53 replies to this topic

[Ray Bell]

Like I said before, Shane Cowham is the sole Australian member of the Guild of Motoring Artists. He does these pencil drawings for the cover of the National Historic Newsletter, and I have a stack of them in stock, so why not share them?

Shane agreed, so here are some more:



This is Frank Matich with the two most successful cars he built, the A50/51/52 and the SR3, both powered by Repco.

 

 

 

 

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Edited by Ray Bell, 02 October 2021 - 10:56.

[Ray Bell]

Shane took too long to do this one and it never made one of our covers, but graced a story about the car - written by Arthur Rizzo, the owner and builder with a magnificent tale about its creation.



It's a 1.5-litre Riley Special built in 1947/48.

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited by Ray Bell, 02 October 2021 - 10:56.

[Ray Bell]

Brian Muir was mentioned a few days ago. He raced Austin A30, Lotus 11 (just once - at Bathurst), early Holden and then this S4 Holden. It won him the scholarship to race in England, where he excelled in sedans, but also ran at Le Mans in a Ford (and later a BMW), and drove a Lotus 30 for Willments.




The S4 Holden was the car I remember best, a legend in its own time. Not something English members would recognise as a Jaguar 3.8 beater?




.

Edited by Ray Bell, 02 October 2021 - 10:57.

[Ray Bell]

When we had a special article about Hudsons in Australian racing I had Shane do this one:



The car at the top left is the McIntyre Hudson, funded by wealthy cinema owner Gus McIntyre and intended to be entered in the 1936 trans-Africa race that never took place.

Frank Kleinig's MG-chassised Hudson Special is at the right, the car that challenged the Alfa Monza so often and was spectacularly fast everywhere. Both had straight 8 engines.

At the bottom is a real scene from Lobethal in 1939, Les Burrows in his Terraplane Special crossing the finish line in the Lobethal 50 in third place with just three wheels...




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Edited by Ray Bell, 02 October 2021 - 10:58.

[Barry Lake]

Members of The Nostalgia Forum should feel very honoured to be presented with this material by Ray.

I have been asking him for years if I could see copies of the stories and pictures in this newsletter he produces, with no success at all.

[Ray Bell]

You're never home when I'm carrying copies... try this one:

CLIVE GIBSON has given us a photo of the Kleinig Hudson in its final form. Because it only made one
public appearance in this guise, and it was at that time totally overshadowed and made no impact on the
event, it is an important photo.
It wears the body from the Maserati 6C given by Johnny Wakefield to Rex Tillbrook. After shipping
this engineless car to Australia, where he was going to fit some kind of engine and sell the car to capitalise
on the gratuity from his ex-employer, the long arm of the law awaited him. No, not the police.
It’s said that Customs Officers have greater power than the police, and in this case they determined the
value of the Maser to be much higher than Tillbrook’s estimate. That meant, of course, that the duty payable
was higher, too. Much higher than Tillbrook was prepared to pay. He told them to keep it.
It was eventually sold off and ultimately made its way into the hands of Frank Kleinig, who wanted to
simply fit a Hudson engine into the car. But there was no steering, and that was a major snag.
The steering box, although largely made from Fiat components, had two sectors, one working in each
direction. These took the movement to the right and the left of the car behind the engine, with separate drag
links to the front end. A neat way of avoiding the age old problem of getting the central steering around the
engine.
This problem had been insurmountable to the previous owner, and so it would prove to Kleinig, and neat
shortcuts were out as any attempt to link one side to the other at the front end was thwarted by the engine
fouling the path.. He therefore chose the other path - to radically alter the MG-chassised car to take the body.
Cutting weight was of paramount concern, while modernising the appearance and stiffening the chassis were
other goals.
The dumb-irons were cut off, the remaining chassis boxed, and a Peugeot 203 front crossmember
(purchased new, in a box, with a spare in another box) bolted in place. This had the transverse leaf for the
lower link, the hefty lever shocks as the top link and a nice quick rack and pinion steering - all mounted on a
neat steel casting. Brakes were 10,” a monstrous reduction in size from the 16” drums on the original car. A
swag of universal joints enabled the steering to pass by the engine, which was turned in an angle in the frame
because of the new back axle.
This was made up to reduce the seat height. Clive remembers Frank trying it with the central seating and
the Maser diff in place. “I don’t want an aerial view of the car!” he told him. A Hudson diff housing
(probably the 1935 housing from the Hartley disaster) was cut and shortened on one side only, offsetting the
diff, the ratio of which was a special 3:1 left over from Gus McIntyre’s lavish spending spree on the
McIntyre Hudson. Clive calculated the top speed available with this to be over 150mph.
George Bonser and Clive worked full time for three months, putting aside their work on customer cars,
as they rushed to ready the car for the 1954 AGP. It had the steering wheel and instruments from the
Maserati, and the special lightweight Lion battery came about as part of the weight paring. Occasionally
while checking things, Clive would find it not working properly, but it would come good. An intermittent
fault that could be blamed on anything meant that it went to Southport unquestioned and dooming the car to
its final ignominious failure.
Another feature of the car as shown would not, in the opinion of many, have helped. The rush prevented
the wire wheels to have been adapted at the front, so 16” 203 wheels were used, while Bonser also convinced
Kleinig not to change the brakes.
“I wanted to use the Maserati brakes,” Clive says today, “But George told Frank it was better to use
something you could replace more readily.” Fiat 1100 drums, which had alloy finning, were grafted onto the
Peugeot hubs. Perhaps Fiat shoes, which were cast alloy, were also used.
After the AGP failure, Clive tried repeatedly to persuade Frank to take the car out to Mt Druitt and do
some sorting, to get on with development and to realise its very exciting potential. It never went anywhere.
Most of the original body, the severed dumb-irons and other disused parts were taken to Concord tip by
Frank Jr in an effort to help clean up the workshop when Frank Sr was away.
Tom Roberts has had major works to complete, therefore, in his rebuild of the car. Which, naturally
enough, is being taken back to a previous form. His purchase of the car was principally to enable him to
reconstruct the Wakefield Maserati, the chassis of which had come into his possession earlier. He has an
engine for it, and is working towards solving the steering box problem.
One could, in the meantime, go wild with speculation about what might have been with the revised
Kleinig car. Cooling problems caused by the 7” radiator core? Perhaps moving the water pump might have
helped, and Clive feels it would have. “It ran five miles before it boiled,” he says, “and those impeller pumps
are much better pushers than they are pullers.” Frank once ran a rear-mounted radiator and may have done
something similar again had this not worked.
Brake development was really progressing during the fifties, PBR helping out people with both Specials
and imported racers to get better stopping power. They aided Keith Rilstone within the limitations of the
Holden drums on the Zephyr, improved on various Maserati systems. Undoubtedly Kleinig would have come
up with some kind of answer, his Leyburn experience having shown the folly of mechanical brakes.
In fact, he went to Hydraulic for Albert Park in 1953, fitting the Maser rear axle complete and making up
finned backing plates to graft the front brakes onto the Mathis axle. The Perrott drums used previously were
past it, their meehanite liners cracking up.
Hydraulics would also have solved the clutch problem faced because of angling the engine. It was only
just possible with the makeshift arrangement to use the pedal on the side of the bellhousing, but Frank just
wanted to get to the line. He was popular in Queensland, had won a race at Lowood and starred at Strathpine,
and he had a branch of his business selling his water injection in Brisbane.
History shows that the Lion battery failed at the worst possible time and he didn’t get to the line. The car
never raced in this form.
It had been through endless development. Even the changes in carburetion would daunt many. Amals
were mostly used, but at one time two Ford V8 carbies were fitted, water injection was used, and there were
some aircraft Strombergs at Bathurst in 1947. “That’s why Davison could stay with him,” Clive relates. “the
float chambers were so big, with twin floats, that surge round the corners would shut off the fuel. It was okay
on the straights, but misfired as it starved round the top of the mountain.
But that was the best it ever looked, according to Clive. Freshly panel beaten and painted, it was ready for
some hard racing miles.
The water injection was another developing item, and at Leyburn in 1949 it was pressurised by a bleed
from the exhaust. The long straights saw the car stretching its legs well, and the pressure was too great,
causing water to spray over the engine and short-circuit the high tension leads. “After that pit stop he got
caught up in a bunch of slower cars, and that’s how he got the bit of blue metal that cut the fan belt,” Clive
asserts.
As mentioned last issue, the compression was bumped right up for 1953. Clive tells of hand-fettling the
head to give clearance for the lumpy pistons - and it held together in this form, finishing its only AGP, the
longest one it ever contested.
Could this car have had a more glorious career if its specification had stabilised? It would appear that
both Bathurst 1947 and Leyburn may have seen successful results. Before those who question this rush in
and say “No way!” about Leyburn, I’d like to ponder a very serious question.
At Lobethal in 1939, Kleinig lapped at about 91mph. Up hill and down hill, tight corners at Kayannie, the
Mill and Mount Torrens. Tricky esses and the frightening sweeps out of town. At Leyburn, however, by which time he
had the big-port block fitted, his best lap was 90mph, the same as Crouch did in the Delahaye. The Delahaye
had not bettered 86mph at Lobethal in Snow’s hands, but equalled Kleinig’s time at Leyburn.
Was he loafing at Leyburn, playing possum to catch Crouch out? Or saving tyres? One slow corner, one
very fast and one medium speed two-part corner at Leyburn, with those long, long straights (one downhill)
would surely have suited the car. Or did it simply suit the Delahaye more? This is possibly so, and the
Delahaye had also been developed, Gordon Stewart raising the compression etc.
What the car could have done if it had been developed in its final form is of even more interest. It didn’t
happen because Kleinig was getting older and more tied up in his business, but had he applied the same
effort as he had done earlier it would have been very interesting.
The weight was down to under 13cwt, horsepower was still good, traction improved immeasurably
(“Frank said the wheels didn’t spin at all,” Clive remembers) with the three-link rear suspension, chassis
stiffened and the independent front suspension at the front. It might have worked well at the short and tight
Port Wakefield for the 1955 AGP, where other famous Specials faltered because of their weight and bulk.
But would it have been good enough to chase Reg Hunt’s Maserati? And how much better would it have
been around Bathurst, and down Conrod with that tall diff?
Unfortunately, we’ll never know, but you’ve just got to love it for the fleeting thought that it might have
done . . .
RAY BELL

[Ray Bell]

And more generally about Hudsons, the story referred to above:

CLIVE GIBSON, at one time foreman of Frank Kleinig’s workshop, told me recently that just how much
Hudsons and Terraplanes played a part in racing in the thirties and forties. So I asked him to put
something about it on paper for the benefit of readers, the result follows.

