Birrana is a make of racing car which was produced in Australia between 1971 and 1978.
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The first Birrana was a Formula Ford built by Tony Alcock in 1971 for John Goss.[1] Alcock was a designer builder who had previously worked for Elfin Sports Cars in Adelaide and for Brabham, Cosworth, McLaren and Cooper.[1] "Birrana" is an Australian aboriginal word meaning “throwing stick”.[2]
The Birrana 272 was a monocoque Australian Formula 2 car,[1] constructed by Alcock in Adelaide for South Australian racing driver Malcolm Ramsay.[2] The 272 won the Australian Formula 2 class on its debut at the Sandown round of the 1972 Australian Drivers' Championship in April.[1] It was later sold to Peter Brock,[1] and subsequently won the opening round of the 1973 Australian Formula 2 Championship in the hands of Leo Geoghegan.[3]
Birrana Racing Cars Pty Ltd was formed later in 1972 by Alcock and Ramsay and construction of racing cars was undertaken in a former service station in suburban Adelaide.[2] The company would go on to sell a total of 16 cars.[1]
The first car sold by Birrana Racing Cars was a Formula Ford,[2] the F72 produced in 1972 for Steven Drewhurst of Melbourne.[1]
The 273 was an Australian Formula 2 car.[1] Leo Geoghegan used a factory team 273 to win the 1973 Australian Formula 2 Championship from Enno Busselman in a 273 entered by Bob & Marj Brown.[3] Graeme Crawford also drove a 273 to win the 1976 Australian Formula 2 Championship.[1]
The F73 was a Formula Ford design.[1] Richard Carter drove an F73 to victory in the 1976 TAA Formula Ford Driver to Europe Series.[4]
The 274 was the company’s new Australian Formula 2 car for 1974 with Malcolm Ramsay accouncing plans to build an initial batch of six cars.[5] A 274 was used by Leo Geoghegan to win the 1974 Australian Formula 2 Championship from Bob Muir in a 273.[6] Geoff Brabham took a 274 to victory in the 1975 Australian Formula 2 Championship.[1]
The 374 was an Australian Formula 3 car.[7]
Birrana Racing Cars Pty Ltd was closed in 1974.[2] Alcock then took two Birrana 273s [8] to England to compete in the 1975 Formula Atlantic series before joining Graham Hill's Embassy Racing Formula One team.[1] Later that year he was killed in a plane crash which also took the lives of Hill and four other Embassy Racing team members.[1]
The Birrana A78 was built by Malcom Ramsay using 273 and 274 components for Ramsay to contest Rothmans Series events in Malaysia in 1978.[1] Ramsay finished second in the Penang Grand Prix and the Selangor Grand Prix and third in Malaysian Grand Prix and was leading the series when it was cancelled.[1] The A78, which was the last model to carry the Birrana name, was later sold to John Holmes of Queensland as were all Birrana patterns, jigs and dies.[1]
