58 replies to this topic

[cooper997]

With the various emails going back and forth mainly over Austin Seven related items of late, sometimes Tony Johns throws in a curved ball. The photo attached here happens to be one of the them! I asked if I could park it on TNF and Tony said yes and sent through more related photos. So rather than try and find suitable threads, this new one is being created and gives a fairly wide scope for potential contributors to the thread topic.

 

When Tony wasn't racing and tinkering with Austin Sevens he was employed by Alan Hamilton for a number of years. Alan had a few toys and I'm sure Tony won't mind me saying that he enjoyed working for Alan. Except when the secretary dobbed him in for chatting too much with Doug Whiteford 'about the old racing days' (Doug was service manager).

 

Anyway lets get on with it. The imposing RR Merlin is one Alan came home with from Jumbo Goddard's October 1984 auction. Of course one jokingly looks at the lineup and thinks 917... not fast enough. Lets get some low flying happening!!!

 

 

 

Tony wrote...

"The white tourer with the hood erected in the background is an Austro Daimler that was a trade in on a Porsche 928. The photo was taken prior to Alan completing the restoration of his Porsche race cars.

This Merlin photo taken at Noble Park. Porsche Cars Australia head office and Bond store, 576 Princes Highway (opposite Sandown Park circuit)

Both Jims (Hardman & Shepherd) were responsible for the restoration of all three white cars. Also I think but not positive the engine on the ground is a 935 twin turbo that was a spare for the red 934 that Alan Moffat drove for ADH. Now in the Bowden collection?"

 

 

Stephen

[MarkBisset]

Wow! Why not too- what a mix.

I wonder into which aircraft the Merlin may have eventually found its way.

 

I do recall the 917/10 or was it 917/30? at one of the very early Adelaide GPs, must see if I have a crappy-snappy. Wasn’t it a spare chassis that had no ‘in period’ race history?
 

And was it two 908s or a 908 and a 906? I do recall Winston Kim’s ownership of one car, which, road registered I thought was the coolest road car of all! There was a contemporary road test/article in Wheels or similar too, praps someone has it

 

As to the ‘935 engine’ that is one for the Porker experts

[Lee Nicolle]

The Merlin would be an ideal Porsche engine. Just a bit heavier than the windmill!!

Though an 1850 or larger P&W would be more suitable as it is aircooled as well.

Both would emphasise the typical Porker handling!!

[Ray Bell]

For the record...

 

There was always plenty of the Merlins around. I recall seeing lots of them at Bankstown Airport one day when my father took me along when he was looking at an EJ Holden someone there had for sale. They were all Packard Merlins.

 

I think Frank Cuttell had one, though it may have been a different R-R V12, I was impressed by the ability of the British to incorporate so many 5/16" UNF nuts into a design.

[10kDA]

The Merlin would be an ideal Porsche engine. Just a bit heavier than the windmill!!

Though an 1850 or larger P&W would be more suitable as it is aircooled as well.

Both would emphasise the typical Porker handling!!

 

Not so far-fetched...

 

[/url]

Edited by 10kDA, 15 June 2020 - 01:12.

[plannerpower]

The Goddard/Hamilton Merlin is very interesting.

 

It's a V-1650 "Packard Merlin".

 

The "horseshoe" over the gearbox shows that it came from a P-51 Mustang; that is the coolant header tank.

 

The information that it was made by Continental probably came from an attached plate.

 

Packard made over 50,000 Merlins; some were made by Continental.

 

I have seen two accounts of the Continental production; one says that six were made, the other says more than seven hundred.

 

Whatever the number, Continental would have only assembled the engines; the machinery and tooling was enormously expensive and only Packard had that.

 

The Continental engines would have been assembled from Packard-made components; perhaps Packard had some limitations on their assembly line at some stage so contracted Continental for some work.

 

The story of Merlin threads is interesting.

 

RR used the British threads of the time; the engine had a range of bolts, nuts, studs & other fittings with Whitworth, BSF, BA and BSP threads.

 

One reference that I have says that "In many cases, Rolls-Royce had applied their own modifications to these threads ... Many of these were not documented and had to be done by measurement".

 

For reasons of interchangeability with engines & parts from the British plants, Packard had to use these threads; the challenge was that they were not used in the US and tools to form them were not available.