FIRST OF ALL there is the issue of just how many people raced Hudsons and Terraplanes over the three
decades during which they competed. Here is a list, and there are many names there that might surprise you:
· Frank Kleinig (McIntyre Hudson and Kleinig Hudson 8)
· Les Burrows (1935 Sports Tourer & other variants)
· George Bonser (Terraplane)
· Bob Lea-Wright (Terraplane)
· Bill McIntyre (same two cars as Kleinig)
· Bill Bullen (Alvis Terraplane)
· John Crouch (Alvis Terraplane)
· John Snow (Alvis Terraplane & Hudson)
· Laurie Tyson (Terraplane)
· Jack Saywell (Railton 8)
· Bill Murray (Terraplane)
· Jack Murray (Terraplane - Kurrajong Hill, 1935)
· Kevin Salmon (McIntyre Hudson 8)
· John Barraclough (McIntyre Hudson 8)
· Joe Buckley (McIntyre Hudson 8)
· Jim Fagan (Hudson 8)
· Neil Baird (Terraplane)
· Ted Harris (Terraplane)
· Harry Beith (Terraplane)
· Stokes (Terraplane)
· Alby Johnson (Terraplane)
· Bob Burstall (Terraplane)
· Earl Davey-Milne (Bugatti-Hudson 8)
· Russell Kinsella (Terraplane)
· A McIntosh (Terraplane)
· Bill McLachlan (McIntyre Hudson)
· Ron Reid (Carpenter Terraplane)
· Peter Denman (Terraplane (?))
· Arthur Wylie (McIntyre Hudson)
· Belf Jones (Hudson 8 & Terraplane speedcar)
· Ray Pank (Lancia Terraplane)
· Norm Tipping (Terraplane)
· Bob Ledwidge (Terraplane)
· P G Brown (Terraplane)
· Campbell McLaren (Terraplane - Rob Roy 1948)
· Cappy Wood (Terraplane speedcar)
· Alf Bowers (Terraplane speedcar)
· Bill Ford (Terraplane)
We found a couple more, I can't remember who now...
And, in the Historic Racing era (post 1960)
· Peter Hitchin (Terraplane)
· George Gilltrap (Carpenter Terraplane)
· Ray Bell (Terraplane - Collingrove 1977)
We can also add to that the two owner/drivers of the Burrows car in its Ford-powered form:
· Peter Wallace (Barracuda Ford)
· Mike Morris (Barracuda Ford)
It’s interesting to see the make represented in the AGP, in which they were not eligible to compete until
1936 at Victor Harbor. From then they were seen in each race until 1950, missing 1951 (very interesting
thing, their lack of usage in WA), then rejoining the entry list from 1952 to 1955 (though none started the
race in 1954 or 1955).
The Terraplane engine began life in the Essex in the early twenties, but revisions in 1930 and a new
offering of an eight in the thirties in the Hudson range brought forth the foundation engines for their entry
into competition. Essex was among the makes to play their part in intercity record-breaking and Maroubra,
but usually the F-head four. The Essex name was phased out in 1932-33 through Essex Terraplane to
Terraplane, from 1937 the name became Hudson Terraplane.
Why were they chosen for such strong representation in competition, especially with big-end lubrication
dependent on the splash feed principle?
“They were very light,” says Clive, “a hundred pounds lighter than the other American engines of the
same size. They revved hard, and they were short blocks, so you could fit the six in where a four fitted.”
The factory had addressed the splash feed problems as time went by. By 1929 there was more oil being
pumped into the trough through which the dippers ran to scoop up their oil. The pump filled the front trough,
then overflowed progressively towards the back troughs. This had its problems, too.
“Say someone was going down Bulli Pass,” Clive relates, “in second gear, then the oil wouldn’t flow
uphill into the rear trough, and so the rear big end would fail.” So in 1930 came the ‘duo-flow' in which oil
went to the front and rear troughs, then flowed over into the centre ones.
Light weight in the rest of the car was another factor in those cars built up entirely from Terraplane bits.
And the flywheel was very light, being made in Molydenum Steel and having an oil-bath cork clutch
attached. “The gearbox was half the weight of other cars’,” Clive says, while a look at axles and so on
quickly underscores the weight situation.
By 1934 the bolt-on crankshaft counterweights were done away with for the Terraplane, something that
Hudson had earlier adopted in other engines, and something that was almost unique in the industry. Hudsons
always marched to the tune of a different drummer, according to Clive.
To follow the history of just two of the drivers listed, the two most prolific ones, we’ll look at the Les
Burrows and Frank Kleinig experiences with Hudsons and Terraplanes.
Burrows, a dealer in Bowral, had been showing off Essexs for some time before getting a 1935
Terraplane Sports Tourer. In this car he won a Phillip Island race in 1935, but then drove the McIntyre
Hudson at Robertson Hillclimb later in the year.
Impressed by the eight’s power, he ordered a new 1936 model minus body and installed the 1935
Terraplane body on the new car. It was in this car that he and his riding mechanic took their wives on the SA
Centenary Trial from the Sydney start to Adelaide, then the guards were removed for the Grand Prix. The
1935 engine was destined for use later on in a 1933 Terraplane which was shortened and run briefly with the
original engine. With a Propert body and the ’35 engine and wire wheels, then a ’38 grille, it was the
definitive Burrows car that was raced so much - and finished the Lobethal race on three wheels.
It’s here that the history intertwines. Kleinig was put into the McIntyre car for a Hillclimb at Hartley, near
Lithgow. Previously he had ridden as mechanic with Joe Buckley, but Buckley broke his neck in a rollover
at Phillip Island and Frank became the regular driver.
He literally drove the wheels off it, the car finishing up sitting on its belly after breaking the spokes out
as he cornered it hard. McIntyre was unperturbed, he bought a set of 1936 disc wheels and upgraded the
brakes at the same time.
Gus McIntyre was the owner of several cinemas, a business that became a growth industry during the
twenties and boomed in the depression. “They say he spent 10,000 pounds on that car,” says Clive, “and in those days a Rolls Royce cost about 3000 pounds.”
It was built for the race proposed for 1936, with its start in Algiers and the finish in Johannesburg - and a
lot of country in between, 8600 miles of it. Gus had the car built with a secret weapon, literally an extra bow
in its quiver, as it was made to take a spare engine in the boot! Then the race was cancelled. . .
Alongside this car Kleinig developed the MG-chassised racer, a car he kept on developing until 1954.
This was undoubtedly the most famous Hudson Special, the fastest, one of just three Australian Specials that
took the race up to the imported cars that should have been dominant.
Kleinig challenged Barrett’s Monza before the war at Lobethal and Bathurst, wrested the Rob Roy record
from Tony Gaze and the Alta in 1948, and according to Clive would have won the 1953 AGP.
“It was the hottest we ever had it at Albert Park,” he recalls. “we had changed the radius on the cam
followers* on cylinders 2 & 7 to reduce the overlap (we had a problem with 1 & 8 taking the fuel and
starving the other two cylinders#), and it had 12 or 13:1 compression ratio with crowned pistons.”
Remembering that this 4.2-litre straight 8 was a side valve engine, it was still a very tall order. “Curley
Bryden was second in that race, so many cars dropped out,” Clive continues. The Maybach had a long pit
stop for fuel and was overheating, Brahbam’s Cooper ran bearings in practice, Davison’s HWM Jaguar fell
out very early. “At the end of the first lap Jones, Whiteford and Frank could have been covered by a blanket,
then the seat belt broke . . .”
With the cart-spring suspension of the pre-war car bouncing him around mercilessly, Kleinig was
clinging to the gearlever for stability as he changed gears and smashed third gear, then second gear in the
modified Mathis 4-speed box. The belt buckle was hanging down beside the car, catching on the road,
flicking off the wheel and slicing into the back of his elbow. “You could see the bone,” says Clive.
Still the car finished, the only time it finished an AGP. “And that one was a full 200-miler!” Bud Luke
was lap-scoring and reckoned they were third, but Frank knew that meant nothing and accepted the seventh
place he was given.
By the Southport race in 1954 Kleinig had seen that big changes would be necessary. A Maserati body
was fitted and the car was changed to a monoposto, still on the original MG chassis, but now equipped with
a Peugeot 203 independent front end. Clive recalls that the steering column had several universal joints,
“part of the shaft went through the gap in the inlet manifold. . .”
A Hudson rear axle had one axle shortened to offset the diff and allow him to sit lower than he could over
the driveline, the Mathis gearbox (with its multitude of different ratios) rebuilt, and a radiator core seven
inches thick made up to cope with the lower bodywork and still, hopefully, cool the engine. “We reckoned
the water pump had to be lowered, too, but didn’t have time to get that done,” Clive told us.
En route to Queensland the car was unloaded near Armidale and taken for a five mile test run up the
highway. It boiled. More work was needed, but it was four hundredweight lighter. The problem is that it
never did, for the special lightweight battery made by Lion for the still ill-handling car caved in on race day
and Kleinig was out. He resisted all attempts to get the car out from that meeting on, never driving it again.
Was there any point, with cars like Cobden’s Ferrari now on the scene, the second Lago Talbot, etc?
The only contemporary racing subsequent to this of Hudsons or Terraplanes was accomplished by that
old 1933 Burrows chassis. Its Propert body put aside in the late forties by Bill Ford, it was entered in the
AGP of 1955 as a part of Bill’s racing, and continued running until the closure of Mt Druitt and the Easter
meeting at Bathurst in 1958, not entering the AGP that year.
As mentioned in the listing of drivers, the car became the Barracuda Ford in the sixties, with the Propert
body, the grille Ford had fitted before the 1948 AGP and a Ford OHV V8. It reverted to its canvas-bodied
single seater form when Peter Hitchin resurrected it for Historic racing.
Internationally the Hudson engine was recognised, too. A team of three cars raced in the French GP of
1936, Railton and Brough Superior both used the Hudson engine, while at home they took out all the stock
car Hillclimb records under the auspices of the American Automobile Association by the end of 1933. In
addition, a Hudson averaged 86mph round the circle on the Bonneville salt flat for 24 hours in 1937. In
Australia the cabbies liked them, the lasted well and were economical.
Some of the variants raced were interesting. Bullen’s Alvis was the car Phil Garlick had put over the top
at Maroubra, and when the supercharged replacement Alvis engine blew Kleinig fitted the Terraplane 6 - to
repay John Snow the ten quid he had needed to get home from Lobethal in 1939. The Charlie East/Cec
Warren Bugatti Type 37 was equipped with a Hudson by Earl Davey-Milne, while Geroge Bonser planned
a similar transplant for another Bugatti, but it finished up with an ugly body and a Dodge 6 in the hands of
Doug McDonald in Brisbane. Seeing this horrifying concoction, Bonser requested its return to his care, but
could never retrieve the car.
When John Crouch took the Burrows car to Heathcote Road (between Liverpool and Engadine) for a
sprint meeting, he did a standing quarter in 16 seconds. When Kleinig wanted to beat that Gaze/Alta record
he ran it out to over 7000rpm to save a gearchange. “After that they changed the camber on the last corner,
and then they shortened the climb so there was more room to pull up,” Clive adds, lamenting that Frank’s
record should have lasted longer.
Such a willing engine, particularly in 6-cylinder form, so available, so light, it was no wonder that these
cars proliferated against the onslaught of the Ford V8. But the most successful of them was the expensive
McIntyre, and some time soon we’ll have a story about the Wakefield Trophy, a year-long event this car won
twice.
RAY BELL
* Kleinig never ran a modified camshaft, but altered valve timing by using different radius grinds on the
followers. Standard was a 3” radius, but he used up to a 6” radius depending on how much additional
overlap was required.
# From time to time different methods of overcoming this were tried. Different spark plugs was the most
usual, but the final solution was going to be the separating of the ports. Once the early model blocks were
all used up - just after the war, a 1937 block with bigger ports was used, and these were big enough to put
a sheetmetal divider up the centre. Others did it, but Kleinig never got to try it. To see the problem, check
out the firing order - 1.6.2.5.8.3.7.4 - which gave only 90 degrees of crank turn between adjoining cylinders.
With extra overlap the charge would be still going into the first to open. Why it didn’t concern other
cylinders is a mystery... Are there any whizzes out there that could solve this today?

This latter question was solved by Jim Bertram, but I can't post the diagram he drew...
[p][Edited by Ray Bell on 01-31-2001]

[Barry Lake]

I'm impressed Ray.

Perhaps I won't hide under the bed next time I see you coming!

How long have you been doing this newsletter - and which club is it that gets all this good information?

[Ray Bell]

Subscribers, not a club, $20 for eight issues, about 20 pages of A4.
I've been doing it since 1996.
Better stories include the obit on Lance Ruting.

[Ray Bell]

Just in case anyone hasn't ever caught up with Arthur Rizzo, builder of the Riley:

MY FIRST CONTACT with the motor trade was in the mid-1920s at the age of ten. Maroubra Speedway
had just been built and we used to catch a tram on weekends to watch the likes of Phil Garlick, Hope
Bartlett, Charlie East and many others circle the concrete saucer at speeds of 100mph - on a circuit
originally designed for a top speed of 90mph.
My first job in the motor trade was with Armstrong Siddeley Motors from 1932 until they closed down in
1938. While there we became very familiar with the pre-selector gearbox, and during this time we had a call
from a Mr Reg Light and Rex Marshall, his mechanic. They wanted to know whether we would assemble
a gearbox out of an MG K3 which they had dismantled and couldn’t reassemble. Much to their surprise, we
delivered it back the same day, completed and tested.
1938 saw us at Canberra (on Northbourne Avenue! Different days.Ed) to watch the attempts on the
Australian records. Peter Whitehead’s ERA sounded terrific and was hand timed at around 150mph (the
timing gear refused to record his time) and Frank Kleinig removed all the gears from his gearbox prior to
attacking the flying quarter mile. Later the same year we saw the ERA at Bathurst on a circuit that was all
dirt. We were at the top of Conrod looking up to the Esses, and I remember the ERA coming down into
Forrest Elbow in the deep wheel tracks, the fixed crank handle digging in to the mound between the tyre
tracks and making a noise like a machine gun.
Towards the end of the war, about 1944, I started work with Rex Marshall of Monza Service in the same
building where I had started my apprenticeship. Up until that time I’d owned a Singer Le Mans 4-cyl, Le
Mans 6-cyl, several Riley tourers including an Imp and a 1.5 Sprite roadster, which was an Imp type
body.
In 1945 we began building a monoposto MG for Alf Najar, and at the same time I started on a Riley
Special for myself. John Snow had a Riley 1.5 in which the auto clutch had blown up and smashed the alloy
bellhousing, so he fitted a Ford V8 and offered me the redundant engine and box for 150 pounds. After I
paid for it he told me that no bellhousing was available in England - his wife had been Lord Nuffield’s
secretary and had made enquiries, but to no avail.
My wages at the time were seven pounds a week, which didn’t leave much to waste, and I was newly
married. I wrote to Nuffield in England and enquired re a new or second hand bellhousing, only to be told
there were indeed none available, and the pattern store in Coventry had received a direct hit during the war
and the patterns not damaged had been burned out. I contacted a pattern maker in Sydney and borrowed a
sample for him to work from, and I’d just collected it and paid 30 pounds when I received a cable saying
they’d located one in England. They wanted me to confirm my order and send five pounds to cover costs and
freight. It gave me great pleasure to show Mr Snow the assembled unit!
My next job was to get a chassis. I bought a Riley Nine tourer with a blown engine and dismantled
anything of use, dumped the body and chassis, which was of no use to me, and started looking around. At
that time the wrecking yards had many old vintage cars, and I eventually settled on an early Austin 12 for the
front end and a Standard rear section. The front was turned upside down and bolted and welded to the
Standard rear end. For a fuel tank I brazed two cad plated four gallon drums end to end.
I had decided on a 2-seater, as I intended to use it as a road car. Over the next year or so I competed with
the bodywork in various stages of completion due to lack of money. The whole car was built on a shoestring,
the cheapest way possible, but nothing ever broke or let me down. Even the speedo and rev counter were
originally Chrysler speedos, and I made little gearboxes running Meccano gears for each of them to get the
ratios right, and I had the numerals repainted. The Riley Nine rear axle was used, as were its front and rear
brakes, and the front axle was a Bullnose Morris turned upside down and with the kingpin eyes reversed,
which gave the car a wheelbase and track the same as the P3 Alfa which we had stored in the garage through
the war years.
I was approached by Peter Lloyd in 1948 advising me that he was starting up a company in his own
name, and they were handling Wolseley and Riley cars. Would I be interested in joining the firm as Service
Manager (subject to Rex Marshall’s blessing)? On bringing this up with Rex at lunch time, he said to grab
it. Had it been offered to him he “. . would have accepted it and kicked us out,” he said, and added: “If it
doesn’t work out your job will still be waiting for you.” A good bloke.
I drove down to Victoria in 1949 to compete at Rob Roy’s Hillclimb Championship, practised on
Saturday and almost beat the 1.5-litre record. We went back to Lex Davison’s property, where we were
staying for the weekend, and removed the quarter inch decompression plate, changed the fuel and the carby
needles, lapped the valves and on Sunday went out and lowered the record. We then refitted the
decompression plate, changed the fuel and carbies again and drove home to Sydney. The car had been fitted
with cycle-type mudguards and had been registered for some time, it being used as transport to and from
work.
In 1949 I decided to have another go at Bathurst, having failed the previous year with a broken fuel line.
As the motor was showing signs of age, I had the block bored and the crankshaft ground, the conrods
re-metalled and a spare set made ready. This was done by a club member who was breaking into the
reconditioning business. I also replaced the diff unit with a 2.5 litre.
The car wasn’t started until we reached Bathurst, and you can imagine my surprise to hear the bearings
collapse down Conrod Straight on almost no throttle on the first practice lap. Back to Bathurst we went and
dismantled the motor, pistons out the top, conrods out the bottom, and fitted the spare conrods. The
following day, on the first lap of practice, the bearings went again. This time I was driving very slowly and
was prepared to give it away. Jack Murray and others talked me into having a look at least, and we lifted
the car up onto 4-gallon drums.
I took the rods out and they were all shot. One showed signs of bright polish approximately an eighth of
an inch from both ends of the white metal bearing. Examining the crank, I found that when the crank had
been ground a grinding stone with the wrong radius had been used, leaving almost an eighth of the original
journal surface untouched. This had the effect of concentrating the bearing load on two narrow strips of
bearing, and while it was still free to turn, it effectively stopped oil from flowing out. Collapse was
inevitable.
A chap who was well under the weather came into the garage and I tried to explain to him that I’d had it
both mechanically and mentally. He said that an engineer in the next street would remetal the bearings for
me (this was Easter Sunday!) and I shooed him off. He came back a few minutes later with a micrometer to
measure the shaft and took back the spare rods. I later found out he’d left a 20 pounds deposit on the
micrometer! Where have that sort of people gone?
Alec Hargon and his wife had the rods back late on Sunday afternoon, she remetalling, he machining,
and as I had spent my time blowing out the oilways in the block and crankshaft we began to assemble .
Surviving on pills to keep me awake, I had to hand fit each bearing to the uneven shaft, a lost art today, and
I finally had the engine ready to start at 4:00am on race day and fell into bed for a few hours sleep.
We towed the car up to the track and I drove it around the back of the pits with my goggles on, as it was
dusty. Suddenly I got a call that the under 2-litre 6-lap race was ready to start, I pulled my crash hat on and
just made the starting line. On lap four, comfortably in front, I undid my crash hat to get my goggles over the
back of my helmet, as it had been pulling my goggles down my face. As I dropped down the Esses my hat
blew off and rolled into the bush. I was blackflagged into the pits and Maclac ran out with his hat, about four
sizes too small, and off I went holding it on with my hand.
On the way up the mountain I got hold of the side flaps and gave it a good pull, only to find that my
rubber goggles were caught under the front of the hat and stuck out from my face like a visor. I passed
Harry Mann, who had gone by while I was in the pits, and won. These days you couldn’t have a pit stop in
a 6-lap race and still win.
Up until now it hadn’t been my weekend, and someone had to stand above me and yank hard on the crash
hat to get it off - together with most of the skin off my forehead.
The all-powers race in the afternoon was an anti-climax. The car ran like a clock and won easily. I was
so tired that I packed up and went back to Sydney directly the race finished, not waiting for the presentation.
My firm naturally got quite a shock, and after expensive advertising asked whether I could build a better car,
as they would meet the cost of parts. I sold the first car to Stan Mossetter of Toowoomba, who raced it for
some time with some success.
I started on a tubular chassis made up of 3” chrome moly tubing fitted into an MG TD crossmember and
and held together by 3” crossmembers which were machined to fit the main rails. A standard TC rear axle
fitted with a 3.7:1 crownwheel and pinion (a very close fit) was used, the braking surfaces were machined off
and cast iron drums from a Wolseley 4/50 fitted. The front assembly took a lot of time to figure out. The
brake drums we made up with an alloy plate and a cast iron braking surface, each having to be machined and
rivetted together. The brakes were 12” twin leading shoe, 10” conventional at the rear, and during a practice
run at Orange we found the front wheels could be locked at 136mph without much trouble.
The rest of the car was pretty straightforward. I had fitted a Wade supercharger, and on their advice
regarding power to drive it contacted Fenner Belts in England. They suggested three ‘A’ section wire-cored
belts, so I machined up a 4” crankshaft pulley and a 5” blower pulley, and these could be interchanged when
I wanted to surprise someone. Three belts proved useless, and I never finished a race without losing all three
belts. I then made up a new set of pulleys to take the heavier ‘B’ section belt and had no more trouble.
The firm was having a rough time and decided to sell the car. I left shortly afterwards. Alec Mildren
raced it at Orange and I have movie of Brabham leading him by a few inches, and on the third lap the Riley
was in front of the Cooper Bristol. Alec had an oil cooler fitted in front of the crossmember, and while
driving around in the pits at Southport in 1954 punctured the cooler and ran the bearings. He sold the car as
was to Stan Mossetter, who had sold the first car.
At this time I had my own garage and made about a dozen chassis for various people, one going to New
Zealand. These had either a TD or a Holden front crossmember. The fibreglass Buchanan body sat too high
on an MG chassis, but my low tubular chassis was ideal for them.
I also changed a few cars over from LH to RH drive, most notable of these being a Mercedes Benz 300SL
Gullwing, the first one in the World to be converted. I was waiting for a steering part and received a visit
from a factory engineer (whom I had previously met) and he asked me how I had done certain jobs (all
difficult), and after many diagrams in chalk on the floor he asked how I was going to do the interior of the
car. At the time he was sitting on the door sill, and - much to his embarrassment - I pointed out that the car
was finished. He lost no time in giving me the part I needed and left. I firmly believe that, because he spent
half his time in Europe and the other half in England and Australia, he was confused between left and right.
I converted several other 300SL roadsters over the years. At the end of 1966 I gave my business to the
staff and retired to live on the Gold Coast.
ARTHUR RIZZO

[Ray Bell]

Not pictured, but a good story...

FATHER, who seldom used strong language, rather excelled himself the Sundav evening he entered our
family kitchen, which had been denuded of all furniture - table, cabinets, dresser, chairs and other
bric-a-brac - to be confronted with the foundation of what was to eventually evolve as my "vintage
special." My parents had been away for the weekend, and I had taken the opportunity to make use of our
rather large kitchen and the six-inch square lino floor pattern as the perfect full size graph to lay out the
chassis and tack it together with borrowed welder. To my youthful mind it was a great idea but one they
didn’t embrace, and with just a little more time all would have been returned to normal with the odd
burn hopefully hidden by the strategic placement of chairs, table, and so on.

THIS WAS 1945, and I had a year earlier at the age of 17 started driving legally, and also bought my first car
- a perhaps-sporty looking Bullnose Morris - and good value at thirty pounds! It had been fitted by one of its
previous owners with an old Brescia body, which, in retrospect, probably looked rather awful. But not to the
new owner, despite the absence of one or two refinements one comes to expect nowadays - a hood, and a full
complement of floor boards to name but two, but both desirable in the Melbourne winter.
With the never-ending pursuit of performance, the head was planed and the valves ground. I then
decided that it would be much better to have a lighter chassis, as I had been given a Morris Minor frame. At
the same time there was a heap of Lancia bits advertised - front suspension, gearbox, and differential, which
at the negotiated price of fifteen pounds was mine. However this did raise a new problem, as there was no
way the Lancia front end could be fitted to the flexible Minor frame.

The only solution was to build another chassis combining the front tubes of the Lancia suspension with
main frame tubes, and was the reason for the slight parental problem earlier described - and also the
establishment of a lasting relationship with Charlie Dean. Having torn my only means of transport to bits, I
was then forced to catch the bus to attend work. Charlie often drove past in his Lambda, and one morning
stopped and gave this young fella a lift. He mentioned he had also just started building a special with some
Lancia bits, a tubular frame, and using a Maybach tank motor, and invited me over to see it. Imagine my
surprise, and his, when his wife, Mary, greeted me at the door with great affection. It had so happened that
while Charlie was serving overseas as a Captain in the AIF, Mary had her cousin staying with her as
companion and I taken her out for some time, and often we went together as a threesome.
One day I was at Jack Day’s in South Melbourne, entranced with the skills Bob Baker was using building
an aluminium body onto what was the Innes Special. The original two-seater Sports body had been
discarded as being too heavy, and was stored on the top of Reg Nutt’s office. It was exactly the shape I
wanted, and looked to be just right for the Morris, and a closer inspection showed that the body had been
formed over a heavy timber frame reinforced with great lumps of 1/8” plate and lots of angle iron, but in fact
was only attached in two or three strategic places.

I was more than satisfied to take it off their hands, more so with the price (which I think was about 20
quid), including a 6” Jaeger rev counter and Speedo, other instruments, seats, upholstery and hood.

After removing the redundant frame, the body, although steel, was surprisingly light enough for one
penson to lift, and despite a total of nearly seventy years on both road and track there is not a fatigue crack
to be seen anywhere.
I found an alloy Riccardo head at a junkyard in Collingwood under some alloy scrap, and after protesting
that it was ‘. . . only off an old Bullnose Morris,’ procured it for ten bob. The radiator shell was a bit more
expensive at 30/- from the Johnston Street wreckers (I had noticed the shape of the shell on a small DKW
that seemed to be rather akin to a cross between an ERA and an Alfa, and I couldn’t believe my luck when
one turned up - it only needed a cut and shut and the illusion was complete).
From memory, the FWD Alvis blower was the result of a swap, but I don’t recall for what or with whom.
Perhaps if someone reading this happens to be that person they could call me and I’ll tell them how stuffed it
really was! However, all is forgiven, as, having been redone, it has performed as any true vintage gent
should.
There is a lot more to tell, as every part seems to have a story. Although the body and chassis have
remained virtually unchanged, over time there have been substantial internal modifications to engine and
gearbox. The Lancia front brakes have recently been made oily, but the rear retain their cable operation, and
the handbrake - in the interest of adding lightness - remains string.
Even keeping the car running has required changes. For instance, although I retained a major interest in
the car, Graeme Steinfort bought a share and campaigned it for some time. In this period he came across the
Alf Barrett Cowley Special and obtained the engine, from which he took the Laystall crank. Later we were
having some more work done and a crack test was suggested - which proved our undoing. The crank was
beyond repair and a replacement beyond reasonable cost, so we adapted a Citroen Light 15 crankshaft.
Also during this period the name of the car changed, having been originally called the Lancia Morris.
This was done to avoid confusion with the Fellows Morris, built about the same time, which which
unfortunately no longer exists.
I am proud of the car, which is one of very few still in the hands of its original owner, and which performs
well enough to do the standing quarter in 13.4 seconds (Geelong, 1991). With 10.5lbs boost it has about
170bhp from its 1936cc, and in 1992 it was awarded the Terry Kelly Memorial Trophy for the most
interesting Australian Special.
GEOFF RUSSELL

[Ray Bell]

Another one, with a human twist:

IN HIS EIGHTIES, the gent walked into the scrutineering bay at Amaroo Park. He’d seen something
about the Historic Racing and travelled by train and taxi across Sydney see if anyone knew where his old car had got to. “I used to race back in the forties,” he told a scrutineer, “do you think anyone would know what became of my car?” Graeme Snape’s entourage was close by, so he was guided to Graeme as one who might know something. Emerging from beneath the bonnet of the Amilcar-Willys, Graeme was introduced to the unknown gentleman and told of hisdesire. “What’s your name?” “Butler.” “When did you race?” “In the late forties, early fifties.” “Your first name?” “John.” At that moment both realised they had found what they sought - the builder of the Amilcar-Willys, John Butler, was staring under the bonnet of his old car. “I recognise that daggy welding . . .”

MY INTEREST in cars began when I was 12 years old. I bought a 3.5hp belt drive Triumph motor bike, an old one that had been used by despatch riders during World War I. I paid thirty bob for it! Before leaving school I bought a T-model Ford chassis without engine for two pounds, lowered it and fitted a 16-valve Laurel overhead valve conversion.
With help from a cousin we built a fabric body. It had a Scehebler carby and I tried it out on the old Maroubra Speedway and fitted special KLG plugs. In the early forties I was given or swapped a 1927 Grand Prix Amilcar without engine, but with a damaged worm-drive differential.
When I went to Bellbird (near Cessnock in the Hunter Valley) as a GP in 1946 I took the chassis with me.
From disposals I purchased a Willys Jeep engine, and I had some Citroen 10hp spares. I fitted the engine and used the parts to strengthen the chassis and improve the brakes on the now “Wimilcar” or Willys-Amilcar.
The rear body came from the rear fairing of a Lockheed Hudson, as did many brackets, rods, nuts and bolts, obtained from Disposals. The remainder of the bodywork was done by the local bodybuilder at Cessnock and is still used on the car at present. We tested it on the Cessnock airstrip after we had fitted a 3.5:1 T-model differential. This included the Amilcar brakes and wire wheel splined hubs, the conversion being done by a patient of mine who had the use of a Colliery machine shop - a great help!
My partner had a new 1938 Vauxhall Sports, and I passed him when he reached 75mph! It was always a quick little car, but the braking left something to be desired. I raced it in Club events in the late ’40s at Mt Druitt and Castlereagh airstrips and at Foley’s Hill, but I also had a Type 13 Bugatti Brescia and a modified Brescia, a Type 37 and a 37A/40 replica Special (all mentioned in ‘Bugattis in Australasia’ and ‘Motor Sport’).
I sold the car to a young Frank Delandro and concentrated on the Bugattis when I returned to Sydney. I was most pleased to see the little car at Amaroo after 50 years, and to see it in such good hands - and the many improvements by the Snapes. But the car is 90% of what I built in Bellbird in 1946-47, and I hope I will see more of it and its performances in the years to come.
JOHN F BUTLER

[Ray Bell]

Another personal experience from a car builder of long ago:

NO CAR ENTERED the Australian Grand Prix over a greater span of years than this one. From 1933, when Neil Gullifer was entered as part of a four-car team from Britannia Motors, to 1957, when it entered in a very much modified form with Mick Geneve at the wheel, it was entered on five occasions by four drivers. An unfortunate car, it failed to start twice, never finished once. Moreover, two drivers, 23 years apart, both ex-motorcyclists, died when it overturned running down straights. It was after the first crash that Jack Nelson bought the car . .

