Posts Tagged ‘Elfin MR9 Chev’

Australian Racing Random 5…

Posted: November 27, 2020 in Features
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(B King Collection)

Hope Bartlett and Harry Odewahn, in the practice of the day at Harold Park in the mid-twenties…

Bartlett ran a bus service in Nowra, it must have been a ripper business to fund an impressive fleet of racing cars including a pair of Bugatti Brescias, he used them on dirt speedways, concrete saucer at Maroubra as well as a GP Sunbeam and others.

‘Hope Bartlett had an exceptional racing career from the early twenties to post war years when he raced the Dixon Riley’ was Bob King’s caption when he posted these shots. Time to do a feature on Hope I think.

Hope and Harold Bernard Odewahn, his riding mechanic in Bugatti Type 13 chassis ‘1399’ probably, given the marking on the car Maroubra (B King)

 

Frank Gardner on the way to winning the 1972 New Zealand Grand Prix at Pukekohe in his works Lola T300 Chev- one of ‘the’ great Formula 5000 cars and first in a dominant model range comprising T300-332-332C-400-430.

Gerard Richards posted this and wrote ‘Photo here by Jack Inwood graced the cover of Kiwi Motor Racing Magazine ‘Motorman’ in January 1973. Aussies had a good run in the NZGP from 1970-1973 but Kiwis ultimately won the Tasman Series for those years…’

For the record, the Tasman Cup winners in those years are easy- Graeme Lawrence aboard a Ferrari 246T in 1970 and Graham McRae from 1971-1973 in McLaren M10B, Leda GM1 and McRae GM1, all Chevrolet powered respectively.

Winners of the NZ GP at Pukekohe are more varied- Frank Matich in 1970, McLaren M10A Chev, McRae the following year in an M10B Chev, then FG in his T300, John McCormack in his somewhat long in the tooth but still quick Elfin MR5 Repco-Holden, and again the following year at Wigram and finally Warwick Brown in 1975 racing his Lola T332 Chev, ‘HU27’ the very first T332.

FG on the Warwick Farm 100 Tasman grid in 1972 and looking as ‘snug as a bug in a rug’.

Many of will realise there is a connection between the first two images in that Hope Bartlett was Frank Gardner’s uncle.

He brought FG up after the death of his parents- whilst keeping it in the family there is a more distant familial link between the next photograph of Kevin Bartlett and Hope Bartlett. Hope was KB’s grandfather’s cousin.

(B Thomas)

KB being chased hard by the equally evergreen Bob Holden at Lakeside’s Shell Corner in May 1966

The Alfa Romeo GTA is ‘LHD’ the first of the two Mildren GTAs, the second was ‘RHD’ which appeared not too long after this, Bob’s car is an immortal Morris Cooper S, one of THE competition cars of the sixties and top five for bang for buck and most versatile? Bartlett and the Mildren GTAs here; https://primotipo.com/2014/11/27/the-master-of-opposite-lock-kevin-bartlett-alfa-romeo-gta/

(P Weaver Motorsports Photography)

Alfredo Costanzo in his Tiga FA81 Ford BDA at Torana Corner, during the September 1982 Sandown Gold Star round.

Costanzo failed to finish the race but prevailed over John Bowe and a shedload of other Ralt RT4’s in that seasons Gold Star, Alf won three races, JB two with the placegetters, Alf 41 points from Bowe on 38 and Andrew Miedecke, 25 points.

In Australia we pretty much missed the peak years of Formula Atlantic in terms of multiple competitive chassis, by the time we finally parted with F5000 the class was pretty much Formula Ralt RT4, wonderful gizmos as they are. We should be thankful to Alan Hamilton, Alfie and Jim Hardman for persevering with their Tigas by providing something different to look at.

The mighty little driver was going away from the field in the 1983 AGP only to have the crown wheel pinion shit itself in the Hewland Mk9 gearbox, I did shed a quiet tear that day.

