Hiya...

[Paul Wilkinson]

Hi all, My name is Paul and I have the (mis)fortune to be addicted to funny looking cars that I can't really afford. I've had a few interesting cars over the years, including Tony Rutherford's old RX2 pictured elsewhere on this forum, a couple of Lotus Sevens and a Europa, a couple of Min de-Jouxs, a Mararn, Manx Beach Buggy, a Manta Mirage and currently a Leitch Supersprint - about to be put up for sale due to the latest obsession....

This site is fantastic, although it acts as an enabler rather than helping cure me of my affliction... I've been reading for a while but have decided to register in order to try and get some info on the latest purchase - but I'll save that for the appropriate forum.

Cheers!

[Steve Holmes]

Hi there Paul, welcome to the site, its great to have you here. Sounds like you've owned some colourful cars! There was an excellent doco on the Manx company on tv a few months ago.

[Rod Grimwood]

Paul, what became of Rutherfords RX2. It was a interesting car.

[Paul Wilkinson]

Hi Rod,

I bought the car off Tony straight out of school and set about spending every cent I earned on it over the next few years. I decided to go to University and it was obvious that the car would sit there not getting the attention/money it needed so I sold it to an employee of a friend of mine. His name is Scott Bartie and at the time he built Rotary engines for a living, his family emigrated to Australia and he went with them - taking the car which he still owns.

I read an article recently on how he had managed to reunite the car with its original engine. That's really funny as it was sitting on the ground next to the car when I sold it to him - one of the rotors was 'welded' to the eccentic shaft after it seized at speed in Tony's last session at Pukekohe...

I must say that Tony Rutherford must have extremely large balls as when we got the new turbo engine together it was terrifying and is also one of the reasons I sold it - I realised that I was going to wreck it or kill myself. The car took off very very quickly but then when the turbo cut in it was like being hit in the back by a freight train. The few times I drove it in that incarnation I never managed to keep traction when the turbo kicked in and it is rather disconcerting moving forward at such a rate of knots while you are at right angles to the road.....

[Paul Wilkinson]

I should add that by all accounts the car is as Tony raced it and is still a cherised possession, rolled out on special occassions. It is a shame more of the old war horsee don't survive in a similar manner.
Is there a class for these old beasts? I am sure a lot of people would love to see them.

[Rod Grimwood]

I should add that by all accounts the car is as Tony raced it and is still a cherised possession, rolled out on special occassions. It is a shame more of the old war horsee don't survive in a similar manner.
Is there a class for these old beasts? I am sure a lot of people would love to see them.

They are trying to put a classic Sports Sedan class together so people can give these cars a burst.
I had the pleasure of a trip to Rotorua and back to North Shore before a meeting to put some miles on new engine for Tony. On road wheels and tyres, bit of humour, doing speed limit down 27 and going "barp,barp, barp" did not seem right. Think every want to be racer must have appeared that afternoon/evening. John Butler had said "give it a little clean every so often, but don't over do it" so just wait for another make believe and a short blow out and that changed the look on their face when they went past after slow down and let them pass by.
Good to hear the car is still together. Is it still Sherwood Green.
Can you get any photos.

[Paul Wilkinson]

Sorry, I'm long since out of touch with Scott. The car is featured in a book on Japanese Performance Cars in NZ

http://nzhondas.com/pub/118613-revolution-history-japanese-performance-car-culture-nzdt.html

and has some recent pictures of the car. It is still green. I always had every boy-racer try to take me on too. My favourite moments were raining on the parade of a chap in a very nice A9X and then the following week piddling on his mates supercharged XU1....