WheelSpin Volume 49 No 2

A SIGNIFICANT COLLECTION

THE SPORTING CAR CLUB OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA, INC.

Founded 22nd May, 1934ABN 67-853 093 023

51 King William RoadUnley, SA 5061

Telephone: 08 8373 4899Fax: 08 8373 4703

e-mail: [email protected]: www.sportingcarclubsa.org.au

PATRONHis Excellency

Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce AO CSC RANRGovernor of South Australia

Office Hours:Wednesday to Friday

9.00 am to 4.00 pm

Monthly Meetings: Club General Meeting 1st Wednesday Historic Racing Register 2nd Tuesday Classic Section 1st Friday HQ Section 3rd Wednesday Vintage Section 2nd Friday Veteran Section 3rd Friday Vmax Motorsport Section 4th Friday Competition Section Meetings held quarterly Please note: the bar is open only on General Meeting and Section Meeting Nights

The Sporting Car Club Library hours: Club General Meeting Night

(1st Wednesday of the month, excluding January);

All designated Section meeting nights;Wednesdays 10.00 am - 4.00 pm

Fridays 10.00 am - 12.00 noon

Wheelspin Production:Published once every quarter

Publishing dates:(1st January, 1st April,1st July, 1st October)

Please submit all articles eight weeks prior to publishing date.

Editorial Team: Paul Murrell

Michael Wapler

All material sent into the office for publishing should be typed in font Arial 9 point. Photographic images should

either be paper prints or on CD in 300 d.p.i. quality when-ever possible. Please note that older type storage media,

e.g. floppy discs or zip-discs are no longer acceptable.

It is always appreciated when items submitted for publica-tion will be handed in not later than at the above quoted

deadlines.

A WORD FROM OUR PRESIDENT

As I write this, six months have passed since being elected Club President and at the time I indicated that I expected it to be a very interesting and challenging two year period in my life.

The 2009 Lobethal Grand Carnival was run in cool and wet conditions, just the opposite from the warm sunny con-ditions of the previous year. The standout for 2009 was having 92-year-old Allan Tomlinson at the event enjoying laps as a passenger in a replica of his famous MG TA car. Planning has already commenced on the 2010 event.

Abbie Taylor has taken up the important position of Events Coordinator commencing 1st February and brings with her a wealth of experience from her years with the Clipsal 500 and Classic Adelaide events.

At Collingrove a very successful Hillclimb State Champi-onship was held in October and the outright record was shattered by Peter Gumley in his SCV open wheeler in 28.95 seconds and he further lowered it during an exhibi-tion shoot-out on Sunday afternoon, however, this run was not allowed to stand for the outright record, as it was not part of the championship competition. Eight other class records were lowered during the weekend.

Over the Christmas New Year period a number of willing workers installed a new water pipe to the toilet block and the wiring for the new timing system and future CCTV sys-tem. The new timing control building should be erected adjacent to the start line by the time you read this. Con-cept plans have been drawn up for the upgrading of the pit/paddock area to accommodate nearly 200 competitors together with increased undercover facilities for both com-petitors and spectators.

The club has entered into a joint venture with Motorcycling SA to develop a multi-discipline motorsport facility at the ex-Mitsubishi test track site at Tailem Bend. An invitation was sent to most car and motorcycle clubs in SA to inspect the site on Saturday 13th February and the feedback from those who attended was very positive for the future.

It’s my belief that the next 18 months will continue to be as interesting and challenging as the first six months and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Regards and Safe Motoring.Rodney Gibb

1IGNITION

Disclaimer: The articles printed in this magazine do not necessarily represent the views of the Sporting Car Club of S.A., Inc. nor of the Editorial Team. All opinions, technical tips, and methods are the views of the person submitting the articles/s and the Club cannot ac-

cept any responsibility for these whatsoever.

18 A significant collection

32

GENERAL CLUB PAGES1 Ignition – A Word From The President4 Tool Kit – Names and addresses of Club Contacts5 Under The Bonnet – Comment From The Club-Manager7, 8, 9 From Our Club Library – Book Reviews by Ian Smith11 Ferrari Pit Crew Hassle17 MGM February – Interview by Alan Marks21 From Our Club Library – Now On The Shelves Library Statistics27 Busy Beavers – Know Your Staff30, 31 Obituary – Kevin Shearer Remembered

CLUB SECTIONS – PETROL FUMES10 Classic – Meeting On The Move February Monthly Meeting13, 14, 15 Vintage – Early V-Engines16 Collingrove – Activities, Schedule of Events20 Veterans – Events Past and Future25 Competition – Collingrove CANTEEN Fund Raiser 37 HQ – Mallala Racing 27th February

FEATURES18, 19 A Significant Collection – Martin Barrett’s MGs 28 …And In The Other Corner – All British Day At Uraidla29 Michael’s European Column – Sporting Simsons32, 33, 34, 35 At The Sharp End – Ice Rivers Roadworks Bother Toyota Woes Mobile Phone Menace Better Training – Better Drivers Missing Treasures Saab Marches On Camel Halitosis And Ms. Wong

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS5, 6 Barry Catford’s January Question Answered7 Barry Catford’s Question For April23, 24 Ladies’ Question For January Answered25 Ladies’ Question For April

One of Martin Barrett’simmaculate MG TCs

photographed at Adelaide’s beachfront

Refer to feature article on pages

18 and 19

CONTENTSDISCLAIMER

UNDER THE BONNET

YOUR CLUB CONTACTS

4 5

President: Rodney Gibb …………...(H) 08 8284 7543 (M) 0412 835 385

[email protected] Immediate Past President: Michael Keenan ………..(M) 0413 449 635

[email protected]

Vice Presidents: John Bryant …….....…....(B) 08 8362 8860 (M) 0418 818 998 [email protected] Robert Thompson ….… .(H) 08 8379 3474

(M) 0408 859 411 (B) 08 8276 7722

Treasurer: Sean Whelan …….….....(M) 0412 618 122 (W) 08 8431 4700

[email protected] Secretary: Eric Ozgo …….………….(H) 08 8336 6114

[email protected]

Board Members: Geoff Chennells …..…... (H) 08 8278 8465 [email protected] Ann Ozgo …....….........(M) 0417 847 329

(H) 08 8336 6114 [email protected]

Tony Parkinson …….…..(M) 0408 805 518 (H) 08 8383 0481 [email protected] Mark Bloustien ………. ...M: 0408 844 110 H: 08 8361 3616 [email protected]

CAMS Delegate: John Bryant ………...…..(B) 08 8362 8860 (M) 0418 818 998 [email protected]

Classic Car Section: Andy Morgan (Chair) .... (M) 0417 907 996 [email protected] Allen Morris ………….. (M) 0408 826 324

(Secretary)……….……..(H) 08 8263 2485

Competition Section: Paul Venables …………...…...(H) 08 8295 6301 (Chair)………...........…...(M) 0408 426 016 [email protected] Historic Racing Register: Phil Carter (Chair) ….....….... (M) 0417 876 484 [email protected]

Margaret Hall (Secretary) ..… (B) 08 8389 6635 (M) 0429 080 354 [email protected] Historic Registration Officers: Colin Bourner ……..……….. (M) 0417 801 381 [email protected] Ray Mossop …………………..(H) 08 8258 9295 Rex Howard ………… …….(H) 08 8278 5337 John Wien-Smith - (Log Books) (B) 08 8373 4899

HQ Racing Register: Graham Boulter (Chair) ....... (H) 08 8270 5841 (M) 0408 277 380 [email protected] Cheryl Matthews (Secretary) .(H) 08 8261 6887 (M) 0422 276 852 [email protected] Car Section: Christine Chennells (Secretary) (H) 08 8278 8465 [email protected] Car Section: Ruth Day (Chair)…….………..... ...(M) 8278 6563 [email protected] Graham Treloar (Secretary)....(M) 0418 824 768 (H) 08 8332 7437Club Secretary Manager: Colin Bourner ……...….…...…(M) 0417 801 381 (H) 08 8337 3190 [email protected] Office: Abbie Taylor ..……….........….(B) 08 8271 5689 (M) 0402 086 647 (Fax) 08 8272 5396 [email protected] (alternative) [email protected] Manager: Alan Caire…………......………(B) 08 8373 4899 [email protected]: Sandra Brooker .……...……...(B) 08 8373 4899 [email protected]

Answer to‘BARRY’S QUESTION’ FOR JANUARY’

Barry asked you ‘What type of car was the Freikaiserwagen?’

Shown in the above illustration is what was known as the “Freikaiserwagen”, a hillclimb car. Although the peo-ple closely associated with it appear to have called it the “Porsche”, according to J.G. Fry.

It was built by 18-year-old David Fry – of the choco-late dynasty – together with Dick Caesar (Kaiser in Ger-man) and was modelled on the mid-engined Auto Union Grand Prix cars of the day. In the spirit of the times that earned the car its strange sounding name.

It was based on a G.N. frame to which a Morgan in-dependent front suspension had been grafted. Power came from a V-twin water cooled Anzani engine mount-ed behind the driver.

A major re-working in 1937 saw the replacement of the original engine with an 1100cc Blackburne unit. John Bolster considered it to be ‘the most successful of all sprint specials’.

In a broader context the Freikaiserwagen can be seen as the precursor of the mid-engined 500cc racer.

Barry Catford

Barry’s Question elicited a number of correct answers from Members, one from Denis Basson and another from Peter Godfrey who wrote: “… the Freikaiserwagen was a ‘Shelsley Special’ hillclimb car, built by David Fry and Dick Caesar and driven by Joe Fry, David’s cousin, from Bristol.

A rear engined lightweight special, powered by a 1100cc V twin, it first ran at Shelsley Walsh in 1937 in normally aspirated form.

Again at Shelsley Walsh in 1949, on June 11, then with two stage supercharging to give 140 bhp, Joe Fry established FTD at 37.35sec so beating the long stand-ing record held by Raymond Mays in an ERA.

