Yards And Yarns

[Steve Holmes]

Talking of XK's and Jaguars in general the name Sybil Lupp springs immediately to mind. She was the other half of Archer and Lupp of Wellington and had a big following of enthusiasts in the area. Plenty has been written about Sybil so wont go over it again except for one little gem she shared with me during a JDC rally at Easter in Rotorua about 1969. She had a novel way of balancing the SU carburetors on an E type. She would remove the bonnet, take out the plungers from the dashpots, put a piece of dowel with graduations on it into the oil chamber of all three carbs and drive the car up the Ngauranga Gorge Rd....SH1 out of Wellington...and watch the dowels to see how far out they were poking while under power. She would then be able to see which carb was doing all the work and adjust accordingly. Not sure whether she was having me on but she was dead serious!!!!!! Sybil was often the invited guest in the early days of the Jaguar Drivers club and her expertise was put to good use as a judge in the concours. She had a good eye and liked everything to be right, even back in the beginning of her racing carreer she usually won best presented car, especially at the Lady Wigram Trophy race where she came 2nd in the MG TC in 1952. Was a supercharged car so went pretty well and of course, unlike a lot of the machinery in those days, was reliable. She did all the tuning herself and cut quite a dash in the pits with her blond hair and white overalls. The MG still exists in the hands of FAZZAZ owner Gavin Bain and will be restored to its former glory one day.

Thats brilliant!

Her son Danny did a bit of racing also and carried on the family Jaguar tradition, by fitting a Jag V12 into he engine bay of the old Halliday brothers Capri. Ambitious but not very successful sadly.

[pallmall]

This series of photos has been bugging me since it was posted. The building looks like one that was at the very south end of Otahuhu not the north end. It was I believe just over the Tamaki Esturary Bridge on the Great South Rd about 100m north of where Graeme Addis had his Wild Wheels business. It's long gone now but I grew up living close to it and used to deliver the Herald as a school boy and that building was the northern most point on my run in the late 60's early 70's. Does anyone remember Johnny Riley Car Sales being located there before being up the other end of Otahuhu?

I think you could be correct. The photos have bugged me for quite a few years because the location didn't look quite right for the north Otahuhu premises. I have shown them to a few people who were around in the day and none of them picked up that it wasn't where we assumed. I will be seeing Ron Riley in a few weeks and will ask him again, and add the new information. Thanks.

[AMCO72]

Yeah.......Dannie [think that is the correct spelling] and I crossed swords a few times at Taupo race track in the early days of classic racing...1986. He had a pale metallic blue Mk 2 and was entered in the Collett Panel & paint series as I was, although I also competed in the BMC series, so I used to have quite a busy time. Anyway Dannie wasnt averse to punting people off the track, especially me, and one incident I can remember very well where he gave me a huge serve up the arse as I was trying to overtake him through the esses and sent me spinning, two 360's, into the stock car track. I protested vigorously to the stewards but was told it was 'just a racing incident'. Yeah right!!! I last saw him late last year when Angus and I were racing at Manfield at the MG meeting. He had grown into an old grey man. I could hardly recognise him.

[bob homewood]

I think you could be correct. The photos have bugged me for quite a few years because the location didn't look quite right for the north Otahuhu premises. I have shown them to a few people who were around in the day and none of them picked up that it wasn't where we assumed. I will be seeing Ron Riley in a few weeks and will ask him again, and add the new information. Thanks.

Ron will no doubt confirm it ,but I agree with Chris ,in one of the photos I believe you can just make out the Mangroves in the Estuary,the other thing is there is no sign of Saleyards Road in the photos and it certainly is one of the older roads in the Otahuhu North End,its just a bit before my adult years ,but a couple of my older friends having seen the photos share the same opinion,Bert Jones was also in that South end area of Otahuhu by the Breweries for many years ,just South of where I believe those photos were taken

[bob homewood]

Thats brilliant!

