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primotipo... | Motor racing memories and observations on the sport's past, present & future….
Lyndon Duckett on the way to winning the Longford Trophy in the Anzani Bugatti – Anzani R1 four cylinder, twin-cam engined Bugatti Type 35 chassis #4450 – on March 7, 1955.
Reportage of the early Longford meetings is pretty thin on the ground, so this contemporary summary of the weekend’s proceedings written by Brian Nichols for the May 1955 issue of Modern Motor is great to see, and share. Many thanks to Barry Oliver for posting it online.
Etcetera…
Geoff Smedley’s Triumph TR2 rounding Pub Corner, the Country Club Hotel more formally.
Pretty scratchy, shitty one of a favourite car, the Cisitalia D46 driven by Alan Watson; the machines Australian debut apparently. Through the viaduct in front of an MG T-Type Special. See here for more: https://primotipo.com/2023/09/08/cisitalia-d46/
Credits…
Paul Cross Collection via Neil Kearney’s ‘Longford: A Little Town with a Big Motor’, Modern Motor May 1955 via Barry Oliver Collection
Moore and his Kiwi Equipe Cooper T43 Climax FWB during the F2 London Trophy meeting at Crystal Palace on June 10, 1957
Ronnie Moore was an outstanding Kiwi sportsman, an international speedway rider who won the Individual World Speedway Championship in 1954 and 1959. He earned 13 international caps for the Australian national team, 50 for New Zealand and 21 for Great Britain in career that spanned 1949-75. In addition, he was a pretty handy F2 racer in 1957-58.
Born in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia on 8 April 1933, his father, Les Moore was also a champion rider who built a ‘Wall of Death’ in his backyard, and later turned it into a business, performing at Royal (Agriculture) Shows around Australia.
Ronnie began riding the wall at 13, then got his speedway start on an old Rudge after the family had moved to New Zealand in 1947.
Les stunned the NZ Speedway world when he rode the Rudge to a track record in Wellington, beating local star Bruce Abernethy. Les then got an offer to help set up a new track in Christchurch so the family shifted south.
While born in Australia, Ronnie always considered himself a Kiwi. He had to wait until he was 15 – the legal age to get a drivers licence – to have his first official race drive and later reckoned he could barely touch the foot-pegs on the Rudge when he lined up on the dirt track at Tai Tapu in 1948.
Kiwis Ronnie Moore and Barry Briggs from Australia’s Jack Young at Wembley during the September 1960 World Speedway Championship meetingWembley, September 1959, World Speedway Championship
In 1949, Moore began racing on a regular basis at his father’s Aranui Speedway in the Sandhills near Christchurch. He remembered counting the trucks as they brought all the dirt from the Lyttelton tunnel to create the track and arena.
Stuff.co.nz records that “His career clicked when he started riding a specialist, secondhand speedway bike his dad brought off Norman Parker,” a leading English racer who competed in New Zealand.
He moved to the UK in 1950. Wimbledon promoter Ronnie Green spotted his potential despite crashing through the wire-mesh safety fence on his first trial ride! He raced for the Wimbledon Dons in the British League, becoming team captain after two years, and continued with them until 1963, apart from two years in the late 1950s when he raced F2 Coopers.
“Speedway was second to football then in people going through the turnstiles, with crowds of up to 15,000 just for a league match.”
Moore was the youngest ever rider to qualify for a Speedway World Championship. He did that in 1950, aged just 17. Four years later, he became New Zealand’s first motorcycle world champion when he took the 1954 championship in front of 80,000 people at Wembley. Even more remarkable is that he was only 21 and took five wins from five starts, despite riding with a leg that had been broken badly not that long before in five places.
He had slid into a safety fence at a meeting in Denmark and stopped dead, his leg was bent around the bike’s handlebars. While the Danish doctors predicted a recovery time of nine months, Moore sought the advice of a Kiwi Harley Street surgeon who had made his name getting fighter pilots back in the sky quickly. His thigh to toe plaster cast was whipped off and the first of two braces were made which allowed the bone to heal, while reducing the rate at which his muscles would otherwise have withered.
Ronnie and Bruce Abernethy, Kiwi Stars both, in 1952 (A Jeffries)The two Moore family Kiefts – chassis C51-2 and C52-3 – as they left the factory en-route to New Zealand in 1951. Yes, the truck remained in the UK…(C Read Collection)
He was World Championship runner up in 1955-56 to England’s Peter Craven and Swede Ove Fundin. Fellow Kiwi, Barry Briggs won the championship in 1957-58 when Ronnie raced Formula 2 cars while at the peak of his powers.
He formed a two car team – Kiwi Equipe – with fellow EnnZedder Ray Thackwell – father of Mike – and they ran a pair of Cooper T43 Climax’s in 1957-58.
The pair of them went very well, not least in Ronnie’s case because he had been dabbling with cars at home each summer. He and his dad bought a pair of Kieft 500s in 1951, the small engines were soon replaced with supercharged 1000cc Vincent Black Shadow Vee-twins. The cars were very much outright contenders in the Formula Libre. Ronnie recalled in ‘The Ronnie Moore Story’ that “The result was electrifying. I was once clocked at 125mph down Wigram’s main straight – and I was still in third gear.”
One second hand Kieft post its Wigram Big One in 1952. Nice road car until that point! (R Dew)
Moore had a very lucky escape at Wigram in 1952. He came through Hangar flat-chat to find Don Ransley in the middle of the track, Ransley had spun Les Moore’s Alfa 8C2300 sportscar, “I piled straight in and the world started spinning around.”
“It was like hitting an express train, the Kieft somersaulted and came to rest upside down with me trapped underneath. I was conscious and couldn’t move, then fuel started running out of the tank and over me. I was in agony and there was real danger of the car exploding. The three or four minutes I was under the car seemed like an eternity. Appalled at what happened, Don Ransley through caution to the wind, leapt out of the Alfa and single-handedly turned the Kieft over…Apart from surface abrasions, there was nothing seriously wrong with me a few days in bed wouldn’t cure. The poor Kieft was a different matter, about all I managed to salvage was a wheel and a few bits of the motor. The Alfa hardly had a scratch!”
Ronnie’s car racing career included testing duties of this speedway car. The Allard designed and built ‘Atom’ was a prototype of a proposed fleet of cars being considered for racing on British speedways the following year. Wimbledon, September 1955. He was caught out and rolled over by track ruts, Ronnie broke his collarbone but recovered quickly enough (G Woods Collection)Cooper T43 Climax FWB, Brands Hatch 1957. Date unknown, the number doesn’t work for any of the Brands meetings Ronnie contested that year (Daily Mail)
In two truncated F2 seasons – about eight meetings in 1957 and six in 1958 – Ronnie did very well against seasoned F1 drivers and up-and-comers. His best results include a win against few cars at Roskilde, third in the Rochester Trophy at Brands and a fourth at Mallory Park. The race winners of meetings Moore contested were Jack Brabham, Tony Marsh and Roy Salvadori aboard Cooper T43s, and Maurice Trintignant on a factory Ferrari Dino 156.
