Kaditcha was an

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded ...

manufacturer in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. The company, formed by Queensland engineer Barry Lock, made open wheel and

sports car A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...

racing cars Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

, including cars for

Formula 5000 Formula 5000 (or F5000) was an open wheel, single seater auto-racing formula that ran in different series in various regions around the world from 1968 to 1982. It was originally intended as a low-cost series aimed at open-wheel racing cars tha ...

Formula Pacific Formula Pacific was a motor racing category which was used in the Pacific Basin area from 1977 to 1982. It specified a single-seat, open-wheeler chassis powered by a production-based four-cylinder engine of under 1600cc capacity. The formula was bas ...

and

Australian Formula 2 Australian Formula 2, sometimes abbreviated to AF2 or ANF2, is a "wings and slicks" formula racing category in Australia. The category is one of Australia's oldest, dating back to 1964. The current format of AF2 was introduced in 1978. Brian Shea ...

Sports cars

The peak of Kaditcha's form was in the mid-1980s when Kaditcha sports cars dominated the

Australian Sports Car Championship The Australian Sports Car Championship was the national title for sports car racing drivers sanctioned by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport from 1969 to 1988. Each championship was contested over a series of races with the exception of ...

. Chris Clearihan won the 1982 Championship in a 5.0L

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ou ...

powered version, with Kaditcha's finishing that year in 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. Clearihan finished 3rd in the 1983 Championship, which was won by Peter Hopwood driving a later model Kaditcha-Chevrolet that Lock built using a

Lola T400 After the great success of the T332 in the 1974 Formula 5000 season (18 out of 21 top 3 finishes in the US), much was expected of the new high-tech Lola T400. Described by development driver Frank Gardner as "the most sophisticated Formula 5000 ...

Formula 5000 as its base. Hopwood moved to the

Australian Drivers' Championship The Australian Drivers' Championship was a motor racing championship contested annually from 1957 to 2014 by drivers of cars complying with Australia's premier open-wheeler racing category as determined by the Confederation of Australian Motor ...

in 1984 with Clearihan taking over the 1983 title winning car and finished second in the 1984 Championship. Kadticha's most famous race car is one that no longer bears its name. The

Romano WE84 The Romano WE84 is an Australian designed and built, mid-engined closed top racing car built to CAMS Group A Sports Car specifications. The car began its life as the Kaditcha K583 when it first appeared in the 1983 Australian Sports Car Champ ...

raced by Bap Romano began its racing life in 1983 as the Kaditcha K583. Romano used the WE84 (re-engineered by former Williams and Tyrrell

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

mechanic Wayne Eckersley) to easily win the

1984 Australian Sports Car Championship The 1984 Australian Sports Car Championship was an Australian motor racing title open to Sports Cars complying with CAMS Group A regulations.Conditions for Australian Titles, CAMS Manual of Motor Sport, 1984, pages 88-91 It was the 16th Australi ...

. It was Australia's first

Group A Sports Car Group A Sports Cars is an Australian motor racing category that CAMS formulated for sports car racing in Australia. Introduced in 1964, it continues today under the name Group 2A Sports Cars. On introduction in 1964, Group A catered only for close ...

built with a closed top and Ground effects

aerodynamics Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dy ...

like the cars, such as the

Porsche 956 The Porsche 956 was a Group C sports-prototype racing car designed by Norbert Singer and built by Porsche in 1982 for the FIA World Sportscar Championship. It was later upgraded to the 956B in 1984. In 1983, driven by Stefan Bellof, this ca ...

, seen at the time in the

World Endurance Championship World Endurance Championship may refer to: * FIA World Endurance Championship, an auto racing series held since 2012 * World Sportscar Championship, an auto racing series which used the title World Endurance Championship from 1981 to 1985 * Enduran ...

. Bap Romano's 1984 ASSC domination was almost complete, setting Pole Position at every round, scoring fastest lap at for each race contested (Clearihan scored fastest lap in Heat 2 of Round 1), and won all bar Round 1 at Calder Park where Romano crashed heavily in Heat 1, damaging the car enough to ensure it was a non-starter in Heat 2. Clearihan's Kaditcha-Chev won Round 1. Most Kaditcha sports cars were powered by either the 5.0L Chevrolet

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and u ...

, or in the case of the SR781 run by Jeff Harris, the Mazda 13B

rotary engine The rotary engine is an early type of internal combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration. The engine's crankshaft remained stationary in operation, while the entire crankcase and its ...

. The K583/WE84 was at first powered by the 3.0L

Cosworth DFV The DFV is an internal combustion engine that was originally produced by Cosworth for Formula One motor racing. The name is an abbreviation of ''Double Four Valve'', the engine being a V8 development of the earlier four-cylinder FVA, which had fo ...

