PHOTOS FROM JOHN HOEHN
John Hoehn an ex pat Oz now in Switzerland and a Reg Hunt fan has sent a few photos.
John's caption : Reg. Hunt, at Skyline Corner, Rob Roy in his Vincent Lightning powered Flying Bedstead to gain Fastest Time of Day 1953 and Australian Hill Climb Championship.
He also got FTD in 1952.
John's caption : The attached photo is from my personal files and also featured in my book 'Ask for Sixpence' with another excellent quality photo of Reg driving his Maserati 250F at the 1956 G.P. Albert Park
John's caption: Dick Boardman in his FX Holden negotiating the crossover at Fishermans Bend Saloon Car Race, 1953.
Not one of John's photos, this one from Garry Baker, but it does show Dick Boardman as the young mechanic holding the Weber carburettor in this photo. Reg Hunt at the cockpit.
John says : Dick Boardman is a member of the British Racing Driver's Club - Silverstone - UK and was General Manager of Reg Hunt's car sales business in Elsternwick Victoria in the 1950s.
Thank you John for the photos.
John at the start for the 2004 Aargau Veteran Rally, Switzerland. The Riley Imp (with Preselect gearbox & Scintilla magneto) was purchased from Dan Margulies, racing car dealer-driver, Kensington Mews, London in 1995. John then up-rated the engine in his workshop, with high comp. pistons, Riley Sprite cams, springs & rockers, lightened centrifugal clutch and a 4-branch exhaust. In 2002 this Imp competed in the Swiss Klausen Mountain veteran race under 1500cc.
Reg. Hunt had close common interests with ace racing driver Dan Margulies. They both drove Maserati 250Fs. Here Dan is in a Bugatti T35B competing in a BRDC Daily Express Veteran Trophy race at Silverstone 1953. In his racing days Dan had 12 podiums in 54 events from 1951 to 1973. Notably, he co-drove with Graham Hill & Rob Mackie in Targa Florio and Dakar Rallies. Photo; Walt Hoehn.
Hans Jorg, a friend of John’s in his 1936 Lagonda LG45 going at pace despite the wet in the Swiss Klausen Mountain Race 1993. The car has the factory original but specially tuned 4.5Litre, 6 cylinder Meadows engine. This event has attracts the world’s top historic racing cars and competitors. It is 21.5 km. long x 1.24 km. ascent with 136 bends, making it one of the world’s longest and most grueling of hill climb races.
In ’52 Bruce McLaren at 14 helped his dad convert an Austin 7 Speedy to Ulster specs, entering events in N.Z. When a similar Austin was offered to John in ‘54, he bought it. Here he is doing the same as McLarens! Rather following a racing career as per Bruce, John studied Mech.Eng. in Melbourne and Zurich, but kept sportscars for leisure. Later he founded 4 Cos. In Melbourne, and Zurich, 2 manufacturing Automatic Packaging Machinery.
Historic event: The Hunt Bedstead here equipped with a 500cc JAP engine at its very first outing which was at Fisherman’s Bend in October 1949. On eyebrow raising displays it was noticeably quicker and outclassed the numerous M.G. specials that it competed against, which you see here in the background.
Some weeks later at Rob Roy hill-climb it lowered the class record by a substantial margin in the order of nearly 6 seconds, at 31.4 seconds. In 1950 it won the under 1500cc. Aggregate Trophy.
Left to right: Irving, Hunt, Boardman. Photo David Read.
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Reg Hunt in his ’Bedstead’ fired up and waiting for a run at the Rob Roy hill climb in 1952.
The vane type supercharger can clearly be seen mounted above the 998cc. Vincent Lightning engine. He gained fastest time of the day at 22.54 seconds. First used with Vincent engine and blower at Bacchus Marsh and Bathurst races in 1951, it outpaced Cooper Vincents in the first race, but was pipped on the last lap of the last race into second place. Photo David Read.
John in his much modified Austin Ulster at the Templestowe Hill Climb in 1956. This was a VSCC organised event. Most of the work on the Ulster was carried out in his father’s workshop, which included equipment such as lathes, milling, shaping, grinding, lapping and pipe bending machines.
Paton’s Brakes (Brake Engineer Bart Harven far right) with Reg Hunt (2nd. from right) examining the positioning of improved brake drums on Reg’s Maserati A6gcm. These drums were manufactured from special heat dissipating and wear resistant cast-iron instead of steel in the previous Italian type, which had distorted. Dick Boardman is on far left near cockpit. After the new drums were fitted Reg went on to win the 1955 Saturday 50 mile ‘Argus Cup’ from Doug Whiteford’s Talbot Lago T26C and Ted Gray’s Tornado Ford V8.
John & Cynthia Hoehn with their Jaguar XK120-S during the rest period after the first section of the 2006 Jungfrau Rally, Switzerland . This was for male-female co-drivers over thousands of kilometers across 6 alpine passes for about 1 week of supposedly ‘stress-free’ rallying. The team with the fewest penalty points wins. The Jag, with a competition history, was imported from the U.S. by John.
