Les Parkinson sold this white XJS to Peter Koeford who hardly used it at all over 15 years.
Peter told me a man in the SI was buying it.
Would not have thought that it had done a lot of racing
Les Parkinson sold this white XJS to Peter Koeford who hardly used it at all over 15 years.
Peter told me a man in the SI was buying it.
Would not have thought that it had done a lot of racing
Yes, from around 1986, B&H series, photos from Pukehohe & Baypark rounds, somewhere i have moreOriginally Posted by crunch
from the second wellington street race......
Correct John, a 'man' from Christchurch has bought it, but it has been entrusted to Angus for the restoration.
Are you suggesting that the bodywork shouldn't be floppy because it has not done much racing? You should know that the number of racing miles a car has, or has not done, does not equate to a perfect body.......ie very little racing equals a perfect body!!!!!!! My own experience at HD bears that out.......I had 'raced' for less than 200 meters, and I ended up with a car with less than a perfect body!
Am I making myself clear here???
Also I think the roll-frame [theres that word again] was very under engineered and needed bringing up to new specifications. Maybe it got away with it in the old days, and we don't need to go into that argument again after being exhaustively 'discussed' in another thread.
My God, the arguments are starting already and the new class hasn't even got off the ground........
When is a Muscle Car NOT a Muscle Car ?
When is a Sports Sedan NOT a Sports Sedan ?
Is the thinking here that if a car competed in a sports sedan class 30 years ago, then it IS a sports sedan.
Sounds as though defining exactly WHAT a sports sedan is, is going to be harder than defining what a Muscle car is!
And Jim you bring up an interesting point........30 years on these drivers are obviously 30 years older......and slower......and stiffer, in all the wrong parts! Are they going to be up to the job of piloting these wild and woolly machines? And don't tell me they are just going to do demo laps behind a safety car!!.......Yeh right.
Also Jim, you must have had to sell a lot of mowers and cycles to pay for your share in the Porsche........unless of course your shop markup was exorbitant!!!!!
Gerald- just putting up some info on Jags, didnt think something that simple would push your buttons.
Amco without knowing ,I would bet the Mini cost a lot more than I paid, I mean 5 owners into one car and I know you find it strange but I enjoyed every lap ,first out last in for practise regardless as to where I finished in the race,even on my own ,the exhaust sound at 8000 ,not seen that often would make your hair stand up on end ,only 2.8 twin plug, webers 260 BHP no match for the V8s but off the line and under brakes just leave them for dead at BP,only once in five years did it get 4 new tyres at the same time,mrs brown now
I think half the trouble with the XJS is that it probably hasn't been stripped down as far as it is now since it was built. When everything was out of it, you could actually lift the front of the body several centimeters without the body from the screen backwards moving!!!!
Superficially the car looked ok but it was infact seriously fragile.
The roll frame that is in it now ties everything together very nicely.
So am I right in saying that this new class is for cars that actually raced as sports sedans during the time frame suggested? In other words I cant build a new one to the specifications and join the group as I can in HMC.
Last edited by AMCO72; 04-11-2013 at 06:51 PM. Reason: change
Now here is where we can see a whole lot of grief amongst you lot that think a car with "history' is more desirable than a new built old car. The ex Clive Gott car does not exsist, that was supposedly destroyed by Mike John, sent to the crusher I belive. The car he now insists is the ex Millen car does not exsist either, wrong wheels, no Mk1 escort flares, wrong color etc. The car I built and raced no longer exsist either,if you consider the car as I saw it at Highland Park at Easter. The wheels and body are the wrong color, it has a louvered bonnet, the front wheel arches are the wrong shape, the seats and steering wheel are incorrect and it has a roll cage in it. Not to mention the Japanese 5 speed gearbox and the Willwood brakes. Not a glimmer of nostalgia did I feel as I walked by it. So how is this going to fit into this new class? And this is only a car I know a bit about, what about all the other cars on the list?
You are quite correct about those XJS's. The front end of them is as weak as any thing I have seen. Compared to the stucture in a Mk2 one would have to say the engineering is irresonsible!! Mind you in my opinion they are the worst car Jaguar ever made except for the V12 E type.
