New Zealand Historic Saloon Cars Under HRC

[Kiwiboss]

I hope Ellis French doesn't mind me posting this photo here. This isn't an HSC car. In fact, this car was built and races in Australia. Its owned by Don Green.

This beautiful Jaguar was one of the very first Group N historic touring cars built in Australia, and actually contested the very first historic Group N touring car race, which took place way back in 1981.

Back then, Group N was known as Appendix J, and had a cut-off date of December 31, 1964. Since then, the CAMS controlled and policed historic category has expanded into three divisions:

Group Na: for cars commercially available in Australia prior to December 31, 1957
Group Nb: the for-mentioned Appendix J
Group Nc: for cars of a make and model that competed in Australia between January 1, 1965, and December 31, 1972, in the ATCC, or in Series Production.

Since that first race that took place in 1981, more than 1,000 cars have been built and registered for Historic Group N.

Imagine if the NZ Historic and Classic Commission had the foresight to do this when the Aussie's did, all the good period correct cars we'd have today!! instead of the mish mash hybred hotrods we currently have country wide, shame really! I'd luv to see cars like the fantastic Jaguar still out racing in period guise.

Dale M

[AMCO72]

Steve, your comment, amongst others that said....'CAMS controlled and POLICED' historic catergory sounds a bit ominous!! Is everyone in Australia in love with CAMS as much as folk here in NZ. When we start using words like 'policed' I get very nervous. Easy to be wise now and say we in NZ should have followed Australia's lead. We could, with some will, have a similar breakdown of classes here, but is going to upset a few people. But then too-bad.......someone is going to get upset no matter what you do......even if you do nothing !!!!!

[Steve Holmes]

Steve, your comment, amongst others that said....'CAMS controlled and POLICED' historic catergory sounds a bit ominous!! Is everyone in Australia in love with CAMS as much as folk here in NZ. When we start using words like 'policed' I get very nervous. Easy to be wise now and say we in NZ should have followed Australia's lead. We could, with some will, have a similar breakdown of classes here, but is going to upset a few people. But then too-bad.......someone is going to get upset no matter what you do......even if you do nothing !!!!!

Hi Gerald, I would say CAMS is viewed with about as much love as MSNZ is in New Zealand! When using the term 'policed', its really just that. There are a set of rules, and racers build cars to those rules. And CAMS are present at events to make sure nobody is cheating. Its much like the way historic racing is run in the UK and Europe.

As for the rules themselves, there is no way they could ever be adopted in NZ now. That will never happen. I believe Appendix J are very similar to FIA Appendix K Group 2 rules for pre-1965 touring cars that are in widespread use throughout the UK and Europe, and several cars have been bought and sold between Australia and UK/Europe. Likewise, Australian competitors have been able to take their cars to race in the UK/Europe.

Group Nc rules are not 100% period correct, and are very much focused on Australian history. Only cars that contested an ATCC race through to the end of 1972, or contested Series Production races are eligible. Furthermore, the rules themselves fall somewhere between the Improved Production (think Allan Moffats Mustang, Norm Beecheys Monaro etc), and Series Production (the bog-standard cars such as the Falcon GTHOs and Torana XU1s etc that raced at Bathurst through until 1972) as a sort of happy medium. So for example, a 1969 Mustang is eligible, because Allan Moffat raced one of these in period, but a 1970 Mustang is not, because nobody raced one of these. Obviously this would never work in NZ.

Are the rules universally loved by all historic racers in Australia? Definitely not. No matter what the class, be it Formula 1, NASCAR, V8 Supercars, Singsong Utes, or historic racing, you'll always have people who want more from the rules. But, the CAMS Group N historic touring car rules are extremely clear. Its very black and white. The rules are the rules, everyone just accepts them and gets on with it. No one person has to worry about policing the rules like class representatives do in NZ. Its all done by CAMS. The cars themselves have a virtually unlimited life-span, because the rules don't change, and therefore, the cars don't really evolve. The Jaguar pictured above is a prime example. So this helps control costs.

No, its not the perfect scenario, but it does work very well in other countries.