Bolwell Nagari: The ultimate all-Australian ProdSports racer
03 January 2014
Ranald MacLurkin was one of the first drivers to blood the stunning
new Nagari coupe in ProdSports racing and his car became a familiar
sight on Victorian tracks. Here the beautiful V8 beast is captured in
full flight at Melbourne’s Calder Park in 1973. Note MacLurkin’s subtle
wheel arch flares to cover the fat 10-inch wide tyres allowed under the
ProdSports rules.
The conspicuously large number of Bolwell Nagaris that competed in
production sports car racing (ProdSports) in the 1970s highlights the
broad appeal and affordable race-winning performance of this proudly
Australian-made, V8-powered super car.
Although less than 120 were built by Bolwell in Melbourne, the
thundering fiberglass-bodied Nagari was a common sight in both coupe and
roadster body styles on Australian race tracks, where it was
competitive at club, state and national level motor sports.
Many were prepared and driven by part-time weekend racers with limited
funds and technical resources, who appreciated the Nagari’s mechanical
simplicity and tried-and-tested Ford V8 drivetrains that ensured
power-packed performance with good reliability and parts back-up.
The Nagari never won the nation’s premier sports car title - the
Australian Sports Car Championship - but that was largely due to
technical rules which for the majority of the ASCC’s near two-decade
existence (1969-1988) catered primarily for Can-Am and Le Mans-style
Group A cars designed and built purely for competition use.
These magnificent hand-built machines, like Frank Matich’s SR4 Repco,
John Harvey’s Bob Jane Racing McLaren M6B Repco, Phil Moore’s Elfin 360
Repco and Garrie Cooper’s Elfin MS7 Repco-Holden, were the cars to beat
from 1969 to 1975.
As a result, production sports cars designed primarily for road use
like the Nagari didn’t stand a chance of winning the title until 1976,
when the Group A thoroughbreds were dumped in favour of Group D
Production Sports Cars – two years after the Nagari had ceased
production.
Ross Bond’s Nagari is hounded by Warwick Henderson’s Chevrolet
Corvette and eventual series champ Ross Mathieson’s Porsche Carrera at
Calder Park, on his way to victory in the opening round of the 1978
Australian Sports Car Championship.
While the incentive for such a change may well have been to encourage
more road-legal makes and models, which in theory would be more
affordable to buy, cheaper to run and which spectators could better
relate to, the end result was nothing but an embarrassing Porsche
benefit.
During the ASCC’s six year production-based period, the German
thoroughbreds galloped away with every title thanks to star drivers like
Pete Geoghegan, Allan Moffat, Alan Hamilton and John Latham and a
smorgasbord of the latest factory race cars like the Carrera RSR, 930
Turbo and 934 Turbo.
Even so, it was during this production-based era that the Nagari came
as close as it would ever come to winning Australia’s most sought after
sports car title.
A rule change for 1978 made Hamilton’s 934 Turbo ineligible and Nagari
driver Ross Bond came within a handful of points of claiming the ASCC,
after winning two of the four rounds and finishing equal second to
championship winner Ross Mathiesen in his Porsche Carrera.
To bring an end to the German marque’s domination, the championship
returned to purpose-built competition sports cars in 1982. Although
Bernie van Elsen’s wild-winged, K & A engineered Nagari roadster
continued to be seen in the result sheets, the 1970s Aussie-made super
car - and sports car racing in general - were clearly past their peaks.
With dwindling fields and a general lack of spectator and media interest, the championship was cancelled after the 1988 ASCC.
Even so, the Bolwell Nagari’s widespread popularity and success in
Australian production sports car racing during the 1970s shows how good
the basic product was in its prime. It had its shortcomings like any
car, but clearly for many competitors those beautiful flowing lines
combined with simple, affordable and brutal Ford V8 performance far
outweighed any negatives.
A fantastic shot of Aussie ProdSports racing at Calder Park in 1972,
with the new Nagari roadster mixing it up with Datsun and MG
competition. Production sports car racing was a popular class of racing
in the 1960s and ‘70s due to a wide choice of eligible cars that could
be purchased, prepared and raced on a reasonable budget.
Bolwell Nagari: Born to race
When the Nagari went into production in 1970 as a ‘turn-key’ production
car, on paper it seemed to have all the raw ingredients required for a
low maintenance, high performance competition car which would respond
well to performance upgrades.