MY FIRST CONTACT with the Ballot was when I ran into a friend, Pat Kerr, who had just returned from viewing the 1935 AGP at Phillip Island. He told me that Les Cramp had crashed the car with fatal results, and that he had made an offer to the Estate to buy the wreck. The offer accepted, he abandoned the chassis frame* and packed the rest into a Norton motorcycle packing crate and shipped it to Perth.
He then decided he didn’t have the time to rebuild the car and had to sell it. He finally agreed to hand over the parts and a small sum of money and take my Morris Minor tourer, which I had bought in Melbourne for 45 pounds, driven home to Perth and restored.
With a Chev 4 chassis frame from the wreckers, I started to built the car up to race in the 1936 Albany Grand Prix, Australia’s first ‘round the houses’ race. Final tuning was done by Len Hope, who then held the Kalgoorlie to Perth record in a stripped Overland.
Original Engine Blows
The Ballot rev limit was 4000, but we coaxed it up to 4500 and the engine felt the strain and the crank snapped at the last crankpin. This engine was a Peugeot design built in 1922 for the Targa Florio, four cylinders with double overhead cams and an integral head and block. It was a long stroke 2-litre, had four valves per cylinder and a large single carburettor. The robust crank spun in an aluminium crankcase in two single-row and one double-row ball races. The 4-speed aluminium gearbox was separate and mounted with the engine on a sub-frame, drive was through a massive cone clutch. The diff had two final gear ratios of 4.1:1 and 3.45:1, and these could be quickly changed.
I then installed a 3.5-litre1936 Ford V8 engine, and the old engine these days is on display in the private workshop of Kevin Lang at Bicton, WA. The rebuilt chassis was fitted with a 2-seater slab-tank Sports design body, and after a couple of minor gymkhana events it was entered for the 1937 Albany race and the Clarence Hillclimb over Easter.
The field of 14 included Allan Tomlinson’s supercharged MG TA, later to win the AGP and considered by the Nuffield organisation to be probably the fastest TA in the World in 1939. Also there was Clem Dwyer’s supercharged MG PB, together with three other MGs and Clem Dyer’s Bartlett Special - a Salmson which had taken 1100cc records at Brooklands.
Fastest in Climb, Greif in Race
At Mt Clarence on the Saturday the Ballot V8 won the over 1500cc class, Clem Dwyer took fastest time in the under 1500 section. Ron Hall in a Ford V8 Special won the Grand Prix on Easter Monday, with Spencer Staines’ Vauxhall Special and Neil Baird’s Terraplane Special in the places.
The Ballot was a victim of driver over-exuberance and inexperience, coming to grief on a sharp kerb, which blew a back tyre, and finished up backwards through an irate homeowner’s back fence.
We then railed the car to Kalgoorlie en-route to Lake Perkolilli in September. In three races the Ballot scored two wins and a third. Highlight of the meeting was Baird’s successful attempt on National records for 20, 30, 50 and 100 miles and the one-hour record. He covered 88 miles and 421 feet in the hour to succeed in his task.
Dowerin was next in November, with the Miniature GP handicaps falling to the Ballot off scratch, Fred James (MG s/c) was second and Tomlinson third. At the close of the season we were awarded the WASCC annual Gold Star for the highest points scored in Championship events.
More Fastest Times
Special trains transported thousands to Albany for the 1938 season opener, where Tomlinson drove brilliantly to win. The Ballot was unable to make up the handicap time and had to be content with second place, fastest time and race record. Norm Kestel’s supercharged TA was third.
To continue his winning streak, Tomlinson had a very sleek aluminium single-seat body and more engine work done on his TA in time for Bunbury’s Flying 50 in November. Kestel had done similar and was second, while the Ballot was never happy and finished third.
Pingelly opened the 1939 season on January 30, with Duncan Ord making his first appearance in his 3.3-litre Le Mans Bugatti, but it was Tomlinson winning again, Bill Smallwood’s MG second and Roy Sojan third in the Chrysler ‘Silverwings.’ The Ballot retired after a wild dash down an escape road with a jammed throttle.
For Albany the Ballot had received an extensive engine modification and tuning programme with assistance from the team from Lynas Motors, then the leading Ford agents. Monday dawned bleak, and by start time it was raining. By half distance it was starting to dry and the Ballot finally took her revenge on the MGs, scooping first place, fastest time, breaking the race record and the three year old lap record. Coleman and Smallwood followed in MGs, Tomlinson and Kestel both having engine trouble and retiring.
Monoposto Body Built
Dowerin’s winter meeting was somewhat of a fiasco as war was declared on Germany that day. The end of 1939, however, produced another Gold Star and a Silver Star for the most points scored in handicaps. The car then underwent an extensive rebuild in preparation for the South Australian 100 at Lobethal on January 1.
The Ballot was changed to make a monoposto, which necessitated moving the steering box to a central position with an extended cross shaft. There was a new remote gear shift unit to operate from left of centre, a new larger fuel tank and a complete new aluminium-on-steel-tube-frame body of modern design.
We worked as a team with Tomlinson, shipping the two cars along with a standard MG as transport and stand-in practice car to learn the course more thoroughly. Notable entries included Barrett’s Alfa, Gullan’s Indianapolis Ballot - now with Ford V8 engine (the only time the two Ballot V8s met), Doug Whiteford and Black Bess, Colin Dunne’s ex-Bira MG K3 Magnette and Frank Kleinig’s Hudson Special.
Fast and Fragile at Lobethal
The course is quite difficult, over eight and a half miles per lap, it has 40 curves and corners and two curved hill crests, which required cornering in two bites as the cars were airborne for some 50 to 80 metres.
It’s also quite hilly. The race was very successful and full of incidents, but somewhat of a tragedy for the West Australians. Allan Tomlinson crashed and was in hospital for some months. The Ballot suffered with overheating (it was 103 degrees fahrenheit on the day) and retired on the fourth lap. Phillips won in a Ford Special, Tony Ohlmeyer was second in an MG and John Nind’s MG was third.
Comparative lap times at Lobethal are interesting:
Barrett (Alfa) 5:40 - outright record
Dunne (Magnette) 6:27.5
Phillips (Ford Spl) 6:33
Tomlinson (MG Spl) 6:12
Nelson (Ballot) 6:20
Joshua (F-N V8) 6:08.4
Results thus show that the Ballot produced the fastest lap time of all the Ford V8-engined cars except for the Fraser-Nash, which retired during the race.
That was our last race as, the car was not prepared in time for the Pingelly Speed Classic, the Ballot’s era was over. I built the White Mouse in time for Applecross at the end of 1940 and sold the Ballot to Ted Lilley after the war. He promptly damaged her badly in a traffic accident, and Syd Barker bought the wreck. She went on racing with mixed success, and in several guises - with Chrysler six and Chev V8 engines and different bodies before meeting her end in 1959 at Caversham.
I understand that Charlie Mitchell has applied to build a replica so that the Ballot V8 may once again appear in Historic Racing events.
JACK NELSON
* Jim Gullan’s extra fuel tank for his Wolseley in the 240m Victor Harbour AGP was another discarded part from this car.[p][Edited by Ray Bell on 01-31-2001]

[fines]

Ray, it would be so easy for you to write a book. Just sample all those old stories and bind them!

[Dennis David]

Simply wonderful!

[Ray Bell]

Okay, if you really like this stuff, here's another one, post-war this time:

I MET ALF NAJAR at the Historic 88 Oran Park and proceeded to encourage some information from this switched-on octogenarian.
Alf remembered MG TB chassis No 0342 brand new sitting inGovernment Bond in 1943, and so did a few others, all pestering to get their hands on the car. Six people were invited to submit offers and give details of their war effort. Alf said “I had a clothing factory at the time and we worked non-stop making Army, Air Force, Navy and civilian clothing. I also knewsomebody, so I ended up with the car!” It was never registered and initially participated in stripped Sports Car form, winning sprints and holding Foley’s Hillclimb record prior to 1946.
Body ‘For Sale’
In October, 1946, Bathurst was to be the first Australian Grand Prix post-war, however petrol rationing etc discouraged the promoters and the event became the NSW Grand Prix. Rex Marshall and Arthur Rizzo convinced Alf that by removing the standard body and fitting a specially-built aluminium one, borrowing the supercharger that was lying around awaiting the arrival of the Bill Murray TC(still not in the country), and a few other mods would change the car enough to win at Bathurst. The original body was advertised for 200 pounds in November’s AMS.
This was a major victory for the car, which went on to fill sixth in the AGP of 1947 (behind Murray), second in 1948, and then fourth in 1949 in the hands of new owner, Peter Critchley. In 1950 Peter fitted four Amal carbies and didn’t enter the AGP that year or the next, but was ninth in 1952.
Engine Moved
In 1956 Alan Murray removed the head fairing, which doubled as a water tank for long races, from the tail and modified the rest of the body to the classic 1950s monoposto shape. This body is still on the car, which in 1957 was bought by Paul Samuels in twin Amal form, the motor having also been moved down and rearwards and a 4.875:1 locked diff having been installed.
Following a major alteration to the structure of the cylinder block that was facilitated by a wayward conrod, Paul fitted a BMC B-series motor and Shorrock blower with around 10psi boost. He raced it with success at Orange, Mt Druitt, Bathurst etc on recaps and other performance-enhancing devices during his ownership.
The car passed into my hands from Greg Smith in 1980. Throwing money at John Dalton and later Leon Newman to ensure the car returned to its 1956 form, it regained the XPAG engine, close ratio TC box, hydraulic lever shocks, 16” wheels, locked diff etc.
However, feeling the car was still not quite right, I skillfully rolled it at Winton in 1986, allowing Ron
Sinclair to sort out all the bugs and present it in a condition to which it became accustiomed with its first
owner.
RON TOWNLEY
A couple of points are raised by Ron’s story. One is about the header tank in the headrest - with the heat at Point Cook, was this a crucial factor in taking second place behind Pratt’s BMW? Also, presumably, there was a point when the blower came off - though the Medley report on Bathurst 1946 does not mention it at all. Was it just a carrot to get Najar moving? Was it ever fitted? Photographic evidence suggests that something extra was fitted under the bonnet between 1946 and 1947, a huge and ugly blister appearing on the left hand side. Looking at the early photos of this car one can see the quality of workmanship in its construction. Alf Najar was unable to contribute in time, but we expect to hear from him with further details about the car soon. Ed.

Sorry, at this stage I can't find Alf's letter... a couple of discs are missing, and one has gone bad on me.

[Ray Bell]

Another story from Western Australia, a car with an interesting history, the Clem Dwyer Plymouth Special:

NOT VERY MANY Specials start out with new or near new parts. Some stand out - Ian Mountain’s Peugeot is one and there’s the famous story of the tenner that was slung to the wharfies to drop the Super Snipe that
became the Masling Humber.
The best way to get the bits economically was to find a near new written off car and strip it down, and this is what Clem Dwyer did in the 1939/40 period with a 1937 Plymouth that had been rolled. This was to become one of the most enduring cars ever to race in Australia.
All the original mechanical components were retained, as was the x-brace from the chassis. New side rails were made, shortening the chassis by about two feet and narrowing it, with lots of holes drilled in the frame for lightness. A classy body was made by Clem, who was something of a craftsman when it came to bodywork.
The engine had a head shave, triple Carter carbies and extractor-type exhausts and a magneto fitted, while the gearchange was made remote to the right hand side of the cockpit via a cable arrangement.
It competed first at Applecross in 1940, placing second in the Patriotic Grand Prix (held to encourage people to buy War Bonds) and was again second at Pingelly in 1941. It then had to lie in wait through the rest of the war to emerge victorious at the Victory Grand Prix at the first Caversham meeting in 1946. The car then was sold to Ted Harris, as an SS had caught Clem’s eye and was getting similar treatment, with Syd Negus taking over in 1948 and racing the car right through to 1962.
Present owner Graham Reed takes up the story:
“My fascination with the Plymouth Special started in 1958 when, as a thirteen year old, my father took me and a couple of my mates to the old Caversham race track. The car I remembered most vividly was Syd Negus’ Plymouth, two things standing out for me. First was its shape, for, unlike most of the cars of the day (which looked like cut down sedans), it looked like a factory built race car. Its lines were not unlike the Maserati 4CLT of 1948, the only thing missing being wire wheels. What also impressed me was the fact that it won every event it entered.
“Over the next four years I watched the Plymouth many times, and it was always a winner. Then, in 1962, I began to pit crew for a friend, which naturally got me right in with all the cars, and I eventually met Syd Negus.
“Syd had upgraded to a Cooper Bristol, but kept on racing the Plymouth as a Sports Car. He widened the cockpit and fitted guards (fenders) and lights and reverted to the central gear change. I lost track of the car after he retired, because it no longer raced, but some years later found it in a Freemantle used car yard. I enquired about the price, but it was too much for me to afford at that stage.
“In the eighties I joined the VSCC of WA and, together with Max Gamble and Darryl Manning, set about tracking down any of the old race cars that still existed. Eighteen months later we located the Plymouth in a stable in the Hills area North of Perth, still in its Sports Car trim, and a year of haggling saw me finally able to buy it.
“I started restoration in 1986, finishing in 1991 in time for the VSCC Narrogin round the houses (40th Anniversary of the AGP) event. The car still retains its original block, gearbox and diff, most of the body is still there and back as Clem built it, but a new fuel tank, radiator and steering wheel have been fitted. It must be one of Australia’s most original and best known Specials.”
Mentioning the AGP in his letter, Graham touches on a sore point in the car’s otherwise successful history. It finished last at Narrogin, and also at Albert Park, where Negus ran it in 1953. Surely he was hoping for better at Caversham in 1957, but it let him down again to put him out of the event. Redemption came via the Cooper Bristol he ran in 1962, which filled sixth place and made him first WA entrant home, albeit 13 laps behind the winner.
At Narrogin he had plugged on to finish tenth, 16 minutes behind the comparable car of Barry Ranford.
This car had a similar (though smaller) engine and in just-finished form was fourth outright and first WA entrant. In other hands Negus beat it many times later in its career, even though it had a Ford V8 installed.
Just how much this car raced can be seen in the list of circuits at which it has competed:
Adelaide GP, Albert Pk, Amaroo Pk, Applecross, Bunbury, Busselton (assumed, not confirmed), Caversham ‘D’ and Caversham Triangle, Eastern Creek, Goomalling, Mooliabeenie, Narrogin 2.2m and 4.4m, Northam, Pearce, Pingelly, Toodyay, Wakefield Pk, Wanneroo Pk and Winton. There are 20 there, and Lakeside looks like being added to the list this year.
Not many cars have an active history stretching over 23 years, and it’s nice to see this one being extended in the Historic events Graham now enters. The Plymouth not only won as a Racing Car, but also took the WA Sports Car Championship twice. I wonder how long it drove around the roads? We do know that Syd’s son Wayne was one of those who had the pleasure of opening out that big six on the highway. Fun!
RAY BELL

