and I were returning from a car club run on Sunday 22, March. Bob commented to me as we went up this road – or rather now dual lane 80kmh carriageway, that in the days of yore there was a hill-climb straight up this very hill. I’d heard of a climb at Mitcham, close-by but not Wheelers Hill. Then, bugger-me-ded if another of our mates, Tony Johns, circulated this photo on Monday 23, March!
Niel Allen’s E-Type in Warwick Farm’s Esses during Saturday practice over the June 6, 1964 weekend.
“First time out for Niel in the E at Warwick Farm. In practice he was second fastest with a lap of 1:57.7. On Sunday raceday in the wet he was sixth (last)! As the rain started to stop and the rack dried out he went from the first lap of 2:37.0 to a best time, and fastest race lap with 2:06.3 in the five lapper. He ran the E four more times at Warwick Farm in 1964/5 finishing third, three times, and second once with a best lap of 1:51.6” wrote Paul Cummins.
Frank Matich lines up Big Bertha before pulverising the opposition one more time in 1969.
“Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble”, the three supernatural witches in Macbeth chanted.
More Merlin the Magician, Merv Waggott at right, pours molten aluminium alloy into patterns for a batch of Waggott TC-4V 2-litre DOHC fuel injected engines circa 1970.
Pretty much all of these engines were made on-site in his little Greenacre, Sydney workshop. The small foundry was out the back. Do any of you have recollections of the build or racing of these championship winning engines? A bit about Merv here; https://primotipo.com/2018/05/03/repco-holden-f5000-v8/
I was snooping around the bowels of Duttons after a lunch a few weeks ago and came upon George Nakas’ car.
This Ligier JS P320 Nissan LMP3 is absolutely brand spankers, having completed only six delivery laps at Magny Cours before shipping to Port Melbourne.
The chassis and body are HP Composites carbon built. It’s 4605mm long, 1900mm wide and has a wheelbase of 2860mm, weight is 950Kg.
Suspension is double-wishbones front and rear with pushrods actuating coil spring/Ohlins TTX40 shocks, adjustable roll-bars are of course part of the mix.
Gearbox is a six-speed Xtrac 1152, it uses a Megaline semi-automatic pneumatic steering wheel paddle-shift.
The engine is a Nissan VK56 5.6-litre, limited to 460bhp V8, gearbox and engine control units are Magneti-Marelli. Brakes are Brembo six-piston calipers clamping 14-inch steel rotors.
I bumped into George Nakas at Duttons yesterday (Friday April 23), he and his team are testing the car for the first time at Tailem Bend over the next few days.
Brand new cars of a different sort.
Holden EJ sedans on the Dandenong, Melbourne production line having final quality checks in 1962.
Back when we had an industry before a troika of fuckwits destroyed it; politicians, management (sic) and organised (sic) labour.
Beautiful drawing of the Lobethal circuit, by Oscar ‘Ozpata’ who frequents a Nostalgia Forum thread.
Here’s hoping for a win from Daniel Ricciardo this year.
Testing his new McLaren MCL35M Mercedes, a modified version of the 2020 car, at the season’s outset. Since drafting this, Lando Norris has been going very well…
Love these two arty-farty shots from Lynton Hemer at Warwick Farm in 1971.
Alan Hamilton in his Porsche 906 Spyder during the Ninth RAC Trophy May 2, weekend, the race won by John Harvey in Bob Jane’s McLaren M6B Repco V8.
The fantastic aspect spectators have at Baskerville, Tasmania is shown from this panoramic shot taken at the circuit’s first meeting on the February 9, 1958 meeting.
The shot below is Jim Lamont sitting aboard his 1949 Ford Anglia soft-top, with Greg and Harold Ellis in attendance.
(S Lamont)
John Joyce’s Bowin Designs are best known for the fifty-six FF, F2 and F5000 open-wheelers built in Brookvale, Sydney between 1968 and 1975.
Such was the reputation of the outfit that Pete Geoghegan, Brian Foley and others sought Bowin’s design and fabrication capabilities to make their touring-cars go quicker.
Pete Geoghegan had extracted all on offer from his elderly Ford Mustang 302 by the end of 1971.
He then turned to his FoMoCo built GTHO 351 Super Falcon but knew it needed work to have any hope of giving chase during the final improved-tourer 1972 Australian Touring Car Championship.
(Bowin)
The car was lightened, stiffened by seam welding and addition of an integral roll-cage, and the suspension geometry improved front and rear. Bowin Design Project #7 design-drawings, on the Bowin Cars website, show you drawings of all of the work performed.
Celebration of construction of the 500,000th Holden, delivered to the Royal Flying Doctor Service in 1958.
Credits…
s5000.com, Troy Davey-Milne, John Smith, National Archives of Australia, The Tasmanian Motorist, Tony Johns Collection, Lance Ruting, ozpata, McLaren, Ray Simpson-Cummins Archive, Nat French, Slim Lamont, Kelsey Collection
Tailpiece…
Missed by that much!
Thanks goodness the 911S was spared, and the paper-boy I guess. It’s all happening in Greville Street, Prahran, Melbourne, circa 1980.
