Really Special!

[XAutoRacer]

Just found some pictures of my dad in the prototype AVRO Arrow chassis....will scan and, if I can figure out the attachment process, embed in this file in the next couple of days....also a Comstock EXP photo, or two....looks pretty easy...just paste file name into box below.....

[Ray Bell]

too limiting... if you can put the pic on a bit of webspace then you post it as I do, just click on 'quote' on my post to see how it works... just put the url for the picture (picture only, mind you) as shown...

[Ray Bell]

I don't think this one's been posted before... sure it hasn't and a very rare picture too.

The Kleinig Hudson 8 in its final form:



This is with the front of the MG chassis cut off and a Peugeot 203 front end fitted, the genuine Maserati body, shortened Hudson rear end, plenty of wierd stuff for its last AGP appearance, biggest effort the man ever made... and it failed to start because the special lightweight battery shorted internally!

[XAutoRacer]

very neat special...I don't have a website, but I'll try to use my business site....how do I import a photo?...I see how once I have the photo on the website I can embed it in the reply (I think)

[Ray Bell]

Once you put the photo on the site, you have the address or URL for the photo... right?

The one above is www.austarmetro.com.au/~raybell/kleinigfinal.JPG and it's surrounded, as you can see when you click on 'quote', by img and /img in [square brackets]... you can't exactly put a sample in here or it will come out wrong... but if you click on quote you'll see how it works. Then you back our of 'quote' and do your post with your picture's URL set out in the same manner.

Now, if you don't want to go back to my previous post to click on 'quote' you can do it on this one for this picture...



Which is actually a cover drawing for the Newsletter I produce for the Historic racers here... the car at the right is the above one before the Maserati body was grafted on and it became a monoposto...

Now Shane, our artist, does a fair job... so here's another one he did, the 1.5 litre Riley Special built by Arthur Rizzo in 1948 or so...



I have a stack of these cover drawings, but only a few are Specials... I might drag them out and re-scan them some time, but here's a photo of a car built on a Lea-Francis chassis about the same time and which had a 4-litre Austin truck engine shoe-horned in when the Jeep engine proved inadequate (or something), the Stewand...



Now, to get back to the Kleinig car in its final form, it had heaps of compression, some able assistance to keep oil in the big ends via a spray arrangement that poured oil into the dippers on the rods, a Mathis gearbox (I think) and lots of dev time behind it.

It had 8 Amal carbies at one time, and usually had water injection late in its life, but htis was a serious attempt to modernise and lighten it (the car dated back to about 1935 when the owner of the MG W or whatever it was (a big sedan) reasoned that the chassis would look better under a Miller 8 for racing at Penrith Speedway.

A note I have here from the head mechanic on the 3-month rebuild says that all up weight was 12.5 cwt, that's about 1400lbs, and that it had a 3:1 diff, 6:50 x 18 rear tyres and should have been good for 150mph.

You know, it went back home after the battery debacle caused it to non-start and never saw the circuit again.

Now it's been rebuilt to the forties form, as the present owner decided to mate up all the Maserati bits that went with the body... Johnny Wakefield's car? Anyway, it came here as a gift to the man who looked after it with no engine... and he was hit with a big customs bill and decided it wasn't worth it. The Customs Dept auctioned it...

Good stories about when you hunt around...

[mickj]

Ray
Would you class John French's Centuar Waggot GT as a special???.i know there were other Centuar's. I class it as a special,in being fitted with a holdon 6 fitted with a twin cam head, in 1963 ??
mickj

[Ray Bell]

Not a Special, really... it was a car that was made by a bloke who built many cars for fun and profit, with a totally fabricated chassis, and if anyone had gone along with a few quid they could have bought the next one just the same. Don't think there were any other identical cars, but I'm not really sure. You never know what didn't get finished off, either.

The Waggott twin cam head was a series-produced thing, mainly used in boats and speedcars, as far as I know, as well as in Jack Myers' replica of a Cooper Bristol. Probably that was why Waggott designed and built it in the first place, and that goes back to about 1957 or 1958.

Don't know how many old Merv made, but I don't think there were any after 1962 or so. And I suspect even earlier. It was '62 the Centaur Waggott appeared, by the way. I know I only read about it, never saw it for years, and I saw racing at Catalina from May '63. It never went to the Farm, and I went to Lakeside first in Feb '64.

[275 GTB-4]

Originally Posted by Ray Bell

Not all of them were so nice, of course, and there were some not so fast, too... mind you, with some persuasion...

There was an All-Historic meeting at Amaroo a few years ago when an old gent named John Butler saw something in the newspaper about it... he caught buses and trains and then a cab out to Amaroo, walked into the scrutineering shed (just inside the pit gate) and asked if anyone had any knowledge of what might have happened to the car he built in 1946.

