Lost Race Cars

[Truenotch]

Yeah, I had a chat to Geoff about it today and he said it wasn't the Avis avenger. It seems like the original colour was green, so was probably a converted GL model. As far as he remembers, it always rallied in 1600 trim and has a black HM number plate that he remembers from the international rally (has an original picture of it somewhere). He thinks it was mostly grey/silver back then.

[Oldfart]

The car which Mike Courtney has ran in grey, it was built up here by Phil Ornstein with factory bits being a Rootes dealer, but never a "factory" car. Geoff knows that car well. Is there some confusion?(Not this car). Mikes was HA1565 and did do Internationals, Hellas etc. Phil had another 2 door they crashed early on.
More info to come.

[rogered]

Geoff Burrows in Hamilton is the guru for Avengers.
Is this the car which Mike Vincent had? If the car is the car which Mike had it was not a Cowan car.
The Cowan car went back to the UK if it ever car came to NZ
Only 5(?) 2 door cars came to NZ originally.

No, different car

[Oldfart]

Mike had a car which he used and another which might "one day get restored", it's that car (the 2nd) which Mike C was wondering about, not his active car

[SouthernAlpha]

Hey guys, I have a new car for you to see if you can dig up any photos or facts about. I have located the ED Ford Falcon Spaceframe and body work raced by Robin MacDonald in the Tranzam series in the early 90's. The spaceframe was built by John Lovelady down here in Christchurch but I would like to find out if there are any moulds for the body panels laying around the country somewhere so I can make some new panel work. Any photos that you could find would be appreciated for reference if I have to start from scratch.
Cheers.

[Jac Mac]

Hey guys, I have a new car for you to see if you can dig up any photos or facts about. I have located the ED Ford Falcon Spaceframe and body work raced by Robin MacDonald in the Tranzam series in the early 90's. The spaceframe was built by John Lovelady down here in Christchurch but I would like to find out if there are any moulds for the body panels laying around the country somewhere so I can make some new panel work. Any photos that you could find would be appreciated for reference if I have to start from scratch.
Cheers.
IIRC John Lovelady arranged for the molds/body panels for that car, not 100% on that though, was roof still steel? you can contact Rob @ Discount Tyres, Invercargill. Rob has plenty of pics. That car evolved from the ex Barclay? Timaru car IIRC, original body shell was sourced from Ford Australia & was supposed to have been a factory jig deal or something, interesting story about freight arrangement to NZ:)

[tmann]

there is a video on u tube of this car, search: wellington road race ashley Stichbury,it's the "Du Pont" car.
Don't agree with the commentator, Robin gave them plenty of road,

[tmann]

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As a young fella I went with my father to wellington Street Race. Took this photo and have kept it for 27 years.

[seaqnmac27]

The Kieran Wills/Phil Henley Skyline

[Lurker]

Is that Tony Marsh?

[Rod Grimwood]

Is that Tony Marsh?

Yes, deep in thought.

[225sloper]

Hey guys, I have a new car for you to see if you can dig up any photos or facts about. I have located the ED Ford Falcon Spaceframe and body work raced by Robin MacDonald in the Tranzam series in the early 90's. The spaceframe was built by John Lovelady down here in Christchurch but I would like to find out if there are any moulds for the body panels laying around the country somewhere so I can make some new panel work. Any photos that you could find would be appreciated for reference if I have to start from scratch.
Cheers.Going threw my scrapbooks i found these two photos,hope they some help.2518725188

[Steve Holmes]

Robin was really the first guy in NZ to buy a complete Nascar motor for local sedan racing. These days everyone seems to have one, but back then, that was a big deal.

[Jac Mac]

Robin was really the first guy in NZ to buy a complete Nascar motor for local sedan racing. These days everyone seems to have one, but back then, that was a big deal.
It had to be done, the life expectancy of a cast crank was fairly short, I remember hooking up the MSD on either the Coupe or this car and going to some effort to place the box where he could not access the chip from the drivers seat, next time I saw the car the box was remounted, asked why he shifted it...couldn't reach the chip!!!.... horse, water, drink..:).. did he tell you about that 311 km/h run!!

