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33rd Historic Winton - Lancia Meadows Print E-mail
Monday, 04 May 2009
 


1927 LANCIA MEADOWS single seater  - Rob Harcourt  Great Aussie Special

The sight of a single seater chain gang Fraser Nash in full flight over the first crest at Collingrove Hillclimb, South Australia in 1961 inspired me to own a vintage racing car.  My dream of owning a Type 35 Bugatti, P3 Alfa Romeo or a Talbot Darraqc was not possible as I was a University student, so I decided to build the next best thing, a 'Vintage Special'.

In 1967 I found a car in Broken Hill called the Meadows Special, and then I acquired a Lancia Lambda Special without an engine from Melbourne.  I combined the best of each  to create the Lancia Meadows and competed at the 1968 Collingrove Vintage Hillclimb.  My goal then was to beat the times of my earlier dream cars.  In the next 3 years I bettered the times of the Bugatti, Alfa Romeo and the Talbot Darraqc culminating in setting a new hillclimb record at Collingrove for pre-War cars of 39.7 seconds, breaking that illusive 40 second barrier. 

Over the past 40 years, the Lancia Meadows and I have travelled the eastern states of Australia; sometimes winning, sometimes not, but always enjoying the thrill of competing in a car that I have created.

The Lancia Meadows has competed at Collingrove , Mallala, AIR, Adelaide Grand Prix, Philip Island, Winton, Lakeland Hillclimb, Geelong Sprints, Leyburn Sprints, Mt Tarengarra Hillclimb, Amaroo, Oran Park, Eastern Creek, Wakefield Park, Grafton Hillclimb, Lakeside, Surfers Paradise, Albert Park, Picnic Point Hillclimb, Mt Cotton Hillclimb, Noosa Hillclimb, Rob Roy Hillclimb, Speed on Tweed, a sprint at the old Leyburn Circuit and has held the lap record for Group J at Amaroo, Oran Park, Lakeside and Eastern Creek. In addition, both my sons have enjoyed competing in regularity events at the various circuits. One year at Philip Island, the Lancia did 256 kilometers in racing and regularity events.

The chassis is 5th series Lancia Lambda; front end, differential, gearbox and brakes are 7th series Lancia Lambda; the motor is a 1923 4-cylinder Meadows of 3.0 litre capacity.

2009 Historic Winton commemorates 40 years of circuit racing for myself and the Lancia Meadows.

Rob Harcourt  phone 07 3382 6733
 
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