39 replies to this topic

[Richard Jenkins]

Hoping someone can help me with this query. I'm researching another driver, whom i know very little about:- ex-Formula 1 driver Paul England, from Australia, apart from his birthdate & the fact he did race in Formula 1

has anyone got some kind of racing record for him & a bit of background information??

[Stefan Ornerdal]

I have some F2 results for this Australian:
July 6, Mallory Park, 8th, Cooper T41-FWB entered by Colonial Equipe.
July 14, Reims, 8th, same car, same entrant.
August 4, German GP, F2-class, Did not finish, same car but this time entered by Ridgeway Management.
Sept 14, International Trophy, Silverstone F2-class - he failed to show up.

That's all I know.

Stefan

[Stefan Ornerdal]

Ooops, the year was 1957:blush:

Stefan

[leegle]

Extremely well regarded engineer in Australian racing scene. There is a bit somewhere here about his hillclimb car that used two Volkswagen engines with one driving each axle. I think Barry Lake or Ray Bell posted details about that car some time ago. He was a winner of the Australian Hillclimb championship on a couple of occasions as well and built his car with the Ausca name. The first one was a DB3 lookalike with a Repco Holden engine built when he worked at Repco in the mid fifties.

[Barry Lake]

I have been tracking Paul England recently to ask some questions about his twin-engine hillclimb car. It took many more phone calls than I expected to finally get a phone number for him. And then I became embroiled in travel/work/study/etc and have not had the time to pursue it further.

When I do get to talk to him, I will ask him to give me a precis of his history.

I first saw Paul race at Bathurst, Easter 1956 in his beautiful Ausca sports car. Paul was an engineer at Repco at that time and the car had a Holden six-cylinder engine with the famous (in Australia) Repco head (designed by Phil Irving, who designed the 1966 Repco V8 F1 engine).

The body of the Ausca was modelled on - and very simialr to - the Maserati 200S. Paul probably saw the same photo I saw in Modern MOTOR magazine (July 1955 I think) of Giardini's 200S winning its class in the 1955 Mille Miglia. A few replica bodies were made (glass fibre) and fitted to other specials. One, if I remember correctly, went onto a famous pre-war MG - I hope they kept the real body.

Paul went to Europe in 1957, bought that Cooper Climax and had a "motor racing holiday" in Europe. By including the German GP in his events he achieved a form of immortality by joining the list of world championship GP starters. Had he not done that, it is unlikely anyone on The Nostalgia Forum would be asking about him.

Later, he specialised in hillclimbs in Australia.

I got to know Paul in the 1970s, when he was around the race circuits as an engineer. I think, from memory, that Tony Stewart, who raced Formula Pacific/Atlantic for a while, was his nephew.

Paul left Repco (before the F1 engine era, I think) to start his own engine balancing business, which was very successful and still is run by his son.

I am sure there is a lot more to his story, but that's all I can think of at the moment. I will ask him for more when I speak to him.

[David McKinney]

Nitpicking time, Barry - the Ausca body was a fibreglass copy of a Maserati A6GCS, not a (later) 200S.
I knew Paul when he was a regular visitor to NZ with various Pacific entries - once made the mistake of asking him about the Miller Special (which will mean something to Barry if no-one else:) )

[Falcadore]

A search of my stats records doesn't show up much on Paul England.

Three Bathurst drives, although all were at Phillip Island where the first three races were held.

Paul shared one of those fibreglass wonders from Germany, a NSU Prinz in 1960, with Bruce Walton. They finished second in class, (behind another NSU) and 26th outright.

In 1961 he shared a Triumph Herald with Hoot Gibson and had the misfortuine of being disqualified for illegal help from a team mechanic. In those days the regs stated that the drivers had to fix car problems, and Gibson could have done it easily. Oh well.

In 1962 Gibson, England and Jack Madden drove their Herald to seventh in class and 19th outright.

[leegle]

Your records would show a number of top drivers in those NSUs falcadore with drivers like Lex Davison and Doug Whiteford as well as the Hillclimb specialists Walton and England. Bet they would be surprised to learn the bodies were fibreglass though! David I guess the Miller Special was like the Sabakat and was made up of spare cropduster parts?

[Richard Jenkins]

Thanks very much guys, this is extremely helpful information, actually a bit more than I hoped

[Marcor]

Click here : http://www.ten-tenth...?threadid=10242

[David McKinney]

Yes, leegle, that was my allusion. At the time I raised the question with PE I didn't realise the Miller Special was the ex-England car, though it was obviously a T41 Cooper. His reaction made me realise that it wasn't only a T41 - it was the ex-England T41!
And am I wrong to say the Ausca sportscar bodies were fibreglass?

