Formula Ford

[Howard Wood]

During last February's Hampton Downs Festival there was a dinner to celebrate 40 years of Formula Ford in New Zealand, attended by an amazing number of early competitors and champions from the '70's onwards.

Formula Ford started in Brands Hatch, England in July 1967 and rapidly spread throughout the Motorsport world, including Australia where the first race was held in 1968 and the first National Championship in 1970, won by Richard Knight in a locally built Elfin 600 and by Larry Perkins the following year also in an Elfin 600.
In New Zealand, the first National Championship was the 1971/72 series won by David Oxton also in an Elfin 600.

One of the reasons for the huge international interest in FF at that time was the Formula Ford Festival, a virtual "World Cup" of Formula Ford where many National Champions, including David Oxton (and the Aus national champions) were invited, the trip to the UK to compete being part of the championship prize.

The first FF cars internationally were mostly purpose built new cars, part of the very early regulation was a price cap of 1,000 Quid which was soon quietly dropped, but in NZ, apart from the Oxton Elfin, most early FF's were converted National Formula cars but very quickly the number of newish and competitive cars grew until by the mid '70's entries exceeded available grid positions and pre qualifying was required at many National level races. In typical NZ fashion there have been a number of very competitive locally built and designed cars over the years.

Amazingly after 40 years, FF is still the premier "feeder" class here and apart from Jim Richards and Paul Radisich, I can't think of a NZ driver who started any sort of international career within the last 40 years who has not spent time in an FF as they provided the ideal place to learn race craft, car set up etc all at a (relatively) affordable price and still do today.

Although the fields for the current championship are a bit thin, which probably speaks more about the current state of the economy, historic FF fields continue to be full with a supprising number of new (to NZ) cars being imported.

I understand that to the "non believer", an FF probably looks like a coffin on wheels and although the racing has always been close and hard, the cars are not spectacular to watch (and very boring to listen to) but here is the chance to post some photos or stories about an international success story.

[Steve Holmes]

Great thread Howard! I was wondering when someone would touch on this subject. I can't help but wonder if Formula Toyota played a role in the dilution of FF in NZ, as both classes are quite similarly priced from what I understand. The thing that amazes me the most about FF is just how fast the cars are capable of lapping. I think their engine tones are quite deceptive.

[Howard Wood]

They are an excellent example of how a good competitive class lifts everybody's standard. Also lap records from years which have particularly close competition, eg '74/75 for FF often stand for quite a while until another super competitive year comes along or there is some technological breakthrough. The current crop of wide track cars are actually really quick and the best legal historic, ie pre '86, car is quite a few seconds away no matter how well driven.

I went to Philip Island a couple of years ago for the 40th anniversary of FF in Aus to help Phil Foulkes who runs one of my old Pallisers. Most of the front runners were young kids from the Aus National FF series using the historics to get more mileage and boy did they take it seriously!

You may well be right about TRS cars diluting the FF series. For what its worth, I think the TRS concept is fantastic and wish something similar was around in my day. The extra speed from using more revs in an Atlantic spec BDA (and corresponding shorter engine life) was huge.

[Oldfart]

From the early days when a car I had some involvement with (a converted National Formula car which had one too many gears for a short time) until now, I really struggle to accept the way that these are driven with little or no respect for the cars, nor the other drivers' well being. Close competition is fantastic, being close enough that almost every FF race I have evr seen has resulted in broken cars does me no favours.
I go to stock cars to watch bash and crash, no wonder some of the current F1 drivers feel the need to play stockies, they have their training in FF.
Rant over!

[Rod Grimwood]

The sorry part of any class of motorsport is that you will always have a couple who cause a few problems, and FF is no different except that when one driver gets a bit toey it impacts on alot of other drivers as the competition is so tight and even. I have watched some amazing racing over the years. In the original days of FF you could just about put a blanket over the front 6 and very seldom was there problems, and they all went onto better things. I believe it is still the feeder for single seat drivers. The Toyota series was all go and then the expense became overbearing. FF gives the average kid with a bit of help or backing a chance to polish his/her skills. FV then FF and progress on as skills increase and budgets come onboard. Some can go straight in with a cheque book, and some of them make it and alot don't. But others who go through the "system" tend to go further. I believe there is a very big place for FF in our motorsport.

[Oldfart]

Absolutely agree about it's place, just don't PERSONALLY like the bashing which seems to be a part of FF.

[TonyG]

2 questions as we now have this thread.
1) Is the Cuda that Ross Stone built still around and also another called a TUL I believe ? I think it was Tul and not Tui as that was what I had written on the back of the photo at the time. I have a pic of this one here somewhere at Pukekohe.
Regards
Tony

[David McKinney]

The Stone brothers built five Cudas - but five didn't necessarily exist at one time


1. FF car raced by the brothers 1971-73. Don’t know what happened to it after that
2. FF car raced by Ross Stone 1976, Mike Finch 1977 till written off at Teretonga
3. F/Pacific car, the JR3, dismantled for JR5
4. Third FF car, the JR4, Raced by Finch 1978-79, later Lyn Johnson
5. FP JR5 1981-82. Last heard of with Gary Devon

Tul rings a bell as one of the many names used by Bruce Turnbull/Kevin Ingram for their FF car(s), but I'm not at all clear about it

[Howard Wood]

Discussing the more successful NZ built cars is a fertile area on its own. My knowledge is strictly limited to a very narrow window but off the top of my head,
1972/73 season; Hustler nee Johnson: Norm Smith, probably in the top 3 of national championship.
1973/74 season; Begg JM1: Second in national championship with Jim Murdoch.
1974/75 season; Cheetah : Third in national championship with some clown.
1974/76 season; Cheetah: Second in national championship with Norm Lankshear.
Then Ross Stone in the Cuda, someone else can fill in the details of that and any subsquent successful cars.

There were of course many other well built local cars too.

The JM1 and both Cheetahs are alive and well and used in historic FF.

[Rod Grimwood]

Howard, i am sure there was a Tui built at some time and i think the Stone brothers were involved. Will research.

[Howard Wood]

The Tui name (or Leda 2E when built by Leda under licence) was what Al McCall called his cars, all F2, Atlantic or Super Vee specs to the best of my knowledge. No doubt Al and Jim Stone would have known each other so anything is possible.

I was listing NZ built championship front running cars only in my initial list. Over the same period, numerically the Huntly built Valours which were really a Titan Mk 6C clone would won hands down although Johnny Johnson built quite a few cars in Christchurch including Norm Smith's Hustler and Gerry Hones (spl?) built 3 GLHs (Gerry, Lloyd & Hugh) for Lloyd and Hugh Owen and Paul Dold. The Jim Murdoch designed and built Begg JM1 was probably the only purpose built FF Begg.

[Rod Grimwood]

That rings a bell, McCall yes he was the one. Howard, the clown you mention in the Cheetah in 74/75, does he do any playing with these classic cars now.

[Howard Wood]

Rod,

I have just come back from a month trekking in South America as the marital payback for racing a saloon in historics. Can you imagine what the price would be for a single seater?

[Rod Grimwood]

Do it now Howard while you are fit.

[Steve Holmes]

Rod,

I have just come back from a month trekking in South America as the marital payback for racing a saloon in historics. Can you imagine what the price would be for a single seater?

Ha ha ha ha ha. Now thats funny. I had to read it twice before I got it. I'm guessing its not quite so funny for you yet Howard?

[Oldfart]

Howard, you say the Valour was a Titan clone. You may know something I don't but I do know that a Valour run by Allan Crocker as an FF was actually originally built as a Formula Junior, and I don't know how many others there were?
Then again it may be that my memory is playing games, but I was only in Hamilton until 69, which would pre-date Titan? I also "think" I remember that Crockers got the chassis jigs with the car, memory says something about Valour having met financial difficulties? It was close on 45 years ago though!

[TonyG]

Great information. Thank you.
Here is the photo of the TUL. Definitely TUL as it is written on the car - too blind to see it when I first looked lol
http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq204/TGPhotography/Scanned%20Images/img120-1.jpg

[Jac Mac]

Were there not a couple of earlier FF cars built by Begg, one for Wilson Crosbie & the other for Neil.... damn, cant remember his last name

[bob homewood]

[QUOTE=David McKinney;6192]The Stone brothers built five Cudas - but five didn't necessarily exist at one time


1. FF car raced by the brothers 1971-73. Don’t know what happened to it after that

4153

I think this is possibly Jimmy Stone 1971 in the first FF he built and raced before the Escort ,I wish on hindsight I guess like a lot of us I had labelled some of this stuff better

[David McKinney]

The Jim Murdoch designed and built Begg JM1 was probably the only purpose built FF Begg.
...after the three Begg FM3s, designed by Fred McLean:)

I think there were four GLHs, and as many as six Johnstons (though that number seems to high)

When I get a mo' I'll see if I can drag out some more names...

[David McKinney]

I do know that a Valour run by Allan Crocker as an FF was actually originally built as a Formula Junior, and I don't know how many others there were?

That's interesting, OF

Only one Valour was raced in FJ spec, but Trevor Larsen's idea was to build them for sale, so maybe he laid down a couple more frames. One of those could have gone to the Crockers

The later dedicated FF Valours were, I believe, Titan-based, as the man said

[David McKinney]

In 1971 six imports raced in NZ at one time or another (one Elfin, one Merlyn and four Titans) and eleven converted NF cars.
NZ-built cars were one each Begg FM3 (Rob Allen), Valour (John Hyde), Holeson (or MJ, Mike Hole), Sharp (Phil Sharp), FBA (Francis Atkins) and Johnston (Bob Johnston).

Only new local car in the 1972 season seems to have been the Southland-built Lyon

Additions in 1973 were three or four more Valours (including Alan Crocker’s) and one each GLH, Hustler and Autocraft (which may have been something else under a different name)

That’s as far as I’ve got with my digging so far

[bigbanger]

We must not forget the Larry Mulholland (Chch) built Swift FF which Jeff Pascoe used with great effect, including a National title.

