Maitland motoring enthusiast Peter Robinson is marking the 50th anniversary of when Australia’s motor sports status quo was turned on its heads.
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In 1966 the famous Bathurst Mountain was conquered by the Mini Cooper with Finnish rally ace Rauno Aaltonen winning and the iconic British cars filling the first nine spots across the finish line.
Robinson’s Mini, including a visor signed by Aaltonen, and a collection of photographs are on display at Maitland Auto Parks on High Street.
Aaltonen was the toast of the Australian motoring scene when he and co-driver the ironically named Bob Holden beat V8s around the track.
Minis also won the Monte Carlo rally three times, much to the chagrin of the French who disqualified them on the last event because the headlights dipped the wrong way.
“They are just an amazing little car. They used to call them the giant killers and they were,” Robinson said.
“No other make has ever taken out the first nine places at Bathurst.
“The wonderful thing about these, is they only weighed 600kg. Once give a bit of tuning up you can get 120 horse power from the engine.
“The V8s were very fast uphill and downhill but the Minis had it over them around corners and under brakes
“Some had street truss and skinny wheels and there were tyre spins all around the hill.
“The factory team raced nose tail for some laps going down Conrod Straight and all three cars went 10 miles faster down the straight.
“But they had to change it back as they would have overheated.”
Aaltonen will be taking part in 50th anniversary celebrations at Bathurst this weekend, which also marks 10 years since the King of the Mountain Peter Brock’s death when he crashed in the Targa West rally.
Robinson’s Mini is still in track order after being garaged after its last race – a hill climb at Bathurst in 1994.
“It’s an out and out race car. It has club plates to drive to the track but it would be hairy,” he said.
”It has been a competition car since the 1970s. It’s the third body, I bought the second version after the first owner wrote it off and re-shelled it.
“It was blue, so I changed the paint to a red body and the white roof all the factory cars used.
“I rebuilt it after I crashed in 1984 at the end of the straight at Oran Park. I was pulling about 110mp/h at the end of the straight. I turned around the corner and it just rolled.
“It went up in the air, they reckon they could driven a double decker bus underneath it, it was up so high
“I have a crook foot, ankle and neck to thank for that. They all thought I was dead.”
