Bay to Birdwood

This year was the oldies' year. Not a Bolwell in sight (except for Campbell's orange one inside the building, now sharing the company of the white Giocattolo). In addition to the club members doing their usual good job at both the start and finish, there were at least a couple of others taking part in the run. Immanuel entered his Falcon Knight although I must say I missed seeing him among the other 1250 entrants. I wonder if he spotted the supercharged Auburn there. I didn't miss Trevor in the Overland though.

Don't they make a lovely couple, under their lap rug and wearing their leather flying helmets?

Among the Jowetts and Bradfords was this Jowett racer.

As you know their engines are horizontally opposed 4s and you can see it sticking out between the headlight and the front wheel. Next to it is a Javelin with the bonnet up. I saw a man looking under the bonnet and not noticing the motor deep down in the bowels and seeing nothing but a radiator, telling his friend with some authority that these cars were rear engined. I know that Alvin Jenkin was there on the day. I saw his feet sticking out from underneath his Javelin.

Kapunda - week 54.

Takes you back doesn't it?  Sounds good too. I reckon I'd get more enjoyment out of an FJ like this than an expensively restored one on skinny 15s. Bob Marshall had a matt black one when he was about 16. Must have been ahead of his time.

Remember this?

Really they didn't have a lot of opposition.
These were actually Prince R380s before Nissan bought Prince out.

Nagari bar mirrors.

The Bolwell Car Club have been quietly selling these bar mirrors for years and years at $70.00 each. Now they are dropping the price to $45.00 each plus postage. Take advantage of this new price now. $10.00 should cover postage. If you wish to use your credit card to purchase, you can do that through Beven Young's Automotive Bookshop website, or you can email me for the SA Bolwell Club's banking details on
vidstud@gmail.com

From Stacey

I walked thro the door to get the 4 off the floor, now it's in the air , all bare, ready for more care- if the damn thing goes to the floor again, I'll go to the Buchanan straight and plain

 

1964

So there was a Mark 7 brochure.

Of sorts.
In 1970 Linley Hughes, manager of Kadala Australia, thanked Bruce Tonkin for his enquiry and enclosed a brochure.

Bruce purchased his kit soon after.

Recognise anybody?

Upstairs in a double decker bus going off to dinner one Easter. The bus driver was the designated driver.

What year? Who are they all?

Trident

I said "Trident" not "Triden", Wayne.
The Neptune Racing Team. Ah! They were the days!

Love the old Chev truck.
Thanks for the photo Duane.

Another "Where is it now?"

You may recall we traced the history of the Milano GT that Dick Willis built and owned twice (and is now for sale in the Albury/Wodonga area). One of the former owners was a South Australian, Bevan Hill, who crashed it rather badly at Mallala. Well, Bevan (with an "a") is an old mate of Beven (with an "e"). Beven discovered that Bevan, when he was in the Navy and stationed in Perth, owned and drove a Bolwell Mk.7 and asked if he knew which one. BevAn isn't sure, but here are some of his recollections.

"Remembered items.

The car was "burnt orange" colour.  Holden 6 cylinder motor. 

At the time, it was professionally finished inside.  Excellent seats, proper floor carpets, good trim around the transmission tunnel, etc. 

The windows only wound down about half way, and as a result, it got quite hot inside in a WA summer.  I had organised for an air conditioner to be fitted to it, but I got moved to Canberra before I had it done.  I believe the new owner did get it installed at the arranged supplier after he purchased it.  The supplier was the chief mechanic at the BP garage on the south west side of the Canning Highway at Palmyra.  Sorry that I cannot remember his name.  However, I would guess that very few Bolwell's of that time had a/c, so this might be a clue. 

The rego number was UZK-161.  Possibly a clue there.

