I have some photos of Ian Maskell's Shellsport Datsun 1200 Coupe. We will be at the Skope meeting and would like to meet anyone who remembers the car.
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I have some photos of Ian Maskell's Shellsport Datsun 1200 Coupe. We will be at the Skope meeting and would like to meet anyone who remembers the car.
According to a previous post from Bob Homewood, this may be the car which Ian Maskell has.
Ian Maskell is a member on here, hopefully he can help with info on that car.
I pointed Mr Collingwood in the direction of this site, yesterday,15th Jan, it was to another thread but I will phone him tonight and ask him to stop by this one as well.
Re the Findlays Bakeries 1200 coupe I bought it off Steve Emson (who had won the 0 - 1300 class in the Bank of New South Wales series in 1976) as Shellsport 2 litre made my 13B Mazda RX3 coupe ineligible. The 1977 season in the Datsun I ended up 6th and then the following season I bought one of the Nissan Cherry motors from Reg Cook, drysumping it and moving it back in the car as well. I ended up 3rd in the 1978 series behind Reg and Bryce Platt. Our main problem was shredding gearboxes as we were not allowed to use the 5 speed competition box. At the same time Greg Lancaster built another Findlays car from a spare coupe I had bought using my previous season's motor and spare parts we had amassed. The following season Greg ran the car in Sanyo colours and it was later sold down in Palmerston North. The 1979 season I only contested the North Island rounds and ended up 6th in the series again. After that I only raced it at Pukekohe occasionally and the Datsun sat around until the mid 80's and as I was racing a Lotus Cortina in the historics I talked my late, great friend Glenn Jones into running the Datsun again which he did successfully for a couple of seasons in Dark Green Slumbertime colours then Glenn bought his OSCA Commodore/Chev. I sold the Datsun to Brian Roycroft with Glenn's assistance and it still had the same original 1300 Cherry motor. The Group 5 "Aero" grille was not allowed in Shellsport which is why I did not use it. The same car is now owned by Duncan Hedges but has been altered a lot and I think now runs a Toyota motor. It's best time ever at Pukekohe was 1.10.6 on the old unimproved bumpy track. Cheers, Rex Findlay 0274935279
Hello Rex, great to hear from you. Yes it was a very good car and you went well in it. Jigger sure was a nuisance in it as well, it had a nice looking back to it, can not remember the grill as i did not see the front often, (I had a small mirror).
PS must catch up
Hi Rex yes Glenn was a great bloke and real,good in the wet,did he build the morrie body on the ferrari as well???
Almost right.....the gentlemans name was Cran Judge and he owned a lot more race cars than a lot of people relise. A very astute businessman from Levin where he made clothing for a lot of big department stores and his own clothes shops. I know Cran both personally and professionally and he is one great guy that has assisted a lot of top race/rally drivers for years. He wasnt one to be out in the lime light but I can tell you that his marketing through motorsport would be up there alongside our latest knighthooded Sir Colin Giltrap. Its a pity his clothing factory burnt to the ground back in the 90's. Cran's son I would have liked to see get into the sport because he just loved the race cars as a 14 year old that I remember...........hey and guess who was splashed all over my Mazda as the only sponsor? Kind regards, Tony Rutherford.
Hey there Rex......good stuff to hear ya mate. Was a neat car alright. One car that hasnt been mentioned here is the Shellsport Anglia raced by Colin Reed and owned by Ross Tebbs. This car had a tilt front front on it and it looked real good in Performance Motors livery, Car was sold to an elderly gentleman by the name of Harold Wooten Snr father of Harold Wooten whom raced an RX3 Coupe in Sports Sedans.......(this your old car Rex? ). Harold Senior was getting on agewise but he was quick in the Anglia. (where is this car now?). Harold Junior has a son and daughter that competed at Western Springs and son Alistaire is currently racing in the TRS Toyota series and runs very well. Also Rod I have a demon photo of your brother Mike in his Chevette V8 in a handicap race just as I caught him on Pukekohe Club Circuit....I will put it up here when I work out just where it is and how to do it. I also have a photo of your good self and Mike ready to do a special family grudge race with you in the Shellsport Escort and Mike in the Chevette. I suppose people will wonder who won .....so to put them out of their misery the result was deemed a draw because your earth wire fell off the battery on lap three and Mike ran out of petrol on lap three. Ian Derbridge had the crowd pissing themselves with laughter for the hard case spectacle it was......see ya soon.
