MotorSport Legends Issue 6

MotorSport Legends T H E M A G A Z I N E T H AT B R I N G S Y O U R M O T O R S P O R T M E M O R I E S B A C K T O L I F E www.motorsportlegends.com.au

$6.95

ELFIN: 50 YEARS OLD

Sauber C9 headlines awesome Island Classic

Volume #2 Issue #6

May/July 09 $6.95

ISSN 1835-5544

James Hunt in Oz: the story of an F1 great at Winton racing an Elfin MR8 F5000

Quarterly magazine

Celebrating half a century of an Australian race car manufacturer

T H E M A G A Z I N E T H AT B R I N G S Y O U R M O T O R S P O R T M E M O R I E S B A C K T O L I F E

Contents Editorial Welcome to the sixth edition of Motorsport Legends.

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News 06-13 Want to know what’s next on the historic and nostalgia scene?

Then don’t miss the news pages.

Bowe to a Legend 15 Motorsport guru, John Bowe, joins Motorsport Legends as a regular columnist. In his first instalment he remembers his Elfin days.

The Elfin Story Celebrating 50 years of one of Australia’s greatest racing car manufacturers.

16-21

Maintaining history 22-26 Bill Hemming’s Elfin Heritage Centre in Melbourne is protecting an Australian icon.

A great time at Elfin 28-31 Renowned engineer, Peter Fowler, tells some tales from his time spent spannering for F1’s superstars when they came Downunder.

Phillip Island Classic 32-33 This year’s Festival of Motor Sport provided a mix of wild weather and great racing.

In the passenger seat 36-39 The story of a young man who decided to pack his bags and try his luck in the Mother country with great success.

Webb of intrigue 50 One of Australia’s great engineers joins Motorsport Legends as a columnist. In this issue he compares today’s Biante Series cars to the beasts he worked on in yesteryear.

Volume 2 Issue 6

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Contributors in this issue David Dowsey David is a true classic car enthusiast. He has written a book on Aston Martins, but he also loves old race cars as his article on page 22 proves.

We hope you enjoy the story on his visit to the Elfin Heritage Centre as much as we did.

John Doig As usual, our staff photographer has been busy this issue. Not only has he taken some great shots of the Elfin T5 at Walkinshaw Performance’s Braeside factory, but we really did appreciate him standing in the rain and sleet at Phillip Island.

Darren House Our resident nostalgia expert has done it again!

He has convinced renowned Aussie engineer, Peter Fowler, to tell us some great tales from his days spannering for Formula One heroes Didier Pironi and James Hunt.

T H E M A G A Z I N E T H AT B R I N G S Y O U R M O T O R S P O R T M E M O R I E S B A C K T O L I F E

Managing Editor Allan Edwards Pole Position Productions Address: PO Box 225 Keilor, Victoria, 3036 Phone: (03) 9331 2608 Fax: (03) 8080 6473 Email: admin@motorsportlegends.com.au Website: www.motorsportlegends.com.au Staff Journalist Briar Gunther Artist/Design House Natalie Delarey Raamen Pty Ltd (03) 9873 8282 Contributors John Bowe, Darren House, Brian Reed, Mark Cooper, David Dowsey and Mick Webb.

Photographers Autopics.com.au, Cheryl Reid, Wayne Preusker and John Doig.

Advertising Manager David Brown DB Media & Marketing Phone: (03) 9762 7018 Mobile: 0408 562 962 Email: dgbmedia@bigpond.net.au Material in Motorsport Legends is protected by copyright laws and may not be reporoduced in any format.

Motorsport Legends will consider unsolicited articles and pictures; however, no responsibility will be taken for their return. While all efforts are taken to verify information in Motorsport Legends is factual, no responsibility will be taken for any material which is later found to be false or misleading.

The opinions of the contributors are not always those of the publishers.

MotorSportLegends

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CLASSIC

Lines Welcome to issue six of Motorsport Legends magazine.

Motorsport Legends includes motor racing nostalgia and historic motor sport events.

I

t’s great that we have people like Bill Hemming (pictured above with yours truly) who are keen to preserve history. I was lucky enough to be invited to the opening of Bill’s Elfin Heritage Centre and judging by the number of enthusiasts who turned up that night I wasn’t the only one who felt privileged to be a part of what was an important night in Australian motor sport history.

This year Elfin is celebrating its 50th anniversary. These little racing cars built by the small South Australian manufacturer, Garrie Cooper, hold a special place in the hearts of many Australian fans and they launched the careers of many great Australian racing drivers. One of those drivers, who would later become one of Australia’s true motor racing legends, was John Bowe.

In this issue of Motorsport Legends Bowe joins us as a columnist, and in his first instalment he tells of his passion for Elfin racing cars.

We also visit the Elfin Heritage Centre and take a look at Walkinshaw Performance to see the latest creation to be badged an Elfin, the T5 Clubman.

Then there is a cracking article from renowned engineer Peter Fowler who tells us of his tales from his days spannering F1 drivers James Hunt

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“We also visit the Elfin Heritage Centre and take a look at Walkinshaw Performance to see the latest creation to be badged an Elfin.” and Didier Pironi when they came to Australia to race for Elfin.

While there’s plenty for the Elfin enthusiast, we have also packed in some memories for Mini and rallying fans, as well as a great story by Brian ‘Brique’ Reed on John Reaburn. John’s story of youthful enthusiasm and persistence as he packed his bags and headed to Europe is well worth the read. Having

met John for the first time at the recent Phillip Island Classic, I can tell you that he is also a true gentleman.

Many of you have already taken advantage of our special deal on the Golden Age of Motor Sport DVDs and John Doig’s Quarter Mile, An Oral History of Australian Drag Racing, but for those of you who are yet to secure them, you will be happy to know that you now have a number of ways of ordering them. We have once again included order forms for them in this edition, but you can now also order them online at www. motorsportlegends.com.au Keep an eye out on the website and in future editions of the magazine as we are working on some more exciting specials on some great products.

Finally, we have a little housekeeping to get sorted. A reader brought to our attention that in our last issue we omitted to mention two owners of the ex-Garry Rogers Escort Sports Sedan, those being Barry Bassingthwaite and Ian Dobson. And another reader contacted us to let us know a car we had captioned as an Alfa Romeo in our article on Lobethal should have been captioned as an Alfa Romeo replica.

Any way, until next time, drive safely on and off the race track. Cheers, – Allan Edwards, Managing Editor

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NEWS ELFIN TURNS 50

Garrie Cooper in his Elfin MR8 at Oran Park in 1978.

50 YEARS OF ELFIN

T

he 50th anniversary celebration of Elfin cars was in full swing at the Shannons Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motor Sport in March.

Organisers held a major display and on-track tribute for the Australian made cars.

Elffin was founded in Adelaide by Garrie Cooper and the cars went on to win 29 championships and major titles.

Cooper died from heart problems in 1982 aged 46 and Walkinshaw Performance now owns Elfin and makes the cars in Braeside, Victoria.

In the next financial year,

Elfin plans to make 25 road registerable cars for the Australian market and another 65 to export to the United Kingdom and 10 race cars.

Bill Hemming, who once part-owned the company, opened a dedicated heritage cente to Elfins in Moorabbin, Victoria to pay tribute to Cooper and

preserve the history of Elfin.

Hemming said more than 70 per cent of Cooper’s pre1984 Elfins still compete in historic racing throughout Australia, New Zealand, Europe, USA and the UK. Motorsport Legends is also celebrating 50 years of the Aussie car company with an Elfin special feature, starting from page 16.

ML

TRANS-AM TRIBUTE HEADS SPORTS AND MUSCLE CAR SHOWDOWN

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p to 20 thundering V8-engined TransAm tribute cars from the 1960s and 1970s will shake the ground at Queensland Raceway over the June 27-28 weekend at this year’s Shannons Sports and Muscle Car Showdown.

The cars, which will include Jim Richards’ 1964 Falcon Sprint, a brace of 500HP Shelby GT 350s and a 550HP 1969 Chevrolet Camaro, will line up for six events during the meeting.

Famous Australian racing muscle cars confirmed for the meeting include the 1965 6

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A brace of 500hp Shelbys will also be in attendance.

Mustang that the late Ian ‘Pete’ Geoghegan drove to win 68 races from 74 starts, the ex-Dick Johnson #17 Bryan Burt Falcon Hard Top, the ex-John French Falcon XC Hard Top and the ex-Bob

Morris XD Falcon sedan.

The Geoghegan Mustang and both Hard Tops will run in track demonstration sessions on both the Saturday and Sunday of the meeting, while the

Bob Morris XD will also be driven in anger in the Muscle Car Sprints by ex-V8 Supercar driver Craig Harris.

Jim Richards is the patron of the meeting and he will also be the guest speaker at the Shannons Sports and Muscle Car Gala Dinner on Saturday June 27 at the 4.5-star Metro International Hotel in Ipswich.

A big Shannons Show ‘n’ Shine will be held on the Sunday of the meeting, with all entrants invited to cruise the track.

There will also be plenty of trade stands at the track. ML

NEWS BUSHFIRE APPEAL

STORY BY BRIAR GUNTHER

The sale of this immaculate Packard raised funds for bushfire victims.

HISTORIC ENTHUSIAST HELPS OUT The sale of a rare, classic Packard will help the bushfire ravaged area where the car was last housed.

M

oney raised from the recent sale of a rare 1927 Packard 426 Roadster has been donated to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal.

The Packard had been housed at the former Marysville Museum Collection in the fire-ravaged town of Marysville in Victoria before the fires.

But it had already been consigned along with 10 other vehicles to Shannons’ annual Melbourne Motor Show Auction on March 9 and was moved to the Shannons showroom before the tragic fires on February 7.

Melbourne motoring enthusiast and businessman Dean Laidlaw, who owned the collection, donated $20,000 of the $36,000 the Packard raised at auction to the appeal.

The vehicle, which is in a largely unrestored condition, had also been owned by a noted New South Wales Packard enthusiast.

Laidlaw bought the collection just over six months ago following the museum’s closure to the public at the end of 2007.

About 10 more vehicles along with many items of automotive memorabilia 8

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A 1934 British Chevrolet Tray Truck sold well above a pre-auction estimate for $26,500, a 1949 MG TC Special Roadster went for $18,500, a 1949 Holden 48-215 sedan sold unreserved for $7000 and a 1915 Ford Model T ‘Board Runner’ brought in $4500.

The 1909 Wolseley was one of two significant veteran cars in the auction that made world market prices, the other which remained in the Marysville being a stately 1917-model Rauch & township survived the blaze.

Lang Electric Brougham that sold for “Miraculously, the building in which $76,000. the vehicles were housed was virtually This fully restored pioneering vehicle, untouched,” Laidlaw said. which is driven by an 80-volt electric “I was planning to re-stock it with motor and a cache of rechargeable vehicles from my own collection and to batteries, was the only ready-to-drive, re-open it for car clubs and other groups, all-electric passenger vehicle for sale at but now I think it has a better purpose the Motor Show. in the immediate future.”

