Is Levin there?
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Is Levin there?
Matamata missed off the street circuits too. Ahuriri (Napier) Paritutu (New Plymouth) Nelson Beach,
Waihi Beach was used but that was in the 20s and 30s as best I can work out.
port road,
gracefield
lower hutt
1/8 mile drags
been in use for more than 45 years
Waiheke Island for the TT, Mangere Mountain, Hemmings Speedway, Forest Lake (Hamilton)shall we add in Western Springs?
the Springs Yes and many more - if we get into Hillclimbs there are probably 100's ..
Remember [ very vaguely ]- the TT on Waiheke- part of the track is a current road and another part a farm track at Onetangi.
Think i was told about it rather than attend although been going to Waiheke since 1947 and was there this February 2019.
Time for another pic from our Yankee circuit... is anyone going to get it?
https://i.postimg.cc/mrM7NcDX/0319fr...ake-Street.jpg
The Original Elkhart Lake course - that developed into Road America ??
" the Chicago Region SCCA and the Village of Elkhart Lake organized the first road race at Elkhart Lake.
The 1950 circuit start-finish line was on County Road P. Competitors went north to County Road J, then South into the Village of Elkhart Lake, and West on what is now County JP (then called County Highway X), and reconnected with County Road P for a total distance of 3.3 miles (5.3 km). "
Attachment 61188
Well done Roger, you're the man !
I just hope if you get to visit this area and go to the "Lake Street Cafe" that you have a better experience than this customer had there !
" I wish I had read the recent reviews. Anyone who has been here in the past would come here again - Big mistake. Where do I start? The service was horrible. The server or the kitchen messed up our order. Okay, that happens. But the server lied about checking and more than an hour later I had to check on our food. When I asked our server about it she was rude and finally checked. They had lost our order. If she had checked 30 minutes before, we may have received our dinner before the 90 minutes we had to wait! Our daughter was starving. They promote their wine list, but have very few options by the glass. The food was good, but not amazing. It was so loud we couldn't hear each other. We just wanted to leave as soon as possible. We will never go back. Please choose another restaurant! "
When I show up we can just go down to the wharf area and eat some good ol' Omokoroa fish n chips..eh ?
KJH
When I show up we can just go down to the wharf area and eat some good ol' Omokoroa fish n chips..eh ?
" Yuss the Fush and Chups " are great at " Beached on Blue " Cafe, right on the Bay by the Ferry ramp Beer and a Glass of Wine is do-able too !! - and also the Takeaway tucked away up in Hamurana St, does good ones too !!
The word Lake Street made me think so I first Googled Map Elkhart Lake and there is Lake St North and Lake St South.. then thought of the circuit known as Road America - should have been quicker as once had a T shirt from the USA / England Healey Challenge of 1990 and one of the Circuits was ' Road America '..
Funnily enough, Google Earth's rendition of 'Lake Street' and 'S Lake Street' are the other side of the lake from here!
Here's the map of the circuit, the red dots are at each turning point (not each turn, but where the circuit goes to a different road or street) and the yellow dots are for the shorter circuit, which used just the Northern end.
https://i.postimg.cc/k4M11rHt/0319fr-GEElkhart-Lake.jpg
My photos are:
https://i.postimg.cc/dVLzr0FM/0319fr2014735-V1a.jpg
Emerging from the section alongside the lake.
https://i.postimg.cc/8kbQV34Y/0319fr2014735-V1b.jpg
The long South to North straight before the long sweeping right hander
https://i.postimg.cc/Wb9BdkQ6/0319fr2014735-V1c.jpg
You can barely see these bends on the map, a short distance after the top corner at a point where long driveways go off to the left and the right of the road.
https://i.postimg.cc/dttMQBSV/0319fr2014735-V1d.jpg
This is right in town where there's a red dot, with the next red dot at the point at the bottom of the hill here, where the road ends and it becomes a broad footpath today.
https://i.postimg.cc/sgqbcRfM/0319fr2014735-V2a.jpg
The first bend on the short circuit diversion.
I took my camera in to take some photos of some places near where I work before they disappear to development here in Goleta, CA.
The first is the corner at the end of the front straight of what was the Santa Barbara Airport race course which held races there from 1949 to 1968.
Attachment 61193
The corner as it looks today..(Ken H photo )
Attachment 61194
The same corner in 1949 as English driver, Philip Payne drives through in his class winning Baldwin Special.
Attachment 61198
A 1949 poster of the first SB race meet.
Attachment 61200
The show must go on ! The drivers hoped that the pilots picked the correct runway on race day !
(Moss Motors is just off to left about a mile behind the tail of the plane.)
Ken H.
