Classic cars at Winton historic races

[johnh875]

(Finally) here are some of the classic cars on the other side of the fence at the Winton Historic Races. This year was the 30th anniversary of this meeting, which is run by the Austin 7 Club. There are 250-300 entries in the cars, but the meeting also has motorcycles and sidecars. There is a strong turn-out of classic and older cars in the carpark, to the point where the dedicated area for them to park in has been expanded several times. A few years ago it was full at 9am despite many people having 2hr or more trips to get to the track.

I'll post thumbnails here, the full gallery (including race cars) can be seen here

Starting with some of the older cars, there was a 1935 Packard sedan

Magnificent torpedo tail fabric-bodied Minerva

Immaculate Model A Ford

A line up of Austin 7's. I passed one of these on the freeway on the way up, I assume he also came from Melbourne, a 200-odd km trip.

A magnificent 1936 Delage. I don't know what model it was - it is too short a day to walk through the paddock, carpark and not miss too many races.

A pair of 1933 Ford hot rods, for something different they were both towing large tandem trailers. One had a Wolesley and the other a 1930s Ford special racing car which was for sale.

Another hot rod, this time a Model A (contrast with the earlier car!) with a flathead Ford V8

A very nice pre-war Triumph sedan

That's all I have for the pre-war cars (apart from the cars parked in the pits that didn't race, including 3 aero engined monsters), next post will be the fifties cars.

[johnh875]

Some more cars… Firstly cheating a bit because this vehicle was inside the pits, and actually took to the track for some demonstration laps, arguably the most famous tractor in Australia – “Tail-end Charlie” a Chamberlain Champion tractor. Yes a tractor on the race track! This isn’t an ordinary tractor though, it was built to be the sweep car for the round-Australia Redex Trials, in one event it did 11,140 mi (17,824 km) in 19 days. It has a top speed of 65 mph – more info here

A Peugeot 203 van. This car is actually owned by a friend of mine, and lay in a shed for over 25 years prior to a mechanical restoration for it to participate in the recent Ampol Trial re-run organised by the Peugeot Car Club. I said “mechanical” restoration because apart from some rust removal at the lower edges the body was largely untouched. The damage you see on the mudguards was caused when it was rolled on a go-kart track in Tamworth at one of the timed events. At the time it had its original roof rack fitted, which escaped unscathed because when the car was upside down it was at least a foot in the air!

An nicely restored early F-truck

MGA roadster

A Willys Jeep station wagon – one of the precursors to the SUV trend today. From the alloy wheels this one appears to have had some mechanical updates.

Jaguar Mark VII sedan

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by johnh875

Magnificent torpedo tail fabric-bodied Minerva



A magnificent 1936 Delage. I don't know what model it was - it is too short a day to walk through the paddock, carpark and not miss too many races.

Excellent stuff, John, thanks.

The Minerva is an incredibly rare beast.

The truly gorgeous Delage is, I believe, a replica based on the 3-litre car that finished 4th at Le Mans in 1937 when driven by Louis Gerard and De Valence. It carried this closed coupe (we'd probably call it a GT now) body by Figoni and Falaschi before that company went completely over the top with their extravagant styling! It is one of my all time favourite cars and all credit to the gentleman who had the good taste and the financial wherewithall to replicate the lovely shape!

[johnh875]

John if you like the Delage replica (yes it is pretty obvious when I think about it) you should have a look at www.devauxcars.com, which is not a replica of anything in particular, but an incredible creation in its own right. I did see that car also at Winton, but having seen it before I didn't get a photo of it.

Now back to some more cars, getting a bit more modern some 1960’s cars, beginning with a 1964 Mustang with a very nice set of mags.

A Ford Cortina GT500, a local homologation special for touring car racing. Twin fuel fillers are for the long-range tank

A Cortina Mk2 in better condition than most (don't know about over there but these are a lot rarer these days than Mk1's)

Daimler 250 V8 (a favourite model of mine)

1964 Ford Galaxie sedan in very very nice condition, with an appropriate number plate “BARG 64”

Iso Rivolta – wonderful!

As nice an E Type Jag as you are likely to see, this car had seriously good bodywork

A Lotus Elan coupe

A pair of 1969 Ford Mustangs, a Boss 302 and a Mach 1 convertible

A nice Sunbeam Alpine series 3 with hardtop

Sunbeam Alpine and MG B side-by-side, showing their similarities and differences

A very purposeful Triumph TR3A

[johnh875]

Now for the 1970s and later cars. A couple of Ford Falcon GTs, these are both XY models (1970-71), which are the iconic Australian muscle cars. In the last 5 years the value of cars like these have increased from ~£15k to ~£40k, and the GTHO below having a race history at Bathurst would easily bring £120k if the owner wanted to sell it.

There was also one of the GTHO models, which were the homologation models for touring car racing. As you may guess from the decals, this one actually raced at Bathurst! It is unrestored as it sat in a shed for 15 years and its racing history was forgotten until recently.

BMW 3.0CSL

Datsun 240Z, again one of the nicest you will ever see.

A trio of Porsche 911s that really stood out.

Another Falcon GT, this time an XB model (1973-76)

Obviously the owner of this Holden Torana GTR XU1 is sick of answering the question! (Sticker says “Yes it is genuine”) These cars were another Bathurst homologation special, the car was based on the Vauxhall Viva, and had a 3.3L triple carb 6cyl engine.

Another rare car, this is a Chrysler Valiant panelvan (less than 2000 built)

A PRB clubman. These are built in Sydney and one of the best Lotus 7 replicas available.

Finally, the newest car I took a photo of, a Ferrari 575 (with the flip-top lid)

[johnh875]

That's all from this side of the fence, I've now also put up a post for the race cars here

[johnh875]

Some more information - the Delage shown in post #1 is actually a real Delage. It is a replica of the 1936-37 Le Mans coupe built by Figoni & Falaschi, from a donor 1936 Delage D6-70 Pillarless 4 door saloon with coachwork by Autobineau, which came from the US.

It was recently auctioned, but did not sell https://www.bonhamsandgoodman.com.au...37&auction=100

[275 GTB-4]

Thanks John for all your Winton posts...looks like it was a fabulous meeting (hmmm..maybe I'll get there next year!).