First Aussie RS ?

[Chuck Miller]

Hey mates,

Was at the Auto Book store on the way home and looked through the Brit. mag "total 911", and they had a GREAT article on Lloyd Hughes and his one owner 310,000 mile yellow RS #1560 ... that he still races!!!

It said it was the first RS in your country bought through Hamilton for about $17,700 Aus. then driven by Hughes directly to New South Wells ...

Great story....

Anyone familiar with the car or Mr. Hughes ?

[OBRUT]

hi chuck

i've known lloyd for 4 or 5 years and have raced against his RS in my RS replica. it has a group S historics logbook (group S does not allow replicas). there is also another RS from victoria/melbourne that competes in similar events.

lloyd also has another early car which was built for the london to sydney rally - which i think he has competed in twice. he also uses it for other tarmac rallies.

i remember one race last year where i found myself behind lloyd after a little off track excursion. every time i came to pass i was thinking "don't hit the 1 owner RS" and kept backing out. i eventually made the pass but i made sure i had lots of lots of room.

[HughH]

Hi Chuck

Justin Reed can probably help you more on this given that it is a NSW car. I have been looking for that magazine for the last week or so ( i think it is off the shelves now here) since seeing a reference to the article on Rennlist. They did not say which car it was but the posts mentioned the article had a silly value against it (something like $300K AUD :shock: ) - hence my interest to figure out which car they were talking about. I think Clyde would be very happy if that car was worth 60% of that !

I would have described it as the LAST official car to come here not the first. It is #1560 the highest number of all RS's to be officially imported.

There were 6 RS's (all M472's) and 2 RSR's (M491's) officially here. The M472's were #335 light ivory, #732 Olympic Blue, #803 signal yellow, #1024 bahia red, #1468 GP white / blue and #1560 light yellow. I believe that 2 of these including #1560 are still owned by the original owner.

The 2 M491's (RSR's) were #817 and #991 both light yellow. The #817 car was the "Bill Brown" car which raced in 73 and 74 as the "Grace Bros" car and was destroyed in Sydney in 1977 and the #991 car was the "Jim McKeown" car which raced from 73 to 77 (and won the Australian sports car championship in 1977?). It was last heard of by me being sold to Germany in 1996.

[gulf908]

Hugh/Chuck,

Re the RSs -

From memory,the ivory car belonged to John Dawson-Damer(no ducktail when I saw it at Scuds),The last one was/is Lloyd's and the other yellow may have been owned by a Dr Edwards from Sydney.
Not sure if he was the first or second owner though.
Great to see an RS being used as it should and not locked away somewhere for the owner and his bank manager to admire and not touch !
Mark Goddard may know some more as he was working at Scuds during the RS period.

Cheers,
Dennis.

[HughH]

Dennis

Yes the ivory one came without a tail. It is now owned by the Bowdens in Qld. It was definitely the FIRST RS in Australia and in fact the ONLY Australian delivery car in the initial 500 cars.

I think that John Dawson-Damer was the original owner. Since then it has been owned by a number of people but all within Australia. I looked at buying it in the late 90's when Brian Power had it for sale (he wanted $130K for it in 1998) but I could not afford it :cry: .

My understanding of the history of the car is:
"Sold new to John Dawson Damer, sold to and raced by raced by Peter Fitzgerald, sold to Jeff Dutton who painted it red, sold to Brian Power who restored it, sold to current owner David Bowden who's son Dan races and hillclimbs it in many different events. The Bowdens have taken it back to Ivory ? White?
When it was sent to Australia it did not have a ducktail. I have been told that the spoiler was shipped with the car and fitted before the initial delivery to the first owner.

As it was the first car here in Australia, I think there was some worry about the spoiler being accepted by the local authorities for road use. This however did not happen and it was fitted. It still has its original engine

I have attached a (poor) copy of photo I took in the late 90's when Brian Power had it at the 356 parade. (The quality is poor because I have had to take a photo of my photo because my scanner is not working). Also attached is a pic of what it looks like now with Dan Bowden driving it (at Speed on Tweed?)

[reedminor]

Chuck et al,

I was speaking Lloyd today at the PCNSW awards lunch... He told me to look out for the magazine!

The car was there today - with racing numbers and megaphones (supertraps) fitted!

I actually put Nik Bruce (the author of the piece onto him) when he first contacted me about this Australian delivered RS he had heard about with still with its original owner.... He (Lloyd) is the only original owner of an Aussie delivered car though.

He is not the only original owner I understand. There is a Melbourne vet (help me here Hugh / Lisa/ Ian H)who took tourist delivery of his car and still owns it.

