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The Amazing Rattletrap Beach Races In Australia

Five years ago a new event rattled the windows of holiday makers at the Crowdy Head caravan park on the coast of New South Wales in Australia, located three and a half hours north of Sydney.

The event was the suitably named “Rattletrap,” and it consisted of dozens of pre-World War II hot rods and motorcycles running 1/8th of a mile drag races up the beach side by side as dozens of spectators cheered them on.

What the spectators didn’t realize was that this event would become an annual pilgrimage for many Australians in the years that followed, the images you see here are from the 2021 running of the event that drew the largest crowds in Rattletrap’s five year history.

When you attend Rattletrap it’s almost like stepping through a timewarp back to the mid-20th century.

The idea of drag racing on the beach may sound strange at first, but these competitions aren’t held on just any beach. Suitable beaches need a relatively flat elevation change, well compacted sand, and a broad width event at high tide.

With all of those criteria met the real challenge then begins – getting approval from the local council and finding an insurance company that’ll work with you rather than running for the door as soon as they hear the outline of what the event will entail.

Amazingly the members of the Drag-Ens Hot Rod Club managed to get all the boxes ticked, and they’ve done it every year since with a break in 2020 for obvious coronavirus related reasons.

The Drag-Ens Hot Rod Club, Est. In 1962

Although they’d never admit to it, the Drag-Ens Hot Rod Club is the most exclusive and difficult to join hot rod club in Australia. The club was founded back in 1962, making one of the oldest surviving hot rod clubs in the country.

Whereas joining most classic vehicle clubs is simply a matter of filling in a membership application form and submitting the typically affordable annual membership fee, joining the Drag-Ens is a much more challenging process.

Competitors race two-by-two down the 1/8th of a mile track, dodging ruts and clumps of seaweed.

In order to even apply to join you first must prove that you own a pre-1941 hot rod, or that you’re currently engaged in actively building a suitable car.

If you’re accepted on the basis of the fact that you’re building a car you should expect that your progress with the build will be checked, and if you stop working on it your membership can be revoked.

Although this may sound far more strict than you’d expect from a group of fun-loving, free wheeling hot rodders the rules were all implemented for a reason. And as a result the club is now one of the most tight-knit, and respected hot rod organizations in the country.

How To Attend Rattletrap

If you’re in Australia then attending Rattletrap is a simple matter of getting to Crowdy Head in New South Wales and making sure you have accommodation booked, or a tent and camping equipment.

For overseas visitors a little more planning is required. The nearest international airport is in Sydney, and from there a rental car will get you to Crowdy Head in about three and a half hours.

One of the benefits of riding on sand is that when you crash the landings are nice and soft.

You can try your luck booking accommodation at the Crowdy Head caravan park, but you might have more luck booking in accommodation in the larger nearby towns of Port Macquarie, Taree, Harrington, Wingham, or North Haven.

When you’re not at the races there’s a lot to see in this part of Australia.

You might even want to fly in to Sydney then fly out of Brisbane, so you can enjoy the coastal drive north between the two major cities – they’re approximately 910 kms or 565 miles apart and Crowdy Head is nearly in the middle between them.

About The Photographer: Nic Walker

The man responsible for this series of photographs is Nic Walker, one of Australia’s most celebrated photographers who has taken portraits of no less than six Australian prime ministers, including Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott, and Malcolm Turnbull.

Nic studied commercial photography at Canberra Institute of Technology, and landed a job at The Australian Financial Review shortly thereafter.

Over the years he’s also been published in the The Australian Financial Review Magazine, Good Weekend, Sunday Life Magazine, Spectrum, the Sydney Morning Herald, and the Age.

If you would like to read more about Walker or see more of his work you can click here to visit his official website.

The post The Amazing Rattletrap Beach Races In Australia appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/rattletrap-beach-races/
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The Marcos GT: An Unusual Sports Car With A Plywood Chassis

This is a Marcos 1600 GT from 1968, a car that’s remarkable for a few reasons, the most famous of which is that its chassis is made from plywood. Building a car with a plywood chassis sounds like madness now but it made sense when this car was developed in the early 1960s.

The WW2-era de Havilland Mosquito multirole combat aircraft was one of the fastest and most feared warbirds of its time, and it too had a plywood structure – a plywood structure that was co-developed by Frank Costin, the same man who developed the chassis for the Marcos GT.

