Castrol GTX And Production Racing Camaro's

[Steve Holmes]

With all the interest and contributions to the thread requesting info and pics of the Paul Fahey owned Castrol GTX Camaro, Bruce Dyer kindly gave me a bunch of photos of several other Camaro's that competed in the New Zealand Castrol GTX series. In all I believe there were about 8-9 2nd generation Camaros that raced in the series during the 1975/76 and 1976/77 seasons.

But there were also several other production racing Camaro's of the era, so I figured we should put them all in one dedicated thread. I can't post up Bruce's photos until early next week, so if you guys have any pics and info you want to post, please go ahead. The more the merrier.

[BMCBOY]

Here's a couple to get the ball rolling - I will add some more later

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[Spgeti]

The first photo is of Inky Tulloch in his 70 1/2 RS Z/28. This is an early photo and the car was painted Citrus Green with Black stripes.
I owned this car for 23 years and sold it in 2003. Ian now owns the car.
The Bunce car is how I remember it prior to its sale to Cliff Pilling. I was offered it to buy but the engine was swaped and I believed it to be a 327 and withdrew my interest. Cliff was very disappointed after the purchase to discover that as it was not cheap. Still had the long range tank in the boot and the Corvette discs on the front. Still was a wicked machine.
I will write more re the Tulloch car re its history soon. Cheers Bruce

[Steve Holmes]

This is Inky Tulloch in the car which finished a close second in the 1976 Castrol GTX championship to Art McKee's similar car. This is the car Spgeti (Bruce) owned and restored, and ultimately sold back to Inky who still has it.

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[seaqnmac27]

Some of Kevin Thomsons pics from 76

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[Spgeti]

I purchased Inky's Camaro in 1979 of a QS friend, Duncan Smith from Papakura. Duncan had restored the body from its OSCA battles but the mechanicals needed to be upgraded to the original specs. The corvette discs, 12 bolt were gone and while the engine was ok it certainly was not the LT1, the M21 was poo.
Over the years I worked my way thru this apart from the brakes. Pullman built LT1, T10 close ratio gearbox, 4.1 12 bolt posi diff, and a beautiful set of American Racing Daisy Mags, 15x7 on the front and 15x8.5 on the rear. Tony Gordan tidied up the body work and installed the new chrome work all supplied by Kevin Green from the Chevvy Shoppe.
Over the years along with good friend Garry Price we researced the historys of the majority of the Camaros that raced in GTX plus a few others as well. Inky was most helpfull with info on the car.
Late in 75 Ian went to LA to souce a Camaro to race. He purchased this car, a 1970 1/2 RS Z/28 from Badger ( from memory) Chevrolet and sent it to Paramount Chevrolet in LA where Kevin Haig built the car to race in NZ. This car was originally automatic and was top spec car with delux interior with woodgrain accents.
New LT1 was built with the then optional Z/28 cam, crossram intake, M22 gearbox, 69 transam Camaro disc brake 12 bolt diff, and Corvette discs all round.
The car first appeared at the 76 Grand Prix meet but with tuning issues and oil surge didn,t start to win untill Kevin Haig had sorted these issues out. After that it was game on and Ian,s battles with Art McKee were to be pretty heated.
He won the 76/77 GTX championship, many long distance races and set the hillclimb record 2 years in a row on Coranet Peak. In 78 he contested in OSCA but was off the pace as the car was just to heavy.
Whe I sold the car it was equiped with a Smoke Ram intake and I offered the Crossram to Ian but he stated that they had to much trouble tunning it so ran with the LT1 intake after 3 meetings. I sold the Crossram to a guy in Texas for $$$$ and it sit on an historic 69 Z/28 these days.
I will think of more as the days go on but any info or corrections are welcome.
Looking at Bruce302 Firebird the other year bought back the passion and if 10 years ago was today with what you guys are doing with HMC I probably would still own the car. Cheers, Bruce

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[markec]

The Zephyr Heaters car is the ex Dawson car, owned at the time by Ross Cameron in Dunedin, now owned by Kelvin Towns also from Dunedin.

[Steve Holmes]

Yep well spotted Mark. Its hard to tell from that angle, the flares aren't so visible. Dawson sold it to business partners Allan Dick and Don Peddie who owned a car dealership together, and they had Kevin Haig drive it, and I think they even managed to convince Ken Smith to race it once. It then went on to Ross Cameron.