A robust backbone chassis fabricated from 14-gauge sheet metal provided
torsional rigidity calculated at 678 Nm per degree of twist and left a
hefty margin for extra performance and cornering forces. The front of
the chassis embraced race engineering principles tying in the Ford
Windsor 302 cid (4.9 litre) small block V8 with the front suspension
cross-member. The transverse chassis member at the rear, which located
the body mounts and rear suspension, allowed further development.
The compact Windsor V8 was set so far back in the chassis that its
location relative to the front axle line was described at the time as
“almost mid-engined”. Because the Windsor V8 had been racing in
everything from GT40s, Mustangs to AC Cobras, proven performance parts
were widely available. The chassis of later cars were re-engineered to
accept the larger and heavier Cleveland V8 with all its race bits.
A prominent NSW-based Bolwell racer was Peter Warren in his Nagari
coupe, here leading one of the numerous Datsun roadsters that were a
common sight in 1960s and ‘70s ProdSports racing.
Even if the production wishbone front suspension was dictated by a mix
of Bolwell and Ford parts, it was a good starting point. The heavy
live rear axle, located by lower trailing arms, radius rods and coil
springs, also left room for development. Steering was via rack and
pinion and brakes were power-assisted front discs and rear drums.
On top of this rolling chassis was a wind-cheating lightweight
fibreglass body, initially available only as a coupe before the stunning
roadster became available in 1972. The coupe’s roof was about the same
height as Ford’s iconic GT40 Le Mans racer.
With all that V8 grunt on tap in a car that weighed just over 900 kgs,
the raw sub-15 second 400m performance in standard road-legal trim was
shattering for its day. The mind boggled at its potential, attracting
plenty of budding production sports car racers keen to unleash the new
Nagari on the race track.
Two-times ASCC winner John Latham is best remembered by Bolwell fans
for his spirited driving of this Nagari coupe which reportedly was
originally built by the factory with the unfulfilled intention of
running a ‘works’ car. Latham was a prominent figure in Australian
sports car racing, sharing his first ASSC title win with Alan Hamilton
in 1977 before claiming his second title in 1981 – on both occasions
driving Porsches.
Case study: Steve Webb’s Bolwell Nagari
One of the most successful Nagaris to compete in production sports car
racing in the 1970s was owned by Sydney-based Steve Webb, whose son
Jonathon now competes in V8 Supercar racing with the Tekno Autosports
team he established in 2011.
Steve’s immaculate bright blue Nagari roadster was typical of the 1970s
ProdSports breed. A regular visitor to meetings at his local Amaroo
Park and Oran Park circuits, Webb enjoyed considerable success which
included winning the ARDC/Better Brakes production sports car series at
Amaroo.
Like many Nagari racers, Webb was a ‘weekend warrior’ who had to
finance his racing through other activities during the week. He worked
on his car after-hours and on weekends with the help of friends and also
bought and sold Bolwells. The profits he made from rejuvenating tired
and tatty Nagaris were pumped directly back into his motor sport
activities.
The production sports car rules were similar in philosophy to those
that applied to touring car racing at the time. Standard chassis and
drivetrain elements had to be retained, but there were allowances for
modifications in key areas to make road cars into better race cars.
Webb is well placed to comment on racing Nagaris in the 1970s, as he
competed in both coupe and roadster versions and developed an intimate
technical knowledge of the breed through hands-on involvement in
development and routine maintenance.
Alex Tsakmakis was another competitive Nagari racer often seen at
Victorian tracks in the 1970s. His muscular-looking coupe is seen here
in action at Calder Park. Note the huge offsets on the lightweight alloy
wheels and fat race rubber bulging beneath those big wheel arch flares.
So tough!
"I’ve heard people refer to the Nagari as a larger V8 version of the
Lotus Elan which in some ways I think is a fair comment,” he told
Shannons Club.
“I’ve restored a Lotus Elan and obviously spent a lot of years working
on Bolwell Nagaris, so having played with both I think it’s fair to say
that even though the Nagari had a live rear axle the inspiration for its
design certainly came from Lotus.
“The Nagari had most of the ingredients you could want for racing,
except for the wheelbase and track dimensions. The wheelbase was too
short for the track width of the car; it was too square which didn’t
give it enough directional stability and made the handling a bit
twitchy.
“The standard front-end (suspension) geometry also left a lot to be
desired, but we sorted those things out over time. We started with
something that was pretty ordinary and just kept making it better.”
As a teenage car enthusiast Webb was knocked out by the Nagari on its
release as a production car in 1970 and like many enthusiasts wanted to
drive one on the race track.
