Lap records Mallala 1986.

A great little article from Mark Koennecke.

Mark is Dale's son (the "K" in K and A).

As the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans takes hold this weekend the story of the fastest racecar ever to be designed and constructed in Australia, the VESKandA Group C1 is worth telling. Not only was the VESKandA extremely successful, but it was borne of humble origins and built on a meagre budget, but its story is so obscure that many would have never heard of it. In the late 1970’s in Adelaide South Australia, Dale Koennecke and Harry Aust, who had met through working together in the Rothmans International and Tasman F5000 series at Elfin Sportscars, Australia’s version of Lotus, had decided to leave together and set up their own business, K&A Engineering. Together they designed and manufactured a series of Sports Sedans, which was essentially a no holds barred silhouette sedan formula, and not only won multiple national championships but revolutionised the national championship by innovating their learnings from open-wheelers and building aluminium monocoque mid-engined designs.

In 1983 a client of Dale and Harry, successful local commercial photographer and motorsport enthusiast Bernie Van Elsen commissioned K&A to design, construct and develop an FIA Group C1 in anticipation of entering it in the forthcoming 1984 final round of the World Endurance Championship at Sandown Park in Australia. Totally privately funded by Van Elsen himself, the design resulted in a six litre Chev powered, full ground effects, glass-fibre bodied, aluminium, honeycomb and divinycell bonded monocoque Group C1 they named the Van Elsen Special K and A, or VESKandA. It was realised that it would be critical to the development path of the car on track for Van Elsen to engage a driver capable of not only racing such a beast but to be instrumental in its development and so he approached renowned Australian open-wheel talent John Bowe to drive the car at the suggestion of Dale and Harry, who they both had experience working with during their time at Elfin and were impressed with. The team of Dale, Harry, Bernie, and John soon realised the enormity of the task ahead would prevent them from developing the car in time to be able to compete in the Sandown event, but in early 1985 they realised that they were on to something very special when the development stage of the project turned to track testing and the performance potential of the VESKandA became evident.

Quite soon the performance level of the car increased significantly as they learnt how to tune the mechanical set up to suit the powerful underbody venturis, but disaster struck because the magnitude of rear downforce being created was so high, a rear-wheel suffered collapse failure in a high-speed corner resulting in an accident so severe that the monocoque required a partial rebuild. Nevertheless, after design improvements and a two-month repair period, the team re-commenced testing and finally, the VESKandA made its race debut in 1985 at its home circuit, Adelaide International Raceway in Round 4 of the Australian Sportscar Championship in dominant fashion by finishing P1 in every FP session, starting from pole in both heats, winning both heats by over a lap and setting the lap record in the process. Over the period of the remainder of the 1985, 1986 and the 1987 Australian Sportscar Championship seasons the VESKandA became the 1986 champion and an Australian motorsport legend and folklore as the dominant machine was so fast that it was unbeatable, starting from pole position and winning every race that it was entered in, with the exception of the opening round in 1987 at Calder Park when a ruptured fuel line fire not only forced its retirement from the round but cost the team the 1987 title in what became an unexpected three-round shortened championship. Not only did the VESKandA qualify on pole position for every single Australian SportsCar Championship race that it was entered in, but it also won every race that it finished, set the sportscar lap record at every circuit that it raced at and set the outright lap record at every circuit that it raced at except one, missing out on the record for Adelaide International Raceway that was set by one Alan Jones in Teddy Yip’s Lola T332 F5000 by 0.2 seconds.

Indeed, so dominant was the VESKandA in the Australian Sportscar Championship that when it was announced that the 1987 season would be the competition’s last, many apportioned the root cause to its dominance. Quite obviously it would seem to be a pointless exercise to go to the lengths of building a fully compliant and developed FIA Group C sportscar without competing on the international stage, but with Australia being so isolated and difficulties in finding sponsorship partners to help with the finance required to launch a European competition program due to minimal market penetration of Group C in Australia and the general publics lack of awareness of the class, unfortunately, it never happened. With the final round of the 1988 FIA World Endurance Championship scheduled to be held once again at Sandown Park in Melbourne, the VESKandA finally got its chance to measure itself against the best in the world, entered with Bowe sharing his driving duties with his now Australian Touring Car Championship team owner and boss, Dick Johnson.

