Austin Sevens in Australia

[Tony Johns]

    The reason for using three bearing engines in our racing Austins was that back in the 1960's and early 1970's the new heavy Gordon Allan cranks were yet to be made. A lot of crack testing would take place before finding a good uncracked original Austin shaft. 

It would seem nothing has changed as a recent post mentioned always have the block bolted to the crankcase before line boring the centre main bearing shells. Another mod was to use an off side main bearing bolt on the nearside to give an extra stud inside the valve chest. In addition by replacing the front oil drain thimble inside the block near valves one and two with a machined hand fitted disc you could then bolt an Unbraco cap screw from underneath for extra strength.

The original oil pipe to the centre main was replaced with a modern hose to avoid fracturing.
Alloy Hillman Imp water pumps were lighter than Ford 10 and worked well driven from the front of the camshaft. The generator drive was reversed to allow more room for the supercharger belt drive from a pulley on the crankshaft nosepiece.

I would crack test the crankshaft on a regular basis and check the condition of the shells in the centre main. It was so long ago but I am sure I used undersized shells when they were being line bored.

John Whitehouse used a very similar three bearing engine when he bought his Whitmor Austin to England to race in the 750 Formula in 1966.

When I now compare my first racing Austin built in 1966 with photos of the 1981 Raid car I realise how primitive it was.  

Perhaps now is the time to mention the Australian connection with the Gordon Allan crankshafts. I had been corresponding with John Miles re a car he was selling and the discussion started about the new heavy two bearings he was planning to have made. John Bowring here in Melbourne had already come up with the suggestion of using Renault R4 conrods to save the extra expense of having new rods manufactured. So all that had to be changed was to machine the big end journals to a metric 1.5" diameter and length to suit.
Cheers
Tony

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        A change from racing Austins, a couple of photos I have just found of the Tony Press Chummy, both taken during my period of ownership.

The first taken in 1960, still with a learners plate shows the original front and rear bumper bars and luggage rack. these would have been made in Melbourne and sold to the original owner by Austin Distributors.

The second photo taken near Hobart in Tasmania gives some idea of the size of TV cameras back then

Apologies to Tony If I have not shared them with him sometime in the past.

Tony