Bruce McLaren tips his Cooper T70 Climax into Shell corner at Sandown during the 1964 Tasman Cup round – the Australian Grand Prix – DNF engine in the race won by Jack Brabham. See here: https://primotipo.com/2020/04/20/mclaren-cooper-t70-sandown/
The ‘first McLarens’ – two Cooper T70s – built by Bruce McLaren and Wally Willmott at Coopers in late 1963 have been very much in the news, and star of the historic show at the 2024 Australian Grand Prix carnival given it’s 60 years since Bruce McLaren won the very first Tasman Cup driving the two T70s that summer. Bruce won three of the eight rounds – NZ GP at Pukekohe, Lady Wigram Trophy and Teretonga International – in this car #T70 FL-2-64, so too did Jack Brabham (Brabham BT7A Climax), but Bruce had the better haul of points.
Sadly, Tim Mayer crashed the car Bruce is driving above, to his death at Longford three weeks after Sandown. The surviving car (#FL-1-64) is owned by Adam Berryman, proudly showing off a car which has been in the family since 1974 at Government House, Melbourne on March 21. See here for more about the T70: https://primotipo.com/2016/11/18/tim-mayer-what-might-have-been/
(M Bisset)(M Bisset)(Eisert Family)
Aussie Ace, Bob Muir alongside the ex-Gary Campbell/Jones-Eisert Lola T330 Chev HU14 during the 1973 US L&M F5000 Championship round at Laguna Seca. Jerry Eisert is alongside Muir, John Wright is attending to the right-front, with Peter Molloy in the white top to the left.
Reg Hunt’s Maserati A6GCM/250 during the 1955 Moomba TT meeting held at Albert Park on March 26-27. I’m not so sure its the prosperous motor dealer owner at the wheel.
Hunt had a great weekend with his new car – a 2.5-litre Maserati 250F engined A6GCM – winning the Argus Cup 50-miler and one heat of the Argus Trophy 50-mile feature. He led the final until the red car’s crown wheel and pinion failed, giving Doug Whiteford’s well driven old Talbot-Lago T26C a lucky win.
Hunt turned the local scene on its head with this car, it was the most recent Grand Prix car imported to Australia for many a long year. All of his motor dealer rivals had to reach way-deep into their pockets to keep up with the Brighton Road dealer. See here for more on this car: https://primotipo.com/2017/12/12/hunts-gp-maser-a6gcm-2038/
Holden 48-215 at Albert Park was about the extent of the State Library of Victoria caption, before 1970 Australian Rally Champion, Bob Watson came to the rescue.
“It’s a BP Rally of the 1950s, possibly Lex Davison driving. A sub-event in Albert Park at the end of the rally, later events finished at Chadstone Shopping Centre on Mother’s day in front of huge crowds.” See here: https://primotipo.com/2018/12/06/general-motors-holden-formative/
(SLNSW-R Donaldson)
Ross Jensen on the way to victory of the 1959 Bathurst 100 held over the Easter long-weekend, Maserati 250F, #2509/2504. He is negotiating Hell Corner before heading up Mountain Straight.
It was a terrific win by the visiting Kiwi, all of our Top-Guns were there but Ross beat the lot: Stan Jones, Arnold Glass, Len Lukey, Alec Mildren, Doug Whiteford and others. He was as sharp-as-a-tack having raced for the works-Lister Jaguar team in Europe in 1958 upon the recommendation of Archie Scott Brown who had raced his works-lister in New Zealand in the Summer of ’58 and was impressed by what he saw.
That’s Len Lukey congratulating him below, #5 is Len’s Cooper T45 Climax 2-litre, the 250F on the far side is Glass’s. Love the proboscis…
(SLNSW-R Donaldson)(Auto Action)
Colin Bond, Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000 L34 during the 1975 Phillip Island 500k enduro, a round of the Australian Manufacturers Championship.
1948 Australian Grand Prix winner, Frank Pratt, and passenger Alick Smith at Phillip Island, date unknown. Pratt, a Geelong motor cycle dealer and racer, had famously barely done any car racing when he won that Point Cook, RAAF Airbase, AGP (photo below). See here: https://primotipo.com/2021/09/27/werrangourt-archive-10-george-martins-bmw-328/
Alain Prost during the West End Jubilee South Australian Open Pro-am golf tournament held at Kooyonga during the 1986 Australian Grand Prix week in Adelaide.
He looks pretty relaxed, and the weekend worked out mighty fine too.
Poor old Nigel had his 180mph Williams FW11 Honda 1.5 V6 tyre blowout, so his teammate Piquet was brought in for a precautionary tyre change and Alain’s McLaren MP4/2C TAG-Porsche 1.5 V6 won the race…and the title(s) in a thriller-diller of a race: Drivers and Constructors.
Glen Dix flags an ecstatic Alain Prost home in the 1986 AGP. His McLaren wasn’t as fast as the FW11 Williams that year but he chipped away with a mix of speed and consistency: the Fab-Four in ‘86 were Mansell, Piquet, Senna…and Prost(SLV)
Sportscar grid at Warwick Farm circa 1967. Frank Matich, Matich SR3 Oldsmobile, Bob Jane, Elfin 400 Repco, Glyn Scott’s Lotus 23B Ford and Bill Brown – perhaps – in the Scuderia Veloce Ferrari 250LM. More on Matich’s Ferrari muncher here: https://primotipo.com/2023/04/02/matich-sr3/
Nigel Mansell blasts away from a pitstop on the Surfers Paradise road circuit during the March 21, 1993 Australian Indycar Grand Prix, Lola T93/00 Ford Cosworth XB V8.
