Alan Hamilton launches his Porsche 906 Spyder off the line at Collingrove during his successful assault on the track record over the Easter 1967 long weekend, 35.60 seconds.
It’s a delightfully bucolic Angaston, Barossa Valley scene complete with a couple of Humpy Holdens – an FJ and 48-215 – and a part hidden Gunter-Wagen, VW Beetle. Great stuff, John Lemm.
While the laddos should be drinking in the 908 visage, their eyes are on the prize sitting in the Valiant AP5/6! That’s a Toyota Crown S40 and a Holden HD too. The Japs really upset the local order with their Crown, which was far posher and better built than the contemporary Holden Premier and Ford Fairmont. I wonder who the bloke in the red driving suit is?
(J Lemm)
And below on April 10, 1971, Easter again, Hammo is in the process of winning the second of his four Australian Hillclimb Championships, at Collingrove with his second 906 Spyder, this one had chassis number 906-007 too.
The great Hope Bartlett’s MG Q-Type at Wirlinga during the March 1938 Interstate Grand Prix/Albury Grand Prix weekend. The race was won by Jack Phillips and Ted Parsons in their self-built Ford V8 Special.
Commitment, Gordon Mitchell was absolutely nuts about his racing! ‘My Simca Station Wagon that I bought for $15, towing my Bugeye Austin Healey Sprite across the Nullarbor to an early night race meeting at Oran Park and a race meeting at Warwick Farm in 1971. Memories.’ It’s only 3820 km each way…London to Moscow is 2900 km.
Mitchell was a racer of vast experience with a CV extending from several Sprites, to Porsche 911S, Morris Marina V8, Alfa Romeo GTV, Fiat 131 Abarth, Fiat X19 Abarth and many more.
Fiat 131 Abarth Wanneroo (G Mitchell Coll)
I’ve had some fun lately thumbing through my 1969-72 collection of Racing Car News researching a piece on FoMoCo Oz two Ford GTHO Super Falcons. It takes a helluva long time because of the tangents, not least the ads, wasn’t it a great mag in the day?
Bernie Haehnle was a turn of the 1970s Formula Vee Ace who did well in Series Production and a season or so of Formula Ford in a Bowin P6F. What became of him?
(L Hemer)
‘The Narellan Cup meeting at Oran Park on 6th November 1971, was the first night meeting held after daylight saving began in NSW,’ wrote Lynton Hemer.
‘This meant that the organizers could include Formula Vees in the programme with 4 and 6 lap races at 5:30 and 6:30, before the darkness set in. Here are Bernie Haehnle, Damon Beck, Paul Bernasconi, Laurie Campfield, Denis Riley and Enno Buesselmann.’
Bruce McLaren on the way to winning the November 18, 1962, Australian Grand Prix in his Cooper T62 Climax at Caversham, Western Australia.
It was a lucky victory in that Jack Brabham was taken out when he zigged, and Arnold Glass zagged, eliminating Jack’s Brabham BT4 Climax and clipping the wings of Arnold’s BRM P48 Buick 3.9 V8. John Youl and Bib Stilwell were second and third in Coopers T55 and T53, respectively.
(K Devine)
David McKay susses Bruce’s new Cooper; he bought Jack’s Brabham BT4 shortly thereafter. More about this car here:https://primotipo.com/2016/05/20/bruce-lex-and-rockys-cooper-t62-climax/ On the road near Perth, below, Eoin Young, Wally Willmott, Bruce McLaren and Cooper T62 Climax FPF 2.7.
(K Devine)(K Devine)(M Kass)
The Max Winkless/Jan Woelders Porsche 356A 1600 during the August 21-September 8, 1957 Mobilgas Round Australia Trial.
The winners were Laurie Whitehead and Kevin Young in a VW Beetle 1200 ahead of five other Beetles!
The other ‘Porsche Cars Australia’ 356s were driven by Tom Jackson/David McKay (1500) 27th – above with Jackson working on his car – and the boss, Norman Hamilton (356A), the other cars of Hamilton and Winkless/Woelders were DNFs.
I guess 1971 Australian F2 Championship, Henk Woelders was Jan’s son? Henk is ahead of an Elfin 600 1.6 Lotus-Ford F2 pack at Calder: he, John Walker and Clive Millis, the black and yellow interloper is Peter Larner’s Rennmax.
(S Johnson)
And below Henk sharing an HK Holden Monaro GTS327 with Dyno Dave Bennett during the 1968 Sandown 3 Hour enduro, DNF, the race was won by the Tony Roberts/Bob Watson GTS327. More about Henk here:https://primotipo.com/2018/12/30/henk-woelders/
Unusual colour shot of Don O’Sullivan in his Matich SR3 Repco 720 4.4 V8 during 1969.
The Perth-based racer did quite a few East Coast meetings in 1969, finishing second in the 1969 Australian Sports Car Championship behind Frank Matich’s dominant Matich SR4 Repco 760 4.8 V8. His mechanic/engineer/driver and lifelong friend, Jaime Gard, was based in the Matich workshops that year to prepare the car and lend a highly skilled hand with FM’s cars, too, on occasion
Lynton Hemer catches the sun and beautiful lines of Bill Brown’s new Porsche Carrera RS at Warwick Farm on May 6, 1973. The inside front is just clearing the deck.
Meanwhile, Scuderia Veloce’s Bob Atkin was in the pits and took this shot of one of the races on the same day on the grid: Brian Foley in his Alfa Lightweight- the ex-Mildren-French GTA after further ‘Project 9’ surgery by John Joyce’s Bowin Cars team over the summer of 1972-73, Brown, Carrera RS, Bob Steven’s Mustang and another Grace Bros 911S, one of the Geoghegans I guess.
(B Atkin)
Scratch-men Frank Kleinig, Kleinig Hudson Spl, and John Crouch, Delahaye 135, start the handicap New South Wales Grand Prix, Mount Panorama, Bathurst October 1946.
Rare feel the vibe colour shots of the first Armstrong 500 at Phillip Island over the November 20 1960 weekend; the Bathurst 1000 started right here, of course, folks.
Car 43C below, amongst the ‘BRM mechanics’, is a works Morris Major driven by Rod Murphy and John Callaway. Activ-8 was a local oil company, Golden Fleece’s brand at the time. HC Sleigh Ltd sold Golden Fleece to Caltex in 1981.
(J Devine)(J Cronin)
You can just see a glimpse of Bass Straight below the distant Shell banner in this Main Straightaway – I’m channelling Mike Raymond – photograph. The Mercedes 220SE was crewed by the Youl brothers, Gavin and John, DNF.
(C Munday)
A couple of Garrie Cooper shots at Wanneroo Park, Western Australia.
The first shows him #5 on the grid of the WA Road Racing Championship on May 3, 1970, aboard his Elfin 600D Repco 830 2.5 V8 alongside fellow South Aussie John Walker’s Elfin 600B Lotus Ford 1.6 with Craig McAllister, Macon Ford 1.6 on the left. Cooper won from Walker with Bob Ilich’s Brabham BT21B Cosworth SCB third. See a piece about this race and Cooper’s car here:https://primotipo.com/2018/03/06/garrie-cooper-elfin-600d-repco-v8/
The one below is of Ansett Team Elfin: Garrie Cooper and John McCormack’s Elfin MR5 Repco-Holden F5000s at the Wanneroo Indian Pacific Plate meeting on August 12, 1973.
Cooper took out the three heat event overall with two wins to McCormack’s one Mac fastest of the day however a new lap record of 56.8 sec during the final 20 lapper.
(R Hagarty)
Credits…
John Lemm, Bill Forsyth Collection, Martin Kass, Bob Atkin, Ken Devine, John Cronin, Peter Cartwright, Mark Goldsworthy Collection via Bob Williamson, Sandy Fernanace, Chris Munday, Rob Hagarty, Stewart Johnson, Stephen Stockdale, Gordon Mitchell Collection
Dan Gurney awaits the start of the 1962 Indianapolis 500 in his Thompson Buick V8, with Fritz Voigt and Mickey Thompson in attendance, Memorial Day, Indiana, May 30, 1962.
Jack Brabham and John Cooper started the mid-engined Indy revolution – I’m not suggesting they were the first to race a mid-engined car there – in 1961 with their tiddly 2.7-litre Cooper T54 Climax FPF.
Mickey Thompson wasn’t the only Indycar builder to take the mid-engined bait, but one of his three Thompson Buick V8s driven by Indy debutant Dan Gurney, was the only mid-engined car that took the start in 1962.
His John Crosthwaite-designed, aluminium-bodied machine comprised a lightweight spaceframe chassis, a modified new aluminium Buick BOP – Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac – 215cid V8 and a Halibrand transaxle.
This revolutionary, aluminium production V8 weighed only 317 pounds, about 200 pounds less than Detroit’s cast iron equivalent thereof. Let’s stick with the engine for a bit.
Buick’s innovative V8 featured a deep-skirt aluminium block containing an assortment of iron and steel parts: cast-in bore liners, forged connecting rods, and a crankshaft supported by five main-bearing caps. The result was an engine that weighed 324 lbs, circa 200 lbs less than Chevy’s small-block V-8 (GM Media)
While the ads of the three General Motors’ subsidiaries that fitted the motors to their cars extolled the virtues of better fuel economy and a lighter car, racers looked at the obvious lightweight performance potential too.
The Buick and Pontiac 215 engines were identical but Oldsmobile’s ‘Rockette V8’ had revised heads. The Buick version used a five-bolt pattern around each cylinder, while the Oldsmobile jobbie used a six-bolt pattern to alleviate potential warping of the heads on high-compression variants of the engine
To the Olds party-faithful, the changes made the new engine look like its much respected predecessor, the Olds-Rocket V8, and to those seeking big power gains, the Olds F85 engine was the go, the extra head bolt would assist in avoiding blown head gaskets in performance applications.
You can feel and hear the vibe in this pre-start shot (IMS)
Crosthwaite – Thompson – Buick Indy Car 1962…
British engineer John Crosthwaite designed the Thompson 1962 machine for Mickey Thompson.
Crosthwaite’s and Thompson’s collaboration came about after John’s success with the Dolphin Formula Junior built by a company owned by Bud Hull, in the San Diego/Del Mar area of Southern California. Thompson noticed the pace of the cars and sought him out: https://0398ca9.netsolhost.com/dolphin01.htm
Soon, Thompson and his sponsors, Harvey Aluminium and Jim Kimberly of Kimberly Clark, approached Crosthwaite to design a mid-engined car inspired by those by then de rigeur in European road-racing for the 1962 500.
John Crosthwaite, Jack Brabham and Buddy Hull at right after testing the Dolphin Mk1 Fiat FJ at Riverside in November 1960 during the US Grand Prix weekend. Brabham had already won his second F1 World Championship in Portugal a couple of weeks before (Wiki)John Crosthwaite with one of his completed ’62 Thompson Buicks in Thompson’s Long Beach machine shop. Note the fuel tank locale, Halibrand wheel and beefy spaceframe. Body buck for something else? (Wiki)
Thompson Buick Design & Construction…
Crosthwaite drew on his earlier work in drawing a tubular steel spaceframe chassis, with fully independent suspension front and rear: upper and lower wishbones and coil spring/dampers and adjustable roll bars at the front, and a single upper links, twin radius rods and and gain coil spring/dampers and adjustable bar at the rear. The 16-inch Halibrand wheels and Firestones were way smaller than the usual 18/20 inch units used by the big, heavy roadsters.
The engine was a radical choice as well. Offies had ruled the day for decades. Not only was the Buick V8 the first stock-block engine raced at Indy since 1946, but it was also, as we have seen, brand-new. General Motors had developed a technique to cast aluminium engines in large volumes. The 3.5-litre 317 lb aluminium Buick-Oldsmobile-Pontiac BOP 215 V8 was the first volume production V8 in the world and was just on the market, fitted to the Buick Special, Oldsmobile F85 and Pontiac Tempest. More on the engine mods shortly. The transaxle was a Halibrand two-speed: fast and much faster! It was mated to the engine via a bespoke, shallow, cast bell-housing.
There was no pressure! The project had to be completed in just 120 days. Crosthwaite worked long hours living in a motel close to Thompson’s Los Angeles workshop where the car was built by a crew led by Fritz Voigt.
Key elements laid bare in the Indy garage: spaceframe chassis, modified Buick 215 stock-block aluminium V8, Halibrand two-speed transaxle, disc brakes (D Friedman)Hilborn fuel injection, roller rockers by Iskenderian or Crower (D Friedman)
Buick 215 V8…
The Buick V8 underwent significant performance surgery to be match fit against the 4.2-litre fuel-injected Offys, which gave about 350 bhp in 500-mile race spec at the time.