Unfortunately in a subsequent roll over at the Bland- cont’d page 6

A COMMENT FROM THE CLUB MANAGER

At the time of writing these com-ments, I have just been advised that after numerous false starts, the return road for the Collingrove Hill Climb has been “properly” sealed with Hot Mix bitumen.

The original attempt completed last year was not only sub-standard but lacked the appropriate drainage to en-sure the road would not be undermined and thus destroyed should the area be subjected to heavy rain.

The project was completed just in time for the Multiclub and the twice deferred Winter Cup 3 combined events to use the new road.

The upgrade proposal for Collingrove is currently being reviewed and no doubt refined. It is a big task and we need to satisfy the requirements of all parties involved before we embark on any work.

With the formation of Tailem Bend Motor Sport Park Pty Ltd, it is now possible to accept bookings to utilize the fa-cility whilst negotiations continue with the Coorong Coun-cil. To date there have been a number of events already booked together with considerable interest from other mo-tor sport bodies.

It would be an opportune time to thank the band of vol-unteers who made themselves available to host the Murray Walker Extreme Machines display at this year’s Clipsal 500 event. As in past years, this was coordinated by Janet Jut-tner in the preparation and Warren Schirmer over the four days of the event.

It is expected that we will again be asked to take part in the coordination of the Lobethal Grand Carnival this year. We will also be asked to provide a significant number of volunteers. I would like to point out that our Club is a share-holder in this event and gains significant benefit through our work in the coordination and planning, so it is important that the Club supports the event and provides as many vol-unteers as possible to ensure its overall success.

Within the Clubrooms, the vandals have had another “go” at our leadlight front windows, but fortunately the protective glass did its job and our insurance provider only had to replace that glass.

Sandra has a new much faster computer to ease her ever increasing work load. This now completes a minor upgrade to both the Events and Administration offices computing capacity… at least for the time being.

As I was writing these comments I received a call to ad-vise that Kevin Shearer, a Life Member and member for 46 years and a huge contributor to our Club, had died on Sat-urday 20th February. As many members will know, Kevin had been battling a severe illness for the past 2½ years.

The Club with all of its members wishes to express their sincere condolences to Joan, Ann, Peter, Michael and their families at this sad time.

Colin Bourner

BARRY’S QUESTIONTOOL KIT

BOOK REVIEWS Maserati: The Road Cars 1981 - 1997

John Price Williams

You never know what you are going to find between the covers of a book (and I don’t mean silverfish!)

John Price Williams’ book is just such an example. He tells the most interesting story of a car that did not enjoy the best image. He has not hesitated to give brickbats where appropriate but all in all the story that he presents does justice to what was actually a luxurious high performance motor car.

Maserati was saved from extinction by Ale-jandro De Tomaso who bought the marque for a song with the help of the Italian govern-ment after Citroën had walked away from it and they in turn had been swallowed up by Peugeot.

The Maserati car that De Tomaso presented to the world in 1981 was the Biturbo. It was woefully under prepared for the market-place and suffered accordingly. The New York Times stated in 2006 when Ferrari was presenting their version of a Maserati, ‘The Biturbo is now the Maserati that anyone who cares about the marque would like to forget’.

This is both untrue and unfair. The bad odour that was engendered by the early models because of their unreli-

ability, hung over the Biturbo for most of its life, even though the cars had got better and better. They became, in the end, fast luxuri-ous drivers’ cars that pleased the true en-thusiast.

In the telling of the story, it is not long be-fore the Bertocchi name appears. Both fa-ther and son played important roles in Ma-serati history. Williams steps in and corrects the record as it has been widely put about to date.

Bertocchi senior’s first name, as any knowl-edgeable historian will tell you, was Guerino. Williams points out that it was actually Gua-rino. At this point I put it to the test and out of six highly regarded books, five used the

6 7

ford hillclimb that same year, with the Freikaiserwagen, Joe Fry was fatally injured.ref ‘The Shelsley Walsh Story’ by Simon Taylor.“

More details about the car came from Duncan Beaton who wrote: … Dear Barry/Michael,

Doubtless you were swamped with answers as the car, and the acquisition of its third cylinder, was well documented at the time.

What may be less well-known is that in its final form it was at risk of never again being driven in anger.

The well-do-do Fry family were very supportive of competitive Motoring, particularly in the Bristol area and provided, without charge, the use of a part of their pri-vate estate as a motor race circuit for the exclusive use of the C.A.P.A. Club.

After the Second World War the R.A.C. ‘Do Gooders’ were determined to tighten their stranglehold of com-petitive motor sport and C.A.P.A. was an obvious target with its minimum rules aimed at keeping circuit racing within the reach of the impecunious; i.e.

– cars must initially cost no more than £5 (approximately A$10);

– one must never use six bolts if one will do;

– there must always be a doctor while racing was in progress”. (He could, and often was, competing of course.)

The re-worked Freikaiserwagen was the chance for them to emasculate the renegades and Joe Fry was po-litely told that it would be very difficult for them to renew his R.A.C. competition licence if he continued to allow these impossible people to have their fun on the Fry Es-tate.

So that, sadly, was that. Though many of our five quid specials (most of which had ‘pet’ names) survived and some still race today in vintage events, now changing hands, unbelievably, for tens of thousands of Pounds.

Enclosed photo (below) is of one of them, ‘Salome’ (so named because we always drove it naked of bodywork), much less potent than the Freikaiserwagen but still ca-pable of holding your attention when belly-dancing. Note the fairly intrepid conductor in under sized borrowed crash hat – another cost saving!

Yours, Duncan Beaton

P.S. The January Wheelspin was a veritable feast for the Vin-tagent wasn’t it? My copy is almost worn out with re-reading.

D.B.

Note by the editor:

Now it turns out that the driver was Duncan Beaton and the chap in the white overalls his life long friend and co-owner of Salome.Duncan mentioned: ‘this arrangement halved the initial purchase and subsequently running costs of Salome. Another benefit was that you substantially improved on safety by only driving the beast half as often’.

BARRY’S QUESTION FORAPRIL

Frank Williams hired so many drivers in F1 down through the years.

Four of them were Australians. Mind you, Frank’s F1 cars were not always known as Williams, but he was re-sponsible for hiring the four Australians.

Who were they? Some of the cars can be seen below.Barry Catford

BARRY’S QUESTION BARRY’S QUESTION FROM THE SCC LIBRARY

8 9

wrong name while the other – significantly by Doug Nye – got it right.

As well, the author points out that Bertocchi was killed while a passenger in a De Tomaso Deauville and not, as so many other sources tell it, in a Maserati.

As the story unfolded, Bertocchi the younger, Aurelio, came to play a large part in the development of the Biturbo.

Most people who have looked into the interior of a Biturbo have been captivated by the beautiful walnut dashboard and the magnificent clock mounted thereon. Williams notes that these items are often removed from cars and sold. Replacing them can be

quite a costly exercise.LJK Setright, when testing the Biturbo for CAR, a maga-

zine that seemed to have a soft spot for it, said this of the clock, ’[It is] shaped like the vesica piscis, the ancient shape formed by the intersection of two circles, related geometri-cally to snowflakes and the star of David and that intriguing little Berkshire ‘castle’ where Edward VII made his abdica-tion speech.’ No one said it quite like Setright.

Williams goes into the matter of wheels and tyre size variation for each model but makes no mention of a spare wheel. I asked a past owner who said there was none and neither did there seem to be any space for it.

This was just one of a number of quirky features that ma-terialised here and there in the Biturbo’s specification that served to underline Alejandro’s decided views concerning car design.

De Tomaso was a very demanding boss. The book gives numerous examples of his overbearing nature. On testing on the Nardo track at up to 270 km/h he called for more turbo boost. He was told that it could not be done. He said `F*** the engineers, do as I say.’ The engine blew up.

The Biturbo came in a number of guises during its long lifetime. After starting in two-door form it went through four-door, Spyder, Karif, the V8 Shamal, and the Ghibli Cup not to mention the many variations on themes.

The prettiest Biturbo was the Spyder which was the work of Zagato. De Tomaso had commissioned the work having been told that they didn’t do roofs very well. Having seen the Spyder he told them to go back and put a roof on it. They didn’t and it is seen today as a most beautiful sports car.

In Australia, most people are unaware of the longev-ity of the Maserati Biturbo and the many iterations of it. John Price Williams’ story reveals what has been till now a closed book on the subject. I thoroughly recommend his most interesting and well-researched book.

Ian Smith

ARMSTRONG SIDDELEY – THE SPHINX WITH THE HEART OF A LION by BRUCE LINDSAY

This, the second of Bruce Lindsay’s books published in this form will, undoubtedly, be as well-received as was his first, Lancia – 70 Years of Trailblazing.

The author has not set out to write an encyclopaedia on the marque. His approach, as with the Lancia book, has been to utilise the company’s brochure advertising of the day, thereby giving a full and accurate picture of the many products marketed by them. By this means he has brought every car before the reader’s gaze. Together with these evocative portraits he has assembled an equally delightful collection of contemporary black-and-white photographs which serve to set the cars within their period. The book is arranged with a chapter heading for each model, with a text which serves to set the scene for what is to follow, and concludes with specifications and relevant production data.

No stone has been left unturned in his diligent search to place before the reader every product Armstrong Siddeley ever made. I’ll wager that Lindsay’s airing of the stationary engines is their first exposure since they were marketed!

The coloured artwork of the material shows the cars in their original livery. As well as being a delight to look at, the brochures present a feast of information for enthusiasts and restorers. They provide the opportunity to examine the plethora of incidental items such as spare wheel mountings, interior walnut fittings, instruments and so on. For a restorer, the original coachwork colour schemes are a most important feature. For example, the Four-Light Saloon of the 1930s was only available in blue, green, grey and black (so don’t restore it in maroon!) but importantly, the full-colour picture shows the colour-contrasted wheels.

