Posts Tagged ‘Ballot 5/8LC’

Ballots and Coopers…

Posted: October 27, 2023 in Features, Obscurities
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
2
(P White)

Ouch. Wow, that’s daffy-ducked isn’t it!? Alan Cooper’s very dead 4.8-litre, straight-eight, 1919 Ballot 5/8LC lies on the front-straight of Olympia Speedway, Maroubra, Sydney on January 2, 1926.

Behind is his brother, Harold ‘Hal’ Cooper’s 2-litre Ballot 2LS #15. In the feature that night, relative novice Alan tried an outside pass on his vastly more experienced younger brother on the last lap, snagged a hub on the fence and cartwheeled along the track at over 100mph and into the sandy area between the track edge and the spectator compound. Alan walked away – shaken and stirred – but the poor riding mechanic wasn’t so lucky, the worst of his injuries was a pair of broken thighs.

Alan Cooper aboard #1004 earlier on the fateful day (Sherwood Collection)

Alan never raced again, but chassis 1004 was repaired by racer/mechanic/engineer John Harkness using an Australian Six chassis, and appeared again at Maroubra with Harkness at the wheel that August. Whatever thoughts I had about the original chassis being repaired have been well set aside…

The Cooper boys were from a family of 11 children. They were brought up in Melbourne’s Botanical Gardens where their father was Chief Gardner. Via a familial connection, Alan Cooper met the 30-years-older Stephen Brown not long after he returned from the Great War. The Brothers Brown owned a large vertically integrated Newcastle coal mining and distribution business named J & A Brown (now part of Yancoal Australia). Stephen treated Cooper as his son and lavished stupefying levels of wealth on him including the most exotic racing cars of the time; the Ernest Henry designed Ballot’s were the best there was, the 1919 ‘Indy’ Ballot undoubtedly one of the fastest cars on the planet.

Indy 500 1919. #4 Ralph DePalma, Packard, #32 and 31 are the Albert Guyot and Rene Thomas Ballot 5/8LCs, #3 is Howdy Wilcox – the winner – Peugeot, and #33 Paul Bablot’s 5/8LC. The pace car is a Packard Twin Six V12 (IMS)
Louis Wagner, Ballot 5/8LC #1004 before the off (IMS)

Louis Wagner raced 1004 at Indianapolis 1919 as part of a four-car factory assault on the race. The Ballots where the quickest cars too, but the hastily built machines were geared too-tall. The quick fix, in the absence of an alternative diff-ratio, was the use of smaller diameter locally made wheels and tyres – Goodrich instead of Michelins. These failed, Wagner was out with a broken wheel after only completing 44 of the 200 laps while running third, then Paul Ballot crashed when a wheel failed after 63 laps, so the other two 5/8LCs of Albert Guyot and Rene Thomas cruised home in fourth and 11th places.

While it was a bad day for Ballot all wasn’t lost for Ernest Henry, the winner was Indiana boy Howdy Wilcox in one of Henry’s old Peugeot GP cars. Indy was/is tough and dangerous. Of the traditional 33 cars that started, 18 didn’t finish, four of whom crashed, two fatally: Louis Le Cocq and Arthur Thurman both lost control aboard Duesenbergs. Robert Bandini, Thurman’s mechanic died as well.

As a result of the rise in pole-time speed to nearly 105mph in 1919, and one suspects, perhaps the three deaths, the Indy Formula engine size was reduced from 300cid in 1919 to 183cid for 1920. Ernest Ballot immediately had four very expensive racing cars surplus to requirements, just the thing for a bright-young-colonial with somebody else’s dosh jangling loose in his pockets.

By the time Brown and Cooper swung past Paris’ Boulevard Brune to acquire 2LS #15 – the ex-Jules Goux second-place 1922 Targa machine – Monsieur Ballot was using #1004 as a swish, speedy roadie. Fitted with Perrot brakes, mudguards and a windscreen, he cut quite a dash on the Boulevard St Germain.