Her son Danny did a bit of racing also and carried on the family Jaguar tradition, by fitting a Jag V12 into he engine bay of the old Halliday brothers Capri. Ambitious but not very successful sadly.

Steve ,He also drove the ex Palmer / Kennedy Brabham a few times and raced the ex Tom Donovan Odlins sports car for a while ,before I brought that car from him ,that was just before his Capri V12 project ,there would have also possibly been more than one Jaguar over time ,David can probably fill in the gaps on that one

[Shano]

When I saw the photos I automatically recognised them as being at the south end of Otahuhu. I was born on the other side of the road, in a little maternity hospital that was made up of ex-US army huts (pretty sure these were relocated to National Womens, then in the late 70s again to Middlemore. Not really motor racing but couldn't resist it...)

Amco - saw your Mini at Hampton Downs and was very impressed. It was always one of my favourites and was one of the very best presented cars.

Great stories, really enjoying them.

[AMCO72]

Well, gee, ta Shano......it is a gorgeous little car thanks to a lot of work by Angus. It cant have escaped your notice that it isnt quite the colour scheme it was in 1972. I had a funny little man come up to me at the Bruce McLaren festival waving a copy of Motorman magazine which featured the car on the front cover. He says to me......'where is the orange bonnet'. Not only orange, I say, but vinyl covered. When I first restored the car in 1985 we didnt really know its full history....it soon came to light of course but by then I had painted the body in my favourite shade of green which was remarkably like the body colour in its 1st year, 1971, when it was sponsored by Dulux. So I decided to combine the 1st year body colour with 2nd year sponsorship, Amco. Big crime according to my magazine waving friend! Anyway I cant stand orange as a colour and it was only around 1 year with the orange, and has been around 26 years with the green. So call it continuos development. I cant think of any race car that stayed more than 1 year in the same colour scheme......different sponsors etc etc. We reunited both Rod Collingwood and Dave Panckhurst with the car at the festival and they were delighted. Angus would have loved to put it back to EXACTLY how it was at the end of the 72 season, but I have overuled him....maybe when I die he will do it!

[bob homewood]

[QUOTE=Shano;1662]When I saw the photos I automatically recognised them as being at the sound end of Otahuhu. I was born on the other side of the road, in a little maternity hospital that was made up of ex-US army huts

OT Shano but thats where I came into the world as well ,its a small one "aye "

[GD66]

Yeah.......Dannie [think that is the correct spelling]

I'm sure I recall mags from the day continuously spelling it "Danie"...

[Chris Kitzen]

I think you could be correct. The photos have bugged me for quite a few years because the location didn't look quite right for the north Otahuhu premises. I have shown them to a few people who were around in the day and none of them picked up that it wasn't where we assumed. I will be seeing Ron Riley in a few weeks and will ask him again, and add the new information. Thanks.

Ron will no doubt confirm it ,but I agree with Chris ,in one of the photos I believe you can just make out the Mangroves in the Estuary,the other thing is there is no sign of Saleyards Road in the photos and it certainly is one of the older roads in the Otahuhu North End,its just a bit before my adult years ,but a couple of my older friends having seen the photos share the same opinion,Bert Jones was also in that South end area of Otahuhu by the Breweries for many years ,just South of where I believe those photos were taken

I have that building etched in my mind for some reason. Able concrete mixers were there in my time. As soon as I saw the pictures I knew where it was. Even the trees in the background are identifyable. One of my brothers was born in that hospital also Shano

[beowulf]

I remember Danny with the Brabham at a GoldStar Hillclimb in the Wairarapa. Danny hit the bank quite hard, Sybill was there
and was not impressed. She didn't impress my wife who was secretary of the meeting when she hooked on of the tent guy ropes
with the trailer and collapsed it. No apology but that was Sybill. Her second husband I think was Percy Lupp who was Nz Motorsport
secretary. Ron Frost was president. Great site.

