145 replies to this topic

[Terry Walker]

I think these are Bathurst, and I'm fairly sure 1952. Dave took his soon East that year and naturally went to a race meeting or two.

 

 

 

 

[cooper997]

Great photos Terry.

 

But earlier Bathurst - 1938 AGP.

 

photo 1 is Whitehead #1 ERA leading ??

 

photo 2 is Whitehead again.

 

photo 3 is Burton Alvis

 

photo 4 - Martin (#12) BMW 328 & Crouch #32 MG

 

Stephen

Edited by cooper997, 10 July 2015 - 04:12.

[Ray Bell]

Yes, very much earlier...

Foss Ford V8 with the riding mechanic.

[cooper997]

I've now had a chance to blow the first photo up to view (slightly) easier and believe it is the Dentry's #14 Riley following the Whitehead ERA in the first photo.

 

Stephen

[ken devine]

I think Dave was originally from NSW. His FX Holden was often described as an ex Sydney taxi.

[Ray Bell]

Stephen, I bow to your superior ability to enlarge the pic...

The embankment at the Tomlins or Quarry Bend was soon to be topped by a fence. The lower pic shows how newly-constructed the whole thing was.

[GMACKIE]

The "Sullivan" name rings a bell. There was a chap I knew named Kevin Sullivan who lived near me in the '60s, at Caringbah, NSW.

 

Kevin was involved in the building of a small open-wheeler [Formula 4 ?] called Jabenti, with Bill Hinte. Anyone know what became of any of them ?

[Repco22]

Back in the eighties when I was with the newspapers, 'Brave Dave' came into the city to have a beer with me at the Parmelia Hotel. He was wearing a polo shirt with an eastern states car club pocket. I thought it was a Victorian club but could be wrong. I have an idea he raced in the east before moving his family to the west.

We met in the sportsman's bar which featured Paul Rigby's cartoon murals of a variety of sports, including motor racing. Just the right ambience!  The 'murals' were actually painted on removable hardboard panels. I wonder who has them now.

[ken devine]

Around 1961 Dave took the Holden to Victoria and raced at Calder.

[Terry Walker]

This set has a caption: Mt Druitt 1952

 

 

 

 

 

[Dick Willis]

What a great assortment of old racers !

[ken devine]

They are great shots Terry.

[Terry Walker]

The top one is the Kleinig Hudson Spl, the second one Gelignite Jack Murray and the Bugatti Ford V8. After that I'm a little bit at sea.

[Dick Willis]

The first 3 cars pictured are all 8 cylindered

[cooper997]

Another great group Terry.

 

Had I just looked at the photos rather than read the Druitt comment first, I'd say Bathurst.

 

Best I can work out is these 5 photos relate to the 29/3/48 Bathurst meeting.

 

As already identified, the Kleinig Hudson was #4, Murray Bug-Ford (Day Special) was #5 that meeting.

 

If I'm on the right path Photo 3 with car #9 being the Ewing Buick special and #6 Andrews Stewand behind.

 

Photo 4 - Najar MG special

 

Photo 5 - #30 Mann & #29 Johnson MG's. (with the Mann MG lurking in the backgorund of photo 2 as well)

 

Stephen

[Terry Walker]

Thanks Stephen. I wasn't sure about Druitt either despite the label in the album, which appears to be very recent. It had "Bathurst 1952" and then the Bathurst scratched out and "Mt Druitt" in a different ink.  Hazy memory from long ago, obviously.

 

There aren't that many more eastern states pics in the album. There are however shots of the incredible wreckage of Dave's FX Holden after a very big shunt, including one pic with the front half of the car on a trailer...  But with two large old albums to go through and scan, it will all take time.

[DanTra2858]

Can,t help wondering if in Picture #2 next to the MG could that be Jack Myers, only going by the Tee shirt, as I said just wondering?

[Dick Willis]

Probably almost a decade too early for Jack Myers, Dan.

[Ray Bell]

The background hills are more like Bathurst...

Mt Druitt would be totally different, though the Day Special could be anywhere.

[Dick Willis]

pics 1 & 3 would have to be Bathurst with the famous mount in the background and pics 4 & 5 show what looks like the old Rayner house on Pit Straight.

[ken devine]

The pic Terry mentioned of half the car on a trailer was when the car split in half when it rolled over on the hillclimb at Nettleton Rd Byford in 1963, this was the replacement body for the old car which rolled at Caversham previousley. The rear half of the body lay in the bush at Nettleton for sometime after.

