Posts Tagged ‘Australian Motor Racing History’

Australian Racing Random 16…

Posted: December 27, 2024 in Features, Fotos
Tags: , , , ,
6

‘Here’s an oldie my dad took when he came home from the war aged 20. He said he took this in 1946, it’s heading up Mountain Straight towards The Cutting,’ Wayne Greene said of his father, Ron Greene.

He’s a bit out, it’s actually 1948 John Medley tells us, and Alf Najar’s MG TB Spl is leading the pack on the parade lap before the start of the New South Wales Hundred, a race won by John Barraclough’s MG NE Magnette. Najar, winner of the event in 1946, was unplaced.

Bathurst pits, date unknown (VSCCA)

Chris Amon, Lotus 70 Ford in the Warwick Farm pitlane during the 1971 Warwick Farm 100 Tasman Cup round. He was second in the race won by Frank Gardner’s Lola T192 Chev.

Lotus shipped the car, Lotus 70-02, to Australia for works-driver Dave Walker to race in the 1970 Australian Grand Prix at Warwick Farm (below), he was fifth in the race won by Frank Matich’s McLaren M10B Repco-Holden.

Chris Amon and David Oxton then played swapsies during the 1971 Tasman Cup with a pair of STP sponsored cars: the Lotus 70 and a March 701 Ford DFW 2.5-litre. There is a bit about that at the end of this arcticle: https://primotipo.com/2024/08/11/new-zealand-racing-random-1/

Alec Mildren on his way to winning the 1960 Australian Grand Prix in the very clever Cooper T51 Maserati concepted by Alec and built up by Glenn Abbey in their Sydney ‘shop.

The race is covered in this lengthy epic about the car: https://primotipo.com/2020/07/07/panoramic-lowood/ The panorama below takes us there, wonderful innit?

(Govt Queensland)

(J Jamieson)

David McKay exits Hell Corner in ‘Grey Pussy’, his first Jaguar Mk 1 3.4 at Bathurst October 6, 1958.

McKay won the 1960 Australian Touring Car Championship at Gnoo Blas in his later car, there is a bit about that event at the end of this piece: https://primotipo.com/2014/08/05/gnoo-who-gnoo-blas-circuit-jaguar-xkc-type-xkc037/

CAMS and the Supercar Mafiosi would have you believe the 1960 race was the first ATCC, it wasn’t, the first was way back in 1939, at Lobethal: https://primotipo.com/2018/10/04/first-australian-touring-car-championship-lobethal-1939/

Did the earth move for you darling!?

Frank Matich and his Matich SR4 Repco 760 4.8 V8 about to blow off the high-winged Matich SR3 Repco raced by Don O’Sullivan, Bob Beasley’s Lotus 47 behind Matich and Glyn Scott’s Lotus 23B Ford at right and the rest blast off during Surfers Paradise Australian Sportscar Championship round in 1969.

Matich SR4 epic here: https://primotipo.com/2016/07/15/matich-sr4-repco-by-nigel-tait-and-mark-bisset/

(D Willis)

Catalina Park, Katoomba grid in August 1962: David McKay in the #10 Scuderia Veloce Cooper T53 Climax, then Kevin Bartlett, Lynx BMC FJ, the obscured red BRM P48 of Arnold Glass and Leo Geoghegan’s dark Lotus by the KLG sign. It’s Greg Cusack in the older SV T51 Cooper on the second row, alongside him is the Gordon Stewart, Stewart MG and Frank Walters in the George Reed Special Ford V8 ‘So Cal’.

(G Moulds)

Swiss engine-whizz, Louis Morand provided the Chev engines which powered the Racing Team VDS Chevron B24s of Teddy Pilette and here, Peter Gethin, before the off at the Sandown Tasman round in February 1974.

Peter had a great weekend, winning the race from Graham McRae, McRae GM2 Chev and John Walker, Lola T330 Repco-Holden. He had a great series too, winning it with victories here at Sandown and at Pukekohe, the NZ GP.

(C Hyams Archive)
(G Moulds)

Peter Gethin was one of the Kings of F5000 from its earliest days, winning the first British F5000 Championship in 1969, and then won it again in his F1 breakthrough year, 1970. He mixed F5000 with other single-seater and sportscar drives throughout his career; he was a very popular racer in Australasia with regular visits through until 1977.

The dominant F5000s of that era were the Lola T330/T332 and derivatives, but Chevrons B24 and B28 won their share of races steered by the likes of Gethin, Teddy Pilette – who won the 1973 Euro F5000 Championship aboard the same VDS B24 he raced that Australasian Summer of ’74 – Tony Dean, Steve Thompson, and Brian Redman until he threw in his lot with Jim Hall’s Chaparral/Lola outfit, dominant in the US of course.

Check out Allen Brown’s summaries of the Chevron B24 here:https://www.oldracingcars.com/chevron/b24/ and B28 here: https://www.oldracingcars.com/chevron/b28/

(G Moulds)
(G Woodward)

‘Des West’s second Holden 48-215 has just returned to Des’s Wingham workshop after breaking his old cars record at Lowood in 1964.’

More on the Holden 48-215 here, and on West’s car at the end of this article: https://primotipo.com/2018/12/06/general-motors-holden-formative/

(J Lemm)

Alan Hamilton about to launch his Porsche 906 Spyder #906-007 off the line at Collingrove in South Australia’s Barossa Valley in April 1967. He set a course record of 35.60 seconds that day.

Hamilton had a successful season with the car before selling it to Hong Konger, Richard Wong late in the year. See here: https://primotipo.com/2015/08/20/alan-hamilton-his-porsche-9048-and-two-906s/

The road cars of the day always provide valuable visual context for just how advanced a racing car is, don’t you think? Chrysler Valiant, Toyota Crown and Holden HD in the Collingrove paddock in 1967 (J Lemm)

The Bugatti Holden – T37-37209 – at Phillip Island circa-1958. Who is the driver folks, John Elkins or John Pyers?

#37209 gave Bill Thompson his AGP debut at Phillip Island in 1929, he only did two laps before blowing the engine. It had nine or so owners before ‘Bud’ Luke fitted a Holden Grey six-cylinder engine in time for the 1952 Bathurst Easter meeting. Bob King claims that Luke created the very first Holden engined racing special in so doing.

Owned for a long time by David Watson in Glen Iris, Melbourne it always brought a smile to my face when he was setting off on his early morning Sunday run just as I set off on mine; his was Holden powered, mine was Nike fuelled…https://primotipo.com/2018/10/07/werrangourt-archives-2-holden-engined-bugattis-by-bob-king/

(K Bayliss)

A lousy photograph before the start of an Easter 1970 Racing Car Scratch at Mount Panorama: John Harvey, Brabham BT23E Repco, Leo Geoghegan Lotus 39 Repco, and on this side, Niel Allen, McLaren M10B Chev.

But as Lynton Hemer wrote ‘an important bit of Bathurst history is about to start…Lap 3 of 3 in the Captain Cook Trophy was a 2.09.7sec’ journey. Nigel Allen set a lap record that stood for 32 years, see here: https://primotipo.com/2018/11/26/bathurst-lap-record/

(M Bradley)

Kevin Bartlett turns into Warwick Farm’s Esses in the iconic ‘Yellow Submarine’, the Alec Mildren Racing Mildren Waggott 2-litre TC-4V.

It’s the 1970 Warwick Farm 100 Tasman Cup round that KB won in splendid fashion ahead of a swag of 2.5-litre Tasman and 5-litre F5000 cars. Surely the Sub’s finest hour was on February 15, 1970? To make Alec Mildren’s day complete, Max Stewart, KB’s teammate and great mate finished second, a second back, in the Rennmax built spaceframe-Brabham BT23 copy Mildren Waggott TC-4V 2-litre.

Just can’t get enough of the Sub…originally Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 2.5-litre V8 powered, the Mildren Alfa was designed by Len Bailey and built by Alan Mann Racing for Frank Gardner’s 1969 Tasman Cup campaign. Then Bartlett took it over and won his second Gold Star with it later that year using Alfa Romeo and late in the year, Waggott TC-4V 2-litre power. See here: https://primotipo.com/2017/11/14/missed-it-by-that-much/

(Guy & Penny)

The best of the Maybachs…

The coulda-woulda-shoulda been Maybach 2, here in the Southport paddock before its untimely death the following day during the 1954 Australian Grand Prix on November 7.