[David McKinney]

I used to sometimes act as secretary of various Wellington CC meetings, and remember being surprised that he signed his name 'Danny'. We all knew him as Danie. On another occasion he telephoned me and announced himself as "Dahny Lupp". I guess he was as confused as the rest of us

I don't remember much about his Jaguars, Bob. He started out with an FJ Holden which did get Jaguar power (I presume a six), before he diverted his attention to an Anglia

Sybil's first husband (and Danie's father) was Jack Lupp, who died when the children were very young. She then married Jack's brother Percy. Lionel Archer was her third husband

[AMCO72]

Yes, one too many 'N's......Anyway thinking of Sybils' MG brings to mind my first sports car after the Singer. The MG TC was one machine I just had to have, and one duly came up for sale in one of those funny little yards in Christchurch, and I think it was Manchester Car Sales...nothing very special about that yard but it did from time to time have sporty stuff on display. Now I couldnt have cared less what condition it was in I was going to have it,especially as it was REPUTED to have been the X Sybil Lupp car. I had saved the necessary 530 pound asking price, and I could hardly contain myself at the thought of owning such a famous car, but my Father being somewhat more sensible than me urged caution. Indeed he was not at all keen for me to buy it. I was living and studying at Lincoln College at the time, and he thought, probably with some justification that I would be out shooting the breeze instead of swotting for exams. We came to an arrangement that the car would be housed at at home and I would get to drive it at the weekends. Not ideal but it worked. Meantime my Dad would drive it during the week and in fact spent quite a lot of money on it getting the carbs rebushed, starter motor reconditioned and ignition overhauled, so you could say the arrangement worked very well in my favour. Now, back to the question of ownership. It quickly became clear that my car was NOT the X Lupp machine....I couldnt get past the red paint...but the euphoria was great while it lasted. A case of do your homework beforehand. Never mind it was a nice little car and I used it regularly, and drove it from ChCh to Hamilton to start a job on a dairy farm...that was a trip and a half....eventually trading it in on the MG TF from Spinner Car Sales mentioned earlier. BAD decision; dont know what I was thinking; perhaps I thought newer was better.....

[AMCO72]

Hey Beowulf.....great to see you on board. Now YOU should have some stories to tell us.

[beowulf]

Thanks AMC072. What a great site. I am a beginner against you guys when it comes to memories and knowledge. interesting how myth and facts blend over time. We certainly had some fun. Who remembers the after race parties in the pub in Levin, the name escapes me. Willow Park in Tauranga etc. etc. The modern race driver goes home and goes to bed, alone. Just never let the truth stand in the way of a good story.

[Steve Holmes]

I remember Danny with the Brabham at a GoldStar Hillclimb in the Wairarapa. Danny hit the bank quite hard, Sybill was there
and was not impressed. She didn't impress my wife who was secretary of the meeting when she hooked on of the tent guy ropes
with the trailer and collapsed it. No apology but that was Sybill. Her second husband I think was Percy Lupp who was Nz Motorsport
secretary. Ron Frost was president. Great site.

beowulf, very cool post!

[Steve Holmes]

Yes, one too many 'N's......Anyway thinking of Sybils' MG brings to mind my first sports car after the Singer. The MG TC was one machine I just had to have, and one duly came up for sale in one of those funny little yards in Christchurch, and I think it was Manchester Car Sales...nothing very special about that yard but it did from time to time have sporty stuff on display. Now I couldnt have cared less what condition it was in I was going to have it,especially as it was REPUTED to have been the X Sybil Lupp car. I had saved the necessary 530 pound asking price, and I could hardly contain myself at the thought of owning such a famous car, but my Father being somewhat more sensible than me urged caution. Indeed he was not at all keen for me to buy it. I was living and studying at Lincoln College at the time, and he thought, probably with some justification that I would be out shooting the breeze instead of swotting for exams. We came to an arrangement that the car would be housed at at home and I would get to drive it at the weekends. Not ideal but it worked. Meantime my Dad would drive it during the week and in fact spent quite a lot of money on it getting the carbs rebushed, starter motor reconditioned and ignition overhauled, so you could say the arrangement worked very well in my favour. Now, back to the question of ownership. It quickly became clear that my car was NOT the X Lupp machine....I couldnt get past the red paint...but the euphoria was great while it lasted. A case of do your homework beforehand. Never mind it was a nice little car and I used it regularly, and drove it from ChCh to Hamilton to start a job on a dairy farm...that was a trip and a half....eventually trading it in on the MG TF from Spinner Car Sales mentioned earlier. BAD decision; dont know what I was thinking; perhaps I thought newer was better.....