Up against the exponentially better funded and resourced Walkinshaw XJR-9’s, Sauber C9’s and privateer 962C’s the minnows qualified an admirable eighth and ran comfortably in fifth during the race, only headed by the Jaguars and Mercedes, until the pre-historic engine management system being used on the VESKandA metred the fuel burn incorrectly, and the FIA penalised the team for exceeding the race fuel limit. Therein ended the story of the VESKandA until the early 2000’s when Van Elsen had the covers pulled off it in its dusty corner at K&A, had it rebuilt and sold it due to its then historic value. In 2012-2013 in the hands-on its new and current owner, another Australian motorsport enthusiast Paul Stubber, the VESKandA finally made it to Europe with an extensive competition schedule in Historic Group C, racing at Donnington Park, Silverstone, Spa, Imola, Nurburgring and the big one, the Group C Legends at Le Mans, making many aware for the first time of this amazing, quirky, and fast machine from Australia twenty-five years after its heyday. Interestingly, the VESKandA was not the only KandA chassis built, as in the early 1990’s a second was designed and built to IMSA regulations for a client who intended entering in the US series, and indeed it was landed on US soil for that purpose, but for several reasons, the entry never precipitated.

A third road car version was built by K&A, but in the early 2000s the client disappeared off the face of the earth with their incomplete project. After its inevitable European tour, the VESKandA was returned to its home soil of Australia and is now a resident at the Western Australia Motor Museum along with Daniel Ricciardo’s first Grand Prix winning Red Bull Racing RB10. If you have any questions that you would like answered directly please feel free to email us via the GP247 contact form and we will endeavour to respond as soon as we can. ********************* This is the 3rd (roadgoing) car in Norm's drive. I believe the owner, Jeff, Ran out of money and the car hasn't been seen in ages.

Inspiration.

Remember Barry Campbell telling us that his introduction to sports car racing and to Bolwells in particular came from his good mate in Sydney who raced a Mk.4? There was also a photo floating around of Barry in his TR3A towing a trailer with the Mk.4 on the back. Well, that good friend was Brian Body and the Bolwell was a serious bit of kit. Here's a couple of photos of Brian and the car at Oran Park in 1970.

Now I wonder where that car is now!

Schuppan 962CR.

 The Porsche 962 is one of the most successful Group C racing prototypes ever built. Following its success on the racing circuit, a number of companies thought it would be a great idea to turn it into a road car as well—in exchange for a few million bucks. After all, it was the 1990s, and pretty much anything seemed possible.

The first to get there was Koenig Specials, who gave their C62s new bodies and engines bored to 3.4 liters, complete with Bosch's latest fuel injection. Then came DP Motorsport, the Switec-Porsche 962C, and the most famous limited edition of them all, the Dauer 962 LM. But it would be rude to forget about the six street-legal 962s built by Australia's Vern Schuppan, since the Porsche Schuppan 962CR represents the biggest departure from the Group C original.

BRIAN SNELSONWIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Schuppan won the 1983 24 Hours of Le Mans driving a Porsche 956. While still enjoying Porsche's support a few years later, he started a business converting 962Rs for road use. With the backing of some Japanese investors, the project soon entered its next phase, with Schuppan developing a road-going 962 from the ground up.

Known as the Schuppan 962CR, the car was designed by fellow Australian Michael Simcoe as a 50-unit limited-run machine, a production number that would have allowed the car to race at Le Mans. Unfortunately, the Japanese economy had collapsed by 1992, leaving Schuppan's investors dry, and forcing his company into bankruptcy after just six 962CRs had been built. Five remain today, as one was destroyed in a fire. The team never made it to the Mulsanne.