A chassis weld broke pitching Stan Jones into the mother-and-father of an accident he was lucky to survive. His mount didn’t share his good fortune.

See here for the race: https://primotipo.com/2018/03/01/1954-australian-grand-prix-southport-qld/ and here for technical details of Maybach 2: https://primotipo.com/2024/03/22/maybachs-2-4-technical-specifications-by-john-goode/

(K Trotter)

John McCormack awaits the start of the Sandown 100 Tasman Cup round in February 1975, Elfin MR6 Repco-Holden. To the right is John Leffler’s new Bowin P8 Chev.

It was a great day for SuperMac, he finished second behind John Goss’ similarly powered Matich A53 Repco. That ’75 Tasman was a bounce-back campaign for the understated Tasmanian, his new Elfin MR6 had problems, mainly with the also new Repco-Leyland engine, the development of which stalled when Repco withdrew from racing mid-year.

Frustrated with continuous engine failures, McCormack set the Repco-Leyland V8 aside and went back to reliable Repco-Holden power and finished fourth in the Tasman with a pair of seconds at Teretonga and Sandown. Finishes in all but one round was a further indication of a change in fortunes.

Then he brought home the Gold Star bacon for the second time winning the ’75 title in the MR6 Repco-Holden with two wins in the five rounds at Oran Park and Calder. See here: https://primotipo.com/2021/02/11/repco-rbe-980-series-billy-cart/ He would win a third ‘Star of course, Repco-Leyland-McCormack/Irving V8 powered…

(C Adams)

Jeweller Jack Robinson and a group of friends at a race meeting with his Jaguar XK120, chassis 660178, purchased on January 26, 1951.

Terry McGrath reports that he raced the car at Mount Druitt and Bathurst – winning a race at Mount Panorama in October’51 – in 1951-52 and was thought to have been sold before he built up his XK120 special,’ which is shown below at Bathurst in October 1955.

(I Arnold)

Robinson’s best race was a win in the handicap section of the October 1953 New South Wales Grand Prix at Gnoo Blas. He raced the car right through into the early-1960s including the first Warwick Farm meeting, the Warwick Farm Trophy event on December 18, 1960. What became of it?

(P Geard)

Bruce Walton aboard Norman Hamilton’s Porsche 550 Spyder at Mountford corner, Longford in March 1958.What a shot! See here: https://primotipo.com/2018/06/28/hamiltons-porsche-550-spyder/

Jack Hunnam’s Elfin Mono Mk2D Lotus-Ford ANF 1.5 #MD6574 was completed at Elfin Sports Cars Edwardstown workshop in January 1967 and is shown above upon its debut at Winton that March.

Hunnam was Elfin’s Victorian agent. He was third in the 1963 Australian FJ Championship at Warwick Farm aboard an Elfin Ford FJ #6312 behind Leo Geoghegan’s Lotus 22 Ford and Greg Cusack’s Brabham Ford.

(unattributed)

He was seventh in the 1966 Australian One and a Half Litre Championship in a Mark 1 Mono Lotus-Ford #M6443 and ninth in the ’67 Championship with the Mk 2D. He scored four Gold Star points in 1966 with his Mono Mk1 (at Calder above) and one point in 1967 with the #36 car above.

Operator of a Glenhuntly Road, Elsternwick servo in the period he raced the Elfins, by the early 1970s Jack Hunnam Motors (JHM) was in Wren Road, Moorabbin (below).

David ‘Chocolates’ Robertsons Ford Capri Boss 302 Sports Sedan awaits its turn on the dyno…What became of Jack after those years?

(M Leslie)
Hunnam leads a gaggle of cars at Warwick Farm during the 1963 Australian FJ Championship race. His Elfin Ford FJ is being chased by the J Gates Lotus 18 (E Holly Collection)
(A Thompson)

Graham Thompson in the ex-Doug Whiteford Talbot Lago T26C #110007 1952-53 Australian Grand Prix winning car going through Dandenong Road corner at Sandown circa 1963 in an historic event. Amazing given that Barry Collerson raced the car very skilfully in-period into 1961!

Thompson acquired the car from Arnold Glass’ Capitol Motors in Sydney in September 1962, here she is below in the driveway of his Bendigo home shortly thereafter.

Bernie Ecclestone eventually bought it and I guess it’s now for sale. See here: https://primotipo.com/2022/05/04/doug-whiteford-talbot-lago-t26c-take-3/

(A Thompson)
(Guy & Penny-Brier Thomas)

Bill Anderson aboard the Prad Healey 100-6 at Lakeside during the Queensland Tourist Trophy meeting in November 1962. John Dickson advises that it’s Sid Sakzewski’s Porsche Carrera with Orlando ‘Tony’ Basile the driver while Sid was in Italy on a business trip.

The interesting but sad story of this beautiful Healey is here: https://primotipo.com/2018/07/01/prad-healey/

Bill Pitt, in the Anderson Jaguar D-Type #XKD526 charges across the top of Mount Panorama during the October 1958 Australian Tourist Trophy.

He failed to finish the race won by David McKay’s Aston Martin DB3S. The story of this car is here: https://primotipo.com/2016/03/18/lowood-courier-mail-tt-1957-jaguar-d-type-xkd526-and-bill-pitt/

(Guy & Penny)

Leo Geoghegan, Lotus 20 Ford and Gavin Youl, MRD Ford? at Lakeside in 1962. Geoghegan won the Australian FJ Championship at Warwick Farm in 1963 racing a Lotus 22 Ford.

Credits…

Ron Greene, Vintage Sports Car Club of Australia, Graham Ruckert, Glenn Moulds, Colin Hyams Archive, John Lemm, Janice Jamieson, Garry Woodward, Mal Bradley, Keith Trotter, Chantelle Adams, Terry McGrath, Paul Geard Collection, Ed Holly Collection, Ian Smith, Ian Arnold via Mark Arnold, Thompson Family Archive, Ray Bell, Monty Leslie

Finito…

Cheetah F5000…

Posted: December 20, 2024 in Who,What,Where & When...?
Tags: , , , ,
15

Would you believe Brian Sampson blasting his Cheetah Mk5 Chev through Shell corner at Sandown in 1973? Nup, me neither…

Clearly he was playing with downdraught Webers instead of the 40DCOE’s usually fitted to his works-Motor Improvements 1.3-litre Toyota Corolla based F3 engine, an experiment that didn’t cause him to change induction direction: the car is a Cheetah Mk5 Toyota.

Sambo in his Cheetah Mk5 Toyota at Hume Weir circa 1973 (M Bishop)

Great little motors, one was fitted to an ASP 340 Clubman car I owned. Lordy knows how many 1.3-litre ANF3 and Clubman races those engines won in mid-1970s in the hands of works-pilots Brian Shead, Brian Sampson and Peter Jones plus a swag of customers of whom Peter Macrow, Paul King and Dean Hosking readily spring to mind. There were plenty more.

The Two Amigos, Bruce Williams and Brian Sampson, outside Brian’s Speco Thomas, Moorabbin warehouse on July 6, 2021. The car is Sambo’s Cheetah Mk6 Toyota Celica 1.6 ANF2 car (M Bisset)
(M Bisset)

I got to know Brian later in his life via my friend and Auto Action publisher/owner Bruce Williams. I did a piece about the Cheetah Mk6 for Auto Action in July 2021 and spent the better part of a day talking to Brian and Brendan Jones while Sambo and Williams relentlessly and hilariously hung-shit on one another for the duration. They had known and worked together for the better part of 40 years.

We did a return bout not too long before Brian died (17 November 2023), I’ve never completed the planned two articles, but we taped the long three-way chat and one day will remove the too-naughty bits and pop it up on the A-A website. Such a talented driver, engineer and businessman, not forgetting the top-bloke factor.

(Sampson Archive)

Brian buckles up, probably, but not definitely in the works-Toyota Celica sports-sedan which is shown below at Warwick Farm, perhaps in early 1973.