Fast Facts – Marcos 1600 GT

The Marcos GT series of cars entered production in 1964, they had a lightweight fiberglass body designed by Dennis and Peter Adams, an engine supplied by Volvo, and a unique plywood chassis designed by Frank Costin.
Frank Costin had earlier co-developed the plywood de Havilland Mosquito multirole combat aircraft, the aerodynamic body for a Vanwall that won the first Grand Prix Constructors’ Championship, and a slew of other historically important British automobiles.
Each plywood Marcos GT chassis was formed by glueing together 386 separate plywood pieces that had to be individually cut to shape. The resulting chassis was strong, stiff, and lightweight.
The Marcos GT proved immediately successful on the race track, attracting some of the most important up-and-coming drivers in the UK at the time including Jackie Stewart, Derek Bell, Jackie Oliver, and Jonathan Palmer.

Frank Costin And The Wooden Wonder

British engineer Frank Costin was an Olympic-graqde swimmer in his youth and a music composer later in life, though he had varied interests it was his natural engineering acumen that led to him becoming a legend in his own lifetime.

A cutaway illustration of an early version of the Marcos GT, showing its unusual chassis.

One of the first engineering projects of which he was a member was the development and design of the de Havilland Mosquito, also known as the “Wooden Wonder.” The Mosquito was a plywood-bodied multirole combat aircraft that was one of the fastest, and most feared planes of the Second World War.

After the war Costin was approached by his brother Mike Costin, also a former de Havilland engineer who was working for British automaker Lotus. Mike was well-aware of Frank’s remarkable skills as an aerodynamicist, and he contracted him to design the body of the Lotus Mark VIII.

This work for Lotus led Frank off in a new direction, he began to work extensively with cars, applying modern aircraft aerodynamic theory to automotive design in order to improve performance.

Formula 1 And Sports Car Engineering

It was only 11 years after WWII in 1956 that Tony Vandervell hired Costin as an aerodynamicist, on the back of a recommendation from Lotus-founder Colin Chapman.

Costin was tasked with designing an aerodynamic body for the 1957 Vanwall VW 5, a car that would go on to win the first ever Formula One Constructor’s Championship.

This is British engineer, aerodynamicist, and car designer Frank Costin, standing with an early prototype of the plywood chassis destined for the Marcos GT.

Over the next few years Frank Costin would work on a slew of automotive projects including car designs for Lister, Maserati, DTV, and Lotus. He co-founded Marcos Engineering Ltd. with business partner Jem Marsh, the company name was formed by taking the first three letters from each man’s surname – Marsh and Costin.

The cars developed by Marcos became famous for their unusual looks and engineering, and their race track prowess – competing and winning on race tracks around the UK.

The Marcos GT

The Marcos GT was the first production car released by the British automaker, it was first offered for sale in 1964 and most were initially sold as kit cars.

At the time of its release the Marcos GT made headlines for two key reasons, the first was the eye-catching design of the fiberglass body that had been styled by Dennis and Peter Adams, and the second was the unusual chassis that was made from plywood.

This (low resolution) image shows the version of the Marcos GT chassis that made it into production. It’s made up of 386 separate plywood pieces that had to be cut out and glued together in a time-consuming process.

Back at the time of the car’s release the de Havilland Mosquito was still relatively fresh in people’s minds, and the fact that the Marcos GT chassis was developed by one of the men who worked on the Mosquito gave it no small amount of street cred.

The Marcos GT was built over multiple generations between 1964 and 1990, with a gap in production between 1972 and 1981. Many versions and variants were offered, the two biggest differences typically being the use of a plywood or steel chassis, and which engine was used.

Engines varied in displacement from the 1.5 liter Ford Kent inline-four through to the 3.0 liter Volvo B30 straight six and the 3.0 liter Ford Essex V6.

Today the many surviving examples of the Marcos GT are sight after by enthusiasts and collectors as an interesting alternative to cars from similar British marques like TVR and Lotus.

In this image you can see the front section, a square tubular steel front subframe that houses the engine and transmission components.

The Marcos 1600 GT Shown Here

The car you see here is a 1968 Marcos 1600 GT, this was the final year that the plywood chassis was used before it was replaced with a more traditional steel chassis from 1969 onwards – a shift that reduced the time required to make each chassis by 15 hours.

The first generation of the Marcos GT was fitted with the Volvo P1800 B18 engine, however this was dropped in 1966 in favor of the Ford Kent inline-four engine.

Other versions of the Kent engine were later offered including the more powerful 1600cc variant that is fitted to the Marcos shown here.

This Marcos 1600 GT has been recently restored and importantly it retains its matching-numbers engine and chassis. Interestingly this car previously belonged to the Duke of Hamilton, which is all documented in its history files.

If you’d like to read more about this car or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on Collecting Cars.

Here you see Costin showing the underside of the prototype chassis. The forward section of the production car chassis would be a square section tubular steel subframe that bolts to the plywood chassis.