JAY LENO'S GARAGEYOUTUBE

This particular example, a "zero-mile" right-hand drive Schuppan 962, was completed in 1993, with a unique body and other subtle modifications in the engine bay. Its dry-sump 3.3-liter twin-turbo flat-six produces 550 horsepower at low boost, 850 for qualification, and can only run on race gas. Yet it has catalytic converters, turn signals, and a passenger seat where the ECU used to be on the racing car, all of which help this wild machine at least try to pass itself off as a street car. The Schuppan-branded Alcon brakes are a nice touch.

Crazy thing is, this car has never been driven before. Soon after UK-based Modena Cars assembled this example, the company's finances went into shambles. A manufacturer of bus windshields was one of Schuppan's creditors; the president of the glass company took this car as partial payment, storing it at his office from 1995 to 2015. Since its reappearance at Daytona in 2015, this one-off 962CR has undergone a complete overhaul, and is currently cared for by Matthew Ivanhoe. And who else could put on the car's first break-in miles than Jay Leno?

From R&T.

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Just in.

 Bay to Birdwood 2021 cancelled.

Hi John

You have probably heard the news this week that we have had to make the difficult decision to cancel the 2021 Bay to Birdwood.  The official communication is below.  Hopefully we will see you in 2022.

The 2021 Bay to Birdwood – one of the world’s great historic motoring events – cannot take place as originally planned this year.  The team at the History Trust of South Australia’s National Motor Museum have worked tirelessly to prepare for a safe, fun and memorable event so we are disappointed that some 1,500 entrants will not be able to participate in the usual 72km journey from West Beach to the National Motor Museum in Birdwood.  We are also disappointed that tens of thousands of South Australians will not be able to line the route to watch these amazing vehicles.

While we are saddened that we will not be able to host thousands of entrants, their families and their friends on the grounds of the National Motor Museum, we understand that helping to keep South Australians safe is our most important job right now. COVID-19 continues to affect how we can run events safely and the Bay to Birdwood is no exception.  New SA Health COVID management requirements mean we expect that the Bay to Birdwood event will be significantly impacted with reduced public and entrant participation. This makes running the Bay to Birdwood unviable in its current form in 2021, particularly at this late stage with only five weeks to go. 

Although we will not have our usual parade of historic vehicles on Sunday 26 September, we are working hard to create an event that still highlights some of the wonderful vehicles that were originally taking part in the 2021 event. We plan to have a range of Bay to Birdwood activities that can be enjoyed from home and all taking place on 26 September.  Visit our facebook page or website in coming weeks to check the online program.

Kind regards

Pauline

Don't worry Ron.

 

Lots of people have intoxicated wives from time to time.

Custom build Purvis Eureka Kit Car | loc: Indonesia | Cinematic Car Vide...

Better in red.

 Here is a lovely red Pantera.

In a previous life it was the Edelston car where the good doctor had it painted pink, along with a pink helicopter, to present to the young bride of the time.

There was also a pink one in the US which was a prize for a certain year's Playmate of the Year.

For Sam

 Coming up on the next Shannons on line auction. 4 x 14X6 Ford pattern Globes.

See comment from Glenn on previous post for link.

Nagari wheels

 This attractive Nagari belongs to Sam in Sydney.

He's looking to fit wheels that are more period correct. With so many Nagari owners updating their wheels, there must be many Ford pattern 14 x 6s around. Can anybody help. Something like this would be nice,

Not a Corvette.

 

No, it's a Mitsuoka Rock Star from Japan. A Mitsuoka body on MX5 underpinnings. What a great Idea.

1941 Studebaker.

 

A striking resemblance to the 48/215 don't you think?

What a lovely photo.

 

It's worth blowing up and framing.

Aussie built sports cars.

 As you know I'm a sucker for Australian sporties. One of my favourites is the Magnolia- Climax.

Built and raced in the 1960s by Gavin Sandford-Morgan, what a pretty little thing. Where did Gavin get the name from? It was the brand tag on the back of his wife's bra.

Something you're not telling us Mr. Wragg?

 

A bit complicated for me.

 Brabham cockpit.

The things you see on any given day at The Bend.

Becoming rare.

 

The coveted Cortina GT dash padding with the 4 holes for gauges. You don't see them very often these days. Although Beven has a mould for one.

Getting crazy.

