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A short history of
Alpha Sports Productions
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Throughout history, the driving forces behind nearly all motor racing and sports car marques has been a combination of dynamic personality and technical skill. In the case of Alpha Sports Productions (ASP), the personality was Ray Lewis and the technical skill came from Rory Thompson. Nearly fifty years ago, a young aspiring mechanical engineer, Thompson met Lewis, the charismatic and gregarious young part owner of Lewis Brothers Buses through their common interest, sports cars. Ray was an avid driver and member of the MG Car Club of South Australia. Another club member and mutual friend, Peter Ivy, who lived 3 doors from Rory, introduced the two. Rory was an enthusiastic motor racing fan and volunteered his time as a race mechanic for the Ray’s MG-TC cars and later for the MG Car Club. |
 Rex Treloar(centre) and Rory(right) working on an MG-TC |
 The Alpha Street Workshop in the early days |
Ray ran a number of small sideline businesses in conjunction with the bus business. He operated out of the family home, Alpha House in Kensington, an eastern suburb of Adelaide in South Australia, working alongside the mechanics employed to repair the bus fleet. At the time the house was built, it was the only one in the street and lent its name to the street, and ultimately, the sports car business. In 1963 Ray ran a wrecking business, wrecking FJ Holdens and also started to use the relatively new technology of fiberglass to produce hardtops for the MG-A and Austin Healey. Rory helped out part time but was busy at the South Australian Institute of Technology obtaining his qualifications as a mechanical engineer. |
In their collective spare time, the boys repaired Lotus 7’s for Derek Jolly. Rory noticed that the 7’s chassis lacked any real torsional rigidity (stiffness) and, armed with his newly acquired skills, set about measuring up the 7 in order to design an improved chassis. The first real clubman chassis began in unusual circumstances though. Derek Jolly had imported a new Coventry Climax 1100cc racing engine and had fallen foul of the customs department. Derek needed a chassis FAST so the boys offered to design and build one. The solution worked but, before the chassis was complete, it was noticed by an acquaintance who offered to buy it. So the first ever chassis left their care incomplete. |
 Early Chassis at Alpha Street |
 Ray in his Elfin Catalina overtakes Dave Baillie in his Bacchus |
The small group of friends had begun to acquire a reputation for quality engineering and construction. Gary Chapman of the MG Car Club approached them to design and build a sports car for himself. Peter Ivy had already constructed a sports car of his own and had named it a “Bacchus” (after the god of wine and revelry!) so the boys adopted the name and began the project. That first chassis was a Thompson design incorporating doors (an unusual feature on clubman vehicles) and a high set rear deck. In those days, a requirement for a vehicle competing in sports car events was that it must contain two seats and doors. Gary specified MG engine (of course) so the first chassis was designed to accommodate an MG-A 1500cc engine. Five further orders followed on the strength of their work, including Ronald Lewis’, Ray’s brother, which incorporated Peugeot 1700cc engine and MG-TC gearbox, Dave Baillie’s with an Austin A40 and Bob Dwyer’s with a BMC D series engine. In order to produce large numbers of cars, it was decided to construct a fabrication jig to ensure identical chassis. Through shrewd negotiation a redundant FJ Holden chassis alignment jig was acquired from Freeman Motors and modified to suit the Bacchus frame. |
An important contributor to the finish of the cars was Colin Reilly, a master coach builder, employed by the Bus Company. He was responsible for the aluminium work on the Bacchus nosecone and continued to contribute to most ASP models, even into the 1990’s.
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