MORLEY'S MACAU MARVEL

Morley Faulkner worked in the Standard-Triumph Competitions Department and was fortunate enough to drive the Macau racer on several occasions. He never forgot what a delight that car was to drive and has just achieved a long-held dream by building this faithful replica.

- John Clancy

The Macau Racer was a special Spitfire built at Canley and first raced by Walter Sulke at the Macau Grand Prix in November 1965. The car featured the same front end as the Le Mans Spitfires, but the rear tub and wings were crafted from aluminium to the standard shape but with a fibreglass deck and a distinctive hump added behind the driver.

Morley did actually do some work on the original Macau Racer as he was given the task of preparing it for shipment to Kas Kastner’s USA Competitions Department after it had returned from its races in the Far East. Morley had already met Kas when the American tuning guru had come over to build a TR4 engine for the engine development section of the Experimental Department – when completed, that engine produced in excess of 150bhp, and this was with the original SU carburettors in place, which must have impressed Ted Silver the Engine Build foreman and Dougie West the Engine Build charge hand.

There was only ever one Macau Racer built by Triumph, but there have been a couple of faithful recreations around the world in more recent times, with probably the best known being that of Bernard Robinson, the stalwart editor of the Triumph Sports Six Club’s magazine. There is also Russell Pierce’s six-cylinder version in the USA. Russ investigated the history of the car and decided to go with Kas Kastner’s ultimate iteration when the car had the six-pot, highly tuned race engine installed. I have had the good fortune to meet with Kas several times, and the last time we got together was when Russ had his Macau Racer replica on display. This was naturally the perfect opportunity to ask Kas about his memories of the original car.