New Zealand OSCA Database - Histories And Whereabouts

[Steve Holmes]

Further to the Australian and NZ Sports Sedans threads, lets start a thread dedicated to New Zealand Open Saloon Car Association (OSCA) cars, documenting as many cars as we can for future reference. We'll try to include as much info on each car as possible, including build dates, details, modifications, race wins and championships, photos, and ultimate fate. Cars can be either still in existence, scrapped, or current whereabouts unknown. Cut-off date is 1990, meaning the cars must have been built before 1990. OSCA has mostly been South Island based, but has expanded into the North Island on a couple of occasions also, so NI built cars should also be included.

[Steve Holmes]

5507

This car started its competition life in NZ national Group 5, but spent most of its career racing in OSCA, hence I'm putting it in here. This '67 Camaro was imported into NZ by Spencer Black in 1968 as a road car, and converted for racing duties. Black finished the 1968/69 NZ Saloon Car Championship 3rd in the 5.5 championship. The following season it was raced by Rod Coppins, who finished the championship 1st equal with Red Dawsons Mustang, after a countback that couldn't separate the pair. Coppins raced the car through the 1970/71 season, where he was beaten by Paul Faheys FVC Escort, then into the 1971/72 season, where it was replaced mid-season by the T/G Racing built '69 Trans-Am Firebird imported to NZ by Ron Grable.

5508

The Camaro was sold to South Island OSCA racer Bruce Jenner, in March 1972. Jenner continued to modify the car over the next three seasons, until, following a shunt in 1975, he sent it to Rick Deihl at the PDL racing workshop, to semi-spaceframe the car. A complete new front-end was built for it, and new rollcage, but Jenner then collected the car and took it home before the work was completed, apparently for financial reasons.

5509

However, as the front suspension was never completed by Deihl, the geometry was never right, and the cars handling suffered. Neil Robertson owned the Camaro briefly, before sticking it into the fence at Timaru. Next owner was Lawrence Bruce, who also struggled to get the car to handle. Eventually, Bruce traded it to John Osborne for Ozzys Falcon 6 powered Escort. Osborne had so much trouble with the handling, the steering wheel broke in half in his hands at one event at Timaru, after which he rebuilt it, finally curing the front suspension issues, and he went on to win the 1979/80 OSCA championship. This in itself is quite impressive, given this car won two major championships 10 years apart.

5506

Osborne won the Class A OSCA championship in 1980/81, and was 4th overall, before selling the car to Chris Cullen. Cullen had planned to race the car the following season, but this never eventuated. In fact, he owned it until 2002, and in that time, completely restored it, modifying the flares, and repainting it red. The flares fitted to the car during the 70s were actually done by Robin Officer, who'd used the same molds to build the flares on PDL Mustang I, Jack Nazers Victor Chevy, and Bruce Bellis' V8 Cortina. Tony Boyden bought the Camaro off Cullen, and has since been racing it in historic racing. Boyden is incredibly fussy, and the car is in stunning condition. Its not actually presented in any guise from its racing past, instead it is much as how Cullen rebuilt it.

[Munty]

Hi all, can anyone help me find out exactly who won the first few OSCA Championships as the Overall trophy only starts with dad 1977. Also the A class trophy up to mid 90's as that trophy had the years lost many years ago. I have a fair idea but would like some of you to confirm or deny... maybe Bellis, Jenner...
73 Alec Dickie
74 Kevin Haig
75 ?
76 ?
77 Ian Munt

As for A class I know Osborne won the same as overall in 1980 and Munt 1977 plus a few others throughout the 80's but which ones not sure.

[Binzy1]

According to a yearbook I've got;
'74 winner was Laurence Bruce in a Mustang (Trevor Crowe 2nd in Chev Corolla).
'75 was Bruce Bellis in V8 Cortina with Bruce Jenner 2nd, Laurence Bruce 3rd
'76 was Kevin Haig in the Camaro with Jenner 2nd again, Rod McElrea 3rd
'77 indeed some bloke in a Capri......
Lindsay

[fastback55]

5507

This car started its competition life in NZ national Group 5, but spent most of its career racing in OSCA, hence I'm putting it in here. This '67 Camaro was imported into NZ by Spencer Black in 1968 as a road car, and converted for racing duties. Black finished the 1968/69 NZ Saloon Car Championship 3rd in the 5.5 championship. The following season it was raced by Rod Coppins, who finished the championship 1st equal with Red Dawsons Mustang, after a countback that couldn't separate the pair. Coppins raced the car through the 1970/71 season, where he was beaten by Paul Faheys FVC Escort, then into the 1971/72 season, where it was replaced mid-season by the T/G Racing built '69 Trans-Am Firebird imported to NZ by Ron Grable.

5508

The Camaro was sold to South Island OSCA racer Bruce Jenner, in March 1972. Jenner continued to modify the car over the next three seasons, until, following a shunt in 1975, he sent it to Rick Deihl at the PDL racing workshop, to semi-spaceframe the car. A complete new front-end was built for it, and new rollcage, but Jenner then collected the car and took it home before the work was completed, apparently for financial reasons.

5509

However, as the front suspension was never completed by Deihl, the geometry was never right, and the cars handling suffered. Neil Robertson owned the Camaro briefly, before sticking it into the fence at Timaru. Next owner was Lawrence Bruce, who also struggled to get the car to handle. Eventually, Bruce traded it to John Osborne for Ozzys Falcon 6 powered Escort. Osborne had so much trouble with the handling, the steering wheel broke in half in his hands at one event at Timaru, after which he rebuilt it, finally curing the front suspension issues, and he went on to win the 1979/80 OSCA championship. This in itself is quite impressive, given this car won two major championships 10 years apart.

5506

Osborne won the Class A OSCA championship in 1980/81, and was 4th overall, before selling the car to Chris Cullen. Cullen had planned to race the car the following season, but this never eventuated. In fact, he owned it until 2002, and in that time, completely restored it, modifying the flares, and repainting it red. The flares fitted to the car during the 70s were actually done by Robin Officer, who'd used the same molds to build the flares on PDL Mustang I, Jack Nazers Victor Chevy, and Bruce Bellis' V8 Cortina. Tony Boyden bought the Camaro off Cullen, and has since been racing it in historic racing. Boyden is incredibly fussy, and the car is in stunning condition. Its not actually presented in any guise from its racing past, instead it is much as how Cullen rebuilt it.

Great work Steve,
this is an iconic car, I remember it as the Spencer Black car progressing to Rod Coppins at Bay Park and Pukekohe, great times and great cars in those days, I'm afraid modern racing, Suzuki's Commodores, Falcons, and Utes and many thousand BMW's don't do it for me. Tony Bowden has presented the car fantastically as you say and I love seeing it in Central Muscle Car Racing and where he presents it. I appreciate how he presents it now rather than concentrating on the period of a certain owner, probably a fitting tribute to all who have slaved over it and a little piece of all time in it somewhere.

[Munty]

According to a yearbook I've got;
'74 winner was Laurence Bruce in a Mustang (Trevor Crowe 2nd in Chev Corolla).
'75 was Bruce Bellis in V8 Cortina with Bruce Jenner 2nd, Laurence Bruce 3rd
'76 was Kevin Haig in the Camaro with Jenner 2nd again, Rod McElrea 3rd
'77 indeed some bloke in a Capri......
Lindsay
Thanks Binzy need to get all this onto the trophy before it gets lost forever. Cheers

[Milan Fistonic]

This is the entry list for the North Island Final Round of the ACE-OSCA Series held at Pukekohe on April 29, 1973.

5584

[Munty]

I guess I may as well fill in where a few cars are now, especially for the North Island members... most of these some of you will know but may as well get it down in writing for the future.

