Paul Fahey/Kevin McNamara Z28 Camaro

[Steve Holmes]

Hey folks, I got an email a couple of days ago from Tony Collins in Queensland asking for info and photos of the Paul Fahey owned Z28 Camaro that Kevin McNamara raced in the 1975/76 Castrol GTX series in New Zealand. I'm sure I have a couple of period photos of the car around somewhere. It was painted white and sponsored by Union Travel (I think). Does anyone else have info and/or photos of the car? Also, did it race again after this season? Not sure why, but I had a feeling it might have been the Dave Baker "Big Brother" Camaro that raced the following season.

Below is the email I got from Tony. Can anyone help?

"Hi Steve

My name is Tony Collins-Haskins one of the founders of The Australian Trans-Am Series.

Shane Wilson one of our members who is coming with us to race in New Zealand has purchased a 1971 Z28 Camaro (attached photo's) here locally. He had some knowledge of this car racing in the Castrol GTX Series in the 70's . The original importer to New Zealand was Paul Fahey but as I understand he didn't race this car and was sold to someone else. It is believed to have been raced by Kevin McNamara . We are unsure of the cars colour when raced. The photos I have sent of the car as you see it has been painted in its original Vin colour. A person here believes he has seen the car White or even an Orange/Mustard colour. We think we know the where the original log books for this car are and are trying to pursue this further.
At the moment we are going to check the car over ant race it here in the 2013 Fataz Sportsman Series apart of Australian Trans-Am. Once we get all of the cars history we will restore it back how it belonged. If yourself or anyone else has photos or imformation please let us know.

Regards
Tony"

14715

14712

14713

14714

[Steve Emson]

The car was white with Union Travel sponsorship. I don't think we had log books back then.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks for that Steve. Thats how I remembered it too. I'm sure I have a photo of it somewhere, am just having some trouble locating it.

[Milan Fistonic]

14723

[Kiwiboss]

WOW, whats it doing up in Aussie? and how long has it been there? surely a great story behind this?

Dale M

[Powder]

WOW, whats it doing up in Aussie? and how long has it been there? surely a great story behind this?

Dale M

The Motor Sport New Zealand logo on the flag decal arrived around 1997-98, so it's possibly a recent immigrant.

[Milan Fistonic]

Here's another shot of the McNamara Camaro between those of Inky Tulloch and George Bunce.

14727

[Spgeti]

I have known this car since the late 70,s. about 10 years ago I noticed an add in Trade and Exchange for a Camaro for sale in New Plymouth with a 9 inch diff and stuffed 427. I took a punt that it was this car and a good friend and I made the trip to NP and yes there she was complete with the original ownership papers, Ist NZ owner Paul Fahey. Kevin leased this car off Paul to race and only from recall raced for one season. Garry purchased the car and set to refurbishing it back to its original spec...LT1 4 speed M22, 12 bolt diff etc. To do this he purchased a wreaked Z/28 from the South Island and transfered all the good bits off it.
When the car was retired from circuit racing as with all the GTX Camaros it was registered for road use and repainted Red with red stripes. I will write more re this plus photos with my Camaro (Inky's car) I owned at the time.....Cheers Bruce D

[Malcolm McLeod]

Kevin has got the Super Liquor store on Okara Drive in Whangarei, if ya wanna try and get hold of him there. He once sold a pair of trousers to Mick Fleetwood from Fleetwood Mac - but that's getting off the subject!

[Steve Holmes]

Must have been special trousers!

[Steve Holmes]

I have known this car since the late 70,s. about 10 years ago I noticed an add in Trade and Exchange for a Camaro for sale in New Plymouth with a 9 inch diff and stuffed 427. I took a punt that it was this car and a good friend and I made the trip to NP and yes there she was complete with the original ownership papers, Ist NZ owner Paul Fahey. Kevin leased this car off Paul to race and only from recall raced for one season. Garry purchased the car and set to refurbishing it back to its original spec...LT1 4 speed M22, 12 bolt diff etc. To do this he purchased a wreaked Z/28 from the South Island and transfered all the good bits off it.
When the car was retired from circuit racing as with all the GTX Camaros it was registered for road use and repainted Red with red stripes. I will write more re this plus photos with my Camaro (Inky's car) I owned at the time.....Cheers Bruce D

Bruce, I didn't realise that was you! Welcome to the site. Both Garry and Mike are members on here too. I remember spending an afternoon with you and Garry talking about these Camaro's, and being amazed at the amount of investigative work you guys had done to trace all the early NZ production racing Camaro's. And I remember you guys taking about the 'death Camaro', which you'd got to pull those parts from. I think Garrys wife told him to get rid of it.

[Steve Holmes]

14723

Milan, amazing photos! Many thanks for these.

[Steve Holmes]

I originally got this photo from Garry Price and Bruce Dyer as part of their huge collection of info gathered on the Castrol GTX and other early production racing NZ Camaro's.

