MELBOURNE.- Mossgreen, Australia’s leading independent auction house, is selling a number of unusual cars on November 27 in Melbourne including the land speed record holder at 500cc. It is estimated to sell for A$30,000 to A$45,000 (£18,400 to £27,500).
The Julien and Boyer land speed record car was purpose- built to out-perform the 500cc one-hour record of 189.5km/h (118mph average) set by Englishman John K. Brisse in 1953. This achievement remained unbeaten until 1997 when Henri Julien and Bernard Boyer built a record car capable of exceeding Brisse’s 1953 average speed record.
The inimitable French Blue aerodynamic streamliner set a new world record by achieving an average speed of 222.5km/h (138.26mph) at the CERAM track in Mortefontaine situated 40km from Paris on 3rd September, 1997 beating the record Brisse had held for an astonishing 44 years.
The record set in 1997 by Julien and Boyer stands today and accordingly is still recognised and listed in the Guinness Book of Records.
With the co-operation of Honda France, Michelin, and others, the concept and design of this record-breaking car was developed in early 1996, and the car was ready for testing in 1997. The lightweight body, built with carbon- fibre and epoxy resin, weighed only 290 kilograms. The chain-driven 499cc Honda V-twin engine was married to a six-speed manual gearbox and fitted to a lightweight tubular steel chassis with four-wheel independent coil-over suspension and dual circuit twin-disc brakes. The interior was simply a plastic bucket seat, a wooden steering wheel and two essential gauges-one for temperature and the other for engine revolutions per minute.
The car remains in the condition it was in when it completed the speed attempt, being virtually pristine. It is accompanied by the original concept drawings; photos of the forming of the body mould and chassis construction; the speed attempt technical records and official FIA documentation and regulations, including the Certification de la longueur de la ligne de record.
1957 MOLINA MONZA RACING CAR
POWERED BY A SUPERCHARGED HOLDEN ‘GREY’ ENGINE WITH REPCO HIGHPOWER HEAD Estimate A$250,000 to A$350,000 (£153,000 to £215,000). The car has been invited by Lord March to compete at Goodwood.
Australia saw its racing Specials in the 1950’s developed to a degree well beyond most other nations, largely due to the shortage of pedigree racing cars and components, being so far from the epi-centre of engineering overseas. And so, the local racer had to improvise and invent in order to be competitive. This was the age when gentleman drivers contested in the spirit of camaraderie mostly for fun as the stakes available to professional drivers nowadays were unheard of. The Holden engine was a boon to local racing car constructors as it was eminently suitable for development and gave a long life span in a high state of tune. Of all the modified Holden powered specials in this era, the Molina Monza is by far the most beautiful and was amongst the most powerful ever built.
A larger than life character, Melbourne restaurateur and racer Lou Molina, built the Monza Holden, along with assistance from his close friend, Sil Massola and the extra-ordinary artistic skills of coachbuilder Brian Burnett, who was very active in the 1950s. The design of the body, with its high-swept tail fins, incorporated in-swept side portions to provide good airflow over the brakes but kept the exhaust pipes within the car’s overall body dimensions. Both technically sophisticated and aesthetically breathtaking, the design can be compared to the finest coachwork of the era.
Molina, Massola and Burnett commenced work on the X-braced tubular chassis in January 1955. The chosen Holden ‘Grey’ motor with a Repco Highpower crossflow head, gained additional power from a Marshall blower and the use of a special SU carburettor. This carburettor was one of the three carburettors used on the famous Maybach prior to its historic crash in the Australian Grand Prix at Southport in 1954. The gearbox was a Jaguar “Moss” box connected by a short tail shaft to a de Dion-type rear axle. Steering was Citroen rack & pinion and the front brakes were from a HWM Jaguar. In testing on the Repco dyno, 199 bhp @ 6,000rpm was claimed.
1959 saw the release of the movie ‘On the Beach’ which was based on Nevil Shute’s post-apocalyptic novel by the same name. This movie included Hollywood greats Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire and featured Lou at the wheel of the Monza in racing scenes at Phillip Island.
With over $150,000 spent since January 2013 the Molina Monza has indeed been made ready for its next custodianship and could be used in anger again on the racing circuits of Australia. It has a current CAMS log book and would be eligible for Group Lb equivalent events around the world. In this case, it could be competitive against the best factory racing cars of its category.
The “fabulous Monza Holden” was invited to compete in the prestigious Sussex Trophy race at Goodwood Revival in 2013, but unfortunately the restoration was not completed in time.
In the 2015, National Gallery of Victoria exhibition ‘Shifting Gears’ the Molina Monza was one of an elite selection of all-Australian built and designed cars, specially chosen for their contribution to Australian automotive history. Such is the aesthetic beauty, engineering excellence, historic significance and future racing potential of the Molina Monza that it is impossible to find an equivalent. Mossgreen is extremely proud to offer this highly important Australian racing car at auction.
1934 LAGONDA M45 RAPIDE
This car has been with the same family for 82 years and comes to the market for the first time in its history. Estimate A$250,000 to A$290,000. (£153,000 - £178,000) Part of its history was a 1,000 endurance run at Brooklands.
The Lagonda name these days is synonymous with that of the Aston Martin marque. Lagonda, however, had an illustrious history in its own right which precedes its purchase by David Brown and merger with Aston Martin in 1948. The pre-war Lagondas manufactured at Staines in Surrey, England were always renowned for their sporting pedigree and as early as 1928 a Lagonda had finished in 11th place at the Le Mans 24 Hour Race.
At the 1933 Olympia Motor Show, Lagonda introduced a new model to its range, the 4 1/2 litre, M45. The following year, the Rapide model, the M45R was launched, and the publicity material of the time hailed it as, “The fastest unsupercharged standard British car.” In 1935 a Lagonda M45R (chassis number Z12111) won at Le Mans.
In November 1934, chassis number Z11212 (registered as BLA 903), the company demonstrator used by Warwick Wright, the Lagonda Sales Director, took the car from the showroom in Piccadilly and prepared it for a high speed endurance run at Brooklands. The aim was to achieve 1,000 miles in 12 hours. Some 203 laps were completed with this Lagonda M45R, driven by Roland Hebeler from the Fox & Nicholl racing team and F.J. Stephenson from Lagonda. Some 164 laps had been driven at a speed averaging over 90 mph. At this stage the record attempt was called to a halt after hours of continuous torrential rain. Photographs and reports of the impressive run appeared in the November 16th issue of ‘The Autocar', the November 20th issue of ‘The Motor’, and on the front cover of the December 1934 issue of ‘MotorSport’ magazine with the caption “Amphibious Motoring”!
In early 1935 the car was purchased by C.S. Dyer from the aforementioned Warwick Wright at the Lagonda showroom to where it had been returned after its efforts at Brooklands. It was immediately shipped to Fremantle in Western Australia where its new owner lived. The car was driven by C.S Dyer on a regular basis until he died in 1958 whence in 1959 registration was transferred to his son who is still the current owner of this splendid sports car.
The Lagonda remains today in its original colour and very much as the current owner's father purchased the car 82 years ago. This important and highly desirable machine with incredible provenance and background is now offered for sale for the very first time in its history.