Alan Jones with his Teddy Yip Ralt RT1 Ford BDA, Macau 1977 (S Weaver)
Sue Weaver worked inside motor racing for decades. In the process she developed a friendship with Teddy Yip which yielded many fun times and trips to the Portuguese colony on China’s doorstep.
On each of those trips she took a swag of photographs. This article features some of them, an ‘Australian contingent mix’, with a focus on the November 20, 1977 weekend.
The Formula Atlantic race was won by young thruster, Riccardo Patrese in the Chevron B40 Ford later purchased and raced with success by Kiwi legend Ken Smith- later still Adelaide’s Peter Whelan restored it, historic-raced it for some years before its acquisition as a Macau Museum exhibit.
Riccardo Patrese during practice, Chevron B40 Ford BDA. It is in this part of the track that Jones spun and was hit by Riccardo during the raceTeddy Yip and Vern Schuppan, Macau. What year folks? Didn’t these fellas have some fun and success in F1, F5000, Indycars and F Atlantic/Pacific? The most important of the South Aussies patrons/sponsors, BRM leg-up duly noted (S Weaver)
That year Patrese and Alan Jones were Shadow F1 teammates. Riccardo was entered in Macau by Bob Harper, Jones by Teddy Yip, both these fellows were the region’s traditional monied entrant protagonists.
Jones ‘tore the place apart’ the year before in the Yip March 722 raced often by Vern Schuppan – he constantly broke the lap record after an early engine cut-out. Jones then fired the engine up, carved his way back through the field, only to have the engine again fail- Vern Schuppan won a Ralt RT1 Ford.
In 1977 Patrese popped his Chevron on pole by a couple of seconds from Jones with Vern Schuppan third in John McDonald’s Ralt RT1. Kiwis Steve Millen, Chevron B35, and Graeme Lawrence, March 76B were fourth and sixth on the grid, Masahiro Hasemi was fifth in a Chevron B40 Nissan, with Kevin Bartlett, March and Andrew Miedecke, March 763/76B seventh and eighth.
1977 Macau GP grid. Patrese, Chevron B40 left on pole, Jones, Ralt RT1 #2 then the nose of Schuppan’s Ralt RT1. #19 Millen, Chevron B35 and #5 Masahiro Hasemi, Chevron B40 Nissan. Row three Graeme Lawrence, March 76B with Bartlett’s red March (?), then Andrew Miedecke #4 March 763/76B. Car #23 is Albert Poon, Chevron B40, with Nakajima’s #7 Nova Honda alongside. And the rest, engines Ford BDA unless specified otherwise (unattributed)
The Jones boy blasted away from the front row, but his lead was short-lived after another engine cut-out resulted in his Ralt spinning into Patrese’s path.
Riccardo vaulted over the hapless Jones, damaging a rear wheel – he pulled into the pits for inspection and was sent on his way. Concerned officials popped out a black-flag, but this was withdrawn after entreaties from the Harper pit that the wheel, whilst bent a tad, would be AOK.
Graeme Lawrence, March 76B Ford BDA (Getty)Kevin Bartlett and Howden Ganley. Year folks? (S Weaver)
Hasemi then led from Schuppan, just as Vern seemed set to pass his fuel metering belt broke. Millen then led from Bartlett, the 1969 winner, and Lawrence, but Patrese was on a charge and led by lap 15. He drove off into the distance.
Millen, then Bartlett were second for a bit but, but Bartlett and Lawrence both retired with mechanical dramas – Millen was second, Miedecke third and future Lotus F1 driver, Satoru Nakajima fourth in an Nova Honda.
Satoru Nakajima, Nova Honda, ’77 Macau GPJones and one of the Yip crew, probably 1978 (S Weaver)
Etcetera…
(S Weaver)
KB tries to decipher the mandarin on the nose of Jones’ Yip March 782 Ford BDA during the 1978 race weekend. Bartlett raced a Chevron, what model KB?
Kevin Cogan’s Flying Tigers Ralt RT1 alongside? Who is the big unit talking to Jones? Yip at far right. Driver in front of the RT1 in the posh Linea-Sport overalls?
Jones started from pole and led until a spark-plug failed. Derek Daly then had a comfortable lead from Keke Rosberg and Patrese, but pitted for tyres, Patrese inherited a lead he kept to the end.
The Formula Pacific Macau GP era was marvellous…
(S Weaver)
Jones again during the ‘78 weekend above, with British broadcaster, Dickie Davies.
The shot below is during Schuppan’s Rothmans Porsche years, so early eighties- the West End beer logo should assist you detectives as to the year.
Teddy Yip mechanic/helper Ashok Vadgama at left, KB and Vern.
(S Weaver)(S Weaver)
AJ looks pretty well-nourished here, so perhaps it’s a tad after his single-seater days, with wife Bev and Yip.
And below, KB slightly peeved at Weaver interrupting his choice of main course.
(S Weaver)
Credits…
Susan Weaver, Getty Images, Riccardo Patrese web-page, ‘Colour and Noise: 40 Years of the Macau Grand Prix 1993’ Philip Newsome
Tailpiece…
(S Weaver)
Jones about to mount before the off in 1977, Ralt RT1 Ford BDA- John Chatterton at right, and Julian Randles leaning into the cockpit. Car #71 is the Ian Grey Chevron B20, the Rothmans car behind is Graeme Lawrence’ March 76B.
primotipo... 