Does anyone know what happened to the Barry Wearing 67 Z28 SS Camaro, sold in 74-75

[nick_tassie]

Can anyone help me with leads to trace the whereabouts of the ex Barry Wearing 67 Z28 big block Chev Camaro sold in the Parramatta area in 1974-75. Barry Wearing was a drag racer who raced a similar 67 Camaro called Captain Rats out of Castlereagh in the mid to late 70's, this is not the Camaro I'm looking for. The car is an ex circuit racer owned by my Uncle Terry Allan, the car has a lot of sentimental value to us and we would dearly like to find out what happened to it, has it surveyed, where is it now. When sold by Barry in late 74 it was still as last circuit raced, he did not drag race the Camaro. It painted white, had highly modified race suspension, large flared guards to suit the 10 inch race wheels, full roll cage, long range fuel tank, and maybe still fitted with the disc brake locker rear axle. Originally the car was red, it also had been painted blue at some stage. Barry can't recall who bought the car from him (it was almost 40 years ago) but he certainly can't recall ever racing against it in NSW and Qld in the 70's which seems to indicate it didn't go to another drag racer, maybe speedway or even converted back to a road car. At that point it hd never been road registered and was still left hand drive. The whereabouts of its race spec 396 big block and 4 speed transmission are also unknown.

Can anyone help with leads on where this Camaro might have gone or where it might be now. its an important link to our late Uncle and we would very much like some answers. Please call me if you can help no matter how small the potential lead - Nick 0417529436

[Steve Holmes]

Nick, this is great! Just to confirm, the car you are searching for is the Terry Allan big block Camaro? I've also wondered what happened to this car. Do you have much information on it? Was it a genuine big block car? Was it built for racing by Bill Thomas, as some have said? Its quite a mysterious car and it seems not a great deal is actually known about it.

Graeme Blanchard bought it off your uncle, and I assume Wearing must have bought it off Blanchard?

[nick_tassie]

Hi Steve, yes mate the car was the Camaro that Uncle Terry imported into Australia in 67 and raced in the ATTC and VTTC, as well as, NZ up until early 71. From what I have been able to find out it was a Nickey Chevrolet ordered Z28 with a 396 Big Block, from various Yank forums I've researched I believe three of these cars were scheduled to race as Nickey Chicago cars but never did. Terry was in the US at the time and managed to purchase the vehicle from Nickey, unusual as Chevrolet was said to have resisted selling these first race spec Z28 cars to private individuals. I believe Terry then sent the car to be race prepared at Bill Thomas's Carolina workshop, Bill Tomas and Nickey had a joint partnership in building and selling performace cars at that time. Bill Thomas III has indicated on the Nickey forum that he recalls his father race preparing these three circuit race cars and that he belives all three went oversea's. Logic suggests Terry's was indeed one of these special circuit race z28's.

Anyway Uncle Terry had the car up until early 71 where he last raced in Tassie at Symmons Plains ATTC round with white paint and Castrol sponsorship. The car was then sold to Graeme Blanchard and he ran it through until 72 again as a white car. The car then ended up in the hands of NSW circuit racer Lakis Manticas, I haven't yet confirmed with Lakis if it was a roller at that point or he removed the running gear, but I can confirm he did have the Camaro after Blanchard. Barry Wearing brought the car off Manticas sometime in 74, I can confirm this as true as I have a copy of a photo from Barry that clearly shows the white Camaro parked in his mates Gargage, it clearly shows the flared guards and the identifiable roll cage as shown in other race photo's so I'm confident it is Terry's car, the date on the back of the photo is September 74.

Barry can recall clearly at the time wondering why Lakis had the car in the first place as he thought he was racing open wheelers, he remembers bringing the camaro roller home to Parramatta on the trailer. But unfortunetly at this point much to his frustration he can't recall what happened next, he's a nice guy and is trying all his contacts from the 70's to try and find the next lead. What he has also confirmed to me is that he never drag raced the car, most likely because of the wide flared guards that wouldn't have suited the narrow track drag racing, it would have required new quarters and front guards. Also he thinks with most of the running gear gone the cost of a refit wouldn't have made it viable at the time. So encouragingly at this point is was left untouched.

His camaro drag car Captain Rats is confirmed as not Terry's car, it is currently in Tassie and I've checked it out thoroughly, it matches except for the lack of blue and white paint between the original red and captain Rats yellow. Barry remembered in a further conversation that Captain Rats was indeed a road car brought from a Canadian consular employee in the ACT in 73, it was a LHD small block car and they drove it home.

So that's all I know, one more link from Lakis Manticas, but stopped now until I can discover that next critical lead. Hopefully someone will read this and remember hearing about a camaro sold in Parramatta by Barry Wearing, or knows of a similar spec camaro racing or converted to a road car from that era. It will be nice if we can solve the mystery once and for all as a tribute to Uncle Terry.

Cheers, Nick

[Kiwiboss]

Hi Nick, a long shot but im in Sydney next month for the EC Muscle Car Masters and im staying with a mate Keith Knightingale. Keiths probably mid 60's and been in Sydney all his life, he raced Toranas back in the early 70's and prior, i'll print this out and ask him!! He doesn't do E-mails and getting him on the PH is tough but i will ask for you!! From stories he's told me he seem to know alot from that era in and around Sydney and was a GM guy!! you never know!!

Dale Mathers
Tauranga, NZL

[nick_tassie]

Cheers, Dale. That's just the kind of help I need to find the next important link, there must be someone out there somewhere that remembers the Camaro. I'll post some photo's when I get a chance that may help as a reminder. The more people are out there asking questions the more likely we are to uncover something. I've even tried to get a copy of the log book from CAMS to get the chassis number but good old privacy laws put a stop to that great idea. Give it a crack Mate who knows what may come out of it, appreciate your support.

Nick

[Steve Holmes]

You will have seen these already Nick from AMC but I'll post these here to help with the search. Allan raced the Camaro in NZ three times; Easter 1970, Labour Weekend 1970, and Xmas 1970. The Xmas meeting it was painted white, whereas the two previous visits it was blue. I've never seen a colour photo of it painted blue but no doubt there will be one somewhere.

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[nick_tassie]

Great photo's Steve, hopefully a colour one of the car in the blue paint will surface. If we have no luck in finding the car my brother and I are considering building a replica and get it out on the tracks, the spec in the blue looks mega so that's the way we would probably go. It would be nice to have a clearer idea of the blue he used. Terry mentioned his trips to NZ to race, I can recall he enjoyed going over to give it a crack. He was very proud of the fact he had the first Camaro to race in Australia and raced against to big boys.

[Steve Holmes]

Pretty sure it would have been the first Camaro to race in Australasia, not just Australia. I'm sure a colour photo in the blue will surface. I think he only raced it at Bay Park on his three NZ trips, which would not have been a suitable track for a big block car, as it was quite a tight layout. But he did very well on his first visit at Easter 1970, and won one of the races. He was obviously very popular with the crowds, as he visited three times, which the Bay Park promoters would have paid for.

[nick_tassie]

Here is the last known photo of the Camaro as is sits when owned by Barry Wearing in September 74 somewhere in Parramatta. Interestingly the original Z28 twin louvre vented bonnet has been replaced with what looks like a standard item (maybe off the Captain Rats drag car), clearly seen is a large square hole cutout on the left rear side, maybe for an air scoop for master cylinder cooling?? All photo's I've found previously show the car with the Z28 bonnet.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks for posting this photo Nick, I always enjoy these types of photos of cars after they've passed through a few owners. The front flares are unmistakable as being the Terry Allan car, even though the wheels have changed.

David Jarrett was racing a 1st gen Camaro in the mid to late 70s. Do you know anything about this car? I suspect it might be the Indy Speed Shop car.

[nick_tassie]

I have looked into the Indy Speed Shop Camaro as it looked like a possible connection to Terry's car. Wayne Mahnken who I've also talked with about Terry's Camaro thought at one point it was at the Indy Speed Shop in SA running as a drag car. Check every lead as they say no matter how small. Anyway there were suggestions on various forums that it was imported from the US as a road car by John Kay. I'm getting pretty good at this detective game and managed to contact John's widow, John having passed away a few years ago. Although she wasn't around in the days of the Camaro and couldn't provide any information she did give me the contact details of his Indy Speed Shop business partner, Tony confirmed to me that John did bring that car into Australia and they stripped it out and built up the race car. So that put an end to that possible lead. Tony also said he didn't recall they ever ran a 67 model camaro drag car.

When researching the Indy Speed Shop Camaro most comments indicate it did become the David Jarrett sports sedan, this then went to Bob Middleton who ran it for a number of years before selling it to Chris Templar in Victoria. Thats as far as I went at that point as Tony cut short the lead, so I've never confirmed the Jarrett camaro was indeed the indy Speed Shop car, but its highly likely.

[Steve Holmes]

Yes, I'd heard the Indy Speed Shop car was built from a road car too. But as you say, you need to be sure to check all avenues. Given the Allan car pictured above in the shed appears to have the 1-piece '68 model side glass fitted, similar wheels to that of the Indy Speed Shop car, and it disappeared around the same time the ISS Camaro first appeared, you have to check that lead before you can cancel it out.

[nick_tassie]

It difficult to see on the scanned picture I uploaded because its re-taken off a typical 70's darkened photo of the day and not very clear, but looking at the better quality one Barry sent me you can just make out what looks like the 67 quater vent window.

Another interesting story on another lead I chased up. I was searching through a wonderful historic speedway site on the internet with heaps of photos, just trying to find a camaro that matched. I came across these two photos of Liverpool Speedway icon Peter Crick driving a Camaro. It had a white nose cone, similar alloy wheels to the photo in Barry's garage, interesting, I wonder? Worth a try so I sent a quick email off the Barry Wearing and asked the question if it rang a bell for him, I think I sent the email off about 11:30pm on a Friday night. To my amazement Barry was on the phone at 7:00am the next morning suggesting I might be onto something (he must have been up with the sparrows). Seems Barry had links with Peter crick in that he developed his fuel injection system for the Captain Rats drag car, he also did all his engine dyno tuning.

Now that's a good lead so onto the internet and phones to track down Peter Crick, at first I got hold of James Cockington from AMC and he suggested the #49 Camaro may have been a spare car of American speedway driver Gene Welsh, I also had an email message from Liverpool Speedway facebook page administrator Mike Raymond (the one and only channel 7 comentator) suggesting the same thing. By the Saturday afternoon I had found Peter on the phone and was having a good chat about the ol days. He confirmed to me that the car was the spare car of Gene Welsh, he looked after and ran it for Gene for a couple of years.

It wasn't until after talking to Peter that I actually realised the #49 Camaro has the rear guard vents of a 69 model anyway, blinded by excitement maybe!! Another lead closed.

[nick_tassie]

Steve, I found this Camaro photo in one of the Mike Feisst Collection's today, are you able to give me some background (who, where, when) on the car, looks like it was in NZ?

[Jon Mello]

I found out some interesting info today regarding Terry Allan's car. I spoke with Ron Ogilvie, the former parts manager for Bill Thomas Race Cars back in the '66-'69 era, and asked him some specific questions about Terry Allan and whether he remembered Terry and/or the car.

(JM) I am curious if you remember a red '67 Camaro being built into a road racer but having a 396 instead of a small block and being sent overseas. I have attached two photos of the car from '67. Red was the original color.

(RO) Terry's nickname around the shop was "Brillo" as he had this tightly curled bright red hair! I remember Terry as he tried to talk me into moving 'down under' for the entire length of time he was here. He took both engines with him and every spare part we had in the shop. Amazing that you brought up his name as I have not heard from him or about him since he left.

(JM) Interesting! So what was the car to begin with? A Z28 or a 396? When you say took both engines with him, are you saying a 396 and a 302?

(RO) Took both engines (396 & 302) plus about 10000lbs of sway bars shocks, headers, carbs, engine parts, suspension parts all inside the car when it was shipped. Took pass seat out into back and put engine in that space. He said he paid by the amount of room not pounds of weight. I believe the car was just a 'plain jane' that everything was added to it. Had to weigh 10000 lbs when they loaded on ship.

(JM) So started life as a plain jane and Bill Thomas shop added SS396 emblems, hood, painted stripes, etc?

(RO) Car was red when it got on ship.. Terry was a speed shop owner.

[GD66]

Steve, I found this Camaro photo in one of the Mike Feisst Collection's today, are you able to give me some background (who, where, when) on the car, looks like it was in NZ?


Rod Coppins' Camaro, with Morrinsville Automotive signwriting indicating the Spinner Black connection : looks like the extra paddock space allocated to the saloon cars on the hill at Pukekohe so most likely a NZGP meeting : in the background, the Cambridge Mini of Barry Phillips with his Cambridge-liveried HR Holden tow car.

[nick_tassie]

Hi Jon, that's great information you have found, very interesting to know. I wonder if there is any way of tracking down the cars chassis number from the US side, it would maybe help with the search over here in OZ. Is there someone you could recommend I contact?

I chuckled at their nickname for him "Brillo" fits perfectly, Uncle Terry did indeed still have that tight curly red hair in later life as I remember very clearly.

I wonder why he took the 302 engine as well if the car was originally a 396, was the car a standard 302 and Bill Thomas fitted a 396 as part of the race preparation? I would really like to know what else Bill Thomas did to it. I know from talking to Terry's mechanic Wayne Mahnken that it suffered from poor suspension set up initially, it looks pretty soft in a number of early race photos. Wayne said Terry resisted making changes for a while because it was meant to be circuit track prepared. Once they modified the suspension setup things improved.

[Jon Mello]

Nick, California does not keep VIN records back that far. Maybe since the car was exported, some export office or shipping company "might" have records back that far, but I wouldn't know where to begin to look. If you were to somehow find out a VIN, I could compare that the other very early Z-28s and see if it fit in with that group, but that is probably the best I could do. I sent you a private message on the other website on how to contact Ron Ogilvie and you can ask him directly about the two engines. That would be much better than me taking a guess. It sounds like there was a whole bunch of suspension pieces exported along with the car for Terry to tailor the car's handling to his liking. Seems a bit strange that he was reluctant to change anything. Good luck with your search!

[Steve Holmes]

I found out some interesting info today regarding Terry Allan's car. I spoke with Ron Ogilvie, the former parts manager for Bill Thomas Race Cars back in the '66-'69 era, and asked him some specific questions about Terry Allan and whether he remembered Terry and/or the car.

(JM) I am curious if you remember a red '67 Camaro being built into a road racer but having a 396 instead of a small block and being sent overseas. I have attached two photos of the car from '67. Red was the original color.

(RO) Terry's nickname around the shop was "Brillo" as he had this tightly curled bright red hair! I remember Terry as he tried to talk me into moving 'down under' for the entire length of time he was here. He took both engines with him and every spare part we had in the shop. Amazing that you brought up his name as I have not heard from him or about him since he left.

(JM) Interesting! So what was the car to begin with? A Z28 or a 396? When you say took both engines with him, are you saying a 396 and a 302?

(RO) Took both engines (396 & 302) plus about 10000lbs of sway bars shocks, headers, carbs, engine parts, suspension parts all inside the car when it was shipped. Took pass seat out into back and put engine in that space. He said he paid by the amount of room not pounds of weight. I believe the car was just a 'plain jane' that everything was added to it. Had to weigh 10000 lbs when they loaded on ship.

(JM) So started life as a plain jane and Bill Thomas shop added SS396 emblems, hood, painted stripes, etc?

(RO) Car was red when it got on ship.. Terry was a speed shop owner.

Hello Jon, its great to see you on here. For those who don't know, Jon is a leading authority on 1st generation racing Camaro's, and particularly those of the Trans-Am series. Jon is too modest to admit to this, but I am more than happy to sing his praises. Jon has built a very impressive forum dedicated to 1st Gen Camaro's from the Trans-Am over at the Camaro Research Group website, I highly recommend checking this out: http://www.camaros.org/forum/index.php?board=19.0

Jon, thanks for posting your interview with Ron Ogilvie over here. So when Ron said the car was a plain jane, what does this mean? Was it actually a big block car, or a basic small block car fitted with a big block motor?

[Steve Holmes]

Steve, I found this Camaro photo in one of the Mike Feisst Collection's today, are you able to give me some background (who, where, when) on the car, looks like it was in NZ?

Nick, as GD66 posted, this was the Rod Coppins Camaro. This car actually raced against Terry car on a couple of occasions, the most memorable being when Terry made his first NZ trip for the Easter Bay Park event. The pair battled hard throughout the three races, with Coppins winning the first after Allan spun trying to pass him. Allan led from start to finish in the second race, with Coppins right behind at the finish. In the third Coppins was in front initially, as pictured, but Allan outbraked him on the 2nd lap to take the lead, which was surprising given Coppins was driving a small block car.

You can see the damage on the front of Allans Camaro after he'd bumped into Coppins early in race three, for which he apologised publicly following the race.

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[nick_tassie]

Nick, California does not keep VIN records back that far. Maybe since the car was exported, some export office or shipping company "might" have records back that far, but I wouldn't know where to begin to look. If you were to somehow find out a VIN, I could compare that the other very early Z-28s and see if it fit in with that group, but that is probably the best I could do. I sent you a private message on the other website on how to contact Ron Ogilvie and you can ask him directly about the two engines. That would be much better than me taking a guess. It sounds like there was a whole bunch of suspension pieces exported along with the car for Terry to tailor the car's handling to his liking. Seems a bit strange that he was reluctant to change anything. Good luck with your search!

Hi Jon, good idea with the import records, they might be worth a try although I'm a bit like you and don't know where to start with it at this point. I'll certainly get back in touch with you if I can get the VIN, it would be good to confirm if the vehicle as a "plain jane" or the "real Z28 deal".

From my conversation with Wayne Mahnken, Terry was reluctant to make major engineering changes to the suspension set up. Wayne suggested that once they convinced him that modifications were needed to improve the handling and performance the Camaro was sent off to a suspension guru, can't recall his name now. From the sounds of it they made major changes to the rear end, including I believe fitting track rods. Wayne said he could most likely identify the car if we found it from some of the work that was done although this could have been changed again when owned by Blanchard.

[nick_tassie]

These articles from the Bay Park event are great Steve, thanks for posting them. Please excuse my Aussie ignorance but was Bay Park a proper circuit track or a staged event around a particular public park similar to Albert Park in its early days.

[GD66]

A proper circuit Nick, just not a very imaginatively-designed one. Left, left, right, left. That's it.
Yet, the crowd could see damn near the whole track from anywhere, especially early on before the internal stock car circuit's surrounds became too high. And an aggressive marketing approach saw plenty of good racing there over the years. If you scroll down the forum index to the Bay Park RIP thread, there's an aerial pic of the track on the first page.

[Jon Mello]

Hello Jon, its great to see you on here. For those who don't know, Jon is a leading authority on 1st generation racing Camaro's, and particularly those of the Trans-Am series. Jon is too modest to admit to this, but I am more than happy to sing his praises. Jon has built a very impressive forum dedicated to 1st Gen Camaro's from the Trans-Am over at the Camaro Research Group website, I highly recommend checking this out: http://www.camaros.org/forum/index.php?board=19.0

Jon, thanks for posting your interview with Ron Ogilvie over here. So when Ron said the car was a plain jane, what does this mean? Was it actually a big block car, or a basic small block car fitted with a big block motor?

Steve, I appreciate the compliments and for showing the link to my Trans-Am forum. I was happy to post my discussion with Ron Ogilvie here and thought this thread would be the most appropriate place for it. I tried to get clarification from Ron on what exactly he meant by saying Terry's car was a plain jane but he didn't elaborate. Rather than pressing the issue at that point, I felt that giving Ron's contact info to Nick and letting Nick ask the question anew was the best approach. Hopefully Nick will learn what exactly the car was to begin with and he will share that with us here. Speaking of "here", you have an outstanding website with much more diverse subject matter than I have and you have done so much with it in a short period of time. I know the effort it takes firsthand and wish you further success. Great job!