(T Johns Collection)

Quite an historic occasion, the first timed run up Rob Roy Hillclimb, 1 February 1937- the Austin 7 driven by either Mr O’Neill or Morphet.

Rare shot from the Terdich Family Collection via an article written by Bob King in the VSCC ‘Racers and Rascals’. ‘The Austin looks like a sports body built on standard chassis. No Ulsters here’ Tony Johns observed.

He continued ‘It is a good photo as it shows the track surface and also that the Austin was not travelling fast enough to to extinguish the cigarette’ to which Bob King responded, ‘It must have been a quick climb for an A7 or there would have been longer ash.’ LOL etc.

An important piece of Australian hillclimb history my friends.

Those with an interest in Austin 7 racing should look at this ‘Nostalgia Forum’ thread being progressively created by Tony Johns and Stephen Dalton on the history of these wonderful little cars in Australia; https://forums.autosport.com/topic/215085-austin-seven-racing-in-australia-from-1928/

(Neil Stratton)

Peter Geoghegan up front of the Rothmans in Laurie O’Neil’s Porsche 935 at Oran Park in 1978, Rothmans F5000 round.

From memory the first 935 in the country, I did see the big fella race it at Phillip Island, but the car wasn’t raced that much from memory, is it still in Australia?

Graham McRae’s McRae GM3 Chev is front and centre amongst the black 911SCs with Warwick Brown hidden also on the front row. Warwick Brown won the Oran Park 100 from Bruce Allison and Graham- Lola T332, Chevron B37 and the GM3. A bit about McRae’s cars here; https://primotipo.com/2018/09/06/amons-talon-mcraes-gm2/

(unattributed)

Aussies Abroad.

Its all too easy after all these years to forget about gruff, tough and oh-so-fast Paul Hawkins.

I bracket him with Frank Gardner as an engineer/mechanic/driver entrepreneur who parlayed his talent as a works driver for Ford, Lola and here Porsche but who also ran his own team, racing cars for start and prizemoney.

Here he is winning the 1967 Targa Florio in a works Porsche 910 he shared with Rolf Stommelen. Paul is an intensely interesting character, click here for a short piece; https://primotipo.com/2020/09/25/hawkeye/

(unattributed)

 

(unattributed)

This pair of photographs is all about the snapper, whose details I have managed to lose in the Facebook vortex- do get in touch if you can help me credit the man.

Its Oran Park, circa 1967- Fred Gibson in the Lotus Elan 26R whilst the smart sports-racer is I think Ted Proctor’s Manx, wonderful shots of a different time and place aren’t they?

 

BRM used the 1968 Tasman Cup as an opportunity to win the prestigious series and failing that test its P126/133 V12 machines.

The Bourne outfit raced these Len Terry designed cars in F1 in 1968 and gave them a Tasman run with 2.5 litre variants of the new V12 in addition to 2.1 litre V8 engined versions of the ‘old faithful’ P261s. Click here for a feature on these machines; https://primotipo.com/2018/01/25/richard-attwood-brm-p126-longford-1968/

 

(J Lemm)

Barry Randall, Rennmax Repco 830 V8 from Bill O’Gorman, Matich SR5 Waggott TC-4V during the 1974 Australian Sportscar Championship round at Adelaide International

The cars initially caught my attention but the magic in the shot is in some ways the backdrop- the spectators doing different versions of Oz ‘chillin.

Randall again below in a car now loved to death by Jay Bondini, a favourite car of mine since it’s Gibson family days.

(J Lemm)

 

(N Stratton)

Graham McRae on a day for the ducks- the Warwick Farm 100 Tasman round in 1973.

The car is his self-built McRae GM1 Chev- one of THE F5000s of 1972 with Graham himself winning the Tasman Cup

And below hs is togging up before the off with plenty of his own tweaks to the setup of his Bell Star to give some semblance of vision in the race won by Steve Thompson’s Chevron B24 Chev- GM was a distant third behind Thompson and Frank Matich.