 

Packard engineers had to design & make thousands of the required tools; specialist makers were already fully-committed to other essential war contracts.

 

A lot of the tools were not just common taps & dies; US industry was also using geometric die heads and collapsible taps and these complex tools would be required.

 

That's just the nuts & bolts; Packard engineers worked miracles in setting-up the manufacture of a complex "foreign" engine in a short space of time.

Edited by plannerpower, 21 June 2020 - 04:42.

[Ray Bell]

Geometric die heads?

 

Is that what this is?

 

 

Referred to as a Coventry Die-chaser by its owner.

[Ardmore]

Wow! Why not too- what a mix.

I wonder into which aircraft the Merlin may have eventually found its way.

 

I do recall the 917/10 or was it 917/30? at one of the very early Adelaide GPs, must see if I have a crappy-snappy. Wasn’t it a spare chassis that had no ‘in period’ race history?
 

And was it two 908s or a 908 and a 906? I do recall Winston Kim’s ownership of one car, which, road registered I thought was the coolest road car of all! There was a contemporary road test/article in Wheels or similar too, praps someone has it

 

As to the ‘935 engine’ that is one for the Porker experts

 

This is my "crappy-snap"of the Porsche at Adelaide in 1985.

[Ardmore]

Hamilton's Porsches at the Motor Show at Adelaide in 1985

 

 

[plannerpower]

Die heads and collapsing taps;

 

 

These remarkable tools began to be used in the US after WW1 and were ubiquitous in production plants by the 1930s.

 

In my apprenticeship, if we fell out of favour with the foreman, we were assigned to the "screwer", a machine with a die-head to produce bolts (about 1"" dia with a "special" forged head) in thousands for a particular product.

 

It was deadly dull; the same motions endlessly for hours or days.

[cooper997]

This photo has been on the now locked TNF 'kaydee' oz photos (part 1) thread for 5 or so years, but may well be here too. Alan in his hillclimbing days at Templestowe heading through the start of the esses, for one of his 3 record runs on September 11, 1966. The day he cracked Bruce Walton’s record. It was around 3 weeks after he had run the Spyder at Surfers Paradise 12 Hour - as car #8. Damage at that meeting meant the front bodywork came in for attention prior to Templestowe. In another of the slides depicting this car 8 is still on the tail, as it sits in the Templestowe pit area. Helping pin-point the likely date.

 

 

Stephen

 

 

 

 

 

[cooper997]

Wow! Why not too- what a mix.

I wonder into which aircraft the Merlin may have eventually found its way.

 

I do recall the 917/10 or was it 917/30? at one of the very early Adelaide GPs, must see if I have a crappy-snappy. Wasn’t it a spare chassis that had no ‘in period’ race history?
 

And was it two 908s or a 908 and a 906? I do recall Winston Kim’s ownership of one car, which, road registered I thought was the coolest road car of all! There was a contemporary road test/article in Wheels or similar too, praps someone has it

 

As to the ‘935 engine’ that is one for the Porker experts

 

Mark, I was going to say that Alan had the cars on display and doing demo laps for the first Adelaide AGP. Photos appearing in the 1986 AGP programme. But ardmore has given us his great photos (if correct) the display was in Wakefield St.

 

The 908 was the road registered car with AH 908 plates as shown on the cover of Wheels mag. Exact issue is currently unavailable, but I might have it here somewhere. And a quick scratch in the Wheels archive yelded nothing yet.

 

Tony has supplied photos from a later AGP involving The Climb to the Eagle, but I'm yet to load them to postimage. He quotes 917/30-005 as the chassis number.

 

 

Stephen

[MarkBisset]

Great stuff boys, lots of interesting posts.

 

There was so much to see and do in Adelaide wasn’t there- I thought I was in seventh heaven that first year.

 

Nuffin crappy about those snappies Mr Ardmore! Thanks for posting.

 

Perhaps Keith Berryman in the SR3 in the action shot? 
 

Thanks Stephen- 0917/30 top shelf 

[Ardmore]

These are the lists of the sports cars and the GP cars that were on display at the 1985 GP.

 

[cooper997]

Both legal with Victorian registration... Tough choice for a run to Sandown (admittedly not very far from then PCA headquarters on Dandenong Rd)... 924 or 908?