(Sampson Archive)

Etcetera…

(Sampson Archive)
(Sampson Archive)

After the initial post, racer, Brendan Jones, Sampson’s stepson sent me some more shots of Brian racing with the downdraught setup. The two shots above are at Adelaide International?, the two below at Calder. That’s David Crabtree’s #70 self modified Cheetah MK 4 below, a car he still owns. Dates of the meetings would be a bonus too.

(Sampson Archive)
(Sampson Archive)

Credits…

Brian Sampson Archive via Brendan Jones, Auto Action Archive-Greg Stanfield by courtesy of Bruce Williams, Mark Bishop

Tailpieces…

(Greg Stanfield)

Of course, Cheetah aficionados know that Brian Shead built an F5000 car – of sorts – the Cheetah Mk4 Oldsmobile 3.5-litre V8. Originally to Don Biggar’s order, it’s raced above by Ian Judd at Mount Leura, Camperdown in the mid-1970s. Judd won the Australian Hillclimb Championship with it at Morwell in 1977.

See here for a piece I wrote in the current issue of Australian Auto Action about hillclimbing in the 1970s including this car, it’s on page 40: https://issuu.com/me8674/docs/aa1901_digital_issue

(Auto Action)

Of course there was a time when motor-noters speculated about Brian Shead building an F5000 Cheetah, in the mid-1970s.

Auto Action’s graphic designer has used a shot of Sambo aboard a Mk5 at Calder as the basis of his rendering of a potential ‘Cheetah Chev’ in issue #126, December 1975.

Finito…

Fugly Car Cup 3…

Posted: December 14, 2024 in Sports Racers
Tags: , , , , , , ,
1
(M Bishop)

Bernie Bignell in his Lotus 23B Oldsmobile GT at Winton in 1976, that’s Alan Newton’s R&T Chev aka the ex-Frank Matich-Niel Allen Elfin 400 Chev behind, and a gaggle of Clubmans in the distance..

This remarkably ugly Lotus was bought by Dr Bernie from Willie Green in the UK in 1970. Motor Racing and Sportscar reported in January 1968 that Green, ‘a very rapid bra-strap manufacturer’ planned to turn Lotus 23 #23-S-70 into a GT car.

D &A Shells operating from the Bow flyover area of East London, in the region of Abbey and Livingstone Roads produced the Mercury GT ‘kit’. Quite a few were sold as the 23/23B approached middle-age and GT-racing grew.

The unfinished project, complete with Mercury body, Hewland HD5 transaxle and a bell-housing to suit an aluminium Oldsmobile/Buick V8 ended up in the hands of a dealer in Redditch from whom Bignell acquired the car.

Attractive enough at a distance! Bignell at Lakeland Hillclimb, east of Melbourne in 1972 (R Rodgers)

Bignell soon installed an 3.5-litre aluminium Oldsmobile V8 fed by four downdraught Webers, the thing was an arresting sight on-track and certainly sounded the goods. As a teenage spectator I remember it – how could you forget? – racing at Calder and Phillip Island, and perhaps Sandown.

Bernie enhanced the performance of the thing by lengthening the wheelbase by six inches, making changes to the suspension, adapting F5000 brakes and in a back-to-the-future moment returned the car back to open-sports spec. The result was a towering monument to supreme ugliness, ‘as the coupe was like a sauna even with the air-scoop’.

Bignell’s car at Calder in 1974. Gulf colours distract from a multitude of sins… (oldracephotos.com-Hammond)
(G Stanfield via Marc Schagen)

Marc Schagen records that Bernie contested 32 race meetings until an engine failure sidelined it in 1978.

Master engineer/mechanic/team manager, the legendary John Sheppard – he has 13 national championships and two Bathurst 1000s to his name – bought the car and restored it to original Lotus Ford twin-cam specs circa 1981, it has passed through many hands since.

John Sheppard in the Lotus 23 at the Mangalore Airport sprints in 1993. Both the 23 and Lotus 22 Ford are in Geoghegan colours. Sheppo prepared their cars in period, the 22 is ex-Geoghegan, the 23 is not. Roy Williams in Sabrina awaits his turn (S Dalton)
The RH Millar Lotus 23B Ford 1.6 Mercury GT, Llandow August 1968 (H Llewelyn)

Etcetera…
Mr Sainswor wrote on the tentenths.com forum about the ‘Background on D&A and the Mercury GT.
Founders Dennis Pollard and Alan Fowler, of D & A Shells, Ltd., started in London in 1962 to provide body kits and chassis for customers to convert their own cars (i.e. the Merlyn MK6 and Lotus 23) into closed GT cars.

In addition they produced a small number of space frames specifically to fit their fibreglass bodies. They continued to produce bodies and chassis for various frames and manufacturers until 1970 under the trade name Mercury.

The cars from D & A were period frames from various manufacturers fitted with the required body at D & A’s London site. The Mercury has a square tube frame originally thought to have been built by Chevron or Groopers of London and fitted with a Lotus 23 body, (note that the frame is four inches shorter than the Lotus 23). Because of it’s extremely light weight, rigid frame and semi-monocoque construction, it is much stronger than the Lotus 23.

I fell in love with these cars about 1965 when I saw one racing at the 750MC Relay at Snetterton entered by Mike Spence Racing (along with a Tojeiro EE ) – they were in the Scratch team. I know that George Silverwood raced one for some time (1300cc car?), and there was one that ran in the up to 2000cc class in the Motoring News GT Championship driven by Reg Skeels(?). The 2 litre car had cast magnesium MRE (Brabham) wheels – 7″ fronts and 9″ rears. I recall one well known Mercury GT had the registration number UWT2F (this might have been George Silverwood’s car – but can’t remember)’.

Credits…

Mark Bishop, Richard Rodgers, Lotus : The Historic Sports & Racing Cars of Australia’ Marc Schagen, The Nostalgia Forum, sainswor on tentenths.com, oldracephotos.com, Hugh Llewelyn via Wikipedia, Stephen Dalton

Finito…

Elfin FF84P Formula Ford…

Posted: December 11, 2024 in Features
Tags: , , , , , ,
0
(S McCawley)

Elfin boss, Tony Edmondson, about to have a steer of his new Elfin FF84P on July 27, 1984 before handing the car over to Mark Poole in the centre. It’s a significant day in the history of Elfin Sports Cars.

Company founder, Garrie Cooper’s untimely death was on April 25, 1982. Garrie’s father, Cliff, kept the wheels on the wagon after dealing with his grief, building and selling six Elfin NG (New Generation) Formula Vees and continuing repair and restoration work. This car is the first built under the Don Elliott and Tony Edmondson ownership/management regime after the sale by the Coopers to them in 1983.

All enveloping body work, inboard rear suspension by upper and wide based lower wishbones. Vertically mounted spring-shock assy actuated by a pullrod with a separate link for toe adjustment (C Canon)

Reflecting on the early period of his Elfin ownership, Elliott said, ‘We thought, bugger it, there’s no-one building cars (in Australia), so we built a couple of Formula Fords. It started from there. We were flat out from that time building and repairing cars.’

FF84P #EP006 was designed by Jon Porter together with Edmondson, and built by that pair and legendary Elfin welder/fabricator Fulvio Mattiolo; Porter and Mattiolo stayed on after the sale of the business.

Mark Poole was the designated driver, he had been making name for himself in an Elfin NG and an old Elfin 623 VW ANF2 car. Poole’s father, Keith made the very first Elfin NG sing way back in 1976. Keith’s business, Volksrepair was Elfin Sports Cars neighbour at 3-7 Conmurra Ave, Edwardstown; Elfins were at 1 Conmurra. Mark Poole operates RSR Sports Cars, a Porsche race, service and restoration business from the same address today.

Poole contested local meetings (?), the 1984 Winton round of the Australian Formula Ford Driver to Europe Series finishing ninth, he took in the ’85 Oran Park round and was seventh. The car was sold to David Craig in 1986, he ran Russell Ingall in it in the ’87 FF race at the Australian GP carnival in Adelaide, finishing ninth. Clive Hill bought it in 1989.

Russell Ingall negotiates one of Adelaide’s chicanes during the 1987 AGP weekend aboard the FF84P (ETSS)
Right hand shift for the four-speed Hewland Mk 9 transaxle (C Canon)

Tony Edmondson, ‘The Formula Ford was an in-house development funded entirely from the factory and the intention was always to be competitive in that car, then make multiple cars for customers.’