Dads Capri is now with Keith Tunnicliffe and getting a resto at Rosscos in Fielding.
Rod McElreas Cortina is now with Anthony Prendergast (who has the original Jac Mac Mark II 2 door Cortina) and is getting a resto by Herbie who used to help Rod back in the day.
Tony Mann has the ex Dickie Victor which is nearly ready to run and also the ex Kennedy built Capri.
Butch Johnson has is Avenger going again which also ran in Shellsport along with Allan Farr with his Escort which ran in Shellsport too.
Rod Hayman has the Capri that was raced by numerous people.

...theres a start :)

[Steve Holmes]

Thats great Evan, many thanks. I'll add more to this next week.

Re the Rod Hayman Capri, what is the history of this car?

[Jac Mac]

A few names /cars from down my way that competed in OSCA, perhaps not full time.
Ross Wells/Peter Mackay, Wade Paterson, Peter McFadzien- Ford Anglia ( all same car at various times I think )
Evan Dickie ex Hammond 1650 Anglia.
Geoff Elder - 1400cc injected Mini ( Still has it ) lots of developement by the late Russ Murray.
Gary Jenkins- My old Imp & then the ex Dickie Victor V8.
Arther Jelley- V6 3.0 Anglia ( Might have been sold to Rex Ramsay? Twizel.)
Lee Heads- 1650 Anglia.
Derek McRae- V8 Torana Sunbird, then V8 Chevette
Damn, now the minds gone blank, Oh well I can at least add/delete as reqd on this site when memory returns!

[Munty]

Rod Hayman has the ex John Fisher/Don Elvy/John Heslin car. Don't know who had it before John. Anyone?

[stirlingmac]

Sorry for the slow reply, I had to dig out some info. My former OSCA car is a Datsun 1200 coupe. It was powered by a Mazda 10A PP and 4 speed. It is easily identifiable because it was factory LHD. I bought it in 1990 from fellow Wellingtonian Craig Park and I still own it. I rebuilt it with a 12A PP and 4 speed. From the rego papers for it's trailer former owners include Richard Haar of Gore in 87 and Lindsay Tressler of Gore in 86. I would love to hear any stories and see any pics of it. Cheers Wayne.

[stirlingmac]

Found this at a garage sale years ago never seen another...probably more common down south.

[Munty]

Yep thats the original (i think?) logo which re did a run of grey T-shirts with that logo on a couple years back.
By the way all, the twin DVD of footage which we played at the 40th reunion night will be available in approx 4 weeks. Price looks like being $25 plus postage, nearly 4 hours of footage from mainly the 80's.
Contact me directly to purchase evanmunt@hotmail.com

[shellsport]

Great that your on here Wayne , now I have seen your coupe , looks great.


Whats up with 1200.com? , just dose not seem as informative as it was !

[stirlingmac]

Hey Bazza, I don't visit 1200.com much too many young guys ....Hopefully on here I can tap into a more mature info vein !!!

[Steve Holmes]

Hey Wayne, thats a pretty little car. Great to hear you still own it. Which of those two photos is the newer?

[stirlingmac]

Thanks Steve, here is a pic taken of when it was last running...far too long ago !!!

[Steve Holmes]

Wow, I love it! What was its history before you bought it?

[minihaha]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAEoBZjOa7Y&feature=related

Hi, found this on youtube. Thought it may be of interest, it's pretty cool stuff.;)

[minihaha]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytU3nWcMq8o&feature=related

Heres race 2.

[Oldfart]

What happened to the Volvo 360 of Lancasters?

[rogered]

Its been mentioned before, but
The ex PDL commodore driven by Glenn Jones, Now this is the same chap who Built the famous Morrari
(and prior to that ran prewar V8 Coupes)
He certinally drove the Commodore very well, but then he had done his apprenticeship on some pretty hairy Machinary.:)

[Steve Holmes]

I think that Commodore was written off when Michael Johnston owned it? Pretty sure it no longer exists, which is a same. I wonder what happened to the Brett Willis Commodore though?

[Rod Grimwood]

Steve, Brett has hunted all over for his old car, and has drawn a blank after the car changed hands the second time. I think they are still looking. Jiggers old Commodore was sadly wrecked in the accident when Michael Johnston owned it.

[Jac Mac]

IIRC the 'PDL' Commodore was actually being built by Dave Brown in invercargill for Pat Monaghan ( Ex Sprague GTHO & multiple E49 owner), when Clyde Collins bought it at the 'roller' stage of construction

[minihaha]

I noticed that there was a Mini in the field. This fascinates me and I was wondering if anybody had some info on it. Tony Palmer mentions a Mini Special driven by Lance Evans.

[Paul Kirk]

Rod Hayman has the ex John Fisher/Don Elvy/John Heslin car. Don't know who had it before John. Anyone?

Evan, I'm surprised you don't remember the early history of that car, (but then again as you were so young at the time you probably weren't interested)! (So you're excused).
The ex Fisher Capri you mention was originally built for Frank Ryan (Tianou) by Brian Taylor in Dunedin, but not quite finished, Wayne Murdock (TImaru) almost finished it, Frank raced it a few times with 302 Windsor power then asked me to sort it out in return for racing it for a while with a cobbled up 326 Ford that I assembled from a trailor load of old bits, (there was a promise of some money and Zip Wholsalers sponsorship but these were never forthcomming), Clyde Collins bought it off Frank a few years later and Avon Hyde drove for him with 350 Chev power, I think Fisher bought it from Clyde, (unless it had been sold to someone else between times) as a roller and I changed it around quite a bit including converting to left hand drive and built up a good Hilbourn injected 350 Chev, lightened it significantly, fitted a Salsbury diff with 3 link and adjustable anti-squat and adjustable rear roll-center heights among other secrets, just when we, as a team were comming together, (Mark Smith, Grant Hawkins an myself), Fishers wife decided she had more important things to spend his money on than car racing so that was the end of that so Graeme Cameron (Dunedin) bought it and started to put a one piece front end on it but couldn't finish for various reasons so sold to Don Elvy as a basket case. Don put it together as a jigsaw puzzle and altho I did test drive it for Don I can't remember the intimate details although I did note it was back to right hand drive. Don raced it for a while but I think he struggled with it and I've often wondered what happened to it. In discussing it with Don it was clear that he did not get the good engine bits that we got for Fisher.
PK.

[nzboss]

What happened to the Mike Frtzgerald Capri; is it still around?

[ian]

In Dunedin with Tony Mann. Races it regulaly at Teretonga etc. I missed a great photo oppertunity at feb classic race meeting. No 1 and 2 on the grid were metallic blue old O.S.C.A. Capri's. Could have been early 70's line up.

[Rod Grimwood]

Here you go Ian

[Rod Grimwood]

Heres other one Ian i buggered it up

[Steve Holmes]

So #43 is the Ian Munt car?

So where is the Ryan/Hyde etc car now?

[Carlo]

So #43 is the Ian Munt car?

So where is the Ryan/Hyde etc car now?

Rod Hayman has it all up and running at South Island Classic meetings. Mike Johnson rebuilt the engine for it recently.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Carlo. So the blue #43 pictured above is the Ryan car then? I'm slightly confused. Ian Munt always raced as #43, as did Evan. But the car pictured doesn't look like either the Munt Capri or the Ryan Capri. The flares are different to the Ryan Capri, the bonnet scoop looks different to the Munt Capri, and the Munt Capri raced all of its life on Australian Mawer wheels, to the best of my knowledge. Don Elvy once told me the Ryan Capri had recently been fitted with larger box flares because the originals had become so rough and were beyond repair.

