2012 Lady Wigram Trophy Meeting at Ruapuna

[Rod Grimwood]

Some pictures from the Lady Wigram meeting held at Ruapuna. I have a mixture and will post as i down size. If anyone else has photos please join in.

[Rod Grimwood]

Will start with some F5000

Lola T330 of Lindsay and Brett Willis.

Brett ran well with a couple of 4ths and a DNF when in 3rd in the Lady Wigram Trophy when gearbox lost drive, Bugger.

[Rod Grimwood]

The boss Lindsay in deep thought (why is he looking at that gearbox) before the big race.

A snails eye view.

The beautiful Begg FM5 of Lindsay O'Donnell

[Rod Grimwood]

The new car of Stan Redman a Lola T333CS

The McRae GM1 of Chris Lamden

[Rod Grimwood]

Team Burson McRae GM1 for son and grandson. The big boss hard at it with brakes on youngest fellas GM1, 2nd youngest fella stands and ponders, while later on youngest fella does what young fellas do these days in between racing.

[Rod Grimwood]

The beautiful Lola T430 of David Abbott

The McRae GM1 of super quick and man to catch at moment Steve Ross.

[Rod Grimwood]

The beatiful dark blue Talon MR1A of Tony Banks.

The ever entertaining Russell Greer's Lola T332

And similar Lola T332 of Ian Clementson

[Steve Holmes]

Fantastic photos Rod, thanks heaps for posting these. That Stan Redmond T333 has me confused. Weren't T333's the new SCCA reborn Can-Am cars, ie, the F5000s with the single seat sports car body on top? Would love to know more about this.

[Rod Grimwood]

And it would not seem right without Kenny Smith and the Lola T430

[Rod Grimwood]

The infamous Stanton Corvette with it's clothing removed to revell the high technology (it was back then) that has seen it race through the decades.
This car is like it's present owner, a tough, hard working old bugger, that still goes quick and enjoy's it. They suit each other like marriage.

Russell was leading the sports car and specials field comfortably when unfortunately a rear hub broke and no drive.

[Rod Grimwood]

More of the Technical side of the Stanton Corvette

PS this is patented:

[Rod Grimwood]

All that power goes through that 38 diff and back by chains.

In last photo at very top of photo, Note the diff locker that you can slide across the 2 drive axles/splines to lock together, trick.
Russell said he has never had it across.

[Oldfart]

Brilliant tech shots Rod. Check out the balance weights!!

[Rod Grimwood]

Brilliant tech shots Rod. Check out the balance weights!!

Thats on the rear, you gotta be tough to handle this beast.

[bry3500]

Thanks for posting Rod, loved the pics and descriptions on the F5000's - my 13yo son took a look at those pics of the Stanton and paid a high compliment... " Awesome, that thing is as sick as " .. sure is :)

[Rod Grimwood]

Kenny also ran the Atlantic along with an assorted field of competitive cars. Kenny was turned around in the 1st race by Mr Higgins in similar car.

Dave Arrowsmith in the very tidy Swift DB4 originally Graeme Lawrence 1989, driven by Robbie Goff in 1990.
Dave goes very well and won a couple and gave Kenny a mirror full in other.

These cars sound grouse, and are quick.

[Rod Grimwood]

Then there were some real historic old OSCA Cars there for a play.

The Ex- Dickie Victor with Tony Mann (must have a good look at his garage some time over a beer if he invites us)

The ever present Capri

And the Camaro looks fairly standard but don't be fooled, it has alot of wick, and with a little suspension set up would be real quick.

[Rod Grimwood]

This is real history, both the car and the gentleman that looks after it. The girl drove it real good as well.

A lot of history in this car.

[Rod Grimwood]

Then there was the Vivas One with V8 and green one with Barp, Barp power. Munty's young fella was playing with the green one (leaning on car with overalls telling it all)

[kiwi285]

Great photo's Rod - thank for posting them.