[Steve Holmes]

Great story Jac! Is the 311 km/h run the sealed sprint he did where the car got airborne?

[Jac Mac]

Yup, another of those occasions when I think the chip went walkabout,, I think Rob thought it was clutch slip until they saw the black marks....

[SouthernAlpha]

Awesome photos, thanks very much. Yes the bodywork I am getting with the frame is the black one shown in the bottom photo, very much showing its age and in dire need of a lot of TLC, but seeing as this is going to take me a while to get rebuilt it will get the TLC it needs. As for the 358 Cu.In NASCAR motor, I am reliably informed it is happy and alive in Robins '32 Ford Hot Rod. Goes to show, build it well and it will last forever :)

[Rod Grimwood]

Jac know what you mean about chip an boy's that fiddle. Helped a bloke out way back in early 80s with Pacific, no chip but the old 'tell tale' on rev counter, it was always around the classic 8000 bracket, then one day I was around observing a corner when after race I spot driver lean forward then slip back in seat and a few rev's and back to pits. Yep it was around 8000 again. Chat with engine man and next time the button was well taped and it was around 9500, classic.

[rt6pack]

I only remember Rob's Falcon in its original form, took these pics at one of its first outings
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/rt6pac/DSC06361_zps810c5208.jpg (http://s616.photobucket.com/user/rt6pac/media/DSC06361_zps810c5208.jpg.html)

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/rt6pac/DSC06362_zps33ff2c51.jpg (http://s616.photobucket.com/user/rt6pac/media/DSC06362_zps33ff2c51.jpg.html)

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/rt6pac/DSC06363_zps2ab86db5.jpg (http://s616.photobucket.com/user/rt6pac/media/DSC06363_zps2ab86db5.jpg.html)
The way I remember it Robin did a deal with a Bronco for Stu/Nigel Barclay XR8, then he sent it to Lovelady race cars but they only ended up using the roof on Rob's new car (as in the pics). Then the ex Barclay bodyshell (possibly a Peter Beehag V8 Supercar shell) was bought by Kevin Morton (ex pre65 guy) who had a panelshop in chch fit another roof to it - what happened to it after that I don't know.

[tmann]

There is a write up on Wills / Henley skyline on site,www.v8sleuth.com.au.
It reports the car is still in NZ and is fitted with a small block chev and has been sitting for some 17 years +.
Someone may be able to copy the article onto this page.

[seaqnmac27]

In looking through some MotorActions, I would like some more information on 2 Ford Escorts as they are both completely new to my knowledge. Peter Hustler drove what is variously reported as a 7 or 6.5 litre Escort and the second is the ex Osborne Falcon engined Escort. Any pics? where are they now?

[Impala 65 SS]

Greg Taylors ,Mazda.
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[501racer]

This car is now being restored to group a trim after becoming a PRC rally car in 1992. It was rolled by Andrew Meidecke in a rally and repaired and then rolled by Geoff Maguire in Tasmania. It was sold to Neville Davis and he still has the car along with Tony Longhurst's 1989 Wolf B & H car.He is looking for a set o fRonal or DJR wheels to complete.

Here are some photos of the last Bagnell Sierra being built at Meidecke Motorsport in about August 89.

[Marty]

501 , I had a feeling that the '89 car was in NZ.

[Marty]

The Sleepyhead Nissans were actually entered as Team Nissan Racing New Zealand and had this very unfortunate end to the 1987 Bathurst


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTsqf6roxEY

The Nissan finished the race in 21st pos, 23 laps down.

We had already lost around 10 laps changing the gearbox before the rain came. I still have a scar on my right forearm from draining the oil.

The other team car had a major shunt on the thursday with Kent driving, in those days you could run a T car.