His 1958 results included third at Brands in May and a pair of fourths in the Pau GP and Annerley Trophy at Crystal Palace. Race winners in his six ’58 meetings were the Trintignant, McLaren, Ian Burgess, Stuart Lewis-Evans and Syd Jensen Coopers (T43 and T45 Climaxes) and Cliff Allison’s Lotus 12 Climax.
Moore’s promising and way-too-short car racing career came to an end after a plea from his wife Jill, who was in hospital, giving birth to twin-daughters, Kim and Lea at the time. “She asked me if I’d quit. You break an arm or a leg in speedway, but you get over that. But three of your friends have been killed in car racing this year,” she said.
Ivor Bueb, Maserati 250F from Ronnie Moore’s Cooper T43 Climax during the September 1957 BRDC International Trophy meeting at Silverstone. Jean Behra won in a BRM P25, Bueb was ninth and Moore 17th (Getty)Crystal Palace, June 1957. The pair of Kiwi Equipe Cooper T43s – Ray Thackwell’s is the car beyond (Getty)
So Moore returned to Wimbledon for 1958, then in 1959 became Speedway World Champion again after fellow Kiwi Barry Briggs gave up some of his nitro-fuel so Ronnie could top up his tank before his fifth and final ride that day. He was runner-up again in 1960, to Fundin. Moore won the New Zealand Speedway Championship in 1956, 1962, 1968 and 1969.
He returned home in 1963 after another broken leg, the family was ready to stop shuffling between New Zealand and England. Ronnie invested in a motorcycle business and even re-activated the ‘Wall of Death’ show.
Sure enough he soon got the competitive twitches, feeling as though he had unfinished business and made a return to international racing in 1969, riding for Wimbledon and reaching the World Championship final at the ripe old age of 36. In 1970, he took the World Pairs Championship with fellow speedway great Ivan Mauger, at Malmo Stadium in Sweden .
At Belle Vue Stadium, Manchester in 1969Ronnie working on his bike in 1969. As to the make of frame and engine, your guess is as good as mine (Daily Mail)
1974 saw the first ’Battle of the World Champions’ series held in New Zealand and Australia, featuring four world champions: Barry Briggs, Ronnie Moore, Ove Fundin and Ivan Mauger. It was during the Jerilderie Park Speedway round in New South Wales that Moore nearly lost his life. His gear was stolen and he had to borrow someone else’s to ride. He crashed, suffering serious head injuries and was lucky to survive.
Moore was awarded an MBE in 1985 by the Queen, is a member of the Motorcycle New Zealand, New Zealand Sports and World Speedway Halls of Fame and won the Canterbury Sports Legends award in 2014. The Canterbury Park Motorcycle Speedway was renamed the Moore Park Motorcycle Speedway.
Twice World Champion, three times World Championship runner up, four times New Zealand Champion, World Pairs Champion and many other career achievements, Ronnie Moore is a great icon of New Zealand motorcycle sport, he died of lung cancer in Christchurch on August 18, 2018, aged 85.
(G Woods Collection)
Jill, Ronnie, Shani, Gina, Kim and Lea Moore at home circa 1972.
Etcetera…
While Ronnie was enjoying success in the UK, Les had acquired two Jano Alfa Romeos, an 8C2300 (chassis number please?) and no less a P3 than chassis #50005, the car with which Tazio Nuvolari belted the Silver Arrows by winning the 1935 German Grand Prix.
Moore found the P3 tricky to drive but won the Lady Wigram Trophy on the RNZAF airfield of the same name in 1951-52. Les died at the wheel of a celebrated NZ Special, the RA4 Vanguard, at Saltwater Creek, Timaru in October 1960 after the car rolled.
Valerie, Clarice, Les and Ron Moore with P3 Alfa Romeo after the 1952 Lady Wigram trophy victory (G Woods Collection)Moore at Wimbledon in 1955 (unattributed)
As mentioned above, the Atom was built by Allard to the order and brief of Wimbledon Speedway owner Ronnie Green in 1955, he was keen to ‘spice-up the show’.
Powered by a 500cc JAP speedway and clutch assembly, the 64-inch wheelbase car used an Allard Clipper chassis and many Ford components. Two were built. Click here for a great article about the project on The Allard Register website: http://www.allardregister.org/blog/2010/7/9/the-allard-atom.html
(unattributed)(unattributed)
Showtime! Date and place unknown. “Ronnie Moore on the Bally-rollers and Graham Pickup with the microphone. A free show outside the wall to attract punters to the show,” recalled Lindsay Mouat.
Craig Norman chipped in, “I was too scared to watch the actual show but I vividly remember watching spellbound at his outside display. He had perfect control and balance.”
(unattributed)
Credits…
This piece uses as a base an article written by Motorcycling NZ historian Ian Dawson on the occasion of Moore’s admission to the MNZ Hall of Fame in 2012. Getty Images, F2 Index, Graham Woods, Chris Read Collection, ‘The Ronnie Moore Story’ by Rod Dew, Alan Jeffries, Lindsay Mouat, Craig Norman
Tailpiece…
Ronnie Moore, Geoff Mardon, Ove Fundin, George White and Peter Craven prepare to compete in the Speedway World Championship at Wembley in September 1959.
All of these PR shots were taken during daytime, before the crowds arrived…
Murray Carter’s self built Carter Corvette V8 was a brutally attractive sports car that became Dingo-Ugly when the body was adapted to Appendix-K GT regs, as here during the March 1962, Sandown Park international meeting…
Here she is below in an earlier, far more appealing format, at Bathurst in October 1961. This article tells the story of the car and the folly of one of the CAMS’ less-than-brilliant rule changes: https://primotipo.com/2017/01/19/forever-young/
(VHRR Collection) (SLNSW)
Murray again, this time leading Barry Topen in the similarly vulgarised Jaguar D-Type, #XKD526, through Mobiloil corner – it seems – or Turn One in vulgar, modern parlance.
The capacious Sandown paddock above, not quite so accommodating by the early 1970s mind you. Meanwhile old-mate below – craning his neck in the light coloured suit – is upset because he thought he was heading off to his favourite track to see the donkeys galloping around…It was Sandown’s ‘opening car race meeting’ after all, the first clubbie is duly noted.
(SLNSW)(SLNSW)
Ah, that’s reassuring, Peters corner, was named so, right from the start. At least until ‘Torana’ made an offer the Light Car Club of Australia couldn’t decline circa 1971-72. Sandown’s Pit Straight before the pit counter and pitlane armco…and armco and grass runoff area on the outside. That road style kerb would have caused some excitement and grief.
“A group of Rileys during the (Victorian) Centenary Grand Prix – January 1 1935 – weekend at Phillip Island,” wrote David Trunfull.
“The Ulster Imp is being driven by Bill Williamson, his passenger is Air Commodore Johnny Summers. The Brooklands #6 is being driven by Bill Galpin from New Zealand, the passenger is MC Shmith. This car is the ex-Riley works car that won the 1933 AGP driven by Bill Thompson. Brooklands 63.902 is being driven by Merton Wreford, his passenger is Alan Wyatt, the source of this photo. Wreford worked for the Riley distributor, BL Cohen.”
