Colin Anderson and riding mechanic at Hell Bend on the Victor Harbor-Port Elliott road circuit during the Australian Grand Prix-South Australian Centenary Grand Prix held on December 26, 1936.
The pair are racing the Morris Special owned by Alf Barrett, one of Australia’s greatest racing drivers. He was a star of the immediate pre and post-war period aboard an Alfa Romeo 8C2300 Monza he raced from 1939. The car behind Anderson is George Martin’s AC 16/80.
Barrett entered three cars that Christmas 1936 weekend: a Lombard AL3 acquired from Jack Day in late 1935 for himself, an MG P-Type for Bryant & May family member Tim Joshua, and the Morris for another friend, Colin Anderson a principal of still respected Toorak based, multi-office real estate agency RT Edgar.
Alf retired the 1.2-litre Lombard after the supercharger pop-off valve blew off and could not be found despite a half-hour search! Colin Anderson wasn’t classified in the 1.5-litre Morris with overheating problems and a spin, but Tim Joshua had better luck. He was second in the P-Type behind the similar car driven by the winner, Les Murphy. Joshua led the race for some laps before a seven minute stop for unidentified maladies.
Barrett was born in 1909 to a wealthy family who made their fortune in malt. Today Barrett Burston Malting is part of the publicly listed United Malt Group Ltd. He grew up in Armadale in Melbourne’s inner-east and started messing around with petrol engined devices with his brother Gib (Julian) in the large grounds of their home.
Not far away, a young man destined to become a master-mechanic, preparing cars for Barrett, Tony Gaze and Lex Davison amongst others, Alan Ashton, was serving his time as an apprentice at AF Hollins Motor Engineers in High Street.
The three youngsters met and were soon messing around with cars and bikes which they tested at Aspendale Speedway.
Alf, Gib and Alan built their first racing car out of a Morris Cowley in 1933, initially hillclimbing the purposeful, attractive biposto. It was competitive in the handicap race events of the day too, winning the Light Car Club of Australia’s Winter 100 from 14 other competitors at Phillip Island in June 1935.
While the Lombard was the Morris’ successor, Alf had lots of trouble with it. John Medley wrote that ‘Pretty though it was, it was a nightmare for Barrett, a later owner discovering water jackets filled with bronze to heal unimaginable horrors. Never reliable , it was later re-engined with Vauxhall power.’
Amidst entries in the Lombard, he raced it in the Easter 1938 AGP at Bathurst won by Peter Whitehead’s ERA B-Type, Barrett continued to race the Morris which proved its pace with a great second place among much heavier metal in the 150 mile March 1937 Phillip Island Trophy.
He also raced the Morris in the 100 mile January 3, 1938 South Australian Grand Prix at Lobethal, but DNF in the handicap race won by Noel Campbell’s Singer Bantam from Colin Dunne’s MG K3 and Tony Ohlmeyer’s MG T-Type.
He also contested the 148 mile Interstate Grand Prix/Albury Grand Prix at Wirlinga near Albury that March. Alf was pretty handy behind the wheel, he was quite spectacular in the long suffering Morrie at Wirlinga despite the side-valve machine having a top speed of no more than 90mph, but again he failed to finish.
Little is known about the mechanical specifications of the car, but Stephen Hands wrote that ‘For many years Graeme Steinfort (a Melbourne lawyer/racer/restorer/historian had the block from Alf’s car. It had several interesting modifications, one was to reduce the reciprocating mass in the valvegear. Alf had cut away half the mushroom head of the cam-follower to leave only a bit directly over the cam lobe. It was prevented from rotating by a small block of metal screwed onto the block.’
‘Alf later modified the body somewhat, the photos show the dropped down radiator and cutaway body for more elbow-room. Some of the photos clearly show that Alf dropped the chassis under the rear axle. It would be interesting to see photos without the bodywork to illustrate how he did it.’
John Medley noted that the Morris was destroyed in a bushfire with only the engine surviving. It seems to have been fitted with a Laystall steel crankshaft, and the engine was fitted to Geoff Russell’s Russell Morris Special.
Etcetera…
A Bullnose Morris Cowley with the proud owner in Canberra, date unknown. Ideal car for a public servant no doubt.
WR Morris, the Morris Company founder spent nearly a month in Australia in February/March 1928, accompanied by his chief designer, Mr Seaward, learning, Morris said ‘many things about tracks, clearance and other details that were required of the roads of Australia. It was up to him, when he returned to the old country, to do his best to supply the Britishers on this side of the water with what they required.’
Interestingly Morris said, ‘he could not leave Australia without saying he had never seen a better organised body works in the world than Holdens (then a body builder)’, which hw had seen in Adelaide that morning.
It’s easy to think of Morris as a marque that disappeared within the British Motor Corporation, but ‘the output of Morris products is approximately half the output of the whole of the British motor industry,’ The Register reported on April 2, 1927.
By November 1928 The Register reported that Morris products now embody many improvements as a result of WR Morris’ visit. Chief amongst these was enhanced pulling power of the new Morris Cowley engine, ‘in the past a second gear car for hill work but now having top-gear performance comparable with any four cylinder car on this market. Such improved performance and other engineering refinements makes the Cowley very desirable for country or city use.’ I wonder what Alf Barrett would have made of this lot!?
Credits…
Ron Blum Collection, Warwick Anderson, John Medley in ‘The Official 50 Race History of the Australian Grand Prix’, Norman Howard, Stephen Hands on Greg Smith’s Pre 1960 Historic Racing in Australasia Facebook page, David Zeunert Collection, Len Egan, Mildenhall’s Canberra, The Register March 7 and November 7, 1928.
Finito…
primotipo... 