Richard Conway brought his trusted Volvo PV544 track day car in for some more beans last week. A new camshaft to unleash a few more horses was in order. The car already runs on twin Weber DCOE’s and now has a suitably sporty camshaft to go with them. Happy days.
Despite the damp weather a great day was had by all who attended the first CCK Historic Goodwood Track Day. The event was organised in partnership with James Turner and Fuel Consulting Ltd and attracted a fantastic variety of machinery from a 1917 Le France to a Mk1 Lotus Cortina and Mini Cooper S. We brought down a selection of our own cars including the Volvo PV544, Lenham GT SS1800 and MG1100. We brought ‘Lumbertubs’ with us for a shake down after a misfire caused an early retirement for Ian Burford in the Castle Combe race 2 weeks prior. James Turner was there with his freshly repaired Ford Zodiac. He seemed to be enjoying the car very much spending a lot of time sliding it across the wet track. Nick Swift brought his latest Mini Cooper S out for a shake down. It has only just been put together and according to Nick will be the car to beat his beautiful Fiesta Yellow Mini of 2009 Goodwood Revival fame. We also had Peter Blanchett and his Austin A50 as well as a BMW E36, a Caterham 7 and a Jaguar E type. Thanks of Course to James Turner and to Goodwood for helping to make this day happen.
Over the past couple of months I’ve been researching the history of our Volvo PV544. We knew it was raced in period and came from the states but we knew little more than that. My quest began by examining the stickers on the dash board. The car has numerous stickers from hill climb events in Pennsylvania USA ranging from 1964-1972. This lead me to the Pennsylvania Hillclimb Association and to their inhouse historian Ron Mann who helped me get in touch with the previous owners and dig up some of the car’s previous results. I also managed to acquire a stack of race programs from the period which show the car to have no less than 5 class records between 1969 and 1974, twice at the Topton hill climb in 1969 and ‘70, at the Duryea hill climb in ‘72, and twice again at the Tuscarora hill climb. The car’s original owner, John Flannery, campaigned the car on the hills of Pennsylvania throughout the 60’s and 70’s.
By 1966 Flannery had managed to claim two class victories at Rose Valley and Weatherly hill climbs. His career built from there and in both the 1969 and 1970 seasons John drove the PV544 to win 8 out of 10 races for back to back class championship titles. In the 1972 season John claimed a win at Pine Grove, Pagoda and Camp Shand where he achieved the FTD (fastest time of the day) and the first overall fastest time for a Saturday drive. I believe 1974 was the last season John drove the PV, claiming 3 wins, bettering his class record at Duryea and claiming another FTD.
John Flannery retired the PV544 for a Volvo 142. The car was stored until 1992 when Craig Danks, another Pennsylvania hill climber bought it. Craig carried out some work to the car and continued its hill climbing career for another 10 years achieving yet more wins. Fast forward to 2007 and the car was up for sale again. It was imported to the UK where we bought it and immediately began preparing the car for a new career as a historic touring car. The Volvo required a small amount of welding, where rust had gotten the better of it, before we could carry out a very sympathetic paint job. All of the original stickers were retained and carefully masked around for the exterior paint job. We left the interior as is to retain the patina that we love so much in a historic racing car. The mechanicals were all rebuilt with a new B18 engine to bring the car up to spec. It now puts out a very credible 200bhp and weighs just 920kg. The PV544 has continued its success with class wins at Brands Hatch, an outright win at Snetterton and 3rd overall in the St Mary’s Trophy at the 2008 Goodwood Revival. What is amazing is that we’ve been driving this car for years with no knowledge of its historical successes. Perhaps it’s good luck, perhaps it’s good drivers but either way this Volvo is used to winning and long may it continue to do so.
I’ve been researching the history of our Volvo PV544. We knew it was a race car from new and came from the states but we new little more than that. So far I have found out that the car competed as a hill climber in Pennsylvania for most of its life. The earliest sticker on the dash is from the 1964 Hershey Hill Climb. I know that it was driven by John Flannery in the early days and later by Craig Danks. Still trying to find out what it was up to from 1958-1964. The rear bulkhead was signed by Bill Rutan who raced a PV544 in many endurance races in the late 50’s and early 60’s with famous Volvo racer Art Riley. I will keep you posted. Thanks to the Pennsylvania Hill Climb Association for all their help.