[Steve Holmes]

Steve, I appreciate the compliments and for showing the link to my Trans-Am forum. I was happy to post my discussion with Ron Ogilvie here and thought this thread would be the most appropriate place for it. I tried to get clarification from Ron on what exactly he meant by saying Terry's car was a plain jane but he didn't elaborate. Rather than pressing the issue at that point, I felt that giving Ron's contact info to Nick and letting Nick ask the question anew was the best approach. Hopefully Nick will learn what exactly the car was to begin with and he will share that with us here. Speaking of "here", you have an outstanding website with much more diverse subject matter than I have and you have done so much with it in a short period of time. I know the effort it takes firsthand and wish you further success. Great job!

Thanks Jon, yes it will be interesting to see what info Nick can gain. Thanks again for posting this interview.

[Jon Mello]

You're welcome, Steve. As time allows and opportunity presents itself, I will see what might be able to be figured out with regard to export records, Maybe Australia has kept import records that far back? In either case, one would think a VIN would have been recorded at the time.

[nick_tassie]

I have discovered some further info on the Indy Speed Shop / David Jarrett Camaro connection today after talking personally with David's brother Graham. Graham confirmed that their sports sedan was indeed the Indy Speed Shop Camaro which was owned and raced by John Kay. They brought the car off John and ran it in the late 70's. As I've mentioned previously I believe (not confirmed) it was then purchased after going through various owners by Bob Middleton who ran it for a while, and it is now owned and raced by Chris Templar.

So that once and for all closes the lead on the Jarrett Camaro possibly being Terry's car, we have already confirmed the Indy Speed Shop car was a converted imported road car by John Kay. The search goes on...!!

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks for the update Nick. So does the Indy Speed Shop Camaro still exist as a race car?

Its good you tried searching speedway racing for the Terry Allan Camaro. Several road race cars ended up on the speedway over the years. You would think something like a Camaro would have been relatively high profile, at least enough so that there were some photos of it somewhere racing. Its looking more and more likely it was pushed into the back of someones shed and forgotten about. So keep trying!

[nick_tassie]

I have received a reply from Ron Ogilvie who was the parts manager at Bill Thomas Racecars with some more info on the Camaro.

"What I can remember is that your uncle’s car was a standard Camaro that we added several Z28 components that we manufactured at Bill Thomas racecars. I don't believe the car was originally a Z28.It was a standard 327 Camaro, we removed the small block engine and added a Hi-Performance 396 with a 4 barrel Holley Carb, which was standard at the time for the Nickey Camaro, we also added exhaust headers and beefed up the front and rear suspension; added a large capacity fuel tank; upgraded the clutch assemble and rear axles gears".

"I do remember helping Terry pack the inside of that Camaro with everything from sway bars and shocks to sparkplugs. Also we removed the passenger seat and bolted a complete engine in the space where the seat went. Your uncle was torn between using the lighter 302 engine in the standard Trans Am configuration that was successful at the time in the USA and Canada or using the brute horsepower of the 396".

I imagine Uncle Terry would have been unsure at the time if he would have been allowed to run the 396 big block engine in Australia, hence the backup plan with the Trans Am spec 302.

[Ellis]

First trip to Symmons Plains Tas......
Without finding my original slide I reckon its Jan 1967..Edit Nov 67
Mank is in background with fag in his cakehole

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/CamaroMankSP-2.jpg

Same meeting...fr 8mm movie...Leading Elliot /Pare Mustang into Pit Cnr
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/vlcsnap-891989.jpg

Same meeeting...fr 8mm movie....Sweeper at Symmons
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/vlcsnap-892217.jpg

[Steve Holmes]

I have received a reply from Ron Ogilvie who was the parts manager at Bill Thomas Racecars with some more info on the Camaro.

"What I can remember is that your uncle’s car was a standard Camaro that we added several Z28 components that we manufactured at Bill Thomas racecars. I don't believe the car was originally a Z28.It was a standard 327 Camaro, we removed the small block engine and added a Hi-Performance 396 with a 4 barrel Holley Carb, which was standard at the time for the Nickey Camaro, we also added exhaust headers and beefed up the front and rear suspension; added a large capacity fuel tank; upgraded the clutch assemble and rear axles gears".

"I do remember helping Terry pack the inside of that Camaro with everything from sway bars and shocks to sparkplugs. Also we removed the passenger seat and bolted a complete engine in the space where the seat went. Your uncle was torn between using the lighter 302 engine in the standard Trans Am configuration that was successful at the time in the USA and Canada or using the brute horsepower of the 396".

I imagine Uncle Terry would have been unsure at the time if he would have been allowed to run the 396 big block engine in Australia, hence the backup plan with the Trans Am spec 302.

Great work Nick! The efforts by yourself and Jon over at CRG have really produced some good results unravelling the history of this car. Up until now, much of what has been written about this car has been heresay, and unproven. But this is a real breakthrough. Knowing that history, the Bill Thomas connection, is quite exciting and makes this an even more interesting car.

[Steve Holmes]

First trip to Symmons Plains Tas......
Without finding my original slide I reckon its Jan 1967
Mank is in background with fag in his cakehole.
I have some 8mm movie of it as well. I'll put a single frame shot from it up later

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/CamaroMankSP-2.jpg

Ellis, beautiful photo. Look at the workmanship thats gone into those front brake ducts.

[nick_tassie]

First trip to Symmons Plains Tas......
Without finding my original slide I reckon its Jan 1967..Edit Nov 67
Mank is in background with fag in his cakehole

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/CamaroMankSP-2.jpg

Same meeting...fr 8mm movie...Leading Elliot /Pare Mustang into Pit Cnr
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/vlcsnap-891989.jpg

Same meeeting...fr 8mm movie....Sweeper at Symmons
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/vlcsnap-892217.jpg

These are great Ellis, thank you for going to the trouble. I would dearly like to get a digital copy of the 8mm footage you have of the Camaro racing at Symmons, how rare is that.

[Steve Holmes]

First trip to Symmons Plains Tas......
Without finding my original slide I reckon its Jan 1967..Edit Nov 67
Mank is in background with fag in his cakehole

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/CamaroMankSP-2.jpg

Same meeting...fr 8mm movie...Leading Elliot /Pare Mustang into Pit Cnr
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/vlcsnap-891989.jpg

Same meeeting...fr 8mm movie....Sweeper at Symmons
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/vlcsnap-892217.jpg

Ellis, these film stills are fantastic! Does the footage you have come with sound? I think there must be some footage of the car from Bay Park when it raced there too at the Xmas event. I recall many years ago watching an endurance race on tv, and after an ad break the editors cut away to a bunch of old colour Bay Park footage from the late 60s/early 70s. It had a Jimi Hendrix soundtrack with it, and was probably only on for 30 seconds, but among the footage it showed Bryan Thomsons '68 Camaro accelerating out on to the front straight (I think). Terry Allan was also at that event and it seems likely he would have been filmed. So somewhere, someone has footage from that meeting. I'd love to know how to track it down.

[Ellis]

Steve
My 8mm films have been converted to digital (at great expense) with music...not V8 music I might add .
8mm and the later Super8 were a bit before they knew how to have sound as well as flickery pics.... lol.
They didnt even have electric lights in the caves in Tas at that time.

If I could work out how to put a segment of the DVD onto Youtube we could link to it.
I also have a lot of Symmons and Baskerville and Longford on the DVD's.

[Leo D]

You can never have too much of a good thing!

Terry Allan in what I believe was his first outing in the Camaro at Calder...... It was yet to aquire the white stripes...
This pic was taken towards the end of the main straight..... Notice Norm Beechey already half way up the back straight in the background.

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/1483/terryallan.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/30/terryallan.jpg/)

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/2617/terryallan2.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/198/terryallan2.jpg/)

http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/3033/terryallan1.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/600/terryallan1.jpg/)

[Leo D]

It difficult to see on the scanned picture I uploaded because its re-taken off a typical 70's darkened photo of the day and not very clear, but looking at the better quality one Barry sent me you can just make out what looks like the 67 quater vent window.

Another interesting story on another lead I chased up. I was searching through a wonderful historic speedway site on the internet with heaps of photos, just trying to find a camaro that matched. I came across these two photos of Liverpool Speedway icon Peter Crick driving a Camaro. It had a white nose cone, similar alloy wheels to the photo in Barry's garage, interesting, I wonder? Worth a try so I sent a quick email off the Barry Wearing and asked the question if it rang a bell for him, I think I sent the email off about 11:30pm on a Friday night. To my amazement Barry was on the phone at 7:00am the next morning suggesting I might be onto something (he must have been up with the sparrows). Seems Barry had links with Peter crick in that he developed his fuel injection system for the Captain Rats drag car, he also did all his engine dyno tuning.

Now that's a good lead so onto the internet and phones to track down Peter Crick, at first I got hold of James Cockington from AMC and he suggested the #49 Camaro may have been a spare car of American speedway driver Gene Welsh, I also had an email message from Liverpool Speedway facebook page administrator Mike Raymond (the one and only channel 7 comentator) suggesting the same thing. By the Saturday afternoon I had found Peter on the phone and was having a good chat about the ol days. He confirmed to me that the car was the spare car of Gene Welsh, he looked after and ran it for Gene for a couple of years.

It wasn't until after talking to Peter that I actually realised the #49 Camaro has the rear guard vents of a 69 model anyway, blinded by excitement maybe!! Another lead closed.

http://www.theroaringseason.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2968&stc=1&d=1313126524



Nick.... I notice no mention of the Camaro with "Indy Speed Shop" signage..... also notice the "Winston" signage as well..

Winston Kim.... owner of Indy Speed Shop?

That shot is at Calder BTW.... Bob Jane Transporter in the background....

[nick_tassie]

Hi Leo

Thank you for posting those amazing photo's of uncle Terry racing the Camaro today, just fantastic shots, along with what Ellis has shared its amazing that these great images have been unearthed for myself and others to see and enjoy.

Regarding the Indy Speed Shop/Winston Camaro what I've managed to find out is that it was brought into the country as a road car by the then Indy Speed Shop owner John Kay. John and his crew built and raced the car under the Winston ISS signage, it was also raced I believe at some stage by Peter Finch. The Winston signage was from a cigarette brand of the day, (not a smoker and to young to know) but that's what I've read somewhere, I've checked on the internet and it is a genuine brand.

I've also confirmed this Camaro was bought by the Jarrett's and run as a Sports Sedan by David in the late 70's at some stage with Shell sponsorship. I haven't confirmed it but from what I've read this car was then rebuilt after a workshop fire, it was then owned and raced by Bob Middleton, and is now owned and raced by Chris Templar still as a sports sedan. There is a great shot of it and Chris on Bob Middleton's race team web page newsletter.

Ellis sent me some other photo's today of what looks very much like the Indy Speed Shop car #14 in bare blue paint schemes (there are 2 clearly different shades of blue but its the same car), maybe when raced at a later date prior to the Jarrett ownership. Ellis may post these at some stage, close review (model, flares, race wheels, bonnet pins, bonnet scoop, roll cage) seems to point very highly towards all three of these cars being one and the same. Someone else might be able to confirm this.

I must say this photo of the Indy Seed Shop Camaro was also taken and posted by Ellis, he has some great Australian Motorsport history saved in his personal files.

[Leo D]

Hi Leo

Thank you for posting those amazing photo's of uncle Terry racing the Camaro today, just fantastic shots, along with what Ellis has shared its amazing that these great images have been unearthed for myself and other to see and enjoy.

Regarding the Indy Speed Shop/Winston Camaro what I've managed to find out is that it was brought into the country as a road car by the then Indy Speed Shop owner John Kay. John and his crew built and raced the car under the Winston ISS signage, it was also raced I believe at some stage by Peter Finch. The Winston signage was from a cigarette brand of the day, (not a smoker and to young to know) but that's what I've read somewhere, I've checked on the internet and it is a genuine brand.

I've also confirmed this Camaro was bought by the Jarrett's and run as a Sports Sedan by David in the late 70's at some stage with Shell sponsorship. I haven't confirmed it but from what I've read this car was then rebuilt after a workshop fire, it was then owned and raced by Bob Middleton, and is now owned and raced by Chris Templar still as a sports sedan. There is a great shot of it and Chris on Bob Middleton's race team web page newsletter.

Ellis sent me some other photo's today of what looks very much like the Indy Speed Shop car #14 in bare blue paint schemes (there are 2 clearly different shades of blue but its the same car), maybe when raced at a later date prior to the Jarrett ownership. Ellis may post these at some stage, close review (model, flares, race wheels, bonnet pins, bonnet scoop, roll cage) seems to point very highly towards all three of these cars being one and the same. Someone else might be able to confirm this.

I must say this photo of the Indy Seed Shop Camaro was also taken and posted by Ellis, he has some great Australian Motorsport history saved in his personal files.

Nick, I'd be inclined to look into my "Winston Kim" suggestion, as he actually does exist.

Read this list of cars sold by Brian Sampson in Melbourne.... Winston Kim is mentioned (1990's) as having purchsed an Elva Courier.

http://www.speco.com.au/racing.html

[nick_tassie]

Nick, I'd be inclined to look into my "Winston Kim" suggestion, as he actually does exist.

Read this list of cars sold by Brian Sampson in Melbourne.... Winston Kim is mentioned (1990's) as having purchsed an Elva Courier.

http://www.speco.com.au/racing.html

He certainly does, Winston was a regular racer in Tasmania in the Targa Tasmania with various Turbo Porsche rocket ships and Tasmanian Laurie Pitt as his navigator. His Targa cars were always well prepared with PBR brakes sponsorship, seemed to always rock up each year with the latest model red porsche. I did hear once that he was the owner of PBR Brakes but I don't know if thats correct or not. I haven't followed Targa closely lately so I don't know if he is still involved.

[thunder427]

Nick, I'd be inclined to look into my "Winston Kim" suggestion, as he actually does exist.

Read this list of cars sold by Brian Sampson in Melbourne.... Winston Kim is mentioned (1990's) as having purchsed an Elva Courier.

http://www.speco.com.au/racing.html

...The Terry Allan Camaro is 1967,with 1/4 windows and no side indicator lights,check the rear 1/4 on the 'Indy Speed Shop' Camaro,square side markers,'68 was 1st year for the side marker as standard item and one piece side glass..in those days they were more interested in 'Horsepower' than making one model look like the next model...and where did you get the parts for an 'Upgrade' in those days...........

The Allan Camaro does have the 'SS' bonnet with the power bulge and non Functional Extractor 'glamour' panels,this may have been a USA add on to allow for carburation upgrade,the Grill SS badges are not fitted central (Ellis Frontal 'Tassie' Shot ) and if it was a 'factory' Big Block it would have 396 under the SS grill badge,also the front fender SS badges are set to far forward to be Factory installed, plus the 67 Camaro had a 'nose strip' with the factory SS and RS/ 396 option,the over the roof strip is not factory at all,GM/Camaro never placed stripes,factory,on the roof,not in 67/68/69,even in the 2nd Gen 70.1/2 Camaro,hood (Bonnet!!) and trunk (Boot!!) only!!.......

Nick,I would be scanning as many early 'CUSTOM RODDER' Magazines as possible or better still contact 'Eddie Ford' the editor/publisher, he sill lives in Castlemain area ,he has a great memory for these cars,as most new 'imports' would wind up in one of 'Eddies' magazines,or in the 'for sale' add's at the back of each publication,great effort so far,don't give up !!!!!!........regards thunder427/MJ:p:)

[nick_tassie]

...The Terry Allan Camaro is 1967,with 1/4 windows and no side indicator lights,check the rear 1/4 on the 'Indy Speed Shop' Camaro,square side markers,'68 was 1st year for the side marker as standard item and one piece side glass..in those days they were more interested in 'Horsepower' than making one model look like the next model...and where did you get the parts for an 'Upgrade' in those days...........

The Allan Camaro does have the 'SS' bonnet with the power bulge and non Functional Extractor 'glamour' panels,this may have been a USA add on to allow for carburation upgrade,the Grill SS badges are not fitted central (Ellis Frontal 'Tassie' Shot ) and if it was a 'factory' Big Block it would have 396 under the SS grill badge,also the front fender SS badges are set to far forward to be Factory installed, plus the 67 Camaro had a 'nose strip' with the factory SS and RS/ 396 option,the over the roof strip is not factory at all,GM/Camaro never placed stripes,factory,on the roof,not in 67/68/69,even in the 2nd Gen 70.1/2 Camaro,hood (Bonnet!!) and trunk (Boot!!) only!!.......

Nick,I would be scanning as many early 'CUSTOM RODDER' Magazines as possible or better still contact 'Eddie Ford' the editor/publisher, he sill lives in Castlemain area ,he has a great memory for these cars,as most new 'imports' would wind up in one of 'Eddies' magazines,or in the 'for sale' add's at the back of each publication,great effort so far,don't give up !!!!!!........regards thunder427/MJ:p:)

Cheers Thunder427

Thats great information and again confirms that the badges were most likely fitted by Bill Thomas Racecars as Ron Ogilvie suggested. Leo's posted photos also clearly show the Camaro all red to indicate Terry had them painted on after the first race at Calder.

From photo's I've seen 67-74 the car never had a model upgrade when race by uncle Terry and Graeme Blanchard, as you rightly say for what purpose would they do so. What happened after the Barry Wearing ownership is anyones guess. I've researched the Web for photo's in speedway and drag racing but with no luck so indications are that it may have gone "on the road". You would think someone in motor racing circles would recall a similar 67 ex circuit race Camaro in the late 70's, who knows, it is a mystery.

I'll certainly give Eddie Ford a call, your right it could have gone through their publication at some stage. I'm more determined than ever, just need to track every lead and see where it ends up.

[Jon Mello]

Terrific further information on the Terry Allan car and I enjoyed seeing photos of it in red without the white stripes. First time I'd seen it and it confirms what Ron Ogilvie had stated. Not intending to take the subject off course but can anyone tell me the date of the first race at Calder? I ask because I'm interested in finding out when the first Camaro entered officially sanctioned competition. I have seen that a 327 Camaro convertible competed in a road race at Nassau on December 2, 1966. That's the earliest race that I know of, but I'm not well educated on what races may have taken place outside of North America. Thanks for any enlightenment!

[Steve Holmes]

Steve
My 8mm films have been converted to digital (at great expense) with music...not V8 music I might add .
8mm and the later Super8 were a bit before they knew how to have sound as well as flickery pics.... lol.
They didnt even have electric lights in the caves in Tas at that time.

If I could work out how to put a segment of the DVD onto Youtube we could link to it.
I also have a lot of Symmons and Baskerville and Longford on the DVD's.

Ellis, that would really be great if you could post a segment on youtube. Let me know if I can help at all, I'd love to see this happen. Any footage from this period is very exciting.

[Steve Holmes]

You can never have too much of a good thing!

Terry Allan in what I believe was his first outing in the Camaro at Calder...... It was yet to aquire the white stripes...
This pic was taken towards the end of the main straight..... Notice Norm Beechey already half way up the back straight in the background.

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/1483/terryallan.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/30/terryallan.jpg/)

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/2617/terryallan2.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/198/terryallan2.jpg/)

http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/3033/terryallan1.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/600/terryallan1.jpg/)

Hey these are amazing! Thanks for posting them Greg, and thanks to Ray Sinclair for allowing us to view them. Imagine the excitement that must have surrounded this car on debut. It looks incredible. The 3rd photo is interesting, the handling looks very wayward if thats the inside of the corner in the right of shot!

