GARDNER Carburettor. BOB NEWBY Clutch & Belt Primary-drive.

PROVENANCE

I first became aware of #7353 late in the '90s from afeature article in UK "Classic Bike" on Bernie Allen, a noted Nortonrestorer and replica builder, who had just finished it as his first carproject. I had been running a Norton 650SS in historic bikes for aboutten seasons, and in addition to a life-long passion for Nortons (afavorite uncle owned one when I was a child), I had also loved Cooperair-cooleds since I followed Lex Davison in the Irvings and watchedMurray Rainey in the modified Mk IX at Albert Park in the mid-50s.

A friend took me along to the first Goodwood Revival meeting in 1998where I saw the car in the flesh for the first time. Soon after myreturn to Australia, I found Bernie was offering it for sale afterwinning a couple of 750 Formula championships, and after almost a yearof negotiation, I bought it in 2000, went over to take delivery fromBernie, and imported it soon after. I remain in contact with Bernie whohas helped out with tips and still keenly follows the car.

I am about to send him a photo of it he has requested of Sir JackBrabham with the car at the recent VHRR Presentation Dinner where theorganiser David Palstra displayed it after Rob Roy. He is also thrilledit will appear at Albert Park.

David and I are entered with our respective air-cooleds in the MastersGames hillclimb at Camperdown in February, then I will run my Lotus TwinCam 7 at Phillip Island in Group Sc in March (just got an "e" from MikeByrne who runs a similar car - usually up at the pointy end - to tell mehe has just finished rebuilding the gearbox of mine), then the GP in theCooper. After the GP, Lindsay Urquhart has agreed to loan me an Amal GPcarb to fit to the Coooper to try to correct sluggish performance offthe start, caused probably by the relatively poor performance of theGardner slide carb low down. It never bothered Bernie Allen, who onlyran circuits, but since (apart from the odd mid-week meeting organisedby Gary Simkin, air-cooled owner and editor of the very appropriatelynamed newsletter dedicated to them "Loose Fillings" and GEAR atWakefield Park) there are so few proper races for small capacityair-cooleds, I usually only get to run sprints and hill climbs. It willrun however at the Easter bike meeting at Broadford where they arelaying on a couple of air-cooled races as demonstrations, but I'm notsure whether it will be with the Gardner or the Amal in place.

I used to run Regularities with it at the Island and Sandown (it alsoled the parade at Sandown a couple of years ago for the Coooper factoryAnniversary), but probably for reasons of speed differential, theyinsist on putting it in Pre-War, and I get bored passing and lapping allthe lumbering giants except for the odd ERA. International FormulaJunior Chairman (and former UK 500 Club President) Duncan Rabagliati hada guest drive of my car at this year's Island Historics, and I am alwayshappy to loan it out for Regularity or anything else if I am otherwiseoccupied with the Lotus or my Group Nc Mini-Cooper S (the poor middlechild which languishes at the back of the shed; I really should sell iton so someone gets more out of it).

 You might find the attached display notice for the car useful, along with the complete history of its activitywhilst in my hands. I alsohave some lovely b & w shots of the car competing at various hills inthe UK in the 50s, provided by a previous owner, Les Stone, butunfortunately I don't have them digitised. They will appear however onthe display board I am making up for Albert Park.Hope to catch up with you somewhere.   

Graeme Noonan. 
Prev - Next >>