(autopics.com)

 

 Michael Robinson (thanks Dick Willis) in the ex-Whiteford/Bailey/Collerson Talbot-Lago T26C in 1969

A famous car in Australia courtesy of back to back AGP win for Doug Whiteford at Bathurst in 1952 and Albert Park in 1953. See here; https://primotipo.com/2019/03/16/1953-australian-grand-prix-albert-park/

 

(L Morgan)

Love this Bakers Beach, Tasmania run in the early fifties.

Lesley Morgan said of the shot ‘Mum filling in for Geoff Quon, Dads normal passenger with me present as a very small foetus’ ! ‘The 7R AJS outfit clocked 89.1mph even with an inexperienced woman passenger.’

 

Rally Australia 2016

Aerobatics of the Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul Hyundai i20 WRC on the first day of the event at Coffs Harbour, New South Wales on 18 November.

The due finished third in the testing event won by the Andreas Mikkelsen/Anders Jaeger VW Polo R WRC and the similar car of Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia.

 

Aussies Abroad

I think we should claim Selwyn Francis Edge even if he was really only born here- the pioneering motorist’s career was entirely in the UK, but let’s claim him all the same.

A topic for another time.

 

(N Stratton)

John Walker from Chris Amon and John Goss during the 1975 Oran Park Tasman Cup International

Lola T332 Repco Holden, Talon MR1 Chev and Matich A53 Repco Holden- they finished third, fourth and DNF that day, the race won by Warwick Brown, Lola T332 Chev from Graeme Lawrence’s similar T332.

I witnessed a cracker of a tustle for the series win that February at Sandown when the championship went down to the wire three weeks later. It was decided in that final race between Lola drivers Walker, Brown and Lawrence- click here to read about JW’s lucky, unlucky day; https://primotipo.com/2015/03/12/the-mother-and-father-of-lucky-escapes-john-walker-sandown-tasman-1975/

Brown, Walker and Lawrence on the front row of the grid at Surfers in 1975- Lola T332 times three. Walker won from Ken Smith and John Goss that weekend (N Laracy)

 

(Getty)

Donald Campbell, Bluebird Proteous CN7, Lake Eyre 10 May 1963

‘Returns after an attempt to break the Land Speed Record’, read all about this wonderful, extravagant ‘Boys Own’ adventure and ultimately successful enterprise, here; https://primotipo.com/2014/07/16/50-years-ago-today-17-july-1964-donald-campbell-broke-the-world-land-speed-record-in-bluebird-at-lake-eyre-south-australia-a-speed-of-403-10-mph/

The shot below is Bluebird K7 on its way to a water LSR setting run at Lake Dumbleyung, Western Australia in December 1964. Details of the NSW registered Commer? truck folks?

(F Bathgate)

 

Daniel Ricciardo leads the chasing Oulton Park F3 pack in 2009.

His weapon of war is a Carlin Motorsport run Dallara F309 Volkswagen- it is the first round of the British F3 Championship on Easter Monday 13 April.

Ricciardo won both races/rounds that weekend and 6 of the competitions 20 races. He took the title with two races to spare from Walter Grubmuller and Renger van der Zande both aboard Hitech Racing Dallara F309 Merecedes.

He progressed to Formula Renault 3.5 in 2010, finishing second in that title in a race to the wire in the final round with Mikhail Aleshin by 2 points. Into F1 with Hispania Racing in 2011.

 

It’s loose champ! And worn.

Jack Brabham ponders the Trokart allocated him for some type of curtain/fund raiser- Innes Ireland by the look at that helmet is behind him which promises mayhem at the first corner!

Jack’s lid makes me think it’s 1960 but i’m happy for a definitive date and place if any of you have it?