Jon, the Camaro made its race debut at Calder in May 1967, apparently.

[Steve Holmes]

Allan also raced the car at the single race 1967 Australian Touring Car Championship on 30 July 1967. It still didn't have the white stripes by this stage, so must have raced this way for at least a couple of months before they were added.

[Ellis]

In my Calder prog's of .....

May 25th 1969 ...
Terry Allan.... Chevy Camaro..... 6500cc ....#5 ......Blue

Mar 1972
#5 .....Graham Blanchard Motors....Graham Blanchard.....Chev Camaro...White...5700cc

[nick_tassie]

Hey these are amazing! Thanks for posting them Greg, and thanks to Ray Sinclair for allowing us to view them. Imagine the excitement that must have surrounded this car on debut. It looks incredible. The 3rd photo is interesting, the handling looks very wayward if thats the inside of the corner in the right of shot!

Jon, the Camaro made its race debut at Calder in May 1967, apparently.

They are great shots.

I wonder if Ray Sinclair has a colour photo of the camaro when it was blue?? As Ellis has mentioned it raced in this colour at Calder in 69, as well as in Bay Park NZ as we already know.

Leo D would you mind asking Ray if he does have a colour photo of it in the blue duco, it would be fantastic if he does and would be happy to share it.

[nick_tassie]

In my Calder prog's of .....

May 25th 1969 ...
Terry Allan.... Chevy Camaro..... 6500cc ....#5 ......Blue

Mar 1972
#5 .....Graham Blanchard Motors....Graham Blanchard.....Chev Camaro...White...5700cc

Ellis its interesting that Graeme Blanchard raced the car without its Big Block 396 (6500cc) if you can go by the official entry program. What's more it raced as a small block 350 (5700cc) and not the spare Trans Am 302 that Uncle Terry brought over from Bill Thomas Racecars. You would have thought this spare engine would have been sold to Graeme when he brought the Camaro from Terry in 71, although in the NZ advert that Steve posted when Terry had the car for sale, it doesn't mention the spare engine either, interesting!?! I wonder what ever happened to those 2 engines??

It would be great to talk to Graeme Blanchard to find out what he did with the 396 and if he brought the car with the spare Trans Am 302 engine.

[Steve Holmes]

I'm not sure he even had the 302 still by the time the car was sold. As well as the ad he ran in Motorman, he also ran a separate ad for spares. The "6 pints of secret brake fluid" sounds interesting!

3295

[Steve Holmes]

The above ad appeared just a couple of months after he raced the car at Bay Park for the big Xmas meeting, in which Bryan Thomson and Joe Chamberlain were also racing their Camaros. The Pit Chatter section of the February 1971 Motorman issue, which also reviewed the event at which the Camaros raced at Bay Park, said this:

"Terry Allan is returning to the USA with Joe Chamberlain and plans to return with a smaller 350 cubic inch Chevy engine for his well sorted Camaro. "The chassis is now handling and stopping well so there would be no point buying a new car", said Terry. The smaller motor will comply with the new Australian saloon regulations for maximum engine capacity".

So did Allan actually buy a 350 from the US? Is this the engine fitted to the car when Blanchard raced it? Its interesting that he seems still to be quite enthusiastic about his racing at this stage, but then had the car on the market only a short time later. Did he plan to replace it with anything or had he just decided to step away from racing?

[Leo D]

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the Terry Allan Camaro in Blue. I only ever saw it run in the "Red" configurations, or the "White" configuration. I've never seen a colour picture of it in "Blue".

This is one of it in the Castrol colours.....

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/4408/tacastrol.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/204/tacastrol.jpg/)

John Kay Indy Speed Shop Camaro in blue colour scheme....

http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/78/indycamaro.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/585/indycamaro.jpg/)

David Jarrett Camaro in blue colour scheme....

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/9758/jarrettcamaro.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/217/jarrettcamaro.jpg/)

[Steve Holmes]

That Indy Speed Shop Camaro was a good looking car. Really arrived too late on the scene to have a major impact.

[Steve Holmes]

Cheers Thunder427

Thats great information and again confirms that the badges were most likely fitted by Bill Thomas Racecars as Ron Ogilvie suggested. Leo's posted photos also clearly show the Camaro all red to indicate Terry had them painted on after the first race at Calder.

From photo's I've seen 67-74 the car never had a model upgrade when race by uncle Terry and Graeme Blanchard, as you rightly say for what purpose would they do so. What happened after the Barry Wearing ownership is anyones guess. I've researched the Web for photo's in speedway and drag racing but with no luck so indications are that it may have gone "on the road". You would think someone in motor racing circles would recall a similar 67 ex circuit race Camaro in the late 70's, who knows, it is a mystery.

I'll certainly give Eddie Ford a call, your right it could have gone through their publication at some stage. I'm more determined than ever, just need to track every lead and see where it ends up.

You never know, it could just have easily been rolled into someones shed after its last race, covered up, and forgotten about. A friend of mine owns the Rod Coppins Cambridge Camaro as pictured a couple of times in this thread. That car was raced and continuously developed throughout the 70s until it was effectively a space-frame car by the last 70s. It was sold by John Osborne in 1981 to Chris Cullen. Chris then set about getting it ready for the next season, but struck some funding problems, and it sat in his shed for more than 20 years, and never raced again. He just slowly rebuilt it until it was in beautiful condition, while the rest of the world forgot all about the car. Then one day he offered the car for sale. Many people thought it had been lost forever.

[nick_tassie]

David Jarrett Camaro in blue colour scheme....

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/9758/jarrettcamaro.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/217/jarrettcamaro.jpg/)[/QUOTE]

Notice its running Bridgestone tyres yet the car has Good/Year sponsorship. Don't think you would see that happen in today corporate driven Motorsport world.

[nick_tassie]

[QUOTE=Leo D;4643]Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the Terry Allan Camaro in Blue. I only ever saw it run in the "Red" configurations, or the "White" configuration. I've never seen a colour picture of it in "Blue".

This is one of it in the Castrol colours.....

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/4408/tacastrol.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/204/tacastrol.jpg/)

Thanks for trying anyway Leo D, this is the best close up colour shot I've seen of the car in its 71 scheme.

[Leo D]

Norm Beechey powering onto the back straight at Calder ahead of Terry Allan....

http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/2694/nbta.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/849/nbta.jpg/)

[Shano]

More body roll than a weightwatchers' meeting.

[bigbanger]

You never know, it could just have easily been rolled into someones shed after its last race, covered up, and forgotten about. A friend of mine owns the Rod Coppins Cambridge Camaro as pictured a couple of times in this thread. That car was raced and continuously developed throughout the 70s until it was effectively a space-frame car by the last 70s. It was sold by John Osborne in 1981 to Chris Cullen. Chris then set about getting it ready for the next season, but struck some funding problems, and it sat in his shed for more than 20 years, and never raced again. He just slowly rebuilt it until it was in beautiful condition, while the rest of the world forgot all about the car. Then one day he offered the car for sale. Many people thought it had been lost forever.

Not a spaceframe Steve. OSCA regulations of the time allowed only unibody cars and prohibited spaceframed cars. What some in OSCA did though, is to extend their rollcages which might have formerly only been in the passanger cabin to through their front (and rear) firewalls to suspension mounting points/turrets etc. In conjunction with extra door intrusion bars and other safety reinforcement, the cage became more than just a 'bolt in' driver safey device, being an integral part of the vehicles body. A true spaceframe is a standalone chassis/frame on which the body panels can be removed and the vehicle remain structually intact and drivable.

As I recall, Ian Munt's VL Commodore Chev was the first true spaceframe in SI OSCA.

[Ellis]

This B/W one may well be the car in Blue.... at Calder ?.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/terryallen--camaro.jpg

Symmons Plains Tas in Castrol colours.....
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/Scan10456.jpg
Looks like it could be Terry leaning on front guard

Pics courtesy of Perry Drury Launceston...
Perry builds up models and has done a 1/43rd one of Terry's car in Red/White stripes.

[Steve Holmes]

Yes I'd say you're right Ellis, the b/w photo is almost certainly when the car was painted blue. From what I can gather, it was painted blue for 1970 when CAMS allowed the teams to fit 10" wide wheels, so Allan flared the guards to fit his new Minilites. You can see the guards look stretched here, though interestingly it looks like he still has the 8" 5-spokes in this photo.

[Rod Grimwood]

Not a spaceframe Steve. OSCA regulations of the time allowed only unibody cars and prohibited spaceframed cars. What some in OSCA did though, is to extend their rollcages which might have formerly only been in the passanger cabin to through their front (and rear) firewalls to suspension mounting points/turrets etc. In conjunction with extra door intrusion bars and other safety reinforcement, the cage became more than just a 'bolt in' driver safey device, being an integral part of the vehicles body. A true spaceframe is a standalone chassis/frame on which the body panels can be removed and the vehicle remain structually intact and drivable.

As I recall, Ian Munt's VL Commodore Chev was the first true spaceframe in SI OSCA.

The Willis crew built most probably the first curcuit spaceframe car in NZ (the Commodore) after building a few speedway versions of Toranas etc, of which Lyndsay was the first to do a very long time ago. They raced this car for awhile before others thought this is the way to go. Brett raced in Sports Sedans NI successfully and did venture down south for FUN trips. Seen photos of the Camaro during rebuild in SI and it was not far off space frame, clever stuff back then.
Anyway lets hope the Allen Camaro can be found, remember it at Bay Park.

[Steve Holmes]

I have looked into the Indy Speed Shop Camaro as it looked like a possible connection to Terry's car. Wayne Mahnken who I've also talked with about Terry's Camaro thought at one point it was at the Indy Speed Shop in SA running as a drag car. Check every lead as they say no matter how small. Anyway there were suggestions on various forums that it was imported from the US as a road car by John Kay. I'm getting pretty good at this detective game and managed to contact John's widow, John having passed away a few years ago. Although she wasn't around in the days of the Camaro and couldn't provide any information she did give me the contact details of his Indy Speed Shop business partner, Tony confirmed to me that John did bring that car into Australia and they stripped it out and built up the race car. So that put an end to that possible lead. Tony also said he didn't recall they ever ran a 67 model camaro drag car.

When researching the Indy Speed Shop Camaro most comments indicate it did become the David Jarrett sports sedan, this then went to Bob Middleton who ran it for a number of years before selling it to Chris Templar in Victoria. Thats as far as I went at that point as Tony cut short the lead, so I've never confirmed the Jarrett camaro was indeed the indy Speed Shop car, but its highly likely.

Just out of interest here Nick, the Bob Middleton you mentioned, is he the same Bob Middleton who raced trucks for many years and who currently runs a couple of Camaros in the Touring Car Masters series? http://www.touringcarmasters.com.au/DriverProfiles/85_Bob_Middleton_Gal/85_Bob_Middleton.html

[nick_tassie]

Just out of interest here Nick, the Bob Middleton you mentioned, is he the same Bob Middleton who raced trucks for many years and who currently runs a couple of Camaros in the Touring Car Masters series? http://www.touringcarmasters.com.au/DriverProfiles/85_Bob_Middleton_Gal/85_Bob_Middleton.html

Yes Steve, one and the same. If you Google search for (Chris Templar Camaro Whiteline Racing) a link to their racing team newsletter comes up and there is a photo of Chris standing beside the Whitline sponsored Ex Middleton/Jarrett/Indy Speed Shop Camaro at his first Sports Sedan race.

[bigbanger]

The Willis crew built most probably the first curcuit spaceframe car in NZ (the Commodore) after building a few speedway versions of Toranas etc, of which Lyndsay was the first to do a very long time ago. They raced this car for awhile before others thought this is the way to go. Brett raced in Sports Sedans NI successfully and did venture down south for FUN trips. Seen photos of the Camaro during rebuild in SI and it was not far off space frame, clever stuff back then.
Anyway lets hope the Allen Camaro can be found, remember it at Bay Park.

I remember Brett's Commodore well, I remember it at Wigram in the one off NZ vs Australia sports sedan challenge.

However I'm sure the PDL Mustang II was the first NZ built spaceframe circuit racing saloon.

[nick_tassie]

Steve thank you for putting together a great lead article on Terry and the Camaro for the home page of Roaring Seasons.

I thought it might be timely to post this later family photo we have of Uncle Terry, some might recognise it as the one my brother Matt sent into Muscle Car Magazine to let them know he recently passed away after their MIA articles. You can see why Bill Thomas Racecars nickname for Terry "Brillo" fits quiet well.

He had a very kind gentle personality but did get a serious race face on when he told us stories of racing the Camaro in Australia and NZ. What stood out very strongly was the fact he was very proud to have been the first person to race on in Australia, he mentioned it on many occasions. He did enjoy a somewhat "playboy life", ringing us up from all parts of the world at times to say hello. The idea of finding the Camaro and getting it back on the race track as a family tribute has been an ambition for as long as I can remember, its just that now with the Internet we have a tool that can help search for leads. I certainly appreciate everyones help with information and photos. Hopefully we will be successful and uncover that critical link some time soon.

[Steve Holmes]

Nice photo Nick. Yes, the internet has its pros and cons, but it certainly makes the world a smaller place, which can be really useful when trying to find info about old race cars.

[nick_tassie]

Here is something interesting, AMC Mag have uncovered the advert Graeme Blanchard used for the Camaro in Race Car News Feb 73. It clearly shows Graeme had run the car with the small block 350ci engine, no mention at all of the 396ci engine in the spares list.

It does mention the quad 48mm DOCE Weber carbs Terry used on the 396 and a cross over manifold, although I'm guessing the hand fabricated big block steel manifold that Wayne Mahnken had especially fabricated would not have fitted the small block 350ci.

From the specs of the the car at this stage of development it certainly ended up being a well setup and equipped bit of kit.

[Steve Holmes]

Hey thats cool Nick. For 1973 the car would have only been able to race as a Sports Sedan, as CAMS had made big changes to touring car racing beginning that season, dropping Series Production and Improved Production, and replacing them with Group C and Sports Sedans. The SS regs had a 6 litre engine limit so the 396 would have been no use anyway. But as the 6 litre rule had been brought in at the end of 1971, it would have raced in 72 with the small block. You have to assume the big block ended up in a drag car or jet boat or something?

[nick_tassie]

Hey thats cool Nick. For 1973 the car would have only been able to race as a Sports Sedan, as CAMS had made big changes to touring car racing beginning that season, dropping Series Production and Improved Production, and replacing them with Group C and Sports Sedans. The SS regs had a 6 litre engine limit so the 396 would have been no use anyway. But as the 6 litre rule had been brought in at the end of 1971, it would have raced in 72 with the small block. You have to assume the big block ended up in a drag car or jet boat or something?

Steve, its interesting you mentioned the big block ending up in a drag car or jet boat, I was talking with Wayne Mahnken this week and he mentioned he thought the fabricated steel crossover manifold for the 396 might have ended up on a jet boat. Interestingly when I asked him about the spare 302ci Trans Am engine that was sent over with the car he couldn't recall ever seeing or hearing about it. So its a further mystery what happened to that engine once the car hit the docks in Syndney. The fact that it was bolted into the passanger side was news and a surprise to him.

[Steve Holmes]

That big block manifold was an absolute work of art. I hope it resurfaces some day. Do you have more info on the 302 motor? Was it fitted with a single 4-barrel or multi-carbs? The Trans-Am cars were mostly running a single 4-barrel in '67 I think, but the Aussie rules would have allowed it to be fitted with multi-carbs.

[nick_tassie]

That big block manifold was an absolute work of art. I hope it resurfaces some day. Do you have more info on the 302 motor? Was it fitted with a single 4-barrel or multi-carbs? The Trans-Am cars were mostly running a single 4-barrel in '67 I think, but the Aussie rules would have allowed it to be fitted with multi-carbs.

I'll ask Ron Ogilvie about the Trans Am 302 to see what he can remember about it, he clearly said it was a Trans Am spec unit but didn't clarify if it was a complete engine with all the go fast bits.

If anyone thinks they might know where a big block crossover manifold like this one is being used, send in some photo's, Wayne said he could most likely identify it from pictures. Would be cool to find out where it ended up. As described it was a hand made steel manifold (theres a shot of it in the engine bay photo in this thread) designed to run quad 48mm Webers.

If anyone knows the contact numbers for Graeme Blanchard could you let me know, I would like to have a chat to him about his time with the car and what may have happened to the 396ci engine. email: nick.cameron@skillsinstitute.tas.edu.au

[nick_tassie]

I'll ask Ron Ogilvie about the Trans Am 302 to see what he can remember about it, he clearly said it was a Trans Am spec unit but didn't clarify if it was a complete engine with all the go fast bits.

If anyone thinks they might know where a big block crossover manifold like this one is being used, send in some photo's, Wayne said he could most likely identify it from pictures. Would be cool to find out where it ended up. As described it was a hand made steel manifold (theres a shot of it in the engine bay photo in this thread) designed to run quad 48mm Webers.

If anyone knows the contact numbers for Graeme Blanchard could you let me know, I would like to have a chat to him about his time with the car and what may have happened to the 396ci engine. email: nick.cameron@skillsinstitute.tas.edu.au

My mistake, the engine bay shot isn't yet on the thread, I'll see if I can find what I did with it.

[thunder427]

I'll ask Ron Ogilvie about the Trans Am 302 to see what he can remember about it, he clearly said it was a Trans Am spec unit but didn't clarify if it was a complete engine with all the go fast bits.

If anyone thinks they might know where a big block crossover manifold like this one is being used, send in some photo's, Wayne said he could most likely identify it from pictures. Would be cool to find out where it ended up. As described it was a hand made steel manifold (theres a shot of it in the engine bay photo in this thread) designed to run quad 48mm Webers.

If anyone knows the contact numbers for Graeme Blanchard could you let me know, I would like to have a chat to him about his time with the car and what may have happened to the 396ci engine. email: nick.cameron@skillsinstitute.tas.edu.au

Nick,here is a thought!!!!..If Wayne didn't know about the motor it may have belonged to the person or persons whom assisted Terry in the purchase/shipping of the Camaro and was removed on arrival,pre delivery to Terry , also consider the cost of the overal package,sorta can't see Terry over investing in the start of his racing career...,like the cost of the Camaro plus 'Race prep' would have been a 'Big Ask' in those days, pure speculation!!! but it does offer other reasonable avenue's to pursue....who helped buy the Camaro,who was the intro via to Bill Thomas, who or how was the Camaro shipped etc.....................regards thunder427/MJ:confused: :):cool:

[nick_tassie]

Nick,here is a thought!!!!..If Wayne didn't know about the motor it may have belonged to the person or persons whom assisted Terry in the purchase/shipping of the Camaro and was removed on arrival,pre delivery to Terry , also consider the cost of the overal package,sorta can't see Terry over investing in the start of his racing career...,like the cost of the Camaro plus 'Race prep' would have been a 'Big Ask' in those days, pure speculation!!! but it does offer other reasonable avenue's to pursue....who helped buy the Camaro,who was the intro via to Bill Thomas, who or how was the Camaro shipped etc.....................regards thunder427/MJ:confused: :):cool:

You could well be right, Wayne was certainly involved right from the very start including final race preparation for the car in Australia, although it sounded like he may not have been in Sydney when it was at the docks. The fact of Terry having the spare Trans Am engine was total news to Wayne does suggest it went separate ways pretty quickly, I'm sure a question would have been asked if it was sitting somewhere in Terry's workshop. You would have also thought they would have at least tested with the small block at some stage and Wayne would have been aware of that. I think Steve posted an article previously that indicated Terry was planning to head over to the US in 71 to source a small block power plant, this again suggests he no longer had the 302ci if indeed it was his engine.