[Carlo]

She is a bit like Paddy's axe Steve but it is still the origonal body shell and quite a bit of the car is how it was used by Frank & Avon but quiet a bit is also like it was during John Fishers and Dons Elvys days

[BWilliams]

Hoping someone in here might know what happened to the Dave Waldron/Mike Johnson/Neville Agass MK1 Escort Turbo.I posted on the OSCA forum when that was still up and Evan helped out a bit by passing on Nevilles' email address.He was a great help and suggested I contact Grant Brennan as he was sure the car was in Auckland and he'd know where it was if it was/is up there.Unfortunately I never got a reply from Grant so the search ended there.
Before all this,Dave had done some research on some info I got hold of about Bob Holmwood,who is on here,and Bruce Mannon possibly knowing the whereabouts.I think these drew a blank also.
Then while I was doing some digging,I had someone tell me a friend of theirs was building a replica of the Raycroft car and the original car was apparently under a tree in Timaru.....Still in the Raycroft colours! Which seems a bit dubious,considering Dave sold the car in the early 80s.

[Munty]

Hoping someone in here might know what happened to the Dave Waldron/Mike Johnson/Neville Agass MK1 Escort Turbo.I posted on the OSCA forum when that was still up and Evan helped out a bit by passing on Nevilles' email address.He was a great help and suggested I contact Grant Brennan as he was sure the car was in Auckland and he'd know where it was if it was/is up there.Unfortunately I never got a reply from Grant so the search ended there.
Before all this,Dave had done some research on some info I got hold of about Bob Holmwood,who is on here,and Bruce Mannon possibly knowing the whereabouts.I think these drew a blank also.
Then while I was doing some digging,I had someone tell me a friend of theirs was building a replica of the Raycroft car and the original car was apparently under a tree in Timaru.....Still in the Raycroft colours! Which seems a bit dubious,considering Dave sold the car in the early 80s.

Hi all, sorry havn't been on here for a while. I fella whose name escapes me at the moment has this Escort and lives in the heathcote valley, christchurch. I think it was just the bare shell he got but is apparently the car and he is rebuiling it as we speak as per when Neville Agass had it...but with a few upgrades.

As for the Capri 43 above just a total fluke that the new owner painted 43 on her and is in fact the Ryan/Fisher/Elvy and others Capri.

[BWilliams]

Cheers for that Evan,nice to finally know it is still around.His name isn't Shane Backhouse is it?As that's the person I referred to above about finding the car in Timaru.So maybe that story wasn't totally untrue then.....
Be great to get hold of some pics of the rebuild if any surface.

[Homer]

What ever happend to Clyde Collins Pontiac Firebird osca car? From memory it was green with some purple and had sponsorship from Sydenham Park Chev spares. I may be completly wrong I was a youngster at the time! any photos would clear it up to see if its the car im thinking of

[Rod Grimwood]

Could be mixed up with Coppins Firebird when it was green for a very short while.

[Homer]

Could be mixed up with Coppins Firebird when it was green for a very short while.

That name doesnt ring a bell unfortunately. It may have been driven by Adam Collins. It would have had to have been early to mid nineties...

[Rod Grimwood]

OK, that changes things big. It was most probably a Trans Am car racing in OSCA most probably, mid 90s is only yesterday, you should remember.

Were are talking 70s with Coppins
Cheers

[Homer]

It definitely was a osca car. I cant remember if it would have been the Don Grindley Oldsmobile Cutless era or when Craig Gilbert owed it. For memory it seemed to struggle with reliability. Was a very tidy looking car. Ive tried searching for pics on the net but so far unsuccessful.

[ian]

I remember this car. Avon Hyde drove it for a while then Dean Kirk had a go. Clyde either owned it or ran the team. May have come to nz to Sydnham Park via Rob Kenard. May be wrong as a few came about that time. Eddie's first was about that time. May have done a season later by Ryan of boat racing fame.

[Homer]

I remember this car. Avon Hyde drove it for a while then Dean Kirk had a go. Clyde either owned it or ran the team. May have come to nz to Sydnham Park via Rob Kenard. May be wrong as a few came about that time. Eddie's first was about that time. May have done a season later by Ryan of boat racing fame.

Hi Ian, this is definitely the car, I was about to edit my post to link Avon Hydes name with the car but was %100 percent sure.

[Steve Holmes]

Didn't this car have a Ford engine? I think it even did the Coronet Peak hillclimb one year. I thought it was later rebodied. Maybe I'm thinking of another car.

[ian]

I think you are right about the rebody. Maybe by one of the Heslin brothers.

[nzboss]

Did'nt Grant Silvester drive this car?
Yes, it had Ford SVO running gear; I remember it too.

[Steve Holmes]

It wasn't the car later raced by Kim Buckley with the '90s shape Mustang body was it?

[Homer]

It wasn't the car later raced by Kim Buckley with the '90s shape Mustang body was it?

Hi Steve

I thought KBs car was originally a TraNZam car that he ran under OSCA rules - one of the ex Greg Lancaster machines?

[Steve Holmes]

Yeah you could be right. I was just grasping at straws. I recall seeing it one time with the fresh new Mustang body fitted, still in white, and wondered if the chassis might have been older.

[Homer]

Yes, im grasping at straws to. What happend to his Cortina?

[Steve Holmes]

The Cortina was the old Rob Kennard car, which was purple and silver. I think Steve Ross might own that now? Can anyone confirm?

[frd1]

One you can cross off the list, Peter Wakefeild's Zephyr powered A40 Farina, ran with Wakefeild and Scott sponsorship. Pic shows it about to be pushed into my shed. Unfortunately I never did anything with it.10138

[rogered]

thats what i understand

[rogered]

The Cortina was the old Rob Kennard car, which was purple and silver. I think Steve Ross might own that now? Can anyone confirm?

thats what i understand, it certinally was a year ago

[Steve Holmes]

One you can cross off the list, Peter Wakefeild's Zephyr powered A40 Farina, ran with Wakefeild and Scott sponsorship. Pic shows it about to be pushed into my shed. Unfortunately I never did anything with it.10138

Awesome!

[Munty]

Hi, I think I can clear a few things up. The Pontiac was brought in by Grant Silvester who ran it for a couple years before Adam Collins did. Avon Hyde definetly drove it and was later sold to Chris Blackwood who I think was the person who rebodied it as a later Ford Mustang T/Am shape. Wayne Ross now has it and is hopefully running it this coming season.

The Kim Buckley Cortina was Kennards and is now owned by Steve Ross who hopefully in the next few years will have it going again. I think he bought the Cortina as it had the PDL1 front brakes or hub assy??? on it which he wanted to put the PDL1 back to original.

Bring the questions on....lol

[KiWinUS]

so what about any of the russ Haines cars ?
where are they now ???
Morrie minor , anglia ? datsun ?
he still races the Frangapelli special
cheers
Tony

[techmen]

Hoping someone in here might know what happened to the Dave Waldron/Mike Johnson/Neville Agass MK1 Escort Turbo.I posted on the OSCA forum when that was still up and Evan helped out a bit by passing on Nevilles' email address.He was a great help and suggested I contact Grant Brennan as he was sure the car was in Auckland and he'd know where it was if it was/is up there.Unfortunately I never got a reply from Grant so the search ended there.
Before all this,Dave had done some research on some info I got hold of about Bob Holmwood,who is on here,and Bruce Mannon possibly knowing the whereabouts.I think these drew a blank also.
Then while I was doing some digging,I had someone tell me a friend of theirs was building a replica of the Raycroft car and the original car was apparently under a tree in Timaru.....Still in the Raycroft colours! Which seems a bit dubious,considering Dave sold the car in the early 80s.

apologies to jump in on an old post, but thought you may still be trying to track the car down,
here is a link to it just being listed on trademe NZ. Is this it? detail of suspension in pics interesting.
needs some tlc but....

http://www.trademe.co.nz/a.aspx?id=545966736

14664
14665

[BWilliams]

Interesting,Evan has said the car is back in Chch......The listing there is expired,but looking up the seller's name,it shows him in Waitakere City.But having said that,the underside of the car is yellow.I'll get Dad to jump on later and see if he recognises that rear suspension setup.