Not be be confused with the non related US built Swift Formula Pacifics/Atlantics of a few years later.

[Howard Wood]

1. Alan Crocker started in the first FF race in NZ (and as an aside still competes today in European historic FF where he runs a number of customer cars and one for himself very successfully) in a Lotus 20. In the newsletter for the 40th anniversary there is a lovely photo of a very youthful Alan standing disconsolately beside his rear wheel-less car at Railway. Perhaps you have more info on that particular car David which would have been an ex National Formula car.

He then built a new Valour FF from a kit which were available from Trevor Larsen either as a fully built car or kitset. Alan sometimes entered the car as an "Allmeown" (geddit?).

For the '74/75 season Alan bought the Ray FF which my brother had run the previous season, a car we had built up from a pile of parts and a "backdoor" chassis obtained (legitimately) from ex Bert Ray employee Don Hutchison.

To complete the Crocker family tree, early 1975 we also sold our original Palliser WDF2 to Alan's brother Kim who rebuilt the chassis in 1978 incorporating the extended gearbox spacer set up we had used on the Cheetahs and renamed the car a Trident Palliser. This car is curently owned and energetically raced by Phil Foulkes and is the car we took to Philip Is for the Aus 40th.

2. I did say JM1 was "probably" the only purpose built Begg FF. However as Wilson Crosby was virtually a neighbour of George Begg, it is entirely possible his car was built new for him. Neil Whittaker was the other Southlander whose name you were looking for. The third member of that Southland trio was Dennis Lyons (spl?), was he also Begg mounted or was the Lyon his creation?

[David McKinney]

I think the Crocker Valour preceded the FF series cars, so OldFart's contention that it was an earlier (FJ-type) design could well be right

The first Begg FM3, as mentioned, was raced by Rob Allen. I'm pretty sure Brian Scobie had the second, and Wilson Crosbie the third

[Carlo]

I seem to remember that Brett Riley didn't go to bad in a Begg. The OB's tell me that 5 GLH's were built and that there is a chassis still sitting in someones rafters (not theirs either)

I would like to find the whereabouts of the ex Mike Finch /Lyn Johnson Cuda as I was involved with both drivers and that car.

Much to many people disgust Lyn and I had a small bet over a couple of ales one Saturday night which resulted in the Cuda, bodywork missing and replaced with ripple cardboard & race tape plus a set of my rally wheels and tyres off the Escort turning up at a gravel hillclimb and dusting off our local lads.

We both drunk well for the following week..............!

[Howard Wood]

Carlo,

Brett's Begg was the ex Jim Murdoch JM1 from the previous year and yes I should have included that result in my first list, very close second overall in '74/75 season to Grant Walker's Titan. The result decided in the last race of the year at Manfield if I recall correctly.

Brett's previous car, a Titan Mk 6C was also ex Jim M, which Jim sold to build the JM1, then sold the JM1 to build Begg 018.

I am sure you are right about the number of GLHs and the OBs would know! There was a collection of several chassis, body moulds etc for sale recently and Paul Dold still has his so there are a few accounted for already.

[Oldfart]

As a result of some very sad situations and a combination of "friends" who did not get on too well with Alan Crocker I sadly lost touch with Alan at the Christmas/New Year of 69/70 and had no knowledge ( as an insider) of what he was doing after that. I wish that had never happened, he was a part of a very interesting family. His dad Bob was an amazing source of knowledge too, but that is OT. That, in my mind, dates his Valour (at least the one I had involvement with) very clearly.
Earlier I referred to an FF with "one too many gears". Howard has mentioned that car, being the same one that lost a wheel. The gearbox issue had been rectified by then.

[Jac Mac]

The other southland guy with a Begg FF I was trying to think of was /is Neil Kidd...always smiling & nicknamed 'no hair'... an apt title now shared by many of those who bestowed it upon him!

[Howard Wood]

[QUOTE=Oldfart;6296].... I sadly lost touch with Alan at the Christmas/New Year of 69/70 and had no knowledge ( as an insider) of what he was doing after that. I wish that had never happened, he was a part of a very interesting family. His dad Bob was an amazing source of knowledge too, but that is OT. ]

OF,

You will be pleased to know that Alan is very much alive and well, still racing and still full of fun!
He was here last summer and shared Phil Foulkes' ex Wood bros, Kim C Palliser Trident nee Palliser WDF2 and Van Dieman at HD festival.

OT but what the... his father "Big Bob" was, amongst other things, responsible for maintaining the Logan Fow Ferrari GTO.

And Alan always claimed he was able to run a 5 speed because he used the same ratio twice, thus making only 4 useable ratios. Yeah right!

I am still not convinced Alan's Valour was a converted FJ but won't poke the hornet's nest without some factual backup (or a decent exit strategy).

[David McKinney]

[QUOTE=Oldfart;6296].
I am still not convinced Alan's Valour was a converted FJ but won't poke the hornet's nest without some factual backup (or a decent exit strategy).
I'm 100% convinced it wasn't an ex-FJ car. There was only one of those built, and it had long since gone to the South Island by the time AC raced his car

However, what I am prepared to believe, although I heard the suggestion for the first time only a few hours ago, is that it was built up on the basis of the FJ design - not only because OF says so, but because the pukka FF Valour didn't come on-stream until after AC had his.

He could have had the "works development prototype" FF car, I suppose....

[Rod Grimwood]

Steve Millen had a couple of runs in a FF that Dave Schollum bought out here before the Pacifics, I think it was a Elden and I saw it at a classic meeting a couple of years ago. I have a photo somewere and I can remember his first run a Puke and think he had a win.
Dave crashed the car at Levin and it was rebuilt. Daves younger brother Lou was a top runner in FF as well. Lou actually did his apprenticeship at Rotorsport with Bill Sheilds. Lou was a clever fella and a nice guy with it.

[Howard Wood]

[QUOTE=Howard Wood;6312]
I'm 100% convinced it wasn't an ex-FJ car. There was only one of those built, and it had long since gone to the South Island by the time AC raced his car

However, what I am prepared to believe, although I heard the suggestion for the first time only a few hours ago, is that it was built up on the basis of the FJ design - not only because OF says so, but because the pukka FF Valour didn't come on-stream until after AC had his.

He could have had the "works development prototype" FF car, I suppose....

That conjecture has some merit as one thing I remember about Alan's Valour is that as he first ran it (presumably as supplied by Larsen) the car had really bad bump steer front and rear. Being an ex Lotus 20 driver, Alan thought that was how racing cars were meant to feel!My brother Donald managed to dial most of it out for him and Alan went pretty much from one end of the grid to the other overnight.

Given that the production Valours were Mk6C Titan based and they would definitely not have suffered from bump steer, maybe Alan's car was some kind of development mule or interim model.

[Oldfart]

My MEMORY was that Trevor had got into some sort of financial difficulty and the the Crocker family acquired the job lot. I don't think it was a development car, could readily be wrong, perhaps it was another built off the jigs from the FJ and never completed? I wonder if Trevor actually saw a future for racing cars in NZ and then got into FF after seeing what was happening?
Whatever, it was a big step from Alan's Renault Dauphine based sportscar, scrutineers written comment in the logbook "This car needs an F&*(ing good tidy up" (scrutineer did not use &* signs) and the preceding MGTD with first Vanguard and then Peugeot power.
In regard Bob looking after the 250GTO that's how I got to drive it!
Crockers also did a lot of work for Palmer motors car sales.

[PhotoSmith]

Here's a few random photos from the early 80's, all taken at Baypark or Pukekohe.

From the Top.....
Mark Brownsey & robbie Lester etc
Richard Lester & Steve Richrds
Chris Abbott, Richards , Lester
Kevin Ingram
Mike King, Robbie Lester, Jeff Pascoe
Jeff Pascoe's Lola

[bigbanger]

Here's a few random photos from the early 80's, all taken at Baypark or Pukekohe.

From the Top.....
Mark Brownsey & robbie Lester etc
Richard Lester & Steve Richrds
Chris Abbott, Richards , Lester
Kevin Ingram
Mike King, Robbie Lester, Jeff Pascoe
Jeff Pascoe's Lola

Jeff Pascoe's Lola or Swift (Chch built by Larry Mulholland)?

[David McKinney]

Pretty sure it's the Lola, which he drove after the Swift

The Swift's the No.4 car in the first two pictures

[bigbanger]

Yes, that would make sense, IIRC Jeff won the FF championship in the 1981/82 season in the # 4 Swift, he would have carried # 1 in the subsequent season.

I'm struggling to remember who drove the Swift after Jeff Pascoe, for some reason I'm thinking John Crawford?, but my memory might be way off the mark here.

[David McKinney]

Rob Lester was the next Swift driver after Jeff Pascoe, but John Crawford's name does ring a bell in connection with it. Perhaps the car returned south after its spell in the North Island

[Carlo]

The year that Robbie Lester drove the Swift was the year that John Crawford won the Formula Ford Championship in if I remember correctly, a Valour. Also if I remember correctly John was working for for Gary Mulholland at Swift Automotive in Chch at that time and there was a bit of feeling around as the car was not getting the results that it had the previous season.
We rather unkindly nic named Robbie Flymo during the time he drove the Swift as he did spend quite a bit of time on grass going around in circles

[David McKinney]

I'm sure JC didn't race a Valour. Would have to look up the old mags to see what his winning mount was. In would have thought probably a Van Diemen

Larry Mulholland left me test-drive the Swift at Timaru during the championship season. It was - I think - the fourth FF I'd driven, and was immediately struck by how driveable it was, with much softer suspension than the competition. Trouble was, my shoulders were a lot broader than Jeff Pascoe's and I simply couldn't drive the thing properly. A huge disappointment

When Rob Lester bought the car, he stiffened the suspension and it never went so well again...