[Steve Holmes]

I purchased Inky's Camaro in 1979 of a QS friend, Duncan Smith from Papakura. Duncan had restored the body from its OSCA battles but the mechanicals needed to be upgraded to the original specs. The corvette discs, 12 bolt were gone and while the engine was ok it certainly was not the LT1, the M21 was poo.
Over the years I worked my way thru this apart from the brakes. Pullman built LT1, T10 close ratio gearbox, 4.1 12 bolt posi diff, and a beautiful set of American Racing Daisy Mags, 15x7 on the front and 15x8.5 on the rear. Tony Gordan tidied up the body work and installed the new chrome work all supplied by Kevin Green from the Chevvy Shoppe.
Over the years along with good friend Garry Price we researced the historys of the majority of the Camaros that raced in GTX plus a few others as well. Inky was most helpfull with info on the car.
Late in 75 Ian went to LA to souce a Camaro to race. He purchased this car, a 1970 1/2 RS Z/28 from Badger ( from memory) Chevrolet and sent it to Paramount Chevrolet in LA where Kevin Haig built the car to race in NZ. This car was originally automatic and was top spec car with delux interior with woodgrain accents.
New LT1 was built with the then optional Z/28 cam, crossram intake, M22 gearbox, 69 transam Camaro disc brake 12 bolt diff, and Corvette discs all round.
The car first appeared at the 76 Grand Prix meet but with tuning issues and oil surge didn,t start to win untill Kevin Haig had sorted these issues out. After that it was game on and Ian,s battles with Art McKee were to be pretty heated.
He won the 76/77 GTX championship, many long distance races and set the hillclimb record 2 years in a row on Coranet Peak. In 78 he contested in OSCA but was off the pace as the car was just to heavy.
Whe I sold the car it was equiped with a Smoke Ram intake and I offered the Crossram to Ian but he stated that they had to much trouble tunning it so ran with the LT1 intake after 3 meetings. I sold the Crossram to a guy in Texas for $$$$ and it sit on an historic 69 Z/28 these days.
I will think of more as the days go on but any info or corrections are welcome.
Looking at Bruce302 Firebird the other year bought back the passion and if 10 years ago was today with what you guys are doing with HMC I probably would still own the car. Cheers, Bruce

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Fantastic description there Bruce, thanks for this.

Out of interest, where is Art McKees third car as pictured above?

[Spgeti]

The Crown Court Car, Art McKee's 75/76 winning car was sold to Doug Allen for the 76/77 season, painted Black and then dissapeared in 1978. I believe it is in the Hawkes Bay area now.
The photo above is the Tulloch Camaro when it was first bought into the country. The car was then repainted in Red and Gold with the USA coloured # 1 on it.

[Bruce302]

I remember mooching around the car yards back in the day, and on the front row at Monaco Motors in Greenlane were two black Camaros, both supposedly race cars. I can't recall who they had been raced by but more than likely they were GTX/production cast offs It would have been around 1978. Maybe one was the McKee/Allen car.

[Spgeti]

You would most likely be correct, one of them certainly would have been the Richards/ Bunce car as it was in Auckland after the 77 season until 1982 or there about driving around the street. Colour Black with silver stripes ....
Did you test drive them Bruce ?

[Bruce302]

I seem to recall that Richards was mentioned in connection with one of the cars. Unfortunately I didn't get to drive either of those.
There was a nice LS-6 4 speed Chevelle lurking near the back. I did take that for a spin.



You would most likely be correct, one of them certainly would have been the Richards/ Bunce car as it was in Auckland after the 77 season until 1982 or there about driving around the street. Colour Black with silver stripes ....
Did you test drive them Bruce ?

[John McKechnie]

I take it you stayed in a different cops patch

[nzboss]

The black Arbuckles car, that Lawerence Bruce raced in OSCA; I guess that had/has origins in the Castrol GTX series too?

[Bruce302]

Southern motorway. LS 6, 450 hp 454, 100 mph at 4200 rpm, and still smooth as butter.


I take it you stayed in a different cops patch

[John McKechnie]

Was this at 4.30 am just to clean the carbs out-no road side BP to get gas if it drank too much on acceleration. Lumpy cam, smooth as butter-sounds like an oxymoron. ( the previous mentioned cop was both of these-yes?)

[Spgeti]

The black Arbuckles car, that Lawerence Bruce raced in OSCA; I guess that had/has origins in the Castrol GTX series too?

I believe that was the ex Dawson Camaro. At the 82 Grandprix meeting he ran that car but was a sad old girl by then, firewall cut back to move the engine. Cheers, Bruce

[Bruce302]

No lumpy cam in the LS-6, it's only 1 hp per cube.


Was this at 4.30 am just to clean the carbs out-no road side BP to get gas if it drank too much on acceleration. Lumpy cam, smooth as butter-sounds like an oxymoron. ( the previous mentioned cop was both of these-yes?)

[Steve Holmes]

I recently found these on my computer, Castrol GTX racing Camaro's. Kicking off here is Art McKee's championship winning car from the 1976 season.

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[Steve Holmes]

Doug Allen

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[Steve Holmes]

Dave Baker

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[Steve Holmes]

Kevin McNamara (owned by Paul Fahey)

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[Steve Holmes]

Neville Crichton, which was also raced by Jim Richards

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[Steve Holmes]

Bruce Dyer (Spegti) has also supplied me with several more to scan and post.

[Steve Holmes]

Some neat Terry Marshall shots capture the typically intense Castrol GTX racing. Note Rod Coppins also in the thick of it with his L34 Torana.

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[John McKechnie]

Interesting angle on Art McKee rf wheel while lf is in the air. Looks like Wigram.

[Spgeti]

George purchased this Camaro and raced it 1976-77. He was very compeditive on and off the race track.....