He'd earlier built a car using Ford T bits and with a Laurel 'pentroof' 4-valve head, this being road transport and having seen some practice laps at Maroubra Speedway in about 1934... but now he was a doctor and could afford a war surplus Jeep engine, and had an old Amilcar Chassis and some Citroen brakes.

Of course, in those days it was easy to get some aircraft panels, and, well, it all sort of came together for him...

The scrutineers directed him to Graeme Snape, well-known Historic racer, who had his head under a bonnet... rising to meet the old gent as he was introduced, he asked: "What was your name again?" "Butler, John Butler..."

Butler was gazing down at the Willys engine installation in Snape's car at the time, and suddenly it dawned on both of them:

They had both just completed their quest! John Butler was reunited with his car, Graeme Snape found the man who built it... and soon after it was concluded that the Amilcar-Willys would revert to its original name, the Wimilcar.

Here Butler takes off at a sprint at Mt Druitt, probably about 1950...

1935 Willys pictured in Yass NSW yesterday.......

[Leighton Irwin]

I hope Hans is still alive and well. I remember him in his orange pants taking photos from the most dangerous spots. He scared the c--p out of me a Harewood Acres when he popped out from behind a hay bale in the chicane. That bale was my clipping point!
Another Cdn. special was the Makins Buick better known as the Bearcage, a take off on the birdcage Maserati. The frame tubes were rather large. George Makins was a winning stock car racer from the CNE days and built a rather mean machine in his garage in Orillia. It was a little crude but fast. Mostly driven by Milt Wright (Uncle Milty). Sorry no pictures. Last known whereabouts was Detroit area where it was being used as a dragster.
Barry Makins (a friend of mine), George's son, was a race driver as well. He tells a story of his snowmobile racing days when he was sideways in a corner using up all the track and as he put it "That little son of a b---h Gilles Villeneuve still passed me."

[Hans.ca]

Hi Irwin, yes I'm still alive. Rather then hiding behind hay bales I now concentrate more on hunting, fishing and target shooting. That was the good old day's when you could shoot full frame pictures with a 105 mm focal length lens. Since this is a historic forum perhaps I should explain why the orange pants.
The first race at Mosport I was located on inside of corner eight about 2 feet away from the white line on the track. I was in prone position wearing a brown swead jacket. When the cars came flying by I would pop up and shoot full frame head on shots. All I had at that time was the 105 mm lens. Bunny Austin would come thru there in his lotus with the inside wheel about 3 inches of the ground, really good stuff. But after the race was over I got complaints from some of the drivers. "We don't mind you beeing onle 2 feet off the track but we like to see you," So for the firts Players 200 I went out and got a pair of orange pants, black and white stripped shirt, orange neck kerchief and an Andy Cap hat. The drivers are happy and so am I except one shot got spoiled. Stirling Moss came around corner 5 all hung out, full opposte lock, what a wonderfull shot that made. But he could see me at the exit at 5 and just as I snapped the photo he weaved at me with only one hand on the wheel. Spoiled one of the best photos of the day. By that time I had a 300 mm lens. I have many fond memories of that time.
Hans.ca

[Leighton Irwin]

So do I Hans.
Remember the P&G specials of Gord Green and Ray Price? The first 4 were Canada Class with the last one being rear engined and beating most of the FJ. Then the MK5 was a bored out Imp engined sports racer. Took away my 1150cc Mosport class record by about 3 sec. Mind you it had stood for 3 years.
Two 750cc Gt Suzuki F4 Mk6 followed and were winners. Rick Walker is still running one 30 years later. Then there were 3 Mk7 P&G's with the same engine, one driven by Bob French. They won. I did help build those. Finally a MK8MK that was radical and a flop, but Gord Green had fun building it.
Ray dropped out after the Mk4 and died several years ago.
Gord attends quite a few races and actually was here at the store yesterday.
By the way Judy and I have the largest fishing tackle store on Georgian Bay.

[Hans.ca]

Don't get me started on the specials, there are so many, it would never end.
Tom Berent, Sadler Vortex, F.J. 998cc
Ed Bradley, DKW Can. Class, B.S. Special MK 11 896 cc
Oliver Clubine, TR Special 2200 cc, the hood (Bonnet) was formed over a sack of potatos.
Ron Evans, Crosley Special, Canada Class, 748 cc
Jeff Crawford, Vortex Formula Junior. 998 cc, Tube frame by Sadler
Don Haddow, Jordan Special, 998 cc
Bill Kitching, Vortex Formula Junior. 998 cc, Tube frame by Sadler
And on it goes. I'm still trying to find out what happened to that fromula 3 frame I saw in Bill Sadlers work shop when photographing the beginning of the Comstock car.
Hans.ca