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Just wondering if anyone knows where my 1971 Titan mk6 ended up.
Or does anyone have photo's of it.
Craig Baird.
Hey Craig , know doubt there will be some one in the FF ranks here that will know , ps I was asked the other day where Gary,s old twin cam escort end up that Stan bought from him , great hear from you ......... Grant
While searching for the Baird Titan, could you have a look for the ex Oxton, Walker Elfin 600 as well - that seems to have vanished too
Craig- whats your memory of that car from 1971 or was it just a little before your time? I remember as a teenager being shown the car by your dad at Puke.
I was standing looking at it and he talked to me of it. Nice guy, Stan , I thought, taking time out to talk to the fans.
Craig , looks like no responce from the local FF boys to date , I have a friend doing historic FF just talked to him. Now this guy either has yr old car or he will know where it is .... Hi Name is Andrew Hollywood from Napier..... you could research from there ... E mail is .... a.h.hollywood@xtra.co.nz or...... a.hollywood@xtra.co.nz ........ Yep mate all good this end , do you hear much from Pete? not sure what is happening at levels Xmas meet , if you end up there would be good to have the usual cup of tea ?? Take care Grant
Michael , I am starting to feel like a detective here lol , If you phone this guy Bruce McCoy [07. 5444770] Tauranga he Might know where Dave,s old car is , now this goy leaves for Q/Land to day or tomorrow ... will be back 3rd of July..... Cheers mate .. Grant
Hi Grant - I 'race' against Bruce - lovely bloke and very much the man who has been hugely responsible for the numbers in our old fart championship.
We've looked for Oxo's old car for a while - I hadn't realised it was missing until David raised it one day...
Hi Craig,
Do you recall me upsetting Stan at at your first Puke meeting when I told him your Titan was a Valour? Lousy bastard! and I've never changed. The car is about 3 mtrs from my office. Now fitted with a modified Datsun 180B and clothed with sportscar bodywork. I may actually have video footage of that meeting. Drop me a line and I'll have a look.
Cheers,
Russ
ps Happy to deal on your last drive.....money my way of course.
Dennis Martin?Attachment 18850
Hi bairdo, welcome to trs.it's kind of an addiction this site, Paul here, commentator at levels, I've still got the bottle of bubbly you walked all the way up those stairs to give me a couple of years ago.hope all is well cobber and hope to see you at levels again soon. Paul
Hi Mate. You were not a pioneer when it comes to upsetting Stan.
Would love to see some photos of it. My email is cglbaird@bigpond.com.
Cheers,
Bairdo.
I am always in touch with Pete. Must say I miss the old summer series and catching up with you all.
Yep they are special times , hope they get repeated, amazing people from South Cant, [& Ruapuna] all seem like extended family , they treat people with open arms infact nothing has changed since I left Timaru....& moved to Tauranga , the minute we enter that town the fun starts... lol..the atmosphere is super cool ............
Bairdo, Mr Spragoo, will have the thermos waiting by the fireplace in case you want a cuppa
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Hopefully I have uploaded a pic of the Tomas Merzera Reynard...
Now that I have gotten over the shock of successfully uploading a photo for the first time, I need to give credit for the pic. I sourced it on Wikimedia, author GTHO and the car belongs to Neil Richardson in Australia. I will soon post an article about how this car arrived in Oz, before my memory becomes totally redundant!
Circa 1983 Theseus Desborough asked me to import a Reynard FF, he was planning to move up from Formula Vee. In those days it wasn’t as easy to import racing cars as it is nowadays but I was already importing a variety of gear for my Flamecrusher company in NZ and Theseus knew I was experienced in working with Customs. I called Reynard, secured a deal, paid the deposit and waited for the build to start. Reynard was on the rise in the 80s and there was usually a long backlog of orders, in our case it took six months before the car was ready for delivery, this model being an FF83 complete with Minister engine. Meanwhile Theseus changed his mind so I started looking for another buyer.
About a week later I was off to Australia to meet ex-pat Kiwi David Haydon who was interested in distributing Flamecrusher products in NSW via his company Dalcar Industies. He collected me at Sydney airport and we stopped at a café en route to his factory for a get- to-know-you chat. Somewhere in the conversation he mentioned that he was interested in buying a Formula Ford for Tomas Merzera to drive in the Oz championship. At that stage Tomas was racing an old banger and not getting anywhere despite showing his obvious brilliance and was about to pack his bags and return to Europe to pick up his former career as a ski instructor. Timing is everything as they say and I gave David the clichéd “Boy do I have a deal for you” and he promptly wrote me a cheque for the full price. I called Reynard and had the car shipped directly to Sydney (so I briefly owned a Reynard without ever seeing it in the flesh…).
