The Roaring Season

I'm amazed that anyone would put the 4-litre truck engine into a Healey...

It was heavy enough in 2.6-litre 4-cylinder form, but as a six it must have been awfully bulky as well as impossibly heavy.

Now I have to correct myself... This race, over just four laps, was in August, 1962, and saw David Fletcher finish second to Bill March, Lorraine Hill being third. Both of them were in Lotus 7s, March can be seen in fifth place in the start picture and, as Lorraine Hill's car was black, I think she ...

I've been holding out on you, Roger! One day I was working at Port Macquarie, on the North side of the river (an area reached by car ferry) and a man I interviewed got involved with me in a discussion about racing. He gave me several slides he'd taken back in the early sixties and this one taken at ...

Thanks for the comment...

It still seems strange that they've gone to the trouble of rounding it off at the top the way they have.

1220cc is also about what you'd get with a 0.020" overbore of a 1098cc BMC A-series...

You'd think it unlikely someone would fit an FWA Climax and then revert to A-series later.

I'm still mystified by the shape of the nose on the car pictured above.

The first Series Two Lotus 7 in Australia is quite close to this car in chassis number... It bears the number 1030. But there are substantial obvious differences in the bodywork, it having the more typical Lotus 7 'wing' type of front mudguards and the more familiar grille. In fact, the Series One ...

Looks like this one was well-prepared...

As I was looking for that, Roger, I found what appears to be a long break in Bond's appearances with this car around 1967, but the Warwick Farm records don't confirm this. He raced it from '64 to '71.

September 18, 1966...

The Elan is Jim Quinn, he and Ward diced for second with a couple of passes each way during the race. Which explains why Ward's twin-cam Morgan is running so wide in Creek.

As the numberplate is on it in this one and not the other, I'd say this is a bit earlier... The knock-on hubs hubs are visible, so it's still in the wire wheel era. Behind him is the Morgan of Ken Ward, I'm not sure whose Elan, possibly John Maroulis or Len Goodwin, this places it between '66 and ...

My condolences, Ken... I also lost a brother, albeit a younger brother, who died at just 59 almost 15 years ago. Cancer again, Glyobastoma Multiform, which prevented him getting on with his racing as planned after he gave up rallying. He was racing HQ Holdens for a while but had got into a Falcon in ...

You have a point there...

Or broken axles.

Understeer personified!

Sam Miller's farm was about 40kms North of Gunnedah... I visited there one day to have a look at the c1911 Regal Underslung, talking to his nephews who were all that remained of the family at that time. They showed me a little car that Sam had built for them when they were kids, wheels turned up ...

Two pages of the Albert Park programme were devoted to a (shallow, I believe) story about the Austin Healeys:



Once again, thanks to Stephen Dalton.

And another:



George Russell on board.

Another pic...



Fortunately Stephen is happy for me to post these here.

I thought Joe had a Sebring 100/6...

Then again, Alan Jones was still alive when I was keeping close contact with Healeys. Through Alan, of course.

Another one from Albert Park:

I'm sure Stephen won't mind me posting this here: