Valano

Yesterday, Chris Gascoigne sent me this email with the title "Milanos and suchlike":-
"If it's any help I remember a beastie called the Valano - I don't know what model it was but it was a Milano with a Valiant slope 6 in it. I know of the car because it competed in some sprints (I think they were standing 1/4 miles times) and my Father made himself unpopular as a scrutineer by reckoning there was some irregularity with the engine - I think it was to do with size. (I guess for the question to have arisen it must have been pretty quick.) Anyway the upshot of it was that the poor bastard had to pull it down in our back yard. I don't know what the outcome was. Believe it or not I was a bit young at the time."

You are so very right, Chris. It was a very quick car in those days. The word 'awesome' hadn't emerged back then, but if it had, it would have been used for the Valano's performance I'm sure. Avid readers of this blog (if they exist) would have noted that I have mentioned it in a bit of rambling about my days at Chrysler Australia Ltd. in the early to mid sixties. Even though the factory was established at Tonsley Park, our offices where administration, experimental, motorsport, publicity etc. operated from was at Maple Avenue, Keswick where LeCornus are now. This was the site of the T.J.Richards motor body factory prior to the Chrysler take-over. It was a great place to be for a young man with an emerging interest in all sorts of different machines (I would have been driving to work in a Vauxhall Vagabond convertible or a 1926 Buick tourer back then). In the department where I worked we had to deal with many interesting items like the Chrysler jet car and the rare (to us Aussies) Plymouth Barracuda. Among the vehicles that we used for publicity because of its Valiant engine was the Valano. I'm certain that I personally did not get to drive it but I do have recollections of the difficulty in squeezing into the driver's seat despite being lots more agile than I am now. I seem to recall taking a photo of it one day. It wasn't easy to have a camera in those areas. Anyway, I can't find the photograph any more. I wonder if Bernie Van Elsen may have. I don't even know if he keeps a photograph archive. I know Mike Connell at Orange Photography does (or did). Bernie used to be the photographer for Chryslers, producing the photographs for their brochures. So the only picture I could come up with was the Valano at Collingrove at about the same time. You will notice that it is just that tiny bit out of shape. It had lots of power and a relatively short wheelbase and was a bit of a handful if I recall. In more recent times there was a bloke in the Barossa who ran a Milano GT1 up there and at Mallala in Historic events that was just as powerful and just as hard to keep pointed in the right direction. In fact Norm had to do the odd job on the bodywork to attest to that.

On Four Wheels

Yes it's on 4 wheels now.That's a nice feeling.

Earlier Milano GTs

Well, I said I'd post a picture of the earlier GT but you probably didn't expect me to go to Switzerland for it. This car belongs to Bruno von Rotz who describes himself as a "petrolhead from Switzerland". Only a few weeks ago I noticed that Jane Sanders had posted a series of photos on the last Goodwood Revival meeting on Flickr that included this very car. Bruno contacted me after reading the GT2 post yesterday. He, of course, is very keen to gather up as much information as he can about his car's history and about the JWF marque in general. I'm sure we can help him out can't we? I see it has NSW on the side and also a 179 badge. It is the 3rd Milano GT built and apparently raced in Prodsports in the early 70s powered by a Buick V8. Among others, I am hoping when Peter Smeets and Steve Rowley read this their Milano recollections will go to work.

In addition to the Milano, Bruno has 3 TVRs, a Grantura, a Tuscan V8 and a 3000S as well as a Devin-Triumph. Devin was a builder of fibreglass bodies in the US and Bruno's example is mounted on a Triumph TR3. It bears a remarkable resemblance to the Milano roadster which, I've heard, is no coincidence. Devin also built complete cars. I really like TVRs. Don't be surprised to see the odd TVR and Devin thread in future.

GT2

More inspiration from Peter's Sydney Seaforth GP photos. This time the Milano GT2. The GT2, in my opinion was a relatively simple car yet for 3 years in NSW was a front runner in sports car racing among some very formidable company. Milanos were the most popular of the various kit cars built by JWF through the late 50s to early 60s. The Milano started as an open car but later they came up with a roofed version and called it the Milano GT. The name JWF came from the three partners, "Sam" Johnson, Geoff Williams and Grant Furzer but by 1962 Geoff and Grant had gone their separate ways. Sam continued on with the JWF fibreglass business, moving away from sports car bodies and concentrating more on industrial products (does this sound familiar?). However he did go motor racing with a couple of mates, earthmoving contractor Bruce Leer and Moss Angliss. Sam and Bruce ran 179 powered Milano GTs on fabricated twin tubed chassis and Moss raced a Lotus Super 7. For those that don't know the original Milano GTs looked nothing like the GT2 and maybe I'd better post some photos later. After a lapse in racing for Sam and Bruce, they became bitten by the bug again probably inspired by the bits in the workshop left over from the racing days. They were also inspired by the success Moss was having with his clubman and thought about how that style of car would go with a 179 in it. The GT2 doesn't look much like a clubman but you will notice that the cars have long noses and the driver sits right back in the clubman position. Two cars were built, Sam doing the bodies and Bruce doing the chassis. Some of the bodywork was actually bonded to the chassis for additional strength. The cars were ready to race in late 1970. By then Sam's wife didn't like him racing any more and Moss, who had helped build the second chassis, mainly drove Sam's car. Both cars were painted black and looked stunning. The motors were almost standard apart from being fitted with triple one and three quarter inch SUs. Yet they were front runners. I used to follow their performances with enthusiasm, often through the pages of RCN and Auto Action. In 1972 in round 3 of the Australian Sports Car Championship at Warwick Farm, Bruce came a creditable 6th and Moss 7th behind such cars as the Elfin 360s of South Australians Phil Moore (3rd) and Henry Michell (5th) and the Elfin ME5 of Charlie Occhipinti (4th). The ME5 is the awesome car that we are now following with equal enthusiasm in the hands of Trevor Lambert. When the emphasis in sportscar racing shifted to Production Sportscars, you might recall Charlie came out with that monstrous Corvette and to this day, Chris Clearihan is still grumbling about Charlie flipping his ex-Canon Nagari at Hume Weir as he came up to lap him resulting in the car being rebodied in LHD form. I've digressed so much that I might as well do so even more. On the subject of the 1972 championship, in round 5, 7th place was taken by Barry Coleman in a Bolwell Mark 7 which might be of some interest to the friends of Dave Hamlin. Meanwhile, back at the GT2, pressure came from everywhere for replicas to be made but Sam was adamant that they just weren't viable as they would be too much work. There was just one exception. A cousin of Frank Matich was able to convince them to build a third car for him and that car is still around today in the hands of Scott Whittaker I believe. In 1973 both works cars went to Western Australia. Firstly Sam's car, but it wasn't long before the new owner pranged it and wanted to buy Bruce's which went over there too. I'm not sure which car it is but former NSW Bolwell Cub president, Andrew Kluver, owns this GT2 below. It would be great to hear from Andrew about the recent history of his car.

