Old Programmes, movies and memories from the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies.

[Grant Sprague]

Thank you Ken , I was at the recent scope meeting at Ruapuna , the Lycoming was racing in the historics and was driven hard I might add, as for John Nicholson I had never heard of him until I went to UK in mid 70,s there was an article of him in Autosport... from that day on I followed his activites in motor sports.....an other GREAT KIWI in UK doing the big time .......that most of us dream about but by saying that if we really really wanted to be like John we would have given it a go & who knows personal choices when we were young we all take the road that suits our souls..Iife is so interesting ... just love it ....hope you all good there Ken..... Grant

[John H]

Offers please. Motor Action 19th April 1974,
Auckland Car Club Pukekohe Program 1964 4th April.
Auckland Car Club 75th Anniversary booklet. email hatz@xtra.co.nz
I'm in Eastern suburbs Auckland. Thanks

[John B]

Can someone tell me the beach / harbour that the drivers are enjoying themselves at in the movie, before the 1961 NZGP .

( Thanks, Ken Hyndman )

Hi Ken,
The initial scenes of the public on a beach were shot at Auckland's "Mission Bay", but the group of drivers and water skiing scenes were taken on one of the islands in the Hauraki Gulf - probably Waiheke Island.
Cheers, John

[khyndart in CA]

Thanks John. They all seemed to enjoy coming out to NZ back then, especially from a European winter.

(Ken )

[khyndart in CA]

Ardmore Jan. 1962.
Simon Taylor driving his white D-type Jaguar # 33 won the sports car race, event # 4. He won the footrace to the car and was first away in the LeMans start and was never headed especially as his main opposition of Cardon and Coppins were stranded on the grid !
Taylor did not do as well in the later event # 7 as shown in these cuttings from the K Hyndman scrapbook.
Also shown is a young 19 year old driver Mr K.J.(Ken) Smith, driving a Cooper Holden # 57. (This same car sold in Europe about 10 years ago now with a Maserati engine installed for over one million pounds !)





(Ken Hyndman & scrapbook collection.

[stubuchanan]

Grant, that is Rod Coppins running to his TecMec # 16. He has his helmet on in the last picture so the other picture does make for interesting optics !
John Nicholson was born in 1941, Chris Amon was born in 1943 and he was driving here at the age of 18 so it is possible it is John or possibly a family member.
Any input is appreciated.

I am still amazed that the Lycoming and the TecMec were entered in 4 races that day including the NZ Grand Prix !
That would have kept their mechanics busy, that's for sure !


(Ken Hyndman )

Thanks for your kind words about my colour slides - there are actually 2 others which fit in between the 2 you put up, time-wise. Coppins is wearing a helmet, it shows up if you blow up the image, but 1960's helmets were quite small, by comparison with later years. J.Nicholson probably wasnt the engine building man, and in any case he didn't start, and my old clippings/programmes don't show him running an A/Healey anywhere else around that time.

This was quite an interest/eventful race, as it turned out. I was swapping emails a few years ago with David McKinney and we found we both done lap charts of the race, me from the main grandstand, and he from the bend before the hairpin, where the cars were closer, and going much slower - better for photos etc. Somebody (bodies?) spun at College corner on the first lap, and when the leader Simon Taylor got to the hairpin he had a 30 second lead, and the there was the downpour!

I will transcribe Dave McK's email and post it tomorrow, it makes good reading.

Stu Buchanan

[Grant Sprague]

Thank you Stu........not to mention but the cars here in the piks such great looking little sports cars , & yes some fantastic history as well many thanks ........ grant

[Kevin Hirst]

Thank you Stu........not to mention but the cars here in the piks such great looking little sports cars , & yes some fantastic history as well many thanks ........ grant

Simon used to round up the cows on the farm with the jag on many occasions, very expensive quad, 50 gallons of avgas to fill up.

[khyndart in CA]

Simon used to round up the cows on the farm with the jag on many occasions, very expensive quad, 50 gallons of avgas to fill up.

Hey Kevin, if you have any pics to go along with that event it would be great to post them here.
I have heard about wealthy dairy farmers but that is taking it to a whole new level !
Cheers, Ken.

[Kevin Hirst]

Hey Kevin, if you have any pics to go along with that event it would be great to post them here.
I have heard about wealthy dairy farmers but that is taking it to a whole new level !
Cheers, Ken.

No unfortunately havn't got any photo,s of that stuff anymore, Simon was [ or is] a very lovely english gentleman & a real hard case, would love to know where he is now, must have been sent out to the colonies for being a naughty boy back in England but he was allowed to bring his toy,s with him.

[khyndart in CA]

1962 Ardmore Motor Cycle TT up to 500 c.c.
This race featured some riders including Hugh Anderson from Ohinewai and Ginger Molloy from Huntly. They finished 1st & 2nd in this race so the central Waikato was well represented on this day.
I note # 5 bike is ridden by F.Cardon. If this is the Lycoming driver, he certainly had a busy day !
It was a big field and if you placed below 7th there was not much reward for these brave men. As the scrapbook shows it could be rough going out there especially as the weather changed.










(Ken Hyndman )

(scrapbook of 8o'clock cuttings )

[Oldfart]

That has a number of International riders from the day. Len Perry, Peter Pawson and the 2 already mentioned, I am sure others will add to this.

[khyndart in CA]

1962 NZGP. January 6th. 1962. Ardmore's last Grand Prix.
By 2 pm as the main event was to begin it really started to rain and by this time we were pretty well drenched. It was amazing the race was allowed to start and we thought the weather would clear but it only got worse.
Stirling Moss did not have time to qualify and had to start at the back of the 21 car field.
Note where he is at the first corner, in 7th place already !