[Ray Bell]

For pure innovation, long-term devotion to the project and absolute interest, try the Chamberlain 8:

UNDOUBTEDLY the best known of all of Australia’s more innovative Specials is the Chamberlain. Built at the very outset of our racing history, this car represents keen thought and enterprise at its very best.
This car was built by Bob Chamberlain in 1929. A space frame chassis was rare those days outside of aircraft, but we won’t say it was unique. In the twenties it was not unusual to be fiddling with front wheel drive, nor was independent suspension unknown or slimming the body by staggering the passenger behind the driver.
So, having established that the Chamberlain was not the forerunner of everything new, let’s look at what it was. Remembering that a part of its worth was as a car to compete in the AGP, which had commenced running the previous year and had a 2-litre limit, it’s understandable that it was to have a small engine and it was built to compete in the under 1100cc class.
The first engine was a big-valve Indian Daytona unit, but after a lot of road use this engine experienced valve gear trouble and was replaced with a slightly smaller Indian Altoona unit. Leave well enough alone?
Never. Norton barrels were fitted to increase the capacity and it went on its merry way, beating most of the opposition in sprints and hillclimbs. It held the class record at Wheelers Hill and also raced at Aspendale with a supercharger fitted. Three entries in the AGP failed to produce any success, but it was said to have done 118mph. Bob crashed the car at the 1934 Mt Tarrengower Hillclimb.
Bob, having shown his invention, went overseas and left the car in the hands of brother Bill. Then came the real technical innovation, although, once again, it was not actually breaking new ground. The two-stroke engine built for the car was based on ideas incorporated in a design by W. Jamieson and publicised in that era. But how many people, irrespective of their resources, would go to the trouble of building one?
Cutting some corners, they used a crankcase from aHenderson motorcycle. This was a four-cylinder in-line unit that was mounted it its frame longitudinally, the gearbox - fitted with a Chamberlain-made three speed crash gearset, flywheel, clutch and crownwheel/pinion assembly sharing the space and lubricants with the crankshaft.
Almost everything above this level they built themselves. A very complex block casting (which John Cummins remembers the foundry took 37 tries to get right) with exhaust ports at the bottom and inlet ports at the top, the pistons and the crankshafts. Yes, crankshafts - plural.
Each cylinder had a stepped bore, the bottom being 62.5mm, the top 35mm. There were pistons in both, the top ones being there purely to close and open the inlet ports to allow the supercharger to pump in the gases, while the bottom ones did everything else, from compressing the mixture to opening the port to allow the blue haze to pass into the atmosphere.
Tricky stuff, really. By closing the inlet port much later than the exhaust, which is terribly hard to achieve in a normal two stroke, the compressor was actually able to fill the cylinder well. By running the top pistons on very short conrods (the crank actually ran through a hole in the upper part of the piston) the ports opened and closed quickly, with long duration opening possible.
This style of two-stroke is what Auto Union used in their GP cars of the thirties, but with cams and valves instead of the upper piston. It should eliminate the need for petroil mixture and, as discussed, overcomes most of the vices of the two-stroke - shame you can’t do it with a Wankel!
The swept volume of the lower pistons was 968cc, the upper ones 100cc, giving 1068cc. The crank was machined out of a 6.5” billet and ran in three roller bearings, being linked to the top crank by chain. Conrods were Ford A, but that bit of simplicity was about all there was.
There were eight coils to supply spark to the eight plugs, and because of the risk of holing a piston it was necessary to make, yes make, eight plugs plus spares in a variety of heat ranges. This was done after the war to finally overcome the pre-war problems experienced with copper electrode plugs, the war seeing the development of aluminium oxide electrodes. John Cummins was a helper round the place at the time and contributed to this effort.
Bill Balgarnie, riding mechanic to Bill Thompson in the AGP, brought unfinished SU castings from England, with Alan Ashton (Lex Davison’s and Alf Barrett’s mechanic, among other things) doing the finishing work. Later this was replaced with a 2.5” Vacturi, which continued supplying the straight alcohol with boost from the Roots-type supercharger sometimes as high as 28psi.
The gearbox was driven by a chain from the crank, and the crownwheel and pinion required some delicately introduced reinforcing when the engine hit full song in post-war times. Final transmission of the drive to the front wheels was by jointed half-shafts, with inboard brakes also fitted at the front (was this finally a first?) and lower wide-based wishbones complemented by a transverse spring above, this also having radius arms to improve location on the wide-tracked car.
The rear suspension was simple swing axles with transverse leaf springing, Hartford friction shocks were fitted all round. When the engine transplant took place there was an additional 4.5” added to length of the chassis. At its widest point the body was only 24” across, and the whole thing weighs in at around 11cwt.
On full noise (and it is a noise, we’re told!) it probably has over 100bhp, so it can accelerate quite well.
As the oldest of the Specials we’re looking at, it is a milestone. So far ahead of its time in many ways, so much a representation of what can be done with enthusiasm, resources and time if the will is there.
RAY BELL

A more detailed story on this car in a rare magazine published in the seventies... Cars & Drivers Australia...

[Ray Bell]

Back to the 'brute force and ignorance' approach to Special building:

I SAW AN advertisement for the Ken Wylie Sheerline Special in an AMS in 1957, drove to Melbourne (from Griffith, NSW) and did the deal with Noel Wade in a showroom in Dandenong - the price was 300 pounds. The next week I collected the car and took it back to Griffith.
There were a couple of obvious problems, e.g. it had run the big ends and someone had run up the back of the alloy tail! The tail was easily fixed, and also the big ends - once we realised we were bolting the caps on the wrong way round. Anyway, we eventually figured it all out and started to race in the days when you smoked, drank in the pits, wore shirt sleeves, painted your helmet in the pattern of your favourite GP driver - and the organisers actually thanked you for competing.
Sorry, I digress. But the car was the second Austin-engined car built by Ken Wylie, also the second car I know of to use the Sheerline engine - the other being Norm Andrews’ Stewand, commonly known as ‘Betsy’ while in his and Tom Hawkes’ hands (Roy was unaware of the Regal of Rex Law when he wrote this), and from this car came the original 3.6-litre engine and box.
Ken’s idea was to keep the design and construction costs as simple as possible, and, with this in mind, he made it a 2-seater with detachable mudguards and road equipment so that it could be used either as a Sports Car or a serious Racer. Its placings at Altona and Fisherman’s Bend indicated its utility at the Bend, and it was a great machine for long distance commuting with its large engine, light weight and surplus of power.
Work on the 4-litre motor was confined to opening the ports in a cautious manner, polishing them and the combustion chambers, fitting oversize valves, increasing the compression ratio to 9:1, boring out to 4.3 litres and making up an inlet manifold to carry three downdraught Solex carbies. A Holden water pump was fitted to cut down engine height, a Lucas Vertex magneto was fitted and a special bellhousing made to mate the engine to a post-war Mercedes gearbox (which replaced a Wilson pre-selector and was in turn superseded by a Ford Truck box after failing at Bathurst) controlled by a stumpy central lever. The clutch was Ford V8, and an open Hardy Spicer universal followed by a Ford torque tube took the drive to the 3.5:1 Mercury back
axle.
Two tubes on each side, each 1.875” x 16g, were used in the usual Ken Wylie fashion, with tubular bracing and cross members. The front axle, brakes and steering arms were 1940/47 Ford, except the drag link, which was fabricated. Javelin torsion bars suspended the rear and had adjusters at their forward anchorages to trim the car. Shock absorbers were telescopic all round, and the front transverse spring was shackled at one end only to limit sideways movement. There were single radius rods on each side for both axles, while steering box, column and wheel came from a pre-war Riley, the master cylinder was Chev and
Ford wire wheels were fitted.
Body formers of 1/2” steel tube were integral with the chassis, and the very streamlined body was skinned in 18g half-hard aluminium sheet and painted green. An aluminium alloy fuel tank from a Moth Minor lived in the tail and held 13 gallons, fed through a quick fill cap protruding through the skin, while the 4-branch exhaust pipes ran down the near side of the car. There was a cold air box for the carburettors.
Bucket seats accommodated the driver and passenger, instruments comprising rev counter, oil and water thermometers, oil pressure gauge and magneto switch.
I owned the car from 1957 to 1962, winning two races; one at the first Tarrawingee and another shortly after setting the lap record of the Bathurst pits. This earned me a ten pound fine and years of suspension and banning from Bathurst, but before I handed my licence in I won the other race at Hume Weir.
The car is currently owned by Iain McPherson, who tells me he will get it going one day. We’ll see. . .
ROY WILLIAMS

[Ray Bell]

We've heard a bit about John Cummins, here's what he did:

AS RAY BELL has asked me to write about an Australian Special, I went to the bookcase and looked up the Ballot Oldsmobile built by Jim Gullan in 1944. Its origins were so well covered in Jim’s book ‘As Long As It Has Wheels’ I thought maybe a first hand story might be better.
The story of the LMB Bugatti came to mind, or more correctly, the story of its second life - in Australia, Holden powered.
After completing my apprenticeship at Chamberlain’s in 1952, having worked both at South Melbourne and at the tractor factory in Welshpool, WA, I was sent to the UK by Perkins Diesel to do my diesel training at Peterborough in the Midlands. I had been an avid reader of Motor Sport from the age of about 10, so I thought the best way to find a chassis to take home with me was to advertise in their Classifieds.
This brought many replies by mail, and months of travelling around the UK the hard way, ie. by public transport and leaning on my newfound English friends, some of the cars and/or chassis considered were investigated. They included EHP, Delage, MG K3 and Bugatti.
Cycling to Peterborough Railway Station and arriving with a sheet of ice frozen to the front of my ‘mac,’ I set off by train to Newcastle on Tyne on the coldest day I can ever remember to view the Bugatti. On arrival I found it to be a complete car less engine, the motor having tossed three rods at Brooklands. Just prior to that it had been driven by my boyhood hero, Dick Seaman, who had loaned the then owner some 6.00 x 19 Racing Dunlops for the rear, 500s for the front.
While the engine had been given to the scrap drive during the war, the blower and drive, Scintilla Vertex magneto, brass barrell type Solex carb, water pump, exhaust manifold, brass blower oil feed tank - with scar where one of the escaping rods creased it while on its way to freedom - were all still there.
Additionally, in 1936 L M Bellamy had converted the front end to ifs, being the first car to race with the now-famous divided front axle - forerunner to the Allards, Buckler Ford 10s and here the Notas of Guy Buckingham (not to mention U2s, Hustlers and Monoskates -Ed).
It also had an ugly Brooklands nose cowling fitted. On removing the fuel cap it still smelled of pre-war Shell A. My hands were so cold I couldn’t hold a 10mm ring spanner to remove the gearbox top for inspection.
At 185 quid Sterling it was more than I could afford, but I had to have it. I measured from the triangulated front crossmember to the gearbox uni and said yes to the seller, provided a Holden will fit.
After thawing my hands I wrote home to my Bugatti enthusiast mentor, Herb Ford, and the reply came back that the Holden would fit with a quarter of an inch to spare - and he would lend me the extra money to buy all the Bugatti spares so he could supercharge a Type 40 boat tail tourer.
Next problem: How do you get the car home? Answer: Study the Customs laws very carefully, because you must own a vehicle in the UK for 12 months and you cannot dispose of it when you get back to Australia for three years (without severe monetary repercussions, anyway). As I was only there for ten months, it was a problem. However, a Musso/vintage car mate owed me one, so we back dated the receipt in his name and watched the mail for the next three years for any OHMS letters. Luckily, none came.
Having worked with Len Sidney at Chamberlains, I decided to let him fit the Holden engine to the frame, as at that time I was spending all my time representing Perkins in WA, SA, Tas and the Riverina. Len, for those who don’t know of him, was Frank Mussett’s Velocette chief mechanic pre-war, going on afterwards to be a founding member of the 500cc Car Club, building the Sidney Rudge - which had various engines fitted, including a Vincent when owned by Bob Minogue.
While I was in SA I met Albert Ludgate, ex-Lea Francis designer, who also had a lot of early input into the first engine. This was only the second Holden-powered car in Victoria (Lou Molina’s MM was first) and not a lot was known about hotting the grey motors yet. This changed over the next 35 years, but the input from Eddie Thomas, Pat Ratcliffe, Bob Chamberlain, Charlie Dean and Phil Irving was all a help in those early stages.
It was actually the Bug Holden that led to me becoming a Motor Sport Commentator. After breaking some valve springs at practice at an early Hepburn Springs Hillclimb I was a non-starter. So I was asked, “because you know most of the competitors, and the announcer hasn’t turned up, would you please do the commentary?”
After eleven years ownership, the final three and three sixteenths 12:1 pistoned engine, still on its original 1.25 SU inlet and exhaust manifolds and twin tail pipe with megaphones, recorded 135mph on the flying eighth at Bathurst and did a 14.4secs quarter mile at Castlereagh. Rev limits were ignored at both of these events.
CUMMO
Not mentioned here is the time when Cummo, driving in the middle of the road down Conrod Straight and hanging on for dear life, had Bib Stillwell and Bill Patterson shoot past in their Coopers, one each side of him!

[Ray Bell]

A little bit different...