 

(oldracephotos.com)

Garrie Cooper, Elfin MR9 Chev from Bruno Giacomelli, Alfa Romeo 179 at Calder during the ‘F Libre’ 1980 Australian Grand Prix.

They were seventh and second in the race won by Alan Jones’ Williams FW07B Ford. GC had a shocker of a debut weekend in the worlds only bespoke ground-effects F5000 car, battling structural shortcomings induced by the grip caused.

A story in itself, we never saw this car fully developed and at its best, here Garrie is at Calder again, this time in March 1982 not long before the great Australian’s untimely death by heart failure. Bob Minogue’s ex-Brown/Costanzo Lola T430 Chev is under brakes on the back straight behind.

I’ve lost track of the ownership of this car and it’s proximity to a race some day?

(oldracephotos.com/NHammond)

 

(unattributed)

Lex Davison and Bib Stillwell contested the Le Mans 24 Hour classic in 1961 in John Ogier’s Essex Wire Racing Aston Martin DB4 Zagato, ‘2VEV’ car #3 here.

1VEV was raced by Jack Fairman and Bernard Consten, but both cars were out early due to incorrectly tensioned head studs which caused popped head gaskets. A bumma.

I wouldn’t mind betting the gent in the blazer and cap almost at far right is Lex Davison talking to the punters, perhaps one of the Davos can set me straight?

See here for a piece on the Victorian’s 1961 Euro Tour; https://primotipo.com/2015/09/22/aston-martin-db4gt-zagato-2vev-lex-davison-and-bib-stillwell/

 

(H Dennison)

Albert Park, Moomba Tourist Trophy, March 1956

Tony Parkinson quotes AMS April 1956 in his wonderful auslinhealey100s.com.au. ‘Came the patter of running feet, the whirring of starter motors, the roar as the motor burst into life, an occasional  crunch as the over eager hurriedly select first gear: the cars surged forward into now what seemed to be a never ending melee as they sorted themselves out and streamed off towards Melbourne Corner.’

The shots are not of the front of the grid, where some more potent Jaguar engined machines resided, note Bib Stillwell’s new #44 D Type- Tony Gaze won in his HWM Jag from Stillwell’s D Type and then Ron Phillip’s Austin Healey 100S third. Hard luck story of the race was Stan Jones run in his new ex-Whitehead Cooper T38 Jaguar. He built a commanding lead having started well behind the field when the big-six failed to fire on command, but the machine over-heated with a radiator inlet clogged with Albert Park leaves.

(H Dennison)

 

(A Patterson Collection)

Marvellous shot of Nina Jones (below) aboard her Alfa Romeo 6C1750 Zagato at Bondi in June 1930, wonder who her co-pilot was?

About as good a ‘customer’ racing Alfa as there was, this car raced on in Australia continuously into the sixties in Ford V8 engined form before restoration for another lady racer, Diana Gaze in the eighties.

Jones did FTD of 18 2/5 seconds on the tricky, wet, slippery-concrete flat but slightly curved Bondi main-drag. Obstacles included an errant dog on one run, Jones thankfully missed the dog and crowd in avoidance. 10,000 spectators were estimated to have attended the winter gig.

64 cars entered, they raced in pairs over a quarter-mile course in a knock-out series of contests, ‘the first time races of this sort had been held in Australia’ the Sydney Morning Herald reported. Bill Thompson’s 1930 AGP winning Bugatti T37A was second quickest in 19 1/5 seconds. See here for a feature on this car; https://primotipo.com/2018/02/15/mrs-jas-jones-alfa-6c-1750-ss-zagato/

(A Patterson Collection)

Credits…

Bob King Collection, Jack Inwood, Brier Thomas, Peter Weaver Motorsports Photography, Neil Stratton, Vittorio Del Basso, Terdich Family Collection via Tony Johns, Lesley Morgan, Neil Stratton, Neil Laracy, Adrian Patterson Collection, Sydney Morning Herald 30 June 1930, austinhealey100s.com.au, Tony Johns

Tailpiece…

(A Patterson Collection)

Stunning 1926 Maroubra shot which captures the atmosphere of the place in a way most photographs of the challenging concrete saucer rarely do.

