Two photos of 23C (Harvey/French - finished 8th - BMC Works entry). BMC Works cars were Castrol Green with white roof. Each car had different identifying marks on bonnet roof and side windows. The triangles on the roof are on black rectangular backgrounds. There are 4 on the roof, the middle two (one behind the other) are on one long black background triangle. The two outer triangles are titled inwards, so that the inner side is vertical (if that makes sense). If anyone here is doing their car up like this one PM me your email address and I will send you higher res copies of these pics. Photos were taken by Evan Green and sent to me courtesy of Terry Morrow (BMC Mechanic)



BMC Mechanic Terry Morrow with 23C. Car next to it is car 22C (McPhee Mulholland - finished 3rd)






BMC mechanic John Cotter with driver John French.

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Watto .
Photojournalist
Mini historian and enthusiast
http://www.theminiexperience.com.au

Wow, awesome pics.

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Mafs waz not my strong subgeckt at skkol

Great pics. It's interesting that the bonnet appears to be a different shade of green, perhaps it was not repainted in the Castrol green when the rest of the car was repainted, the interior looks to be painted green and upholsrty appears to be green.

13c was a white car repainted in Castrol Green for the race and if you look at old footage the interior was still painted white, so I guess BMC just gave the factory entrys a closed door respray.

Love the old speed wheel-brace and nice to see the passenger seatbelt is neatly stowed in it's hanger for the race.

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68 Morris Cooper S Mk1 (*ex 78 1275 LS 4th last built, 70 Morris 1500 OHC & 70 MiniMatic)

It may just be the lighting / reflections as the bonnet appears to be the same colour as the windscreen surround and the car's overall colour varies from blueish (reflecting the sky and in shade) to yellowish (in direct sunlight). Don't use the the photos as an exact colour reference, only a guide.

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Watto .
Photojournalist
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http://www.theminiexperience.com.au

I don't know about that. I have not seen any colour footage from the 1966 race - can you tell me where you saw some. Would be great to see. I have only ever seen b&w footage, but can't say the interior looks white.

Below are four colour photos of 13C and, despite the poor quality of them, the interior does not appear white.

Interestingly, in the third photo, with 28C, the two cars look to be slightly different colours, but in the next shot, from the rear, they are clearly the same colour. Just goes to show what a difference the lighting, the age of the film, and reproduction through the computer can make to the colour.

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Watto .
Photojournalist
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http://www.theminiexperience.com.au

video here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reh8yNE6xhE

Early on shows working on 13C, changing wheels, etc, but you don't get a good look at the interior.

At 1m 42s the car comes out onto the grid and you get a glimpse inside. Light colour trim (no doubt green) with darker steel around doors and windows.

1m 50s shows Brian Foley getting into 28C - inside of door same colour as outside.

I think you will find the BMC factory cars were painted the same colours as each other and were the same inside and out.

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Watto .
Photojournalist
Mini historian and enthusiast
http://www.theminiexperience.com.au

They are fantastic shots - I need that quality for #10 Brown/Cook

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No colour shots but I'm sure I have read it was white and after bathurst it was returned to being white. At the Mini 50th I also seem to recall Bob Holden remembering it had a red interior, I was at the museum and he was chatting about the car, (he could maybe confirm this). I seem to remember him was saying how the red look terrible with the green. This would also fit with it being originally a white body.

Best veiw is at 8:44 in that film as 13c pulls in for a pit stop. You can see white along the door tops and in the rear below the rear windows as well as the door inners.

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68 Morris Cooper S Mk1 (*ex 78 1275 LS 4th last built, 70 Morris 1500 OHC & 70 MiniMatic)

There is more evidence at about the 13:00 mark at another pitspot, the bonnet interior, hinge and the support rod is white.

EDIT: also at 15:46 13c is scrutineered, there is a shot of the head coming off, and the firewall is white. You could argue it's another car but the shot is the same angle and appears to be the same hands/sleeves in the shot.

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68 Morris Cooper S Mk1 (*ex 78 1275 LS 4th last built, 70 Morris 1500 OHC & 70 MiniMatic)

Well, good-oh, I stand corrected. Certainly appears white in all those shots mentioned. Good spot.

Not sure though about the red interior. You may be confused with Bob's improved production car (below) which was originally an all-red 850, which Bob described as "the reddest car I've ever seen". It was red paint inside and out with red interior - easily seen in these pics.

But, if 13C was originally white it would have been more likely to have a red interior than a green one, but would they have left the red interior in it for the race? I will see if I can contact Bob, Terry Morrow and John Cotter and see what the consensus is.

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Watto .
Photojournalist
Mini historian and enthusiast
http://www.theminiexperience.com.au

I just had a read thru some of the Mini Experience back issues. In Issue 15, P39 you say that Bob Holden "...wrangled the car from BMC a few days prior to the event..." and prepped the car himself, so that might explain the "closed door" respray as it was a completed car when he got it.

