Does anyone know what happened to the Barry Wearing 67 Z28 SS Camaro, sold in 74-75

[nick_tassie]

Nick- Grady Thomson raced my Monaro with Terrys Camaro at Baypark 1970 , and I was there and remember the car.
I got some excellent pics of it from Bruce McLaren Trust. While going through the folder of pics, I know there were a lot of unpublished pics .There are probably some of Terrys car there. You have to go there , physically go through the folders to find them, then order them.
Jan is very helpfull.

Thanks John, a good suggestion to follow up on when we do eventually take a holiday over in NZ. The one thing I'm very pleased with is some of the fantastic photo's that have surfaced of the car since we started this thread many months ago. Not quite the luck yet in finding out what happened to the car but its been an interesting journey in discovering where the it came from and its racing history.

I just love the car in this spec, this is how we will one day build the tribute car. The more detail photos we can find the better so looking into the McLaren Trust will be a must.

[Steve Holmes]

I found this fantastic colour photo of the Camaro in the blue spec on an Adelaide Raceway Facebook page tonight.

Attachment 25526

Oh wow, great find! Man that car looks so staunch in this guise!

[Steve Holmes]

I posted a photo of the Camaro on our Facebook page yesterday, and a couple of people commented they thought it had been destroyed by fire in the late 1970s when owned by Mike Gore.

[Ellis]

I posted a photo of the Camaro on our Facebook page yesterday, and a couple of people commented they thought it had been destroyed by fire in the late 1970s when owned by Mike Gore.

Steve
I just spoke to Wayne Mahnken who worked on the car when Terry owned it.
He doesnt recall Mike Gore owning it nor any fire stories for what its worth....the enigma continues

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Ellis, thats great info, and a bit of a relief to learn. Hopefully this means the car is still out there, somewhere.

[nick_tassie]

This is an interesting new lead well worth looking into further. After speaking with Ian (Facebook poster) directly today he seems to recall reading something about the Mike Gore/Camaro/Fire link in the late 70's possibly in Auto Action. Ian indicated Mike Gore started racing in Sydney under the MRG Racing banner before moving to Qld so he was in the region where the Camaro was last known to be (Parramatta). I have only been able to find photo evidence today of Mike Gore racing a Mustang, Monaro and Ford Anglia, but hell who knows, maybe he did end up with the Camaro. I'll chase it up further and see where it leads.

If anyone has access to an archive of 70's Auto Action Mag's dig them out and see what you can find for MRG Racing and Mike Gore, sometime from 75-80. Ian was sure that Gore had 2 race cars destroyed by fire at some point, one may have been the Camaro.

One can only hope not.

The search continues.........

[John McKechnie]

Nick- Keep looking mate.
Only took me 43 years to find my Monaro that raced against Terrys Camaro at Bay Park in 1970.
.I had been told that the car had been written off in the late 70s, it was,then it got lost.
Now look at it on Team Cambridge Monaro thread- worth every day digging deep.
Just never give up.

[nick_tassie]

Cheers John

Certainly will never give up or fail to chase up every lead until I know its fate good or bad, I owe it to Uncle Terry. Just need that next little lead after Barry Wearing, someone out there knows who he sold it to and where it ended up. I've been close a few times now, always an exciting ride.

43 years wow that puts these last 4 years totally into perspective, such a great story. I'll check it out for sure.

[nick_tassie]

I thought I would share some photos of what started this whole journey and lead to the unknown Barry Wearing link to Terry's camaro. I first got interested in an article in Australian Muscle Car on an ex drag racing 1967 Camaro called Captain Rats, the current owner had sent in an article and photo seeking information on its drag racing history. Knowing the camaro may have been sold to a drag racer after Lakis Manticas I wondered if this car could be it. A day searching for the contact details of the owner left me shocked that the car was actually in my home state of Tasmania - small world at times. A conversation with the owner increased my interest as the car was originally red and raced out of Parramatta Sydney, again linkage to Manticas. The car was at the time being restored back to a road car, all the heavily modified floor and quarter panels having being removed but luckily still kept. It was a strong lead and one worth checking out so a drive to Hobart was setup to view the car and the removed panels.