Hope Bartlett’s GP Sunbeam is the scratch car, car ‘B’ is Don Harkness in ‘Whitey 2’ an Overland. Tony Johns tells us the smokey starter is the NA Palmer, V Spurgeon entered Gordon England ‘Brooklands’ model Austin 7, the meeting date June 19, 1926.

Finito…

Elfin Light Aircraft…

Posted: June 10, 2016 in Features, Who,What,Where & When...?
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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(Spencer Lambert)

Now that’s a ‘Wing Car’! Garrie Cooper awaits clearance for takeoff at Adelaide International, ‘Elfin 792 Cessna’ in 1979…

When I originally saw this shot on the wonderful ‘Elfin Monocoque Aficionados’ Facebook Group page I thought it a promotional pisstake, the additional wings added to get some column inches for Elfin’s sponsor, Ansett Airlines of Australia. Ansett was an Australian icon, our ‘other’ domestic airline until its corporate failure in 2001. Reg Ansett would have turned in his grave that day.

Whilst it was John Bowe’s car the helmet was Cooper’s, JB confirmed it was the Elfin chief at the wheel; ‘Garrie kept and prepared the car in Adelaide, he was always fiddling around with new ideas and this is one of them. I met the car and raced it at meetings but GC did all of the development work on the chassis’.

Elfin boss Cooper and mechanic/engineer John Porter were experimenting to understand the forces their new ‘ground effect’ designs would be subjected to by trying to create the downforce of GE tunnels by the addition of the side mounted wings.

image

Gunnar Nilsson, Lotus 78 Ford, Japanese GP 1977 (unattributed)

In 1978 Colin Chapman, Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson ‘swept the boards’ with their dominant ground-effects Lotus 79, Mario took the drivers and Lotus the manufacturers titles that year.

The complexities of aerodynamics, what a ‘black art’ it was then with the technology of the day was such that the dominant team of 1978 didn’t win a race in 1979!

Chapman pushed the envelope ‘too far’ with the ‘wingless’ Lotus 80 despite all of the knowledge Peter Wright, Tony Rudd, Chapman and the rest had acquired during 1976/8. The best ‘Lotus 79 copy’, the Williams FW07 was the fastest car of 1979 albeit Ferrari ‘nicked’ the title with its T4 design as Patrick Head and Frank Williams didn’t get their new car onto the grid early enough which allowed the ultra reliable, just fast enough Fazz Flat-12 to win for Jody Scheckter.

image

The technical challenges manufacturers of production racing cars like Elfin faced in 1979 were the aerodynamic forces unleashed on their structures. They both needed to understand how to create the downforce Lotus harnessed and then strengthen their structures to cope with the download and cornering forces applied to the cars chassis and suspension componentry as unheard levels of grip were created.

The difficulty for people like Cooper at the ‘far flung ends of the planet’ was not being able to see how things were evolving directly week by week at race meetings in Europe, get the ‘goss from suppliers and the press etc.

The Elfin 792 VW Golf was Cooper’s 1978 ANF2 car (1.6 litres, SOHC, carburettor formula, engines gave circa 185bhp) but it arrived late so took the 792 appellation. GC had a huge F5000 shunt in 1978 at the Sandown Gold Star round from which he was lucky to escape, a story for another time, an impact was the delay of a swag of Elfin projects including the F2 car until Garrie was back on his feet.

When laid down the little single-seater was designed as a neat, conventional aluminium monocoque with outboard suspension. It was a replacement of his Type 700, originally built as an ANF3 (1300cc) car but evolved into an F2 car by many racers when fitted with a Ford Twin-cam or various pushrod/SOHC 4 cylinder engines as the class evolved from a 1.6 twin-cam to a 1.6 SOHC formula with effect from 1978.