It is capable of speeds up to 50kp/h Laidlaw has offered the building to the and has a range of 130km before relocal authorities to use as a workshop or charging, with the driver steering it from a command centre during the rebuilding the backseat via a tiller. of Marysville.

The top-selling vehicle in the auction Other vehicles from the former was a documented and pristine 1968 Marysville Museum Collection to sell Shelby Mustang GT500 Fastback at the auction included a fully-restored that sold to applause after a long and 1909 Wolseley Siddeley ‘Roi de Belge’ enthusiastic duel amongst four floor ML Tourer that brought $75,000. bidders for $142,000.

NEWS PORSCHE MUSEUM STORY BY BRIAR GUNTHER

A Porsche enthusiast’s dream.

PORSCHE MUSEUM OPENS

P

orsche Chairman, Dr Wendelin Wiedeking, opened the Porsche museum to the public at a special ceremony earlier this year.

The museum is located in Stuttgart, Germany, and Porsche expects more than 200,000 visitors each year.

Porsche’s modern building

occupies nearly 5600 square metres of exhibition space and has room for 80 historic vehicles and more than 200 exhibits from the company’s history.

Dr Wiedeking said the museum would be used not only as an exhibition, but as a communication platform. “(It will be) a permanent,

order your copy now! by filling out the order form on page 45 or online at www.motorsportlegends.com.au

integral part of the ongoing dialogue which Porsche conducts with the public.”

Dr Wolfgang Porsche, who is the Chairman of the Supervisory Board for Porsche AG, emphasised the task of the sports car manufacturer to always remember the company’s founding members and to keep the spirit of their

work alive.

“My grandfather and my father were passionate automobile pioneers, engineers, and entrepreneurs,” Porsche said “Their life’s work and everything that their successors successfully made of this and further developed from it, is ML documented here.”

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TRADE TALK

STORY BY BRIAR GUNTHER

The Mercedes museum is a ‘must see’ for all car enthusiast’s and is a highlight of the tour.

GERMAN MOTORSPORT TOURS

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nthusiasts of Europe’s motorsport heritage can now take part in a seven-day tour through Germany.

Th e Past into the Future coach tour takes patrons on a trip, which starts and ends in Frankfurt, to visit places including the home

of the VW Group in Autostadt Wolfsburg, BMW Welt in Munich and the Mercedes-Benz and Porsche museums in Stuttgart.

It also includes a visit to Heidelberg Castle.

Raceway Services, a specialist motorsport company which handles

a range of professional services for the industry, will run six Past into the Future tours in 2009 departing from Melbourne with prices starting from $5846.

For more information visit www.racewayservices or call ML (08) 8289 9189.

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Price per person from $5,846.00* Price includes: accommodoation, entrance fees, transfers, most meals and travel insurance.

Call Raceway Services on (08) 8289 9189 or visit www.racewayservices.com.au for more information. *conditions apply

BOOK

REVIEW

In Control Bob Watson’s new book is a great read for any student of motor racing history who enjoys a good old fashion yarn as Brian ‘Brique’ Reed discovers.

I

t was fortunate for motorsport that Bob Watson was born colour blind. Rather than getting his wires crossed as an electrical engineer he became a mechanical engineer and was instrumental in developing suspension and chassis improvements and brakes that worked for Holden’s victorious Monaro 327 in the 1968 Bathurst classic. Watson’s great attribute was that he also did much of the testing at Holden’s Lang Lang facility.

His driving skills are well recognised – 1970 Australian Rally Champion and with four Victorian rally titles to his credit, Watson is undoubtedly well credentialled. As well as all the big events in Australia, his international experiences included the 1977 London to Sydney Marathon and the gruelling East Africa Safari. Watson has been a works rally driver for Holden, Nissan, Ford and Renault and was team manager for Renault during the company’s golden era of local rallying in the 1970s. He also became a leading light in the newly introduced sport of rallycross when his Renault beat Peter

Brock’s Torana at Calder Raceway.

His other main claim to fame is in the area of event organisation, and more recently Bob Watson has used his considerable experience to mastermind the Australian leg of the 1993 London to Sydney Marathon and the 1995 Mobil 1 Round Australia Trial. Watson’s most recent effort has been the Red Centre to Gold Coast Trial, an 8000km event for historic rally cars.

Now he has added another dimension to his undoubted skills by publishing a book of his motoring and motorsport experiences. In Control is a great read.

It highlights the fun side of the sport, which is so often missing these days, without diminishing the serious and competitive side of Watson. There are lots of amusing anecdotes to keep the reader entertained, as well as technical bits from his engineering past that are explained in layman’s terms. Colour and black and white photographs are generously interspersed throughout – it’s the sort of book that is hard to put down once it is opened.

Character sketches of a number of key players of the time – Firth, Bond,

Jansen, Dunkerton and others provide the reader with insights to the world of rallying and the personalities who have shaped the sport in this country.

Watson’s first love in motorsport is unquestionably rallying, but had he concentrated more attention on circuit racing there is little doubt he would have achieved success in this arena as well. His rare appearances at Sandown, Bathurst and other circuits are testimony to this.

The book title is somewhat problematic – Bob Watson was not always ‘in control’, and his book details an occasional big spill.

But just to show what a well-rounded character he is, Watson also enjoys good food and a well-stocked wine cellar as well as his happy family life with wife Heather and son Daniel.

In Control (2008) is a book for all motorsport fans to enjoy. It is published

by Bookworms (a registered trademark of Haynes Manuals Inc.) and is available through some bookshops or by direct order from heatherwatson2@yahoo.com.au RRP is $39-95 plus $8 for postage.

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BOWE TO A

Legend John Bowe remembers his days at Elfin.

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y introduction to Elfin came at just 10 years of age when my Dad, Brian, bought an Elfin Catalina from Brian Sampson. It was a little Formula Junior with a 1500 engine and the first factory produced race car my Dad ever had. It was a beautiful car and I drove it in a private test day when I first started high school, aged just 11.

Through racing that car, my family developed a bond with Elfin and when Dad later bought a new 600 in 1970, he formed a friendship with Garrie Cooper over the phone.

When I got my first race car Garrie, me and my Dad decided a Formula Vee was the best category to go in, so we bought an Elfin. Then I had an Elfin Formula Ford and later an Elfin 623 Formula Three with a little Motor Improvements Corolla engine in it.

I also began chatting to Garrie and I used to spend a lot of the company’s (Bowe Sheehan Motors) money on the phone bill. We became quite friendly even though Garrie was older than me.

He was a gentle, nice man and he was very helpful to me.

I progressed to Formula Three and bought an Elfin 700 with a little Ford 1300 engine in it. The category ‘guns’ at the time – Brian Sampson, Brian Shead and Peter Macrow – came down to Tasmania with their all-conquering Cheetahs. I was fastest and no one had

A young John Bowe (pre-beard days) in his Elfin 623 with his dad Brian.

been quicker than those guys anywhere they went around the country, so Garrie took a lot more interest then.

He said to me, “If you would like to, there is a new F2 category coming next year using a single cam engine. If you sell the 700, I’ll build a new car (792) for you; I’ll own the engine and we’ll run it out of the factory”. It was a fairly good opportunity for a young bloke.

Like all of us he loved tinkering with cars and he’d test this car once a week.

Garrie was always dreaming up new bits for it, he was really a designer-driver.

He was a good driver, too. Most of the English constructors were just designers; they didn’t drive at the same time so Garrie was pretty unusual.

While all this was going on Vern Schuppan, who had been driving the Formula 5000 Elfin in the Rothmans Series, couldn’t come to Australia for some race and Garrie asked if I would like to have a drive in the 5000. I was only in my early 20s living in Tassie

and it was like being invited to drive for Lotus if you were English. It was a very big thing for me.

It was Ansett Team Elfin and it looked well-funded, but it wasn’t. Like a lot of teams in those days, it was all done with smoke and mirrors. Garrie used to do it on a shoestring – he did an awful lot with very little resource.

I raced that car in the Oran Park round of the Gold Star Championship in 1978; it was my first race outside of Tasmania and my first race in a car with an engine bigger than 1400cc or with any more than 130hp.

It was very daunting but I came fourth in the race and I went okay, I qualified just faster than Garrie, which was probably not a good idea but he was very good about it.

I had a very good relationship with him. Garrie helped me and encouraged me. He was like a mentor, a father to me in many ways and he didn’t have to do it. There was no reason to do it. I guess he might have thought I had some ability.

Living in Tassie at that time was a fairly decent handicap and Garrie helped me to establish myself on the national scene. If he hadn’t have helped me race outside of Tassie, I wouldn’t have had the money to do it myself – I didn’t have the wherewithal to even know how to go about it. There are defining moments in people’s lives and that was a fairly defining moment in my life.

– John Bowe MotorSportLegends

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STORY BY BRIAR GUNTHER PHOTOGRAPHS BY WWW.AUTOPICS.COM.AU, JOHN DOIG AND THE WALKINSHAW PERFORMANCE COLLECTION

STILL GOING

STRONG! Half a century after Elfin launched and began dominating race tracks, the Australian company is still building sports cars.

W

ith its bug eyes and sporty lines, if there was ever one car with a distinctive personality it would have to be the Elfin T5 Clubman.

Released at the Sydney Motor Show last year, the T5 will be delivered to customers from April, meaning motoring enthusiasts are witnessing history in the making.

The Australian sports car manufacturer is celebrating its 50th year of racing in 2009, and what a half century it has been since Garrie Cooper launched the company’s first race chassis.

Considering that Adelaide is not considered as cosmopolitan as its neighbours on the eastern seaboard of Australia, it is little wonder if many MSL readers have not heard of the suburb of Edwardstown.

But this is where Cooper established a small factory in the late 1960s, which amazingly became the quarters for the second largest manufacturer of racing cars in ❯ 16

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ELFIN STILL GOING STRONG

Cooper in his MR8 at Sandown during the 1976 Tasman Series.

the world during that decade.

This is no small feat and a claim, which will almost certainly never be conquered by one of Australia’s larger capitals.

Under Cooper’s watch, Elfin went on to build a total of 248 cars in 27 different models.

Legend has it that Cooper named the company after the engine out of model aeroplanes he used to play with as a child and his cars were driven by the likes of Larry Perkins, Frank Matich and John McCormack.

Cooper himself went on to win a number of major races in Elfins, including the Australian 1.5 litre/Formula 2 Championship with Stewart Rexman and the Singapore Grand Prix (both in 1968) and the 1975 Australian Sports Car Championship.

There are three distinctive eras in Elfin’s history – the Cooper era, the post-Cooper era and Walkinshaw Performance era.