Kind Regards, Tony Rutherford.
" one of the Nissan Cherry motors "
So that explains that! I spent the early 90's chasing Brian around. That engine was pure magic, and Brian could drive the wheels off the car..
Attachment 5545
Here's the first SS2000 race we did at Taupo. Close examination will show a regular get together of x ShellSport cars, both the Aitken 120Y's, Des Bullas and Phil Greaney in the Avengers, Brian in Rex's old car, Steven Gillard in the 1200, Steve Bond in the Hunter..
Attachment 5546Attachment 5547Attachment 5548
When was the last time you saw that many Halliday rims in one event!
The Steve Bond Hunter?
Attachment 5549
Purely guessing, but I think the gold #45 Capri might be the car that I converted into the LHD Black Capri currently being raced by Pierre Neame in OSCA.
Great photos of a great class of race car. I hope that they car get this series back up and running again and we can enjoy these cars a second time round.
have just passed over to Wayne Murdoch a large envelope stuffed with old photos of race cars in action, mostly at Wigram, and he was thrilled to see them, especially to see both Findlay Datsuns in the one shot. Apparently there were some doubters who thought one real and one a replica. If he doesnt want the rest I shall suggest we get them sent on to you blokes. All taken by my deceased brother in law Gilbert Connor on a semi-professional basis. My sister getting around to a de-clutter after widow for 10 years or so. Regards to all.
Finally caught up with Kevin Ryan today. The history of the Escort starts like this. It was built by AVO in England with a 2 litre BDG, ZF gearbox etc for a series in South Africa which did not finally take place. Rex Hart purchased the car and ran in in NZ in that configuration. Kevin purchased the car for $5000 as a rolling shell minus engine and fittted it with a 1600BDA and then went about winning OSCA with it. When he decided to go to Shellsport with Big Bertha, the ex XCookie 160J he sold the car to Warren Steel who fitted the twin cam engine and went Shellsport. Steelo of course later onsold the car to the Hallidays
when i was in NZ in early sept 1990 i recall seeing the blue white Imp at Puke with a nissan motor in the rear
somewhere i have photos of it
it was the only race meeting i attended back then in NZ before I made the trip home via Bathurst Tooheys 1000 and Sydney and HK
Did you guys had etch Shellsport Gold star promo for race and class wins in NZ
we had it circa 75-79 IF you ran with Shellsport sun visor won the race or your class you got a gold star sticker and £ which back then covered the entry fee
Good to see you here Rex. Here's a photo of the RX3 you mentioned in your first post.
Attachment 5581
I have always had a thing for this car..The first time I saw it was at Manfeild and Francis Pointen had it in green and white with a Lotus Twin Cam in it. Later on a club mate Kevin Simpson bought the car and painted it black. He changed the engine for an alloy BDA that he got out of the Ralt of Davey Jones at the end of the Puke meeting. The engine was also set back at that time. During the rebuild a number of parts were replaced and I ended up with the seat and dry sump tank. The seat still does service in my kids go kart.!!!
Hi Jim, Yes Glenn built the Morrari for Garth Souness who had a caryard in Greenlane about where the Kia agents are today. Glenn told me that one night they went around a few caryards with a measuring tape to see what car had a similar wheelbase to the Super Squalo Ferrari and it so happened that a Morris Minor was spot on. That dispels the theory that the Ferrari chassis was shortened to suit ! The Squalo was not a good handling car at the best of times so I cannot imagine draping a Minor body over it would have improved the situation which may explain why it always looked a bit twitchy.