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Garrie Cooper did ‘a million miles’ at Adelaide International and Mallala testing his Adelaide built cars over the decades, here the 792 is running a high airbox, with which it did race (Spencer Lambert)

Later Australian Gold Star and Touring Car Champion, John Bowe raced both the factory MR8 Chev F5000 and 792 and with more luck could have won both the Gold Star and the 1979 F2 Championship.

Bowe may not be known to all overseas readers, he is one of Australia’s pro-driver greats over 4 decades. He had a great career in single-seaters before turning to ‘the dark side’, touring cars where he was and still is, an ace. He won 6 Australian Championships in four categories including the then prestigious ‘Gold Star’ for our champion driver, 2 Bathurst 1000’s and the Australian Touring Car Championship.

bowe elfin

JB in his Elfin 500 F Vee #132 during his 1971, debut racing year in which he won the Tasmanian FV Championship, aged 16 (oldracephotos.com)

‘I grew up surrounded by cars in Tasmania, my dad had a dealership and raced, I went to lots of local meetings at Symmons Plains, Baskerville and Longford. I raced an Elfin Formula Vee when I first started and an Elfin 600 after that, and it was Garrie who gave me the chance to race on the mainland, which is something I really wanted to do’.

‘He was great to me by giving me the opportunity and also the guidance. The Elfin drives were the big boost my career got, everything that happened later was a function of the success I had in the F2 Elfins and especially the F5000 MR8 drives I had, which established my big-car credibility’.

elf dick

Dick Johnson left and John Bowe in their 1993 Ford ‘EB’ Falcon V8 Supercar heyday, JB won the Australian Touring Car Championship, for the last 30 years really the ‘Australian Drivers Championship’ in 1995 in a Falcon (Shell)

‘The 1.6 single-cam F2 formula was really good at the time, it had some young, fast guys involved; Sheady and Sambo in the Celica powered Cheetah’s, John Smith in his Ralt RT1, Davo in the Hardman, Norden in the March copy and others. The fields had depth, the racing was hard, that (younger not Shead and Sambo!) group of us were young guys pushing up so we gave the class a real shake’, said John.

‘The 792 was a good car, it was quick but it wasn’t too long before it got a bit floppy at the back. The weakness or lack of stiffness was in the mounting of the frame to the tub, in the end Garrie said we should sell it. Cooper built three of the cars and they are now all in the hands of the one guy, although none of them are running’ in historic racing.

The chassis was an honeycomb aluminium monocoque with conventional outboard wishbone suspension at the front and single top link, twin lower links and radius rods for fore and aft location at the rear. New uprights were used as well as Elfins own steering rack. Hewland’s Mk9 5 speed ‘box with slippery diff was fitted and 190’ish bhp claimed for the VW Golf engine which was built in-house at Elfins using the best Super Vee bits from the ‘States. The suspension was finished in cadminium plating, the superbly presented car glistened in the Benalla sunlight as I shared the scrutineering bay with it in at Winton in late August 1979, my Venom F Vee feeling very ‘povvo’ in comparison!

elfin mr8

John Bowe ahead of Kevin Bartlett in the ill-fated Brabham BT43 Chev and John Walkers Lola T332 Chev, Chas Talbot and Rob Butcher both in T332’s then Graham McRae McRae GM3 Chev Sandown Gold Star 1979. KB crashed the BT43 destroying the car and badly injuring himself when a wheel broke in the very quick Causeway/Dunlop Bridge section of the circuit  (Ian Smith)

The class of the 1979 F2 field was John Smith’s Ralt RT1. He raced this as an F Pac with a Cosworth BDD fitted and an AN2 with a pushrod Ford ‘Kent’ 711M, which was pretty neat. The ‘Kent’ is the same block used in Cosworth’s BDD, in pushrod form modified with lots of Cosworth bits. The car was heavy as an F2 but Smithy’s skills more than made up for any weight disadvantage the package had. He was fast but he didn’t have reliability on his side that year.