[Steve Holmes]

Whats the history on that purple Viva? Looks like the one that was around 15 or so years ago raced by one of the Heslin brothers. It was silver then. At the other Heslin was racing the ex-Ryan/Hyde etc V8 Capri, which I suspect is the blue car pictured earlier in this thread?

[Rod Grimwood]

This little Chevron beauty ran with the OSCA class cars and what a great performance with its little 2Ltr against the huge horse power Nissans but it out handled them and was a picture to watch go around the outside in the esse's (where no one pass's) awesome.

[Rod Grimwood]

There were the usual "specials' as Ruapuna and South are famous for.
Avon Hyde with his little black Austin Special, (5) this goes quicker than it is meant too, and Avon seems to have the late brake points down to a tee, great to watch and leads alot of bigger machinery home.

Some photos of the "Specials"

[Rod Grimwood]

More 'Specials'

[Rod Grimwood]

There were also the mandatory McLarens, this being one of my favorite little cars.

[Rod Grimwood]

Mr Mauger had the big car out for a run, no doubt this will be one of the centre stage cars at Hampton in January. Love that sound.

[Rod Grimwood]

And this one that Mr Mauger drove too and from home in, and gave a little squirt after practice, quick and impressive. Especially under hard braking when the boot turns into a big rear air dam.

[Rod Grimwood]

Yes, those are exhausts under the front guards, and that does say McLaren on the guard.

[Rod Grimwood]

Sports Car History

[Rod Grimwood]

Formula Ford History, another of Mr Begg's babies.

[Steve Holmes]

Fantastic photos Rod, thanks heaps for posting these.

[Steve Holmes]

Can anyone fill me in on the background info of Stan Redmans Lola T333CS? Weren't the T333s built for the SCCA's new second generation Can-Am series? Obviously these were essentially F5000s with sports car bodies on top in the early years. Is this what Stans car started out as?

[Rod Grimwood]

There were some beautiful Jaguars there and some with history.

[Rod Grimwood]

An assortment of little Fords

[Rod Grimwood]

And a little Chev. How is this for a service wagon, towing in car. This was a neat little wagon.

[shellsport]

Whats the history on that purple Viva? Looks like the one that was around 15 or so years ago raced by one of the Heslin brothers. It was silver then. At the other Heslin was racing the ex-Ryan/Hyde etc V8 Capri, which I suspect is the blue car pictured earlier in this thread?

This was built by fellow Kaiata resident JT Thorby (NI) with a little 3.5 alloy in it , I Remember him racing at Wigram circa 83 under the " Destitute Racing " banner in a striking lime green / black livery , he had his helmet painted to match ...... and his hair as well . I Remember John Harcourt telling me he was still washing the dye from the balaclava years later he got off JT after he quit racing , a right character he is as i,m sure a few OSCA members here will verify . Cheers , Bazza .

[TonyG]

"Destitute Racing" ! I think they came north at one stage but cant remember if i saw them at Puke or Baypark. Ran a couple of cars from memory. I keep thinking one was a Ford Consul for some reason.

[shellsport]

"Destitute Racing" ! I think they came north at one stage but cant remember if i saw them at Puke or Baypark. Ran a couple of cars from memory. I keep thinking one was a Ford Consul for some reason.

You are on the money there Tony it was built up there , I think the Consul was the 315 of Derek Mitchell and was Holden engined , will confirm with JT .

[bigbanger]

"Destitute Racing" ! I think they came north at one stage but cant remember if i saw them at Puke or Baypark. Ran a couple of cars from memory. I keep thinking one was a Ford Consul for some reason.

More of a case of John Thorby coming South. John ran the Ford Consul 315 with the Holden six for a few years in the NI, then moved to the HB Viva with the V8 (not sure who originally built it). Around 1985? John moved to Chch and ran the Viva V8 in OSCA with some engineering help from John Harcourt who knew a thing or two about Rover/Olds/Buick alloy V8 engines. When John T gave racing away, the Viva sat in John Harcourt's Prebbleton workshop for some time. I had left NZ before the car went to anybody else, but when John Thorby ran it it did not have the big box flares pictured, they must have been a later addition.