[Repco22]

ken devine, on 12 Jul 2015 - 08:48, said:

The pic Terry mentioned of half the car on a trailer was when the car split in half when it rolled over on the hillclimb at Nettleton Rd Byford in 1963, this was the replacement body for the old car which rolled at Caversham previousley. The rear half of the body lay in the bush at Nettleton for sometime after.

[ken devine]

Well done Rod.

[Terry Walker]

This is the result of that fearsome crash:

 

 

 

That's Brave Dave leaning on the bonnet.

Edited by Terry Walker, 12 July 2015 - 01:57.

[Repco22]

"That's Brave Dave leaning on the bonnet."

 

In his used car yard by the look of it!

 

[Terry Walker]

It sure looks like it. You really nailed it in the cartoon!

[ken devine]

I didn't know Dave had a used car yard.I know he had the Northside Service Station in William St and a TV rental business.

[Repco22]

ken devine, on 12 Jul 2015 - 12:25, said:

I didn't know Dave had a used car yard.I know he had the Northside Service Station in William St and a TV rental business.

Dave ran a used car yard in Guildford Road, Maylands, 'Dave Sullivan Motors' from memory.  He leased the premises from the Ayres brothers, Jack and Frank. He later moved to Hay Street, Subiaco where he ran a business with mechanic, Mick Munninger. ISTR the DSM was built there.

[Terry Walker]

This is the underbonnet and cockpit of the "Grey Ghost", Dave Sullivans FX Holden touring car.

 

 

 

Secret weapon: what looks like an extra accellerator on the gearshift, as the pedal layout didn't aid heel-and-toe.

 

 

And here's the Ghost

 

[ken devine]

The old FX must have been prone to rolling over i have a shot of it in the pits at Caversham after it rolled in the 1958 6 hr another time it rolled into a ditch at Albany then at the hillclimb at Byford, this must have prompted Dave to build the openwheeler.

[Terry Walker]

1957 AGP paddock

 

 

 

 

[DanTra2858]

Terry some words would go well for those of us that do not know who or what we are looking at, any details on car #7 or more photos of it, many thanks.

[Terry Walker]

Oh yes...

 

Number 7:  Vin Smith's MG Vauxhall which evolved through numerous stages before finally winding up a rear-engined car (!).

 

The name tended to change with each iteration, such as Sevin, Vindid, and so on.  I'll see if I can dig up some colour shots.

[Terry Walker]

This is when Vin Smith's car was still vaguely related to the prewar MG is started out life as:

 

 

Now the Sevin, the MG label abandoned:

 

 

The last gasp, about as far as you can go with a prewar MG...  The Vindid.  (So called, I am told, because someone said in amazement, "who did that???", and someone else said "Vin did!"  Just move the engine and box back to the diff, and put a seat in the engine bay...

 

image hosting 5mb

 

By now Vin's special had been working through numerous variations for more than a decade, and the rear-engine revolution had arrived, so Vin finally built a new car from scratch, a conventional rear-engine Peugeot Spl, although with a typically ingenious Vin Smith twist. The original engine and box were from a Tempo Matador light truck, which used a VW engine and a modified gearbox for a front wheel drive setup in the Matador; thus giving Vin a fully independent rear end when rivals were still using VW swing axles.. Once the chassis was proved, the VW engine was ditched for the inevitable Pug, later supercharged.

[DanTra2858]

Thanks Terry, another magic story of how to do it in Australia.

[Repco22]

Vin Smith in white cap, extreme left. Peter Bond seated in black #13 Bondley Special. These two were usually well matched. John Budgen facing in centre.  Doug Green's Cooper JAP in foreground.  Note the hard shoulders on Sevin's wire wheels. I'm pretty sure they were Borranis. Someone had the agency in Perth for a while and a few sets were sold. Terry, don't forget Vin's other play on words; his Goliath-engined 'Govin'.

 

Edited by Repco22, 19 July 2015 - 02:31.

[Terry Walker]

State Champs 1964: Neptune Racing team of Norm Beechey, Jim McKeown, and Peter Manton

 

 

Below, Jim Mckeown and Dave Sullivan (behind Cortina) chatting; in background, the Neptune team tent. Remember the days of tents, before the vast mobile homes?

 

 

In the pits (note lavish Caversham facilities...)

 

 

Peter (Magnesium Bones) Manton's Cooper S

 

Edited by Terry Walker, 19 July 2015 - 03:45.