[MarkQ]

The Mazda bodied Sports Sedan at Wellington street race, this was another car built by them after the Commodore, Brett has tried to find the original Commodore but don't think he is having much luck at moment.
The ex Brett Willis Mazda sports sedan as it is now, owned by Keith Stewart. Its runs a 6 litre fuel injected Chev, Jerico and 4WD. It finished 6th overall at last weekends Race to the Sky, its no oil painting but it sounded fantastic and went very well.2882428825

[Jac Mac]

Any chance a certain ute will be converted to 4wd & rear mounted engine to give him some competition next year Mark?

[MarkQ]

Hi Jack, new family = no race car for a while at least. Lots of clever engineering in many of the cars competing up the hill.
Probably one of the last international race meetings that you pretty much have no rule book and a smart thinking guy can build something awesome and compete at the top level. Definitely your sort of event Jack!

[Jac Mac]

Hi Jack, new family = no race car for a while at least. Lots of clever engineering in many of the cars competing up the hill.
Probably one of the last international race meetings that you pretty much have no rule book and a smart thinking guy can build something awesome and compete at the top level. Definitely your sort of event Jack!
Yes as far as building the car goes, but having to comply with all the new helmet/overalls, belts and roll cage certification is outside my senior citizens comfort zone--- can I use my gold card?? Just about got a whole circuit around the farmlet now, no rules! Your Dad was wanting to run the VCC stuff up the driveway...mind you he has never fronted for a test drive....they would all need a new set of dentures on the next day! Could call it the 'Old Feet' Festival!

[Go Slideways]

Ok, I'm on a roll here, so I'll keep going. In the early 1970s, when Jim Richards still lived in New Zealand and was taking just about any drive offered to him, he did quite a bit of speedway and rallying. Those helping his career along were Jim Carney and Jerry Clayton. Clayton would later supply the 302 Boss Mustang he and Murray Bunn would build into the Sidchrome Mustang, but prior to that, had a speedway saloon built from an HQ Holden Monaro, which, at the time, would have been a near new car. From what I can tell, the Monaro sported a couple of different paint schemes, including one for Sidchrome Tools, as pictured.

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Richards raced the Monaro out of Waikaraka Park, though I don't know how much travelling he would have done with the car to other tracks.

It would eventually be sold to Palmerston North racer Bill Dorn, who did just about everything in speedway, including Stockcars and Modifieds. All Dorns race cars were painted up like large American flags, and the Monaro was the same. He raced the car during the 70s, when it was sold to another Palmy racer. It was eventually retired, but I'm quite certain, later re-appeared as a Streetstock, painted black, when Streetstock racing was introduced to Palmerston North speedway in the late '80s/early '90s.

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Most Streetstocks end up getting crushed, as they're eventually no good for anything else. Was this the case with the old Jim Richards Sidchrome Monaro?

I'm pretty sure that the Monaro was originally raced by Ian Easton before Jim Richards, but I'll check. I do know that Jac Jac was the first one to put stars on it, and during the election period he ran the "Vote National" slogan because it was fairly easy for farmers to tell the tax man that Monaro's and associated costs were in fact tractors lol.

This photo is from Ian Easton's personal collection.

https://s1.postimg.org/45381z8orz/EPSON001.jpg (https://postimages.org/)


I think that the car was originally a tarmac race car from brand new but was crashed while driving it from Levin circuit to Auckland at Tokoroa, and then converted to a speedway car.

[Steve Holmes]

Thats a cool photo of the Monaro! Thanks for posting. You are right, it started its racing life as Neville Crichton's Castrol GTX racer, and competed briefly during the 1973/74 racing season before it ended up taking a swim on the way back from an event at Levin. It was a rare factory 350 Chev 4-speed car, painted metallic brown.

It was definitely converted for speedway for Jim Richards, and in fact ran for a season or two with the correct HQ nose before being updated to an HJ. Is this the same car raced by Jac Jac?