In a portent of things to come that year, series debutant Mansell won the opening round of the ’93 CART Championship. He won five of the 16 rounds, and the championship with 191 points, fellow ex-F1 World Champ, Emerson Fittipaldi was second on 183, Penske PC22 Chev.
(C Denby)
Not so much thought of as a racing car in Australia, Leyland’s P76 4.4-litre V8 got a run in New Zealand’s annual B &H 1000 enduro, in this case the 1975 event at Pukekohe.
This one was raced by the very experienced and successful David Oxton and Garry Pederson who finished fourth, the winning car was another Australian car, a Valiant Charger – usually dominant in this race – driven by Wayne Wilkinson and Bryan Innes.
Chris Denby, in an amusing Facebook post relates the story of the exhaust problem which befell the similar car raced by Dauntsey Teagle and Jim Murdoch. “Over a few laps its impressive engine became ‘uncorked’, which injected some great V8 sound into its otherwise fairly subdued race noise.”
“Suddenly it sounded more lie a stock-car than a production saloon – very impressive in the stand. The stewards were quick to act, within minutes a message came over the Tannoy asking if any spectator had a P76 V8 in the carpark would he allow his car to be relieved of its exhaust system to help a race team on the track (they faced exclusion otherwise).”
“That approach didn’t work. A later Tannoy message said, ‘If a spectator with a Leyland P76 notices a much louder than normal exhaust note upon leaving the track, don’t worry, the race mechanics will fix it before you depart…”
(MotorSport)
Vern Schuppan contesting the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch in March 1973, BRM P160D.
The Victorian Governor’s Australian GP party is a wonderful event on the Thursday before the race, here is Jenny and Vern Schuppan on March 21, 2024.
Vern has just turned 81 and is a sharp as a tack. The couple live in a penthouse apartment in the Adelaide Markets – on the AGP course – and split their time between there, visiting their son and family in Melbourne, their daughter in Cambridge, and another home in Portugal.
(M Bisset)(SLNSW)
Fred Withers at Penrith aboard the Marcus Clark & Company owned Cleveland Six racer, circa 1925.
It’s hard to believe that department stores once sold cars, but there-ya-go! This company was founded by Marcus Clark in Newtown, Sydney in 1883 and by the early 1900s was a colossus operating from buildings like this on the corner of Pitt and George Streets, Railway Square, Sydney.
(Hall & Co)(Nambour Chronicle January 22, 1926)
Withers raced the Cleveland Six at Penrith and Maroubra Speedways in New South Wales/Sydney and at Aspendale, outside Melbourne in the 1920s. He was also a record-breaker of some repute using Cleveland and Essex products.
He was famous at the time for some crazy jumps performed with his Essex to gain column-inches in the dailies, this shot was taken in 1927.
(J Sherwood Collection)(P Jones)
Frank Matich contesting the 1970 New Zealand Grand Prix in his much-modified McLaren M10A Chev at Pukekohe. FM had a pretty good Tasman Series, winning here at Pukekohe and at Wigram a week later. While he had the pace, he didn’t have Graeme Lawrence’s Ferrari Dino 246T reliability. Graeme prevailed by five points, 30 to 25.
(T Glenn)
A little later, from 1971-74, Frank Matich and his small team designed and built six F5000 cars: three A50s, two A51s – one A51 evolved into the short-lived A52 – and this A53, the very last of the breed.
Matich A53/007 in build in FM’s ‘shop in Military Road, Cremorne in late 1973 (D Kneller)
Credits…
Getty Images, State Library of Victoria, Charles Pratt-State Library of Victoria, Rennie Ellis, MotorSport Images, Chris Denby, Peter Jones, John Sherwood Collection in ‘Half a Century of Speed’ by Tony & Pedr Davis and Barry Lake, Bob Williamson Collection, Eisert Family Collection, Derek Kneller, State Library of NSW-Lynch, Tony Glenn, oldracingcars.com
Maybach 2 on display at the Melbourne International Motor Show, Exhibition Buildings, April 1-10 1954 (D Zeunert Collection)
A while back I published an article about Maybach 1, the first in a series of three chassis – four cars – built by Charlie Dean/Repco Research and Ernie Seeliger between 1947 and 1958. Click on this link to that piece: https://primotipo.com/2024/01/15/maybach-1-technical-specifications/
As with that article, this one is also a copy of the technical specifications and evolution of these machines published in the Australian Motor Sports Annual 1958-59. The author’s name isn’t cited, so I’ve credited it to John Goode, the book’s editor.
The photo choices are mine, so too the are the Notes sections. I’m taking as-read a general knowledge of Maybach, but if you need a refresher, click on the links at the end of this piece.
(L Sims)
Introduction…
Here are three photographs to illustrate the journey from Maybach 1 in 1947 to Maybach 1 Series 3 – the 1954 New Zealand Grand Prix winner in Stan Jones’ hands – to get us to the start of this article, Maybach 2, which commenced its life in April 1954.