14759

[Spgeti]

Hi Steve, great site you have and I have been enjoying reading all the blogs. This is the photo I was looking for. The car was a 71 Z/28, and raced only in these colours. The rear small spoiler was removed and replaced with the high one. It also had the 73 front bumper when raced and when Garry owned it. Yes the death Camaro is another story and it was a concorse car.....was. From memory the car debut was January 76 at Puke along with the Tulloch car. Great photo of the 3 Zees racing, never seen that photo before. See you at HD, Cheers Bruce

[John McKechnie]

What ever happened to the silver Z/28 Camaro that Grady Thomson raced ?

[vette8]

I have known this car since the late 70,s. about 10 years ago I noticed an add in Trade and Exchange for a Camaro for sale in New Plymouth with a 9 inch diff and stuffed 427. I took a punt that it was this car and a good friend and I made the trip to NP and yes there she was complete with the original ownership papers, Ist NZ owner Paul Fahey. Kevin leased this car off Paul to race and only from recall raced for one season. Garry purchased the car and set to refurbishing it back to its original spec...LT1 4 speed M22, 12 bolt diff etc. To do this he purchased a wreaked Z/28 from the South Island and transfered all the good bits off it.
When the car was retired from circuit racing as with all the GTX Camaros it was registered for road use and repainted Red with red stripes. I will write more re this plus photos with my Camaro (Inky's car) I owned at the time.....Cheers Bruce D

Hey Bruce, I remember this car.It turned up to one of our Camaro Club outings.I think it had hooker sidepipes, and broke down with overheating problems, maybe a blown head gssket.
I would like to find out the whereabouts of my old Z28-ex english import Art McKee car.

[Steve Holmes]

Steve, what colour was your car?

[Steve Holmes]

What ever happened to the silver Z/28 Camaro that Grady Thomson raced ?

Was this a '69 model John?

[John McKechnie]

Motorman did a test on it in July 1970, was a 1969 302 reg EC 8804 and Grady eventually bought it and raced in 1971 .Would this have been used also in the Z/28 era in mid 70s on , or was it just later ones like Bunce/ Coppins/ McKee,/ Tulloch etc

[vette8]

Steve, what colour was your car?

metallic orange with white stripes, that was late 70s early 80s however, I believe it may have been painted its original gold with black stripes.
Last I heard its was alive and kicking in West Auckland, but that was about 10 years ago.

[Spgeti]

Hello Steve, yes it turned up at one of our meetings at Pakuranga shopping centre, but I can not remember who owned it then. dale O'Gorman from Helensville bought it and she was losing water due to a doggy head repair. i helped him get it fixed. The heads were early angle plug heads, very rear then and she was 60 thou over....talk about streaching it.

Your old car is around but I will talk to Garry first if that is ok.

John, the silver car, 69 Z/28 belongs to a guy in the Waikato and has been restored....repainted many times but is now red again as per my then brother in law owned this car in the later 70s.....didnt race for long and not in GTX... artcle in Petrolhead about a year ago.

[John McKechnie]

Spgeti - thanks for the up date- didnt see that petrol head mag. Would like to see that article, can you help me out with it? Add it to my collection of racing cars that thankfully survived.

[Spgeti]

Hi John, I am sorry I don't have that paper any longer. perhaps contact Petrolhead. From memory the car still had the original rego. Cheers, Bruce

[Steve Emson]

The Art McKee car was green, if that is the one you guys are referring too. It was a very nice car, in lovely condition, and was one of the front running cars.

[Steve Emson]

I originally got this photo from Garry Price and Bruce Dyer as part of their huge collection of info gathered on the Castrol GTX and other early production racing NZ Camaro's.

14759

The interesting thing about this photo is the trailer the car is sitting on. It is mine, (-now, was Dad's back then) and it is the very same one I still have here in Qld. Dad brought it over to Brisbane for me as it tows fantastically. It has carried many race cars over the years . It even was used by Nissan NZ for Jimmy's Godzilla. Dad must have lent it to Paul for this meeting.
Very weird seeing it in this photo. I suppose I had better call Kevin and collect the hire fee. Might be worth a bottle of beer................................

[Rod Grimwood]

I hope to catch up with him shortly Steve, so will see if I can pick up your beer for you.
Cheers

[Steve Holmes]

The interesting thing about this photo is the trailer the car is sitting on. It is mine, (-now, was Dad's back then) and it is the very same one I still have here in Qld. Dad brought it over to Brisbane for me as it tows fantastically. It has carried many race cars over the years . It even was used by Nissan NZ for Jimmy's Godzilla. Dad must have lent it to Paul for this meeting.
Very weird seeing it in this photo. I suppose I had better call Kevin and collect the hire fee. Might be worth a bottle of beer................................

Wow, that is amazing you still have it. Wouldn't it have been awesome if you'd taken a photo of every race car that had been on it.

