http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...insPontiac.jpg
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Thats a great photo Shane!
Do you have a date on that pic Shane, and can I buy a copy ?
Bruce.
Bruce, yes it was the NZGP Meeting at Puke January 1974. Happy to let you have the digital file if you send me an email.
Bruce, I notice the tops of the wheel well openings have been radiused at some point in the cars life since it was retired from racing, and after the photo Craig posted from when his brother owned it. Was this done before you bought it or is this something you've done?
No, the wheel openings are all the same, Alan used different wheels, or should I say he used the 'Span' wheels that were on the front, on the back, and some chrome items on the front.
'Span' wheels were made by Dave Wallace in Onehunga, 15 x 10 fronts, and 15 x 14 in the back, the same as used by Red Dawson on his Camaro. I still have the Span wheels, but they are a tad heavy.
The Titus cars had their fenders formed with a large die for clearance . They weren't allowed to add any metal but they could be bulged to clear the race wheels and tires.
Bruce
They look different to when Alan had the car more because of wheel size.
Thanks Bruce, must have just been the angle of the photos in its current restored guise that made me think the tops of the arches had been radiused slightly.
Bruce 302 - for some reason your pm was gone when I went back to get the address. I may have deleted it by mistake - but if you resend I'll fire that image through to you.
Thanks Shane.
Time to get back on track.
This is Rod at Calder Park in 1972, he was a regular cross Tasman traveller, part of the reason I think was that the cars were on temporary import licences, and if exported and re imported they would not have to pay the import duties but would start the whole cycle again. always putting off the tax payable. Denis marwood was also a regular trans Tasman racer.
Bruce.
http://i53.tinypic.com/2dtympy.jpg
Another shot from the same meeting. In this shot you can see the small 'Wingard' mirror, originally on English cars, it was smaller and lighter than the GM piece, every ounce counts when saving weight. Bud Moore used the same style mirror on the Trans Am Mustangs.
Hanging from the mirror is what I presume is Rod's lucky charm, if anyone knows what it was I'd love to know. I will need one for the restoration.
Bruce.
http://i51.tinypic.com/sn2jcl.jpg
I love those photos Bruce. Did the car get sent to NZ with those Daisy mags? They would have been 15" x 8" I guess? They sure look nice. So this was the 1971/72 season just after he'd taken over the car from Grable?
Its interesting it doesn't have the centre hood scoop here. Coppins must have fitted the glass hood pretty quickly?
Yes, the fiberglass hood was fitted pretty soon after Rod took over the car, but he did fit a fiberglass scoop in '74.
The original steel hood was left behind the garage at Jim Richards' fathers place.
Bruce.
Bruce, do you know if those are the wheels it had fitted on it when Grable took it to NZ? I'd have thought it would have had Minilites, as these are surely what would have been fitted to it when new. Coppins had some very similar Daisy wheels on his Camaro, I wonder if he fitted these to the Firebird when he bought it.
The car apparently came with both Minilites, and American Racing Torq Thrust's, The daisey wheel (American Racing 200) was found to be prone to breaking. But Rod had some on the car early in '72.
The Australian regs had 8" max, then 10" max widths, so he may have borrowed some for the Australian races.
Here is a pic of the Firebird at Bay Park '72 that shows the ARE 200 wheels.
Pic by Jack Inwood, copyrite Bruce McLaren Trust.
http://i51.tinypic.com/25jxvug.jpg
It would have been fitted with 8" wheels when it arrived I assume Bruce? Aus had a 10" limit from 1970 onwards (up from 8") and I think NZ had a 14" limit, so I guess Rod must have wanted to get some big boots under there asap. But it would be interesting to know where they came from. And he must have only just run them for a partial season as for he had Minilites for the following season.
Here are partial race reports from the Australian visit.
http://i53.tinypic.com/96kw2d.jpg
http://i53.tinypic.com/14bj9ki.jpg
http://i51.tinypic.com/2cerl2v.jpg
Ouch - what happened there?
Shane, I can only believe the Aussie write up, the Kiwis just weren't up to competing so far from home, and of course the Aussies had the advantage of knowing the tracks, don't forget our guys could deliver a good whuppin' to the visitors when they where here.
The Kiwi's got better at it as time went on.
Here is the Coppins Firebird as it appeared during it's 1973 visit. The sponsorship was arranged by, and much more assistance provided by Rowan Harman ("camaroz") Hopefully he will drop by with some input.
http://i54.tinypic.com/ri7l3r.jpg
>>'SIGNCRAFT'<<...on Rod's Firebird, was the company that had the contract, at that time, for all the 'Signage' at the Bob Jane T.Marts and Calder Park International Raceway as well............regards thunder427/MJ:)Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce302
Boy, that green paint really pops doesn't it. I believe the Firebird was painted this colour right at the end of the 1973/74 NZ season? There are those 5-spoke wheels again.
The Kiwi/Aussie trans-tasman challenges were pretty popular during the '70s, but more so with NZ promoters importing Aussie racers than the other way around. Usually when the Kiwis went to Aus, they did so off their own back, with help from Aussie businesses rather than Aussie promoters. In most cases, the local teams had the upper hand, although on several occasions the Aussie's also out-raced the Kiwis in NZ soil. When Allan Moffat took his Mustang to NZ in early 1972, he was pumping out 67sec lap times around Puke, a full 3sec faster than the best of the Kiwis, and a time which is still very respectable today.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce302
But that particular Kiwi invasion at Calder Park was especially bad. I think only Dennis Marwoods Camaro was able to reach the finish, and Fahey in the PDL Mustang didn't even get past practice.
When the Firebird came back to NZ it used the green paint to underscore sponsorship from Monaco Motors in Greenlane, They specialised in prestige and performance cars.
