Mildren (racing cars)

The Mildren name was used on a series of racing vehicles constructed for, or acquired by, Australian racing team owner Alec Mildren during the 1960s and early 1970s.

The Mildren Maserati was a one-off sports car which was built in 1964, utilizing a clone of a Lotus 19 chassis with components from a Cooper T51 and a 2.9 litre Maserati Type 61 engine.^[1] The chassis was constructed by Bob Britton, who also produced racing cars under the Rennmax name.^[2] The car was driven to victory in the 1965 Victorian Sports Car Championship by Kevin Bartlett.^[3] It was also favoured to win the 1965 Australian Tourist Trophy^[4] in the hands of Frank Gardner, but it failed to start the race after an engine failure in a preliminary heat.^[5]

The Mildren Maserati was sold to Tasmanian Ross Ambrose in 1966 and was subsequently fitted with a 2.2-litre Coventry Climax engine and raced as the Rennmax-Climax.^[1] In 1969 Ambrose had the car re-engined with a 4.4 litre Traco-Oldsmobile powerplant and then race it as the Traco-Rennmax.^[1]

The Mildren Waggott was a space frame^[6] open wheeler racing car built by Bob Britton for Alec Mildren Racing, as one of a number of cars built to the Rennmax BN3 design, which itself was derived from the Brabham BT23.^[7] Originally powered by a 1.6 litre Alfa Romeo engine, the car was driven by Max Stewart in the 1969 Tasman Series and was subsequently fitted with a 1.6 litre Waggott.^[7] Stewart drove the car to victory in the 1969 Australian Formula 2 Championship, the 1970 Australian Formula 2 Championship and the 1971 Australian Drivers' Championship,^[8] with a 2.0 litre Waggott engine being used to win the third title.^[9] Stewart also won the 1972 Singapore Grand Prix with the car which was Ford powered for this race.^[10]

The Mildren Mono was a monocoque open wheeler racing car which was designed by Len Bailey and built by Alan Mann Racing.^[11] The car debuted in 1968 at Warwick Farm Raceway in the hands of Frank Gardner, powered by a 2.5 litre Alfa Romeo V8 engine (the same used in Alfa's 1967 model T33/2 endurance racing sports car).^[11] Kevin Bartlett drove the car to victory in the 1969 Australian Drivers' Championship utilizing the Alfa Romeo engine and 4 cylinder, four valve per cylinder Waggott engines of 1850cc and 2 litre capacity.^[11]

The Mono was later raced as a Ford powered Australian Formula 2 car by Ray Winter,^[12] finishing third in the rain-affected 1975 Australian Grand Prix at Surfers Paradise against a field composed primarily of "Formula 5000" cars.^[13]

The car was commonly referred to as the "Yellow Submarine",^[11] due to the Mildren team cars generally being painted yellow.

The Mildren Chevrolet was a Chevrolet powered monocoque Formula 5000 racing car, designed by Len Bailey with assistance from Frank Gardner.^[14] The car was driven by Kevin Bartlett in the 1970 Australian Grand Prix, but failed to finish.^[15] It was also driven by Bartlett in the 1971 Tasman Series, with Bartlett placing seventh in that series.^[14]