Another shot from the same event. “#6 is the Bill Thompson 1933 AGP car. It was brought over specially for the Centenary 300 by Bill Galpin but for some unknown reason it didn’t take place in the race.”
Trunfull, “The ex-Riley team car was raced in the UK by Sir Malcolm Campbell, AK v.d Becke and Sir Chris Staniland.” “The Brooklands also won the 1949 inaugural Lady Wigram Trophy (on the RNZAF Christchurch airforce base of the same name ) in the hands of Morrie Proctor. It still resides in Christchurch,” chipped in John Newell.
The car on the right is another ex-Riley team car which is said to have been a spare for the 1934 Ulster Tourist Trophy. BL Cohen Pty Ltd imported it in 1934, Bill Williamson raced it for them. The Head brothers later owned and raced it, fitting a 12/4 race engine.”
“This car (the Imp) is now one by Ian Ruffley’s family, the original Ulster Imp engine is probably fitted to the late Terry Moran’s car,” wrote Jim Runciman.
This shot from Tony Johns “was taken during the 1932 AGP weekend at Phillip Island.” #14 is the ninth placed Bill Williamson driven Riley, car #19 Ken McKinney’s Austin 7 DNF. Bill Thompson won the race in a Bugatti T37A.
A bit of trivia, “if you enlarge the photo, the open door on the left has CRD (Cyril Dickason) and RCM (Clarrie May) and CRW (Cec Warren) who would have shared the same garage when they raced Austins in the 1931 AGP the year before.”
Credits…
The Car, David Trunfull, Jim Runciman, John Newell, Tony Johns, VSCC NSW Archive
Peter Macrow gives a row of poplars a fright as he runs wide at Newry corner during the March 1968 Longford Tasman Cup weekend, Argo Chev V8.
The Argo is a special built from the bones of an uncompetitive Cooper T53 by Ray Gibbs, a Melbourne racer/mechanic who had a stint at Cooper in his CV, for grazier/racer/car owner Tony Osborne.
With a too-long-to-be-competitive gestation period, it was first raced by Ian Cook in 1967. When Ian bagged a drive with Bob Jane Racing, another Melbourne up and coming single seater pilot, Peter Macrow got the ride. See here: https://primotipo.com/2023/05/01/cheetahs-riverina-gold-cups/
(unattributed)
Look how those trees have grown! They were saplings when Jack Brabham and Bib Stillwell raced each other on the same stretch of road out of Newry, in the Longford Trophy eight years before.
The freshly minted World Champion won there in 1960 aboard a Cooper T51 Climax 2.5 FPF, from the similar chassis of Alec Milden and Stillwell. Alec’s car was powered by a Maserati 250S four, Bib’s by a 2.2-litre Climax FPF.
Macrow eases Argo into the viaduct at Longford, not sure what day the wet race was. The aluminium body was built, very slowly, by Murray Carter in Moorabbin, a legendary racer of all manner of things, mostly touring cars.
I wrote a feature on the Argo Chev, now owned by my good friend, Pater Brennan, not so long ago. Have a read of it, its an intriguing tale of twists and turns: https://autoaction.com.au/2023/11/05/argo-chev-v8
Etcetera…
(G Fluke)
Chris Amon tips his ex-works/Scuderia Veloce Ferrari P4/350 Can Am towards the uphill apex of Newry during the 1968 weekend, Chris was the class of the sportscar events. He is about 50-75 metres behind the spot where Argo is in the first shot. Click here for an epic on this car: https://primotipo.com/2015/04/02/ferrari-p4canam-350-0858/
Osborne Family Collection via oldracephotos.com, Lin Gigney, Guy Fluke
Tailpiece…
(L Gigney)
Tony Osborne, Cooper T53 Climax leads Graham Hill’s Scuderia Veloce Brabham BT4 Climax – the race winner – off Long Bridge during the March 2, 1964 South Pacific Trophy weekend. The car following Hill is the ill-fated Tim Mayer in ‘the other’ Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Cooper T70 Climax.
This car, T53 #F2-17-60, the ex-Brabham/Lex Davison provided parts to build Argo. Both Argo and the Cooper exist and are occasionally raced in historic events. Scroll down to chassis F2-17-60 for oldracingcars.com Allen Brown’s summary: https://www.oldracingcars.com/cooper/t53/
Jack Brabham from Bruce McLaren: a works Cooper T51/Climax 1-2 seemed likely for much of the race (MotorSport)
A thrilling race of course, Bruce McLaren took an historic win – as the youngest ever F1 championship GP winner, a title he held for yonks – after Jack Brabham’s Cooper T51 Climax ran out of juice on the last lap. Jack was fourth, Maurice Trintignant, Cooper T51 Climax was second and Tony Brooks, Ferrari Dino 246 was third.
Just before the off, Harry Schell, Jack Brabham and Stirling Moss all aboard Cooper T51s on the front row; Harry controversially so as he had taken a short cut during qualifying! #6 is Maurice Trintignant’s Walker T51, #2 Tony Brooks’ Ferrari Dino 246 (MotorSport)
The Americans entered F1 etc – Indy being part of the F1 World Championship from 1950-1960 duly noted – but the interesting thing was the mix of cars. Not just Rodger Ward’s utterly nuts and utterly wonderful, Kurtis Kraft Offy, but also Fritz d’Orey’s Tec-Mec F415 Maserati, Allesandro de Tomaso’s Cooper T43 OSCA Streamliner and Bob Said’s Connaught C-Type Alta.
(MotorSport)(MotorSport)
Fritz d’Orey in the one-off Valerio Colotti designed, Gordon Pennington owned Tec-Mec F415 Maserati at Sebring during practice.
Remember those days before carefully homogenised and pasteurised, hermetically clean and certified absolute sameness and dull-shit-boredom. Where did it all go wrong? See here for a story on this car: https://primotipo.com/2024/03/11/tec-mec-f415-maserati/
(MotorSport)
De Tomaso’s works Officine Specializate Costruzione Automobili entered Cooper T43 OSCA 2-litre was only ever going to be an also-ran given the modest displacement and endurance background its twin-cam, Weber fed four-cylinder engine. He qualified the car 14th on the 19 car grid and completed 14 laps before brake troubles intervened.
The car’s swoopy, beautifully finished and fitting body is far more attractive than any of the Coopers of that era, and more aerodynamically efficient? While said to be a Cooper T43, the chassis may be a copy, the wheels are also of De Tomaso’s design and manufacture. An interesting experiment, what became of the car?
(MotorSport)(MotorSport)
It made great commercial sense for the organisers to run the reigning Indy 500 champion, Rodger Ward, in the race. If you believe the hype, Ward thought his lightly modified Kuris Kraft Midget would give the ‘European Buggies’ a run for their money.
Jack Brabham related to Doug Nye, “The next day he, Bruce, and and I arrived together at the first corner of the track, and just as we jumped from brake to throttle pedal and streaked away from him he was astonished. To his credit he took it well.”