Ron Ogilvie seems very certain about removing the seat and bolting the engine in its place so I doubt that's something you can question. Maybe he transported the engine for a Bill Thomas customer in Australia?? Your right to question his capacity to acquire the Camaro and fund the Bill Thomas development work, not to mention all the spares that Ron suggested he purchased. It must have been a fair investment in those days. I hadn't considered another investment partner, I'll check that over with Wayne next time I talk to him.

All very interesting, I wish more so now that I had found out more from Uncle Terry before he passed away.

[nick_tassie]

My mistake, the engine bay shot isn't yet on the thread, I'll see if I can find what I did with it.

Now I know why I haven't posted this photo, its from the oldracephotos.com site and I haven't yet asked for permission from Lindsay to use it. Here is a link to the photo if you want to check out Wayne Mahnken's handily work, remember this was from 1967, pretty sweet work for a small privateer race team.

If you haven't checked out the oldracephotos.com site its got some great stuff on it.

http://www.oldracephotos.com/shop/product2571#2684_k_cama_67

[Steve Holmes]

That side-draft 4-Weber set-up is just so nice to look at. A single 4-barrel just doesn't compare.

[Rondonrus]

Nick-
That is a Briar McKay Manifold with 4 Weber carbs. Briar MacKay worked with Traco Engines and Bill Thomas Race Cars were trying this setup on our engine dyno when Terry was at the shop. I did remember him asking about it but the car left Long Beach with a 4 barrel Holley and Weiand manifold. It was available in aluminum or magnesium. MacKay also made water pumps for the bi block in Magnesium. Interesting placement of the brake booster...............

Ron Ogilvie

[Steve Holmes]

Ron, its great to see you on here. Very good first post! Thanks for that info.

[nick_tassie]

Nick-
That is a Briar McKay Manifold with 4 Weber carbs. Briar MacKay worked with Traco Engines and Bill Thomas Race Cars were trying this setup on our engine dyno when Terry was at the shop. I did remember him asking about it but the car left Long Beach with a 4 barrel Holley and Weiand manifold. It was available in aluminum or magnesium. MacKay also made water pumps for the bi block in Magnesium. Interesting placement of the brake booster...............

Ron Ogilvie

Hi Ron, nice to hear from you again. I can't recall exactly who Wayne said they got to manufacture the crossover manifold, it certainly could have been Briar McKay as you have suggested. I'll have to check with him next time I'm talking to him. I'm certain he did say that it was a fabricated steel manifold.

Its interesting that Wayne can't recall seeing or hearing about the Trans Am 302 engine that Terry brought over as a potential spare power plant option. Can you recall if this was a complete running engine with all the bolt on's or just a long motor?

[nick_tassie]

Can anyone recall when Terry would had been racing in the USA, my parents were telling me the other day that he had a huge crash over there and nearly lost his arm, his mother Lucy went over to help with his recovery. They can't recall the exact time frame or what type of racing he was doing, just that it was a big crash and he was lucky to keep his arm. It most likely would have been after 71 when he had already sold the Camaro and had left Australia again for the US. He was racing EH's and a Ex Moffat Cortina prior to buying and racing the Camaro in 67 so it most likely was after 71. It would be good to get a clearer picture of what he got up to and what type of racing he did in the US.

[Ellis]

EH's.....

First one was his own built up and the second one was the famous ex Brian Muir S4 probably before Dave Price got it from memory.

Lotus Cortina...

Moffat raced 2 different cars/colours ... The first was std Lotus White / Grn stripe...ie Longford 1965....and the second car/colour was all red. I have movie of it at Calder in 1966. I did ask Moffat a few years ago whether it was same car but dont recall the answer. The red was definitley 2nd tho.

Why dont you contact Moffat...he may be able to help you.
I read somewhere Terry was going to USA Transam with ex Moffat car or to drive a Moffat car but Moffat advised not sufficient funds for 2 cars....This would have been in Lotus Cortina days I assume.

[nick_tassie]

EH's.....

First one was his own built up and the second one was the famous ex Brian Muir S4 probably before Dave Price got it from memory.

Lotus Cortina...

Moffat raced 2 different cars/colours ... The first was std Lotus White / Grn stripe...ie Longford 1965....and the second car/colour was all red. I have movie of it at Calder in 1966. I did ask Moffat a few years ago whether it was same car but dont recall the answer. The red was definitley 2nd tho.

Why dont you contact Moffat...he may be able to help you.
I read somewhere Terry was going to USA Transam with ex Moffat car or to drive a Moffat car but Moffat advised not sufficient funds for 2 cars....This would have been in Lotus Cortina days I assume.


Cheers, Ellis

Mum can recall going to race meetings at Calder with Terry in one of the EH's, this would have been most likely in 65. There is a great story by Tony Stott on Terry and his EH days on the motorsportarchive.com, most likely where you read about the Moffat Lotus Cortina link.

http://www.motorsportarchive.com/reading_room.htm#TonyStott29-12-03

I was checking the Web the other day researching the Brian Muir S4 EH and came across a photo of what was claimed to be the car at the Phillip Island Motor Museum. Its painted light blue with #4 race number, most other photos I seen including ones you have posted show the car red.

Maybe someone can confirm this is the ex Brian Muir S4 the Terry did once own and race.

I do vaguely recall Uncle Terry talking about racing Trans Am but I can't be sure, it was a long the ago and you start to question your memory. In my searching for information where the Camaro might have got to I did talk with someone who knew Terry when he was in the US racing, but for the life of me I can't remember his name now to call back find out more about it, I'll have to back track through my notes and contacts. He was a member of the Vic Historic Racing Club and John Blanchard put me onto him.

[Rondonrus]

Hi Ron, nice to hear from you again. I can't recall exactly who Wayne said they got to manufacture the crossover manifold, it certainly could have been Briar McKay as you have suggested. I'll have to check with him next time I'm talking to him. I'm certain he did say that it was a fabricated steel manifold.

Its interesting that Wayne can't recall seeing or hearing about the Trans Am 302 engine that Terry brought over as a potential spare power plant option. Can you recall if this was a complete running engine with all the bolt on's or just a long motor?

As much as I can recall it was a 302 long block (complete engine less carb; water pump; clutch assy; distributor.) painted Chev orange. but it was a built 302 from the engine room at BTRC. It was in a unique crate that covered it completely and look like a large box from the outside ( quite honestly it was an old crate that I used to send 4 cam Ford engines back and forth from Indy for Jerry Grants Indy Car) and was buried in a sea of auto parts when I last saw it. Like I said before Terry took back a tremendous amount of spare parts.

He had talked about opening a speed shop in Auckland and I thought that's where most of that stuff was headed. Is there or was there a speed shop in NZ?

[Jac Mac]

IIRC some of the early McKay manifolds were made up of several pieces [ castings ] and then those were all welded together. Would have been a nightmare to cast in one piece, whereas this way the four pairs of runner castings were the same and then the valley/port casting.

[Ellis]

[QUOTE=nick_tassie;5215]Cheers, Ellis

Mum can recall going to race meetings at Calder with Terry in one of the EH's, this would have been most likely in 65. There is a great story by Tony Stott on Terry and his EH days on the motorsportarchive.com, most likely where you read about the Moffat Lotus Cortina link.
I was checking the Web the other day researching the Brian Muir S4 EH and came across a photo of what was claimed to be the car at the Phillip Island Motor Museum. Its painted light blue with #4 race number, most other photos I seen including ones you have posted show the car red.
Maybe someone can confirm this is the ex Brian Muir S4 the Terry did once own and race.
........................

This is it in Aug 1966 I took at Calder. It was then Dave Prices along with the Humpy next to it.
I think Terry and Dave Price were aquaintenances.
Edit..
I just looked up the Calder 8/66 Dave Price Humpy entry and he was entered by Dave's own business, Syndal Motors. Terry was entered by same in May 66 in an S4 at the ATCC at Bathurst.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/DPriceExBMuirS4FxCalderScottyonbonnet866-1.jpg

After Dave Price it went to Garry Rogers and was painted Brn/Yell/Red
Gary Rogers sold it to someone and it was burnt out and or wrecked at Calder in private practice.
I'd be very surprised if the one in museum was same car. If it is why that colour scheme.

[nick_tassie]

In my searching for information where the Camaro might have got to I did talk with someone who knew Terry when he was in the US racing, but for the life of me I can't remember his name now to call back find out more about it, I'll have to back track through my notes and contacts. He was a member of the Vic Historic Racing Club and John Blanchard put me onto him.

That someone was John Reaburn (Buchanan Holden Special fame). I had a chat with him today, mistakingly on my part, John met up with Terry in the UK and not the US as I first thought. We worked out it would have most likely been at a Silverstone race meeting probably in early 67, he thinks Brian Thompson was racing his Mustang at the time. Maybe terry was checking out other car options in the UK before heading over to the US.

I'm not sure who else to talk to about his US racing, I haven't found any links to US racing on the Web as yet.

[nick_tassie]

After Dave Price it went to Garry Rogers and was painted Brn/Yell/Red
Gary Rogers sold it to someone and it was burnt out and or wrecked at Calder in private practice.
I'd be very surprised if the one in museum was same car. If it is why that colour scheme.

This is the photo of the Ex Brian Muir S4 EH that is in the Phillip Island Motor Museum, maybe someone can shead light on if this is the original car (rebuilt after fire or crash) or is it a second car he raced or maybe even a replica?

It does look like it has got the leather bonnet strap at the front as seen on photo's of Brian's original race car

[Ellis]

Thats PK751 ...Beecheys old one. The chap that owns Perf. Ignition Systems (Scorcher) has it.
Should have triggered when you said #4...... Neptune Blue....you must have had rose coloured glasses on....lol
There are a couple of replicas of it around as well.

John Reaburn you mentioned .....
John was also a Humpy driver of some renown.
He went onto Open Wheelers and ran with the best of them. He did a lot of racing in Europe
probably culminating with LeMans 24 hour in a GT40.....a real one.

[nick_tassie]

Thats PK751 ...Beecheys old one. The chap that owns Perf. Ignition Systems (Scorcher) has it.
Should have triggered when you said #4...... Neptune Blue....you must have had rose coloured glasses on....lol
There are a couple of replicas of it around as well.

John Reaburn you mentioned .....
John was also a Humpy driver of some renown.
He went onto Open Wheelers and ran with the best of them. He did a lot of racing in Europe
probably culminating with LeMans 24 hour in a GT40.....a real one.

Thanks for clearing that up Ellis, you certainly do have to be careful believing what you read at times. There was also a car sold recently on Australian Muscle Car Sales that claimed to be a spare Brian Muir car to the one that raced at Bathurst, again not sure if thats correct or not.

John was certainly great to talk to, he mentioned racing GT40's in the UK, how cool would that have been. It certainly sounds like he had an interesting racing career, it would be good for someone who knows more to start a thread on it.

[nick_tassie]

I had a fantastic chat with Graeme Blanchard tonight, he contacted me after reading my Muscle Assist article in the current Australian Muscle Car Magazine.

He confirmed that he brought the car with the 396 big block engine although it was in a pretty poor state at the time. The block had been welded in a number of places to repair damage, I recall in the NZ sale advert for the car it had a couple of damaged crankshafts and used conrods in the spares list which might explain the bottom end damage as described by Graeme.

Graeme initially raced the big block for a while before changing it for the 350ci engine, he recalled it went like a rocket on the straights but lacked stopping power, he even mentioned with pride out dragging Moffat in the Coke Mustang on the straight at Warwick Farm in one race although Moffat got him easily under cornering.

Seems Moffat also protested against Graeme running rear disc brakes in the Tasmanian ATCC round at Symmons Plains in 72? He wasn't a happy chappie about it either.

Interestingly he also mentioned the car was white with the red centre stripe when he brought it from Terry, all he did at the first race was to add his name on the guards as can be seen in the AMC article photo. I presumed he had painted the red stripe but that's not the case. The photo's of the car in early 71 when Terry last raced it were all white with the Castrol side stripes.

Sad to say those special quad webers and crossover manifold were stolen off the Camaro shortly before he sold it to Lakis Manticas, they broke into the shed and took the lot, the car was then sold with the holley setup. It was also sold as a complete running race car which means the running gear was stripped out of it by Lakis before being then sold as we know to Barry Wearing as a roller.

[nick_tassie]

Hi Nick, a long shot but im in Sydney next month for the EC Muscle Car Masters and im staying with a mate Keith Knightingale. Keiths probably mid 60's and been in Sydney all his life, he raced Toranas back in the early 70's and prior, i'll print this out and ask him!! He doesn't do E-mails and getting him on the PH is tough but i will ask for you!! From stories he's told me he seem to know alot from that era in and around Sydney and was a GM guy!! you never know!!

Dale Mathers
Tauranga, NZL

Hey Dale, did you get a chance to ask Keith about the Camaro?

[Steve Holmes]

Hey Nick, you say he injured his arm badly in a crash in the US. Could this possibly be early in 1971 when he did this? He was quoted as saying he was heading to the US with Joe Chamberlain after his NZ races at the Bay Park Xmas meeting to buy a small block motor for the Camaro. Is it possible he took in a race while he was there and crashed then? He had big plans for the Camaro for 1971, but then suddenly it was for sale a few months later. If he had crashed in early '71, that could explain why he suddenly put the Camaro on the market and stopped racing.

[AMCO72]

Hey Nick......in post 91 you mention that Barry Wearing purchased the Camaro from Lakis Manticas. My interest in this is that Lakis did some guest drives in the AMCO Mini in about 73/74 when it was owned by Warren Reid. Have only heard snippets of Lakis Manticas and his exploits on the track but by all accounts was a pretty spectacular driver!!!! Would this be right? We now own the Mini, and any history of it, and it's drivers, is always welcome, so anything you can tell me would be useful.

[nick_tassie]

Hey Nick......in post 91 you mention that Barry Wearing purchased the Camaro from Lakis Manticas. My interest in this is that Lakis did some guest drives in the AMCO Mini in about 73/74 when it was owned by Warren Reid. Have only heard snippets of Lakis Manticas and his exploits on the track but by all accounts was a pretty spectacular driver!!!! Would this be right? We now own the Mini, and any history of it, and it's drivers, is always welcome, so anything you can tell me would be useful.

Yes Lakis was a well known Mini driver from what I've read when doing some research, I certainly don't pretend to know to much though. I'm sure there are members on this site who would know more and might reply to you. Coincidentally I was actually speaking with him again early today just asking a few questions about the Camaro and what may have happened to the cars racing Log Book and the running gear.

He does have a Facebook page so you might like to send him a message to get in contact with you. If you don't have access to that just google his name, he is a real estate agent and his mobile number is publicly available.

[nick_tassie]

Hey Nick, you say he injured his arm badly in a crash in the US. Could this possibly be early in 1971 when he did this? He was quoted as saying he was heading to the US with Joe Chamberlain after his NZ races at the Bay Park Xmas meeting to buy a small block motor for the Camaro. Is it possible he took in a race while he was there and crashed then? He had big plans for the Camaro for 1971, but then suddenly it was for sale a few months later. If he had crashed in early '71, that could explain why he suddenly put the Camaro on the market and stopped racing.

You could be right Steve, I'll check that with Graeme Blanchard next time I contact him as he mentioned that he spend some time with the family when he was negotiating to buy the Camaro. Its just unfortunate that none of his close family are around any more to find out this history, I'm not sure who else might know at this stage. Mum is pretty certain that he almost lost his arm in the crash and that is was in the US, she remembers that Auntie Lucy (Terry's Mother) spend some time over there helping with his recovery. Graeme might be able to at least shead some light on why Terry changed his mind about continuing to run the Camaro and sold it.

[nick_tassie]

He confirmed that he brought the car with the 396 big block engine although it was in a pretty poor state at the time. The block had been welded in a number of places to repair damage, I recall in the NZ sale advert for the car it had a couple of damaged crankshafts and used conrods in the spares list which might explain the bottom end damage as described by Graeme.

Maybe this photo from Oldracephotos.com explains the damage to the 396 big block, looks like some serious oil smoke after a possible engine problem at the 71 Symmons Plains ATTC round, Symmons Plains is renound for creating oil surge with the high speed sweeper and hairpin, it must have been a big problem in the early days before dry sumps. I noticed Graeme Blanchard ran the car with a dry sump system.

Ellis can you recall the damage that Terry sustained in this photo?

http://www.oldracephotos.com/shop/product2601#1677HAllan72

[Steve Holmes]

Thats interesting Nick, I hadn't realised Allan had started the 1971 ATCC with this car. I assumed he'd sold it before the start of the championship. This round was held on March 4. Was he at Calder for Round 2 on March 21?

[nick_tassie]

Thats interesting Nick, I hadn't realised Allan had started the 1971 ATCC with this car. I assumed he'd sold it before the start of the championship. This round was held on March 4. Was he at Calder for Round 2 on March 21?

Steve it looks like although he may have raced at the event he didn't enter in the ATCC as he is not shown on the official records. My info comes from the motorsportarchives.com site that shows a photo of the car on the start line at Symmons with a caption suggesting it was on 1/3/71 ATCC.

http://www.motorsportarchive.com/bits_and_pieces.htm

The photos Ellis posted and the ones of Ray Sinclair seem to be from the same event with the white paint and Castrol sponsorship.

Looks like he is racing with the same spec as Bay Park, 10" minilites and the big front spoiler and brake ducts, maybe these ruled him out of running in the ATCC so he just raced at the event without gaining points??

I noticed they had 72 on the Oldracephotos.com site for the photo of the car in the pits but I'm 100% certain this is a wrong date as Graeme Blanchard had the car by then and never ran it with the Castrol sponsorship, he said he purchased the car all white with the new red centre stripe.

I haven't seen any evidence that he may have raced at Calder in 71, maybe that smoke indicated some serious repair work needed to be done so that ruled him out.

[Steve Holmes]

Thats a bit strange Nick, I can't imagine what other race he would have competed in at that ATCC opener. The 10" wheels with spoiler and brake ducts should have been OK for the ATCC race, as the wheel width limit was 10" from 1970 onwards. Perhaps the engine expired in practice and he never got a start?

Yes you're right, OldRacePhotos have listed their photo as being 1972, but Blanchard owned the car by this stage and it didn't look like that.

[Steve Holmes]

Also, re the OldRacePhotos image, if you look at the people in the background, you'll see several of them wearing short sleeve tops. The ATCC Symmons race was run in the wet, and photos of the race show the spectators to be well wrapped up with many carrying umbrellas, which makes me think the OldRacePhotos image was possibly taken not on race day. So if the race was on Sunday, perhaps the Camaro expired in practice in Saturday?

[nick_tassie]

Also, re the OldRacePhotos image, if you look at the people in the background, you'll see several of them wearing short sleeve tops. The ATCC Symmons race was run in the wet, and photos of the race show the spectators to be well wrapped up with many carrying umbrellas, which makes me think the OldRacePhotos image was possibly taken not on race day. So if the race was on Sunday, perhaps the Camaro expired in practice in Saturday?

Now thats great detective work Watson..!! You could be onto something there Steve. I might check out the Examiner newspaper of the weekend, maybe it has a story on the blowup if that's what it was.

[nick_tassie]

Here is an article from a Mallala race meeting in September 1969 kindly provided by Lindsay at Oldracephotos.com.

Sounds like the 100mph spin on the straight in the wet would have got Terry's attention.

