A bit of Lasos history

The Lasos was built in Adelaide (Blackwood) between 1958 and 1961 by Brian Whitburn and Peter Bradey (of Prince Bira MGK3 fame). They could see the shortage of good bodies for the number of 'specials' that were being built in Adelaide at the time. They designed the bodyshell and built approximately 7 of them. Peter fitted one to a supercharged Peugeot special he built. Another one John Allison fitted to a supercharged Studebaker V8 special he had built (and last I heard of that one it was being reconstructed in Melbourne by John) and Brian constructed the one I talked about in my previous post. Here is another shot of the same car. He used it until 12/3/1964 when he traded it with our local Ford dealer on a 100E Anglia (bit of a stepdown!). The next series of owners, most of whom can be tracked down today, were Tony Hetherington (of local Eden Hills), Peter Tietzel ( who named his garage LASOS MOTORS after the vehicle and fitted a most unique and totally useless twin pipe exhaust system with the muffler box sitting on the rear parcel shelf inches from the driver - since removed). Peter Smeets, who seems to have owned most of the historic racing cars in Adelaide at some stage, then bought the car and rebuilt it, using it in Historic Racing until passing it on to John Hoskin, where once again it was used for HR until John Price bought it and never used it. Myles Lockett bought the car from John on 31/3/1987 and used it mainly for road work (which he reports was great fun) and a few hillclimbs at Collingrove. Myles then moved to Sydney, taking the car with him and I know it made an appearance at Amaroo and at Eastern Creek in his hands. I recall him advertising it for urgent sale a number of years ago and from there I have no idea where it went. It had a Holden grey motor with triple SUs, MGTC gearbox, Skoda rear end and a tubular chassis with large backbone. Like the Bolwell Mark 4, both the front and rear bodywork can be removed for easy access.

Has everybody seen the article written by Trevor Fay about the world's greatest barn find that puts the legendary Portugese one to shame? I noticed a list of vehicles on an American website and it includes a Lasos. I wasn't even aware that this was a "discovery" because the owner of the 297 vehicles is in the same car club that I am in.

The beginnings

I've been asked a lot lately what started this whole Bolwell thing for me. I guess we've all got a story to tell but mine goes back to almost pre-Bolwell. I went to Unley High and there were lots of car nuts there. In 1961,62 & 63, the street out the front looked like a vintage car rally had just pulled up. One of the kids' dad was Albert Ludgate who many with a historical bent will know was the designer/engineer for Lea Francis. When that company stopped production, Albert moved to South Australia. Us keen kids were able to go around to his place in Colonel Light Gardens and stand in his tiny garage alongside the house where he built his sportscars (like the Capricornia below) and listen to his stories. I went past his street the other day and noticed that it is called Ludgate Circus. He even sent his son to school in a Lea Francis tourer.

In addition to all that, 2 of the Waye sisters were roughly in my year and their dad, Jack, built a Holden powered sports racer called the Holway. Trips up to Hill Street to see the Holway after school were a treat in those days. This is the Holway below.Not only that, one of my classmates, Paul Hetherington, had an older brother, Tony, who used to drive a thing called a Lasos. LASOS stood for "like a shower of s**t" and it certainly went like it. We had a circuit that we used to time each other over which went down Barrelder Road, up the New Belair Road and back down the Old Belair Road to where we started from. It was good because there was nowhere that anybody could take a shortcut. Tony held the record in the Lasos for a long time until "someone better" knocked it off.
All of these cars used Holden mechanicals and around the country there seemed to be hundreds of these grey Holden powered specials. It was probably inevitable that my first Bolwell, not too many years later was powered by a grey Holden, although I had experienced the 100/4, TR2 and MGTC along the way. These 3 specials and a few others warrant stories on their own - and I'll do it.

More climb to the eagle.

Cobras a-plenty. I love these TVRs. This one's a Chimaera.

Rear view. Fibreglass innovations everywhere. That's the Donkevoort in the top right hand corner.
These Audis are sensational. That's a V8 in there.

Just when you try to produce a car like the Aston, they move the goalposts.

Climb to the Eagle

Yesterday was the running of the 24th annual Climb to the Eagle. These days it is a tribute to the late John Blanden who started it all, but it is very well supported (I'd say it is still growing). I like it because there is no real limitation to the cars that can enter and you see lots of very interesting and unusual stuff. Among all of the many and varied clubman cars was Peter Smeets' version, which looks like another Lotus Super 7, and then you notice that it's LHD, then you notice that it's a Donkevort, the Dutch equivalent. With a name like Smeets it seems very appropriate. This car, complete with its Ecure Ecosse badgework took my eye for no other reason than the windscreen , which goes along the top of the doors as well started me on mental notes about appropriate screens for Mark 4s.