But this is a book not only for Armstrong Siddeley people. On browsing through the pages, one will immediately discern its appeal for all who admire cars of the period the book embraces; 1919-1960. Examples of

coachwork by firms other than Armstrong

Siddeley include such well-known names as Tickford, Van den Plas and Mulliners, but there are also lesser-known names of Hoval, Holbrook and Maltby. There were a few European coachbuilders whose work appeared on the marque’s underpinnings; Graber, Michelotti and a particularly nice fixed-head coupé built by Ghia are all featured. In a rarer category were the Australian coachbuilders such as Ruskin, Creswell and the Melbourne Motor Body Co. These have been scarcely recorded in the past and will be entirely new information for overseas readers.

It is good to see the little Stoneleigh light car – Armstrong Siddeley’s venture into the cheap car range – given its own chapter. So often the Stoneleigh is looked upon as an idea best forgotten. Lindsay tells us that the car “was widely derided by factory workers… and Siddeley known as ‘the man who made walking a pleasure’”. This

surely relates to the Trojan slogan of “It’s cheaper than walking”.

Of great significance to me is the photograph on page 202. This is a double page treatment of the Southern Motors stand in the old Wayville Motor Pavilion at the Royal Adelaide Show. As a schoolboy visiting the stand at that time, I was excited by the Armstrong Siddeleys on display, but what most took my fancy was the utility coupé, a fascination I must confess that is still with me to this day.

Attached to the book’s inside back cover is an invalua-ble resource – a CD which provides images of Armstrong Siddeley promotional material from 1920 to 1960.

Bruce Lindsay’s book will readily find a home on any true motor enthusiast’s bookshelf. It is a book not only of high quality, but more importantly his treatment brings into play a new dimension on the Armstrong Siddeley story. It will bring a wide audience to an often overlooked marque which is “the sphinx with the heart of a lion”.Highly recommended.

Ian Smith

You will find ‘Now On The Shelves’ on page 21

ISBN 9780646527239Price in Australia $110 incl GST plus $10 postage anywhere in AustraliaAvailable from: Author, Axiom Financial Services, 2 Hawthorn Rd, Stirling SA 5152, phone 8131 0246, email [email protected] (copies signed by the author)

FROM THE SCC LIBRARY FROM THE SCC LIBRARY

10 11

MEETING ON THE MOVE

Although the Classic Section annual Meeting On The Move fell on New Year’s Day this year, 107 eager mem-bers booked to enjoy an interesting run through the eastern suburbs and the Adelaide hills arriving at the picturesque Belair Country Club (below) for a delightful meal and a well deserved drink.

It was the perfect opportunity to test all those New Year resolutions made the night before, or early hours of the morning! The popular venue pro-vided an excellent meal and hospital-ity and is a strong contender for the well supported event in January of next year.

FEBRUARY MONTHLY MEETING

As with most Classic Section Meetings, our February Meet-ing was well attended and we had three cars on stage all be-longing to members of the Classic Section Committee.

Centre stage was Dean and Jill Clough’s Chrysler Crossfire sporting an appropriate rego number.

It was interesting to hear Dean explaining to us that the car was con-ceived dur-ing Daimler’s ownership of Chrysler as a car meant to appeal – in the main – to American buy-ers. The car was based on the Mercedes SL but, being American, it was designed a bit more generous in the waist and the seats are not fitted with the sporty Re-caros which proved to be too squeezy for people raised on Mac-cas.

The higher rear lines are there for a purpose as well. The origi-nal SL with the roof folded into the boot, of-fers only token luggage space whereas the Crossfire does accommodate at least some overnight stuff.

The overall build-quality is excellent and all the bits that mat-ter – engine, auto-box, running gear and lots more – sport that little star emblem from Stuttgart.

As Dean pointed out, you get a lot of car for quite a rea-sonable price and thrown into the bargain, a car that is a lot more exotic and exclusive than its brother from Stuttgart.Not a bad deal then.

Next in line was Michael Bowen’s 911 Targa Porsche, the dream car of many but Michael had his eyes originally on an MGB which he had spotted at Michael Finnis’ former place on South Road. Only, when Michael went back, the MGB had been sold and in its place stood a red Porsche. That was that, and Michael decided he now wanted a Por-sche.

Through a friend, he found a 911 Targa, built in Decem-ber 1973. At that time the famous whining flat six had al-ready been bored out from its original 1991cc to 2.7-litre

which left the cylinder wall thickness perilously thin, re-quiring coating with Nikasil.

Michael’s Targa had 169,000km on the clock when he bought it, and dur-ing Michael’s tenure this has crept up to 186,000km.

It is an honest car and – most importantly – it is a Targa 911. Incidentally, if you are in the market, Michael is looking for a good home for this car. Perhaps you would like to have a look at it (ring Michael on 8274 189 or mob 0417 741 893).

The third car on stage was Gordon Taylor’s BMW 635 CSi Coupé. Gordon gave us a brief history of the evolu-tion of the BMW coupés starting with the most famous and desirable one – the Count Goertz designed 507 – which started a long line of coupés such as the Bertone styled 3200 CS of 1962 and later the smallest of all, the BMW 2000 CS built from 1965 to 1970.

Gordon’s CSi Coupé was built in December of 1988 and fitted with its compliance plate in Australia in February of 1989.

It has a 3.5-litre 6-cyl in line SOHC engine with Bosch ‘Motronic’ fuel injection coupled to a four-speed automatic transmission. This electronic engine management system provided not only optimal running and operating properties but, until then, unthinkable precision in emission control as well as reduced fuel consumption.

The engine, works designation M106, started life in 1978 and was modified slightly in 1982 to provide a power output of 252bhp at 4900rpm.

The 635 has fully independent suspension four-wheel disc brakes, and power steering. Creature comforts include power windows, electric seat adjustment with driver side memory. Air-conditioning, a trip computer, and a Becker

Mexico Radio round this off. The front seats are by Re-caro, but then Gordon is not addicted to Big Macs.

The delivered price for the car was A$122,500. First owner was a BMW dealer from Albury. Later it had two owners in Sydney, and Jean and Gordon bought the car from the latter of the two in May of 2005. Gordon was so convinced that he would buy the car that he purchased one way tickets only – well, they drove the Bimmer home.

The car has covered a total of 163,000 km and is totally original in every respect.

Michael Wapler

FERRARI MISHAP

The Ferrari Formula 1 team fired their entire pit crew yester-day. The announcement followed Ferrari’s decision to take ad-vantage of the UK Government’s Youth Opportunity Scheme

and employ people from the Gorbals.The decision to hire them followed a recent documentary on how unemployed youths from the Gorbals in Glasgow were able to re-move a set of wheels in less than 6 seconds without proper equip-ment, whereas Ferrari’s existing crew can only do it in 8 seconds

with millions of euros worth of high tech equipment.Prime Minister Gordon Brown went on record as saying this is a bold move by the Ferrari management which demonstrated

the International recognition of the UK under New Labor.As most races are won or lost in the pits, Ferrari thought they

had the advantage over every team.However Ferrari got more than they bargained for. At the first practice session, the Gorbals pit crew successfully changed the wheels in less than 6 seconds, but within 12 seconds they had re-sprayed, re- badged and sold the vehicle to the McLaren team for 8 bottles of Carlsberg Special, 50 ecstasy tablets and

some pictures of Lewis Hamilton’s bird in the shower.

PETROL FUMES PETROL FUMES

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EARLY V ENGINES - who built them and when

The first V4 engine that I have been able to find was pro-duced by Joel Pennington in America before he came to England (he of the long mingling spark and the Kane- Pen-nington motorcycle, see 1895 copies of the Autocar in the library for adverts and write-ups of his exploits) to drive a balloon. He produced other V4s at least up to 1895 when Mors also produced a V4 which had water cooled heads and air cooled barrels.

Daimler also produced a V2 in 1888 this was a 17º V and one was produced for a lo-comotive (centre) which is in the Daimler- Benz museum. It was of 1902cc capacity and produced 6hp. In 1889 they produced the automobile engine of 565cc again 17º and 1.5hp in 1891 they produced a tram car (below) with 1026cc engine also 17º and 2 hp which is also in the museum.

The French firm Tauzin pro-duced a V2 in 1899 of 3.5 hp.

Ader built the first V8 engine in France in 1900 it was a 90˚ V of 80mm x 90mm bore and stroke and was said to produce 32 hp. It looked more like two V4s cou-pled together and it had a surface carburettor with very long induction tracts. Ader also had V2s and V4s and it was the English company Ailsa Craig in 1904 that produced the first V12 for a motor boat and quite impressive it looks too (top, right). Six blocks of two side valve cylinders on an alu-

minium crankcase twin carburettors on the outside of the V and twin magnetos.

Antoinette in France produced V engines from 1902. These were mostly for boats and some aero-plane engines and starting with a V8 90º by coupling more V8s together

they progressed through V16 to V24 (see page 14, centre left) and eventually got a V32 (4x8). Bugatti referred to these engines as Charcuterie engines (string of sausages).

Marmon in America were also early users of V engines, having V2s and V4s in 1902-03. These were also 90º Vs and a V8 in 1906, some of these at least were air-cooled and were overhead valve designs. Marmon is said to have produced a V6 but I have not been able to find any dimen-

sions for it. Ader are also listed as producing a V6 but again no dimensions are forthcoming so I presume these were prototypes and not put into production. Mar-mon went on to produce V12 and V16 engines.

Walter Christie had some mon-strous V4s (below) around 1906 -08. These were of 13,000cc to 20,250cc and were front wheel drive with the engine east-west. They were of comparatively nar-row angle being 30 - 36º. They had atmospheric inlet valves in great quantity and must have been quite a handful to drive as

they had no constant velocity joints and to corner one de-clutched the inside wheel drive.