While multiple parties were involved in the engine’s development, the key modifications were made by Scarab engineers, who worked on improving the engine’s breathing capacity, and Mickey Thompson’s team who experimented with fuel injection and made a specially fabricated intake manifold to suit.
Or is that the case? There seem to be two schools of thought…
In its August 1962 issue that year, Hot Rod reported that the Buick was a Mickey Thompson (M/T) project with no factory help. M/T pistons with a 14:1 compression ratio and M/T aluminum rods were coupled to an M/T cast ductile-iron crankshaft with a 3.10-in stroke. (M/T was then marketing “Cast Billet” stroker crankshafts for popular V8s.) Iskenderian supplied the roller camshaft and kit, while Bob Bubenik engineered the gear drive for the cam and oil, water, and fuel pumps. HIlborn fuel injection with both laydown and vertical-stack manifolds were tried, but vertical stacks proved best. Quoted output was 330 bhp on straight methanol fuel.
Buick 215 engine, mods as per text (MMCG)(MMCG)
A few years later, in a May, 1970 feature Hot Rod interviewed some Buick executives who had a different perspective. In this version, noted Buick engineer Nelson Kunz led the three-month program, working closely with Thompson. Oversize cylinder liners allowed a bore of 3.6125 inches, but here the 3.10-in ductile iron stroker crank was a welded Buick piece and the connecting rods were 4340 steel. Large-port head castings and a Crower H-1 roller cam kit completed the combination, which produced 370 bhp at 7200 rpm. They reported about 15 engines were built with a few sent to sports car teams, including Lance Reventlow’s Scarab operation.
It’s hardly surprising if GM was a bit cute about its involvement in-period, given the Motor Racing Ban Deal between the Big Three at the time: GM, FoMoCo and Chrysler. On the balance of probabilities, Traco were involved too. They built a 3.9-litre modified, Weber-fed, Buick 215 V8 for Lance Reventlow, which was fitted to his Scarab RE Formula Libre car raced by Chuck Daigh in the February 1962 Sandown Park International.
That race was won by Jack Brabham’s Cooper T55 Climax. While the new Scarab chassis needed development – it was never raced again – the potency of the engine impressed onlookers, including Brabham, whose first Repco-Brabham F1 V8, built in 1965, used the Oldsmobile 215 F85 block in modified form; the RB620 3-litre V8 won World Drivers and Constructors Championships in 1966.
These early developments of the BOP 215 V8 Mickey Thompson and others were very important to the engine’s subsequent use by Repco-Brabham Engines and in the back of Bruce McLaren’s new McLaren-Elva sportscars, and others. More about the Scarab RE Buick in this article: https://primotipo.com/2016/01/27/chucks-t-bird/
Ain’t she very sweet, a handsome, purposeful machine in every respect. DG during the obligatory posed qualifying shot (IMS)
1962 Indy 500…
Dan’s primary race program in 1962 was with Porsche in F1 and endurance sportscars. He therefore arrived in Indiana match fit and as sharp as a tack.
Gurney told Andrew Ferguson about his debut year at Indy in 1962 in Ferguson’s research for his great book, ‘Team Lotus – The Indianapolis Years’.
‘I had first gone to Indianapolis in 1962, at the invitation of an entrant named John Zink. I took the obligatory driver’s test in his traditional front-engined Offy roadster, but what he was hoping to qualify for the race was a rear-engined frame. I’m sure it was actually an old Lotus chassis – powered by a Boeing gas turbine.’
‘He had some Boeing engineers who were keen to promote these things as high-reliability, cheap-to-run engines powering Kenworth trucks. One of the engineers was running one on the street in a ’32 Ford roadster, which must have been quite exciting.’
Dan smiling as best he can, Moore 62 Boeing during Indy qualifying (IMS)Boeing Model 502-10F turboshaft engine, a lightweight unit normally used in helicopters, being fettled at Indy. Moore 62 chassis aka John Zink Trackburner Spl (IMS)
‘But when Jack Zink appeared at Indy with his turbine car he was stiff and sore and his face and arms covered in scabs and grazes, because while testing the car back at some place in Oklahoma he’d flipped it during a test run. And when I got out on to the Speedway in the car it was plain that its 350 horsepower wasn’t enough. A gas turbine develops maximum torque at stall, like a steam engine, so the faster you ran it the less it delivered.’
‘In those days we were still having to brake into the turns at Indy, so when you went back on the gas that turbine could set very competitive corner speeds, and came off the turns with good acceleration. But part way down the straight it would be all over for the day. It just ran out of power and stopped accelerating.’
‘I was really having to hustle it in the effort to set competitive lap times, and it became clear that it just didn’t have enough power. So I told Zink that if he could find anyone to drive it faster he shouldn’t worry about hurting my feelings – he should go right ahead and try them…and then Mickey Thompson asked if I’d like to drive one of his new rear-engined Buick V8-powered cars.’
Thompson and Fritz Voigt during Indy qualifying. The ‘body-off’ shots suggest a high level of design and execution quality despite the tight timelines involved (MMCG)‘Fancy meeting you here Colin!’ Gurney greets his Indy 500 guest, Colin Chapman, from the Hospitality Suite! Rather a successful weekend for them both (D Friedman)
Dan had a lot riding on the race. He had funded Colin Chapman to come over and see the 1962 Indy 500 with a view to hooking Lotus and Ford up for a proper shot at the 1963 500. Dan knew an Indy version of the then ‘spankers Lotus 25 monocoque – which debuted at the Dutch GP in May that year – was a race winner.
Dan’s switch to Thompson’s aluminium Buick V8 stock block-powered mid-engined Crosthwaite design proved a good one. The Indy Rookie qualified the new car a tremendous eighth with a speed of 147.886 mph, impressive in every respect. Having said that, Dan was of course, racing mid-engined cars all the time, there was nothing unconventional about the layout to him.
Up at the pointy end, the top three were Roadsters: Parnelli Jones’ Watson Offy from Rodger Ward’s similar car and Bobby Marshman’s Epperly Offy in third.
A couple of youngsters who done real good! Roger Penske wishes Dan well before he jumps in and puts on the ‘belts mandatory at Indy. Note the crash pad on the steering wheel and injection trumpet debris protector (IMS)Mickey Thompson and Dan Gurney just before the start (R Brock/Getty)
After the start, Gurney gradually worked his way into ninth place after the initial stages. The only incident in those early stages was on lap 17 when a four-car pile-up involving Jack Turner, Bob Christie, Allen Crowe and Chuck Rodee. Noteworthy is that AJ Foyt lost a wheel off his Trevis Offy on lap 69.
Running nicely, on lap 92 of 200, Dan experienced a problem with the rear end and was forced to retire. A leaking Halibrand transaxle was later attributed to an improperly mounted seal around the starter shaft in the back of the gearbox which fell out and killed the gearbox.
The race was won by Ward from Len Sutton’s Watson Offy then Eddie Sachs’ Epperly Offy, with Dan classifed 20th and in the money to the tune of $US5161.
Pitstop for Dan, who was out on lap 92 in the Thompson Harvey Aluminium Spl (unattributed)(D Friedman)
Despite not finishing, the Thompson Buick’s performance was considered noteworthy as it demonstrated again the potential of the rear-engined layout and a light aluminium stock block V8 at Indy.
The move looked prophetic on Dan’s part when one of two drivers who drove the John Zink Trackburner Spl aka Moore 62 Boeing. After Dan left, Duane Carter, and then Bill Cheesbourg, tried to get the Moore 62 up to speed but couldn’t. Cheesbourg followed Dan to Thompson’s outfit and drove the #35 Harvey Aluminium Special – Thompson Buick – #35 but missed the cut as did Chuck Daigh who had preceded him…
A third #33 Thompson Buick owned by Jim Kimberly was driven by Porky Rachwitz and Jack Fairman, who both failed to qualify.
The Thompson Harvey Aluminium Special at Indy in 1962 (B Tronolone-Revs)
Etcetera…
Gurney aboard Zink’s Watson Offy for his Rookie Test, Indy 1962, and the shot below (D Friedman)
In order to pass his rookie test Gurney used a good, old, reliable Roadster. Zink’s Offy powered car was no less a chassis than the updated Watson used by Pat Flaherty to win the 1956 race for Zink.
Of interest, perhaps, from indycar.com. ‘Rookie tests from 1936-80 took place during practice for the Indianapolis 500 in May, when the track was open nearly the entire month. Many rookie drivers took advantage of turning their required laps early in May, when there was less traffic because veteran drivers often waited until later in the month to begin their programs.’
(unattributed)(LAT)
Rookie tests for seasoned professionals such as Gurney may seem a little strange, during July 1962 he had won his first championship Grand Prix for Porsche at Rouen-Les-Essarts aboard the the 1.5-litre flat-eight powered car (above).
But Indianapolis is a treacherous place, especially back then.
Porsche 804 laid bare at Zandvoort in May 1962, the meeting at which Gurney – along with the rest of motor racing – went WOW over Chapman’s new monocoque Lotus 25 Climax (J Alexander)
As a consequence, ‘In 1981, the Rookie Orientation Program was formalized. The biggest difference between ROP and previous rookie tests was the entire session was reserved for rookies only, with the session taking place sometime in April or early May. Drivers no longer needed to find clear track amid veteran practice to learn the ropes.’
‘It doesn’t matter if the driver is making their first NTT Indycar series start in the “500” or has extensive global racing success. They all must take the test.’
‘Some noteworthy drivers who were established stars before their first Indy 500 start required to take a rookie test include existing or eventual F1 World Champions Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Jack Brabham, Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Denis Hulme, Jackie Stewart, Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi, Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell and Fernando Alonso.’
Click on the link, then go to note 3, ‘Moore 62 Dan Gurney’, read that, then click on the link to the ‘Len Williams report’ for an amazing account of the car’s construction, testing by Zinc on the track at his ranch, and then the fun and games at Indy trying to coax the car into the race. Truly wonderful stuff.
Moore 62 Boeing turbine and Halibrand transaxle. Designer Denni Moore has gone to great lengths to stiffen the large opening that contains the bulky turbine engine ((D Friedman)Thomson and Voigt, this angle shows how the Thompson Buick’s engine is mounted offset left (MMCG)Firestone boys do their thing. Symmetry albeit offset left! (IMS)Dan Gurney on the Indy 500 and GP racing in 1965Mickey Thompson and John Crosthwaite sandwich a Harvey Aluminium representative well before the #35 car failed to make the ’62 500 cut in the hands of Chuck Daigh and Bill Cheesbourg! (JC Collection)
John Crosthwaite…
Crosthwaite died on September 5, 2010, aged 84.
After the Mickey Thompson cars for the 1962-63 Indy 500, Crosthwaite joined Holman Moody in July 1963. When their Indy project fell through, Crosthwaite commenced at BRM that December.
Later in his career, he was involved in designing chassis for road cars, including the Intermeccanica Italia, the Bond Bug, and the Reliant Scimitar GTE.
Crosthwaite worked with some notable figures/businesses in the sport, including Cooper, Team Lotus, Graham Hill, Dan Gurney, and Jackie Stewart. His innovative designs, particularly for the Indy 500, left a lasting impact on motorsport engineering.
Buick had an ad ready to go had they won in ’91…Gary Bettenhausen DNF radiator after 89 laps, the best placed Buick turbo-V6-powered car was Stan Fox’s Lola T91/00, which was eighth in the race won by Rick Mears’ 2.65-litre Penske PC20 Ilmor Chev 265-A V8.
Credits…
David Friedman Archive, Macs Motor City Garage, psychoontyres.co.uk, Ray Brock/Getty Images, Bob Tronolone-The Revs Institute, Indy Motor Speedway, IMS-Indianapolis Motor Speedway Archive, oldracingcars.com, GM Corp, John Crosthwaite Collection via Wikipedia, LAT, Jesse Alexander, indycars.com
The John Reaburn/Nicholas Granville-Smith Ford GT40 during the 1968 Nurburgring 1000 km.
Melbourne-born John Reaburn – 20/10/1936-26/11/2016 – raced sports cars briefly in Europe in the mid-1960s before retiring at the ripe old age of 32 at the end of ’68.
He inherited the bug from his father Wal who raced a Humpy Holden and operated WJ Reaburn Auto Electrical Engineers Pty. Ltd. from 891-893 High Street, Armadale, Melbourne.
