In the 60’s, when two and six would buy you a copy of “Wheels”, “Modern Motor” and “Sports Car World” magazines, Jeff Carter was a household name. We knew him because he was one of the first people who lived locally (Jeff and his family lived on acerage at Foxground, just south of Gerringong) who owned a Porsche, a white 911 certainly sticks in my memory.
In fact Jeff owned a succession of Porsches over the years and it wasn’t uncommon to have your doors blown off by him out on the Princes Highway, taking full advantage of the relative lack of policing that was the norm back then.
We knew him as a car nut and a journalist. It was only later that I came to realise that there was much more about this likeable larrikin than I had known at the time.
I’m pleased to note that news.com.au has today published a series of Jeff’s photographs which show just what a student of his fellow man Jeff was. You can look at the photos by following this link.
PS: Being the resident pedant that I am, I am forced to note that the last photo taken at Maree was not taken in 1965, as noted in the caption, but in 1964, when Sir Donald Campbell was attempting to break the LSR with the Bluebird. He actually did so and then moved on to Lake Dumbleyung in WA where, on the 31st of December, he broke the world water speed record as well, becoming the first (and as far as I know, only) person to have broken both world records in the one calendar year.