Elfin changed hands a number of times after Cooper’s death in 1982, with racing enthusiasts Bill Hemming and Nick Kovatch buying the company in 1997.

They sold Elfin almost a decade later to Walkinshaw Performance, but such was Hemming’s love for the sports car company that he later opened up the Elfin Heritage Centre in Moorabbin, a stone’s throw away from Elfin’s current Braeside workshop.

Hemming never got the chance to meet Cooper, but he has nothing but praise for the South Australian.

“It’s just extraordinary what some people can do in a 18

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lifetime,” he said.

“If you know how hard it is to build one thing, to build 27 different cars is extraordinary and for a little backwater town like Adelaide it is remarkable.”

Hemming was happy to weigh into the debate that although Cooper was a great steerer, he was an even better engineer.

“I guess he wasn’t in the same standard of a Larry Perkins or Max Stewart, but he was certainly in the top half a dozen,” Hemming said.

“At the end of the day he had to make his own cars to become a driver and it just so happened that they were very successful on the track.

“I think Garrie himself would have said he was not quite the absolute best but was knocking on the door.”

Hemming’s love affair with Elfins dates back to 12 years ago when he bought a 1960 Elfin Streamliner and his collection of Elfins now totals 16.

When he and Kovatch bought the company they inherited the shell moulds and jigs on a car which was being developed and eventually went on to become the four-cylinder Clubman Type 3 or C3.

More than 70 of the cars were sold and the businessmen began designing new Elfin models.

Mike Simcoe, who helped design the contemporary version of the Holden Monaro, got involved in designing what would become Elfin’s MS8 Clubman and MS8 Streamliner.

Hemming describes Simcoe as “just a man off the street” interested in continuing the history of Elfin.

Rus Court in an early Elfin at Phillip Island in 1960.

The Elfin MR8 made for an awesome sight on the race track.

Neil Allen in an Elfin ME5 Chev at Calder Park in 1970.

“It’s definitely a car that people buy to be a little different but for those who also want the performance.”

Larry Perkins in an Elfin 600 Formula Ford at Warwick Farm in 1971.

“We thought he was kidding when he said he wanted to get involved,” Hemming recalled.

The MS8 Clubman and the MS8 Streamliner were introduced in 2004 and marked the start of Walkinshaw Performance’s connection to Elfin.

“Based on the success of them, Tom Walkinshaw came and saw us and said he would like to buy a minority share in the company,” Hemming explained.

“We felt he had more resources and could carry it; we thought he would be the ideal person to move the brand forward.”

The T5 has been the only car to date that has been released under the Elfin name since Walkinshaw Performance bought the company, but what a car it is.

John Clark, who is the General Manager for Elfin, said the T5 was born from high demand for a four cylinder car because the C3 did not comply with European emission regulations.

The company had toyed with the idea of updating the

The cockpit of the Elfin T5 Clubman.

chassis with a new engine, but decided to build a vehicle from the ground up which included new modern components, increased vehicle dynamics and a larger interior space.

“It’s definitely a car that people buy to be a little bit different but for those who also want the performance,” he explained.

Clark, who has a background in engineering and has worked for Walkinshaw Performance for 17 years, was brought in to oversee Elfin because of the intense engineering focus on the cars the company produces.

He is quick to point out that a lot of Computer Aided Design went into the T5.

“It’s not just something we have done from drawings, we have used the best technology to produce results that really offer better cars for customers,” he said.

“The frame itself is all laser cut and is made from a round tube to reduce weight and keep torsional rigidity.”

Parts such as the differential have come directly from the VE Commodore, Holden’s family sedan, to get the best reliability ❯ out of the car and to access spare parts easier.

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The Elfin T5 becomes available this year.

Garrie Cooper began manufacturing race cars as a way to become a driver.

“When people who have had old Elfin race cars come up and visit our stand, you see their eyes light up when they see the new cars.”

Malcolm Ramsay in his Elfin 600C Repco at Sandown in 1970.

Engineering support was obtained from Walkinshaw Performance for the T5, with designer Julian Quincey working on the exterior and Adam Dean Smith focusing on the interior.

The T5 weighs a mere 750km and packs a 194kw punch from the two-litre Ecotec turbo engine.

Starting price for the T5 is $65,000 plus on-road costs, but with the range of options available it’s almost guaranteed that customers will end up spending at least a bit more than that.

Exposed side doors are standard in the T5 for an authentic racing look, but customers can have interior panels fitted if they wish.

A centre console can be fitted and Clark said the car can be painted “any colour under the sun” although many opt for red with black cutouts or a distinctive yellow.

The instrument panel and trim can be tailored to suit the needs – or wants – of every Elfin customer.

Clark is extremely proud that the T5 is almost entirely produced at the Braeside factory.

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“We get asked all the time where we import these cars from, but we’re very proud to say it is designed and manufactured here,” he explained.

“The engine is out of a Pontiac Solstice but that is the only part that is an overseas component.”

Clark said the Elfin cars have received a massive amount of interest when they are displayed, the most recent attention coming from the Melbourne International Motor Show in February.

“We had an American ask whether we export to the US; it’s amazing the interest these cars capture,” he said.

“When people who have had old Elfin race cars come up and visit our stand, you see their eyes light up when they see the new cars.”

But the passion for Elfin does not just come from the punters.

Hemming opened the Elfin Heritage Centre because he believes it is “a heritage worth promoting and worth saving” and that he sold Elfin to Walkinshaw Performance because he “just wants to see the brand maintained and given the

ELFIN STILL GOING STRONG

John McCormack overseeing the shipping of his Elfin MR5 to NZ for the 1972 Tasman Series.

recognition it deserves”.

And Clark believes he has “the best toy box in Australia” working for Elfin. So why the passion for what is now considered a relatively small car manufacturer?

“Because Elfin has such a proud history; the quality and the history,” Clark explains. “It’s not the easiest thing to build a car from scratch and I think it comes down to the passion that Garrie Cooper had.”

Hemming agrees. “The thing I’ve always told people is I get sick of seeing people getting statues for kicking a football, not for building anything like what Garrie did,” Hemming muses.

“I’m not against football or anything, but it just seems to be a bit out of whack.”

And while Elfin may now be owned by what could be perceived as a major conglomerate, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a personal touch.

Customers are welcome to visit the factory to watch their car being built – a T5 takes about seven weeks, an MS8 Clubman 10 and MS8 Streamliner 12 – or Elfin staff take photos of the build and send them to customers.

“By the end of the build you get to know the customer really well,” Clarke explains.

Clark believes motorsport enthusiasts hold the brand so dearly to their hearts because of its racing history, which he is keen to continue nurturing.

“It’s funny how when you say Elfin the people roll back to the racing side of it,” he said. “I think besides connecting with

Elfin road cars, people also connect with the company’s racing history and I think that’s the important part.”

In fact, Walkinshaw Performance is investigating the feasibility of a single-make race category.

“What the circuits are asking for is a reliable car which will run lap after lap consistently,” Clark explained.

“It would be fantastic if we could get them out there because it will show the potential of the latest Elfins on the race track.

“And as a one make series it will help the customer because what you put in it will give it back to you.”

But in the meantime, Elfins will take to the track in the form of historic racing and in celebration of the company’s 50th year, including a tribute at the recent Phillip Island Classic in March where up to 50 of the charismatic race and road-going models were in attendance.

Incredibly, a man from Sydney started a registry of all of the Elfin cars, which the Elfin Heritage Centre kept up.

“We know where all of them are, we have a complete register of all 250 cars, who owned them and where they are now,” Hemming proclaims.

Hemming will have his work cut out for him if he tries to keep track of who will take ownership of the new T5 Clubman when these pieces of contemporary motoring history are released from April.

But with Hemming running the Elfin Heritage Centre and Clark at the helm of Elfin, the one thing that these two will ML ensure is that the passion for Elfin never fades away.

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STORY BY DAVID DOWSEY PHOTOGRAPHS BY WAYNE PREUSKER & WWW.AUTOPICS.COM.AU

MOTORING ON!

So passionate about Elfin cars, this devotee not only bought the company, he also created a museum to safeguard its heritage

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arrie Cooper’s last racing car, the MR9 F5000, was produced almost 30 years ago.

But mention the Elfin name and anybody professing to know about motorsport will give a knowing nod of recognition.

The brand could have sunk into obscurity if not for many never-say-die enthusiasts: drivers campaigning the South Australian-built cars in historic motorsport; various individuals who kept the company afloat over the years; and Tom Walkinshaw’s organisation that continues to build Elfin cars today.

But in Elfin’s 50th year a special mention should be made 22

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of historic motoring enthusiast and entrepreneur, Bill Hemming, who has had a hand in all three endeavours, ensuring Cooper’s legacy lives on.

A bit like the silver-haired guy in the old Remington TV advertisement that liked his new electric shaver so much he bought the company, Hemming too fell for Cooper’s cars so hard, years later he purchased Elfin.

Growing up in Brisbane during the 1950s and ’60s Hemming clearly recalls, as a 17-year-old, his first Elfin sighting; the grizzly sight of Glynn Scott’s fatal accident, driving an Elfin 600 at Queensland’s Lakeside Raceway. “(Scott) was black-flagged for not having his goggles on but

he ignored it, determined to win and misjudged, went up over the back wheel of Ivan Tighe and went under the armco and killed himself,” Hemming told Motorsport Legends.

Hemming has always been keen on cars and racing. His first machine was an Austin 8 Tourer, which he restored. An MG Y Type followed, as did an Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite. The seeds of a collection addiction by then were firmly planted.

Hemming began his working life with the Taxation Department. But through the MG Car Club he made the acquaintance of British Motor Corporation (BMC) PR Manager Brian Tebble, who offered him an advertising role.

Starting in 1969, Hemming spent six years with BMC in

Australia. He was then posted overseas for a further halfa-dozen years, ending up as British Leyland’s European Marketing Manager, based in Brussels.

While in Europe Hemming purchased an Austin-Healey roadster, then a Jaguar XK150, in which he toured through Europe.

“I went to all of the circuits, especially over in Germany,” he said. “I was a brash young Australian drinking lots of beer and chasing women.

“In hindsight I should have concentrated more on the motorsport. A highlight was promoting and touring with the Broadspeed XJC V12 driven by Tim Schenken and Derek ❯ MotorSportLegends

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HERITAGE IN GOOD HANDS Located in the Melbourne suburb of Moorabbin, the Elfin Heritage Centre was officially launched by Elfin founder Garrie Cooper’s wife, Lorraine, in front of 400 guests in August 2007.

The centre boasts a permanent museum collection featuring Elfin racing and sports cars, along with extensive memorabilia. In addition, the centre provides a parts and restoration facility and acts as the Elfin Owners and Drivers Club rooms.

Cars on show when Motorsport Legends visited early this year included the 1956 Cooper Butler.

