Ferrari with Corvette engine

Article in West Australian Newspaper-Perth- on Bill Downey who raced at Caversham in 50s and 60s in various cars. It said he practiced for 1962 Australian GP in Corvette engined Ferrari but had problems and DNS.

I remember car but not all details -was it the ex Jack Ayres, Doug Green car or another?

The Ferrari Corvette was the Curley Brydon car brought over for the meeting.
I believe it's in Donington now, along with the ex Doug Green car.

This pic, from Ken Devine, shows Jim Harwood doing some testing at Caversham.

Was it a money issue, or a horsepower issue?

Henry

Probably more simple and quicker to put in the Chevy than repair a Ferrari

Probably a bit of both.

Australia was a long, long way from the factory and factory mechanics, the original V12 engine didn't come with a workshop manual, and so on. Also, you could probably do a full season on a Corvette engine without a tear-down. If anything went wrong with the Ferrari engine you could lose a whole season waiting for spares to be made. Just ask Ray Barfield, who broke the crank on his Aston Martin DB3S. It took nearly a year to get a replacement.

Perth driver Syd Negus put a 2.3 litre Holden 6 in his Cooper Bristol for much the same reason: ease of maintenance, adequate power, and plenty of local expertise. Same motivation, really, as Carroll Shelby and the AC.

(Edit: typos)

This shows Bill in the car at practice for the 1962 AGP. (Courtesy Milton McCutcheon).

Thanks for that Terry-I guess you saw article in West. Thought I might give Bill a phone call.