[Munty]

Interesting,Evan has said the car is back in Chch......The listing there is expired,but looking up the seller's name,it shows him in Waitakere City.But having said that,the underside of the car is yellow.I'll get Dad to jump on later and see if he recognises that rear suspension setup.

Hi, sorry to mislead found out the car in Chch is a replica. Nev has just emailed me and said yes this is his old car....does anyone know who has just bought it?

[BWilliams]

Hi, sorry to mislead found out the car in Chch is a replica. Nev has just emailed me and said yes this is his old car....does anyone know who has just bought it?

No worries,it'll no doubt be that replica I've mentioned before.But it's going to be a bit hard to make a replica,if the real car still exists eh.

[minihaha]

14694

Is this the same A40 as shown on page 3. There seems to be quite a few well modified A40 scattered around this site but never any info on them. If not does anyone have pictures of the zephyr/A40 when it was raced please? I have a Mk1 A40 I'm building now and all these old race ones fascinate me.

[markec]

Yes I know who has purchased the Waldron/Johnson/Agas car but am not saying who.It is coming back to ChCh

[BWilliams]

Nice to hear.
If you get a chance to take some pics,that'd be awesome.

[waldyone]

Hi Blair.
Yes this is the Raycroft Escort with a few additions to the rear suspension,a roll bar that we never needed. It is the same car and its been sold to a CHCH buyer so hopefully we will see it on the track again sometime. It won the OSCA chanpionship with Mike Johnson,I only managed 3rd so its got history so worth restoring.
Regards Dave waldron

[BWilliams]

Yep,Dad forwarded your email about it to me.His memory of the build was a bit fuzzy,nice to see you remembered what it looked like underneath!
It'd be great to see it back in action,hopefully somewhat close to how it used to be.No doubt you'll provide some input somewhere along the line.

[markec]

Its back home in ChCh

15694

[BWilliams]

Nice to see.
Here's a pic Dave sent me years ago,I posted it up on the OSCA forums a few years back.The Escort in all it's glory.
15695

[crunch]

Wow, I love it! What was its history before you bought it?

I could maybe help there as I use to Rally with Craig in an RX3 Coupe before he decided to go to the "dark side". I am still in contact with him where he lives in the States and is the CEO of some company out Silicon Valley way. Will ask him

[markec]

Ross Cameron, ex Dawson Comaro, Dave Waldron Turbo Escort, Kevin Ryan,Escort on the front row John Haszard RX3 Maxda Coupe along side John Osborne,ex Black Comaro on the second row.
15992

[paul lancaster]

Hi Evan, any of those dvds still available?

[Lindsay G]

Don't know the date but interesting that Rob Kennards car has no rear wing yet.

[Lindsay G]

The photos aren't great but someone might enjoy them.

[rt6pack]

Any photos from Wigram are great Lindsay!

Does John Osborne's RX7 still exist, I remember him having a big one at Puke and I can't remember seeing the car since. Was that the end of the car or did he rebuilt it? I can only remember him in the Breadvan after that

[CUSTAXIE50]

Any photos from Wigram are great Lindsay!

Does John Osborne's RX7 still exist, I remember him having a big one at Puke and I can't remember seeing the car since. Was that the end of the car or did he rebuilt it? I can only remember him in the Breadvan after that Its somewhere around Feilding.

[Steve Holmes]

The photos aren't great but someone might enjoy them.

Wow, these are awesome!!! Got any more?

[Steve Holmes]

I actually prefer the Rob Kennard Cortina in the earlier guise as pictured by Lindsay.

[Steve Holmes]

Any photos from Wigram are great Lindsay!

Does John Osborne's RX7 still exist, I remember him having a big one at Puke and I can't remember seeing the car since. Was that the end of the car or did he rebuilt it? I can only remember him in the Breadvan after that

Russell Due owned it for many years I believe, and I was told he was slowly rebuilding it, but I don't know if he ever finished the rebuild. Not sure if he still has it, I recall there being some noises about John Osborne maybe getting it back, but I don't know if that happened.

[CUSTAXIE50]

Russell Due owned it for many years I believe, and I was told he was slowly rebuilding it, but I don't know if he ever finished the rebuild. Not sure if he still has it, I recall there being some noises about John Osborne maybe getting it back, but I don't know if that happened. My understanding is after talking to someone at manfeild some time back that he has passed.If John gets it back he will have to build a new front end for it because its in another race car that Russell had.

[Growler]

I noticed that there was a Mini in the field. This fascinates me and I was wondering if anybody had some info on it. Tony Palmer mentions a Mini Special driven by Lance Evans.

The only memory I have of Lance Evans and his special Mini was that it had the Twin Cam head from England. He used to race in SS2000 in the early days.

[Lindsay G]

thanks for the response guys.

[Lindsay G]

237982379923800Wellington

[Lindsay G]

a few more that might be of interest.238242382523826still Wellington.

[Lindsay G]

still any interest?23827

[bigbanger]

Still interesting, please keep them coming.

[rt6pack]

Yes Lindsay your pics are fantastic, got me thinking now what happened to Steve Vigurs Celeste? And is that a young Tony Marsh standing at the drivers door of the red RX7 (car #2)?

[rf84]

Custaxie is correct on 2 points-Russell Due passed away in late 2012 and he had moved from Taihape to a place in Feilding (probably not more than a km from Manfeild).

[Rod Grimwood]

rt6pack, you are correct with Tony Marsh and RX7, this was ex Aussie Group C and run in Coolwool series. Keiran Wells drove it and believe it went on to became RX8.
2 similar cars arrived at same time, other one driven by Phil Henley and supported by Cran Judge through Statesman shirt company.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks for the extra pics Lindsay, just fantastic!

[Steve Holmes]

Yes Lindsay your pics are fantastic, got me thinking now what happened to Steve Vigurs Celeste? And is that a young Tony Marsh standing at the drivers door of the red RX7 (car #2)?

Yes I too would love to know what happened to the Celeste. And what happened to Steve Vigurs? There was a Steve Vigurs racing in Sports Sedans in Australia a few years ago. Was this him?

[Steve Holmes]

rt6pack, you are correct with Tony Marsh and RX7, this was ex Aussie Group C and run in Coolwool series. Keiran Wells drove it and believe it went on to became RX8.
2 similar cars arrived at same time, other one driven by Phil Henley and supported by Cran Judge through Statesman shirt company.

Thats right Rod, the Wills RX7 was an ex-Group C car from Australia. I had been told it was an ex-Barry Jones car, and the first RX7 built for Group C in Aus, so it was quite an important car.

[Munty]

Hi Steve, yes Steve Vigurs lives in Aus now and is running his son in law in a yellow spaceframe Camaro

[Munty]

Hi Evan, any of those dvds still available?

Sorry its been a while but yes have done a couple more runs of the DVD, just give me a bell evanmunt@hotmail.com

[a9x]

Yes I too would love to know what happened to the Celeste. And what happened to Steve Vigurs? There was a Steve Vigurs racing in Sports Sedans in Australia a few years ago. Was this him?