To An Old Friend

VERY FEW WILL FORGET Godfrey Angus Gibson. The white haired man that was synonymous with Winton, Sports Car racing and Country Cinema. Father of Bevan, Paul, Grant and Carl, he eagerly supported each of them as they went racing, especially bravely in the wake of Bevan’s horrific crash at Bathurst. It was only months after that tragic Easter that Paul made his debut at the home circuit at Winton.
In his latter years he and his wife Hazel lived a quiet life in a converted highway site office at Glenrowan, but Hoot was actually a South Australian. At Strathalbyn Showground one night he witnessed two fatal racing accidents as motorcycles enthralled the crowd. He also accepted an invitation to participate as a passenger on an outfit. In the 1920s Hoot Gibson’s seventy year long connection with Motor Sport began.
He raced bikes, mainly Harley Davidsons, at such places as Sellick’s Beach through the thirties before moving to Melbourne to work for Finley Brothers in Melbourne. Then to Kilmore, to run a radio shop until the outbreak of war.
Ground Crew
Enlisting, Hoot was in the RAAF as ground crew, mainly with Hudsons. He was there when Darwin was bombed and in New Guinea. Then began his love affair with the cinema, first at Mansfield. He built up the gear to tour from town to town, using local halls to introduce the populace to the movies he so loved.
In the fifties he was to become known for his spirited driving of a Vanguard Sportsman at such places as Phillip Island, Fisherman’s Bend and Albert Park. A Head Brothers Special, known as the Solid Gold Cadillac, was another mount he raced in this era, then after a break in the sixties he put Bevan into the Lotus 15, then Paul. Newer cars came into the family stable in the seventies -Rennmaxes ex-Ayers and Macarthur, with Paul and Grant graduating from the ex-Derry George/Niel Allen Lotus 23 to become an integral part of Sports Car racing.
Youngest son Carl was racing by the end of the seventies, but into the eighties the family finances and various marriages were putting an end to the competition. Grant went to Europe and became, ultimately, Nigel Mansell’s chief mechanic - the one who shared the grief most closely with the Briton when that tyre exploded at Adelaide. Carl followed, and is still there in the nineties, crewing in Formula One. Grant took time out to rebuild the old 15 and returned to a life of North Coast NSW family living - with a little racing round the country thrown in.
Mixing Interests
As for Hoot, he wound down his business life. His garage at Benalla long gone, he completed his tour of duty as a cinema operator at the Wangaratta and Albury Drive Ins. It was my privilege to watch Crocodile Dundee one night at Wangaratta, talking over old times in the projection room. I was also fortunate enough to enjoy a breakfast with the old couple in their final home just a few years ago, and be shown the gadgetry that blossomed on his Jaguar Mk X - airspeed indicator ex-NG RAAF, auto starter equipment from a 1928 Studebaker, altimeter et al - it was a toy for a gentleman who mixed his interests in a totally irresponsible manner. Just for the love of it.
He was a man who ran in two Redex Trials, drove for Phil Irving in the BP Rally year after year, boosted the status of Winton by his personal effort (and in so doing undoubtedly ensured its continued existence after the closure of its contemporaries) and made innumerable friends in his years in the sport.
It might be said that his preparation wasn’t up to standard. Indeed, I’ve heard it said. But then it must be considered that he was running cars that outstripped his budget, and he did keep them running. The Lotus needed crownwheels - frequently. He found a Vauxhall unit that was near enough, set it up in the lathe and ran it all night to lap it in with valve grinding paste, and ran it for several meetings before the process was repeated. A Repco V8 bent its valves, so he made new ones up from old aircraft remnants in his shed. The boys kept on racing, and there’s proof in the record books of that. Paul won the last Australian TT held, once again at Winton, driving the fearsome ex-Ayers Jim Phillips’ Rennmax 5-litre in 1979 - almost unnoticed on a day in which there was so much politicking about the F5000 versus F-Atlantic debate that it overshadowed everything.
Joy in Old Age
Between tracking the termites in his new house and making a garden in barren clay long since compressed to rock hard under a thousand truck wheels, Hoot still acted as an official at sprints at Winton, donned the Steward’s jacket too. Even as his legs gave out on him he was there, and also back in the workshop turning up new liners for Paul’s Repco V8.
But two strokes pulled him up short around Christmas. The family found them a unit in Benalla. He and the Jag had made their last trip to visit Grant at Alstonville, a joyous stay with hours of studying the familiar Lotus - its tricky ZF gearbox, the FPF Climax, the bits and pieces rebuilt to a standard well past that it had enjoyed on the North Eastern Victorian circuits. It must have satisfied him to see it better than new, to know that Grant and the 15 would carry on.
The Lotus went to Phillip Island the week before the AGP. A far cry from the call to “Jump in for the next race,” at Strathalbyn, and even more removed was Carl’s elevated position in the Arrows team at Albert Park. Sitting up in bed at home with Hazel by his side, Hoot was three weeks shy of his 88th birthday. The Channel 9 cameras were focussed on the Arrows in practice when he slipped contentedly into a peaceful death.
Returning to Benalla for the service were the six children, Janine, Trudy and Merryn and the boys. But they were not alone, for just as the country folk had turned out to mourn Bevan, so they remembered his dad.
At Mansfield he was buried alongside his beloved heir, as was his wish.
A Precious Gift
In the crowd a 15-year old was with Paul, a go-karter who wants to have a go at the Rennmax in his father’s shed. Absent from the Arrows Team was Carl, who was making plans in the shadow of the gum trees to return before the season ends to get stuck into his Elfin 792s. Grant’s 15 was in the trailer ready for checking over to go to Guyra.
Sellick’s Beach and Strathalbyn Showground, indeed, Hume Weir and Tarrawingee, have long been deprived of racing machinery. The whole world of Motor Racing had changed around him, and there were many changes he knew weren’t for the good. As much as anyone else, Hoot Gibson typified the man who knew why there must be Historic Racing.
But, despite this backdrop, the Gibsons are carrying on just as the white haired old man showed them.
That he also showed many others is the precious gift he bequeathed to Motor Racing, unobtrusively and deliberately over many years of his long life. That’s how I will remember this old friend.
RAY BELL

[Ray Bell]

Back to the cars, this one never a front runner...

HERE’S A SPECIAL that was built because the owner had bought a dud. Bill Cooke’s racing career included events in an MG TF and a Peugeot 203, and by the mid-fifties he was well and truly linked to Peugeot in Sydney via his partnership with Norm Saville.
They became one of the best-known Peugeot dealers with their Mobilgas service station forecourt covered in 203s and 403s in the late fifties. They had a busy workshop, and around the back they wrecked the battered examples of the marque that came their way. The Parramatta Road,Flemington, site now struggles to avoid choking on the fumes of the overpass to the Olympic stadia and the cars struggling to find parking in the adjoining Markets.
Both Bill and Norm raced 203s under the Cooke & Saville banner, but Bill had a desire to go faster. He bought the latter day Rizzo Riley, less engine, and fitted a good 403-bore 203 engine.
The car had been crashed before his purchase, however, and in the repairing it had been fitted with a pre-war Chev axle and cable brakes. Not unknown in those times, but known to be inferior. And the car was so inferior that Bill elected to put the engine in a new car of his own making.
In his Auburn backyard he schemed out and put together this device, a Singer chassis shortened at both ends supporting the Peugeot engine and box. At the front a 203 crossmember was bracketed on, with its familiar transverse leaf spring and shock absorber upper links.
A frame was made at the rear to support another transverse leaf, which conveniently utilised the original 203 shock absorber links to connect to the cast aluminium axle housings. Lateral location was by Panhard rod, as on all Peugeots.
The engine was well equipped, sporting a magneto, internal modifications and some nice exhausts. Carburetion, strangely enough, was a simple single Solex just like they came with. A Peugeot gearbox and a shortened standard torque tube was used to transmit power back to the worm drive diff, and the engine sat back about eight inches behind the front crossmember.
A photo taken in the early stages of construction shows that the complete 403 steering column was laid almost horizontally along the engine bay, with the wheel mounted centrally in front of the driver, but the column running off to the right of the rocker cover, two universal joints then taking the column steeply down to the rack and pinion. The steering wheel was thus almost vertical, but angled to the right about seven degrees. Wheels were standard Peugeot, sometimes drilled, with combinations of 15” and 16” used from time to time.
Bodywork was steel, formed on and welded to bent round tubing. It was tidy if ungainly. Early races saw the car carrying a makeshift tail section, but its later form was in place before the AGP at Bathurst in 1958, except for the nose piece. A rounded form of light steel was made by the same panel beater who shaped the second tail section, initially with quite a small air intake aperture. This was probably enlarged after it was found that insufficient air was getting to the 203 radiator that sat low down ahead of the front suspension.
Finally, it seems, the tail was replaced with what appears to be a fibreglass job with a more rounded form.
The car and the way it came about gives a good idea of how many cars ‘just growed’ in the post-war era. Opportunities were taken, desirable components sourced, costs and construction time kept low by just fitting things together without regard for the latest racing technology. ‘Run what you brung’ was still the catchcry, for even though Sports Cars were not allowed in the 1958 AGP Cooke was not at the back of the grid in this car, being 20th in a field of 28.
And, on the day, this car diced with the well-known Nota Consul. A much lighter car, built with a space frame in the famous Smith St Nota works about four miles from Cooke’s home, it did incorporate some of that mid-fifties racing technology. It had a wide variety of diff ratios (Cooke could only use the 5.75:1 ratio until the 403B came out in 1960), was built for a man who planned to do things with it, had a smaller frontal area and an engine slightly larger than the Peugeot.
The car raced at Mt Druitt, Bathurst and Orange before the engine came out in 1961 to go in another tin-top Peugeot. An indication of its performance can be found in the 1960 Easter Bathurst results, where a lap in 3:20.9 and flying eighth speed of 107.78mph ( Bill's son, Denis Cooke, is sure he recalls a figure around 128mph on one occasion) are shown. The car was thirteenth and last, a lap down on twelfth, five laps down on the winner of the 26-lap Bathurst 100. That was its last Bathurst start, its first main-race finish.
Even though Bill and Norm were in the scrap metal business as well as the wrecking yard business, it was apparently sold complete less engine to someone near Lithgow and sat in a shed for decades. Too low for paddock bashing, too slow for modern racing, its owner must have lost interest, but whether he buried it in a well, still has it in a shed or dismantled the remainder, we just don’t know.
RAY BELL

Following this was the note:

NORM SAVILLE died after that horrendous rollover in the 1979 Repco Trial, which claimed the lives of his two companions. Cancer set in on top of his injuries and a few months later it claimed him, but in the interim I had a number of discussions with him. During one of these he told me of his first encounter with Peugeot, in the desert escaping Tobruk. “People were just taking cars and running,” he said, “and we came across this Darl’Mat* that two British Officers had and took it while they stopped to relieve themselves. Later it blew a head gasket and we left it in the desert.”
* A low-volume Sports version of the 402, as raced by the factory at Le Mans, designed by Paris dealer Emil Darl’Mat.

[Ray Bell]

One that got a recent mention, and a bit more detail for the ever-seeking David McKinney...

JIM GULLAN’S BALLOT OLDS will always rank as one of those cars that looks the part of an Australian Special. The raked nose, the heavily drilled chassis, steering wheel close to the chest and mandatory straps over the bonnet, its wire wheels carried a car that mixed European and American as well as any other.
Fortunately the early life of the car is well detailed in Gullan’s book, ‘As Long As It Has Wheels,’ and there was plenty to write about as the Ballot Olds was to bring Gullan a number of successes. The car was bought in 1944, almost on a whim, it seems, after Gullan had sold the Indianapolis Ballot (by now fitted with Ford V8) early in the war.
A 2-litre model with sohc engine and knock-on wire wheels (more important, according to Gullan), it had a poor body. He mentions 4-wheel brakes with Dewandre servo, making it a 1926/28 model 2LT. Soon after buying it a workmate offered money for the engine, gearbox and radiator to fit into a Bugatti chassis.
Said Gullan: “I suppose any engine was better than none . . ”
Having just the chassis left, he thought he’d build a copy of his favourite car, the ERA. He was reluctant to go for another Ford, having had bad experiences with the V8, so an ad for an Oldsmobile engine and box (unused spares purchased for a Taxi) overcame his problems. It was to have triple Ford carbies and extractors.
The chassis was made into a copy of a Bugatti chassis, was shorter and narrower, designed to be ‘strong in the middle,’ boxed and drilled liberally ‘as on the SSK’ for lightness. The original hubs were retained, but laced to smaller rims, the spring shackes were located at the front instead of the rear as Gullan drew on all the modern technology he could identify.
Bob Baker built the body round an angle iron frame, which was screwed to the chassis with small reject aircraft bolts. A deliberate effort was made to reduce frontal area, hence the car’s low appearance. Quick-fill petrol and radiator caps were fabricated and instruments (like the carbies) came from army disposals.
The Ballot name was retained, even though virtually only the axles and wheel hubs remained, because it made it simple to register the car. Just roll up and pay the money!
Springs were fitted outside the chassis and there were torque stays to the front axle, with finned alloy drums off a spare 2-litre Ballot Jim had bought and sold. The first race was at Ballarat at the beginning of 1947, after which hydraulic shocks were fitted front and rear (‘to the horror of the Hartford purists!’) and hydraulic actuation of the brakes was arranged. For Lobethal, which the car was to win on handicap, a specially made 3.5:1 diff replaced the original 4.1:1 unit. Jim had to do the design work for the gear cutter.
Gullan was in business with one of his major opponents on the track, Doug Whiteford, and when Doug imported an Edelbrock cam and heads (he’d melted a pair of alloy heads at Lobethal in 1940!) Bruce Rehn copied the cam profile and lift for the Olds. By the time of the Point Cook AGP there was yet another higher lift cam and special ratios in the gearbox. As a result of the heat at Point Cook, with the Olds running so cool and well, the engine was bored 3/16”, while both cars were fitted with enlarged sumps with cooling tubes fitted. Then for Nuriootpa’s opening meeting in 1949 PBR made up special alloy brake shoes and backing plates. These were found to be bending the chassis, so some more work was required.
The car was Gullan’s expression of all he’d learned from observing racing and running his own Salmson, Wolseley, Austin and Ballot V8. It was considered by Whiteford to be ‘too sensitive in the steering and brakes, difficult to drive.’ Gullan adjudged Black Bess to be ‘tail light, tending to wander at speed, with light and spongy steering and poor brakes.’
Considering just how it came together - the bits that just happened to be there, the chance acquisitions - it worked very well. Gullan was a handicap specialist, with his wife Christine timekeeping and acting as strategist, and they beat the handicaps with monotonous regularity. He comments that he just had to keep on making the car quicker to keep on beating them, so it was well developed when sold to Alan Watson.
He mentions getting airborne over the top of the hill approaching Lobethal at 110mph, touching 116mph on the straight and holding it flat all the way from Lobethal to within sight of the pits at that early stage of its development. By the time it won the handicap section of the 1950 AGP it must have been a fairly quick car.
RAY BELL