Adams in UK are said to be the first in UK to produce a V8 in 1906 90º 7273cc 48bhp. Adams were tied in with Hewitt in America and these engines could be French An-toinette’s (an Antoinette V12 is shown on page 14, centre left)

PETROL FUMES

14 15

but Rolls – Royce also produced a V8 in 1906 3593cc 90º (I have seen reference to this engine being 120º) about this time but only about four were made for the so called Legalimit car. This engine (top right) had two camshafts on the outside of the blocks operating vertical side valves. This made for a very wide engine and it was deliberately restricted in the inlet manifold to keep the speed to the legal

limit of 20mph. De Dion Bouton were trying V engines (bottom, right) in

1906 but I do not think they put one on the market until 1910 this was a V8 of 6100cc and 90º De Dion Bouton also had an aero engine V8 in 1912 this was air cooled and developed 80 hp it was also 90º.

Renault produced an air cooled V8 aero engine (above) for the First World War which formed the basis for the air-

cooled 4 cylinder De Havilland Moth engines as De Havilland used the cylinder barrels off these V8”s to construct their early Gypsy engines buying up as many surplus Renault V8s as they could. Renault also produced other V engines for aero use. The engine shown in the illustration above was made by Renault Ltd in West Brompton (London) from 1914 to 1918.

Cadillac had a V8 in production by 1915 it was 5145cc and also 90º. Cadillac went on to produce V16 and V12 engines.

Chevrolet also had a V8 in production in 1917, 4719cc again 90º, called the Mason engine. I don’t think this can have been very successful as it only appeared for one year and could have been acquired

by a takeover of another company.Guy Motors in England had a V8 on the market in 1919

and there are other makers and many V twin motorcycle engines and cycle cars with V twin engines. All of these V engines were of the built-up type using separate crankcase and cylinders.

Ford were already building V8 engines in their Lincoln di-

vision but this was a 60º engine and a built up type, having acquired Lincoln from Henry Leland in 1922.

It was not until the first mass production Ford V8 in 1932 (shown bottom left, page 15, is the 1933 version) that the en-gines were cast en bloc. Henry Ford, after trying some early prototype air-cooled V8s and some X type 8s (at least 10 of these), decided that it was time to produce his masterpiece the first really successful V8, the model 18 of 3621cc and 90º. The development of this engine took some time as Henry, in his search for simplicity, didn’t want an oil pump as it meant more parts and initially didn’t want water pumps for the same reason but was forced to accept both and the process of casting such a complicated one piece cylinder block with its 40-plus cores caused 100% failures of the first castings and a whole new approach was necessary to

14

overcome the problems of the cores floating when the hot metal was poured into the mould. The cores for the internal exhaust passages for instance having to be glued in place and jigs having to be made to keep everything in its proper place.

It was Ford’s foundry man Charlie (‘Cast Iron Charlie’) Sorensen (below, right), who was supervisor of the huge River Rouge plant, which covered 1200 acres – the foun-dry alone was 30 acres (1 acre equals .404 hectare) – where raw ore from Ford mines in Kentucky on Ford trains (Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad later sold to Pennsyl-vania Railroad) came in at one end and fin-ished castings plus steel for the bodies were made and finished cars came out the other, who solved some of these problems.

These early Ford V8s were notorious for overheating caused mainly by having the exhaust manifolds on the outside of the block with internal exhaust passages right through the block. Ford did not want the ex-haust on top of the engine. The overheat-ing was exacerbated by having the water pumps on the top of the engine dictated by the availability of already existing wa-ter pumps. These pumps could not pump the steam generated in the block when the engines got hot. It would have been much better to have had the pumps at the bot-tom pushing water in than trying to pump out what was more steam than water. It was not until 1937 that this was changed when the pumps were put into the cylinder blocks instead of the heads. Ford went on to produce millions of these V8s and up to 2003 had produced 100,000,000 V8 engines in total and still building.

Ford also produced a small V8 called V8 60 which was only about 2228cc and this was expanded into the Lincoln Zephyr engine by adding four more cylinders to make a V12.

The V8 60 was used in dirt track speedway quite success-fully but the most unusual one must be the V8 60 turned upside down and virtually run backwards with the exhausts from the original intake and the intake from the exhaust. It was used in speedway in America with moderate success. It was called the Shay-van Dersahl after the driver Shay and his engine man.

Charlie E Sorensen (left, 1881-1968) joined the Ford company as a $3-a-day patternmaker in 1905 aged 23 and because he was able to interpret into wood the ideas of Henry Ford who could not read a blueprint and could not tell if a part was going to work until he had seen a model of it, Charlie progressed in the Ford Co. until he was second only to Henry.

It was Charlie Sorensen who worked out the process for making a B24 four-engined Liberator bomber, one every hour, in a huge plant one mile long, a quarter mile wide, at Willow Run where the bombers were produced – alu-minium sheet in one end, fly the bomber out the other, on a production line basis. Ford also made the Pratt & Whitney engines for these bombers, 8,800 planes being produced by war’s end.

Charlie Sorensen retired from Ford ten days after the death of Edsel Ford on 26th May, 1943.

Denis Basson

The ‘entrepreneur’ Pennington (below a workman posing with a Kane-Pennington V-engine) was an American who later lived in England. He was rarely persistent in getting a project to market often wasting his investors’ funds.

PETROL FUMES PETROL FUMES

COLLINGROVE ACTIVITIES

Hillclimbing is exciting – a supreme test of driver and ma-chine against the hill and the clock – it requires skilled and consistent driving as competitors seek to improve their times by 100ths of a second. Competitor’s cars range from very powerful hill climb specials to your everyday drive car. If you think you are a skilful driver feel welcome to “come and try” –

or if you like to see skilful drivers in action – come and enjoy this very old form of motor sport in the beautiful surroundings of Angaston in the Barossa Valley at your Club’s fully owned property. Collingrove is a great place to have a picnic.

By the time you read this article the crowded Hillclimb programme at Collingrove will be well under way. The first scheduled event is a Multi Club Hillclimb incorporating the Winter Cup 3 event postponed due to adverse weather from last year. The Hillclimb schedule will conclude with the Sporting Car Club of SA hosting the Australian Hillclimb

Championships. Volunteers are always welcome and we have positions for

people that call for a range of abilities. Should you wish to be a part of the action give Daryl Warman a call on 0427 606 113 for a chat. If you would rather come out for a run Sporting Car Club of SA members are admitted free on production of their membership card. Other Sections of the Club are always wel-come and with a little prior notice we can ensure a reserved place in the car park and a parade up the hill in your Section’s special cars to show them off to full advantage.

During the summer a great deal of work has been done to dig trenches, lay cabling inside conduits for the new timing system and a video camera control system. The new tim-ing system is to be installed once a new timing building is completed adjacent to the starting line. A new water supply system has been completed, final surfacing of the return road and a drainage system for the pit paddock are due to commence at the time of writing. The existing timing sys-tem has been refurbished and fully checked and is ready for the start of the season. A general clean up has been completed and we thank the hardy band of volunteers who have slaved away in often uncomfortable weather condi-tions. We also wish to thank sincerely all of our faithful

sponsors whose support is so vital in enabling us to conduct our programme year by year.

Daryl Warman

The 2010 Hillclimb Programme

at Collingrove is as follows:

Australian Hillclimb Championships – 16th and 17th October

South Australian Hill-climb Championship – 25th and 26th Septem-ber

Multi Club Hillclimbs –Round 1 – 7th March; Round 2 – 24th April;

Round 3 – 11th July; Round 4 – 29th August;

Winter Cup Competition 2010 –Round 1 – 16th May; Round 2 – 25th JulyRound 3 – 12th September

Come and Try 2010 –26th April; 28th August

16 17

MONTHLY GENERAL MEETING – FEBRUARY

In case you did not attend the Club’s Monthly General Meeting in February, you have missed a great evening. Af-ter the usual Club Business, Section Reports and Minutes we were entertained by Alan Marks’ interview of Sharon Middleton, wife of Club Member Bob Middleton.

Sharon, for those who don’t not know her, turned out to be an effervescent personality, infectious with her laughter and gracious demeanour, not to forget her elegance.

Sharon had – to say the least – a most interesting and unusual career. Just consider this: she started singing pro-fessionally at the age of 18. With her beautiful voice, she would have mesmerised audiences anywhere as she did later with us when she gave us a few songs to break the interview.

However, it did not stop there. After meeting and marry-ing Bob, who at that time was driving rigs from Adelaide to Perth the couple developed a business partnership apart from their private life, and their combined hard work has led to the formation of a now well established transport compa-ny by the name of Whiteline Transport, based in Adelaide and Perth.

Today, Sharon is not only a co-director with Bob of White- line Transport but – wait for it – she took it upon herself to obtain her heavy goods driving licence and with single minded determination mastered a course that is not exactly tailored for delicate hands and a pint sized dainty figure. Yet with her steely will, which Sharon applies to her business life, she not only obtained her licence, but to prove a point, she took one of their huge rigs from the Whiteline Adelaide transport hub to Blanchetown to hand the rig over to their

driver whose eyes nearly popped when he saw who stepped out of the cab.

The activities of the Middle-tons do not stop there. Sharon is actively engaged in charity work, among which is Shine, a chil-dren’s charity.

Husband Bob is running a very successful truck racing company, Whiteline Rac-ing, competing with his Freight-liner truck in the Australian Supertruck Nationals.

Generously, Whiteline Transport provided all the raffle prizes of the evening with Sharon drawing the lots.

Thanks must go to Sharon and Bob Middleton for the time and effort they put into this meeting including rolling a very flash Mer-cedes express delivery van on stage, which – by the way – showed a few drivers during the Classic Ad-elaide how quick a van can be nowadays when they only saw the back doors disappearing in the distance.

Equally a thank you must go to our intrepid interviewer, Alan Marks, who con-ducted the inter-view with great aplomb.