Reaburn’s Holden FJ at the Geelong Speed Trials date unknown (R Simmonds Archive)A brace of Buchanans. John Reaburn chases Wally Mitchell at Phillip Island, date unknown
John raced the Holden and then made his name with consistent winning pace in a potent Buchanan Holden from April 1960 to July 1961. Into the mix were drives in Jaywood Motors, Appendix J Holden Humpy, and FC.
He competed in the 1960-64 Armstrong 500 at Phillip Island and Bathurst, sharing a Singer Gazelle with Harry Firth in 1960, and then Firth’s works Ford Cortina GT, Zephyr MkIII and Falcon. He also raced a FoMoCo Cortina GT in the first Sandown enduro, the 1964 6-Hour International, with Geoff Russell finishing a rousing third outright..
Reaburn in the Ford Falcon XP he shared with Harry Firth during the April 1965 Ford 70000 Mile Durability Run at the FoMoCo You Yangs proving ground (Ford)Firth/Reaburn works-Cortina GT during the April 1964 Lowood 4 Hour, winning their class and ‘outright’
He took on the big-car challenge in 1965, finishing fifth in the one-race Australian Touring Car Championship at Sandown won by Norm Beechey’s Ford Mustang. Raeburn’s mount was the 7-litre Ford Galaxie left in Australia after the ’64 Sandown International by Sir Gawaine Baillie.
Reaburn jumped on a ship for Europe with the intention of racing the car in the UK, but Baillie had sold it before he got there. Brian Muir was third in that Sandown ATCC in his Holden EH S4; he too was soon heading off to the UK, very successfully so.
Reaburn, perhaps, in the Baillie Galaxie at Warwick Farm in 1965 (P Reynell)
Undeterred, Reaburn started working for Graham Warner’s Chequered Flag Motors in 1966, driving their Shelby Cobra in the Zeltweg 500 km (DNF oil leak) that September. He was in the best of company, sharing the grid with GP drivers Jochen Rindt, Jo Siffert, Mike Spence, Innes Ireland, Mike Parkes, David Hobbs and Bob Bondurant.
Nick Brittan wrote about Reaburn in Motoring News during 1966, ‘Raeburn Shines in Driving Test. I don’t seem to be able to get through a month in this column without making some comment about a new Australian driver. In fact I’ve been accused of running an Antipodean news sheet.’
Johnny Reaburn is the latest of the “gday there mate” brigade that are invading our shores. Johnny, a massive, lantern-jawed Melburnian, ran Holdens and FoMoCo cars back home.
JR in the Zeltweg pits in 1966. Bob Bondurant raced the other Chequered Flag Cobra, DNF engine. And yes, like me, the signwriter struggled with the spelling of JR’s name (JR Archive)JR during the September 1966 Zeltweg 500km DNF oil leak in the Chequered Flag Shelby Cobra. Race won by the works Porsche 906 crewed by Gerhard Mitter and Hans Hermann (Zdjecie)
‘Bathurst class successes, three Lowood 4 hour races on the trot, second in the Sandown 6 hour, plus numerous other solid performances, are grounds for giving the bloke a trial.’
‘What shook everybody up last week was his performance at the passout at Brands with the Motor Racing Stables outfit in front of a big crowd of journalists and enthusiasts. Eight lessons in a Formula Ford with the passout in an F3 in the reverse direction on the Club circuit, Johnny equalled the time set by professional driver and instructor Tony Lanfranchi on his fourth lap.’
‘He improved his time by a full seven-tenths of a second on the remaining six laps. Tony then jumped back in the car, but it took him twelve laps to equal the time Johnny had set. He should be deported or given a drive, as this was his first time in open wheelers.’
He raced Mike de Udy’s Porsche 906 with Roy Pike in the Reims 12 Hours in 1967 (DNF), and took part in several 1968 World Sportscar Championship rounds. His car was a yellow Ford GT40, chassis #1001, owned by Andy Cox, ‘who had won money on the football pools and bought himself a GT40,’ wrote Doug Nye.
Reaburn’s driving partners were Nicholas Granville-Smith and another Australian tyro who did a stint at The Chequered Flag, Tim Schenken.
Monza 1000km grid April, 1968 (JR Archive)Nurburgring 1000km April 1968, on the way to 21st place (LAT)
At the Monza 1000 km in April he shared the car with Schenken, DNF engine. At the Nürburgring on May 19, he and Granville-Smith were 21st in the 1000 km.
At Spa-Francorchamps, the week after the Nurburgring, back with Tim, John had a major off on the first lap of the 1000 km enduro.
Doug Nye was there reporting the event for Motoring News and wrote on The Nostalgia Forum, ‘It absolutely widdled with rain and early in the race John dropped the car in the pack on the right hand kink coming down the hill from La Source, past the pits. The GT40 spun round and round and round in a ball of spray and only near the bottom of the hill – entering Eau Rouge – did it finally slither off onto the grass and subside into a ditch on the left side of the track. It was very spectacular, with phenomenal avoidances all round. Pity, he’d been driving it pretty well until then.’
Nurburgring, JR ahead of the second place works Porsche 907 of Hermann/Attwood (LAT)Raeburn with Brigitte Bardot (JR Archive)
Reaburn reported his exploits back home via Racing Car News. Amongst the unreported good times of high performance off the track was a week-long dalliance with Brigitte Bardot that was memorable enough for her to purchase him a Rolex watch inscribed, ‘To Johnny, Love BB’. ‘True story’ confirms Greg Smith, who had a lot to do with Reaburn in the modern historic era, ‘I’ve seen the watch.’
‘Don’t forget that he was instrumental in getting the David Price-written Joan Richmond book published (Joan Richmond: The Remarkable Previously Untold Story),’ chipped in Bob King.
Reaburn tested an F3 car at Brands Hatch in 1966, matching class front-runner Tony Lanfranchi’s times, and a works F2 Lotus 48 Ford FVA at Hethel in 1967, but, being a tall unit, decided to concentrate on sports car racing.
He quit racing at the end of 1968, aged 32. In recent years John lived in retirement with his wife in Mooroolbark, Victoria. He died of a stroke on Saturday, 26 November 2016, aged 80.
Etcetera…
A Truish Story from 1965 by Clark Watson.
‘Young John Reaburn, south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, six-foot-five in his socks, had come to England on the back of a Bathurst class win with Harry Firth. Europe didn’t care. Single-seater cockpits were built for midgets, so John ended up on the showroom floor of Chequered Flag Motorsport in Savile Row, selling Elans and the odd Ferrari while demonstrating Colin Chapman’s ultra-rare analogue driving simulator — one of only two ever made.’
‘One day, a Scottish Lord named Andy walked in — heir to half the Highlands, banned from racing by his mother until he produced heirs of his own. Instead, he spent the family’s millions running sports-car teams and collecting rogues like McLaren, Amon, Rindt, Surtees, and Bondurant. He took one look at the giant Australian and decided he liked him. Soon, John was testing for Andy’s private outfit and sharing a flat in Clapham with Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon.’
‘What happened in that flat stayed in that flat — except one story that finally slipped out. One winter evening, Andy dropped John home after a test day and said only, “Midnight. Sofa. Helmet. I’ll pick you up.” Over dinner, Bruce and Chris just sniggered. When John reached for the wine, they pushed water at him and told him to sleep. Just after midnight, a rattly old lorry reversed down the lane. Andy was directing mechanics who whipped a sheet off the load to reveal a gleaming silver Shelby Daytona Cobra, already thudding and rocking on its springs. Andy climbed into the passenger seat. “You drive.” They ghosted through sleeping London, turned right into Hyde Park itself — gates closed, lights out — pure madness.’
‘Fifty metres from disaster, the park blazed into light and the gates swung wide. Men in bowlers closed them again behind the Cobra. Andy grinned. “Foot flat, Johnno. The gates always open if you’re quick enough.”
‘The Midnight Stakes – the exact course. Horse Guards Parade → up the Mall → full slide around the Victoria Memorial (“the cake top”) → hard left into Hyde Park along South Carriage Drive → blast out at Marble Arch → down Park Lane → left into Constitution Hill → long, long opposite-lock slide back into Horse Guards Parade forecourt. Roughly 2.9 miles door-to-door. They did a slow reconnaissance lap first, just to let the oil warm and the tyres scrub in. Then they lined up again on the gravel.Top hats, tails, cigars, brandy, chalkboards, bowls of £100 notes. Tradition since the Napoleonic Wars on horseback, motorised by the Bentley Boys in 1929. Tonight it was John’s turn.’
‘Andy smacked the quarter panel. “Helmet on. The clock starts the moment you leave the forecourt. Don’t lift for the park — the gates will open.” John tightened the belts until they bit, clicked first, and dropped the hammer. Out of Horse Guards flat in second up the Mall, braked as late as he dared for the right into the park — 150 mph showing — then flat again. Lights flared, gates flew open, the Cobra thundered through the empty park like a silver bullet. Hard left at Marble Arch, 152 mph down Park Lane, police Pandas with blues twinkling, blocking every side street. One huge four-wheel drift around the Victoria Memorial — two perfect black doughnuts for the tourists to puzzle over next morning — then flat out down Constitution Hill and a long opposite-lock slide back into Horse Guards 1 minute 58.4 seconds dead.’
‘New outright record. John was dragged from the ticking Cobra, bundled into a waiting black cab and whisked home while the toffs threw top hats in the air and settled their bets. The record stood exactly thirteen nights. Then Chris Amon took the same 2.9-mile loop in a full Le Mans-spec GT40, big Ford V8 spitting blue flame, touching 198 mph past the Dorchester, and stopped the clocks at 1 minute 47 seconds flat. That night, the birds left every tree in Hyde Park in one black cloud, and half the palace windows rattled in their frames.’
‘The next morning, a humourless new Assistant Commissioner killed the game stone dead. The Cobra disappeared onto a ferry for Ireland before lunch, the chalkboard vanished, and the Horse Guards Midnight Stakes were declared finished “for the duration”.
‘Or so they say. Because if you’re ever in central London on a moonless night and you hear a big American V8 or a Le Mans Ford bark just once after the clocks strike twelve, sending the birds flying from the trees……you’ll know the gates are still opening for someone.’
Reaburn in the Buchanan Holden at Rob Roy, date unknown (L Sims Archive)AMS September 1960 (G Edney Collection)(JR Archive)
Outside Rootes HQ in Melbourne (?) 1960 with Harry Firth. Seventh in Class C 1960 Armstrong 500 at Phillip Island, up front of the class was the Geoff Russell/David Anderson/Tony Luxton Peugeot 403.
(JR Archive)
The word according to Harry…’Now listen here cock, just do this, this, and that, and we’ll win the class’, date and place unknown, yes, Harry is leaning on a Cortina.
(B Wells)
Bathurst 500 1964, the Bill Buckle/Brian Foley Citroen inside the Firth/Reaburn FoMoCo Cortina GT. Third in Class D and Class C respectively.
Zeltweg 500km grid on September 11, 1966. Johannes Ortner, Abarth 1300 GT, John Reaburn, Shelby Cobra and David Hobbs in Bernard White’s Ferrari 250LM.
(JR Archive)
In the Monza pits during the 1968 1000km weekend, that’s Tim Schenken in the sunglasses awaiting his turn at the wheel.
Schenken was a prudent co-driver choice, being the man on every team manager’s list. That year, he won the British Formula Ford Championship, Merlyn Mk11, the BRSCC-MCD British F3 Championship, Chevron B9 Ford/Brabham BT21X Ford/Brabham BT28 Ford and the Grovewood Award. Not bad…
Credits…
John Reaburn Archive via Greg Smith, Ebay, LAT, Ron Simmonds Archive, Leon Sims Archive, Peter Reynell, Brier Thomas, Graham Edney Collection, Bruce Wells, Ford Motor Company, Zdjecie on Historia jakiej nie znacie, David Lowe photo via Tony Johns’ archive
And below making up for lost time through traffic in the latter stages of the 1969 Monaco GP, McLaren M7C Ford, where Bruce was fifth in the race won by Graham Hill’s Lotus 49B Ford.
The CSI/FIA banned the hi-wings overnight Friday-Saturday so I guess this is the Thursday.
(G Johannson)
The victorious Surtees/Scarfiotti Ferrari 250P at Sebring in 1963, the Scuderia’s sixth outright Florida win in eight years
Ferrari took the first three places in the prototype and GT classes, the Index of Performance and the lap record, not a bad weekend’s work…
(M Fistonic)
John Surtees guides his works-Lotus 18 Climax FPF 2.5 around Ardmore Aerodrome during the January 7, 1961 New Zealand Grand Prix.
