Australian Muscle Car 2020-02

On the track
A
relatively 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.
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
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.
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
rivers 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
inner, using the normal CAMS system of the
ar that’s ahead in the second heat taking the
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