The shot above shows Charlie Dean and the brave Jack Joyce aboard Maybach 1 at Rob Roy during the Melbourne Cup long-weekend in November 1947. What a wild road car the beast would have made, the car received its body immediately prior to the 1948 Australian Grand Prix held at Point Cook, in Melbourne’s inner-west.
(G Thomas)
The shot above shows Dean on-the-hop at Rob Roy in 1948 – Maybach 1 painted in its original white – and below coloured blue, on test at Willsmere, near Dean’s Kew home circa 1951. And then below that, the Repco advertisement shows Maybach 1 Series 3 winning the 1954 NZ GP at Ardmore.
(D Stubbs)Compare and contrast: Maybach 1 Series 3 above, with Maybach 2 below (B Caldersmith)
MAYBACH II (April 1954-November 29, 1954)…
ENGINE: 6 cyl. in-line single oh. camshaft. Bore and stroke: 91 × 110mm. Capacity: 4,250 c.c. Output: 257 b.h.p. at 5,000 .p.m. (bench tested). Carburettors: Three 2 3/16″ S.U. Compression Ratio: 11 to 1. Fuel used: 60% Methanol, 20% Benzol, 20% Aviation Petrol Octane rating: 110. Cast iron cylinder block with wet liners.
Single casting cast iron cylinder block and crankcase, with sump joint well below the crankshaft centre line. Crankshaft machined all over and fully counter balanced, running in eight white metal lined bearings, one between each crank throw and an extra one behind the camshaft drive pinion situated at rear end of crankshaft. Wet liners fitted to cylinder bores with lightweight balanced connecting rods and other reciprocating parts.
Single camshaft running in seven white metal bearings, opening valves by means of rocker arms fitted with eccentric bushes which could be rotated and locked to adjust valve clearances. Rockers had roller cam followers. Valves inclined at 65 degrees in hemispherical head and located on opposite sides. Helical timing gears with idler (originally compounded fabric, but replaced by steel).
Wet sump lubrication through filter with pressure fed oil supplied to centre main bearings, then to other caps, and through the crankshaft to big end bearings. Also fed to valve rocker shafts and camshaft bearings.
Complete body and chassis redesign converting it into a single seater. Mk. I Series 3 Maybach motor used.
NOTES:
The wording in relation to the chassis is misleading. Maybach 1’s chassis was set aside – tired and much modified as it was – and a new single-seater chassis was designed and fabricated for Maybach 2.
The engine came from a German half-track vehicle captured during the Middle East campaign and shipped to Australia for technical study by the military.
Maybach 2 in the Southport paddock during the November 1954 Australian Grand Prix meeting, racer, Owen Bailey at far left (VSCC Collection)Stan being pushed onto the grid. He led the race before a chassis weld broke on lap 14 of 27, pitching him down the road at high speed. Jones was miraculously ok but Maybach 2 was very dead (J Psaros)
TRANSMISSION: Gearbox: four speed using Fiat 525 case with Repco manufactured gears. Ratios: First- 7.08:1 Second-4.94:1 , Third-3.78:1, Top-3.14:1.
DRIVESHAFT: Dropped to pass beneath back axle and driving a short forward shaft into differential through two helical gears, easily accessible from rear, permitting alteration to overall ratios up or down by 3%. Differential: Resembled American Four Lock locking type constructed by Repco workshops from their own and American components. Rear Axle: Vibrac type high tensile steel.
CHASSIS: Frame: Based on two 4″ dia. 16 gauge steel tubes.
Suspension: Front – Independent with wishbones and Delco shock absorbers with low placed 3 leaf traverse spring. Rear Panhard type with reversed quarter elliptic springs and torque arms anchored to heavy cross member linking two main longitudinal tubes of the chassis. Tubular Monroe Wylie shock absorbers.
Steering: Peugeot rack and pinion.
Brakes: Paton’s Hydraulic using twin parallel master cylinders, one operating front and one the rear. Action on both integral but operation separate permitting one set in action if others fail. Front shoes, twin leading design with I6in. special helically finned drums, cooled by air scoops to forward sides. Rear shoes of leading and trailing type in 14 in. drums.
Wheels: Locally constructed wire type with Rudge Whitworth hubs. Front 18″ dia. Tyres: 5.25 × 18. Rear 16″ dia. Tyres: 7.00 x 16.
Body: Single light aluminium shell easily removable in three seclions. Fuel Capacity: 25 gallons in tail mounted aluminium tank.
Dimensions: Wheelbase 94″ • Track: Front 4 ft. 3 ins. Rear 4 ft. I ins. Weight: 16 cwt. Power/weight ratio: 7 Ibs. per b.h.p.
“Rare photograph showing the front crossmember of Maybach 2 where the chassis tube broke” (S Scholes Collection-Wheels May 1955)
NOTES:
In many ways Maybach 2 was the one that got away…
It went like a jet from the start, Jones won the Victorian Trophy at Fishermans Bend in March 1954 on its race debut, then won again at the Easter Bathurst meeting where he took the two preliminaries before gearbox failure scuttled his run in the feature. He was victorious again at Altona in May and was second to Jack Brabham’s Cooper T23 Bristol there in June. At Fishermans Bend in October he had gearbox failure again.