Only one customer car was sold, #EP009 was completed in 1985, and therefore called an FF85 and sold to David Duncombe.

‘With Formula Ford, the leaning was always for competitors to buy tried and proven cars from England. That was disappointing. That’s the sort of marketplace that we were dealing with all the time’, recalled Edmondson.

It’s the sort of marketplace Elfin, Bowin, Birrana, Cheetah, Rennmax and others have always faced, and in which they often prevailed.

If Edmondson and Elliott wanted to sell FFs in volume, the-go would have been to put Elfin Old-Boy Larry Perkins into the FF84P for two days of testing to get the basic settings right: springs, bars, camber, castor, toe, brake bias etc. Then plonk into it a seasoned FF campaigner, bringing a bit of a budget and win a few races. Ingall would have done quite nicely, not that he was a seasoned FF pilot at that stage; he won the Australian title/series aboard a Van Diemen RF90 in 1990 before heading to the UK and more FF success. His subsequent FF credentials are well covered here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Ingall

Lovely top-rocker actuating coil spring shocks, wide based lower wishbones (C Canon)

The standout FF designs in 1984-85 were Adrian Reynard’s Reynard FF83-84, and the Van Diemen RF85, these cars were inspired by David Bruns’ Swift DB1 in the United States, one of THE FF designs; none raced here in-period.

Edmondson mucks in. 1.6-litre Ford Cortina 711M overhead-two-valve, single twin-choke Weber fed engine gives about 110bhp (C Canon)

The slender chassis, needle nose, hip radiators, central fuel tank and inboard suspension front and rear are all absolutely state of the FF art at the time. It does make you wonder what the cars could have done with the right development…

Credits…

Steve McCawley, Colin Locke Canon via the Auto Action Archive courtesy of Bruce Williams, ‘ETSS’ ‘Elfin:The Spirit of Speed’ David Dowsey

Finito…

Woodside Speed Records…

Posted: December 7, 2024 in Features, Obscurities
Tags: , , , , , ,
4
(unattributed)

The Australian Land Speed Record session held at Woodside on the Ninety Mile Beach in Gippsland on September 4, 1938 was the first held in Victoria.

The Light Car Club of Australia promoted it, while the Yarram branch of the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV) ran the event which used you-beaut electrical timing apparatus accurate to one-hundredth of a second approved by the Australian Automobile Association.

The drawcard was Peter Whitehead and his ERA B-Type R10B. The photograph above shows him warming the engine and transmission of the car at Woodside, collar, tie and all.

He was in Australia on behalf of the family firm W&J Whitehead of West Yorkshire, and doing a spot of motor racing, hillclimbing…and record breaking here at Woodside and in Canberra. All of this lot is covered in this epic: https://primotipo.com/2015/04/16/peter-whitehead-in-australia-era-r10b-1938/

(M Gallagher Collection)
(unattributed)

Other drivers granted permission to have a crack were the following: Class C 3-5-litres: RND Miller, Vauxhall 30-98 and AH Oliver, Lagonda Class D 1.5-2-litres: JN Derham, Vauxhall Class F 1-1.5-litres: JP ‘Jim’ Leech, Frazer Nash TT Replica and Class H 500-750cc: DM George MG J4 supercharged.

The stretch of beach chosen was four miles long and 60 feet wide, the existing outright record was held by three-times Australian Grand Prix winner Bill Thompson on a supercharged 1.5-litre Bugatti T37A.

The 156 mile trip from Melbourne was quite a journey for the time. It’s amusing now to look at how much of the newspaper (the what?) coverage in the week before the event was devoted just to getting there, the three suggested routes were explored by the papers in some detail inclusive of maps. Different to the Google maps exercise on ‘yer iPhone today…

Peter Whitehead and Jim Leech aboard the latters Frazer Nash TT Rep #2134 at Rob Roy Hillclimb – where Peter had won the Australian Hillclimb Championship in R10B not long before – November 20, 1938. Whitehead did a 34.77 sec best (Davey Milne Archive)
(unattributed)

Poor Jim Leech ran off the road on the way to the event in his Frazer Nash, but 6,000 others came from far and wide to see the spectacle before the fickle finger of weather fate ruined the day.

A strong south-easterly wind prevented the usual fall of the tide, ‘after the English driver Peter Whitehead had covered a flying-mile at an average of 118.8mph in his special 1500cc E.R.A. car the waves washed over the track and prevented any further serious attempts,’ recorded the Melbourne’s The Argus.

As Peter’s speed was set on one run, rather than the required each-way average of two, Thompson’s one-mile record of 112.5mph set in Canberra on May 11, 1935 still stood; Bugatti T37A.

No helmet for Whitehead, as at Bathurst when he won the AGP, proximity of Bass Straight clear and threatening (unattributed)

An estimated 2,000 cars conveyed the punters into the sand hummocks along the picturesque track many hours before the events were scheduled to begin.

‘Trials were impossible owing to the tide. With only a few yards of wet sand between the flags and the waves on the four mile course. Whitehead pluckily started up so as not to disappoint the crowd. He was obstructed by water on his first run, however, and although he averaged 118.8mph in his next run, his car plunged through the lip of a wave, tearing away apparatus for cooling the brakes, ripping off the oil filler cap, and partially flooding the crankcase with salt water.’

‘He maintained control, but it was evident that he had no chance of putting the record up to 135mph which was his hope.’

Derry George, MG J3 #3763 this shot and below (M Gallagher Collection)
(unattributed)

The AAA, LCCA and RACV reps then met and decided to allow some attempts by other drivers while Whiethead and his crew effected repairs to R10B.

W Barker, holder of the flying-mile motorcycle record (118.42mph) and five miles record (116.42mph) took out his 998cc Zenith but he also clouted a wave and was unable to continue.

Next up was Big Bertha. F Oliver’s Lagonda provided a spectacular display sending up showers of spray in attempting to set Class C records but the conditions ensured his times were slow.

The AH Oliver Lagonda (M Gallagher Collection)
Tim Joshua’s Frazer Nash Single Seater (what chassis number folks, ‘SS1’ is I think the chassis type, not the number?) at Lobethal during the 1938 South Australian GP weekend. Ron Edgerton at left, later owner of the FN, Joshua on the right alongside the MG K3s #3 Colin Dunne and #2 Lyster Jackson (Leon Sims Collection)

‘With waves lapping the tent containing the electric timing apparatus and washing completely over the finishing point, GM ‘Tim’ Joshua examined the track in his Frazer Nash and decided it was useless to make a run. Officials prevented any further attempts and there was a rush to get cars off the beach before the tide rose farther. The crowd had to lend willing hands to help several vehicles out of difficulties.’

‘Afterwards, the director of the trials, Mr JW Williamson, expressed supreme disappoint with the result. The crowd, who had enjoyed the outing in brilliant sunshine, took it in good part.’

‘It was the first attempt made in Victoria to set such records. Normally the beach would be almost ideal for the purpose, and further attempts will probably be made there shortly.’ The Argus concluded…

Not so, as it transpired.

(unattributed)

Etcetera…

(T Johns Collection)
(T Johns Collection)

The Car was ‘the official organ of the Light Car Club of Australia’, so this is the way the organiser saw the day.

(T Johns Collection)

Kenneth Maxwell was a member of Whitehead’s ’38 Touring Party and wrote this letter to the editor of The Car about the equipe’s experiences early in the trip, published in the June-July issue.

The Car was the Light Car Club’s magazine, the trip to run-in the ERA between Albury and Melbourne sounds interesting!

The Fraser Nash TT Rep and Single Seater, MG J3 and the ERA are still alive and well, all but the latter remain in Australia.

Coincidentally, both the J3 and TT Rep were brought to Australia and first raced by George Martin, the Melbourne based Cunard White Star Line representative who died on the way home from the 1938 AGP at Bathurst. He and his wife crashed the BMW 328 in which George had finished 15th near Wagga Wagga.

The shot above shows the Frazer Nash TT and ex-Brabham Cooper T23 Chev aka RedeX Special, at the Davey Milne home in April. The FN requires recommissioning but the Cooper is a runner, ask the neighbours!