Ward’s qualifying time was well short of pole-sitter Stirling Moss in Rob Walker’s Cooper T51 Climax: 3 min dead vs 3 min 43.8 sec. Rodger lasted for 21 of the race’s 42 5.2-mile laps, getting as high as ninth as others retired, before clutch failure intervened.
A popular racer and a good sport, he became a Cooper convert overnight and worked on Jack and John Cooper to convince them to run a car at Indianapolis. After the 1960 US GP Jack ran his GP Cooper T53 Climax at Indy in a series of tests, aided and abetted by Ward; Coopers participation in the 1961 500 with a Climax powered Cooper T54 changed Indy history, and Rodger Ward played a key role.
(MotorSport)
Ward’s 1946 Leader Card Kurtis Kraft Midget, chassis #0-10-46 was powered by a 1.7-litre, DOHC, two-valve Offenhauser engine that gave away heaps of performance to the mainly 2.5-litre competition. It had a two-speed gearbox, a two-ratio rear axle, hand-disc-brakes and the usual other dirt-track accoutrements! Those Halibrand wheels are 12-inches in diameter and Firestone provided the tyres.
The beam front axle is sprung by a transverse leaf and located bt two radius rods. I’ll take your advice on shock-absorbers. Note the front discs, nerf protection in front of the rear wheels and high standard of preparation and presentation.
(MotorSport)
Jesse Alexander observed the following about the Kurtis Kraft in his Sports Cars Illustrated meeting report.
“The greater part of the two practice sessions was spent getting the car to run properly on Avgas (rather than the usual methanol). The several times that it did appear on the circuit it was obvious that the few modifications to the chassis to suit it better for road racing were worthwhile. Surprisingly stabile and getting through many of the corners as fast (in some cases faster) as much of the field.”
“The red and white Offy differed from normal midgets in having its engine fitted several inches farther forward in the chassis as well as having a supplementary 2-speed transmission installed. This meant that actually there were two 2-speed units, one behind the engine and the other in unit with the final drive gears. But these alterations could never possibly make up for the displacement gap between the parky Midget and her overseas competitors.”
“Rodger Ward deserves credit for his spirit and enthusiasm – it was great to see him at Sebring and lets hope it won’t be the last time out for an Offy-engined car.”
By late 1959 the car was owned by Florida man Gordon Pennington, he decided to enter the machine for its one-and-only race at Sebring.
With Brazilian wealthy-journeyman Fritz d’Oley at the wheel, the new car, being run for Pennington and D’Oley by the Camoradi Team, managed to qualify 16th, one grid-slot in front of the only 250F in the race driven by Phil Cade.
The Tec-Mec completed 7 laps before an oil leak forced Fritz’ withdrawal, while Cade didn’t take the start given the old-gal’s lack of pace: 3 min 39 sec in qualifying. While Tony Brooks’ front-engined Ferrari Dino 246 was third, and the Dinos raced on into 1960, Ferrari wheeled out a mid-engined prototype at Monaco that year.
Fritz d’Orey, Tec-Mec F415 Maserati during the race. “The Tec-Mec was never driven quickly enough to show up any defects. The only time we know of it being driven fast was when Jo Bonnier took it around the Modena Autodromo last summer. His comments were not all that favourable. He complained of, among other things, a flexing chassis.”
Fritz d’Orey, Tec Mec F415 on the hop (MotorSport)Bob Said in the Connaught C-Type Alta. Unusual and attractive body, Dunlop alloy wheels (MotorSport)
A bit like the Tec Mec, the Connaught C-Type Alta (chassis #C8) was also stillborn.
Rodney Clarke’s spaceframe chassis, disc braked, strut/De Dion tube rear suspension, double wishbone front suspension, Alta DOHC, two-valve four powered, Wilson pre-selector ‘transmissioned’ vast improvement of Connaught’s successful B-Type was tested but unraced when the assets of Connaught Engineering were sold in 1957.
Passed in at the auction, #C8 was later sold to Paul Emery (of Emeryson fame) and “keen amateur racing driver John Turner”. They soon did a deal with American driver, Bob Said, to race the car at Sebring.
Inevitably, shipping delays meant the project was knee-capped from the start. Poor Said had little testing time, with fuel injection difficulties adding to the challenge. He qualified the car a great 13th in the circumstances but had clutch problems in the race and then crashed it when he was caught out by the Alta engine’s erratic throttle response without completing a lap.
Jesse Alexander wrote, “The Connaught with Bob said driving drew many interested onlookers. This was the first racing appearance of the space-framed car that was under construction back when Connaught decided to cease building and racing cars. They never sold this one, which embodies many novel design features like a telescoping de Dion tube and servo-operated Lockheed disc brakes. Paul Emery got it running well enough for Said to turn a 3:27.3sec practice lap.”
Connaught C-Type #C8 in-build at Send. Note Alta engine and spaceframe chassis which looks very torsionally stiff in this photo and the one below. Double wishbone IFS and bespoke? uprights. Who are they folks? (W I’Anson Ltd)Dunlop wheels, diff clear but not the strut/De Dion arrangement. It all looks thoroughly modern and light, Wilson pre-selector box more weighty (W I’Anson Ltd)
While outside the scope of this article, the car was repaired back at the Send factory, near Guildford. With six inches added to the wheelbase, cut-down bodywork, a push-bar, and the Alta fuel injected engine tuned to 260bhp on methanol, Jack Fairman attempted unsuccessfully to qualify the car for the 1962 Indianapolis 500.
It’s such a shame this Connaught didn’t contest Grands Prix in 1957 as planned…
C8 was sold via a Road & Track ad and then lived in a private California museum from late ’62 until 1974 when Rodney Clarke repatriated the car to the UK. In another Tec Mec similarity, the car has been an historic racing front runner for decades, initially in Indy LWB spec and since the late 1990s in its original GP specifications.
Stirling Moss in the Walker Cooper T51 in front of the seventh placed Harry Blanchard’s Porsche RSK and Taffy Von Trips’ Ferrari Dino 246, sixth (MotorSport)
Stirling Moss’ Rob Walker Cooper started from pole but was out after only five laps with Colotti gearbox failure.
Alf Francis had modified the rear suspension from the standard Cooper transverse leaf setup to coil springs and ‘wishbones’ as shown in the shot below.
Jesse Alexander explains, “The new rear suspension had been tried out in the Fall back in England. Stirling liked its feel, then proved it by bettering the Goodwood lap record. Wire wheels at the rear, and the Colotti five-speed transmission were the only major differences bwtween the Walker cars and the works cars of Brabham and McLaren.”
(MotorSport)(MotorSport)
Bruce McLaren – with Jack in front of him – demonstrates the geometry of the standard T51 transverse leaf layout (at Sebring) where said spring performs that task, and locational duties. The 1960 Cooper Lowline (T53) quickly concocted by Messrs Cooper C, Brabham, McLaren and Maddock after the first race of the year, included among its successful bag-of-tricks a coil sprung rear end.
