Lost Race Cars

[David McKinney]

David,
That is a fine example of the convoluted process needed to trace the history of specific cars and the apparent disregard for Chassis IDs by constructors of the period.
Can you expand on the reasons or series of events which led to these 3 cars carrying the same #no?

From memory, it goes something like this...
Contemporary reports quoted one of the 1960 works cars as F2-8-60
In 1961 someone (possibly hillclimber Arthur Owen) ran this car
The same year Atkins ran a car numbered F2-8-60 in Europe for Bruce (and JB). Harry Pearce, who built Atkins's cars at the time, insists it was a new car - "Atkins never bought a second-hand Cooper in his life"
The Atkins car Bruce raced in NZ and Australia in early 1962 was, as explained above, another brand new F2-8-60

And to echo what OF said, a friend once asked John Cooper if it was true the factory ran only three lowline F1 cars (T53) in 1960. His answer was, "Well, we only had three chassis numbers...."

At which point the smartest of us give up

[Dave Silcock]

Max collided with me at the left turn out of the sweeper at Puke. I was driving the Jaguar not the Escort ex Harrington. I used to enjoy that corner as the Jag could hop a wheel over the kerb and you would hardly notice it. You can imagine my surprise when i heard a twin cam to my left, There was Max attempting an inside pass. I had no need to stop, and I don't think Max did either so the damage can't have been terminal. On another matter ever wondered why Escorts ended up on single seater wheels and with good twin cam Fords in them? Those beautiful little cars where bastardised into Formula Fords. Shame Eh!
Cheers Dave

[Andy G]

Do you have any photos Dave? Specs of the escort when you raced it? Are they brabham wheels on the car in the picture Steve posted?
Regards Andy Giles

[Russ Cunningham]

Max collided with me at the left turn out of the sweeper at Puke. I was driving the Jaguar not the Escort ex Harrington. I used to enjoy that corner as the Jag could hop a wheel over the kerb and you would hardly notice it. You can imagine my surprise when i heard a twin cam to my left, There was Max attempting an inside pass. I had no need to stop, and I don't think Max did either so the damage can't have been terminal. On another matter ever wondered why Escorts ended up on single seater wheels and with good twin cam Fords in them? Those beautiful little cars where bastardised into Formula Fords. Shame Eh!
Cheers Dave

Hi Dave,

Am I missing something?

Escorts into FF's?

[Steve Holmes]

I think he was referring to F2 cars that were converted to FFs, with their engines and wheels ending up in/on Escort saloon cars?

[Dave Silcock]

Sorry to be so long in replying to this but I am still in business and I could spend all my time on here.I don't have any photos that would be of interest. Yes it did have Brabham wheels. It was pretty much your usual Twin cam Escort, front suspension modded to some English spec, Broadspeed or Williment, Bullet box,Wats linkage four trailing arms on the rear. It had a pretty good engine but can't recall whose it was. It was by far the worst handling racing car I have ever driven as purchased. The Wats linkage pushed the tyres into the flares, it had so much roll steer in the front it was scary at speed and had roll under steer in the rear. This last caused an off at Bay Park that split the right front wheel into two,outer rim gone. I doubt if it could have been more geometrically incorrect. When that was corrected it was as good as any. Lot of work though compared to the Jaguar, had to pinch Steve Horne off the Hallidays to help me but that's another story.
Cheers Dave.

[Steve Holmes]

Boy, thats great info Dave. Did you race it during the 1971/72 season, or just the second half of the 1970/71 season?

Out of interest, was the Escort raced by Peter Sundberg during the 1971/72 season the Fahey car?

[Rod Grimwood]

Kevin McNamara ran also.

[Lurker]

Kevin McNamara ran also.

Kevin McNamara ran the ex Platt ex Stoneman Escort

[David McKinney]

Out of interest, was the Escort raced by Peter Sundberg during the 1971/72 season the Fahey car?

No, it was the ex-Silcock

[seaqnmac27]

No, it was the ex-Silcock

So is Sundberg the missing link between Dave Silcock and Bob Homewood? Or is there someone else?