I'm pretty certain the car has been repainted the metalic blue by now, the white stripes are long gone and it has the small pin stripes along the top edge of the guards and door as seen on the photos from Bay Park NZ

[nick_tassie]

Its a bit hard to read the previous attachment so I've cut the story out and reposted it. :)

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks for posting that Nick, old magazine race reviews are always enjoyable. Yeah I agree with you, I reckon it was blue here too.

[nick_tassie]

A couple of Camaro speedway leads that I'm currently chasing up.

The first #83 was called "The beast" and raced by Brisbane speedway hero Allan Butcher, this one is unlikely as I have read it was a car made froms bits of everything. I hope to talk with Allan this week to rule it out.

The second #7 was raced by Sydney driver Carl Jeffrey, the photo was taken at Granville raceway. I've tracked Carl down to Iowa USA and hope to have an answer from him sometime soon. Carl's son Lynton is successfully racing Sprint Cars at Knoxville. Carl's other son Paul seems to recall this car coming direct from the US so it may also be a dead end.

Don't forget if you have any potential leads where Terry's Camaro may have got to in, circuit, speedway or drag racing to let me know so I can check then out

[nick_tassie]

A couple of Camaro speedway leads that I'm currently chasing up.

The first #83 was called "The beast" and raced by Brisbane speedway hero Allan Butcher, this one is unlikely as I have read it was a car made froms bits of everything. I hope to talk with Allan this week to rule it out.

The second #7 was raced by Sydney driver Carl Jeffrey, the photo was taken at Granville raceway. I've tracked Carl down to Iowa USA and hope to have an answer from him sometime soon. Carl's son Lynton is successfully racing Sprint Cars at Knoxville. Carl's other son Paul seems to recall this car coming direct from the US so it may also be a dead end.

Don't forget if you have any potential leads where Terry's Camaro may have got to in, circuit, speedway or drag racing to let me know so I can check then out

No luck with the Jeffrey #7 speedway camaro, managed to get in touch with Carl in the US and he responded letting me know his Camaro wasn't Terry's old car.

[I]hey mate ..it was not mine..that was just a body on a 56 cheve frame we brought from over here..most of the rest of the camaros (in fact all of them i believe ) that were raced on speedway came out of my fibreglass shop in sefton ( j c racecars )I]

The search goes on..!!

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks again for the updates Nick. Boy, you're really earning your keep on this search. I really hope all your efforts come to fruition and you find the Camaro. Keep at it. It must still be out there somewhere.

[nick_tassie]

Its amazing what you can unearth when asking the right people. I have been sent some fantastic photo's of the Camaro from David Blanch of Autopics.com. In particular a sequence of shots with the right rear wheel parting company with the big Camaro, at what looks like the kink at the end of the back straight of Sandown Raceway. Not the ideal place to lose a rear wheel that's for sure, the spin and tyre smoke indicates it would have got Terry's attention big time but at least he kept it out of the wall. The rigth rear can be seen sailing off towards the infield. Its a bit hard to tell from the sample photos if it was caused by a broken axle or wheel studs, I don't have the copyright approval to post them unfortunately. There are some other shots of him racing against the Norm Beechey in the big Galaxie, Thommo in the 68 big block Camaro, and either Geoghegan or Jane in their Mustangs (numbers are a bit small to read). All pretty cool and will be welcome additions to the ever expanding photo album.

[Steve Holmes]

Thats interesting Nick. Its likely there would have been some under body damage from when that wheel fell off. Could be useful as future reference should you find the car and need to ID some of its racing fingerprints.

[nick_tassie]

Hey did any keen eyes who watched the ABC show Wide Open Road Part 2 last night pick out the shot of Uncle Terry's Camaro. About the 42mins into the show.

It was a pretty quick shot but definetely the car in its early days with its red paint and dual white stripes over the boot and roof. I've managed to take some frame by frame shots with my camera phone which came out ok surprisingly. I will post them tomorrow once I resize them at work.

Looks like it shows Wayne Mahnken in white shirt and red hat kneeling beside the right rear setting the tyre pressures.

Oh I can't take credit for spotting it either another keen forum member gave me the heads up, great work it was too..!!

[Steve Holmes]

Good to see you back here again Nick. I take it still no luck with your leads? I'd love to see your stills. Do you have a copy of the dvd Classic Australian Touring Car Races Vol 1? I need to double check but I am sure the car appears here too, with Blanchard at the wheel.

[nick_tassie]

Hi Steve, I've been in hiding from you Kiwi's while the World Cup has been on...!! :mad:

Seriously now, I have been chasing a pretty good lead for a few months now, as well as, flat out getting my current project ready for the paint shop.

I was sent a message from a forum member who knew a guy in Sydney (Parramatta area) who owned a restored 67 that he said had once been a race car. My contact said the car was fully restored back to an original road car but he did clearly remember seeing some modifications to the inner guards. It was a long shot but considering it was also a red 67 from Paramatta it was worth a look. All he had was a first name of this bloke and the business he worked at at the time (which has closed down), this all happened in the early 80's so you can imagine how hard it has been to track down who he was and where he is now.

I have managed to track him down although not to the point of actually talking to him personally, just through a third party. Although the car, which has been sold through numerous owners by now, is a close match it is probably not Terry's. Its just too neat with what was described to be an unmolested floor pan, I know from talking to Wayne Mahnken that Terry's camaro had some serious under body suspension work done to it. The third party suggested the car was if it was in racing it was just used in minor competions and nothing major. Certainly had no signs of roll cage or body mods.

But its still on my mind to try and contact the guy myself and have a chat about the history of the car.

So still trying hard in the background to find a hot new trail.

Oh I have asked Lindsay Ross of Oldracephotos.com to do some research into articles on Terry and the Camaro, he conducts research into old race cars on request at a very reasonable price. Lindsay has found well over 35 articles which are in the mail as I write so really looking forward to reading what he has found. I'll share anything of interest with the forum once I get my teeth into it.

I certainly will post the photos from the ABC show shortly, and no I haven't watched that race footage as yet but would be really keen to do so, I'm sure Graeme Blanchard would get a kick out of it as well.

[nick_tassie]

Here are the three best shots from off the TV, best I could do with just an Iphone camera. Ellis doesn't think is is Wayne in the red hat.

You can just make out the left exhaust side pipe in front of the rear wheel.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks for those updates Nick. I've got to hand it to you, you're certainly giving this a real shot! I hope your hard work pays off. Those photos are neat. What was the doco (Wide Open Road) about?

Yeah I don't know if Graeme Blanchard will enjoy seeing the Classic Australian Touring Car Races footage. The Camaro wasn't running too happy at all. The race(s) was at Warwick Farm. Graeme got lapped by the leaders, and was clearly struggling with a troublesome race car.

[nick_tassie]

Wide Open Road is a doco on the ABC about Australia's history and love of the motor car, I believe its a 3 part series with part 2 screened this past weekend. Its really well put together with some great historic footage of the start of the motor car era.

Part 1 was mostly about the early days from the first horseless carriages up to the start of the Holden and Ford motor companies in Australia, it also included great stories of the amazing speed trials from Sydney to Melbourne and early motor adventures across Australia.

Part 2 moved into the Ford V Holden battle for top dog both in the showroom and race track, as well as, a fantastic story about the Redex trial, and Sir Jack Brabham's racing career in Formula 1. Talked about how the motor car also became such an important part of family life including the start of cruising the town and drag racing. Also touched on Bathurst and the start of the Aussie supercars.

Its interesting you mentioned Graeme struggling with the big Camaro, when I talked to him about it he said the car scared the blazes out of him at first, he said the power of the big block 396 was awesome when on song but the car was woeful under brakes and cornering and he just could not get a handle on it at all to get a lap time out of it. He said that Norm Beechey told him that he was being to timid with it and to "wring its bloody neck son" which he did and ended up setting the lap record at Warwick Farm, much to his pleasure that lap time stood for quiet a while.

I've just been reading the material that Lindsay Ross has sent to me today, he's found some great stuff which has filled in a lot of gaps and explained some of the mechanical issues Terry faced with the car. Whats interesting is just how much he actually raced it, he also started more ATCC events than I first thought. I'll start posting some of the info over the next few days, hope you enjoy it as I have been.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks for that info Nick. I look forward to seeing what Lindsay has managed to unearth. And any ATCC history is always good.

[nick_tassie]

The first bit of information I've discovered in the Lindsay Ross material is extremely interesting.

It is sourced from a number of articles and adverts from Racing Car News.

The first two are from the Classifieds and Bits & Peices sections of the August 1968 edition. These indicate Terry put the Camaro up for sale only 15 months after bringing it into Australia.

Classified

Terry Allan's 6.5 Camaro
This car has the potential to become Australia's leading touring car and even now at this early stage it is on the threshold of becoming No. 1. Our mechanic Claude Morton has fully blueprinted the present motor and has the car immaculate throughout and ready to Race. It is most unfortunate that this car must be sold as Terry leaves for overseas commitments shortly. On July 16th the Camaro engine tested 510 bhp on Jack Hunnam's dyno. P.O.A. Mr. C. Allan

The C. Allan was Terry's father Cedric.

Bits & Peices

Allan Camaro For Sale
Terry Allan has put his Chev camaro up for sale following his decision to travel overseas and race for a time in England and the U.S. The car, complete with spare 520 bhp engine, can be yours for $12,500 (steady, don't push!) Terry will leave with his father this month and will probably buy a Ford Escort to bring home with him.

Its really interesting that he had decided to abandon his racing in Australia to go overseas after such a huge investment in the Camaro. The first advert almost suggests he had locked in committments to race overseas in 68. He did have what turned out to be an unsuccessful attempt to race in the U.S. Pro-Am with Allan Moffat in a Lotus Cortina before buying the Camaro. He was also seen in the silverstone pits at a touring car race in early 67. Who knows maybe he had a deal in place to run in 68. The suggestion to return with an Escort is interesting as well, maybe suggests he struggled initially with the big banger Camaro and thought the smaller car would be a way forward.

The spare 520 bhp engine is really interesting, I haven't read or heard of him having or using a spare 396ci big block before. I just wonder if this might be reference to that mysterious SPECIAL 302ci Trans-Am small block engine that he brought from Bill Thomas Racecars. It would be interesting to hear from Ron Ogilvie if these engines ever reached that kind of bhp output? Unless it was an overestimate in bhp...!

The next article is from what I can tell a much later Race Car News September edition, not sure the exact year as that missing from the doc.

Tasty Tit-Bits from Steven Chopping
New owner of the ex-Bryan Thompson Camaro, Don Elliott, is reported to have brought a spare 350 cu. in. lightweight V8 from Terry Allan, but is also looking for a US crank to destroke the car's 390 engine back to 366 cubes for next year

Again I wonder if this SPECIAL lightweight engine is the Trans-Am 302ci restroked out to 350ci. Interestingly this sale might have occured after Terry had sold the Camaro to Graeme Blanchard in late 71 and there was no mention of this (spare engine) in the 71 for sale advert, just lots of 396 spares. Although there was a new 350 mag manifold listed.!! Did he build up a restroked lightweight 350 engine from the Trans-Am unit to replace the 396 big block as suggested in NZ in 71..?

Maybe someone can tell us when Don Elliott had the ex-Thompson camaro to put a time line to this engine purchase.

[nick_tassie]

Also, re the OldRacePhotos image, if you look at the people in the background, you'll see several of them wearing short sleeve tops. The ATCC Symmons race was run in the wet, and photos of the race show the spectators to be well wrapped up with many carrying umbrellas, which makes me think the OldRacePhotos image was possibly taken not on race day. So if the race was on Sunday, perhaps the Camaro expired in practice in Saturday?

We have some answers to the questions if Terry started in the 1971 Symmons Plains ATCC round on March 1st, the answer is yes he did. In the April 71 Racing Car News feature on the Symmons Plains ATCC event Terry lined up 5th on the grid with a time of 1:02.7, behind pole sitter R. Jane Chev Camaro 1:00.3, A. Moffat TransAm Mustang 1:00.6, I.Geoghegan Mustang 1:02.3 and N. Beechey Monaro 1:02.4

The last of the big banger imports running was Terry Allan's Camaro, which was handling very poorly and Terry took a trip into the Boondocks before getting a best of 64.6 in the first hour................Allan got down to a 62.7 to be close to Geoghegan and Beechey

In the 10 lap Preliminary Race held on the Saturday he had a good run to finish 3rd behind Bob Jane and Ian Geoghegan

He did start the official 1st round of the ATCC on Sunday which was held in wet conditions, however had a day to forget.

Allan found the dry tyres he was forced to use lacking adhesion and spun, rejoining at the rear

Allan moved past Kent on the straight on lap 5, but withdrew soon after with a blown head gasket, caused by running the motor for a full 3 mins after the warm-up laps, rather than risk it not starting with the dickey starter motor.

Now this explains the photo of Terry in the pits with the bonnet up and steam (not smoke) billowing from the engine bay.

[nick_tassie]

Thats interesting Nick, I hadn't realised Allan had started the 1971 ATCC with this car. I assumed he'd sold it before the start of the championship. This round was held on March 4. Was he at Calder for Round 2 on March 21?

Steve another questioned answered with a yes, Terry not only started in the 2nd round of the 1971 ATCC at Calder on March 21st. He also started at Sandown in the "Malboro Southern 60", the 3rd round of the ATCC on April 14th.

Both the 2nd and 3rd rounds are featured in the May 71 Racing Car News, the 2nd round also in the May 71 Australian Auto Sports.

Terry Allan put his Camaro on the back of the grid after working overnight to repair the parts that let go first thing in practice..............Beechey filled second now, ahead of Geoghegan, McKeown, Allan (smoking like a steam locomotive).................Allan slipped past McKeown, but it was obvious that he would not last long as smoke was pouring out the back of the Camaro from a fractured oil line.............on lap six Allan was black flagged in.

The overnight repairs from the practice "let go" are explained in Australian Auto Sports.

After Terry Allan dragged his mechanic from a party on Saturday night to replace a shattered valve insert, his Chev Camaro looked anything but happy with smoke pouring from the back of the car..............Allan still had enough squirt to make things frustrating for McKeown's Porsche, but the Camaro's race was run when it pitted on lap seven

It didn't appear the 3rd round at Sandown was much better for Terry.

Beechey and Allan on the back row after missing practice............already Allan and Beechey were carving through the mid field.............Allan was pushing the Camaro along at a great pace, taking McKeown on lap three.............on lap five, Allan's camaro had started to smoke somewhat and he pulled into the pits on the same lap, after showing great promise

That seems to be the last time Terry raced the Camaro, it was up for sale with all spares in the June 1971 Racing Car News. After three races ended in mechanical failures it seems enough was enough and the Camaro was sold to Graeme Blanchard.

[Steve Holmes]

This is really great info Nick, and really enjoyable reading. That lightweight motor is interesting. There was a small piece about him announcing he was heading to the US in early 1971 to buy a small block motor to replace the big block. But these wouldn't usually be considered a lightweight motor. The spare 520hp motor mentioned above would surely be a spare big block wouldn't it? The big block in this car was rated at 520hp in the Motorman articles from when the car raced at Bay Park. Then again, the Chaparral Camaros running the Trans-Am in 1970 were getting 470hp from their 5.0 litre small block motors with single 4-barrel. You'd think with a bit of work, and taken out to 6.0 litres, they'd be the equal of the big block for power.

I can see why he suddenly sold the car. It rarely finished a race. Must have been incredibly frustrating. Teams were still learning how to get both power and reliability from stock block V8 motors at this time. So taking a punt on a big block probably made sense, but you can see it can't have been much fun for him in the end with all those dnf's. And I hate to think how much $$$$$ he threw at it.

Bryan Thomson sold his Camaro to Don Elliot in 1971.

[nick_tassie]

This is really great info Nick, and really enjoyable reading. That lightweight motor is interesting. There was a small piece about him announcing he was heading to the US in early 1971 to buy a small block motor to replace the big block. But these wouldn't usually be considered a lightweight motor. The spare 520hp motor mentioned above would surely be a spare big block wouldn't it? The big block in this car was rated at 520hp in the Motorman articles from when the car raced at Bay Park. Then again, the Chaparral Camaros running the Trans-Am in 1970 were getting 470hp from their 5.0 litre small block motors with single 4-barrel. You'd think with a bit of work, and taken out to 6.0 litres, they'd be the equal of the big block for power.

I can see why he suddenly sold the car. It rarely finished a race. Must have been incredibly frustrating. Teams were still learning how to get both power and reliability from stock block V8 motors at this time. So taking a punt on a big block probably made sense, but you can see it can't have been much fun for him in the end with all those dnf's. And I hate to think how much $$$$$ he threw at it.

Bryan Thomson sold his Camaro to Don Elliot in 1971.

I think you might be right about the early (68) spare engine being a big block, the suggested 520 bhp if correct certainly indicates it was a similar spec to the main engine. What's strange is that I can't find any further reference to it throughout the Lindsay Ross material. With the big failures in 71, NZ (piston), Calder, (valve insert) there was no mention of a potential spare engine change. Maybe it had been damaged or sold off prior to then, there's no mention of a spare block in the 71 for sale advert, just 2 damaged crankshafts and spare pistons.

Ellis has passed on Don Elliot's contact details, I'll give him a call shortly to see what I can find out about this so called lightweight engine.

Terry certainly must have spent a fortune running the Camaro for the 5 years, Mum can recall Auntie Lucy telling her that she had helped Terry with 10's of thousands of dollars on his motor racing. What's interesting in reading the material over the 5 years is that when the Camaro and Terry were on song and reliable he was certainly capable of running with the big boy's, Jane, Beechey, Geoghegan and Moffat. He generally seemed capable of qualifying in the top 4-6 when things were going well. In the short 5-6 lap sprint event he ran really competitively with some top 3 finishes. The longer 40 50 lap races generally ended in retirement due to some kind of mechanical failure. He certainly had some hard luck at times as well.

I will post some more good and hard luck stories shortly. One thing for certain my desire to find this damn car is only getting bigger..!!

[nick_tassie]

Here's something for some discussion.

For the life of me I can't work out why he would have repainted and ran the Camaro blue in 69-70. It certainly didn't appear to be a sponsorship related decision because the car only ran with corporate sponsorshop in 71 with castrol, hense the repaint again to white.

The cost of repainting the car would have been a big expense and to do so without sponsorship reasons seems strange. The car looked pretty flash with the original paint so I would be surprised if it was just because he liked blue more than red.

As I've mentioned before Graeme Blanchard said the paint jobs on the car were top quality for a race car so he didn't just throw some masking tape at it and went crazy with the spray gun.

So I'm interested in peoples thoughts on this because I'm at a loss really.

[Steve Holmes]

Yeah good question Nick. Maybe it was just a personal thing. Did he crash the car at all around this time? Could he have damaged it and decided to go with a different colour scheme when it was being rebuilt? I think he did have the guards flared for wider wheels at one point, perhaps he decided to just have the whole car repainted at the same time? Race tracks at this time were pretty rough places, usually with gravel and/or dirt surrounding the track surface, and any off road excursions, or being behind someone else who was getting a wheel off the track usually resulted in a good sand blasting of the paint work. So cars often required a new paint job between race seasons anyway.

[nick_tassie]

Here are the three best shots from off the TV, best I could do with just an Iphone camera. Ellis doesn't think is is Wayne in the red hat.

You can just make out the left exhaust side pipe in front of the rear wheel.

Ellis has done some great work in identifying at least one of the blokes in this photo with the help of Wayne Mahnken.

The guy in the red shirt and black hat is the late Murray Batson, he was said to be a good friend of Terry's. Its a shame he is also not with us anymore because he could have had some interesting stories to tell.

Ellis also picked up some footage just a bit earlier than these shots that show Murray, Wayne Mahnken and Dave Price. Good work because I missed it completely until looking closer for it. I'll post some shots shortly once I resize them. There's also a seperate shot of a red racing car that someone might be able to recognise.