(MotorSport)
McLaren enroute to victory above. Alexander tells us that Brabham had initially practiced this car but “it had experimental settings for 1960” and Jack didn’t like the feel of it, so he and Bruce swapped chassis. “McLaren had not even expected to race at Sebring when I spoke with him in England in October. He expected to be in New Zealand for Christmas and participate in their Grand Prix. As it turned out, Masten Gregory’s injuries failed to heal in time for him to race at Sebring and Bruce replaced him.”
Didn’t fate play a couple of hands in Bruce’s favour!
(MotorSport)
Credits…
MotorSport Images, Jesse Alexander in Sports Cars Illustrated March 1960 via Stephen Dalton’s archive, William I’Anson Ltd
This pair of shots are of Jim Hawker at the 16th Rob Roy in June 1948 above, and the 10th Rob Roy meeting below, in 1946.
(G Thomas)(G Thomas)
Peeling out during a run at the Vintage Sports Car Club speed trials on June 16, 1947.
Spaceframe chassis, independent suspension front and rear, front wheel drive, and a complex four cylinder 1.1-litre, stepped bore, eight-piston, vertically opposed, supercharged two-stroke, twin-plug engine amongst its pre-war bag of tricks.
Bruce McLaren tips his Cooper T70 Climax into Shell corner at Sandown during the 1964 Tasman Cup round – the Australian Grand Prix – DNF engine in the race won by Jack Brabham. See here: https://primotipo.com/2020/04/20/mclaren-cooper-t70-sandown/
The ‘first McLarens’ – two Cooper T70s – built by Bruce McLaren and Wally Willmott at Coopers in late 1963 have been very much in the news, and star of the historic show at the 2024 Australian Grand Prix carnival given it’s 60 years since Bruce McLaren won the very first Tasman Cup driving the two T70s that summer. Bruce won three of the eight rounds – NZ GP at Pukekohe, Lady Wigram Trophy and Teretonga International – in this car #T70 FL-2-64, so too did Jack Brabham (Brabham BT7A Climax), but Bruce had the better haul of points.
Sadly, Tim Mayer crashed the car Bruce is driving above, to his death at Longford three weeks after Sandown. The surviving car (#FL-1-64) is owned by Adam Berryman, proudly showing off a car which has been in the family since 1974 at Government House, Melbourne on March 21. See here for more about the T70: https://primotipo.com/2016/11/18/tim-mayer-what-might-have-been/
(M Bisset)(M Bisset)(Eisert Family)
Aussie Ace, Bob Muir alongside the ex-Gary Campbell/Jones-Eisert Lola T330 Chev HU14 during the 1973 US L&M F5000 Championship round at Laguna Seca. Jerry Eisert is alongside Muir, John Wright is attending to the right-front, with Peter Molloy in the white top to the left.
Reg Hunt’s Maserati A6GCM/250 during the 1955 Moomba TT meeting held at Albert Park on March 26-27. I’m not so sure its the prosperous motor dealer owner at the wheel.
Hunt had a great weekend with his new car – a 2.5-litre Maserati 250F engined A6GCM – winning the Argus Cup 50-miler and one heat of the Argus Trophy 50-mile feature. He led the final until the red car’s crown wheel and pinion failed, giving Doug Whiteford’s well driven old Talbot-Lago T26C a lucky win.
Hunt turned the local scene on its head with this car, it was the most recent Grand Prix car imported to Australia for many a long year. All of his motor dealer rivals had to reach way-deep into their pockets to keep up with the Brighton Road dealer. See here for more on this car: https://primotipo.com/2017/12/12/hunts-gp-maser-a6gcm-2038/
Holden 48-215 at Albert Park was about the extent of the State Library of Victoria caption, before 1970 Australian Rally Champion, Bob Watson came to the rescue.
“It’s a BP Rally of the 1950s, possibly Lex Davison driving. A sub-event in Albert Park at the end of the rally, later events finished at Chadstone Shopping Centre on Mother’s day in front of huge crowds.” See here: https://primotipo.com/2018/12/06/general-motors-holden-formative/
(SLNSW-R Donaldson)
Ross Jensen on the way to victory of the 1959 Bathurst 100 held over the Easter long-weekend, Maserati 250F, #2509/2504. He is negotiating Hell Corner before heading up Mountain Straight.
It was a terrific win by the visiting Kiwi, all of our Top-Guns were there but Ross beat the lot: Stan Jones, Arnold Glass, Len Lukey, Alec Mildren, Doug Whiteford and others. He was as sharp-as-a-tack having raced for the works-Lister Jaguar team in Europe in 1958 upon the recommendation of Archie Scott Brown who had raced his works-lister in New Zealand in the Summer of ’58 and was impressed by what he saw.
That’s Len Lukey congratulating him below, #5 is Len’s Cooper T45 Climax 2-litre, the 250F on the far side is Glass’s. Love the proboscis…
(SLNSW-R Donaldson)(Auto Action)
Colin Bond, Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000 L34 during the 1975 Phillip Island 500k enduro, a round of the Australian Manufacturers Championship.
1948 Australian Grand Prix winner, Frank Pratt, and passenger Alick Smith at Phillip Island, date unknown. Pratt, a Geelong motor cycle dealer and racer, had famously barely done any car racing when he won that Point Cook, RAAF Airbase, AGP (photo below). See here: https://primotipo.com/2021/09/27/werrangourt-archive-10-george-martins-bmw-328/
Alain Prost during the West End Jubilee South Australian Open Pro-am golf tournament held at Kooyonga during the 1986 Australian Grand Prix week in Adelaide.
He looks pretty relaxed, and the weekend worked out mighty fine too.
Poor old Nigel had his 180mph Williams FW11 Honda 1.5 V6 tyre blowout, so his teammate Piquet was brought in for a precautionary tyre change and Alain’s McLaren MP4/2C TAG-Porsche 1.5 V6 won the race…and the title(s) in a thriller-diller of a race: Drivers and Constructors.
Glen Dix flags an ecstatic Alain Prost home in the 1986 AGP. His McLaren wasn’t as fast as the FW11 Williams that year but he chipped away with a mix of speed and consistency: the Fab-Four in ‘86 were Mansell, Piquet, Senna…and Prost(SLV)
Sportscar grid at Warwick Farm circa 1967. Frank Matich, Matich SR3 Oldsmobile, Bob Jane, Elfin 400 Repco, Glyn Scott’s Lotus 23B Ford and Bill Brown – perhaps – in the Scuderia Veloce Ferrari 250LM. More on Matich’s Ferrari muncher here: https://primotipo.com/2023/04/02/matich-sr3/
Nigel Mansell blasts away from a pitstop on the Surfers Paradise road circuit during the March 21, 1993 Australian Indycar Grand Prix, Lola T93/00 Ford Cosworth XB V8.
In a portent of things to come that year, series debutant Mansell won the opening round of the ’93 CART Championship. He won five of the 16 rounds, and the championship with 191 points, fellow ex-F1 World Champ, Emerson Fittipaldi was second on 183, Penske PC22 Chev.
