The 1932 MacDonberg Special

This very attractive car was a genuine original Lobethal competitor. It had a side valve Ford V8 motor with pipes down each side and sounded lovely.

I was rather attracted to the independant rear end. Look at those massive wishbones. They'd be good on a tractor.Here's a little synopsis from its present owner, Keith Roberts.

The MacDonberg Special was built in South Australia by the McDonough brothers during the 1930s to specifically race at Lobethal meetings. It was based on a 14hp Amilcar chassis and running gear plus a Wizard Smith Essex motor, and sported a most attractive Monoposto body.

At the end of WW2, after a rather unsuccessful racing career and a change of interest by the McDonoughs, the car was sold in a dismantled condition to John Opatt who rebuilt it; but again, it was no world-beater. The next owner solved the performance problem by replacing the Essex engine with a more powerful side valve Ford unit.

After passing through numerous hands, all the time being "bastardised", including a conversion to a two seater sports with disc wheels, it finally ended up in the late 1950s lying in a Victorian farmer's paddock, who had bought it solely for the V8 engine.

The present owner stumbled across the remains forty-plus years later and spent an arduous eight years bringing it back to original pre-War configuration, but retaining a V8 motor.

2009 Historic Winton was the first public outing for the MacDonberg Special in more than fifty years.