It also makes sense why the car would be later repainted white, as that would be the obvious choice when the car was sold to John Millyard and the Castrol Green had to be removed.

Theres actually a photo on page 40 (Issue 15) with Andy Frankel when the car is the white 45c and the rear seat looks blue or green. I guess if it was a white car then the interior could have been any colour.

If Andy Frankel or John Millyard are still around maybe they would recall.

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68 Morris Cooper S Mk1 (*ex 78 1275 LS 4th last built, 70 Morris 1500 OHC & 70 MiniMatic)

I'm wondering who can shed light on the colours, esp those used for the markings - I'm going for #10. Many of the black and white images are very hard to make out the colours.

In fact, lets start a list e.g.:



(List updated from the programme)

Pos. Class No. Entrant Drivers Car Laps
1 C 13 BMC Australia [3] Finland Rauno Aaltonen Australia Bob Holden Morris Cooper S 130
Colours Main - Castrol Green/White. - Colours Other - Orange? Dots. Signage.....

2 C 17 Vaughan & Lane BMC [3] Australia Fred Gibson Australia Bill Stanley Morris Cooper S 129
Colours Main – Green/White - Colours Other - ...Signage

3 C 22 Regal Motors [3] Australia Bruce McPhee Australia Barry Mulholland Morris Cooper S 129
Colours Main – White - Colours Other - ...Signage

4 C 27 Marque Motors [3] Australia Arthur Davis Australia Paul Mander Morris Cooper S 128
Colours Main – Green / White - Colours Other - ...Signage

5 C 10 Baulkham Hills Service Station [3] Australia Peter Brown Australia Bob Cook Morris Cooper S 128
Colours Main – White /Blue - Colours Other - ...Signage

6 C 9 Dents Motors [3] Australia Harry Firth Australia Ern Abbott Morris Cooper S 128
Colours Main – White - Colours Other - ...Signage

7 C 24 W Jamison [3] Australia John Leffler Australia Bill Jamison Morris Cooper S 127
Colours Main -....Colours Other - ...Signage
24C was originally entered by Booran Motors and was a Holden X2 with Leffler and Jamison in the earlier Morris Cooper in Class B – 36B

8 C 23 BMC Australia [3] Australia John French Australia Steve Harvey Morris Cooper S 127
Colours Main – Castrol Green /White - Colours Other - ...Signage

9 C 16 B Arentz [3] Australia Barry Arentz Australia Barry Seton Morris Cooper S 125
Colours Main – Dark Green / White - Colours Other - ...Signage

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ex 1976 Mini 'S'
ex 70 Morris Cooper S Mk2 - ex Police
ex 68 Morris Cooper S Mk1
ex 70 Morris Cooper S Mk2
1970 Morris Cooper S Mk2 - '73 Bathurst replica
70 Morris Cooper S Mk2 - under resto

Bob told the same story to my brother when he was helping us with Corolla engines a while back. If i recall correctly, Bob picked the best engine from the three cars and swapped it into 13C. Even though they were production cars, there were ways to maximise the performance from a "standard" engine by ensuring the tolerances were at their best. I don't think Bob was at all worried about the respray part of the preparation because it would not have added speed!

cheers
michael

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66 Mini Minor sponsored by http://www.lifeonthehedge.com.au/ The Dog Harness Specialists
It was a pleasure ausmini. I'll miss all you misfits and reprobates

Hi guys. is there a list of whos coming along?

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The story as Bob told me is that he convinced Evan Green to let him take the car home and with the help of the guys from Lynx engineering they took the engine out, stripped it, weighed all the major components, chose matching balanced conrods, pistons, etc, completely built the engine by hand, making sure tolerances were all as close to perfect as could be, refitted the engine and returned it to BMC - all in one night. The following night he got the car from BMC and ran it in by driving it to Goulburn (I think) and back (although Carol Shaw - Bob's ex-wife - recalls running the car in at Oran Park).

When they got to Bathurst, Bob was concerned that if his car was faster than either of the others then it would have been taken from him and allocated to Paddy Hopkirk as the lead international driver, and Brian Foley. He said he and Rauno were considered the number-three car in the team (true or not, that's his recollection). So, he convinced Rauno to time the car's laps in practice from the top of Mt Panorama - doing a slow half lap, then a fast lap from the top of the mountain, then a slower half lap back to the pits - so that their times taken from the pits to the pits would not be so fast.

Rauno confirmed this story and said it went against his competitive nature, but Bob convinced him to do it. He also said that Bob was a brilliant strategist and that went a long way toward them winning the race. Take into account that Bob, with Tony Fall, was also the first Mini home in 1967, finishing 5th outright and first in class.

I do not recall any story about taking the best engine from the three cars for 13C. In fact, quite the opposite - Bob said they had to convince the rest of the BMC team that their car was the slowest and actually knocked back the timing a couple of degrees, then after practice re-adjusted the timing back to where it should have been.

_________________
Watto .
Photojournalist
Mini historian and enthusiast
http://www.theminiexperience.com.au