WHAT’S IN THE WORKSHOP – McELREA RACING

What’s in the workshop – McElrea Racing – Photo: Supplied

In this first instalment of What’s In The Workshop, Auto Action chats to McElrea Racing team owner Andy McElrea about what his Porsche Carrera Cup Australia title winning team is up to during the enforced break from racing.

By HEATH McALPINE

The Queensland-based team has two projects on the go at the moment, but they couldn’t be more polar opposites. The first major project is the complete restoration of the Objective Racing McLaren 650s GT3 for owner Tony Walls.

The McLaren was shared by Walls, Warren Luff and Andrew Watson in the 2019 Bathurst 12 Hour and competed last at Challenge Bathurst last November. Now superseded by the 720s GT3, Walls will place this chassis in his collection after the full restoration is complete.

“The owner Tony Walls is a very specific sort of guy, he likes everything being immaculate,” McElrea told Auto Action.

“We had always planned to give the car a freshen up this year so he could put it back on display in his collection and because things have gone quiet.

“He has been decent enough to get us to do a proper restoration job on it, which is a significantly bigger job.

“It keeps the boys busy while we’re quiet, it’s been a bit of a life saver for us.

By the end of the restoration, the McLaren will be gleaming having been stripped back as can be viewed in the accompanying images.

“It’s pulling everything apart and cleaning it, replacing all the nuts and bolts, oil lines, fuel lines, completely stripping all the body parts, re-painting and just making it look all brand new again,”

The other project the team are working on is a peculiar, but interesting assignment.

“A customer who wants to remain anonymous, his child has a soap box derby race later in the year at school so we’re designing and building a billy cart,” McElrea said.

When asked if the design has received the CAD treatment, McElrea replied “It hasn’t yet”, though aerodynamic effects and weight distribution are key considerations of the build.

“We have to get a bit clever with aerodynamics of the body and things like that, but it’s a real fun project,” McElrea explained.

“We’ve got the concept in place now, we’re working out what we are going to do for wheels and brakes because it’s not just downhill, it has to handle well.”

Some go-fast items from the race car may be installed onto the billy cart, but mainly mountain bike hardware including calipers, rotors, wheels and tyres will be utilised ahead of a comprehensive testing program is planned.

“Test program will be as busy as a normal one, because we have to try and create the incline on the hill and the surface, then play around with centre of gravity and weight distribution,” McElrea concluded.

Currently the team has its eight Porsches prepped and ready for when racing resumes while the crew are working three-day weeks.

Auto Action is kicking off a new feature series called ‘What’s In The Workshop’ that aims to showcase just that. If you are a team member or competitor that is working on a new racing project during this enforced break from on-track action, drop us a line at [email protected]. Please attach images, contact details and a small explanation of your racing project.

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