V8, originally developed for

. Romano upgraded to the 3.9L

Cosworth DFL The DFV is an internal combustion engine that was originally produced by Cosworth for Formula One motor racing. The name is an abbreviation of ''Double Four Valve'', the engine being a V8 development of the earlier four-cylinder FVA, which had fo ...

in late 1984 for the

1984 Sandown 1000 The 1984 Sandown 1000 was an endurance motor race staged at the Sandown Raceway in Victoria, Australia on 2 December 1984.Official Programme, Sandown 1000, page 43 It was the eleventh and final round of the 1984 FIA World Endurance Championship ...

race at

Sandown Sandown is a seaside resort and civil parish on the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom with the resort of Shanklin to the south and the settlement of Lake in between. Together with Shanklin, Sandown forms a built-up area of ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

. Currently the car runs the 3.5L

Cosworth DFZ The DFV is an internal combustion engine that was originally produced by Cosworth for Formula One motor racing. The name is an abbreviation of ''Double Four Valve'', the engine being a V8 development of the earlier four-cylinder FVA, which had fo ...

V8, with Romano having Barry Lock rebuild the car in 2010 following its major crash at

Amaroo Park Amaroo Park Raceway was a motor racing circuit located in Annangrove, New South Wales, in the present-day north-western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Opened in 1967, the road circuit served as a venue for a variety of competitions including t ...

in 1986, the crash ending the cars original racing life. After the WE84 was destroyed at Amaroo Park in 1986, it sat in storage for a number of years, though has since been restored by Romano and Lock. While it still carries the name of the 1984 Australian Sports Car Champion, the front nose of the car has retained the moulded Kaditcha logo pointing to its original roots.

Open wheelers

Kaditcha manufactured cars for open wheel racing, including cars for

and

Formula 2 Formula Two (F2 or Formula 2) is a type of open-wheel formula racing category first codified in 1948. It was replaced in 1985 by Formula 3000, but revived by the FIA from 2009–2012 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship. The name re ...

. A Kaditcha appeared at the

1981 Australian Grand Prix The 1981 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula Pacific motor race held at Calder Park Raceway in Victoria, Australia on 8 November 1981. It was the forty sixth Australian Grand Prix and the first to be restricted to Formula Pacific racing cars. ...

at Calder Park. Peter Larner qualifying his 1.6L

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

powered car 16th (only 1.5 seconds slower than pole and race winner

Roberto Moreno Roberto Pupo Moreno (born 11 February 1959), usually known as Roberto Moreno and also as Pupo Moreno, is a Brazilian former racing driver. He participated in 75 Formula One Grands Prix, achieved 1 podium, and scored a total of 15 championship p ...

in a

Ralt Ralt was a manufacturer of single-seater racing cars, founded by ex- Jack Brabham associate Ron Tauranac after he sold out his interest in Brabham to Bernie Ecclestone. Ron and his brother had built some specials in Australia in the 1950s unde ...

RT4). Larner finished 11th, 3 laps down on Moreno. Ian Bland then drove a Kaditcha in the

1983 Australian Grand Prix The 1983 Australian Grand Prix was a race for Australian Formula 1 cars held at Calder Park Raceway on 13 November 1983. It was the forty eighth Australian Grand Prix and the fourth to be held at Calder. The race was also the sixth and final ro ...

, qualifying 20th (out of 24), and finishing 16th (and last), 23 laps down on race winner Moreno after a series of mechanical drama's through the race. Sydney driver Tom Brickley leased the Cosworth BDG-powered

Kaditcha FA82A for the

1984 Australian Grand Prix The 1984 Australian Grand Prix was a race for Formula Mondial racing cars, held at Calder Park Raceway in Victoria, Australia on 18 November 1984. It was contested over a distance of 160.9 km (100 laps x 1.609 km) or an even 100 mile ...

Calder Park Raceway Calder Park Raceway is a motor racing circuit in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The complex includes a dragstrip, a road circuit with several possible configurations, and the "Thunderdome", a high-speed banked oval equipped to race either c ...

. He qualified 22nd of 25 entrants. Brickley collided with eventual race winner

on lap 75 of 100, and was spectacularly inverted. He later bought the car, converted it to

specifications, and won the unofficial Australian Formula 2 Championship in 2000. (The

Confederation of Australian Motor Sport Motorsport Australia, formerly the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS), is the nationally recognised governing and sanctioning body for four-wheeled motorsport in Australia. It is affiliated with the Federation Internationale de l' ...

's recognition of the Australian Formula 2 Championship as a national title did not extend beyond 1988.) A Kaditcha manufactured car also won the 1990

Australian Hillclimb Championship The Australian Hillclimb Championship is a CAMS sanctioned motor sport competition which determines Australia's annual hillclimbing champion. The championship has traditionally been awarded to the driver setting fastest time at a single meetingPe ...

in the hands of Ivan Tighe using Cosworth BDG power.

Barry Lock

Before forming Kaditcha, Lock had been a successful engineer with the

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor, the second oldest active team, and the second most successful Formu ...

team in

Can-Am The Canadian-American Challenge Cup, or Can-Am, was an SCCA/ CASC sports car racing series from 1966 to 1987. History Can-Am started out as a race series for group 7 sports racers with two races in Canada (''Can'') and four races in the United ...

racing. He was later involved in the

Giocattolo Giocattolo Motori Pty Ltd was a short-lived Australian car company, founded in 1986 by sports car enthusiast Paul Halstead and Formula One designer Barry Lock. The company's name comes from the Italian word for "toy". The Giocattolo was origina ...

project and the Infiniti sports racing car.

References

{{reflist Australian racecar constructors Formula Two constructors