Hi There Fellow Petrol Heads

[Des Ward]

I was a personal friend of Ernie Spragues, and raced a mk3 Zephyr in pre 65,s and waimate 50 .
That was a dark green zephyr with triple ida weber carbs
Now I am restoring Ernies Original wills winning Mk 3 Zodiac
If you would like to know anything about the car message me

[Grant Sprague]

Great that you are here Des ......most people probably dont remember the red mk3 zodi, was a nice old car , it did the will 6 hrs with good results plus 1/5 production races as well , this was bought after the green mk 3 , then the 3.8 mk 2 jag took over from that ... [zodi]

[Steve Holmes]

Hi there Des, welcome to The Roaring Season. Nice to have you here. Would certainly enjoy any info you care to share.

[Bryan]

Some photos of the Sprague Mk IV Zephyr here.

[Grant Sprague]

Thanks Bryan ...... yep these zephers came after the red mk3 Zodi......... The two you sent were the red mk 4 & a yellow mk 4 both were driven up from timaru , the red one was entered in the 6 hr race the yellow one was entered in the 3 hr [I think] big undertaking in those days from the southern boys .... The Red one was sold to Bill Greg a publican in Timaru that owned a string of pubs & was a good friend of the family & recently died in Wiamate still a pub owner , not sure what happened to the yellow car , so one was a 2.5 & the other 3.0 v6 ??.. There was also a blue mk4 they raced at B&H will g8 results then came the 3.3 ,s then chargers & falcons ....... geee when I think about it they went hard out .....

[Rod Grimwood]

The Francevic Mk1V in photos was bought by Tony McFadden and had a wee 8 dropped into it, was a quick car.
If Ford had bought these out with a nice 289 or 302 off the floor they would have been a top car, you could play with them and make them handle, all the arse-ends ended up in speedway cars later on.

[Grant Sprague]

Rod I remember well....... Francevic drove into Ernie,s pits [or beside pit] wanting
help with his Zepher as it was over heating a common thing at the time ...also the common name for them were called type writers as they went clack clack clack tick clack tap lol

[Rod Grimwood]

As you know Grant, first thing was remove spare wheel, (who would put a spare in front of the engine) and let mice at the panel to ventilate it a little. Could be tackfully bent and angled for better flow as well.
This was another reason why they were so easy to shove a Wee 8 into, a bloody great football field out front.

[Grant Sprague]

Cold & wet here in Tga Rod so thought would add a bit, yep they had the making of a good car with the 289 or 302 ...... hey the 2nd thing to take out was the carpets the third thing was the underseal inside & underneaths [options for fire saftey etc] all of ours were weighed & calculated re fuel saving... I was amazed as a kid at most of the others never took advantage of this ....... any way thats history but still find it interesting