Bolwell Mark 3

I will begin this by stating that there were actually two Mark 3s and I will elaborate more in my next post, probably tomorrow. Now I will give you a little history of what most people have considered "the" Mark 3. Some of this information had been supplied to me by Iain McPherson (no relation to Ron I'm told) who owned the car at one stage. Strangely, Iain, in Victoria, parallelled my own motoring history in SA. We both had Buick Standard 6 tourers at the same time. We both had Austin-Healey BN1s at the same time. Iain was actively endeavouring to purchase in Melbourne a Front Wheel Drive BSA sports car at the same time as I had mine and when I had my Mark 5 Bolwell he eclipsed that by owning the Mark 3 (both fitted with grey Holden motors at the time).
Anyway, back to the subject. This car started life as the JHS Special, built by Bill Suhr (13 Wells Road, Frankston). The project started in 1960. It had an Austin Healey chassis and a Jaguar engine. The chassis was not from a wrecked car but was brand new, purchased from a Frankston dealer. It used Healey wheels and suspension. The engine was a pretty hot Jaguar built up from a Mk.VII to D-Type specifications using D-Type cams etc. I have heard the body described as "a sort of clubman" but generally, I'm told, it resembled a Lotus XI, but had the radiator exposed and was ugly. The car was registered, HHD-671, in Bill's name from March 1961 to 1962. It ran at the old Mt. Martha hillclimb and a few sprints.
Bill lived not far from the Bolwells, so the car was duly bought by Graeme who didn't like the body so removed it to build his own in fibreglass. He built it on a plaster mould, then chipped off the plaster. It took him ages. The windscreen was the rear window from an FB Holden. The car was never really finished but Graeme registered it and used it mainly as a road car and dragging up the main street of Frankston. It was the fastest car in Frankston. He also entered it at the drags at Riverside, taking home 3 trophies - 13.9 sec. quarter mile. The car was, though, mainly used for everyday transport. This was the first fibreglass body built by Bolwell. The car was advertised in "Australian Motor Sports" in December 1963 -
"Jaguar-Healey Sports - Jaguar 3.7 litre 2OHC engine and gearbox, 260bhp. Austin-Healey chassis and suspension (modified). Immaculate bright red fibreglass body resembles E-type. New upholstery. 14.2 quarter mile, 0-50mph 5.2sec. 20mpg. Very flexible road car. $1700."
It was not sold by this medium but was traded in at Pitstop Motors and duly bought by a salesman there - Rex Styles (14 Wells Road, Frankston). Rex called it the "Elgaram" and used it as everyday transport during the week and raced every weekend (in all sorts of events). It raced at Winton, Lakeland (the 1st meeting) and Templestowe. The engine started to knock after a Templestowe meeting so the car was sold in December 1964. It then passed to Bill Lucas (W.C.Lucas, 35 Maddox Road, West Newport) who drove it on the road and used it in all kinds of competition - Templestowe, Rob Roy, Calder and Riverside drags. He over-revved the Jaguar engine (9800 revs) and ruined it. Bill then built up a hot Star Model Ford Customline engine and used a Crossley pre-selector gearbox, retaining the Healey diff. The gearboxes were not successful, he blew two up at practice for Calder, and went back to the Jag box. With the V8 engine the car saw 135mph on Geelong Road fitted with an aero screen and was good for 115 mph over the quarter mile. The Healey diff wouldn't take the strain so he decided to lock it, then broke axles. The rear end was therefore replaced with an XK120 unit together with coil springs and trailing arms. The car handled reasonably well with Dunlop racing tyres on the front and radials on the rear. Bill continued to run it in circuit races and the drags, owning it for approximately 3 years. The car was de-registered in his name in April 1966.
Bill sold it to Fred Woolski from Altona who ran it at the drags (by then at Calder I think). Fred fitted vertical exhaust stacks and cut out a section of the bonnet for them. He also fitted a Customline dashboard. He then sold it to an unknown bloke in Altona who removed the engine and gearbox and fitted them in his Customline.
The next owner we know of was Alan Forsythe (5 Transport Street, Braybrook) who bought the car from a house in Altona that has since been pulled down. Alan didn't know anything else about its origins. His brother fitted an FC Holden engine and gearbox and drove it around the local paddocks. It was then sold to an unknown chap who pulled the brakes apart and lost most of the parts. I recall that at one stage the car was exchanged for a shotgun but don't know the details.
The next owner was Jim Evans (Moore Street, Footscray) who was going to use it in club events. He drove it around the back lanes of Footscray but that was all. He sold the car to buy some beer for his 21st birthday party. He knew it once had a Customline engine and Jaguar gearbox and that it came from Footscray but nothing else.
Iain McPherson (Kathleen Grove, Bulleen) bought the car because it had a Healey chassis and planned to fit a Healey engine and run it in closed competition events. He located the bonnet which was missing and acquired it from Fred Woolski's cousin. He recognised a photo of the car in a magazine (see above) being driven by Rex Styles and contacted him by obtaining his address from CAMS. Having other historic racers to complete and because the Mark 3 was by this stage "a bit rough", he passed it on to a fellow historic stalwart.
I won't mention the next owner's name because some time ago he asked me not to and I haven't checked again lately but I can say that many years ago he was rebuilding it and fitting a 3.8 Jag engine and overdrive gearbox and intended to run it in post historic events. Barry Main used to send me copies of photos of it and I do remember one where it was sporting a brand new bonnet. Unfortunately these photos were handed out to various Slipstream editors over the years and I'm not sure where they are now.