I was in touch recently with Steve Vigurs as I wanted to know what hapened to the Cortina he ran before the Celeste (it was dumped). Many years ago I saw the Celeste being driven down Lincoln Road in Chch...it had been made street legal. Obviously before certification process came into being! I heard that it was subsequently crashed and written off; but never been able to confirm it.

[Jac Mac]

OSCA V8's..[Known OSCA drivers only- please PM with any info]

Capris:
*I.Munt (302 SBF/ 350 SBC)-E.Munt
*F.Ryan-P.Kirk ( 302/326 SBF )-C.Collins/A.Hyde ( 350 SBC)-R.Fisher-R.Cameron-D.Elvy-J.Heslin-A.Pulley-R.Hayman-T.Mann
*J.Kennedy ( 351c Ford)-B.Slade (GW/SBF)-R.Farrar ( 350 SBC)-S.Vigers-I.Shrimpton-M.Fitzgerald-?.Boult-T.Mann
*J.Osborne ( SBC ) XXXX.....destroyed, fire , testing @ Ruapuna
*I.Tulloch ( SBC)-J.Osborne
*J.Dymand (SBF 302) XXXX

Mustangs:
*D.Dunlop( 302 Boss)-K.Haig-L.Bruce-C.Morris-B.Slade ( GW/SBF)-R.Kennard
*D.Baker (302 Boss-G.Baker- S.Ross?
*J.Armstrong ( SBF 289)-R.McElrea
*W.Ross-?

Cortinas Mk1:
*J.McCoomb/G.Hargraeves ( SBF 289)-P.Blomfield
*A.Threckhold ( SBC 327)/P.Kocis?
Mk2:
*J.McIntyre (302 Boss)-D.Prendergast
Mk3:
*P.Andrews?
*C.Collins ( SBF302/326-SBC350)-B.Bellis-J.Beattie-A.Newton-S.Vigers XXXX
*R.Bartley (351c Ford)
Mk4:
*J.McIntyre (302 Boss)-R.McElrea ( SBC 350)-B.Search-R.McElrea-D.Prendergast(in restoration)
Mk5:
*R.Kennard ( SBF 346)-K.Buckley

Escort Mk1:
*J.Harcourt (B.R.P. 4.3)-


Escort MK2 ( V12):
*W.Ross

Camaro's:
*B.Jenner ( SBC 350)-L.Bruce-J.Osborne
*I.Tulloch ( SBC 350)
*K.Haig ( SBC 350)-D.Peddie-R.Cameron

Corolla:
*T.Crowe (SBC 327) XXXX

Mazda RX7:
*J.Osborne SBC 355/366)


Victor:
*A.Dickie ( SBC 327)-G.Jenkins (SBC 327/350)-L.Bruce-D.Elvy-R.Cameron-T.Mann

Starlet:
*T.Crowe
*T.Crowe-R.Freeth- J.Harcourt-

Holden EH:
*S.Dymand ( Holden 253)

Commodore:
*P.Monaghan-C.Collins/A.Hyde-M.Johnston.........................................G.Jones?
*I.Munt
*B.Whittle-
*W.Ross-?

Monaro:
*R.Sylvester-R.Thorpe ( SBC 366)

Torana:
*D.MacRae ( SBC 350) XXXX...............................went to stock car track

Chevette:
*D.MacRae ( SBC 350)-.......-.......- somewhere in Marlborough Sound area being rebuilt?

Zephyr:
*B.Thorpe ( SBC 327)

Viva:
*P.Kirk-H.Ross-
*J.Heslin-

Mitzi Celeste:
*S.Vigers ( SBC 350)


SPACE FRAME CARS: Not sure on which form for these with so many body/engine swaps its easy to lose ID, perhaps driver name in progressive ownership with body /engine in brackets?

L.Knowler ( Camaro SBC350)
*R.McDonald ( XB Falcon Coupe 351) ...... B.Stirling..........
*N.Barclay?(EB Falcon351), R.McDonald( Falcon/Mustang),.............,P.Neame
*J.Beck (RX7/SBC350)......





Still some gaps to fill-PM me with info & I'll edit...Thanks

The P.Andrews with Mk3 Cortina might have been a P.Williams ( Kaiapoi/Rangiora?) & may not have raced, seem to remember it was a semi space frame car & not legal for OSCA at time?

[Jac Mac]

OSCA 6 cyl [ Known drivers only...PM with further info..]

Austin A30:
K.Rout (T2000)

Escort:
J.Osborne-L.Bruce-Agnew?....4.1 x/flow Falcon
B.Agnew-?....3.0 V6 Ford
W.Ross
L.Hunter-....3.8 V6 Holden?

Anglia:
A.Jelley-R.Ramsay-...3.0 V6 Ford
R.Bartley-

RX7:
D.Grindley-?.... 4.3 V6 Buick

Prefect:
B.Vuyk-D.Peddie-?.... 2.553 Zephyr/202 Holden

Viva:
D.Brown-?....3.0 V6 Ford

XU-1
P.Kocis-?

Avenger:
M.Johnson-D.Robertson?.... 265 Chrysler Hemi

Valiant Charger:
J.Little-.... 265 Chrysler Hemi

[Jac Mac]

OSCA 4 cyl.....[Known drivers only...PM with further info..]

Nissan Datsun:
T.Crowe-?
J.Dymand-?
G.Love-?
P.Mauger-
G.Ricardt
W.Murdoch-


Austin A30:
J.Whelan (1340 Ford )

Austin A40 Farina:
W.Ross-
P.Kirk (1470 pushrod Ford )
B.Morrison-
G.Newell (1725 H/Hunter)
P.Pascoe-

Morris Minor:
Foley-

Anglia:
L.Heads ( 1650 pushrod Ford)
H.Hammond-E.Dickie ( 1650 pushrod Ford) XXXX Went to stock car track.
R.Wells/P.McKay-W.Patterson-P.McFadzien-( 1500 pushrod Ford)
G.Birtles-
?.Sandy-
?.Sandy-

Escort Mk1:
M.Coffey-K.Ryan-...........................................................J.Abbot ( Ex Nazer Car? )
B.Patton ( TC Ford)
F.Ryan ( TC Ford )
R.McPhail-W.Ross-
D.Grant (2.0 SOHC Ford)
G.Aitken
R.Bartlett ( TC 1608 Fiat)
L.Neilson ( TC 1598 Ford)
B.Crosbie?-H.Hammond XXXX Converted to Rally car-D.Sharp>
D.Waldron (2.0SOHC Ford )-M.Johnston-N.Agass
B.Hessey-
P.Pascoe-

Escort MK2:
A.Farr-
M.Rutherford-

Prefect:
N.Boon ( 2.0 SOHC Ford )

Imp:
B.Bradshaw (998cc Imp)
J.McIntyre-G.Jenkins (1500 Ford ) XXXX.. bought by N.Brumby Gore-body scrapped
W.Burt (998cc Imp)
B.Vuyk ( 2.0 SOHC Ford/BDA Ford )

Starlet:
W.Burt

Mini:
G.Aitken ( 1458cc)
G.Elder..... still in R/Dale
J.Osborne
J.Little
D.Bell-
A.Prattley-

Avenger:
W.Murdoch-E.Johnstone

Viva:
B.James-

Triumph Herald Coupe:
P.Beck-P.Blomfield ( 1975 OHC Victor )


heaps more to come on these- got names like Heslin Stanley & Joblin with Viva? engine type size?

