Auction Result: Shannons’ 1948 Bedmore Special

Submitted by msr on March 8, 2012

This lovely 1948 Bedmore Special Single Seat Race Car went up for auction at Shannons’ Melbourne Autumn Classic Auction, which ran successfully on the 5th of March.

Affordable, unique and storied, this Australian Special is an excellent opportunity to get into historic racing.

Aussie specials are one-off racing cars, generally built before the 1960s, and this particular example is the combination of a 1929 Morris Minor, a Bedford truck and William Jolly’s ingenuity.

After a serious stack in the Morris Minor at a race meeting at Lobethal in 1948, Jolly was in need of a new motor. He couldn’t afford an MG motor, but in searching for an alternative found the block from a Bedford truck. Into the Minor’s chassis it went, modified to fit to the existing Minor gearbox. He styled the body himself as a single-seater, offset the engine so that he could fit in the car with the complete transmission, fitted an aircraft seat and fuel tank and went racing.

And racing’s been its life since then. It has its CAMS Certificate of Description, making it eligible for historic racing in Group K and ready for its next 64 years on the track.

It was auctioned without reserve and sold for AUD$23,000.

Via Shannons

Photos via Shannons