Phillip Island Classic, Australia Post War Cars

Story and photos by Vince Johnson

Overseas cars were back at the island on March 9-12 after an absence of almost three years, for the Southern Hemisphere’s largest historic and classic race meeting. There were Formula 1 and Sports Cars from the United Kingdom and Europe, and Californians Ernie and Elaine Nagamatsu returned with Old Yeller 2 to enjoy more laps of the 4.4km (2.7mi) circuit with the immediate post-war sports and racing cars.

Eleven categories of racing meant the track stayed live all day while outside the course car clubs filled the Gardner straight perimeter. The go-kart track – a mini version of the full size one – and food and merchandise vendors were kept busy all weekend. In the Expo pavilion there were special displays, with this year’s Best Car award going to Pam & Phil Lemm’s 1961 Renault 4cv, still with its original family. Friday evening saw a street display in nearby Cowes and the weekend was a celebration of motoring history dating back to the twenties.

Private practice began on Thursday with qualifying and racing from Friday. Categories included Historic Touring, Group S and Sports Cars, pre-war sports & racing cars with competition history, F1, F5000 and Indy Cars, Group C & A and Formula Ford, while the Regularity runs rewarded consistent lap times.

With an overseas racing heritage from two continents, the 1962 Ferrari 196SP Dino of Peter Harburg was entered in Regularity. Chassis 0806’s first race was as a 248 SP, entered by the North American Racing Team in that year’s Sebring 12 Hours. It then returned to Maranello, received a 2.6 litre (158ci) V8 and ran in the Nurburgring 1000kms with Pedro and Ricardo Rodriguez retiring after a spin, having completed four laps. With a 2 litre (122ci) V6 fitted, the now 196SP crossed the pond again, continuing its racing in the US with Doug Thiem, Bob Grossman and Tibor von Imrey. Now onto its third continent, Saturday afternoon saw Peter’s driving bring it home 4th from over sixty entries.

Among them, the Ferrari P4 replica of Aaron Lewis certainly looked the part. An early example by Bailey Cars, Johannesburg, its 4.8 litre (292ci) quad-cam V12 started life in a 400i, although as Aaron explained,

“We’ve replaced every internal except the crank, given it higher compression, more lift and duration and it has an extra 130-140 horsepower over standard. It’s tuned for 98 octane and is very smooth with a lot of torque. The 5-speed gearbox is out of a Porsche 944 Turbo. It’s got very long ratios and would be better if it had a lower diff as I haven’t used 5th gear here. Rubber is 12s rear and 9s front. It was built pretty much as a road car so we’ve lowered the car more than 15mm (0.6in) at the rear, changed all the spring rates and fitted double-adjustable Penske shock absorbers.

“It was a little bit ‘taily’ in the fast corners but it was also terrifically windy on Friday. It felt like roll-oversteer from the rear so we lowered the rear a bit and raised the front a tiny bit but the biggest issue was I got blown halfway across the track by the crosswind. I first felt it into turn 1 and midway through it just jinked left on me.

“The P4 era was the beginning of aerodynamics but I don’t think the trim tabs at the front do anything. They need to catch air but these just change its direction so we’re going to try ones with curvature. The beauty of the P4 is it’s a very slippery shape; the test is you knock it into neutral at 200kph (125mph) down the straight and you don’t slow down. It weighs 1150kg (2530 lb) and has under 40 litres of fuel as only one tank is connected.”

Evergreen Regularity competitor John Hardy knows his way around the Island circuit, proving the most consistent in Saturday morning’s run in his Alpine Renault A110. West Australian Steven Boyle was also back with his Fiat 125T, sharing paddock space alongside the Lancia Fulvia HF run by Iain and Leanne Simpson. Alfa Romeos rounded out the other post-war Italians.

The Group S category was separated into the ‘Bomber’ and ‘Mosquito’ squadrons, with Ernst Luthi’s Alpine Renault A110 the lone French car among the Alfas, Philip-Jon Buggee’s Fiat 124 Spyder, Phillip Powell’s Ferrari 308GT4 Dino and Ross Jackson’s De Tomaso Pantera.

In the ‘Mosquito’ 1.6 to 2-litre class Matt Magraith’s Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV led most of the group home with three wins and a 2nd in the four races. Hugh Harrison’s 1979 Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV 2.0 in the Bombers took 2nd in all four races to Mike Byrne’s 1975 Lotus S7. In the under 2-litre Historic Touring Cars Mick Stupka was busy keeping his1954 Citroën 11D out of trouble, surrounded by the Minis and Cortinas.

The Formula 1 cars ran together in five races with the F5000, Groups Q&R Racing, Indy Cars and Invited entries over the weekend, and in a F1-only race midday on Sunday the Phillip Island Historic Grand Prix.

From New South Wales, Guido Belgiorno-Nettis invariably brings his two 1985 F1 156/85 Ferraris in their Stefan Johansson (#28) and Michele Alboreto (#27) livery. He set the pace on Friday, winning race 1 in the number 28 car. Belgian Marc Devis took Saturday morning’s race in the 1974 Surtees TS16, but the afternoon clash went to the 1977 Shadow DN8 of UK driver Martin O’Donnell, as did both of Sunday’s races. The F1-only Historic GP on Sunday was a 36km (22mi) affair. Irishman James Hagan in his ex-James Hunt 1985 Hesketh 308/1 had O’Donnell’s measure, taking the race by two and a half seconds with Guido in the Alboreto #27 in third.

However, the Formula 1 cars weren’t the only Grand Prix racers at the circuit, as we will see in Part 2.

With thanks to Aaron Lewis & Peter Harburg