 

 

 

Stephen

 

 

 

[Librules]

The Wheels issue with the 908 on the cover is July 1980.

[Lola5000]

You read through that entry list and all the cars that have left our shores ,not a lot of vision by those who could have afforded to buy them at the time.

[cooper997]

The Wheels issue with the 908 on the cover is July 1980.

 

That just happens to be the missing 1980 issue in the Wheels archive

 

https://bauer-archiv...?year=1980

 

 

Stephen

[cooper997]

This shows why Adelaide was a great place for the AGP. There was enough enthusiasm from the SA Government to allow sanctioned road events like 'The Climb to the Eagle' to run from the centre of Adelaide up to the Eagle pub in the hills. An official part of the AGP with cars like the Hamilton 917/30 running with the normal road traffic.

 

 

Eddie Hackel talking to ADH

The passenger in the 917/30 with Alan won the ride via a competition

 

L to R - Eddie Hackel, Roger Watts, Alan Hamilton, Ral Rainsford (MD, Chateau Moteur - Adelaide Porsche dealership) and Clive Wooley (also CM)

 

 

All photos Tony Johns collection

 

 

Tony wrote...

"By the way I forgot to mention the chassis number for the 917 is 917/30 - 005. And more trivia ADH sold the 908 to Winston Kim (Melbourne Clutch and Brake Company) and when he sold it Ray Delaney was involved and there were full page ads at the time."

 

 

Stephen

Edited by cooper997, 18 June 2020 - 02:49.

[Ray Bell]

Which did Alan use in the Seaforth Grand Prix?

 

I think the 917...

[cooper997]

Many of today's Porsche owners driving their SUV model Porsches around Melbourne may not be aware of some of the other interesting vehicles imported into Australia by both Norman Hamilton and his son Alan. The common theme with all of them was they were all built with a Porsche engine. So with what's already posted in the thread a slight variation to the theme.

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen

 

[Lola5000]

Many of today's Porsche owners driving their SUV model Porsches around Melbourne may not be aware of some of the other interesting vehicles imported into Australia by both Norman Hamilton and his son Alan. The common theme with all of them was they were all built with a Porsche engine. So with what's already posted in the thread a slight variation to the theme.

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen

Tony Johns testing the rotorcycle?

[cooper997]

There's a fairly high chance this was the first advert ever placed for Porsche in Australia.

 

Published in the Melbourne Cup day, Tuesday 6 November 1951 LCCA Rob Roy Australasian Hill Climb Championship programme.

 

Keen eyes will also note the address. Jack Day operated from this address, as did Reg Nutt.

 

 

 

Stephen

[cooper997]

Phil Schudmak believes that Norman Hamilton had some pressure from Germany to build up a dealer network around Australia. Many were shortlived but utilsed a few high profile identiities associated with Aussie motor sport.

 

Diesel Motors was one example, being Laurie O'Neil's operation. This advert comes from the Easter 1958 Bathurst meeting.

 

 

 

Stephen

[bobking]

This may be a well known story, but here goes: Norman Hamilton told me that he and Jack Day visited Switzerland to study hydro-electric schemes. They were interested in tendering for the Snowy River scheme and their idea was to use Roots pattern pumps, presumably as water driven turbines. Jack's company was Ajax pumps which were used as pumps as well as superchargers. At one hotel where they stayed  'a funny little flat car' arrived (or a description to this effect). The driver was Richard von Falkenberg who was testing a Porsche prototype. Norman was taken for a drive and was mightily impressed, so much so that he asked could he be the Australian agent when the car went into production. All this was many years ago, and I can't vouch for the accuracy of my memories, but I think Norman said that he was the first agent outside Germany. (Please be kind to me if I have got this all wrong, but I am not steeped in Porsche history).

 

Jack Day used his superchargers, driven from the nose of the crankshaft, on two GP Bugattis, but I have never seen  one; nor even a photograph. I do have the crankshaft extension he used on one of my cars. I would love to know more about Ajax superchargers.

[Ray Bell]

Alan has told me that they were the first dealers for Porsche outside Germany...

 

I think it might have been in the conversation when he told me how unhappy he was to have the dealership taken off him.