[nick_tassie]

Here are the shots Ellis discovered in the footage of the ABC doco Wide Open Road. Again taken with my Iphone directly off the TV so not the best quality.

Murray Batson has his back to the camera in the same red shirt and black hat as in the later shot kneeling beside the Camaro. Wayne Mahnken is in the black shirt with the cig in his mouth, Wayne was Terry's mechanic in 67 when he first ran the car. Dave Price is standing next to Wayne, I understand Dave was also a friend of Terry's and brought the ex Brian Muir EH S4 of him to race.

How cool is the Terry Allan team shirt Murray is wearing, looks like they had CAMARO written under the Chev badge, I can just make it out in the other shots of Murray next to the Car.

Thanks Ellis for letting me know about these.

[nick_tassie]

I thought someone might be able to recognise this racing car in the background which seems to be from the same film footage that shows Terry's Camaro. Might generate some interesting discussion.

I've contacted the ABC to see if they can send me the rest of the footage, might be some other good stuff in it, who knows!

[thunder427]

I thought someone might be able to recognise this racing car in the background which seems to be from the same film footage that shows Terry's Camaro. Might generate some interesting discussion.

I've contacted the ABC to see if they can send me the rest of the footage, might be some other good stuff in it, who knows!

......the 'good looking' bloke looks like a 'young' Norm Beechey,the red car looks like the ex-Lou Malino, Monza Special.......where is Ellis when you need him.......regards thunder427/MJ

[Steve Holmes]

Thats what I was thinking too Myles. And yes, where is Ellis?

[Ellis]

Nice to be missed...lol
Been away in 1929 A model. It was long weekend in N part of Tas

Agree with the Beechey ID

The Molina Monza had 2 fins...one each side..and a lot sharper
It was in Tas in this period and painted black . It also had a single loop behind driver as roll bar but some time later on its life and not the full width as on the pictured car.
I'll put a pic here later

Pic is Tassies Bert Howard at Longford in Mar 1967...car was black
The 3 stripes on the back indicate he was still a provisionsal race driver..(3 meetings ) so he hadnt had the car for long at this stage.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/BertHoward5-3-67LongfordTasman.jpg

[thunder427]

......Ok!!!...strike two:how about Murry Carters Corvette powered sports special,it was 'red' and the timings about right???......ELLIS!!!!what do you think,close or no cigar???.....regards MJ/427

[Ellis]

Myles...
I dont think that opens the cigar box lid either....lol
It didnt have the same rear bodywork as that. No lump behind the driver .(or rollcage from memory at that time.)
I'll look at some old programmes and see if I can come up with a suggestion.
A car number would have been handy in the shot.
I have an old pic of the Carter car but it wont post. I have some in current restored condition which I have posted in the Corvette section I think.
Regards
Ellis

Pic added
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/CarterCorvetteJagXK120.jpg

[nick_tassie]

Yeah good question Nick. Maybe it was just a personal thing. Did he crash the car at all around this time? Could he have damaged it and decided to go with a different colour scheme when it was being rebuilt? I think he did have the guards flared for wider wheels at one point, perhaps he decided to just have the whole car repainted at the same time? Race tracks at this time were pretty rough places, usually with gravel and/or dirt surrounding the track surface, and any off road excursions, or being behind someone else who was getting a wheel off the track usually resulted in a good sand blasting of the paint work. So cars often required a new paint job between race seasons anyway.

I can't find any reference in the Lindsay Ross material to any major crash damage. There were a few minor hiccups such as the rear wheel going AWOL at Sandown 4th May 69 although the car does appear to already be repainted Blue by this stage anyway, its a bit hard to tell for sure from the B/W photos but the white stripes are gone which seems to indicate the repaint. Speaking of the left rear letting go, I did mention this in a previous post but was unsure of the exact cause, now I have that info.

Terry Allan drove the Camaro around for a look then screwed it up a bit on Mobil Straight to get a quick lap and the rear left axle flange let go. He lost the wheel and spun down through the Esses from the top of Lukeys.

So why the repaint to Blue? Maybe this could be an explanation, Bryan Thompson turned up in a newer model 68 Camaro big block in sparkling red paint, just maybe Terry needing to refresh the paint of his car choose to go with a different colour so the two car stood out from each other? As good a reason as any I guess.

[Steve Holmes]

Nick, do you think its possible he could have changed the colour just for the hell of it? A lot of teams changed their colour schemes every season, just to keep their cars looking fresh and interesting. The Trident team changed every season, from blue with white stripes in 1965, to black and yellow/red stripes in '66, to dark blue with white stripes in '67, then to blue with yellow and red stripes, then yellow with red stripes etc. Maybe he was just following the trends of the period?

[Steve Holmes]

Myles...
I dont think that opens the cigar box lid either....lol
It didnt have the same rear bodywork as that. No lump behind the driver .(or rollcage from memory at that time.)
I'll look at some old programmes and see if I can come up with a suggestion.
A car number would have been handy in the shot.
I have an old pic of the Carter car but it wont post. I have some in current restored condition which I have posted in the Corvette section I think.
Regards
Ellis

Pic added
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/CarterCorvetteJagXK120.jpg

Love the old photos of the Specials Ellis. What happened to the Molina Monza?

[Ellis]

Molina Monza...
After a few years use here in Tas (and some bad damage) it went back to the big Island and has been restored and runs at Historic meetings .
A pretty special car....Holden Grey engine.... Lou Molina passed away several years ago.
I think from memory the family may have some involvement with the car again.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/sandown_historics_nov_6_201006112010_045_ijfr.jpg

Carter Corvette.....
Restored and running at Historic meetings.
Murray having a drive of it....
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/murray_carter_corvette-2.jpg

Better let Nick get back to his Camaro search eh...but its partly his fault as he asked what the red car was in one of the TV shots....lol

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Ellis. What powers it?

[Ellis]

The mighty Holden Grey...what else....lol ...Thats what it had so assume when restored they would have kept it that way.

[bry3500]

[QUOTE=Ellis;6857]The mighty Holden Grey...what else....lol ...Thats what it had so assume when restored they would have kept it that way.[/QUOTE


The Monza was featured in the 1959 Movie 'On The Beach'
Here is some info I found on the net
The filming of the race scene

Although the scene is set at Phillip Island, and Kramer spent two days filming there, very little of the final film shows the Phillip Island footage. The Island shots are quite obvious - the scenery is fairly flat. The other shots, which feature the various car crashes, clearly have some high hills in the background. All these stunt scenes were filmed in September 1958 at Riverside Raceway in California, and edited into the film later. The filming was described in some contemporary magazines. See copies of these on the Web, including photos taken during the filming, at Frank Sheffield's The Pits.

Philip Davey has obtained a complete list of the Californian drivers, along with their addresses and phone numbers, the cars and the value of each car! He even has details of an insurance claim for an injury during the stunts. There are 14 cars on the list. The drivers were paid $150 a day.

There does not appear to be an XK140 Jaguar anywhere in the race scene, but a Jaguar does appear at least twice in the California filming. It appears to be white, or at least a light colour, but looks like an XK120. Oddly, the only Jaguar that appears on Philip's list is a 1957 D-type, so there's another mystery!

There were no crashes at Phillip Island. Kramer hired the Phillip Island circuit for three days, at a fee of £A150 per day. It rained on the first day, but all the filming was completed in two days, although he paid for the third.

Philip also reports that there were a couple of people used as stand-ins for Fred Astaire at Phillip Island - Astaire wasn't allowed to drive around the track. One was English race driver Alec Menhinick (a personal friend of Norway) who did the actual speed driving for Astaire. Twelve or sixteen of Victoria's best racing drivers took part in the Phillip Island filming, including:

Aussie Miller .... Yellow Miller Special
Bill Leach .... Red Holden Special
Lou Molina .... Red Monza
Stan Jones .... Aston Martin
Len Lukey .... (Car unknown)

Peter D'Abbs states that the other drivers most likely included Doug Whiteford and Alan Jack. Ian McDonald was to appear, but was unable to make it on the day. Philip reports that these drivers apparently "did a wonderful job - they finished up doing what nobody had been able to do since shooting had started - they satisfied Kramer with one take." It was noted at the time that a Monza in the correct colour of red was available locally - not only did Kramer not need to bring one out from the USA, but it was the wrong colour anyway.

Lou Molina told me about taking part in the filming with Stan Jones (the late father of Alan Jones, world Formula One champion a few years ago). Molina also provided the racing sound effects. He took the sound recording technician around the circuit at full race speeds for some of the sounds. The technician was apparently terrified, and shook Molina's hand in thanks for a number of minutes afterwards. At another stage, they recorded the sounds of tyres screeching under braking.

The filming of the race scenes was also somewhat hair-raising for the drivers. Molina and Jones were coming down the main straight at 135 mph (about 215 km/hr) when the ambulance pulled out on to the track in front of them - a terrifying experience. Molina let Jones past him as they avoided an incident that would have required a real ambulance. The boom crane camera also caused a number of close encounters as it whipped up out of the way of the drivers at the last second. Molina recalls being close enough to "see the brand of cigarette the operator was smoking."

Molina and Jones' wives both appeared as extras in the stands, which required them to cross the track a number of times for different scenes. This accords with Peter D'Abbs recollections that the wives of some of the drivers appeared as extras in the movie. He particularly remembers the wives of Doug Whiteford and Alan Jack, and believes that they were used as models for some of the characters in the story of On the Beach. He remembers particularly their "beehive" hairstyles. Judy Miller, Aussie's wife, was also used as a stand-in for Donna Anderson at one point. This was done without any real pre-arrangement - she was just asked to walk away from the camera during filming.

A party was held at the Isle of Wight hotel in Cowes after the first day of filming, which continued all night. Molina remembers Fred Astaire as "fantastic" - the life and soul of the party, complete with tap-dancing. They drank the hotel out of champagne, then had to drive again for filming the next day, with Jones in particular somewhat ill! Molina claims that Jones spent some time in the ambulance that was on the set between takes, breathing oxygen.

Anthony Perkins and Donna Anderson, with Lou Molina's red Monza.

[nick_tassie]

Better let Nick get back to his Camaro search eh...but its partly his fault as he asked what the red car was in one of the TV shots....lol

Yep my fault..!! But pretty cool stuff is coming out of it that's for sure.

[Ellis]

Aussie Miller and Fred Astaire during filming of "On the Beach"...The film starred Ava Gardner.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/smedastairemiller-1.jpg

Aussie Miller....from On the Beach

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/smedmilleronthebeachcar.jpg

[Steve Holmes]

This is magic stuff Ellis!

[nick_tassie]

Here's a new Camaro I haven't come across before until tonight. Raced by J Pollard in the 1976 Australian Sports Sedan Championship.

Can anyone shed some light on its history.

I can't pick it's exact year model from the photo.

[nick_tassie]

Here's a new Camaro I haven't come across before until tonight. Raced by J Pollard in the 1976 Australian Sports Sedan Championship.

Can anyone shed some light on its history.

I can't pick it's exact year model from the photo.

Ok found the answer to my own question, something Steve has already posted on the 76 Sports Sedans

This footage is just as fascinating for some of the cars and drivers further down the field, including Tony Edmonson in the ex-John McCormack Repco Charger, Bob Gill in the old Pete Geoghegan Mustang GTA which won the ATCC in 1967, 68, and 69, plus John Pollard in the old Frank Gardner SCA Freight Camaro, which our own Roaring Season member Aussiemonza once owned. Jim Smith can be seen in the ex-Bob Jane ZL/1 ’69 Camaro which won the ATCC in 1971 and ’72. Current V8 Supercar team owner Garry Rogers is competing in an Escort. Also in the pack is the relative unknown Queenslander Dick Johnson, still struggling to make a name for himself, and driving the Bryan Byrt XA Falcon Sports Sedan, which Johnson so eloquently described as a ‘stinking pile of puss’. The was formally one of six Ford Special Vehicles RPO83 Falcon hardtops that raced in 1973 during the first year of Group C, and of which none have survived. In fact, another of the RPO83s, that of Murray Carter, still in Group C guise but updated to XB sheetmetal, can also be seen.

[Steve Holmes]

Hey Nick, yes thats correct. Thats the 67 Camaro Frank Gardner shipped out from the UK to race in NZ and Aus in late 1972/early 1973. Its the SCA Freight car. Myles (thunder427) knows a fair bit about this car. Roaring Season member Rowan (Aussiemonza) owned it for a few years. Its now back in the UK.

This is it at Bay Park in 1972.

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[nick_tassie]

Cheers, Steve

Got all excited and went off half cocked again...!!

How good is that old sports sedan film footage from 76. Those things looked like angry beasts to drive. Balance? what balance, pedal to the floor and just point it in the general direction, awesome stuff.

[Steve Holmes]

Yes I agree Nick, that Sandown 1976 footage is amazing! Teams were still fairly limited in their understanding on aerodynamics and downforce, so the cars moved around a huge amount. The top cars had around 600hp, on a rough and bumpy track surface, and little downforce. Pretty great recipe!

[nick_tassie]

Happy New Year to all at Roaring Season.

I was sent this photo tonight on the chance it may be a new lead to Terry's missing Camaro. Its been a little while since I've had a new lead to chase up so I'm quiet keen to find out some more about it.


Hi Nick, Just read your story in AMC#57 about terry Allen car, This picture was taken in dunedin in 1977 may be same car (see rollcage same as newspaper ad) other things like hood pins ,cowl hood,flares(but have been modified) 67/68 rs/ss 350 powered, It's a long shot but i thought you may like to see it any way,Goodluck

I persume the Dunedin location is from NZ? Can anyone shead any light on the history of this Camaro, it looks like it was running as a sports sedan, seems to tidey and straight to be speedway. I imagine someone will recognise the sponsor to help identify who and where it was raced. Does the car still survive?

Not sure if the rear roll bars are the same as with Terry's car, his look like they are on a sharper angle. Not to say they may not have been changed at some point?

[Steve Holmes]

Hi there Nick, good to see you back here again. Sorry the leads have run a bit cold for you, keep trying though! Unfortunately for you the yellow Camaro above is the ex-Spinner Black, Rod Coppins car which appears elsewhere on this forum in white/red Winfield colours, and white/blue Cambridge colours. It actually raced against your uncles car on a couple of occasions. This is when it went to the South Island and raced in OSCA. I think this might be when Bruce Jenner owned it. Cool picture though!

[nick_tassie]

Hi there Nick, good to see you back here again. Sorry the leads have run a bit cold for you, keep trying though! Unfortunately for you the yellow Camaro above is the ex-Spinner Black, Rod Coppins car which appears elsewhere on this forum in white/red Winfield colours, and white/blue Cambridge colours. It actually raced against your uncles car on a couple of occasions. This is when it went to the South Island and raced in OSCA. I think this might be when Bruce Jenner owned it. Cool picture though!

Cheers Steve, interesting, this Spinner Black/Coppins car does seem to keep popping up everywhere. It certainly had many stages of racing history behind it. The south Island landscape where the picture was taken is certainly interesting, do you have an idea where the photo might have been taken? I'll have a look back through the threads to find out more about and if it still survives.

The leads have dried up a bit but then again is one came out of nowhere so you just never know when the next one will turn up and it might just be the one we need.

I'll keep you all informed on whats happening and certainly be asking for further help along the way.

[Steve Holmes]

Yeah you're right Nick, that car had a colourful racing life, and pounded the race tracks of NZ in front line competition for approx 12 years! Of course, it was much modified along the way. There is a brief history of the car in the OSCA Database thread: http://www.theroaringseason.com/showthread.php?445-New-Zealand-OSCA-Database-Histories-And-Whereabouts

[Steve Holmes]

Nick, sorry I don't have any leads to help you find Terrys Camaro, but here are a few new photos you likely won't have seen before. These were sent to me by Roaring Season member markec. They're form the Bay Park Easter event, the first time Allan raced in NZ.

6254

6255

6256

6253

[nick_tassie]

Wow these are cool, big thank you to Markec for passing these onto you.

How good does it look in this spec with the 10" Minilites and flares..!! Awesome looking race car for its time.

Ellis sent through some great new shots of it in the Castrol livery so the scrap book is starting to fill up nicely now, and these will go straight in.

Still hoping for that 1 colour shot of the car in this blue warpaint, hopefully one will come to light one day.

No news to report on locating the car, still poking about hoping for the next lead.

[Steve Holmes]

Yeah it looks great here doesn't it. I'm hopeful colour photos of the car in blue will eventually surface. They have to.

[nick_tassie]

And This is What Gives Me Hope

I was reading an amazing book on the Shelby American Collection, it includes some brilliant photos and history articles on the Cobra, Daytona, GT40 and GT350R Mustang. The collection includes GT350R 5R002, the first mustang Shelby American built and raced in B production.

The car had been missing thought lost for 20 years, it was recently found in a Mexico barn by a guy who had been tracking it down for a number of years. It now resides as found and unrestored in the Collection complete with its original roll cage, race engine and unique suspension setup.

Lets hope the Camaro is out there somewhere sitting in a garage or barn, waiting to be found and uncovered.

[nick_tassie]

Here are a few of the drama's Uncle Terry had with the Big Block Camaro I've uncovered through my research. These articles are from various Racing Car News

1969 Australian Touring Car Championship Rd. 3 Mallala

Started 8th on the grid with a 1:23.8 behind Moffat Mustang 1:21.4.

Had a good start and was fighting for second place with Jane until.......

Allan wasn't behind Jane when they came round Clubhouse for the fourth lap - then he appeared, very slowly, and obviously heading for the pits. As he drew close, we could see why - he was slumped in his seat, almost unconscious, and he only just stopped the car before blacking out completely. The fuel tank had split, overcoming poor Terry with the fumes.
Over the pit counter in a flash was Dr. Andrew McComb, applying respiration as the St. Johns men moved in, and Terry soon saw the light of day again. It was a disappointing finish for Terry, especially when more and more cars dropped out, making it obvious that third or even second place could have been his

Racing Car News November 1970

Touring Car Handicap Race

Allan, Beechey, Thompson and McKeown were storming through the field....... then Allan went in a big way, the clutch and flywheel disintegrating and ventilating the firewall. One piece struck Terry's leg a glancing blow and, as the car slowly rolled to the escape road, Terry almost fell from the car in his efforts to push the car out of the way with one leg almost numb. However shock was the main trouble ("and why not?", as Terry said afterwards), and the leg was fortunately only grazed

She was a challenge by the sound of it...!!

[Steve Holmes]

Wow, great info Nick. Yeah those cars were a real effort to keep together. I think we forget today how much trouble they were to hold together. Reliability was still a big issue for many V8 runners in the late 60s and early 70s, which is why several contenders chose smaller capacity cars, such as the Porsche 911s. They often weren't as quick as the V8s, but they were usually still around at the end of the race. Running a small block V8 was tough enough, running a big block was really ambitious!

[nick_tassie]

And This is What Gives Me Hope

I was reading an amazing book on the Shelby American Collection, it includes some brilliant photos and history articles on the Cobra, Daytona, GT40 and GT350R Mustang. The collection includes GT350R 5R002, the first mustang Shelby American built and raced in B production.

The car had been missing thought lost for 20 years, it was recently found in a Mexico barn by a guy who had been tracking it down for a number of years. It now resides as found and unrestored in the Collection complete with its original roll cage, race engine and unique suspension setup.

Lets hope the Camaro is out there somewhere sitting in a garage or barn, waiting to be found and uncovered.