JB debuted the 792 successfully in Baskerville’s end of February meeting, he won the F2 race and set a new outright lap record. Still in Tasmania on 14 March he won 3 races and again set an F2 lap record, besting the Birrana 274 F2 twin-cam mark set by Leo Geoghegan.

At Sandown on 8 April Bowe again set an F2 lap record besting Leo’s time again but was 2nd in the race between the Cheetah twins; Brian’s Shead and Sampson in Cheetah Mk6 Toyota’s. At Oran Park 6 weeks later he was 3rd.

bowe 792

JB all cocked up at Sandown’s Shell corner, turn 1 in April 1979 chasing Brian Sampson’s Cheetah Mk6 Toyota. Note the ‘Tyrrell’ bluff nose on the 792 early in the season, both sweet little cars, Mk5/6 Cheetah a very successful series of cars (unattributed)

In the Gold Star chase Bowe was 2nd in the AGP at Wanneroo Park in WA, the winner John Walker in a Lola T332 Chev, for a change JW was the lucky beneficiary of others misfortunes. John followed this up with a flag to flag win in the first Gold Star round at Oran Park on 29 July, a great drive for an F5000 relative novice.

JB on the speed of the Elfin MR8; ‘When I stepped up into F5000 I was a young driver and by that stage the Elfin MR8 Chev was well sorted, GC built the first one around 1976. Garrie, Vern, (Schuppan) James Hunt and others had raced the things so they were developed by guys who knew these big cars, I didn’t have a yardstick but I reckon the Elfin was every bit as good as the T332 Lolas and other contemporary cars of the day’.

Bowe took the first F2 Championship round at Calder in early August beating Brian Shead over the line by less than a second, both drivers did the same fastest lap and became joint holders of the F2 lap record.

Later in August Bowe was knocked off the track at Winton whilst lapping a competitor, breaking an upright and spinning into the infield in the second AF2 championship round. John Smith was the quickest car that weekend, but went off in the wet, the winner was Graham Engel in a Cheetah Mk6 Ford.

elf smit

Late 70’s to mid ’80’s Oz single-seater aces John Smith and the forever beardly! Bowe, circa 1979/80 (Ian Smith)

On September 9 Bowe contested the last round of the Gold Star at Sandown and was convincingly in the lead after the brakes on Alf Costanzo’s Lola T430 wouldn’t release but a left rear tyre deflated. In trying to get back to the pits John damaged the rear suspension cradle. John Walker took 2nd, the series and promptly retired from the sport he loved. Costanzo won the race.

John then travelled back to Winton for the ‘Rose City 10000’ F5000 race contested by both 5 litre cars and Formula Pacific cars which were incredibly fast around twisty Winton with its multiple changes of direction. JB qualified on row 2 but was in the lead leaving behind the scrapping Costanzo Lola T430 and Smith Ralt RT1 BDD. With 8 laps to go John spun, broke the Elfin’s nose and was black-flagged, Alf won the race from Smithy by less than a half a second.

At Symmons for the final round of the AF2 championship on 11 November Ian Richards set fastest practice time in a Golf powered car called a Tudor, but Bowe was only a tenth slower with Brian Shead 3rd on the grid. JB won the first heat from Shead and had the title within his grasp but in the final, in the wet, a plug lead came loose whilst in the lead giving the round win and championship to the evergreen, muti-talented Cheetah constructor, Brian Shead.

JB’s F2 season ended at Calder’s sportscar championship round in late November with a win over Ian Richards Cheetah Golf, Ian having won the preliminary race and giving intent of his increasing competitiveness as a driver which would be fully exploited in his own, beautiful ground-effect Richards 201 Golf with which he took the 1981 AF2 Championship.