Then it was off to Southport for the AGP in November where Stan simply drove away from the field until the chassis weld failure caused the massive accident that destroyed the car, and from which Jones very fortunately walked away…
This 4.2-litre 257bhp @ 5000 rpm, 725kg monoposto was one helluva fast racing car.
In the woulda-coulda-shoulda stakes were the battles we never got to see with Stan aboard Maybach 2 and Reg Hunt’s Maserati A6GCM/250 in 1955. Hunt upped the local ante big-time when he imported a current GP car, and was immediately quick in it, his talent refined with some 500cc F3 racing aboard a Cooper MkVIII in Europe in 1954.
Reg’s Maserati gave about 240bhp @ 7200rpm and weighed between 500-580kg. Both the Maserati and Maybach 2 had four-speed ‘boxes, IFS and live-rear axles. Maybach’s weakness was its ginormous, all cast iron engine which weighed circa 320kg; let’s not forget it was designed for the German military not competition use. The 250F engine’s quoted weight is 197kg, much of the weight differences between the two cars is in engine weight.
While torque figures for Maybach 2 weren’t quoted, the long stroke 4.2-litre six would have produced more torque than its twin-cam Italian competitor but not, one suspects, enough to offset the considerable weight disadvantage.
Whatever the case, when Maybach 2 was destroyed at Southport, all of the momentum gained by building, racing, and refining the car was lost. Maybach 3 (below) didn’t appear until the April 1955 Bathurst 100 weekend when the team started the process again, by which time Reg was used to and exploiting his car successfully.
What is my point? The Repco-Maybach program effectively ended post-Southport, with only one remaining engine to instal in Maybach 3, a 3.8-litre unit at that. Stan confronting Reg in 1955 aboard Maybach 2 really would have been something to see…woulda-coulda-shoulda.
AMS Annual 1958-59Jones in Maybach 3 during the 1956 South Pacific Championship (R Donaldson)
MAYBACH III (1955 – Jan 1956)…
ENGINE: 6 cyl. in-line inclined 60 degrees to left. Shortened stroke crankshaft (approx. 10% ). Bore and stroke: 90 × 100 mm. Capacity: 3,800 c.c. Compression Ratio: 11 to 1. Power Output: 260 b.h.p. at 5,000 r.p.m. Direct fuel injection by Dean and Irving.
TRANSMISSION: Clutch: Repco single plate. Gearbox: Four speed with top overall ratio 3.2 to 1. Drive: Open propeller shaft passing on right of driver to offset differential. Differential: limited slip (as previous model).
Charlie Dean at Rob Roy, date unknown. The competition debut of Maybach 3, was at Templestowe Hillclimb on May 8, 1955. 68.56sec where Dean was third in the over 3-litre racing car class (SLV)(SLV)(Davey-Milne)Rob Roy again. Despite the fuzziness, note the the considerable reduction in engine height achieved by the 60-degree laydown of the Maybach six (Davey-Milne)
CHASSIS: Frame: Built up from two 4″ dia. steel tubes, linked by transverse tubing. Redesigned body of flatter appearance due to inclined engine.
Suspension: Front – Independent with transverse leaf spring set low. Rear Quarter elliptics with radius rods.
Dimensions: Wheelbase 95″. Track Front 4 ft. 3 ins. Rear 4 ft. 1 in. Steering: Marles box and divided track rod.
Maybach 3 in the Gnoo Blas paddock in 1956. Trumpets of Repco built fuel injection clear (B Caldersmith)(B Caldersmith)
NOTES:
The beginning of the end. Jones (above) is an absolute bolter at the start of the January 1956 South Pacific Championship at Gnoo Blas, New South Wales.
Reg Hunt’s new Maserati 250F is way back here but will reel Stan in. Being pushed hard to hang onto the very best European F1 car of the day, the Maybach engine let go in a big way.
Jones had a 250F several months later. Stan let his good friend, ace engineer/mechanic/racer Ern Seeliger loose on Maybach, its evolution to Chev Corvette 283 V8 power and other modifications – Maybach 4 – was soon underway.
(B Caldersmith)(AMS Annual 1959-60)Stan Jones, Maybach 4 Chev, Australian Grand Prix, Lowood, June 1960 DNF engine (B Thomas)
MAYBACH IV March- 1958…
ENGINE: Chevrolet Corvette 8 cyl. Vee motor. 4.6 litre. Compression ratio: 9.2:1. Bore and stroke: 98.501 × 76 mm stroke. 2 four-barrel Carter Carbs. 274 b..p. at 6,000 r.p.m. 300 Ibs. torque at 3,500 r.p.m. All oilways completely modified. Bearings altered in regard to oil ways. Engine dry sumped. Modified cooling system.
GEARBOX: As previous Maybach. Drive: As previous Maybach. Differential: As previous Maybach modified with shortened axles incorporating constant velocity joints. Clutch: Seeliger designed and built multi-plate clutch.
CHASSIS: As previous Maybach but chassis lengthened lo take Di Dion rear end. New 30 gallon fuel tank fitted.
Suspension: As previous Maybach with mods. to front end by fitting an anti-roll bar incorporating brake forque rods and transverse leaf in place of quarter eliptics at rear.
