February Meeting 2020

Ray Fowler Guest Speaker

Photos by Brian Caldersmith and Tim Shellshear

Inside a Mechanical Marvel

If you haven’t been to a meeting in a while, come to this one! You’ll never again hear a story like this or see inside such a mechanical marvel.

mechanical-marvel.jpg

A while ago I heard about an old gentleman who, during the war, regularly drove his father from Sydney to Newcastle aged 11.  More recently his 16-year old granddaughter drove him around Mt Panorama in a vintage MG.  
 
Fascinated, I asked to meet him.  He laughed and asked if I knew his age.  Difficult as he looked so sharp.
 
Last year I asked him to recommend a good vintage car machine shop.  He laughed and laughed.  I went to his Hurstville garage where he showed me the derrière of a chassis displaying a funny set of gears, an amazing looking 16 valve head and a MG 2-bearing J2 block re-cast with 5 bearings!
 
He told me he was building a J2 special on an original J2 chassis similar to the famous one he raced in 1950s in the Bathurst 100, lapping in 3 minutes, and Mt Druitt where he diced with Brabham in a Cooper Bristol.  He won the 1954 Parramatta Park formula three-lap scratch race.
 
The more he showed me the more I realised he is an amazing engineer who tells a fascinating story. 
 
But he wouldn’t show anyone, as he needed more time to assemble the major components. In the past six months he has worked on the mechanicals like he did in his 20s.  He even ordered a new trailer for the special and bought a new tow car.
 
In December, after his 91st birthday he laughed and said “I will be ready in February to show the major components while it is in pieces”.

So come to the next VSCCA meeting on Tuesday, 11 February, 7.30 and hear inspirational Ray Fowler talk about his fascinating innovations and the “real Bathurst races”. 

This is a rare chance.  He says he won’t talk about it again until he has raced his new car.

~ Noel McIntosh