[Jac Mac]

OSCA Rotary powered

RX-3:
Hazard-?
Grindley-
C.Hool
W.Jones-

Mazda 323:
I.Wilkins-

Viva Rotary:
J.Stewart-E.Munt-

Mitz Lancer Rotary:
Benbrook-P.Blomfield-J.Gobbe

Corolla Hatch Rotary:
?.Sandy-



Ditto:)

[Lindsay G]

Okay strictly speaking not OSCA but its a Charger, its Wigram and its Jim Little so entirely possible he was in an OSCA race. 23829

[Lindsay G]

These are all scans from the same program, Ruapuna 27 Nov 1988.I'll scan others just to give an idea as to who was racing at any given time.23830

[Lindsay G]

I was only able to upload the one so far .the other files are too big so I'll work on that.Speaking of group C cars imported I remember about the late 80s calling in to John Christies garage at Hinds and he had some Japanese group C car he had just imported.If my memory is correct it was yellow, a coupe and had raced at Bathurst.

[Lindsay G]

April 10 1988 Levels23831

[Lindsay G]

Heres one from the 27 Nov 88 program thats small enough but not having much luck with the others.23832

[rt6pack]

I was only able to upload the one so far .the other files are too big so I'll work on that.Speaking of group C cars imported I remember about the late 80s calling in to John Christies garage at Hinds and he had some Japanese group C car he had just imported.If my memory is correct it was yellow, a coupe and had raced at Bathurst.

The yellow car was a Mitsubishi Starion Group A car, used for South Island Endurance series

The black Charger of Jim Little was build for SIPS when his Mustard Charger was deemed too old by the powers that be, it is a later CL Charger body circa 1978 and it ran a 318V8. Yes it ran with OSCAs at Wigram as did a few pre 65 cars

[paul lancaster]

The ex fisher capri that was owned by rod hayman, has now been sold as a roller to tony mann

[bigbanger]

Jim Little ran the CL charger which I think was owned by Mike Small, pretty much exclusively in OSCA. I never saw it run in SIPS, I believe it was outside SIPS regulations in terms of modifications anyway.

[paul lancaster]

Rod Hayman has it all up and running at South Island Classic meetings. Mike Johnson rebuilt the engine for it recently.

The no 43 car is the ex fisher car when rod hayman raced it

[bigbanger]

John Harcourt's Escort had a 4.3 litre Oldsmobile Alloy V8 complete with 44 IDA Webers.

The Johnson Avenger was Eric's ex Wayne Murdoch car which kept the 4 cylinder 1600.

The OSCA Avenger with a 6 cylinder engine was Dave Robertson's example with a nice 265 Hemi aboard.

[paul lancaster]

Hi evan, just found your reply post, im commentating at levels this weekend, would still love a copy, if your coming down.
thanks

[spinner32]

Jac Mac. you are starting an extremely big ask to list every OSCA car. I would suggest that you break the list down into the decades, and only list the cars that raced regularly, not Sports saloons that may have only done meetings like Wigram.
A couple of additions. The Beattie Cortina was raced by Andy Newton from Ashburton before it went to Steve Viguers
The Paul Kirk Viva went to Howard Ross before being scrapped.
a couple of other rotaries. The first turbo rotary was Wayne Jones of Timaru in his RX3 coupe. I believe he still has the car.
What about the RX2 turbo that Criag Hool built. Mark Sadler raced it in the early 90's.
I bought the Jamie Stewart Viva rotary for the wife to race. After I crashed the ex Leckie Lancer that Peter Benbrook fitted a rotary to, I took the Viva over and finally managed to have a class win. The Viva went to Evan Munt, who had more class wins. The lancer is now with John Gobbe
How about S1 RX7's. Dean Kirk raced a fast turbo. Then there was the guy from Nelson who took the V8 out of his LJ Torana, and installed the engine in a S1 RX7. Then there was Robin Grundy with the ex rally RX 3 coupe. And there were the S4 RX7's
And what about my first race car, the ex Peter Beck Triumph Herald Coupe that I raced in 1978. Victor 2 litre engine, Ford twin cam gearbox to a 180B diff, and out to Morris 1100 front uprights, with Morris 1000 torsion bars for suspension. a true OSCA car.
Escorts: what about Dave McNaughton which had IIFC the ex Petch XR4i turbo engine fitted.
There are so many more,
cheers. Pete Blomfield

[Jac Mac]

Yes Pete, that 'would have been a good idea, I think I'll stop at the space frame area as so many cars morphed into other body/engine combos with those.
You will laugh at this, I have been wracking the brain all arvo trying to remember your herald coupe & I need my ass kicked over Ant Newton & the ex Collins Cortina, being a couple of Cobra nuts we email frequently!
Will keep at the lists, it wont happen quickly, but hopefully it will help, gets confusing when someone mentions a car with someone halfway down the list, so hopefully getting all the drivers in order will help.
Calling it quits for tonite, will check PM's in the morning & see whats come out of the woodwork..

[spinner32]

Sometimes it's easier to start with a name, and then go through the cars they have raced.
Take Wayne Ross. when I first met him, he was racing a A40 with a twin cam. Then that engine went into the ex- McPhail escort. Then there was the Jag V12 powered Mk2 Escort. And the ex Lancaster Volvo. And I think his current space frame Mustang is the ex Sydenham Park Firebird frame that Chris Blackwood converted to the Mustang bodyshell.
I recall racing against the Sandy brothers who had an Anglia each in the late 70's. They later built a Corolla Hatch with a rotary, and the Viva rotary that Jamie Stewart made famous.
And we haven't even touched on the Datsun 1200s. Trevor Crowe, Speed Richardt, Phil Mauger, John Dymond are just a few names that quickly come to mind.
Pete

[Steve Holmes]

OSCA V8's

Capris:
I.Munt-E.Munt
F.Ryan-P.Kirk-C.Collins/A.Hyde-R.Fisher-R.Cameron-D.Elvy-J.Heslin-A.Pulley-T.Mann
J.Kennedy-B.Slade-R.Farrar-S.Vigers-I.Shrimpton-M.Fitzgerald-?.Boult-T.Mann
J.OsborneXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
I.Tulloch-J.Osborne
J.DymandXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Mustangs:
D.Dunlop-K.Haig-L.Bruce-C.Morris-B.Slade-R.Kennard
D.Baker-G.Baker- S.Ross?
J.Armstrong-R.McElrea
W.Ross-?

Cortinas:
J.McCoomb/G.Hargraeves-P.Blomfield
A.Threckhold/P.Kocis?
J.McIntyre-A/D.Prendergast
P.Andrews?
C.Collins-B.Bellis-J.Beattie-A.Newton-S.VigersXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
R.Bartley-
J.McIntyre-R.McElrea-B.Search-R.McElrea-A/D.Prendergast
Kennard-Buckley

Escort MK2 ( V12):
W.Ross

Camaro's:
B.Jenner-L.Bruce-J.Osborne
I.Tulloch
K.Haig-D.Peddie-R.Cameron

Corolla:
T.CroweXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Mazda RX7:
J.Osborne
K.Wills-

Victor:
A.Dickie-G.Jenkins-D.Elvy-R.Cameron-T.Mann

Starlet:
T.Crowe
T.Crowe-R.Freeth- J.Harcourt-

Holden EH:
S.Dymand

Commodore:
P.Monaghan-C.Collins/A.Hyde-M.Johnston.........................................G.Jones?
I.Munt
B.Whittle-
W.Ross-?

Monaro:
R.Sylvester-R.Thorpe?

Torana:
D.MacRaeXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Chevette:
D.MacRae

Zephyr:
R.Thorpe-P.Kocis?

Viva:
P.Kirk-H.Ross-
J.Heslin-

Mitzi Celeste:
S.Vigers-?


SPACE FRAME CARS: Not sure on which form for these with so many body/engine swaps its easy to lose ID, perhaps driver name in progressive ownership with body /engine in brackets?






