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Most know the name but may not recognise the man. They certainly would know his race car creations, particularly a Chev-powered Audi. In the latest instalment of the Kincrome Mechanic Series, Speedcafe chats with John Gourlay.
Where did it all begin? “Oh, gee, I’m a senior citizen and it was a long time ago,” was his immediate reply. “I’ve always been a little bit of a car nut. Back in the day, EH Holdens were fast. I had things like Mini Cooper Ss, MGs, Triumphs and GT Falcons.
“I was always just always interested in cars, engineering and engines. It leads you to a point where I met a fellow one day and he was a little bit into motorsport, joined a car club… the rest is history.”
John started working in the family business when he left school. It was a broadly automotive industry that progressed into reasonable size manufacturing. That led to an interest in Audis which is where his attention went.
He started a spare parts business for Audis, then started servicing, repairing, buying and selling, and became the Audi-focused specialist which he still is today.
“Fortunately, I’ve got some terrific staff, and I don’t spend a lot of time there. Perhaps an hour in the morning and an hour at the end of the day. The rest of time, I’m lucky enough to play with race cars.”
He added that trying to race cars at the level he does, these days, is virtually a full time job. He says his competition is doing the same, even maybe more.
John became involved with Mike Emery and they started with a Chev Monza bought off Daryl Seidel that was in America. It was one of two built in Australia by John Reardon who at the time worked for Harrop Engineering.
The other was Graham Whincup’s. Daryl’s went to America where Peter Brock and Alan Jones were going to drive it in Miami street race which didn’t eventuate. It sat in a garage over there for years. John and Mike heard about it and brought it back to Australia, where it would re-bodied into the Saab.
It was a radical sort of car, body shape wise, with radiators in the back. It had Holden water pumps belt-driven by the driveshaft in the middle of the car. Unlike many Sports Sedans of the period, the engine was in front rather than beside the driver.
Eventually Mike went V8 Supercars and John brought out his share. The first to drive the car for John was Darren Hossack, who raced it for several years and until he had a speedway accident and broke both kneecaps.
That led to Jack Perkins for a couple of years. John regarded Jack as pretty relaxed, good, fun sort of guy. Eventually he was being offered more Supercar drives and they parted ways.
“Jordan Caruso was suggested by Darren, having worked with in in karts and Excels, and he has done a fantastic job. He is exceptionally talented,” explained Gourlay.
“For example, we’ve came home from Sydney Motorsport Park recently, and we were five to seven kilometres slower through the speed trap, but Jordan was still able to do lap record times.”
After he ran Darren in the Saab for a period from around 2000. John decided to build another car. Darren’s dad Ron, who had been assisting John, was keen so they built the Audi. On completion, he sold the Saab to Mark Nelson, who put a Dodge engine in it, and it was be sold on to Tony Cox.
John says he is always learning. “For example, you didn’t have many choices in transaxles, you had to buy a Hewland out of America, Albins was only just starting, they were building transaxles for Speedway sort of cars.
“They were too expensive for us at the time. I was lucky enough to find this Lola, that is out of a ’92 IndyCar, so it’s quite aged. But the internals are all brand new. They’re all modernised, and it’s converted to sequential. It is a six-speed, it’s fabulous. Simon Pfitzner did a huge amount of work on it.”
Most of the suspension if not all, was designed by Ron, “He’s a very clever fellow and we had to fiddle with an awful lot to get it to perform the way it does now.”
Neil Burns does the engines. “Neil’s fabulous, very clever fellow. They’re highly stressed engines. We get so much out of everything.”
John said that he keeps abreast of what’s going on with technology. They used Koni shocks, now the car has Supashocks. The good engine had 750hp (560kw) which brought different temperatures with it. The exhaust systems wear out, so something a bit different is tried etc.
The bodywork has been updated from A4 B6 to (just the front) A4 B7, and the new car is B7 front and rear. Once it has been completed, when time allows, John will make up similar panels to fit to the current car.
“We’re nearly finished a new car. We’re had to take the engine out and put it in the current car which was a backward step because the new car is quite different to the old car.”
To get the engine out of it, the engine must be dropped; the torque tube, the chains, and transaxle all comes out in one huge assembly; after, it goes in bit by bit.
“The rules haven’t changed for five or six years when they had a major overhaul because there weren’t a lot of rules, there were a lot of interpretations. A lot of weird and wonderful sort of things had happened that we didn’t really think were all that complimentary to the category.
“People must be able to identify the cars. We ended up with a set of rules that, I hope are clearer. The type of car is sort of dictated by the fact there’s a rule that the car must maintain its silhouette, save for, a couple of things.
“Flared guards are allowed, but there’s rules as to how they should be flared. We wanted to have radical looking, modern sort of cars. We felt that was important if the category was going to be relevant.
“Speed is important, has to be the fastest saloon category. It gives us something that’s saleable and attracts people. We’re all amateurs really, in the main self-funding. To be honest with you, it’s mainly down to Michael Robinson, who just presses on so tirelessly.
“I enjoy what I do. If I didn’t enjoy it, I wouldn’t do it. I raced MG Midgets. I raced a Bolwell and built a Bolwell. Gave it away, young family, all that sort of thing. I must admit, the actual driving is not the thing that I really enjoyed. I just enjoyed building cars and participating, mechanical stuff, that’s, that’s what gets me!”