Right beside that first corner are two old historic hangars that certainly may not be there for long.
This may not be of interest to many of you but here is some local information plus also read about the "Guppies" at the bottom of this article.
!http://goletahistory.com/two-hangars/
Attachment 61201
Attachment 61202
Ken H photos
What a wild-looking device that Baldwin Special appears to be!
I'd suspect it holds a Cadillac V8 between those frame rails. Do we know anything about its makeup, Ken?
As for those hangars, I wouldn't be surprised if they're still there until they actually fall down. America tends to do that a lot.
Ray,
Here is some information on the first Baldwin. (Note the lack of a helmet etc in the above photo !)
"
THE BALDWIN “PAYNE” SPECIAL
This car is probably the most memorable “Sports Rod” of the early days of the sports car movement in America, being a typical example of a late 1940s "California Hot Rod", carried a step beyond what the normal hot rodders were doing at the time. Known in the States as an AV8, i.e. an A Type Ford chassis housing a Ford V8 motor.
In 1947, my late father, Philip Payne, drove across the States in a Brooklands Riley, before working at Roger Barlow’s ‘International Motors’ in Los Angeles. He became interested in the local sports car and hot rod scene and was an early member of the California Sports Car Club, as well as The Glendale Sidewinders (SCTA).
He purchased this Special (91 S 663) in November 1947, from Willis Baldwin of Santa Barbara – the “father” of road racing specials. Baldwin built this, the first of four specials, in 1947, using the frame of a 1932 Ford. My father quickly replaced the Cadillac side-valve, installing a hot 4.4 litre (268.4 c.i.) Mercury Flathead with an Iskenderian track-grind cam, Evans 9:1 heads and triple-carb intake manifold, producing some 175 bhp @ 5,000 rpm. Drive is through a lightened flywheel, 10 in Mercury clutch and three-speed Ford Pilot transmission with a home-built remote shift linkage to a 3.78:1 rear axle. The cowl covers a split-centre Ford radiator whilst the grille consists of curved lengths of welding wire. The bonnet is of 20 guage alloy and the air scoop is from a North American aircraft, whilst an Auburn dash is used. Front cycle-type wings were made from spare wheel-cover bands.
The “Baldwin ‘Payne’ Special” proved very competitive and successful in many Southern Californian events, ranging from circuit racing to hill climbs and dry lake trials. Returning to Portsmouth, England in October 1950, my father continued to sprint the car (FTP 348), gaining successes at Southsea Motor Club events, held at the famous Goodwood circuit, as well as Gosport Automobile Club speed trials. Bill Boddy wrote a very favourable ‘The Editor Encounters A Hot-Rod’ article in “Motorsport” of January 1952, having previously been very sceptical of the performance of Hot Rods – this lead to a very heated exchange of transatlantic letters in that magazine!
Naturally, the car has a very special place in the Payne household (Philip’s widow Vicky, and son Stephen), and is superbly maintained by Alan Collins, the Jaguar specialist, of Maldon, Essex. An overhaul was completed prior to the car’s appearance at The Cartier Style et Luxe at the 2001 Goodwood Festival of Speed, keeping the car as original to its’ illustrious sports rod heritage. "
( Tams Old Car site )
Ken..I love the Santa Barbara Xmas poster from 1936 showing the blue Packard with the rear part of the hood down and it looks like a very long Peacocks tail hanging over the back.
The show must go on ! The drivers hoped that the pilots picked the correct runway on race day !
(Moss Motors is just off to left about a mile behind the tail of the plane.)
Ken H.
Ken thanks for those photo's had seen pictures at Santa Barbara - did Jerry Melton take photos there ?? - I will have a look ..
Thanks for pointing that out John.
That is a small Christmas tree in the Packard.
Attachment 61210
Ken
Roger,
They were just some photos from a local Independent newspaper article. I don't think Jerry Melton took any photos in this area.
Ken.
Do you mind if I post that pic of the Baldwin Special on TNF, Ken?
I'm keen to know what it's made of.
Xmas tree ..Xmas card...didnt think of a tree. Pet peacock comes to mind.
Who would think an upmarket car like a Lanaulet Packard would have a tree inside- and look at the special fold down rear section to accommodate the tree.Servants usually collect these things.
Jeremy Clarkson would probably fit a cow there in todays world.
Ray,
You must have missed my post # 215 that I did for you.
I got the photo after reading this article.
Attachment 61214
Ken
I took my photo at Turn 4 by the North arrow.
Attachment 61215
This March 7 2019 article has raised a lot of renewed interest in the racing around here.."back in the day"
Attachment 61216
Indeed I did... I don't know how I did that!Quote:
Originally posted by khyndart in CA
Ray,
You must have missed my post # 215 that I did for you.....