Images courtesy of Collecting Cars

The post The Marcos GT: An Unusual Sports Car With A Plywood Chassis appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/marcos-gt-plywood-chassis/
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1 Of 14 Ever Made: The Rare 1989 Isdera Spyder 036i

This is the Isdera Spyder 036i, just 14 are believed to have been made by the secretive German automaker, and the example shown here might just be the fastest of them all.

Isdera first introduced the Spyder 036i in 1987, it was the newly updated version of the Spyder 033i which had been unveiled in 1982. Both cars feature a tubular steel spaceframe chassis with a lightweight fiberglass body, and a mid-mounted engine from Mercedes.

Fast Facts – The Isdera Spyder 036i

Isdera was founded in 1982 by automotive designer Eberhard Schulz, who had earlier designed the 1969 Erator GTE and the 1978 Mercedes-Benz CW311 concept car.
Mercedes declined to put the CW311 concept car into production, so Schulz decided to do it himself, renaming it the Isdera Imperator 108i.
The Isdera Spyder was developed as the similarly-styled but lower-powered sibling to the Imperator, the most obvious external difference between the two cars being the lack of a roof on the Spyder.
The Isdera Spyder 036i is powered by a mid-mounted Mercedes-Benz M103 inline-six with a displacement of 3.0 liters, power is sent to the rear wheels via a 5-speed manual transaxle.

Isdera – The Little-Known German Supercar Maker

The cars built by Isdera are prized by their owners, relatively few can afford them and many of those than can are put off by the minimum 12 month wait time – as each car is built specifically for each customer.

The design of the Spyder 036i is closely related to the earlier 033i from 1982, and there’s a strong family resemblance to the Isdera Imperator 108i supercar.

The company was founded due to the stubbornness of former Porsche designer Eberhard Schulz, he had developed the 1978 Mercedes-Benz CW311 concept car but Mercedes opted to not put it into production. So Schulz decided to do it himself.

A new tubular steel spaceframe chassis was designed, a 5.0 liter Mercedes V8 was fitted behind the driver compartment, and a lightweight body was formed from fiberglass. Schulz called it the Isdera Imperator 108i, and it was one of the most futuristic production supercars in the world when it was unveiled in 1984.

The success of the first cars released by the company, the Spyder 033 and the Imperator 108i ensured its ongoing success, despite their high prices and 12 month wait times. The only way to order a car was to call the CEO on the telephone and chat to him directly.

The company remains in business today, it’s released a number of models over the years including the Spyder and Imperator mentioned above, as well as the Commendatore, Autobahnkurier, and the 100% electric 2018 Commendatore GT.

The Isdera Spyder 036i

The Isdera Spyder 036i was released in 1987 as an update to the Spyder 033i model series from 1982.

The interior of the car is unique to say the least, the driver has a tachometer in front of them in true race car style, with the speedometer, stereo, and some other gauges off to their right in a separate console.

Whereas the 033i was fitted with a 1.8 liter four-cylinder Mercedes-Benz engine, and the 033i-16 was fitted with a 2.3 liter four-cylinder Mercedes-Benz engine, the 036i was given a markedly more powerful 3.0 liter inline-six Mercedes-Benz powerplant, producing 217 bhp and giving the car notably better performance.

Much like the Imperator, the Spyder 036i has a tubular steel spaceframe chassis, a fiberglass body, two seats, and a mid-engined configuration with power going to the rear wheels.

The engineering, styling, performance, and handling of the Spyder 036i has been winning it fans for decades. The key issue for enthusiasts is that they’re expensive and exceedingly rare, with just 14 believed to have been made.

The 1989 Isdera Spyder 036i Shown Here

The car you see here is a 1989 Isdera Spyder 036i from the second year of the model’s production. It left the factory finished in Black with a Violet leather interior and was delivered to its first owner, Mr Keller, in Munich.

This car was upgraded by Isdera in 2011, with a new 276 bhp 3.6 liter engine from AMG.

In mid-July of 2011 this car was sent back to Isdera to have some upgrades applied at the company’s factory in Hildesheim, Germany.

The front and rear wings flared and then finished in metallic silver, this allowed larger 16 inch alloy wheels to be fitted, running Toyo Proxes tires. The original Violet interior was stripped out and reupholstered in blue leather, while Recaro Sportster seats were installed, and the door cards trimmed in dark blue to match.

Perhaps the most significant modification happened in the engine bay, the original Mercedes 3.0 liter inline-six was removed and replaced by a more modern 276 bhp 3.6 litrer engine from AMG – offering an almost 30% increase in power at the rear wheels.

Since the conversion works were completed the car has been shown at some events, and it’s now accompanied by a digital history file containing photographs, a letter from Isdera listing the work carried out, and a spare wheel.

If you’d like to read more about the car you can click here to visit the listing. It’s due to cross the auction block on the 14th of may in Monaco.