39 replies to this topic

[Graham Clayton]

It is with sadness that I let all NF members know that Australian motor racing historian Graham Howard passed away on Monday the 11th March in Katoomba Hospital, aged 76.

While I never had the pleasure of meeting Graham in person, I know of the high esteem in which he was held in the Australian historic motorsport community. I have the "Australian Grand Prix - the 50 Year History" in my library, which was a major project when it was published back in the mid-1980's. Through my father-in-laws' membership of the HSRCA, I know that Graham was also a regular contributor to the "Oily Rag".

He will be sorely missed. I am sure that other NF members will be able to post their memories of Graham and his work.

[David McKinney]

Already covered in the "Mentioned in Passing" thread
http://forums.autosp...showtopic=94879
but probably should have had his own from the start

[Ray Bell]

Yes, judging by the responses in the Mentioned in Passing thread you'd be right, David...

Reiterating, it was Graham who gave me my first assignment as a writer, he was working with Yaffa and they had melded what was formerly Australian Autosportsman with their hot rod magazine and I wrote a 'Goodbye Niel' piece for them. As a result of that, Max Stahl had me go on to do some other personality stories and it went from there.

Graham had been working for Racing Car News from early 1965 through into, probably, early 1968. I don't know when, but at some time he was also acting as a courier for various racing workshops in Sydney using a Peugeot 203, I think it was a wagon, but possibly a utility.

The list of cars he owned included the original Morris 8/40-based Bulant, the Lotus 6 of Alex Strahan, the Lotus 9 that had been raided by Joe Bosworth for its independent rear end to put into a Nota, more famously the Lotus 12 that was called 'Sabakat' to avoid import duty by Ernie Tadgell. This latter car he built up from almost nothing and original plans held by Tony Caldersmith, with Tony a partner in the operation.

Graham seemed to move around a bit, I think he wisely used the capital gains tax shelter of gradually capitalising on the increasing value of the home property to help provide for his family. I don't know when he married Maria, but I think it was some time in the early seventies. Their two sons are named Patrick and Jackson, now in their early thirties.

When he lived at Pymble he explained that his best work was done in the summer, the computer room was too cold in winter and the boys were in there whenever it wasn't too bad.

Naturally enough, with his deep interest in lesser cars like the backyard specials of the forties and fifties, Graham was a leading light in the Historic Racing movement. He knew these cars intimately, as others can well attest, just as he knew history in a way few would understand.

He did post on TNF a very small number of times. There are many threads here he could have added to greatly.

But just as that is the case, so it is that his wealth of knowledge remains only in what we remember he gave, showed or told us and in what he's left behind in the way of records and writings.

Where we once had a wonderful friend, mentor and advisor, this is simply not enough...

[Repco22]

I was shocked and saddened to hear of Graham's passing, not knowing that he had been unwell. We must have started communicating about a dozen years ago and he was always charming, enthusiastic, helpful and amusing with his pithy one-liners.
I viewed him as a good friend though sadly we never met. Occasionally he would phone for snippets from WA for his Auto Action column and I was surprised to hear that he was handing it over to Max.
Codolences to Maria and the boys. Grimes, you'll be deeply missed.

[john medley]

My oldest motor racing friend. RIP GCH

I will post after the private-- family and close invited friends only-- service

[ellrosso]

RIP Graham. I also had never met him in person, but we have been exchanging e-mails for about the last 6 or so years, me usually supplying him with pics for the "Loose Fillings" 500cc F3 newsletter and Graham helping me out with all sorts of images, from 50's Ferraris to various Australian Specials. What a mine of information that is now lost to us. He answered all my questions, often about the most obscure cars and with great detail.
I only found out last week from Bob Williamson that he was ill and in Katoomba Hospital. Very sad news. He will be sorely missed. Condolences to his friends and family.

[DanTra2858]

Graham & I became friends in 1961/2 after his Nota Sportsman had valve train problems (side valve 1172cc Ford) at Huntley Hill, he managed to drive the car to my home where he repaired it after being fed by my Mother, from that day on Graham & I were always friends.

It is so sad to hear of his loss to Motor Sport, to his Wife & Family my Condolances, now my friend you are with all your hero's from days past.

[Ray Bell]

Might that have been the Bulant, Daniel?

I gather he fitted a Ford engine to it after purchasing the car...

[Wirra]

Okay, really scraping the bottom of the shoebox here but I thought John Medley and other might like to identify this one. I'm guessing from other negatives in the packet it's the early '60s, but I could be wrong. I would be fairly sure it's NSW.