Thanks very much for that. I would still like to address the issue to TNF because someone there will have the 1952 Motor Sport write-up and it might say something about the suspension.
It appears to have '39-'47 Ford brakes, probably the axle too.
I don't know where the 'mix of Anglo and American parts' came from as the only Pommie component seems to be the Pilot gearbox, which would surely have simply been the same as a US Ford box.
You might be able to tell, cars of this ilk are close to my heart, though I'm never so happy with ones with Ford V8s!
Re ; " THE BALDWIN “PAYNE” SPECIAL "
Ken H, didn't Baldwin also build a car called the " Baldwin Mercury Special " .. running a Mercury V8 - sidevalve version of the Ford V8 - think the Mercury had an extra head stud or two ??
The photo on the programme you posted indicates it was Baldwin's first Special..
Have just been going through my collection of books and magazines and have come across a Magazine called
" Vintage Racer " it is the Number 8 issue Autumn 1981 and cost US Four Dollars, I got it in 1982 in West Coast USA.
Publisher is Steven J Earle - didn't he go on to manage a Race Track or two ??.
The magazine has the entry list for Monterey Historics August 1981, the year before I went.
Have the Full programme and entry list book for 1982
No mention of a Baldwin in either Book..
For those interested " Beach Hop 2019 Whangamata " is on now 27 - 31 March - there have been lots of cars on State Highway 2 travelling from Tauranga that I saw yesterday ..
Have to go Waikato way on Monday - Pirongia and Te Awamutu, so i guess quite a few will be heading home..
One of the Vehicle's is a recreation of an American Ford School Bus - has modern mechanicals in a 1948 Ford Chasiss /body .. and looks like this .. One of the guys involved with the Bus is my Tyre Guy in Omokoroa Steve Abbott, whose Father Russ got me into " that TR4A " - " what a small world we live in " !!
Attachment 61217
Had seen the bus outside the Tyre shop many moths ago and was there earlier this week being readied for the trip.
Ford introduced the 24-stud heads in 1938 across the board, prior to that they were 21-stud. The Mercury engine had a larger capacity than the Ford for a while, but later Fords were the same size.
as mentioned Beach Hop is on this weekend and a local family [ Katikati ] are taking two Fords a Model and a very rare in NZ 1941 Ford V8 Super Deluxe .. the car has been fitted with 1952 Mercury Flathead .. the article in the localpaper is confusing as it states
" The V8 has a 52 Mercury flathead motor - 1941 was the last year Ford flathead motors were built, he said "
He being Eric the owner ..
I thought that Ford built the flathead up until the introduction of the " 272 " Y Block in about 1953 or 54 .. Ray will Know.
This is what I found on Wikipaedia
" Also called Ford L-head V8
Production 1932–1953 for the U.S. consumer car-and-truck market
1932-1954 Ford the Canadian consumer car-and-truck market
(1973 in Germany for trucks and 1961 for Simca versions, but later with a head akin to the Ardun OHV conversion) "
and from a Ford site ..
" The Ford Flathead is a valve-in-block engine and the valves open adjacent to the combustion chamber, rather than from the top, as in later engines. The four different V-8 flathead displacement sizes between 1932 and 1953 are 136, 221, 239 and 337 cubic inches. "
Remember the Simca version used in a car called the Vedette - a grown up Aronde, and of course we had in NZ the Ford V8 Pilot from Ford UK,engine by Ford USA and Canada.
Attachment 61230
Attachment 61233
A wet Saturday morning in Omokoroa, Fine in Te Poi on the other side of the Kaimai Ranges..
Time for a Coffee it's 10;45 NZDST ..
Attachment 61231
Then the day will be like this
Attachment 61232
I don't think the Simca versions (made even later than '61, I'm sure, and by Chrysler as they owned Simca) had the Ardun heads...
They were used on the ones Chrysler built in South America for the continuation of the Vedette, the Esplanada.
These were smaller engines, only 2.3 - 2.5-litres, as were some built in Britain and even a few in America in the late thirties (the 'V8-60). And yes, Fords continued with the flathead V8 until the Y-block came in in the mid-fifties.
Though there was also an inline six flathead in some US production and also sold in Europe.
Ken, your PMs are full, my e.mail is raybell@racingphoenix.com
It was certainly used in 1926.
Attachment 61374
Having worked on so many vintage cars over the years, I get a real buzz out of seeing that they were raced in the day , instead of the sedate cars seen at car shows.
I know where there are 3 Chandler Tourers...wonder if one of them was this winner ?
And as Chrysler had just been formed from Maxwell in 1925, Curletts car must have been an early delivery
John McK .. like your comment !!