Made in conjunction with Norm Butler, the Austin A40-powered special was Garrie Cooper’s second racing car, built prior to launching the Elfin brand.

Sitting nearby was a 1960 Streamliner Climax Sports, amongst Elfin’s most lauded cars. One of 24 made, this car won the Victorian Sports Car Championship in 1963 and ’64 driven by Jock O’Brien.

One of Cooper’s most memorable models is the Clubman Sports. On display was a 1961 version; the second of 14 made between 1961-65, the 24

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Ford Cosworth-engined Clubman has extensive South Australian racing history.

A very significant car at the centre is the 1962 Formula Junior, which represents the car in which Frank Matich won the 1962 Australian Formula Junior Championship. Only 20 cars were constructed between 1961-64 using various engines. An Elfin Formula Junior was used to test high-speed tyre compounds for Donald Campbell’s successful 1963 Land Speed Record run on Lake Eyre in Bluebird.

Bob Jane’s 1967 Victorian Sports Car Championshipwinning Type 400 Repco Brabham Sports, one of only four produced, was also on show. This particular single-seater was driven by Spencer Martin, Allan Moffat and Bevan Gibson, who was killed in 1969 when the car flipped on Bathurst’s Conrod Straight.

One of the first monocoque tub cars in the world, Cooper’s 1966 Type 100 Mono Twin-Cam, was also there. Bob Jane, Alfie Costanzo and John Walker were amongst the drivers who successfully raced the

nimble little single-seaters, of which 19 were built between 1964-69.

Garrie Cooper’s own 1965 Formula Vee is in the collection. One of 21 produced, the talented South Australian driver went on to win many state titles in this early-build single-seater.

The centre’s Type 300 Climax Sports display car of 1967 is particularly notable; it is fitted with an engine from Jim Clark’s 1963 Formula One Lotus. Only four Type 300s were built between 1967-69.

Also on show was a 1970 Elfin 600 Formula Ford that was raced by John Bowe in 1973 and ’74. Also raced

by John Bowe in 1970, then by Ross Ambrose (Marcos Ambrose’s father) is the 600B Formula 2 of 1969, which rests neatly in a nearby corner. The centre features the Elfin 600 Formula Ford raced by Larry Perkins too.

The centre’s 1977 MR8 Formula 5000 was originally built for Le Mans winner Vern Schuppan, who raced the car as part of Elfin Team Ansett three times in Australia, with a pole and second place at Sandown.

The car was rebodied

and shipped to the US to compete in the 1978 and ’79 Can-Am series, with a best third place at Watkins Glen. It later returned home and was reinstated with the original Formula 5000 body and mechanical specification for historic racing.

Garrie Cooper’s 1977 NG ‘New Generation’ Formula Vee sits alongside the MR8.

Built between 1976-83, only 29 examples were constructed. This particular Elfin model has had an amazing racing history, winning titles right up to 2006.

Having designed a string of successful racing machines, Garrie Cooper had plans to build a range of road cars and his 1982 Road Car Prototype sits proudly in the display.

Ultra-wedge-shaped, this unfinished one-off VW Beetle-based coupe, which was basically a widened two-seater Formula Vee, was in development when Cooper died.

Bringing things more up-to-date is a 1998 Clubman Type 3, a 2005 MS8 Clubman and 2006 MS8 Streamliner, all of which were built under Hemming’s stewardship.

ELFIN HERITAGE CENTRE

This A40-powered special was Cooper’s second race car.

Garrie Cooper’s shirt pocket.

Bill at work.

The Elfin MR9.

“A highlight was promoting and touring with the Broadspeed XJC V12 driven by Tim Schenken and Derek Bell.”

Bell.”

Hemming returned to Australia in 1981 to continue working in advertising, later starting his own consultancy, which he still runs 27 years later. Historic racing, though, remained on the agenda.

His dream was to own a Jaguar D-Type, but ‘made do’ campaigning his Jag XK150 and Austin-Healey Sprite in historic racing events. Yet despite the fact that Hemming hadn’t had much wheel time in them previously, it was an Elfin that came to the fore when it came time to “get a proper racecar”.

“The 1960 Elfin Streamliner is a beautiful shape; the same ilk as the D-Type. I couldn’t afford it, but I moved heaven and earth to get it.”

Later, at a Victorian Historic Racing Register (VHRR) Christmas party, a chance act was to prove the beginning of his life’s next chapter.

“That night, VHRR launched John Blanden and Barry Catford’s Australia’s Elfin Sports and Racing Cars. I was sitting at the table looking through the book; I had no idea that Garrie Cooper had built so many successful cars. I was aware

of the brand, but I had no real knowledge of Elfin.”

Murray Richards owned Elfin at that stage, but when he developed cancer, he wanted to sell the brand. Hemming believes Richards received several offers, including one from an underwear manufacturer, but accepted his and partner Nick Kovatch’s ‘pitch’, even though it wasn’t the highest, because he thought the duo would prove the company’s best stewards.

The pair took control in 1997.

But believing the purchase would be a sideline, building the planned four-cylinder Clubmans, proved to be an understatement when Monaro designer Mike Simcoe walked through Elfin’s doors… and changed their world.

“Mike came in totally unannounced saying he wanted a Clubman,” recalls Hemming. “He said he liked the Elfin, but thought he could make it a bit better looking.”

Bill confesses to being in a philanthropic mood that day.

So instead of telling the unknown visitor to “bugger off”, he suggested that he bring back some designs. Simcoe returned two weeks later with sketches of what became the Elfin MS8.

Then he introduced himself. ❯ Simcoe suggested that he and his team should work on MotorSportLegends

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The 1960 Elfin Streamliner.

“What we did at Elfin was miraculous. We can take a lot of pride in that.”

AUSSIE LEGEND Born in 1935, Garrie Cooper founded Elfin Sports Cars in 1958 in a small facility in Edwardstown, Adelaide. The factory produced 248 racing and sportscars over a 24-year period.

Elfins were involved in 29 major Australian and overseas Championship victories, including Grands Prix wins in New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore, Formula 2, Formula Ford, Formula 5000, Formula Junior, Australian Hill Climb Championships and five Australian Sports Car Championships.

Great drivers to climb behind Elfin steering wheels include F1 World Champion James Hunt, Didier Pironi, Vern Schuppan, Frank Matich, Larry Perkins, John Bowe, Spencer Martin, Allan Moffat, Kevin Bartlett, John McCormack and Garrie Cooper.

Cooper was awarded the Membership of Honour from the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) and the Advance Australia Award for Outstanding Contribution to Motorsport. Often compared to Lotus’ Colin Chapman, Garrie Cooper died unexpectedly in 1982 of a heart attack at only 46 years of age.

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the designs “properly” in Holden’s studios. But he insisted he only wanted to proceed if Elfin promised to put the car into production.

The Clubman was finished three months before the 2004 Melbourne Motor Show. Then Simcoe returned with sketches of a Streamliner version, having talked the Holden board into backing it. Elfin completed it in time for the show from sketch to a running prototype in 12 weeks.

The unveiling of the two cars at the Melbourne Motor Show was a career highlight for Hemming. But he admits that he and Kovach weren’t fully prepared to take advantage of the publicity.

“It caused a lot of financial strain and enormous stress,” he says. “As a small dedicated team of five, we never worked less than 12-hour days. We did everything ourselves, but what we did was miraculous. We can take a lot of pride in that.”

The duo though later realised Elfin needed greater resources if it was to go to the next level. That’s when Tom Walkinshaw came into the frame. After nine months of negotiations a deal was struck in 2006.

Hemming says he left Elfin at the right time for himself and the company. But, as he was still very interested in the history of the marque and had built up a stable of around a dozen Elfin racecars, he wanted to keep them in the public eye. So he conceived the Elfin Heritage Centre; a Mecca for enthusiasts of the marque.

Elfin is now in the very best of hands; Tom Walkinshaw’s group with the muscle to bring new Elfins to the world and Bill Hemming’s Elfin Heritage Centre ensuring that Garrie Cooper’s legendary racing cars remain in the public eye.

The Elfin Heritage Centre is located at 29 Capella Crescent ML Moorabbin, Victoria. See elfinheritage.com.au

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STORY AS TOLD TO DARREN HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS SUPPLIED BY WWW.AUTOPICS.COM.AU AND THE ELFIN HERITAGE CENTRE COLLECTION

James Hunt talks with Peter Fowler (leaning over car) before Hunt raced the Elfin MR8 at Winton in 1978.

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WORKING

FOR THE MAN Renowned car builder Peter Fowler, who was famous for creations such as Bryan Thomson’s VW and Mercedes Sports Sedans, recalls his time spent with Garrie Cooper and Elfin Racing.

B

ryan (Thomson) introduced me to Garrie Cooper and he was interested in talking to me because here was a young bloke who was keen to learn. It was a very privileged association.

It led to an exciting time working on Cooper’s Ansett Team Elfin Formula 5000 team, particularly when Formula One star James Hunt guest drove for the outfit at Winton’s Rose City 10,000.

That was in1978.

I loved working with James, but you can see why he was a challenge. I went with (team manager) John Lanyon to Melbourne airport to meet him and this scruffy character came out pushing a trolley, bare feet, dirty jeans and a t-shirt.

I recognised him, and in those days he had long hair and he was just a mess.

I introduced myself and he gave me no time of day or anything at that point, but when we got up to Shepp (Shepparton) he realised that I was going to be looking after the car.

He did a seat fitting at Winton on the Thursday. One of his hips was lop-sided and he was a very unusual shape.

The promoters were fearful of what he was going to do because on the Thursday he had two or three ‘birds’ hanging off him permanently. He was drinking from longnecks and then in the afternoon he said, “Right, business now. Girls, p#%% off,” and they would disappear. “Beer? Get rid of that. I am going back to the hotel. See you at 7.00 in the morning. Be here.”

We had the Elfin MR8 in Shepparton and checked it over. James was sponsored by Goodyear and he got about six sets of free tyres. On the Friday we thought we won’t need all them. We didn’t have enough wheels anyway so we left them at the workshop.

At the track James said, “Where are all the tyres? We have to scrub all of them and then we will pick which ones we’ll use because they vary.” So the boys jumped into the ute and raced from Benalla to Shep and back to the track in record time with all the tyres.

Garrie always drove on the brakes. The Elfins had little 13-inch front wheels, low profile tyres and little discs, so the brakes were worked overtime. Every time after a practice session you would ❯ pull the pads out and they would MotorSportLegends

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“He was drinking from longnecks and then in the afternoon he said, “Right, business now.

Girls, p#%% off”, and they would disappear. “Beer?

Get rid of that. I am going back to the hotel.

See you at 7.00 in the morning. Be here”.

Hunt was extremely professional and wanted to scrub in all of his tyres before the race. Here he chats with Aussie legend Kevin Bartlett.

have huge taper wear on them and that increases pedal distance.