This Plymouth Barracuda really got me going. The reason being that I worked for Chrysler Australia in the AP5/AP6 era and being in the publicity department we had to mess around with all sorts of funny cars, like the Barracuda and a jet car and a Valiant powered Milano called the Valano. It was here that I became aware of Bernie Van Elsen who did the photography for the brochures. Not long after all this, Ken Stratton's dad, Max, took delivery of his very rare Barracuda and became the hero of Daw Park.

Here's a good old Jensen. That's not the Jensen back window that they say inspired the Mark 5 I must say. I quite like Jensens. Remember I had an Interceptor series 2 which wasn't the best example of them but it was fun at times. I always think of the fibreglass bodied CV8 of Peter Ullrich and how quick the damn thing is in the Classic Adelaide. It was always up at the front of the field or in the trees.

Here's a Clemente clubman. This one is Tony and Beryl's. It wasn't the only Clemente out on the day. Roger and Lynne took theirs on its maiden voyage.

Finally, here's TC's Alfa, out again on another run. Another excuse for a "spirited drive".

That German Mark 4

Glenn K. sent me this. It's still for sale. It must be at least 2 years since it went on sale. Must be too expensive for the Germans as well.

A potted pictorial history of the SR6

With the SR6 under new ownership, it's a good time to reflect on its evolution.
Picture 1 shows the car under construction at the old Bolwell factory in the 60s.

Picture 2 shows Alan Newton about to gobble up (hopefully) the big blue Elfin in its heyday.Picture 3 is taken at Calder when John White was its custodian.
Picture 4 is from Queensland when it went up there for a crack at the big time Group A sports racing. Note the big wing on the back. In this photo you can see that they are in the process of extending the wheelbase.

Picture 5 is how it looks today basically, back to eligibility for historic racing. Ken Messenger transformed the car and campaigned it for a while before passing it over to Trevor Lambert who enjoyed a fair amount of success with it. Trevor has moved up to the big black Elfin ME5 which he bought in Germany (if you watch this space long enough, I'll have to do some stories about this monster) and now Colin McAskill is the new owner. Colin intends to keep it pretty much as it is except for the fitting of a larger driver's seat perhaps.

Veloce Today

You will notice a new link. It's Veloce Today, an American magazine on French and Italian cars and is a very good read, especially this month as there is an article on Lobethal. Just scroll down a bit and you will see "Sweet Adelaide", not far into it you can click on "continue reading" or something to that effect. Among other things, there's some excellent photos of Tony's Alfa and Smeetsy's Milano.

Door handles

Does anybody know the donor car for these door handles? Not that we need replacements. I'm sure the yellow paint will come off OK, even out of the keyhole. I'm just curious that's all. My guess is very early Toyota but I'm often wrong. We have Heintze's wrecking yard near here, over at Koonunga, which is acres of old cars hidden away in the middle of nowhere. It's been a good source of Mk.1 Cortina blinkers, "Aston Martin" tail-lights and early Toyota Crown tail-lights (although these are thinning out a bit). I might go for a wander on Saturday and see if I can spot them.

The Resurrection of B8/91

Today's guest author is Jim White.

Here's a few photos of B8/91, "before and after". Peter Jones discovered this car in pieces somewhere back of Cairns. It was a very original car that had been stripped down after a front end smash and the owner never got around to rebuilding it. I was looking for an original car with ID plates etc to restore to add to my sports (B8/81) and after following a few leads, eventually Paul Smith put me in touch with Peter and a deal was done. The problem of getting a damaged car, fully stripped, down from Cairns to outback SA, was solved ingeniously by Peter. His business in Cairns shipped auto parts to the south sea islands and had an industrial shrink wrapping machine. From the photos you can see the tape holding the panels to the body and the shrink wrapping still intact after the journey from Cairns. The only extra damage was to the front suspension, which collapsed on the way to SA. All the bits and pieces were safely cocooned inside the shrink wrap and all arrived intact. One photo shows the car after body repairs. This car was originally sold new in Adelaide, then travelled to Sydney before ending up in far north QLD. It took me almost 5 years to restore it and I drove it for a year before deciding that two Nagaris were one too many. I sold it to the Healey Factory in Melbourne and I believe the car is in Victoria.

Mark 5, Tuesday 28th Oct.

Here's the transmission all bolted up and the new starter motor in place and behaving nicely. It was just a matter of alignment after all that. It can go back in the car tomorrow and we'll see how it goes. Thank you to all those who thought about posting an answer to my query the other day.

Happy campers

I'm starting to get old pictures from others lately. Thanks Susie for these. It's only fair that I share them around. This was in Mildura or Renmark or somewhere like that. Who are these people?

Flex plates and torque converters

To say that I'm not real big on automatics is something of an understatement so I'm calling out for advice. Here is the problem with the aforementioned starter motor. The flexplate will not bolt up to the torque converter properly. When the centre (the automatic's equivalent to the site of the spigot bearing) is right up tight it is 3/16" out. The 3 bolts can pull up tight but that warps the flex plate and the the gear on the starter motor only touches on the very end. Just as I'm typing this, Colin McAskill emails in with the suggestion that the "locator" is missing.