M e m b e r s would have left the meeting with a spring in their step and a song in their heart. A great evening – and that is what the social side of our Club is all about.Michael Wapler

COLLINGROVE INTERVIEW

18 19

A SIGNIFICANT COLLECTION

Club Member Martin Barrett is well known amongst Club Members and, particularly amongst MG owners, for his select collection of exquisite MGs.

What makes the cars in Martin’s stable so distinct is that many of his MGs – and there are more in his

collection than are shown in this issue – are mostly low mileage and all three cars shown in this issue are original down to the most intricate detail, including sales brochures, original tool kit, and handbook; even a vial of works-supplied touch-up paint in one case.

As Martin observed, many MGs through the years have been thrashed and are mostly high mileage cars and these can be quite awful or very average at best.

Not so the three cars photographed for these pages. Rego No. 3537 stands as a good example. Martin knew and had watched this TC for 40 years when he finally persuaded the previous owner to part with it. The car – despite having had five owners in all – was pristine. It came with all books, tools and is totally original. Built on 9th December, 1948 it has – wait for it – a total of 15,300 miles on the clock.

There are another 120 TCs in Adelaide but this one must be one of the few that have never been touched by a restorer and it would be safe to assume, among the ones with the lowest mileage. The index page photo shows it in front of our Clubhouse, being drooled over by our Library

staff members.

The second TC in Martin’s col-lection, shown on the

front cover

of this issue is, with 38,000 miles on the odometer, one of the higher mileage cars in Martin’s collection. It was manufactured in October 1947 and was sold by Lane’s Motors in Melbourne. Martin has owned that car since 1995 and is its second owner.

Finally, there is the MGA, shown above. Manufactured in November of 1955 it is a production prototype plated as No. 423 off the UK production line which, at the end of the model’s life cycle, had turned out a total of 101,000. Of that number, some were Australian assembled.

It was sold by Motors Ltd. and Martin, the second owner, bought it 30 years ago. The car is totally original including the paintwork.

Michael Wapler

COLLECTOR’S WORLD COLLECTOR’S WORLD

20 21

COMING MEETINGS

April 16 – Noggin & Natter Night May 21 – Film – “The Fast Lady” dealing with early motoring in Britain. June 18 – AGM – with 100 year old cars on stage. COMING EVENTS

April 11 – Old Wheels & Keels – the Vet- eran Section encourages all its early vehicles to join this event at Outer Harbour. May 22,23,24 – Burra Bash Weekend Run – check Vintage notes for details. June 27 – Around the Houses – this will be to some interesting garages in the Adelaide suburbs. July 25 – Foggy Dew Run – our section will support this event, see Vintage notes for details.

PAST EVENTS

New Year’s Day Breakfast at Waterfall Gully – this event was again attended by about 15 vehicles and their owners and families.

All British Day Breakfast, Sunday 14th February. This event was again organised by the Veteran Section of our club in the South Parklands in a new and better venue than in previous years. Thanks go to all our 16 helpers on the day and those who packed the pantry boxes as well. We hope that the patrons enjoyed their day – we were happy to raise further funds to maintain the club’s 1917 Dodge Brothers roadster.

OTHER NEWS

After an enjoyable week of veteran motoring in the Club’s Dodge Brothers last May, Jim and Janet Scammell have booked the Dodge again to take part in the National Vet-eran Rally for 2010 in October in Launceston, Tasmania.

The Dodge will be trailered to Melbourne and then join a ship-load of veteran vehicles across Bass Strait. There

is always a great deal of interest in the variety of vehicles waiting to load on the shipping wharf in Port Melbourne before these events.

Kevin and Anna Fagan and Geoff and Chris Chennells have entered the annual Victorian 1 & 2 Cylinder Veteran Rally at Cobram in mid March. These are always very hap-py weekends even if the weather can sometimes be very “warm”. There are around 60 entries including four steam-ers and a dozen or so motorcycles.

INVITATION EVENTS 2010-2011

Entry forms are available for these from the Veteran No-tice-board: April 11-16 – National Veteran 1 & 2 Cylinder Rally – W.A. October 24-31 – National Veteran Rally – Launceston, Tasmania. April 10-15, 2011 – National Veteran Rally, Southern Highlands, NSW.

Christine Chennells

Delage – France’s Fin-est Vols.1 & 2 Daniel Cabart, Claude Rouxel, David Burgess-Wise 2.4.0136

Automobile Quarterly Vol. 48, Nos. 3 & 4

1.1.0192

Omnibus of Speed: World of Motor Sport, Charles Beaumont

6.1.0076

Audi at Le Mans , 2002 2.3.0250

The History of the World’s High Performance Cars, Richard Hough 2.4.0318

Automobile Year 2009 – 2010 1.2.0057

Autocourse 2009 – 2010 6.5.0059

Expedition Tortoise, Pierre Rambach 2.11.0054

Falcon XE, Fairlane ZK Service Manual 14.2.0034

Valiant JK Series 6cyl. Service Manual 13.2.0131

Musee de L’Automobile de la Sarthe 2.7.0219

The Legend of Lobethal Racing Circuit 6.1.0079

NSU Prinz Workshop Manual 11.2.0024

Morgans in Oz, Craig Atkins 2.3.0252

The Machine that changed the World, James Womack2.2.0184

MG: The Immortal T Series 2.3.0245

The Repairers’ Handbook: Motor Cycles 8.5.0028

SCC of S.A. Collingrove Hillclimbs DVD

SCC of S.A. Veteran Rallies 1940-1994 DVD

Turbocharging & Supercharging, Bob Henderson2.6.0006

What Car is That? Australia & New Zealand 14.4.0002

Italian Racing Red, Karl Ludvigsen 2.3.0253

British Racing Green, Karl Ludvigsen 2.3.0254

German Racing Silver, Karl Ludvigsen 2.3.0255

French Racing Blue, Karl Ludvigsen 2.3.0256

Lagonda 2 Litre Instruction Book 1928 9.1.0116

The Leyland P76, Gavin Farmer 13.4.0013

Veteran Rally (Naracoorte) May 2009 8.4.0076

Audi 100 Owner’s Workshop Manual 13.2.0157

Hyundai Excel Service & Repair Manual 15.2.0005

FIAT 128 Shop Manual 13.2.0180

Daihatsu Charade Service & Repair Manual 14.2.0014

Winning is not Enough, Jackie Stewart 3.1.0116

London to Brighton Veteran Run 2008 8.4.0077

Holden Camira Service & Repair Manual 14.2.0016

Australian Motor Sport Annual 2008 6.4.0038

Jackie Stewart – The Autobiography DVD/VIDEO

WHAT YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT OUR CLUB LIBRARY

Most Members will be aware that our Club is the proud custodian of one of the most significant automobile fo-cussed libraries in the southern hemisphere. Just to un-derline the significance of this centre of research here are a few statistics:

Your library has a stock of 6518 books, 926 car brochures – many of them very rare, 926 bound copies of motoring magazines going back to the late 1890s! Among other items, there are 108 videos or DVDs.

In 2009 your library has grown by a further 238 books, some bought and others donated. Twenty bound vol-umes of motoring magazines and fourteen videos were added in that year.

732 books were loaned to Members and there are 56 books out on loan as per 20th January, 2010.

The library undertook 1710 searches for specific books, magazines, workshop manuals, racing results and other motoring or automotive subjects.

There are many members who still have not regis-tered for a library card. We encourage you to do so and thereby open up an Aladdins Cave of motoring literature and imagery for yourself.

The Library is open on meeting nights as well as on Wednesdays and Fridays except during the month of January. It only takes a few minutes to register – the Library staff will welcome you!

FROM THE SCC LIBRARYPETROL FUMES

22 23

ANSWER TO OURLADIES’ QUESTION

FOR JANUARY

We had asked you the name of the lady who was the first to circumvent the globe in a car. Although this was one of our more demanding questions, there was a detailed and correct answer by regular contributor Denis Basson.

In fact, Denis pointed out, there is another claim on be-ing the first woman to drive around the world by Harriet White Fisher with her nephew Harold Brooks in 1910 in a Locomobile car.

However, there is a difference. Mrs. Fisher mostly did not drive herself, but left this to her nephew and she shipped the car from Marseilles to Bombay, therefore missing out a substantial part of Europe and Asia and not venturing into South America at all.

It is always difficult to accurately claim who did what and when, but the journey undertaken some 17 years later really does qualify for a circumnavigation. It was a journey of 49,000km, just a little more than the distance around the equator. Mrs. Fisher’s journey, in contrast, covered some 10,000 miles or 16,000 km, in both cases excluding the ocean passages. Still, no mean feat in 1910.

The hero of our claimed world first was Ms. Cläreno-re Stinnes, daughter of Hugo Stinnes, who was before WWI one of the richest men in the world, running a huge mining and trading empire. The family is, to this day, ex-ceptionally wealthy.Clärenore had three brothers who made sure their di-

minut ive, enterprising, and energetic sister did not get a foot into the door of the compa-ny they had inherited. Instead, after her father’s death in 1924, Clärenore was unceremoniously bundled out of the company simply because she was a woman.

Clärenore was born in 1901 in Mülheim, part of the industrial heartland of Germany. Not being able to bring her energy and considerable organisational talent to bear in her father’s Company, she took to racing cars, just what a young lady would do at that time, of course (top).

She drove, successfully, for the Adler company of Frankfurt and by that time the idea had taken hold to take an Adler car around the world to prove that German cars were back in world markets after the catastrophe that was WW1.

To prepare herself for the anticipated task of a journey around the world, Clärenore entered into a rally in 1925 to which the new Soviet government had invited interna-tionally known drivers hoping this would help in restoring to their state some international respect, which had been lost through the atrocities committed during the October

LADIES’ QUESTION TIME

24 25

Revolution.The rally was to run from St. Peters-burg to Tb-

lissi in Geor-gia and back

to Moscow, at that time

a hazardous undertakíng

due to an almost total

lack of met-alled roads

outside the big cities, and over a

vast distance at that.There were 53 par-

ticipants and Cläreno-re was not just the

only woman but had to drive without the

benefit of a navigator as ostensibly, no one

could be found. Yet, she not only finished

but was first in her class of vehicle. Therefore, when she mooted the idea of a round

the world journey, Adler’s directors were enthusiastic and donated the latest car in their range, an Adler Standard 6 as well as a light lorry to carry supplies. The Adler company supplied two driver/mechanics to drive the lorry and assist with repairs.

