It is with great sadness that we share the news of Peter Molloy’s passing on Thursday the 10th of October, 2019.
Peter was an honorary member of the HSRCA and about a decade ago we honoured him with a surprise dinner that was attended by a long list of familiar names from Australia’s racing history. Most will remember Peter for the many competition engine he built.
Please read on for a vale with thanks to Dave Williamson.
Vale: Peter Molloy
Peter was without a doubt Australia’s most successful engine builder and designer, as well as race car and racing motorcycle preparation and set-up expert. He was the most imaginative, thoughtful man when it came to race engines and race car design.
His talent was stunning. For example, he redesigned a REPCO V8 a few years ago and I was lucky enough to watch as he ran it on the engine dyno. His modifications increased all known HP figures by more than 10%.
Peter built hundreds of reliable and powerful race engines for so many winning cars and motor bikes – Bathurst race-winning cars, Formula 5000s, air cooled cars, boats, world championship motorbikes… it would take far too many paragraphs to name them all.
A clever and no-nonsense man, Peter’s engineering philosophy was: “calculations… common sense…and compromise”.
Dave Williamson