Tuesday, December 22, 2009

More OZ racing.

















These picture are of ex racer and VW/Porsche mechanic Jack Bono who passed away a few year back. Greg Mackie was nice enough to share these photos and his recollections of Jack and his little 356, which had a motor that makes use here at the OSS drool.

Here are a few of Greg's words:


"The 356 is Jack Bono's race car (pictured above) It had a super-charged (Marshal) 1500 Porshe engine and I made an aluminium bonnet (hood) and engine lid for it, along with other light-weighting mods.


If you look closely you can just make out Jack and I, standing beside Jack's Karman-Ghia tow car - probably engaged in some sort of VW talk! Jack is in white over-alls. The K.G. had a Denzel engine, and did a 15.3 quarter mile! It had Jack's signature number-plate......BON-OOO."


We then had no choose but to ask if the 356 was a 2pcs or 3pcs case and what year the 356 happened to be. This was due to the fact that we were discussing late 50/ early 60 racing and as we all know the 2pcs case ended long before the end of the 50s.


"Porsche was 1954 - from memory - it had a split screen when new. Drum brakes for sure, wheels were Kombi, drilled for cooling. The 1500 was 2 pcs case, to which Jack fitted a Carrera roller crank. The crank, which Jack got for free, had been damaged, so Jack called on his friend , Merv Waggot - a brilliant engineer - to repair it. Hirth said it couldn't be done, but Merv made a special tool to dismantle and assemble the crank. He sleeved the damaged big-end and fitted new rollers, and the motor ran for years. Merv was one of those men who loved to achieve the 'impossible'."


We here at the OSS must thank Greg for this invaluable information and also remind other out there that these pictures are owned by Greg and reproducing them with out his pr omission is forbidden.



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