The story as I have heard it - The car was bought late 73 , early 74 from Hamiltons. Lloyd was looking at either a Dino or a 911, he was in Melbourne and this was in stock and saleable , it was the last one they had left. The rest is history.

The car was refurbished in the early / mid 90 's and Lloyd still uses it enthusiastically today.

He has the details of this list... I will send the thread to him and he might wish to email us all and tell us the great story

Justin R

[lisa_spyder]

He is not the only original owner I understand. There is a Melbourne vet (help me here Hugh / Lisa/ Ian H)who took tourist delivery of his car and still owns it.

Yes Justin, the vet still owns his car...lives and works down our way on the beach. Has absolutely no intention of selling...likes to fly under the wire; isn't really interested in all the "RS" frenzy at all :wink: . I'll not mention his name here as he has intimated to me he likes to keep things private and that is his prerogative. Rest assured, the car still sees a Sunday blat most weekends.

I think that John Dawson-Damer was the original owner. Since then it has been owned by a number of people but all within Australia. I looked at buying it in the late 90's when Brian Power had it for sale (he wanted $130K for it in 1998) but I could not afford it .

Hugh,

I would imagine the Bowdens have spent a pretty penny on this car. I recall it was not in great shape when offered for sale...there's "restored" and then there's "restored"...from memory when Brian Power bought the car it was a wide body (I think this may have been done when Robin Versluys maybe owned it if my memory serves correctly). Brian eventually put the body back to original narrow form. Paul Sadler could have been in there as an owner too...back in the late 80's early 90's these cars were changing hands every couple of years, pretty much amongst the Porsche Club guys - it got a little difficult to keep up ops: !

[HughH]

[quote="lisa_spyder"]

I would imagine the Bowdens have spent a pretty penny on this car. I recall it was not in great shape when offered for sale...there's "restored" and then there's "restored"

Yes
It was "restored' but at the time I thought a fair bit more needed to be spent on it to bring it up to scratch. thus at $130k with an unknown amount to spend it did not look a good proposition

[lisa_spyder]

Yes Hugh and you were right!

[Terminator]

It was the first RS I had laid eyes on when it was in Hamiltons Showroom at Brymays whenever that was, must have been 1995/96 when I bought my first Porsche and started making the weekly expensive visits to Vinnie in the parts department.

It looked OK but someone advised me not to touch it something about wrong flares etc I seem to remember, might have been Paul mauger but I am 50 now and can't remember much any more!!! :idea:

[lisa_spyder]

It looked OK but someone advised me not to touch it something about wrong flares etc I seem to remember, might have been Paul mauger but I am 50 now and can't remember much any more!!! :idea:

OK OK!!! I have forgotten to wish you many happy returns for reaching half a century relatively unscathed :P ! And for your birthday present I promise to help you find a Porsche horn button for your steering wheel if you still want one - I just haven't had time to email and beg the guy on your behalf :lol: !

Seriously, that car of Brian Power's was not right and needed some serious $$$ thrown at it, so Hugh's call was the right one at the time. Just MHO....

Lisa

[lisa_spyder]

RS-270 with wide body pic

I was going through some photos and came across a stack from the 1983 Porsche Club Nationals in the Barossa Valley...and lo and behold there was one of RS-270 in wide body form. Now I am almost certain that Robin Versluys owned it at the time and I think but can't be sure that Brian Power may have bought it from him through Jeff Dutton...the rest you all know from previous posts.

Came across some pics of Bob Whym's car too - man was that fast!!! Now Craig wasn't even born then...but his Dad was quickest by far around Mallala on a very wet day...I have a feeling he was running on slicks too! Me? I was about to turn 18...cripes I'm getting old :shock: !

[Chuck Miller]

Very cool pics Lisa... :P

[reedminor]

I hope to do an article this year on the Whyms RSR.....

What an awesome car.... I was down at Bob's workshop with Dad just before they left for the Nationals. The car ran on the dyno, with megaphones.... what a beautiful noise!

I was lucky enough to have a ride in the car around Warwick Farm a few years later...

Paul Edwards (a very good steerer from the UK and member / racer in PCGB ) drove the car at the 83 Nationals, and wiped the floor with Bruce Harris in the ex Hamilton 934, and Graeme Stockley. Bob also won the concours with his Turbo didn't he?

I'm sure Bob could relay the story of the 83 Nationals better than I.

Justin R

[lisa_spyder]

Justin you're right!

I forgot Paul Edwards drove the car at Mallala! And yes I think he did win the concours that year too...

Time for Craig to pump his Dad for the whole story...

Cheers,