Thelma – quite tidy too – at the wheel of #1004 at what became known as Safety Beach, Dromana on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula in December 1928 (B King Collection)

That’s why the car before Alan Cooper crashed (pic 2 above) it looks road-equipped, it was. When shipped to Australia it supposedly arrived with three bodies, the one shown and destroyed in the prang, a slipper body which Harkness fitted (or built) when he rebuilt it, and another, a shot of which I’d love to see…

Harold Cooper raced 5/8LC 1004 for a while south of the Murray at Aspendale, the Melbourne Motordrome and other venues. He was described as “Victoria’s best known racing driver” by the Melbourne Herald before racing on the 2-mile 163 yards rectangular gravel course at Safety Beach, Dromana in December 1928, and duly set the fastest time.

Unfortunately Harold didn’t contest the 1927 Australian Grand Prix at Goulburn, nor did he ever give the 2LS a gallop in any of the early (2-litre supercharged and under) Phillip Island Road Races/Australian Grands Prix. Had he done so he would have been a red-hot favourite, he is the most underrated and forgotten Oz driver of the period…

Melbourne racer Jim Gullan and mechanic during practice for the January 2, 1939 Australian Grand Prix at Lobethal, South Australia. The exotic eight let go at warp speed, a rod carved the block in half with expensive shrapnel being spread across the Adelaide Hills countryside. It would be 40 years before the chassis was reunited with another Ballot engine (N Howard)
1004 in the Edgerton suburban garage, date unknown. Other than the Dino I’ve no idea of the identity of any of the other machines (R Edgerton Collection)

Both Ballots raced on. The 2LS’ svelte twin-cam 16-valve four was replaced by a succession of V8s and raced in Western Australia for decades, its mortal Ballot remains survived and are well cared for in Australia. The 5/8LC was restored after being tracked down to a northern Victoria farm by ‘Racing Ron’ Edgerton in the 1970s. The ‘Edgerton’ branded crankcase side covers were a tad vulgar for most but he got the car running and competed in it, a state to which it has never returned in the hands of the UK owner for the last three decades or so.

Check out the May 2021 issue of The Automobile. I wrote a never-published-before long yarn about the Coopers, Ballots, the elusive Stephen Brown and the staggering lifestyle he afforded them, and their later second lives as Captains of The Turf. See here to purchase; https://www.theautomobile.co.uk/may-2021-issue/

(R Edgerton Collection)

Ballots up. Frying tyres, rings or bearings? Ron Edgerton attacks Shell corner (Turn 1 in today’s vulgar parlance) at Sandown on one of 1004s relatively few outings – partially restored by the look of it – before the car was sold overseas. The following Ballot is Wes Southgate’s 2LS, now restored to original bodywork and owned by publisher/hotelier/renaissance-man Douglas Blain, who keeps the car in fine fettle in Victoria. Those Rothmans brake markers are circa 1978-79’ish, so a meeting about then?

Etcetera…

(AD Cook Collection)

Harold Cooper aboard #1004 at La Turbie Hillclimb in 1925. Hal did four ‘climbs: three venues near Nice including this one, and another in Monaco, before the car was shipped from Le Havre to Melbourne. Quite why this slipper-body was removed back at Ballot HQ at Boulevard Brune for the ‘Indy’ body before shipment to Australia is anybody’s guess. The body above is different to the form in which the car emerged Harkness’ workshop after Alan Cooper’s Maroubra accident.

While Alan Cooper makes much of his racing career in the Smiths Weekly serialisation of his life story – a grand, rollicking, bullshitty yarn it is too – in fact he did relatively few competition miles. Harold, on the other hand, competed a lot from 1922 when the 2LS arrived and was a man of great skill. He was far more competent than Alan, had competed in the 5/8LC in France already, so had a level of familiarity with it.

The car was ministered to in Sydney by Giulio Foresti, Ballot factory racer/dealer/mr-fixit who tested it at Maroubra and schooled the brothers in its use and mechanicals. We know from contemporary reports that a planned early Maroubra test by Alan was thwarted by steering problems. Harold should have raced the 5/8LC and Alan the 2LS that fateful night; letting Alan loose in it at Maroubra was akin to a modestly credentialed Formula Ford driver have a lash in Oscar’s F1 McLaren. Alan Cooper was kissed-on-the-dick-by-tinkerbell – to use vulgar Oz slang – many times during his long life, not least on that fateful 1926 evening.