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Terry Marshall photo.

[John McKechnie]

Evan Watson built up a HQ 2 door Monaro to race on the dirt track

[Go Slideways]

Trevor Adamson raced it as a Streetstock in the 90s as number 9p. It was left hand drive but was changed at a later date as they didn't like that as a Streetstock, the car ended up scraped and the cage was put into a new car and sold, then sold again. The roof and cage ended up in a scrap yard in Feilding but has since been scraped and long gone

[Go Slideways]

I'm pretty sure that the Monaro was originally raced by Ian Easton before Jim Richards, but I'll check. I do know that Jac Jac was the first one to put stars on it, and during the election period he ran the "Vote National" slogan because it was fairly easy for farmers to tell the tax man that Monaro's and associated costs were in fact tractors lol.

This photo is from Ian Easton's personal collection.

https://s1.postimg.org/45381z8orz/EPSON001.jpg (https://postimages.org/)


I think that the car was originally a tarmac race car from brand new but was crashed while driving it from Levin circuit to Auckland at Tokoroa, and then converted to a speedway car.

Jac Jac just told me that his car:
"wasn't Neville Crightons it was raced by Jim Richards and Steve Millen at Levin motor races were they crashed it and repaired to drive it back to Auckland and got written off at tokoroa when they crashed into a lake. Jerry Clayton then turned it into a speedway car for Richards and Millen - I put it in vote national colours during the elections, because I always pick a winner lol"

[Go Slideways]

Jac Jac Eastons Mustang - "This was a genuine Trans Am bought into NZ by Dexter Dunlop"


It is now in the Bowden Collection in Australia.

https://s1.postimg.org/1o61iyeqkv/EPSON011.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

[BMCBOY]

[QUOTE=Go Slideways;61596]Jac Jac Eastons Mustang - "This was a genuine Trans Am bought into NZ by Dexter Dunlop"]

I found this in the archives from Manfield 1977

46615

[Go Slideways]

Thanks so much BMCBOY - I'm a huge fan of Jac Jac, and of Ross Cammick


Jac's Monaro that he put the stars and stripes on.
He got told off by the official body for putting stars and stripes in the numbers on the 302 Boss Trans Am car in the picture above.

https://s1.postimg.org/1zp10apaan/EPSON012.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

[Shoreboy57]

I recall (if memory correct) Ian Easton doing demonstration laps at Manfeild in a sprintcar back in the day - it looked pretty wild, especially since it had to turn right as well as left.

[Steve Holmes]

I recall (if memory correct) Ian Easton doing demonstration laps at Manfeild in a sprintcar back in the day - it looked pretty wild, especially since it had to turn right as well as left.

I was at that meeting too.

[Steve Holmes]

Jac Jac just told me that his car:
"wasn't Neville Crightons it was raced by Jim Richards and Steve Millen at Levin motor races were they crashed it and repaired to drive it back to Auckland and got written off at tokoroa when they crashed into a lake. Jerry Clayton then turned it into a speedway car for Richards and Millen - I put it in vote national colours during the elections, because I always pick a winner lol"

Jac Jac probably wasn't aware of the Crichton history. The car was so totally different from when it because a speedway car. Its only in recent years this information has become more widely known.

[Steve Holmes]

Here are some photos Rex Rattenbury sent me of the Monaro from when Richards and Millen raced it:

46625

46626

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[John McKechnie]

Stunning pix and must be early days as its so straight.
Ron Kendall Radio Hauraki Mazda 81 behind him.
Thanks Rex for this neat memory
.Still running the original HQ GTS steering wheel

[Go Slideways]

[QUOTE=Go Slideways;61596]Jac Jac Eastons Mustang - "This was a genuine Trans Am bought into NZ by Dexter Dunlop"]

