Lex Davison in the Little Alfa – Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 s/c Spl – at Ballarat Airfield with RAAF Avro Ansons in the background.
He is contesting the 75 mile Victoria Cup held on the Australia Day holiday, January 27, 1947.
The race was the first post-War ‘state level event’ held in Victoria and was promoted jointly by the Light Car Club of Australia and the Victorian Sporting Car Club.
Doug Whiteford won the handicap race in Black Bess, his Ford V8 Special which was at the start of a long run of success.
See here for Black Bess: https://primotipo.com/2015/05/05/doug-whiteford-black-bess-woodside-south-australia-1949/ and here for the Little Alfa: https://primotipo.com/2015/01/22/race-around-the-barracks-balcombe-army-camp-davison-little-alfa/
Davo also entered his rather imposing Mercedes Benz SSK, but the engine failed, see here: https://primotipo.com/2024/02/18/mercedes-38-250-ssk-lex-davison/
The caption says Fishermans Bend but it looks more like Altona to me, one for those with a programme collection. And below Ted again, Alta 21S Ford V8 Spl this time during the 1954 Victorian Trophy at the Bend on March 22, 1954.
This car, first brought to Australia by MI6 spook and sometime racing driver Allan Sinclair in 1938 is one of my obsessions, see here: https://primotipo.com/2018/11/08/the-spook-the-baron-and-the-1938-south-australian-gp-lobethal/
It’s alive and well too, restored by Graham Lowe several decades ago, it’s used regularly on road and track by current custodian, Fiona Murdoch. I’ve driven it too, in March 2023, for articles published in The Automobile and Benzina. And yes, it is sen-‘kin-sational.
Reg Nutt aboard an MG NE Magnette Ulster, outside the Nutt/Jack Day premises in Whiteman Street, South Melbourne.
Greg Smith comments, ‘White street South Melbourne features to note : 16″ rear wheels, 18″ or 19″ front wheels, brakes still cable operated, door fitted to the original body maybe to comply with the CAMS draconian rule (what has changed since its inception in 1953 ? nothing!!) that “sports cars” must have a door of minimum dimensions.Tyres nearly bald. Expensive push bike leaning against the wall with the owners Gladstone bag on the footpath, maybe the photographer ?? Two fuel tanks out in the sun sweating the fumes out before solder repairs. The car was ex-Barraclough and very scruffy by this time.’
Nutt was both a master mechanic and driver with a pedigree going back to Phillip Island’s early days. He was Reg Brearley’s riding mechanic in 1929 when the pair placed second in a Bugatti T37A.
Better was to come when he won the race in 1931 alongside Carl Junker aboard a Bugatti T39 in 1931. T39-4907 is the very car shown below raced Jack Day’s Day Special (the car below) in the South Australian Grand Prix referred to above on daunting Lobethal, setting the fastest race time for that handicap race, and the following day did the fastest lap of the weekend…he could drive.
He got the bug early, recounting to Bob King memories of a Bugatti Brescia while doing his apprenticeship at Meaby’s Garage in Toorak Road, South Yarra.
Apart from his on-track exploits in this car, Nutt gave Norman Ellsworth the ride of his life, when towing Ellsworth’s just purchased Bugatti Brescia back from Adelaide to Melbourne.
The deal was that Reg would tow the car through the many country towns on the long trip as the Brescia was unregistered. But Reg ‘forgot’ about the Bugatti on the end of the tow rope and did several miles outside Dimboola at well over 100mph. Ellsworth’s reaction is unrecorded!
More about the Day Special here: https://primotipo.com/2021/06/11/werrangourt-archives-7-jack-day-and-his-superchargers-by-bob-king/
What an evocative shot of the business end of the brilliant Wylie Javelin Spl…
The gent in the Akubra makes the shot. Perhaps it’s the ’53 AGP weekend at Albert Park but that’s a guess. That looks like a rego-sticker on the windscreen! See this lengthy epic: https://primotipo.com/2018/09/14/the-wylies-javelin-special/
A D.F.P. out front of a home, probably in Melbourne, chassis number and street address please!? It has a touch of the Elsternwicks about it but could be anywhere.
The marque were in on the ground floor of racing in Australia, Les Pound finished last in the 100 Mile Road Race run by the Victorian Light Car Club in March 1928, the second Australian Grand Prix.
