Firstly the man behind it. Fred Foster had an engineering shop in Mascot NSW. If you have some Foster Stocks and Dies in your shed, then you have some of Fred’s products.
Fred designed and built the first twin overhead cam conversion for the Holden grey motor and went on to break the world record for the 135 C.I. class in his Lewis skiff, Fossy, using that engine. You might have heard of a Waggot twin cam Holden engine but it’s not widely known that Fred did the first one. But back to the V12. …..
Fred wanted to do more and one day a friend showed Fred his Ferrari V12. So Fred did what came naturally to him and drew a V12 out on the concrete floor using a piece of chalk. He then went on to build his own V12 motor, casting the alloy block, machining the crank etc. It was aimed again at the 135 C. I class and came out at 132.9 C.I. There were a couple of things Fred didn’t make himself. This included the bearings, the valve springs and the distributor caps. Not visible in the photo below, the distributor caps are bright pink. Fred made a metal cast and had a Dentist friend mold the caps for him.
However, you can clearly see the starter motor in the pic. It’s that pulley with the cable would ‘round it. Fred thought that starter motors and large batteries could be done without, thus reducing the weight of the boat. He just used a motorbike battery for ignition. So, it’s a bit like a lawnmower, you wind it up, pull the pawl and away you go.
Terry Moran, owner of Bewitched (see my avatar) was “apprentice” to Fred for many years, helped Fred with the build of the V12 and quite often drove Fossy. Terry has the V12. It could still be started today, with just a little prepatory work required. Who knows, it might end up in a little skiff again one day.
Sadly the same can’t be said for Fred’s twin cam Holden motor. When Fred’s health started to fail, he offered the boat to Terry, but Terry declined the offer. I guess we’ve all been in a position where we have regretted a decision made some time ago. Anyway, Fred sold the boat and motor to a friend who didn’t see the significance of this great part of boating history. After all, it claimed a world record. He ended up taking the motor to the tip and the hull was left laying in long grass beside the road ( Darren, across the road from Roy Crouch’s place) in a very sad state. We looked at it once with a view to trying to salvage it but dismissed the idea. We now wish that we had grabbed it back then.