[Grant Ellwood]

More of a case of John Thorby coming South. John ran the Ford Consul 315 with the Holden six for a few years in the NI, then moved to the HB Viva with the V8 (not sure who originally built it). Around 1985? John moved to Chch and ran the Viva V8 in OSCA with some engineering help from John Harcourt who knew a thing or two about Rover/Olds/Buick alloy V8 engines. When John T gave racing away, the Viva sat in John Harcourt's Prebbleton workshop for some time. I had left NZ before the car went to anybody else, but when John Thorby ran it it did not have the big box flares pictured, they must have been a later addition.
Is the 6 cyl Consul the same car that Phil Rudd owned? (the AC/DC drummer from Tauranga).

[Paul Kirk]

Rod, further to your great photos of the Stanton Corvette I thought it might be apropriate to ad a little snippet of info. re the diff.
Morry and Charlie had problems wearing out the teeth on the crown wheel and pinions in the early days of developement, so they fitted a Cadilac cw&p which was beefier, this required the carrier flange the cw bolted to, to be further to the side, (the cw being thicker), this they made themselves and incidently, it still had the differential gears in it, i.e. it wasnt just a spool. Still seeing evidence of flex that was effecting the mesh of the gears they made an adjustable rubbing block that rubbed on the back of the cw opposite the pinion so as to reduce the distance the cw flexed away from the pinion on accelleration, also when setting up the mesh, instead of giving the gears backlash as we normally do, they set them up with no backlash!
I imagine what is inside that old V8 diff housing these days is probably more modern and probably incorperates a limited slip as well!
I should mention that Morry and Charlie incorporated a device that enabled them to lock the two rear axles together, or to uncouple them so they had the normal differential effect. Everyone will have seen the diff housing at the back with the chains going forward to sprockets driving the axles, well the inner ends of those axles were splined, and there was/is an internally splined tube/sleeve that could be slid over both axles thereby making them solid, they often used that configuration for shingle hillclimbs, they could then slide the sleeve sideways so it de-coupled the axels if required!
Morry and Charlie had a great affinity with chains, as is bourne out by their chain drive steering system, but that's another story!
PK.

[Rod Grimwood]

You are on the money there Tony it was built up there , I think the Consul was the 315 of Derek Mitchell and was Holden engined , will confirm with JT .


Shellsport, is this the same handsome fella on the left with Herbie. I remember JT at Taupo back in those original days of of the big marque and 'Destitute Racing' with a safety pin through his ear along with the dayglo hair, and that was way before anyone had piercing as a optional extra. He is a clever bugger as well as a character.

Jenny Mossman raced the Consul after JT, and was a very quick and tidy driver.

[Rod Grimwood]

Paul if you look at the very top of photo and in the middle of cross frames, you can see the axles and the sleeve as mentioned. It is in out position. I picked up the chain conversion for steering, only thought old speedway cars did this (when converting to left hook). I think you could spend a lot of time picking up all the 'special engineering' that went into making this big piece of NZ Motorsport.

[shellsport]

Shellsport, is this the same handsome fella on the left with Herbie. I remember JT at Taupo back in those original days of of the big marque and 'Destitute Racing' with a safety pin through his ear along with the dayglo hair, and that was way before anyone had piercing as a optional extra. He is a clever bugger as well as a character.

Jenny Mossman raced the Consul after JT, and was a very quick and tidy driver.

Thats him Rod , the only one i know who could get away with smokin a durrie on pit wall !

[shellsport]

Two ZZ Top members on vacation .

[Rod Grimwood]

Thats him Rod , the only one i know who could get away with smokin a durrie on pit wall !

What about the famous footwear.