I can recall it now that you mention it, but no details.
I will see if I can jog a few other memories and report back.
I can recall it now that you mention it, but no details.
I will see if I can jog a few other memories and report back.
Well, if nothing else, trying to shake old memories certainly bought out a few stories of various custom and hot rodded Morris Minors from the sixties, mentioned were the 'Vodka and Orange' custom in Christchurch, the Red Barron from Pukekohe with an ohv V8 that was run in all sorts of Hot Rod events from Drags to Hill Climbs, as well as cars that had various 4 cyl Ford engines fitted and even one with a 3.3 litre Cresta engine.
Around Auckland there was a recall of a customised car in green, but that ran a slightly hotted A series engine, this is that car.
The V860 powered car was remembered by the three people I phoned, but no names were remembered, and even the colour was forgotten. I think like me all three had V860 association through speedway midgets, so a V860 in something other than the odd Simca was interesting. The large radiator also wasn't recalled, perhaps that was in later days when the car was no longer turning up to any Hot Rod Club events. The photo below is of very poor quality, but I think it may be the car on show at Mt Maunganui circa 1967/68.
As well it wasn't 12 months ago, because none of us would have remembered, things from 40 odd years ago can usually be recalled to some degree.
Well it certainly looks very similar,what I can remember that last I saw it ,I think the radiator had gained some more cores,and the front panel was spaced even further forward to sort of cover it,Thanks for the memory search
Yes, Johnny Rileys yard was on the Gt Sth Rd by the Tamaki River opposite what was then Foodtown Supermarket. He then moved to the corner of Gt Sth and Portage Rds at the northern end of Otahuhu. Graeme Harvey was on the corner of Portage and Saleyards Rds and he used to test his Elfin up and down the short part of Portage Rd toward the railway marshalling yards. I lived just across the paddock at the Abattoir and as soon as I heard the Elfin I would sprint across the paddock to get an eye and ear full! Red Dawson had a yard further up Gt Sth Rd near Huia Rd.
You remember when we were talking about Bar's Leaks in thread 136 of Yards and Yarns, well in 'Entry Lists', pall mall has just posted some pages from the programme for the 1960 NZ GP meeting at Ardmore, and there on the page for the Saloon Car H/cap is a little plug for Bar's Leaks........'.Every 5000 miles, give your engine efficient heat control with Bar's Leaks'. How about that!!! BUT, just look at the entry for the Grand Prix......wouldn't you give your right-arm to see that grid today. We didn't know how lucky we were.
We were spoilt back in those days, the following year, 1961, was almost a full F1 World Championship grid. With the final 2.5 litre F1 race having taken place at Riverside California next stop was Ardmore. We had works cars from Cooper, Lotus, BRM, plus cars from the main private F1 entrants, basically all but Ferrari.
Here is the Bars Leaks advert from the tatty back cover of the 1960 programme.
In one of the earlier threads we talked about the modern youth not wanting to get involved in the club side of motorsport. I have just received an e.mail from my original car club saying that the AGM had ben called off because only 7 members attended which was less than the quorum needed. This is a club that has clubrooms, used to have 250 members, ran Gold Star Hillclimbs, trials and National rallies. We used to have a speed event every month during the summer, including a grass track racing meeting, and a trial every month during the winter. We produced a Gold Star Sports Car champion in Andy Buchanan, and our members competed with distinction in all forms of motorsport. Recently a member won the NZ rally championship for the third time. A couple of years ago the club celebrated it's 50th anniversary.
After event functions at the clubrooms were well supported and popular, and we had no complaints from neighbours. Club members who stepped out of line were disciplined. Events were well patronised by local members as well as visitors from neighbouring clubs, most of whom had at least an hours drive to get there. As committee members we all worked hard to promote events, to have fun and we made many good friends.
I find it rather depressing that a club that not so long ago was one of the best in NZ is now struggling. Modern technolegy might be terrific but the art of verbal communication is being lost in the modern PC world.
I don't know what this has to do with Yards and Yarns, but I have got it off my chest and feel better. Thanks.
Beowulf....what a sad letter. But dont apologise, because your comments on the club scene, how it used to be, and how it is today, is what this Forum is all about. The plain fact of the matter is that MOST of the guys reading this, and I'm presuming that MOST if not all, are guys, are old-ish. Just take a wander around the pits at a classic meeting and what do you see.....old-ish guys squeezed into race suits that are too small for them, and old-ish spectators with the grandchildren in tow. The young fellas bought up on 500hp, twin-turboed, 4 wheel-drive Rice-Rockets, find our cars a bit Ho-Hum......'drifting is what it's all about man'!!!!!! The modern technology that you talk about is good in the sense that we can communicate instantly with one another, either on here or the cell phone, but you are right that the camerarderie of the club seems to be disappearing. I've got to sit down and have a real good think about this, but your letter demanded an instant, if not well thought out reply. Watch this space.
