Drivers and cars, all from Kyalami SA

[frans]

The Renault make was much stronger in SA than over here and because of the performance and race wins it became much strongerbecause of the old saying "win on Sunday, sell on Monday".

Scamp Porter was in a perfect position working for Renault on the the Renaults and racing them. I think that meant a store full of spares. Then over and above that was another 2 clever guys, Puddles Adler and John Conchie that started the Alconi developments. This was a conversion kit that was available as a bolt-on kit on the standard non-Gordinis. ie. the non crossflow head engines. (Gordini was cossflow) These Renault Alconi kits were so good that the Renault factory honoured the original warranty. The biggest engines were 1108cc and the Alconi was the only 1100 "production" car at the time to do a genuine clocked 100 mph. The kit consisted as a cam, head, twin downdraught weber carb, extractor and a few extras such as a rev counter, badges etc.

Those days the 1000cc cars were still in abundance and there were a class for them. A very well known racing driver, Gordon Briggs, imported a 1000cc Broadspeed Anglia from England and he was untouchable with that car. The first ever 1000cc car to break the 2 min barrier at Kyalami's 4.1 km track. Soon Alconi caught on to this Broadspeed Anglia and they decided to downscale the 1108 motor to a legal 997cc and then they whipped the Broadspeed time and again.

With these potent cars Renault made a big name for themselves. Photos taken during the endurance races in SA proves a lot against the likes of the very fast Alfa Romeo of the SA Saloon car champion, Toyota Celicas, Mustang. Sprint races were lapped much quicker.

Scamp Porter developed the Gordinis to such an extend that it couldn't be equalled in France and engine builders came over to see what he did. His racing number was 128 most of the time. I will add a few photos for now.

The first photo was taken at the entry to the Esses. The esses is shown on the 4th photo and you'll be able to estimate that it is about 3 km after the start and the Gordinis are still hot on the tail of the GT cars. Amongst them a Celica as well. The other photos just shows these 1108 and 1296 Renaults amongst totally different class cars. All, most, of the photos to follow later will show them in the vicinity of big stuff.

More to follow.