Hi, now that I'm Secretary of the Historic Formula Vee Association of Australia, part of my breif is the hunt down Formula Vee frames lying around not doing anything or even complete Vees.

It's not that I want to personally go buy them, it's a matter of keeping tabs or a log on them. By rough calculations there should be about 600+ Formula Vee's out there which means that about 300 odd are MIA or no longer with us.

So if have an old Formula Vee or know someone who has one that has not beed used for a long time please PM me or email me at secretary@historicveeaustralia.com.

Regards,

Ian Lee
Secretary HFVAA

mk 1 mako (i think), currently still sitting in the shed of the guy i bought it off. i was planning to fit a bigger motor and use it for motorkhana now i don't know.

i believe it was orig owned by a guy around the randwick area and was only raced at the warwick farm track. any further info would be much appreciated.

only driven on weekends now where have i heard that before

Hi it's definitely a Mako Chassis body (and I assume chassis).

Typical Mako Vee pics below (from Warwick Farm)


Photos from David Blanch's www.autopics.com.au

We'd love to see it restored as a Historic Vee rather than a Motorkhana special.

I'll forward the pic our "panel of experts" (I'm a young'un at only 40) and see if they have any clues to it's previous owner. I may even get Frank Kleinig to have a look at the pic (as he built them).

Anyway you can cruise our website at www.historicveeaustralia.com

There's a modern restore of Mako in the gallery section there to have a look at too.

Regards,

Ian Lee

what now, that is very cool. you should restore it....and then race it in motorkhanas

Love that rollover protection. Roll bar is only a tiny bit higher than your helmet!! Ahh the Mako's... bath tub on wheels i've heard them called LOL

I assume you talking about the pics from Warwick Farm, look at F1 car's from the same period they have "shoulder bars" too.

As I understand it, Greg Cusack (former ACT VW distributor/dealer) brought the first Formula Vee to Australia in 1965, and demonstrated it at the Warwick Farm circuit in around June 1965. The car had a feature in a 1966 issue of 'New Horizons', the owner's magazine published by Volkswagen Australia. In the 1980s that first Vee finished up in the ownership of Bob Brewer, then a member of the Volkswagen Club of NSW. I believe he had intended to restore it, but I don't know what happened to it.

Today the NSW VW Club has been merged into Club Veedub Sydney; Bob and his wife Denise are members but I don't know if they still have the Vee; they are not active members any more.

Is it true that Frank Kleining won the very first Formula Vee race to be held in Australia, at Warwick Warm in November 1965? Is this the same Frank Kleinig who competed in the 1955 Redex Trial - and became famous for hitting a water buffalo at high speed in the Northern Territory? I assume there must be a 'senior' and 'junior' Frank Kleinig, as there was a Frank Kleinig racing open-wheelers in the 1930s. I remember reading about the famous 'Kleinig Hudson', an MG chassis with custom body (with some rear panels of cardboard!) and a Hudson 8-cylinder engine. I would love to know more of the Kleinig family history!

yep there was Frank Senior & Frank Junior - Frank Senior, was famous driver & inventor/manufacture of much speed equipment& alchohol/water injection, inlet manifolds & exhausts, & made unusual sports mufflers, steel with cast alloy end peices, his business was located omn Parramatta Rd at the top of the hill at Burwood, I think he died at the end of the 70's I was lucky enough to meet him, went in there to buy something & he rattled off history for about 3 hours! his son Frank Junior took over the business & I think it is now at Girraween, Frank Junior started racing about 1960 I think, & I am pretty sure he won the 1st Australiian Formula Vee race

Hi

I work with Frank Kleinigs son Peter, he's into Minis.

Steve

Hi Steve,

Can you ask him if his family has any old VW archival stuff - old clippings, photos, stories etc - that we could scan and publish in the club mag? Some photos of Frank Kleinig Sr's 1955 Redex VW would be fantastic, or Frank Jr's later Vees.

There is an article on Frank Kleinig Sr in the very first issue of Wheels magazine, dated 1953, which I have. No VWs then, of course, only souped-up open-wheelers.

What a family history! It reminds me of the Perkins' story, just not as well known.

Hi

I had no idea who the son was, I only saw him at traning sessions and union meetings.

One trade night at work, we had the Mobil Synthetic trade show come along and we had to do hot laps around Hidden Valley in a simulator, unreal.

I started talking to Peter about how good his times were, we were actually two of the fasted out of the two nights of racing and he told me how he made sit in cockpits for game consoles and that's when the family history came up.