The wheels are Auckland made 'Span' brand, Dave Wallace was the mane behind that venture. Red Dawson ran the same items on his Camaro.
This photo was kindly loaned by Ross Walker, well known Mustang owner and top class auto painter.
http://i55.tinypic.com/i4ocht.jpg
Hi Bruce,Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce302
I am "aussiemonza" on this Forum cos I don't (currently) have a Camaro but I do have a Monza!
Re the Green paint scheme, it was green when I got involved with Rod and the Firebird it arrived in Melbourne in 1974 for the "Buckleys-Toby Lee Series" for Sports Sedans that was run primarily at Calder and Sandown as well as the "Toby Lee Series" at Oran Park. The car and "Jandells" set up in the basement car park at Bob Jane's Southern Motors (SM) through Graeme Sellers (another kiwi) that worked for Bob at SM. Graeme organised the "Motor Truck Finance & Insurance" support and Sam King at Signcraft (did all of Bob's and Calder Park signwriting) pitched in a bit as well. Rod ran at Calder for the first time in the green livery as per the previous photo. I then organised sponsorship for Rod for the rest of the Toby Lee races with "Trans Tours", a NZ Company operating out of Melbourne. The car was repainted white with red Trans Tours incorporated into a full length red body stripe down the sides. We had presented the colour scheme as an artist impression as part of the proposal to Trans Tours, it looked the goods and I reckon got us over the line. The car was painted and signwritten at Signcraft but preparation of the car then moved to Bob Jane Racing in Brunswick. We ran at Sandown, Calder and Hume Weir and we were due to do a round at Oran Park when there was an engine problem so Hume Weir was the last time the Firebird ran here! Rod then got an idea to run at Bathurst in a L34 Torana with one of his Kiwi mates etc, etc.
I am still searching for an image of the Firebird in the Trans Tours livery, it looked really sharp!
CCC
I'm sure you've seen this photo before Rowan?
Attachment 1607
There you go, straight from the horses mouth, It doesn't get any better than that.
Rowan was kind enough to give me some great momentos of the Trans tours era.
http://i51.tinypic.com/tyzw1.jpg
Bruce, those patches are real nice!
With all this info, you will have an awesum display at the Hampton Downs Festival next January Bruce!!! Good on yar mate!!
Dale Mathers
I have to give special thanks to all the people like Rowan, who have helped in the documenting and restoration process.
My greatest mentor and enthusiastic supporter, in every sense of the word, is Chad Raynal, auto racer and collecter from Northern California, and his father Roger has been there all along too. I don't have enough words to convey my gratitude to them.
They have the best prepared race cars, bar none.
Closer to home photographers with the foresight to store the negatives, and the generocity in sharing the pics.
Mike Feisst, Kevin Thomson (SouthSpeed) have been very especially generous.
Here is a pic from Kevin Thomson, taken Teretonga 1973
http://i52.tinypic.com/rm5h53.jpg
Bruce found this one
Great pic Rod. It looks to be at Pukekohe in early '72 before the Winfield sposorship ended. After that it got big stickers over the nice paint and a black hood/bonnet.
I am always on the look out for good colour shots of this period. It was real nice looking and very straight, Oh except for that front light surround falling off.
Thanks for posting Rod.
Bruce.
Bloody hell Rod, where have you been hiding this? Very nice photo. Looks like Coppins has helped someone out of his way judging by the front headlights.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rod Grimwood
Time we added a bit more to the story, but to be honest I have lost track of where I was.
Anyway, we stripped to car and took it to Tony Antonievich and it was blasted and primed. I want to retain as much as possible of the car as once it is changed, it is very hard to go back. The panels are mostly original as far as I can tell, though the roof was replaced, the original one was gutted of all internal bracing and was very thin and flimsy, There is also the acid dipping though I don't know if it went as far as the roof. Probably did but the only pics I have seen were with the roof out of the bath.
The rear panel was also replaced by a previous owner, Alan Stacey, (brother of Craig Stacey who runs the Javelin in HMC) The tail got crunched at Bay Park when Robin Tanner was running the car in '74. I assume this was the cause of the damage.
The car is pictured after the blasting and priming.
http://i40.tinypic.com/3464vwn.jpg
Here's the deal Bruce, you can only post here on the Roaring Seasons again once its GOING!! OK!! LOL
9 months until Denny Hulme Bruce, LOL
(PS: Is this pressure or what, LOL)
Dale Mathers
Stay tuned Dale, and you will see it burst into life, right here, in installments.
Good to see this thread getting some love again Bruce! We're still ever hopeful of finding a colour photo of the car when it briefly ran in the gold Winfield colours.
Absolutely Steve, I think most of us like seeing pictures of cars being brought back to life.
The next installment pic is a month later, after Tony had done a ton of work on the body, hitting it with a hammer, in just the right places, with just the right amount of force.
The rear flares were pressed in a die, making all the team cars identical after the treatment, it is one of the hall marks of the T/G built cars. The work was carried out by the same people who worked on the Nethercutt Collection cars (http://www.nethercuttcollection.org/)
It's starting to look a bit closer to how it should.
http://i39.tinypic.com/2d9b9r5.jpg
Bruce.
......Dam!!I thought I was having a Bob Jane Camaro 'Flash-Back' when I suddenly realised my workshop was never that clean!!!....the T/A looks tough,Bruce, Im probably one of a crazy few that would fully understand how much work you guys have done and still how much has to be done...on my 'wish list' would be to park the #7 Camaro alongside your Firebird when completed,two o'l American 'War Horses',now there is a plan, Dale!!!..............regards thunder427/Myles:):cool:...and Bruce where did you get that picture of my wife on your wall !!!!!!!!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce302
I sent it to him. Didn't think you'd mind Myles?Quote:
Originally Posted by thunder427