Goggomobil Special.

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

This is the first Motorkhana Special built by Alan Wheeley.

On Thursday 23rd November, 1972, Trevor Holmes delivered the Goggomobil Sedan that I had bought from him.  On Saturday 9th December I drove it for the first time around some streets in Kingston.

On Sunday 25th March, 1973, the body was taken off the chassis.  I then had 100 or so M6 bolts and nuts with flat & spring washers.  The fibreglass body was sat on some wooden flooring in the yard as a cubby house for my nieces to play in.  On Saturday 31st March, the chassis was driven for the first time.

The car’s debut motorkhana was on Sunday 1st April, 1973, at Lakeside in the QMSC Gymkhana.

On Friday 6th April a melted piston was found in the motor.

On Saturday 14th April a full roll cage was bolted to the chassis.  Next day was the QMC 1, at Coombaba, resulting in the Goggo motor broken again.  On Thursday 26th July the engine came back from a full rebuild by Henry Benson, and was installed on 30th July.  The next Motorkhana was at Lakeside on Sunday 5th August, followed by the Interclub Motorkhana at Surfers Paradise Motor Racing Circuit on Sunday 9th September.  At this event Keith Butcher drove the car around the pit roads with John Virtue acting like a motorcycle sidecar passenger by hanging out the side of the cage on the inside of corners.  He yelled out to Keith to do two left hand corners, and then two right hand turns with him transferring to the other side of the cage.  Unbeknown to him there was a gateway in the fence between the marshalling area and the pit area, so after the two left hand turns Keith turned right through the gateway with John still hanging out the left hand side of the cage.  The car went up onto two wheels with John nearly scraping his back on the bitumen.  The episode gave both of them a big fright.

On Sunday 14th October a set of stinger expansion chambers was designed for the motor, and they were built on 25th October.

The next Motorkhana was on 28th October, and on 2nd November a set of tyres were hand cut for dirt events.  The stinger expansion chambers were fitted on 12th November, which increased the power from 15 HP to 16HP, but increased the noise by a factor of 100.  It made the motor incredibly loud.  It was taken to Lakeside on 17th November for the sprints, on a borrowed trailer which broke on the way home.

Dad had found another Goggomobil Sedan in Townsville, so on his next trip to Brisbane, he brought it down the 1000 miles on his box trailer.  It really looked funny sitting on top of the trailer, but he was less impressed when he found out I was going to use it as spares only.  He arrived on Sunday 16th December, 1973.  Special mudguards were fitted for dirt events on Saturday 22nd December.

The body came off the second car on Saturday 19th January, 1974, and the whole lot was shifted to my new house on Saturday 23rd February, 1974.  A trailer was purchased on 23rd March to tow the special on, and it needed lots of work to be prepared for its new job.  Alan Huxley did the welding on the trailer, and it was first used to tow the Special to Toowoomba for the second round of the Queensland Championships on Sunday 21st April.

The next Motorkhana was at Lakeside on Sunday 5th May, where the Goggo won outright.  Softer front springs were installed in the front suspension on 29th May, and the settings were modified on 17th June in time for the White Horse Inn Motorkhana on 30th June.  On 7th July it went to Canungra for the next event, but at the Mt Cotton Hillclimb on 14th July, there were big problems with the brakes.  They were fixed in time for the QMROA Motorkhana on 21st July, but the motor did not perform up th scratch.  The motor was worked on during August, and became healthy again for Sunday 8th September when the car was sold to Greg Quelhurst and Ian Johnson of Sunnybank.  All the spare parts were delivered to them at the Australian Motorkhana Championships at Surfers Paradise Raceway.

Greg and Ian used it in one Motorkhana, and then played with it in the paddock beside their homes, where it was destroyed by jumping it off a large earth bank.

Thanks to Graham Ruckert, I now have photographs of the car.

VW Platform

This is the second Motorkhana Special built by Alan Wheeley.

The VW body was taken off a chassis by John Virtue early in January, 1977 and it was parked in his workshop in Kingston.  Preparations for competition consisted of welding a full width roll bar onto the car with braces to the rear.  The first motorkhana that it ran in was the Holden Torana Car Club event on Sunday 20th March, where it came third outright.

It was transported to my home in April, 1977, and was test driven in the street on 1st May.  It ran at the QMROA Motorkhana at Capalaba where it won outright.

Lights were fitted to the trailer on 19th May, and the trailer registered on 1st June.  The rear suspension was reset on 15th June to bring the wheels back to upright without the weight of the body on the chassis.  Greg and Christine Evans bought third shares in the vehicle, and all three drove it in events.

On Sunday 19th June it competed in Queensland Motorkhana Championship Round 4 run by QMSC, but the oil cooler sprung a leak at the sealing rubbers inside the fan housing.  A new set of wheels were bought for the car on 9th July, and fitted with tractor tyres for the dirt.

The Interclub Motorkhana was held at Toombul Shoppingtown on 14th August, and the next event was the QMROA round of the Queensland Championships held at Dalgety’s Paddock at Rocklea.  It ran at the Renault Car Club Motorkhana on 30th October, and the last round of the QMC on 27th November, 1977 at Labrador.

Greg and Christine took over the ownership of the car when Alan Wheeley started competing in his “Wusten Rennwagen” in 1978.