After one of his greatest drives Stirling beat everyone in dreadful conditions. It was also one of his last wins before a crash at Goodwood during 1962, ended his main racing career.



(Stirling enjoyed looking through my scrapbook and signed the last newspaper clipping. )

(Ken Hyndman )

[John H]

1962 NZGP. January 6th. 1962. Ardmore's last Grand Prix.
By 2 pm as the main event was to begin it really started to rain and by this time we were pretty well drenched. It was amazing the race was allowed to start and we thought the weather would clear but it only got worse.
Stirling Moss did not have time to qualify and had to start at the back of the 21 car field.
Note where he is at the first corner, in 7th place already !





After one of his greatest drives Stirling beat everyone in dreadful conditions. It was also one of his last wins before a crash at Goodwood during 1962, ended his main racing career.



(Stirling enjoyed looking through my scrapbook and signed the last newspaper clipping. )

(Ken Hyndman )

Amazing photos. Never seen these. I remember it all well. I had never heard of Amon but can still hear his car booming out of the hairpin. Moss casually waving as he flew past others. Bruce McLaren seemed very downcast soaking wet, at the end of the race eating his sandwich. A great day indeed.

[khyndart in CA]

John,
I have attached some of the comments of the drivers after the race and it seems McLaren was pretty downcast.
Note how they all wanted to come back but sadly some did not make it back. Flockhart died later in the year and Bandini died in 1967 and Stirling did not race in the NZ Grand Prix again.
Also note how Chris Amon is mentioned as a "newcomer". Little did we know then how great he would become in the next decade.









(Ken Hyndman's clippings )

[John H]

John,
I have attached some of the comments of the drivers after the race and it seems McLaren was pretty downcast.
Note how they all wanted to come back but sadly some did not make it back. Flockhart died later in the year and Bandini died in 1967 and Stirling did not race in the NZ Grand Prix again.
Also note how Chris Amon is mentioned as a "newcomer". Little did we know then how great he would become in the next decade.









(Ken Hyndman's clippings )

Thanks for that. Very nice of you KH. I didn't know the race had been short and as you say some didn't survive the year.. BTW I have that old program from Puke 1964. Would you like it? ... needs to go to a good home. Just email if you want it. hatz@xtra.co.nz Chrs John H

[khyndart in CA]

Thanks John,
I appreciate the offer but I do have NZGP 1964 programme which is coming up. If you have a 1963 programme out there I would be interested. I forgot to put in the final race results and had a hard time explaining the race times shown when a race is stopped early.
If you can do that for me I would be most appreciative.

Seeing Ross Greenville's name does bring back memories of when my friend, Jim also from Morrinsville and I were in LA in August 1972 and we contacted Ross who was living near LAX. We went around when Spinner Black was also there preparing for a trip back to NZ. I don't think I have laughed so much as the stories were told and we had to make certain engine parts looked used and then put into various pockets and jackets and take Spinner and others to the airport explaining to the curious that the heavy clothing was due to the severe cold weather back in NZ even as it was hot and very smoggy in LA at that time. I was glad to leave them off at the airport and get out of there before I was involved in sneaking engine parts into NZ ! When I visited Ross at the Mount in 2003 we had a good laugh about this memory. He was a character and with Spinner there also, it was priceless.

[John H]

Thanks John,
I appreciate the offer but I do have NZGP 1964 programme which is coming up. If you have a 1963 programme out there I would be interested. I forgot to put in the final race results and had a hard time explaining the race times shown when a race is stopped early.
If you can do that for me I would be most appreciative.

Seeing Ross Greenville's name does bring back memories of when my friend, Jim also from Morrinsville and me were in LA in August 1972 and we contacted Ross who was living near LAX. We went around when Spinner Black was also there preparing for a trip back to NZ. I don't think I have laughed so much as the stories were told and we had to make certain engine parts looked used and then put into various pockets and jackets and take Spinner and others to the airport explaining to the curious that the heavy clothing was due to the severe cold weather back in NZ even as it was hot and very smoggy in LA at that time. I was glad to leave them off at the airport and get out of there before I was involved in sneaking engine parts into NZ ! When I visited Ross at the Mount in 2003 we had a good laugh about this memory. He was a character and with Spinner there also, it was priceless.

Love it. The program is the National April 1964 meeting Auckland Car club reluctant to dump it. I also had a good look at the Grenville ex Palmer Lotus after that Ardmore wet race. Veryone and everything was wet. Thanks again.

[GD66]

1962 Ardmore Motor Cycle TT up to 500 c.c.
I note # 5 bike is ridden by F.Cardon. If this is the Lycoming driver, he certainly had a busy day !

(scrapbook of 8o'clock cuttings )

Hi Ken,
Thanks for these cuttings, I had them in an old scrapbook for years but they were well time-ravaged. I have taken the liberty of sharing them to a fb page related to the history of NZ Motorcycle racing with a credit to you, if that's not ok I will soon pluck them off !
Regarding Forrest Cardon, yes it is the Lycoming pilot, I was about to spring into print and say Malcolm Gill would probably have been the driver but that was in 1961, and Forrest was winding down his distinguished bike racing career and did indeed race the Lycoming that same day at Ardmore in 1962. For years he held a spot in the NZACU rulebook as holder of a beach speed record set at Muriwai : he had raced speedway and roadracing with great success and this pic is from his win on a Manx Norton at the 1961 Cust Grand Prix held outside Christchurch on swept, oiled gravel roads !

[khyndart in CA]

GD...
I am happy you can do something with these old clippings.
I also found this page from the 1962 programme.



Remember the days of "Overseas Funds"
If you wanted a decent new car, this is what you had to have back then.




(From the pages of the 1962 NZGP programme)

( Ken Hyndman )