Credits…

The Argus September 5, 1938, Martin Gallagher Collection, Davey Milne Archive, Leon Sims Collection, Tony Johns Collection

Finito…

Peter Holinger…

Posted: November 27, 2024 in Features, Rodways Repco Recollections
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
11
(J Lemm)

John Lemm’s fabulous portrait of five-star racer, engineer and industrialist Peter Holinger as he awaits a run at Collingrove Hillclimb in South Australia’s Barossa Valley during 1973. His machine is a self-built Holinger Repco RB620 4.4-litre V8.

Let’s not ponder fireproof racegear and six-point harnesses in Australian hillclimbing at the time…

Peter won the Australian Hillclimb Championship in 1976 at Bathurst, 1978 at Collingrove, 1979 at Mount Cotton, Queensland and finally, 1988, at Fairbairn Park, Canberra in another Repco V8 powered – 5-litre Repco 720 – Holinger Repco.

Peter Holinger’s life and the business success is well-told here: http://holinger.com.au/the-holinger-story

Holinger aboard the car below at Lakeland, Victoria in 1976.

When Peter’s great friend and Repco colleague, Rodway Wolfe, purchased Brabham BT31-1 Repco – Jack’s 1969 Tasman machine – from Repco in 1971, Holinger stored the car for Rod and took photographs and the dimensions of it with Wolfe’s blessing, the Holinger Repco was the result.

Rod recalled, ‘He duplicated the chassis so well that years later at Morwell Hillclimb he borrowed the shock absorbers and a few bits from BT31 and won the event with some of my suspension parts.’ See here: https://primotipo.com/2015/02/26/rodways-repco-recollections-brabham-bt31-repco-jacks-69-tasman-car-episode-4/

Peter in the Holinger Repco at Lakeland, Victoria in 1976 (Auto Action)
(J Lemm)

Lemm’s perfectly focussed shot of Holinger at Collingrove ’73 with a ‘touch of the BRMs’ as the car was then configured. Lemm wrote that the single-rear-disc brake set up comprised a rotor and caliper donated by a Renault R8.

‘The 4.4-litre 620 series Repco had special camshafts made by Peter to give greater low end torque,’ wrote ex-Repco Brabham Engine Company engineer, Nigel Tait. ‘He started to make that engine not very long after we’d moved (Repco Brabham Engines) from Richmond to Maidstone. Apart from being a very clever guy, Peter was an absolutely delightful person,’ Nigel said. Everything you ever wanted to know about the RBE 620 V8: https://primotipo.com/2014/08/07/rb620-v8-building-the-1966-world-championship-winning-engine-rodways-repco-recollections-episode-2/

The very first firing of any Repco Ltd built complete engine, the 2.5-litre RB620 V8 E1 – use of the Oldsmobile F85 block in the 620 engines is duly noted – in cell four of the Repco Engine Laboratory Richmond, on its Heenan & Froude GB4 dyno, March 26, 1965. That’s Phil Irving at left with stereo-typical inch of ash on his ciggie, Bob Brown, the Repco Ltd director responsible for the Repco Engine Parts Manufacturing Group of which Repco Brabham Engines Pty Ltd was a part, Frank Hallam, RBE general manager, and Peter Holinger, then head machinist and technician. Those Webers were borrowed from Bib Stillwell up the road in Kew, the Lucas fuel injection system had not yet arrived. E1 was the only engine fitted with carbs, and not for long, all RBE V8s were Lucas injected…except an Indy Turbo R&D engine that never got closer to the track than the Maidstone dyno-house (Repco)

Holinger knew a thing or two about these engines having machined and assembled the very first 2.5-litre RB620-E1 V8 together with its designer, Phil Irving – Irving drew every single RBE620 design drawing – in February-March 1965. Indeed, Holinger was present in the Repco Engine Laboratory in Richmond when that engine was fired up for the very first time on March 26, 1965.

Peter was already hillclimbing another self built machine, the Holinger Vincent s/c during this period at Repco, and when he first went out on his own. The two shots below are both at Silverdale, NSW, in 1966 and 1969.

(K Power)
(Australian Motor Racing Annual)

The ongoing evolution of the Holinger Vincent was also typical of Peter’s subsequent two hillclimbers, the shots below are of the Holinger Repco ‘BT31’ taken at the daunting, fast, Mount Tarrengower, Maldon, Victoria in 1978. The wings are the obvious change from the earlier shots, this car copped a 5-litre Repco 720 V8 at some point too.

(J Bowring)
Rare colour shot of Peter and Holinger ‘BT31’ nose-up under power in second gear perhaps. Holden FB wagon in the background at the bottom of Tarrengower (G Williamson)

The good news is that the three Holinger hillclimbers are still with us. David Nash – a Repco colleague of Peter Holinger’s – wrote a while back that he was rebuilding engine E1 4.4 – the same engine built by Peter and Phil in 2.5-litre form in 1965 – to go back into the Holinger ‘BT31’.

The final Holinger Repco 5-litre (shots below) was rebuilt at Holinger Engineering after Peter’s death in 2009, and shifted to the premises of the Victorian Historic Racing Register in Box Hill, Melbourne, on long term display/loan in March 2017. It always warms the cockles of ‘me heart to see it…

Holinger aboard his final Holinger Repco 5-litre 720 at Morwell Hill, Victoria, circa 1988 (unattributed)
(Holinger)
(Holinger)

Etcetera…

(S Dalton Collection)

Holinger, very close to his Warrandyte home, on Templestowe hill, September 11, 1966 with Autosportsman reporting times of 54 and 53.9 seconds.

(D Willis)

Dick Willis’ amazing photograph of a posse of Australian Hillclimb Champions taken during the 1996 championship weekend, April 4-7 at Mount Panorama, Bathurst.

Left to right are Kym Rohrlach 1980/82/86/87, Stan Keen 1975/93, Peter Holinger 1976/78/79/88, Warren Brown 1984, Ivan Tighe 1964/85/91, John Davies 1992/95 and Roger Harrison 1983/94.

Arcane trivia is that – I think – the final in-period championship won by an RBE V8 anywhere in the world was Roger Harrison’s victory in the ’97 AHCC at Mount Leura, Camperdown, Victoria on October 16-19. His weapon was an ex-Alan Hamilton/Alf Costanzo Tiga FA83 Formula Pacific machine fitted with an RBE740 V8, capacity folks? Hamilton had Jim Hardman restore that car to RBE spec five or so years ago, it may have sold recently.

(Repco)

I love this Repco Brabham Engines family shot taken at the just-moved-into Maidstone premises in mid-late 1966. Back-Kevin Davies, Eric Gaynor, Tony Chamberlain, Fred Rudd, John Mepstead and Peter Holinger. Middle-Vic Mosby, Howard Ring and Norm Bence. Front-David Nash, Rod Wolfe and Don Butler.

Credits…

John Lemm, Auto Action, Repco Archive via Nigel Tait, Australian Motor Racing Annual 1970, Kerry Power, Geoff Williamson, John Bowring, Stephen Dalton

Finito…

Alan Jones @ Random…

Posted: November 15, 2024 in F1
Tags: , , , , , ,
2

Alan Jones, Surtees TS19 Ford during the US GP West at Long Beach on March 28, 1976.

What caught my eye was John Surtees’ Franger-Mobile without the ads for Durex’ finest. Too much for American sensibilities or something? The BBC cracked-it too didn’t they, refused to cover F1 that season?

Anyway, having randomly lobbed on this photo, I kept going through the amazing Getty Images archive, this Jones homage is the result.

John Surtees in Jones’ car during the May 30 Monaco GP weekend; bleeding the brakes or dreaming about earlier times? See here: https://primotipo.com/2019/11/09/ferrari-156-63-and-156-aero/

It seemed to me rather a cohesive design from the pens of Big John and Ken Sears, but its looks flattered to deceive a bit. Sadly.

Jones, Monaco Q19 and first lap collision, DNF

Jones’ best result in 16 races with the car was a brilliant second behind James Hunt’s McLaren M23 Ford in the non-championship Race of Champions at Brands Hatch in March. In Grands Prix he was fourth in the season-ending Japanese GP where Hunt won the title, and bagged a pair of fifths at Zolder and Brands Hatch.