I have been reliably informed that this car is the Bulant, built about 1960 by Brian Rawlings and the first of his cars to carry that name (note one "l"). It ran a s.v. Morris 8 engine, gearbox and back axle, which was narrowed on one side to let the tailshaft run under the driver's right elbow. The lost rear track was regained by using Buick wheels reversed. Front suspension was swing axle, initially with Morris steering box, later with Lloyd Hartnett rack and pinion. Chassis was multi-tube, built by Brian, as was the alloy bodywork. He claimed he built it for 67 pounds ten shillings, not counting engine and gearbox. It was never very powerful, but it was light and it went round corners pretty well. It is currently owned by I## B##### in Victoria.

The reliable source was Graham.

[Ray Bell]

Nice one, Peter...

However, this wouldn't be the Clubman to which Daniel refers. I don't think. I spoke to Brian a couple of days ago about the clubman and also to Bob Winley, Bob referred specifically to the wheels on the Clubman as being 'easy clean Morris wheels' so he would not be talking about a car with 'reversed Buick rims.

Without going back to Brian and asking him for the ins and outs of it all (which I can do, but not now), I would say that the timeline suggests that this car might have been the first to carry the name, but it's possible that Brian built an earlier car and it was retrospectively so named.

This would appear to me to be the only way things follow through without any unanswered questions. Daniel is saying the Huntley problem was in '61 or '62, I'm pretty sure that someone told me the other day that Graham bought the Clubman in 1961 (John Medley?) and I recall Rawlo winning a race at Oran Park in 1963 (September 22, first meeting on the lengthened circuit, report in RCN November '63 P8 second col) and I'm sure that was in this pictured car. I'm fairly sure that this was the only single-seat Bulant built.

[terry mcgrath]

indeed very sad.
Graham wrote a superb review on our first XK book back in 1985 for one on the Australian motoring magazines.
The only reason I brought racing car news each month was for Graham's column.
I have always referred to Graham as the Doug Nye of Australian motoring history due to his encyclopedic knowledge.
We spent a day with Graham back in late August 2012 to pick up all his old photo library that we had purchased from him and he took us for a tour through the blue mountains well Katoomba Race track, Leura Hillclimb and Fourty Bends Hillclimb driving up the 2 hillclimbs. We had a lovely lunch somewhere on the way.
Up to October 2012 he was still chasing info on a pet subject of his Belf Jones/ARDC/Mt Druitt history.
A great loss to Australian motoring history

Edited by terry mcgrath, 15 March 2013 - 00:13.

[DanTra2858]

Might that have been the Bulant, Daniel?

I gather he fitted a Ford engine to it after purchasing the car...

No it was not the Bulant, it was one of the VERY EARLY Clubmans that was built by Nota with a 1172 Side Valve Ford motor/gearbox.

The car in looks was very similar to the one Alex Lazich ran in the early 1960 but not the same car, it was not painted just polished alloy.

In fact I had sent a copy of the photo which I believed was Graham's car last year only to be told it was not his car but the Lazich car, Graham I believed owned at least 2 Nota cars in his early life both Ford powered.

[DanTra2858]

I remember talking to Graham about the Bulant in 1980/90 which he then owned & he was telling me of the large sum of money required to refurbish the alloy body, I had the feeling from that conversation that he was not in a position to complete the project.

[gtsmunro]

Very sad and shocked to hear of Grahams passing. Although we never met in person, we communicated frequently over the last few years. He had been an invaluable source of information on a project I had been working on. My thoughts are with his family and friends.

Edited by gtsmunro, 15 March 2013 - 06:25.

[Joe Bosworth]

RIP Grime

Your passing leaves two enormous holes with whom I share sorrows.

To the first, his wife and two sons I can only pass on my best wishes and leave them with yet another thought that they can rest assured that Graham was a prodigous and loving individual. Graham would often mention with pride the growth and personal development of his sons during our various phone conversations.

The second, the motorsports community, most will never fully appreciate the depth of knowledge that he accumulated and often doled out in tiny portions over time. Graham's only fault was that his striving for written perfection meant that only about one percent of his knowledge was ever published.
However the volume of his knowledge was always shared in discussions freely given.

My time with Graham goes back to to late 1960, about the time he came down to Sydney from Tamworth. Gaham's father was a lawyer/solicitor and was convinced that his son should follow in his footsteps. Graham was sent to Sydney to learn the profession. In those days the pay was barely subsistance. Graham's first love was motorsports which found him on many a Saturday in Parramatta. Most afternoons that were not consumed with race meetings found him at our house in North Parramatta being fed by my wife. I am sure that it was the best meal of his week. I don't know if his main interest was the food or our conversation and sharing of thoughts.

Graham escaped the legal profession but gravitated to technical writing which for several years gave him the where with all to engage in his first love. The technical writing incuded quite some time writing for a computer monthy periodical. This time no doubt honed his need for technicaly correct prose.

His sense of humor was never better shown than one effort in Racing Car News in the sixties when he published his Strine Dictionary. A true master piece for which I still have a copy and will endeavour to find and copy here.