[Michael Clark]

This is potentially too good a thread to drop down the pecking order.

I was intrigued with Howard stating that Jim Richards and Paul Radisich are in a small club of NZ drivers who made it big overseas but who never did FF. I don't recall if it ever happened, but I do remember the 'MotorAction' preview of the 1973/74 championship because Richards was due to drive, I think, a Titan Mk6.

I saw as much FF racing as possible in the 70s but saw a lot more in the late 80s/early 90s when I sort of 'helped' young Phil Hellebrekers - he started with the ex Glenn Clark Pinto Trailers Reynard 83F in 86/87. He took delivery of a new Swift a few seasons later and I'll never forget a wonderful day at Bay Park when he cleaned up - with the son of the Gemco-Olds driver close behind.

I'm getting to my point - also Swift mounted that year was Paul Larsen. He was totally dominant, won the championship and went back to Chch. I'm not sure if he raced much afterwards but on the strength of his FF performances in his championship year - he should have gone very well in a Pacific. I guess the world has plenty of 'Paul Larsens'.

[Howard Wood]

Michael,

Glad you could join us, I sense we may have more coverage of single seaters in these pages!

Until proved wrong (and that has happened before) I think I am correct regarding JR and Paul Radisich being FF- less, however your contention that JR was at least entered for a meeting is interesting because he had a number of backers who were keen for him to try single seaters. When John Anderson bought the March to NZ for me for the inaugural Atlantic/Pacific series, despite my having negotiated a starting money package with Ron Frost, the NZIG organisers offered John quite a lot more money if he would let JR run in the car.

John's immediate answer was no so discussions went no further and therefore I have no idea if this was just NZIG floating the idea and/ or who's idea it was.

[Michael Clark]

Interesting - I wonder if JR knew of all this. The only open-wheeler I can recall him in was the Matich F5000 - I don't recall a FF drive ever happening...

And thank you for the welcome old chap

[Carlo]

Mary Carney nee Donald had a Titan FF ex Doug Heeny from Greymouth. Doug ran the car as a formula libre car in the South before Mary obtained the car and reconfigured it as a FF. It is quite possible that JR was offered a drive of this car back in those early days.

[David McKinney]

Jim Carney bought the Titan with, from memory, the idea of JR doing the championship races with it, and Mary doing the lesser stuff. I'm sure JR never raced it, though I have a feeling he might have had a test run (at Pukekohe?). Mary raced it once or twice, with very little to show for her efforts

[Michael Clark]

Yeah I'm sure the car 'Motor Action' promoted as being destined for JR was a Carney owned Titan Mk6.

Frankly, given his various saloon car responsibilities, I'm not sure where Jim would have found the time to do it justice.

Howard mentioned at the start of this thread the FF 40th annivesary dinner at Hampton's back in January. Peter Hughes and Neville Bailey were a couple of guys I'd never before met - both a really nice guys. The Bowin that Peter won the 1973/74 title in was advertised on Trade Me recently - it has been a front runner in Sth Island historic racing for a while now and last season was returned to orange 'CMR' livery.

[Michael Clark]

The Elfin 600 that David Oxton raced in the 1970/71 season (Formula C) and 1971/72 (when he won the first FF title) was raced by Grant Walker prior to him getting the Titan that he used for his 1974/75 title.

The Elfin has vanished.

Did it go back to Australia (we saw heaps of them at Phillip Is at the Aussie 40th anniversary of FF), is it still here or did it get turned into something else. Anyone know? - because David Oxton would love to know where it is!

[richard lester]

I'm sure JC didn't race a Valour. Would have to look up the old mags to see what his winning mount was. In would have thought probably a Van Diemen

Larry Mulholland left me test-drive the Swift at Timaru during the championship season. It was - I think - the fourth FF I'd driven, and was immediately struck by how driveable it was, with much softer suspension than the competition. Trouble was, my shoulders were a lot broader than Jeff Pascoe's and I simply couldn't drive the thing properly. A huge disappointment

When Rob Lester bought the car, he stiffened the suspension and it never went so well again...

Hi Dave, when the old boy ran the swift he ran as per set ups from larry mulholland and basically did what larry said.
problem was that he hated his time in FF and missed his mates in Vee's so back he went and i jumped into The swift.

[richard lester]

The sorry part of any class of motorsport is that you will always have a couple who cause a few problems, and FF is no different except that when one driver gets a bit toey it impacts on alot of other drivers as the competition is so tight and even. I have watched some amazing racing over the years. In the original days of FF you could just about put a blanket over the front 6 and very seldom was there problems, and they all went onto better things. I believe it is still the feeder for single seat drivers. The Toyota series was all go and then the expense became overbearing. FF gives the average kid with a bit of help or backing a chance to polish his/her skills. FV then FF and progress on as skills increase and budgets come onboard. Some can go straight in with a cheque book, and some of them make it and alot don't. But others who go through the "system" tend to go further. I believe there is a very big place for FF in our motorsport.

I agree totally Rod,ff was the best training class by quite a margin until cost's started to get out of hand and we fell into this' tin tops are the future/v8 supercar dream'.now the young guys go the suzuki swift instead and learn nothing technical.maybe with Mitch Evans and richie stanaway etc moving through it may help ff to get going again
TRS cost's are actually not over bearing and approx half of what we came across with GT3,its just that single seaters aren't viewed as necessary at present --purists like us know different though.

[richard lester]

From the early days when a car I had some involvement with (a converted National Formula car which had one too many gears for a short time) until now, I really struggle to accept the way that these are driven with little or no respect for the cars, nor the other drivers' well being. Close competition is fantastic, being close enough that almost every FF race I have evr seen has resulted in broken cars does me no favours.
I go to stock cars to watch bash and crash, no wonder some of the current F1 drivers feel the need to play stockies, they have their training in FF.
Rant over!
you are not wrong--the current drivers come in very young now and are not about to stick around,they are generally fast but haven't learnt the subtle race craft skills yet.It wasnt that long ago that vees was a 2-3 year program and ff a 2-3 year program before moving on if you were good enough by then and had some budget.
we now have young drivers retired before they are 20 years old if things dont go to plan.

[richard lester]

2 questions as we now have this thread.
1) Is the Cuda that Ross Stone built still around and also another called a TUL I believe ? I think it was Tul and not Tui as that was what I had written on the back of the photo at the time. I have a pic of this one here somewhere at Pukekohe.
Regards
Tony
The TUL showed up with kevin ingram(built by bruce turnbull) around 85/86.the thing was fast but fragile and gave Shane higgins and myself a hurry up in the 86/7 season with our van diemens.It had wishbones so strong that if you shunted you ripped the pick up points out of the chassis and you could put the wishbone back on when the pickups were re welded to the chassis.getting the engine in and out was a 'mare' as well.we actually ended up buying it and rob and my sister debbie did a few races with it but decided a form of death wish may be required as a driver after numerous failures, a young greg murphy(who worked for me at the time) also did a winter series round in it after he shunted one of my rf90 vd's in practice--great concept though and if Bruce turnbull had some developement budget it could have been a different story--the Tul went eventually to wanganui for a restoration- owners name escapes me for now.

[David McKinney]

Hi Dave, when the old boy ran the swift he ran as per set ups from larry mulholland and basically did what larry said
Nice to see you here, Richard

I based my comments on what Rob told me at the time - maybe Larry fed him duff gen. It wouldn't be the first time that sort of thing has happened!

[Carlo]

Likewise good to see you here Richard, give the old folks a hug from us both.
I was running Lyn Johnson in the Cuda against Jeff in the Swift and at that time both those cars were great race cars in traffic but they were not that great as out and out fast lap cars as Mike King and Lou Scholum could usualy both put in faster laps than either Jeff or Lyn. Jeff however had in my opinion, more talent and more determination to win than the other three and that is why he came out on top so often. As many of us know winning is a habit, so is coming 2nd & 3rd. Jeff made a habit of winning.
Kevin Ingram was another with a talent level similar to that of Jeff's but not quite the same level of committment and determination to succeed. I also think that Jeff had more out and out racecraft skills than the others that were running during that time too.

We also ran against each other for the full South Island FF series and again Jeff got the best of Lyn with from memeory Jeff winning about 90 - 95% of the encounters between the two of them over the season. 2nd was not an option for our Jeff.
We let him loose in Keith Laneys RT4 at the end of one Timaru meeting and within a few laps that was the quickest that car had ever been around the place and within a few more he was close to competative FP times, could he have raised the funding it would have been interesting to see what he could have done with one

[richard lester]

Likewise good to see you here Richard, give the old folks a hug from us both.
I was running Lyn Johnson in the Cuda against Jeff in the Swift and at that time both those cars were great race cars in traffic but they were not that great as out and out fast lap cars as Mike King and Lou Scholum could usualy both put in faster laps than either Jeff or Lyn. Jeff however had in my opinion, more talent and more determination to win than the other three and that is why he came out on top so often. As many of us know winning is a habit, so is coming 2nd & 3rd. Jeff made a habit of winning.
Kevin Ingram was another with a talent level similar to that of Jeff's but not quite the same level of committment and determination to succeed. I also think that Jeff had more out and out racecraft skills than the others that were running during that time too.

We also ran against each other for the full South Island FF series and again Jeff got the best of Lyn with from memeory Jeff winning about 90 - 95% of the encounters between the two of them over the season. 2nd was not an option for our Jeff.
We let him loose in Keith Laneys RT4 at the end of one Timaru meeting and within a few laps that was the quickest that car had ever been around the place and within a few more he was close to competative FP times, could he have raised the funding it would have been interesting to see what he could have done with one

hi carlo,
i well remember those days--i used to enjoy watching Jeff race and as a young fulla not far away from getting into ff myself he was the guy i aspired to be.hell of a nice guy too and was very helpful to dad and i took as much info as i could digest as well.jeff had a great race brain and in my opinion was one of the best weve seen in ff,paul larsen ,shane drake,ashley stitchbury and gary croft werent too bad either(slightly different era though)..i also remember well lyn's harness marks after his wigram shunt ,that era had some extremely talented drivers who raced hard and fair and then retired to the bar.
you know its tough now that most young drivers/families start circuit racing with a career as motivation.very few have the passion to do without the luxuries of life while they get established and crikey do they ever come and go at a high rate now.