 

But he did go on to have the best 'toy room' or 'men's shed' in the business.

 

I daresay the Laurie O'Neil introduction came through Doug Whiteford.

[MarkBisset]

Bob,

 

I had a good google and trove last night and couldn’t find anything on Ajax Superchargers despite trying lots of different combinations of words.

 

Ajax pumps were made by what became McPhersons Ltd; see link; https://victoriancol...9403a17c4ba15bc

 

A product of that company? 
 

Mark

[Librules]

Bob,

 

I had a good google and trove last night and couldn’t find anything on Ajax Superchargers despite trying lots of different combinations of words.

 

Ajax pumps were made by what became McPhersons Ltd; see link; https://victoriancol...9403a17c4ba15bc

 

A product of that company? 
 

Mark

There is a display of Ajax products in a few of the shots here.  I will leave it to the more learned to determine whether any of them could be used as a supercharger.... hopefully not heading too OT?

 

http://digital.slv.v...ue&usePid2=true

 

 

[Librules]

It seems that link bombed...  For anyone interested just type 'Ajax Pump Works' into the State Library of Victoria site.

[bobking]

Mark,

 

just had breakfast with my guru, Ron Maccallum, aged almost 96. (According to my son, 'ask ron.com'). So I asked who made Ajax pumps and he replied Jack Day - premises cnr. Swan St and Punt Rd. Richmond - perhaps later remembered as Mackay Silentrubber, a company with which Ron Edgerton had some involvement in. He said he thought that MacPhersons bought Ajax in 1931 or 1932. He knew nothing of he superchargers, but I am sure of my facts in this regard.

 

This led me to a different topic, the supercharger and inlet manifold on the Lombard AL3 of the Murdoch family. I knew that this was locally made for WH Lowe (another pioneering new car agent - this time Ferrari). Geoff Murdoch thought the patterns were with Lowes until relevantly recent times (my memory also), but he did not know who made the Cozette supercharger copy. Somehow I think this was also made by Jack, but I am not sure. (Jack raced the other AL3 that has long since departed these shores). This is a bit off-topic, but I would be interested in more info. on Day  and his superchargers.

[cooper997]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has just been pointed out to me that in the late 1970s Norman Hamilton continued a small role maintaining the supply of spare parts for the Snow Trac's used at the Australian Antartic bases.

 

Also that the silver 924 shown behind the 908 was a present from Alan to his dad for his 70th birthday - hence the NH 924 registration plate.

 

 

Stephen

 

 

 

[cooper997]

Thank you to Garry Simkin for dropping me a message about the existence of Alan Hamilton guest speaking at an HSRCA evening in 2015.  Captured by Brian Caldersmith and uploaded to Youtube. 

 

Alan covers a fair bit of ground in his 70 minutes, including the 917/30 and his other toys already mentioned on this thread. How he got them and even doing the Climb to the Eagle (or in his case Climb to Murray Bridge!) and his own racing. There's also a few extras from Warwick Brown, Kevin Bartlett, John Harvey & Bruce Allison. So make sure you've got some spare time! It's worth watching to the end. With some Longford tales from KB, JH & AH.

 

Garry also mentioned how he'd organised to have Alfie and Alan together at the HSRCA this year, but we know the rest...

 

 

This will take you to the youtube link

https://hsrca.com/20...r-social-night/

 

 

Stephen

[ed holly]

The story of Hamilton's and Porsche in Australia would not be complete without a reference to Ron Angas of South Australia.

 

Alan Hamilton in his interview with SPEEDCAFE makes mention of him, and l became aware of the Angas family's story as a result of buying my 69 911T which was first owned by him with the first story below written on the Porsche Forums Australia's website. So here are the two excerpts from both of those articles.

 

This was written in 2017 …

 

I  have no interest or otherwise in the seller or this car but thought I'd set out some background as I too have an ex-Angas car. 

Ron Angas was Aussie Porsche royalty- probably the most important client in the early days of Porsche in Australia.  It's as simple as that. 

We all, today, hold our steering wheels on the right hand side of our early cars because of him.... and almost him alone. He paid Hamiltons upfront to order a Porsche before they were even being made in RHD and it was this enthusiasm of his that started the Hamiltons on their path with Porsche. Alan Hamilton has verified this to me and once told me Angas literally bankrolled the early days of Porsche in Australia to the extent of writing cheques months - often even years-  before his new cars were available for delivery. He for example ordered his 901 in 1963 as soon as it was announced. He got the first of any new model he wanted. 