To publicise the trip, Miss Stinnes hired a Swedish cinematogra-pher, Carl-Axel Söderström, who was to record the journey on film.

On 25th May, 1927, the 25 year old young lady and her team left Frankfurt-on-Main, Germany to return to Berlin on 24th July 1929 – truly an epic journey.

Road conditions, particularly through Asia, but also in South America (top right) were atrocious in those days where overland journeys by car in these parts just were not made.

Only a few months into the two year journey both factory assigned mechanics and drivers called it a day. They had not even reached Siberia by then.

‘Not possible’ was clearly not in Clärenore’s vocabulary as she and her cinematographer companion simply carried on. In the end, it came to a triumphant entry into New York, where they were greeted by Mayor Jim Walker. How much their pioneering journey was appreciated can be judged by the grand tour Henry Ford gave them through his Detroit plant.

There are signatures in the travel diary of US Pres-ident Herbert Hoover, Soviet Union Foreign Com-missar Tchitcherin and many other VIPs of the day (top, left).

Returning to Berlin, there were the expected fes-tivities but it was quickly back to work, cutting the film material and getting the finished version into the cinemas.

It was staged first at one of Berlin’s most famous movie theatres ‘Marmorhaus’ (engl. marble house), and the following year there was a little private cel-ebration. Carl-Axel and Clärenore were married on 20th December, 1930.

Carl-Axel Söderström died in 1976 and Clärenore Söderström in 1990.

Michael Wapler

OUR LADIES’ QUESTION FOR APRIL

This lady, despite posing with a luxury car was actual-ly an accomplished aircraft pilot. With her little Klemm aeroplane she was only the second woman to fly from Europe to Australia after Amy Johnson.She was briefly married to Bernd Rosemeyer, one of Auto Union’s most famous racing drivers, the marriage cut tragically short after only two years by Bernd’s death at a record speed attempt near Frankfurt in 1938. She moved to Switzerland after the end of WWII to es-cape the no-flying ban for all German citizens imposed by the Allies for years, but after it was lifted she returned to Germany.She re-married in 1941 and in addition to her son from her racing driver husband she had a daughter from her second marriage.Obviously in good health, she lived to 100 years and only died not so long ago in 2007. What is her name?

Team Racetune Services CanTeen For Kids

Hill Climb Fundraiser on 8th May, 2010Team Racetune Services has been raising funds and

awareness for CanTeen in recent years through their ral-lying activities. The team is proud to be continuing its sup-port of CanTeen in 2010 and is holding a fundraising hill climb event on Saturday May 8 at the Collingrove Hill Climb facility.

A variety of tarmac rally cars from both Classic and Mod-ern eras will take interested officials for rides up the famous Collingrove track in the Barossa Valley. The cost of each ride will be a $5 donation with every cent going to Can-Teen in order that they can continue their vital work during 2010.

The Sporting Car Club has kindly donated the use of the facility for this occasion and many car owners and drivers have donated the use of their vehicles to help make this event happen.

If you want to be a part of this very worthwhile event, please contact Reg Marratt on 0418 861 784 e-mail [email protected].

Hope to see you there.For more information on CanTeen please visit -

www.canteen.org.au

LADIES’ QUESTION TIME LADIES’ QUESTION TIME- CHARITY EVENT AT COLLINGROVE

KNOW YOUR STAFF

We can be proud of our administration, working quietly and efficiently behind the counter or in the back-office to keep the wheels turning. The team are (from left to right) Colin Bourner (Club Manager), Sandra Brooker (Admin), Neville

Pym (‘Eminence Grise’ of the Events Office), Janet Juttner (volunteer Administration Assistant), Alan Caire (Facilities/Function Manager), inset photo Abbie Taylor (Events Coordinator).

Colin has been Club Manager since August 2009, prior to this he was Board Secretary and is one of the authorised inspectors for Historic Vehicle Registration. Colin’s main role is to ensure the Club’s policy and constitution is adhered to, and to oversee the financial and budgetary requirements of the SCCSA.

Sandra is the face of the Club and since 2003 has managed the administration and reception areas. She is the liaison person for all members and has a wealth of knowledge regarding all facets of the Club.

Neville is a past President and Life Member of the Club and has been a member for 46 years. With his vast experi-ence in competition racing he has been invaluable in his support role in the Events office. Abbie Taylor, who has joined us recently has now taken over the role of Events Coordinator.

Janet devotes in excess of twenty hours of voluntary work a week to the Club. Janet supports Sandra in reception. Janet’s role in assisting the Club in its daily operations is greatly valued.

Alan is an ex-banker (Reserve Bank of Australia) and took up duties in June 2008 as the Facilities Manager. In recent months he has additionally taken on the role of Functions Coordinator. Alan’s main duties include property, OHS, bar management, volunteer’s coordinator, and overseeing functions, Club merchandise, security and Club housekeep-ing.

26 27

ALLOY WHEELS CLEANED AND WAXED

Your alloy wheels cleaned of black brake dust and road grime to as new condition. I work on your wheels

at your home, weekends. Entire cars prepared to concours standard, engine

bays a speciality.SCC Classic Section member and concours

1966 Alfa Romeo owner Trevor Fay Telephone 0408 526 655 or 8431 5465

Free inspection and quotes

BUSY BEAVERS

28 29

26th ALL BRITISH DAY SUNDAY, 14th FEBRUARY 2010 URAIDLA OVAL

Hard to believe this event has been run by volun-

teers for 26 years. The first event organised by The Jaguar Drivers’ Club was at St. Clair Recreation Park Woodville Road, the very area that has been in the Media recently. Jon and I attended this with the Rover Club in our 1951 P4 Rover.

This year we attended in our 1964 Vauxhall VX490. We had entered our 1938 25HP Vauxhall, but the water pump packed up on a test drive the day before.

The breakfast prior to the All British Day was cooked by members of the Veteran Section of the Sporting Car Club. The venue was the old netball courts on Anzac Highway adjacent to West Terrace Cemetery and a good crowd attended from a variety of Clubs supporting the British Marques.

We have not attended the All British Day for two years and the Event has grown with almost 800 cars entered. Sixty Clubs were represented.

We drove to Uraidla via Greenhill Road and as it was a clear day the view of the City and the beach-es was superb.

The featured Club was ‘The MG Car Club of S.A.’ and about 70 vehicles attended with the earliest be-ing the 1931 MG M type Midget owned by Barry Bahnisch and driven by his granddaughter Ellie. The latest MGs attending were 2005 models. It was a very impressive display.

On arriving at the Oval we were able to drive quickly to the allotted area for our Club. A nice touch was a heart shaped chocolate given to all the ladies for Valentines Day.

The Sporting Car Club had 39 entries, but sev-eral Club members attended and parked with Clubs other than the SCC. This year Club member Gary Rainsford of “Collectable Cars” was the major spon-sor of the event. The 1928 Vauxhall 20/60 Tourer owned by D. Kemp was the oldest Club car attend-ing. Neil Francis’ newly restored 1914 Napier was the only Veteran car entered.

In recent years Classic cars have been predomi-nant at All British Days. Driving older cars through the Hills is hard work especially in the Summer, which may account for owners opting to drive their more modern vehicle. The Oval was very crowded this year and to encourage “older” cars to attend perhaps a venue closer to the City could be con-sidered.

The Trade Stalls are an added attraction for all those attending, as well as the Uraidla Market across the road from the Oval.

A good crowd paid to attend the event and last year the ABD Committee donated $10,000 to the Royal Flying Doctor Service, a very worthwhile re-cipient.

Finally, thank you to the Organising Committee for another good event where enthusiasts can show their cars and meet old and new friends and indulge in a day of friendship and enjoyment.

Diane and Jon Pyle

Union Jack and all car badges photography by Bob Taylor, whom you may ask to photograph your car as well: e-mail [email protected] Rover photography by Jon Pyle, whom you may ask to create a painting of your car: e-mail [email protected]

SIMSON - THE SPORTING SUCCESSES

In the October edition of Wheelspin, I had promised a follow up article on the sporting successes of the Simson cars in the January edition which did not come to pass due to lack of space. The extended magazine now facilitates publication of this follow-up article.

You will recall that Simson, with the development in 1923, of the innovative 2-litre 4cyl engine with its twin ohc design and four valves per cylinder, had a power plant ready that was highly competitive. Fitted to the new Simson Supra, the company now had a sporting car to throw into the fray.

With the Supra ‘S’, a small works racing team had been

established and they were in command of a quick and re-sponsive car. In 1924, the first year Simson started racing – mostly in national events – there were a number of success-es. Unfortunately for the team, a fatal accident in September of that year meant that racing for the remainder of the year was cancelled out of respect for the driver they had lost, Fritz Jung. Racing then was still a gentlemanly pursuit.

For 1925, more development work had been done. The Supra S now reached a top speed of 150 km/h, and it did not take long for the first victory, first place in the Winter Rally at the ski resort of Garmisch (near Munich).

Other victories followed and by the end of the racing sea-son some 24 rallies and races had been won. The last one on 11th October of 1925 at the Feldberg Race in the Tau-nus mountains north of Frankfurt-on-Main. All in all, 25 first places had been secured that year. From an almost stand-ing start, a more than respectable success for a small car maker.

More success came in 1926, particularly in hillclimbs and mountain racing. The Supra ‘S’ was particularly well suited for that type of racing, its long stroke engine had consider-

able torque.It has to be borne in mind the car division of the Simson

company was only a very small part of their activity. Not unlike their British rival BSA, which made cars at about the same time as Simson, the production of small arms was the main business. Simson cars contributed only 11% to the turnover of the company and it is therefore not difficult to see that there was hardly any justification for investing in racing activities and low level car production in general.

