29 replies to this topic

[GeoffR]

I'm a bit surprised that this hasn't been mentioned here yet .....

http://tributes.hera...notice/50962064

 

[cooper997]

The passing of another Aussie who loved his engineering and one of the small number of Australian's who have started in a F1 Grand Prix.

 

Thanks for bringing this to our attention Geoff. Because the link will disappear fairly soon, this is the family's Herald-Sun tribute from 18/6/14.

 

ENGLAND. Paul Thomas. 28.3.1929 - 17.6.2014 Passed away peacefully Dearly loved husband of Marj. Loving father of Lisa, Anthony, Christopher, Genevieve and families. Many thanks to all the wonderful staff at Embracia, Templestowe. You will always be in our hearts and thoughts

 

My condolences to Paul's family and friends. Best way to celebrate his passing is to show off a little of his ability.

 

post a picture

 

imgurl

 

image free hosting

 

picture host

 

Paul started this German GP in the #26 Cooper T41 Ridgeways Managements entry. But retired after 4 laps. The car became better known as the 'Miller Special' around Australian race circuits with Aussie Miller.

 

Stephen

 

 

[Richard Jenkins]

Sorry to hear this news, although I knew he was ill. Very surprised no-one reported it earlier on here. A truly gifted engineer which should be his legacy rather than a fleeting appearance at a Grand Prix.

Edited by Richard Jenkins, 24 June 2014 - 17:14.

[onelung]

VALE.

[eldougo]

That very sad news indeed such a great man.RIP

 

Seen below giving instruction to Tony Stewart at Calder.

[seldo]

So Sad...

It's scary that we /  I am seeing so many of these legends moving on from this world.

All my life I have lusted after the Ausca which I have always thought was the epitome of Australia's racing specials. I have always thought it was an amazingly beautiful car, as well as a very successful one, and one whose successes I followed with baited breath as a fanatical schoolboy.

Yet the Ausca was but one example of his engineering prowess.

Paul was a very talented engineer whose loss will create a huge void in our sport/industry.

Edited by seldo, 25 June 2014 - 12:41.

[GeoffR]

I initially sourced this reference from the Vic Historic Rally Assoc Facebook page. Although I was never fortunate enough to see the hillclimb cars of the day in action I was always fascinated by Paul England's twin VW engined device. From Wikipedia ....  "After his return from Europe, England used a car by the same name Ausca but was a totally different creation - an 1800cc VW in front and a 2200cc VW in back both supercharged by the one supercharger with a special manifold to take the compressed intake to the other end, to win three Australian Hillclimb Championships, in 1970, 1973 and 1974." When you look at what else he did he was definitely a very talented engineer.

From what I can gather the AHC is now a single event championship rather then a series?

[Ray Bell]

Some of his character shines through in the poem I wrote about the Rose City 10,000...

http://forums.autosp...0/#entry3668569

[Lee Nicolle]

Another constructor/ driver. So many of his style have died in recent years. I feel I ever only saw him compete the once. His passing is very sad.

My condolences to family and friends

[fredeuce]

Perhaps timely to link this earlier thread on Paul England.

 

http://forums.autosp...=+paul +england

[MarkBisset]

 

Rare colour shot of Paul England's Ausca Holden-Repco in the Albert Park paddock during the '56 Olympic racing carnival; Australian TT and AGP fortnight.

 

The specifications of this machine, built by Paul after-hours at Repco Research, are in an earlier post. Photo credit, the late Ian Curwen-Walker via Russell Garth and Bob Williamson's FB page.

 

More of the Curwen- Walker shots here;   https://primotipo.co...gp-albert-park/

 

The blue car is the Otto Stone driven, Norman Hamilton owned Porsche 550 Spyder; https://primotipo.co...che-550-spyder/ I’m not so keen on the over-restoration but happy to admit these things are subjective calls; https://primotipo.co...t-park-classic/

 

 

 

Edited by MarkBisset, 30 May 2023 - 12:12.

[TerryS]

So Sad...