Still some gaps to fill-PM me with info & I'll edit...Thanks

The P.Andrews with Mk3 Cortina might have been a P.Williams ( Kaiapoi/Rangiora?) & may not have raced, seem to remember it was a semi space frame car & not legal for OSCA at time?



Hey great work there Jac! Thats quite a list. Did the Don Grindley RX7 (with rotary then Buick V6 power) race as an OSCA car os a Sports Sedan?

[Rod Grimwood]

OSCA

[spinner32]

The Heslin Viva I understand was JT's old car.

[Munty]

Hi evan, just found your reply post, im commentating at levels this weekend, would still love a copy, if your coming down.
thanks

Hi Paul, yes should be down on the sunday for a look as not racing this weekend, selling the Viva as building a house and need $$$ lol. I'll bring a copy with me.

[rogered]

Hey great work there Jac! Thats quite a list. Did the Don Grindley RX7 (with rotary then Buick V6 power) race as an OSCA car os a Sports Sedan?

I think the PDL commodore may have gone from collins/ hyde to vigures, glen jones, taylor, johnson

[Lindsay G]

2388223883

[Lindsay G]

OK got the resizing thing solved.23884

[Lindsay G]

Oct 16 88.Ruapuna23885

[Lindsay G]

April 16 89 Ruapuna
23888

[Lindsay G]

Nov 25 90 Ruapuna
23889

[Lindsay G]

2389023891

[Lindsay G]

And that's about the end of them for the moment.I'm sure I've got more somewhere and I'll post them as I find them.

[stirlingmac]

Excellent stuff, finally I see an entry with my car on it...now if some one has some photos of a rotary powered Datsun 1200 coupe I would be forever grateful....

[spinner32]

Stirlingmac, you will be thrilled to hear that I have a photo of you behind me in my old Cortina going through the essses at Timaru. I'll just have to hunt the photo out. I have always thought that your car was built up from the ex Petch/cook 1200 that Grant Atken crashed. is this correct?

[stirlingmac]

Hi Spinner, thats great but it would have been the cars previous owner Craig chasing you. I doubt my car has the history you mention as it's factory LHD though I wish it did! My vague history of the car was that it was a rally car before being rebuilt as a circuit car. Someone out there will fill in the gaps one day..

[CUSTAXIE50]

Custaxie is correct on 2 points-Russell Due passed away in late 2012 and he had moved from Taihape to a place in Feilding (probably not more than a km from Manfeild). What part have i got wrong.

[Lindsay G]

Found another one,the Bruce Bellis (at the time) Cortina at Levels and according to Jac Macs info (which is pretty bloody impressive btw) this is its history.*C.Collins ( SBF302/326-SBC350)-B.Bellis-J.Beattie-A.Newton-S.Vigers XXXX23932

[CUSTAXIE50]

Any photos out there of John Osborne rx7 as it sits today.

[Bryan]

A couple of pics of the Crowe Starlet at Baypark New Year 1983.
2394223943

[Steve Holmes]

Hey, wow, those are cool Bryan!

[Rod Grimwood]

Remember that with both hammering into 'Harmans' and then the big late break and both basically stepped out together and big oppo locko and Crowe all the way around and just made it and Wayne not quite making it. Standing right there in pits looking straight at them, brilliant stuff.

[Bryan]

Hey, wow, those are cool Bryan!

Steve, I have a file cabinet drawer full of photos from the late '70s through the mid '80s, mostly from Ruapuna and Timaru, but also from Ashley Forest rallysprint, Rally NZ, B&H 1000. There must be literally thousands.:eek:

Once I learn to drive my negative scanner, and as time permits, I'll scan and upload them.

Cheers,
Bryan Miller

[Bryan]

Remember that with both hammering into 'Harmans' and then the big late break and both basically stepped out together and big oppo locko and Crowe all the way around and just made it and Wayne not quite making it. Standing right there in pits looking straight at them, brilliant stuff.

That was the only time I got up to Baypark (from Christchurch). Bloody great show. :-)

Camped at Te Puke, next to Robbie van Gisbergen. He was racing a 2-litre Mk1 Escort and put a rod through the block iirc.

[Rod Grimwood]

Bryan, I bought that car off him back then and still have it. I was running a little Angle box with 2litre and was mates with him and he talked me into the Escort at Bay Park, bloody car salesmen. Best little car I had fun in and Anglia was neat little thing also.

Got a photo of it and my little Anglia with cheese driving Escort at Bay Park meeting I bought it

[Jac Mac]

MKIV Cortina on first race day out at Teretonga and Derek MacRae's OSCA Torana on grid for Southern 200 @ Ruapuna.

[gokiwi]

I hope you dont mind me jumping in on this thread but here are a couple of photo's of the Vigurs Celeste.25142

[gokiwi]

and of the man himself.......25143

[gokiwi]

Also Steve attempted to power the Celeste with a 4.1 litre turbo charged Buick V6....it was a failure.

[paul lancaster]

I hope you dont mind me jumping in on this thread but here are a couple of photo's of the Vigurs Celeste.25142

With pics like that, you can jump on whenever you like man, I remember the celeste well.i think it came to a fiery end on a trailer in a highway crash

[paul lancaster]

I hope you dont mind me jumping in on this thread but here are a couple of photo's of the Vigurs Celeste.25142

With pics like that, you can jump on whenever you like man, I remember the celeste well.i think it came to a fiery end on a trailer in a highway crash

[gokiwi]

Yes I think that was when Steve destroyed the Bronco on the Kilmog coming back from Teratonga......replaced the Celeste with Avon Hyde's Commodore I think.

[Steve Holmes]

Awesome pics of the Celeste there Scott. Thanks heaps for sharing. I always wondered what happened to this car. I just assumed it had been quietly retired and was sitting in someones shed. Didn't realise it was destroyed on a road accident. Thats a real shame. Didn't Steve also own the ex-Clyde Collins Cortina at one stage? Did bits from the Cortina go into the Celeste?

[rogered]

Yes I think that was when Steve destroyed the Bronco on the Kilmog coming back from Teratonga......replaced the Celeste with Avon Hyde's Commodore I think.

may be wrong, but had a feeling commodore was before celeste

[tmann]

25169

photo of Barry Vyke Hillman Imp before it was scraped.

[Rod Grimwood]

Rogered, yep wrong. Jigger got Commodore off Vigurs. Celeste was after Cortina I think.

[seaqnmac27]

25169

photo of Barry Vyke Hillman Imp before it was scraped.

Sunbeam Stilletto. This is after Bryan Bate's ownership, after which iirc it was sold to Sandy Powell, who drove in rallycross. Where it had a very nasty crash, the pics of which are on the Mini and Imps thread.

[tmann]

25189

Rodger Freeth starlet being rebuilt at Possum Bourne's home garage. Photo by Doug Crook.

[tmann]

25190

and another taken sometime later. more photo's to come

[Steve Holmes]

Wow, these are awesome! And they're dated. I assume this must have been when the car had its big rebuild with the new bodywork being fitted?

I remember interviewing Trevor Crowe about this car once. He built it and only raced it one season (1986/87 I think???), but it was still very fast, straight out of the box, and immediately faster than his first Starlet. But he said a lot of people don't consider it to be his car, because of its long association with Rodger Freeth. But I always considered it, in its original guise, to be his car, and in its reformed guise, to be Rodgers.

