Sydney Harbour Concours Multi-layered Lamborghini Miura headlines Aussie show
Concours narrowly avoids the Coronavirus lockdown
Luxuriating at its new location of Swifts Mansion, at Darling Point, the Sydney Harbour Concours of 5-7 March managed to dodge downpours and sneak in before the worldwide pandemic precautions caused event postponements throughout the usually crammed Spring classic car calendar. Enthusiasts from across the state seized the opportunity to showcase their fresh restorations, and one drove the 565-miles-each-way journey from Melbourne to give his car its show debut – some 70 years after buying it.
Lamborghini Miura S
William Zuccon, one of Australia’s best-known architects, exhibited his newly restored 1970 Lamborghini Miura S. He explained, ‘When I was nine years old, I saw a magazine – which I still have – with a picture of a Lamborghini Miura in it, and I vowed to get myself one some day. I’ve owned this car for 20-odd years, but I’ve just completed a four-year restoration which has also returned the car to its original shade of Miura Blu.’
The Lamborghini is a rare original Australian market right-hand drive export. ‘It was originally finished in lime green, but before it left the factory it was repainted Miura Blu at the behest of the first owner. The detail of this restoration is amazing, in that underneath the new coat of Blue, the restorers painted it lime green, recreating the exact-same finish the car had when it was new.’
The Miura won both the Concours’ ‘Mambo Italiano’ class, and Best in Show.
Jaguar XK120
This early aluminium-bodied 1949 Jaguar XK120, which won the ‘Wind in your Hair’ class for open
cars, was the first of its kind to race in Australia. Leaving the Browns Lane factory in November 1949, it was bought new by Tom Hawkes, and arrived in Australia in April 1950.
Its first race – the first for any Jaguar XK120 in Australia – was at Balcombe Army Camp in Victoria two months later, where it finished ahead of Tony Gaze’s Alta Sports.
Gaze had recently returned to his native Australia, having recommended to Freddie March that he allow racing at RAF Westhampnett, resulting in the establishment of what became the Goodwood Motor Circuit.
Hawkes won his class in the Victorian Trophy at Corio in November 1950, and the car was later campaigned at Bathurst, Longford, Lowood and Ballarat. Wing Commander Ian Boughton restored the car in the late Sixties, and sold it to its current owner in 1975 for £5000.
The current owner bought the car without telling his wife, who subsequently found out about it when their bank manager telephoned the house to confirm the withdrawal. Happily husband, wife and Jaguar are still together.
Rolls-royce Silver Ghost
The result of a 15-year restoration by owners David and Diana Berthon, this Rolls-royce is one of just six surviving examples of a Silver Ghost London to Edinburgh Continental, the marque’s only true sports car. David explained, ‘It was first delivered with a Connaught Torpedo body to an owner in London in November 1913, but was quickly made available to the British War Ministry for home or active service in the Great War. At one point, noted in the chassis records, it was located at 18 Bendlestrasse in Berlin.
‘It was auctioned at Earls Court in 1919 to a doctor in Chester, before arriving in Australia in 1925 and fitted with a Propert’s Tourer body for a Sydney doctor. Over a 40-year period it was rebodied as a saloon, a tow-truck, a shootingbrake and then as another saloon before being fitted with its current Peels of Brisbane body, taken
from a 1913 Sunbeam Six Litre, in 1966. By 1966 the car was owned by prominent Canberra Rolls-royce collector Faris Palfreyman, and eventually passed to his grandson Achalen Holmes in 1990, then Dr Doug Bristow in 1996.’
David bought the car in 2001 and restored it over a 15-year period, his efforts culminating in the Best in Show trophy at Motorclassica 2017.
‘This chassis is one of approximately 22 higher performance London to Edinburgh Continental s built in 1913,’ says David. ‘It has a two-inch-higher radiator than a standard Silver Ghost, a higher compression engine, four-speed gearbox rather than three, larger 25-inch wheels and a louvred bonnet – the same specification as the two cars that came first and third in the 1913 Spanish Grand Prix, and the first three places on the Austrian Alpine Trial the same month.
‘The 1913 race was the only time Rolls-royce has entered a Grand Prix, and having established its sporting prowess in these two events the company made the decision to no longer take part in competitive motor sport.’
Muntz Jet
Restorer Justin Hills, whose previous restoration, a customised Jaguar XK120, picked up four top Concours awards last year, used the Sydney Harbour Concours to debut his latest work, a much more sympathetic restoration of a Muntz Jet.
‘The interior of this car is the best of any Muntz,’ said Concours organiser James Nicholls, ‘in that it’s totally unrestored and original, but in the best condition. Obviously it’s a recent import – all Jets were originally sold in the US.’
As a Lincoln V8-engined 1954 car, this was one of the last Jets built from a five-year production run, an attempt by car dealer Earl Muntz to turn Frank Kurtis’ sports-racer into a road car. Production began in 1949 at Muntz’ factory in Glendale, California, before logistics issues forced a move to the more central, better-connected location of Evanston, Illinois in 1951 after just 40 cars were built – with no dealer network, Muntz sold his cars directly from the factory. A year later, he moved production upstate to Chicago, before a $400,000 loss forced him to shut up shop in 1954. Although uncompetitively expensive at $5500 – Ferrari money at the time – it was arguably America’s first sports car, predating both the Chevrolet Corvette and Ford Thunderbird. Just 198 were built. This Jet won the Pushing The Envelope concours class for revolutionary design.
Singer Roadster
This 1949 Singer Roadster, humble in much of this company, was making its show debut, and promptly picked up the Preservation Award. ‘It’s owned by 91-year-old Rey Oakes,’ Nicholls explained. ‘He bought it when he was 21, and has looked after it for the last 70 years! It’s never been restored, is in timewarp condition, and this was the first time he has shown it anywhere. He brought it all the way from Melbourne especially.’