The Elgaram AKA Mark 3

Well, it's actually the Mark 3 Mark 2 or should that be the Mark 2 Mark 3?
Heard from Stuart Styles a couple of times last week. He's Rex's son and Rex you may recall owned and successfully raced the "second" Bolwell Mark 3 which he called the Elgaram. Stuart confirmed that Elgaram is Maragle spelt backwards and Maragle Ave. is where Rex's good mate (and Stuart's Uncle Bob), Bob Minogue lived. I was only thinking of Bob last week when those 6 unused Lola F5000 tubs were discovered and then lo-and -behold, we see the Lola T430 performing so well in the F5000 race at the AGP. Bob owned both T430s from 1981 to 1994 although the second one must have been for spares because it was the one Alan Hamilton totaled (or should I say smashed to smitherines) at Sandown in 1978. I was there when that happened. I felt really sick at the time. Nobody expected Alan to come out of that one alive. But he did thank goodness. Both cars went to NZ in 1994 and here's the pranged one back in Australia (No. 3).

Anyway, I digress. You may recall in my last post on the Elgaram, quite some time ago now, that I mentioned that it looked like Bob was driving the car at the Geelong Sprints. I know that Bob has had the odd drive on occasion but Stuart has confirmed "that Bob Minogue never drove the Elgaram at the Geelong Sprints (according to my Father), and indeed the photo you have is in fact Rex driving the car in 1964 which is the year he won the over 3000cc class beating Stan Jones to the trophy in the process (Rex still has the silver platter somewhere). The story goes that after the race they were having a few drinks with Stan, Bob, Rex and a few others (not sure, Rex can probably elaborate), and a few rowdy young locals came up to Stan and started heckling. Allegedly Stan ironed out these young lads pretty swiftly and then continued to partake in the festivities."

Here's a few photos lifted from Rex's album.

Elgaram at Templestowe.

Elgaram Jaguar at Templestowe 2

Elgaram at Winton

Also "attached is a copy of original purchase receipt for the car from Dad's friend Richard Thurston (Owner of Pitstop Motors), whom Dad worked for although I am not sure if he was working there at the time."

These days Rex is a grey nomad and has already headed North for the winter. He loves spending the colder months in Darwin and FNQ. And Bob is into racing motorcycles. His latest venture was to try and beat the land speed record on a motorcycle, but his wife Judy quickly put the cold spoon on that. He is mid 60s afterall. That shouldn't matter, I am too. Then again you won't be seeing me on a fast moving motorbike.