Motormarques.com | Classic car revival

Lloyd Hocking - car number 105 Austin - Renault.

"Renault Dauphine engine. 840 CC Gordini tune. It has had a fair bit taken
off the head and it has only been ported and polished. It runs one great big
carburettor. A big SU. It runs on heavy oil because if you don't it develops a
real flat spot because the piston rises to quickly. I have had the car for
23 or 24 years."

MM:- It's a good-looking machine.

"Yes, yeah. David Lowe's wife used to race it back in the 1950s. It is extremely
reliable, but having said that it will probably conk out. It revs very freely. Up to
about eight, eight and a half. I bought it in pieces years ago for $3000. I have
had about $20,000 worth of fun out of it."

John Hardy - Renault Alpine. Car number 110.

He gives me the Renno Alpeen pronunciation of people trying to get the sound right.

"I just say Alpine Rennoh. We're in Australia now not France."
 

MM: - The engine looks rather hotter than I would have expected.
 

"It is a full works group 4 specification car. It was never run by the factory. It was
sold with a heavier body than the works car."
 

MM: - What's the body made of?
 

"Fibreglass. It has a central backbone chassis. The engine is a Marc Minutet(?) -
Alpine's specialist engine builder. The Gordini engine had a 125 hp engine: this
one has 165."
 

MM: - Was that originally a Gordini design head and all that sort of stuff?
 

"Yeah, but Minutet developed it. It runs a 11.3:1 compression with significantly more domed pistons, bigger valves. Makes maximum horsepower at 7800.
Today I am using eight grand and a couple of times. I go to Phillip Island and Sandown and I run some of the Rob Roy historic events, and I will also do
Mount Tarrengower in October. We were in France last July/August. I had long service leave from work that started in 1976. We need 12,000 km through
France Italy and the UK. It was different this time because last time we went I spent such a long time at Dieppe where the Alpine factory is located.
In Paris I went out to Billancourt drove on their track one of the Alpine mid engined Megane Sports - a 3 1/2 litre, 390 hp, six, under the care of Jean-

Pascal. I had met him at the last Grand Prix at Adelaide in about 1995."
 

Nigel Gray - Singer	Dick O'Keefe - Photon	Ted Geermans - Lagonda Rapier

Don Green approaches the steep section of the hill in his Jaguar MK2 - apparently not noticing water in the dam for the first time in years