Dimensions: Same as previous Maybach, but rear track widened to 4 ft. 2 ins. All up weight reduced to 14} cwt. with 4 gals. of petrol. Full oil and water.
NOTES: Ern Seeliger first ran Maybach 4 at Fishermans Bend in March 1958.
In one of The Great Australian Grands Prix, Stan Jones, Maserati 250F, Lex Davison, Ferrari 500/625 and Ted Gray, Tornado 2 Chev battled up front for most of the ‘58 race on Mount Panorama until Lex was the last-man-standing. Ern Seeliger drove a great race into second, with Tom Hawkes third in his much modified ex-Brabham Cooper T23 Repco-Holden.
Jones proved further the pace of Seeliger’s final Maybach evolution by winning a Gold Star round in it at Port Wakefield in 1959. It would have been very interesting to see what times Stan could have done in Ern’s car in practice at Bathurst over that ’58 AGP weekend!
(AMS Annual 1958-59)
Etcetera…
(VHRR Archive)
Prettiest of the lot in my opinion…Stan the Man on the way to winning the Victorian Trophy at Fishermans Bend in 1954, Maybach 2.
(B Caldersmith)Maybach 2 in the Southport paddock over the 1954 AGP weekend (J Psaros)
Starting grid of the 1955 Australian GP (or is a heat, whatever) at Port Wakefield, South Australia. #5 Reg Hunt, Maserati A6GCM/250, Jones, Maybach 3, #8 Tom Hawkes, Cooper T23 Bristol, #6 Jack Brabham in the winning Cooper T40 Bristol and #10 Kevin Neal, Cooper T23 Bristol.
This is a good contextual shot showing Jones in Maybach 3 – Mercedes W196 styling influence clear – among current’ish European cars: Reg Hunt’s Maserati A6GCM 2.5 – the so-called interim 250F – two Cooper T23s of Tom Hawkes #8 and Kevin Neal. Plus the nose of the winner and newest car here, Jack Brabham in the mid-engined Cooper T40 Bristol he built in time for the British Grand Prix at Aintree that July.
(G McKaige)
The final evolution of the Dean/Repco Research Maybach engine development programme. ‘Short-stroke’ 3.8-litre and fuel injected delivering circa 260bhp @ 5000rpm. George McKaige took this shot of Maybach 3 at Fishermans Bend in October 1955. I wonder what that plate in the engine bay says?
(Q Miles)
Great colour photograph of Maybach 4 Chev in the Lowood paddock inJune 1959. Note how the twin-Carter-carbed Corvette 283 V8 is offset to the right allowing the driver to sit low to the left rather than high atop the driveshaft.
Credits…
Australian Motor Sports Review 1958-59, Brian Caldersmith, Brier Thomas, Jock Tsaros, Davey-Milne Family Collection, George McKaige and Chester McKaige via their superb two ‘Beyond The Lens’ books, Stan Griffiths, Dacre Stubbs, VSCC Vic Collection, J Montasell, Clem Smith, Quentin Miles, Ron Edgerton Collection
Tailpiece…
(K Drage)
Towards the end of a very long competitive Maybach road.
Stan Jones lines Maybach 4 Chev up alongside Alec Mildren’s tiny, mid-engined 2-litre Cooper T45 Climax before the start of the South Australian Trophy, Port Wakefield Gold Star round in March 1959.
Jones won the race from Len Lukey and Keith Rilstone – it was the last championship level win for Maybach in-period.
How time flies! Its nearly 50 years since Holden’s LH Torana SL/R 5000 L34 (L34) took to the tracks and thrilled Australian racegoers with the raucous-barking-howl of its Repco-Holden F5000 influenced 308 V8.
Allan Grice teased race fans with the L34’s potential when he ran a 310bhp SL/R 5000 in some high-speed demonstration laps at Amaroo Park on Sunday April 19, 1974; the Amaroo shot of the same car above was taken during the June 2 meeting, with Fred Gibson’s XB GT Falcon Coupe behind.
Peter Brock reinforced the SL/R 5000’s pace by winning the final two Australian Touring Car Champiosnship rounds in May/June at Surfers Paradise and Adelaide International in his Holden Dealer Team car, thereby securing the title, the bulk of his points being accumulated in the good ‘ole six-cylinder XU-1.
Allan Grice and Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000, demo laps at Amaroo Park on April 19, 1974(Auto Action)Colin Bond on the way to winning the 1974 Phillip Island 500K in his Holden Dealer Team L34 (Auto Action)
By mid-1974 enough L34s were built (total build numbers 263) to allow CAMS homologation and therefore competition in the Adelaide and Sandown Manufacturers Championship rounds in advance of the Bathurst 1000.
On August 25 Colin Bond famously won at Adelaide International on an L34 wing-and-a-gearbox-prayer debut.
Bondy then won the 1975 Australian Touring Car Championship with Peter Brock and Brian Sampson delivering the Mount Panorama goods. The ’75 rout was complete when The General took the Australian Manufacturers Championship with the L34 winning four of the five rounds.
Things were a lot tougher in 1976 when the Allan Moffat/Colin Bond Ford Falcon XB GT351 ruled the roost, except at Bathurst where Bob Morris and John Fitzpatrick won a close finishing tear-jerker of a race in their L34.
