The Monoskate

Here’s one track special that is a little bit different to the cars we usually work on. Known affectionately as ‘The Monoskate’ it is the last Australian built George Reed Special which raced in the late 1940′s and 50′s and is now owned and raced by friend of HPF Graham Raper.

It has a long and distinguished history in Australian motorsport having won many races over the years, beginning in 1950, when it won all three major races at Mount Panorama, including the 1950 Bathurst 100.

The Monoskate was built in 1948 and is the last George Reed Special. George Reed was one of the pioneers of Australian motorsport being one of the entrants in the inaugural Australian Grand Prix at Mount Panorama in 1938 driving a Ford Special.

It is powered by a 4.5l Ford Flathead V8 which makes around 140rwkw and sounds amazing doing it! HPF do all the maintenance and tuning on the car which Graham regularly races.

At the recent Historic Winton event Graham and the Monoskate won all four races with a best laptime of 1:15.73.

The cockpit is pure racing with only the padding in the seat offering Graham any comfort, clutch pedal uses a chain drive system and gear shifter come from between Grahams legs and out the side. Historic racers are brave men!

The Monoskate is kept as true as possible to its original form, including the suspension and chassis and even the hand formed panels complete with 60 years of battle wounds.

This car truly is a piece of Australian motorsport history and HPF are proud to be involved in keeping the Monoskate racing!

Winton photos courtesy of Graham Raper.