MOTORSPORT: Aussie 1960s F1 replicas near

Grand prix racing from the 1960s is coming back from the dead, thanks to a Melbourne man with a big dream and a born-again Formula 1 car.

The man who was once the driving force behind the Roaring Forties replicas of the Ford GT40 has a new dream of creating a grid of new-age Eagle, Ferrari, Brabham, BRM and Honda racers that will compete in the USA and delight owners around the world.

Robert Logan is closing fast on completion of his first car, a replica of Dan Gurney’s race-winning Eagle from the 1967 season, but has a grander plan for a cookie-cutter chassis that will be adaptable to various bodywork from the front-line teams of the time.

A second set of bodywork, mirroring an original Ferrari, is already underway.

Logan is dreaming big but spending even bigger, with top-line engineering, a new factory, John Bowe as a test driver and solid links to two racing series in the USA.

He has been down a similar road in the past, as his Roaring Forties company created world-class GT40 replicas, and believes he is on the right track with solid demand for his new car.

He intends to sell them for $US99,000 (around $A147,000) as a turn-key V8-powered track car, with around 320kW powering just 650kg, or $US69,000 ($A102,000) as a rolling chassis.

“I hope to have the car finished in September. I want to make these cars as good as they can be,” Logan says simply.

“I have had great interest in racing them here in Australia and New Zealand, and this I will pursue. But the main point of sale is in the US and I have been told that I will be allowed to race in two separate race groups.”

Just as he was inspired originally by a replica GT40, the new move came from a chance encounter with a replica of a Honda F1 car in Britain.

“A bit like the GT40, when I saw a replica which encouraged me to build one for myself because I realised we could do much better, the F1 project has a similar genesis. I saw a car in the UK called an F1-67… so decided to do it myself,” he says.

The final build is underway in his Melbourne garage and Logan is pushing hard towards completion and track testing. In the past weeks he has finished the windscreen, done a bolt-up with the suspension and wheels, and is progressing on the installation of the engine.

“The first car has taken me more than 4000 hours to date, and about $200,000, but this is the prototype and costs much more.”

The parts list includes a 5.0-litre Ford Motorsport V8 engine, Audi six-speed gearbox, Alcon brake callipers, Motec engine management system and custom-made 16-inch alloy wheels.

Logan is a former Navy engineer who has taught engineering, converted American motorhomes for Australia, and only closed Roaring Forties when he ran into an external financial drama.

“From 1997 to 2006 we produced a minimum of 17 and up to 22 cars and kits in any year. We won ‘World’s Best’ on three occasions in the USA,” he says of his GT40.

“After all our success in Australia and in the USA, I could not keep up with production. I directly employed 14 staff in Australia. My only regret is trusting one person in South Africa.”

He built his first car during his 20s, when he was in charge of apprenticeship training for the Fleet Air Arm in the Royal Navy, and says Roaring Forties was inspired by a GT40 slot car he had as a boy.

This time he is inspired by F1 cars in the days before wings and slicks.

“I like to think my cars will pay homage to the great F1 cars of 1967-68, and not to be thought of as a copy. This was never my intention.

“My car was never designed to be like the original. The Gurney has a magnesium mono chassis and is highly dangerous. My cars are space-frame, all tube is full roll-cage standard and has been designed to meet the latest CAMS requirement.

“I made a mock-up of a chassis with wood and plumber's pipes to get some idea. Obviously all the Roaring Forties running gear had a very well proven history after clocking 282km/h.

“I plan to do absolutely everything in-house. It is just about quality control, just as I did with Roaring Forties.

“I have a great spanner guy with huge experience both here and in the US and he is a multiple open-wheeler champion. He will spanner the car and do the initial driving.

“I have completed critical-path analysis for manufacturing one every three weeks, one every two weeks and one every one week. So I suppose you can say I am looking at going into production.

“I have excel spreadsheets with all assemblies, sub-assemblies, parts and suppliers and alternative suppliers, plus all costs for a complete car.”

Logan’s car is currently built around a V8 engine with gorgeous copies of the original Eagle-style exhaust pipes, but he has also been approached about using a V12 motor and is talking tentatively about an H-16 engine patterned after a BRM in the 1960s.

“I always need to have the second and third generation car in my mind as my customers will be thinking that way also,” he says.

Logan is about to embark on a sales tour to the USA, following shake-down runs, but is not getting over-excited until he has signed orders.

“Regarding possible customers, you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince and I was not interested in wasting my time at this stage with frogs,” he says.

“As soon as the first car is on the track and shaken-down it will sell itself. I found this with my GT40s. If they are highly designed, exceptionally built and very safe and priced very well, they sell.

“I found if I did the work up front then I had less work to down at the other end.”