After Alan decided he would rather race in the US than saddle up again with former World Champ Surtees, his countrymen, Larry Perkins and Vern Schuppan had a crack or two in TS19s in 1977 but they didn’t like the cars much either although.

Vittorio Brambilla’s best TS19 results in 1977 almost exactly matched Jones’ the year before, but by then Jones had returned to F1 with Shadow after the horrific death of Tom Pryce during the ’77 South African Grand Prix.

AJ found the Shadow DN8 Ford much more to his liking than the TS19, bagging points in six races including a first breakthrough F1 win at the Osterreichring, and third place at Monza.

TS19 in the pits at Long Beach in March 1976, where Alan was unclassified.

The pyramid type aluminium monocoque has more than a nod to Gordon Murray’s Brabham BT42-44s but has two angles to it. Front mounted radiators, pull-rod actuation of the front spring, fuel carried centrally aft of the driver, the usual Ford Cosworth DFV-Hewland FGA400 combo, rear springs are torsion bars (?), single top-links and wide based lower wishbones and one radius rod assisting fore-aft locational duties on each side. Interesting.

Race of Champions, Brands Hatch paddock in March 1976 where the Jones boy is catching up with what’s happening in Australia, Chequered Flag was a good publication at the time.

Jones, Lola T332 Chev ahead of Peter Gethin’s VDS Chevron B37 Chev on the run down to Dandenong Road during the February 1977 Sandown Park Cup. DNF for both, Max Stewart won in his Lola T400 Chev (I Smith)

He raced at home that summer for the first time since leaving for the UK circa-1968 – after the September 1968 Sandown Three Hour in which he co-drove a Holden Monaro HK GTS327 to second place – doing all four rounds of the February 1977 Rothmans International Series.

He brained everybody with his speed in the Sid Taylor/Theodore Racing Lola T332C Chev, taking one win, jumped the start of the AGP and got pinged at Oran Park, then boofed the car during practice at Surfers. Third place overall with his raw pace riveting to watch…

A couple of classic Nurburgring shots during the July 31, 1976 German GP weekend, above aviating at the Flugplatz and below the Karussel photograph shows the attractive lines of the TS19 to good effect.

AJ was tenth from Q14 of 26 on the disastrous weekend in which Niki Lauda came close to losing his life aboard a Ferrari 312 T2.

There is that double angle tub on display, doesn’t the bodywork enhance the flow of air onto the wing? Alternative front nose being tried during practice at the Nurburgring below.

Jones on the hop at Watkins Glen in October 1978, Williams FW06 Ford and looking on-it in the damp pitlane at the Osterreichring in August 1978 below.

When Jones joined Williams for a one-car attack in 1978 it didn’t necessarily look the best of moves, but Patrick Head’s first F1 car, the FW06 proved an excellent design which was well prepared as FW had an adequate budget for the very first time. Jones made the Saudi Airlines sponsored car fizz, finishing 9 of the 16 races he started with second, fourth and fifth his best results in the US, South Africa and France respectively.

With Frank Williams and the FW06 at Long Beach during the 1979 US GP West in October below.

‘The best’ of the non-ground effect cars in 1978, the FW06 was off the pace in 1979 amongst a more competitive grid, arguably, Jones would have won the 1979 title had the FW07 appeared earlier than it did; Woulda-coulda-shoulda…

(D Phipps)

Amongst the fastest ground-effect machines of the early 1980s was the Williams FW07 Ford in its various iterations, here with Jones in front one of one of the Renaults at the Osterreichring in August 1980 where he finished second in an FW07B.

Great shots of the fully extended sliding skirts of the FW07Bs of Carlos Reutemann #28 and Jones in the Watkins Glen paddock in October 1980, and below of the tunnel support structure at Hockenheim in 1979 where AJ won.

The FW07 was first raced at Jarama in April 1979 with Clay Regazzoni taking its first race win in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in July, then Jones won four of the last six races that year as the FW07 hit its straps, and took the title in 1980 with victories in Argentina, France, Britain, Canada and the US.

Overhead shot at Monza in 1979 shows the critical elements of the car: inboard front suspension offering a clear flow of air into the ground-effect tunnels, the size of which is enhanced by a very slim aluminium honeycomb chassis, and centrally mounted fuel cell. Not to forget the 3-litre Ford Cosworth DFV engine.

Jones as snug as a bug in a rug at Brands Hatch in 1980.

I can’t quite read the FW07B chassis plate, but Allen Brown’s oldracingcars.com tells me he used FW07B/7 and FW07B/8 in practice, winning the race aboard FW07B/7.

Adelaide GP meeting in November 1991 aboard the BMW M3 Evolution he raced to fourth place in the Australian Touring Car Championship. Adelaide wasn’t part of the ATCC.

Credits…

Getty Images, Ian Smith

Tailpiece…

AJ during practice for the one and only Grand Prix Masters race at Kyalami on November 11-13 2005. His mount is a Reynard/Delta 2KI Cosworth XB.

The naturally aspirated 3.5-litre 80-degree V8s were built by Nicholson-McLaren and tuned to give 650bhp @10,400rpm and 320lb/ft of torque at 7,800rpm.

Jones practiced but didn’t start the race with neck soreness, Nigel Mansell won from Emerson Fittipaldi and Riccardo Patrese.

Sorta a great idea but there is a difference between old pro-golfers having a hit and old pro-racing drivers ‘having a hit’…the story is well told here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Prix_Masters

Finito…

Brabham’s 1957 F2 Season…

Posted: November 4, 2024 in Who,What,Where & When...?
Tags: , , , , , ,
1

By 1957 Jack Brabham was getting the hang of this European racing caper, he was the winningest Formula 2 driver in in the winningest car that year.

Cooper’s Type 43 was powered by the brand-new 1475cc Coventry Climax twin-cam, two-valve FPF four-cylinder engine.

Coopers entered Jack in nine F2 races that year and he won five of them, most were blue-riband events too: the London Trophy at Crystal Palace, Prix de Paris, Montlhery, the Rochester Trophy at Brands and Oulton Park’s Gold Cup.

Motor Racing’s fantastic cover shot – very well-used down-the-decades and perhaps taken by Geoff Goddard – above was taken at Goodwood during the Woodcote Cup on September 28, where Jack’s teammate, Roy Salvadori triumphed in another works T43. Roy also won the BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone a fortnight before, other 1957 Cooper T43 winners were George Wicken and Tony Marsh.

The Haves in 1957 used a Cooper chassis and a Climax FPF engine, the rest made do with a Climax single-cam FWA or FWB engine and another chassis.

Funnily enough Lotus’ best ‘F2 result’ for the year was Tom Dickson’s victory at Snetterton on May 19 aboard a Lotus 11 FWA during a combined F2/sportscar race. The much vaunted, light, clever, gorgeous, front-engined, and fragile F2 Lotus 12 FPF (below) flattered to deceive: its best results were a second and a third placing for Cliff Allison in the Gold Cup, and Woodcote Cup respectively.

Lotus 12 Coventry Climax FPF to be precise

Other F2 winners in ’57 were Maurice Trintignant aboard a works Ferrari Dino 156 in the Coupe Internationale de Vitesse at Reims in July and Edgar Barth’s victory in the F2 race within a race, at the GermanGrand Prix at the Nurburgring in August aboard a Porsche 500RS.

That Dino spawned a series of V6 cars, race and rally engines that were still winning well into the mid-1970s.

By mid-1959 Brabham was looking a fairly complete professional…

Jack and (the works team) Cooper had just taken their first Grand Epreuve wins at Monaco on May 10, while Motor Racing’s cover above shows Jack on the way to victory in the BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone on May 2.

By then Brabham’s Cooper is a Type 51 and the engine a 2.5-litre FPF. The F2 youth of 1957 had grown into a dominant adult by 1959. It may have been a simple motor but it was oh-so-sweet.

See here for a long feature on Cooper Types 41/43/45/51/53: https://primotipo.com/2019/10/04/cooper-t41-43-45-51-53/ More about Jack in ’57: https://primotipo.com/2020/01/28/cooper-t39-climax-le-mans-1957-brabham-raby/

Motor Racing magazine, as the covers note, was the official organ of the British Racing and Sports Car Club. It succeeded Iota and was published from January 1954 to February 1970…bloody good too!

