Welcome back to the official website of the Tasman Revival! Preparations for the 2012 Tasman Revival are well under way and our efforts are building each and every day. We’ll be bringing you a lot of useful, interesting and fun content right here, so stay tuned!

Each year on Australia Day, the NRMA and the car community take over a large section of Sydney’s CBD, fill it with lovely old cars and open up the streets for people to wander and take it all in. It’s a fun day with a great atmosphere and is brilliant for introducing classic cars and car culture to people who have not experienced it before.

Our preparations for the 2012 Tasman Revival are building each day, and we took this as an excellent opportunity to meet new people and introduce them to the event.

We set up a miniature paddock across the road from Hyde Park and spent a relaxed and enjoyable day mingling, chatting about cars, life and everything and spreading the word about the Tasman Revival. A huge “Thanks!” to everyone who helped to organise it and who brought their cars along and, of course, any and everyone who stopped by!

Enjoy this small gallery of photos from the day.

In a little over two months’ time, the HSRCA will be heading back to Eastern Creek International Raceway to burn off the winter blues with some hot historics.

Last time we were there was for the 2010 Lotus Sydney Tasman Revival, and a ball was had by all. We recently received some photographs taken by Roderick Mackenzie during the event, so it is time to share! Thanks to Rod for sharing his work!

Photography by Roderick Mackenzie

Good times were had with great friends. Beautiful historic racing machinery danced, and sometimes pirouetted, with brave and talented drivers in the rain. Lap records were broken. Here are the results for Sunday’s feature races at the 2010 Lotus Sydney Tasman Revival.

Detailed results and timing can be found on our results page, and on this link to the Natsoft website. The HSRCA lap records for Eastern Creek International Raceway can be found here.

Thank you to Peter Schell for his fantastic photography.  Please hit this link to view the full gallery of his photography from the 2010 Lotus Sydney Tasman Revival, including photos of the feature event winners.