In more recent times I came across Bruce Leer when he came to SA for a round of the speedcar championship with his speedway team. I have a feeling he was building speedcars and supporting his son in that endeavour as was my old friend Bruce Howle (another Bruce from Sydney).

House

Jim S is wondering if this house is owned by a car collector. Must be a car collector who's lost his licence. It reminds me of a bloke in Adelaide who built up an Austin 7 in his loungeroom. He had to knock out a wall to get it out. I can't talk. When I was a teenager I built an engine in my bedroom.

More Seaforth - Ferraris this time

A few more of those photos from Peter G - a couple of great Ferraris including the legendary Scuderia Veloce 250LM. Peter poses the question "Do you think that Bolwell may have taken inspiration from the nose of the LM?"

GSM sports cars

While searching for the missing Ikara that was sold new to a customer in South Africa, I have been contacting sports car club secretaries over there and searching websites. In my search I have found a South African sports car that I knew nothing about - excuse my ignorance. It is the GSM (Glass Sports Motors). These cars were designed and developed by 3 South Africans, Bob van Niekerk (a well known racing driver), Willie Meissner (an automotive engineer) and Verster de Wit (a car designer). They were produced from 1957 to 1964 and aerodynamically were considered way ahead of their time. They were raced successfully in both South Africa and England. Two models were produced, the Dart and the Flamingo. 116 GSM Darts were produced in Cape Town and over 60 in England (where they were called the GSM Delta). Approximately 128 GSM Flamingos were built in Cape Town. They were powered by 4-cylinder Ford Cortina engines, 1200cc at the beginning before moving on to the 1500cc unit. There does exist a prototype V8 with a Ford 260 cubic inch engine and overdrive gearbox which was built in 1964, just prior to when production stopped.

Customline station wagons

A few weeks ago, Feb. 22nd to be exact, a pile of interesting cars turned up in Kapunda's main street. It was the Gawler Car Club looking for morning tea on their way to the Barossa Junction motor museum (** see note below). Little did they know that on a Sunday morning only one of the 4 cafes in town would be open, at least until after church. The pubs are all open though. Maybe it was a bit early to be hanging out in a pub. Anyway, what caught my eye was a red and white Cusso wagon but while I was digging out my camera it drove off. Thanks to Trevor Unsworth who seems to photograph anything that moves, and with his permission of course, I nicked this picture of the wagon from the Gawler Club's report on that run (see links). My interest was, although it is a very rare vehicle in this country, compared to the sedans, it looks identical to one that is in our club, belonging to Peter R who has a farm property in Keith.

**The museum at Barossa Junction, in addition to the large array of Ariel motorbikes, is a comprehensive collection of Chevrolets, so complete that it even includes one of the Chev V8s made in 1917-18. A lot of people didn't realise that Chevs made a V8 way back then. It's a pity others don't share my interest in vehicles so diverse or we could have gone and had a look at Easter time.

Great site.

Jim Shanahan passed on a link to a "great site". well, that's my opinion anyway. I've just been browsing and enjoying the interesting cars for sale cheaply in America. I'll put it in the links shortly. Meanwhile, take a look at http://bringatrailer.com/

Learning all the time

So this is how you lock a diff. This is the one out of the V8 Mk.7. It's lead I think. Nope, it's aluminium according to Steve.

Vallelunga

Earlier in the month Peter G sent me some photos from the Seaforth GP (Grand Parade) about the mid to late 80s. Among them was a couple of pictures of a fairly rare DeTomaso Vallelunga. The Vallelunga preceded the Mangusta and only about 50 or so were produced (in 1965-66). Peter made the comment that the rear window would be of similar size and shape to a Mark 5. There are though, other Bolwell characteristics in my opinion. Like the apparently well built fibreglass body and the backbone chassis. I have read that there have been long arguments about who came up with the chassis idea first, Allesandro DeTomaso or Colin Chapman. I believe Chapman wins. These cars were powered by 4-cylinder Ford Cortina units, mid mounted, and used Volksy transaxles with Hewland gear sets.

Here's a couple of other thumbnails of another Vallelunga living in California.

Coming Together

It's been a long saga but the diff for the V8 Mk.7 is almost together and going in. I really admire Colin L's patience, feeding all those tiny little rollers down those grooves. I'd have lost patience ages ago. The next patience tester happened today when that horizontal coil spring went "sprong!" and Colin's got a lump on his forehead like an egg. Below is the offending diff about to be manoevred into place.