(C Denby)
Not so much thought of as a racing car in Australia, Leyland’s P76 4.4-litre V8 got a run in New Zealand’s annual B &H 1000 enduro, in this case the 1975 event at Pukekohe.
This one was raced by the very experienced and successful David Oxton and Garry Pederson who finished fourth, the winning car was another Australian car, a Valiant Charger – usually dominant in this race – driven by Wayne Wilkinson and Bryan Innes.
Chris Denby, in an amusing Facebook post relates the story of the exhaust problem which befell the similar car raced by Dauntsey Teagle and Jim Murdoch. “Over a few laps its impressive engine became ‘uncorked’, which injected some great V8 sound into its otherwise fairly subdued race noise.”
“Suddenly it sounded more lie a stock-car than a production saloon – very impressive in the stand. The stewards were quick to act, within minutes a message came over the Tannoy asking if any spectator had a P76 V8 in the carpark would he allow his car to be relieved of its exhaust system to help a race team on the track (they faced exclusion otherwise).”
“That approach didn’t work. A later Tannoy message said, ‘If a spectator with a Leyland P76 notices a much louder than normal exhaust note upon leaving the track, don’t worry, the race mechanics will fix it before you depart…”
(MotorSport)
Vern Schuppan contesting the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch in March 1973, BRM P160D.
The Victorian Governor’s Australian GP party is a wonderful event on the Thursday before the race, here is Jenny and Vern Schuppan on March 21, 2024.
Vern has just turned 81 and is a sharp as a tack. The couple live in a penthouse apartment in the Adelaide Markets – on the AGP course – and split their time between there, visiting their son and family in Melbourne, their daughter in Cambridge, and another home in Portugal.
(M Bisset)(SLNSW)
Fred Withers at Penrith aboard the Marcus Clark & Company owned Cleveland Six racer, circa 1925.
It’s hard to believe that department stores once sold cars, but there-ya-go! This company was founded by Marcus Clark in Newtown, Sydney in 1883 and by the early 1900s was a colossus operating from buildings like this on the corner of Pitt and George Streets, Railway Square, Sydney.
(Hall & Co)(Nambour Chronicle January 22, 1926)
Withers raced the Cleveland Six at Penrith and Maroubra Speedways in New South Wales/Sydney and at Aspendale, outside Melbourne in the 1920s. He was also a record-breaker of some repute using Cleveland and Essex products.
He was famous at the time for some crazy jumps performed with his Essex to gain column-inches in the dailies, this shot was taken in 1927.
(J Sherwood Collection)(P Jones)
Frank Matich contesting the 1970 New Zealand Grand Prix in his much-modified McLaren M10A Chev at Pukekohe. FM had a pretty good Tasman Series, winning here at Pukekohe and at Wigram a week later. While he had the pace, he didn’t have Graeme Lawrence’s Ferrari Dino 246T reliability. Graeme prevailed by five points, 30 to 25.
(T Glenn)
A little later, from 1971-74, Frank Matich and his small team designed and built six F5000 cars: three A50s, two A51s – one A51 evolved into the short-lived A52 – and this A53, the very last of the breed.
Matich A53/007 in build in FM’s ‘shop in Military Road, Cremorne in late 1973 (D Kneller)
Credits…
Getty Images, State Library of Victoria, Charles Pratt-State Library of Victoria, Rennie Ellis, MotorSport Images, Chris Denby, Peter Jones, John Sherwood Collection in ‘Half a Century of Speed’ by Tony & Pedr Davis and Barry Lake, Bob Williamson Collection, Eisert Family Collection, Derek Kneller, State Library of NSW-Lynch, Tony Glenn, oldracingcars.com
I’m a big fan of Ron Tauranac’s Brabham BT34 Ford ‘Lobster Claw’. The one and only BT34/1 raced throughout 1971 by Graham Hill isn’t at her Elle MacPherson best sans clothes, wings front and rear specifically. Italian Grand Prix practice, Monza, September 5 weekend in 1971.
I’ve almost finished a feature on BT34, but this shot got me thinking about which car(s) were the last to test or race at Monza without wings. It was the practice in the early-winged-era – 1968-71 at least – for much of the grid to test with and without wings to assess drag/grip/top speed tradeoffs in the quest for the optimum race setup. Does anybody know who was the last to do so, small things amuse small minds I know. More on the BT34/BT37 here: https://primotipo.com/2016/11/15/carlos-bt37-butt/
Graham raced winged, Q14 and DNF gearbox in one of the best ever F1 races won magnificently by Peter Gethin’s BRM P160 by a bees-dick from Ronnie Peterson’s March 711 Ford. Their official times were 1hr 18m 12.600sec and 1:18:12.610 respectively.
(MotorSport)
Graham early in the race – his BT34 aero-kit now fitted – with John Surtees, Surtees TS9B Ford (DNF engine) and Nanni Galli’s #22 March 711 Ford (DNF electrics).
BT34’s best results were in non-championship F1 races: Hill won the May 1971 BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone and Carlos Reutemann the March 1972 Brazilian GP.
By 1971 Graham was arguably past his F1-best. While Hill got the better of his team-mate, Tim Schenken – 1970 BT33 mounted – in the first half of ’71, the reverse was the case in the ‘back-nine’. It would have been interesting to see what Tim could have done with the car. Reutemann certainly showed its pace, not only did he win in Brazil but sensationally put the BT34 on pole on his championship GP debut in Argentina in late January.
Not that Graham was a spent force. He won the Thruxton Euro F2 round in a Rondel Racing Brabham BT36 Ford FVA from Ronnie Peterson’s March 712 in March 1971, and another, the GP della Lotteria di Monza on June 29, 1972 aboard a Brabham BT38 Ford BDA. Not to forget Le Mans that year of course, where Graham shared the winning Matra MS670 with Henri Pescarolo over the June 10-11 weekend. See here: https://primotipo.com/2023/09/19/matra-random/
Credits…
MotorSport Images, LAT, F2 Register
Tailpiece…
(LAT)
Hill (above) on the way to winning the 1972 Monza Lottery GP F2 race, still in search of the optimum low drag Monza setup on his Brabham BT38 Ford BDA: no front wings and a very shallow angle of incidence at the rear.
May as well finish with another question, this time for the Graham Hill experts. Was that Monza Lottery win – not a Euro F2 Championship round that year – on June 29, 1972 Graham’s final race win?
More BT34 soon. Oh yes, the Fugly Car Cup will be an occasional article.
Maybach 2 on display at the Melbourne International Motor Show, Exhibition Buildings, April 1-10 1954 (D Zeunert Collection)
A while back I published an article about Maybach 1, the first in a series of three chassis – four cars – built by Charlie Dean/Repco Research and Ernie Seeliger between 1947 and 1958. Click on this link to that piece: https://primotipo.com/2024/01/15/maybach-1-technical-specifications/
As with that article, this one is also a copy of the technical specifications and evolution of these machines published in the Australian Motor Sports Annual 1958-59. The author’s name isn’t cited, so I’ve credited it to John Goode, the book’s editor.
The photo choices are mine, so too the are the Notes sections. I’m taking as-read a general knowledge of Maybach, but if you need a refresher, click on the links at the end of this piece.