After qualifying we pulled the front wheels off expecting to change the pads and they looked pretty good. We put new ones in anyway, but I asked James and he put his hand on me and said, “Peter old chap, the brakes are only for entering pit lane.”

So that was our introduction to the F1 World Champion of the time. His drive on the day was a great spectacle and something that stayed with us for some time. James certainly lived life to the full and it was sad that he passed away at a young age. (Hunt went on to score a 40.5sec victory – Ed).

Later I was contracted to maintain the Elfin MR8 that Didier Pironi ran in the 1980 Australian Grand Prix at Calder Raceway (now owned by Ken James and 30

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nearly finished Garrie sold his MR8 to Peter Middleton. They had repainted it (blue and white) and there was no replacement car for Pironi to drive.

Reg Orr owned JB’s car and that was a separate deal run under the Ansett team.

So they leased the Middleton car back, repainted it in Ansett colours and then gave it to me. We were at Calder in the middle of the week to have a look at it and prepare it for the meeting.

John was my test driver and he said the car was a bit of a pig, so we pulled it apart and rebuilt a fair bit of it.

The car was also supposed to have two full sets of wheels, but there was no spare set. When I introduced myself to Pironi driven in this year’s AGP support race).

I said, “I am embarrassed, but I must tell The team also ran an MR8 for John you that we don’t have enough wheels.”

Bowe and the brand-new new ground Pironi said, “We will do the best with effects MR9 for Garrie. That caused what we have got. Don’t worry about it.” plenty of drama.

John used to complain about a Garrie was very focused on the MR9 situation he had in his car, particularly and not at all interesting in John’s coming out of Gloweave Corner at overheating problem. He didn’t have Calder, which was a long radius, 180enough staff and he wouldn’t let the degree corner. The engine would cut out boys work on John’s car so they didn’t and being (fuel) injected, it would be change head gaskets. John was almost instant – there was no splutter. And then in tears asking, “Can we do something,” it could come back on and just about and I had to say I am contracted to look break your neck. after Pironi. John ran that race and the It was a problem that Garrie never engine overheated and he had to pull out experienced, so it was hard to get (costing him a chance of winning the permission to change anything. Pironi Australian Drivers’ Championship – Ed). drove the car on the Friday and came It was a very difficult day. in after the first session and said, “Peter, I had been struggling because although we have a problem. The engine cuts out this Pironi deal had been organised a coming out of corners. It will break my long time before, when the MR9 was neck and it is very dangerous.”

PETER FOWLER

Pironi said he had trust in Fowler’s ability at the 1980 Australian Grand Prix at Calder Park.

I said I know the problem and I know how to fix it, but I haven’t been allowed to. He said, “If you know how to fix it, show me because I cannot drive it if we cannot fix it.”

So I pulled the seat out and I am showing him in basic terms and he put his hand up and said, “Peter, I am not just a driver, I didn’t get here without knowing anything. I know what you are talking about. So how are we going to fix it?”

So I said I reckon we are going to cut that off here, I’d plug that in there and he said, “Yeah, that will work”. And he just walked over to John Lanyon and said, “Do it”.

We drained the tanks and Jim Hardman, whose workshop was at Calder, had a rubbish bin with scrap aluminium so I cut some out, welded

it up and fitted it to the car. We had a practice session late on Friday and the car was brand new.

Garrie also had the car set up with spring rates different to John.

The cars were such a pig of an understeering thing; most of the 5000s were because they had this big engine mass and huge rear tyres and these little wheels with no rolling circumference on the front. The Elfins used to understeer like mad.

In an effort to counter that, John had jacked-up the rear and went to stiffer spring rates and roll bar on the back to try to stop the thing rolling because you couldn’t control it with the front end.

Pironi said his car needed some suspension work. We tried this and tried that and each time we went out on the circuit John went out with him. Pironi

wanted John out there to pace himself.

At the end of Saturday, Pironi came to me and said, “Can you make my car the same as John’s? I haven’t driven it like that but John can drive it, it looks to be better set up than what we achieved with all these changes. I’ll race it like that.”

It was a real credit to John. He was watching us making changes and saying, “Peter it won’t work,” and I said I am not going to tell this bloke who is driving for Ferrari next year that what he’s telling me isn’t going to work – let him tell me. John had worked though all this during the year and got his car about as good as it could be and that’s where Pironi ended up and he went well.

(Pironi finished third behind the F1 machines of Alan Jones [Williams FW07] and Bruno Giacomelli [Alfa Romeo 179] – Ed) He won some prize money, said give it to the boys, waved and said goodbye and by five o’clock he was on a plane and out of there.

But then he had his big crash in the Ferrari and broke his legs. He never recovered from that to drive again and a couple of years later he was killed in a powerboat race.

Working with both Hunt and Pironi was a great privilege. They both said to me, I am a professional driver; you are a professional, what you say I’ll take.

If you say the car is right I have got to believe that you are right. And that was a huge privilege because I never had a ML chance to go overseas.

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STORY BY BRIAR GUNTHER PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN DOIG/TORQUE PHOTOS

Xxxx xxxx xxxx xxx xxxx xxxx.

Brian Virgo in his Marcos GT 3000.

Mark Johnson leads the Group N field in his Porsche 911.

HEALTHY CROWD DESPITE WEATHER

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ood patronage was reported at the Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motor Sport held from March 14-15, despite wild weather.

The weather broke a five-year drought of perfect conditions for the Southern Hemisphere’s largest historic meeting of its nature, which was again supported by Shannons, the VACC and Cool-Drive.

So wild was the weather that Saturday’s race program was suspended for more than two hours due to track flooding and the events for the faster racing and 32

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sports cars were limited when racing resumed in the afternoon.

To add injury to insult, some of the marquees blew down overnight causing damage to a number of display and race cars.

However, the gale force winds, flash flooding and frequent torrential downpours didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the 564 entrants, nor the healthy crowd that still turned up.

One highlight of the weekend was the appearance of two-time Australian Touring Car Champion Glenn Seton in

Rob Sherrard’s Sauber Mercedes C9 was the feature car of the meet.

Guido Belgiorno-Nettis in his exMichele Alboreto Ferrari F1.

Wet conditions did not deter punters from attending the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest historic meeting. the meeting’s well-supported Group C and Group A touring car events.

At the wheel of the ex-Emanuele Pirro 1988 BMW M3 now owned by Queensland’s Robert Ingram, Seton proved to be in a class of his own.

Despite never having driven the car prior to Friday’s practice and qualifying, he easily won all three races he contested in both wet and dry conditions.

Seton was also seen briefly at the wheel of Russell Kempnich’s ex-Vern Schuppan 1984 Porsche 956C, after its owner called in sick with a neck problem and

PHILLIP ISLAND CLASSIC 09

Group N provided some great racing.

Chad Wheeler in his Whitford Special.

Graham Sharley in his WPC Special.

Saturday night’s storm caused some damage.

Lindsay Woollard in his Torana A9X.

Phil Verwoert in his Graduate M8F.

“Seton was lapping the car five seconds faster than its owner.”

Wayne Park in his Joest Racing Porsche 962.

invited Seton to take his place.

While Rob Sherrard dominated the events for large capacity sports cars in his superb 1988 Sauber Mercedes C9 in its first Phillip Island race appearance, Seton actually qualified the Porsche fifth fastest despite never having driven a Group C sports car.

Seton was lapping the car five seconds faster than its owner and looked set to go even faster until braking problems intervened and sidelined the car.

Formula Ford celebrated 40 years in Australia with a huge 57 car entry.

While Tom Tweedie from New South Wales dominated all three races in his 1977 Elwyn, 1977 champion John Smith upstaged many younger drivers with an eighth and 10th place in his 1978 Lola T440.

2007 Australian champion Tim Blanchard also showed his class in his borrowed 1973 Van Diemen, finishing third in Race Two. Elfin also celebrated 50 years with a parade, with former ‘works’ driver John Bowe at the wheel of Bill Hemming’s MR8 Formula 5000.

The 50th anniversary of the Mini drew a capacity grid of Minis for two special regularity races, with 1966 Bathurst winner Bob Holden and leading Mini racer Henry Draper amongst the celebrity drivers.

Victorian Historic Racing Register Patron, Sir Jack Brabham, was kept busy autographing pictures for gold coin donations.

Those donations, along with an auction

by Shannons and the proceeds from program sales, raised about $15,000 for ML the Victorian Bushfire Appeal.

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STORY BY BRIAN REED & PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHERYL REID

Leo Bates (Lobito), Class winner and second in the Masters Award.

Bill Redpath in his fearsome Redpath Oldsmobile Special.

Local driver Gary Poole (Holden 48-215) was second in Group N 2001cc and over.

Winners of the Masters Award, Christopher Farrell (MG TC).

RACING FOR GOLD The Masters Games includes a competition for racing cars and the battle for medals was hotly contested

T

he City of Geelong played host to the 12th biennial Australian Masters Games held from February 20 to March 1. For the first time in Victoria, and only the second time in the history of the Games, motorsport was part of the wide range of 70 sporting activities included on the program.

The Australian Masters Games were launched in 1987 when Hobart played host to sports men and women over 30 years of age from all parts of Australia.

This year was the first time since 1995 the Games have been held in Victoria.

The underlying philosophy of the Masters Games is that sport is for all.

The aim is to promote the benefits of a healthy and active lifestyle and a longterm commitment to sport.

One-and-a-half hours from Geelong is the attractive little Western District town of Camperdown, and it hosted the hill climb on the popular Mt Leura tourist road.

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Mervyn Ninnes who drove his Clemente sports car, with small trailer “The hill’s full potential Clubman attached, from Adelaide to take part. He was recognised after unhooked his trailer, raced, then hitched the trailer and drove back home it was sealed in 1966.” up happy with his weekend’s motorsport.

Fellow Clubman driver Brendon Hall also drove his car to the meeting – just Hill climbing began at Camperdown like the good old days. in 1958, and like so many of the venues Another well satisfied competitor was of the time, the road to the summit was Graeme Scott from Lal Lal, near Ballarat, unsealed. The hill’s full potential was who drove his wife’s Morris Mini up the recognised after it was sealed in 1966, hill. This was the same car wife Ann had and since that time the 803-metre course as a teachers’ college student at Bendigo has been the scene of keen competition 38 years ago. And it came through this and numerous rounds of the Victoria latest challenge unscathed!

Also in the spirit of the Games were Hillclimb Championship. The town itself nestles in the shadow of the extinct the aircooled fraternity, a brave bunch of competitors who suffer pain willingly volcanic Mt Leura. as they coax their motorcycle-engined Eighty-eight competitors and their crews converged on Camperdown for the steeds into action. After towing his two day program (Feb. 21-22) organised car unsuccessfully around several laps of the ajoining showgrounds, Paul by members of the Ballarat Light Car Schilling had to concede defeat, but then Club in conjunction with CAMS. sportingly helped the other competitors Typifying the spirit of the Games was

CAR MASTERS

RESULTS Masters Games results Class A – Formula Vee Russell Graham

(Dauric Mk.IV)

40.19s

Class B – Formula Ford Wesley Inkster

(Van Diemen)

33.29s

Class C – Formula Libre up to 1300cc Ian Speight (Ford Capri), Class winner Group N 2001cc and over.

Bruce Minahan Keith Wilson Peter Minahan

(Hayward 07) (Ninja BH 1) (Hayward 07)

30.62s 31.26s 31.81s

Class D – Formula Libre 1301 to 2000cc Scott Thompson Andrew Ford

(Pirahna P2) (Reynard 983 Honda)

28.82s (FTD) 29.94s

Class F – Sports Cars up to 2000cc Ken Price David Anderson Peter Brice

(MG TF Cup) (MG B) (Austin Healey Sprite)

35.68s 36.94s 37.07s

Class G – Sports Cars 2001 and over Glenn Latter Norman Goodall John Elliott

(Mazda RX-7) (Porsche 911 SC) (Alpine Renault)

33.75s 36.39s 39.17s

Class H – Sports Sedans up to 1600cc Geoff Ball

Steve Schmidt, Class winner Group N up to 2000cc.

Doug Keith in his MG NA Magnette.

(Datsun 1000)

44.37s

Class I – Sports Sedans 1601 to 2000cc Allan Kerr Steven Daws Darryll Combridge

(Datsun 1200) (Fiat 124) (Ford Anglia)

34.66s 36.63s 36.73s

Class J – Sports Sedans 2001cc and over Gregory Sandow Charles Pegg

(Holden Monaro) (Holden Commodore)

36.63s 38.21s

Class K – Improved Production up to 1600cc Maurice Harper Mansley Ferrier Henk Dekker

(Toyota Corolla) (Ford Cortina GT Mk.1) (Toyota Sprinter)

40.17s 40.41s 41.4s

Class L – Improved Production 1601 to 2000cc Michael Johnson Frank York Robert Byham

(Holden) (Ford Escort) (Ford Escort RS 2000)

37.65s 40.31s 40.32s

Class M – Improved Production 2001cc and over Scott Thompson (Pirahna P2), Class winner Formula Libre 1301-2000cc.

Steven Grinstead David Tutton Rod Schilling

(Holden Torana A9X) (Holden Torana) (Mazda RX-7)

34.38s 35.03s 35.64s

Class N – Historic Group N up to 2000cc

in his class. These days, battery powered rollers are used in place of push starts, but even this technology can be challenged by the temperamental little cars.

Graeme Noonan eventually managed to fire up his Cooper Norton only to split the gearbox casing and spill oil over the start line causing a major delay. It was left to David Palstra to be the last man standing and take a class win in his Newbounds Special. David had hurriedly fitted a 350cc B.S.A. engine during the week in order to compete and was described as “the Stephen Bradbury of Hillclimbing” at the medals presentation.

Although there was no separate class for female competitors, there was keen competition amongst three ladies driving Austin Healey Sprites in the

Sports Cars up to 2000cc class.

Christine Crombie (37.58s) just managed to hold out Della Watson (37.92s) with Susan Brice scoring a 40.94s best run.

Not all the cars taking part were historic, and some serious specialist hillclimbers were on hand to show how it is done.

Fastest Time of Day went to Scott Thompson’s Pirahna P2 with a blistering run of 28.82s.

The Australian Masters Games 2009 Hillclimb Championships at Camperdown were judged a great success by competitors and spectators alike, and Sunday’s program especially ran smoothly with four runs on offer. Making his first visit to Camperdown in his capacity as Chief Executive Officer of CAMS was Graham Fountain, and he presented the medals to the placegetters at the end of the meeting. ML

Steve Schmidt

(Morris Cooper S)

38.15s

Class O – Historic Group N 2001cc and over Ian Speight

(Ford Capri)

38.86s

Class P – Historic other (Groups J,K,L,M,O,P,Q and R) Leo Bates Willian Redpath Christopher Farrell

(Lobito) (Redpath Oldsmobile Spl.) (MG TC s/c)

34.64s 37.27s 37.39s

Class R – Performance / Evo-4WD Stuart Inwood Graham Alexander Richard Harman

(Nissan) (Mitsubishi Evo 5) (Subaru WRX Sti)

31.91s 32.69s 33.78s

Class T – Sports Cars – Clubman Paul Masterson Mervyn Ninnes Brendon Hall

(PRB 7) (Clemente) (Fraser Clubman)

32.77s 38.87s 39.06s

Class U – Air cooled Racing David Palstra

(Newbounds Spl.)

63.8s

Class V – Sports cars 4WD Kevin Mackrell

(Datsun 260Z)

29.48s

(Pirahna P2) (Datsun 260Z) (Reynard 893 Honda)

28.82s 29.48s 29.94s

Outright Positions Scott Thompson Kevin Mackrell Andrew Ford

Using a formula devised for the Conducteur Anciens at Rob Roy, Masters Awards were presented based on the age of the car and the age of the driver divided by their best time.

Medals were presented to: Christopher Farrell Leo Bates Brian Reed

(MG TC s/c) (Lobito) (Elfin Clubman)

3.26 3.20 2.98

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35

John in a Porsche 906E at Rheims in 1967.

STORY BY BRIAN REED. PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE REABURN FAMILY COLLECTION.

IN THE PASSENGER’S SEAT WITH JOHN REABURN A talented young driver who was first discovered by none other than Harry Firth, John Reaburn has a great story to tell...

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In the Jaywood Holden at Phillip Island in 1960.

L

ike so many other young Australian hopefuls in the 1960s, John Reaburn set off for England to try his luck on the motor racing circuits of Europe. John was guest speaker at the February meeting of the Victorian Historic Racing Register and gave a detailed account of his formative years in Australia and the highs and lows of tackling the international arena.

For a young man with a minimal budget, his start in the sport in 1958 was predictable. An early model Holden was his introduction, and he raced at circuits such as Fisherman’s Bend and Tarrawingee – circuits that have long drifted into motor racing folklore.

Reaburn came under the eye of that great spotter of talent, Harry Firth, and joined his mentor for the inaugural Armstrong 500 at Phillip Island, the

first of what was to become known as “Australia’s Great Race”. A Singer Gazelle was their car, described by Reaburn as “a potential winner,” but faulty rocker gear finally relegated them to fourth place.

For the following two years, Reaburn drove Ford Falcons in the ‘500’ and finished second on both occasions – in 1961 with rally driver Ken Harper, and in 1962 with Syd Fisher. More second places came Reaburn’s way when the endurance classic moved to Bathurst in 1963. A Mk.3 Ford Zephyr was his mount in ’63, and the following year he raced doorhandle-to-doorhandle with eventual winner Barry ‘Bo’ Seton.

Reaburn’s luck was to change in 1965 when he finally took a class win at Bathurst in a Ford Cortina and three production car wins at Lowood, Queensland, with Harry Firth. He then teamed with Geoff Russell to contest

the Six-Hour Race at Sandown.

Other “casual drives” in a Buchanan Holden, a Cisitalia, a Cooper Repco Holden and a Porsche 356 came his way, but it was after meeting Sir Gawainne Baillie in 1964 that his eyes turned to Europe to further his motor racing career. The titled Englishman brought a massive 7-litre Ford Galaxie to share with Australia’s Lex Davison in the 1964 Six-Hour Race – the car ‘Davo’ planted in spectacular fashion into the wooden fence above the dam at Sandown’s Peters Corner. “The Galaxie had no brakes and required 300lbs of brake pressure,” said Reaburn, but it was certainly inspiring while it lasted.

It was as a result of spending time with Sir Gawainne that Reaburn made the decision to try his luck overseas.

“Opportunities were so restricted here,” he said, “and it was the lure of driving overseas that finally convinced ❯

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37

me leave.” Towards the end of 1965, Reaburn set off for England by the usual form of transport at that time – ship.

One of his first experiences in England was the 1966 Motor Racing Show at Earls Court. “I was completely blown away by what I saw,” he said, “and then I answered an ad in the paper for a car salesman in South Kensington.”

This job gave him time to find his feet, and through meeting another young Australian hopeful, Tim Schenken, he was introduced to Graham Warner of Chequered Flag. Apart from having a very successful race team, Chequered Flag had “a huge range of new car marques. The experience here really changed my life,” said Reaburn. For a time, he and Schenken shared the top floor of a house in Ealing. Other Aussies who guided Reaburn included Paul Hawkins and Brian Muir as well as New Zealand’s Denny Hulme. It was suggested he should enrol in a Formula Ford driving course at Brands Hatch, at the end of which a Formula

3 car was brought out for a selected few to run in the opposite direction.

“I hadn’t driven open wheelers before, and after four laps I equalled the time of our instructor, Tony Lanfranchi,” explained Reaburn. “A nice write up by Nick Britten followed as well as several offers of drives, but I knocked them back because of my build and my size 12 feet!”

John Reaburn decided to concentrate his efforts on sports and touring cars, and shared a Shelby Cobra in the Austrian Grand Prix (a race, despite its name, for sports cars.) Other interesting people came into his life including actor James Garner who was making the film Grand Prix at the time, Jochen Rindt, and actress Brigid Bardot with whom he spent “some lost days in the mountains”.

Back in England, Reaburn had fun testing Lotus Cortinas for private owners. “It was self satisfying helping drivers learn skills and giving them a yardstick to aim for,” he said. Other

GT40 at Zandvoort in 1968.

celebrities who came into his life included singer Tom Jones and actor Leo McKern of Rumpole of the Bailey fame. Although not a member of the elite Victorian Sporting Club, Reaburn became involved in a mysterious bet made by his employer. Apparently very serious bets were a characteristic of the club, and Reaburn was asked to drive a Cobra through Hyde Park, past Buckingham Palace, up Constitution Hill, into Bayswater Road to Marble Arch and other pukka parts of London and back into a secret garage. “The whole area had been blocked off,” he said.

“Apparently the bet was on what time I could get the Cobra around this course and back out of sight before the law arrived. Apparently I did a good time because the record stood until the editor of Autosport, Gregor Grant, broke it in a Ford GT40!”

Another interesting experience was getting involved with a film studio that wanted some serious exhaust noise. John won the audition in a big Healey with

“I hadn’t driven open wheelers before, and after four laps I equalled the time of our instructor, Tony Lanfranchi ”

Buchanan Holden at Phillip Island in 1961.

John Reaburn was a quiet achiever in the 1960s and remains a true gentleman today.

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JOHN REABURN

no exhausts, and the resultant noise was used in the James Bond movie You Only Live Twice. He was also involved in the soundtrack of George Lazenby’s film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. He later sold Lazenby a Studebaker convertible.