Still, 1927 and 1928 brought some successes, but no longer was there a works team. All races where Simson cars were on the starting line were owned by private gen-tleman drivers.

There were economic pressures too, which meant that specialist manufacturers such as Simson found it more and more difficult to compete.

In 1925, tariffs for motor cars had been reduced and this made mass produced cars from the US very competitive, hurt-ing small manufacturers which did not possess a production line offering any-thing like an economy of scale.

The Supra engine, while technically sophisticated, was extremely labour in-tensive to produce. Its complicated set- up required highly skilled labour. There were five groups of two fitters and each group required two days for the assem-bly of just one engine.

Production of the Supra ‘S’ was phased out in 1929 to be replaced by a new car, the Simson ‘R’, fitted with an in-line 6-cyl of much simpler construction – push rod activated valves – in an attempt to stay competitive. However, this engine did not have the pedigree to be successful in racing and subsequently Simson’s racing activities ceased after a few spectacularly successful years in 1928.

It is thought that today, out of a total of about 2500 cars produced, only six have survived. The image below shows one of these driven, presumably, by its proud owner.

Michael Wapler

…AND IN THE OTHER CORNER SNIPPETS OF AUTOMOTIVE HISTORY

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Memories of Kevin Shearer

I first met Kevin

more than 45 years ago when he worked at G & R Wills in Currie Street as a mechan-ic. I worked at Freeman Motors and Kevin would come in to get spare parts and our c o n v e r s a t i o n would always be about cars or speedway.

In 1964 I bought my Rover 9 from Club member John Brownsea and restored it by 1968 with a trip over-seas in between. Kevin encouraged me to join the Sporting Car Club and pro-posed me to be a member in 1968.

In 1969 I had discovered the remains of a Veteran Rover in Moonta and when I told Kevin about it he offered to help collect the remains.

We borrowed Kevin Fagan’s trailer and with my father ’s FC Holden and 4-year-old Peter Shearer as helper we travelled to Moonta with the idea that it would be a 4-5 hour round trip. When we got there and cleared the prickle bush that had grown around what was left of the car we discovered that it had no wheels or axle at the front and so with much difficulty and several hours later it was finally loaded onto the trail-er. Kevin arrived home near to 11-30pm. As it turned out it was his birthday and Joan had been waiting at home to cel-ebrate with Ann and Michael.

Kevin built the engine and the rear axle of the car and gave much encourage-ment and advice during the restoration.

Joan and Kevin’s Wedding Anniversa-ry is the 7th May, Don and Jill Bosan-quet’s is 5th May and ours is 6th May. For 33 years we have enjoyed a meal together and more recently a weekend away. This year would have been Joan and Kevin’s fiftieth Anniversary.

In 1970 Wally Reeve and I travelled to Melbourne in the Shearers FJ Holden, towing Wally’s 1911 Clement Bayard to join in on the Invitation Tour to Adelaide as part of the 1970 International Vet-

same place and Kevin would buy hot doughnuts for us to enjoy.

A few years ago Kevin was awarded Life Membership of the Sporting Car Club and was very humbled by the honour.

He has been involved with all Sec-tions of the Club and was a great sup-port to Joan when she was President of our Club. More recently he has been a Chairman, Committee Member and Eligibilty Officer for the Historic Racing Register and the Shearer family have been the mainstay of this group of His-toric racing enthusiasts and their com-mitment will always be remembered.

The Sporting Car Club has been the common link for our friendship with Kevin and Joan and their family. We will remember him as a great mechanic with a fountain of knowledge, a good Club member but most importantly a loyal friend. We will miss him!

Jon and Di Pyle

eran and Vintage Rally.Over the years we have shared many

Club events to-gether, but a m e m o r a b l e Rally was to Clare. The Shearer ’s in their Amil-car and we were driving our Rover 9. We shared a Caravan for

the night. Di had enjoyed

too many wines and Barossa

Pearl and caused a “stir” during the night.

Peter sensibly slept in a tent while Michael fell out of the top bunk around 5am. The next day we were unable to find the lunch venue and so had to share five chops and a loaf of bread – left over from the previous night’s barbecue – on the side of the road, between the seven of us.

About 18 years ago for Peter ’s wedding in Jamestown we drove with the Fagans in their Veteran Dodge, our Rover 9 and the Shearer Amilcar to be used as Wed-ding Cars. Ann and Eric in their Valiant were the back-up vehicle.

On the way home the Rover ran out of petrol and Kevin drained some from the Amilcar to get us home.

In 2002 we drove with the Shearers to Arkaroola for “The Year of the Out-back”. We had a 1964 Camper trailer and we hit a spoon drain at the en-trance to Hawker and broke a main leaf on one of the camper ’s springs. At the local Mobil service station they allowed us to look through their “junk heap” and we found a spring which was suitable. Without Kevin’s help we would not have been able to repair the spring and con-tinue our trip.

A highlight of the trip was the four wheel drive Ridge Top Tour. Another Rally to the Flinders Ranges with SCC members in 2005 was an enjoyable ex-perience. Kevin trying to drink coffee with hundreds of flies about, was an im-age we will remember always

We have been volunteers at Mallala at Easter for the Historic Racing Register Meeting for several years. Last year ’s

event was very special as our son An-drew drove Michael Shearer ’s Formula V. Michael and Jo drove his Cooper (re-stored by Kevin) and Kevin drove his Ford A as well as his White Special. He also drove Ron Townley’s car and the Queensland Ford V8 owned by Rod McMullen. The highlight of the meeting was Kevin’s last race. As he came to the last corner he was just behind the Vaux-hall of Trevor Dunford, but managed to pass him and win. Kevin was named Driver of the Meeting. He has always been a flamboyant and exciting driver to watch. When Kevin first built the Ford A he asked me to paint the numbers and stars and stripes on the tail, which I did one Saturday morning at the Currie Street workshop.

With the Bosanquets and the Shearers we have attended the Historic Speed-way Meeting at Murray Bridge usually in April each year. We always sat in the

VALE KEVIN VALE KEVIN

32 33

ICE RIVERS

Our politicians may bicker over Climate Change and how to tackle it in the Australian context, but that it is happening – while there are still people out there disputing it – is hard to deny when you read about the changes that have taken place in Greenland, that huge arctic island in the northwestern Atlantic. Greenland is roughly 25% or one quarter the size of Australia, somewhat smaller than Western Australia. Over 80% of that land mass is covered by permanent inland ice.

The ice sheet in the centre of the island is between 2000 and 3000 metres high and the weight has so depressed the underlying bedrock, that most of it lies just under or barely above sea level. Only some low mountain ridges around the perimeter of the island contain the ice in its position.

While in the arctic summer, parts of the ice along the coast line will melt or spill into the sea as icebergs – one of those was responsible for the sinking of the Titanic – the inland ice in the past never melted significantly on the sur-face during this period of 24 hour daylight.

Industrial pollution, which has steadily increased over the last 150 years, has now reached even this remote area.

Soot blown in from the industrial world has settled on the ice and where it has blackened the surface more energy from the summer sun is trapped, melting the ice and form-ing puddles on the surface (above).

A few summers ago German photographer Olaf Otto Becker scanned some satellite images of Greenland in the arctic summer and discovered very thin blue lines on the ice arousing his curiosity, eventually sending him on a mis-sion to find out more.

With enormous energy and determination together with a friend they hauled a heavy load of equipment up from the coast to the level plateau of the ice shield. The pair had been warned that in summer, the ice shield was impass-able as the surface ice would turn into a soft spongy pud-ding and anyone trying to cross it would be doomed.

After two weeks of trekking in this almost impassable ter-rain they found their first river. Where locally isolated pud-

dles had formerly formed in summer, the puddles now ran into each other forming lakes and where the surface de-clined small streams formed in the ice. Some of the small-er streams would eventually run into each other and form formidable fast flowing rivers of ice cold water. Becker and his mate followed a number of these rivers shooting the incredible photo images on these pages.

None of these rivers actu-ally reach the sea, the inland ice is broken up underneath the surface, forming vast cavities and crevasses and the rivers eventually disap-pear in these, evacuating the air which blows out in clouds of water vapour.

Over three arctic summers, Becker trekked over the ice cap photographing in detail four rivers he had discov-ered.

What he found was unset-

tling: even within this short time frame, the rivers had be-come wider and deeper each year. The altitude at which the rivers form has crept up to well above 2000 metres.

When the expedition left their tent in the same spot for one week, the ice around it had melted by an unbeliev-able 400mm which made the tent look as if standing on a little outcrop in a sea of ice. A more realistic picture of the seriousness of climate change and the speed at which it occurs is hardly pos-sible.

The concern is that the water will form a layer of lu-bricant under the ice shield, speeding up the spillage of icebergs into the ocean and if that were to happen at an e v e r i n c r e a s i n g speed due to further global warm-ing, the rise in sea level would be in the order of around seven metres from that ice cap alone. Perhaps residents of coastal suburbs will take note. It will not be just Kiribati going under.

As enthusiastic motorists we may scoff at driving elec-tric cars with catalytic convert-ers which convert hydrogen into electricity, but unless we accept there is a problem and get down to addressing it, we

will leave an increas-ingly unmanageable problem to our chil-dren and grandchil-dren.

Something is stir-ring though. It looks as if we are closing the circle. Early last century, electrically propelled cars were quite common both in Europe and America and not until petrol engined cars had become more reli-able and cheaper to produce than those carrying lead batter-ies supplying power to an electric motor, did the car industry really take off. Now, we seem to be going back to electrics, how-ever lead-acid batter-ies are nowhere to be seen.

Michael Wapler

AT THE SHARP END AT THE SHARP END

and flies in the face of a 2006 report by Brunel University. Following an 18-month study, the University concluded that “advanced driver training produces safer drivers and lower accident involvement” with measurable improvements in knowledge, skills and attitude.

