Photos: The Perry Drury Collection

[Ray Bell]

cont...

A week later he was at Sandown to debut the Birrana 272, so didn’t run the Kingswood in the ATCC event, then on June 11 the Kingswood ran at AIR’s ATCC round and filled another third place. The car was actually on the front row of the grid for this event, Beechey and Geoghegan not being on the pace in practice, and the pointscore after the event saw Malcolm fourth of the larger cars. This was one of those years in which the 2-litre cars could score equal points to the big cars with class positions.

Fourth on the grid and third in the race at Warwick Farm put him third in the pointscore, but still the car was lapped at the end of the 82km event.

It’s incongruous that the Surfers Paradise round of the series didn’t see Malcolm running. This was, however, the debut of the Bob Jane HQ Monaro in John Harvey’s hands, Jane entering his second car in an effort to keep Moffat out of the points. Moffat retired, but it shows that the series was hotly contested – and the Kingswood still held third in its class in the points.

Although Malcolm was concentrating his efforts on beating all comers in the Birrana by this time, he still entered the October meeting at AIR with the Kingswood to meet the challenge put forward by some New Zealand cars that had come across for a Calder meeting and this one. But problems in practice saw the car at the back of the grid, and as the grid curves around the banking at AIR it meant weaving in among cars in that curve as he attempted to make up the deficit as quickly as possible off the start.

He miscued, however, and crashed headlong into the wall, severely damaging the front of the car. “It pushed the engine and gearbox back, there was a lot of damage, including to my neck!” Ramsay says.

The car was repaired, but there was no rush. No further races were to be contested in 1972, the Birrana got all the attention for the time being, though the car went to Bay Park in New Zealand for an outing that failed to add anything to its CV.

The two races supporting the International event for F5000 at AIR late in February saw the car’s last appearance in this form. Remembering that the rules for Touring Cars had changed and that the car was now a Sports Sedan, there was no longer much relevance running it.

To be a front runner would require a lot of development, but development was also needed in the team’s ANF2 racing. Leo Geoghegan was now driving the 272 and the 273 was not far away.

In the two races that final day, Bob Jane was the winner with Malcolm and John Kay (Camaro) sharing the honours for the placings. The car was dismantled and the engine sold to John Mann for his Cortina.

All in all it had been an interesting exercise for the Birrana team. But they had bigger fish to pursue as their main goal of supplying the Australian racing scene with F2 and F3 cars of a quality not seen before became evident.

That he was a front-line runner in F2 at the time gives weight to Malcolm’s opinion of how the Kingswood behaved. “It handled nicely, I could always get it to do what I wanted it to do,” he told us. “That I attribute to Tony, his work meant we always had a nicely balanced car.”

Birrana has been through other phases since, racing being put aside in the mid-seventies as Malcolm expanded into more commercial areas. Tony Alcock pursued a design career in England, only to die in that fateful air crash that put an end to the Graham Hill Embassy F1 team.

In more recent times the bug to race again has bitten and Birrana became the team to beat in Formula Holden, also entering the Konica Lights field. But again the race team is dormant as one of the most advanced engineering organizations in Australia concentrates on servicing and supplying mining equipment.

But the value of racing to that organization is clear in the Managing Director’s mind. “We put our engineers on the race team,” he told us, “it taught them to think on their feet.”

Just like he ran a car that dared to be different in the Australian Touring Car Championship of 1972, Malcolm Ramsay runs a company that challenges new engineering frontiers.

The HQ Kingswood was one of its first projects.

Ray Bell

[seaqnmac27]

What a fantastic insight Thank you Ray

Sean McBride

[Steve Holmes]

Another excellent article Ray, thanks for posting. You mention the flares on the Kingswood. To my mind, these were an absolute triumph.

Here is another Perry Drury shot of the car, from the rear.

[Michael Clark]

It was at Bay Park when? Labour Weekend 71 or 72? 1972 I think

[seaqnmac27]

1973, Just behind Rod Coppins here.

[Michael Clark]

Right thanks - I thought that was the star car for my first visit to Bay Park. Perhaps it was Jim McKeown's Porsche in 1972.

[Steve Holmes]

Actually, I'm pretty certain Ramsay and the Kingswood appeared at the 1972 Labour Weekend event.

[Milan Fistonic]

Actually, I'm pretty certain Ramsay and the Kingswood appeared at the 1972 Labour Weekend event.

You're correct Steve, it was the October 22, 1972 meeting.

