V8 Specials in America and Australia

In a previous post I mentioned the Monsterati and promised a picture. Here it is courtesy of conceptcarz.com. It came in the later 50s, '57 or '58, a bit later than the first Manning Specials. It handled well and apparently successfully challenged the Ferraris, Maseratis, Mercedes and Shelbys of the time. I've been told that the "Old Yella" cars that Colin mentioned were beating Testa Rossas in America. This is the Monsterati after its restoration at the Monterey Historics. Here's another American special with a decidedly Australian name. It's the Echidna. I wonder if there is an Aussie connection.

The following 3 cars are all Ford V8 specials in Australia and all were competing in the Cootha Classic as John Davies mentioned the other day. They are different to the American V8 specials we have been discussing because they represent a different era. e.g. pre-war as opposed to post-war.

These pictures are from the Mike Coppola collection and I'll tell you a bit about Michael tomorrow and post a link to his gallery which is really worth a look, especially his motorsport photos.

The Marr website.

I'm just about to delete the link to Peter and Debbie's Bolwell website. The reason is that they are shutting it down. The pages were mainly descriptions of work done and I really enjoyed them and gained from them and I know I'm not the only one. Peter and Debbie's current Bolwell is a late build, low milage Nagari coupe - B8/113. I have read articles in Slipstream of updates and improvements to this car but generally it is a very nice original car and what more can you talk about? The main modification was made to the roofline by Peter Garvin on April Fools Day last year but that has been rectified now. Now that the site is closed I thought I'd leave everyone with a few photos of B8/113 from that site.

The truth about the Chuck Manning Special.

A chance remark about where Chuck Manning fitted into the equation in the previous post has sparked emails (2 from the U.S. and one from Australia) and I'm now better informed.
Chuck Manning was an aircraft stress engineer who built his own sports/racing car. He laid out a strong round tube frame and stacked parallel 2.75 inch mild steel tubes on each side (see photographs below), mounting 1939 Ford suspension, hydraulic drum brakes and a Mercury flat head engine. The car was very quick and won a major race at Palm Springs, California in 1952. Now here's the interesting bit - Manning never made a car for sale, but , as he developed his project, he wrote a series of articles for Road and Track outlining the design process and subsequently sold plans so that others could build replicas. I was thinking this may have been the birth of the kit car industry but I reckon it goes further than that - this is the birth of the Locost concept. Anyway, it appears several cars were built, including the car in these pictures and, it would seem, the cars built by David as mentioned in the previous post. This particular yellow one competed successfully in Quebec and "upstate" New York. In 1991 it was restored and ran at that year's Monterey Historics and continues to run in West Coast Historic events.
The photos of this car, the Schaghtcoke Manning Special, were taken at last year's or the year before's Monterey Histerics (where the old South Australian ex-Greeneklee Elfin Formula Junior also appeared).
Just up the road from Monterey is Santa Cruz and I wonder if it is a coincidence that at 1000 Water Street, Santa Cruz is a mechanical workshop called Chuck Manning Autos. Also in Santa Cruz is the high security Lockheed aeronautical facility. I started to think that all made sense as Manning was an aircraft engineer but he worked for Douglas I think. We have a daughter in Santa Cruz. I seem to recall her taking her Honda to that part of Water Street for work on her transmission. What a coincidence.

I'm starting to reminisce about the old sidevalve. Maybe I'll have to get Mike Davidson to keep an eye out for one for me.

The "Chuck Manning Special".

This car belongs to Dan Margolien in the United States and I'm really only showing it to you because to me it is just so similar to the Ford V8 specials that were popular in Australia and built mainly before and after WWII. It wasn't just the V8s either I guess. There were also GP cars as well as sports cars that were built around side valve Hudsons and Dodges and even a Jeep powered GP car, not to mention the Maybachs, powered by engines from captured German army tanks. Anyway, we in Australia certainly had our share of Ford V8 powered specials in one part because the Ford V8 was around in reasonable supply but also in their day it was easy horsepower to be had.

Anyway, Dan's car is the Chuck Manning Special, an historic racing car fabricated by his father, David Margolien, in approximately 1951. (I don't know where Chuck Manning comes into it). It was built in Southern California for sports car racing of the time. It has a '48 Ford flat head with Isky cam and the familiar three Stromberg 97s, Offy heads and manifold, Merc crank and '39 Merc front and rear axles. It has a fibreglass nose and tail, formed in moulds which still exist. The rest of the body is aluminium. It would seem to me that fibreglass must have been introduced to America a bit earlier than Australia.