[TonyG]

Thank you Richard for clearing that up. I always wondered if I had the name right. I grew up watching your dad, then yourself and sister come through. It was great racing to watch. If I remember correctly you had quite a set up with all the cars you were running as part of the team. The good old days !
Regards
Tony


The TUL showed up with kevin ingram(built by bruce turnbull) around 85/86.the thing was fast but fragile and gave Shane higgins and myself a hurry up in the 86/7 season with our van diemens.It had wishbones so strong that if you shunted you ripped the pick up points out of the chassis and you could put the wishbone back on when the pickups were re welded to the chassis.getting the engine in and out was a 'mare' as well.we actually ended up buying it and rob and my sister debbie did a few races with it but decided a form of death wish may be required as a driver after numerous failures, a young greg murphy(who worked for me at the time) also did a winter series round in it after he shunted one of my rf90 vd's in practice--great concept though and if Bruce turnbull had some developement budget it could have been a different story--the Tul went eventually to wanganui for a restoration- owners name escapes me for now.

[Steve Holmes]

you are not wrong--the current drivers come in very young now and are not about to stick around,they are generally fast but haven't learnt the subtle race craft skills yet.It wasnt that long ago that vees was a 2-3 year program and ff a 2-3 year program before moving on if you were good enough by then and had some budget.
we now have young drivers retired before they are 20 years old if things dont go to plan.

Richard, its great to have you on here, welcome to the site.

This is an interesting point you've made. Why do you suppose this is? Is there now more pressure on them to achieve success quickly in each class they compete in? Are young drivers now expected to win a championship in their first season in a new class, then quickly move on to the next class and do the same thing? Is a driver who spends more than one season in a class without winning a title or coming close to it, considered not to be made of the right stuff these days? Its almost as if a young guys career stalls if he doesn't quickly pass through each class on the ladder and instantly achieve success.

[richard lester]

Richard, its great to have you on here, welcome to the site.

This is an interesting point you've made. Why do you suppose this is? Is there now more pressure on them to achieve success quickly in each class they compete in? Are young drivers now expected to win a championship in their first season in a new class, then quickly move on to the next class and do the same thing? Is a driver who spends more than one season in a class without winning a title or coming close to it, considered not to be made of the right stuff these days? Its almost as if a young guys career stalls if he doesn't quickly pass through each class on the ladder and instantly achieve success.
Hi Steve,
yes you are quite right--as i have said to many people "there are plenty of fast drivers out there but not many racers".i must admit i cringe a bit watching various races at tier1 and 2 events seeing some of the poor decision making going on.
I think part of the problem is that newcomers dont have much of a structured plan looking ahead.it's pretty much win this year-move up and win again next year and so on.learning tracks/cars/teams/and how to race arent really taken into account too much.i think there is also the element of the quicker we can move up the less we will have to spend on this class.
i see lots of kids come straight from karts ready to be world champions and they and the parents dont realise how much different the disciplines are and how much more has to be learned.Kids like Mitch and richie are not only naturally gifted to start with but their camp's know the game well and can bring them along at a far quicker pace.
I have had some involvement in F/BMW(asia) and that whole structure world wide was based on "your son can make it all the way to f1-give me your checkbook and we will see what we can do".so the kids study lots and lots of data which is fine i guess,but then you need someone to teach you how to transfer that to the track(i think they refer to that as old school now !!).I have seen the "dude you need to be faster thru turn 3" turn into a visit to the wall because the kid just kept his foot in it hoping he would get around.
better stop before i get accused of ranting!!!

[Steve Holmes]

Nothing wrong with ranting Richard, thats what this site was built for! Its fascinating to hear things from your perspective. You must have seen a lot of talent go to waste over the years through bad management? Its interesting, but 20 years ago, young guys trying to make a career for themselves coming from NZ were very much single seater focused, but that seems to have changed, as they know they can make a pretty good living in Australia now in V8 Supercars. There was a time when tin tops were the back-up plan, if the single seater career didn't work out, but now a lot of young guys (in Australia also) are focused only on making it to V8 Supercars.

[Russ Noble]

I'm sure JC didn't race a Valour. Would have to look up the old mags to see what his winning mount was. In would have thought probably a Van Diemen
.

I'm pretty sure it was a Valour. An unremarkable car that he bought from Don Elvy. As I recall he put in many hours at Ruapuna testing and developing it and won the FF national championship with it in 84/5

[David McKinney]

I left NZ before the series was completed. He certainly started the series in a Reynard RF84

[Russ Noble]

He certainly started the series in a Reynard RF84

That being the case my recollection must be incorrect. He definitely campaigned the Valour very successfully at some stage. Maybe it was earlier?

[markec]

Johno Jonstone is still alive and keeps reasonable health I will get Mr Donaldson to ask him how many he built.

[Carlo]

That being the case my recollection must be incorrect. He definitely campaigned the Valour very successfully at some stage. Maybe it was earlier?

On thinking about it I think he ran the Valour the previous season then went to the UK and worked with Reynard for a few months and brought a damaged car home then built a new one around the retrievable parts. I think John built a new chassis for the car during the rebuild.

[Grant Ellwood]

Richard, Grant Ellwood dropping in, still living in the backwoods of Virginia, USA.
This is a great forum for catching up with past racing friends. I remember getting a lot of help from the Lester family during my sporadic drives in several of Richard's Fords. Particularly memorable was the Tul which was getting a bit tired at the time (or was that me!)and had a load of understeer, particularly at Manfeilds sweeper. Richard explained that I should "pitch it" at entry to get the tail out and that advice worked really well as I can't remember how may 360s I made. And luckily I couldn't see anything hard coming at me because the tyre smoke was too thick!
Lots of memories.....


hi carlo,
i well remember those days--i used to enjoy watching Jeff race and as a young fulla not far away from getting into ff myself he was the guy i aspired to be.hell of a nice guy too and was very helpful to dad and i took as much info as i could digest as well.jeff had a great race brain and in my opinion was one of the best weve seen in ff,paul larsen ,shane drake,ashley stitchbury and gary croft werent too bad either(slightly different era though)..i also remember well lyn's harness marks after his wigram shunt ,that era had some extremely talented drivers who raced hard and fair and then retired to the bar.
you know its tough now that most young drivers/families start circuit racing with a career as motivation.very few have the passion to do without the luxuries of life while they get established and crikey do they ever come and go at a high rate now.

[markec]

Jonno Jonstone built 8 Jonstones and 1 Hussler, the #3 car that is now Norm Smiths car was a new build Hussler with the original Chassis being still in Ch Ch. #9 Jonstone was built as a class 2 car, it is still in Ch Ch.The first cars were similar to BT21 Brabhams while the later ones were close to Van Deimons. Keith Cowan has #1 that is sometimes referred to as a Brabham.

[Michael Clark]

And Keith fitted a BT21 lookalike body a couple of seasons ago - in Midland Racing Partnership livery!

Big Norm was sensational in the Hustler. I've heard some interesting theories why - he was a hero..proved you didn't need to be the size of a halfback to run at the front of FF.

[markec]

Jonno with some of his cars,he is sitting in #9.

[Russ Cunningham]

Hello Howard,

Phil Foulkes does not run one of your old Pallisers. He runs a copy built by Kim & Bob Crocker. Sure, it has the original log book but the two WDF2'S chassis number 34 & 35 are not this car. The complete "34" resides in my warehouse as does the remains of ""35" I sold the ex. Ex. Nev Bailey WDF3, chassis no.4 some years back. It had been rolled, bowled & aresholed more times than a "K Road" Tranny.

[Russ Cunningham]

Originally this started life as a Valour but my old mate Radar built a new chassis and raced it as the RADAR FF. First owner was Ian Simcox (a milkman in Mt. Maunganui I believe). First registered it on 04/09/1972. It was then sold to Trevor Larsen for his driving school at Bay Park. It then went to Geoff Goile of Ataimuri before my very good friend Harold Phillips bought it. Harold & Grant Ellwood altered the car substantially, especially the front end. It then passed on to "Radar" (Steve Grant) who built an entirely new chassis. You'll love this: Radar turned up for scrutineering only to be rejected because he'd used coach bolts in the suspension! Nice one Radar!
This car in now in the Sth. Island. For all the history including the present owner - Don't contact me.

A lesson to learned here: don't rely on your memory after drinking half a bottle of single malt.

The car John Crawford raced was the OCTO1077 F.F. At 3am this morning it suddenly dawned on me that I'd confused two cars, both based on Valour F.F's.
The Octo1077 was built by Dennis Martin to replace a Valour he owned and raced. Named Octo1077 after it's build date. John and Larry Mulholland rebuilt it in 81 and John raced it through to 83. Phillip Butcher then raced it for a season or two. Car still resides in the South Island.

The Dennis Martin Valour chassis wound up in Shag Ellwood's ownership before being purchased many years ago by Don Short. Waikato based Don, still has it including the factory body moulds. As an aside to this, the aforementioned U.S based Grant Ellwood has been bitten by the nostalgia bug and has purchased a left hook, 1200cc Anglia. No doubt he'll cut the top off it and relive the days of his youth.

[Russ Cunningham]

Six GLH chassis. The last one was purchased by Graeme Cowley who on sold it to me in the early eighties. Now owned by my old mate Barry Leitch (he is old - ask his sons)
and still unraced as far as I'm aware.