[Barry Lake]

David

Keep up the nit-picking; that's why we're here. You are right about the Ausca body being a copy of the A6GCS (you're rarely wrong on these things).

It's a long time since I studied this era in any detail, so I am dredging up well-buried memories.

What I clearly remember is seeing the photo of Giardini in the class-winning Maserati 2.0 litre in the Modern MOTOR report and falling in love with it's looks, then being excited to see the Ausca turn up looking just like it at Bathurst in 1956.

As far as the Ausca bodies being fibreglass, I know the replicas were - but I am not sure that the first one wasn't aluminium. I will put it on the list of things to ask Paul.

Regarding the NSUs, I think Falcadore might be getting them confused with the vaguely-similar Buckle-built Goggomobil sedans, which did have fibreglass bodies in their Australian form. I think the NSUs had steel bodies, didn't they?

One story I have been told about the Miller Special was of the shock and horror on the face of onlookers (John Cooper?) when the people concerned took a hacksaw to the chassis to convert it into crop-duster spare parts!

They were, so the story goes, wedled back together again in Australia to become the Miller Special. So it's true, the car was built from crop duster components...

[Barry Lake]

"Wedling" is a process invented in Australia by people who type fractionally faster with the finger on one hand than the finger on the other hand...

The parts were, of course, welded together.

[Falcadore]

It's not the first you've picked up on my poor memory Barry - sorry.

I trust the stats stuff I made available to you is similarly not replete with errors. Well I know it isn't. It's the fleshing that gets confused....

Story of my life...

Enough of that.

Indeed there were a few big names in the NSU squad to aid them in their tremendous struggle with the Renault 750s, Fiat 600s and the Lloyd Alexanders.

Open wheeler hereos Lex Davison and Doug Whiteford won the class in their NSU from Walton/England with Hoot Gibson and Jim Gorman third in the teams third car, a clean sweep. Fourth was Bill March and Bruce Connolly in a Renault some eight laps adrift of the winning car. I guess the big names were the winning strategy. Of the other drivers in Class A that day, the only name of note was Frank Kilfoyle (later famous as the 1969 Australian Rally Champion in a Lotus Cortina) in one of the Lloyds.

[Barry Lake]

Mark

I am sorry. I forgot to thank you for those - and to confirm that I received them.

Checked through them quickly and they seemed to be pretty good. I pick up incorrectly spelled names very easily and didn't see any.

The only thing is, there are some charts there I don't quite understand... I seem to remember some numbers that didn't make sense to me.

But the main charts are great. What an excellent research tool for when I am writing about the ATCC (or SCS in our commercial world).

And you're not the only one who has memory lapses - as you will note by David McKinney's correction of my Maserati model.

The thing is, on forums we tend not to proof-read our own writing (preferably some time after having written it) as we do with something that is going in to print.

[alfredaustria]

Hi - Perhaps have you got actual information about Paul England, please? Where is he living? If you can help me with his postal address, please send me a PM. Thanks.

[Gabrci]

Hi - Perhaps have you got actual information about Paul England, please? Where is he living? If you can help me with his postal address, please send me a PM. Thanks.

Alfred, unfortunately Mr. England is ill, he won't reply to your letter.

[fredeuce]

Ooops, the year was 1957:blush:

Stefan

Old thread but here is a pic of the twin engine Volkswagen powered Ausca at Collingrove Easter1971.

Edited by fredeuce, 15 February 2012 - 04:56.

[Ray Bell]

A stunning car...

And it looks to have had a good getaway with that start too, Fred, maybe even quicker than you expected?

[fredeuce]

A stunning car...

And it looks to have had a good getaway with that start too, Fred, maybe even quicker than you expected?

My memory is that Alan Hamilton won the event with FTD. Paul ran well but just pipped by Alan. Ian Wells in the ex Ray Cann S/C VW was in the running that weekend too.

I also recall that at a previous meeting which I believe to be Easter 1969 Paul had some kind of mechanical failure that necessitated having some specialized welding repairs done by a local engineer. My sister took him to the local bloke who was a family friend, my father in particular. Managed to get Paul sorted out and he continued his weekend.

Edited by fredeuce, 11 March 2012 - 22:43.

[Shane Bowden]

A stunning car...

And it looks to have had a good getaway with that start too, Fred, maybe even quicker than you expected?

I recall at Lakeland hillclimb in Victoria that the car had difficulty getting off the line quickly and that sand was put under the tyres to promote wheelspin. I don't remember if it was the other competitors or CAMS who objected to this practice but it was stopped!