Credits…

Motor Racing magazines – fantastic they are too – many thanks to Bob King

Finito…

South Australian motorsports boom by Albert Ludgate…

Posted: October 22, 2024 in Features, Obscurities, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , ,
2

Tony Johns sent me this wonderful article about the motorsport state of play in South Australia in 1954, many thanks.

Cars appears to be a magazine from The Argus stable, a Melbourne daily newspaper published from June 1846 to January 1957. Cars publisher was Larry S Cleland, anybody know of Lazza? The Sydney advertising rep was JM Sturrock of King Street, Jock Sturrock of yachting fame I wonder?

The article was written by Albert Ludgate, Chief Engineer of Lea-Francis cars from 1946. He emigrated to Australia together his family and a 1926 Lea-Francis K-Type in 1953, more of Albert later.

Etcetera…

Australian Grand Prix historians will note that at the time of publication – September 1954 – the 1937 Australian Grand Prix hadn’t been invented. That is, the fuckwit(s) who decided that the December 26, 1936 South Australian Centennial Grand Prix should be the 1937 AGP, rather than the 1936 AGP hadn’t done his/their Fake Nooooz thing.

The South Australian Government’s banning of racing on roads, quite possibly brewing for some time as Albert wrote, was probably precipitated by two deaths in bizarre circumstances during a motorcycle race at Woodside in 1949.

Albert Ludgate in the glasses, and Ken Rose tickling one of their Lea-Francis 1.5-litre midget engines in the US in 1948-49 (LFOC)

Albert Ludgate…

Ludgate’s early history I am yet to discover, but he was Chief Engineer of Lea-Francis from 1946.

By February 1953 he was in Adelaide helping prepare one of his twin-high-cam ‘Leaf’ midget racing engines which had been fitted to Victorian ace, Alf Beasley’s speedcar for an international (SA Solo Championship) meeting at Rowley Park, Adelaide on Friday February 13, 1953.

These 1496cc, four-Amal or twin SU fed, dry-sump, gear-driven cam midget engines were aimed primarily at the large American market.

Bob Shimp won some heats in his Lea-Francis engined car at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl in South California on July 18, 1949, ‘then led the semi-main until the Lea-Francis engine in his midget failed’, wrote Kevin Triplett on his triplettracehistory.blogspot.com.

‘The 91-cubic inch Lea-Francis engine, purpose built in England for midget auto-racing featured dry-sump oiling, gear-driven double camshafts, four SU carburettors (sic), with a high compression ratio to run on alcohol. Record setting British driver, Dudley Froy, Lea-Francis designer Ken Rose and chief engineer Albert Ludgate made trips to the USA in 1948 and 1949 to show and sell samples of the engine.’

‘Besides Shimp, several US midget racers (including Woody Brown in Northern California) used the four cylinder “Leaf” engine but it never became popular (less than a dozen were built) given that its 120 horsepower could not match the power of the Offenhauser four-cylinder engine and it sometimes put connecting rods through the sides of the aluminium block.’

Contemporary Australian newspaper reports say that brothers Alf and Stud Beasley had a car each powered by a float of three of these trick Lea-Francis engines, and had some success with them. It makes one wonder where those engines are now…

Alf Beasley aboard his Lea Francis powered midget at Tracey’s Speedway, Melbourne

Into 1954 Ludgate was the technical representative of Simmonds Accessories and the publicity officer of the (speedway) Racing Drivers Association, while JA Lawton & Sons also retained Albert, not to forget his writing abilities.

Ludgate and his Racing Drivers Association made quite a splash in October ’54 with their ‘Speed and Sports Motor Show’. More than 150 racing, veteran and speedway cars and bikes were amongst the exhibits in the Centennial Hall at Wayville. It was the first time in South Australia’s history that such a show had been run.

Three-quarter-midgets – TQ cars were on the march – were front and centre with Ludgate’s Simmons Nut-Ridge Special one of five TQs on display. In addition he showed a 150cc half-scale midget racer built for his six-year-old son.

Ludgate was a strong advocate of TQs and was a member a three man Racing Drivers Association specifications committee tasked with developing specifications for the class…and in due course he would make some cars.

By December 1954 Ludgate was living in Reade Park, later he bought a house in Colonel Light Gardens. He was well on the way to embedding himself within the local motorsport and automotive industries, having addressed members of the Aeronautical and Automotive Engineers about American car racing and engine development in the Kerr Grant Lecture Theatre at Adelaide University.

Capricornia 1, John Plowman’s car circa 1956 (bollyblog.blogspot.com)
Capricornia 3, later the Repco Ricardian, at Port Wakefield during the March 1959 meeting. With Buchanan couture, a great looking car (v8vantage.com)

In his small Colonel Light Gardens garage, Ludgate Automotive Developments built sportscars, TQ midgets and go-karts using the Capricornia and Ricardian brandnames.

The Capricornia sportscars – the name was taken from the Tropic of Capricorn region – used a multi tubular chassis with two main side-members, a wheelbase of 91 inches and used standard or modified Holden parts, including front and rear suspension, and weighed about 715kg depending upon specifications.

The first of the series, John Plowman’s car was commenced in 1955 and completed just in time for for the 1956 Easter meeting at Port Wakefield ten months later. Fitted with an English RGS/Shattock fibreglass body, and with experienced racer/engineer, John Cummins at the wheel the car performed well. A long job list proved racing improves the breed!

Capricornia 3, Collingrove circa-1958 (S Jones)

John Bruggerman’s very successful Capricornia 3 racing car had a Holden (later Repco-Holden) grey-six fitted and used a shortened Buchanan (NH Buchanan Motor Co) body.

Ludgate’s pioneering TQs – a poor-mans introduction to speedway racing – used Austin 7 chassis, suitably bent 7 axles, and a variety of 500cc motorcycle engine driving through a gutted Austin 7 gearbox using a dog-clutch for stop and go.

In the mid-1950s John Cummin’s met Ludgate in Adelaide in his capacity as a Perkins Diesel rep. Ludgate helped ‘with a lot of input’ in the early development of the Holden grey-six cylinder engine used in his Bugatti Holden. Cummins blazed the trail in Victoria with Holden engine development, his car is said to be the second Holden-powered racing car in the state, ‘Lou Molina’s, Silvio Massola built MM Holden Special being the first’.

‘The engine gave about 65 or 75 horsepower at 3500rpm’, Cummins recalled, ‘and it wasn’t worth two-bob at 4500! We fiddled with the needles in the triple 1 3/4″ SU carries and got 116 horsepower at 4500. Almost double the original Holden power output.’

John Cummins’ Bugatti T37A Holden at Bathurst in 1961. Note the Bellamy independent front suspension so characteristic of #37332 (unattributed)
(B White)

Ludgate also made Austin 7 cylinder heads for the Seven racing fraternity – think of Seven racing as the Formula Vee of the day – in the 1950s and early 1960s. The design featured sandwich construction with combustion chamber shape late-7. Enthusiasts often modified the shape to their own requirements. Ludgate built over 30 of the heads with many more built from his patterns after his death. They were used by many A7 racers in the day including Elfin’s Garrie Cooper during his formative years.

Amusingly, later, the street in which he lived was renamed Ludgate Circus which is surely indicative of the goings on at that address in the wee-small-hours and the fond regard in which Albert was held by his neighbours!

Ludgate retained his Lea-Francis for many years, using it daily to drop his son off at school and displaying it at the VSCC annual rally at Victor Harbor in 1961, by then he was described as a ‘well-known motoring personality’.

Late in his life the Australian Society of Automotive Engineers established and annually bestow the Albert Ludgate Award.

This summary of information about Albert Ludgate is the result of a days Troving and Googling, if anybody can add to the story please contact me: mark@bisset.com.au

Credits…

Cars via Tony Johns’ archive, Trove and other online research, News Adelaide, Victor Harbour Times, bollyblog.blogspot.com, v8vantage.com, triplettracehistory.blogspot.com, Lea-Francis Owners Club website, Paul Jaray on auto puzzles.com, Ron Burchett, Bruce White, Sports Cars and Specials September 1956, Tony Parkinson Collection, Steve Jones

Tailpiece…

(T Parkinson Collection)

Bill Pile or John Newmarch in the Ricardian Repco chasing Jim Goldfinch’s Austin Healey 100S at Port Wakefield circa 1959.