[Steve Holmes]

The Art McKee car was green, if that is the one you guys are referring too. It was a very nice car, in lovely condition, and was one of the front running cars.

Thats probably his last one Steve. He had three of them. The first one he bought when living in the UK. Thats the one Steve Malam asked about above. The second one is the bronze coloured car that races in historics in the South Island. It was owned for a while by Brendan Mason, but I think Steve Ross might own it now. Its bronze with black vinyl roof and Crown Court Motel (or similar) graphics on it. The third one is I think the one you're referring to, which is the only one he raced in the Castrol GTX series, and he won the championship with. I think I've got that right? Bruce will be able to say for sure.

[John McKechnie]

Steve-I have at my place the trailer that Tim Bailey used for his GTHO. He sold the combo to Roy Harrington, he then sold the car , kept the trailer. The trailer is still yellow, wont have time to repaint this to match the car in 2 weeks. Maybe I should have a signage for this trailer as well as the car at Hampton Downs.It may be easier to trace car usage of a trailer than the car history . A house without a car trailer is like a Sunday not wearing Flamecrushers....... Who is going to tell to tell Dale that Cars and now Trailers are the stars ?

[Steve Emson]

Yes, some of the trailers could tell a thousand stories. I think this trailer has done 104mph. That is what the speedo said, it is rumoured. Or was it just a dream..from a place far,far away.

[Spgeti]

Thats probably his last one Steve. He had three of them. The first one he bought when living in the UK. Thats the one Steve Malam asked about above. The second one is the bronze coloured car that races in historics in the South Island. It was owned for a while by Brendan Mason, but I think Steve Ross might own it now. Its bronze with black vinyl roof and Crown Court Motel (or similar) graphics on it. The third one is I think the one you're referring to, which is the only one he raced in the Castrol GTX series, and he won the championship with. I think I've got that right? Bruce will be able to say for sure.


The green car is the one he won the 75/76 GTX Championship. He then sold that to Doug Allen . The Bronze car was a Crown Court car and raced by Farrar, pre RS front and was dark green. Brendon Mason at some stage also owned the Richards /Bunce car. Steves car originaly gold was his UK car.

[Spgeti]

Hey folks, I got an email a couple of days ago from Tony Collins in Queensland asking for info and photos of the Paul Fahey owned Z28 Camaro that Kevin McNamara raced in the 1975/76 Castrol GTX series in New Zealand. I'm sure I have a couple of period photos of the car around somewhere. It was painted white and sponsored by Union Travel (I think). Does anyone else have info and/or photos of the car? Also, did it race again after this season? Not sure why, but I had a feeling it might have been the Dave Baker "Big Brother" Camaro that raced the following season.

Below is the email I got from Tony. Can anyone help?

"Hi Steve

My name is Tony Collins-Haskins one of the founders of The Australian Trans-Am Series.

Shane Wilson one of our members who is coming with us to race in New Zealand has purchased a 1971 Z28 Camaro (attached photo's) here locally. He had some knowledge of this car racing in the Castrol GTX Series in the 70's . The original importer to New Zealand was Paul Fahey but as I understand he didn't race this car and was sold to someone else. It is believed to have been raced by Kevin McNamara . We are unsure of the cars colour when raced. The photos I have sent of the car as you see it has been painted in its original Vin colour. A person here believes he has seen the car White or even an Orange/Mustard colour. We think we know the where the original log books for this car are and are trying to pursue this further.
At the moment we are going to check the car over ant race it here in the 2013 Fataz Sportsman Series apart of Australian Trans-Am. Once we get all of the cars history we will restore it back how it belonged. If yourself or anyone else has photos or imformation please let us know.

Regards
Tony"

14715

14712

14713

14714

I will be at HD for the first weekend and only to pleased to talk to you re this car. I am with the Group A cars but will find you. I will bring details of original rego numbers and a couple of photos plus ownership history with me.
It is great to see that the car has not been lost and is alive and well. Look forward to meeting you. Cheers, Bruce

[BMCBOY]

A few shots I found of the Camaro taken in 1976 Winter Series at Pukekohe that may be of interest

14891

14892

14893

[Spgeti]

Great photos, Thanks, Bruce.

[markec]

The Bronze Z is now owned by Roy MacDonald in Dunedin, I was talking to him at his workshop two weeks ago when he asked me if I could find any info on the car, I will send him the link to this thread.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Mark, I think the bronze car was Art's first (of three) and which he bought in the UK when living there and shipped back to NZ.

[Steve Holmes]

A few shots I found of the Camaro taken in 1976 Winter Series at Pukekohe that may be of interest

14891

14892

14893

Beautiful photos Ross, thanks for posting. I got to speak with 'Jandals' Sheehan about this car on the weekend. He built it from three cars that Fahey had shipped out of the US. As Jandals put it, all three were junk. It was built around the best of the three, a red one with parts donated by the other two, and which was then painted white for racing.