[Ray Bell]

Jim Robson once told me it was amusing to watch the man with the hockey stick at hillclimbs where they didn't have light-beam timing...

Fred, that also happened with Colin Bond. He broke an upright or something at Collingrove when he was running the Lynx and was directed to some local who 'liked welding incandescent metals' with his oxy torch for repairs. Maybe the same bloke?

[plannerpower]

Paul England is one of my heroes; an "engineer's engineer".

I am saddened by the news that he is ill.

Here he is at Silverdale on 24 Jul 66 in the Ausca Vincent;

[fredeuce]

Jim Robson once told me it was amusing to watch the man with the hockey stick at hillclimbs where they didn't have light-beam timing...

Fred, that also happened with Colin Bond. He broke an upright or something at Collingrove when he was running the Lynx and was directed to some local who 'liked welding incandescent metals' with his oxy torch for repairs. Maybe the same bloke?

The hockey stick proved a bit problematic with the 4wd cars. Paul sorted that problem by putting a little jockey wheel on the back of the car. It had a lever inside the cockpit to pull it up after take-off. You can see it in the picture , a little white plastic wheel with black tyre just under the exhaust collector . Might have been John Wien-Smith that day on the hockey stick, he did that job for many years.

As for the Bond repairs , quite possibly the same fellow concerned . That does ring a bit of a bell. I see his wife and daughter once in a while so could find that out. Chap's name was Harold Wendt.

I used to work for him when I was a kid in the early 70's . He welded up cracked cylinder heads , engine blocks and all of the jobs that no-one else would touch. Very capable at what he did . He managed to extricate many people from otherwise costly repairs .

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by fredeuce
The hockey stick proved a bit problematic with the 4wd cars. Paul sorted that problem by putting a little jockey wheel on the back of the car. It had a lever inside the cockpit to pull it up after take-off. You can see it in the picture, a little white plastic wheel with black tyre just under the exhaust collector.....

An engineer's answer, very good!

As for the Bond repairs , quite possibly the same fellow concerned . That does ring a bit of a bell. I see his wife and daughter once in a while so could find that out. Chap's name was Harold Wendt.

I used to work for him when I was a kid in the early '70s. He welded up cracked cylinder heads, engine blocks and all of the jobs that no-one else would touch. Very capable at what he did. He managed to extricate many people from otherwise costly repairs.

Now let me see, how was this covered in RCN?

Page 45 of the October issue, 1975. The first part of a two-part article on Colin Bond's career, written by... err... Ray Bell...

Collingrove saw the Lynx break a rear upright, which meant finding someone who would weld magnesium, and this led them to the Went (sic) family. In this predominently German community in the Barossa Valley, Harold Went and his wife and daughter apparently found satisfaction in welding things which were difficult (read: prone to burst into flames) and Colin paced up and down thinking, "Either I've got a broken upright or I've got a broken upright." Suffice to say that for years after, Colin has visited this family when in the area.

[GMACKIE]

The hockey stick was not much good on the 'Deek'.....a tiny hillclimb special [it fitted in a 6'x4' box trailer] that I built around 1964. Originally the engine was from a 350 DKW bike, but when it seemed a bit low on power, I fitted a 500 Triumph Tiger 100 unit - much better.

Silverdale timing [light beams] was fine, but Amaroo hillclimb used the dreaded hockey stick. The Deek's front wheel would 'hop' over the H/S, and after a few missed times, they worked out a way of holding it onto the chassis at the back of the car. Mark Robson ended up with the Deek, after I re-fitted the DKW engine.

[fredeuce]

Thanks Ray, my suspicions confirmed. By the way ,"Wendt" is the correct spelling .

I have to say I always marvelled at people like Paul England with the innovation and creativity that they bought to the sport. Sadly, we don't see that in mainstream motorsport today, its formula this , formula that . It seems to me that the rule-makers have emanated from an old Eastern bloc dictatorship. One size fits all and you will enjoy it !! This is why I still enjoy hillclimbing and the variety of cars it produces.

[fredeuce]

Ray , I managed to find a pair of pictures of Harold taken a few years ago now. This would have been about 1995 . He passed away in 1998. He is dressed as I always remember him with the beret and full overalls. That is Rita his wife standing next to him. They are standing next to my hot rod, (the B model as Harold would call it) which is next to his workshop. That is my then very young son seated in the car.

[Ray Bell]

Wow! All these years after Colin told me that story!

Just wonderful, Fred. Thanks a million.

