Old Speedway Photos

[Merv]

Jac when you all built the firebird, did the chassis come from speedway engineering in L A, why I ask is Peter took us there when we went to the States with him, he more or less said to us that this car that they were building there at the time that his new race car would be the same, those guys also made there own quick change diffs, and he said that he had a donavan motor jacked up for it, I know that he had a lot of trouble with the donavan and got rid of it to some guy in Christchurch as I took it up there for him and dropped it of at this business I think some guy that was running a sprintcar brought it was that right, after that motor was gone what kind of motor did he run in the firebird then, and did you build it for him? As that car had some far out horse power, I didn't pit crew that much on that car, but a lot of the tricks he had on the mustang got carried over to the firebird ( ie the tyre setup ) I would be very interested to learn as much as I could about the firebird, I know that after Peter it went to Brian Ketton in Timaru then his son took it over after Brian, then Brian. brought Peters first comadore,and if I remember he got the motor for that car from Ian Tulloch the one he use to run in his Capri, is that what happened? Ivan also remember when Peter was away on one of his trips to the States he let Tulloch race the firebird at riverside,after the meeting a few of us went over to Tulloch and asked him how he enjoyed his days racing, his reply was that he hadn't driven a car with so much horsepower, he said it was unreal we had to have a laugh as there wasn't a panel other than the roof that didn't have a dent in it,old flange must have had his work cut ot for him to get it all back to where it was when Peter left for the States, now this is my question to you Jac. How much horsepower did that firebird have,I know that it was a lot you only had to watch that car hook upcoming out of the corners and how much it dropped going into the next corner before the gas peddle hit the metal again the dirt use to just fly of that car when it dropped down going into the corners, I know that when I was pit crewing with Peter on the firebird the first thing we had to do when tahe car came back into the pits after each race was to bring tale tails down on the shocks fast,so of you can give us a bit of history on the firebird Jac it would be good the car was to much high tech for me to follow

[225sloper]

The Peter Woods Mustang in the blue and white colours which was when he won the NZ Champs at Wanganui.

[Jac Mac]

Hi Merv, yes I can answer most of the questions you raise there, some of the answers might cause a bit of agro though and I will have to write it all up as an attachment as I type to slow and the site here wont allow me to post it. At least it will give some folk a bit of a laugh.

[Merv]

Jac as I'm new to this site where do I go to read the attachment that you are going to post, does it still come up here?or do I need to go to some other area?thanks Merv

[Merv]

Jac after last night I started thinking Peter run my mustang at full song down that side road by Charlton, and I don't know if I told you that he broke the end of my gearbox when he had jus finished running it at full song on Russell Murrys rollers,he just backed of and it let go sending the driveshaft through the floor it was lucky the set was built the way it was or he could have got hurt big time they for got to put the one of the clips on the driveshalf

[seaqnmac27]

Hi Merv, yes I can answer most of the questions you raise there, some of the answers might cause a bit of agro though and I will have to write it all up as an attachment as I type to slow and the site here wont allow me to post it. At least it will give some folk a bit of a laugh.

You know Jack, you could do that, write it as a word file, then copy and paste it into here.

[Oldfart]

You know Jack, you could do that, write it as a word file, then copy and paste it into here.

I think that's what he already does Sean, certainly what I thought he meant.

[Jac Mac]

Jac when you all built the firebird, did the chassis come from speedway engineering in L A

Yes, although I found out much later it was actually a pavement chassis for longer tracks, not 1/4 mile dirt.

, why I ask is Peter took us there when we went to the States with him, he more or less said to us that this car that they were building there at the time that his new race car would be the same, those guys also made there own quick change diffs, and he said that he had a donavan motor jacked up for it, I know that he had a lot of trouble with the donavan and got rid of it to some guy in Christchurch as I took it up there for him and dropped it of at this business I think some guy that was running a sprintcar brought it was that right, after that motor was gone what kind of motor did he run in the firebird then, and did you build it for him?

Yes & No. I built the first motor which was 355 based on new raw Nascar Block along with Iron Nascar castings for heads, balance was comp cams, crower rockers & rods, victor junior etc. Donovan block turned up after I had left & Tony Riordan was building woodys stuff. It was plagued with oil pressure problems that they never got to the bottom of until after it had been sold. Tony was asked to look at Don Blacks Torana that had similar issues, that was tracked down to a gallery plug that seperates unfiltered & filtered oil in a chev block, on hearing of this Woods rang the new Donovan owner & asked him to check, sure enough.

As that car had some far out horse power, I didn't pit crew that much on that car, but a lot of the tricks he had on the mustang got carried over to the firebird ( ie the tyre setup ) I would be very interested to learn as much as I could about the firebird, I know that after Peter it went to Brian Ketton in Timaru then his son took it over after Brian, then Brian. brought Peters first comadore,and if I remember he got the motor for that car from Ian Tulloch the one he use to run in his Capri, is that what happened? Ivan also remember when Peter was away on one of his trips to the States he let Tulloch race the firebird at riverside,after the meeting a few of us went over to Tulloch and asked him how he enjoyed his days racing, his reply was that he hadn't driven a car with so much horsepower, he said it was unreal we had to have a laugh as there wasn't a panel other than the roof that didn't have a dent in it,old flange must have had his work cut ot for him to get it all back to where it was when Peter left for the States

Flange & Barry C were far from impressed at Inkys efforts!!!

