The Dawn of Motoring Sale 2023 4th August 2023

58 The Dawn of Motoring Sale 2023 - Cars Australia The story of Hugh McKay’s PHV and its early demise is well documented in the car’s simply massive history file but, briefly, it is thought that Hugh’s shiny new PHV, #A.11.517, arrived in Melbourne early in 1913 but he was too busy attempting to win a parliamentary seat in the 1913 Federal Election up until the end of May to think about motorsport. The car was used occasionally, whilst out electioneering, during the Winter (May to September) and it wasn’t until 13th September that #517 C10.2 made its competition debut at Wheeler’s Hill hillclimb. The result was decided on a handicap formula and McKay duly won the day, which was, as it turned out, C10.2’s last event anywhere, ever. A couple of months later, on the afternoon of Monday 1st December 1913, Hugh McKay with his brother and his chauffeur were on a Sunshine Harvester Works (Hugh’s company) business trip and were running late trying to reach their destination by sunset. The chauffeur was relegated to the back seat whilst Hugh took the wheel and set off at speed. Two hours later, near Mangalore, on a long straight road C10.2 cried ‘enough’ and blew up and McKay lost control, running off the road and rolling over. No one was seriously injured but #517 sustained a bent front axle, damaged wheels, broken lights and windscreen, the body was twisted and the running boards damaged. Passers-by helped ‘hide’ the wreckage in a nearby Mangalore paddock (it was a new Vauxhall and as a Vauxhall dealer he didn’t want potential customers think the cars might be unreliable). The remains of the car were collected a few days later and taken to a McKay rural property at Mount Macedon where it was stored, out of the rain, under a lean-to alongside a large hay shed. It was to remain there, quietly awaiting its fate, until its fate arrived in the form of the January 1939 ‘Black Friday Bushfires’ which swept through the property, totally destroying #517’s remaining timber and bodywork and leaving a pile of scrap iron and some aluminium panels. Quite soon after that, the Australian Government were promoting the community collection of scrap metal for the War effort and, fortuitously, the remains of #517 and the disgraced C10.2 were scooped up by a local, and later secured by the veteran and vintage car collector, Ivan Smith of Kyneton where they were to remain for the next 43 years. The Resurrection In 1980, Laurie Vinall, a long-standing member of the SCCSA, contacted a fellow member, 37-year old John Ellis, advising him that an auction of A.11 and Prince Henry Vauxhall parts was soon to take place. John leapt excitedly from his South Australian base across the state border to attend the auction of the Ivan Smith Vauxhall bits scheduled for Saturday, 2nd February 1980 in a small town called Kyneton, just 20-odd miles from the old barn at Mount Macedon. The parts were identified on a typed, pre-auction listing and the original copy of this is in the file. John Ellis was the highest bidder on all the parts but unfortunately did not meet the reserve, however two years later, in 1982, a deal was done and John was able to return to the auction site and collect everything and bring it home to South Australia marking the start of a further 43-years ‘labour of love’ which hopefully will culminate with #517 finding a new home at our Dawn of Motoring Sale in August. Again, we only have space to touch on this, but the history file has a huge number of documents relating to the discovery and restoration of #517, including drawings, reverse engineering documents, many invoices, photographs, correspondence, hopes and frustrations during the 43-year journey to return #517 to the totally magnificent homage to the 1911 Russian Reliability Trials cars that you see today. Importantly the clutch plate numbered A11.517 identifying the car is fitted, and the collage (see photos) with the bent camshaft C10.2 that identifies the engine. We suggest that interested parties allow two or three hours to go through these files but it could take a bit longer- a 16-page document ‘Prince Henry Vauxhall C10.2 A.11.517. A Strong Hypothesis for its Existence’ explains the history of the car well, and is essential reading. Perhaps the most important however, a letter from Vauxhall authority, Nic Portway, which confirms that ‘John Ellis has the mortal remains of historic competition engine C10.2 and of Vauxhall car A.11.517’.