I found this in the archives from Manfield 1977

46615



Thanks mate, these ones are from Jac Jac's personal collection

https://s1.postimg.org/9abg98ujcv/EPSON008.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

https://s1.postimg.org/1eqpbw8psf/EPSON002.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

https://s1.postimg.org/36jo6ssae7/EPSON003.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

https://s1.postimg.org/8p1smy0q7j/EPSON004.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

https://s1.postimg.org/49jdhoojpb/EPSON005.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

[Steve Holmes]

[QUOTE=BMCBOY;61599]



Thanks mate, these ones are from Jac Jac's personal collection

https://s1.postimg.org/9abg98ujcv/EPSON008.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

https://s1.postimg.org/1eqpbw8psf/EPSON002.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

https://s1.postimg.org/36jo6ssae7/EPSON003.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

https://s1.postimg.org/8p1smy0q7j/EPSON004.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

https://s1.postimg.org/49jdhoojpb/EPSON005.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Awesome pics of the Shelby. Thats a hugely historic car, and one of only a handful of NZ cars that also had Trans-Am history.

[seaqnmac27]

So how about we start a thread on race cars that appear to have vanished from trace. See if we can't track a few of them down.

Here is one I've been trying to learn the fate of for some time, with no luck. I first found out about this car when writing an article for Australian Muscle Car mag a couple of years ago. The reason it grabbed my attention was because it was built in the Wairarapa, in New Zealand, where I moved with my partner Helen a few years ago. While researching various magazines gathering info for the article, I stumbled upon details of this car.

It was built around 1971 by Wayne Fuller, and fitted with an FVA motor reportedly from Paul Faheys Escort. Fuller raced the car in OSCA during the 1971/72 season, and was often the fastest car in the field. At the end of the season Fuller set his sites a little higher, and took the car to Graham Berry (of Berry & Chung hot rodding fame) to have a heap of fabrication work done on the firewall and transmission tunnel, so he could fit a 350ci small block Chevy, with twin off-set Holleys.

This was quite an ambitious project at the time, and appeared to have quite a bit of potential. The newly rebuilt Escort finally debuted at Bay Park in late 1973, driven by 24 year old Roger Brader, another Wairarapa hot shoe. It was very quick in a straight line, as fast as the front running machines of Allan Moffat, Jim Richards, Leo Leonard (in Mustangs), Red Dawson (Camaro), Rod Coppins (Firebird), and Paul Fahey (Capri), but required some development work on suspension and brakes.

Brader and Fuller raced the car at several events throughout the 1973/74 season, but at seasons end Fuller decided to sell it and go boat racing instead. The Escort was sold engineless to Warren Steel in the Hawkes Bay. Steel had planned to fit a smaller Chevy motor to compete in the 4.2 Saloon Car Championship, but failed his eyesight test, and had to sell the car.

It was purchased by John Scott in Auckland, who owned a transport company. This would have been late 1974, or early 1975. From there, the trail goes dead. I'm not sure if the John Scott who purchased the Escort was the same John Scott who raced speedway in the '70s and '80s, but that John Scott did happen to own a transport company, also in Auckland, so perhaps it was the same person. Either way, I've not been able to track him down.

Would love to know what happened to this car, and if it survived. Obviously Escorts were pretty popular during the '70s, and it could have ended up anywhere. Was it converted for ShellSport? Was it scrapped? Was it pushed into someones shed and forgotten about?

Anyway, here is a pic of the car at Levin when it was still fitted with the FVA. It changed little when the Chevy was shoe-horned in, except the wheels became slightly wider. It was silver with a green stripe down each flank, then later had a red or orange stripe.

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[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Sean. I have those two magazines in storage somewhere. The Escort was still fitted with an ex-Fahey Lotus motor during this time. I think this was the 1971/72 season.

[camaroman slp]

Great to see these old photos it must have been one of the first mustangs in NZ with flared gaurds this car has a big history of owners & drivers.Thanks for finding the pics.

All we need now is some with Christie Morris when it was Red