[tmann]

Now that I know how to post photo's I'll send more that show this car and it's rebuild.
Have a photo dated 1988 as raced by Freeth, CRC colours, smaller guards and alloy cage.
Photo above is 1990 with new steel cage and getting the larger guards as car is now.
New cage and fabrication done by Doug Crook who also took these photo's

[tmann]

25198

sorry, should have posted photo's in order. this photo dated 1988, shows alloy cage and small guards.
Rebuild photo's above ,1990, show steel cage, body ready for larger guards.

[tmann]

25199

It's not often photo's are taken of the inside of a car, this was high tech in it's day, 1988

[Oldfart]

Brilliant Starlet photos.

[Shano]

Those bars that look like rulers just under the main part of the dash were Rodger's 'telemetry'. They were connected by cable to the suspension on each wheel and he had a video camera mounted to film them. From that he made adjustments.

As Tmann says, it was hi-tech for its day. Rodger was a very innovative guy.

[tmann]

Correct shano, you can see the black cable attached to the left hand roll bar going to one of the rulers.

[paul lancaster]

25199

It's not often photo's are taken of the inside of a car, this was high tech in it's day, 1988

Hi tony, this was high tech in its day, way before on board computers n stuff, I remember sitting in it, and asking him about all the gauges,he hadcables running off all corners of the car, running back to the dash, and the wee ruler gauges, that moved up n down as he went over bumps n round corners, which he videoed, in car , then watched the footage to see what was happening.u can see the row of ruler type knobs all in a row to the left.

[ERC]

Flagging at the Pukekohe hairpin, Rodger was the fastest of any car through there, bar none (and that includes the single seaters).

[GD66]

He was good, always trying stuff. Here's what he did to his Yamaha TZ750 Viko Special, today rebuilt and running. After taking a look at Rodger's proposal, the NZACU bosses decided against allowing it...


25219

25220

[VigursM]

Commodore went down the cliff on way back from Teratonga. Celestte was a few years prior, it was mums car until she left it home one day when Steve and Neville Agass thought it would make a good race car and proceeded to chop it up

[tmann]

25410

[gokiwi]

and a couple more , hopefully when the house is finished I will be able to unpack and find the rest.

25922

25923

25924

[seaqnmac27]

and a couple more , hopefully when the house is finished I will be able to unpack and find the rest.

25922


Great bit of history all in one shot. Munt Osborne and Vigurs, 3 very early Sports Sedans.

[gokiwi]

a couple more

26436

26435

[markec]

Hoping someone in here might know what happened to the Dave Waldron/Mike Johnson/Neville Agass MK1 Escort Turbo.I posted on the OSCA forum when that was still up and Evan helped out a bit by passing on Nevilles' email address.He was a great help and suggested I contact Grant Brennan as he was sure the car was in Auckland and he'd know where it was if it was/is up there.Unfortunately I never got a reply from Grant so the search ended there.
Before all this,Dave had done some research on some info I got hold of about Bob Holmwood,who is on here,and Bruce Mannon possibly knowing the whereabouts.I think these drew a blank also.
Then while I was doing some digging,I had someone tell me a friend of theirs was building a replica of the Raycroft car and the original car was apparently under a tree in Timaru.....Still in the Raycroft colours! Which seems a bit dubious,considering Dave sold the car in the early 80s.

The Mk 1 Escort changed sheds on the 31 st April 2016 , is in the process of being stripped to be sand blasted 7th May,all the colours under the blue show its origins including Neville Agass's colour scheme, even the hole on the left hand side behind the door at just under window height.It will be returned to the Raycroft colours and be kept as close to period as possible,with only some safety updates where needed.

[markec]

Its back home in ChCh

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Escort has changed sheds with Nick Donaldson doing the rebuild

[Steve Holmes]

Interesting. More here: http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/specialist-cars/competition-cars/auction-1095578844.htm

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[seaqnmac27]

Looks awesome!

[Roger Dowding]

a couple more

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Go Kiwi, tried to enlarge your Escort pic, here it is again, if OK will do the Alfetta ??

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[Roger Dowding]

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where was this taken ??, and make that Gokiwi's post, sorry !!
and it is a Mitsubishi double oops..

[Spgeti]

Roger I think you will find that it is not the Alfetta but the Mitzi Celeste......Cheers, Bruce D

[John McKechnie]

An Alpha aficionado would know, even had Algies 6 on it

[Roger Dowding]

Roger I think you will find that it is not the Alfetta but the Mitzi Celeste......Cheers, Bruce D

Bruce I did wonder about the tail lights and a few details, oops !! will correct..

[Spgeti]

An Alpha aficionado would know, even had Algies 6 on it

Geez John, you could spell Alpha correctly.....Alfa.....

Cheers
Bruce

[John McKechnie]

Ahh, Bruce, but I am Orthodox and as such use the Greek alphabet ...
Alpha, Beta,Gamma, Delta.
You on the other hand use it like Alfabeto........Alphabetti Spagetti

[Spgeti]

You are thinking of Lancias.....Alpha, Beta, Gamma........and they made real thunder boxes....037, B4 ...

Oh Romeo where art thou Romeo......

Your Latin is a weeee bit off my friend

[John McKechnie]

As I said.... I am orthodox.
remember learning Latin at school..... Latin, first it killed the Romans, now its killing me.
Still remember my mensa table

[Spgeti]

Lada's were Russian.....Fiats in disguise and the manufacturer of todays Alfa Fiats....

[Roger Dowding]

Ahh, Bruce, but I am Orthodox and as such use the Greek alphabet ...
Alpha, Beta,Gamma, Delta.
You on the other hand use it like Alfabeto........Alphabetti Spagetti

Love John and Bruce, my type of humour.. sadly .. !! ha ha

[John McKechnie]

Ladas were built in a special city in the Soviet Union-Togliatti- after an Italian communist.
One grade of steel over there, same steel went into Mir as into tanks, Ladas and Fiats.
Only problem they didnt undercoat or prime them.
For painting , gave car an electric current when painting.
Italy and Russia had a special deal on steel as Italy didnt produce their own.

*Oh Romeo where art thou Romeo......*

Is that you Giulietta?

[John McKechnie]

Love John and Bruce, my type of humour.. sadly .. !! ha ha
Roger,, good on you mate , obviously even though you live over there, still got kiwi humour, must be from living on the island

[Spgeti]

No it is I Giulia.....son of Giulietta...

[Oldfart]

Or is that Giulia, mother of little Giulia, Giulietta?

[gokiwi]

This was taken at Ruapuna not long after Steve & Neville had built the car , if memory serves me it was at a drag meeting, I think Rod McElrea was there too. Might have some more pictures somewhere.

and yes it was Jude's shopping trolley Mitsubishi Celeste.

[Steve Holmes]

Good to see another one saved and restored.

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[KiWinUS]

Good to see another one saved and restored.

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49746

Lets crank this up.
Who owns this now?& where?

[Jac Mac]

Car is still with current custodian in canterbury., its going to have issues with front flares/tire contact unless they leave it at that height. Original had them mounted about 2" higher, was designed to use flare from RR on LF & LR on RF with front portion fabricated from steel on each side.

[Jac Mac]

Good to see another one saved and restored.

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Going to have to re-do the front flares by that pic, they are mounted about 2'' too low on front guards- When molds/patterns were built RR was made to do LF and LR for RF with front portion fabricateded out of steel to match. Tire will likely contact flare at correct ride height if raced as is in pics.. Sorry Steve, had to answer on your post, something crazy going on when I tried to reply on other pics/posts etc, page wont stay stable.

[markec]

The Waldron Mk 1 Escort will be appearing at the Skope 2020
2nd- 3rd Feb, also Levels the following weekend, will be run by the restorer,Nick Donaldson from Christchurch. It was retrieved from Auckland a number of years ago, has been verified as the original by Dave Waldron.