Colin Chapman sent a pair of Lotus 18s south that summer to keep his drivers sharp over the European winter: team drivers Surtees, Jim Clark and Innes Ireland made the trip with Lotus’ Queerbox doing its bit to despoil the results.
Surtees was NZ GP DNF gearbox (winner Brabham Cooper T53), Levin DNF radiator (Bonnier Cooper T51), and Wigram DNF undisclosed from pole (Brabham Cooper T53).
(M Fistonic)
For Jim Clark above, it’s a little better: NZ GP sixth, Levin second and Wigram DNF stall.
For the record, Roy Salvadori was a DNF gearbox at Wigram and second at Teretonga (Bonnier Cooper T51) in a Yeoman Credit Lotus 18 ‘on his way’ to Australia to do the Oz Internationals in one of Jack’s Cooper T51s.
Ireland was second to Moss in the ferociously hot Warwick Farm 100 (Moss Lotus 18) but DNF in the Victorian Trophy at Ballarat Airfield (Dan Gurney BRM P48).
A couple of stud-meisters at Warwick Farm in 1961, Innes DOB 12/6/1930, Stirling 17/9/1929 (M McGuin)(CAN)
I’d forgotten Jo Bonnier’s two ‘Tasman’ wins in 1961 aboard an old Cooper T51 Climax.
Here he is on the Teretonga International grid on pole at right with Denny Hulme’s Cooper T51 Climax, Pat Hoare, Ferrari 256 and Tony Shelly’s Cooper T45 Climax – with ? Lycoming Special looming large at the far right.
Bonnier won from Roy Salvadori, Lotus 18, then Hulme, Hoare and Shelly.
(CAN)
And, the wonders of Facebook, one for the Cooper historians from Classic Auto News‘ Allan Dick.
‘Bonnier had a successful 1961 tour with Yeoman Credit. He won convincingly at Levin (beating Jim Clark) and Teretonga despite having an old car. After winning the main Teretonga race, he went off in the Flying Farewell (an all-in race at the end of the race weekend, a ‘Butcher’s Picnic’ in Australia), damaging the car so badly that it wasn’t considered worthwhile taking it back to Europe, so it was stripped of its parts and left in Invercargill. Nobody knows what happened to it. Here it is being recovered from the lupins (above) at the end of the main straight.’
(Lister Cars)
Archie Scott-Brown and Brian Lister ponder the construction of the prototype Lister-Jaguar chassis BHL2, registered MVE303…and 506 306 in late 1956 or early 1957 at the Lister family’s Cambridge workshop.
Scott-Brown had a fabulous season, winning 11 of the 14 races he entered including breaking the unlimited sportscar lap record, during the race or practice, on every circuit the team visited.
Press release, what date folks? (Lister Cars)(Classic & Sportscar)
He and a mechanic then took the Lister to New Zealand for their 1958 summer internationals, where the car – registered 506-306 – won two more races. Archie took a 12-lap Le Mans start preliminary at Teretonga and the 150-mile Lady Wigram Trophy (above), finishing ahead of two Grand Prix cars: Ross Jensen’s Maserati 250F and shooting star Stuart Lewis-Evans’ Bernie Ecclestone-owned Connaught B3 Alta.
In an era where such fast cars were usually sold to a lucky (or not) colonial at the end of the trip, the Lister returned home ‘to clear the Customs bond in New Zealand,’ wrote Doug Nye. Sadly, BHL2 was then torn down with many of its fit and well components used in the build of other car(s).
Ken Wharton punts his awesome BRM P15 V16 around Ardmore during the January 9, 1954 New Zealand Grand Prix
He had the 100 lap 300km race shot to bits when brake problems intervened, finishing second behind Stan Jones in Maybach 1, with Tony Gaze HWM Alta third.
Enzo Ferrari ponders the 300bhp, SOHC, two-valve Repco-Brabham V8-engined Brabham BT19 in the Monza pits during the September 1966 Italian GP weekend.
Ludovico Scarfiotti brought home the pancetta for the Scuderia, mind you, winning the race from Mike Parkes in another Ferrai 312 with Denny Hulme third in his Brabham BT20 Repco.
(LAT)
Still, the pace of the little-ies shouldn’t have surprised Enzo in that transitional year: the 2-litre Coventry Climax and BRM-powered Lotus 33s of Jim Clark and Graham Hill, and his own Dino 246 of course. The title was there for Ferrari’s taking; all they had to do was keep John Surtees in the saddle for the year…
Meanwhile, Jack was having a grouse time. Time enough to slip home mid-season for the opening week of Surfers Paradise International Raceway – his race was on August 14 – collect some cash, demonstrate Repco’s wares to the punters, then go back to Europe and wrap up the World Championship…which he did at Monza.
(NAA)
The logistics of it all are interesting.
Win the German GP in BT19 on August 7, pop it in a Qantas 707 to Australia (or whatever), get it from Melbourne or Sydney to Surfers. Do the whole thing in reverse, get BT19 race prepped, then truck it off to Italy.
Meanwhile, Jack jumped a jet to Scandinavia and won two ‘Euro F2’ rounds from Denny: the Kanonloppet, Karlskoga on August 21, and the Finlands GP at Keimola Ring on August 24. JB in a BT21 Honda, DH in a BT18 Honda. August wasn’t a bad month, really. Some sort of engine problem let the Repco side down in Queensland, it could easily have been a win a weekend for Jack…
(Ebay)
Mike Spence at the wheel of the Chaparral 2F Chev he shared with Phil Hill at Le Mans in 1967, DNF transmission failure after 225 laps in the race won by the Ford Mk4 raced by Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt.
Kuniomi Nagamatsu on the way to victory in the May 3, 1971 Japan Auto Federation Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji International Speedway aboard his Mitsubishi Colt F2D/F2000 R39B 2-litre.
He won the 35 lap, 225km race from his teammate Osamu Masuko in another F2D from then Japanese International Tetsu Ikuzawa’s Lotus 69 Ford FVC 1790cc in third place.
Nagamatsu’s win was the culmination of six years of Mitsubishi single-seater racing in Japan and Macau using Brabham chassis/copies thereof; the F2Ds are Brabham BT30 chassis in drag. Lower drag that is, the aero on these cars was the work of Mitsubishi’s aviation subsidiary.
The engines were home grown too. Initially production motors with the usual mix of increased bore, heads, carbs and cams but by 1971 Topsy was a 2-litre, twin-cam, four valve, fuel injected F2 engine that should have won the 1972 European F2 Championship if someone – how bout Bernie Ecclestone, having just acquired Brabham – had done a deal. Instead, Mitsubishi handbrake turned away from single-seaters and into the forests where they were already gaining international success…
Who said high-airboxes were started by Tyrrell/Matra during 1971?
Ferrari gave it a whirl on Richie Ginther’s Ferrari 156 at Reims during practice for the 1961 French Grand Prix, he didn’t race with it, so presumably the jury was out as to its performance. That’s Carlo Chiti with the top of his head chopped off.
And below in the LWB (it’s a joke folks) Ferrari 156 #0001 at Monaco on May 14 where he scored a rousing second place behind Mighty Moss in Rob Walker’s Lotus 18 Climax and in front of more-fancied teammates Phil Hill and Wolfgang von Trips. See here for the evolution of 246P to 156:https://primotipo.com/2015/10/04/monaco-panorama-1958/
(GPL)
And below Richie all, fast and loose in his competition debut at Sandberg Hillclimb on April 8, 1951. The car is Bill Cramer’s MG TC 2 Junior Ford V8, the poor little chassis would have been groaning at the seams…
(Revs Institute)(primotipo archivio)
Brian Redman contesting the 1976 Teretonga International aboard a Fred Opert Chevron B29 BMW 2-litre Euro F2 car in the Peter Stuyvesant International F5000 Series.
F5000’s greatest star was to race a RAM Racing F5000 but Fred Opert came to the rescue after they withdrew. Brian thrilled the Kiwis with his talent, he was equal fourth in the series with Graeme Lawrence’s Lola T332, Ken Smith won the four race series in his Lola T330/332 Chev.
Redman was fourth at Pukekohe, second at Manfield, DNF engine at Wigram and DNF wheel at Teretonga.
Manfield pits 1976 (D Bull)(Getty)
N.A.R.T.’s Ferrari 250LM #5893 – the 1965 Le Mans winner in the hands of Johen Rindt and Masten Gregory – dangles above the wharf at Le Havre after its trip from New York on the liner, France, September 18, 1968, destination, La Sarthe.
Masten Gregory ahead of a bunch of cars, including #11 Brian Muir’s Ford GT40, Andre De Cortanze #30 Alpine A220 Renault Gordini, the #60 Willy Meier Porsche 911T and Umberto Maglioli’s Chev Corvette. All were DNFs with the exception of the De Cortanze/Jean Vinatier Alpine, which was tenth. The ’68 race was won by Pedro Rodriguez/Lucien Bianchi in a JW Automotive Ford GT40.
(EBay)
The Gran Premio dell’Adriatico 1981 European F2 Championship round at Misano with Miguel Angel Guerra’s works Minardi Fly 281 Ferrari Dino, 13th, ahead of Oscar Pedersoli’s Ralt RT2 BMW, DNF.
McLaren Cars, Milan Fistonic, Lister Cars, Stuart Dent Collection, Gerry Johannson, GP Library, National Archives Australia, David Bull, Ebay, Revs Institute, Getty Images, LAT, CAN Classic Auto News via Allan Dick, Mitsubishi, Michael McGuin
Sun-Herald cartoonist Mark Knight captured it rather nicely I thought?
Canadian-born Australian touring car racer – one of our legends – Allan George Moffat died last week after suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease for the last few years. November 10, 1939-November 22, 2025. Rest In Peace.
(R Hobman)
Moffat and Peter Brock after winning the January 1986 Wellington 500 in a 5-litre Holden Commodore VK.
With so many photographs popping up in the media since his death, it seemed a good idea to filch a few and add some more as a tribute to a man who provided so much fizz and sparkle to our scene on every level for so long. Google away for the statistical stuff.
(autopics.com)
On the grass at Sandown after one of his many wins at his home track, in the 1970 Sandown 250 enduro – the traditional Bathurst curtain-raiser – works XW Ford Falcon GTHO Phase 2.
His family settled in Melbourne from Canada – his Dad was a Massey Ferguson exec – and I guess the Melbourne die was cast when he arrived back permanently with the Kar-Kraft Mustang Trans-Am in 1969. Ford Australia have always been Melbourne-based based and he needed to be close to the action, so Melbourne it was, Toorak specifically.
Booting his XY GTHO Phase 3 out of Dandy Road at Sandown in the Sandown 250 the following year, DNF after only three laps, gotta be a qualifying flyer, AM wouldn’t have fried his Goodyears like this in an endurance race.
(B Nelson)
Barry Nelson and AGM with the ex-Clark Lotus Cortina at Hume Weir during the Boxing Day 1965 meeting
Nelson, ‘There was only one pre-airflow ex-Jim Clark Cortina in Australia, the later car was built in the Toorak workshop by me and Peter Thorn. The tow car is my FJ Holden panel van with hot Grey motor.’
Scrapping with Jim McKeown’s Lotus Cortina for the South Australian Touring Car Championship win in 1966. Clem Smith’s Valiant won the bubbles (P Smeets)(S Elliott)
Steve Elliott has captured the pensive, focused AGM of renown before a race – gotta be his ‘75 NZ Tour? – at Bay Park, New Zealand, aboard the fabulous Trans-Am, one of the most celebrated of all Australian Touring Car combos. I love this shot.
(autopics.com)
Here with the injected 351 borrowed from his Super Falcon at Calder’s Tin Shed corner? And below the distinctive Ford F150 rig that towed the car coast to coast, at Oran Park.
Oran Park, August 9, 1971 (R Jones)New Zealand circa-1972, circuit folks?
The planets were never aligned for Moff and the Boss 302 to take out the Australian Touring Car Championship they deserved, but karma caught up when he and the works-Phase 3 HO won his first of four ATCCs in 1973.
The shot above looks like the November 1972 Surfers 300 Manchamp round with FoMoCo Team Manager Howard Marsden doing his thing from the pit counter at the end of the Series Production Era, they won it. The one below is the Group C HO at Oran Park in June 1973, the happy ATCC year; they won that race too.
(insidesport.com.au)
The Falcon GT351 Hardtops were tougher going without direct factory support, golden ATCC 1977 year duly noted: the ATCC, Bathurst 1000 and Manufacturers Championship was pretty good going by Moff, Colin Bond and colleagues!
Surfers Paradise 300 in 1978 above, XC Cobra 351, and some of the key men in that period below: Peter Molloy, AGM and Mick Webb, missing from the shot (1978?), is Carroll Smith, who team managed the brilliant 1977 effort and was back Stateside by then.