 

The R100 was a lovely little car, in my opinion anyway, but surely not $150,000's worth of lovely.

Out and about in Melbourne on the weekend.

Alan discovered some rare sunshine so headed off to the countryside for a coffee.

Vic went straight to "Cars and coffee".

 

Gotta watch those wombats.

 Just finished reading a Nagari road test by Jon Branch, well known Bolwell expert.

"The fiberglass bodywork on Bolwell cars was very good, better than many, so you are mainly looking for damage from accidents or collisions with wildlife such as kangaroos or wombats. A collision with a kangaroo will tend to result in its going over the hood/bonnet and if the windscreen is not laminated it can finish up in the car on the driver’s lap. The end result of such a scenario is damage to both car and driver, the kangaroo often survives and hops off once out of the vehicle. Wombats will cause low front damage and they normally finish up going under the car, as do road-kill kangaroo carcases. So look for damage consistent with collision with animals as well as traffic accident damage.

The quality of the paint will depend on how recently the car has been painted. The old gel-coat finish was not as good as modern finishes and getting a good re-finishing on a tatty looking car will do some wonders. For replacement body panels contact your Bolwell club. The Victorian club has original molds for the fiberglass panels of some Bolwell car models."

You still see them around.

 The J & S MGB hardtops that is.

The Ford 9 inch.

 

Secrets of the Ford 9-Inch Rear Axle

Posted on December 30, 2020 by MCG

Even though it was developed more than 60 years ago, the Ford 9-Inch is the rear axle of choice throughout the American high-performance world. Here’s why. 

 

When the Ford Motor Co. unveiled its 1957 vehicle line in October of 1956, in the press materials there was only brief mention of a new rear axle assembly for its cars and light trucks. Engineered in-house and produced by the company’s Sterling Axle Plant on Mound Road, which had opened only a few months earlier, the axle proved to be a winner—beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, actually. At the time, no one could have foreseen that today, more than 60 years later, the Ford 9-Inch is ubiquitous all across the American racing and performance scene.

The exploded diagram above reveals many of the design features that made the 9-Inch so popular:

+  The carrier housing is a front-loading dropout type, also known as a “banjo” or “pig” style, which is far more mechanic-friendly than the more common Salisbury/Spicer design in which the differential carrier loads into an integral axle housing from the rear. Here, backlash and pinion-depth adjustments are quick and easy, and gear ratio changes can be accomplished in minutes.

+   The pinion-shaft assembly is carried in a separate, detachable sub-housing (a cartridge, as some describe it), which simplifies adjustments even further and allows  beefy, large-diameter bearings and yoke.

+   The axle shafts are secured in the housing with sturdy retainer plates at the housing ends, rather than with C-clips inside the carrier, a setup that is not terribly safe or suitable for serious racing use.

+   The ring gear (crown wheel in the Queen’s English) is a generous 9.0 inches in diameter, which allows the axle to withstand extreme torque loads and lent the rear axle its familiar name. Ford also manufactured axles of this design with 8.0-inch and 9.38-inch ring gears for various applications, and at one time or another, the axle family has been used in virtually every U.S. car and light truck platform produced by the company between 1957 and 1986.

 

So by fortune or design, the 9-Inch checks a number of important boxes for high-performance use. And when we dig a little deeper, we can see even more significant advantages, starting with a property called hypoid offset, above. In the hypoid gearset, introduced by Packard and Gleason Gear Works in 1926, the pinion gear is offset from the ring gear’s centerline, rather than centered as on a conventional spiral-bevel gearset. The result is a sort of bevel/worm gear hybrid, combining both meshing and sliding action between the gear teeth, and the increased contact area produces a stronger, quieter gearset. (Hypoid axles also allow a lower driveshaft and flatter passenger floor, surely the main reason they were embraced by the American car industry.)

In most U.S. passenger car drive axles, hypoid offset is generally in the 1.25-in. range (top left gearset). But on the Ford 9-inch (lower left gearset) the offset is much greater: 2.38 inches. This provides an even longer, deeper tooth contact (yellow arrow). The increased contact area does come at some cost: greater friction, more heat (often requiring a differential cooler), and a small but significant increase in mechanical loss— around two percent. In most applications, racers find the sacrifice is more than worth it. But it’s surely no coincidence that the 9-Inch was discontinued on production cars when fuel efficiency became a prime concern.