530 pounds seems a reasonable price Gerald? But do you know if the price would have been bumped up slightly with the 'apparent' Sybil Lupp connection?

[AMCO72]

Dont know.......I do know that the price was originally 550 pounds and I hadnt quite got that amount, my father was unwilling to lend the extra so managed to talk the salesman into removing the radio, a fairly simple affair, and reduce the price to 530. I was very shy in those days and wasnt used to dealing with these sharp shooters. We didnt put so much value on history then.....it was just another old English sports car and there were quite a lot of MG TC's around at the time. Not sure where the reputed to be the Sybil Lupp car story came from as a quick check of the ownership papers would have revealed all. This was 1960, so the car was about 12 years old and the wage of a farm worker was about 5 pounds, 2 shillings and sixpence per week....$10, so took a long time to save up. I never regreted buying the car and is one of many [about 70] that have owned that I would like back.

[Shano]

Not only orange, I say, but vinyl covered. When I first restored the car in 1985 we didnt really know its full history....it soon came to light of course but by then I had painted the body in my favourite shade of green which was remarkably like the body colour in its 1st year, 1971, when it was sponsored by Dulux.

I've got an old black and white photo of the car, without any sponsorship but sporting the orange vinyl bonnet somewhere. I'll dig it out.

[AMCO72]

All the yards in my stories so far have motorsport connections running through them somewhere, and my involvement with them. This one is a bit different in that the premises didnt sell cars, but tyres. Wally Darrells' ACE tyre shop in Christchurch supplied not only passenger car tyres but performance tyres for those would wanted that bit extra. Now in those days, as Bob has pointed out, for 'performance' read BIG. However, Wally managed to get a set of Michelin X for me and they certainly transformed the car they were fitted to, the TR2. He also fitted a set of Dunlop C49's to my Dads Jaguar 2.4, the latest in technology even though they were still crossplys. The Michelins, which were those new fangled radials had a fearsome reputation of hanging on in a corner then letting go without warning. Never tested them that far but gave a very good ride, and seemed to last forever. Wally is best know for his A.C.E. specials which he raced in the fifties, always with number 13 and always driven with great gusto. The first A.C.E. was built from the remains of the Hec Green Wolseley, that I saw racing at the Aranui Speedway, through 2 and 3 with vauxhall and standard vanguard engines respectively to the A.C.E. 4 which was Zephyr powered. The A.C.E. 4 used to go like stink in a straight line but wasnt very happy in the cornering department, and one would frequently see Wally in the middle of a corner doing a 360. Couldnt have been a tyre problem as he was in the business, so maybe the suspension wasnt up to Wallys' enthusiastic driving. He did a lot of beach racing and competed at Wigram, Mairehau, and Dunedin circuits usually finishing about mid field. Wally apparently wasnt too concerned about winning so long as he had a good time. One thing I do remember is that he was very good at getting wheel balance right. The balancing machines back then were fairly crude affairs compared to the electronic devices of today, but with his racing experience used to go the extra mile in getting things spot on. The last time I saw the A.C.E. 4 in Wallys hands was at a grass gymkhana, of all places, still doing 360's and still sounding wonderful, and Wally still the Gentleman that he always was. The car survives and is raced in classic racing today. So....Ciao Wally, you were always damn good fun to watch and your cars always a credit to you.