Err... was it in fact a B-Model? Starting life with a 4-cylinder engine?

[fredeuce]

Ray, I believe it was in fact a Model 18 which was the designation for the V8 version of the '32 Ford.

Harold was about 82 when the pictures were taken. He was well into his 86th year when he passed. He was quite a character .

I recall various shenanigans that went on back then when I was a kid , many of which involved explosives! Folk that lived in the country had to make there own entertainment ;). That's all beyond the scope of this thread however.

[Ray Bell]

Not really...

Collingrove Hillclimb has spectator fences with posts that had the ground around them compressed by fire from a Thompson sub-machine gun.

[fredeuce]

If folk dont mind digressing a little bit then what follows firstly is a description of how Harold welded up cracked cylinder heads. This has been posted on another forum so I simply reproduce what I wrote there. The topic was about welding cast iron particularly cylinder heads.


"This brings back memories of a time when I was 16-17 (Dec'73) and working for an old family friend (and relative) here in Sth Aust. His name was Harold Wendt. He was a mechanic/engineer who did a lot of this type of work on cylinder heads, cylinder blocks trans housings etc.

He knew that pre-heating was essential. What he did, firstly, was to dig a hole next to the shed where the welding table was placed. The hole was about 18" deep and filled with saw dust.

The table looked more like giant barbeque grille. This consisted of a series of bars like a rack or grill with a solid sheet to enclose the base. Living in a wine growing region old vine stumps were plentiful.On top of this table were placed a good number of the vine stumps. The cylinder head was placed in amongst the stumps on the table. The cylinder head had been previously prepared in much the same manner as described in the original post.

Next step was to "light the Barbeque" and let the flames die down to coals. The head was now preheated.

The welding operation was done by gas welding method. Harold knew all too well that he needed to use appropriate welding rods for the task. Harold , no fool, knew he was welding cast iron so needed cast iron rods. Solution , straighten out some cast iron piston rings which he had plenty of lying around from years of rebuilding engines. Instant welding rods.

The welding up job was then conducted with the head on the "BBQ" . On completion the head was then placed in the sawdust pit and allowed to cool down for about 2 days . The sawdust would burn down a bit and retain the heat but would otherwise well insulate the head and allow slow cooling to prevent cracking.


After everything had cooled down the head was retrieved and then all welds dressed and valve seats cut etc. to prepare the head for final assembly and refit. All of the cast iron welding was done this way and worked well".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Ray Bell]

Wonderful stuff, Fred...

That deserves to be very widely read.

[fredeuce]

What follows here is the story about the shenanigans with explosives. Harold is a very central character in this short story.

When I wrote it , I simply entitled it "Tin Kettling" . This has appeared on another forum and I simply reproduce it here.




Tin Kettling

As a kid I grew up on a small acreage surrounded by local farms on the edge of our local town. If any of you have read the Colin Thiele book “The Sun on the Stubble” life as a kid was a bit like that. One of the events described in that book was the party they had the night before a wedding called a “Tin Kettling”.

For those that don’t understand that term, these parties usually involved all kinds of shenanigans, noise and practical jokes. They take place at the home of the bride’s parents.This story is about one such evening.

I recall as a kid going to a “Tin Kettling" party for my cousin who was soon to be married. This occurred in about January 1968. These parties were common practice in our community. Traditionally, they were on a Friday night however this practice was revised over time to hold it a day earlier as, according to my Mother, everyone would get “too shickered” (modern translation would be “pissed”) and you couldn’t go to a wedding the next day like that.

So it was a warm Thursday night. The venue was my Uncle and Aunt’s home on their farm property just up the road about a ¼ mile away. The groom who came from a neighbouring town had arranged for all of his friends and relatives to go directly to the farm for the celebration. My cousin’s friends and relatives had previously arranged to meet at our home and we would walk up from there.

People started to arrive and there were cars parked everywhere around our backyard. There would have been over 20-30 cars left abandoned around the yard. Never had that many visitors before! The plan was that once everyone arrived we would all walk en masse up the road. Everyone had to bring something to make some noise. The usual implements were kerosene buckets and sticks. That was okay for starters however some of the more seasoned tin-kettlers had other ideas.

Among the mass of locals that assembled at our home was a mate of my late father who was also a relative. He was something of an eccentric and a very capable self taught engineer. People would come from far and wide to have their broken machinery fixed by him. In later high school I worked for him and learned how to weld up cylinder heads and the like. This character’s name is Harold.

Another character present was Harold’s nephew Henry. Henry and his Dad were earthmoving contractors.