One more advantage of the 9-inch worth mentioning, as indicated by the red arrow above: Unlike most every other unit of its class, the Ford carrier includes an extra journal on the nose of the pinion to support a bearing set deep in the case, which stabilizes the gearset against deflection and allows a shorter, more compact pinion shaft.

With all these valuable attributes, the Ford 9-inch is far and away the favorite of the American high-performance scene, from street rodding to NASCAR, and it has been for decades—despite the fact that Ford hasn’t offered the unit in a production vehicle since 1986. Every component, down to the last spacer and seal, is now available in the performance aftermarket. Like a small-block Chevy V8 or a Fender guitar, an entire 9-inch axle can be assembled without a single original factory part. Specialist suppliers including Strange, Mark Williams, and Moser Engineering (shown above) offer a complete range of components and assemblies for every conceivable purpose.

It may seem a little odd that one of the top racing series in the world depends on a major component that was developed more than 60 years ago, but it’s true: Every car that runs in NASCAR Cup today has a Ford 9-Inch rear end under it—yes, even the non-Ford entries. As a result, the NASCAR teams have amassed vast inventories of 9-Inch assemblies, as shown below, in every gear ratio you can imagine, for tracks from Martinsville to Talladega.

But the way we hear it, that may be changing soon. Reportedly, NASCAR will ditch the venerable 9-Inch on the next-generation Cup car due in 2022 and adopt a sequential transaxle similar to those used in the Australia Supercars Championship. Still, we know that the Ford 9-Inch will be around the performance world for decades to come.

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Favourite 3-wheelers No. 73

 

A nice little potted history of Elfin.

 Born in 1935, Garrie Cooper was a successful race car driver as well as a successful designer and engineer. His resume is impressive . . . and as a driver he won the 1968 Singapore Grand Prix, the Australian 1½ Litre Championship and the 1975 Australian Sports Car Championship. Incredibly, he achieved this success in Elfin cars of his own design.

Garrie Cooper, with the help of his father, Cliff Cooper, founded Elfin Sports Cars in October 1959. The company was based in Edwardstown, South Australia. The first car Elfin Sports Cars designed was the front engined Streamliner. The prototype was completed in October 1959 and in total 22 production versions of it were built between 1959 and 1963.

Elfin Sports Cars built a number of different race cars for many different classes. Some of the more significant Elfins are as follows. From 1961 – 1965 they produced Formula Junior and Catalina racing cars, the Clubman sports car and the Mallala sports racing car. From 1964 – 1969 they produced the Type 100 Mono Australian 1½ Litre Formula racing car, the Type 500 Formula Vee racing car, the Type 400 Group A racing car (V8 powered) and the Type 300 sports racing car. From 1968 – 1972 they produced the Type 600 open wheel racing car suitable for various formulas, the 620FF/620B Formula Ford racing car, the Type 350 & Type 360 sports racing car and the MR5 Australian Formula 1 (F5000) racing car.

Unfortunately, Garrie Cooper passed away at the young age of 46 on the 25th April 1982. His father completed the outstanding orders before offering the company for sale. In 1983 the company was acquired by Don Elliot, racing driver Tony Edmondson and mechanic John Porter. They sold the company in 1993 to Murray Richards. When he acquired the business he set out to build a new generation of Elfin Clubmans, the Type 3. Unfortunately, failing health forced him to sell the business in 1998. Elfin was then acquired by Bill Hemming and Nick Kovatch. They decided to relocate the business to Melbourne and over the next couple of years Elfin started collaborating with GM Holden which resulted in the concept MS8 Streamliner being revealed at the 2004 Melbourne International Motorshow. It wasn’t until 2006, after the business was sold to Tom Walkinshaw (HSV and Walkinshaw Performance), that limited production of two models of the MS8 were started. Walkinshaw passed away in December 2010 and the last Elfin was built in March 2012.

