I trust speed limits were observed to the letter of the law.
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Russ you acjually have a friend Jamie
My understanding is that the Rorstan is all Cooper under the skin, apart - as you mention - from the widened cockpit section
I believe the car Peter Bruin built for Bill Clark may have had the original single-seater bodywork, but everything else (including the chassis) was new
Not true David, I built that car for Bill and it the CS 5 gearbox,fuel and oil tanks, wheels and many more parts. What it lacked was a continuing racing history. It is more a Cooper than Leuch's Lister was a Lister.
Here are some photos of the last Bagnell Sierra being built at Meidecke Motorsport in about August 89.
The tuesday of Bathurst week 1989. Ross (Stone) has just given the Bagnell car its maiden voyage around the block. Team photo( 8 Kiwis and 1 Pom) and in the truck to Bathurst.
We drove all night, even had snow, unloaded, practiced, Crosby qualified the car in the top 10.
Bagnell drove the car in the shoot out and put it in the wall at the cutting. There was front and rear damage, the tailgate overlapped the rear pillar by about 12 inchs, the rear crossmember had torn one end off. This was repaired after a latenight trip to the carpark, with a hacksaw, where a Hertz truck had its exhaust shortened. The truck exhaust was sleeved inside the crossmember. It was another big night (after the other big nights) finally finishing the car in pit lane and started from pitlane. After a couple of hours the car was back up to eighth when the injector rail broke which was the final touch.
Hi Conrod,
I started there in mid 89, there were 3 then.
I'm not sure of the others, there was Andys fire at Lakeside which was another. And there were the OXO cars before that, I don't know were they came from but think they were built in Sydney. These shots are from the Nerang QLD workshop.
Hi Marty, always good to see pics like these, especially by someone who was involved with the cars back in the day. Must have been gutting to have the new car badly damaged first time out! I saw it had a fairly good hit at Wellington in 89 or 90, when Bagnall hit the wall on the LH side when negotiating slower traffic. I am guessing the yellow car in the pic is the Kevin Waldock car? If so, that races in NZ and is owned by a guy in Nelson.
This is the car at Hampton Downs in January.
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...02I17N2701.jpg
Conrad
Yeap....Waldock car. Owner Brett Stevens...Motueka
I need to correct some details about the Rorstan. I bought it off Bob Moore in 1978. Bob put on a wider front chassis and I have the original Cooper chassis in good condition. The Rorstan still retains the original brakes, suspension, steering, radiator and rea chassis. It has Elfin rear wheels and Brabham fronts. I have spares for both. It has a Hewland HD5 gearbox coupled to a strong Vauxhall motor.When Bill Clarke built his replica he came and took photos of the Rorstan so he should know that it still has many original parts along with it's history. I did not actually pay that price for the Rorstan. it has been a great car for me. I don't know the Kerry Pennell connection.
I think the Kerry Pennell connection is confusion with the ex-Donovan Oldins Typhoon, which was around at about the same time and which I think Pennell bought
Hey Marty, thanks heaps for posting these pics, and for clearing up where the Bagnall car came from. Are those Wolf Racing wheels Miedecke used on his cars?
Thanks also for the Waldock Playscape RS500 pics. I don't know why, but I always thought Stone Brothers had built this car. Glad you have steered me straight on that one!
You are correct on the Stone Brothers, they were both at Medeckies at the time. Jimmy is behind the car in the first photo.
Ronal rings a bell.
The hole in the gaurd that is talked about was a trendy thing at the time. Just a hammerformed piece welded in.
I have some more photos of it being repaired at the Bathurst Tafe. They used to be the first guys you would go and see when you got there, just in case. Sadly it is no more.
Oh, so they worked for Miedecke, then they must have moved to DJR after that?
Hi Russ,
I think this was a Meridian rather than a Terrapin. It was designed and built by John Moynihan - origiannly had a Cooper S engine in Mk2 form and then a Ford engine on a Mini gearbox in Mk3 form. I owned Moynihans Mk 1 Meridian in the 70's - it was a U2 like thing but built with a supercharged Wolesley 1500 engine. I also had the Ford engine unit from the Mk3 - which I bought when fitted in Sandy Powells rallycross Mini.
Yes Jaque van Vels has the Meridian - but I am not sure how much of the original car is left! Very fast car though.
Graeme Farr
Hello Graeme,
You are most likely right. I never had much of an interest in the car, just bought it for the sake of it. Will try and dig out some pics when time permits but you know what that means.
