May I thoroughly recommend to you the article on Frank Matich and the development of his F5000 cars.
It is fantastic and incredible in my humble opinion.
The details of the development process that was undertaken is great. Also some fantastic photos.
http://primotipo.com/
Derek has a very good recollection of all the things he did with Matich...
Who did the article?
And a good shot of Ramsays Birrana you mentioned in the Perry Drury thread Ray.
For a great article on Matich's sports cars go to
http://primotipo.com/category/restoration/
Terry, just adding the Matich F5000 direct link, the one in the original post goes to the newest published feature.
http://primotipo.com/2015/09/11/fran...cars-etcetera/
A lengthy article, which I haven't been able to completely digest...
Once again, who did it?
A lot about the US racing we didn't hear much about here. Derek is obviously a good source of information on all of that stuff and very helpful in putting any of this sort of thing together.
Niggling a bit is the 1965 Gold Star failure. Frank should have won this, of course, but he wasn't to compete after his July crash in the Lotus 19B at Lakeside, the car was sold off and the Matich side of the Total Team ended. He raced a Cooper S in Series Production for the rest of that year.
Frank always contended, at least in the early to mid-sixties, that the Sports Cars would be quicker when it came to lap records. His 19 and 19B efforts were all with a 2.6-litre engine while from '64 the openwheeler was restricted to a 2.5-litre engine. Even when he first ran the BT7A it had a 2.5-litre engine as it was only a couple of months before the new formula came into force. Frank never had a 2.7 engine.
So when he saw what was happening in America with 19s being converted to Buick etc power, the first of the McLarens coming into being and so on it was natural that he'd go to the V8 Sports Cars himself. He had ideas at the time that he could seriously commit to the Can-Am but this never actually came about.
Frank was enamoured with the ideal of racing in the USA. The season, initially at least, was short enough to do it in conjunction with some Australian racing, the Sports Car title at the time here was a single race deal (the Australian Tourist Trophy) and there was always going to be opportunities to set the outright lap records he craved in the other part of the year while he'd be able to be at home with his family for most of the year.
I think it was the butler........Originally Posted by Ray Bell
Ray this is incorrect. Matich suffered incredible burns in the 19B crash when the impact ruptured the fuel tank and slashed petrol over him. This caught fire. It was made worse because he was only wearing a nylon shirt rather than fire proof overalls.
Initially treated in Brisbane hospital then transferred to a top Sydney hospital for top specialist care. He almost lost an arm from gangrene. He was out of action for more than 6 months. It took nearly 18 months to recover from the burns.
His first race after that crash was not until the Bathurst 500 in October 1966, that is 15 months later. He ran a Cooper S, and although a comeback after such a long time out, he set the fastest lap of the race ahead of the 3 BMC "works" Cooper S', which included Mini kings Foley and Manton.
Of course you're right about the Mini racing being '66, not '65, brain fade there... and further evidence that I shouldn't post that kind of stuff when I'm away from home (and my RCN binders).Originally posted by Terry S
.....His first race after that crash was not until the Bathurst 500 in October 1966, that is 15 months later. He ran a Cooper S, and although a comeback after such a long time out, he set the fastest lap of the race ahead of the 3 BMC "works" Cooper S', which included Mini kings Foley and Manton.
Matich's first race after the July '65 (25.7.65) crash at Lakeside was at Sandown in February '66 (27.2.66) for the debut of the Traco Olds. The Mini came in after he sold the Traco Olds and while he was awaiting the SR3's completion.
Ray you are right about the first race after Lakeside crash being Feb 66 debut of Traco Olds.
I was using a range of sources (including memory) and wrongly took a paragraph from Bill Wood's Legends of Speed. Silly me to repeat anything from that book.
He was talking about Matich's crash then jumped to a few other drivers then came back to Matich with:
He says "Matich had returned to racing in a Mini Cooper at Bathurst in October 1966. It had taken him nearly 18 months to recover from the burns"
Completely overlooked the Traco Olds.
Please note the Traco Olds belonged to Laurie O'Neill and he was the one that sold it to Allen, not Matich. There was some form of blow-up between O'Neill and Matich and they went their separate ways.
Terry,
I'm not sure what meetings FM did in '65 post Lakeside prang, Ray would have the best idea of that reporting as he was at the time.
FM didn't have the Lotus to race, it was rooted, the remains sent to Elfins to assist in development of the Elfin 400 design ideas, the Brabham was sold to someone in NZ, forgotten who.
FM definitely raced the Elfin 400/Traco Olds from February 1966, this article i wrote on FM's Elfin 400 may fill in some of the gaps for you. I don't cover the accident in detail mind you.
http://primotipo.com/2015/05/28/elfi...garrie-cooper/
Mark
Another sidelight to the Matich entrancement with the USA...
Back in the early sixties we had an American named Kent Price racing here in a Lotus 20 (pretty sure it was a 20...). He ran under the name of 'Ken Milburn' and he was fairly quick. The reason he ran under an assumed name was that there was prizemoney on races here (something you don't have to worry about today!) and he didn't want to spoil his amateur status with the SCCA.
Kent and his wife became quite friendly with the Matich family and spent time with them away from the circuit. One story I remember Joan telling me was about a can of chocolate coated ants that went between them as a gift. Nobody ever bothered opening the can, as I recall.
