The JWF Milano GT2
The 1970 JWF Milano GT2 |
The name JWF came from the three partners, "Sam" Johnson, Geoff Williams, and Grant Furzer but by 1962 Geoff and Grant had gone their separate ways. Sam continued on with the JWF fiberglass business, moving away from sports car bodies and concentrating more on industrial products (Much Like Australia's Bolwell did). However he did go motor racing with a couple of partners, earthmoving contractor Bruce Leer and Moss Angliss.
The GT2 was inspired by cars of the Australian Clubman racing series, Where Angliss enjoyed some success with a modified Lotus Super 7. The GT2 design employed a fiberglass body, partially bonded to a tubular framed chassis, with the engine mounted in a front-mid position, and the driver placed just ahead of the rear axle. This layout was typical of Clubman racers.
However, this was to be a different sort of beast as the trio decided to put Holden's 2.2 Liter 179 "grey" inline-six motor in front with a triple carb setup from SU. Initially, 2 were constructed and ready to race in late 1970. Both cars were painted black with a gold stripe on the sides, at the beltline, and "Milano G.T.2" in script (not unlike the old GT40's).
After considerable competition success, racing in the Australian Sportscar Championship, in the early 70's the cars became quite well known. Pressure came from everywhere for replicas to be made but Sam was adamant that they just weren't viable as they would be too much work.
There was just one exception. A cousin of Frank Matich (a famous Aussie racer) was able to convince them to build a third car for him. Eventually the original pair of cars was sold off.
Of the 3 Milano GT2's ultimately produced, one of the original pair was destroyed while being raced by a later owner, the remaining two went to western Australia. One of those is in the hands of a gentleman named Scott Whittaker and the other belongs to former NSW Bolwell Cub president, Andrew Kluver.
Sources:
John Low's Bolly Blog
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