Sandy Powell! Haven't caught up with him in years and he's only up the road. Good chap, owned the Imp Stilleto with rotary power & a MK.8 Hewland. Will ring him and catch up for some serious beer tasting. Isn't that always serious?
When I bought the Mini off Sandy it was sitting under a hedge - I asked what ever happened to the ex Barry Vuyk Stilletto he had - and he pointed me to another hedge!. There is was all complete with rotary and even still had the cool Haliday wheels. A year or two later an Imp nut from Chch advertised looking for the car and I put him in touch with Sandy. But I think he just took out the Hewland and flogged it off and took the car to the dump. Sad end to a cool car.
Sandy was an amazing engineer - had a massive kiwifruit sorting machine he had built out of bits of apple machinery - and a big fibreglass keeler mould he had built a yacht from. Nice guy too - and very fast rallycross driver.
G
Graeme, Did you see the BMC based coupe that Sandy had bought of a guy from Gisborne - it was under another hedge! Had a 1800 Austin/Morris rear mounted.
From what I remember not a bad effort.
Don't you just treasure guys like this.
Russ
Russ, another Guy in the same mould as Sandy, was Kim Austin. Cant remember much about him except that I loved his driving style and the machines he created. Think he lived down Otorahanga way. I went to a couple of hill climbs where he was participating. I do know he died some years ago and his cars are also probably under some hedge somewhere. I think he may have done the Ashley Forest sprint at some stage.....now that was great to watch, especially the downhill section. Some amazing car control, some times out of control, efforts down there. Your comment that 'dont you just treasure guys like this' is bang on. Unfortunately they just tend to get forgotten. Anyone know any more about Kim?
Kim was very seriously into rallying,he did the Ashly more than once and I think he did the first Cadrona/Queenstown Hillclimb.The V8 rx7 was a mean machine.
Kim and his mate were killed in a plane crashh may have been a helecopter ,He had a food place south of Taupo {2miles}
Amongst other things Chris ran the mid engine Renault Turbo as a rally and rally sprint car.
Les Bognuda did indeed own this car during the 80's in New Plymouth . He was an insurance assessor from memory ( memory aint so good these days either now ) , pretty sure that Larry Taylor used to do the maintenance on it and that probably the last time l ever spoke to Les they were thinking about shoehorning a chevy into it . Car was painted black back then .
Kim lived in a place called Waitakaruru on the Hauraki Plains heading towards Thames. I think he first made his mark at Ashley Forest in a Chevette powered by a Rover V8 - remember him tipping it on its lid. He set the record in a Series 1 RX7 that may have been partially financed by Lance Green, who was his co-driver at times. The RX7 was a pretty good car, but Kim still drove the wheels off it - he was quite spectacular to watch. He also drove the Hickman / Murphy Starion, which was originally powered by a Rodeck? V8. He campaigned a Nissan Pulsar GTIR for a period in the early 90's, and was a stalwart of the Woolf Mufflers rally series. As already mentioned, he was killed in a helicopter accident with Chris Barnes. Chris rallied the Renault R5 as noted, and moved on to a Nissan Pulsar GTIR also - I heard a rumour that he was the first person to win a rally in this car in the world - winning the Whangerei Rally in 1991. Another guy who rallied around the same time was Greg Taylor - he ran Mazda RX7's, as did Mike Montgomery, and David Thexton. Greg Taylor owned a business called Central Roadmarking, and also raced at Bathurst a couple of times in a third Sierra RS500 with the DJR outfit. Taylor progressed to the RX7, possibly from a BDA Escort. Chris' daughter Leanne also made her mark a few years ago rallying cars. A great shame when Barnes and Austin were killed, and I heard a rumour way back in the day, that Taylor had throat cancer - hence the reason he spent a fortune on his rallying / racing, but could never substantiate this.
Lance Green was with Greens travel Papakura,owned by his dad Jack who also made farm machines and sold them there my wife worked there in travel in the 80s
NZ is just a fart-arsed little country, and yet we throw up an amazing array of sporting heros in all sorts of sports, and Motorsport is high on the list. Sandy and Kim are just a couple of lateral thinking guys who beaver away in their sheds concocting cars that can really do the business when it comes down to it. Coupled with a bit of spirited driving these guys become legends over night, and almost as quickly fade away. I think it is our duty here on RS to make sure that this doesn't happen. Too often motorsport has been overlooked when bouquets are being handed out, but as can be seen with what has been posted in all the forums on RS, we have a rich history of do it yourself motoring second to none. Dont worry fellas, we will not forget you.