Could Steve please tell me what the 5 gold stars on this and 'Images' thread signify? Have we won some sort of award for the most bullshit. I know there used to be a Gold Star championship in NZ, as beowulf mentioned that Andy Buchanan had won such an award, other than that I am baffled. A free trip to Hawaii would be nice!!!!!!
The stars were put there by another member Gerald. They're basically a rating to let other members and visitors to the forum know what they think of certain threads. 5 stars is as good as it gets, so someone is obviously enjoying it. The stars just let others know this is a good thread to check out and spend some time in. Same goes for Nigels photo thread.Originally Posted by AMCO72
Thanks for that explanation Steve. I wondered what they were for as I thought that maybe only I could see them!! Silly bugger!!
This is going to sound really weird, but.. I believe that the instantness of communication has a lot to answer for. In the "good old days" if the phone was not answered we rang back, if it was engaged , we rang back, and I think a number of events, like the AGM were well attended because people rang each other and persuaded others to be there, if only for a catch up. Club magazines were done on the Gestetner at work, looked like rubbish in many cases, but eagerly anticipated, and saved for ever.
Now it's too easy, leave a message on the answerphone which most of us forget, emailed news if any at all is deleted, and we all forget to go to these things. Of course the anti drink driving laws make some of our "after match functions" a bit difficult. Some of our antics could never be allowed now.
An old Boy Racer!
Well, that stirred a few folk up eh! I was going to say also that there will come a time, I think, when we wont even NEED a club like the one beowulf has fond memories of. As Bob says, everything is done on line. When I came 'out of retirement' to do a bit of motoracing again, the only reason I joined a MANZ affiliated club was to get my licence again. I told the Club Captain that he wouldn't see me at events, and I think he was a bit disappointed, not because I wouldn't be there, but because I was using the club for a means to an end. I have belonged to all sorts of motoring clubs for years and have done rallies, trials, gymkhanas, etc etc etc and at 72, I'm not about to do them all over again. So a club, FOR ME is not necessary. The little bit of racing I do now can be done quite satisfactorily by just entering the appropriate web site and paying a fee. I meet all my racing mates at the track and thats good, and is all I want. Thats not to say that a club is not beneficial to others. Maybe we have lost our sense of adventure and as 'oldfart' says the drinking laws today have put a bit of a damper on after match functions. I do know that if it wasn't for this forum, and this medium for communication, I would never have have written all the junk I have, if I had to rely on pen and paper and party-line telephones. Bugger, I was really looking forward to a trip to Hawaii, because Yards and Yarns had won 5 gold stars for journalism!!!!!
thanks guys for your explanations. You are right, we don't need a car club now to be active in motorsport. You buy your bits on Trade Me. Information from the Internet and so on. I belong to 4 car clubs and enjoy their newsletters thoroughly. Being an ex editor of car club mags I appreciate the work and efort that goes into them. MSNZ enjoys my capitation levy.
I attend the local Vintage Car Club clubnights, the average age might be 350 but the turnout of members is fabulous. They are planning to extend their clubrooms so everybody can fit in.
Maybe we could get all the highlights from The Roaring Season, put them into a book and all go to Hawaii!
Bob you write well, keep the yarns coming, they certainly revive memories of a time that we probably see through rose coloured glasses.
I mentioned earlier that "my" car club was having problems. It reminded me of a time when we didn't have anything worthwhile in the bank. The solution was to run a gambling evening complete with Calcutta and bar. All highly illegal at the time. Being a mug I volounteered to organise it.
A country hall on the junction of several roads was booked. The theory being that if we were raided there were several escape routes.
One person sat just down the main road with a walkie talkie radio. His job was to radio in if the cops went past. What made us think that they would be in marked cars I don't know. Problem was he turned up with his new girlfriend. I don't know what he saw that night, but they had to get married several months later.
Some one on the committee knew a local bookmaker so I had a yarn with him. Basically I fronted it and he organised it. I had no idea what a Calcutta was, and still am not sure, apparently you buy a horse in a nominated race and if it wins you clean up all the other buyers prices. Less of course a cut to the organisers. We also had various card games, shove ha-penny, slater racing, snail racing, two up and various other dubious pursuits.
Selling alcohol was strictly forbidden at the time. It was still 6 o'clock closing. I bought the booze in small lots to avoid suspicion. Mostly beer but some whiskey. Apparently all the big gamblers drank whiskey and it loosened their wallets. NO wine I don't think it was available at all then.