(G Lindley)1977 Bathurst 1000 one-two weekend: Moffat/Ickx and Colin Bond/Alan Hamilton. Ford XC Falcon GS500 Hardtop 351. Carroll Smith with his back to us (speedcafe.com)(I Smith)
Moffat and Jim McKeown at it again, this time a decade later in a pair of sports sedans at Hume Weir in June 1975: the fabulous howling ex-works Ford Capri RS3100 Cosworth 3.4 V6 and the Alan Hamilton/Porsche Cars Australia mid-engined Porsche 911 Turbo that CAMS shortly thereafter legislated out of existence.
(R Cammick)
The Mighty Dekon built Chev Monza 350 at Bay Park, New Zealand, on its way to Australia in late 1975, and below all close up and friendly at Torana Corner, Sandown in 1979.
(R Martin)(BMW)
BMW claim their 1975 Sebring 12-Hour win – Hans Stuck, Brian Redman, Sam Posey, Allan Moffat – with a 3.5-litre 3.0 CSL ‘launched’ the marque into the public’s consciousness in the United States.
(BMW)
It was Moff’s biggest international win too. Over the years he contested many international enduros including Le Mans on several occasions.
The shot below shows him at the wheel of the Dick Barbour Racing Porsche 935 K3 he stared with Bob Garretson and Bobby Rahal at Le Mans in 1980; DNF piston in the 11th hour.
Moffat aboard the Andy Rouse-built, leased Ford Sierra RS500, at Bathurst in 1987, the car retired on lap 31 before AGM had a steer. His co-drivers were Rouse and Thierry Tassin.
Allan’s last serious race was the 1989 Fuji 500, in which he raced his Eggenberger-built RS500 to victory together with Klaus Niedzwiedz. Moffat entered the car #39, his birth year, won the race, then quietly retired from driving. Macau GP Mazda MX5 hit and giggle support race duly noted…
Credits…
Barry Nelson, Russell Hobman, Steve Elliott, autopics, Rob Jones, Glenis Lindley, Peter Smeets, Ian Smith, Ross Cammick, Russell Martin, Allan Moffat Archive, BMW, LAT, Getty, speedcafe.com
Tailpiece…
(Moffat Archive)
In the very best of company at Indy during the Month of May in 1965 with Colin Chapman, Jim Clark, the rest of the boys and the victorious Lotus 38 Ford Indy 4.2 V8.
Leo Geoghegan blasts his ex-Clark Lotus 39 Repco 830 V8 around Warwick Farm, perhaps during the July 12-13 1969 meeting, and the year before, below at Mallala during the 1968 Gold Star weekend.
(unattributed)
Leo won at Mallala from Kevin Bartlett’s Brabham BT23D Alfa Romeo, along side him on the front row and Glyn Scott, Bowin P3 Ford FVA in third.
#3 is Phil West’s Scuderia Veloce Brabham BT23A Repco, alongside him is John Walker’s Elfin Mono, the helmet under KB’s wing is Scott’s, I’m not sure about the fella behind Scott with the black helmet.
Three-wheel angel ride into Creek Corner for Leo at Warwick Farm, date unknown, but the 39 is still in its Climax FPF days. It wasn’t the only time the knock-offs ‘misbehaved’, he had a similar adventure at Longford during the 1968 meeting.
‘Just off to the Farm for the day to watch Darls, see you about 7’.
‘That’s Bob Holden in the ex-Bill Brown GTHO that rolled on lap 1 of the 1969 Bathurst 500,’ responded Alan Gow to this mystery car to me.
‘Bob kept that rego number his whole life (which continues!) and put it on various of his cars.’
(T Cotton)
Warwick Rooklyn, Class B Ralt RT32 VW F3 at Oulton Park during the August 13, 1989 round of the British F3 Championship.
David Giles wrote that ‘when he spun off in the race, Murray Walker referenced his sponsor with a “well the track is as dry as a bone and maybe that’s the problem!” quip!’
The young star yachtsman was a pretty handy racer as well, winning the 1986 Australian Formula Ford Driver to Europe Series in an Elwyn 003/004 from such luminaries as Alan Bisset (no relation), Richard Carter, Mark Poole and David Brabham.
He came across Brabham again in the 1989 British F3 Championship. DB won the August Oulton Park round en route to winning the championship from Allan McNish and Derek Higgins on his inexorable rise through the sport. Rooklyn was second in Class B behind Fernando Plata’s similar RT32.
Rooklyn raced Formula Holdens in the Australian Gold Star Championships in 1991-92, in a Ralt RT21 Holden as above in ’92 and aboard a Shrike NB89H Holden in which he was seventh in the championship.
Warwick had a number of Bathurst starts, his best was finishing 12th outright and third in class in a 2-litre BMW 318i alongside John Blanchard in 1994.
It’s on yachts that Warwick made his mark globally, I can’t give you one article that neatly summarises his career, so Google away as you see fit.
(P Cummins Archive)
B Bira – Birabongse Bhanudej Bhanubandh – during the South Pacific Championship meeting at Gnoo Blas on January 31, 1955, Maserati 4CLT-48 OSCA 4.5-litre V12.
At the outset of Prince 1955 Australasian Tour, his Maserati 250F was tatty but fresh enough to win the New Zealand Grand Prix at Ardmore on January 8 from a classy field that included Peter Whitehead and Tony Gaze’s 3-litre Ferrari 500/625s, Jack Brabham’s 2-litre Cooper T23 Bristol, and Reg Hunt’s 2.5-litre Maserati A6GCM.
But at Gnoo Blas, Orange, three weeks later, the exotic Italian DOHC, straight-six went kaboomba in practice. So Bira wheeled out his second-string OSCA, but it too had fuel feed problems in the first FIA-sanctioned race meeting in Australia, won by Whitehead from Brabham and Gaze.
The Peter Whitehead/Tony Gaze/Alf Barrett Jaguar C-Type led but DNF below after 282 of the winners’ 573 laps.
(M Goldsworthy Collection)
No such thing as too much Frank Matich as you all know…
A decade ago there were few photographs of his 1967 Can-Am exploits with two 4.4-litre Repco-Brabham V8 powered SR3s but now there are a few more even if most are paddock shots, Facebook being the distribution medium.
Max Stewart on the way to winning the April 2, 1972 Singapore Grand Prix on the Thomson Road circuit, Mildren Lotus-Ford 1.6 from Vern Schuppan’s March 722 and Bob Muir’s Rennmax BN3, both cars also Lotus-Ford powered.
Up top, its Norm Beechey’s and Len Lukey’s Ford Customlines and Jack Myers’? Holden 48-215 at the start of the 8-lap KLG Touring Car Trophy won by Lukey’s Cusso from the similar cars raced by Reg Smith, Doug Whiteford and B Rice. See more on Len here: https://primotipo.com/2019/12/26/len-lukey-australian-gold-star-champion/
And the shot below shows young Allan Jones with his hand on the Ford watch the start of the 1958 Melbourne Grand Prix won by #7 Stirling Moss’ Cooper T45 FPF from Jack Brabham’s similar car #8.
#12 is Stan Jones’ Maserati 250F (DNF), #10 Tom Clarke’s Ferrari 555 Super Squalo (10th) with Ted Gray’s Tornado 2 Chev V8 (DNF) inside him. See here: https://primotipo.com/2024/01/12/coopers-aloft/
And David Coulthard below in 1997, 40 years on, there is just no comparison, same venue but so different…
(Getty)(T Parkinson Archive)
Allan Tomlinson waves to the punters as he takes a sensational victory in the 1939 Australian Grand Prix at fearsome Lobethal aboard his oh-so-carefully prepared and skilfully driven MG TA Spl s/c on January 2. See here for a feature on the race: https://primotipo.com/2020/12/04/tomlinsons-1939-lobethal-australian-grand-prix/
One for the touring car fans, start of a tourer race circa 1967 with Pete Geoghegan’s Mustang up the front together with Robin Bessant’s Lotus Cortina and Frank Gardner’s Alec Mildren Racing Alfa Romeo GTA. The tail of Bruno Carosi’s Jaguar Mk2 is there too.
There have been plenty of Australian Grand Prix winners who have worked on their cars but not to many by 1984…
Roberto Moreno giving Harvey Spencer a hand on Niki Lauda’s Goold Motorsport – Greg Siddle – Ralt RT4/85 Ford during practice at Calder over the November 18 weekend. The compression tester is there with diagnostics underway.
Niki was Q18 and DNF collision after 41 of the 100 laps (100 miles), but Roberto had an affinity with the place and took the win from pole in the other Siddle machine; he won there in other RT4s in 1981 and 1983 too.
Lex Davison served a notice of later Australian Grand Prix intent with his impressive handling of his powerful, heavy Mercedes-Benz SSK 38/250 during the 1947 event at Bathurst on October 6.
He was third in the handicap race off 10.5 minutes, behind him is scratch-man, the great Alf Barrett’s Alfa Romeo 8C2300 Monza, who didn’t finish. Lex won the race in 1954-HWM Jaguar, 1957-58 3-litre Ferrarii 500/625 and in 1961 aboard a Cooper T51 Climax. Alf didn’t ever take a derserved win, his had AGP luck mirrored Lex’s great AGP luck!
Bill Murray’s MG TC won from Dick Bland’s Mercury Special and Davo.
Start of a Warwick Farm marque sports car race circa 1971, date and placegetters folks? And what a grid it is!
From the left is Graham Bland’s Honda S800, Ian Corness’ MGB, Bob Skelton, Austin Healey Sprite, Ross Bond;s usually dominant Austin Healey 3000 and Graeme Lawrie, Triumph Spitfire.
(D Cummimg)
Graeme Lawrence shakes hands with Liverpool Speedway promoter, Frank Oliveri after an F5000 demonstration on the high speed, paved, quarter mile oval circa-1974.
The Kiwi is in his Lola T332 Chev and alongside is Jon Davison’s jet-black Matich A50 Repco-Holden. It must have been spectacular folks, anyone see it?
(West Archive)
Phil West basks in the admiration of the Mount Panorama crowd after winning the Bathurst round of the Gold Star, Easter 1968.
This rare portrait of Phil was posted by his daughter, Kate Murphey on Bob Williamson’s Old Motor Racing Photographs FB page.
His mount was the Scuderia Veloce Brabham BT23A Repco 740 2.5 V8 vacated not long before by Greg Cusack after his Longford Tasman accident. More on Scuderia Veloce here:https://primotipo.com/2022/03/07/bob-atkin-collection-1/
(P Cross)
Credits…
Ed Holly Archive, Bill Forsyth via Tony Loxley/Full Throttle, Bob Williamson Archive, Pete Biro, Larry Fulhorst, Tony Parkinson Archive, Tim Cotton Collection, MotorSport Images, Mark Goldsworthy Collection via Bob Williamson, oldracephotos.com, David Cumming, Paul Cross, Phil West Archive via Kate Murphey
Tailpiece…
(R Edgerton Collection)
Love this shot of Bill Thompson and Bill Balgarnie’s MG K3 on the hop during the April 1, 1935 Australian Grand Prix, the last held on Phillip Island.
The 200 mile handicap race was organised by the Light Car Club of Australia and as usual to that point was a race for cars of under 2-litres.
Les Murphy’s MG P-Type won by only 27 seconds from Thompson off scratch, Murphy started the race 29 minutes and 27 seconds ahead of him. Thompson did the fastest time and set the fastest lap in a famous drive.
I love Stewart Johnson’s moody, evocative shot of Alec Mildren’s Alfa Romeo TZ-2 taken during the 1966 Surfers Paradise 12-Hour run over the August 21 weekend.
These cars were built for endurance events, not the five or ten-lap screamers prevalent in Australia, so it was a chance for the team to contest a 12-hour event of the type for which Autodelta designed the car.
(J Crawford)
Jackie Stewart is best away at the start in the Scuderia Veloce Ferrari 250LM from the David Piper/Richard Attwood Ferrari 365 P2 #1, the Peter Sutcliffe/Frank Matich Ford GT40, the Bartlett/Chivas TZ2 and then the first of the Lotus 23B Lotus-Fords driven by Frank Demuth and John Harvey.
Below, the third-placed Bartlett/Chivas TZ-2 is ahead of the Piper/Attwood Ferrari 365 P2 DNF. Up front was the winning Stewart/Buchanan Ferrari 250LM, one lap ahead of the second-placed Sutcliffe/Matich Ford GT40.