[driftwood]

You can't beat a good FFord race for me the best race of the year is the Formula Ford Festval at Brands.
Sadly Ford screwed up FFord when they insisted on Zetec engine then went to Duratec and grids dwindled so now in europe there is no base line formula to have drivers from the top championships and various countries come and have a good bun fight.
In the UK we have many club series running and we have classic and Historic series for cars with various cut off dates, some are stronger than others but the Historic pre 72 cars are now silly money.
The best value for money series is Classic FFord for the post 72-82 pre rocker suspension cars are not silly money and there are no big wallet drivers with £5k motors semi pro race prep shop running the car for them and no young uns hot out of karting coming along to show you how to do it 2 seconds a lap faster than last years champ has done it in.
We have many Champion of series at circuits where we have local experts who hotly contest their series with anything form VD RF90-92 cars through to the later VD99-01 cars or Ray 05-09 cars we even have a couple of Spectrums over here now.
For me the best thing about FFord is there is always a race some where every month and some one on the track to race with whether you are front row mid grid or tail end grid filler material.
I enjoyed my last 2 season of driving my VD2k FFord as i have had in my Dallara F3 or my F2 cars.

[Russ Cunningham]

DRIFT WOOD - ARE YOU HOWARD'S LONG LOST BROTHER?

[driftwood]

No he is my father and my mother said he was a charming man and would like to meet him again someday!

[Howard Wood]

Leave town for 3 days and return being defamed from all sides!

Hi Russ, it figures that the chassis from WDF2 #34 still exists. I have always told Phil he should hunt the chassis down and reunite it with its running gear.We assumed that Kim built a new chassis in 1976 incorporating our spare bellhousing because he had shunted the original chassis too badly to repair. Is that the case or did he merely build a new chassis with the updates to give the then 6 year old car a new lease of life? And by extention is the original chassis straight and complete?

And Drifty, welcolme to theroaringseason, this is the real deal, no bullshit here!

[Russ Cunningham]

Hello Howard,

Certainly hope you don't feel that my remarks are defamatory. Far from it. Don't actually like these internet raves but thought I should at least put the record straight regarding the Pallisers and Kim's two "specials". My old friend DGM will no doubt chasten me for having a brilliant memory re. trivia but if he got his arse into gear and produced the concise history of NZ motor racing. Of which he is more than capable of doing. Then I would not be replying to you now. You could chew David's ear. "Listening Dave"?

Phil knows I have the complete car. We've spoken about it over the past few years.
Even has "Crocker Bothers Racing" on the bodywork! Although I think the signwriter of the time was being rather "pc" in putting the "r" and "c" into the sign.

The car Phil has is the second "Special" built by Kim & Bob. "Trident 2" as it was known. Trident 1 is still in existence also. I had it for many years before on selling it.
I do have the full history of these cars so no fudging on my part.

Not sure whether you realised but the two Pallisers you and Donald bought, were both raced by Bob Evans in the British FF series. Bob later went on to race F1 for BRM. He probably would have raced for DGM as well if he'd known him!

All the best,

Russ

[Howard Wood]

The prior history of #34 was unknown to us although its condition when we bought it out of the UK would suggest very little use as it was like a new car. The second car we bought (Chassis no unremembered) we also bought out of the UK from a wild character called Mike Taylor who was a Snetterton specialist and we were led to understand the car held the FF lap record there. Whatever its chassis no it had started life as the works car and was built entirely from round tubes unlike the customer cars which featured a lot of square tubing for ease of manufacture. It was considerably lighter than #34 but in a very sad state when we got it. I only drove it in testing but it felt quite different to #34 and if I recall correctly quicker too.

Donald ran it in the 1973/74 championship season, we replace much of the damaged chassis tubes and sold it to John Dempsey who had been running an ancient Lotus converted to FF. Is that the car (#35) that you also have Russ or is there yet another Palliser?

[Russ Cunningham]

Only three Pallisers came out here. The two that you and Don bought (WDF2/NO34 & NO35 and WDF3/NO4, the Neville Bailey car. WDF2/34 was owned in the UK by Dr.David Chrisp who lent the car to Bob Evans during his championship winning season with WDF2/35 which as you have said, is the ex. works car that Mike Taylor had.

Do you recall adding extra pickup points to the front of 34? This car is complete by the way but I've never had it put together.

In March 74 Don and yourself advertised two Palliser rolling chassis for sale and one complete car. I've always presumed this to be a misprint - any thoughts?

[Howard Wood]

I am pretty sure we fabricated alternative lower front pickup points for anti dive. With the then current Dunlop control tyre we found running the car as soft as possible was better and the anti dive allowed the ride height to be set much lower but still soft.

The Dunlop control tyre was the reason we went to so much trouble with the bell housing extension on the Cheetahs as the front tyres did so little work with conventional weight distribution. This is also why the Schollum bros Elden of Steve Millen went so well as it was very much "cab forward" too.

In March 1974 we would have either purchased or agreed to purchase all the Ray components from Don Hutchison and were in the process of designing the Cheetahs so anything and everything would have been for sale! At the time we had the two complete Palliser cars so I cannot explain (nor remember) advertising a roller as well.

[Russ Cunningham]

That explains the advert. The rolling chassis advertised was more than likely the Ray73.
If I recall correctly, Bert Ray arrived at a deal with Pallisers Len Wilmhurst and Hugh Dibley to continue manufacturing the cars as Ray-Pallisers. This was after Pallisers went into voluntary liquidation in 1971 and as you know Don Hutchinson made the Ray73 when he was working for Bert.

Thanks Howard, another mystery (albiet a minor one) explained. By the way, I had the 73 myself but never raced it. It's now in the Sth.Is.

[Michael Clark]

Mike Barney - ex Cooper and McLaren mechanic - wondered if the GLHs were in fact cars he designed and built.

Welcome Russell - your role as part of NZ FF history proceeds you.

[Carlo]

wondered if the GLHs were in fact cars he designed and built.



G = Gerry Hones, L = Lloyd Owen, H = Hugh Owen

The cars were built in Blenheim

[Howard Wood]

Carl,

Certainly both Hugh's and Lloyd's were built in Blenheim and until recently I though Paul Dold's one as well. At different times you and I both spent some time in the very shed they were built in!

Paul, however now tells a different story about the history of his car. Essentially almost all FFs of the era can trace at least some of their DNA to Ron T's brilliant Brabham BT21, just as the '73 Ray evolved from the WDF2/3Pallisers, the Palliser (and Jonny Johnson's cars etc.etc) basically used BT21 geometry and chassis layout, so claiming exclusive "design" credit probably goes tooo far. When I started with our first Palliser WDF2, Jonny Johnson supplied me a set of both front and rear wishbones straight off his jigs, they were identical in all respects.

However, certainly major items such as the bodywork, rear uprights etc are common to of all the GLH's and I thought the chassis too until talking to Paul recently. You may need to Ghost write for Hugh or Lloyd to set the record straight.

[Carlo]

Gerry Hones was the works manager at Brabham when Hugh & Lloyd were working there. and yes there was a fair bit of Rons work copied into quite a few cars of the time. When the boys are down south for the TRS race meeting at Timaru I am going to try and get them to sit down so we can record some of the historical facts rather than have an absolute ball retelling some of the stories of the past.

We still get quite a few laughs out of the Norm Smith and the highway of fire story and the time that they had quite a few of the North Islanders on the free Friday test day at Levels circulating the track in the wrong direction. We were a bit of a home base for a number of the northerners and when they came back to our workshop mid to late morning telling me that they had the circuit all worked out and then told me what and where they were doing things I did think that they were certainly doing things that I had never done.. All it had taken was for one of the boys to pass the comment to a leading mechanic of the time that if he knew so much then he should have known the correct direction that the circuit ran. This mechanic then stopped his driver and asked him if he was sure of the direction of travel and after a bit of discussion with a couple of others who were testing at the time they all turned around and ran the wrong way around the place and did get a great chassis set up. Didn't do them much good in the 10 minute qualifying next day though

The back shed, it sure could tell some stories eh Howard.

[Russ Cunningham]

I recall booking in at The Golden Sands motor camp at Mt.Maunganui one year and the first thing the manager asked after seeing the car on the trailer was: "You're not friends of the Owen Bros, are you?" I assured him that I'd never heard of them, to which he replied: "Okay, you can stay but behave while you're here". Later the same night we arrived back to find the gates had been shut - no problem! my old mate Mac McDowell just drove his Valiant, straight through them. Can't remember where we spent the following night.

[driftwood]

Leave town for 3 days and return being defamed from all sides!
And Drifty, welcolme to theroaringseason, this is the real deal, no bullshit here! DAD GET AN IPHONE !! this way you can keep up with things whilst away !:)

The Mike Taylor you refer to is probably Mike "Fulmar " Taylor he was a well known FF1600 and 2000 racer here in the 70's and 80's he set up Fulmar Cornock Services ( FCS) with Alan Cornock who was Royale race cars when the Royale thing died off Alan had the contract to assemble the reynard 1600 2 litre cars from Adrian
Now FCS is Mygale UK agent just with alan i think mike has pulled out had other business interests his son Mark around 10 years ago was racing in Britsh f3

Ray cars is 45 mins up the road from me Gavin the son runs it now Bert died a year or so ago
Ray cars where busy with the newer Duratec FFord but have many customers who have converted 02-09 zebec or duratec cars to kent spec
I had a small mod to a Mondiale 84 FFord chassis done by them this year and the fabby is an old Ray employee from yester year who has come back to the roost but i cannot recall his name.