So what, nor are the drivers the same size, or look the same, thats what was good about the Sports Sedan boy's (and Girls, now there are the pretty ones) they where like their machinery, all different until it was pack up time and the tent became centre of attraction.
I have not read past this tongue in cheek comment yet (I hope it was Mr John boy as the SS boys stick together).
Go for it Biscuit, got my support and will be intouch with you as off right now to meet in Auckland and spend weekend with Mr Willis (birthday) Ralphy and some others from south island and all over the place. So there will be discussion.
Could be more welding and fabricating coming up.
Correct Crunch and a load more that ended up half framed etc.
Custaxie, remember you are dealing with Sports Sedan boys, who were always kind of frowned on because of the different way they did things and i can remember some days when there was grids with cars that were built just about any way possible (some good, some not so good) Think if George keeps like old school and there is no points, flowers, or hay bales presented, all can go and run their car.
I will be intouch with George as was on Original committee with SS for awhile along with others who are still around (and have cars in their sheds)
As I said in last couple of posts, we ran everything and anything, like even an Escort with a Pacific wing on it and then you zip into pits take wing off change rear springs and put on other boot with little spoiler and out you go in clubmans, clever buggers those SS boy's
Please don't turn this into a 'how can you run that, it wasn't like that thread' Sports Sedans catered for a wide variety of cars and people. Jag yes remember it, Jum in his Modified VW followed it a few times (nice black with red stripes paint), plastic Corvettes, Minis, Vivas (even one crazy one with V8) all types, in fact if it ran, had 4 wheels, you got a run. I hope that is what George is looking at.
Rod i do understand what you are saying,so i could go and build any car like custaxie 1 and they would let me race it with others that may be out there.
Dave-just to make sure we are on the same page here. Jim said the ex Millen car was not a sports saloon.
I simply said that I understood that Clive Gott raced it in this class when he set the engine back, welded up the back doors and had a removable front., this was 80s
All this happened before the body was destroyed. I also know the body was destroyed.
Do you know the classes Clive ran it in before the body was destroyed?
I do agree with your view.
Last edited by John McKechnie; 04-11-2013 at 11:20 PM.
Good question ,I saw Clive run it at Taccoc to start then not sure after, The Custaxie I never saw it run ,did Robie not race in the USA???and bring some Yank tank back to race???
John, no offence taken, Jim stated that the ex Millen car was not a sports saloon and I agree as it never raced in that class when it was in the form as Millen raced it. It simply was a different car. Clive ran it for a time in classic racing in the form he purchased it in from whoever and then did to it as you have described and ran it in sports saloons. So if it, the Clive Gott car, was to be raced in this new class a new one would have to be built. I don't have a problem with that as long as it is the same and everybody knows it. Are we on the same page?
I think there are a few older 'club' cars that could be built into 'period' Sports Sedans and why not? All you would need is a process whereby an owner would notify their intentions on how they would modify the car and the committee could let them know if the car would be eligible in that form. I reckon that with a few sensible rules that don't allow 'new'-builds to overshadow the cars we're trying to coax out of retirement, this could be a hugely successful class.
Absolutely 100% Dave, always a pleasure doing details with you.
Superb clarity here on its history
Wonder if we could run the Amco Mini in a Sports Sedan class.....was ex BNSW car after all !!!!!!!!!!!!
Did Sports Sedans morph into that strange class.....trans-am lites? They seemed to be neither your arse nor your elbow.
Rod does not want this thread turning into a 'you cant run that' sort thread. Yet surely it is better that this all gets thrashed out here, and with all the opinions on here, some of, if not all of the misconceptions will be sorted out, before the boys get out their welding torches!!
Last edited by AMCO72; 04-12-2013 at 01:13 AM. Reason: extra
Why is it so hard to understand ,the muscle cars are very fussy about what runs in their eyes,so any Sports Sedan that ran as such is in ,if it did not run as a Sports Sedan its out , .Amco the Minis were very strong when the S.Sedans were running and for one I think it would be great to see them{the minis}running around during the lunch break for example
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