The Argus December 10, 1928

“Thrilling motor-racing was witnessed at the Aspendale Speedway (Melbourne) on Saturday afternoon. The best display of driving was that given by Harold Cooper, who is shown here negotiating a corner at speed in his eight-cylinder Ballot car. He defeated Albert Edwards who drove a front-wheel-drive supercharged Alvis.”

Credits…

Peter White Scrapbook via Colin Wade, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, The Argus, AD Cook Collection, Ron Edgerton Collection, Norman Howard, Bob King Collection, John Sherwood Collection from the wonderful ‘A Half Century of Speed’ by Barry Lake

Tailpiece…

(R Edgerton Collection)

The essential element of Edgerton’s rebuild of #1004 was locating one of the very exotic, Ballot 4.8-litre DOHC, four-valve, straight eight engines or the bones thereof.

As luck would have it, Briggs Cunningham had one, and wanted a Cottin & Desgouttes, Edgerton was happy to oblige. Here is Ron’s (at right) pride and joy (with Silvio Massola) – didn’t he have a lot of those in his automotive lifetime – on a 1977 rally in Tasmania, Australia’s South Island.

Finito…

Racing Ron Edgerton…

Posted: March 17, 2021 in Ron Edgerton Collection
Tags: , , , , , , ,
8

Ron Edgerton loomed large in Victorian and Australian motor racing from the thirties to the fifties, make that eighties if one includes his restoration efforts.

He owned a staggering number of exotic road and racing cars including Alfa Romeo Monza, Alta Ford V8, Ballot 5/8 LC ‘Indy’, Bentley 4.5 s/c, Bugatti T37, Cooper T38 Jaguar, Cord, Frazer Nash, Lancia Aurelia, Lotus Cortina, MG, Willys Woody and numerous speedway cars.

The shot above is of Ron and his son Greville in a posed newspaper photograph taken in the mid-late 1950s.

Grev raced also- a Cooper T38 Jaguar and Elfin Mallala Climax. Ron died many years ago but Greville is hale and hearty, still developing commercial properties, and in the middle of restoring a 50-foot huon-pine 1930’s yacht in one of his developments in Moorabbin.

My mate Bob King knows Grev, who very kindly allowed us to scan images from his dad’s album, there are enough of them to keep us going for years. As you will see, some are pro shots he acquired, and some self or family taken happy-snaps.

This first batch are some of the family cars.

I am not going to go berserk with the descriptions throughout this and subsequent posts, together we can flesh out the history of the cars.

Ron and Ken Wylie aboard the Edgerton Bugatti T37 at Aspendale Speedway, a Melbourne southern bayside suburb pre-war.

VMCU meeting, June 8, 1941. Cashflow to fund Ron’s racing was provided by a printing business. Chassis 37104 is the ex-Russell Taylor/Advanx Tyres car raced by Charlie East. Ron bought it in March 1931 and later fitted a Hudson straight-eight when the delicate block could not be repaired after a decent blow-up at Tooronga.

Earl Davey-Milne has owned the car since the 1940s, see feature here; https://primotipo.com/2019/04/25/alexandra-sprints-and-bugatti-t37-37104/

Edgerton was a leading light in early speedway in Australia, research on the #4 Lycoming welcome, similarly about Reynold’s 8/80 JAP.

Bill Reynolds (the Sydney one vs. the St Kilda Wren building one) emigrated to Australia pre-war, having graduated through speedway bikes and then to cars winning World Speedcar Championships in 1939, 1941 and 1958- he won the Australian title  in 1956. He also strayed onto the circuits- a good topic for another time.

Australia’s only resident supercharged 4.5-litre Bentley in-period was chassis SM3907.

Yes, much later others were imported. Tom Luxton brought in SM3907 from the UK, Edison Waters famously raced the gas-burner powered car at Bathurst (not for long) over the Easter 1940 weekend. Post-war owners included Lex Davison.

Ron’s caption is ‘Ron, Dawn, Hugh Stewart with blown 4 1/2 Bentley’, quite where those Californian Bungalows are is something to find out. Pre-war is my guess.

Edgerton’s Alta Ford V8 at Mitcham Hillclimb in October 1941, interesting that we were still running motorsport events in Australia this late in the war.

It doesn’t seem all that appropriate given the number of blokes having their nuts shot off by this stage – or am I just a limp-wristed-commo-bleeding heart liberal?