See here for more on D.F.P.: https://primotipo.com/2021/10/01/werrangourt-archive-11-dfp-the-greyhound-of-france-by-bob-king/
Reg Hunt enroute to winning the scratch-section of the Bathurst 100 during the 1955 Easter weekend at Mount Panorama, Maserati A6GCM-250.
Despite having only his short-diff fitted the Grand Prix car still did 145 mph down Conrod.
The handicap winner of the race was Curley Brydon in his new MG Special; a mix of the ex-Tomlinson ‘39 AGP winning chassis and the supercharged engine from Brydon’s ex-Patterson TC Spl.
I’ve done chapter and verse on Australia’s fastest combination in 1955-56 – Reg Hunt and Maseratis A6GCM and 250F – but start with these two: https://primotipo.com/2017/12/12/hunts-gp-maser-a6gcm-2038/ and https://primotipo.com/2024/02/10/australian-gold-star-championship-1956/
Manchester born Reg Hunt tootling through the Fishermans Bend paddock in his Hunt Spl aka The Flying Bedstead, date unknown but 1951 perhaps.
The Hunts arrived in Melbourne in May 1949 with Reg bringing with him various parts accumulated in the UK which he used to build this hillclimb /road racer affectionately known as the Flying Bedstead.
It was built between May-October 1949 by Hedley Thompson either in his Deepdene, Melbourne home garage or as a homer at Trans Australia Airlines, where Hedley was head of maintenance.
Thompson’s thoroughly modern chassis was a shallow multi-tubular spaceframe of welded steel construction. It had a light, tringulated front bulkhead and a more substantial rectangular one at the very rear of the car just aft of the gearbox.
Front suspension was modified Morgan pillar, and the rear comprised an upper transverse rear spring, swing axles and an underslung tubular shock absorber mounted at its top to the underside of the axle case and at its bottom to the chassis.
Bolt-on wire wheels were 3:25 inch x 18 at the front, and 3:50 inch x 19 at the rear. The ultra-light machine had hydraulic brakes with two leading shoes at the rear.
The engine was an Amal-fed 500cc J.A.P. (J.A. Prestwich) speedway engine with the power hitting the road via a Norton four-speed box.
The Flying Bedstead’s first outing was at Fishermans Bend in October 1949, where it was noticeably quicker and outclassed the numerous MG specials present. Some weeks later, at Rob Roy, it lowered the class record by nearly six seconds, to 31.4 seconds. In March 1950 he improved his time to 29.35 seconds.
Other successes followed, and soon a supercharged 998cc Vincent Black Lightning engine was fitted by Phil Irving, and the bodywork was improved; the form shown above.
‘First used in this guise at Bacchus Marsh in July 1951, at Bathurst in October it outpaced a Cooper Vincent in the first race and was pipped on the last lap in the second. The speed over the flying ¼ mile was reported at 134 mph.’ Really?!
When Hunt raced Cooper 500s in Europe in 1954, he made a side-trip to Italy on the way home and purchased the ex-works Maserati A6GCM shown above, so the Bedstead was set aside and later sold. Hunt repurchased it in 1978, and it was ultimately restored under his supervision, then later sold at auction and is extant.
Conceived in Lou Molina’s Albert Park backyard the MM (Molina/Massola) Holden consisted of a Silvio Massola home-made chassis, Standard 12 front end, H.R.G differential and gearbox, Holden Grey six-cylinder engine and an attractive body made by Brian Burnett.
The MM had its first outing at Fishermans Bend on October 3, 1953, and I’m wondering if that’s when this photo of Lou and a Victim tootling around the paddock was taken?
Lou then contested the November 21 1953, Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park where he was an amazing fifth in the 64-lap 200-mile event won by Doug Whiteford’s Talbot-Lago T26C. The 2290cc MM Holden started from grid 30. The car appeared exactly as it is in the photograph above, sans bonnet and with triple-Strombergs pointing loud and proud at the sun.
The MM raced the following year at the January 1954 New Zealand Grand Prix with Molina competing alongside other Australians including Jack Brabham, Stan Jones, Tony Gaze and Alec Mildren. On this occasion, the MM was not successful, retiring early with mechanical problems. Stan Jones won the day of course in another rather famous Australian special
Amongst other notable runs, in 1956 the MM finished in the top six at the Argus Cup at Albert Park and clocked 15.3 seconds for the standing quarter mile at the Geelong Sprints.