Tomas finished 5th in the 84 championship before cleaning up the 85 series and Merzera’s professional racing career really took off following this success and all thanks to David Haydon’s gutsy instant decision to buy that car sight unseen from someone he had only just met.
:cool:Amazing! The first photo of the Swift LM1 shows the original alloy body BUT the Van Diemen nosecone that the Lesters used on the Team Unipart car (eventually mated up with a special fibreglass body which I ran on the car until the end of the 1989/90 season). The other pics of the Swift show the more original (there were several versions) alloy nose section. The car was sold from the Lesters to Keith Sharp who used it as a school car at the NZ Racing Drivers' School at Pukekohe, and subsequently sold to me in 1988. The final shot of Jeff Pascoe is definitely not the Swift LM1, and given the lines of the engine cover, I reckon it's a Lola. Interestingly, included in the bits that came with the Swift LM1 was a Lola engine cover.. the shape of things to come I guess. Given that Jeff, Larry et al won the Championship in 1980/81, I'm guessing these pics come from 1981/82. Thank you for posting them.
Regards, Bruce Smythe (Yes I still have the car)
Attachment 28853
Tony Garmey ran the ex Tomas Mezera Reynard in Formula Ford here in NZ in the 1989/90 season I believe.
The lyon was dennis's creation, he built 2 ff's, the dl 1, which got destroyed, and the dl 2, which has been owned by dave morrison for the last30 plus years, it won the nz goldstar hillclimb championship in 1988 in the hand on trevor parmenter.the car has just undergone a full chassis up rebuild
Begg FF cars, Keith McFadzien car was an early FF, Neil Kidd, Wilson Crosbie both had a car each, then the Jim Murdoch car, might be more.
Beggs built as FFs:
FM3: 3
JM1: 1
Beggs adapted into FFs:
The '05' Keith McF car was essentially a FF except the category hadn't yet come here when it was racing. It had a 1500cc Cortina motor.
'02', the Rootes powered car, became a FF and indeed still is. It has spent way more time with a Kent in the back than it ever did with a Humber 80.
Not sure if 06 ever did time as a FF - possibly.
Michael, while I was in NZ recently I recovered some bits and pieces I had stored since the late '90s. After shipping them back home to USA and sorting through some of the contents I found a logbook for Begg 02, so if anyone knows the current owners address I would be happy to send it to him or her. The logbook is brief, just the one race and wreck (by me) at Baypark in 1973 but I think prior to then it possibly didn't have much documentation. Still, it is part of the car's history so I would like to pass it on.
I also found another couple of logbooks which I must have pocketed while driving some of Richard Lester's Fords in the mid '90s. So if you are reading this post Rich, let me know what to do with them ( but nothing painful please...). The books are for Van Diemans RF90 and RF92.
Grant, the current owners are Ian Bisman and Noel Atley - they purchased it from Allan Woolf. I'll let Noel know.
Best
MC
I read somewhere that Wally Willmot had the Begg 1600 [02] that Dave Burton drove for George and then sold to Colin Bunce.
Wal raced JM1 back in 2010.
Yes Grant - Ian owned and raced the 02 Humber powered car 'in the day'
I think youl find Steve Richards won the title in 84/85 in the Titan mk6 that Dave McMillan used and won in ,in I think about 74 ish . I spent 5 years with Steve running the car ,then with Graham Cooks Van Diemen . . . Was great times and great people . . . how they have changed
Currently for sale on trademe
Thanks Ross and to flesh out the labelling Ross has already done:
Post #154, 4th photo down, Brett Riley, Begg JM1 and Grant Walker, Titan Mk6C continue their epic battle for the '74 - '75 championship which went down to the wire at the final round at Manfeild.
5th photo down Brett in his Titan Mk6C chased by yours truly in Palliser WDF2, Pukekohe top chicane "73 - '74 season.
Post #155, 2nd photo, Neville Bailey's modified Palliser WDF3 chased by Norm Smith's Hustler/ Johnson, also Puke chicane '73 - '74 season. 5th photo is Robin? Hoskins in Cheetah, 6th photo one of the Owens bros and I wonder if that is Alan Crocker in the Ray following.
The others I can identify are already as per Ross's label. Anyone else able to fill in the gaps?
Pretty sure that the fourth photo in Post 155 has Roger Levis in the #61 which I think is a Titan.