Marv’s Garage: The Bapmobile

In the early 1980s Wealthy Bloke and Race Car Enthusiast Bap Romano decided he needed a Group C-style sports racing car to contest the newly reformed Aussie Sports Car Championship. It needed full ground-effects handling and a Formula One engine, so it could clown the competition, of which there was a lot.

This series included all-out Le Mans-style coupes, fat-booty IMSA machines and our local Sports Sedans, so the racing was awesome before you take into account most of these cars had up to double the power and a fraction of the weight of the touring cars of the day.

Romano went cap in hand to ex-McLaren Formula 1 and Can-Am designer Barry Lock, who ran Kaditcha cars to whip up his new beastie under CAMS Group A Sports Car rules. The K583 debuted in 1983 weighing just 775kg and with a 3L Cosworth DFV V8 to push it along.

Based around a Tyrrell F1 010 chassis, the K583 had double wishbones all 'round with pullrod operated inboard coil springs and Koni shock absorbers, but it suffered issues with breaking suspension parts on debut as the F1 parts couldn't handle the load of the ground-effects downforce.

Romano brought Williams and Tyrrell F1 designer Wayne Eckersley on board to sort the car for 1984, where it returned as the WE84. It was in this guise Romano cleaned house in the championship, dominating the series. Romano won 4 of the 5 rounds, sat on pole for every round and set fastest race lap in every race he contested.

At the end of 84 he upgraded the 430hp 3L DFV to a 590hp 3.9L DFL Cosworth but reliability problems held the car back. At Amaroo in 1986 a stuck throttle saw the car hit the wall head-on, trapping Romano in the car with serious injuries. He retired it but held onto the wreck and had Barry Lock rebuild it in 2010.