(B Williamson Archive)Ain’t they sweet…Kevin Bartlett TZ-2 and Spencer Martin in Bob Jane’s Jaguar E-Type Lightweight on the front row of the Country Club GT Trophy grid at Warwick Farm on September 18, 1966 (R Kaleda)
Chassis AR10511-750112 was built on a modified TZ-1 chassis; number 750072 was a chassis, not a complete car, and had an aluminium body, ‘presumed to be the only all-aluminium car and to have been used as the mould for the fibreglass cars,’ wrote zagatocars.com.
Registered UD111834, the works Autodelta machine was first raced by Roberto Bussinello and Andrea de Adamich in the April 25, 1965 Monza 1000km – round five of the World Sportscar Championship – finishing first in class and seventh outright. The race was won by the Mike Parkes/Jean Guichet Ferrari 275 P2.
It was then off to the Targa Florio on May 5. This time Bussinello was paired with Nino Todaro, but they failed to finish after an accident on lap 6 of 10. Up the front was the Vaccarella/Bandini Ferrari 275 P2.
Suitably repaired, 750112 was prepared for the Nurburgring 1000km a fortnight later, May 23, with Bussinello again at the wheel, this time paired with Teodoro Zeccoli, where they were 30th with 36 laps completed compared to winners’ Surtees/Scarfiotti’s 44 laps aboard a Ferrari 330 P2.
750112 in the Le Mans pits 1965 (unattributed)Le Mans 1965. Zeccoli plans his attack on the Mulsanne sand dune while the works-Ford GT40 Mk2s of Ken Miles and Phil Hill – DNFs both – rumble past on their second lap (unattributed)
The car’s final European outing before its sale to Alec Mildren was at Le Mans on June 19-20 where Zeccoli shared it with Jose Rosinski. The weekend looked promising enough but it all came undone come raceday when Teodoro went off at the end of the Mulsanne into the sand trap from which he never escaped.
He didn’t give up, though. The spectators were treated to a gritty two-hour performance where Zeccoli tried to dig the car loose, the final element of which involved stripping down to his jocks to use his race suit under a rear wheel in an attempt to get more traction. Unsuccessfully, unfortunately.
(Alfa Romeo)(Alfa Romeo)
Mildren then imported 750112 to replace the second of his GTAs in mid-1966 with its regular pilot, Kevin Bartlett, seen below giving the now yellow car plenty at Warwick Farm in 1966.
(K Bartlett Arc)(K Crump via E Holly)
Amongst the sprinters. Frank Demuth’s Lotus 23B from Kevin Bartlett, Alfa Romeo TZ-2, Niel Allen, Lotus 23B, Lionel Ayers, MRC Lotus 23B and Greg Cusack’s Lotus 23B then the obscured Les Howard’s Lotus Super 7 and Spencer Martin’s Ferrari 250LM on June 15, 1966
And below, Bartlett chasing Ron Thorp’s AC Cobra, again at Warwick Farm
(G Dowdle)
750112’s ownership roll call in Australia is fairly long, although most of them didn’t race it.
From Mildrens the car went to Roy Compton, then Max Brunninghausen in 1967, Compton trading the TZ-2 on Brunninghausen’s TZ-1. Max raced it extensively, including a trip to the Macau Grand Prix in 1968, where he finished a splendid third in the sports car behind Jan Bussell’s winning Brabham Lotus-Ford and Hengkie Iriawan’s Elfin 600C Ford FVA.
The robust TZ-2 was ideally suited to the rough road circuit, although Max had his challenges after differential failure during practice. Divine Intervention came via Alec Mildren and the Australian Government, who shipped a spare diff from Sydney to Macau via a Diplomatic Bag!
Max Brunninghausen at Macau in 1968 (Z Drummer)(N Wong)
Another Sydneysider, Denis Cribbin followed in 1969, the cars contemporary racing history, including two or three decent hits along the way, was then over.
The trail of ownership then goes something like this. Les Miller bought it in 1971, followed by Messrs. Robertson, Hopkins, and Whiting in quick succession (is this correct? I’ve never heard of them in connection with this car), then Royce Fullard of Eltham, Victoria. Royce may have sold it to Nick Langford, who lived not far away in Mitcham.
When I saw the car in Langford’s restoration business at Castlemaine circa 1978, it was in a million bits. Langford – an Alfisti through and through – would have done a great job with the restoration, but its sale as a result of his matrimonial earthquake shook the car loose, and it left our shores for good circa-1980. Current custodian folks?
Denis Cribbin at Warwick Farm in September 1969 (L Hemer)
Etcetera…
(Marouf Collection)
The Bussinello/Todaro TZ-2 #750112 during the 1965 Targa Florio.
Denis Jenkinson wrote in MotorSport about the new car’s Targa appearance. ‘The special bodied orange Alfa Romeo GTZ of Autodelta, the factory team, came screaming into sight at the far end of the village street, and snarled as it slowed and changed down for the corner in the square.’
The secret of the car’s success was the careful evolution of the TZ-1 chassis and engine. Later in its competitive life in Australia, the capacity of the twin-plug twin-cam four-cylinder engine fitted to 750112 was circa-1.9-litres rather than the 1.6-litre unit first fitted.
To reduce weight, the TZ’s aluminum body was replaced with a lighter fibreglass one, with the exception of ‘our’ 750112. Designer Ercole Spada created an erotic, lower, leaner, more aggressive body. All of the improvements resulted in a car that sat 140 mm lower, produced 20 extra horsepower and weighed 40 kg less than the TZ-1.
(Alfa Romeo)
Alfa Romeo historian/author Ed McDonough wrote that, ‘Unfortunately, by the time the TZ-2s made their race debut at Monza in 1965, Alfa management had already told Carlo Chiti, Autodelta’s director, that his shop was to concentrate its efforts on developing the GTA and the Tipo 33.’
‘This was done at the TZ-2’s expense, and soon the cars were sold off to privateers. The TZ-2 raced successfully for another two seasons and scored class and sometimes even overall wins in a variety of events, including sprints, endurance races, and hillclimbs. The TZ2 extended the TZ-1’s victories with wins in the 1600 GT class at Sebring, the Targa Florio, the Nürburgring 1000 km, Monthlery, Spa and Monza.’
(B Reid)
Max Brunninghausen in the Warwick Farm form up area above, and in the Surfers Paradise pits in 1968 below.
(J Gray)
‘There are constant arguments as to how many TZ-2s were built, ‘ wrote Ed McDonough. ‘According to Alfa expert L. Fusi, twelve were made from chassis 750.114 to 750.121, obviously leaving some numbers out. Author David Styles says ten were built, while Hull and Slater say twelve, as does Belgian Tony Adrieansens. Adrieansens argues eight were made in 1965, and four of the 1965 TZ-2 chassis were built with TZ-1 chassis numbers. For example, 750.104 is a TZ-1 chassis number but is an early TZ-2. 750.1106 is the same and was one of the early test cars. Possibly 750.112 is the only aluminium-bodied car.’
‘All the nine Zagato-bodied racecars are accounted for and most are in racing condition. Since the running gear is production based, they are relatively inexpensive to run in vintage racing. However, you’ll first need more than a million dollars to buy one, as that’s what the last one sold for at auction.’
Credits…
Stewart Johnson, John Crawford, Ray Kaleda, Zito Drummer, Natalino Wong, Geoff Dowdle, Bill Reid, Ken Crump via Ed Holly Archive, Kevin Bartlett Achive, John Gray, Lynton Hemer, Geoff Medley, Alfa Romeo Archive, Marouf Collection, zagato-cars.com, ‘Colour and Noise:40 Years of the Macau Grand Prix’ by Phillip Newsome, Ed McDonough ‘Alfa Romeo TZ2-Delta Force’ article on supercars.net.
The battle for the lead of the AGP, John Leffler, Bowin P8 Chev from winner, Max Stewart, Lola T400 Chev (G Langridge)
While the popular notion of Surfers Paradise is of sun, surf, sand and bikini-clad babes, Greg Langridge’s photographs show that nothing could be further from that stereotype; the Gold Coast rained cats and dogs during the Australian Grand Prix held on August 31, 1975.
Sandown hosted the final ’75 Tasman Cup round on February 23, so it was a long time between drinks for the F5000 pilots that didn’t have a gig overseas or another domestic racing program to keep their hands in. The five-round Australian Drivers Championship, aka the Gold Star, started at Surfers and finished at Phillip Island on November 28.
‘Eat ’em alive in 75′, Tasman champ Warwick Brown with Pat Burke’s Lola T332 HU27, the first of the T332s (S Elliott)
Gold Star Field…
Of the Tasman Top Trio, Warwick Brown headed back to the US, where he had a Jack McCormack Racing Talon Chev ride, Kiwi Graeme Lawrence did only the AGP, while John Walker was back with his Lola T332 retubbed after the colossal Sandown shunt from which he had ‘walked away’. Not back early enough, though, he missed the first AGP round, which proved rather critical at the season’s end…
Lanky Max about to load his good-self, including his famous Jolly Green Giant race suit, into his Lola T400 during practice which was as dry as raceday was wet! (C Jewell)
Max Stewart and Kevin Bartlett were still grumpy about their variable-rate suspension Lola T400 Chevs, while the advantages of John Leffler’s variable-rate suspension Bowin P8 – handling and roadholding aspects of his Bowin P6F Formula Ford and Bowin P8 Hart-Ford 416B that he loved throughout 1973-74 – weren’t realised as the marriage of a Chev V8 with the Bowin P8 monocoque was executed poorly by Leffo and his team; the car was as stiff as a centenarians todger. A shame, as a Repco-Holden was a P8 bolt-on – John Joyce designed and built the car for that engine – the Chev, while bought at a good price, was not so.
McCormack, Elfin MR6 Repco-Holden during the 1975 Lady Wigram Trophy (T Marshall)
A bloke falling back in love with Repco-Holden F5000 V8s was ’73 Gold Star Champ, John McCormack. He’d persevered with the aluminium Repco-Leyland F5000 V8-engined Elfin MR6 throughout 1974. While the car was light, it was hopelessly underpowered, unreliable and therefore uncompetitive.
Repco Ltd withdrew from racing in July 1974. The new Repco-Leyland F5000 program was a casualty. Unlike the cast-iron Holden 308 engine, the Leyland P76 V8 wasn’t structurally strong enough for racing. When Phil Irving ‘sectioned’ the engine at the program’s outset, he found it quite different to the Oldsmobile F85 aluminium V8 block that formed the basis of his 1966 World F1 Championship-winning 3-litre F1 Repco-Brabham 620 engine.
GM sold the BOP V8 (Buick-Oldsmobile-Pontiac) project to Rover, which made changes to it, too, and Leyland Australia when they built their 4.4-litre variant for the short-lived, very good but exceptionally ugly P76. Repco’s engineering resources would have overcome the shortcomings, as McCormack and Irving did ultimately, just! See here:https://primotipo.com/2024/10/18/repcos-withdrawal-from-racing/
In the interim, McCormack, Dale Koenneke and Simon Aram cranked old-faithful, their Repco-Holden V8s into the MR6 and instantly found the speed and reliability they needed. Mac was fourth in the ’75 Tasman.
‘Team Manager’ Warwick Brown with Bruce Allison’s Lola T332 Chev during the 1976 Rothmans International Series in NZ, circuit folks? (B Allison Collection)
The most impressive ’75 F5000 debutant was Bruce Allison, who enjoyed a successful season of ANF2 in 1974. His Birrana 274 Hart-Ford 416B was looked after by ace mechanic/engineer/Driver Whisperer Peter Molloy. The same combination ran the low miles Lola T332 Chev raced by KB in ’74 throughout 1975-76.
Soon to be 1975 Formula Ford Driver to Europe winner Paul Bernasconi was promising in Max Stewart’s other Lola T330 and T400, so too was Jon Davison in a self-funded Matich A50 Repco-Holden that had been raced by Walker in Australia and the US (A50-004). The Matich Repco-Holden top gun was John Goss, who was already a Tasman round winner despite graduating to F5000 in mid-1974.
Bruce Allison about to be lapped by John Leffler, Lola T332 Chev and Bowin P8 Chev (G Langridge)
Australian Grand Prix…
Bruce Allison proved he wasn’t remotely phased by the brawny 500bhp roller-skates, putting his T332 on pole of the big-balls track he knew so well. John Goss matched his time, with Leffo third.
When race day dawned very wet, the probable front-runners were rated as Stewart and Leffler, who had sets of Firestone wets of the type used by Brit Steve Thompson, who had run away and hid in his Chevron B24 Chev in the similarly soggy, steamy 1973 Warwick Farm 100 Tasman round.