“I started with a coupe in about 1971. The NSW agent for Bolwell at the
time was Fleetwing Garage at Lakemba and the proprietors were John
Edwards and Neil Stevens.
“They’d just traded-in a doctor’s car on a new Nagari, so I bought it.
Apparently the good doctor had been using it as a call car (home visits
etc). It was lime green with a Windsor V8. It had dodgy gel-coat and a
few other things that needed attention, so it was nice and cheap for a
young bloke like me who couldn’t afford anything better.
Another fast and nicely-presented Nagari was John Gourlay’s coupe
which finished fourth overall in the 1979 ASCC despite only competing in
half the rounds. The 1979 championship was again dominated by Porsche
Carreras which finished 1-2 with a Lotus Europa third overall.
“We set about putting those ugly factory guards on it (wheel arch
flares), painted it black and raced it a few times in Sydney. At first I
used IDA Webers but I had to cut a hole in the bonnet for clearance
which the scrutineers didn’t like, so I changed it over to fuel
injection.
“Later on I took it down to a race meeting at Hume Weir (near Albury)
but I ended up going nose-first into a wall and demolished the front of
the car. So when I brought it back home to be repaired, I figured it was
also time to make some improvements.”
Neil Stevens, who played a pivotal role in the development of Webb’s
Nagari, hand-fabricated a new front-end that rejuvenated the Nagari’s
wayward front suspension by using proper competition parts hand-made by
Rennmax racing car manufacturer, Bob Britton.
These comprised elegant upper and lower wishbones, lightweight
uprights, huge brakes and other items; all one-offs originally built for
a Mustang sports sedan that was wrecked in a crash. Webb bought all the
undamaged front-end components from that car which were adapted to the
Nagari. The standard steering rack was also replaced with a Rennmax
component.
“It gave us a nice, adjustable racing car front-end that we could work
with because the biggest limitation with the Nagaris - be they road
Nagaris or race Nagaris - was always the front suspension,” Webb
revealed.
“Those early cars suffered from terrible bump steer, which is why
you’ll find a lot of the later Nagaris were modified by Neil Stevens.
They put late model Torana front ends in them which got rid of all the
geometry problems that those early cars had.
“We also strengthened the car’s rear-end because they used to flex quite a bit around the T-intersection of the rear chassis.”
One of the fastest Nagari roadsters of the 1970s ProdSports era
belonged to Sydney-based Steve Webb. This car was a regular sight at his
local Oran Park and Amaroo Park tracks where it enjoyed great success.
Note the smoother self-styled wheel arch flares and cut down racing
windscreen, which was more a wind ‘deflector’ to stop Webb’s helmet
being buffeted at high speeds. These low screens also reduced the car’s
frontal area for better air penetration.
Although Webb’s car was originally a coupe, extensive body damage
caused by the Hume Weir crash prompted him to update to the roadster
body. This offered several advantages in terms of lighter weight, less
frontal area (with the low profile windscreens of the era) and much
improved open air driving comfort.
“Don’t underestimate the coolness issue,” Webb said. “When we ran it as
a coupe it was incredibly hot inside, particularly as I was silly
enough to paint it black which made it even worse.
“They had poor ventilation and your feet would get fried because they
were right beside the engine and the exhaust pipes. The switch to the
roadster body solved those problems.
“I bought the last roadster body that they (Bolwell) had sitting on
their factory floor. I drove down to Melbourne overnight in my little
truck from work, picked the body up early in the morning and drove back
to Sydney with it the next day.
“I never liked the look of the factory wheel arch flares they made for
racing. I thought I could make some much nicer ones that blended better
with the shape of the car, so we set about moulding up some new flares
which we then mounted on the new body on the newly rebuilt chassis.
“We also simplified the wiring loom and attached the body to the
chassis using only eight bolts so that when we had to work on the car we
just had to undo those bolts and a few things then lift the body clear
off the chassis and place it on some stands. It made working on the car
so much easier.”
Pure nostalgia! A wonderful shot of Steve Webb (right of frame) and
Nagari arch rival Ross Bond leaving the competition well behind as they
thunder up Bitupave Hill moments after the start of another ProdSports
race at Sydney’s Amaroo Park in the mid-1970s.
Like most racing Nagaris, Webb’s car was powered by the wonderfully
light and compact 5.0 litre small block Windsor V8, as the larger and
heavier Cleveland unit fitted to later model Nagaris (and trialled by
some competitors in 351 cid/5.8 litre form) resulted in inferior
handling.