It's scary that we /  I am seeing so many of these legends moving on from this world.

All my life I have lusted after the Ausca which I have always thought was the epitome of Australia's racing specials. I have always thought it was an amazingly beautiful car, as well as a very successful one, and one whose successes I followed with baited breath as a fanatical schoolboy.

Yet the Ausca was but one example of his engineering prowess.

Paul was a very talented engineer whose loss will create a huge void in our sport/industry.

 

I must say the Ausca was a beautiful looking car.  I saw it win a race at Warwick Farm in 1962. It was driven by Bob Tul of Newcastle.

I had a look at it in pits afterward and greatly admired the workmanship and attention to detail.

[Michael Oliver]

Where does Horst Kwech fit into the Ausca story, if the car in the photos was built by Paul England and Bill Hickey? Horst built single seater and sports cars under the Ausca name in the 1960s, after he moved to the USA.

[Ray Bell]

At that time Horst was racing an MG TC and/or an Austin Healey...

 

From memory, he was Sydney-based while Paul England was in Melbourne.

[MarkBisset]

Mike,

 

No Ausca connection as Ray says. Funnily enough, Horst's Holden-engined RM Spyder was for sale by the longtime owner quite recently, this is the car - I think - he was best known for before he headed Stateside.

 

The best article I've seen on Horst thru an Oz-lens was written by Paul Newby, of this manor, in Australian Musclecar. I don't have that issue - quick google issue #61 - but it is worth buying. He largely slips under the radar here, sad given his competition and commercial success.

 

see here; http://auslot.com/fo...61-horst-kwech/

 

m

Edited by MarkBisset, 01 June 2023 - 02:36.

[Ray Bell]

The only person I ever heard talk about Horst was Frank Matich...

 

And he was talking about him as a direct competitor in his TC and Healey days.

[Michael Oliver]

Thanks Mark,Ray. Maybe he got permission to use the name on his cars or just liked the name and used it in the US without permission!

[Ray Bell]

Most likely the latter, Michael...

 

I wouldn't think Paul registered the name anywhere. Certainly not beyond our shores.

[MarkBisset]

 

A couple of shots of Paul England's Ausca VW Oz hillclimb champ 1970, '73 and '74, in Chas Talbot's workshop in October 2021.

 

Chas was charged with getting the car running and organising its sale on behalf of Paul's widow.

 

 

Suspension and spaceframe chassis taken 'as read'.

The rear engine is 2.2-litres, supercharged by a GM cabin blower, fed by a pair of 2-inch SU's - tiny methanol fuel tank under one carb - and fitted with roller-bearing mains among many trick bits. The front engine is 1.8 litres. Two engines, two gearboxes, four-wheel-drive, boxes with two speeds, "fast and faster" as Chas put it. The fuel-air mix is fed from the rear engine to the front one by way of aluminium tubes - you can see one in the cockpit on the 'far side'.

 

site to upload photos

 

Nice...pics by Chas and Bruce Williams.

 

One can only hope the new owner "doesn't touch this incredible timepiece" other than making good all needed to run it. And best of luck with that task...

 

Did an Auto Action quickie two years ago, playing around with a more comprehensive primotipo one.

Edited by MarkBisset, 04 June 2023 - 11:54.

[Ray Bell]

And the spare was 2-litres...

 

I never knew the gearboxes had only two speeds.

[Paul Newby]

I interviewed Horst Kwech back in February 2012. I’ve had a look back at my interview notes and make the following comments.

 

Horst moved to Cooma with his family when the Snowy Mountain Scheme commenced in 1949. Contrary to other sources he didn’t work on the scheme though his mother and sister (Helga) did.

 

He worked for an Irish rogue and his two sons at Region Motors in Cooma. His first race car was an Austin Healey 100 that he and Helga bought. This would have been 58-59 where he raced against the Healey of Frank Matich. I think his Healey may have been entered by Leaton Motors on occasion and he certainly knew Matich. Neither I nor known Austin Healey expert Patrick Quinn have ever seen a photo of Kwech’s Healey.