[Ray Bell]

I think I posted the picture of the Stobie pole bent into the shape of a 'c' at Lobethal.... well, this is what happened to the car that did it:

AT LOBETHAL in January, 1948, Lex Davison had his first major crash. He was driving an MG TC he’d bought for Diana so that she might ‘not have to use the farm utility,’ went for the wrong side when he came up to pass Gavin Sandford-Morgan’s MG and ran off the road. Diana tells the story:

WHILE HE WAITED for the Alfa to arrive, Lex entered the TC for the New Year meeting on the formidable 8.65 mile Lobethal public road circuit. He drove it over from Melbourne, accompanied by Peter Ward and Lyndon Duckett in an old 6-cyl Vauxhall.
During practice they went off the road, slewed down the sloping grass verge, somersaulted, then hit a Stobie pole so hard the steel pole was bent into the shape of a question mark. The violence of the accident bent the MG’s chassis and tore off the driver’s door, the bonnet and the outer scuttle panelling. The alloy seat was bent, the rim of the steering wheel was broken away from the spokes, a front wheel smashed and its tyre gone. Lex had a chipped bone on one knee.
Naturally, I was dreadfully upset at losing the MG, as I had never owned a car before, but it had gradually disappeared from my hands. We had both driven it at Rob Roy, where Lex had coached me from the passenger’s seat, then Lex raced it at Nar Nar Goon grass track and I had competed at the final Killara Park Sprints - dashing back to the house between runs to check on baby Anthony, who usually travelled in the car in a wooden cradle fitted behind the seats.
I was just grateful that Lex wasn’t too badly injured.
The TC reappeared as a bare chassis for Rob Roy and Nar Nar Goon at the end of 1948, with Lex and Reg Nutt driving, but by the following March the Head Brothers had created a narrow 2-seat shell with shapely cycle guards. It had nice upholstery and was painted red, and I think they christened it ‘Mum’s Racer,’ and they fitted it out with a small leather pocket for my compact and lipstick.
Several times the car lowered the Ladies’ record at Rob Roy, including once with the supercharger fitted, and that record stood for some time. Lex raced it widely, and Bib Stillwell also raced it at Woodside in 1949. Our last entry for the car was with Ian Mountain driving at the Grand Prix at Albert Park in 1953.
DIANA GAZE

MUCH of the information Diana has given us is from the book Graham Howard is currently preparing about Lex’s racing. Later owners are listed as John Hartnett and Graeme Keillerup in the 1950s, Spiro Chillianis and Ken Mills in the 1960s and then John Fitzpatrick, who ran it in the early Historic races.
It’s believed to have been owned by Reg Bowran in Victoria for some 25 years. One of the unresolved issues was which was the fastest unsupercharged TC. A 200 pounds challenge was issued with a view to bringing the David McKay (ex-Cobden) ‘Cigar’ into direct conflict with this car, but they never met.

Sadly, the beautiful photo I was able to use in the Newsletter had to go back, and I didn't keep a scan of it. The body builders, the Head brothers, are still alive and well, but poor Anthony died a couple of years ago.

[Barry Lake]

Ray

A point of interest about Norm Saville's Peugeot crash in the 1979 Repco Around Australia Trial.

That Peugeot 504 was the same one Brian Hilton and I drove in the 1977 Singapore Airlines London to Sydney Marathon (the longest one).

Saville's two companions were motor sport novices. One of them phoned me to ask for advice. One of the questions he asked was, should they take a spare differential?

I said no. We had carried one all the way from London to Sydney and had no need for it at all. I don't know whose idea it was in the first place to carry something so heavy and so unlikely to be needed. Perhaps Peugeot rally department, who provided the plans for us to build all the special bits for the car in London.

He insisted, over a number of phone calls, that they wanted to take it. I said we had it bolted to the floor with heavy steel straps, huge bolts and a large plate under the floor - and I wasn't even happy with that.

He said, Oh we're not going to all that trouble; we will have it on the floor. I said they were crazy, if they rolled over it would kill them. He said, no it's OK we will have all our luggage packed on top of it. (!)

We were ahead of them on the road going through the Kimberleys in 1979 so did not see their crashed car. We heard the news when we got to Darwin. I could remember the dip down into that creek crossing where they crashed. My first thought was of them tumbling down the drop in the road with that heavy differential rolling around inside with them. I don't know how Saville himself survived.

The real irony was that it wasn't all that violent a crash. With roll cage and harnesses, they shouldn't have been hurt at all.

[Ray Bell]

Agreed, Barry. A real waste, even Norm would probably not have had the cancer come back on him, might have lasted another dozen or more years, perhaps even till today.

But we don't know that. A road train might have claimed them all in the dust of the road to Darwin anyway...

I drove the sister car once, too, the one Bob Holden had. It ran, as you well know, as a diesel in that event. I'd had a go at it before that conversion, which saw it as the last finisher in the rally that covered the full distance, a real test of the two-man crew... Bob Watson and was it Roger Bonhomme?

[Don Capps]

Ray,

You never cease to amaze me. This is just excellent work! Both what Shane has done and your work. I am very happy that we get to read your great stories. Between you, Barry, and the rest of the gang who walk the Earth upside down, I am really getting an education in an area of racing I really had an interest in, but not much in the way of access to materials.

Again, Thanks!

[Ray Bell]

Enough of the accolades, get serious and send money!

There's plenty more if you want it.

[Ray Bell]

Here's another quick story I wrote for a race program... the Wylie Javelin, which will be self-explanatory. A very clever and useful car.

The ‘Goanna’

I don’t know how the Wylie Javelin got this nickname, but by the time of the Southport Australian Grand Prix, in 1954, it was getting called that by Queenslanders watching Arthur Griffiths race it.
Perhaps it was the shape, more or less a cross between the little Cooper 500s and the big pre-war Auto Union Grand Prix cars. Perhaps it just had a habit of running and hiding from the field… we will probably never know.
The present owner of the car, Joe Caudio, lives in Western Australia. He’s chasing more information about its history and hopes people from this region will remember things and pass the information along.
Incredibly, it was built inside a caravan. Arthur Wylie, the builder, completed it there in his Melbourne backyard, then cut the back out of the caravan to remove it. Rather like a Rhinocerous giving birth, I suspect.
Originally conceived to take advantage of the low center of gravity of the flat-4 Jowett Javelin motor, it was built on the usual lines of a chassis made of two round tubes running from front to rear. Arthur, however, strayed from the norm and braced 2” tubes with another smaller tube attached underneath them, with a gap of almost an inch and several pieces of steel plate welded between them to form a simple girder.
An interesting diversion from the kind of thing one might expect to find were the brackets for the front engine mounts. Remember we mentioned 2” tubes in the chassis?
Well, Arthur recognized that this was the same outside diameter as the inside diameter of the conrod bearings, so used spare conrods to clamp onto the chassis and built his brackets from there.
There were the usual crossmembers, of course, and the front suspension used a transverse spring with independent suspension. At the rear there was a de Dion tube providing the wheel location, again giving independent action, while there was a couple of attempts at the gearbox and diff layout.
At first Arthur drove a Norton motorcycle box via a bevel gear, so that the drive was turned 90 degrees and he could use chain drive. The gearbox wasn’t up to it, however, so he fitted the 3-speed Jowett box, shortened it, and attached it directly to a T-Ford diff, then modified this to allow the jointed drive shafts to run to the wheels.
Atop the Jowett engine was a substantial supercharger, and this gave it plenty of puff in the straights. As he developed the car, Arthur needed new pistons made, and he had them done through the back door at the Rolloy piston company. They may have been foreign orders, but for at least another two decades the Rolloy piston catalogue listed a part number for “Wylie Javelin – All models.”
The car didn’t achieve anything startling in the way of big wins or anything like that, but was a solid competitor in three states. By the late 1960s it fell into the hands of Jowett enthusiast, Bruce Polain, in Sydney, and he retained it for about thirty years. He rebuilt it lovingly, hillclimbed it, raced it in Historic events and made sure it was used for what was originally intended.
To compete with the best.

[ZippyD]

Great stuff Ray!!
I hope you're making a bundle of dough for this work.

[Ray Bell]

Nahh... these are the freebies... wait till you see one I write for money.

One day I'll start posting them, too.

In the meantime, trust me, I don't know where my next phone bill is coming from.

But last night I spoke again to Allan Tomlinson, winner of the 1939 AGP. He's 85 on June 16, thinking about retiring from work now.

[fines]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
But last night I spoke again to Allan Tomlinson, winner of the 1939 AGP. He's 85 on June 16, thinking about retiring from work now.

So what's he doing for a living? Wonder if the next AGP winner will also have to wait sixty years before thinking about retirement...

[Ray Bell]

A couple of years ago he told me that he went to work because he enjoyed the challenge. He lives in a retirement village, though, because his wife is not so well...

His work is in steam engineering, and if I can remember it right, he said "we mainly do project work, upgrades of systems makes up a lot of it."

[Gil Bouffard]

So, Ray,

If I slip $20.00 American into an envelope how could I get on your newsletter's mailing list?

Gil

[Ray Bell]

Certainly, Gil... it runs well behind schedule, I'll warn you, but an eight-issue sub will last about 18 months and give you an insight into the Historic Racing scene here.

But first, let me check and see if that covers the airmail... possibly economy air.

[275 GTB-4]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
Brian Muir was mentioned a few days ago. He raced Austin A30, Lotus 11 (just once - at Bathurst), early Holden and then this S4 Holden. It won him the scholarship to race in England, where he excelled in sedans, but also ran at Le Mans in a Ford (and later a BMW), and drove a Lotus 30 for Willments.



The S4 Holden was the car I remember best, a legend in its own time. Not something English members would recognise as a Jaguar 3.8 beater?

Can anyone confirm that the S4 NEVER had four speeds and that the S8 was a four speed slush box??

[Ray Bell]

Ha! You've got one in your life too, eh?

Some git who won't give up on it, insists the S4 had a 4-speed box, disc brakes and triple SUs?

The S4 had the following departures from standard:

1. 3-speed manual transmission hooked up to a 179 engine* with the 'HP' package, meaning a better crank and the letters 'HP' cast on the side of the block. The engine had the same carburettor as every other 179 of that time.

2. Outside rear vision mirror as standard.

3. Fuel tank enlarged from 8.5 gal (or so...) to 11.5 gal or so (IIRC).

4. 3.55 rear axle ratio in place of 3.36 (again, IIRC, but it certainly had a lower diff).

5. Sintered iron brake shoes ex-Pontiac Tempest 'pursuit' or 'sport' parts bins, these operating within the standard Holden brake drums of the period.

* Note here: The 179 engine was only available in the early months of EH production hooked up to a Hydramatic 3-speed transmission. It was perhaps four or five months before any more 179 manuals were built after the batch of 120 or 125 S4s went though.

This is all covered in my article in Motor Racing Australia... in the Fast that's Past series, maybe three years ago... it also delves into the mods that were done to those which raced.



Now, what's an S8?

[275 GTB-4]

Now, what's an S8?

I read about it somewhere on the net (so that means it could be complete bull)

It was supposed to be a 4 speed slush box that preceded the S4....

Note here: The 179 engine was only available in the early months of EH production hooked up to a Hydramatic 3-speed transmission. It was perhaps four or five months before any more 179 manuals were built after the batch of 120 or 125 S4s went though.

Well I heard recently that the first gear inthe transmission was variable ratio type and that could have explained the "4 speed".

Someone must know if such a device ever raced in Australia........






f

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by 275 GTB-4
.....I heard recently that the first gear inthe transmission was variable ratio type and that could have explained the "4 speed".

Someone must know if such a device ever raced in Australia........

Yeah, there probably was one or two hit the track somewhere. But not to predominate...

You're right about that 4-speed thing in the Hydramatic. It supposedly (I mean, I don't know the ins and outs of Hydramatics, but it was written up as such) had a 'stepped' first gear, which effectively more or less gave it four speeds.

I actually thought with a designation like 'S8' and with a 4-speed auto you must have been thinking of something much more modern.

[Bruce Moxon]

Snort. The "stepped" first gear on the hydramatic (or, was that "hytraumatic") always came across as being the tranny flaring!

Ray, say "Hi" to Shane for me! How is he?

Ray, great stuff, as usual.

Folks, get y'selves a sub to Motor Racing Australia magazine as well. That way you get Ray and Barry's stuff (as well as my own humble contributions).


Bruce Moxon

[Ray Bell]

His hair is grey and thinning, girth full and broadening...

Sometimes I wonder how these kids are going to get on when they get to my age!

[275 GTB-4]

Originally posted by Ray Bell


Yeah, there probably was one or two hit the track somewhere. But not to predominate...

You're right about that 4-speed thing in the Hydramatic. It supposedly (I mean, I don't know the ins and outs of Hydramatics, but it was written up as such) had a 'stepped' first gear, which effectively more or less gave it four speeds.

I actually thought with a designation like 'S8' and with a 4-speed auto you must have been thinking of something much more modern.

No ...... not the dart!! or the owdee!! I'm still shaking my head at Ford recently releasing an XT Falcon!!

[Ray Bell]

Was this the one?

Fast That's Past - XT Falcon GT

Facing the formidable foe that the General put against it, the XT GT was the first Ford produced for the annual endurance race we now know as “The Great Race” that didn’t win the event.


