Have had a fun week or so with a few back to back events, the first of which was a drive and photo-shoot of Rob Alsop’s superb, just finished restoration of a Bugatti T23 Brescia.
The article is scheduled to appear in a February magazine, shall let you know when. We did the shoot between the bays – Westernport and Port Phillip – at Arthurs Seat, Flinders and Shoreham. The shot above was taken at Flinders Golf Club looking towards Cape Schanck, Phillip Island is to the left 10k or whatever away.
Andrew and Dave Hewison do their stuff at Arthurs Seat, there were lotsa rubber-necks from countries-to-our-north around even at 10am Thursday morning…
Clutch-throttle-brake pedals have their challenges as the daily driver of a manual car. So too the right-hand brake, which operates the two-wheel only, rear brakes. Bugatti gearboxes are fantastic, the lever is alongside the brake, the brake-downchange caper takes some thought and coordination.
T23-2063 turned 100 in May, a peppy 1.5-litre, SOHC, three-valve four cylinder engine is impressive for the day.
The Motors and Masterpieces car show held at the Melbourne Showgrounds last weekend is the successor to the much-admired and now dead Motorclassica.
The Showgrounds can never match the Royal Exhibition Buildings for grandeur, but critically the rent is much lower, so hopefully the thing makes a dollar and will therefore survive. We should be kissing owner/promoter Carlos Piteira on the arse with thanks for persisting but the usual array of whinging-do-fuck-all mob are railing from the sidelines, where of course they belong.
I’m not a big one for Shiny Car Shows – once every three years at Motorclassica – especially when they are largely devoid of racing cars, but thoroughly enjoyed it. Long may it continue…
The only two racing cars present were the ex-Brabham/Bob Jane-John Harvey 1968 Brabham BT23E Repco 830 2.5 V8, and ex-Tony Martin/Paul England-Peter Larner-Larry Perkins Chevron B39/45 Ford BDA 1.6. The Porsche is a tribute car.
I ‘spose the ex-Rupert Steele Bentley qualifies as a racer too, see here for a piece about the car, which is coming up for sale in Donington Auction’s next sale: https://primotipo.com/2021/07/18/sir-ruperts-bentley/
The Harry Firth built ex-Gavin Bailleu/Wes Nalder/Dianne Leighton et al Triumph TR2 Special aka Ausca Triumph never looked this good in period. Creative Custom Cars in Dromana and a generous budget have done an extraordinary job.
Apart from a decade or so sitting on display in the Country Club Hotel in Longford the car has had a hard racing life, a more sedentary existence seems entirely appropriate.
My friend, Stephen Dalton has popped up a swag of photographs of this event on The Nostalgia Forum, click here: https://forums.autosport.com/topic/227244-motors-masterpieces-melbourne/
The Pursang Rally is an annual one-dayer orgnised by the Ferrari and Bugatti clubs.
Held last Sunday, the start was at Snapper Point, Mornington – where these shots were taken – and then proceeded down the Mornington Peninsula to St Andrews via Arthurs Seat, Boneo, Red Hill, Shoreham, Flinders and loops thereof.
A great day was had by all, the rain stopped, it’s not the go to name the owners of these cars other, perhaps, than Joe Killeja whose ownership of this sensational AC Cobra #CSX2522 is in the public domain.
The car is one of two Slalom Special/Slalom Snakes built in 1964. As the names suggests, they were factory built club competition specials fitted with a swag of desirable goodies: front and rear roll bars, Konis, American brand mag-alloy rather than wire wheels, high performance Goodyears, brake and bonnet scoops, side exhausts and bumper bars deleted. Yes, I can see bumperettes in the pic above.
Jack Quinn, the lucky prick, had command of the car for the day, the AC had promotional filming duties in the afternoon for Jack’s upcoming Rippon Lea Concours, see here: https://ripponleaconcours.com/
Ford 289 small-block Windsor with four downdraught Weber IDA’s and lots of trick internals. Quoted at 385bhp ex-factory but this baby gives plenty more.
The largesse rolled on with Mark Johnson and Jack Quinn’s X-Mas bash in North Melbourne and Donington’s pre-event viewing of the cars of the late Ric Begg in Brunswick. See here: https://www.doningtonauctions.com.au/ Not too many alcohol free days at all in the last 10 I’m afraid…
The owner of this car sold his Cameron Millar Maserati 250F and bought this Ferrari 250TR Replica, there won’t be too many of these in Portsea this summer.
This pair of Sunbeam Specials were impressive, mind you there is about $A200k to spend on the one below after you buy the car Grant Cowie reckons…
Credits…
Mark Bisset, Rob Alsop, Creative Custom Cars
Finito…
primotipo... 