Ron Angas was the first owner of a RHD Porsche in ANY worldwide market ('51 356 Cabriolet - which was infact the first RHD Porsche built) and he received the first RHD 911 delivered in any RHD market worldwide in 1965. 

Australia received the first 2 356's built in RHD (Angas' Cab was the first of these) and 14 years later Australia received 3 of the first 4 911's built in RHD; Angas' car was the first of these 3 of the earliest 911's that were imported here.

The Collingrove hillclimb track in the Barossa was built on his land which he donated to the Sporting Car Club of SA ... he was a true enthusiast and after years of driving Rolls Royces he remained loyal and true to Porsche until he passed away in '78.

He kept a fully staffed ocean going steamer at Port Adelaide available at call to sail the world and he - himself - planted Henschke's  Mt Edelstone vineyard for those of us that like a decent drop. 

He was the last of the old school moneyed and landed raconteurs, and in our small Porsche world in Australia was a pretty significant fellow. 

 

And from Speedcafe interview with Alan Hamilton

 

Ron Angas in South Australia the great grandson of George Fife Angas, who was sent out by Queen Victoria to establish the South Australian colony and it was really quite extraordinary. I am sure Porsche do have a lot of characters still, but now they are more the people who have made a lot of money on the stock market or whatever. But that side of the business was really fantastic and entertaining and very valuable for us.

Edited by ed holly, 22 June 2020 - 00:40.

[Lola5000]

What was Tony's position at Hamilton's, can't have been sales as I bought of the various sales people and managers?

 

And I knew the workshop guys .

 

Must of been important , as he is part of the Friday lunch group.............some of Melbourne's past leading business figures.

Edited by Lola5000, 22 June 2020 - 00:57.

[Ray Bell]

And then there's the town where Collingrove is located, Angaston...

 

Notably, like the abovementioned descendent of George Fife Angas, not carrying a single 'u' in their names.

 

It also puts into perspective Alan's participation in the hillclimb, He won the Australian Hillclimb Championship there twice, 1966 and 1971, both times in Porsches.

[Lola5000]

The Angas family always had wonderful new and used Rolls Royce & Bentley motorcars ,even today various family members have collections of those marques.

Edited by Lola5000, 22 June 2020 - 00:59.

[Lee Nicolle]

And then there's the town where Collingrove is located, Angaston...

 

Notably, like the abovementioned descendent of George Fife Angas, not carrying a single 'u' in their names.

 

It also puts into perspective Alan's participation in the hillclimb, He won the Australian Hillclimb Championship there twice, 1966 and 1971, both times in Porsches.

Collingrove is in Farmer Angas's paddocks. Though in recent years gifted to SCCSA. But a good way from Angaston. Probably closer to Eden Valley.  Named after the Collingrove homestead a couple of km back towards Angaston.

Just as a matter of interest I was pitted alongside Alan at the 94 Australian Title. He did not win, though I cannot remember who did. Rohrlach?

Edited by Lee Nicolle, 22 June 2020 - 01:40.

[Ray Bell]

Rohrlach won in '82...

 

I'd have thought Alan might have been there in the F5000 in '78, but of course not, that was a few weeks after his big crash at Sandown.

[ReesMackay]

Alan Hamilton brought the 908 and 917 to Historic Winton in the eighties. Names were pulled out of the hat  -  one for officials, and one for drivers, for a ride  - has anyone photos of the 917 on its lap ? because I'm in it.

 

It was astonishing. To start with I had to be compressed with brute force so that the belts could be done up, then while waiting in the dummy grid Alan was not happy with the position of the car so a blip on the throttle caused the car to twitch sideways a little and point in the desired direction without moving forward. Out on the circuit the acceleration and g forces were amazing. Despite being held in so tight the g force going round the sweeper caused me to move and bump the off switch which was switched back on in an instant. And I suppose he only used half the gears.

Rees Mackay

[Ray Bell]

I'm pretty sure that 'half the gears' would mean just two...

 

Weren't they a four-speed gearbox?