First I needed to try to connect the Barry Wearing Captain Rats car to Lakis Manticas, phone call to him wasn't helpful, not interested in talking. What I did manage was tracking down Barry Wearing in person, that's a whole story in its-self. Great news Barry confirmed that Captain Rats was brought from Lakis, he even had a photo in the album to send through to me.

Damn I think I've found Uncle Terry's car, now off to Hobart to try and buy it.

[nick_tassie]

These are some photos of the parts cut out of Captain Rats, first thing was real clear the yellow paint of Captain Rats is unmistakeable under the black top coat the drag car had been painted in later life. The original red car colour was also very clear under the yellow and in the inner panels and roof. No doubt this car was an original red 67 left hand drive Camaro and very definitely the ex Barry Wearing car. But was it Terry's car, as the photos reveal it had a roll cage, front and rear points were still in the floor, but they were pretty crudely fabricated and welded in, not what I expected. The doors had been severely lightened and same with the chassis rails and other internal panels. The rear boot lid was fibreglass and the rear guards had been heavily cut and modified. The only concerning issue at the time was I couldn't see any evidence of the dark blue and white paint colours that should be under the yellow and over the red. Look as I might I couldn't find it, why would Barry remove those colours to paint a drag car. The other interesting issue was the rear guards although modified they didn't have the signs of flaring as unmistakable as Terry's, the fronts could have been replaced but the rears had no evidence of flaring. Something isn't right here......

The owner was smart enough to work out what I was looking for, so the purchase price jumped three fold, can't blame him for that I guess. Still I needed to to do some more research before doing the deal. Incredibly on the drive home I got a call from Barry, his wife had reminded him that he had 2 camaros..!! It appears he also brought a road going red 67 from a US Embassy guy in Canberra, he remembered driving it home after his wife had mentioned it. This car became Captain Rats hence the missing blue and white paint. As for Terry's car all Barry can think of is that it as it was a heavily modified circuit racer turning it into a drag racer for his needs would have been excessively expensive, so he thinks it was sold off to an unknown buyer.

Oh so close but it didn't quiet fit right.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks for the update Nick and the amazing images of Captain Rat. This has really been a fascinating story to follow. I hope that car is still out there.

[nick_tassie]

Its been a while but timely for an update, no luck on finding the Camaro up to now but I have done some chasing up of the last lead with some chat about the Camaro being in the hands of Sydney circuit racer Mike Gore. The late Mike Gore isn't reachable to speak with unfortunately however I did get to contact his son Craig Gore, the one and only of WPS V8 team ownership. When I asked Craig if he recalled if his father owned a Camaro he said he can remember when he was very young being picked up from school in a white car with a roll cage. Interesting, when I sent him the photo of the car he said yes that was the car! He doesn't have any photos that can substansiate the claim and can't confirm if the car was crashed and burnt out. So can anyone on the site recall this, did Mike Gore ever have a 67 Camaro and race it somewhere around Sydney in the mid to late 70's, did it end up being burnt out after a crash at a race meeting? Hope not but maybe thats why it can't be found. Cheers, Nick

[John McKechnie]

hi Nick, I had a gentleman recently give me some pix that he took at Baypark when Terry came over here the first time..1970 ..he was racing against my Monaro. They are not fantastically clear, but they were of the event.Please pm me with your email address and I will scan and send them to you.

[nick_tassie]

Hi All, must be time for an update. Some may recall there was some chat that Mike Gore may have ended up with the Camaro after Barry Wearing and the car was burnt out after a crash. I have followed up on this lead which took some time unfortunately, Mike Gore has long passed away so first port of call was his son Craig. Craig was a bit vague on this but did say he could recall being picked up from school in a white car with a roll cage!! I sincerely doubt it was the Terry Allan Camaro but you never know. Checked lots of online info and couldn't confirm the Mike Gore link, I next arranged for some research into old RCN and AutoAction mags and still nothing about Mike Gore running a Camaro and it getting burnt out. Just recently online I had a discussion with Mike Gore's mechanic, he had been with him all the years he raced in NSW. He clearly indicated Mike never had or raced a Chev Camaro. So another dead end on this one, at least the good news is the car didn't get burnt out after a crash, at least not with Mike Gore driving. The search continues......