Photos: The Geoff Russell Collection

[bry3500]

I've never seen that Gardos before. Really looks a lot like a McLaren M8D. At first I thought this was the Graduate M8F, but its quite different. Great looking car. I knew Gardos (Tony Gard and Don O'Sullivan) had built a superb looking Formula 5000 car in the mid '70s, but I wasn't aware they'd also built a big banger sports car. Would love to get more info on this.

I found this on Old Racing Cars site Steve. " Towards the end of 1971, Don O'Sullivan and his mechanic Jamie Gard ran a McLaren M18 in occasional Australian Gold Star events. The pair skipped the Tasman series and returned to Gold Star racing later in 1972 with the M18 now upgraded to M22 specification and with Howie Sangster taking over the driving from O'Sullivan. The team then again skipped the Tasman series and did not turn out for the mid-1973 Gold Star races. By the time they returned, they had acquired the ex-Redman/Hobbs M18/M22. The older ex-O'Sullivan McLaren M18 now became redundant.
Gard built O'Sullivan a sports car using various left-over McLaren components and this was the first "Gardos". He then set about creating a Gardos F5000 car and it appears that this latest creation consumed much of the McLaren M18."

and a great thread on the Gardos/McLaren here
http://www.ten-tenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=74014