Albert Park F1 history under the hammer this weekend

A slice of motorsport history is up for sale this weekend when 380 Montague Street, Albert Park is offered for auction.

The 120-year-old property is owned by the colourful Paul Vellacot who has been on the Melbourne car club scene for years. The property consists of two parcels, a three bedroom cottage and the old stables (pictured above), once part of the Morris Dairy.

After Vellacot bought both properties in 1974 he used the stables to house classic cars, mostly old Lancias. Five-time Formula 1 world champion Juan Manuel Fangio was one of the first to sign the stable walls after visiting the property in 1978.

Since then a number of big names in motorsport, including Sir Jack Brabham, Alan Jones, Sir Jackie Stewart and Stirling Moss also left their mark on the historic walls.

The list of documented names includes: Brabham, Fangio, Jones, Moss, Stewart as well as Paul Frere, Tony Gaze (Australia’s first F1 driver), Sandro Munari, Piero Taruffi and Luigi Villoresi.

The stables are protected by heritage order, so they can’t be knocked down. However, the inside walls are not protected and the signatures could be lost as part of any future renovations.

In some small way the history of this F1 curiosity will be preserved online, let’s hope those famous autographs remain on those walls for a few more years yet.

Up for auction this Saturday, 380 Montague Street is expected to fetch around $3 million.

[Source: Port Phillip Leader | Pics: Janine Eastgate & Greg Hocking]

UPDATE 6 Dec: Sold for $3,475,000 to an Australian buyer who lives in the US.