Greg Smith has given me a shedload of material about this car from Lou’s Archive, I really must do something on the two Molina Specials soon.
And below, the MM Holden and an MG?, before the off at Fishermans Bend.
The Mobil sponsored Toyota Melbourne-Toowoomba Performance Test in 1966, Toyota Crown. It was still at the stage that ‘The Japs’ were convincing Aussies about the durability of their cars I guess, they succeeded rather well!
This looks awfully like Jack Phillips and Ted Parsons after one of their Interstate Grand Prix wins at Wirlinga, Albury in 1938 or 1939. Jack – with the post-race fag – still has his kidney-belt on.
Their mount was a Ford V8 Special, see here: https://primotipo.com/2023/03/07/jack-phillips-ted-parsons-ford-v8/
Charlie Dean well and truly on the gas during this ascent of Rob Roy in Maybach 1, date unknown. Right front on the track’s verge and right rear well and truly on the roadside.
Dean’s series of three Maybachs were labelled Maybachs 1, 2 and 3. M 3 was christened M 4 when that car/chassis was modified by fitment of a 283 Chev V8 in place of the Maybach SOHC six and other changes, mainly to the rear suspension. These cars were great crowd pleasers from their first appearances in 1948 until the last in-period races of Maybach 4 Chev in the hands of Ern Seeliger and Stan Jones in 1958-59.
One of the great shames is that a Maybach never won an Australian GP, karma suggests that this shouldn’t be the case but shit-happened on those particular big days. Stan Jones’ 1954 NZ GP win – truly a great team effort – is duly acknowledged…More about Maybach 1 here: https://primotipo.com/2024/01/15/maybach-1-technical-specifications/
Alf Barrett at Ballarat aboard his superb, aristocratic Alfa Romeo 8C2300 Monza, during the 1947 Victoria Trophy.
This is another combination that shoulda-coulda-woulda but never did win an Australian GP. The fastest combination in the immediate pre- and post-war periods is the descriptor that would have to do.
The centenary of the first Australian Grand Prix takes place in 2027, good news is that the current custodians of this car: Grace, Troy and Lindon Davey-Milne have its restoration underway and with a bit of luck it will take its place in the on-track centenary celebrations or as a static exhibit at Goulburn and Phillip Island in 2027-28.
See here for more: https://primotipo.com/2015/02/20/alf-barrett-the-maestro-alfa-romeo-8c2300-monza/
Len Lukey and Ern Seeliger – probably – dice at the front of a Fishermans Bend pack circa 1957. Cooper T23 Bristol and Maybach 4 Chev. The 2-litre, triple Zenith-fed six-cylinder Bristol engine of the Lukey Cooper is shown below. More about the T23 here: https://primotipo.com/2017/02/24/the-cooper-t23-its-bristolbmw-engine-and-spaceframe-chassis/
‘Sydney to Melbourne 750 miles by car in December 1927’, is the caption. Make of car folks? They certainly did it the long way, and the hard way no doubt.
Stan Jones HRG #24 amongst a gaggle of MGs at Fishermans Bend in 1951 led by Lex Davison in the family TC Spl. I’ll take your advice on the rest. Article on the Davison TC Spl here: https://primotipo.com/2015/10/01/lex-davison-mg-tc-the-lobethal-stobie-pole-and-the-lucky-escape/
Credits…
State Library of Victoria and photographers George Thomas, ‘Bathurst : Cradle of Australian Motor Racing’ John Medley, Hal Coulson, Gladys E Moss, JP Read, Australian Motor Sports
Tailpiece…
The starter drops the flag, can you see him among the clouds of two-stroke smoke!?, for Jim Hawker and the Chamberlain 8, VSCC Speed Trials, Geelong Road, June 1947; tree-huggers eat yer’ heart out.
The features of the Chamberlain brothers’ crazy-brave pre-war special included a small-tube spaceframe chassis, independent front and rear suspension, front wheel drive and eight-piston, two-stroke, supercharged 1.5-litre engine. See here: https://primotipo.com/2015/07/24/chamberlain-8-by-john-medley-and-mark-bisset/
Finito…
primotipo... 