[10kDA]

One reference that I have says that "In many cases, Rolls-Royce had applied their own modifications to these threads ... Many of these were not documented and had to be done by measurement".

 

For reasons of interchangeability with engines & parts from the British plants, Packard had to use these threads; the challenge was that they were not used in the US and tools to form them were not available.

 

Packard engineers had to design & make thousands of the required tools; specialist makers were already fully-committed to other essential war contracts.

 

A lot of the tools were not just common taps & dies; US industry was also using geometric die heads and collapsible taps and these complex tools would be required.

 

That's just the nuts & bolts; Packard engineers worked miracles in setting-up the manufacture of a complex "foreign" engine in a short space of time.

Sir Stanley Hooker, the RR engineer tasked with coordinating Merlin production in the US, related in his book titled "Not Much Of An Engineer"(!) the story of a meeting with a project engineer from Ford which went like this:

 

“One day their Chief Engineer appeared in Lovesey’s office, which I was then sharing, and said, ‘You know, we can’t make the Merlin to these drawings.’

I replied loftily, ‘I suppose that is because the drawing tolerances are too difficult for you, and you can’t achieve the accuracy.’

‘On the contrary’ he replied, ‘the tolerances are far too wide for us.’ We make motor cars far more accurately than this. Every part on our car engines has to be interchangeable with the same part on any other engine, and hence all parts have to be made with extreme accuracy, far closer than you use. That is the only way we can achieve mass-production.’”

 

Ford ultimately turned down the Merlin project and it went to Packard. Before Packard did any manufacturing, they re-drew all RR's drawings with tolerances typical of Packard's automotive practices which were tighter than Ford's. This took almost a year - making the feat of ramping up mass-production even more impressive.

[plannerpower]

I have Not Much Of An Engineer and I'm fond of quoting that passage.

 

Hooker was a genius but also a good bloke and didn't mind telling a story against himself.

 

"Ford" in this context was Ford Britain who made more than 30,000 Merlins at their Trafford Park factory; Hooker wrote,  after the passage quoted;

 

"The reply was that Ford would have to re-draw all of the Merlin drawings to their own standards, and this they did.  It took a year or so but was an enormous success because, once the great Ford factory at Manchester started production, Merlins came out like shelling peas at a rate of 400 per week.  And very good engines they were too, yet never have I seen mention of this massive contribution which the British Ford company made to the build-up of our air forces".

 

Ford US were approached to build Merlins but Henry declined the contract and Packard took it on.

[10kDA]

Thanks for clarifying. I thought this was describing the meeting with US Ford engineering staff leading up to declining the contract.

[Fred.R]

Sir Stanley Hooker, the RR engineer tasked with coordinating Merlin production in the US, related in his book titled "Not Much Of An Engineer"(!) the story of a meeting with a project engineer from Ford which went like this:

 

“One day their Chief Engineer appeared in Lovesey’s office, which I was then sharing, and said, ‘You know, we can’t make the Merlin to these drawings.’

I replied loftily, ‘I suppose that is because the drawing tolerances are too difficult for you, and you can’t achieve the accuracy.’

‘On the contrary’ he replied, ‘the tolerances are far too wide for us.’ We make motor cars far more accurately than this. Every part on our car engines has to be interchangeable with the same part on any other engine, and hence all parts have to be made with extreme accuracy, far closer than you use. That is the only way we can achieve mass-production.’”

 

Ford ultimately turned down the Merlin project and it went to Packard. Before Packard did any manufacturing, they re-drew all RR's drawings with tolerances typical of Packard's automotive practices which were tighter than Ford's. This took almost a year - making the feat of ramping up mass-production even more impressive.

 

 

 

I have heard this story repeatedly and i am apprehensive  , is that a direct quote from the Book ? my understanding was, at the time 1st angle projection was the standard that english drawings were drawn, were as the Americans used 3rd angle projection and the use of "American"  SAE threads ,that was the standards referred the drawings not to not to the tolerancing , if the english tolerancing was so poor no amount of selective assembly resulted in a suitable production rate , and  after this retolerancing by the Americans  were the English built motors still built to the same slipshod standards for the rest of the war ? or did they change to the American specification , and what about the Australian production Merlins ? did they follow the British or American standard

[Fred.R]

The story of Hamilton's and Porsche in Australia would not be complete without a reference to Ron Angas of South Australia.

