Other than the obvious race series and a parochially developed interest in saloon car racing thanks to the activities of Harry Ratcliffe, I suppose the class of racing which has held my interest consistently for longest, since I began my interest in our sport back in 1959, has been Formula Junior. At the Revival we have had visits from a selection of Ausper Juniors which have grabbed and held my interest whenever I have seen them, for a variety of reasons. The key ones have been the cars with inclined engines, one at 30degrees off vertical and the other, more radically, 75 degrees off vertical. The various books and articles have not, as far as I have seen, detailed who designed these engines, and a suggestion from one source that they were a Cosworth design for Lotus, rejected by ACBC on installation grounds has been kicked into touch by Mike Costin in various chats I have had with him about stuff. Similarly, Brian Hart, for whom such designs would have been logical possibilities, told me they were not his handiwork.
Dick Willis , of this parish, has done a comprehensive history of the marque and models, which is available online.
Someone must have an idea who designed these engines, especially the 75 degree ones, unless they were simply tilted over.
I have often wondered if Roy Thomas, ex Chequered Flag had something to do with it, with A N Other/s but I am not sure the time frame would be right as the cars were built for the 1962 season.
However, the other day I came across a link to the primotipo site with a photo of the Normal Wilson Special in 1963. This device was a sophisticated homebuild from the late 50s, featuring a Holden engine tilted over on its side to 30 degrees. An internet search proved fruitful linking to a primotipo article on Repco V8 engines and Norman's role there. Norman raced it from 1960 to 63. By the time it was completed, 1960ish, he was already working for Repco, and would later design the Repco RBE 740 V8.
So, having been accustomed from my own research project to the merit of trying the long shot on the off chance of it bearing fruit, I was wondering whether the design, layout, chassis architecture for these cars and engines might have had some involvement from Norman Wilson. It was not likely to have been a low cost venture designing and building a series of single seaters a long way from home. Tom Hawkes' family would appear to have had the wherewithal to support his venture and he appears to have been a man of means in his own right, and Dick's narrative indicates that the man was no fool.
Long shot time.
An affluent Australian comes to the UK intent on learning race car design but decides to build his own anyway so sets up shop.
Looking to develop his models he looked for an advantage, the inclined engine, ref also the novel suspension design,
A recognised as talented Australian engineer has already built a successful car with an inclined engine, as did MB earlier.
Tom Hawkes was well known in motor racing circles in period, 1950s etc, with a record of racing some significant cars so may have known Norman Wilson as both lived in Victoria, I think.
Is Norman Wilson still alive and could he be contacted to elicit any information?
Could it be that this all came together as the inclined engines installation, or was it just a case of Australian Performance Cars chancing their luck/ testing their self-belief and simply tilting the engines and sticking a Colotti box on the back of the 75 degree engine?. 30 degrees I can understand for a chancer, but 75 degrees seems disproportionately more of a problem area, although I write this as a known non-engineer….. albeit one who knows it would not be simple, as Chapman found out with his efforts with the 15 and 16 models, and as I have been told clearly by several primary source Lotus people.
Perhaps the topic has not arisen before because innovative designs are not uncommon in the Antipodes, so it was just another design. Some of you may be aware of my admiration for such skills and endeavours, along with smaller marques. If there is a wider story perhaps it needs to be placed on record, and in some ways complete various circles.
Apart from the engine issue, who designed the Ausper chassis?
Just asking....
Roger Lund