[John McKechnie]

Bruce- what happened to the smooth line between the guard and the bonnet on the Firebird in #65

[khyndart in CA]

John, It may have created by the same guys that leaned on your Monaro to have a well earned drink !
Your car just has better steel. (Made in Australia )



Theory as per Ken Hyndman.

[Steve Holmes]

[font=&]Can anyone here shed any light on this car?Its a 1966 Mustang Sports Sedan, owned and raced by Graham Whincup, plus DarylSiedel. It was later raced by Chris Burke of Queensland.[/font]
[font=&]
What isn't visible here is that the Mustang is actually afastback, not a notchback. So its not one of the Improved Production cars ofthe 1960s updated to '70s Sports Sedan spec. Did it have international racinghistory prior to ending up in Australia? Where is it now? It was a greatlooking car.[/font]

[Rod Grimwood]

What a great looking car this is! This is the former Greg Cusack, Fred Gibson, Niel Allen etc Mustang that first appeared in Australia in 1967. It was team mate for a time to Pete Geoghegan's Mustang. Its one of the batch of 26 turn-key A/Sedan race cars built by Shelby.

This photo was taken circa 1971, by which time it was owned by Tony Calvert. Pictured at Symmons Plains.

This is the car that was for sale for a long time at Canepa's in the US: http://www.canepacollection.com/detail-1967-shelby-mustang-trans_am-used-5117120.html

[ATTACH=CONFIG]30016[/ATTACH]

It was at Laguna Seca this year, and was also on display at Canepa when we visited. Now that is another story, what an amazing place and we were lucky to be treated to a look around. Nice people, nice cars, amazing workshop, close to ' heaven' .

[Steve Holmes]

[font=&]We posted a photo of Pete Geoghegan's mighty HJ Monaro SportsSedan earlier in the week, in its original 1975 guise.[/font]
[font=&]
At the conclusion of that season, the car was rebuilt and fittedwith large box-style flares, which were all the rage in the mid-1970s. Theymade the big Monaro look HUGE![/font]
[font=&]
Another notable change for 1976, was that the Monaro wasretrofitted with an HQ nose. When the Craven Mild machine first appeared in1975, the new HJ model had superseded the HQ in showrooms, so the team fitted HJ front sheet metal. CAMSargued the car had be represent an HQ, as this model was available with a Chevymotor, which the race car had, whereas the Chevy motor was dropped for the HJ.CAMS won.[/font]

[Steve Holmes]

The Sidchrome Mustang, pictured at Calder Park. Not 100% sure of the year, but given the Melfords Ford sponsorship and lack of Shell sponsorship, would place it around 1976. What a brilliant clear shot of this great car.

Thats Jim Richards in his blue racing suit next to the drivers door.

[Steve Holmes]

Superb side-profile shot here of Jim Smith's ex-Bob Jane ZL1 Camaro which won the 1971 and 1972 Australian Touring Car Championships. That sure was a colourful paint scheme!

[seaqnmac27]

[font=&]We posted a photo of Pete Geoghegan's mighty HJ Monaro SportsSedan earlier in the week, in its original 1975 guise.[/font]
[font=&]
At the conclusion of that season, the car was rebuilt and fittedwith large box-style flares, which were all the rage in the mid-1970s. Theymade the big Monaro look HUGE![/font]
[font=&]
Another notable change for 1976, was that the Monaro wasretrofitted with an HQ nose. When the Craven Mild machine first appeared in1975, the new HJ model had superseded the HQ in showrooms, so the team fitted HJ front sheet metal. CAMSargued the car had be represent an HQ, as this model was available with a Chevymotor, which the race car had, whereas the Chevy motor was dropped for the HJ.CAMS won.[/font]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]30252[/ATTACH]

Pat Crea lurking in the background again

[Steve Holmes]

A couple of mad monsters: Bryan Thomson's V8 VW, with Harry LeFoe's V8 Hillman Imp sat in behind.

[Steve Holmes]

This is Bob Stevens' Mustang Sports Sedan, circa mid-1970s. I posted this photo on our Facebook page, and said it was the 1968 Shelby factory Trans-Am racer that Bob Jane brought to Australia to race in 1969 and 1970. However, someone posted that this wasn't the case.

Maybe someone here knows the full story?

[Ray Bell]

They were wrong...

Later raced by Joe McInnes, I think Garry Willmington had a drive or two as well.

[Steve Holmes]

Thank you Ray, thats good to know.