 

Alan Hamilton in his interview with SPEEDCAFE makes mention of him, and l became aware of the Angas family's story as a result of buying my 69 911T which was first owned by him with the first story below written on the Porsche Forums Australia's website. So here are the two excerpts from both of those articles.

 

This was written in 2017 …

 

I  have no interest or otherwise in the seller or this car but thought I'd set out some background as I too have an ex-Angas car. 

Ron Angas was Aussie Porsche royalty- probably the most important client in the early days of Porsche in Australia.  It's as simple as that. 

We all, today, hold our steering wheels on the right hand side of our early cars because of him.... and almost him alone. He paid Hamiltons upfront to order a Porsche before they were even being made in RHD and it was this enthusiasm of his that started the Hamiltons on their path with Porsche. Alan Hamilton has verified this to me and once told me Angas literally bankrolled the early days of Porsche in Australia to the extent of writing cheques months - often even years-  before his new cars were available for delivery. He for example ordered his 901 in 1963 as soon as it was announced. He got the first of any new model he wanted. 

Ron Angas was the first owner of a RHD Porsche in ANY worldwide market ('51 356 Cabriolet - which was infact the first RHD Porsche built) and he received the first RHD 911 delivered in any RHD market worldwide in 1965. 

Australia received the first 2 356's built in RHD (Angas' Cab was the first of these) and 14 years later Australia received 3 of the first 4 911's built in RHD; Angas' car was the first of these 3 of the earliest 911's that were imported here.

The Collingrove hillclimb track in the Barossa was built on his land which he donated to the Sporting Car Club of SA ... he was a true enthusiast and after years of driving Rolls Royces he remained loyal and true to Porsche until he passed away in '78.

He kept a fully staffed ocean going steamer at Port Adelaide available at call to sail the world and he - himself - planted Henschke's  Mt Edelstone vineyard for those of us that like a decent drop. 

He was the last of the old school moneyed and landed raconteurs, and in our small Porsche world in Australia was a pretty significant fellow. 

 

And from Speedcafe interview with Alan Hamilton

 

Ron Angas in South Australia the great grandson of George Fife Angas, who was sent out by Queen Victoria to establish the South Australian colony and it was really quite extraordinary. I am sure Porsche do have a lot of characters still, but now they are more the people who have made a lot of money on the stock market or whatever. But that side of the business was really fantastic and entertaining and very valuable for us.

 

"The Collingrove hillclimb track in the Barossa was built on his land which he donated to the Sporting Car Club of SA"  this is untrue, Collingrove was purchased by the Sporting car club from the Angus family after Ron Angas's death 

[plannerpower]

The quote is direct.

 

The two different draughting methods were used then and continue to be used today;

 

http://www.vista-ind...uring-drawings/

 

The idea that one factory made better Merlins than another is sometimes put-forward but I have seen no evidence of that; Hooker makes no distinction of that kind, nor do other writers that I know-of.

 

All Merlins were required to pass the same rigorous testing after they were built.

 

British and US manufacturing techniques did differ; this arose from historical origins.  In general, British practice favoured more hand-work than did the US practice that relied on accurate machining. 

 

The first Merlins were designed and made at RR's Derby works (all Merlins used in the Battle of Britain were made at Derby).

 

Later factories were established at Crewe (RR), Glasgow (RR) & Manchester (Ford) but the development work that evolved the many different Marks of the engine was always done at Derby and passed-on to the other factories when ready for production.

 

The Derby works was more-oriented to the British hand-work  system and new ideas could be applied and tested there; the other factories were more-oriented to the US close-tolerance system and experimentation was not easy. 

 

The standards were not "slipshod"; they just represented different philosophies.  One philosophy was to train and use much skilled labour; the other was to build precision machines that could be operated by unskilled or semi-skilled labour.  British and European manufacturing had origins in the ancient craft guilds whilst manufacturing in the New World had no similar history.

 

The second approach, once described as " ... the system of interchangeable manufacture ...", originated in the French gun-making industry, starting from about 1717 and known to be in use by 1785; Eli Whitney pioneered the process in the US in about 1800 and subsequent years, again in the manufacture of rifles and it became known as the American Method.

 

"Mass production" eventually triumphed over "handwork" because it proved cheaper for large production runs and machines were more reliable than human beings.

 

We still see remnants of the old "craftsman" system in items such as clothing, furniture and jewellery, made singly or in small volumes and commanding much higher prices than do their mass-produced equivalents.

Edited by plannerpower, 24 June 2020 - 10:55.

[cooper997]

Alan Hamilton brought the 908 and 917 to Historic Winton in the eighties. Names were pulled out of the hat  -  one for officials, and one for drivers, for a ride  - has anyone photos of the 917 on its lap ? because I'm in it.

 

It was astonishing. To start with I had to be compressed with brute force so that the belts could be done up, then while waiting in the dummy grid Alan was not happy with the position of the car so a blip on the throttle caused the car to twitch sideways a little and point in the desired direction without moving forward. Out on the circuit the acceleration and g forces were amazing. Despite being held in so tight the g force going round the sweeper caused me to move and bump the off switch which was switched back on in an instant. And I suppose he only used half the gears.

Rees Mackay

 

Rees, try Lindsay (aka TNF's ellrosso) at http://www.oldraceph...m/content/home/ as he has access to longtime Winton photographer, Neil Hammond's photo collection.

 

 

Stephen

[cooper997]

A series of Porsche related dealer letterheads - 3 from Australia and 1 slightly further away. (Mitchell's were authorised service).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen

 

[Ray Bell]

C H Mitchell was the business of Cec Wetherell...

 

A very small concern. Concurrent with that there was the huge Porsche Service Centre just under the approaches to the Harbour Bridge.

 

Capitol Motors was obviously a branch of the Arnold Glass empire, it was all gone by the early sixties. Well, the last De Soto was a '61 model sold in 1960 and not sold in Australia anyway. Another Porsche dealer (or service dealer) in Sydney was obviously Scuderia Veloce Motors. both at Wahroonga and Lindfield.

[Lee Nicolle]

The quote is direct.

 

The two different draughting methods were used then and continue to be used today;

 

http://www.vista-ind...uring-drawings/

 

The idea that one factory made better Merlins than another is sometimes put-forward but I have seen no evidence of that; Hooker makes no distinction of that kind, nor do other writers that I know-of.

 

All Merlins were required to pass the same rigorous testing after they were built.

 

British and US manufacturing techniques did differ; this arose from historical origins.  In general, British practice favoured more hand-work than did the US practice that relied on accurate machining. 

 

The first Merlins were designed and made at RR's Derby works (all Merlins used in the Battle of Britain were made at Derby).

 

Later factories were established at Crewe (RR), Glasgow (RR) & Manchester (Ford) but the development work that evolved the many different Marks of the engine was always done at Derby and passed-on to the other factories when ready for production.

 

The Derby works was more-oriented to the British hand-work  system and new ideas could be applied and tested there; the other factories were more-oriented to the US close-tolerance system and experimentation was not easy. 

 

The standards were not "slipshod"; they just represented different philosophies.  One philosophy was to train and use much skilled labour; the other was to build precision machines that could be operated by unskilled or semi-skilled labour.  British and European manufacturing had origins in the ancient craft guilds whilst manufacturing in the New World had no similar history.

 

The second approach, once described as " ... the system of interchangeable manufacture ...", originated in the French gun-making industry, starting from about 1717 and known to be in use by 1785; Eli Whitney pioneered the process in the US in about 1800 and subsequent years, again in the manufacture of rifles and it became known as the American Method.

 

"Mass production" eventually triumphed over "handwork" because it proved cheaper for large production runs and machines were more reliable than human beings.

 

We still see remnants of the old "craftsman" system in items such as clothing, furniture and jewellery, made singly or in small volumes and commanding much higher prices than do their mass-produced equivalents.

I once spoke to a old bloke who serviced Merlins in WW2. He was of the opinion the Packard made engines were considerably better as the machining was better and every thing fitted as it should. And they leaked a lot less oil as well. Occasionally none!

He also said that service parts were thin on the ground, gaskets etc were hard to come by. And no silastic in those days. Engines were removed and sent off for repairs that could have been done in the hangars on the planes. Some of said engines came back no better