[Dave Silcock]

Peter Sundberg was an apprentice I had with me at Marave .He followed me to Metropolitan Cranes. I am hopeless at dates so I can't recall the timing bit this is how it shook out. When Don McMillan (who is not related, Bob) bought the Escort, Peter drove the Jaguar till it was sold then the ex Harrington car after Don and I parted company basically because of a difference of opinion about the preparation of the Escort. Don then bought the ex Fahey car for Peter to drive mostly to piss me off I think as I lusted after that car with a passion. A few years ago I built as close a copy as I could of the Fahey car for Gray Mathias. It is for sale in the Uk for in excess of a hundred thousand pounds! I am listed in the ad as an ex works Ford engineer, I must of forgotten about that part of my life.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Dave (and David M). The reason I'd asked about Sundberg racing the ex Fahey car during 1971/72 was because there is a photo of him at Pukekohe in an Escort in Motorman mag fitted with very wide Minilite wheels, but Dave Silcock said in an earlier posting the Harrington car had Brabham wheels. The car in Motorman also has a single wiper, which the Fahey car had, whereas the Harrington car had two wipers.

I always thought the Fahey car went straight to Rod Collingwood, but Collingwood was racing his Mini during the 1971/72 season. I know Fahey raced it in late 1971, before moving over full time to his Mustang which PDL had just bought.

[Andy G]

Dave, any pictures at all would be great if possible. The only Pics we have of the car are the ones on this thread and a couple of others from Roos Cameron.
We have a Set of Brabham wheels to put on the car but we are trying to work out what engine to use? Olds v8 or the lotus T/C, We have 75% of the parts to build a real good T/C but the fire wall in the car have been moved back so if we did go the T/C road then a new firewall would need to be stitched in. Any thoughts?
Regards Andy.

[Steve Holmes]

Here is what Bob Homewood emailed me on the subject of the McMillan Escorts. Bob has been having problems posting images on here lately so I'll just post up everything he has sent me. I was confused over a photo I saw of Peter Sundberg at Pukekohe in early 1972, in an Escort fitted with Minilites. Also, I wondered if Fahey had sold his car with or without engine, and what engine it was sold with, as my understanding was it had an FVA when first raced (1969/70 season), then a larger FVC when Fahey won the NZ championship with it. I wasn't sure if this was the same engine used both seasons with some different internals, or two different engines. Here is Bobs reply:

Right first the ex Harrington Blue car ,that went when Harrington sold it as I have said to Don McMillan's ownership ,Don had both Dave Silcock and Peter Sundberg drive it for him,the shell of this car and assorted parts ,which included three Brabham wheels then came to me late 1972,I rebuilt and modified the front and rear suspension ,putting a XU1 Holden diff into the rear of it ,I had Croydon Thompson cast me up a set of his alloy wheels for the rear ,so it then had Brabhams on the front ,Thompsons on the rear .Croydon was going to make me another pair of his wheels for the front ,but when the first fuel crises came along and motor racing activities got curtailed the sponsor I had ,pulled out and I was a bit pissed off with all this so I sold the project to Grant Aitken ,taking his Mini as part of the deal,I never raced the Mini I on sold it more or less straight away to some one Merv Neil knew,this was around the start of the 1973 Season

The second Don McMillan car which I will call the "Spears Escort " as the Lotus Twin Cam engines were built and supplied by them for that season ,I was involved in building that car for Don when I returned from living in the South Island mid 1972 ,we built that from a new bodyshell and if you look at photos of it you will see it was one of the later round headlight bodyshells ,it was painted yellow and carried Spears signage.I worked on this car all the 72/73 summer season (at this time I was also building my own Escort the one mentioned before above and preparing and racing various XU1 Holdens ) at the end of that season the car was sold of to some one in Nelson ,(was it Dick Tout ) .I don't know what engine if any went with it,as around 1978 I brought both the motors we had used in the Escort that season from Spears and I still own them albeit they are now in bits in my collection of Lotus Twin Cam racing stuff