Webb’s race engine, built by Neil Stevens, utilised the much stronger
Boss 302 cylinder block developed for US Trans-Am racing with rugged
four-bolt mains for high rev tolerance. Dry-sump lubrication and
competition-grade crank, rods and pistons completed the small block
Ford’s stout bottom end.
A high performance solid camshaft was matched with fully worked 302
Windsor heads, topped with high quality valve gear and fed high octane
racing fuel via a Hilborn constant flow mechanical fuel injection
system. Hand-made exhaust extractors snaked their way rearwards through
the tight confines of the engine bay to a booming open exhaust system.
Webb said he never had the funds nor the inclination to run any numbers
on a dyno, although he suspects his healthy little Ford V8 was
producing around 400 bhp.
He also never put the car on a set of scales, so power-to-weight ratio
clearly was not considered the most important measure. “It was either a
good car to drive and won races or it didn’t, simple as that,” Steve
said with typical pragmatism.
A competition clutch and Ford top loader four-speed gearbox proved to
be rugged and reliable. Steve’s top loader was a special race version
from the US, equipped with a more precise shifting mechanism.
Ross Bond’s clean and mean Nagari roadster charges through Dunlop Loop
at Amaroo Park in 1976. Bond’s car set the bar pretty high in terms of
its overall build quality and attention to detail.
Power went to ground through a stronger nine-inch live rear axle
sourced from a compact Fairlane. This featured Ford’s bulletproof
nine-inch crown wheel and pinion, thicker fine-spline axles and a
Salisbury clutch-type limited slip diff that was adjusted to suit
Steve’s driving style.
Although this type of LSD required constant adjustment, Webb said its
consistent and predictable power delivery was a much better option than
the brutal in-or-out engagement of the Detroit Locker given the Nagari’s
handling traits.
“All I ever ran was the Salisbury clutch-type LSD because if you kept
the (clutch) plates screwed up tight it worked fine,” he said. “How guys
like Peter Warren drove them with a Locker I will never know, because
the Nagaris were very twitchy with their short wheelbase and wide track
dimensions.
“I recall in the early days I actually borrowed Peter’s Locker diff and
put it in my car to test it out at Amaroo Park. I came through the left
hander there (Honda Corner) and when I hit the throttle it locked when I
didn’t want it to, suddenly turned hard left and drove me straight up
the earth embankment that ran all the way down the back straight.
“I almost drove the entire length of that embankment at 45 degrees
before I could get the thing back on the road again. It was scary. I
drove straight back to the pits and said ‘pull that bloody thing out!’”
Under the ProdSports rules, the Nagari had to retain its standard front
disc/rear drum arrangement which wasn’t a problem for Webb as the
Rennmax front-end upgrade featured huge ventilated disc rotors clamped
by powerful Girling four-spot racing calipers.
A lone Datsun 2000 is the meat in a Nagari sandwich during a
ProdSports race at Oran Park in 1974, led by Steve Webb’s gorgeous
roadster with Peter Warren bringing up the rear in his immaculate coupe.
These were more than adequate to meet his braking requirements without
having to worry about the rear drums overheating or locking up. “We just
adjusted the brake bias so that the rear drums virtually didn’t work.
They were just there to hold the rear wheel in place and not much
else.”
Webb’s Nagari initially ran Mawer lightweight composite racing wheels
in the maximum allowable 10-inch width before moving to wheels
tailor-made for the car by Tony Simmons.
Suspension tuning was fairly straightforward, in keeping with the
relatively basic and simple design of the car. Finding the right balance
of coil springs, adjustable competition dampers and anti-roll bars
resulted in a fine handling race car that was fast, predictable and
satisfying to drive.
Ranald MacLurkin leads Alex Tsakmakis in a duel at Melbourne’s Calder
Park in 1973. There’s no denying the Bolwell Nagari’s intoxicating blend
of beauty and beast made it a popular choice for a large number of
ProdSports racers.
“It was a very successful car, particularly at Amaroo Park which was
just around the corner from where I lived at Parramatta,” Webb said. “It
was my local circuit so I spent a lot of time driving around there and
the car was very well suited to that track.
“The late (motoring journalist) Barry Lake tested the car and did a
write-up on it for one of the motor sport magazines at the time. He said
he couldn’t believe what a good handling motor car the Nagari was, but
having said that it was very un-Nagari like in terms of things we had to
re-engineer on the car to make it that way.”
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