Red Dust Revival Racers from Lake Perkolilli, Kalgoorlie Western Australia

[alan barton]

I imagine most of the guys on here are familiar with The Race of Gentlemen in New Jersey.  The Aussies would know about Rattletrap in New South Wales.  But here in WA they held the third Red Dust Revival half an hour north of Kalgoorlie and I am here to tell you it was one of the best motoring events I have ever attended - period!

Racing started in Lake Perkolilli in 1914 and continued until cessation due to the World War Two.  Racing did not resume after the war although locals often head out there in their 4wds or motocross bikes to hoon around. Some years back a local vintage racing enthusiast, Graeme Cox, decided to recreate the old days and it has caught on like a house on fire!  Google Red Dust Revival to see what I am talking about.

 

After spending seven days at the event I came home thinking about building a Perko car.  The rules are simple - it has to be a pre- 1939 vehicle with largely, and certainly visually pre- 1939 components. No fibreglass, no pop rivets, no tech screws.  So it has a vintage race car feel more than a hot rod feel but there were still a heap of hot rodders both spectating and competing. A point that was repeated throughout the beautifully published programme and the coffee table book from the previous event notes that many of the cars have been built from leftover mechanical parts that hot rodders had discarded.

As a hot rodder and a hot rod modeller that struck a chord and before you know it I had seven Perko cars! With the exception of the 32, most were built entirely from leftover scraps, many of which were not good enough for a detailed model but perfect for a Perko racer.  Here's what I produced.

First, a l925 T coupester.  This is the ugly old Lindberg 1/28th kit and this body had been beheaded and significantly hacked up before I got it.  It is on a stone cold motherless stock AMT 1925 Model T frame and running gear. This entire model was completed in 24 hours although the frame was already assembled.

I was all fired up by the success of this model so decided to replicate the AV-8 of my friend Les.  he is a hard core hot rodder who builds beautiful old flathead powered cars for the street. I had cut the rear of a Mod Rod body for a 27 T roadster pickup project so the remaining part of the ex-Ala Kart body was used to create half a phaeton. I cut up a roadster roof to make the curved back of the seat as per a stock A tub.  Pretty much stock AMT Model A frame and running gear, handmade seats and fuel tank and hand painted signage. The name on the cowl refers to the fact that the car developed a high pitch whistle that could be heard across the bush when it was racing!  Hundreds of "experts" at the event offered their opinion as to the cause but they never stopped it - thus, The Whistler!

Third was my Model A boat tail racer.  There were at least half a dozen boat tail Chevs and Fords at the event.  I have heaps of stock model A bits but where to get a boat tail?  Well, last year I was helping my elderly father tidy up his shed and in an old box we found the broken remains of the body from a Merit Maserati 250F. I had built this model in primary school and thought it was long gone ( although I still had the nose cone in my stash).  I had brought it home for nostalgia only but it turned out to be just what I needed to build a boat tail.  Most of the cockpit and seat is fabricated from sheet styrene.

[alan barton]

Next was a project that I started decades ago but never completed.  It is a vintage sprintcar body that I hand carved a wooden mould for and then vacformed.  There were a few pedigreed pre-war racers at the event so this would be perfect.  The chassis is a near stock 27 Model T using the Fronty gear found in the AMT 27 Phaeton kit.  I had to move the engine crossmember back a little to make more sense.  The grille shell is from a Heller Citroen and the wheels are a combination of Monogram and Revell Model A.

A number of low slunk Model T speedsters were competing so I had to have a go at one of them.  I had the very cracked and broken remains of a gluebombed AMT King T which was simply perfect for the job. I had to fabricate rear fenders from sheet styrene and the whole thing was mounted on an AMT 25 T frame with Model A wheels.  This was too far gone to restore back to a king T show car but was perfect for a Perko racer, especially having the early style turtle deck.

The last build was a bit special in a couple of ways.  It is a replica, of the replica, of Ossie Cranston's 1932 Ford racecar built by my mate Brett.  Ossie Cranston was a pioneer racing driver from the Depression era and he raced four cars over the years - a 23 T, 28 Model A boat tail, cut down 32 Ford Phaeton and a 36 Ford V8 boat tail. Cranston worked for the local Ford dealer, Lynas motors, so they were obviously thinking about "Win on Sunday,Sell on Monday" a hundred years ago! I have know Brett and his Dad, Ron for over forty five years and they recreated the car using left over parts from their 32 stash.  Of all these models it was the only one that I built with mostly clean unused parts but the AMT 32 Phaeton body had already been earmarked for cutting as I have used the back half to create an accurately proportioned tub based on the Revell 32 roadster kit. I also had to first correct the annoying taper section present on all AMT 32 bodies! For the first time I used the salt technique for the patina and it closely replicates the real car. I cut the floor out of the Vicky chassis and used A monogram 32 roadster fuel tank suitably modified.

[Bills72sj]

Very creative builds. I see you are in Perth. I had the privileged of visiting Perth and meet some of your single women back in the mid 80's.

[alan barton]

I built these six models in just on six weeks . Shortly afterwards I found out that there was to be a display of fifteen Perko cars at our annual hot rod show so I build a diorama and arranged to have it displayed amongst the actual cars.  It was cut from a piece of MDF from a packing crate and uses actual red dust from Perkolilli for the ground cover.  The tree is artificial moss from a craft shop glued to a large eucalyptus tree twig from the local park!

I wasn't sure what to do about having drivers in the car as part of the diorama.  I first tried printing photos off the internet of pre war drivers and cutting them out to position in the cars. It was OK but not great.  My wife then came up with the idea of finding figures that would fit, good or bad, adding helmets and then painting them in muted shades of grey and black, like the cars were in the present but the figures were in the past, in a black and white photograph.  It was much more time effective especially as these are mostly small cars that would be hard to squeeze a plastic driver into..  The display was well received by the racers and spectators alike!

 

[alan barton]

9 minutes ago, Bills72sj said:

Very creative builds. I see you are in Perth. I had the privileged of visiting Perth and meet some of your single women back in the mid 80's.

Thanks Bill!  Yes, Perth is known for having a very significant population of fine looking young ladies! You would have been busy!

Cheers

Alan

[cobraman]

Cool cars and cool display !

[TarheelRick]

An outstanding use of leftover parts and some excellent modeling. 

[bobthehobbyguy]

Some great models. Nicely done. These type of cars are a great way to use up some parts box parts and do a few quick projects. 

[Dave B]

They're great builds Alan, tks for posting.

Dave B

[Tommy124]

Well done, I like 'em all!

[misterNNL]

I am gobsmacked! Really outstanding stuff with cars built like they were when this type of racing started with whatever you could scrounge. Thanks for sharing your talent with us. My personal fave is the dark red racer.

[alan barton]

Thanks to everyone who commented - i can see you "got" the concept.

And thanks Tom!  I have always appreciated your work so your comments mean a lot to me.  Yes, my favourite is the red one.  And the best bit is, I used twenty nine wheels and tyres and a bunch of banger engines that might have otherwise stayed inside a dark box til the day I die!

Cheers

Alan

[ChrisR]

Awesome!

[Paul Payne]

I love the entire project! Very well done!

[Bainford]

Very cool stuff, Alan. Proper grassroots racing. I'm really digging your parts-box racers. It looks like a very fun project. Well done.