Another sideline apart from motorsport was writing a monthly column for Max Stahl’s Racing Car News and exporting Jaguars back to a dealer in Melbourne. Some 300 Jags made their way back to our shores, thanks to John.

Early in 1967 Reaburn received a call from Colin Chapman at Lotus. “At first I thought it was a hoax, and said ‘Sorry, this is Disneyland and I’m Mickey Mouse’. It was only when I was given a number to phone back that I realised it was for real! Chapman was inviting me to a test day along with Jim Clark and Jackie Oliver.” Oliver got the drive, and Reaburn was given some good advice and told to concentrate on sports cars.

“In Europe, five per cent of the population owned 90 per cent of the money,” he said. One such wealthy

Englishman was Mike D’Udy, and in 1976 he shared D’Udy’s Porsche Carrera in the Reims 12-Hour Race with Roy Pike, Paul Hawkins and John Surtees.

Unfortunately Pike bent a valve and Reaburn missed out on a drive. He also missed out at the Targa Florio when the owner crashed the car.

Reaburn spent seven interesting years selling Reliants from Chequered Flag which had exclusive dealership rights.

“The three-wheelers gave more people a chance to go motoring,” he said. “They were fibreglass, so didn’t rust and you didn’t need full registration because they qualified under motorcycle regulations.”

Later the Reliant Motor Co. brought out the much more sophisticated Scimiter, using the famous Red Arrows stunt team in a sensational launch campaign. “I delivered one to James Robinson Justice in Fyfe, and came home on the Flying Scotsman train,” he said. Other customers included Princess Anne (“she bought 10 over the next few years”), Richard Todd, Petula Clark,

Australian fast bowler Alan Connelly, Jack Charlton, Ronnie Barker (“he had real problems reaching the pedals”), Cilla Black, Dirk Bogart, and Tony Booth of Till Death Us Do Part fame.

John Reaburn really led an exciting life, and another of his stories involved being interrogated as an escaped Russian spy. “I was grilled for 10 hours before the police realised I wasn’t the bloke they were looking for.” A ride on the British warship Arch Royal, a hair raising ride through the mountains with racing driver Mike Parkes in a Ferrari P4 sports car, being shown how to drive the 80-degree banked track at Monza

by Pedro Rodriguez, laps of the old Nurburgring track with Porsche ace Vic Elford, having stars such as Scheckter, Scarfiotti and Mike Hailwood as house guests and being invited to the home of the legendary Mercedes driver Rudolf Caracciola are all part of the rich life of Australian John Reaburn. And how lucky were members of the VHRR to ML share some of his experiences!

Reaburn in a Holden 48-215 at Fishermans Bend in 1958.

At the Hepburn Springs Hillclimb in 1958.

John in a GT40 at Nurburgring in 1968.

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39

STORY BY CRAIG WATSON

PHOTOGRAPHS BY WWW.AUTOPICS.COM.AU AND BMC AUSTRALIA

SIDEWAYS COOP

T

he 1960s was the decade when rallying went from being a mostly amateur affair to the realm of the factory supported, fully professional teams.

BMC in England was at the forefront of this change, particularly with the ‘big’ Healeys and the diminutive Minis. In fact, the Cooper S had a greater impact on the sport than any other single model car before, and very few since.

The Cooper S burst on to the scene in 1963, taking its first outright wins only 12 months later. By the end of 1967 Cooper S Minis had notched up an incredible 23 outright victories in international rallies (although its 1-2-3 clean sweep of the 1966 Monte Carlo 40

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was rubbed out on a technicality).

Rallying also went through a major upheaval during the same period in Australia. In the 1950s the emphasis was on lengthy reliability trials, like the Redex. The 1960s saw the evolution of shorter, mostly one or two day events, which provided greater spectator appeal and, ultimately, more sponsorship.

The Cooper S Mini was released in Australia in 1965, but failed to reach the same heights of success as its European counterpart. However, the Minis still had plenty of success at state level, and class level in national events, with an occasional outright national win.

During this period Evan Green, Public Relations manager for BMC Australia,

himself a keen rally driver, saw the publicity value in competition and ensured Minis had a strong presence in as many rallies as possible.

BMC Australia didn’t have the resources of its parent company’s Works team, famously based in the MG factory at Abingdon. There was, however, a small and enthusiastic team of mechanics at the local factory, ably supported by a handful of top privateer rally drivers/mechanics.

Gus Staunton was then president of the Morris 850 Car Club, and became involved with running the competitions team for BMC. “The PR/Media Department, which Evan headed up, had their own vehicle centre where they prepared the press cars, for press releases

Paddy Hopkirk is farewelled by his wife Jenny before the start of the rally.

Bob Holden and George Shepheard at the start of the 1965 BP Rally.

OPERS and so-on,” Staunton explains.

“I suppose it was easy for Evan to get a car prepared to rally, rather than open up a whole new competition department as such, even though they were often called the competition department.”

Green was also the president of the Australian Sporting Car Club at the time, and was instrumental in getting support for the first Southern Cross Rally in 1966 – Australia’s first true international rally.

The event was timed to coincide with the Bathurst 500, allowing international drivers, including those for BMC, to come to Australia for both events – thus getting value for their, or their company’s, travel dollar.

Green organised major international

John Taylor and Graham West won the 1970 Snowtown Rally.

How Minis helped shape the fledgling Australian professional rally scene in the 1960s BMC drivers to come to Australia for the 1964 Sandown International SixHour Race, and for Bathurst in 1965 and 1966. This gave BMC an expert line-up of drivers for the first Southern Cross Rally – winner of the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally Paddy Hopkirk, 1965 European Rally Champion (and winner of the 1966 Bathurst) Rauno Aaltonen, co-driver of the 1966 Bathurst-winning Mini Bob Holden and Evan Green.

That first Southern Cross was won

by Harry Firth/Graham Hoinville in a Cortina, but Hopkirk was third in class with local navigator Garry Chapman, and Green took a remarkable first in class with John Keefe.

Bob Holden crashed out of that event, but had greater success in New

Caledonia, winning the inaugural Caledonia Safari the same year – much to the surprise of the locals, as Bob recalls. “They’d never seen a Mini before, and when they saw this tiny little thing coming off the boat in a sling… they couldn’t believe it. They said it would fall down the holes, because the holes were bigger than the Mini.”

While there is no doubt that the locally-prepared Minis were competitive, winning numerous smaller rallies, Green convinced the management at BMC that the most cost effective way to win the big rallies was with Abingdon-prepared cars.

Two Cooper S, with UK registrations LRX 828E and LRX 829E, were bought

by BMC Australia, and arrived in time ❯ for the 1967 Southern Cross.

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41

Evan Green and George Shepheard during the 1968 Southern Cross.

The start of the 1966 Caledonia Safari.

Hopkirk was again out for Bathurst and the Southern Cross, along with Englishman Tony Fall and Flying Finn Timo Makinen. Hopkirk (again with Garry Chapman) and Makinen (with local navigator Bob Forsyth) took control of the ex-Works Minis, now wearing NSW registrations EPX 813 and EPX 812 respectively but still painted in their British team colours. Fall (with Aussie Fred Logan), Green (Roy Denny) and Holden (George Shepheard) drove cars prepared by Holden.

Unfortunately, both Abingdonprepared Minis failed to finish the event due to gearbox failures – Makinen while leading the rally – but Holden was third in class in his Mini.

Hopkirk drove EPX 812 in the 1968 Southern Cross, and Green took the 42

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wheel of EPX 813, but both cars again retired with failed gearboxes.

While victory eluded the Works Minis in Australia’s ‘big one’, there were plenty of accolades for the cars in other events.

Green and Shepheard teamed up to take numerous wins in national and state championship rallies in ’67 and ’68. In the 1968 KLG 300 rally, the duo had a tremendous battle with Colin Bond’s Colt and Greg Garard’s HR Holden, finishing in third place, just two points behind eventual winner Bond.

Two weeks later, Bond stepped into the car for Green, who was ill, and won the Castrol 300 rally outright – by only 1.5 points from the Keren/Meyer Volvo – in a car he’d never driven before.

However, the best result for the Minis came only a couple of weeks after the

1967 Southern Cross, when one of the ex-Abingdon cars (LRX 828E), driven

by Tony Fall with local Steve Halloran, won the Total Australia 500 Rally – apparently the first victory in a major rally in Australia by an international driver. Starting from position 123, Fall/ Halloran ran the entire rally in blinding dust, and finished with a split fuel tank, and a shredded tyre on which they drove the last 10 miles.

A ban on rallying on public roads in NSW in 1969 saw BMC sell the two ex-Works Minis. 828E was sold to Ballarat BMC dealership E. Collins Motors. Dealer principal Merv Collins campaigned the car in local events until 1971, then sold it to fellow Ballarat Light Car Club member Graeme Urch.

Urch still owns the car, and after rallying

SIDEWAYS COOPERS

The BMC Australia team competed in the 1971 Heatway Rally in New Zealand. Photo courtesy of Peter Brown.

it and using it as a daily driver for many years, has had it sympathetically restored.

As many of the original components as possible were retained, and the car is today one of the most original ex-Works Minis in private hands, anywhere in the world.

The other ex-Abingdon car (LRX 829E) was sold to Adelaide dealer John Taylor, who ran it in many state rallies, with navigator Graham West and bearing SA rego RGA 890, winning only one event – the 1970 Snowtown Rally.

Taylor sold the Mini at the end of 1970 to Don Lemm, who had a disastrous start with the car, crashing it in his second event, the 1971 Southern 500 Rally.

However, considerably more success came in autocross, winning the Sporting Car Club’s series in 1971 and 1972.

The car went through another couple of owners, before eventually being bought by West Australian Syd Jenkins, and is currently nearing the completion of an extensive ground-up restoration in Victoria.

In 1970 the NSW ban on rallying was lifted, and BMC again got involved, with Green ordering another two ex-Abingdon Minis – this time built especially for BMC Australia. These cars were significant in that they were two of the last Cooper S rally Minis built at Abingdon. When it came time to ship them to Australia, there was a dock strike in England, so the cars were given existing British registrations – RJB327F and YMO881H – then driven to Hamburg, Germany, and shipped from there.

Brian Culcheth rolled RJB (NSW reg BLA 532), during practice only six days before the Southern Cross - with Gus Staunton on board! The car was repaired but, while leading on the third night of the rally, Culcheth hit a large rock, which caused a water leak and resulted in the engine overheating.

Cowan retired the other Works Mini (BLA 523), but Evan Green was second outright with Peter Brown in a locallyprepared Cooper S. In the Rally of the Hills a couple of weeks later, Green/ Brown drove BLA 532 to first in class.

The following January, Andrew Cowan drove the car in Noumea and rolled it eight times. It was returned to Australia and rebuilt into an Australian Mini K body shell.