Kent, of course, had a crash at Bathurst and that led to him ceasing racing here. Later he bought an SR3 to run in the USA. But I'm sure this friendship was a big step in Frank's desire to have more to do with the US. He saw racing opportunities there and also business opportunities, much later his Armacel business eagerly pursued US buyers and for some time he was on a plane to the US about once a month. This was cut back when his health was being threatened by the hours sitting in a plane.
When Frank campaigned the SR3 in the Can-Am he took Bob Britton with him and Britto has some stories to tell about Frank and their adventures over there.
This is the truck they used to transport the SR3:
And here are Frank and Bob at the back of the truck, the SR3's tail barely visible in this poor shot:
Hi everyone, i wrote the article with strong input from Derek Kneller, way too long but got carried away!
Very interesting comments Ray re Kent Price, his racing in Oz is all new to me and puts a few later events into perspective.
The notes i have on the 3 SR3's are that FM used the second of the SR3's built, which he sold to Price, in his first Can Am meeting @ Elkhart on 3 Sept 1967, fitting his own RB620 Series 4.4 for the event, rather than the Traco Olds fitted to the car when he sold it. The car was lent to FM. (and never raced again in the US but returned to Oz for FM to sell on KP's behalf)
Matich used the last, Repco powered SR3 built for the balance of his '67 US tour and throughout Oz in late '67 and into '68 before sale to Don O'Sullivan.
Interested to know who owns the SR3's now, Keith Berryman's (the last built?) duly noted. Also some say more than SR3's were built than the 3 i have been told was 'the full production run'.
mark
QUOTE=Ray Bell;48646]Another sidelight to the Matich entrancement with the USA...
Back in the early sixties we had an American named Kent Price racing here in a Lotus 20 (pretty sure it was a 20...). He ran under the name of 'Ken Milburn' and he was fairly quick. The reason he ran under an assumed name was that there was prizemoney on races here (something you don't have to worry about today!) and he didn't want to spoil his amateur status with the SCCA.
Kent and his wife became quite friendly with the Matich family and spent time with them away from the circuit. One story I remember Joan telling me was about a can of chocolate coated ants that went between them as a gift. Nobody ever bothered opening the can, as I recall.
Kent, of course, had a crash at Bathurst and that led to him ceasing racing here. Later he bought an SR3 to run in the USA. But I'm sure this friendship was a big step in Frank's desire to have more to do with the US. He saw racing opportunities there and also business opportunities, much later his Armacel business eagerly pursued US buyers and for some time he was on a plane to the US about once a month. This was cut back when his health was being threatened by the hours sitting in a plane.
When Frank campaigned the SR3 in the Can-Am he took Bob Britton with him and Britto has some stories to tell about Frank and their adventures over there.
This is the truck they used to transport the SR3:
And here are Frank and Bob at the back of the truck, the SR3's tail barely visible in this poor shot:
What a great article on the Matich F5000s my only regret I got so engrossed in it I forgot grab a beer
Here is a photo that I took of the Matich SR3 at Sandown in February 1967.
A great looking car - often wondered how it went.
What a great shot!
Have seen it before, in fact i used it in one of my articles!, but didn't know which Sandown meeting you took the shot. Given the dates this is the first of the SR3's.
Based on the notes i have it;
.made its debut @ WF, so the weekend before you took the shot, 19 Feb '67
.won the '67 Vic SC C'ship @ Sandown
.won the NSW SC C'ship @ Catalina
.won the Aust TT @ Sufferers
and was then sold to Marvin Webster in the US sans the Traco Olds engine it was built with in June 1967.
M
Here is a photo that I took of the Matich SR3 at Sandown in February 1967.
A great looking car - often wondered how it went.
I was at the Warwick Farm meet the previous weekend and was standing at the end of the main straight. I can't remember seeing the car there but it could have been. I took at stack of photos from that point so might go back and see whether I photographed it.
That's Peter Mabey (correct spelling) in the car in this shot...
Peter now lives way up north.
Bry,
Thanks for posting, i hadn't seen the second part of the interview, all the stuff about modified fuel cams is interesting, and not stuff Derek and i covered when we chatted about the article.
Its all indicative of FM's attributes and sensitivity as a a test and development driver. Goodyear would not have handed out testing contracts to every 'tom, dick and 'arry' it would be interesting to know how many such arrangements were 'on foot' at the time.
One anecdote Derek mentioned i forgot and must plug into the article; FM tested the A50 @ W Farm, Derek having wheel aligned the car the night before on the very sophisticated gear the team had. FM did a couple of laps and declared the toe setting was out on one side of the car. Derek protested, but relented when FM was adamant despite the care taken that they were out...sure enough they were, not a lot but enough to a very sensistive driver...which he was!
Finally the fuel cam story reminds me of a similar one in relation to Jack Brabham. The DFV was famously abrupt in its power delivery early on. Brabham used the engine for the first time in '69...and quickly modified the fuel cams of his engines to improve the 'drivability' of the Cossie. One of these cams was left in an engine returned to Cosworths' for rebuilding, the engineers quickly realised 'old Jack' had improved their design, the cam was replicated and then incorporated into all engines issued to customers from that point...
Clever Aussie Driver Engineers!...
m
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