It’s fitting that the Life and Times of the L34 are being celebrated en-masse at the Phillip Island Classic this weekend as the fast but fragile – axles, gearbox and differential – cars won there a few times: Bond in a Holden Dealer Team car in 1974, Brock in 1975 in the Norm Gown-Bruce Hindhaugh prepared car, and Bond again for the HDT in 1976. In 1977 it was the turn of the L34’s younger sibling, Allan Grice won in a new Torana A9X (Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback).
In a wonderful half-centenary 1974-2024 Phillip Island book-end, Rod Hadfield’s ex-Rod and Russ McRae Dustings of Burwood L34 – third placegetter in the 1974 500K – will be on-circuit throughout the Phillip Island Classic including morning parades on Saturday/Sunday along with 40 other race/road L34s organised by the L34 Fiftieth Anniversary Committee.
This is a not to be missed meeting for Holden, Torana and Group C fans!
Etcetera L34…
Believe it or not, I loved Touring Cars once upon a time when there was variety from one end of the capacity spectrum to the other…it all turned to shit for me when the ruling CAMS-Maxi Taxi Junta gave us the infinite boredom of same, same, and a bit more same, 30 or so years ago. Fuggem I thought, and still do. Those hopelessly-conflicted pricks are the tall-tree-in-the-Australian-racing-paddock that grab all the nutrient (money) for themselves leaving fuck-all for everybody else.
While I was in Oakleigh last week I had a snoop through some of Big Bad Brucie’s (Bruce Williams, Auto Action’s publisher/owner) archives and will gradually work my way through the more technical material about the way these cars evolved through 1974-75 with a view to expanding this piece.
Etcetera Falcon GT 351 Coupe…
Interestingly, Auto Action published the ‘Super Bits’ FoMoCo homologated on August 14, before Bathurst that year, in its September 20, 1974 issue.
“The parts homologated include four-bolt main bearing blocks, forged aluminium pistons, a new slightly modified inlet manifold, modified cylinder heads, modified water pump, and an, as yet unused (by Allan Moffat) sump.”
“Moffat’s Falcon (at the Sandown 250) was modified at the rear suspension with the trailing arms being turned into leading links. Apart from all this, it was lowered more at the front, while still retaining enough ground clearance to pass over the ride height measure.”
“All this adds up to around two seconds a lap at Sandown using what amounted to a development car.”
Allan Moffat, Ford XB Falcon GT351 Coupe at Bathurst in October 1974. DNF, the race was won by the John Goss/Kevin Bartlett XA Ford Coupe (R Davies)
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)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 Jack Brabham 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 September 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. And pits hots as below.
(S Dalton Collection)
The above issue of Restored Cars had a 50th anniversary of The Australian Grand Prix feature, and articles on some of Lance Dixon’s cars of the time including the 8C, as above.
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, MotorSport Images, Reid Family Collection, John Hunter Collection, Fred Pearse, Sydney Morning Herald – Barry Lake, Stephen Dalton Collection
Arnold Glass and Clive Adams involved in a real estate dispute at Mount Druitt in August 1956. Maserati 4CL, ex-Sommer/Vennermark/Warren #1555/1579 and HRG Holden, ex-Ravdell now Shane Bowden.
Australian Motor Sports wrote about the change in ownership of the Maserati to Glass as follows, “The Late Cec Warren’s 1 1/2-litre Maserati has at last found a new home in Sydney. New owner Arnold Glass is perhaps better known as the only person in Australia possessing a Mustang fighter for his own private flying. This is a very potent piece of equipment as its performance is far superior to its wartime counterparts now that all the armament has been removed. If my memory serves me right, Arnold and the Mustang hold the Australia-New Zealand record even in this age of jets.”
Arnold and Johnny Zero, Bankstown perhaps, August 9, 1954 (SMH-Mauritius Images)Bright-red VH-BVM Mustang Mk20 at Bankstown in 1954, complete with 1954 REDeX Air Trial (DNF) and Capitol Motors branding (H Morris Collection)
Glass’ Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation built Mustang – CAC CA-17 Mustang Mk20 c/n 1330 / A68-5 VH-BVM G-ARKD – was one of the first 80 CAC Mustangs (A68-1 – A68-80) assembled at Fishermans Bend, in Melbourne’s inner-west, from 100 sets of semi-completed P-51D components supplied by North American Aviation – powered by pre-loved Packard Merlins – shipped from the US.
Brought on by the RAAF as A68-5 at Laverton on July 6, 1945, after a sedentary life of storage at Point Cook, Benalla and Tocumwal, the plane was sold to Sydney’s Flt Lt James LD Whiteman for £100 pounds in January 1953, he planned a spot of record breaking. Those with an interest in the life of this aircraft should click here: https://www.goodall.com.au/australian-aviation/mustangs-civil/austcivilmustangs.html
Among his many accomplishments, Arnold Glass was an aircraft engineer, doing some of his time (mechanic and fitter and turner) at Butler Air Transport. During his motorcycle trading years, in 1947, he bought a Tiger Moth and learned to fly.
Enroute to building his Capitol Motors business into an automotive importing, wholesaling and retailing colossus, Arnold had plenty of cash to splash on cars, boats, babes…and aircraft. His Australian Aviation Investments Pty Ltd company bought the Mustang on May 31, 1954.
