Vintage Collingrove - 2011 Hillclimb Angaston, Barossa Valley Vintage Collingrove Speed HillclimbWeekend is on again this coming spring. Located in superb scenic countryside with majestic red gums and rolling hills just a 90 minute drive from Adelaide and 7 km south of Angaston at the top of the Barossa Valley. Collingrove is most often considered Australia’s premier hillclimb track. Vintage Collingrove is run by the Sporting Car Club of South Australia specifically for vintage style machinery as well as CAMS Group J & K pre-WWII cars. There are classes for racing, sports and touring cars. Certain early post war cars may be accepted on an invitation basis providing they are of ‘vintage’ style and character. If you have been to the famous Vintage Sports Car Club event at Prescott in England, then chances are you will feel at home at Vintage Collingrove, and if you haven’t, well this is probably the next best thing in Australia.   For entrants and friends there is a full weekend of activities. This includes a run on public roads in which unregistered cars provided with permits can participate. There’s also the fun Saturday night ‘Climb Dinner’, the Sunday ‘Partners’ Program’ and in the evening the Roaring Forties café farewell gettogether meal.   Come-and-Run permits are available for entrants who do not have a CAMS competition licence, so this is a very economical way to enjoy your favourite pre-war sporting or touring car.   As they say, “just feel the atmosphere.” The competitive hillclimb is held on Sunday and while the ‘paddock’ obviously has a vintage feel, there is also the spectator car park for ‘collector’ style vehicles. Clubs are welcome to arrange their own display.   So, if you like the idea of vintage Amilcars, Austin 7s, Bentleys, Bugattis, Buicks, Chryslers, Essex, Fords, Rileys and MGs competing in superb countryside, then Vintage Collingrove is a must for you and your family. Spectators are most welcome on the Sunday from 9.00 am for a most reasonable charge. Friday 30th September Meet entrants and others at the ‘Vine Inn Hotel - Welcome Dinner’ Nuriootpa, Barossa Valley. Saturday 1st October Vintage Road & Race Car Tour from Tanunda to the ‘Gungellan Hotel’ Freeling for morning tea, then via Kapunda to the ‘Greenock Aviation Museum’ catered lunch provided for participants, partners and others.The tour returns to Tanunda. Vintage Dinner at Peter Lehmann Winery, Tanunda. Sunday 2nd October Hillclimb at the historic SCCSA Collingrove track. Historic Racing Classes and Come & Run touring entries welcome. Join the Partners’ Programme visiting places of interest. Farewell Dinner at the Roaring Forties Cafe, Angaston. Entries Entry Forms available from the SCCSA Office or at www.sportingcarclubsa.org.au Event Office Contact 08 82715689 (fax 08 8272 5396) Event Committee Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Sporting Car Club of South Australia Inc.

Photos by Richard Abey, Martin Stubbs, Bill HunterMain story with kind permission of Graeme Raper   Altogether, there were 60+ cars entered for the Club Challenge event at Rob Roy Hillclimb in midwinter 2011. Cars varied from a Mini Moke to a brand spanking new Fiat Abarth (Ab4th) 500 in glorious Italian racing red.   As usual, a good number of Austin 7s showed up. The evergreen Trevor Cole was in car 93, Martin Stubbs ( car 182) Peter Ward (car 43) John Marriott (car 50).  All were fitted with skinny tyres that, generally speaking, did not like the cold wet track.   Cold wet weather was good for some and bad for others. Tony Kaefer (Below)  in the yellow and black Ford Escort, explained why the  supercharger fitted tohis car performed well in the cold air, but the racing tyres fitted to his car did not. Click here to see video.

	Tony Kaefer - Supercharged Ford Escort

 

Peter Ward - Austin 7	Adam Coakley - Mini Moke Ute	Tony Kaefer - Ford Escort s/c	Peter Bartold - Fiat Abarth

Tony Kaefer (Ford Escort - car 76)  talks to Bill Hunter about his car on Youtube . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMqOFIY42_c

	Buchanan Special

The lovely little Buchanan (above) was caught out later in the afternoon -  its tyres losing traction on the cold wet track. The car went off the road and became badly damaged, and the driver required ambulance attention.   The big bangers - power and glory Jim Russell’s fabulous Ford V8 (Testa Plata)  roared up the hill in its usual style.   There were a few other big banger Fords present at the meeting, including Graeme Raper’s ex-Frank Walters/ George Reed-built SoCal Special - Car No 41, seen below.  

	Above: Graeme Raper warms the engine of the SoCal special

    Car No 41 (above) represents a quality that typifies  the early post-war days of Australian Motor Racing. It was was written up in the "Sports Cars and Specials" magazine of November 1956 (Price 3 shillings)   The writer - John Bartlett - described it as one of the best-known and most consistent cars ever to race on Australian circuits. It was strongly built, could easily run at 120 mph, and often beat some of the most expensive imported cars.   SoCal was never a non starter, and never retired, in the 70 odd races that owner-driver Frank Walters entered during the two and a half years he owned the car. And in those races -- averaging one a fortnight -- Walters usually managed to finish in the money.   What is more remarkable still is the fact that he always drove the car to every meeting he competed in. He used the car as a personal transport around Sydney between meetings, and did all his own maintenance work on the SoCal in his home garage.   George Reed, Jesse  Griffiths, Frank Walters  &  Alex Xydias    George Reed built SoCal in 1948 using a Ford chassis, a Mercury V8 engine and a standard four box as a basis.   Jesse Griffiths took it over and put in a Wilson preselector box. This was not particularly unusual. Tom Sulman had one on his old Maserati.   Griffiths, who was not at the time a member of the Australian Sporting Car club, took the car to Mt Druitt. But since he was not permitted to race, he offered the car to Frank Walters to drive in the last race.   The cars were already going into the grid. Frank hopped in and drove to the end of the airstrip and back to the grid. That was all the practice he had in it. And SoCal won the race.   Frank was clearly impresed with the car, and managed to buy it. Soon after, he got in touch with an American V8 specialist, Alex Xydias, who ran the SoCal speed shop in Burbank, Southern California.  From then on Xydias actually developed the car by correspondence.   Xydias first sent out the Edelbrock head which was regarded as the basic step.   That worked fine but the stock ignition wouldn't handle anything past about 4200 revs per minute. The American sent out a Kong Guild ignition set up.  With this system Xydias said, the engine could go to 8000 rpm. Frank never exceeded 5500 rpm, and at that speed the engine was as 'clean as can be'.   With the Kong ignition such a success, Frank decided that a special camshaft would be in order. he drew a map of the Mountt Druitt circuit a and marked the rises and falls,  making a note of  the engine’s rpm at various points, the change points -- the lot.   Then he wrote a long description of every move he made during one lap of Mt Druitt. He posted this information to Xydias.   A new camshaft was made specially to match the car to Mt Druitt. Then Xydias completed the job by sending out an Edelbrock triple manifold setup.   All done by correspondence !   Reliabiity   One time, Frank drove the car to Bathurst, took off the windscreen, fitted the aero screen, turned the headlights around and went on the track.   He won one event and came third in the main event after leading up to the last lap, when the brakes failed at the top of the last straight and he had to coast down the straight round the corner and over the line. Two other cars passed him in the process.   He fixed the brakes in the pits, drove to Orange the next morning, ran sixth in his event and drove home to Sydney that night.   In all the SoCal took part in about 70 or 75 races . Frank won the Racing Car Championship at Mount Druitt.in 1954.