Just wondering if anyone has any colour pics or can tell me the colours of the 2nd, 3rd and fourth place minis from Bathurst 1966.?
1st place AAltonan/Holden -got there colours
2nd place Stanley/Gibson- Green maybe yellow front??
3rd place- Mcphee/Mulholland- grey/beige or some light colour??
4th place- Mander/Davis- green or maybe blue or black??
any help appreciated, as i,ve drawn up a posterprint and have guessed the colours so far.
thanks
shane

Looks like black andwhite

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Also what was the colour of the winning car, no.13? I have read from different sources that it was British racing green/white roof and others that it was Castrol green/white roof. Does anyone have colour photos of this car as well ?

Was BRG/white, for sure.
I was there...

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

No - the three BMC entered cars were castrol cars and painted castrol green and white. A previous "mini experience" magazine goes in great detail about the cars including comments from Rauno himself.

As an aside - a brother of mine and Kevin (1310/71) owned one of the 66 castrol carsfor a few years and it clearly castrol green. He sold it to another mini enthusiast who wanted it because of its heritage but sadly it was destroyed in a serioous traffic accident.

i've got the colour of the winning mini, its just the others i'm not 100% sure. will PM Watto, the king of this knowledge.

Firstly, the idea of Castrol Green seems to always get people arguing. According to Bob holden and Rauno, the three BMC cars were painted Castrol Green. However, in all the black & white photos of the day, the car looks too dark to be Castrol Green. There are a number of cars currently painted Castrol Green - namely the ex-Don Holland lightweight, the ex-Laurie Stewart Broadspeed and the ex-Lakis Manticas Buckle. All of these are what is considered today to be correct for Castrol Green. Matt McGrath's Group N Mini was also painted Castrol Green (Matt's dad Gary owned the Holland lightweight at the time) and Castrol provided the sponsorship to have the car painted - so you would expect it to be correct.

Now, take a look at a Castrol oil can (plastic bottle) these days, and compare with a metal Castrol can from 30-40 years ago and you will see there is a definite difference - today's being lighter.

According to the marketing people at Castrol, the correct colour for Castrol Green (for the printed page - which differs slightly by the time it is interperated for paint) is Pantone PMS 348 (and if you are interested the red is PMS 485) I'll try and put up a colour image for info - not really sure how to do this - still. see above if it worked.

Also, according to the marketing manager at Castrol, there have been subtle changes over the years, with the colours getting "slightly" lighter.

So, yes, the BMC cars were Castrol Green, but it is a darker green than what many people today call Castrol Green and is lighter than BRG (BMC's version of BRG - as there are dozens of variants - is so dark it is almost black.)

The BMC cars in 1967 were same colour (Castrol Green) and the colour pics in Issue 4 of TME are fairly accurate - particularly the static shot.

Now for the BIG news. Phase Three Posters in Sydney has got hold of a colour photo of the Holden/Aaltonen car at the Bathurst track (stationary in the paddock) and we are selling copies of their mini-poster (as in a small poster). Full details in Issue 6, which will be out in about 2 weeks. It is not a brilliant shot - a little bit out of focus - but it is the only known colour photo of this car, and certainly the only one commercially available.

Now for the other cars:
Stanley/Gibson - 17C Green with white roof and yellow front (from the top of the headlights forward). If the Vanguards model is accurate, it is a lighter green than BRG or Cedar Green, but not as light as Castrol Green. Being a race car, it was probably just painted a "nice shade of green". The closest BMC colour I can find is Brooklands Green from around 1978/79.

McPhee/Mulholland 22C: car is all white with a triangle (probably red) facing forward at the front of the roof.

Mander/Davis 27C: Not sure, but I will be making enquiries shortly. I spoke to Paul Mander at Phillip Island and will have comments from him and various other drivers about Bathurst in Issue 8.

Hope this all helps.

By the way, Chop Chop, your cartoon of my van and trailer is in Issue 6 of the mag.

Cheers,
Watto.

Hey chop in all the photos I've got 6 shades of grey I can check with a few bods I know.

steve

What would be the chance that the Bathurst winning mini was a standard BMC colour and not resprayed?
I have seen it before when a race car is painted red and they get a new sponsor the colour is suddenly "sponsor red"
So what chance that the colour of the car was really "New Cedar Green" or "Empire Green".

Watto will probably give a more thorough explanation but the three BMC cars were Australian made cars and prepared by George Sheppard. The were co-sponsored by Castrol and purposely sprayed in the "then" Castrol corporate colours.

They may have come off the production line as "race cars" that is; with more detail attention in the construction phase and with many hand picked components but the were essentially off the line and then further prepared by GS

My recollection of Lindsay's car was that it was hand built, but that probably means hand-picked components as you suggest. The english cars by comparison were off the assembly line but then disassembled to be put back together as per the build sheet as documented in a few of the Brian Moylan books.

From recollection, all the photos Lindsay had of the car were black and white as well. My memory also backs up what others have said. The '66 car was definately a darker green than Matt's Group N car (or the Lightweight Special) that are supposedly Castrol Green - not arguing their colours aren't right, just supporting the argument that Castrol Green changed over the years. It was closer to Brooklands green than them, not sure what Cedar Green is like.
KB

Thanks for the info Watto, i think i'm pretty close with the colours thru the info i got from issue 4 of your mini bible and what you've mentioned above. Here is a pic of the piccie i made. Will send you a poster i made of it Watto.
Thanks
shane

I owned a Mini in 1968 that I got painted real Castrol Green, I reckon these cars definitely were darker than mine was.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Hmmmm ......so I wonder who advised the TAFE boys when they built this replica

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The replica in the Bathurst museum is BRG (or possibly Lake Green). It was not actually built as a replica, but as a standard (the anoraks might find a few details incorrect) Cooper S to represent what the winning car was like. As there were no colour photos available at the time, the guys who built it - and it was the Council vehicle maintenance guys, not the TAFE people - went by what thye thought was right, but obviously wasn't.

Rod Harvey, who is the museum curator, but wasn't in the job when the car was built, from what I recall, has said he knows the car is too dark, but doesn't believe the original cars were Castrol Green. But, I think that is explained in my post above, regarding the change in colour over the years.

Chop Chop, the poster looks grand, but I wouldn't put on it Cooper S Bending the rules, as they didn't bend the rules. The cars were allowed to be hand-built, as long as they were kept to the standard specification. Not like the GT500 Cortinas in 1965 (that will probably get me some flack from Ford lovers) which were "technically" legal, but bent the rules through a bit of "creative interpretation", to the point that the rules were changed for 1966.

Cheers,
Watto.