AAI’s base was at Bankstown Airport, Sydney. Amongst his early aircraft deals, he imported three Perceval Proctors from the UK for re-sale in 1951. Glass never lost his interest in aircraft, among his purchases down-the decades were Lear jets, two ex-RAAF Vampire jets in 1971, and in the days he was domiciled in Monaco, RAF Lightnings and other jet fighters…as one does.
Ron Edgerton’s caption: “Arnold (Trinkets) Glass, Ferrari, Mt Druitt” 3.4-litre Ferrari 555 Super Squalo #FL9002, November 1957Stan Jones and Arnold during the 1959 Bathurst 100 weekend, Easter. Motor traders and Maserati 250F exponents both; another 250F won that weekend, driven by Kiwi, Ross Jensen (R Donaldson)
‘Trinkets’ Glass didn’t use the Mustang much. He named it Johnny Zero in recognition of the racehorse which won him over £30,000 in partnership with Bill Duffy. During this 1955-early 1960s period his businesses grew dramatically – Capitol Motors was selling over 1000 cars a year by the mid-1950s – so too his racing, so spare time for flying would have been at a premium.
Glass got to know works-BRM racer Ron Flockhart on his trips to Australasia and was happy to sell A68-5 to him for Ron’s planned international record breaking attempts; the deal was done on August 25, 1960. This plane is the first of Flockhart’s two Mustangs, not the one in which he died when he crashed into Melbourne’s Dandenong Ranges shortly after takeoff on April 12, 1962. That story is told here: https://primotipo.com/2018/05/31/flockharts-flights/
Arnold Glass raced plenty of interesting racing cars: among them a Ferrari 555 Super Squalo, BRM P48 and BRM P48 Buick V8 and a couple of Coopers but he was perhaps most at home in Maserati 250F chassis #2616, a low mileage machine raced initially in Australia by Reg Hunt in 1956, then Bib Stillwell before Arnold bought it.
Despite being a bit dated amongst the new-fangled Coopers in 1959, he and his forgiving Maserati finished fifth in the Gold Star with a pair of second placings in the South Pacific Championship at Gnoo Blas and the Bathurst 100 that Easter, both standout performances.
Still in the Maser, he was equal fourth in the Gold Star in 1960 with Lex Davison and his Aston Martin DBR4/300, the front-engined pair were behind four Cooper T51s driven by Alec Mildren, Bib Stillwell, Bill Patterson and Jack Brabham.
Arnold aboard the Maserati 250F during the Queensland Road Race Championship, Gold Star round at Lowood in September 1960. Sixth in the race won by Alec Mildren’s Cooper T51 Maserati – Gold Star winner that year (B Thomas)Glass and BRM P48 #482 Buick V8 during the November 1962 Australian Grand Prix at Caversham, WA. Q7 and fifth – and a zig when he zagged type collision with Brabham’s BT4 Climax on lap 50 destroying Jack’s dice with Bruce McLaren’s Cooper T62 for the lead (K Devine)
Glass’ last Gold Star points were won in a Lotus 27 Ford twin-cam 1.5 at Sandown and Lakeside in 1964. He was second in the one-race ANF 1 1/2-litre Championship at Warwick Farm on September 26 sandwiched behind the first and third placed Brabham BT6/BT2 Ford twin-cams of Greg Cusack and Roly Levis.
By 1976 Capital were selling over 23,000 Datsuns a year, primarily from a massive seven-hectare site on Parramatta Road, Auburn, Sydney. The scale of the operation attracted suitors, and in 1977 Australian National Industries Ltd bought the company for $A28.43 million. Arnold owned 49%, he walked away with $A13.47 million or $84.5 million in today’s dollars, big-biccies.
Reporting on the sale The Bulletin characterised “Capitol’s chairman, Arnold Glass as a gregarious , flamboyant former racing-car driver and divorcee, with a stable of girlfriends, a taste for high living and a fleet of powerboats moored in front of his harbourside pad at Cremorne.”
Glass joined the ANI board as deputy-Chairman, ‘retired’ to Monaco in 1984 but regularly visited Sydney, where he died aged 83 on January 16, 2009. A man who lived life to the full…and then some!
Glass getting ready for the off during the October 1960 Craven A International weekend at Bathurst. Jack Brabham won aboard a Cooper T51 Climax, with Arnold sixth in his Maserati 250F. It was his last race in a car which had been kind to him; a Cooper T51 Maserati was it’s replacement. David McKay is the easy pick, who are the others present? (R Donaldson)Arnold Glass in 1977 (The Bulletin)
Credits…
Australian Motor Sports October 1956, Sydney Morning Herald-Mauritius Images, Geoff Goodall’s Aviation History Site, Howard Morris Collection, The Bulletin July 2, 1977, Brier Thomas, Ken Devine, Bob Donaldson, Obituaries Australia, Paul Cummins-Cummins Archive, Ron Edgerton Collection, oldracingcars.com
Tailpieces…
(Cummins Collection)
The Bathurst win that got away on the last lap, Ferrari 555 Super Squalo…
The Bathurst 100 was the feature race of the 1958 Easter weekend meeting. Arnold led a good field which included Ern Seeliger, Maybach 4 Chev V8, Alec Mildren’s Cooper T43 Climax, Bill Pitt’s Jaguar D-Type and Doug Whiteford’s Maserati 300S.