I knew things couldn't be too good when in late November he didn't respond with normal immediacy to a copy of an old letter of his that I came across, copied and emailed to him. A pox in me for not phoning him then. My very bad.

My sincere condolences to all over our loss.

Joe Bosworth

[Ray Bell]

Ah yes, Joe, the infamous 'Bluey Morphett' and his friends...

And by Parramatta you obviously mean the part of Smith Street with the (muddy) water views.

Thank you for your insight.

[austmcreg]

The reliable source was Graham.

I have to chuckle at that - I must admit that Graham was sometimes my 'reliable source' too! Graham was obviouly taking note, because on several occasions, within an hour of me posting something on TNF, an email would arrive with new information.....

In my post a few days ago in the 'mentioned in passing' thread, I noted that I finally met GH a few months ago, after many years of letters, emails and telephone conversations. Many of my phone conversations with him took the form of book reviews; whenever I listed something he had not seen, in my monthly secondhand book list, he would ask for a review. Other times we would compare notes on some book I had listed. He did not often buy, but I learned a lot about both the books and the man from those conversations.

There is a common theme amongst the posts to this and the 'Mentioned in passing' thread - Graham had a very wide circle of regular correspondents across Australia. Many never met him, but I think we all regarded him as a friend because of the way he willingly shared his knowledge, and sought new knowledge from his correspondents.

Rob Saward

[Paul Newby]

I am probably younger than most of the posters on this thread (I’m under 50) but my love of Australian racing history came from Graham Howard’s respective articles in the pages of the sadly missed Sports Car World in the 1980s. I can vividly recall him writing about seeing Nino Saccilotto’s Ferrari 250 Coupe on the street in the 1950sand how he managed to cadge a lift with Nino – it was as if the reader was there with him in that Ferrari.

His groundbreaking book the 50 Year History of the Australian Grand Prix was a landmark.

I then met Graham in person when I worked at Stephen Knox's Motor Books bookshop in Cremorne in the 1990s. He would often borrow books to review for Wheels magazine. He would always have something interesting to say in his considered and understated tone of speech.

I even managed to visit him at his Boronia Park residence when I bought from him a bound set of Sports Car World from 1960 to 86 – a prized possession to this day. I was shown I think the Lotus 6 and the Sabakat which I had read about in the pages of Sports Car World. I even saw his office with the catalogued shelves of long lost magazines such as Autosportsman and Australian Motor and Sports. He told me about the painstaking slow process of researching his biography of the great Lex Davison and the efforts he went to track down the most obscure or trivial fact that would enhance the story – he emphasised the importance of the primary source.

Through my conversations with him at the time I could see the bitterness he felt for the mainstream magazines that he used to contribute to. As a regular reader of these magazines I could see that his type of writing was no longer appreciated by the younger editors who came along and this saddened me. I did read his Historically Speaking column in Auto Action for many years and this would keep you up to date with happenings in the historic racing world, but I missed the feature articles he used to write.

Graham did contribute to TNF for a brief period of time and I did engage in some light hearted banter with him which when I look back at it now makes me cringe. It is a pity we didn’t see more of his contributions here but his published work will live on for those to whom Australian motor racing history is important.

[Lola5000]

There would not be a month go by ...that i do not look to Graham's book on the Australian Grand Prix 50 years as a reference book.
Like all always looked to his weekly write up in Auto Action.
RIP .

[Librules]

As are all, I'm very sorry to hear of Graham's passing. As an avid reader of many motoring mags since the 70's, I always looked forward to his articles and regular columns. Until a couple of weeks ago I was still dropping in to the newsagents weekly to read his piece in Auto Action to get his snippets of historic news (but rarely buying the mag......). I met him once as I had the good fortune to be at Bathurst when they took the F1 McLaren up there a couple of years ago. We had a good chat about many and varied topics on top of the mountain. Great bloke. Too young... RIP.

[xj13v12]

One of things I liked about Graham (aside from his great knowledge) was that he would check facts and ask questions of people who may have known more than him about a particular car or whereabouts of some person. Unlike far too many he was not afraid to seek corroboration and further knowledge and this is sadly lacking in far too many modern motoring journalists. Graham never thought of himself as the fount of all knowledge despite the fact that he nearly was. He also banged the drum for historic racing as much as he could and we can all be grateful for that.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by xj13v12
.....Unlike far too many he was not afraid to seek corroboration and further knowledge and this is sadly lacking in far too many modern motoring journalists.....

Thank you for making me appreciate more than ever that I'm not modern...

[cooper997]

Good to see Graham's passing has been nicely covered in a full page tribute by Max Stahl, in this week's Auto Action - issue #1533.