Speaking of the Shelby American Collection where the GT350R 002 Mustang now resides, I discovered some great youtube footage of a tour of the museum with Cobra restorer/racer Bill Murray giving an explaination of the collection and history of just a selection of the famous racing cars. Worth a look and a must place to visit for any Shelby Racing fan.

The you tube link is:

http://youtu.be/shYmulK7ilw

Enjoy.....

Oh and the Web site address for the collection is: www.shelbyamericancollection.org

[Steve Holmes]

The video doesn't seem to work for me Nick? Might just be down temporarily. That GT350R is just incredible. Its amazing what ended up down in Mexico. At least one Ed Roth car ended up there. But that GT350R is in amazing condition. I'm glad they're leaving it as is, its the right thing to do.

[nick_tassie]

The video doesn't seem to work for me Nick? Might just be down temporarily. That GT350R is just incredible. Its amazing what ended up down in Mexico. At least one Ed Roth car ended up there. But that GT350R is in amazing condition. I'm glad they're leaving it as is, its the right thing to do.

Hi Steve

Not sure why the link didn't work, might be worth trying to type the link it directly into Youtube?

You can also try opening the Web site www.shelbyamericancollection.org, the video is on the front page when you scroll down, click on it and it will open in Youtube.


I'll scan the story and some of the photos on the Mustang out of the book I have and post them shortly, pretty interesting read.

[nick_tassie]

Here's another interesting article I found, seems Terry put in an official protest against one Allan Moffat driving the one and only famous Coke Trans-Am Mustang.

It was in the December 1969 Racing Car News

TOURING CARS
Controversy Rages Over Trans-Am
Is it or isn't it a touring car? This is the question CAMS are asking now that an official protest has been lodged by Terry Allan against Allan Moffat's Trans-Am Mustang. It seems that CAMS accepted the homologation papers for the car but the Rule 3(g) states that all wheels must be interchangeable AND the rear wheels on the Mustang will to fit on the front!!! Where do we go from here? As far as I can see most of them are illegal anyway, so why worry!!

One thinks Mr Moffat would not have been amused....!!

It would be interesting to ask Allan Moffat what he can recall about racing against Terry and the Big Block Camaro, Does anyone out there know Allan enough to ask the question?

[Steve Holmes]

Cool. Moffats Mustang did create some controversy when it arrived in Aus. I think there were also issues over it being a fastback. I didn't know about the wheel interchanging issues though. That seems a little over the top. Controversy followed Moffat though. But he'd come from US racing, where it was just normal practice to push the rules to their limits.

[nick_tassie]

Ok here are the photo's of the GT350R 002 out of the Shelby Cars In Detail book by Frank Barrett & Boyd Jaynes. Fantastic book in real life and worth looking at for your home collection.

I couldn't scan them as the book is too big so I have just used the good old iPhone, so best I can with the detail.

The story behind the car will come next.

Enjoy

[nick_tassie]

This is the story behind the Shelby Racing Co Mustang GT350R 002, again taken on the iPhone so best I can do for quality

[Steve Holmes]

Hey Nick, that is sensational. I need to get a copy of that book. That Mustang is an amazing time warp piece. How did it come to be discovered?

[nick_tassie]

Ha here's something interesting sent in be a reader in the new edition of Australian Muscle Car.

A copy of an original Graeme Blanchard Holden Postcard showing Graeme proudly standing next to his newly acquired Ex Terry Allan Big Block Chev Camaro.

Guessing it would have been late 71 by the article on the back that states the Camaro was now running the small block 350ci engine. Graeme has told me that he initially ran the car with the big block 396.

[nick_tassie]

I guess its timely for an update on the search for Terry's lost Camaro, as nice it is to discover all these new photo's and racing articles, the ultimate aim is to discover what happened to his car.

The current lead I've been working on came from a email I received out of the blue from a guy who had known of a restored 67 Camaro in Parramatta that was supposedly once a race car. What made this lead interesting was that he had looked under the rear guards of this car and noticed that there where signs it had been modified for bigger wheels.

Other things that made this lead interesting was that the car was a red small block, now we know Terry's Camaro was originally a standard red 327 small block before it got the Bill Thomas touch and updated to Z28 spec and 396 BB. The car when sold by Barry Wearing in Parramatta in 1974 as a rolling shell would most likely still have had its original build plate fitted, so if it was restored as a road car the most likely thing would have been to go off the ID plate and restore it back as a red small block........?

Anyway a few boxes have been ticked with this lead, first the owner indicated that the car was once a race car, there were indications that the inner guards had been modified for big wheels, it matched the spec of Terry's original 67 327 SB car, the car was restored in Parramatta at about the same time Barry Wearing sold the roller to an unknown person 74-75.............

I've done as much as I can to track down this car to find out more about it, to either rule it out or in. I haven't been able to talk directly with the owner of the car who said it had been a race car much to my annoyance as it would be good to get his full story, and even a contact of the person who had done the restoration. I have spoken to the cars next owner, that's an interesting story in itself how I got onto him, anyway he said he knew nothing about its previous history as a race car, he had looked all over this car at different times and said there was no evidence that it was anything but a standard road car, certainly no major modifications under the car or to the chassis and suspension. He couldn't remember seeing any signs of a roll cage being fitted inside the car either.

Thats not to say it wasn't restored with a full new floor and running gear, it was a highly modified race car by the time Barry Wearing had sold it so any conversion back to a road car would have been major.

This owner had also sold the car long before I had talked to him, its believed to now be in Victoria running as a 350ci RS SS replica. I haven't been able to find it as yet but the feelers are out there seeing if we can, it would be nice to look behind the rear seat for signs of a roll bar or even repair damage to the firewall from that exploding clutch and flywheel in 69. If I can get the chassis number maybe we can trace the cars original sale back to Nickey Chevrolet Chicago where Terry bought his car.

Is it Terry's missing Camaro..........? The Hunt is still on.

[Steve Holmes]

Hey that actually sounds pretty promising! The red 67 in Parramatta that had been restored to a road car does fit in quite well in the time line too, given the car dropped out of site as a race car around this time. Keep us posted, this really sounds quite promising!

hey I like the Graeme Blanchard ad too!

[nick_tassie]

Yeah its an interesting possibility Steve, too many boxes ticked not to ignore or rule it out.

When I think about to possibilities of what might have happened after almost 40 years you tend go crazy thinking about it, but while there's an still an unanswered question and just a slight hope of the next lead being around the corner we will keep trying.

I'm surprised that I haven't heard anyone actively trying to track down the Beechey Camaro, not to say its not happening. Am I correct in saying that car was also believed to have been returned back to a road car. I did read someone thought it was sighted for sale in a Victorian car yard at some point.

On another subject, I've also discovered from talking to the director of the ABC documentary Wide Open Road that the footage of Terry's Camaro came from a GMH Cinema Advert from the late 60's. The footage he specifically used in the 2nd episode was a shortened version used for a Holden TV ad. He suggested I contact Holden archives to see if the original footage is available to see if any more of the Camaro was filmed. I've since done that and they are having a genuine crack at it so lets see what comes out of it.

[thunder427]

[QUOTE=nick_tassie;10761]Yeah its an interesting possibility Steve, too many boxes ticked not to ignore or rule it out.

When I think about to possibilities of what might have happened after almost 40 years you tend go crazy thinking about it, but while there's an still an unanswered question and just a slight hope of the next lead being around the corner we will keep trying.

I'm surprised that I haven't heard anyone actively trying to track down the Beechey Camaro, not to say its not happening. Am I correct in saying that car was also believed to have been returned back to a road car. I did read someone thought it was sighted for sale in a Victorian car yard at some point.

Nick of Tassie!!! I wrote on another Forum that I had negotiated the purchase of this Camaro,but my pay-out on my HK Holden V8 was was to high and I took Chris Farrell with me to check the car over as he was responsible for most of the body fabrication work with Norm/ Moffat/Jane at that time....it was black with the 'white' nose stripe..Norm painted the 'Speedshop'support Panelvan to match at that time...with regards thunder427/MJ:cool:

[Steve Holmes]

Yeah thats a good point actually. The Beechey Camaro only raced 4 times, and was an interim car between the Nova and HK Monaro, but was considered by many to be one of his coolest cars.

Myles, what do you think you would have done with the Camaro if you'd been able to buy it? It'd be easy to say you would have kept it all these years, but people get bored with their cars eventually.

[nick_tassie]

Nick of Tassie!!! I wrote on another Forum that I had negotiated the purchase of this Camaro,but my pay-out on my HK Holden V8 was was to high and I took Chris Farrell with me to check the car over as he was responsible for most of the body fabrication work with Norm/ Moffat/Jane at that time....it was black with the 'white' nose stripe..Norm painted the 'Speedshop'support Panelvan to match at that time...with regards thunder427/MJ:cool:

Yes I recall you mentioning the HK Holden issue now. So did Chris confirm to you that the car you were looking at was indeed the ex beechey race car. As Steve has said it was a damn nice looking race car, it must be annoying to have gotten so close to securing it at one point. You wouldn't think there would be all that many black 68 Camaro's running around with the white nose....?

[Steve Holmes]

That Beechey Camaro was a quick car out of the box, too. Beechey only raced it four times, the 1968 ATCC being the final race. He'd beaten Geoghegan in it once in the lead up to the ATCC, and at Warwick Farm where the ATCC was being fought, he qualified 2nd to Geoghegan in a quality field, but retired after 12 laps. You'd think there would have been a queue of people wanting to buy the car but there doesn't seem to be any evidence it ever raced again.

[Ellis]

Here's a link to some glimpses of the Terry Allan Camaro I took at Symmons Plains on its first trip to Tassie....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZhOb3BmOAU

[Steve Holmes]

Beautiful! I've just embedded it here Ellis, hope thats OK?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZhOb3BmOAU

[Ellis]

Thats ok Steve...I couldnt think how to do it
Have to remove something from the address isnt it??

Thats the Elliot/Pare Mustang behind it with silver wheels at start.

[nick_tassie]

Thanks Elis for making this rare footage available, you have gone to a lot of effort transferring it over to digital from film. It's excellent footage, great watching the Camaro running down through the back straight sweeper, I imagine it would have sounded pretty awesome with the big block on full song.

Really enjoyed watching this.

[Kiwiboss]

Thanks Elis for making this rare footage available, you have gone to a lot of effort transferring it over to digital from film. It's excellent footage, great watching the Camaro running down through the back straight sweeper, I imagine it would have sounded pretty awesome with the big block on full song.

Really enjoyed watching this.

You know Tassie Nick, its quite amazing that the race cars that did survive even made it at all, and the effort you are putting into finding your uncles long lost Camaro must be commend, and there's all possibility it just didn't survive!! once you get to that stage, and only you can do that!!! a very well built replica with all the information you have would make for one fantastic recreation of the said Camaro, that's what i myself would like to see!! after all if its long gone, then no one can have it!! a replica from the same family will certainly suffice. Food for thought?

Just my opinion, but keep lookin.

Dale Mathers

[nick_tassie]

Cheers Dale, I think your thoughts mirror both mine and my brothers, we are very keen to one day see a tribute car on a race track if we are unable to find the real deal. Its ironic that you have raised this question actually as only last week I put a wanted add on Gumtree.com for a 67 Camaro project car to see what comes up. My thoughts are that if we build a tribute car now that work (running gear) can go into the real car if it ever surfaces.

Certainly watching Elis's footage of the car running a my home track of Symmons Plains gives me further incentive to starting on the project as soon as possible. Just have to finish off the current project first, that's in the paint shop now so its not that far off..!!

I think we'll keep looking for the car in some manner for a while longer, we both feel a sense of responsibility, if those are the right words. Maybe its the potential emotion and satisfaction if we are successful that keeps us interested, who knows, as I've said before at least we can say we have given it a red hot crack.

So in one way or another hopefully one day you will see the Terry Allan Camaro back out there. The idea of a tribute car that can be driven without worrying about bending it also has some positives.

If anyone has or knows of a 67 Camaro that would be an ideal project car let me know the details and we will see what comes from it. Even a basic shell would be a start.

[thunder427]

.

If anyone has or knows of a 67 Camaro that would be an ideal project car let me know the details and we will see what comes from it. Even a basic shell would be a start.[/QUOTE]

Nick from Tassie,recently viewed a Camaro genuine tagged RS/SS,Has original 'Cowel Hood',NOS quarters to fit, also some other panels, I viewed the 1967 Camaro at owners (Sam!) request, with the view of restoration,very possible, but his view of cost didnt match the reality of the project,thought at the time it would make a great 'Racer' in Dale's NZ series / Classic Transam in Aust........$ 17.500 Buys the project, good quality guy that owns the Camaro in that he listened,might not totally agreewith my view, but is heeding my concern of 'Budget' Blow-out!!!!!........PM if you wish to contact Sam!!!.......regards thunder427/MJ:cool:

[nick_tassie]

I have always wondered why Terry changed the Camaro to blue in 68-69 when it appeared there was no sponsorship reasons, the car was striking with the red paint and Z28 stripes so to go to an all blue colour with a small pin stripe at the top edge of the guards and door seemed strange.

Well I can only speculate that maybe the Mark Donohue Sunoco Camaro was a look he was trying to copy. I just noticed tonight the similarities in the placement of the pin striping and signage, especially when Terry ran the car at Bay Park with AUSTRALIA across the rear guard and TERRY ALLAN on the front guard.

I would be interested if people who remember the car painted blue can recall if the colour was similar the the early Sunoco Camaro colour scheme, also can anyone remember if the pin stripping might have been yellow?

Food for Thought...!?!

[Steve Holmes]

Yeah well that makes sense. Even without the modern day technological conveniences such as the internet that make the world a smaller place, the Penske Donohue Camaros were legendary all over the world. I'm really hoping we'll get a break through soon and find a colour photo of Terrys Camaro in blue.

[nick_tassie]

Received a nice surprise in the mail from the one and only Graeme Blanchard. I emailed Graeme to let him know that his Blanchard Holden post card was in the latest AMC mag so he could check it out. He has kindly sent me 4 originals that he still had sitting around the house....

How cool is that!!

[nick_tassie]

While I'm thinking of it, I would really appreciate it if those who have posted photos of the Camaro here on the thread could send me through some high resolution copies. I would like to get them blown up into posters for the workshop, they will also help in replicating the profile of the flares and roll bar for the tribute car.

Steve I would love those Bay Park shots you have posted.

[nick_tassie]

Mega frustrated, we thought we had discovered Uncle Terry's lost Camaro this week, so so close.....

Its amazing how you uncover potential leads, I happened to get an email from a guy who saw my Gumtree wanted advert for a project 67 camaro. When I called him we got to talking about my idea of building a Terry Allan tribute race car, we also talked about the search for his old car. Amazingly this guy once owned the Captain Rats Camaro, the drag car that was raced by Barry Wearing, the car we also thought at some stage may have been Terry's Camaro, how freaky is that......

Anyway he also suggested I contact one of his mates in Sydney who knows a lot about drag racing and Camaros, this mate did the deal to buy Captain Rats for him those many years ago. Always interested in chasing something new I immediately called this guy and "bang" straight away he told me he had seen the MIA and Muscle Assist articles in AMC on Terry's lost Camaro and he had wondered then about a 67 Camaro drag car he recalled raced at Castlereagh and if it may be the car people were looking for.

What got me extremely interested in the lead was that the car was a white 67 and raced with Castrol GTX sponsorship, the biggest thing that got me excited was that he believed that the car still exists, it is believed to be in the yard of a house in a Sydney, he also suggested that it could have been an ex circuit race car. This guy had been to see the car in the early 80's, it was under a track tarp still with its drag racing slicks having been dropped there after it finished racing, he tried to buy it them but the owner who has heaps of old collectable cars wouldn't sell. Initially he couldn't remember the names of the guy who drag raced the Camaro or the guy who now has it, but I had a new lead and enough to start hunting. This just could be the one and it still exists, plane fares to Sydney weren't booked just yet but the thought was there.

An hour on the internet and I had a name Lionel Caines, next was to find a photo of the car to see if i could identify if it may have been Terry's race car, no luck, nothing I could find anywhere. I did however find another white 67 Camaro drag racing at Castlereagh on a website, it was called Split Second and although a 67 it was clearly a standard road car, no roll cage, flared guards or bonnet pins, it was also a RS Camaro with the Rally Sport front clip and RH drive. 99.9% sure not Terry's old race car (67 SS front clip and LH drive). The photo's of Split Second weren't clear enough to identify the drivers name the only clear bit being its race number 548.

My Source did some calls to people he knows from the old Castlereagh days, after 3 days of research he got back to me with news. The Lionel Caines car was indeed a 67 Camaro, it was white, it is still believed to be owned by the same guy who won't sell and its deteriorating into the dirt. The bad news, it started out as a standard road car and was first raced in mid 1973 as a 327 RS, and its was called - yes you guessed it Split Second. The story goes it raced as Split Second in the standard bracket for a while until it disappeared for some months and came back as a full on drag racer sponsored by Castrol GTX and running a high hp 350.

I have also been sent a few photo's of the Castrol GTX car from someone else and it clearly shows the Caines car was Split Second as it has the same race number 548. A close inside shot reveals no roll cage and a standard road car interior. The exterior shot points to it being a 67 RS car. Why would anyone remove a roll cage for a drag car, replace the SS front clip with a RS front, remove the original bonnet pins and remove the front and rear flared guards. Doesn't make sense that this car could once have been a circuit racer.

So not Terry's car, 1973 tat Spilt second first raced would have been to early as Terry's car was in the hands of Lakis Manticas at about this time frame, remembering my photo from Barry Wearing is marked September 74 and the car is still in its circuit race trim, roll cage, bonnet pins and flares.

Oh so close and oh so frustrated - the search continues.........

[nick_tassie]

Barry Wearing - Captain Rats 67 Camaro at Castlereagh
7316

Lionel Caines - Split Second Camaro at Castlereagh
7317

7318

Lionel Caines - Castrol GTX Camaro
7319

7320

[Steve Holmes]

Bummer! That lead sounded awesome! But, as you say, definitely a different car.

[nick_tassie]

Yep Bummer......

The one shinning light is that this guy knows his drag racing and knows his Camaro's. He can only remember 4 drag racing Camaro's in that era. the two 67 cars of Wearing and Caines, a 68 called Hawain....... something or other from Victoria and a 69 model, (Bob Janes ZL1 maybe)?? He is pretty sure that there was no other 67 Camaro being drag raced at least not on the East Coast.

Could suggest that Terry's car never did go into Drag Racing. Barry Wearing always said that he didn't recall ever coming up against the car when he was racing Captain Rats at Castlereagh or Surfers Paradise.

That leaves Speedway as the next area to search deeper and so far I haven't found trace of it there.

[nick_tassie]

We can once and for all cross the Lionel Caines Split Second/Castrol GTX drag car off the list as being Uncle Terry's missing Camaro. I had a great conversation last night with a guy who has done some extensive further research into the history of that Camaro, what we now know is that this car first started drag racing in June 73, the car was built up from a optioned up white 327 RS/SS. The June 73 date rules it out as we thought, Terry's car was in the hands of Lakis Manticas at this time frame. Information we have received indicates this car never had a roll cage fitted or any signs of flared guards. Interestingly this car also had castrol GTX sponsorship just as Terry and Graeme Blanchard had in 71-72.

Anyway another lead that can be ruled out, looking forward to the challenge of the next one.

[GD66]

[QUOTE=nick_tassie;12432]Yep Bummer......

The one shinning light is that this guy knows his drag racing and knows his Camaro's. He can only remember 4 drag racing Camaro's in that era. the two 67 cars of Wearing and Caines, a 68 called Hawain....... something or other from Victoria and a 69 model, (Bob Janes ZL1 maybe)??