Rex,
Yes thats always been what I was told how it came about ,to dispell the shortened chassis story some time ago ,I scaled a Minor body on to the Ferrari chassis measurements ,wheel base etc if you do it you will see with slight bit of repositioning of the body it fits well,the Squalo as you say was twitchy ,putting the V8 in and changing the weight,postion etc around did not help the cause either
I had a phone call from John Gobbe (Christchurch) on Monday evening and he mentioned that the Revival Series that they are working on at present has had a great response to date. They have had 35 drivers register and are aware of 27 cars that are available to race with other racers talking about recreating their cars and joining in. The first race will be at next years Skope meeting. They are due to send out a newsletter in the next week or so so if you are interested please contact John on jagobbe@xtra.co.nz
Hello Shellsport fans,
Nigel Barclay here originally from Timaru, the Collingwood Escort was built in Dunedin after Rod sold the Datsun, had some radical engine ideas, was originally pale blue with no signwriting, Dad (Stu Barclay) started looking after it but Rod lost interest after sponsor Jons peperoni beer sticks didnt pay (sounds familar), Dad actually purchase it off Rod and was going to build conventional 1600, crouched in old Wilson Sprague King Street yard Dad had before Ron & Mark purchased, Rod then got the Trueno and Dad looked after it at his Church Street yard. I beleive it was an x Factory Rally car, Dad or Alan Dunn would know, I was just a kid and remember the Toyota always had engine problems (oil system I think). I need to get into Dads photo collection as have seen shots of Shellsport days where they went on tour with Murdochs/Burt etc.
To keep on subject this Escort became the McNaughton BDA turbo OSCA car and years later Dave told me it was wrecked and the shell scrapped, real pity as one of my favourite cars and Rod had spent a lot of money and had all good gear in it.
Will catch up with him and see if I can raid his photo collection as well.
cheers
Gidday Carl, tell A Farr to put back in SULCO tools colours, looked great. cheers Nigel
Hi there Nigel, welcome aboard! Thanks for the info.
Sorry Rex just caught your post,was the storey about Garths first time down the back straight at Puke he was crossing himself and I am not a catholic he said??Of all the dealers I tried to sell my Buckler only days before my wedding he was the only one to help out I swaped plus thirty pound for that 39 gold painted coupe eddlbrock heads 3 carbs, black and white seats was always parked on the Gt south rd where the motorway ended penrose after honeymoon sold for a secton.evertown we stoped at it collected a crowd,
Sorry Russ if you are having trouble understanding my modern spelling give me a call and I will run you through it slowly, I am in the book under my own name
Hi there,first post after having my dad point me to this site tonight over Skype.
Long story short,I am trying to find out what happened to the Raycroft Escort,driven by Dave Waldron.
My father,Garry Williams helped build it years ago and all I can remember of it is seeing it at Wigram in the pits in the early 80s (I'm 33),so would have been 3-4 years old.
I got some help from the forums on the OSCA site,before the forums disappeared from Evan Munt who put me onto Neville Agass in the USA.A few emails and some digging from Neville got me a positive lead that the car is up in Auckland and possibly still racing.He told me to contact Grant Brennan,who Neville was sure would know about it.I tried contacting him through his website,but never got a reply.
That's where the searching has sat for about 3 years,until tonight...When dad told me to have a look here and this is where I found this part of the forum about similar old race cars.
So,is there anyone out there that can help out?
Also dad mentioned the car was ment to be on display at the OSCA revival meeting at Ruapuna.While I was doing some research,I found out someone was going to build a replica,as the car was apparently under a tree in Timaru,still in the Raycroft colours....Which sounded a bit dubious as it hadn't been in those colours since Dave raced it.
Any one with photos of Bryce Platts Escort in Fountain colours can you please forward on here or send to me. Also any photos of car in orig orange with Chequer Flag and Knitwear sponsorship.
tapes posted yesday sorry yesterday
Thanks Jum
I stand to be corrected but I've always understood that "the Shellsport category" came to an end because a smooth talking promoter and former MANZ employee had it diverted to support his family interests.
I must admit I question that comment the same as Carl.
Having been closely involved with a ShellSport two time Champion during those years, I was disappointed when the ShellSport era came to an end but deep down I really felt it had sadly passed its use by date.
If Shell chose to channel their money into an academy that created the careers of people such as Greg Murphy then I have no problem with that.
All things have their day and I am so pleased that I had the opportunity to be involved during the ShellSport era and meet such passionate and friendly people such as Carl and the others who always made us welcome when we visited the South Island
Whats new??