[Ray Bell]

From John Medley in the Mentioned in Passing thread:

The HSRCA will hold a "Remembering Graham Howard" occasion 12 noon Saturday 18 May 2013 Austrian Club, 20 Grattan Crescent, French's Forest (Sydney). Food supplied.
Please ring Historic Sports and Racing Car Association Secretary Wes Dayton 02 9988 4743 to book (numbers needed for catering)

[Lee Nicolle]

Good to see Graham's passing has been nicely covered in a full page tribute by Max Stahl, in this week's Auto Action - issue #1533.

Since Graham had a long time column in the Fiction it would have been very deserved.
My commiserations to his friends and relatives. I hope his writing is a worthy epitaph.

[tsrwright]

TNFrs 'Remembering Graham Howard' today in Sydney
Back row, L to R, John Medley, Rob Saward, Paul Newby, Terry Wright. Front row, L to R, Brian Lear, Dale Harvey, Ed Holly.

Pic by Garry Simkin

Edited by tsrwright, 18 May 2013 - 10:39.

[GMACKIE]

I like the heading at the top of the photo.

[john medley]

Greg
You see " specials"? You see fear? You see bewilderment?
Your comment re "Specials" relates only to the looks on our faces: not one of us had any faith at all in the ability of a genuinely talented New Zealand serious race mechanic's ability to work a piece of modern technology called a digital camera. None of us knows WHEN or even IF the photo was actually taken

[john medley]

On a more serious note, may I say that we who were there were pleased to be able to see one another again, even though we did not like the cause of our gathering. Graham Howard was for us a special human being who, a bit like Dennis Jenkinson for a wider audience, was THE chronicler of our motor sporting lives.

We were young people once, as was Graham. We were hit by the motor racing bug when we were small and skinny. We were hit by the motor racing bug when we couldnt afford to be, as was Graham. Graham Campbell Howard informed, entertained, and unknown even to himself guided us through some of motor sport's complexities. He was as often incorrect as we were -- but he never talked down to us, and he never was anything other than enthusiastically understanding but also incredibly accurate. For many, he was The Guru.

Some measure of Graham's presence in our sport was the presence yesterday of Australia's best motor racer never a world champion but McLaren's best test driver Frank Matich, the undersung and understated Bob Britton, and a bloke called Ron Taurenac. Virtually all the rest of us were the usual suspects-- enthusiastic ex (and current)motor racers who understood and respected Graham's life and Graham's writings-- and the fact that he did far more than that.

I now regret I did not speak, even though repeatedly invited to. Apart from Dale Riddiford ( the creator of a racing car wonderfully called Lobo Jones), Graham was my oldest motor racing friend, meeting as skinny young kids at Sydney University in 1955. We hitch hiked to Bathurst, we were thrown out of pit areas, we photographed together, we corresponded all our lives-- from a time when to be interested in motor racing was a past time only for truly bizarre people. We shared most of the Rites of Passage in peoples' lives, we argued and disagreed, we were always impossibly polite to one another, and I was there at Phillip Island just before he died when people cried in the streets when they heard of his condition

I wont miss him as much as Maria and their wonderful sons, Patrick and Jackson, but I will miss Grime enormously.( and he would be embarrassed and polite and whimsical and wry and funny in the face of these comments)

[cooper997]

Very nicely put John. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and memories of Graham.

Stephen

[seldo]

Very nicely put JM.
Graham was always very pleasant and helpful to me , and I only spoke to him a month or so before his passing, and didn't know of his illness, and....of course he made no mention of it...
One of the gentle people of the sport...

[Dale Harvey]

Yes, it would have been nice if you had have said all that on the day.

Dale.

[GMACKIE]

Yes, it would have been nice if you had have said all that on the day.

Dale.

That's a bit harsh. I wasn't there, however, to write what John has written would be difficult [impossible?] for me, let alone get up in front of all those people and say all that...without choking.

[Torston]

Pics of the occasion are now on the HSRCA website: http://www.hsrca.com/

[Dale Harvey]

That's a bit harsh. I wasn't there, however, to write what John has written would be difficult [impossible?] for me, let alone get up in front of all those people and say all that...without choking.

Greg, I think you have taken that the wrong way. I was simply saying that it was a very nice piece that John had written and that it would have been nice for all in attendance on the day to hear it. A lot that were there don't look at this forum.
Dale.

[GMACKIE]

Sorry Dale......trust me to get the wrong slant on it.

[Repco22]

Belated compliments on some very nice words John.

[Michael Oliver]

Don't know whether this has been mentioned?:



A pictorial tribute to Graham Howard.

[cooper997]

Very nice tribute on youtube. Obviously a longtime since anybody had seen Graham without a beard.

Stephen

[Librules]

I thought this might amuse those who knew Graham. From an ad in RCN May '68. "U2 Clubman still for sale (owner still broke)"