With the season ended Bowe sold the 792 putting pressure on Cooper to finish the GE225 F2 car for 1980, a story for another time. It was an amazing 1979 for Bowe, he didn’t win either title, both of which seemed a strong possibility at one point but he had absolutely established himself as one of the top drivers in the country.

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Cooper in the AIR pitlane, 792 shorn of its wings in some ‘back to back’ tests on the same day the side winglets were tried in 1979 (Spencer Lambert)

If the Elfin looks familiar to some of you its probably its March 792’esque nose. That BMW engined car won the 1979 Euro F2 Championship for Marc Surer. The Elfin also raced with a ‘Tyrrell’ bluff nose but Bowe’s definitive spec was with this nose and an airbox fitted atop the downdraft Weber carbs.

In 1980 John Bowe contested the ANF2 title again, this time in Cooper’s GE Two-25, his first completed ground effect design, no doubt the research found on this 1979 test day was instructive in that cars design!

In the UK Ron Tauranac was struggling to get his first G-E car, the F3 Ralt RT3 to go quicker than the old RT1 (he succeeded bigtime!) whilst Cooper and Porter were simulating the sort of forces they would encounter in designing their new car by running Bowe’s 792 with this wing amidships. No way could it have legally raced with an additional wings mounted where these were.

The GE Two-25 was an F2 race winner for Bowe in 1980 but Richard Davison won the title in a Hardman JH1 Ford in an interesting and competitive ANF2 Championship, a ‘wing-car’ story for another time and one with a potentially better Elfin outcome had Cooper finished the car in time for Bowe to contest the full championship…

bowe ralt

JB is his Ralt RT4 Ford BDD at Oran Park during his successful Gold Star tilt in 1985, he won the title in 1984 as well, by 1985 the ‘aero’ of these cars well and truly resolved! The Ralt RT3/4/5 F3/Pac/S Vee series of cars one of the greatest series of production racing cars ever built (unattributed)

Bibliography…

Special thanks to John Bowe for his time and insights

Elfin Monocoque Aficionados’ Facebook Group, Barry Catford and John Blanden ‘Elfin Racing Cars’

Photo Credits…

Stephen Lambert, Ian Smith, oldracephotos.com, Peter Brennan

Tailpieces: Cooper quickly got the hang of the design of ground effect cars; John Bowe in his only Elfin MR9 Chev drive at Sandown on 22 February 1981 after Cooper was a ‘bit spooked’ by the car in Gold Star practice…

elfin mr9

(Peter Brennan)

Alfie Costanzo’s Allan Hamilton owned, Tiga converted ground-effects ex-F1 McLaren M26 Chev was the class of the field that weekend but JB drove very well to 2nd after a big fright in practice when the MR9’s left rear rocker bent after underestimation of the down force created. The components on all four corners were strengthened overnight at Porsche Cars Australia’s workshop just up the road from the circuit in Dandenong.

John; ‘I was at Sandown racing my Elfin GE225 F2 car and Bryan Thomson’s Mercedes sports sedan when Garrie asked me to have a drive of the MR9 on the Friday. He said he was a bit ‘spooked’ by the car and wasn’t sure whether it was him, he’d had a big accident at Sandown a couple of years before, or the car. It was the early ground effect days, the Elfin MR9 was a great design but the forces weren’t fully understood by many designers’.

‘One of the many wonderful memories I have of GC was being in restaurants with him all over the country and him scribbling notes or diagrams of ideas on paper napkins! What was happening was the chassis was flexing a bit, the front wheels losing alignment and any semblance of castor so the car was very unpredictable under brakes in particular, you had to stop the thing by braking down the middle of the road. And then the upright broke which was very exciting! He strengthened the car in various areas and got it sorted later on but I only drove it the once at Sandown’.

The MR9 is a story for another time…

elf cooper

Garrie Cooper testing one of his great masterpieces, the world’s only purpose built F5000, the Elfin MR9 Chev (Spencer Lambert)

Finito…