The Fahey car ,yes it was FVA at the very start of its career ,would have used the 69.1 mm stroke crank,they were a engine you had rev,then I believe the crank got changed to the longer stroke one ,to give it 1860cc ,and more torque .I believe that would have been the configuration it was in when Rod Collingwood brought it at the start of 72/73 season ,Collingwood sold the car at the end of the season to Don McMillan ,but Collingwood still drove the car when it went up to Malaysia ,I can't comment on what happened up there as I was not there ,but I believe they had some engine problems up there,and perhaps brought another engine from someone ,can't remember exactly on that one,its too long ago ,Ken Smith might remember maybe they got the engine from him,when the car came back to NZ ,I helped out on it for a couple of meetings,later in the season ( 73 /74 ) the car was sold to Grant Aitken

Hope that helps answer your questions ,it might be better with the photos to tell me what cars you are looking for in particular ,then I will have a look for you
Regards
Bob


Time line for above

I think I have got this in the right context ,when I mention years remember half the racing season is in one year ,the other half in the next year



Blue "Harrington Escort ------------------------sold Don McMillan Drivers Silcock / Sundberg ---------------------- Bob Homewood ----------------Grant Aitken -----Ross Cameron
Lotus Twin Cam engine----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------F85 olds




71/ 72 72 /73 73 /74

Yellow "Spears " Escort Built from brand new body shell for Don McMillan Driver Sundberg-------------------sold to Nelson ? Dick Tout ??
72/ 73 73/74
The Lotus Twin Cam engines used in this period in the car are still with me




Fahey FVA Escort ex UK 1600----------capacity increased 1850 ----------------------Rod Collingwood --------------Sold Don McMillan driver Sundberg --------Grant Aitken
1970 ???? 72/73 73/74 74

[Steve Holmes]

Here is the Sundberg Escort at Pukekohe on April 9, 1972 with Bobs explanation:

Is this the photo you are referring to ,this is at the Elbow at the last Pukekohe meeting of 72 going on the photo's I have it would have been after the Bay Park Easter round perhaps ? I will try to find a exact date for the meeting as I am researching that period at the moment .That is the ex Harrington car that I got a couple of months later ,the Minilites would have gone on the car after one of the Brabham wheels got damaged.

[Steve Holmes]

And this one, note the single wiper blade (when Harrington raced the car it had 2 wipers), which is why I had wondered if the car above might have been the Fahey car, when it had the Minilites fitted, but Bob has been able to clarify the situation for me:

Photo from the Bay Park meeting just before the other meeting at Puke I just sent you ,Brabham's at this meeting ? ,I think this is the meeting where the wheel got damaged ,I will have to work on some exact dates which might take me a day or so to pull the info out ,but the sequence of photos is definitely right ,this one and then the other one I at the Elbow I sent you before Tell me if this all makes sense Bob.

[Steve Holmes]

Here is the Spear Escort Bob was talking about, this photo taken by Warwick Clayton.

[seaqnmac27]

Ok, so going though the Sports Sedan entry lists posted by Malcolm/Powder, it would seem that Mr Waswo sold the ex McIntyre/PDL/Bartley Fiat 124 to a Les Bognuda. At least that is my assumption based on using the numbers that Robert Bartley, Waswo and Bognuda used all being 40. Does anyone have any pictures of this car from 1980-1984 either as the Waqswo car or Bugnuda. Also interesting to note is the changes in engine size.
I believe the car to have been an 1800 in Glenn McIntyres hands, thenits shown as "1608"cc in Robert Bartleys hand but this may be a misprint, I believe the engine size as an 1800 was 1808 or 1804, but then in Hoss Waswos hands its a 2litre, before becoming a 1.6 in Les Bognudas care.
Any more info?

[Oldfart]

All easy Fiat swaps! 1608 is a correct Fiat capacity. 124 had all of those so always possible, but what it ACTUALLY had I have no idea.