[Terry Walker]

I can't be certain on this, but I feel sure it's Bunbury.

 

Rod Donovan leads Dave Sullivan. They don't do circuits like this anymore. Kids casually cycling along the footpath.  The building on the left is a general store and dry cleaners, but it's a box brownie print and the resolution is not exactly 25 megapixel Nikon quality.  I cropped out vast areas of foreground which just showed more road and pvement.

 

 

 

[ken devine]

1957 AGP paddock

 

 

 

 

Terry the first 3 shots are the 1959 State Championship and Gold Star meeting. The 4th shot is possibley the same meeting.

[ken devine]

The MG special became the Alpha when it was fitted with the Peugeot engine as in the Albany Hillclimb shot, Govin later became Sevin.

[Terry Walker]

You're right about Gold Star of course. I must have been too tired to browse my own website to pin it down!  I think the Len Lukey car, behind Stan Jones's,  was Jack Brabham's car from the '57 agp (but I'm probably wrong again. I had all this at my mental fingertips when I was doing Around the Houses, but that was 35 years ago and it does fade with time.)

[ken devine]

Terry i don't think it was the 1957 AGP car of Jack Brabham, But it is the car that John Rowe has and races it in historics in WA.

[Terry Walker]

I managed to find another pic which lets you read the placard you can see near it (the pic was taken by Sid Taylor's daughter, you have a copy) and it's the car Brabham won the 1958 F2 Championship in, so not the 57 car.

 

The caption on the back of this pic reads: "Lionel Beattie driving Repco Holden through Shell corner on his way to winning 1960 Le Mans at Caversham."

 

imgurl

 

This one is uncaptioned, but it shows Jim Harwood behind the wheel as the Ferrari Corvette is unloaded in the pits before the 1962 AGP. Bill Downey was to drive, but the car was a DNS when Downey damaged the engine in practice.

 

[ken devine]

Both great shots Terry.

[Repco22]

The caption on the back of this pic reads: "Lionel Beattie driving Repco Holden through Shell corner on his way to winning 1960 Le Mans at Caversham."

 

           Not so Terry.  Jack Ayres won the 1960 6-Hour in his red Holden engined sports with Lionel as his co-driver. Lionel later bought the car, painted it black and fitted the Repco head.  Lionel also fitted the small windscreen as in the above pic. During Jack's ownership the car had a full-width screen. The pic is obviously at a later meeting.

Edited by Repco22, 19 July 2015 - 10:21.

[Terry Walker]

Thanks, Repco22. There's nobody knows more about this car than you. I never knew it in the Caversham era. (I'll sneak in a correction on the back of the pic before I return it to the album)

 

Just to finish the Vin Smith specials story, I'll got slightly OT

 

This is a very early outing of his brand new car, the Govin. The punning name comes from his clever choice of power-plant/gearbox. In the late 50s Borgward (remember Borgward? I drove an Isabella once, and it was a great car). They also made the Goliath 1100, a front-drive boxer 1100cc small car, whose engine bore an uncanny resemblance to a water-cooled VW engine. The gearbox, presumably ZF, was nnaturally designed for a fully articulated setup, no swing axles here, and the whole layout already had the engine in front of the diff and gearbox; a drop-in job.

 

imgur

 

As you can see, the spring-clip rocker covers look awfully vee-dubbish!  The 1050 cc engine didn't provide enough power, so soon the supercharged Pug engine from the previous car found its way in. This is the Goliath setup:

 

screenshot

[Terry Walker]

And back to the album: the later pug-engined Sevin makes a one-point landing on its left front wheel after an exciting waltz in the wet.

 

[Gordon Graham]

Might that be Bob Innocent's Peugeot Elf Vin Smith is tangling with? I have the vaguest recollection of a Rod Waller cartoon about that incident.

[GMACKIE]

Might that be Bob Innocent's Peugeot Elf Vin Smith is tangling with? I have the vaguest recollection of a Rod Waller cartoon about that incident.

Some modern Formula Vee 'technology' on the swing-axle rear suspension would have worked wonders.

[Terry Walker]

The last time I saw the Sevin, now labelled a Peugeot Spl, was at Caversham in 1968, when Norm Scott was racing it. It was then red, but still, judging by a couple of very uncertain box-brownie colour pics I took, with the original Goliath box.  The last I heard of it, Norm Scott still had it, stored away.