I just sold a Ray 94 kent car for a customer but I have 1 92 Ray kent car for sale £7k plus my Mondiale 84 semi restored project £3750 ( no box or motor) and a neat Crossle 32F built with many new parts onto a bare chassis £6k
all of these would fit neatly into a 20 ft container ( circa £2k ish) and with the kiwi peso around $2.10 to the pom £ and you now have no import tariffs at 30-50% anymore i expect a stampede !!:cool:

[kiwi285]

Have just come across this website about Valour cars and thier involvement in FF in NZ.

http://valourff.blogspot.com/

[bojo]

Hi, Bob Johnston here, I still have the last Formula Ford built in my shed (which was number 9). My memory is still good but computer skills are limited! Look forward to hearing about the good old days - email me at jen.bel@xtra.co.nz if you want to get in touch. I have a few spares etc to sell

[Milan Fistonic]

Grant Walker getting a little too close to Brett Riley

5582

[Russ Cunningham]

What happened to the Tiga FF that Dave Bull drove at Manfeild in the 70's?

[ElCoyote]

A big thanks to Jamie Aislabie for solving a problem with the Van Diemen dry sump saga. How could the experts have got it so wrong for so long. Does your knowledge have no limits Jamie, and all this via the phone? Shades of Smokey Yunick for those of that era.

Dave McKinney, I know you don't sleep and this is not a who/what/where but merely to clear up a statement I made to to you re G.P.Mc and Dr. Langley that may have cited the wrong Dr. Your memory is not as suspect as you make out.

To all: Does Marty Olsen still have the Bowkett Skyline if not where did it go?

[Layabout]

I'm sorry if I'm belaboring the point, but I'm a newbie from the U.S. & I took over the Palliser-Winkelmann Registry a few months ago & I'm trying to update its listings. I invite anybody to correct me if I'm wrong, but here's what I understand:

WDF2/34 & WDF2/35 are currently owned by Mr. Russ Cunningham
WDF3/4 was owned by Nev Bailey & I currently have it with Vic Clarke. It carries a non-stock nose & cowling.

I would be interested in any photos, details, Arch Motor numbers, etc. that any of the members might have on Palliser Winkelmanns that are in New Zealand. Also, please visit the site, www.pallisercars.com, so I can get some input, good or bad from you. My email address can be found on the site.

Thanks

[Russ Cunningham]

I'm sorry if I'm belaboring the point, but I'm a newbie from the U.S. & I took over the Palliser-Winkelmann Registry a few months ago & I'm trying to update its listings. I invite anybody to correct me if I'm wrong, but here's what I understand:

WDF2/34 & WDF2/35 are currently owned by Mr. Russ Cunningham
WDF3/4 was owned by Nev Bailey & I currently have it with Vic Clarke. It carries a non-stock nose & cowling.

I would be interested in any photos, details, Arch Motor numbers, etc. that any of the members might have on Palliser Winkelmanns that are in New Zealand. Also, please visit the site, www.pallisercars.com, so I can get some input, good or bad from you. My email address can be found on the site.

Thanks

Welcome, Layabout,

You are correct, Vic Clarke now owns the WDF3, chassis No.4. Only three Pallisers made it to these shores and I recall many years back informing the registry of these cars. Unfortunately, I got busy/lost touch/other excuses---but nice to know the registry is still going.

Regards,

Russ Cunningham

[Russ Noble]

Ah, I had forgotten about this thread.

I think it could be a good place to reiterate part of something I posted on “The State of NZ Motorsport” thread. Probably mainly of interest to SI guys, and bearing in mind the historic nature of this site, of particular interest could be the Class 3 division in the Ace Hire South Island Formula Ford Championship

There is an opportunity for competitive racing with other Class 3 cars, a Class 3 trophy to race for, and money! In that respect all cars will pick up prize money based on their points tally. Have highlighted in bold, items of relevance to historic cars……

To be eligible to run in the Ace Hire South Island Formula Ford Championship and pick up the prize money, you need to belong to the SIFF Club, annual membership $75 and register for the Championship, registration fee $50 for the season. Not too onerous one would think……

For club membership and Championship registration contact :-

South Island Formula Ford Club
Ian Bisman
26 Milesbrook Close
Rangiora

Ph 03 3106441
i.biz@xtra.co.nz

At this point it might be worth elaborating on the classes. There is overall of course, and competitors are fighting for $4000 prize money. $1500 for 1st down to $50 for 10th.

SIFF has also historically had the following four Classes and these classes will collectively share the other $6000 prize money based on points gained.
Class 1 is for Hewland LD 200 trans cars from 1989
Class 2 is for Hewland Mk type trans 1984 – 1989
Class 3 is cars up to 1984
Class pre-93 aligns with the Tier 1 National Class 2

As can be seen, early Class 1 and all Class 2 & 3 cars are eligible also for Class pre-93 points so they get 2 bites at the cherry. Class 1 cars of course should get their second bite from the overall prize money stakes. Pretty equitable we think rewarding the overall winner well and the guys in the older cars will do OK too.

A couple of examples based on last years results. Last years Class 1 and overall winner would have received $1986. The Class 2 winner who was also 4th overall and 2nd pre-93 would have received $1147. The Class 3 winner $770. At the other end of the results, the guy in a Class 2 car who finished last overall and only did two rounds would have taken home $301.

It is interesting to note that last year there was only one Class 3 car. There are a heap of points and hence money to be picked up by anyone choosing to run in Class 3, the same, to a slightly lesser extent, applies to Class 2.

Generally we think the prize money structure gives a little bit for everyone and rewards well those that really put in the effort. Now we just need to get them out there….

First round is Levels Nov 11, then Dec 1 & 2 a double round at Teretonga one on the Sat one on the Sun, then Dec 15 Ruapuna.

The Tier 1 national championship is down this way in Jan so the SIFF rounds are the perfect opportunity for serious Tier 1 competitors to bring their cars down early to get some competitive seat time in the month/s immediately prior.

The final two AHSIFF Championship rounds are at Levels and Ruapuna in March.

So anyone who knows someone with a FF, give them a bit of encouragement to get it out there. Six weeks to the first round, plenty of time to polish the wheels!

[Layabout]

Thank you for the information. I'm trying to tie photos of as many cars as possible to the chassis number on the registry. Do you have any photos of either car that you can send me? I don't care if they are current or "of the day'. Also, if you have the Arch Motor numbers that would be great as well.

Thank you

Locke

[Michael Clark]

Tomorrow at Pukekohe: I see a NZ built Valour is on the entry list. I understand Chris Havill ran it at the Taupo picnic meeting last December which I missed.

On the list of NZ built FFs of that era we have the GLHs, the Cuda, Cheetahs, Keram, Beggs, Valours, the Kea I guess. It occurs to me that in that highly competitive 1974/75 FF Championship, of the top 3 drivers (Grant Walker, Brett Riley and Howard Wood), two were in NZ built cars - and the last named in a self-built (well in conjunction with his brother) car.

Both Cheetahs survive, as do all four Begg FFs (in fact the second car that was converted to FF does as well), we have Paul Dold's GLH normally racing with us as well as the Keram - and now a Valour. We know where the Cuda is but how far off being a runner it is I have no idea while I think Phil Foulkes knows where his old Kea is - and of course Phil has the Trident - a Kim Crocker adapted Palliser.

[Michael Clark]

Sadly neither the Keram or Valour made it yesterday but HW also reminded me about the Johnsons - including the Hustler of the famous Norm Smith...

[David McKinney]

... or even Johnstons:)

[roadrace]

Enjoyed this topic but lack of forum skills kind of put paid to replying till now.
Carlos asked where Stone/Finch Cuda is....its in my workshop. The discussion re valours is interesting. I owned a Titan Mk6 that I bought damaged. We borrowed the valour jig from Dennis Martin to repair the chassis ( slightly different in frt floor profile )The resultant car was damaged in a tumble at BayPark ( would love to get original photos sequenced in NZ Herald and Autosport ), flipped off a lotus, over Malcolm Webbs van Diemen and landed on top of Lou Vandermeer, that car was ex Eric Morgan, sold as parts to Larry Mulholland. Fond memories of Formula Ford. Got involved early on with Gilbey's Gin sponsored Ex Pellow Brabham ( converted from National Formula car ) This car now resident at John Wigstons workshop. Was the technical officer for the formula , then T/O for MSNZ . One year we ( Bob McMurray alongside ) went to South Is spannering on Mark Scott ( ANZ Elden, CMR engine ) and Robin Hoskings ( Cheetah). Got involved in the world debut of international superstar Robin De MauMau in Malcolms VD. Alas , Robin had navigational problems at Timaru and sadly had to have a career change. What went on tour, stayed on tour. Will watch this topic with interest as there was good racing, great camaraderie, and some great times in this class. Shame the politics and technical rules can't be sorted to get the class thriving again

[kiwi285]

So where the hell is our 'Can do' attitude these days. It all seems to be 'Can't do' now.

Does anyone else get sick to death of all the whinging people on TV who are absolutely shocked that the world can't see things their way. There used to be a saying about whinging Poms but I will bet that Kiwi's would outdo the Poms any day with their hands tied behind their backs. End of whinge.

[driftwood]

As a Too n from i am missing the plot somewhere so i have to ask
Double You Tea Eff has got you on the soap box?

FFord rules where created by us winjun poms and we still use them and abide by them as well as God save the Queen
so why do you not enforce the original FFord rules?
Last week i raced at the FFord festoval at Brands
this weekend i race in the Walter Hayes Trophey at Silverstone ALL run under the original FFord rules
No yanky rules alloy heads
No yanky rules alloy dampers or wheels
no yanky rules over bore pistons
we stil use the 420 kg car weight rule
still run treaded tyres steel brake calipers

so educate me on NZ FFord what has changed & what do you not like today?

[jim short]

All Pomey cars leak oil!! NZ is clean green ,we save frogs 3 leaf clover little spiders, we dont want all the gold under the hills,we even shoot lovelly wild horses that has roamed the open ranges for since Kupe swam them here from HAWIKI most Poms dont know that all the top men in F1 are Kiwis!! hope this helps a little jim

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[Racer Rog]

I still have that Valour Russ, put it into the wall at levels and did a bit of damage, when the throttle stayed open, so the rebuild is under way, on the papers for the car there are a few more names, Radar rebuilt the chassis the same as it was, with the modified front, and at this point in time, I am wondering if I rebuild it the same, or do it as original, I have access to another car (Valour) that has never been raced, or been near a track since new, so copying is not a problem, just wondering if the original front end was a dog, and the reason they changed it.
Roger

[openwheeler]

I am a little bit confused with the yanky rules.
Have been on the West Coast for forty-years . Have never seen those rules applied.

