Frank Matich blasts his way around the Wigram RNZAF airbase during the January 16,1971 Lady Wigram Trophy won by his arch rival, Graham McRae, McLaren M10B Chev.
I love paddock shots where something is going on. I guess the Wigram paddock was in the hangars?
Derek Kneller attends to the wheel alignment rig while Team Manager Howard Marsden replicates FM’s weight in the car. I’d forgotten his short stint with Matich; two Roosters in The Henhouse was probably sub-optimal?
What interests me is the somewhat complex, big fabricated aluminium oil tank and oil pump driven off the rear of the DG300 transaxle. It’s the early days of the 5-litre Repco-Holden F5000 V8s development, by the time the Matich A50 appeared in November that year the set up had changed; one for the Repco-Holden enthusiasts/engineers Brian Heard, Derek Kneller.
How much grunt the Repco-Holdens had then is an interseting question; but more than enough power and torque to beat most of the American Chevs and Fords at Riverside and Laguna Seca in April-May 1971!
The other side of the crowded rear end; the trend was to put more weight on the rear of the car at the time, but the packaging challenge is apparent all the same. Note the small oil cooler, gearbox? Varley battery is nice and low. ‘Wonky trumpets’ means butterfly or slide injection? Who are the dudes?
Skinny bugger isn’t he, Marsden. Off to FoMoCo Lot 6 when exactly in 1971?
Not slicks just yet, but the breakthrough came in F1 that season, having started, from memory, in drag racing. Don O’Sullivan, alongside, raced the ex-FM M10A Repco-Holden but binned it badly, bending the tub at Teretonga and didn’t finish the tour.
Credits…
Bryan Colechin Collection
Finito…
primotipo... 