Where Is It Now: Bob Cullinane HQ Monaro

[Steve Holmes]

I've received a message from an enthusiast looking for this New Zealand race car. Its an HQ Monaro coupe, built up in the late 1970s or early '80s for Bob Cullinane to race in the Production Supercar series, which was a sort of follow-on from the Castrol GTX production series. At the time it was a big budget car, and ran strongly. It was painted black. Strangely, it appears it was built from a luxury LS Monaro, not a GTS. Cullinane raced it briefly, before moving across to race a Sports Sedan, and the Monaro was bought and raced by John Arkley. Its possible the car eventually made its way to the South Island with another owner.

Does anyone know what happened to it, and if it still exists?

Here is a photo taken by Tony Growden at Pukekohe, possibly with Arkley driving it.

[seaqnmac27]

Definitely John Arkley, that is Pukekohe GP meet 1982

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Sean.

[Steve Holmes]

Still no clues with this one guys?

[bigbanger]

If the car indeed went to the South Island, the only similar black Monaro of the time being raced there was the example raced by the late Cliff Pilling who ran the car mostly in Clubmans Saloons, occasionally in OSCA and often in Pegasus Bay Drag Racing Club events at Ruapuna.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks for this. I have some old magazines from the early/mid 80s, so I'll do a bit of searching on Cliff Pilling to see what comes of it. This Monaro was quite unique in that most HQ Monaro's that went racing were the GTS versions, with the single headlights. This is the LS model, with twin headlights, so is quite distinctive.

[bigbanger]

Steve, the more I think about it, the more I think Cliff's Monaro was possibly the ex Cullinane example. The Monaro was black, had a rollcage and the bonnet bulge. It may well have had an LS front, my memory is not clear here, but when I look at the photo above, and mentally remove the sponsors signwriting, I'm definitely reminded of Cliff.

If you're doing the magazine search bear in mind that Cliff ran a brown ex Castrol GTX Camaro in early eighties (not sure who raced that one in GTX, it had a rollcage and the previous owner/driver was Gary Edwards?). If I factor in Bob Cullinane's move to the ex Graham Baker Capri Chev, then add on a couple of years of the Monaro being in the hands of John Arkley, I think by 1985/86, Cliff was running the Monaro.

Hope this helps.

[Spgeti]

If the Camaro was brown it would have been the Big Brother car repainted and put on the road. It still had a cage in it.

[Roger Dowding]

Silly question, has anyone asked Bob ?, last time [ first time ] I met him, he ran a driving course at Pukekohe in 2004, mine was with the MX5 club, and I ran a 1991 Limited Edition [ Eunos Roadster aka MX5 /Miata ]- ex Japan, did the sessions and the car control,then later in the day Helmet and go for it on track. Thought the photo was not Puke too many Cabbage trees then saw the shed near the hairpin, PUKEKOHE, Yes it is look at all the vans in the background, Escorts for Africa, flag marshalled on that corner in the early 70's for NSCC.

[camaroman slp]

Hi i remember the late Cliff Pilling running a monaro like this one at wigram and ruapuna
it had functional ducting in the front spoiler.He raced it regularly at ruapuna drag strip.Cliff also owned and raced the ex Jim Richards 1971 black Z28 Camaro that was previously owned by George Bunce and now by Darren at Moorhouse Musclecars christchurch I think cliffs family could shed some light on were the Monaro went.I think the family may still own his mint yellow XU-1 Torana He was such a perfectionist and friendly guy RIP Cliff

[Steve Holmes]

This is awesome info guys, thanks heaps. Camaroman, can you recall anything else about the Monaro when you saw it at Wigram and Ruapuna? With the engine set back, sounds like it was converted into an OSCA car? Did it feature any body mods you can remember?

[225sloper]

I found this while searching through magazines.NZ Hot Rod Magazine May 1984,no other info but this photo.

[Rellum]

This car did go to the South Island and was raced by Cliff Pilling. I think he subsequently starting racing the ex Monaco motors Z28 Camaro. I saw the Monaro for sale in a car yard in Invercargill in road car trim in the mid/late 80's.

[Steve Holmes]

Vern, this is great info, thanks heaps.

[Steve Holmes]

I found this while searching through magazines.NZ Hot Rod Magazine May 1984,no other info but this photo.

Awesome! Thanks for posting this.

[bigbanger]

Well, the NZ HRM photo pretty well confirms that Cliff's Monaro was the ex Cullinane/Arkley car. I noticed the 'Champion' sticker on the left front guard is in the identical place to on both photo's. The sticker above the wheel seems to be an 'Arbuckles OSCA Supercar' one, Arbuckles sponsored OSCA for a couple of seasons in the 1980's.

As far as further modifications goes, I always thought the engine was within the original engine bay, I never noticed any firewall cut and set back typical of the more highly modified OSCA A class cars. Likewise with body mods, no flares etc.

Cliff only occasionally ran in the OSCA class, usually in the second half of the field, the Monaro was probably something like 300 kg heavier and 100 plus HP down on the front running OSCA V8's, the mid 13 drag quarter is a good comparison to the low 12's, and high 11's, the likes of Osborne, Munt and Kennard would put down over the 1/4 mile at the time. It was a front runner in Canterbury CC Clubmans though and as previously noted, at the Drags.

Just going back to my earlier post re Cliff's Camaro for a moment, now that my mind has been jogged, yes he definitely had a black ex Castrol GTX Z28. I may have been confused some 30 years later regarding the brown one, I seem to recall Cliff racing a brown Z28, perhaps it was at the Southern 200 and it was still Gary Edward's or some others car?

And as others have said, Cliff was a true muscle car enthusiast and a great club member both CCC and PBDRC.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks bigbanger, awesome post! Spgeti (Bruce) will probably know more about the Camaro, as he and Garry Price both heavily researched all the Castrol GTX Camaro's, including their race histories and ownerships. It makes for fascinating reading! As he said, the Dave Baker Big Brother Z28 was repainted brown. The black Z28 was the Neville Crichton/Jim Richards car which George Bunce later raced.

[Rellum]

As a point of interest Steve, Cliff Pilling actually used to own (and race) my coupe back in the 70's (I found that out around the early 90's in a rather convoluted way). Cliff sent me a newspaper clipping (and photo) of the coupe doing 156 mph in a flying 1/4 mile back in the late 70's. It would be interesting to know if any other members recall Cliff owning a Cosmic Blue XA Coupe. I was quite intrigued to learn of that part of the history of my car.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Vern, thats a pretty col story. 156mph on the flying 1/4 is really hauling!

[John McKechnie]

Its a Falcon, - naturally it can fly!!!!!!!!!