[Grant Ellwood]

I still have that Valour Russ, put it into the wall at levels and did a bit of damage, when the throttle stayed open, so the rebuild is under way, on the papers for the car there are a few more names, Radar rebuilt the chassis the same as it was, with the modified front, and at this point in time, I am wondering if I rebuild it the same, or do it as original, I have access to another car (Valour) that has never been raced, or been near a track since new, so copying is not a problem, just wondering if the original front end was a dog, and the reason they changed it.
Roger

Did Harold Phillips own the Valour before Radar? If so I can give you some info on the front end mod.

[Sorekiwi]

I am a little bit confused with the yanky rules.
Have been on the West Coast for forty-years . Have never seen those rules applied.

I'm out in the Mid-West, and happened to see a 1600 car a couple of months ago. I am unsure of what championship the car runs in (I just assumed it was local SCCA events), but it definately had an alloy head, aluminum Penske shocks, and alloy wheels.

[Racer Rog]

The Rego was GE3117, chassis number 723008 registered on the 4-09-1972 owners, Ian Simcox, John Hyde, Jeff Goice, Harold Phillips, then Steve Grant, it then ended up with Devon and Laney then me, there could have been a couple in the middle after Radar as well, as you did not have to register them after that.

Roger

[Grant Ellwood]

The Rego was GE3117, chassis number 723008 registered on the 4-09-1972 owners, Ian Simcox, John Hyde, Jeff Goice, Harold Phillips, then Steve Grant, it then ended up with Devon and Laney then me, there could have been a couple in the middle after Radar as well, as you did not have to register them after that.

Roger

Roger, I modified the front end for Harold (Phil) Phillips. If you attend any of the historic FF rounds at HD or Puke you will find Phil spannering for Mike Creswell and I'm sure he would be happy to explain the before and afters of the mod. It certainly handled much better and I'm sure that Phil was probably the quickest of any the Valours around Bay Park, not including John Crawford's example!
Or you can email me and I'll give you Phil's contact details - ellwoodusa@yahoo.com
I also have a newspaper article featuring your car and I can mail you a copy. Cheers, Grant

[Michael Clark]

I will be seeing Phil at HD tomorrow and will mention this

[Russ Cunningham]

I still have that Valour Russ, put it into the wall at levels and did a bit of damage, when the throttle stayed open, so the rebuild is under way, on the papers for the car there are a few more names, Radar rebuilt the chassis the same as it was, with the modified front, and at this point in time, I am wondering if I rebuild it the same, or do it as original, I have access to another car (Valour) that has never been raced, or been near a track since new, so copying is not a problem, just wondering if the original front end was a dog, and the reason they changed it.
Roger

Well! Well! Glad to hear that you're still alive and kicking, Roger.

You've probably noticed that one of the rear uprights on your car has MJ stamped on it. Mark Petch & John Olsen cast these for the Katipo cars. Identical to both Valour & Titan. I recall Radar buying one off me to put on the chassis you own. In fact I've two new ones in the shed if anyone needs them.

Does Doug still own the unraced car or has he sold it on. I remember him buying some bits of me for it in the mid eighties.

Might be a problem or two rebuilding it as a Valour as I understand the original chassis that Harold sold to Radar was rebuilt as well. The fact that it was totally stuffed appears to not matter a jot. Axes and handles!

Pleasing to see that Shag Ellwood was sober enough to reply to your question regarding the front end. I heard that he was celebrating hurricane Sandy arriving in Virginia until someone wised him up that it was'nt the female wrestler he used to date a few years back.

[Racer Rog]

Hi Russ, both uprights are Valour, and yes Doug still has his, am going back down there in a couple of weeks to take some measurements so will say hi, but I think he looks in here as well, just keep those uprights nice and dry for me, I reckon I have rights to the axe, as I have most of it, and as it was a repair????, along with all papers etc, but hey who am I to spoil a good story, but Radar told me the chassis was stuffed beyond repair, which is why he made a new one.
Roger

[Russ Cunningham]

I'm sure it was Radar who told me that someone purchased the chassis from his father while Radar was overseas. Then I heard that another chap found the rusty remains lying in long grass behind a house in Onehunga. Can't recall the name at present but my informant told me that it was rebuilt. In other words, a new chassis was made.

Did I ever tell you about Radar turning up for scrutineering at Bay Park with the new car? Apparently the scrutineers were less than impressed with the coach bolts in the suspension.

[Russ Cunningham]

As a Too n from i am missing the plot somewhere so i have to ask
Double You Tea Eff has got you on the soap box?

FFord rules where created by us winjun poms and we still use them and abide by them as well as God save the Queen
so why do you not enforce the original FFord rules?
Last week i raced at the FFord festoval at Brands
this weekend i race in the Walter Hayes Trophey at Silverstone ALL run under the original FFord rules
No yanky rules alloy heads
No yanky rules alloy dampers or wheels
no yanky rules over bore pistons
we stil use the 420 kg car weight rule
still run treaded tyres steel brake calipers

so educate me on NZ FFord what has changed & what do you not like today?

Driftwood,

Take no notice of Jum. He's obsessed with spiders and frogs, apparently they visit him in his dreams as well.

A genuine answer: I really don't know why they fiddled with the FF regs here. Always seemed pretty bloody stupid from my point of view. Maybe it's a Kiwi thing to follow the Yanks.

The beer may be warm where you are but it's a darn sight more drinkable than the Yankee crap. (Or ours for that matter)

[beowulf]

Congratulations to all the FF drivers at HD yesterday. A great turnout of very tidy cars, some good driving, practise and 4 races
in one day for $99.00! Beat that other organisers. See you all at Manfeild next weekend. Yahoo

[Racer Rog]

Join the classic Motor Racing club, we can beat that, so much so that at the last meeting calling for classes to come up to the grid, none came as they were all raced out!!!
Roger

[driftwood]

Maybe its the cold Kiwi beer thats turned Jim into a frog preserver!
Im currently in Oz where i have to suffer the cold beer and will in 2 weeks be over in Aotera but no time is allocated for car visits as her in doors ha sno interest in race cars
I raced in the FFord festival at Brands this years and the Walter Hayes Trophy to end our season
I have bought a Lotus 61 from USA and Alexis Mk18b to rebuild
i think i will sell the Lotus as i see the cockpit access slot is narrower than my self and keep the Alexis to race next season

[Allan]

Baypark Christmas meeting 197015079

[kiwi285]

Baypark Christmas meeting 197015079

Love car #18 in the Cambridge Racing Team colours. Who was racing it ?

[Allan]

3 is Pierre Phillips in a Titan Mk 6, 16 is Peter Hughes in the ex Ken Smith Lotus 41 and 18 is David Oxton in an Elfin 600

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[bairdo]

Just wondering if anyone knows where my 1971 Titan mk6 ended up.
Or does anyone have photo's of it.
Craig Baird.

[Grant Sprague]

Hey Craig , know doubt there will be some one in the FF ranks here that will know , ps I was asked the other day where Gary,s old twin cam escort end up that Stan bought from him , great hear from you ......... Grant

[Michael Clark]

While searching for the Baird Titan, could you have a look for the ex Oxton, Walker Elfin 600 as well - that seems to have vanished too

[bairdo]

Hi Mate. I'm not sure where his twin cam went. Love to find it. Hope you are well mate.

Hey Craig , know doubt there will be some one in the FF ranks here that will know , ps I was asked the other day where Gary,s old twin cam escort end up that Stan bought from him , great hear from you ......... Grant

[John McKechnie]

Craig- whats your memory of that car from 1971 or was it just a little before your time? I remember as a teenager being shown the car by your dad at Puke.
I was standing looking at it and he talked to me of it. Nice guy, Stan , I thought, taking time out to talk to the fans.

[Grant Sprague]

Craig , looks like no responce from the local FF boys to date , I have a friend doing historic FF just talked to him. Now this guy either has yr old car or he will know where it is .... Hi Name is Andrew Hollywood from Napier..... you could research from there ... E mail is .... a.h.hollywood@xtra.co.nz or...... a.hollywood@xtra.co.nz ........ Yep mate all good this end , do you hear much from Pete? not sure what is happening at levels Xmas meet , if you end up there would be good to have the usual cup of tea ?? Take care Grant

[Grant Sprague]

Michael , I am starting to feel like a detective here lol , If you phone this guy Bruce McCoy [07. 5444770] Tauranga he Might know where Dave,s old car is , now this goy leaves for Q/Land to day or tomorrow ... will be back 3rd of July..... Cheers mate .. Grant

[Michael Clark]

Hi Grant - I 'race' against Bruce - lovely bloke and very much the man who has been hugely responsible for the numbers in our old fart championship.

We've looked for Oxo's old car for a while - I hadn't realised it was missing until David raised it one day...

[Russ Cunningham]

Just wondering if anyone knows where my 1971 Titan mk6 ended up.
Or does anyone have photo's of it.
Craig Baird.

Hi Craig,

Do you recall me upsetting Stan at at your first Puke meeting when I told him your Titan was a Valour? Lousy bastard! and I've never changed. The car is about 3 mtrs from my office. Now fitted with a modified Datsun 180B and clothed with sportscar bodywork. I may actually have video footage of that meeting. Drop me a line and I'll have a look.

Cheers,

Russ

ps Happy to deal on your last drive.....money my way of course.

[Russ Cunningham]

While searching for the Baird Titan, could you have a look for the ex Oxton, Walker Elfin 600 as well - that seems to have vanished too

It was totally written off, Michael.

