Early Holden Racing....pre EH

[Ellis]

What if any is the history on the 100 Anglia Ellis ,did Robin Pare race one at one stage ? that Don Elliot owned or is my mind drifting off into the past

Your mind is still working well.
Elliot had one built up for Robin Pare to race to compete against all the Cooper S etc
It was Supercharged and altho a little fragile certainly could beat them.
The car in the pic is a replica of that car as the original is long gone. There is a
Cortina as well , a replica of a car he had for Edmondson.


Baskerville Historics 2010..Parade Laps
The GT500 on the left is driven by John Bowe with Harry Firth as passenger
The Anglia Replica is being driven by its owner
The Cortina 2dr on rhs is a replica of Edmondsons car and is being driven by him.
The cars formed part of an Elliot cars display

You may notice I still manged to squeeze 4 Humpies into the shot...lol

[Ellis]

Engine internals...and other weaknesses...
As everyone knows they are prone to breaking crankshafts. Lots of theories exist as to what to do and not to do
and while you may think you are doing the right things they will break whenever they feel like it.
At the 2009 Baskerville Historics Holden Reunion meeting just to prove that nothing changes after 40-45 years of racing
out of around 20 Humpies ....2 blew headgaskets, 1 broke gearbox, 2 broke cranks and 1 rolled.....
Mine didnt fail then...it waited another 15 months till this year and my crank went at Baskerville. Its not too bad , it
lasted 4 1/2 years.





About all that is done to the standard crank is balancing, better rod bolts and main bolts are used along with main bearing cap strengtheners on centre mains. Billet steel cranks are now available but are around $4k so not cheap and not too many are in use.
Lightenned flywheels and larger harmonic balancers are used along with enlarged and baffled sumps. The heads are ported and planed and larger valves are fitted along with tubular pushrods and with a bore out to 3 3/16" most use hi top pistons but some still run flatop.
Camshaft grinds are free and most use a well known Cam grinder in Melbourne...Clives Cams...no substitute for 45 years or so experience. Aluminium or steel timing geras replace the old original fibre versions.
The gearbox remains standard or maybe fit an EH cluster and a few circlips get silver soldered. The ratios in the gearbox are free and some run close ratio boxes which shifts low up and moves 2nd closer to top. A higher ratio diff is usually then required for some circuits.
Differential ratios are free but the original housing must be retained. For Nb regs drum brakes must remain but finned drums are permitted. Wheels for Nb must remain at 15" but are allowed to be 6" in width. The original old hubs were prone to cracking so later model 13" hubs are permitted with adaptors to take them back to suit 15" stud pattern. LSD or lockers are permitted. Not many of the cars running comply to these Nb specs so are logbooked as Targa class and run disc brakes and 13" wheels so are not permitted in Nb. Quite a few run later red motors and 4 speed boxes but the few purists retain Nb specs which almost mirror the old Appendix J rules from 1960.
So you see nothing has changed since the heady days of the 60's... except for one really important improvement...Tyres.

A one piece crank replaces the 2 piece from a few weeks ago....

[Ellis]

Now to the story of my car.......
As I may have mentioned, I have a long time friend and old Humpy racer from the 60's whose car I worked on.
For the last 20 years after a few reds the talk always turned to ....Why dont we build another old Humpy race car...
These conversations caused me to look for Mikes old cars over a long period and all I could come up with was a set
of our old Del Orto carbies. After admitting defeat it was decided to buy an old log booked Humpy and restore it. A few were found but no one was selling...heard that before...Nah we are going to do her back up.
Interest waxed and waned and we had spies all over the country looking out for us. In 2008 we got an email saying one was for sale near Orange in NSW. It had been built to run at the Gnoo Blaas revival meetings . Negotiations began and concluded with Micks Humpy arriving in due course in Tas.



So our job was done, completed , finnished......well not quite.
Forward 3 or 4 months and I received a phone call...A bloke in Vic is thinking of selling his log booked Humpy.
We had forgotten to call off the dogs who were still on the hunt it seems. Sorry mate we already have one.
I'll give you his number just in case you want to talk to him. Thanks but no thanks.
Next day me thinks , what harm could it do to ring him and find out about his car.....2 weeks later after getting pics etc
I had bought the car and another one that was in one of the background shots.
A friend in Vic went 90k's and collected the cars and stored them at his garage until I could arrange to go and get them across our rough little Bass Strait ditch.
I picked up the race car and got it to the boat , smooth sailing and on landing at Devonport drove it the 100k's to Launceston with no problems . I left the 2nd car in Vic . Some 6 months later I onsold it (2nd Car) to a Launceston aquaintence who went and got it and guess what...he's building an Nb Humpy. It was a real original old girl and will make a nice race car.