Looking good, the big Ferrari four-cylinder engine blew on the last lap, Arnold was able to roll up the rise and over the line (below) but not before Whiteford took the chequered flag, Glass was second.
Paul Cummins wrote, “The 3 1/2-litre 860 Monza engine was sent back to the factory, but it wasn’t until the end of the year that a replacement was sent back. It was a 2 1/2-litre GP engine and Arnold wasn’t happy with the performance and later sold the car.” The 250F was soon in his garage…
Frank Gardner’s Alec Mildren Racing Brabham BT23D Alfa Romeo 2.5 V8 passes the disinterested family of a flaggie – I’m thinking – during the February 1968 Warwick Farm 100 Tasman Cup round…
There is a lot to be said for being an all British Motor Corporation family, I learned to drive in Mumbo’s Morris 1100 and have always had a soft spot for the Land Crab! (Austin 1800). I’m sure the kids are busy with their Social Studies homework.
(R Donaldson-SLNSW)
We’ve done this meeting to death before, the shot above shows Gardner in front of Jack Brabham’s BT23E Repco, Denny Hulme’s Brabham BT23A Ford FVA and AN Other.
(R Donaldson-SLNSW)
The race was won by Jim Clark from Graham Hill in the other works-Lotus 49 Ford DFW, then Piers Courage, McLaren M4A Ford FVA. The gaggle above, early in the race, shows Clark, Hill, Chris Amon, Ferrari 246T, Courage, largely obscured, then a gap to Gardner and Brabham.
Here is a clearer shot of FG and the BT23D at Warwick Farm. It was a unique one-off BT23 variant ordered from Ron Tauranac by Sydney racer/Alfa dealer/team owner Alec Mildren to carry 2.5-litre variants of the engines fitted Alfa Romeo’s contemporary Tipo 33 V8 sports-racer.
I’m cheating though, this shot was taken on the car’s successful race debut in the Hordern Trophy, the final ’67 Gold Star round that December. See here for more on this car: https://primotipo.com/2021/07/06/mellow-yellow/
Credits…
Bob Donaldson-State Library of New South Wales, oldracephotos.com/Dick Simpson
Frank Matich with a smidge of the opposites, guides his Lotus 19B Climax through Mount Maunganui, Tauranga in New Zealand’s North Island on December 28, 1963.
This short-lived 2.9km road circuit hosted two Bay of Plenty Premier Road Race meetings in 1962-63.
Matich led the ’63 feature in his new Brabham BT7A Climax (below) before throttle problems intervened, but he had more luck in the sportscar support, winning from Barry Porter’s Lotus 15 Climax.
(B Ferrabee)
FM’s Lotus 19 and 19B were important aspects of his rise and rise as a driver. Both cars were extensively developed by he and his small Sydney based team, so too the Brabham BT7A which still served it up to the visiting internationals in their latest cars 12 months later. The saga of the Matich Lotuses is here: https://primotipo.com/2017/09/08/bay-of-plenty-road-race-and-the-frank-matich-lotus-19s/
(B Ferrabee)
Who said Denny Hulme was the only Kiwi who lived in bare-feet!?
The Matich Brabham in its Total colours in the Pukekohe paddock during the 1964 New Zealand Grand Prix weekend, a fortnight after the Mount Maunganui meeting.
During 15 championship (Gold Star and Tasman) outings in BT7A IC-1-63 between December 1963 and July 1965 Matich was always a front runner but rarely a finisher. Frank’s best placings were second in the 1965 Sandown Gold Star round, and thirds in the 1964 South Pacific Trophy at Longford, and the 1965 Warwick Farm 100.
That latter race is indicative of Matich’s place in the order of things at the time. He started from pole in front of Graham Hill, Jim Clark, Bruce McLaren, Jack Brabham and Frank Gardner in the year old car.
(unattributed)
The all-Brabham front row before the South Pacific Trophy at Longford on March 2, 1964.
Jack Brabham on pole in BT7A with the similarly equipped Matich on the outside, sandwiching Graham Hill’s BT4. Hill won from Bruce McLaren’s Cooper T70 and Matich all Climax FPF powered. Jack suffered differential failure on lap 22, while McLaren won the first, 1964 Tasman Cup.
Red Dawson, Pukekohe November 1966 (M Fistonic)
Kiwi racer Red Dawson was the next owner of IC-1-63 and raced the BT7A from December 1965 to January 1969. His best with it was a win in the 1966 Waimate 50 and second placings in the Gold Star round that year at Renwick and at the ‘69 Pukekohe Gold Star round. The car was rebuilt as a sportscar in 1970, perhaps one of the Kiwis can tell us about that. See here for Allen Browns summary of the two BT7As: https://www.oldracingcars.com/brabham/bt7a/
Red Dawson and fellow racer John Riley and BT7A Climax (K Buckley)
Credits…
Alan Boyle, Brian Ferrabee, Milan Fistonic, Lionel Walker, Ken Buckley, oldracingcars.com
Tailpiece…
(L Walker)
The race debut of BT7A #IC-1-63. Frank Matich during practice for the Hordern Trophy Gold Star round at Warwick Farm in December 1963. Signalling his intent, he started from pole but retired after a collision with reigning Gold Star Champion, Bib Stillwell’s Brabham BT4.
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