This may be the car outlined in the second part of the Bob Jane ad on page 2 of the Old Race And Road Car Ads thread.

[Powder]

Allan raced the Camaro in NZ three times; Easter 1970, Labour Weekend 1970, and Xmas 1970. The Xmas meeting it was painted white, whereas the two previous visits it was blue.

Here's some scans from the Baypark meeting programme from 28 Dec 1970.

8497

8498

8499

[Steve Holmes]

Wow, those are really cool Powder! And that line-up of cars is pretty impressive. Would have loved to have been there for that. Two big block Camaros! Imagine the noise!!!

[nick_tassie]

Agree great stuff, interesting the money for the places in the scratch race. Doesn't seem like much now but for 1970 I guess it would have been well worth racing for.

Nice shot of the car in Castrol colours, replicating those front and rear guards will be challenging.

Steve if you want to hear a great sounding Camaro in action search Youtube for Longford Revival 2012 Camaro great piece of footage and sound of the late John Zeigler 67 at full song down the flying mile. The car is now owned by Chas Kelly.

[Ross nova one]

nick_tassie, I've enjoyed reading your story so far in the search for the Comaro. Unfortunately I can not help but I am interested in contacting Tony Bowden to research some details on his association with the Beechy Nova. Ross nova one

[nick_tassie]

Cheers Ross nova one, nice to hear you have enjoyed this thread, hopefully there is more to come down the track. Geez I'm not sure what I have done with Tony's contact number as it would have been written down on one of the many pieces of research paper I have used over the journey. I'll have a look and see if I can find it, it was a while ago now that I was researching the Indy Speed Shop Camaro as a lead. In hindsight I should have kept all those bits of paper in one place. I can't even recall how I tracked down John Kay's widow who eventually put me onto Tony.!?!

I'll PM you if I have any luck.

Best of luck as well in your research. Nick

[markec]

9491

[tweaks]

Geez,

Baypark were a bit steep with there Admission charges ...a whole $1.oo admission and 50 cents extra for a stand seat...

This weeks Townsville Taxi Race has $75.00 general admission for Sunday only.

Cheers
Lynds

[nick_tassie]

9491

This is an interesting article as it refers to a 520hp 350 engine, I haven't seen any race report that showed Terry raced with this engine. Every report I have seen including the races at Bay Park suggest he was only using the 396 big block. It would be interesting to find out from Graeme Blanchard if this is the same 350 engine he used after dropping the 396 shortly after buying the car from Terry.

[Steve Holmes]

Nick, I wonder if it was just an error by whomever wrote that article? I think this was to promote Terry racing in NZ for the first of his three visits. Each time the Camaro was fitted with a big block.

[nick_tassie]

Yeah you could be right Steve, its a shame all those closely involved with the car in the later stages are not around to ask although as I mentioned it would be good to ask Graeme where he sourced the 350 engine he raced after dropping the 396. If I recall correctly an article you previously posted from the NZ race mag indicated Terry talking about getting 520hp from the big block engine, seems a bit of a coincidence that the numbers are the same.

[Steve Holmes]

Yeah, thats right Nick, he was quoted as saying the 396 big block produced 520 horses. Does seem a bit of a coincidence doesn't it.

[Rondonrus]

Nick-
You had a question about the 520 horsepower from a 396 and I can tell you that it was very easy to exceed that with just a single Holley and if you used a dual setup you can expect close to 700!

Ron Ogilvie
(watching from the sidelines)

[nick_tassie]

Hi Ron nice to hear from you

They are impressive numbers for the 396, would that be running the L89 spec alloy heads? It would also be interesting to know what compression ratio they were capable of running. I also imagine the drivetrains of the day struggled to handle that kind of output.

Those TRANSAM 302 engines the more I read up on them sound like an absolute weapon, I'm surprised Terry didn't at least try one at some stage, I would have thought they would have suited the Australian race tracks quiet well.

Something else I've wanted to ask you to Ron, was Bill Tomas Race Cars just a performance and fabrication business or did it actually go racing with its own race teams?

[Rondonrus]

Hi Ron nice to hear from you

They are impressive numbers for the 396, would that be running the L89 spec alloy heads? It would also be interesting to know what compression ratio they were capable of running. I also imagine the drivetrains of the day struggled to handle that kind of output.

Those TRANSAM 302 engines the more I read up on them sound like an absolute weapon, I'm surprised Terry didn't at least try one at some stage, I would have thought they would have suited the Australian race tracks quiet well.

Something else I've wanted to ask you to Ron, was Bill Tomas Race Cars just a performance and fabrication business or did it actually go racing with its own race teams?

To get the higher HP you must use aftermarket (Mondello; Dart; etc) heads that are marched to the camshaft and intake. People spend hours and hours trying new ideas and making sure that all passages are smooth have a perfect transition from intake to head. The Pro stock boys today are getting 1200 HP from 500 cu in engines.

BTRC was a performance/fabrication shop that also produced the Cheetah race car. When the Nickey deal came along we doubled the size of the shop just to accommodate the parts and performance business that came with the Nickey name. We were also the center for General Motors performance cars that were given to writers so the could do stories on the various different cars before the were available in the dealers. We also prepared the GM cars for the Mobil Gar Economy run and schooled the drivers in how to drive and get the best gas mileage available.I also was part of a team that sawed a 1960 Corvair in half and mounted it on wheels so it could be taken into a courtroom.
But to answer your question we prepped cars for other people. Bill Thomas had his name on only a few cars including the one that Jim Baker & I raced for 2 years.

Ron

[nick_tassie]

BTRC was a performance/fabrication shop that also produced the Cheetah race car. When the Nickey deal came along we doubled the size of the shop just to accommodate the parts and performance business that came with the Nickey name. We were also the center for General Motors performance cars that were given to writers so the could do stories on the various different cars before the were available in the dealers. We also prepared the GM cars for the Mobil Gar Economy run and schooled the drivers in how to drive and get the best gas mileage available.I also was part of a team that sawed a 1960 Corvair in half and mounted it on wheels so it could be taken into a courtroom.
But to answer your question we prepped cars for other people. Bill Thomas had his name on only a few cars including the one that Jim Baker & I raced for 2 years.

Ron

Ah the Convair story, I was reading about that recently in the story of the development of the Camaro, it is very interesting how the market of a car that was selling very well crashed so badly after the safety issues, it was related to the rear suspension and vehicle roll overs from memory.

Speaking of the Nickey deal, another question that was raised at one point about Uncle Terrys race car is would it be concidered as a "Nickey Car". Although we now know it wasn't an orginal big block car, it was purchased from Nickey Chevrolet and it did get the Bill Thomas upgrades all be with the 396 and not the 427. Its a question that I would be interested in your thoughts, I imagine there were other examples of customer road cars built by BTRC, are these considered "Nickey Cars".

It would be great to hear more about your racing story as well at some point.

Nick

[Rondonrus]

You would have to ask Stefano Bimbi (aka Nickey Chicago) about that...............He is the only person that can determine if a car was purchased as a Nickey car or from BTRC directly.

[BJRH]

Hi Nick,

We were going through the Bob Jane photo 'Vault' and found these photo's of the Terry Allan Camaro.

121061210712108

_________________________
Bob Jane Racing Heritage

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BobJaneOfficial
Web: http://www.bobjaneracingheritage.com

[Steve Holmes]

Wow, those are amazing!

[nick_tassie]

Great photo's BJRH, cheers for sharing them. Uncle Terry certainly had the big chev cranked up in the second picture, the left rear looks like its just hanging on. From reading some of the old RCN race articles there was a fair bit of picture 3 going on in the early days (67) when the car was red with the Z28 stripes.

It would be interesting to ask Bob if he can recall racing against Terry and the Camaro

[Steve Holmes]

Boy that thing must have been a handful with that big block motor and those skinny wheels he was forced to run the first couple of years. Note the photo in the middle, where he is battling Jim McKeown's Cortina. The Cortina looks like its tyres are as wide as those on the Camaro!

[Steve Holmes]

Nick, you have Gerard Richards to thank for this. This is a Jack Inwood photo, from Gerards own personal collection which he has kindly scanned and emailed to me for posting here. Its the first colour photo I've seen of the car in blue. I have to say it looks stunning!

12361

[nick_tassie]

Wow Gerard thank you very much for going to the trouble of doing this, what an outstanding shot..... I was quietly hoping to one day see a colour photo of the car in the blue spec and I agree with you Steve it does look awesome. This has settled my thoughts on how we might do the tribute car.

Am I right in saying this is at Bay Park NZ, the wooden fencing seems familiar, also guessing 69 as the year? The Terry Marshall photo has the big front spoiler fitted and running No 1, the flares are also bigger in that photo.

Steve if you were ever going to do one of your amazing paintings of this car, thats the shot.

[Steve Holmes]

Nick, that appears to be from Terrys first NZ visit, at Easter 1970. The Terry Marshall black and white photo shown earlier in this thread is from his second visit, at the big Labour Weekend event in October 1970 when the car had mechanical failure very early in the weekend. And yep, you're correct, its Bay Park, exiting the hairpin, which was the only right hand turn on the track. That was a popular spot for photographers, as the cars would tend get sideways exiting.

[Gerard Richards]

Wow Gerard thank you very much for going to the trouble of doing this, what an outstanding shot..... I was quietly hoping to one day see a colour photo of the car in the blue spec and I agree with you Steve it does look awesome. This has settled my thoughts on how we might do the tribute car.

Am I right in saying this is at Bay Park NZ, the wooden fencing seems familiar, also guessing 69 as the year? The Terry Marshall photo has the big front spoiler fitted and running No 1, the flares are also bigger in that photo.

Steve if you were ever going to do one of your amazing paintings of this car, thats the shot.
My pleasure Nick, I recall reading this thread earlier and hearing that there had been no sighted image of your fathers Camaro, in blue. Just got a:) scanner recently, so pleased to help. It is great "Jack Inwood" image and I can imagine sighting it, has been the decider for you recreate your replica in the same colours!

[Steve Holmes]

Cool shot here from the Bob Jane Racing Heritage of Terry Allan being chased by Jim McKeown's Porsche. Allan would have sold the Camaro not long after this photo was taken.

16508

[nick_tassie]

Cool shot here from the Bob Jane Racing Heritage of Terry Allan being chased by Jim McKeown's Porsche. Allan would have sold the Camaro not long after this photo was taken.

16508

Nice one Steve, I'm trying to work out where this is, initially I thought it may have been the Touring Car round at Symmons Plains in 71 where the Camaro had starter motor and overheating problems. Thought it might be taken from what is now the the final corner, but the crowd in the background aren't in a normal viewing spot at least that I've ever seen before and seem to be looking the other way (backs to this part of the race track). Ideas anyone?

[tweaks]

Looks like Calder ,Spectators on end of back straight ,cars going into Tin Shed....If so the space behind spectators is now covered in house roof lines ..Thats progress for ya

Cheers

Lynds

[Steve Holmes]

Yep, I agree with you Lynds, I'd say Calder. I think its the short straight section just prior to the final corner, before sweeping back on to the front straight. Not sure if this pic is from the same event, but I think this might be from the same section of track, as Bryan Thomson chases Jim McKeown and Brian Foley.

16719

[nick_tassie]

I found this fantastic colour photo of the Camaro in the blue spec on an Adelaide Raceway Facebook page tonight.

25526

[John McKechnie]

Nick- Grady Thomson raced my Monaro with Terrys Camaro at Baypark 1970 , and I was there and remember the car.
I got some excellent pics of it from Bruce McLaren Trust. While going through the folder of pics, I know there were a lot of unpublished pics .There are probably some of Terrys car there. You have to go there , physically go through the folders to find them, then order them.
Jan is very helpfull.

[nick_tassie]

Nick- Grady Thomson raced my Monaro with Terrys Camaro at Baypark 1970 , and I was there and remember the car.
I got some excellent pics of it from Bruce McLaren Trust. While going through the folder of pics, I know there were a lot of unpublished pics .There are probably some of Terrys car there. You have to go there , physically go through the folders to find them, then order them.
Jan is very helpfull.

Thanks John, a good suggestion to follow up on when we do eventually take a holiday over in NZ. The one thing I'm very pleased with is some of the fantastic photo's that have surfaced of the car since we started this thread many months ago. Not quite the luck yet in finding out what happened to the car but its been an interesting journey in discovering where the it came from and its racing history.

I just love the car in this spec, this is how we will one day build the tribute car. The more detail photos we can find the better so looking into the McLaren Trust will be a must.

[Steve Holmes]

I found this fantastic colour photo of the Camaro in the blue spec on an Adelaide Raceway Facebook page tonight.

25526

Oh wow, great find! Man that car looks so staunch in this guise!

[Steve Holmes]

I posted a photo of the Camaro on our Facebook page yesterday, and a couple of people commented they thought it had been destroyed by fire in the late 1970s when owned by Mike Gore.

[Ellis]

I posted a photo of the Camaro on our Facebook page yesterday, and a couple of people commented they thought it had been destroyed by fire in the late 1970s when owned by Mike Gore.

Steve
I just spoke to Wayne Mahnken who worked on the car when Terry owned it.
He doesnt recall Mike Gore owning it nor any fire stories for what its worth....the enigma continues

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Ellis, thats great info, and a bit of a relief to learn. Hopefully this means the car is still out there, somewhere.

[nick_tassie]

This is an interesting new lead well worth looking into further. After speaking with Ian (Facebook poster) directly today he seems to recall reading something about the Mike Gore/Camaro/Fire link in the late 70's possibly in Auto Action. Ian indicated Mike Gore started racing in Sydney under the MRG Racing banner before moving to Qld so he was in the region where the Camaro was last known to be (Parramatta). I have only been able to find photo evidence today of Mike Gore racing a Mustang, Monaro and Ford Anglia, but hell who knows, maybe he did end up with the Camaro. I'll chase it up further and see where it leads.

If anyone has access to an archive of 70's Auto Action Mag's dig them out and see what you can find for MRG Racing and Mike Gore, sometime from 75-80. Ian was sure that Gore had 2 race cars destroyed by fire at some point, one may have been the Camaro.

One can only hope not.

The search continues.........

[John McKechnie]

Nick- Keep looking mate.
Only took me 43 years to find my Monaro that raced against Terrys Camaro at Bay Park in 1970.
.I had been told that the car had been written off in the late 70s, it was,then it got lost.
Now look at it on Team Cambridge Monaro thread- worth every day digging deep.
Just never give up.

[nick_tassie]

Cheers John

Certainly will never give up or fail to chase up every lead until I know its fate good or bad, I owe it to Uncle Terry. Just need that next little lead after Barry Wearing, someone out there knows who he sold it to and where it ended up. I've been close a few times now, always an exciting ride.

43 years wow that puts these last 4 years totally into perspective, such a great story. I'll check it out for sure.

[nick_tassie]

I thought I would share some photos of what started this whole journey and lead to the unknown Barry Wearing link to Terry's camaro. I first got interested in an article in Australian Muscle Car on an ex drag racing 1967 Camaro called Captain Rats, the current owner had sent in an article and photo seeking information on its drag racing history. Knowing the camaro may have been sold to a drag racer after Lakis Manticas I wondered if this car could be it. A day searching for the contact details of the owner left me shocked that the car was actually in my home state of Tasmania - small world at times. A conversation with the owner increased my interest as the car was originally red and raced out of Parramatta Sydney, again linkage to Manticas. The car was at the time being restored back to a road car, all the heavily modified floor and quarter panels having being removed but luckily still kept. It was a strong lead and one worth checking out so a drive to Hobart was setup to view the car and the removed panels.

First I needed to try to connect the Barry Wearing Captain Rats car to Lakis Manticas, phone call to him wasn't helpful, not interested in talking. What I did manage was tracking down Barry Wearing in person, that's a whole story in its-self. Great news Barry confirmed that Captain Rats was brought from Lakis, he even had a photo in the album to send through to me.

Damn I think I've found Uncle Terry's car, now off to Hobart to try and buy it.

369523695336954

[nick_tassie]

These are some photos of the parts cut out of Captain Rats, first thing was real clear the yellow paint of Captain Rats is unmistakeable under the black top coat the drag car had been painted in later life. The original red car colour was also very clear under the yellow and in the inner panels and roof. No doubt this car was an original red 67 left hand drive Camaro and very definitely the ex Barry Wearing car. But was it Terry's car, as the photos reveal it had a roll cage, front and rear points were still in the floor, but they were pretty crudely fabricated and welded in, not what I expected. The doors had been severely lightened and same with the chassis rails and other internal panels. The rear boot lid was fibreglass and the rear guards had been heavily cut and modified. The only concerning issue at the time was I couldn't see any evidence of the dark blue and white paint colours that should be under the yellow and over the red. Look as I might I couldn't find it, why would Barry remove those colours to paint a drag car. The other interesting issue was the rear guards although modified they didn't have the signs of flaring as unmistakable as Terry's, the fronts could have been replaced but the rears had no evidence of flaring. Something isn't right here......

The owner was smart enough to work out what I was looking for, so the purchase price jumped three fold, can't blame him for that I guess. Still I needed to to do some more research before doing the deal. Incredibly on the drive home I got a call from Barry, his wife had reminded him that he had 2 camaros..!! It appears he also brought a road going red 67 from a US Embassy guy in Canberra, he remembered driving it home after his wife had mentioned it. This car became Captain Rats hence the missing blue and white paint. As for Terry's car all Barry can think of is that it as it was a heavily modified circuit racer turning it into a drag racer for his needs would have been excessively expensive, so he thinks it was sold off to an unknown buyer.

Oh so close but it didn't quiet fit right.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks for the update Nick and the amazing images of Captain Rat. This has really been a fascinating story to follow. I hope that car is still out there.

[nick_tassie]

Its been a while but timely for an update, no luck on finding the Camaro up to now but I have done some chasing up of the last lead with some chat about the Camaro being in the hands of Sydney circuit racer Mike Gore. The late Mike Gore isn't reachable to speak with unfortunately however I did get to contact his son Craig Gore, the one and only of WPS V8 team ownership. When I asked Craig if he recalled if his father owned a Camaro he said he can remember when he was very young being picked up from school in a white car with a roll cage. Interesting, when I sent him the photo of the car he said yes that was the car! He doesn't have any photos that can substansiate the claim and can't confirm if the car was crashed and burnt out. So can anyone on the site recall this, did Mike Gore ever have a 67 Camaro and race it somewhere around Sydney in the mid to late 70's, did it end up being burnt out after a crash at a race meeting? Hope not but maybe thats why it can't be found. Cheers, Nick

[John McKechnie]

hi Nick, I had a gentleman recently give me some pix that he took at Baypark when Terry came over here the first time..1970 ..he was racing against my Monaro. They are not fantastically clear, but they were of the event.Please pm me with your email address and I will scan and send them to you.

[nick_tassie]

Hi All, must be time for an update. Some may recall there was some chat that Mike Gore may have ended up with the Camaro after Barry Wearing and the car was burnt out after a crash. I have followed up on this lead which took some time unfortunately, Mike Gore has long passed away so first port of call was his son Craig. Craig was a bit vague on this but did say he could recall being picked up from school in a white car with a roll cage!! I sincerely doubt it was the Terry Allan Camaro but you never know. Checked lots of online info and couldn't confirm the Mike Gore link, I next arranged for some research into old RCN and AutoAction mags and still nothing about Mike Gore running a Camaro and it getting burnt out. Just recently online I had a discussion with Mike Gore's mechanic, he had been with him all the years he raced in NSW. He clearly indicated Mike never had or raced a Chev Camaro. So another dead end on this one, at least the good news is the car didn't get burnt out after a crash, at least not with Mike Gore driving. The search continues......