(L Sims)
Introduction…
Here are three photographs to illustrate the journey from Maybach 1 in 1947 to Maybach 1 Series 3 – the 1954 New Zealand Grand Prix winner in Stan Jones’ hands – to get us to the start of this article, Maybach 2, which commenced its life in April 1954.
The shot above shows Charlie Dean and the brave Jack Joyce aboard Maybach 1 at Rob Roy during the Melbourne Cup long-weekend in November 1947. What a wild road car the beast would have made, the car received its body immediately prior to the 1948 Australian Grand Prix held at Point Cook, in Melbourne’s inner-west.
(G Thomas)
The shot above shows Dean on-the-hop at Rob Roy in 1948 – Maybach 1 painted in its original white – and below coloured blue, on test at Willsmere, near Dean’s Kew home circa 1951. And then below that, the Repco advertisement shows Maybach 1 Series 3 winning the 1954 NZ GP at Ardmore.
(D Stubbs)Compare and contrast: Maybach 1 Series 3 above, with Maybach 2 below (B Caldersmith)
MAYBACH II (April 1954-November 29, 1954)…
ENGINE: 6 cyl. in-line single oh. camshaft. Bore and stroke: 91 × 110mm. Capacity: 4,250 c.c. Output: 257 b.h.p. at 5,000 .p.m. (bench tested). Carburettors: Three 2 3/16″ S.U. Compression Ratio: 11 to 1. Fuel used: 60% Methanol, 20% Benzol, 20% Aviation Petrol Octane rating: 110. Cast iron cylinder block with wet liners.
Single casting cast iron cylinder block and crankcase, with sump joint well below the crankshaft centre line. Crankshaft machined all over and fully counter balanced, running in eight white metal lined bearings, one between each crank throw and an extra one behind the camshaft drive pinion situated at rear end of crankshaft. Wet liners fitted to cylinder bores with lightweight balanced connecting rods and other reciprocating parts.
Single camshaft running in seven white metal bearings, opening valves by means of rocker arms fitted with eccentric bushes which could be rotated and locked to adjust valve clearances. Rockers had roller cam followers. Valves inclined at 65 degrees in hemispherical head and located on opposite sides. Helical timing gears with idler (originally compounded fabric, but replaced by steel).
Wet sump lubrication through filter with pressure fed oil supplied to centre main bearings, then to other caps, and through the crankshaft to big end bearings. Also fed to valve rocker shafts and camshaft bearings.
Complete body and chassis redesign converting it into a single seater. Mk. I Series 3 Maybach motor used.
NOTES:
The wording in relation to the chassis is misleading. Maybach 1’s chassis was set aside – tired and much modified as it was – and a new single-seater chassis was designed and fabricated for Maybach 2.
The engine came from a German half-track vehicle captured during the Middle East campaign and shipped to Australia for technical study by the military.
Maybach 2 in the Southport paddock during the November 1954 Australian Grand Prix meeting, racer, Owen Bailey at far left (VSCC Collection)Stan being pushed onto the grid. He led the race before a chassis weld broke on lap 14 of 27, pitching him down the road at high speed. Jones was miraculously ok but Maybach 2 was very dead (J Psaros)
TRANSMISSION: Gearbox: four speed using Fiat 525 case with Repco manufactured gears. Ratios: First- 7.08:1 Second-4.94:1 , Third-3.78:1, Top-3.14:1.
DRIVESHAFT: Dropped to pass beneath back axle and driving a short forward shaft into differential through two helical gears, easily accessible from rear, permitting alteration to overall ratios up or down by 3%. Differential: Resembled American Four Lock locking type constructed by Repco workshops from their own and American components. Rear Axle: Vibrac type high tensile steel.
CHASSIS: Frame: Based on two 4″ dia. 16 gauge steel tubes.
Suspension: Front – Independent with wishbones and Delco shock absorbers with low placed 3 leaf traverse spring. Rear Panhard type with reversed quarter elliptic springs and torque arms anchored to heavy cross member linking two main longitudinal tubes of the chassis. Tubular Monroe Wylie shock absorbers.
Steering: Peugeot rack and pinion.
Brakes: Paton’s Hydraulic using twin parallel master cylinders, one operating front and one the rear. Action on both integral but operation separate permitting one set in action if others fail. Front shoes, twin leading design with I6in. special helically finned drums, cooled by air scoops to forward sides. Rear shoes of leading and trailing type in 14 in. drums.
Wheels: Locally constructed wire type with Rudge Whitworth hubs. Front 18″ dia. Tyres: 5.25 × 18. Rear 16″ dia. Tyres: 7.00 x 16.
Body: Single light aluminium shell easily removable in three seclions. Fuel Capacity: 25 gallons in tail mounted aluminium tank.
Dimensions: Wheelbase 94″ • Track: Front 4 ft. 3 ins. Rear 4 ft. I ins. Weight: 16 cwt. Power/weight ratio: 7 Ibs. per b.h.p.
“Rare photograph showing the front crossmember of Maybach 2 where the chassis tube broke” (S Scholes Collection-Wheels May 1955)
NOTES:
In many ways Maybach 2 was the one that got away…
It went like a jet from the start, Jones won the Victorian Trophy at Fishermans Bend in March 1954 on its race debut, then won again at the Easter Bathurst meeting where he took the two preliminaries before gearbox failure scuttled his run in the feature. He was victorious again at Altona in May and was second to Jack Brabham’s Cooper T23 Bristol there in June. At Fishermans Bend in October he had gearbox failure again.
Then it was off to Southport for the AGP in November where Stan simply drove away from the field until the chassis weld failure caused the massive accident that destroyed the car, and from which Jones very fortunately walked away…
This 4.2-litre 257bhp @ 5000 rpm, 725kg monoposto was one helluva fast racing car.
In the woulda-coulda-shoulda stakes were the battles we never got to see with Stan aboard Maybach 2 and Reg Hunt’s Maserati A6GCM/250 in 1955. Hunt upped the local ante big-time when he imported a current GP car, and was immediately quick in it, his talent refined with some 500cc F3 racing aboard a Cooper MkVIII in Europe in 1954.
Reg’s Maserati gave about 240bhp @ 7200rpm and weighed between 500-580kg. Both the Maserati and Maybach 2 had four-speed ‘boxes, IFS and live-rear axles. Maybach’s weakness was its ginormous, all cast iron engine which weighed circa 320kg; let’s not forget it was designed for the German military not competition use. The 250F engine’s quoted weight is 197kg, much of the weight differences between the two cars is in engine weight.
While torque figures for Maybach 2 weren’t quoted, the long stroke 4.2-litre six would have produced more torque than its twin-cam Italian competitor but not, one suspects, enough to offset the considerable weight disadvantage.
Whatever the case, when Maybach 2 was destroyed at Southport, all of the momentum gained by building, racing, and refining the car was lost. Maybach 3 (below) didn’t appear until the April 1955 Bathurst 100 weekend when the team started the process again, by which time Reg was used to and exploiting his car successfully.
