On the track
Arelatively cheap, lightweight sportscar with Ford 302 V8 power – it was only a matter of time before the Nagari found its way onto the race track.
The first racing Nagaris appeared in December of 1973 for drivers John Latham and Ranald McLurkin – Latham was an old school friend of the Bolwells. His Canon-sponsored machine (below and inset) was specially prepared by Bolwell and so it was more or less the factory race car.
The Nagari fitted nicely into the production sports car category (Group D), where it faced American muscle in the form of the Corvette Stingray (and later the similarly Ford V8-powered de Tomaso Pantera), Japan’s answer to the E-Type, the 240Z coupe, and the mainstay of the class, the myriad of British roadsters and twoseater coupes: marques such as Triumph, MG, Lotus, Austin Healey and TVR.
Racing success for Bolwell was immediate. McLurkin won in the wet on Boxing Day at Hume Weir; at Calder’s night meeting Latham claimed victory in one race and was runner up to a Corvette in the other.
Soon enough Nagaris were racing in other states: they were particularly strong in NSW, with cars for Steve Webb (father of Supercars driver/team owner Jonathon Webb), Peter Warren and Ross Bond.
While the Nagaris generally enjoyed an engine capacity and power advantage over their opposition (Corvettes aside), getting on top of the existing front runners was no easy task. Group D rules allowed generous freedoms, which meant smaller-engined machines like the Lotus Elan and Triumph GT6 could be developed to a high level. Controversially, a race homologation version of the Lotus Europa, the Lotus 47, was also allowed to run. With its mid-mounted twin-cam Ford engine and openwheeler-style Hewland FT200 transaxle, it was a formidable contender. For a while in Victorian racing the Lotus 47s were unbeatable.
But there was still plenty of development work that could be done on the newcomer Bolwells, as was the case with Ross Bond’s car.
Bond had previously raced an Austin Healey 3000 before switching to a Nagari (he is also famous as the man who bought a Holdenpowered Austin A30 Sports Sedan from a young Victorian driver, only to find that was it too much of a beast for him to handle – thus alerting the world to what Harry Firth had already figured, that young Peter Brock was some kind of driver…).
Bond’s mechanic, Ken Webb, did a deal with Bolwell on a new but disassembled Nagari: chassis, body, seats and dash. They built the car up in Sydney, fitting it with the 302 V8 from Pete Geoghegan’s old Mustang GTA touring car. Master race component fabricator Dave Mawer built a Watts link rear end, provided his own-design 10-inch wheels for the car and did the suspension.
While the Nagaris generally enjoyed an engine capacity and power advantage over their opposition (Corvettes aside), getting on top of the existing front runners was no easy task
Nagari production might have ended in 1974 but the new year would be a watershed season in racing for the Aussie V8 coupe.
Jim Davidson’s high developed Elan took the win at the Oran Park April meeting, but the preliminary race featured Bolwell’s first 1-2-3, with Warren heading home Webb and Chris Clearihan.
But the important event for 1975 was the Australian Tourist Trophy at Calder. For that year CAMS had reinstated this award as a singlerace championship for production sports cars, the ATT having been dropped six years earlier (it was once a very prestigious title, dating back to 1956). In 2017 it was decided that the magnificent ATT perpetual trophy would be awarded to the winning crew of the Bathurst 12 Hour – and it has been ever since.
Warren beat Rex Colliver’s Lotus 47 to win the first heat of the ATT, while Webb, a non starter in the first race, won the second. Different Bolwell drivers had won both races, but in the end Warren was tied on points with Paul Trevethan’s MGB V8.
A farce ensued when Trevethan was declared winner, using the normal CAMS system of the car that’s ahead in the second heat taking the
trophy. But the race regulations stated that ties would be resolved by adding the two race times. Warren lodged a protest and was later declared winner of the Australian Tourist Trophy.
Running the ATT in ’75 for production sports cars was a prelude to giving that category the Australian Sports Car Championship the following year. Here then was a chance for Bolwell to snare a national series title.
But new opposition appeared in the form of Porsche. Previously, Porsches had raced as touring cars in Sports Sedan races, but now the German coupe had been reclassified as a sports car – thus making it eligible for the Australian Sports Car Championship. Not only that, but there was also a de Tomaso Pantera for Rusty French (these days the co-owner of Tickford Racing Mustang Supercars team).
Bond won the opening race of the championship, at Oran Park, but that was about as good as it got for the Bolwells. Beating French’s Pantera was hard enough, but as the series wore on the Porsches of Ian Geoghegan, Alan Hamilton and former Bolwell driver Latham assumed control.
The ASCC would be won by Porsche drivers (including Allan Moffat in 1980) for each of the next five years. But the Bolwells weren’t done just yet.
In fact, Ross Bond was unlucky not to
win the championship in 1977. Having won two of the four rounds, the Bolwell driver led the championship as they headed into the finale at Winton. He really only a decent points finish at Winton, but an oil pump failure put paid to that as Porsche won again.
The championship opener at Baskerville in ’79 was notable for the fact that it boasted no less than six Nagaris – the most ever seen in one race. But it was another Porsche 1-2, and with Ross Bond retiring from racing halfway through the season, the Nagaris never really figured again.
Sill for a low-volume Melbourne-built sports car to compete with and sometimes beat the best Porsche had to offer – and the Hamilton 911 Turbo and 934 were effectively factory cars, as Hamilton was the Australian Porsche distributor – was a pretty decent effort.
And when this year’s Bathurst 12 Hour victors hold aloft that magnificent Australian Tourist Trophy, they’ll see the inscriptions of all the ATT winners that came before them, along with their cars – from some of the biggest and most prestigious automotive houses in the world: the likes of Ferrari, Porsche, Maserati, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Lotus and Aston Martin.
And Bolwell.