Marv’s Garage: The Veskanda was too fast for Australia
I have skipped merrily through the history of Really Bloody Hootin' Quick racing cars of 1980s Australia, but today we "Bowe" to the king: the Veskanda C1.
After watching the FIA Group C cars race at the 1984 Sandown 1000km event in 1984, Bernie van Elsen had Adelaide's K&A Engineering (Harry Aust and Dale Koennecke) build him a closed-cockpit sports racing car to CAMS Group A Sports Cars, FIA Group C and IMSA regs. It was called the Veskanda (Van Elsen Special K AND A). Based around a Lola T400 F5000 single seater, it had an aluminium monocoque with lower wishbones and in-board coilovers up front while the rear ran multi-links and coilovers, while the C1 featured full ground-effects aerodynamics.
Power initially came from the 520hp 5L Lola-Chev V8, but this was updated to a 590hp 350ci Chevrolet as class capacity rules were relaxed for '86. Even the 5L motor had enoug h herbs to dominate the Sports Car class when the Veskanda debuted midway through the 85 season with John Bowe driving.
In ‘86 the Veskanda was one of the most powerful racing cars on Aussie circuits of the time. Bowe scored pole at every round, set the fastest lap in every race (a class record each time), won every race and set outright lap records at Calder Park, Amaroo and Surfers Paradise - records which still stand over 30 years later.
This thing wasn't just "Fast For An Aussie Car". Against 956 Porsches, Saubers, TWR Jags, March, Lolas and all sorts of ground-based missiles of Group C racing, the Veskanda proved it had the speed to run with the big dawgs at the FIA WEC round at Sandown in 1988, where it used a 650hp 6L Chevy V8.
However, by 1988 the local sports car series had collapsed under dominance of big dollar cars like the Veskanda and Romano's WE84/Kaditcha. The question of whether it is faster than the RP968 time attack Porsche is one i would love to see answered. Nothing can take away from the fact, however, it is the fastest wheel-to-wheel race car Australia has produced.