Rather than train people to be better drivers, our local police are spending $2.8 million for a new centre to im-pound hoon vehicles and will receive $16.3 million over the next four years to enforce the new hoon regime. Some of this expense will be offset by the anticipated $12.5 million the government expects to generate from hoon offences over the same period. Fines will be linked to the costs of impounding vehicles once the government passes legisla-tion to allow cost recovery. So once again, the powers that be are ignoring the underlying problem and addressing the symptom. Of course, as we all know, such a policy is far more lucrative.

MISSING GAUGES

It is always disappoint-ing when classic or col-lectible cars are the tar-get of thieves. In a 2006 theft, $7000 worth of rare gauges were stolen from a car enthusiast’s shed where they had been stored.

It is likely they have been sold overseas to buy-ers who are una-ware they were stolen. Police be-lieve the thieves knew exactly what they were after

when they broke into the workshop in the Western suburbs because they left behind other valuable parts. The owner and expert vintage car restorer said the thieves must have had mechanical knowledge to dismantle dashboards on several of the vintage cars, collectively valued at more than $500,000, and remove the gauges. The 20 Jaeger speed-ometers and an undisclosed number of tachometers, clocks and petrol gauges were removed from cars including a De-lage, several Amilcars, a Hotchkiss and a Sunbeam, all of which had been painstakingly restored over 40 years.

SAAB SALE SPYKED

Saab is one of those quirky manu-facturers that make the motor indus-try so interesting. At least, it used to be until it was ab-sorbed into GM.

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ROADWORKS COURTESY

As if it isn’t difficult enough abiding by illogical speed limits, some people want to make it even more frustrating. Travel-ling along the South Eastern Freeway the other day at the posted 110km/h speed limit, I unexpectedly came across a pair of 25km/h temporary speed limit signs, set up for the lane marking taking place. “Fair enough!” you may think. But the lane marking wasn’t actually happening on the free-

way but on the exit road to Bridge-water.

Not only that, but there had been no f o r e w a r n -ing of the r e d u c e d speed limit, or a gradu-ated reduc-tion in the limit from

110km/h. Slowing from 110km/h to 25km/h takes a few hundred metres if you don’t wish to be rear-ended by some following truck or inattentive driver, and in that distance, you could easily be radar trapped at a speed that would in-stantly lose you your licence and incur a hefty fine. Luckily, there was no radar trap in the vicinity. But to compound the roadworks rage I was feeling, there was no sign after the roadworks advising a return to the normal limit.

The road rules here are quite clear: you must maintain the previous speed limit until you pass another posted limit. In this case, that meant crawling along at 25km/h all the way to Stirling, the location of the next speed limit sign… a distance of 4 kilometres. At 25km/h, that takes almost 10 minutes. Other drivers, more impatient than I were speed-ing past at various speeds between 40km/h and 110km/h. It was a situation that demonstrated a lack of consideration on the part of the lane markers. It was also dangerous, stupid and unnecessary.

TOYOTA HITS THE BRAKES

Toyota’s braking woes in the US and Japan are report-edly also affecting Austral-ian owners. The company has received “fewer than 10” complaints from Australian owners about uneven brak-ing in the Prius, along simi-lar lines to those overseas where there have been more than 100 reports in the US and 77 in Japan.

With 1700 sales in Austral-ia of the latest model (intro-duced here in July last year) and the impending (at the time of writing) launch of the hybrid Camry, any brake is-

sues will be a major worry to Toyota. A company represent-ative in Tokyo admitted there were problems but a recall of 4.5 million vehicles in the US and Europe to address the sticking accelerator problem was only undertaken on Janu-ary 21, followed by further recalls that have widened the net to include 8 million vehicles in the past three months.

Toyota was reluctant to initiate a recall on the Prius, be-lieving the issue could be dealt with through a “service campaign” but the Japanese Transport Ministry insisted on a recall notice on the 270,000 new-model vehicles in Japan and the US. The Prius braking woes are the latest in a raft of quality concerns for the manufacturer that include seat-belt and exhaust system problems, electric window con-trols, sticking accelerator pedals and sliding floor mats that brought about the recalls and an enforced halt to produc-tion, costing the company an estimated $2.24bn. A local spokesman for Toyota advises that the braking system on the new Camry hybrid is different from the Prius, using dif-ferent hardware and therefore different software.

HOLD THE PHONE

F i g u r e s r e l e a s e d in the UK show that in-car mo-bile phone use contin-ues to be a problem. Since the last survey conducted in Septem-ber 2008, the propor-

tion of drivers using hand-held mobile devices whilst driving increased from 1.1 percent to 1.4 percent of car drivers and from 2.2 percent to 2.6 percent of van and lorry drivers.

Institute of Advanced Motorists Director of Policy and Re-search Neil Greig said, “Deaths and injuries linked to mo-bile phone use wreck lives and are completely avoidable. The majority of road users deserve to be protected from an irresponsible and selfish minority and enforcement is, in our view, the key weapon against them. Along with consistent and high profile policing, drivers need to be educated about

how and why driving on the phone is so dangerous.” Fig-ures for Australia aren’t avail-able, but simple observation indicates that the problem is at least as widespread here.

BETTER TRAINED DRIVERS ARE BETTER DRIVERS

The prevailing prejudice against advanced driver train-ing exhibited by the motor-ing associations and police departments is inexplicable,

In a small piece of good news, it has been announced, finally, that SAAB has been sold to Dutch supercar maker, Spyker Cars. This follows the collapse of a similar deal last year to another supercar maker, Koenigsegg. Spyker will pay about $US74 million cash and the European Invest-ment Bank will provide a 400 million euro loan backed by the Swedish government.

GM has been trying to sell the business since Janu-ary last year and even early in January 2010, prospects weren’t looking good, despite potential bidders including Spyker and Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone showing interest. The deal is expected to be confirmed in Febru-ary following approvals from the banks and the Swedish government. The new company will be called Saab Spyker Automobiles.

CATCH A CAMEL TO WORK

Scientists have found camels to be the third highest carbon-emitting animal (outdone by only cattle and buf-falo). It is estimated that one million of the bad-tempered and halitosis-afflicted beasts are currently wandering the outback.

Culling them, it has been suggested, would be equiva-lent to taking 300,000 cars off the road, a significant re-duction in the country’s greenhouse gases. However with breathtaking hypocrisy, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has stated there is little point in doing anything about the feral camel population, not because it would not have a significant effect on emissions but because only domesticated camels are counted under the Kyoto protocol.

So that’s all right then. (For the record, the average cam-el emits 0.97 carbon-equivalent tonnes per year, while the average 1.8-litre petrol-engined car, covering 20,000km per year, emits 3.5 tonnes.)

Paul Murrell

AT THE SHARP END AT THE SHARP END

36 37PETROL FUMES

place the Chairman made his car as wide as possible to keep the 2009 State champion behind. Jenkins led home Porteous, Bobridge and Couprie. Sarah Mitchell in the ex Matt Davison car got the better of Munn, Pratt and Goding Jnr.

1st Heinrich, 2nd Boulter, 3rd Mason.

The final race, over 8 laps, and again under lights, would decide the top point scorer for Round one. A determined Mason led the field through for the first lap but a more deter-mined Heinrich squeezed through on lap two. These two put on an impressive display of clean and close racing while behind Boulter watched, secretly hoping, I would suspect, that they would take each other off. Jenkins held off Por-teous who was followed by Bobridge and Cou-

prie. Sarah and young Scott had a great time further back.

1st Heinrich, 2nd Mason, 3rd Boulter

The meeting points were in the order as above and the next question is “will Brucie be back for another round in Boulter’s spare car”. A good time was had by all, howev-er Mace was heard to say something about “hunting in packs”.

We are a little sad to hear that Jason Gas-ket has sold his car, but

pleased with the prospect that it may be on the track for the next round. The ex Matt Stronach HQ, placed on the market recently, has also found a new home. New owner Andrew Hall aims to contest round two also. What about the Central Towing out-fit? A big contender for the Best Presented everything!

BATHURST... FEBRU-ARY 2010

South Australian HQ competitors, Gav Por-

teous, Tony Bobridge, Trevor Davey and Matt Boulter

travelled to Bathurst to contest the annual HQ outing at Mt Panorama. A strong field of 53 cars arrived to do battle. They all survived. To read more go to the HQ section of the SCC web site.

Graham Boulter

HQ RACE REPORT MALLALA 27TH FEBRUARY 2010

It was clear after qual-ifying that although Nico-lo and Schultz had not fronted for the first round, Mason would not have it all on his own. Bruce Hein-rich back at Mallala after a long break in a basically untried HQ was a mere 0.24 seconds behind. Another half a second back was Chairman Boulter followed by “Danny” Jenkins, Muscles Bobridge and Big Gav in Crouch’s car. Dash-ing Darryl thought that we would all be packed up and on our way home in time for him to M.C. a 40th birthday party at 8.00pm. Welcome to Scott Goding who is now just big enough to see over the dash, he is our first rookie for 2010.

The first race was a crack-er, with Mace and Heinrich fighting tooth and nail (centre top). Brucie, as he is affection-ately known, led briefly but succumbed to a late braking / lock up passing move in the Northern. Boulter managed to break clear of Porteous, Jenkins and the fast finishing Couprie. Bobridge had to pull out all stops for a Hard Charg-er vote and 9th place, af-ter starting in pit lane. He did say that it was fun.

1st Mason, 2nd Heinrich, 3rd Boulter

Race two, with the reverse six start, was as usual sure to be interesting. Couprie and Jenkins led them away, but by lap two it was Boulter (followed by Porteous, centre) in the lead from Heinrich with Mason battling to get through. Heinrich quickly hauled B o u l t e r in and opened up a bit of a gap. On the final lap Mason closed on Boulter but with the prospect of a rare second

All photos courtesy of Bob Taylor