Winton (2006) Historic races (photos)

[johnh875]

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. For the second year, early Australian specials were the featured “marque”, as well as a display of aero-engined cars.

I'll post thumbnails here, the full gallery (including race cars) can be seen here, and some of the classic cars in the carpark in this thread.

I’ll start off with those – here is the “Drainpipe Special” which was built from a crashed 1924 Vauxhall 30/98 in the late forties. A new chassis was built from steel tube (the origins of the nickname are evident if you look at the size of the chassis tubes) and finished with an aluminium body. After racing it for many years it was sold to Jumbo Goddard who fitted a V8 Hispano Suiza aero engine for speed record attempts. After Goddard passed away, the original builder bought it back in pieces and restored it to its previous specification.

This is not your usual Bugatti engine bay! It is known as the Bugatti Holden special, and it has a history typical of many racing cars. It is a 1926 Bugatti Type 35, which raced in four Australian Grand Prix from 1935-1952. In the early 50’s the engine suffered “substantial damage” at Bathurst and was replaced with a 2.2L 6cyl Holden engine and MG TC gearbox, and it raced in this form for another decade. It is planned for a Bugatti engine to be reinstated.

1908 MAB special. This car has a 27 litre Packard Liberty aero engine, chain drive, and the body design is based on a 1908 MAB GP car and it is built around a 1907 MAB chassis. It has done over 20,000km since it was built.

1918 Hispano Suiza Alphonso which has been fitted with a WW1 Hispano Suiza V8 aero engine (11,800cc)

This car also has a Hispano Suiza V8, with a 1922 Delage chassis and running gear. It was built in 1997, and has 500hp at 2000rpm and can do 125mph.

Another more modern reconstruction is this 1935 Ford special done as a replica of an Indy 500 competor. It has a Ford flathead with Offenhauser heads, twin Stromberg carbs and 200hp.

You may well ask why is there a tractor here! Well, it did some demonstration laps, as it is arguably the most famous tractor in Australia – “Tail-end Charlie” a Chamberlain Champion tractor. 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, often towing 2 broken-down cars at once. It has a top speed of 65 mph believe it or not!