1968 saw General Motors follow Ford into the bigger body sizes that the XR Falcon and the HK Holden brought. Money, for the average Australian family, was more readily made than it had been in the auatere forties and rebuilding fifties; Australia was ready for this expansion. And the V8 engines that came with them.

For Ford, 1968 brought their second generation model, the facelift with the horizontal amber segments in the tail lights that so plainly identified the XT. When it came to the XT GT, there were a number of changes and many more variants for buyers to consider.

Five colours in the range – white, silver, gold, green and red – a change from the ‘anything you want as long as it’s gold’ of the XR, and a 302 engine instead of the 289. The Mustang gearchange was replaced by a more standard item, the differential was upgraded to the 8.75” unit formerly seen in the big old Fairlanes of 1959-62 and an option to order the beast in automatic was added. The one rear axle ratio available was 3.0:1.

Interiors were all the same, charcoal grey, and much the same as the XR had used. Brakes remained the same, so did the 4-barrel carburettor, but the suspension had some tuning work done to it and the handling of the car was greatly improved. “It was a much nicer car to drive,” says long-time GT owner and former racer, Graeme Baird.

In addition, power steering was available, but “it was awful,” according to Baird. Of course, for racing purposes there would have been no takers for this option, but there was to be a Bathurst entry for an automatic version.

Further identifying the cars was the fitting of reflective striping to the bodywork. Each colour had its own reflective striping, red on white, white on green etc. But the black stripes on the gold car (remembering that the XR came only in gold with black striping, though the gold of the XT was a slightly different colour) were as black always is, non-reflective.

Still the cars wore five and a half inch rims, the Autolite 4-barrel carby remained the same, PBR calipers adorned the same solid front discs and rear drums were unchanged. The additional instrumentation and higher trim levels than the standard cars remained, including the heater.
It might be prudent to see how this fitted into the racing scene of the time.

Ford had several representatives in the Improved Touring category, with outright contenders driving Mustangs, class protagonists in Lotus Cortinas. In Series Production there was two kinds of racing, which is where the Falcon GT fitted.

For a couple of years the majority of the winning on what might be called a ‘day to day’ basis was done by BMC’s Mini Cooper S. Some even had the English version, with the lighter body that shunned wind-up windows as produced in Australia. Alfa Romeo had their GTV 1600 and 1750 models starring when there was a chance of a win, or the volatile GTA if regulations allowed.

Class divisions were on engine capacity and homologation was FIA-style, which was a very different situation to the annual Bathurst race, with much lower production numbers allowed and class divisions determined by price.

The Falcon GT was not to contend among the Mustangs, but could well be seen as Ford’s tool for wresting Series Production and Bathurst victories away from other manufacturers. And why not? Had not the XR won Bathurst easily?

Muddying the waters, however, was a very special event that was run in that year. The Daily Telegraph London to Sydney rally was to absorb budgets as Ford, Holden and BMC looked for victory and enormous publicity potential running against the mighty European works teams. And Chrysler ignored the event until their Hillman Hunter was in contention in the last days!

But Bathurst did come first, and Ford lined up very much the same as they did in 1967. Co-winner from that event, Fred Gibson, was teamed with Bo Seton in a green car, Firth having given up driving after the ’67 victory. The Geoghegan brothers were in a white car, while the third entry was different – an automatic – for Jim McKeown and Spencer Martin. All were in Class D, backed by a number of private entries, including Stacey’s XR, and up against an army of Monaros from the General. The Bill Tuckey/Allan Grice Fiat 125 didn’t look a likely winner at all, while the Studebaker was getting old hat.

But there were two pre-Bathurst sorties for the XT GT. Sandown’s Datsun 3-Hour event saw Tom Roddy and Don Toffolon turn out and – after the rolling start – take a brief lead during the pit stops. It was to fill third place at the finish, behind two Monaros and on the same number of laps, while the Alfa 1750 of Doug Chivas and John French was a lap down after losing a wheel (and a certain victory) a few laps from the finish.

Over in the west the XT met a Monaro too, the experienced Rod Donovan coming up against the new boy Bob Leisk, with the Ford in front the whole way. It would be a long time before this happened again.

The impact of the clash of the giants on the Mountain this year would be enormous. Media pressure and the size of the contest for market leadership would take care of that.
But practice day promised little in the way of competition, as the first row of the grid was filled with Holdens and the Geoghegan car sat in fourth spot. But worse was to come.

While the Geoghegan and Seton cars were well enough placed at the beginning (it was more of an endurance race those days), concern must have been felt when Mike Savva pitted after just 35 minutes with overheating.

For the Works cars, the first sign of trouble was just before noon, when the automatic came to rest with a wheel bearing gone and the axle departing. The car rejoined after repairs, but was disqualified as the efforts to repair it had contravened the regulations.

Then another car had overheating, with attendant loss of oil pressure, and the Ray Morris/Bob Beasley car was out.

With the race not half run, there was a Ford in the lead, Gibson’s dark green mount heading veteran Des West in a Monaro, the Geoghegans and Bruce McPhee, who had suffered a flat battery.

Pad changes were a part of the event, the tiny brake pads fitted to these cars copping a pounding on this circuit, and at eighty laps the Geoghegan car was in for its change. It took a half-hour as the backing plates had welded themselves to the pistons. Harry Firth now had just one car in his charge – and fortunately Seton had pushed it to the head of the pack for most of the afternoon.

This is not to ignore the others racing for positions down the field. Gold Falcon GTs seemed to be everywhere, and Monaros were seemingly equally abundant. A young Victorian in the crowd kept harking back to the days of the Ford Customline, the only volume-produced V8 in Australia during the fifties, referring to the GTs as ‘Cussies’ in his attempt to show his scorn for the Ford product. As he did, the leading Holden driver was Des West, with whom this young man would share a car to fill third place the next year.

For Seton, who remembers he was paid $1,000 do drive this day, it was a day with all the promise of the 1965 event. Not even his wife having told him he wouldn’t win came to mind as the Geoghegan car lost all that time and he ran with West, McPhee, Paul Hawkins, Brian Muir, Jim Palmer and Tony Roberts stringing out behind him in Holdens. Kevin Bartlett’s Alfa nibbled at their heels, much to the chagrin of the pundits and barflies who expected the 1750 GTV to topple the V8s.

Two things were at work here that Seton could do nothing about, however.

Long-time race mechanic Jim Bertram explains the weakness of the model. “They only had a 32-tube radiator, and it was built to a price. If you looked closely you could see that where the brass was folded to form the tubes it was done over too sharp a former, there were splits that were visible under a magnifying glass.”

He also knew the engine wasn’t in the same class as the 327. “It was a nice little engine with a big carby plonked on top of it,” Jim says, “but it was up against the best racing engine Chevrolet ever produced.”

Barry Seton remembers that the engine was only good for 4,000 rpm, suffering lifter pump-up after that.

So Seton was relying on just two things. His own skill, and the fact that the Falcon was lighter than the Holden. He was ignoring his wife’s prophecy about the race.

“As I walked out of home to leave for Bathurst, my wife, Glenn’s mum, told me I wouldn’t win the race,” Barry told us. Apparently the former Mrs. Seton felt she had some psychic powers and confidently told her husband that he’d lead most of the day, but not win, that a yellow car would take victory.

“I took no notice of it, I don’t believe in those things at all,” Seton continued, “but I can tell you, when I drove up the mountain and saw the temperature gauge climbing, my heart stopped!”

Calling in for his regular pit stop, the dark green Ford had a little jet of water squirting from its radiator where a stone had come in past the grille. Harry Firth strode over to his drive and told him that he was to drive it till it could go no more. “He said I wasn’t to bring it back alive,” Barry recalls.

A win was out of the question now. For the first time since Ford had started running cars in the race back in 1962 (class changes in 1966 meant there were no outright contenders from Ford), it was apparently better for the team to be seen as game losers rather than just as losers.

Seton was out tbere still battling with his old mates, competitors from when he ran a 48/215 Holden, when the 302 let go. McPhee and West completed the 130 laps, but West was excluded. Seton cringed when it was the yellow McPhee car that completed his wife’s predictions.

Holdens had swept the class, while the XR of Ken Stacey/B. McIntyre even beat home the Chris Brauer/Mike Harrod car, the Geoghegans, the Warren Weldon/John Hall Studebaker Lark and the Fiat.

But mingled among the top placings were the leading Alfas, which had been driven flat out all day, further humiliating tbe Ford fanciers.

Ford would not run their works cars in any more races until the XW came along, but a small number raced in private hands. The battle for honours rekindled interest in Series Production events, which had died off considerably during 1967-68.

But if promoters were looking for major Ford versus Holden clashes to bring crowds, they were to be disappointed.

John Harris was to become something of a stalwart of the XT GT in NSW, but was well down in the December Warwick Farm race. He made up for this with a win in a Handicap at Hume Weir, however, defeating the 327 of Denis Geary. Paul Dan made an appearance in an XT at Phillip Island early in January to fill second spot behind a Mini in a mixed race.

But by that time the sole major win of the XT’s short career had come and gone. On the hot Surfers Paradise circuit on New Year’s Day a disc jockey and a mechanic humbled them all in the car that the works team couldn’t hold together against the might of the new Monaro.

The annual 12-hour had been given over to the Series Production cars, and Bill Gates had Jim Bertram prepare and co-drive for him. Jim, well known for his careful preparation for drivers like the Geoghegans and Glynn Scott settled into the task of building a race winner, with emphasis on the radiator.

“First we got rid of the cheap solder and put it back together with good stuff,” Jim says, “then we pressure tested it until a tube burst. This happened at 21 psi, so we sealed off that tube and ran on 31 tubes, but we knew that all of them could handle 21 psi.” No wonder he was to reject an offer of a special radiator made to him by Ford on race morning.

Blueprinting the engine and all the other regular jobs were attended to, Jim recalling that “you could tickle them up a bit” to get a little more than the standard power – which Ford claimed to be 230bhp.

Gates and Bertram used eleven tyres to win that race, running out to 427 laps to beat the Mini of Garry Hodges and John Leffler, the Kevin Bartlett/John French Alfa GTV 1750 being third.

It was Holden’s turn to suffer failure, McPhee’s car (co-driven by Chivas) blew its engine, the Bill Brown/Denis Geary lost a wheel. Glynn Scott had changed camps to run a 327 with Keith Williams, finishing fifth behind the John Smailes/Millyard Mini, while Lionel Ayers and Max Volkers retired their XT.

The minor races continued to see the odd XT GT entry, Harris gaining a third at the wet February Warwick Farm behind a Mini and Nick Petrilli’s 327, while Fred Gibson made a rare appearance in another XT. At Bathurst at Easter Mike Savva entered his car in the 20-lap ATCC race but could not match Petrilli’s sixth spot.

Harris was back at the Farm in May, where Radio 2UE came in to begin sponsoring a series for the cars. Alfa took a win here from more Minis, Petrilli again beating Harris for V8 honours. A fortnight later Petrilli blew his engine at Oran Park, but there were no Falcons in sight.

Paul Zacka turned out with an XT at Surfers that day but only completed four laps, while Williams in the Monaro downed Arthur’s Falcon.

Another name appeared at Catalina in the “Wills 75 Enduro” as Charlie Smith joined the V8 ranks, but that was Alfa territory again, French winning from David Sheldon’s Monaro, Digby Cooke in a Cooper S and a string of similar cars. Smith boiled his brake fluid, Petrilli broke a wheel, Graham Moore (327) had tyre trouble.

At Warwick Farm in July it was clear that the Series Production money was staying with the small cars as French downed Bob Holden and Digby Cooke. Harris’ final appearance was spoiled by a dropped valve and more expensive engine problems.

Bob Johnson put another XT GT on the grid at a subsequent Oran Park, but as WA Ford stalwart Rod Donovan deserted the marque for the Caversham 6-hour the racing life of the XT GT came to an end.

But the model was not as badly defeated as it might seem. Remember that the Ford resources were divided with the London-Sydney Marathon?

Ian Vaughan led the three-car team home in that event, filling third place himself and the team taking out the Teams award. It was the first Australian car to finish, and there was a strong Monaro representation led by David McKay, and Vaughan capped the year off by winning the BP Rally in Victoria.

But now that GM-H were in the race, Ford would have to look to their laurels. While the pre-race talk leading up to the Bathurst event in 1968 centred around an edge the 327 might have over the 302, the future was to look more even.

By the end of the XT GT’s term, too, Harry Firth had left Ford and was to join Holden, with a strong dealer-backed team, top local drivers and a commitment to both racing and rallying.

The XT GT, its simple and smart lines, tidy frontal appearance and 302 engine would all be soon forgotten. But not that first defeat on the mountain.

Ray Bell

[275 GTB-4]

Fantastic words Ray, the XT certainly had its 5 minutes of fame......

I'm almost too embarrsed to admit that I was refering to the XT designation being used shameless and seemingly with no regard to mighty Falcon that went before it!!!

Falcon XT - A Car to exhilarate the driver.

Every aspect of the BA Falcon has been designed to provide a stimulating sensory experience. The sporty, aggressive lines and purposeful stance on the road promise a thrilling drive.

Take to the road and feel how the modern, responsive engines deliver smooth, instant power across the entire rev range. This is an experience the keen driver will savour.

The BA Falcon XT has a Barra 182 engine, Control Blade IRS (Sedan only), Interior Command Centre, an Intelligent Safety System and standard Air-Conditioning.

Sequential Sports Shift Automatic Transmission is optional.

[cooper997]

I was actually trying to find something else, however stumbled upon this long archived thread.

 

Ray might even be able to fix the missing artwork one day?

 

 

 

 

Stephen

[Ray Bell]

I've replaced the ones which went missing, Stephen...

 

And there in my files was another others of the same series:

 

 

[cooper997]

Good stuff Ray.

 

 

Here's more of Shane's skills on show. .

 

 

 

Stephen

[Ray Bell]

[brucemoxon]

Shane, the silly old bugger, is still racing:

Here he is in his HR Holden at Mount Panorama, Bathurst. 3-speed, four-wheel drums and a smile a yard wide. 


 

[Ray Bell]

I think we'll call that an HD, Bruce...

 

Were it the HR he had planned to build it would have had a 4-speed box.