Finito…

Repco’s withdrawal from racing…

Posted: October 18, 2024 in Features
Tags: , , , , , ,
3
(Auto Action)

One for the Repco anoraks.

This is the very last time a racing car appeared in Repco colours. John Goss had just purchased and not yet repainted the Matich A53 Repco-Holden #A53-007 sold by FM on his retirement from the sport. So it’s still in its Repco livery.

I mean Real Repco, when it was a manufacturer of global significance rather than a High Street retailer.

‘Having his very first outing in a Formula 5000 race car (in the first round of the 1974 Gold Star at Oran Park on the August 4 weekend) touring car star John Goss took a sixth and a fourth in the two heats, bringing the Laurie O’Neill owned, Max McLeod sponsored Matich A53 home fourth on aggregate’ John Smailes wrote in Auto Action (#91 August 9, 1974).

‘Of the newcomers (Jon Davison and Phil Moore being the other two) John Goss was the most impressive and performed well beyond expectations in a car in which he had only done 25 laps before Saturday’s official practice began.’

By raceday Gossy had removed the Repco signage. Dunnit look great almost entirely denuded of ads? (Auto Action)

‘Goss finished the day ecstatic with both his own performance, the car, and the experience of F5000 racing. “The drivers are beautiful”, he said. “They agree they have been passed once you pull alongside.” ‘He said he was very pleased with the car and “the engineering genius of Frank Matich” and happy that he had completed the first round of the series without a single lose.’

“My only problem is adapting back to the (Falcon Hardtop) sports sedan after the open wheeler. It feels like a block of flats,” Goss said.’

Repco’s withdrawal from racing as an engine manufacturer…

Was a very big deal, Repco had made pistons, rings and bearings for racing cars way back in the 1930s. Its involvement was ongoing subsequently.

The Melbourne, April 26, 1974 announcement and related article above reads as follows, ‘Repco today announced that the company is to discontinue the manufacture of racing engines, including the Formula 5000 Holden and Leyland based units.’

‘Frank Matich, Repco’s number one representative for the past eight years is still under contract for the balance of this year while John Walker and John McCormack have engines on lease, and these deals will run out under the terms of the lease.’

‘The situation regarding servicing of the present units has not yet been finalised as all parties which it will affect have not yet been contacted and the Board of Directors will not make a decision until this has been done.’

‘Whilst Repco believe that they have benefitted richly in terms of development and pass-on advancement for general consumption products, they are well aware of the financial reward for the vast sums of money they have outlaid to become one of the most respected engine building companies in the world.’

‘The firm will now concentrate more of its energies on direct development of its domestic products, such as changeover engines.’

‘In terms of the racing fraternity they want to withdraw without hurting anyone, as they realise that there are people who have done so much for their advancement and worldwide reputation.’

‘Reactions to the news amongst users of Repco power units were surprisingly bland. John McCormack said,”I don’t think it will affect our operation.”

“We’ll continue to use Repco engines as spares are available as are drawings. Besides, many parts were made outside anyway and these can be supplied as before.

‘Replacement cylinder heads might be a problem, but it would be just a matter of matching existing units, although there would be a lot more work involved in getting them up to scratch.”

‘Ansett Team Elfin team manager, John Lanyon reiterated McCormack’s remarks, adding, “Of course we are disappointed, but we don’t believe Repco is about to leave everybody high and dry.”

John Walker, Lola T332 Repco-Holden during a fateful 1975 Tasman Cup finale at Sandown. He had a hand on the cup but a big crash on lap 1 wrecked his chances, with Warwick Brown the survivor and championship winner from the other contender, Graeme Lawrence. Lola T332 Chevs both (R Davies)
John McCormack’s gutless Elfin MR6 Repco-Leyland leads John Goss, Matich A53 Repco-Holden during the August 1974 Oran Park Gold Star round

‘Asked about the future of the Leyland P76 project. Lanyon stated that he was “not too sure, but I think they will probably continue with it at present.”

‘Another long time user and associate of Repco Engines, is ex Australian Champion, Frank Matich. When we spoke to him in Sydney Frank showed very little concern at the company’s withdrawal.’

“It doesn’t affect any of my plans as I have sufficient engines and equipment at present. I can understand Repco’s reasoning however, with the increasingly high costs the industry has been facing. Repco’s policy has been one of support for all users of their engines, and over the past few years that has not been cheap.”

‘Long time Repco designer, and expert on racing engines, Phil Irving said he was not at all surprised about the news.’

“I think the company is faced with a big metalworker award very soon now and that is bound to cut deep into available funds. The general board of Repco has never really looked favorably on racing involvement, and it was mainly Charlie Dean who kept things going there.”

‘Mr. Dean retired from Repco some time ago. Unfortunately, Malcolm Preston, the Manager of Repco Engine Developments at the Maidstone plant was on leave when the news broke, and was therefore unavailable for comment.’

‘For our part, we feel that there are few grounds for real criticism of Repco for their withdrawal. Alone the company has acted as a mainstay of certain categories of racing over the years, during large amounts of money into the sport for little tangible reward.’

‘Publicity value, however, has been enormous, and we feel the lack of this in its racing connotation in the future, may have possibly deleterious effect, but only time will tell.’

‘Meanwhile we feel that existing users of Repco engines need have little fear with regard to parts in the immediate future.’

‘The last time Repco withdrew from the sport after building the old ohc 2.5 litre engines, parts continued to be available. Indeed, many parts for these units are still obtainable from the company.’

Repco-Holden users didn’t really suffer, albeit development of the engines stopped of course when Repco withdrew. Having said that, John Walker was only a car-crash from winning the 1975 Tasman Cup in his Lola T332 Repco-Holden. That car was fitted with a trick flat-plane crank engine built by Repco’s Don Halpin for the final Sandown round, Repco were still lurking!

Then John McCormack won the Gold Star aboard a Repco-Holden powered Elfin MR6 in 1975 and John Goss won the 1976 Australian Grand Prix at Sandown in a Matich A53 Repco-Holden #A51/53-005 after a great hustle with Vern Schuppan’s works-Elfin MR6 Chev.

That was pretty much it in terms of elite level F5000 success but the engines powered sports cars and sports sedans to many wins long after that. The Repco-Holden F5000 V8 story is here: https://primotipo.com/2018/05/03/repco-holden-f5000-v8/

Auto Action #88 Friday June 28, 1974

Repco-Leyland F5000 program…

Repco’s ‘partnership’ with Leyland Australia and Elfin Sports Cars to build the worlds lightest and best handling F5000 car – the Elfin MR6 – was conceptually brilliant but was doomed to failure because Repco’s development muscle wasn’t applied to an engine which fired its first shot in anger at Oran Park on January 30, 1974.

The all-aluminium 4.4-litre Leyland P76 V8 was as structurally weak as the cast-iron 5-litre Holden 308 was brutally strong. McCormack was in more-shit-than-a-Werribee Duck during 1974 being shy of 100bhp or so and reliability to go with it. It was only when the team said ‘enough!’ that they cranked Repco-Holden units into the back of the car that its performance turned around.

Johnny Mac doubled his bets though, he bought an F1 McLaren M23 into which he fitted Leyland V8s further developed together with Phil Irving and Comalco.

They were still at the Hail Mary end of the reliability spectrum but the 4.9-litre engines held together well enough to win the 1977 Gold Star. The story of that car and engine is related here: https://primotipo.com/2014/07/24/macs-mclaren-peter-revson-dave-charlton-and-john-mccormacks-mclaren-m232/

(unattributed)

The press launch of the Elfin MR6 Repco-Leyland at Oran Park with John McCormack at the wheel on January 30, 1974. He wasn’t happy as it interrupted his Tasman Cup campaign…

Yes, it does look like Jackie’s 1973 Tyrell 005 Ford DFV F1 car. With a reliable 450bhp the MR6 would have been a jet, I’m sure Repco would have licked the development challenges, but time wasn’t on their side.

Repco’s sponsorship of the Oz Maxi-Taxi Championship is duly noted.

Credits…

Auto Action, Robert Davies, autopics.com.au

Finito…

Older Entries
Newer Entries