This car was rebuilt in the mid-80s except for the engine to exactly as it was raced through 1953. Dan believes his dad built at least 3 and possibly 5 of these vehicles for others. A unique feature of the car are the "copper flow" brake drums in which David developed a process to braze copper fins to the drums for improved cooling.

Also from Simon

I've also included in the Video Bar another short video of Simon Peryer's other car, built to relieve the Nagari of track duty. It's a Mark 1 Lotus Cortina replica but with supercharged 302 V8 and Tremec.There are lots of photos and text on the Australian Mk.1 Cortina forum.

Nagari on Youtube

Simon Peryer sent me some Youtube footage of him and his Nagari competing in a sprint meeting at Pukekohe in NZ. You'll find it in the Video Bar. When I added it to the list I typed in "Pukekohe1" which was its title but I think that opened up a few more Pukekohe videos. However, you might find them enjoyable too. The car that Simon seems to be running with is a Redline Clubman which I presume is a New Zealand made car. Anyway, these two cars were the first and second FTDs and the meeting was organised by the Escort Car Club. After taking in the racing, my next impression was how different Pukekohe is from how I remember it about 20 years ago, but then again it's probably the same at any race track that's been going for a while. Just imagine if the last time you were at Mallala was 20 years ago and then you went back there today. Remember the WW2 hangar in the middle? This is a photo of the car from the outside taken with a couple of familiar Victorian Mark 7s before it changed countries.
A few months ago, Robert W in Tasmania wrote asking if anybody knew what had happened to his old Nagari no. B8/21 and we were able to tell him that it had gone to New Zealand and put him in touch with Simon. From this, Simon was able to discover that his car has more interesting history than he realised.
"The original car was built with no engine or gearbox, which explains no engine number on the body tag (I had assumed it was built as an early kit, being #21). It was then turned into a transam replica/show car, with flared guards etc (I'd like to see some photos). After Robert bought it, it was rebodied and a new chassis made by Royce Marion, since the original body was significantly altered (although I believe it is now being rebuilt). The chassis apparently was subject to a 100 page report and was designed for the toploader as opposed to the Japanese 5 speeds. Then the new body/chassis had a 383ci(?) Chev engine fitted. It competed in the first Targa Tasmania and won a plate. The original 302 was refitted and the front and rear spoilers removed when it was swapped for a Manta Mirage, which Robert still has. I then purchased it off the guy who traded the Manta. The car as I have it now is certainly nice and easy to drive, but Robert says it wasn't always so when he had it, so it's been great to have a chat to Robert about the developments over time." - Simon.

They were the days!

Just in case I don't get a chance to do a decent post this weekend, here's a few action shots to look at courtesy of John Low, Henry Stork and Racing Car News in that order. AIR - Edwards, Main, Gourlay, Harris.

Calder - Edwards leading Gourlay.

Calder - Hanns, Main, Bisseling, Fitzgerald.

And now for something completely different....

I'm rather partial to utes. How about this one. It's a Chev ute and it's a 2006 model. I reckon it looks great. It belongs to a couple in the Chevrolet Club of NSW. They bought it in America and drove around over there in it. Now it's over here and being converted to RHD. What a beauty, running boards and all.

Spycam

First photos ladies and gentleman. The next model Clemente.

More details as they come to hand.

Datsun powered Mark 7.

After yesterday's post about the 4-cylinder Bolwell, a couple more photos of the same car have arrived. One was taken by Henry Stork and one by Peter Garvin, both of whom attended the 1989 Easter at Perth. By this time it was turbocharged and Peter thought it was owned by Ray Julian's brother.

Hillman Hunter 770 dash

Here's the Hillman Hunter dash in the TR4 Mark 7. See comment in previous post. Looks classy don't you think?

The 4-cylinder Mark 7.

We've had a 4-cylinder Nagari which was pretty unusual but I reckon a 4-cylinder Mark 7 is just as unusual. Here's one. Datsun powered of course. We all know about how quick Datsun 1600s and Datsun 2000s were, so this was a pretty reasonable choice really. It was the car that Rob Wilson's younger brother built. Bolwells were a big part of life in the Wilson family and included the Mark 5, the Mark 7 and the Nagari. This photo goes back to when the car was being built. It was completed and later both Wilson brothers moved to Western Australia. I presume it is still over there somewhere.