Sydney Harbour Concours Delage takes top honours Down Under as season begins
Dual-role Delage wows crowds at Sydney Harbour Concours
Aunique Delage designed to win both races and concours continued to fulfil its creator’s wishes by scooping Best in Show at the 2021 Sydney Harbour Concours. Elsewhere, the event celebrated the career of Sir Jack Brabham and 60 years of the Jaguar E-type, and saw an array of freshly restored Seventies supercars take their concours bow.
Delage D6-70 Special
Recently returned to its original 1936 specifications in an exacting restoration, this Delage D6-70 Special took the Prix d’honneur for Best in Show. ‘How fitting – Louis Delage originally commissioned Joseph Figoni to design and build it to be capable of winning both the 1936 Le Mans 24 Hours and a Concours d’elegance,’ said owner John Lawson of the Figoni et Falaschi-bodied fixed-head coupé.
The Delage proved its endurance at the concours too, by being driven between Melbourne and Sydney in a 900-kilometer (559-mile) round trip by Lawson, aged 81, and his son Andrew.
Lawson continued, ‘The 1936 Le Mans race was cancelled because of a strike, but the car won its first Concours d’elegance laurels at Deauville in June 1936. Repainted dark blue, it came first in its class and fourth overall at Le Mans with Jacques de Valence de Minardiere and Louis Gérard in 1937.
‘Soon after that Le Mans race, the unique coupé body was transferred to a Delahaye chassis, and was sadly melted down during World War Two to recover the aluminium. At the end of the war, the original Delage chassis, wearing a different body, was taken to the USA by a returning serviceman. Presumably he and his successors drove their unusual car very sparingly prior to storing it, because it had only travelled 24,000km (14,913 miles) when it came to Australia nearly 60 years later.
‘John Sheard of the Australian Delage Club imported it in the Nineties as a restoration project and sold it to historic car and aeroplane enthusiast Bruce Thomas. Thomas removed the body and set to work recreating the original 1936 Figoni et Falaschi coachwork, the only alteration being a slightly raised roofline to accommodate Thomas while wearing a helmet, so he could race it. Meanwhile the mechanical components were restored to original Le Mans specifications.’ Lawson bought the car in 2012, and returned it to original specification, reshaping the roofline.
Lamborghini Countach LP400
This Lamborghini Countach LP400 won Best Restoration – a job that was only completed the day before the show. An early ‘Periscopica’ car, it was one of the first in Australia.
Owner William Zuccon explained, ‘It arrived here in early 1977 and was delivered to collector Brian Roper – eventually. Prior to it being delivered, and apparently much to the chagrin of Roper, Modern Motor magazine borrowed it, featuring it on its March 1977 cover with the words, “We drive the world’s fastest production car!”
‘I bought a copy and it made an indelible impression – I retain it to this day. Then, 20 years later, after having bought my own Countach, I dug the magazine out again after meaning to do so for years. First I noticed that the interior is the same Tobacco shade as my car. Hmmm. I made some more checks, and realised, after having bought it, that my car was the very same car that made me want a Countach in the first place!’
The restoration retained those original Tobacco leather seats untouched, although Zuccon had to go to great lengths to find rare original-source materials such as heel mat rubber and carpet edge trim to finish off the rebuild.
Porsche 911 Carrera 2.7 Targa
Another car whose restoration was completed just in time, this 1976 Porsche 911 Carrera 2.7 Targa was also bought new by Brian Roper. It was restored as a surprise birthday present for its current owner, Benita Jackson, by her husband and son.
It’s rare enough as a right-hand-drive Carrera 2.7 Targa – only 1123 were sold worldwide out of a total model run of 8182 – but Roper’s was one of the earliest examples of a special-order 911, built a full eight years before Porsche formalised its Sonderwunsch (Special Wishes) programme. He specified the car in Minerva Blue Metallic, with the seats trimmed in Dress Mackenzie – the regimental tartan of the Seaforth Highlanders.
Brabham BT19
Rarely seen in public, the car that delivered Sir Jack Brabham his last F1 World Drivers’ Championship starred in a display dedicated to its creator, having been given a shakedown drive at Bathurst the previous week by his grandson Sam. It’s still owned by Repco, the firm that built its V8 engine.
‘Unlike many Formula One teams’ cars, there was only one BT19 built,’ said Concours organiser James Nicholls. ‘Known as “Old Nail,” it won four races to give Brabham the World Constructor’s Championship – the French GP at Reims, the British at Brands Hatch, the Dutch at Zandvoort, and the German at the Nürburgring. Brabham also put it on pole at Watkins Glen, although he retired after the engine blew on lap 55.’ This retirement was painful for Brabham, whose car had demonstrated good reliability throughout the season, because the 1966 US GP was the first where the race organisers broke with the convention of $20,000 prize money and amassed $102,400 for the winning driver.
‘Jack Brabham secured the 1966 Driver’s Championship at the last race of the season, finishing second in Mexico City after a race-long battle with John Surtees,’ said Nicholls. ‘The BT19 was an unusual design for the time, in having a spaceframe chassis with glassfibre bodywork, rather than an aluminium monocoque.’
Dino 246GT
Yet another eleventh-hour finish, this 1974 Dino 246GT has just emerged from a six-year renovation. James Nicholls said, ‘It’s one of just 12 right-handdrive Uk-delivered ‘Chairs and Flares’ GTS to be finished in the unusual colour of Viola, and Ferrari has confirmed that it’s the second-to-last righthand-drive GT ever built.
‘The current owner bought it from Paul Hamilton, who owned it for nearly 40 years, but he’s keen to find out the identity of the first owner. All we know so far is that they were based in Bury, Lancashire, and the car was registered YEN 832M – it still has its original UK numberplates.’