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I was a personal friend of Ernie Spragues, and raced a mk3 Zephyr in pre 65,s and waimate 50 .
That was a dark green zephyr with triple ida weber carbs
Now I am restoring Ernies Original wills winning Mk 3 Zodiac
If you would like to know anything about the car message me
Great that you are here Des ......most people probably dont remember the red mk3 zodi, was a nice old car , it did the will 6 hrs with good results plus 1/5 production races as well , this was bought after the green mk 3 , then the 3.8 mk 2 jag took over from that ... [zodi]
Hi there Des, welcome to The Roaring Season. Nice to have you here. Would certainly enjoy any info you care to share.
Some photos of the Sprague Mk IV Zephyr here.
Thanks Bryan ...... yep these zephers came after the red mk3 Zodi......... The two you sent were the red mk 4 & a yellow mk 4 both were driven up from timaru , the red one was entered in the 6 hr race the yellow one was entered in the 3 hr [I think] big undertaking in those days from the southern boys .... The Red one was sold to Bill Greg a publican in Timaru that owned a string of pubs & was a good friend of the family & recently died in Wiamate still a pub owner , not sure what happened to the yellow car , so one was a 2.5 & the other 3.0 v6 ??.. There was also a blue mk4 they raced at B&H will g8 results then came the 3.3 ,s then chargers & falcons ....... geee when I think about it they went hard out .....
The Francevic Mk1V in photos was bought by Tony McFadden and had a wee 8 dropped into it, was a quick car.
If Ford had bought these out with a nice 289 or 302 off the floor they would have been a top car, you could play with them and make them handle, all the arse-ends ended up in speedway cars later on.
Rod I remember well....... Francevic drove into Ernie,s pits [or beside pit] wanting
help with his Zepher as it was over heating a common thing at the time ...also the common name for them were called type writers as they went clack clack clack tick clack tap lol:)
As you know Grant, first thing was remove spare wheel, (who would put a spare in front of the engine) and let mice at the panel to ventilate it a little. Could be tackfully bent and angled for better flow as well.
This was another reason why they were so easy to shove a Wee 8 into, a bloody great football field out front.
Cold & wet here in Tga Rod so thought would add a bit, yep they had the making of a good car with the 289 or 302 ...... hey the 2nd thing to take out was the carpets the third thing was the underseal inside & underneaths [options for fire saftey etc] all of ours were weighed & calculated re fuel saving... I was amazed as a kid at most of the others never took advantage of this ....... any way thats history but still find it interesting