Mitcham is a Melbourne outer eastern suburb, housing development of which exploded from the fifties. It looks quite bucolic 15 years or so before.

This car is the ex-Alan Sinclair Alta 1,100 cc s/c chassis 21S, the MI5 Spook brought to Australia in time for the January 1938 South Australian GP at Lobethal, but by this stage Ford V8 engined.

In this form it was a race-winner in Ted Gray’s hands as the Male Special pre-war. Edgerton had rebuilt it by late February 1942 (see shot below). Ron raced it post-war, it then passed back into Gray’s hands who made it sing again, especially when fitted with Lou Abraham’s Ardun-OHV head Ford V8- the car was the immediate precursor of Ted and Lou’s Tornado 1 Ford.

Wind the clock forward another couple of decades and Mount Eliza’s Graeme Lowe reunited the car with its rightful 25S 1,100cc engine and restored it superbly- it took its first bow in 1999. No longer with us, Graeme’s wife still owns it and a 2-litre stablemate.

Epic about the Alta and Sinclair here; https://primotipo.com/2018/11/08/the-spook-the-baron-and-the-1938-south-australian-gp-lobethal/

Hillclimb unknown post-war, note the LCCA badge on the scuttle and differences in appearance of the Alta before and after its 1941-2 ‘birthday’

‘No 4’ at Greensborough Hillclimb immediately post-war, date folks? Manufacturer of chassis and mechanical components unknown.

More Mount hillclimb action, this time Ron’s Lycoming Special at Mount Tarrengower, the following shot shows the engine bay; https://primotipo.com/2020/08/21/mount-tarrengower-2/

Edgerton jumped in amongst the big boys with the purchase of the ex-Alf Barrett Alfa Romeo Monza #2211134 from Rupert Steele in 1950

Ron’s caption says ‘Dirt track Charlie (Frank Kleinig, Kleinig Hudson Spl) chasing Racing Ron at Mount Panorama’ during the October 1951 meeting. He was fourth in the over 1500cc Championship Scratch, and third in the Redex 50 Mile Championship race- Whitefords’ Lago Talbot T26C won with Stan Jones second in Maybach 1.

Edgerton was immediately on the pace with it too. More on Ron’s time in this car soon, in the meantime it’s story is told, at length, here; https://primotipo.com/2015/02/20/alf-barrett-the-maestro-alfa-romeo-8c2300-monza/

Greville had a go too.

Here, his Elfin Mallala Coventry Climax 2-litre FPF is at freeze-yer-nuts-orf Silverstone testing during the winter in 1964. Ron used the Lotus Cortina to get around the UK. More of Grev’s UK adventures that year soon.

Racing Ron’s ex-Louis Wagner 1919 Ballot 5/8LC ‘Indy’ at rest at home in the eighties.

The high-born French aristocrat is in pretty good company amongst Ferrari Dino 246GT, sundry bikes and a racer.

When Alan Cooper’s Ernest Henry designed 4.8-litre, DOHC, four-valve, normally aspirated straight-eight racer arrived in Australia in late 1925, it was the most advanced and one of the quickest racing cars in the country. Chassis #1004 joined a 2-litre Ballot 2LS #15 acquired for Cooper by his patron twelve months before.

It all turned to custard at Maroubra in December 1925. Alan, a relative novice to a car of this performance, ran wide passing his brother Harold in the 2LS and rolled, badly damaging the car and his riding mechanic.

1004 was repaired in Sydney by Don Harkness and then raced very successfully by Harold, a gifted driver. One of the great mighta-beens of early Phillip Island AGPs is Harold racing the 2LS, but he never did.

The 5/8LC passed through many hands before Ron found it on a farm in country Victoria in the seventies. A long, complex restoration followed, Ron enjoyed the fruits of his labours before selling to Peter Briggs as his health failed. The car has been in England for many years.

Credits…

All photographs are from the Ron Edgerton Collection, with thanks to Greville Edgerton. Steve Wood

Tailpiece…

The album is very thick.
The degree of scanning difficulty is high, so let’s be thankful for what we have before some of you old women start chookin’ on about the quality of the shots- don’t spose I should say that. Oops.
Finito…