The only vehicle that came along with the mob was Harold in his little Morris Minor. This was because he was carrying a homebuilt cannon that he made in the boot of the little Morry. It was too heavy to carry this thing on foot. He and my older brother had played around with this weapon a few times and had a good understanding of what they were doing. Henry being an earthmoving contractor had a permit to use gelignite. There happened to be some of this packed in the back of his old FE ute. He followed along a little bit later.

The mob commenced their journey up the back road past one of the neighbours and headed for my Uncle’s home. As we were walking along we were belting the kero buckets and making a fair old noise. Others, like my brother and some others had firearms and let rip a few rounds on the way. My brother had a WW II 303 Jungle Carbine with tracer rounds (as you do). Someone else had a 410 Shotty. Harold followed behind in the Morry with his headlights on to light up the mob.

We then arrived at the entrance to my Uncle’s property. Everyone stopped banging their buckets and shooting their guns. The lights on the Morry were turned off. Everything was now quiet. As we arrived, all of the folk already at my Uncles home had gathered on the front verandah to watch the proceedings. They were amused and intrigued as to what was going to unfold next.

Henry had also arrived. He hops the fence into a neighbour’s vineyard and duly places two sticks of jelly under the corner vine. Henry returns. Time passes. It seems like forever. Then in the silence of the evening there is this almighty blast. “Banngggg.” Hell, what a racket that made.

After all the chuckling and laughter it was time to head on down the driveway. This was a wide but rough, stony track. On the way down there was an implement shed on the right. The banging of kero buckets and shooting in the air continued. The Morry followed with headlights on. We stopped just before the creek. The Morry pulls over next to the shed. Again, as before silence once again. Now it was time for the heavy artillery. My brother and Harold had previously loaded the cannon so it was time to set it up.

The cannon was made out of a piece of tractor axle about two feet long with a bore down the centre about the size of your thumb. About 1 inch or thereabouts. It then had a small drilling to the side to allow for the addition of a cordite fuse. It was packed with black blasting powder and crushed brick. As a concession to safety it was decided to place a piece of bore casing around this thing “just in case she let rip”!

My brother takes this lethal weapon with a double length of fuse and jumps the fence next to the driveway and heads into the small paddock across the creek in front of the house. The moon wasn’t out so the folk on the verandah had no idea what was going on and were standing there in suspense.

We are all standing around waiting and waiting. No idea where my brother is. Eventually he returns and he says it’s all set! We continue to wait and wait. It seemed like forever again. Then “Baaaaannggg” once again. This time I could see the shower of sparks from the blast as this red hot streak of sparks shot about 200 feet straight up in the air.

Again much laughter and cries of “Shiiiiiiiiiiitt, what was that ?”

After that we then continued to bang our kero buckets and fire the weapons as we all marched up to the house. The party had just begun!

I can’t say this happens around here any longer. If it does, they are tame affairs.

Repeating these events today is likely to result in the Police SAS/SWAT team arriving at your front door with weapons drawn. Yes they were the good old days.

Edited by fredeuce, 17 February 2012 - 17:10.

[Ray Bell]

Another bit of colour...

Now matter how far it draws us away from the subject of Paul England.

Someone mentioned Tony Stewart's relationship with Paul, however his familial tie was with Paul's sidekick, Jack Godbehear.

[ellrosso]

Here are 2 shots from the Symmons Plains Gold Star round which Tony Stewart won in atrocious conditions back in 1971. I've never seen a shot of Paul England out of the car sans helmet so don't know whether it is him at the podium or riding on the back of the car - I'd say one is Jack, one is Paul. Maybe Ray or Paul Hamilton could give the correct info. Great day for Tony, he was very impressive that day.

[David McKinney]

I would say that's PE on the back of the car

[lotcor]

Hi - Perhaps have you got actual information about Paul England, please? Where is he living? If you can help me with his postal address, please send me a PM. Thanks.

Paul England and Staff PL is still in business and they are more into heavier engineering. I use them for very specialised balancing. Melbourne
number 0393793703, they may help you with any information.
BTW he (they) built my twincam lotus in 1991 and it is still going strong.
Tim.

[Ray Bell]

That may well be Jack Godbehear enjoying the win with Tony...

Wasn't that only the second-ever Gold Star race won by a F2 (or F1½) car? And the only one in the F5000 era?

[eldougo]

This is Paul and Tony Stewart at Calder Park ,from SCW magazine Jan1973. A Dolphin AF2 car from memory.

And here in the 4wd VW ,he won the AHCC first time out in 1970 at Mt Cotton.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Edited by eldougo, 28 February 2012 - 09:35.