Australian Gurney Eagle Tribute ready

A bold plan to export retro racecars to the USA has won support from a pair of Australian motorsport legends.

The prototype for the Gurney Eagle Tribute car went public at Sandown Park last weekend and was an instant hit with John Bowe and Kevin Bartlett, who both won in single-seaters before finding fame in touring car racing.

The classic recreation should be ready to run in less than a month and could fire up for the first time in public at the Geelong Revival Motoring Festival over November 22-24.

The car’s creator, Robert Logan, is already well advanced with a plan to sell cars to American drivers and has tentative support for a race series that would include a full field of his cars, wearing various throwback bodywork inspired by the 1960s F1 cars from Gurney, Ferrari, Lotus, BRM, Honda and Brabham.

Logan says there are only a few minor jobs to be done before the first car is complete and he can begin a serious sales pitch.

“The biggest job is the clutch, which requires some machining of the bell-housing,” Logan tells carsales.

“But it’s not far away. All the final assembly is done. I’m hoping it will be running for Geelong, but it’s only in four weeks time.”

Bowe is a big supporter of the car and has volunteered for test driving duties when it is ready for the track.

“I love the cars from that era. In the 1960s the cars looked so good. It will be a fun car,” Bowe says.

“The car is very well built. It’s very robust.”

Bowe first met Logan when the constructor was building his Roaring Forties sports cars, a homage to the classic Ford GT40. He was also involved in testing and tweaking that design.

He jumped into the Gurney at Sandown and says he is impressed.

“It’s Robert’s passion and you cannot help but be caught up in his enthusiasm,” Bowe says.

“It’s really well built and I’m looking forward to driving it. I’m keen to see it working properly and to be nice and user friendly.

It’s a similar story for Bartlett.

“I did sit my arse in it for a little while. It’s fairly clever and all of that sort of stuff,” he tells carsales.

“The concept is clever. There is no doubt in the world about that. He will find a market area for it.”

But Bartlett, who is an official at a number of historic racing events, sounds a warning about safety.

“I’m of the opinion that anything like that needs to be tested correctly. I reckon he is going to have to be very careful because of the litigation situation these days.”

Logan says he has been thorough on safety with extensive research and testing, and the biggest problem he currently faces is finding the right name.

“I looked at Roaring Sixties, but that didn’t work. I won’t want to use my name, because that would be too egotistical,” he says.

“At the moment it’s called the Gurney Eagle Tribute. But I’m looking for something else.”

He is also accelerating the production plan with designs for bodywork that can quickly transform the basic car from an Eagle into something else.

“The next body will be a 312 Ferrari, a 1967 model. The main bodywork will stay the same, so it’s mostly the nose. It’s not going to be a copy, but something trending towards the original,” Logan says.

“Then the one after that will more than likely be the Lotus Type 49. I want to do it with the Gold Leaf Team Lotus livery. The only shots of that car being driven by Jim Clark, who was my hero, were taken in Australia.”

Once the car is running there is a plan for Bowe to begin test driving, but Logan is not getting over-ambitious with his production plan.

“I’m not going to build the second chassis until I get the car into America. I will not be opening a factory until I have a genuine sale. But I have everything ready to go once that happens.”