Neville Crichton, which was also raced by Jim Richards

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[Spgeti]

It took a long time to track this car down and with several colour changes, metalic brown and then yellow. Last saw the car in Christchurch 12 years ago I would think. I have some photos, be it coloured photocopy, of the car. This was one mint car when raced and equiped with all the good gear.

Dave Baker

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[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Bruce, its great to have your knowledge on these cars. Did the Dave Baker car race in both the '76 and '77 seasons?

[Steve Holmes]

Interesting angle on Art McKee rf wheel while lf is in the air. Looks like Wigram.

Thats right John, its Wigram.

[GD66]

The hairpin, favourite hunting ground of the great Terry Marshall...:cool:

[Spgeti]

From memory Steve 75 and 76. He didn't race the Camaro in 77.

Thanks Bruce, its great to have your knowledge on these cars. Did the Dave Baker car race in both the '76 and '77 seasons?

[camaroman slp]

George purchased this Camaro and raced it 1976-77. He was very compeditive on and off the race track.....I have seen the ex Monaco Motors black Camaro as raced by Jim Richards --- Gearge Bunce --- Cliff Pilling ---
At Moorhouse Muscle Cars still looking as great as ever still in black with white stripes thanks to Darren Harper who treats it to a blast from it past now being street driven on the odd occasion.

I hope he or someone can put some interesting photos for all the fans of this car out there ?

[Steve Holmes]

Doug Allen

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This is the same car. Recently restored and still being raced by the Allen family. Despite the big 17" wheels, its not been butchered. Its still a very good original car.

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[Spgeti]

Hi Steve, that is such a good tribute to Doug.....nice to see it still being raced as it was always meant to be. Cheers..

[Kiwiboss]

Wow great looking Camaro with great NZ history, get rid of that funky looking bonnet and 17" wheels and that's one very historic muscle car!! Hopefully we'll see a few more out and about at the tracks around the country? Dale M

[Rod Grimwood]

they ran those bonnets back then, so nice to see it as it was except for wheels but that can be sorted quick, think there are a few 15 inch around.

[seaqnmac27]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYtr9ZpQRXY

[Steve Holmes]

Where do you find this stuff Sean? This is epic!

[seaqnmac27]

Well, it started of as a 20 odd minute clip of the first couple of stages of the 87 Rally of NZ, which led to clips of the 78 RNZ, 19, then 77 RNZ, which led to the heats of the televised Rally Sprint from Mystery Creek in 77, the poster of which is a rotary fan and had posted this.

[Spgeti]

Hi Sean, fantastic video. I owned the Tulloch Camaro for near on 26 years from 1979 and I have never seen a video of the car. The Farrar Camaro is still racing today and Inky owns the famed Tulloch Camaro today. Back where it should be and we are very pleased with that.

Cheers
Bruce

[John McKechnie]

Bruce- funny how these names come up- the Monaro block (and other things ) went to Robbie Farrar in 1976. He still had it when I got it from him 3 years ago

[Spgeti]

The funny thing is John that so many of these cars were converted back to road cars and in some cases lost forever. I am always amazed that some of the parts off these cars are still out there and discovered.

[John McKechnie]

Yep- have found 3 wheel for the Monaro, one is still out there.......somewhere,like the rear wing.
Remember seeing on trademe the tacho-apparently the real deal said the seller- off the Alphetta Sat for a few years.

[jonnoz28]

The Crown Court Car, Art McKee's 75/76 winning car was sold to Doug Allen for the 76/77 season, painted Black and then dissapeared in 1978. I believe it is in the Hawkes Bay area now.
The photo above is the Tulloch Camaro when it was first bought into the country. The car was then repainted in Red and Gold with the USA coloured # 1 on it.

The McKee/Allen Camaro left Hawkes Bay in May 1985 and came to Gisborne, Tony Davidson bough it. I bough it off Tony in 2004 and still have it. When I got the car of Tony he told me that on certain angles you can see some sign writing under the black paint. It wasn't to a few years later we were rubbing it down to paint it and found all the writing still on it and started researching it history.

[CARNUT2]

The first photo is of Inky Tulloch in his 70 1/2 RS Z/28. This is an early photo and the car was painted Citrus Green with Black stripes.
I owned this car for 23 years and sold it in 2003. Ian now owns the car.
The Bunce car is how I remember it prior to its sale to Cliff Pilling. I was offered it to buy but the engine was swaped and I believed it to be a 327 and withdrew my interest. Cliff was very disappointed after the purchase to discover that as it was not cheap. Still had the long range tank in the boot and the Corvette discs on the front. Still was a wicked machine.
I will write more re the Tulloch car re its history soon. Cheers Bruce

Yes the 327 was replaced by a good 350 by Cliff and me and rest is of course history. Great car. Love this pic.

[jonnoz28]

[QUOTE=Steve Holmes;29084]I recently found these on my computer, Castrol GTX racing Camaro's. Kicking off here is Art McKee's championship winning car from the 1976 season.


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this is what Arts old car looks like now.