Two warm-up laps allowed the starters to get a feel for the challenging conditions, then John Leffler’s Bowin jumped outta the box and blasted away under the Dunlop Bridge ahead of Allison, McCormack and Goss.
Leffo had a five-second gap after one lap and stretched this to 13 after seven. Bartlett spun early and dropped 20 seconds in his recovery. Leffler’s Bowin looked twitchy, but there was no holding him back as the race settled down.
After the first couple of laps Allison eased back a bit from the Grace Bros car but found McCormack’s Elfin MR6 harrying him. Jon Davison was driving his Matich well with fellow Matich racer Goss in heaps of strife with a badly misted visor after he’d accidentally wiped the demisting fluid off it before the race.
Enno Buesselmann retired his Elfin 622 Lotus-Ford ANF2 car after a dive under Graeme Lawrence at Firestone didn’t end well; he speared off onto the swamplike infield from which there was no escape.
Jon Davison, his Matich Repco-Holden by then running in A51/A53 side-radiator spec (G Langridge)Terry Hook, Lola T332 Chev (G Langridge)
By lap five, Bartlett had closed right up on Davison while Stewart and McCormack gained on Allison. Leffler was lapping the stragglers but lengthened his lap times by four or five seconds each time he had to submarine through a car’s spray.
On lap nine Allison spun at Goodyear, letting McCormack and Stewart through while Bartlett retired after being hit by a missile as he raised his visor to see where he was going.
Leffler extended his lead to 20 seconds from McCormack and Stewart, then there was a gap to Allison, then Davison ahead of Ray Winter, in the ex-Gardner/Bartlett/Muir Mildren Yellow Submarine Hart-Ford 416B ANF2 car, then Lawrence, Lola T332, Garrie Cooper, Elfin MR5B Repco-Holden and Chris Milton’s ex-David Hobbs McLaren M22 Chev.
Adelaide boys Milton and Cooper, McLaren M22 Chev and Elfin MR5B Repco-Holden (G Langridge)Allison Lola T332 (G Langridge)
Allison spun again after 17 laps at which point Peter Molloy called it a day, while McCormack and Stewart chased down Leffler.
With 20 laps down Leffler was slowed by Davison’s spray while Stewart blasted past Cooper and then caught Leffler but spun trying to go under him at Lukey.
Max then got his dander up and set the fastest race lap, gathered up McCormack in three laps, passing him under the bridge and set off after Leffler 10 seconds up the road but now nursing an engine that wasn’t running on all eight thanks to the liberal dousing of his electrics by the Rain Gods.
Stewart dived past Leffler into Lukey on lap 31 and then opened a lead just as McCormack was black-flagged into a pit stop for not wearing a vizor. Stewart wasn’t using his either; he was keeping it cocked open with one hand while driving with the other.
Cooper retired with suspension failure and McCormack was soon back in the pits with a tyre that had thrown its tread. This chain of misfortune left Ray Winter holding down third place in his F2 Mildren followed by Lawrence.
Max Stewart took a plucky, but lucky win from Leffler, the star of the day, then Ray Winter in a fantastic drive of the Sub, from Graeme Lawrence, John McCormack and Chris Milton.
Max Stewart popped his Bell Star visor up and down to get some sense of direction on a shocker of a Gold Coast day, Lola T400 Chev (GCB)1975 Australian Gold Star Champion, John McCormack, Elfin MR6 Repco-Holden. Sandown International 1975 (B Keys)
Gold Star Championship…
A fortnight after Surfers the F5000 Circus convened at Sandown Park in Melbourne’s southern suburbs where the Marlboro 100 was taken in fine style by John Walker’s Lola T332 Repco-Holden from Bruce Allison, Kevin Bartlett and John Leffler.
Walker started the September 15 race from pole – no sign of any heebie-jeebies as a legacy of his Tasman Cup accident in February.
John Goss seemingly had the race in the bag, leading until lap 21 of 32 when his rear wing support broke. From then Walker and Allison were neck and neck with Bruce only metres away from Adelaide’s finest in the ex-Bartlett T332 Chev. Of the frontrunners, only McCormack – from grid two – had a DNF due to a gearbox problem.
Jon Davison, Matich A50 Repco-Holden, Sandown Intrrnational 1975 (G Fry)John Goss on the way to winning the last ever Tasman Cup round at Sandown in February 1975. Matich A53 Repco-Holden (I Smith)
In a tightly compressed Gold Star, the next round was at Oran Park in Sydney’s outer west, the following weekend, September 21.
The top three qualifiers were Stewart, Allison and McCormack from Walker, Leffler and Bartlett. The race organisers used a two-heat format, each comprising 24 laps of the by then longer circuit.
Stewart won the first from McCormack and Leffler, Leffo having again got the jump at the start. Max led but trailed oil smoke, Mac awaited the black flag, which didn’t come, his percentage play didn’t work as by the time Max eased, he was out of the Elfin’s reach.
Stewart had the advantage until he pitted on lap 7 with his nose-section coming adrift. McCormack then led before being passed by Allison. John returned the favour, and the crowd was treated to that duel, and another between Walker and Leffler. Mac’s flat-plane-crank Repco-Holden had the better of Allison’s Molloy Chev, then the matter was settled when Bruce went wide exiting BP and hit the wall.
When the results were aggregated, John McCormack won the round from Stewart, Leffler and Walker. At that stage Stewart was on 15 Gold Star points, Leffler 13, and McCormack and Walker 12 points.
Paul Bernasconi aboard Max Stewart’s Lola T330 Chev – HU1 was the very first T330 chassis – at Oran Park in September 1975 (D Grant Collection)Bruce Allison at Pukekohe in 1976, Lola T332 Chev (unattributed)
The final two rounds were in Victoria which made logistics a bit easier for the teams, Calder was on October 19, and Phillip Island a month later, on November 28.
Bob Jane’s boys went for a two-race format, 30 laps, or thirty miles each. John McCormack took pole with a 39.8-second lap – under the magic 40 seconds – from Max Stewart on 39.9 and KB 40 seconds neat.
McCormack won the first heat, holding the lead from flag to flag, from Stewart and John Walker, then a fiercely scrapping Bartlett and Leffler. John McCormack got the jump in the second heat, too. Stewart’s challenge faded early with engine problems and ultimately a black flag. Bartlett spun early, so too did Mac, leaving Walker in the lead, an advantage he held to the end from Mac, KB and Paul Bernasconi, in Max’s old T330 Chev.
McCormack won the round from Walker, Stewart and Bartlett; the Gold Star tally was McCormack 21, Stewart 19, Walker 18 and Leffler still on 13 and effectively out of the running. The title swung on the final round…
Max Stewart pitches his Lola T400 Chev over the inside of Tin Shed’s kerb, Calder 1975Graeme Lawrence, Lola T332 Chev from John McCormack, Elfin MR6 Repco-Holden, Levin International 1975 (D Green)
KB was in good form as he drove over the bridge from San Remo to Newhaven on Phillip Island on November 20. He sneaked in the Macau Grand Prix between Calder and Phillip Island on November 16, finishing a great second to winner John McDonald’s Ralt RT1 Lotus-Ford. Bartlett raced an Equipe 66 (LC Kwan, Hong Kong) Brabham BT40 Lotus-Ford.
McCormack took pole on the fast, challenging, still pretty rough track, 1.8 seconds clear of Bartlett, Leffler and Stewart.
The Bowin P8 Chev put its power down amazingly well, and Leffo made another of his screamer starts, blasting into the lead from row two. Stewart was out early with a broken pushrod. KB lined Leffo up in Southern Loop; soon John Walker followed suit. McCormack’s challenge faded; a moment through the Southern Loop rough stuff on the first lap had upset his car’s handling, then Leffler slowed with fuel feed problems.
Walker was racing Bartlett for his (JW’s) Gold Star. He needed to win the race to bridge the gap to McCormack. For the rest of the race, it was cut-and-thrust. KB led, then extended his lead when JW miscued at Repco, who then made up the shortfall over the ensuing six laps. Walker took the lead and held it for three laps before the head gasket(s) started to fail, causing a loss of power.
Kevin Bartlett on the way to winning the Gold Star round at Phillip Island in November 1974, Lola T332 Chev. Bass Straight looks pretty wild, as does the track surface (R Davies)
The Australian Motor Racing Annual recorded it this way, ‘Bartlett quickly closed up again, passing Walker flat in fifth while crossing the line to start the final lap. Walker hung on, chasing the red Lola up the back section of the circuit, where he made a last try for the lead at the right-hander before Lukey. It almost came off, except that KB had him covered to the extent that the T400 stayed in front.’
‘However, KB hit a patch of water and spun off while Walker, trying to avoid the red Lola, speared off into the long grass on the inside of the circuit, heading for Len Lukey’s cow sheds. Bartlett was the first to recover and regained the circuit to win by 23 seconds from John McCormack, with a very angry Johnnie Walker filling third place in a Lola with a very battered nose.’
I’ve got to go back to 1973 to find a shot of John Walker at Phillip Island. It’s a goodie though, blasting his T330 Repco-Holden through Southern Loop at full noise or thereabouts. Winner of the October Gold Star round (J Walker Archive)
‘But the drama was not over, as KB sped across the line to receive the flag, he backed off, and the rear wheels of his car locked on the rain-dampened track. Next thing, KB was sideways at 230 km/h and heading for the armco. Many would have crashed, but KB’s superb reflex action saved the day, he avoided the fence by a few centimetres and continued safely on for his cool-down lap.’
‘It was KB’s first win since the championship race at Phillip Island the year before. For Walker, it was a bitter disappointment as a win in the race would have clinched him the Australian Driven Championship. But Walker failed to contest the first round – something no serious racer can afford to do if he wants to win a title.’
True…but perhaps a tad hard given the expenditure required of his Lola T332 to get it back into RWC in the time available. Thankfully, the planets and karma were fully aligned for JW in 1979 when he took a lucky AGP win and the Gold Star in Martin Sampson’s Lola T332 Chev – the ex-Bartlett/Allison/Bartlett chassis.
Surely one of the most brutally handsome racing cars ever built? Most successful too. John Walker’s T332 Repco-Holden during the ‘75 Tasman round. It was a toss up for me as to whether I wanted JW or WB to become the first and only Australian to win the Tasman Cup (B Keys)
Credits…
Greg Langridge-State Library of Queensland, Richard Cousins, GCB-Gold Coast Bulletin, Chris Jewell, Steve Elliott, Terry Marshall, Gavin Fry, Ian Smith, Doug Grant Collection, Mike Harding, Robert Davies, Bruce Keys
Tailpiece…
(R Davies)
Heaven on a stick was the old paddock at Sandown!
Crowded as anything for competitors but great for spectators, here the Shell tent during the 1975 Tasman round with Chris Amon’s Talon MR1 shot front and centre. Then Jim Murdoch’s Begg 018, Kevin Bartlett’s Lola T332, with Graeme Lawrence’s #14 T333 airbox there too.
A couple of fantastic Browns Lane, Allesley, Coventry, Jaguar factory shots.
The one above is of Briggs Cunningham’s D-Types after Le Mans in 1955 before shipment to New York, and the one below is a production run of XKDs, surrounded by XK140s in 1956; the factory fire was on February 12, 1957.
(Jaguar)
Cunningham’s cars were painted white with a blue stripe: they are XKD507 and XKD508.
XKD507 was driven by Phil Walters/Bill Spear at Le Mans on June 12, DNF with valve or ignition problems in the seventh hour with 43 laps to their credit.
Cunningham’s D-Types were ‘works blessed’, meaning Jaguar New York – Briggs Cunningham and Alfred Momo – had factory support to represent Jaguar on U.S. tracks.
The machine was first in the GP of Watkins Glen, at the SCCA National at Hagerstown, Maryland and the Nassau Production Sports Car race driven by Sherwood Johnson that year. John Fitch drove it to a win at Nassau the following year.
Walt Hansgen raced it to the Sports Car Club of America’s (SCCA) D-Modified championship in 1956 and 1957. On Bonneville’s Salt Flats it hit 185 mph.
These days, XKD507’s custodian is the Revs Institute.
The Walters/Spear XKD507 at Le Mans in 1955, DNF (unattributed)The #8 Mike Hawthorn/Desmond Titterington XKD507 and #9 Hamilton/Bueb XKD508 at Sebring in 1956 (unattributed)
XKD508 was a works entry at Le Mans in ’55 for Don Beauman and Norman Dewis, accident and sandtrapped after 106 laps in the 11th hour.
Then shipped to Jaguar New York, fitted with Engine no. E3006-9 and painted in Cunningham colours.
