Vintage Collingrove Hillclimb, 2016

Robert Sales, Fiat 508 is detailed below.

Story and photos by Vince Johnson

Sunday 2 October, 2016
Following an exceptionally damp winter, the Barossa Valley north of Adelaide was at its greenest for the Sporting Car Club of SA’s annual Vintage Hillclimb meet. Festivities got underway with a Welcome Dinner at the Brauhaus Hotel in Angaston on Friday evening, followed by Saturday’s tour of the wine district. Morning tea and a light lunch left plenty of room for the Annual Dinner at the Wanera Wine Bar Restaurant that night, but on Sunday morning it was down to business at the club’s Collingrove track.

Clouds threatened early but came to nothing and the damp patches in ‘The Dip’ after the timing box gave competitors no problems. First up the hill were the Group J entries. Oldest by far, and now into triple figures, was Rod Crawford’s Model T racer but Andrew Mitchell (Amilcar) took class honours for the day, narrowly from Phillip Hallo’s Austin 7.

50th anniversary plaque

The Little Blue Balilla Special

On the line at Collingrove, the Sales Balilla Special looks very good.

Running against the clock in Group K was Robert Sales from Victoria in his 1933 Fiat 508. He’d originally intended it to be a road car but when his Dodge-engined Special hadn’t been able to make an event it became his back-up, and since then has competed at the Rob Roy and Mt Tarrangower hillclimbs and the Eddington Sprints in Victoria, as well as at Collingrove. As can be seen from Robert’s account of its history, he’s not only its driver.

Large Solexes are from a Peugeot 404, so the free flow exhaust system was necessary, also fabricated by Sales.

“The chassis and other mechanical bits were the left-overs from a 508S restoration in Castlemaine (130 km north of Melbourne). This car – to my knowledge the only genuine 508S in the country – had been raced overseas and had the bigger brakes from a 508C, which I’ve fitted to my car. The only original bit in the body is the scuttle, replaced in the 508S restoration, which I patched up for mine. I made the body frame and the rest of the body, except for skinning the rear, and made the grille, including the patterns for the aluminium surround. The fuel tank is a swap find from a Morris 8 or Austin, though it fits quite well.

Post war 1100 fits right in place and yet puts out a bit more hp.

“The original side valve engine, gearbox and diff for this chassis, or what was left of them, were only suitable for boat anchors, so I’ve fitted a post-war 1100 engine, gearbox and diff. It’s had the ports polished, camshaft reground, flywheel lightened and been balanced. It had twin Solex carburetors from a Fiat 1100 but I had trouble with those so I fitted slightly larger Solexes from a Peugeot 404 and a free flow exhaust.

Cockpit of the 508S.

“The gearing is all standard 1100, though some changed ratios would be good. Suspension and steering are standard 508 with self-made friction shock absorbers to the original 508S pattern. I’ve now fitted bolt-on wire wheels that I think were from a Morris with the same size rims. Next plans for the car are to get it re-registered for road use and enjoy the spring weather. It’s a great little car that gets a lot of attention wherever it goes.”

Since these photos were taken, Sales has put on wire wheels.

After the day’s six runs Chris Frost’s Hartwig Fargo had the legs on the Specials of Peter Wilson (Riley 12HP) and Gerard Miller (Plymouth). In the Vintage Sports and Touring category Richard Creasy was out to score in his 1925 Amilcar G but cubic inches gave Jim Scammell’s ex-South African GP Railton Terraplane the class win. The invited Post War group usually take fastest times of the day but this year five of the Group K cars had bragging rights over them.

Andrew Stevens ran the family’s pre-war engined 1500cc Fiat Special in the untimed ‘Come and Run’ group, as did Jim Scammell’s son Edward in the Railton. Succession planning is a priority in the Sporting Car Club’s ranks, and some fathers are having to come up with plenty of reasons why experience counts for more than outright speed. Ultimately though, these events are all about the cars rather than the clock, and winners were rewarded with bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon from the Creasy family’s Clare Valley vineyard. These probably didn’t last very long at the Farewell Dinner that evening at the SA Company Store Restaurant, not far out of Angaston.

With special thanks to Robert Sales & Jim Scammell

A Gallery of Cars from Collingrove