, now this is my question to you Jac. How much horsepower did that firebird have

Nobody Knows, neither Tony or I had Dynos & any horsepower figures were dreamed up at the after race functions

,I know that it was a lot you only had to watch that car hook upcoming out of the corners and how much it dropped going into the next corner before the gas peddle hit the metal again the dirt use to just fly of that car when it dropped down going into the corners, I know that when I was pit crewing with Peter on the firebird the first thing we had to do when tahe car came back into the pits after each race was to bring tale tails down on the shocks fast,so of you can give us a bit of history on the firebird Jac it would be good the car was to much high tech for me to follow

Hopefully in text above, I rang Merv with other details yesterday, I can still talk faster than I can type!!

[Merv]

Yeah it was very interesting talking to you Jac, I learnt a lot from that talk, it's a pity that you can't put it up here as there was quite a bit of funny stuff in that talk, and some of the guys on this site might get a laugh out of it, but thanks again for the phone call Jac

[Merv]

Hey Steve you were saying how you impressed that we had two 65/66 mustang fastbacks racing at one time at riverside, well to take that a bit further we also had a 69 boss mustang racing in the same grade it was owned by Trevor Uren, and we had a 66 notch back wich was owned by Roddy Ingles, and another notch back owned by Tim Polard, so we had 6 early model mustangs racing in the same grade,along with Don Blacks A9X torana,Norm Bulers camaro, Woods firebird,John McDerrmotts really quick escort,Russell Lees escort, and the Jeffcoats flying brick,Andy tuffleys XUI torana and Allan Shuttleworths GTR torana so we had a really good A/Grade, field in those days and we had the top 4 cylinder racing team in the South Island at that time and also the the top A/Grade saloon car team in the South Island at the time ,but looking at what I have just typed it is quite unreal that we had so many cars you would cream your jeans for to own today, hahaha but at that time you couldn't wait to cut them up to make a good stock car when you think about now we where a bit crazy back then must have been, I know like Riverside other tracks around New Zealand were in the same boat so when you take it all over New Zealand we must have cut up some damn good cars to go racing but boy didn't we enjoy every minute of it I know I did

[Steve Holmes]

Hey Steve you were saying how you impressed that we had two 65/66 mustang fastbacks racing at one time at riverside, well to take that a bit further we also had a 69 boss mustang racing in the same grade it was owned by Trevor Uren, and we had a 66 notch back wich was owned by Roddy Ingles, and another notch back owned by Tim Polard, so we had 6 early model mustangs racing in the same grade,along with Don Blacks A9X torana,Norm Bulers camaro, Woods firebird,John McDerrmotts really quick escort,Russell Lees escort, and the Jeffcoats flying brick,Andy tuffleys XUI torana and Allan Shuttleworths GTR torana so we had a really good A/Grade, field in those days and we had the top 4 cylinder racing team in the South Island at that time and also the the top A/Grade saloon car team in the South Island at the time ,but looking at what I have just typed it is quite unreal that we had so many cars you would cream your jeans for to own today, hahaha but at that time you couldn't wait to cut them up to make a good stock car when you think about now we where a bit crazy back then must have been, I know like Riverside other tracks around New Zealand were in the same boat so when you take it all over New Zealand we must have cut up some damn good cars to go racing but boy didn't we enjoy every minute of it I know I did

WOW! That is impressive Merv!

[Steve Holmes]

I posted this on the Random Photos thread, but thought I'd also try here, as this appears to be a speedway car.

Gavin Shaw runs a Facebook page in which he has been posting up his own old New Zealand racing photos, plus those of others.

A recent posting was this oddball, which nobody has yet identified. Its a second gen Camaro, and appears to be at Bay Park. The Camaro appears possibly to be a speedway car, converted to run on tarmac, and with equal sized wheels left-right. Its hard to tell, but it appears also to have a windscreen fitted.

Does anyone know who this is, and when this was taken?

[Jac Mac]

Due to it being #1 might down the possibilities, dont you have to have been the previous year champ to wear #1 in Speedway stuff?

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Jac, that is the case these days, but back then I think you could have any number you wanted.

[Allan]

Does anyone recognize the RX3 in the background?

[Steve Holmes]

OK Stockcar anoraks, can anyone ID these drivers?







Thanks to Steve Elliott for supplying these pics

[Steve Holmes]

Midgets. Stunning images!









Thanks to Steve Elliott

[Steve Holmes]

These are amazing! Can someone tell me where this is? Is it a bicycle track? My knowledge on early speedway is extremely limited.





Thanks to Steve Elliott

[khyndart in CA]

Steve, That is Western Springs back in the early days. I watched Bruce McLaren be the starter for a race back in 1959 (He waved the flag )and he tested one of his Coopers here before the 1964 Tasman races.

http://www.bruce-mclaren.com/bruce-m...2003%20BMT.pdf


(Ken Hyndman )

[fullnoise68]

That`s Western Springs late `40s / early `50s. Gary Running - Dennis` brother - gave me a bunch of old midget photos a while back and I thought some people on here would enjoy seeing them ....