It contested the 1956 Sebring 12 Hours, Duncan Hamilton/Ivor Bueb DNF. Hansgen won at Eagle Mountain and Thompson Raceway that year, and Walt was the Watkins Glen GP winner in it in September 1957. It remained with Cunningham and was modified by Momo. It was crashed, was returned to Browns Lane and scrapped.
For the sake of completeness, in March 1957, after the factory had withdrawn from racing, Jaguar sold XKD605, a used car, to the Cunningham team.
Briggs Cunningham in one of his D-Types, date and place unknown. Note the GenTex – General Textile Corporation – US military helmet (Revs)(Watkins Glen Historic)
Walt Hansgen and Ed Crawford start the September 21, 1957, Watkins Glen Grand Prix as Tex Hopkins does his thing. Walt won the 44-lap, 163 km race, and Ed was fourth. Cunningham was eighth in one of his D-Types.
Etcetera…
(D Morton)
Ivor Bueb aboard XKD605 shared with Mike Hawthorn at Sebring in 1957 and the engine bay of one of the team Ds at the same event.
(D Morton)(K Ludvigsen)
Mike Hawthorn at Sebring ahead of the Cunningham/Bill Lloyd D, DNF valve. Perilous nature of the 44’s marking the course readily apparent…and the cause/contributor to the death of Bob Goldich, Arnolt Bristol in this race.
Credits…
Jaguar Cars, coventryracers.com, Watkins Glen Historic, Revs Institute, Doug Morton via the Automobile Racing Club of Florida, Karl Ludvigsen
Alf Harvey leads Curley Brydon in a blue-blood duo at Gnoo Blas, Orange, on January 30, 1956. Ex-Enrico Plate/Prince Bira Maserati 4CLT/48 OSCA #1607 in front of the ex-Peter Whitehead/Dick Cobden Ferrari 125 #F1/114.
Reg Hunt won the South Pacific Championship that weekend aboard his Maserati 250F from Jack Brabham’s Cooper T40 Bristol, Kevin Neal, Cooper T23 Bristol and Brydon’s Ferrari. Harvey’s gearbox misbehaved in practice, so the OSCA didn’t start the race.
Bira, Maserati OSCA, South Pacific Championship weekend, Gnoo Blas 1955 (Cummins Family Archive)
The Maser-Osca was brought to Australia by Prince Bira during his 1955 Australasian tour, which yielded a New Zealand Grand Prix win at Ardmore aboard his Maserati 250F. He then brought the Maserati and Maserati OSCA to Australia to contest the South Pacific Championship on January 31, 1955. See here: https://primotipo.com/2020/04/09/1955-south-pacific-championship-gnoo-blas/
The 250F failed in practice, so too did the OSCA in the preliminary race. Former Wollongong MG T-Type punter Alf Harvey was the well-heeled enough, optimistic buyer when Bira offered it for sale.
The OSCA 60-degree, twin-cam – driven by a train of gears – two valve, all alloy, triple Weber 40 DCF fed 4472cc (78mm x 78mm bore/stroke) V12 initially gave circa 290-300bhp, rising to 330bhp @ 6500rpm. Here, it’s shown in an uber-rare colour shot in Harvey’s car during the 1958 AGP weekend (K Drage)
Harvey then commenced a lengthy rebuild of the car, aided by Frank Ashby. This prominent, successful British engineer was by then living on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Ashby did the chassis and Repco Research in Melbourne, the exotic, fussy V12.
Ashby, trading as Mona Vale Engineering Services, had provided sage advice to young Jack Brabham on carburetion and cylinder head modifications to the 2-litre Bristol engine powering his Cooper T23.
By 1958, the Maserati OSCA was ready to boogie. Harvey’s best result was a win in the first of two preliminary heats during the AGP weekend at Bathurst. It was the B-preliminary in the sense that the quicks were in the other race, but a win is a win. He wasn’t so fortunate in the GP itself; a plug worked its way loose, and he retired after 16 laps of the race won by Lex Davison’s 3-litre Ferrari 500/625.
Old mate taking a happy-snap or two at the start of the ’58 AGP, Hell Corner, Bathurst. The light blue car is Harvey’s Maserati OSCA (ABC)
The V12 engine project was an interesting one by the then newish OSCA enterprise. The Maserati brothers sold their Maserati business – Officine Maserati S.p.A. – to the Adolpho Orsi family in 1937. By December 10, 1947 they were clear of the 10 year consultancy agreement which formed part of the contract of sale with the Orsis. O.S.C.A. – Officine Specializzate Costruzione Automobili-Fratteli Maserati S.p.A. – was their next Bologna based venture. Soon they were building small sportscars which enjoyed commercial and competition success.
A mainstay of post-war European racing was Amedee Gordini’s single-seater and sportscars. Gordini was anxious to contest the new F1 (4.5-litres unsupercharged, 1.5-litres supercharged) with a more competitive engine than his various twin-cam fours.
‘Ernesto and Alfieri Maserati and Amedee Gordini were old acquaintances going back to the 1920s,’ wrote Roy Smith in Amedee Gordini : A True Racing Legend. ‘Gordini kept up regular contact, even doing some work for them on several occasions and exchanging ideas.’ See here for a lengthy epic on Gordini; https://primotipo.com/2019/08/30/equipe-gordini/
Smith wrote that Maserati had come up with a new V12 engine design, a simple one page letter – in reality more a letter of intent than a formal contract – from Automobili O.S.C.A. to Gordini dated 10 March 1949 formalised the arrangement for OSCA to design and build an OSCA badged V12 for Gordini.
This arrangement contravened Gordini’s existing commercial and sponsorship deal with Simca, who weren’t interested in Gordini’s F1 aspirations, content as they were with his F2 and sports car racing, which was more closely aligned, they felt, with their road cars. Gordini was able to fund the deal with OSCA thanks to financial support from ‘his longtime friend, the wealthy Far Eastern emperor and racing enthusiast Bao Dai,’ the ‘Last Emperor of Vietnam.’
Amedee’s thinking was sound, he planned to have a V12 powered F1 winner and derivatives of the competition V12 for sports and grand touring cars.
Bira first time out win in the Ecurie Siam Maserati 4CLT-48 OSCA V12 at Goodwood, Richmond Trophy, Easter 1951. #28 is Duncan Hamilton, ERA B-Type, and #34 ? (MotorSport)Bira wielding a plug-spanner much to JM Fangio’s amusement, during the 1952 Ulster Trophy weekend (Neville Armstrong-MotorSport)
When, inevitably, push came to shove, and Simca, Gordini’s primary backer, withdrew its support, OSCA decided to complete the design and build of the engine and offer it for sale. Their thinking was that the motor could form part of an update kit for the Maserati 4CLT they knew so well, plenty of which were in circulation.
Ultimately, Bira was the only taker, with his late build chassis, 4CLT-48 #1607 – first delivered to Enrico Plate on November 14, 1949 and raced by Bira throughout 1950 – updated by fitment of the OSCA V12, de Dion rear suspension and other tweaks race-ready for 1951.
The Thai Prince raced the car only a few times that year and in 1952. A debut victory against modest opposition during the 12 lap Richmond Trophy at Goodwood on March 26 flattered to deceive. He raced the car in the GP di San Remo on April 22 Q5/DNF accident, the GP de Bordeaux for Q7/fourth, the Silverstone International Trophy on May 5 no time/heat third/17th. He entered but didn’t arrive at various events mid-season.
Bira concluded that the car was uncompetitive in Europe and put it to one side until its trip to Australasia, where it was also only ever going to be an also-ran too. By 1956, Australia had some quicker cars: Maserati A6GCM and 250F, Ferrari 500/625, the Tornado Ford, etc.
Franco Rol about to be lapped again by Alberto Ascari during the 1951 Italian GP, Monza. OSCA 4500G and Ferrari 375 (MotorSport)
OSCA 4500G V12…
In addition to the engine for Bira, OSCA built two more. So as not to let them go to waste, one was fitted to a new ladder-frame chassis/double wishbone and coil spring front suspension/de Dion and torsion bars rear, Grand Prix car dubbed the 4500G. G for Gordini to honour his part in the engines gestation.
Handsome engine – SOHC in some texts, DOHC in others – with plenty of development potential in 1951. 300-330bhp wasn’t going to cause much of a fright among the circa-375bhp normally aspirated Ferraris, or circa 425bhp supercharged Alfa 159s (MotorSport)Great looking car, body aluminium on twin-tube period typical ladder frame chassis. De Dion rear suspension with torsion bars and Panhard rods a considerable advance on the 4CLT’s solid rear axle, the differential of which was a weak link (MotorSport)Wishbone front suspension, four speed ‘box front mounted. Wheelbase and front/rear track 2450/1280/1260mm, weight circa 760kg (MotorSport)
Franco Rol debuted the car in the 1951 Italian Grand Prix at Monza (photos above) the second last championship round that year. Q18 and ninth/last wasn’t a catastrophe at first glance, but Rol was 13 laps adrift of Alberto Ascari and Froilan Gonzalez’ first and second placed Ferrari 375s.
Rule changes, which meant the world championship was run for 2-litre F2 cars in 1952-53 made all F1 cars obsolete overnight. The CSI/FIA were forced to act due to the withdrawal of Alfa Romeo from F1 at the end of ’51, and uncertainty about BRM, OSCA and others continuing, leaving a Ferrari whitewash a certainty. Of course, the Maranello, Ferrari 500 2-litre whitewash happened anyway!
Despite the ‘F2 World Championship’ there were ten F1/F Libre races held in 1952. Bira gave his Maserati OSCA a gallop in the Ulster Trophy meeting at Dundrod on June 7, but he had an accident on the first lap. He raced at Silverstone in July, finishing 10th in the Daily Express Formula Libre Trophy, four laps adrift of Piero Taruffi aboard the Ferrari 375 Thinwall Spl. The last libre-race of the year was the Daily Record International Trophy at Charterhall on October 11, there Bira retired with a fuel tank problem.
OSCA 4500G #4501 at Monza in 1951 (MotorSport)
Two OSCA 4500Gs were entered in the April 6, 1952 GP del Valentino, the first non-championship F1 race of the year. Franco Rol was in chassis #4501, and Luigi Piotti in #4502. In a poor weekend for the team, Piotti’s #4502 didn’t arrive, and Rol’s #4501 didn’t complete the first lap for undisclosed reasons; two other cars had accidents, perhaps that is what befell Rol, although oldracingcars.com – my bible – does not record that.
The two 4500Gs weren’t entered as single-seaters again. What became of the two cars seems clear but the journeys they made is not fully clear, not to me anyway. Those with a more extensive Maserati library may be able to assist.
#4501 was sold to Rol. It was later fitted with a Frua Spider body with a central driving position, it would be great to have a photo of the car in this form. It was ultimately rebuilt as the single-seater many of you will be familiar with in European historic racing.
OSCA 4500G, #4501 at Goodwood in recent years OSCA 4500G #4502 in gorgeous Zagato couture (unattributed)
The unraced ‘Piotti’ 4500G #4502 was also converted into a sports coupe with a beautiful body by Zagato. It was entered in the September 6, 1953, Supercortemaggiore non-championship sports car race at Merano, driven by Clemente Biondetti. He qualified 23rd but failed to finish the race, won by Fangio’s works Alfa Romeo 6C 3000CM Spider.
It was sold to Piedmontese winemaker, Paolo Di Montezemolo and rebodied by him as a sports car in 1954. He contested the Sassi-Superga hillclimb outside Turin in October 1956 as below. The car is now in France and resides in the Henri Malarte Museum in Lyon.
(Di Montezemolo Collection)
Cycling back to the Bira Maserati 4CLT OSCA and Alf Harvey.
After the fiscal ravages of the experience, and one last run in a quarter-mile sprint at Castlereagh in 1959, Alf Harvey offered the car for sale in 1961. It then passed, via an interlude of 1960s historic racing with Morin Scott in the UK, to Tom Wheatcroft. In more recent times it has returned to historic racing.
Maserati 4CLT-48 OSCA #1607 (unattributed)
Credits…
Gnoo Blas Classic Car Club, Australian Broadcasting Commission, Neville Armstrong, ‘History of The Grand Prix Car’ Doug Nye, ‘Maserati : A Racing History’ Anthony Pritchard, ‘Amedee Gordini : A True Racing Legend’ Roy Smith, Kevin Drage, Di Montezemolo Collection, Alex Book, Boudewijn Berkhoff
Tailpiece…
(Alex Book)
Franco Rol enroute to a lonely last place in OSCA 4500G #01 during the 1951 Italian GP at Monza.
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