I owned it from about Nov 1974 till Jul or Aug 1976.  My understanding was that the builder (the only previous owner, sorry I cannot remember his name) had only used it as a weekend drive.  I drove it to work (about 5 km) only in good weather, and we also used it mostly for day trips, down to Serpentine Falls, or Mandurah, or such (Note Mandurah was a smelly stinky little fishing village then; it is now a bustling tourist and boating city of at least 75,000).  When the baby came along, it really was pretty useless, even though we did put the bassinet in the back a couple of times (this would just not be acceptable now), and when I got posted to Canberra, then it really had to go.

Sorry, I don't have any photos.  They have disappeared in one of the 13 moves we had in the Navy after we left WA.

That's about it.  I hope it is of some use.

Cheers,
Bevan "

Now for the Sand Gropers to go to work.

Busy boy.

Vic Meyer taking the engine out to replace the clutch and renovate the engine bay.

Need a hand there Vic?

Name the car.

Duane has uncovered this 1961 poster from the US. Many Australians would recognise the car.

Low, aren't they?

Power to weight.

Wouldn't you love to have a drive of this?

Twin turbo V8 in a clubman.

Another Hunter pic.

Haven't seen this one before. It's from the Bruce Wells collection and was published on The Roaring Season by Steve Holmes. It was at the opening meeting at Oran Park in 1964.

Green Nagari.

This photo was taken at the Lakeside historics earlier this year. I imagine it's B8/106 and has found a new home in Queensland.

A Barry Campbell Mark 7 for sale in Queensland.

“1967 Bolwell Mark 7
6 Cylinder Australian Icon Sports Car with all Holden running gear, 202 Holden Blue Motor, Triple SU
Carbies, 5 speed gearbox, limited slip diff, all new windows, new paint, immaculate interior with
rollbar, 5 period rebel wheels, QLD club rego (not transferable), Ideal road.sprint/regularity car $30,000
phone Barry Campbell 0409 964 245”

No Barry hasn't given up on Mark 7s. He has 2 others, including the ex-Matt Pintar racer.

One of the first things I noticed was the Road Rebel wheels. They look pretty nice on this car. I haven't seen any of these for ages. They were one of Bernie Pfitzner's products and a darn good wheel. I remember the photo shoot for the wheels well.

Bernie turned up from the bush (I think he was from the Riverland) in the Brookfield days with a stinkin' hot early Holden that showed all of us city slickers a fine view of his tail lights. The car was innovative in a crude sort of way and Bernie soon developed a reputation for engineering inventiveness that culminated in the race car business, Develco, which he formed with Simon Aram, and Finchy as well. Bernie's not around any more and neither is Develco but the tradition lives on with has son, Simon, and his business, PPG which builds race car gearboxes.

Giveaway.

Sitting out in the bush in WA, waiting for someone to come past with a trailer.

I wouldn't hesitate if I were over that way.
4 stud back wheel.

WA Easter 2013 news.

EASTER 2013-ALBANY WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Costs all inclusive are as follows.

1:      single standard room (1 person in room)  ;      $530

2:      twin singles (2 per room);                              $365 each person

3:      Couples (king deluxe);                                   $790

4:      Triple family room;                                        $820 plus $140 per child

5:      Family room;                                                 $850 plus $140 per child

Deposit $50 per person by 1st Dec 2012. Balance by 4th Feb 2013.

Email room types required as some types are limited.

Please Email names, address,phone numbers, ages of children  and if bringing your Bolwell (yes you will,won't you!) when confirming your rooms.

Please advise of any special diet requirements or alergies.

If you require information on caravan parks/motels (ie ph numbers, and what they are like) for driving over from Port Augusta to Albany, wether going via Perth or Esperance please ask as we can supply details.

Please also advise if you want accommodation in Perth or a shed to house your Bolly either in Perth or Albany before or after Easter.

Any enquiries please contact one of the following (the poor ol pres just follows orders and dont know much);

Roz;  Mob# 0421014847  Home#08 61960065  Email# roslyn7@hotmail.com 

Kay;  Mob# 0400084140  Home#08 94446305  Email# kaylowe@y7mail.com

Chris;Mob# 0409291441  Home#08 94539354  Email# curriebarry@gmail.com

For confirmation of rooms and when you make payments , please Email me: snicolaou57@hotmail.com

I will email you back to let you know I have recieved your email. 