Lotus Sydney Tasman Revival – Sunday 28^th November 2010, Feature Races

Event 34 – Regularity – Peter Finlay and Ian Forsyth Trophies

Heidi Jackel – 1970 Valiant VG Pacer

Jake Williams – 1974 Holden HQ

Event 35 – Frank Gardner Trophy for Group L Sports

Peter Giddings – 1953 Masserati 250F

Event 35 – Alec Mildren Trophy for Group L Racing

Dick Willis – 1959 Mildren Cooper T51

Event 35 – RACA Trophy for Sa Sports Cars

Peter Jackson – 1959 Austin Healey 3000

Event 35 – Jack Myers Trophy for Na Touring Cars

Allan Bryson – 1952 Austin A30

Event 35 – The VSCCA Trophy for Group K

Peter Greenfield – 1935 Alfa Romeo 8C-36

Event 36 – The Ron Tauranac Trophy for Group Q Racing

John Gale – 1972 Surtees TS9 F1

Event 36 – Trophy Race for Group R Racing

Guido Belgiorno-Nettis – 1985 Ferrari 156/85 Turbo

Event 37 – RACA Trophy Race for Group Sb Sports Cars

Tony Dains – 1970 Triumph TR6

Event 37 – Trophy Race for Group Sc Sports Cars

Stephen Borness – 1976 Porsche 911 Carrera

Event 37 – Trophy Race for Group T Sports Cars

Jason Lea – 1968 Datsun 2000

Event 38 – John Leffler Shield for Formula Ford

Fa – John Tarran – 1970 Lotus 61M

Fb – Geoff  Walters – 1981 Elwyn 003

Event 41 – The Jack Brabham Trophy for Group M Racing Cars

Ed Holly – 1963 Brabham BT6

Event 41 – Leo Geoghegan Trophy for Group O Racing cars

John Smith 1968 Lotus 49/R8

Event 42 – The Repco Matich Trohpy for Group M Sports Cars

Stewart Mahony – 1965 Bolwell MK 4

Event 42 – The Spencer Martin Trophy for Group O Sports

Murray Sinclair – 1969 Chevron B16

Event 42 – The Bib Stillwell Trophy for Group Q Sports Cars

Scott Whittaker – 1972 Milano GT 2

Event 42 Trophy Race for Group R Sports Cars

Jamie Larner – 1979 Ralt RT2

Event 43 – The Kevin Bartlett Trophy for F 5000

Stan Redmond – 1976 Lola T332C

Event 44 Trophy Race for Formula Junior

David Methley – 1960 Lotus 18 FJ

Event 44 – Trophy Race for Formula 3

Tom Tweedie – 1965 Lola T60 F2

Event 45 – Trophy Race for Formula Vee

David Cutts – 1984 Spectre FVee

Event 46 – The Ian Geoghegan Trophy for Nb Touring Cars

Victor Waterhouse – 1964 Jaguar 3.8 MK. 2

Event 46 – The Brian Foley Trophy for Nc Touring Cars

Vince Macri – 1972 Holden Torana GTR X

Legends, good friends, thrilling racing, deft drivers and beautiful cars– the 2010 Lotus Sydney Tasman Revival had it all and then some. Hit this link for a full gallery of photographs taken over the course of an action-packed, sometimes soggy and always fun weekend at Eastern Creek International Raceway.

Many talented photographers were present at the event, and this is just one perspective on what was a massive weekend, so be sure to check back here soon for even more photos from the 2010 Lotus Sydney Tasman Revival!

We are preparing some on-board video footage from the races and will have it online on our YouTube channel soon.

If you have footage, photos or writing from the Lotus Sydney Tasman Revival that you would like featured on the club’s website, YouTube channel, and social networking sites, send me an email or drop by our Facebook page to let us know. We would love to promote your work, and your talents show the world all the fun, challenges and friendships to be found in historic racing!

Please see the following links for photos from the 2010 Lotus Sydney Tasman Revival:

HSRCA’s 2010 Lotus Sydney Tasman Revival photo gallery

Motosport Retro’s 2010 Lotus Sydney Tasman Revival photo galleries: Friday, Saturday and Sunday

All historics, all racing, all day. Saturday at the 2010 Lotus Sydney Tasman Revival was a scorcher, and it had nothing to do with the weather. Each class hit the track twice today, and after two days of practice and qualifying, they are going faster and harder than ever.

Sunday is what we’ve been building up to; look forward to some tooth-and-nail historic racing from every class, a paddock full of timeless historic racing machinery and a friendly group of people to share it all with.

Motorsport Retro has some great shots from the pits and paddock on Friday and Saturday, and we will have a full gallery for you early next week.

See you tomorrow for the 2010 Lotus Sydney Tasman Revival’s biggest, fastest and most amazing day of racing yet!

1. You may park your car and trailer off outside of the tunnel (grassed area where trailers are parked) any time on Wednesday. Security will be provided.
2. From 5:00pm to 9:00pm you may unload and set-up.

Special arrangements for the overseas cars are being organised.

The EBS Porsche Spyder was built in 1972 as a one-off by the engineers at the Porsche Weissach works for the Interserie-European Can Am series (Under 3 litre small block division). Several engineers were asked to build an off-budget, “skunk-works” car using “spare” items from the works and is not recognised as an official Porsche model. Eberhard Braun designed and built the car which has a remarkable resemblance to the 917/10 series, just on a smaller scale. There is speculation that the car was completed or rebuilt in 1976 by prominent sports car makers URD who built it as a Group 6 Prototype sports car and gave it the serial number URD 676 #005. It is built on a tube frame chassis, has a fibreglass body, weighs around 700kg and is powered by a genuine factory 2.8RSR engine coupled to a Hewland FG400 5 speed gearbox.

The car was raced by prominent European racer Max Moritz and driven by Hubert Schmidt at the famous Nurburgring in 1976 as well as Zolder, Salzburgring and Hockenheim. It was then sold in 1980 and went to the US where it raced in Historic Can Am races, SCCA, SVRA and HSR meetings. It was owned by a few other Americans until an Australian, Warwick Miller purchased it and bought it back to Australia where he began a partial restoration.

In 2008 it was purchased by Terry Lawlor who has since completed a more extensive restoration and rebuild. It is anticipated that its first event in Australia will be the Lotus Sydney Tasman Revival at Eastern Creek,  November 26-28, 2010.

