Doug Whiteford was one of Australia’s racing greats, he won the Australian Grand Prix thrice- in 1950 aboard ‘Black Bess’ his Ford Spl and in 1952/53 in this Talbot-Lago T26C ‘110007’ here on the forecourt of his ‘BP Servo’, 200 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, Melbourne in 1957…
I tripped over the photograph in the National Library of Australia archive, it’s clearly a BP promotional shot, the ‘Snapper’ was Wolfgang Sievers. ‘COR’, the other brand on the pump, is the acronym of the ‘Commonwealth Oil Refineries’, which was acquired by BP some years before, the pumps were co-branded for a while as part of the evolution of one brand to the other.
These establishments are all of an age aren’t they? The owner operated service station with generalist mechanics working on all makes and models is sadly a thing of the past. The ‘counter jumper’ in the average ‘Mega Servo’, if you can make yourself understood at all, is unlikely to know a dipsticks location let alone anything of real use.
The shot didn’t make sense actually.
By 1957 Doug had well before sold this car to Owen Bailey who owned and raced it at the time, Doug had acquired an older, but more advanced in specification T26C, chassis ‘110002’.
Owen’s son Rob is a fellow racer/Alfista, he and Stephen Dalton have helped with the facts or a theory anyway… we think the car is at Doug’s ‘Temple of Speed’ for fettling, Whiteford was the expert on these cars in this part of the world.
‘110007’ is in BC Ecclestones’ collection, ‘110002’ still in Oz. I am beavering away on an article about these two fabulous Lagos which should be finished soon…
(Clem Smith via Ray Bell)
Doug Whiteford’s T-L ‘110007′ leads Stan Jone’s Maybach onto the main straight at Woodside, the Adelaide Hills road circuit in October 1951, Whiteford won the race with Stan second.
Just look at the nature of the place- ‘Stobie’ telephone poles, fence posts, railway crossing etc. A tragic accident in a motor-cycle handicap race where an early starter completed his first lap before the scratchmen had gotten away and killed two people in the starting area gave rise to police and State Government concern causing the imposition of a ban on racing on public roads in South Australia.
Owen Bailey, Lago Talbot T26C ‘110007’, Fishermans Bend, Melbourne 1958. (autopics)
Etcetera…
I wrote an article about Whitefords’ Black Bess Spl: https://primotipo.com/2015/05/05/doug-whiteford-black-bess-woodside-south-australia-1949/
Credits…
Wolfgang Sievers, autopics.com.au, Clem Smith/Ray Bell. Stephen Dalton and Rob Bailey for research assistance
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