The car when in Vic on display at the Sandown Historic meeting with the Brock Goodwood car and a red FC (Now in Tas)


On the way to get dropped off at the boat in Vic


Not much has changed in here...Just older driver

[Ellis]

After spending 3 or 4 weeks going right thru the car checking all nuts and bolts etc, fitting new Yokahama tyres it was time to hire Symmons Plains and go for a test day. All went well except after 7 or 8 laps the temp got a bit on the hi side. Brings back memories.
We ran the car at the next 4 or 5 meetings and decided to bite the bullet and put in a better aluminium radiator, some new brake ducts and new finned front drums as the old ones were U/S. Over the next 12 months the car ran faultlessly. The front end was given about 4 deg neg camber and the rear end springs set down a further 2". The car is driven at alternate meetings by my son and I. He really enjoys the challenge never having driven a 3 on the tree or with drum brakes all round. The bugger is about 2 secs faster than his old man but I am more than twice his age. We mainly race at Baskerville 200 k's away in Hobart as it suits the old cars better. Symmons is very hard on brakes and 3 speed gearboxes dont suit the circuit at all.

A few pics .....


Brake Drums cast and machined by Crofts in Sydney


New brake air ducts fitted


Symmons Plains hairpin


Baskerville bottom of hill


Baskerville top of hill


Symmons Plains ..Old pit Corner

[Steve Holmes]

This is such a great thread Ellis, keep the posts coming! How often is it that pre-EH races are held at historic events? It must be an incredible site. And the noise must be amazing. The FJs are such an important piece of Aussie racing history, that these races are every bit as significant as an F5000 or Group C/A reunion. They're just one of the most charismatic race cars.

[pallmall]

Wow, fantastic stuff Ellis.

We didn't have many Humpy Holdens racing in NZ. Here is one, the Richard Sisler car at a car club event at Western Springs speedway.
Many interesting cars turned up to these meetings at different times, the TecMec Maserati Corvette, the Monza Ferrari Corvette, etc.

[Ellis]

This is such a great thread Ellis, keep the posts coming! How often is it that pre-EH races are held at historic events? It must be an incredible site. And the noise must be amazing. The FJs are such an important piece of Aussie racing history, that these races are every bit as significant as an F5000 or Group C/A reunion. They're just one of the most charismatic race cars.

We dont have Holden only events again as yet. MG car club have said they will run Holden only for us in Regularity if we can get 12 starters. The Baskerville track was the last track in Australia to run a Holden only event in about 75 or maybe it was 72 ?.
The HQ series was also commenced in Tas and spread to the rest of the country and is still quite strong.
With the number of Humpies in sheds and being built we should be able to. Whether we can do it on a regular basis remains to be seen.
At the last meeting a month or so ago we had 24 cars running in Historic Regularity of which 3 were Humpies. 3 other Humpies ran in a race series as invited cars.

[Ellis]

Some better known period Holden Grey engine mods.....
Some of these found their way into Speedboats and Sports / Racing Cars of the day....


Dunstan Rotary Valve


Waggott Twin Cam



Repco X Flow head



Fuel Injection



Supercharged

[Ellis]

The broken Crank has been super glued back together and new engine was fired up today........
Ready for more fun again.

[Ellis]

These pics are from nowhere in particular but just show a few of the old warhorses in action in various forms of motorsport....


Drags


Drag Display


Albury Wodonga area in NSW still run Historic Speedway...They are a bit gentler on the panels nowdays.


Hume Weir 1966 Norm Gown, Graham Ritter


Hume Weir Action

[Ellis]

Continued...


Calder 1966... G Ritter, Bruce Hindaugh


#43 Norm Gown ...Calder 1966


Dave Price's... EH and Humpy Calder 1966... EH is S4 ex Brian Muir


Nothing like towing with one to use for spares.


John Newell, Wayne Mahnken, Garth Wigston Longford Tas 1965

[Ellis]

Continued.....


Harry Firth and Norm Beechey in the "Good Ole Days"


Warren Weldon and Bo Seton Katoomba


Max Staahl....became Editor of RCN


Bob Jane at Templestowe


Tino Leo ..Hume Weir


Neville Cooper from WA in ex Beechey PK752 at Caversham

[Ellis]

Continued....


John Kean ...This car held a few records in its day


Ritter, Gown, Blanchard Calder 1966


Around the Houses..Albany WA


C Robinson NSW

[Ellis]

Continued...


Peter Brock at Goodwood


Des Wests old car...Owner got it out of shed and had it at Gnoo Blaas NSW...It featured in AMC mag.


Nice to have but..........Dreaming.


Some (make that lots) have gone to the big graveyard in the sky

[Leo D]

Some of the few remaining active logbooked cars in Australia....
(Credits where known are inc on pics)


Eddie Dobbs...ex G Blanchard 60's log booked car still competing

Graeme Blanchard in the same car mid 1960's, Hume Weir

[Steve Holmes]

Great to see this thread resurrected. Magic photos Ellis and Greg!

[bob homewood]

Big thanks from me too Ellis and Greg

[Leo D]

[Leo D]

Powering past some sort of Mustang and Camaro up the back straight at Calder :-)

[Steve Holmes]

.....and taking the outside line too. I bet it made them look like they were standing still.

Isn't it great to see the evolution of the FJs in these images, how they got lower and lower to the ground.