FORZA BOB WALLACE I dont know if many readers will know precisely who Bob Wallace was. He was one of those early motor racing heroes from Auckland in the mid to late fifties — a bit of this, a lot of hot rod and plenty of go-like-hell. After helping Johnny Mansel with the 250F Maserati, Bob upped and went overseas to get some international experience. He got involved with the Camoradi Racing Team headed by American Lucky Casner who was running factory Corvettes and Birdcage Maseratis in Europe. He also had contacts with Hans Tanner, the journalist who was involved in the TecMec organisation with Valerio Collotti of gearbox fame. After a race meeting in Sweden, Bob got to drive one of the Corvettes back to Camoradis workshops in Italy, but had a heavy crash which wrote the car off. The engine was salvageble and was a very special, high-performance piece of equipment. Although Bob had written to Mansel back in New Zealand warning him off having anything to do with TecMec, Mansel went ahead and bought a car from them. Bob got involved with this project and the result was the awful TecMec that Mansel ended up with for the 1961 season in New Zealand — it was a 250F Maserati fitted with the engine out of the crashed Corvette. The history of the 250F itself is an amazing story. It had had several other owners and a mixed career, but in 1960, looking for a car to replace the ex Moss 250F that he had sold to Mansel, NZ Champion Ross Jensen found this car and sent it to TecMec to be upgraded into the latest thing possible. After months of silence, Jensen sprung a surprise visit on TecMec and found his car being fitted with the V8 motor from the crashed Corvette and being ready to be sent to NZ for Mansel! Today, youd not get away with such things, but back in those days anything went . . . Naturally Jensen hit the roof and the result was he got what became known as the El Salvador Piccolo Maserati instead. And Mansel got the TecMec. Bob Wallace stayed in Italy and found work with a fledgling new luxury sports car maker, Lamborghini. His ability to adapt, to do anything and to drive quickly, saw him become a vital part of the development team and his test driving prowess was legendary. He was deeply involved in the development of all of the early Lamborghinis. But his main claim to fame was the work he did on the break-through Lamborghini — the Muira. According to insiders, it was Bobs idea to mount the engine transversely behind the cockpit and it was he who developed the car into the legend it became. Bob stayed with Lamborghini but eventually moved to the USA where he set up a workshop in Phoenix Arizona, dealing with Lamborghinis ad Ferraris and he became the guru for Lambo; owners throughout North America, But he became reclusive and wanted no contact with his past and preferred to live very privately. I spoke to his brother Charlie about ten years ago, he gave me Bobs phone number but warned he wont want to speak to you., hes not interested in talking about the past. I tried the phone number several times, but never got an answer and it eventually slipped from my mind. Bob died last year and that woud have been the end of it, but I have received the following today from Ray Stone, who worked with Bob Wallace on the Johnny Mansel 250F. Its from Auckland man Robin Reid. I hope you have the time to read this amazing story about Bob Wallace the legendary Kiwi engineer at Lamborghini who died in Phoenix Arizona on September 18th 2013. It starts (for me) back in December 2012, when Lynette and I were shopping in Regent St, London. It was bitterly cold with flurries of snow. The only enticing thing it was so dark the Christmas Decorations were all illuminated. However I spied a sale at the Lotus Apparel store. The only thing that was slightly affordable was an excellent seamless rain jacket. However I was not willing to pay 200 quid for it. So using my car buying skills, honed over many years, I finally made a purchase at 125 pounds. Naturally being from Lotus, the jacket carried their emblem. December 2013 and I am in the Mercure Milano Centro Hotel wearing the Lotus jacket. An elderly Italian gentlemen makes a comment to me that he owned a Lotus Europa in the 1980’s and it was the most unreliable car he ever had! I replied that it sounded a bit like my jacket as the zippers stuck. He commented that was because it came from Lotus. Next day our paths crossed again, and we he found out we were from NZ, he told me that he knew many famous New Zealanders, like Chris Amon. Bruce McLaren, and Denny Hulme. I could not restrain myself I had to ask why he knew these legends. His business card gave me all the answers. He was Marcello Minerbi, Directore (Editor) 0f Top Gear Italia magazine (not Marcello Minerbi the composer of “Zorba the Greek” theme !). We were invited to have dinner but were unable as we were returning to NZ the next day. However we said we would be in contact when visiting Milan again. We made arrangements to have another meeting in June this year. Unfortunately two week before our arrival Marcello had an accident with his vintage Gillera motorcycle and had a badly broken arm. However he did send to me a copy of June 2013 TG magazine with an interview with Bob Wallace, in this edition there was a picture of the Murcielago “Wallace Edition.” Marcello requested me to find the Wallace family in New Zealand. This is where things really get interesting. It seems many years ago when Bob was at Lamborghini, he told Marcello and Paulo Stanzani (CEO?) that when he died he wanted his ashes scattered at Lamborghini. After the passing of Bob, Stephan Winkelmann OK’d this, with the proviso that the family in New Zealand had to agree. However nobody knew how to find the family, or if the ashes were in USA, NZ or lost forever. Coming back to NZ at the beginning of July my first place to look was the “Herald” but there were no death notices only an article about Bob. I managed to contact Bob McMurray, who could not assist with information about the Wallace family, but kindly posted on his Facebook page a request. Within 24 hours a friend of the family saw the message, and Bob passed the details on to me. When I called them I think they possible thought they were a “Candid Camera” victim, but we made arrangements to travel to Kawakawa Bay to show them all the documentation. Charlie Wallace and his wife Faeona are charming people and had absolutely no knowledge of the request by Bob to have has ashes scattered, and were not aware that in his lifetime Lamborghini had named a version of one of their cars after their late brother. The next issue was to locate the ashes. Charlie had tried many times to contact the executors in USA without success, to find out what was happening with the remains. If by some divine intervention, the next day they finally got to talk, and found that the ashes were in the hands of one of the executors in Phoenix. Marcello and I have been working closely to get a memorial service arranged in Sant’Agata as the family wanted to take part also once they heard the story. This has not always been easy as Charlie and Faeona don’t have email. Stephen Winkelmann was enthusiastic, but the people Marcello has been dealing with have been very Italian, and been non-committal about the whole thing and also some staff changes there have delayed matters. Stephen Winkelmann is arriving back in Italy today from China, and hopefully Monday or Tuesday he will sign the whole thing off. However after consultation with the local council “Plan B” is that the ashes will be scattered in a nearby park, a tree planted and a commemorative plaque laid. Charlie and Faeona are currently on their way to Phoenix to uplift the ashes, and travel on to Italy. I expect to join them there later once all arrangements are complete. This is a great story about another brilliant Kiwi who deserves recognition. I think you have the opportunity to make some mileage out of this through the media (TV/Print media etc.). I hope you enjoy this story as much as I have enjoyed being part of it. — Robin Reid. CAPTIONS — Bob Wallace, fresh from NZ working on a Camoradi Birdcage Maserati — Road testing a Lamborghini
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 03:59:34 +0000
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