What is my point? The Repco-Maybach program effectively ended post-Southport, with only one remaining engine to instal in Maybach 3, a 3.8-litre unit at that. Stan confronting Reg in 1955 aboard Maybach 2 really would have been something to see…woulda-coulda-shoulda.
AMS Annual 1958-59Jones in Maybach 3 during the 1956 South Pacific Championship (R Donaldson)
MAYBACH III (1955 – Jan 1956)…
ENGINE: 6 cyl. in-line inclined 60 degrees to left. Shortened stroke crankshaft (approx. 10% ). Bore and stroke: 90 × 100 mm. Capacity: 3,800 c.c. Compression Ratio: 11 to 1. Power Output: 260 b.h.p. at 5,000 r.p.m. Direct fuel injection by Dean and Irving.
TRANSMISSION: Clutch: Repco single plate. Gearbox: Four speed with top overall ratio 3.2 to 1. Drive: Open propeller shaft passing on right of driver to offset differential. Differential: limited slip (as previous model).
Charlie Dean at Rob Roy, date unknown. The competition debut of Maybach 3, was at Templestowe Hillclimb on May 8, 1955. 68.56sec where Dean was third in the over 3-litre racing car class (SLV)(SLV)(Davey-Milne)Rob Roy again. Despite the fuzziness, note the the considerable reduction in engine height achieved by the 60-degree laydown of the Maybach six (Davey-Milne)
CHASSIS: Frame: Built up from two 4″ dia. steel tubes, linked by transverse tubing. Redesigned body of flatter appearance due to inclined engine.
Suspension: Front – Independent with transverse leaf spring set low. Rear Quarter elliptics with radius rods.
Dimensions: Wheelbase 95″. Track Front 4 ft. 3 ins. Rear 4 ft. 1 in. Steering: Marles box and divided track rod.
Maybach 3 in the Gnoo Blas paddock in 1956. Trumpets of Repco built fuel injection clear (B Caldersmith)(B Caldersmith)
NOTES:
The beginning of the end. Jones (above) is an absolute bolter at the start of the January 1956 South Pacific Championship at Gnoo Blas, New South Wales.
Reg Hunt’s new Maserati 250F is way back here but will reel Stan in. Being pushed hard to hang onto the very best European F1 car of the day, the Maybach engine let go in a big way.
Jones had a 250F several months later. Stan let his good friend, ace engineer/mechanic/racer Ern Seeliger loose on Maybach, its evolution to Chev Corvette 283 V8 power and other modifications – Maybach 4 – was soon underway.
(B Caldersmith)(AMS Annual 1959-60)Stan Jones, Maybach 4 Chev, Australian Grand Prix, Lowood, June 1960 DNF engine (B Thomas)
MAYBACH IV March- 1958…
ENGINE: Chevrolet Corvette 8 cyl. Vee motor. 4.6 litre. Compression ratio: 9.2:1. Bore and stroke: 98.501 × 76 mm stroke. 2 four-barrel Carter Carbs. 274 b..p. at 6,000 r.p.m. 300 Ibs. torque at 3,500 r.p.m. All oilways completely modified. Bearings altered in regard to oil ways. Engine dry sumped. Modified cooling system.
GEARBOX: As previous Maybach. Drive: As previous Maybach. Differential: As previous Maybach modified with shortened axles incorporating constant velocity joints. Clutch: Seeliger designed and built multi-plate clutch.
CHASSIS: As previous Maybach but chassis lengthened lo take Di Dion rear end. New 30 gallon fuel tank fitted.
Suspension: As previous Maybach with mods. to front end by fitting an anti-roll bar incorporating brake forque rods and transverse leaf in place of quarter eliptics at rear.
Dimensions: Same as previous Maybach, but rear track widened to 4 ft. 2 ins. All up weight reduced to 14} cwt. with 4 gals. of petrol. Full oil and water.
NOTES: Ern Seeliger first ran Maybach 4 at Fishermans Bend in March 1958.
In one of The Great Australian Grands Prix, Stan Jones, Maserati 250F, Lex Davison, Ferrari 500/625 and Ted Gray, Tornado 2 Chev battled up front for most of the ‘58 race on Mount Panorama until Lex was the last-man-standing. Ern Seeliger drove a great race into second, with Tom Hawkes third in his much modified ex-Brabham Cooper T23 Repco-Holden.
Jones proved further the pace of Seeliger’s final Maybach evolution by winning a Gold Star round in it at Port Wakefield in 1959. It would have been very interesting to see what times Stan could have done in Ern’s car in practice at Bathurst over that ’58 AGP weekend!
(AMS Annual 1958-59)
Etcetera…
(VHRR Archive)
Prettiest of the lot in my opinion…Stan the Man on the way to winning the Victorian Trophy at Fishermans Bend in 1954, Maybach 2.
(B Caldersmith)Maybach 2 in the Southport paddock over the 1954 AGP weekend (J Psaros)
Starting grid of the 1955 Australian GP (or is a heat, whatever) at Port Wakefield, South Australia. #5 Reg Hunt, Maserati A6GCM/250, Jones, Maybach 3, #8 Tom Hawkes, Cooper T23 Bristol, #6 Jack Brabham in the winning Cooper T40 Bristol and #10 Kevin Neal, Cooper T23 Bristol.
This is a good contextual shot showing Jones in Maybach 3 – Mercedes W196 styling influence clear – among current’ish European cars: Reg Hunt’s Maserati A6GCM 2.5 – the so-called interim 250F – two Cooper T23s of Tom Hawkes #8 and Kevin Neal. Plus the nose of the winner and newest car here, Jack Brabham in the mid-engined Cooper T40 Bristol he built in time for the British Grand Prix at Aintree that July.
(G McKaige)
The final evolution of the Dean/Repco Research Maybach engine development programme. ‘Short-stroke’ 3.8-litre and fuel injected delivering circa 260bhp @ 5000rpm. George McKaige took this shot of Maybach 3 at Fishermans Bend in October 1955. I wonder what that plate in the engine bay says?
(Q Miles)
Great colour photograph of Maybach 4 Chev in the Lowood paddock inJune 1959. Note how the twin-Carter-carbed Corvette 283 V8 is offset to the right allowing the driver to sit low to the left rather than high atop the driveshaft.
Credits…
Australian Motor Sports Review 1958-59, Brian Caldersmith, Brier Thomas, Jock Tsaros, Davey-Milne Family Collection, George McKaige and Chester McKaige via their superb two ‘Beyond The Lens’ books, Stan Griffiths, Dacre Stubbs, VSCC Vic Collection, J Montasell, Clem Smith, Quentin Miles, Ron Edgerton Collection
Tailpiece…
(K Drage)
Towards the end of a very long competitive Maybach road.
Stan Jones lines Maybach 4 Chev up alongside Alec Mildren’s tiny, mid-engined 2-litre Cooper T45 Climax before the start of the South Australian Trophy, Port Wakefield Gold Star round in March 1959.
Jones won the race from Len Lukey and Keith Rilstone – it was the last championship level win for Maybach in-period.
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