[Allan]

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[paul lancaster]

Hi bairdo, welcome to trs.it's kind of an addiction this site, Paul here, commentator at levels, I've still got the bottle of bubbly you walked all the way up those stairs to give me a couple of years ago.hope all is well cobber and hope to see you at levels again soon. Paul

[bairdo]

Hi Mate. You were not a pioneer when it comes to upsetting Stan.
Would love to see some photos of it. My email is cglbaird@bigpond.com.

Cheers,
Bairdo.

[bairdo]

I am always in touch with Pete. Must say I miss the old summer series and catching up with you all.

[Grant Sprague]

Yep they are special times , hope they get repeated, amazing people from South Cant, [& Ruapuna] all seem like extended family , they treat people with open arms infact nothing has changed since I left Timaru....& moved to Tauranga , the minute we enter that town the fun starts... lol..the atmosphere is super cool ............

[Carlo]

Bairdo, Mr Spragoo, will have the thermos waiting by the fireplace in case you want a cuppa

[Grant Ellwood]

25126
Hopefully I have uploaded a pic of the Tomas Merzera Reynard...

[Grant Ellwood]

Now that I have gotten over the shock of successfully uploading a photo for the first time, I need to give credit for the pic. I sourced it on Wikimedia, author GTHO and the car belongs to Neil Richardson in Australia. I will soon post an article about how this car arrived in Oz, before my memory becomes totally redundant!

[Grant Ellwood]

Circa 1983 Theseus Desborough asked me to import a Reynard FF, he was planning to move up from Formula Vee. In those days it wasn’t as easy to import racing cars as it is nowadays but I was already importing a variety of gear for my Flamecrusher company in NZ and Theseus knew I was experienced in working with Customs. I called Reynard, secured a deal, paid the deposit and waited for the build to start. Reynard was on the rise in the 80s and there was usually a long backlog of orders, in our case it took six months before the car was ready for delivery, this model being an FF83 complete with Minister engine. Meanwhile Theseus changed his mind so I started looking for another buyer.
About a week later I was off to Australia to meet ex-pat Kiwi David Haydon who was interested in distributing Flamecrusher products in NSW via his company Dalcar Industies. He collected me at Sydney airport and we stopped at a café en route to his factory for a get- to-know-you chat. Somewhere in the conversation he mentioned that he was interested in buying a Formula Ford for Tomas Merzera to drive in the Oz championship. At that stage Tomas was racing an old banger and not getting anywhere despite showing his obvious brilliance and was about to pack his bags and return to Europe to pick up his former career as a ski instructor. Timing is everything as they say and I gave David the clichéd “Boy do I have a deal for you” and he promptly wrote me a cheque for the full price. I called Reynard and had the car shipped directly to Sydney (so I briefly owned a Reynard without ever seeing it in the flesh…).
Tomas finished 5th in the 84 championship before cleaning up the 85 series and Merzera’s professional racing career really took off following this success and all thanks to David Haydon’s gutsy instant decision to buy that car sight unseen from someone he had only just met.

[jonesy55red]

:cool:
Rob Lester was the next Swift driver after Jeff Pascoe, but John Crawford's name does ring a bell in connection with it. Perhaps the car returned south after its spell in the North Island

Amazing! The first photo of the Swift LM1 shows the original alloy body BUT the Van Diemen nosecone that the Lesters used on the Team Unipart car (eventually mated up with a special fibreglass body which I ran on the car until the end of the 1989/90 season). The other pics of the Swift show the more original (there were several versions) alloy nose section. The car was sold from the Lesters to Keith Sharp who used it as a school car at the NZ Racing Drivers' School at Pukekohe, and subsequently sold to me in 1988. The final shot of Jeff Pascoe is definitely not the Swift LM1, and given the lines of the engine cover, I reckon it's a Lola. Interestingly, included in the bits that came with the Swift LM1 was a Lola engine cover.. the shape of things to come I guess. Given that Jeff, Larry et al won the Championship in 1980/81, I'm guessing these pics come from 1981/82. Thank you for posting them.
Regards, Bruce Smythe (Yes I still have the car)

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[jonesy55red]

Tony Garmey ran the ex Tomas Mezera Reynard in Formula Ford here in NZ in the 1989/90 season I believe.

[paul lancaster]

1. Alan Crocker started in the first FF race in NZ (and as an aside still competes today in European historic FF where he runs a number of customer cars and one for himself very successfully) in a Lotus 20. In the newsletter for the 40th anniversary there is a lovely photo of a very youthful Alan standing disconsolately beside his rear wheel-less car at Railway. Perhaps you have more info on that particular car David which would have been an ex National Formula car.

He then built a new Valour FF from a kit which were available from Trevor Larsen either as a fully built car or kitset. Alan sometimes entered the car as an "Allmeown" (geddit?).

For the '74/75 season Alan bought the Ray FF which my brother had run the previous season, a car we had built up from a pile of parts and a "backdoor" chassis obtained (legitimately) from ex Bert Ray employee Don Hutchison.

To complete the Crocker family tree, early 1975 we also sold our original Palliser WDF2 to Alan's brother Kim who rebuilt the chassis in 1978 incorporating the extended gearbox spacer set up we had used on the Cheetahs and renamed the car a Trident Palliser. This car is curently owned and energetically raced by Phil Foulkes and is the car we took to Philip Is for the Aus 40th.

2. I did say JM1 was "probably" the only purpose built Begg FF. However as Wilson Crosby was virtually a neighbour of George Begg, it is entirely possible his car was built new for him. Neil Whittaker was the other Southlander whose name you were looking for. The third member of that Southland trio was Dennis Lyons (spl?), was he also Begg mounted or was the Lyon his creation?

The lyon was dennis's creation, he built 2 ff's, the dl 1, which got destroyed, and the dl 2, which has been owned by dave morrison for the last30 plus years, it won the nz goldstar hillclimb championship in 1988 in the hand on trevor parmenter.the car has just undergone a full chassis up rebuild

[Jac Mac]

Begg FF cars, Keith McFadzien car was an early FF, Neil Kidd, Wilson Crosbie both had a car each, then the Jim Murdoch car, might be more.

[Michael Clark]

Beggs built as FFs:

FM3: 3
JM1: 1

Beggs adapted into FFs:

The '05' Keith McF car was essentially a FF except the category hadn't yet come here when it was racing. It had a 1500cc Cortina motor.

'02', the Rootes powered car, became a FF and indeed still is. It has spent way more time with a Kent in the back than it ever did with a Humber 80.

Not sure if 06 ever did time as a FF - possibly.

[Grant Ellwood]

Beggs built as FFs:

FM3: 3
JM1: 1

Beggs adapted into FFs:

The '05' Keith McF car was essentially a FF except the category hadn't yet come here when it was racing. It had a 1500cc Cortina motor.

'02', the Rootes powered car, became a FF and indeed still is. It has spent way more time with a Kent in the back than it ever did with a Humber 80.

Not sure if 06 ever did time as a FF - possibly.

Michael, while I was in NZ recently I recovered some bits and pieces I had stored since the late '90s. After shipping them back home to USA and sorting through some of the contents I found a logbook for Begg 02, so if anyone knows the current owners address I would be happy to send it to him or her. The logbook is brief, just the one race and wreck (by me) at Baypark in 1973 but I think prior to then it possibly didn't have much documentation. Still, it is part of the car's history so I would like to pass it on.

I also found another couple of logbooks which I must have pocketed while driving some of Richard Lester's Fords in the mid '90s. So if you are reading this post Rich, let me know what to do with them ( but nothing painful please...). The books are for Van Diemans RF90 and RF92.

[Michael Clark]

Grant, the current owners are Ian Bisman and Noel Atley - they purchased it from Allan Woolf. I'll let Noel know.

Best

MC

[Grant Ellwood]

Grant, the current owners are Ian Bisman and Noel Atley - they purchased it from Allan Woolf. I'll let Noel know.

Best

MC

Thanks Michael, didn't Ian Bisman own the car when it had the Humber 80 engine? Great catching up at HD, hope it won't be another ten years before I make it back to the homeland.

[Kwaussie]

I read somewhere that Wally Willmot had the Begg 1600 [02] that Dave Burton drove for George and then sold to Colin Bunce.

[Michael Clark]

Wal raced JM1 back in 2010.

Yes Grant - Ian owned and raced the 02 Humber powered car 'in the day'

[Roger Reed]

I'm pretty sure it was a Valour. An unremarkable car that he bought from Don Elvy. As I recall he put in many hours at Ruapuna testing and developing it and won the FF national championship with it in 84/5

I think youl find Steve Richards won the title in 84/85 in the Titan mk6 that Dave McMillan used and won in ,in I think about 74 ish . I spent 5 years with Steve running the car ,then with Graham Cooks Van Diemen . . . Was great times and great people . . . how they have changed

[paul lancaster]

Currently for sale on trademe

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[Howard Wood]

Thanks Ross and to flesh out the labelling Ross has already done:

Post #154, 4th photo down, Brett Riley, Begg JM1 and Grant Walker, Titan Mk6C continue their epic battle for the '74 - '75 championship which went down to the wire at the final round at Manfeild.
5th photo down Brett in his Titan Mk6C chased by yours truly in Palliser WDF2, Pukekohe top chicane "73 - '74 season.

Post #155, 2nd photo, Neville Bailey's modified Palliser WDF3 chased by Norm Smith's Hustler/ Johnson, also Puke chicane '73 - '74 season. 5th photo is Robin? Hoskins in Cheetah, 6th photo one of the Owens bros and I wonder if that is Alan Crocker in the Ray following.

The others I can identify are already as per Ross's label. Anyone else able to fill in the gaps?

[warricklevis]

Pretty sure that the fourth photo in Post 155 has Roger Levis in the #61 which I think is a Titan.