" I get a real buzz out of seeing that they were raced in the day , instead of the sedate cars seen at car shows. "
The Chandler, I know little about; Must do some work on that. ** a bit below !
A J Roycroft and the Bugatti ..more is known, as he had several a Type 13 a 22, a 38 ..
the 13 was a Racer, which he got from Australia - had it at Muriwai in 1927 and 1929 for the Beach Races ..
the 38 was a tourer
and the type 22 seems to be a modified tourer, not a racer !!
.
According to the Scott Thompson book " Up to Speed " Daisy Roycroft had been in a Bugatti -
" before the ladies race at Waihi " .. was that 1926 - unsure..
AJ certainly had a Bugatti at the " Light Car Cup " in 1926 at Muriwai. which was probably the type 13 ..in 1927 it had been fitted with a long tail the car originally as mentioned was from Australia owned by Hope Bartlett, chassis # 2109.
In 1929 at Muriwai there were three Bugatti's on the front row - could have been the entire field of six cars ?
**
A Chandler Six Tourer. The advert says they sell a 4 passenger Roadster too !!
Attachment 61375
I also get the same feeling looking at the very early Daytona Beach racing...thats racing on the beach itself- with the 1930s Coupes and sedans leapfrogging over the sand.
First motorbike race there in 1948-"155 motorcycles started, only 45 finished
Purebred racers...nope, entertainment value....maximum.
Just reading, as in re-reading that George Smith - of " Gee Cee Ess " fame racing in the 1950's, ran a Chandler in Beach Racing in the 1920's .. A car name that has been " Lost in Antiquity " - as they say. No taken over by Hupp !
This is from Wikipaedia, so is a bit error - prone !!.
" It was incorporated in 1913, with Frederick C. Chandler as President, headquartered and with its factory in Cleveland, Ohio. Chandler was a former designer for the Lozier Motor Company, a top end luxury automobile manufacturer. Chandler and several other Lozier executives left the company to form his company.
Chandler concentrated on producing a good quality motor-car within the price range of middle class Americans. Chandlers were well received in the marketplace.
Production[edit]
In 1920, Chandler had a line of six cars, ranging from $1995 to $3595.[citation needed] This grew to 10 by 1922, ranging from $1495 to $2375.[citation needed] Like many other medium-price carmakers, in the middle 1920s Chandler introduced a lower-priced "companion car" called the Cleveland. In 1924, they introduced the "Traffic Transmission," a constant-mesh gearbox that reduced the need for extra clutching when downshifting. This was several years before General Motors offered the "Synchro-Mesh" transmission, which allowed the driver to shift into first gear while moving forward at low speeds.
Chandler's peak year was 1927, when they sold 20,000 cars. Hopes for continued growth of the market led to over expansion by the company the following year, which finished 1928 over half a million dollars in debt.
In 1929, Chandler Motor Company was purchased by its expanding competitor Hupp Motor Car Company for its factory and manufacturing facilities, and the brand was discontinued.
Chandler, like most cars built before all-steel bodies became the industry standard in the mid-1930s, used bodies built with a metal skin around a wooden frame (an "armored wood" frame).[1] Due to the use of fabric roofs, after a few decades the wood tended to rot; because of this Chandlers have survived in smaller numbers than some other popular automobiles of the era that used all-steel bodies " .
Rikko, Ken H, Ray Bell, John Mck and others - getting off the topic quite a lot .. oops.
Cheers,
Roger D ..
back to Austin Healey's I guess ..
Thanks Roger...good research and I enjoyed the read.
That Chandler I posted was really a nice car with some luxury features inside...
But no doubt it never saw a race track. The closest ones to it would have been Thurgoona-Wirlinga and Pound Hill I guess.
While I have been around as much of the former as you can do these days, I've never seen Pound Hill. Which is a bit of a shame because my uncle helped build it.
If, however, you include things like Speedways, it wasn't too far from Wahgunya, Leeton, Echuca and several more. As a stablemate it had a 1931 Plymouth roadster to keep it company.
1914 movie- Mabel at the Wheel- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XN8-stCgmo
Mabel drives a Bentley V8
Which race track/tracks is this ?
Cmon Ken, its your backyard
Great collection of period racer. all rhd. and Mabel looks like she could get into the Shell Mustang and win Bathurst.
That is a fun old movie John, looks like the old course at Santa Monica.CA.
Ken.
A bit more about the racetrack at Santa Monica around 1914.
https://thekeystonegirlblogs.wordpre...-santa-monica/
Attachment 61573
(Ken H )
It has to be West Coast as there's a banner with 'FRESNO' in big letters at the back of the grandstand...