Terry won the HSRCA Group Sc Championship in 2008 and was runner up in 2007 and 2009 in a Porsche 911. Terry will campaign the EBS Porsche Spyder in HSRCA Group Q in 2011.

Images: Terry Lawlor and John Shingleton

Via: MotorsportRetro.com

The HSRCA was out in force at Sydney’s Concours d’Elegance Australia this weekend, and took a few examples from the Tasman Revival’s stellar line-up, as well as a beautiful example of the Lotus Elise we are giving away, along for the ride.

The cars looked stunning as they basked in the sunshine at Manly, and did a great job getting people excited for the Lotus Sydney 2010 Tasman Revival. I’m really looking forward to seeing and hearing them out on the track! Bring on the roar of engines, the smell of petrol and hardworking brakes, clutches and tyres and the excitement of historic cars racing on the raggedy edge.

Getting people pumped for the Tasman Revival wasn’t all the cars did. Tickets to our Win a Lotus Elise competition were on sale and going fast and we now have only 588 left.

Chances to win one of the next generation of trackday classics are running out faster than Avgas on raceday, so head to our Win page to buy your ticket now!

Only 588 tickets to win a Lotus Elise are left and they are going fast, click here to buy one today!

Few Australian made racing cars have the credentials of the SR4.

Its racing history speaks for itself; 19 starts, 19 pole positions, 15 wins, 8 lap records and only one defeat (second due to throttle spring problem requiring a stop). A car that was faster than the Formula One cars of the era, driven by one of Australia’s best ever drivers.

Built in Sydney by Henry Nehrybecki for Frank Matich to take to the 1968 CanAm series, it raced only in Australia, unlike its equally famous sister car, SR3. It totally dominated the class and lead to coining of the phrase “doing a Matich” (i.e. to take pole, to win, take the fastest lap and also the lap record).

The frame is made from tubular steel and weighs only 81 pounds (35 kg), extremely light considering the power of the engine, which was 550 BHP as raced. The gearbox is a Hewland LG500 with 4 forward gears and reverse. The gearbox is the only major item not made in Australia since the uprights, wheels, brakes and even the steering rack were locally produced. The body is made from fiberglass though the original intention was for this to be aluminium.

The engine was a 760 series 5 litre Repco Brabham quad cam racing engine developing around 550 BHP. (Shorter block 3 litre 860 series engines were used for Jack Brabham and Denny Hulme’s Repco Brabhams in 1968).

The SR4 was retired from racing at the end 1969 since there was little else to be achieved for it in Australia. Also a year had slipped by making a later foray into CanAm series futile. In any case Frank Matich had his eyes on the emerging F5000 series.

The car was cosmetically restored by Don Halpin while still owned by Repco during the eighties and was for many years displayed at the Birdwood and then the Launceston auto museums. It was never possible to undertake a full and running restoration since the engine in it was very much incomplete. Acquisition of a complete and running engine from Les Wright some years ago made the full restoration feasible and this was carried out by Jim Hardman. The engine in the car is actually an ex Jack Brabham Indy engine of 4.2 litres, though of the same external appearance as the 5 litre version originally fitted. Naturally this has been set up to operate on petrol as opposed to methanol as per Indy. A 5 litre engine is now in preparation.

Nigel Tait, managed the restoration and movements of the SR4 over the last years of Repco’s ownership and subsequently during ACL’s ownership, and purchased it from ACL in July 2005.

In 2006 a full chassis restoration was undertaken since it was 38 years since it was constructed. It is a testament to Henry Nehrybecki’s workmanship that it was found to be in excellent condition with only minor repairs needed and only one tube required replacement to upgrade the seat belt mountings to modern standards. Jim Hardman undertook most of this work including making new aluminium skins and undertray and reassembly.

The car has been taken to a number of circuits for display and demonstration and has been driven by John Bowe and Brian Sampson and as well as by Nigel Tait and Jim Hardman at various events. Due to its historical importance and the scarcity of critical engine components for the quad cam engine (which may well be the only one still running) there are no plans for the car to revert to all out racing.

The Regularity Category is for Sports, GT & Invited Cars manufactured prior 1970.

Expect to see a smorgasbord of interesting vehicles including Mini’s, Cobra’s, Datsun’s, Alfa’s, Jaguar’s, Holden’s and Ford’s