"They are very sensible boys," she argued, as the deal was completed"

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“My brother and I first saw the Amilcar from the bus window on our way from Renmark (South Australia) to Adelaide in January 1961. We were on our way into Adelaide to stay with our aunty at Burnside.  It had pride of place at Kingston Motors, which was opposite the Windmill Hotel on the Main North Road at Medindie (a suburb of Adelaide). Our trips to Adelaide were always something we looked forward to after helping out with the fruit harvest at home. Our involvement during harvest was compulsory, but we were always paid award wages, which meant we generally arrived in Adelaide with some money for our holidays. We hadn't come to Adelaide to buy a car, but the sight of the little red Amilcar parked in the prime position at Kingston Motors obviously had its impact. I remember it being the main topic of discussion when we arrived at our auntie's house. We obviously passed our enthusiasm on to our aunty Mrs SV Hagley, because by the evening we had coaxed her into driving us out to have another look at the car. I can remember leaning over the fence at Kingston Motors and pulling the car closer to the road and commenting that it was very light. We had never seen a car like it before - the burning question obviously being the price.

A telephone call the next morning to Jack Finnis (Michael Finnis’s father) the owner of Kingston Motors established firstly that asking price was $240 and that he was selling the car on behalf of a Mr Mal West. While $240 was way out of the budget of two young apricot cutters, a "grant-loan" package was worked out between a very generous aunty and uncle, and parents at Renmark. Normally our aunty took a very keen interest in our welfare and safety but was obviously not swayed by Jack Finnis's concern that a 16-year-old and his 14-year-old brother would kill themselves in the car if they bought it. "They are very sensible boys," she argued, as the deal was completed.

The towing operation happened to coincide with the return home of another Amilcar enthusiast and owner, Bill Byfield, who lived just up the hill from our aunty. He followed us home and ~ after telling us how lucky we were to have the car told us that Max Foale was someone we should contact to help us with any problems we had with the car. Little did we know that he knew much more about that car than we did. Even though it was a very pretty car with little visible rust or imperfection, it was really quite tired underneath. The blue smoke it emitted as we drove it up and down the driveway was only a minor problem as far as we were concerned. Parental guidance suggested that as we didn't know much about the car and the fact that Renmark was a long way, we should take it home on a trailer behind the family car. On arrival at Renmark, the car was registered and my brother and I drove it to High School several times. It was here that we discovered what jealousy and a coin could do to the paintwork of a car.

My mother who was the unfortunate person who really brought the tired state of the car to a head when she asked if she could drive it to the local shop, about 2 kilometres down the road. It didn't make it - in fact, it didn't make the 100 metres to the end of the street. A conrod came loose at the gudgeon and let fly with tremendous force, splitting the block in the process and dislodging the starter motor and a tin full of metal fragments onto the road. Obviously concerned at what had happened, mother offered to pay for a new engine for the car. Max Foale soon put us onto Alby Lobb at Port Adelaide, who in addition to an interest in SS Jaguars and a Brooklands Riley, also had a lot of old Amilcar parts.

Amilcar rear ends, with their fixed differentials were in big demand at the time from speedcar enthusiasts, the result being he had a large number of spare engines and gearboxes. We finally left with three engines and two gearboxes for a total cost of $20. The engines were typical Amilcar - tired and worn out.  The best was selected and given to Kent Town Engineering to recondition.  After some months it was collected and taken to Renmark to finish the rebuild and get the car back on the road. When it finally came around to completing the rebuild sometime later it was found that too much metal had been machined from the ring grooves and that the top of the pistons had been weakened as a result. A shortage of funds dictated an end to the rebuild.  Several years later we discovered another Amilcar in the district - a model C at Cooltong. After towing the car back home behind the farm tractor the engine from this was fitted to the Grand Sport. The car was driven once or twice in this configuration before again being parked in the shed to collect dust. After the death of my brother in a road accident in 1979, I decided to bring the car to Adelaide and completely restore it. The blown engine was only the tip of the iceberg - just about everything else in the car was in a similar state. The gearbox was tired, as were the brakes, steering, suspension, rear axle and body. No effort was spared in the restoration even to the point of having new cogs made for the gearbox. The rebuild took just over two years. While the body looked reasonably sound, with the exception of rust along the bottom sills, it showed many scars and problems when the paint was removed.

It was so bad that we even began to consider whether it would be easier to make a completely new body for the car. Well-known Australian professional car restorer Jeff Gransden did most of the bodywork, while the late Don Fraser did the machining. The first outing of the car was the 1983 annual Bay to Birdwood rally. We were still putting the finishing touches to the car as it was wheeled out of the garage early on the morning of the rally. It made the trip to Glenelg with some difficulty and was then coaxed as far as the Botanic Gardens at North Adelaide before rain and a few other problems finally dictated it would be better not to attempt the long uphill haul to Birdwood. It was while the car was parked waiting for the start of the rally that Laurie Jamieson approached me and asked - “what was 1 doing with his car". It was this brief chat with him that prompted me to research and write the history of the car. The only mistake I made was not getting down to the job straight away, because it was not long after that Laurie suffered a stroke. Much of the history of the car was locked in his still very active brain but as a result of the stroke his speech was affected, and he was not able to tell me as much as he obviously wanted to. Not only was this my loss, but also a loss to all other Amilcar owners and vintage car enthusiasts. This was reflected more than once during our meeting when tears momentarily interrupted his intense desire to communicate. I was able to glean from him that he first purchased the car in 1937. Laurie, who was a car dealer, kept the Amilcar for many years until he sold it to a Mr Eric Baker for $170 in March 1945. I learnt from his brother Bill, Laurie owned or traded a total of 113 Amilcars through his car yard on Findon Road.

During my research into the history of the car I was given a photo of what appeared to be a similar car with a different number plate and obviously painted a light colour rather than the red of my car. With nothing to indicate otherwise, I assumed that this was, in fact, another car that no longer existed. What Mr Eric Baker was able to tell was that the car was actually my car. In fact, the photo was taken at the Jamieson’s family home shortly before he bought the car. It was painted a "mucky" pale blue with red mudguards. When he bought the car he was told it was the car that was raced at Victor Harbor in 1937. 

After buying the car, Eric repainted it red and also replaced the half-round windscreens to make it easier to fit an all-weather hood. Eric owned the car until well after the war. He used it regularly to travel between the airforce base at Mallala and Adelaide. Bill Jamieson said the car was original "Bugatti blue" when Laurie first owned it. When I talked to Reg Jamieson about the car he felt that it had an overhead valve conversion fitted to it during its early career. He said that this was replaced with a standard side valve CGSs motor by Drummonds, the SA agents because it "performed better" than the troublesome overhead valve version. Several people have also told me that the overhead conversion was not really reliable. My brother and I heard about the overhead conversion not long after we bought the car, but despite being told that it had been fitted to an Amilcar engine driving an irrigation pump near Tailem Bend, on the River Murray, but we were unable to track it down. I am currently negotiating the purchase of an overhead valve conversion from a friend in England."

The Amilcar came to Australia fitted with an overhead valve conversion. We think there are only four surviving OHV conversations- one of these engines is currently under the final stages of a major rebuild before being installed in the car. If anyone has any history or details about these overhead valve conversions. Please comment below.

Words by Richard Fewster.

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