The BMC Works team in England ❯ MotorSportLegends

43

SIDEWAYS COOPERS The rally Mini looked great as an Aussie Clubman GT.

Gearbox failure eventually ended Bob Holden and George Shepheard’s 1967 Southern Cross campaign.

Timo Makinen and Bob Forsyth - 1967 Southern Cross Rally.

Adelaide Mini dealer John Taylor ran an ex-works car in many state rallies.

Ex-Abingdon Works Mini, YM0881H, was rebodied into an Australian Clubman GT in 1971 and competed in the Southern Cross and KLG.

was closed down under the Leyland management at the end of 1970, but the Australian team continued on for another year or so under the guidance of Gus Staunton.

The two Works Minis were taken to New Zealand for the 1971 Heatway Rally, and 532 was again driven by Cowan, with Dave Johnson, while Green and Brown were in the sister car.

Staunton takes up the tale: “Andrew had a lot of car problems… and we’d done the bearings… but it was a bit of a nightmare, the whole event… with cars breaking down and so on. So, on the last night before they were due to finish in Wellington, I said this is crazy, we came here for publicity and everything, so we took the car out of parc ferme, which 44

MotorSportLegends

you could do under the regulations, totally rebuilt the motor, put it back in and everything.”

“We were about a thousand points down the bottom there, kind of thing, but on the final day Andrew won something like 25 of the 33 special stages, so we just tore the place apart.

Poor old Bruce Hodgson never forgave us, because he won the event and we got all the publicity.”

In 1974, after numerous other rallies, the car was sold to Rally Cross competitor Andrew Foord. Some time later, Foord migrated to New Zealand and took the car with him. It also went through a number of owners, was reshelled again into a period English body, and is currently in England awaiting a

complete restoration.

YMO881H (BLA 523) was rebodied into an Australian Clubman GT in 1971, and competed in the Southern Cross and KLG, but what became of it after that remains a mystery.

By the end of the 1960s the Minis were no longer competitive (although another ex-Abingdon Mini won the Heatway Rally in 1972, driven by Andrew Cowan) and had been surpassed by the Ford Escort.

Although not as successful in Australia as it was in Britain and Europe, the Cooper S did play a major role during the transition of the rally scene from the amateur reliability trials of the 1950s to the full professionalism of modern ML rallying.

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PORSCHE 968 ORY

BY PHOTOGRAPHS BRIAN REED PHOTOGRAPHS

BY CHERYL REID STORY AND

BY MARK COOPER

PORSCHE TRAGIC It’s obvious Craig Rayner is a Porsche tragic... well maybe not just a Porsche tragic, but more of an allround motoring tragic.

It just happens that the Stuttgart marque is how Craig’s passion manifests itself. His particular soft spot is for the little known 968 model.

T

he 968 superseded the 944 and had the same front engine layout as the latter, back in the time when it was still quite novel for a Porsche to be front-engined! Rayner’s particular car has had an amazing competition history and is now a far cry from the naturally aspirated GT Production car that it once was.

Originally campaigned by one of Australia’s leading Porsche exponents in Peter Fitzgerald, the 968CS was a production car pace setter in its heyday. The CS suffix stands for Club Sport and Porsche built the lightweight models for exactly that purpose. While they were stripping out some of the excess bulk they also added some other performance extras like bigger brakes and with the

whole thing weighing in at a smidgen over 1300 kilograms and having an ample 176kW on tap it became the car to beat in a field where its main competitor was the Mazda RX-7. It also faced intermittent challenges from Nissan GT-Rs, the Honda NSX and BMW’s M3.

Early success was met at the 1993 Sandown Six Hour where Fitzgerald, paired with Brett Peters, greeted the flag ahead of the sister car of John Smith, Geoff Morgan and Kevin Waldock. Success wasn’t so easy to find on Mount Panorama though, and the Porsches were trumped at the Bathurst 12 Hour by the factory RX-7s in both ’93 and ’94.

Fitzgerald continued to campaign the car in both the GT Production and Porsche Cup throughout 1994, but ❯ the introduction of the 911RSCS

Fitzgerald and Peters won the 1993 Sandown Six-Hour in the Porsche 968CS, but couldn’t match the pace of the Mazda RX-7s at Bathurst.

PORSCHE 968COOPERS

so much he set about building model number five from his 968CS. Figuring that quite a few of the 30-odd Australian 968 owners would be looking for a little more grunt, Fitzgerald used his motorsport experience to turn the car from CS to RS and created a package that would also be commercially available to during the early part of 1995 meant others. He added the turbocharger, that the 968 was made redundant from bigger brakes, some lightweight circuit racing. That did not mean that panels and bonnet scoops to replicate its competition life was over though. that of the factory RS model. The Far from discard the car to a far corner car has terrorised 911 models and of the workshop Fitzgerald set about bigger budget cars in many forms of converting the car into his own high motorsport ever since. performance version of one of the rarest Current owner Rayner had been of the modern Porsches, the 968RS. watching the progress of the build with The factory had built only four 968RS interest and as a fan of the 968 – he models, which were turbocharged, to has owned five of the 33 imported into race in European GT championships Australia – thought of it as his dream and Fitzgerald liked the sound of the car car. “I attended an open day at Peter

Fitzgerald’s workshop about 10 years ago,” Rayner said, “and as I was one of the earlier arrivals Peter asked if I would like to take a spin in the car before the crowd arrived.

“Here I was, being hurtled around the suburbs in my dream car, by one of my racing heroes. I knew from that moment that I would have to have the car one day.”

Rayner’s thoughts never strayed far from the car since that time and a chance meeting with the second owner, Mark Connolly, during Targa Tasmania 2006 rekindled his enthusiasm for the turbocharged rocket. “I spoke with Mark at Targa and told him that if he ever wanted to sell it to give me a call,” says Rayner, “but I was surfing the web early in 2007 when I came across the car for sale.”

A quick phone call and a few hastily

Rayner has spent many hours restoring the exFitzgerald 968 to its current pristine condition.

“I knew from that moment that I would have to have the car one day.”

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The 968 had its engine in the front, which made it less appealling to many Porsche enthusiasts.

compiled text messages later and the deal had been done; the car was all his.

It was however in a tired way and far from the pristine vehicle you see on these pages, the years of competition leaving it a little worse for wear. “I think it has competed in all but one Targa since ’93, and the interior and bodywork were in a pretty bad way.”

The bodywork issue didn’t present a problem as Rayner is a spray painter.

He stripped the car back to a bare shell and prepped it before sending it over to a mate at North Williamstown Motor Body Works to have the paint applied.

It has been faithfully coated in what

was the signature Fitzgerald Racing colours of blue and green.

Inside the carpet was out and the headlining was ripped in places so it was set for a pretty major rejuvenation.

While this was happening Rayner also fitted a set of Cobra seats and some new harnesses, just in case he feels the need to get it back on the track again.

“We made new door trims as well,” says Rayner, “as the old ones had been removed to fit the roll cage.”

Unlike the four that preceded it, Rayner intends keeping this particular 968 for a long while.

“I believe it’s the ultimate 968 and

I’ll keep it garaged away. I might bring it out for the odd show and shine or club sprint though,” he says with a wry smile.

That smile indicating the 968 may not quite have had its final competition ML fling.

Return of the

Historic Thunder SANDOWN November 6th-8th

Enquiries Noel Robson 0402 224 133

www.vhrr.com

WEBB OF

Intrigue Renowned engine builder Mick Webb compares today’s Biante Series cars to the actual race cars of the ’60s and ’70s.

O

n the outside, the Biante Series cars look just like the machines that raced in the ’60s and ’70s but underneath things are quite a bit different to the way we used to campaign the cars.

While the basic specification remains the same, technological improvement means just about every component is lighter, faster or stronger.

When I was working for Stillwell Ford we built the XW Falcon GTHO Phase II, which was the first of the Cleveland 351s. The balanced and blueprinted standard engine that we ran at Sandown and Bathurst, which was comparable in horsepower with the factory cars, produced 350hp and 350ft/lbs of torque on the dyno.

Now we can get 350hp out of a dunger old road car. People want 500hp to drive on the street and when you try to explain that a race car from yesteryear had 350hp they can’t believe it.

I did Jim Richards’ engines on the Big M Falcon, which was a 351 Cleveland with Gurney Weslake heads. We didn’t dyno it, but if that engine had more than 450hp I’d be very surprised.

I also built Frank Gardner’s Chevrolet Corvair engines and I think the best one of those little 302s was 486hp.

We might have got over 500hp with one engine. If you had 500hp it was a weapon but it would blow up. You had 50

MotorSportLegends

to be so careful because we didn’t have all the bits we have today.

Now the little 289 engine I built for Jim’s Biante Series Falcon Sprint is making 548hp and revving to 7800rpm.

It’s really good horsepower for that engine and very reliable.

We pulled that engine apart recently after five race meetings and I put it back together with the same bearings and rings. I crack tested a few things but it didn’t even look like it had been used.

I have just thrown an oil cooler on to the engine because it’s running a bit hot but anything with that kind of power and the revs we are using has to generate some heat.

I suppose the gains in power and reliability are the result of improved technology. Sure we rev it more and that’s because we have learnt a lot about the weight of our spinning parts. Our conrods are ultra light, our harmonic balancers are ultra light, the flywheel is really light; everything is as light as a feather and it spins easily. Conrods and pistons are probably a third of the weight they used to be so that takes the stress out of every item as well. Today V8 Supercar engines rev to 7500rpm and you rarely hear of one blowing up.

We have learnt more about cylinder heads, our inlet manifolds are a little bit better and our carburetors are a little bit better – it’s a combination of everything.

And the engines are a bit more slippery, we use a lot different oils today.

We get this super duper super slippery fully synthetic oil and it makes power.

On most V8 engines we’ll pick up 15hp by using fully synthetic oil. We probably make 15hp for the lightweight bits and pieces, we probably make 20hp for the camshaft technology we have these days and we probably make another 50 hp from the cylinder head technology. When you add those things up you have much more horsepower.

But while we might have the horsepower, Jim’s 289 still has a torque disadvantage. That’s a small engine characteristic you just can’t overcome.

A good little engine is not as good as a good big engine. We only have 388ft/ lbs where we would really love to have 410-415ft/lbs. The only place the 350s and 351s get away from us is that snap out of a corner. Jim can run with them because the way he drives, he can get a better exit.

We always say we have the JR advantage but sometimes we haven’t because if it’s a flowing corner and Jim can use all of his ability we are okay but if it’s a stop/start corner where everybody has to stand on the brakes then accelerate hard, they beat us.

And if Jim gets baulked we have a real problem.

But we’ll give them a big fright this year. With the car’s first season behind us, this is the year we are going to stir them up and get right in amongst them.

– Mick Webb

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V8X 2005