Steve

...the one that was running around valla really looked the part...followed the v scene for years in the late 60s/early 70s with laurie Campfield .. he.owned a VW workshop at BP servo on pennant hills road ...gone now!!! remember the old track at hume weir

I'll have to talk to my parents and see if they still have the photo of me sitting in Greg Cusack's Formula Vee when I was little. Must have been at an open day at the dealership almost 40 years ago.

Actually Raleigh raceway at the VW spectacular. 2 Vees were running around there over the weekend. One was an elfin crusader(black/gold) and the other was the Rapier built by Volks Engineering(yellow).

The black and gold Crusader would be Chirs Bolton's race car and the yellow Rapier belongs to Scott Andrew (more typically raced by Paul Mantiet.)

I suspect the dubbers who brought them there would be Wayne Penrose for the Crusader and John Alder for the Rapier (which he builds).

Still they're main game "I'm trying to find the older unloved stuff."

Regards,


Ian

Hi

I had an out of the blue email a few months ago from a guy named Peter Mills, he and I worked together many years ago. He used to race Vees and we used to swap cars on the weekends so that he could use my old yellow bug to tow his Vee and I would get his wifes 60s bug.

Peter Mill made a name for himself driving the Bug In rallycross VW.

Steve

Only very brave veedubbers take their pride and joy anywhere where there are Formula Vee's running. Can we borrow your fuel pump, points, rockers etc will inevitably be asked.

If you take you beetle near Vee races just lock you car and leave it for the day, then you won't get asked to parts.

Hi Steve,

I am going to try to contact motoring commentator Will Hagon. He has recently hosted DVDs of classic Australian Touring Car footage at Warwick Farm from the early '70s, taken from old black and white ABC TV footage.

I am wondering if he knows any way of getting old TV footage of the Catalina Rallycross? I remember it was very popular on TV. I am afraid through, that because it was on Channel 7, the tapes might have been used for landfill since.

But I will try to find out. Would love to see Chris Heyer, Peter Mill and Barry Ferguson beating the Minis and V8s again.

Hi Phil

Ive seen footage on TV called late night legends, I think Lex Marinos hosted it and it had lots of footage from Warwick Farm.

Steve

Hi Ian,

Thanks for your continuing comments, nice to have you on the forum!

If you are free tomorrow (Thursday 21st) evening, it is our Club Veedub Sydney monthly meeting. Steve and I will both be there (not to mention lost of other VW enthusiasts), and we would love to talk more with you about historic Vees.

It's at the Greyhound Social Club, 140 Rookwood Rd Yagoona (next to Potts Park), from 8pm. Although we are all usually downstairs having a beer from 7:30.

Hope to see you there.

Hi Phil,

I'd love to come along and for chat but I don't think my wife would let me out at such short notice!!!

You can talk about us while we're not there.

Anyway us historic vee guys I imagine are pretty similar to most VW enthuiasts; we're into restoring old cars that use VW parts, it's just we're not so interested the VW coachwork.

Regards,

Ian

Hi, has anyone got a good contact for Henry (whatnow). I tried to PM and email him nothing seems to have got through.

If you have a mobile No. or email please PM me.

Regards,

Ian

hi ian, sorry off in my owm little world... i pm'd you my number.
here is a pic of the frame if it helps you work out if it's a mako or not.

henry.

Bump

Hi, No other shed orniment seen in garages or at swap meets ?

Semi unrelated note, I went to this deceased estate garage sale for a Mr lightburn here in Adelaide and i saw what looked like a go-cart on its front leaning against the wall, called a friend down and we asked what he wanted for it, picked it up for $100 (let my friend keep it and hes doing it up).

We pushed it off the wall and carried it into the trailer, turns out this mr lightburn was the owner of some washing machine builder here in SA and they decided to start building cars. This thing we got for $100 was a lightburn zeta.


My friend is slowly restoring it, but isnt that a find and a half.

Just to bump the thread along we have found another Vee frame or two lurking in sheds waiting to be restored. One was a well known Ranger Vee the other we are unknown car that looks like a Nota Vee.

The Ranger looks like is headed to a good home, the Nota we are hard at work to see what history we can find.

Just a reminded any Vee chassis you know might be hiding somewhere, we'd love to know about them, just to know where they are.

Regards,

Ian Lee

PS: Our website has a new look too see us at
www.historicveeaustralia.com

Here are some pics of the Ranger Formula Vee when she was purchased. I'm sure the new owner will restore to former glory over the next year or so.