New Zealand Historic Muscle Cars Under HRC

[Frosty5]

"All 69/73 Mustang rear spoilers were fiberglass with a genital curve"

Well that puts a whole new perspective on the term "muscle cars" doesn't it!!!! Try spellcheck Dale, LOL

Cheers Dave Graham

[GD66]

That's a good looking car GD66 Dale M

Dead right mate, and compared to the other runners was an absolute stunner back in the day. I built a tribute 1/32 scale slot car of it, complete with lime yellow beard spoiler, black boot spoiler, matt-black bonnet stripes and big gold door numbers, with lots of help from Murray Maunder. But to see the real one on-track was a treat , with Red straining forward against the belts as he wrestled with the roaring beast, the nose rising high under acceleration, the thing sliding wildly on too-soft suspension, and even post-race in the pits, Red mumbling and grumbling about what might have been, overall buttons open as he mowed through another pack of gum at high speed. No wonder so many of us recall those heady days with such affection, those blokes were dead-set legends in front of our eyes !

[Kiwiboss]

"All 69/73 Mustang rear spoilers were fiberglass with a genital curve"

Well that puts a whole new perspective on the term "muscle cars" doesn't it!!!! Try spellcheck Dale, LOL

Cheers Dave Graham

No No Dave, thats what i mean "Genital" curve bro, LOL, LOL

Dale M

[Steve Holmes]

Dead right mate, and compared to the other runners was an absolute stunner back in the day. I built a tribute 1/32 scale slot car of it, complete with lime yellow beard spoiler, black boot spoiler, matt-black bonnet stripes and big gold door numbers, with lots of help from Murray Maunder. But to see the real one on-track was a treat , with Red straining forward against the belts as he wrestled with the roaring beast, the nose rising high under acceleration, the thing sliding wildly on too-soft suspension, and even post-race in the pits, Red mumbling and grumbling about what might have been, overall buttons open as he mowed through another pack of gum at high speed. No wonder so many of us recall those heady days with such affection, those blokes were dead-set legends in front of our eyes !

Thats an awesome description and great recollection!

[Steve Holmes]

Because this is a factory Shelby Trans Am car(number 26 or 27 ever made) it would have come with it John and a 33 gallon gas tank(stock is 16, they welded two bottom half's together) for long distance USA races which was its first event at Riverside before been shipped to NZ(a 3 hour race i believe, Nigel has the plaque)! i'd say(but i'd have to check) but i'd bet the stock gas tank and filler was fitted for NZ saloon events prior to coming in. Somewhere along the way(it may have been when John Chapman owned it) it was repaint in its original off white colour(how it first raced in NZ) and this tank and filler system refitted to correct specs.

Post that picture up John

Dale M

I'm pretty sure the Mustang still had its big tank and bootlid filler in its first season in NZ with Frank Bryan. Group 5 cars were eligible to compete in longer distance races in 1967/68, such as the Wills 3 Hour, so the big tank would have been a useful device.

When Dawson bought the car in 1968, he switched in the small tank, although I'm not sure if he did it before or after he raced the car in the 1968 ATCC at Warwick Farm. That race took a few seconds shy of 1 hour, so you'd think he'd have kept the big tank in.

The Dexter Dunlop Shelby that arrived in NZ in late 1970 had raced in the Trans-Am since new (plus local A/Sedan races) with its previous owners Bob Egan and Bob Kennett. So it always had the big tank fitted.

[John McKechnie]

Just going through my Motorman- in Sept 1968 there is a centre fold of the start of the Dunlop half hour race, April 20.
The 3 Aussies were here in their light weight biscuit tins.
Pic #1167- shows clearly filler on boot lid of Frank Bryans car, look at rear window and see shiny cap.

[John McKechnie]

[John McKechnie]

Attachment 25555
Dale-Pic as you requested. My Monaro and Reds Mustang,probably mid Feb 1970. No sign of filler cap here.

[John McKechnie]

I took this pic, was meeting at Puke, Dexter Dunlop number 52 ,Red in Kensington Camaro, Grable in Firebird, Fahey in Orange PDL Mustang.
Fuel filler cap is flat, almost recessed into boot lid, attached by wire to original location on taillamp panel.

[Jac Mac]

I took this pic, was meeting at Puke, Dexter Dunlop number 52 ,Red in Kensington Camaro, Grable in Firebird, Fahey in Orange PDL Mustang.
Fuel filler cap is flat, almost recessed into boot lid, attached by wire to original location on taillamp panel.

Nope, that's the hood pin retainer for boot lid, fuel filler is just below the 'WG' of WGTON

[John McKechnie]

jacmac- full marks, Next time we meet I can show you this pic.
Dale say is the Shelby fillers were here on the boot lid, as seen by #1167.
So that is the filler sticking out of the tail lamp panel under WGTN?- looks pretty gay (olde English for happy) at that angle.
Will go back and find the mag that shows Kennard running it at the USA events.

[Kiwiboss]

Pretty good spotting John so it looks to be the case, came in with the Shelby filler and then changed later!!

You know, quite possibly the big 32G tank got damaged and a stock mustang one replaced it somewhere in its life!! it must have been before fitting the wing as I currently can't open the filler cap with the spoiler mounted and as mentioned above I know the spoiler is in the correct original position.

Dale M

[John McKechnie]

Maybe Red fitted the spoiler, saw this situation and decided that the boot lid filler had to go.
Apart from earlier Wills 3 hour and this Dunlop half hour there were no long distance events needing this big tank and special boot lid setup.
So....how are you going to get around it?

[Kiwiboss]

Maybe Red fitted the spoiler, saw this situation and decided that the boot lid filler had to go.
Apart from earlier Wills 3 hour and this Dunlop half hour there were no long distance events needing this big tank and special boot lid setup.
So....how are you going to get around it?

He just has to open the boot lid to open the filler cap, at least you can't steal his fuel at the track now John, LOL, LOL

Dale M

[Jac Mac]

Might be a bit simpler than that. At the time if you had a car where the fuel filler was not on the body exterior you had to fit a splash apron with drainage to the outside to prevent fuel spillage possibly getting into the cockpit driver area, this was 'meant' to cover refuelling during longer events and should probably have been ignored for our shorter races, but some tech guys enforcing the rules did just that. As well as these cars it caught stuff like Imps, VW's in the same net. I would suggest that the Dunlop car guys might have just fitted the external filler tube to save the hassle.

[John McKechnie]

Jacmac- probably would have been our Kiwi boys in USA when they were running it , before Dexter got it.

[John McKechnie]

Knew I had this article some where-
Motorman May 1970.
This is the car in USA that Dexter Dunlop swapped his McRae single seater for.
It was run in the Transams and is now in Bodwens.
Note the petrol filler in the boot , same as Nigels.
Car was run with NO rear spoiler, so looks like you cant have them both

[Kiwiboss]

That's a great article John, you must have some archive mate!! The rear spoiler deal was only a Red Dawson thing and have never seen it on any other(non 69/70 mustang) anywhere in the world.

Heres the filler set in the Dawson car, im sure the stainless bowl isn't correct but probably necessary along the lines of what Jacmac mentions above, a MSNZ requirement?

Dale M

[John McKechnie]

Its a good that we can see Kennets original ownership and presentation.
Then the next owner Dexter Dunlop and his presentation.
Someone can now step in and give the list, in order, of the consecutive owners and pics.
When I raced against Steve Ross in 1992 , I am sure it was white while he owned it.
And Nigel is a fortunate man to own its stablemate.

[Jac Mac]

This pic shows Kennet, Dunlop, Haig car still with rear wing & now bonnet scoop also..