BANK DETAILS.

BENDIGO BANK, FORRESTFIELD, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

BOLWELL CAR CLUB OF W.A

BSB# 633 000

ACCOUNT# 120332580

Albany, the southern coastline, and the inland areas are very unique and beautiful.

The year following (2014) Albany will be having various events commemorations of  world war 1, as this natural harbour was the last many troops saw of Australia. There are milatary installations here along with a Ikarra missle! (I wonder if the Bolwell Ikarra has the same range and speed?)

This is the town where one of the major classic car events are held- the annual around the houses event.

From Albany you can go to Denmark and along to Walpole where the tree top walk is along with the start of the Jarrah and Karri forrests. It is worth the extra stay to see these places.

Don't be afraid of the sandgroper Bolly club- we are really not a bad bunch who also happens to love food and wine with our Bolly's. Ask those who came to Bridgetown

Invader GT

This body was on eBay.

It's an Invader GT (not to be confused with the British Gilbern Invader GT). The owner claimed it was the only one known to be in the country and I don't doubt it. It turns out that they are (or were) made by a company called Autokit, from Oakland, California. Here's a complete one.

Their advertising material suggests you can "turn your ugly duckling VW into a beautiful sports car without modifying the chassis". I'm still trying to decide which of the two is the real ugly duckling. Actually the old beetle doesn't look all that bad, especially compared to its modern counterpart.
A claim to fame was its boot space - unheralded in a sports car.

And the strength of the body - demonstrated by sitting an ugly duckling on top of it.

A few Holdens @ Wayville.

Yellow Monaros. What can you say? This one went pretty hard and did very well.

The VL Walkinshaw. Spectacular to watch, that's for sure!

Early Commodore with a tribute to Peter Perfect.

Changing the "E" to an "O". I would too.

Sarah Mitchell, no better promoter of HQ racing (except for her dad).

The pink XU-1. Yes, pink was a listed colour. There was even a famous one. It didn't have pink headlights like Sarah's though.

The 48-215. Gary Poole brought it over to run in the Regularity Section. In 1953 this Holden (well, not exactly this one) was shipped to Europe to compete in the Monte Carlo Rally - a first for an Australian manufactured car. The team comprised Stan Jones, Lex Davison and Tony Gaze, more or less Australian motorsport royalty. Stan, driver of the legendary Maybachs among other things, and an AGP winner, is of course, Alan's dad. Lex won the Australian Grand Prix four times. Tony, the ex WWII Spitfire pilot with 3 (yes 3) DFCs to his credit, was Australia's very first F1 driver. Two of them had never before driven on the icy roads that the rally is famous for. They came 64th out of a field of 400 which wasn't too bad. The car in the picture is actually a replica built by Gary Poole and the plan is to take it over to Europe next year to do the Monte Carlo again on the 60th anniversary of the 1953 event. This time the team will comprise Craig Lowndes (not his dad), Richard Davison (one of Lex's sons) and Gary Poole who is a bit of a humpy Holden race car expert and competes at historic events in a red 48-215.

Talking about motorsport royalty, Lex Davison and his wife Diana had 7 children and I know of 4 of them (and there may be more, I'm no expert) that had motorsport careers not to be sneezed at, that's Jon, Richard and Chris and their sister, Catherine, who was a Targa competitor. Diana herself was a talented driver, even wrestling that giant Mercedes in hillclimbs. Richard's two sons, Will and Alex and Jon's son James are keeping the family name alive at the upper end of motorsport. The family business was the fashion shoe manufacturer, Paragon Shoes who, incidentally, made our RaceSafe driving boots. The matriarch of this dynasty was Diana. Seven years after Lex's tragic death at Sandown, she married widower Tony Gaze and it was only last month that she died. Of the 3 entrants in that Monte Carlo effort, 92 year old Tony is the only one remaining.

What a find.

I wonder if Immanuel has a copy of this. I'll email it to him just in case.