These were taken at a HRSCC Sprint at Span Farm in Glendene.
These were taken at a HRSCC Sprint at Span Farm in Glendene.
Have you seen this before OF? As you can see it's from a very early edition of Motorman.
I think this came from a Motorman magazine as well.
Hi guys Does anyone know where the Rick Harris car is? My darling wife is his daughter and she is would like to know of its present location .
Thank you Milan, these are all great. Isn't Motorman fantastic in that format?
I am pretty sure Donn was born in 1945 - incredible to think he was writing this stuff at 13...
Michael, have sent you a PMOriginally Posted by Michael Clark
Now in Dunedin (I believe) is the Buckler that I once owned. It was reputed to be one of the last of the marque it was a Mk17 which originally had an Ashley Laminates body with two transverse rear seats. the car was apparently originally built up in UK with a BMC front suspension. Bruce Sutcliffe acquired it in very poor shape with the body past redemption. Bruce had the frame shortened by about 7 inches (the bits that had been removed were with it when I got it) to take a de Joux body. I fitted a Rootes group 1600 engine and transmission and rebuilt the front end to traditional Bellamy style with a Citroen steering rack. Other projects intervened and the car was sold to Ian Hallett who subsequently on sold it to the South Island.
You have seen that car at Roycroft Richard.
Contribution from Kelvin Brown, Author of the authoritative Buckler "Book" Bucklers in NZ"
Photo 1. Merv Mayo and the Mk.90 under construction, possibly Merv's father on the left ? it was first registered in October 1956
I am unsure of any weight difference between the original Jarvie and the AMW DeJoux body used by others.
Photo 2. The Mayo Buckler 90 at the NZGP meeting Ardmore Jan 1957, the car was very well finished and originally painted dark blue.
English chassis, Ford E93 gearbox brakes and diff with Buckler ratios. Ford 100E Engine with alloy Elva OHI head
The Jarvie body was a local design by Brian Jarvie that used the Ford 100E grille. It was later remodified and became the Corsair.
The car was advertised for sale in the Motorsport Review the NZGP mag mid 58 photos ex B Sutcliffe / M Mayo
Unfortunately no photos of the Malcolm Gill era the 1959 season so far, he repainted the car white.
Photo 3. Malcolm Gill took over the Lycoming so then Scott Wiseman a young ex school friend became the new owner driver.
He had started racing in the family Zephyr for a short time until he was found out. Here shown working on his new car at home.
Scott raced the Buckler over the 1960 / 61 seasons then went over to the UK for experience.
One of the first Mk.90's raced in NZ, the car was raced hard by some good young drivers and they had a lot of success,
it had a few mishaps, including Scotts roll at Levin so a roll bar was an addition, many later pictures show some racing damage in the nose area.
Andrew Buchanan also had the racing bug, he too as a teenager had a major shunt at the Levin Cabbage tree corner and demolished his first car
an A40 Farina, so he bought the 90 and used it for the 1962 season before doing a similar OE. photo ex S Wiseman.
Here is Merv Mayo in the Jarvie-bodied car hillclimbing at Peach Hill Road Ramarama, late in 1958.
I have possibly posted this picture on another thread, but it's a nice looking car anyway.
Stu
Firstly Bruce Sutcliffe is alive and well and living in a retirement village in Avondale.
I drove the Blue Brick for Bruce for about 15 years from memory and have a lot of
memories of a great time we had and having people take notice of these great
little cars.
The Blue Brick had MK5 sign written on the side of the car the whole time I drove it.
We had a team of cars which we ran in the Leman relay races for a number of years
and so long as we had no break downs we usually won the index of performance.
I still have a number of the trophys we won as a team.
I enjoyed seeing the video clip of the Blue Brick at Taupo a place we raced at many times.
When the Juniors first appeared the Blue Brick was very competitive with them and
capable of beating some of them.
Last edited by RGM; 08-26-2013 at 09:28 AM. Reason: lost the last part of the post
RGM- thanks for the update on Bruce. He always had a huge imput and passion for Historics, and did a lot instead of just talking.
There would be unlikely to be any following for Bucklers in this country were it not for his efforts. I believe that he has recently re-married, I don't get the very long knowledgeable phone calls any more!!
My wife & I visited Bruce 2 weeks ago and although he has a new lady in his life he is still single and living on his own.
Bruce still has a passion for the cars and on our regular visits he is always asking about whats happening out there.
I am personally a bit out of touch with the cars as the historic racing scene has changed so much and only get to see
Bucklers on very few accasions these days.
I have offered to take Bruce to the Roycroft meeting the last 2 years but with his limited mobility he feels it would be too
much for him.
Another MK5/6 is being built by Dewer Thomas on behalf of Bruce so hopefully we may get to see him at an event in the
future.
I'd love to know why the modern De Joux bodies as illustrated here have a different - and to my mind less attractive - nose shape from the original '50s AMW product
David, Ferris did more than one version. The story goes (as told to me by Bruce Sutcliffe) that the very original mould was a female one made of plaster of paris. There was one car taken from the moulds and the mould broke up when releasing. That car was driven in Queen St Auckland and backed into by another vehicle. The shell was repaired, according to Bruce not quite symmetrically at the nose, and a mould taken from that car. That mould is known as the Mark 1 and has the tilt front.
Minor alterations including the "hatch" bonnet are the Mark 2. This was all done by Ferris.
Rumour has it that there are a number of moulds. Bruce Sutcliffe says he repaired a body and took a mould off that, a number of the cars have shells from that mould. However "modern" is not really correct as there have been very few if any, shells done since the mid 80s. Does that address your query
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