Any way came the big night. We made a goodish profit, everybody enjoyed themselves, there were no fights, the booze ran out at the right time. And the club was solvent for a while. We never made any real money until we held a grass track race meeting. Thats another story.
I happened to bump into a member of the police force at a stock sale not long afterwards. his tip was next time we ran a gambling evening to tell the local police in case we got raided by some out of town cops. They would let us know in time to be gone by the time the raiding party arrived. Wouldn't happen now.
Bob your bit about tying things up, brings back a real funny thing I saw at Puke one day. As you mentioned about having a couple of hard case fellows following you, we new a couple as well. We were at Pukekohe for a national meeting and had parked our road cars and van (which had the food in it) up behind the main stand for the usual gathering and BBQ after. Well these blokes arrive and drive over to park up with our wagons and get a big rev from a certain official who will remain nameless. Well after a fairly heated lot of words the boy's drive way over to the top carpark and are not happy. Well during the day they sneak their car back over and park near ours. Now after the meeting we all gather for refreshments and one of them say's to his mate " That car there is that bloke who through us out" it is a little Toyota, Well unbeknown to us they get a big rope and tie it to the rear of a Rover V8 and hide all the rope under them. After a while along comes a bloke and jumps in his Rover and starts to go across the paddock when it comes up tight and starts wheelspinning, well the boys jump in and say "you are alright you are just stuck a bit give it heaps and we will push". This guy gives it the big one and with a bit of push is slowly off across grass with the other car skidding along behind, and the guy's all yelling at him "keep going, give it too it". Well as he gets to other side he must have looked in mirror or something and realises there is a car follwing him backwards, and stops gets out and undoes the rope, abuse's the boy's and takes off. Well we were over the other side of paddock watching this and had tears in our eyes and could hardly breath for laughter. So once all settles down, back to BBQ and chilly bin. About an hour later the official turns up for his car and stands there looking at it way over the other side of paddock at the end of a big line of skid marks and says to his son "did you skid it over there" and son just looks totally dumbfounded and say's "i haven't been near the car". At this stage I and a few others took off down around the side of grandsatand because i couldn't keep a straight face. The look on the officials face (well known to most of us at Puke in those days of long past) was unreal, he walked over to his car and could not work out how it got over the other side of paddock exept when he got there and he looked at the back of car it was covered/caked in grass and mud from the Rover. If the guy with the Rover reads this "your secret ID is safe" and the official involved "thank you very much for all you did for the racing at Puke and I never did get those rat bags name".
Where's all that stuff gone? The great casualty of the 21st century is.... the sense of humour. Do that now and you'd have police helicopters and a swat team callout.
Talk of chair racing, years back when family were young and truck racing had just started, was away on family trip to snow and stopped into the Taupo track and clubrooms on the Friday evening on way back to Auckland to catch up with a few of the locals at the original clubrooms next to the old track. There was a good gathering and they made us feel real welcome when we poked our head in the door. The girls got together with the kids and the boy,s meet around the bar and traded stories. Well as the night progressed a person (top lad) who raced a truck put out a challenge to car boys for a chair race. Well there were 2 big arm chairs with wheels and the team had to be a child in the chair and a pusher (driver). They placed some cones at either end of club and then began. After first couple of curcuits my kids thought this was great and talked me into challenging the winner. Great idea with stomach full of amber. Well the truck boy played hard and gave us a good shunt going into the top turn and then it was on. After a lot of hitting and slipping over (not Pissed) we all went back to bar, when some person mentioned how about a team race around the track, and that was that. Can you imagine a load of fairly sideways (drunk) drivers with excited kids (passengers) and a crowd of very excited (wine) spectator ladies. After a meeting it was agreed to start at the beginning of the old esse's and finish at the start/finish line which was around onto main straight. 3 groups per team to push in relay. What a laugh, it was smooth bitumin but there were a few little holes, so after a load of tip ups and arse ups, the curcuit boys prevailed (just). Don't think those chairs did much more after this night. The good old days and there was not even a meeting this weekend just a normal gathering of club members and a couple of visiters who dropped into say hello and ended staying for a couple of nights.
I actually saw truck racing on TV the other weekend and the hard case is still doing it.
Love it, theres a few different things that went on alright. I note Bob that you were the good sumaritum (helpful bloke) in most of these incidents, they are so lucky you are the quite one and they would have been lost without you to look after them. I know how hard it is to look after those other rat bags, not easy at all, I was always keeping an eye on some of the ones I know (knew).
After the nice big storm yesterday with over 2000 lightning strikes in an hour, and unbelievable rain and wind my home computor has gone to sleep, hopefully the nice man can revive it tomorrow, so this is from work. Goody oh Goody, he was a legend, I will wait until my computor is up and running and share a couple of little things that happened during/after Heatway along with other trips and functions.
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