 

Kwech went on to build the RM Spyder, named after Region Motors, which was a Singer chassis with a Buchanan body and a Holden Grey engine. He raced that at Gnoo Blas, Bathurst and Warwick Farm in 60-61. It was quick but not reliable. He sold that in 62 when he married an English girl and the plan was to move to England (his brother-in-law Peter Levitt worked in motor racing and would end up at William Grand Prix Engineering.) However, he had American friends in Cooma who hooked him up with a Mercedes Benz/Alfa Romeo dealer in Lake Forest, Chicago called Bill Knautz and Kwech settled there instead. It was here that Kwech built his Auscas – I  believe a couple of Lotus 23-like sports racer with an Alfa 1600 engine in 63-64. There may have been a couple of Formula B and Vee cars as well, but he was a bit vague about those.

 

Kwech told me that he (formally) started Ausca Engineering in 1967. Race car preparation was only a small part of the business. He was a talented engineer and designing and manufacturing machinery was the main part of the business. For example, he designed a variable speed crawler that could cut concrete piers on offshore oil platforms. In later years he built equipment for decommissioning nuclear plants by remote control.

 

 

[MarkBisset]

Great stuff Paul,

 

Interesting, clearly as savvy off the track as on it. Given his credentials it's a wonder he didn't get a gig in the big taxi-race once or twice?

 

m

 

On a parade lap at Bathurst in 1960 - RM Spyder in front of Tom Sulman's Aston Martin DB3S (R Meyer)

Edited by MarkBisset, 05 June 2023 - 11:54.

[Ray Bell]

What a wonderful photo, Mark!

 

People in places they weren't allowed to be, an angle not normally seen in photos - from just below the entrance to the BLCC clubrooms.

[Michael Oliver]

Thanks Ray, Paul and Mark. Regarding the FB and FVee cars, he advertised the ex-Stu McMillan Lotus 27/32 FB car at the end of 1965, although it is unclear whether he was selling it on Stu's behalf or had bought it from Stu (perhaps for a fact-finding mission) and was selling it on. Syd Demovsky of Chicago was entered in the 1968 June Sprints at Road America in a FB Ausca Mk 7B, which implies a few car types before that...which is supported by a Ray Novotny competing in the 1965 June Sprints in a FV car (type number not given). I think that Tom Tufts had his career-ending crash at Meadowdale in what I believe may have been a FV car uprated to run a Lotus twin-cam, running as a FB. Frank Opalka of this parish is also mentioned as planning to run 'one of Bill Knauz's Auscas this season' in an April 1965 edition of Competition Press. I also have copies of a couple of adverts for Ausca Engineering from 1965 showing the Mk 11 (or Mk 2?) sports car, which is very pretty. I'll send the ads to Mark as he might be more comfortable with posting pics and hopefully he'll put them up!

[MarkBisset]

These are the two ads Mike mentioned in his post above; 

 

 

sawmill restaurant

 

breakfast beach road

 

group

Edited by MarkBisset, 05 June 2023 - 14:12.

[Michael Oliver]

Thanks Mark! I'll take it that these images are visible to other people, I have not been able to see images in TNF posts since a couple of days ago and no idea why!

 

One other Horst Kwech Ausca mention for the records: in Competition Press & Autoweek 1st January 1966, an Ausca Mk 2B sports racer built by Kwech was offered f/s by Bill Knauz, Lake Forest, Illinois, so it seems that the sports car from 1965 probably was the Mk 2 rather than Mk 11...

[Ray Bell]

The images are available to all sorts of people...

 

But you need to 'fix' things. I'll brief you if you're on Zoom.

[GreenMachine]

They disappeared, were there again, now gone again ... 

 

I'll have to re-apply the last fix I used, see if that works again.

[GreenMachine]

It works.

 

Try this https://forums.autos...3#entry10271506

[MarkBisset]

 

One for Michael Oliver, a better shot of the Buchanan bodied - Singer chassis and Holden Grey-6 engine - Horst Kwech built RM Spyder