In the Garrie Cooper era, Elfin built 248 racing and sports racing cars in 27 different models over a 25-year period.

Elfin has won no less than 29 championships and major titles including two Australian Driver’s Championships (in 1973 with John McCormack driving an Elfin MR5 Repco-Holden and in 1975 with John McCormack driving a Elfin MR6 Repco-Holden), four Australian Sports Car Championships (in 1970 with Peter Woodward driving an Elfin 350 Coventry Climax, in 1973 with Phil Moore driving an Elfin 360 Repco, in 1974 with Henry Michell driving an Elfin 360 Repco and in 1975 with Garrie Cooper driving the Elfin MS7 Repco Holden), three Australian Tourist Trophies (in 1966 with Frank Matich driving an Elfin 400 Traco Oldsmobile, in 1976 with Stuart Kostera driving an Elfin MS7 Repco Holden and in 1978 with Greg Doidge driving an Elfin 360 Repco) and three Formula Ford titles (in 1970 with Richard Knight driving an Elfin 600 FF, in 1971 with Larry Perkins driving an Elfin 600 FF and in 1974 Terry Perkins driving an Elfin 620FF. Elfin also took out the 1968 Singapore Grand Prix with Garrie Cooper driving an Elfin 600, twice won the Malaysian Grand Prix (in 1968 with Hengkie Iriawan driving an Elfin 600 and in 1969 with Tony Maw driving the same car) and also won the Australian Formula Two Championship in 1972 with Larry Perkins in an Elfin 600B.

World Formula One Champion James Hunt raced an Elfin, as did the brilliant French Formula One driver, Didier Pironi.

One of Australia’s greatest motor racing success stories was the Elfin 600 of which 27 cars were built from 1968 -1971. Following the success Garrie Cooper had in South East Asia in 1968 he decided to return in 1969 with a more powerful and improved Type 600. This time the type 600 chassis was combined with the 2½ litre Repco-Brabham Type 830 V8 engine (Type RB830). The 600C became the first all Australian racing car designed to comply with Australian National Formula One regulations. Only 3 Elfin 600’s were originally built with the Repco-Brabham engine.

Work this one out.

 

It reminds me of that white Commodore with the FC front and rear panels.

Oh for the simplicity of a Nagari sports roof.

 

This is a shot of my MR2 roof. It fits fairly nicely.  It came from California at great expense. It's been on for a while now and there are no leaks. But what a task it was to fit. It took at least 5 days to dismantle the old one, carefully putting all the springs, cables, clips and screws in containers for use later on the new roof. You'd be buggered if you lost anything. Then follows the fitting of all those bits to the new roof (another 5 days or so) before putting the actual roof on. It all worked out OK in the end, but what a rigmarole. Anyway, it goes up and down fairly well so that's something. However, the Nagari soft top despite being designed 50 years ago is just so simple and neatly folds up to be stored in the boot and looks pretty smart when it's up as well.

Goulburn's first Nagari.

 No, it's not Colin McAlister's. Not by a long shot.

These pictures, along with a few others, were posted on Facebook by someone who remembers the local dry cleaner's amazing taste in cars back in the late 60s and early 70s which included apart from the Bolwell, a Warwick Yellow GTS Monaro and an E38 Charger.

The Dry Cleaner shop proprietor was Doug Fenwick, an entrepreneurial business owner in Goulburn. The Bolwell was significant in that it was B8/2 and Doug was the first customer off the rank. Naturally it was a 1970 model, there being only one for 1969. It had very stiff rear springs as it was originally used for drag racing. It took Max Hadlow 14 years to talk Doug into selling it to him. Max had it for two and a half years and when sold it had only done 13,600 miles.

Royce Dockett bought and crashed this car in the late 90s. Not sure what happened to it after that.

Slum Dog Millionaire.

 

No, that's not Danny DeVito on the right. It's TC giving Dev a quote on a brake upgrade on his Cooper S.

Wow!

 

An R25 head on a grey block.

A bit difficult.

 It's hard to report on Norm's new guard flares. Just when you think it's looking good, he cuts them off and starts again.