2019 Baskerville Historics: Pits and Paddock, Sunday the 22nd of September

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Regular readers of Upper Middle Petrol Head will know that I'm a huge fan of the Baskerville Historics, held annually in September within 30 minutes' drive of Tasmania's capital city of Hobart.  It is, quite simply, as good an exhibition of classic motorsport as you could hope for, combining all the colour, noise and atmosphere of door handle to door handle racing on an intimate circuit that lets you see all the action, and a pit area that's open to the public.  Add friendly competitors happy to chat about their cars, a few racing celebs - this year, Jim Richards and Kevin Bartlett - and first-rate catering and you simply can't go wrong!


This will be the first of two UMPH post for the 2019 installment of the Historics and will showcase some of the excellent racing machinery on view within the pit area, as well as a number of equally beautiful spectators' vehicles parked in the paddock that surrounds the track.  The second post - hopefully ready within the next few days - will feature a bit of on-track action.  

Please take a squizz at today's effort and, if you enjoy what you see, feel free to also check out the race action when it's published.  Better still, why not have a browse through the rest of the uppermiddlepetrolhead site?   


















































































I wasn't planning on providing any commentary on the cars shown today (I'm no great expert on racing cars, I'll happily admit).  However, it turns out that this rather lovely looking GT Falcon is not what it seems, as its classic Aussie exterior actually cloaks a Nissan GTR, including its turbo-charged twin-cam six-cylinder motor, transmission, brakes, suspension and all-wheel-drive system!  Your everyday GT Falcon - if a GT can be everyday, that is - is already a sheep in wolf's clothing, so I'm not sure how to describe this car.  An angry steroidal werewolf in sheep's clothing, perhaps? 










The motor is this FX Holden caught my eye, as it features a cross-flow Repco head, which I'm told one of only 200 or so ever made - hence the second exception to my planned no commentary decision.  As well as the obvious benefits of the cross-flow configuration, its design locates the spark plugs in a position where they’re better able to ignite the fuel, overcoming a shortcoming of the original "grey" motor's design.  Such is its rarity and desirability, it's worth a whopping $20k! 



































U M P H

(uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.)

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