Minis Cortina and Jaguar
More Jaguars
A40 and Jaguar
More minis
Mini from the rear end, The End for the saloons.
Coming up Gee Cee Ess, the ERA and others.
Minis Cortina and Jaguar
More Jaguars
A40 and Jaguar
More minis
Mini from the rear end, The End for the saloons.
Coming up Gee Cee Ess, the ERA and others.
ERA and 260M - as seen in an Otago Daily Times B and W photo
Riley in action - ** Bruce Pidgeon in the Ransley Riley " Brooklands " #165 originally a 1935 model 2442cc known as the 1st Ransley Riley, the 2nd Ransley Riley in " Blue " was there too !
Riley in the pits
ERA in the pits area
ERA on display at a motorcycle shop - during the weekend.
More Vintage to follow
Last edited by Roger Dowding; 02-22-2025 at 11:41 PM. Reason: Driver/Rider Car details added ###47
Found this on Wikipaedia an article on International Racing colours, could it be the same car The ERA [ different race # 9 ].Originally Posted by Roger Dowding
ERA and 260M - as seen in an Otago Daily Times B and W photo
Riley in action
Riley in the pits
ERA in the pits area
ERA on display at a motorcycle shop - during the weekend.
More Vintage to follow
very small pic,
any identification of the cars, please add to the thread.
Next the " Gee Cee Ess " , and 50-60's single seaters. and they will be the last.
a great weekend in Dunedin.
Last edited by Roger Dowding; 11-10-2015 at 12:14 PM. Reason: #17, photo 2, 1984.. not '83 ####47
The George Smith Built in 1949 Gee Cee Ess Special, Ford V8 powered 4250cc Flathead - driven by D I Suckling
According to Graham Vercoe's book " Historic Racing cars of New Zealand " the car ran a variety of V8 engines from Mercury to Ford to a 5400 cc Chrysler, the Ford- Mercury's with various heads - Edelbrock and Ardun [ OHV conversion ]
Look at the field in the final shot the Gee Cee Ess looking very old fashioned against later 1960's machines and others
the final few shots to follow ;
Last edited by Roger Dowding; 02-22-2025 at 11:43 PM. Reason: Driver Car details for GCS added ###47
Red and white car behind the GeeCee Ess is the Capella, seen recently at Northland Car Club event. Roger, always consider Vercoe's book as a source to be verified rather than definitive.
Oldfart, thanks, there is another picture with the " Capella " in it, being posted soon.
Re ; Graham Vercoe, BMC BOY once told me that he gave Graham Vercoe a lot of photos and they got lost, so maybe a bit unreliable, but at least made a huge list of NZ Specials and famous racing cars.
Have the two Vercoe books, my Uncle Eddie Dowding did actually query some of Grahams comments especially about cars that Jack Boot [ his brother-in-law owned or raced.
Cheers
Roger
Can someone please identify cars 16 and 18?
Allan, #18 is a Citroen powered special, built by Doug Haig have seen it elsewhere in books
Last edited by Roger Dowding; 07-04-2019 at 03:05 AM. Reason: more info #### 47
Car 60 is 1964 Capella. Along side I think is 'Jilly' Cooper- Dave Sillcock, then (18) The Citroen Spyder owned by Ralph Smith probably with family member driving .Front row near is Gee Cee Ess, then my Ex Palmer 1960 Lotus 20B with my brother driving along side me in my 1955 BCM Special (16) and the Ransley Riley with Malcolm or Eileen McMillian. Chris Read, Arrowtown.
#16 is C Read in the B. C. M. special. #18 is R Smith in the Citroen special.
Woody you just beat with details of #18,- the Doug Haigh built Citroen Special and it was owned and raced by Ralph Smith, who has the Lycoming, the Citroen was made from a Light 15 with the Motor/ gearbox final drive turned back to front for the rear wheel drive, which is quite normal for racing cars these days. Interestingly an early photo in Graham Vercoe's book it has #18 on it - so a permanent number from the 1950's
Last edited by Roger Dowding; 11-12-2015 at 12:59 AM. Reason: more info ###47
Pity about Vercoe's "Historic Racing Cars" book-it was riddled with inaccuracies. They started before you even opened the book-the dust jacket shows (amongst other cars) a blue Lola T70 which is labelled a Lola T1!
To make matters worse many knowledgeable people such as Max Fisher and David McKinney went to great lengths to correct the errors but, alas, they wasted their time and energy. When the second edition was published it was word for word the same as the first edition.
As "Oldfart" says, the info it contains needs to be looked at very critically.
The field
The Capella
Capella close up
The field racing
Ferrari and Stanton Cropduster
Ferrari BCM and GCS
and as I like Riley's the Ransley Riley Engine
and that upside down engine again
That is it the whole 50 or so photo's
and thanks for the information to identify the cars
Hi Roger re the G C S. As a 10-11 year old we went to Murewai beach racing about 1956-57. We walked up the beach to see the racing. The cars were all just sitting around and I touched the tyre on this car. I guess it was George Smith who told me not to do that as the sand would get into the engine. Sadly no racing took place as the tide or something was not right. Very disappointing but amazing to think perhaps Bruce McLaren and others could have been there.Chrs ...
Sam in the DIno replica, then my BCM and the Gee cee Ess.@60m Zepryr Special along side the BillMorris ERA.
A view of the city - peaceful for the moment and a lonely Mini in the carpark.
from the Sprints on the Saturday - organised by the Otago Sports Car Club
Huge crowd and not much safety as was in the time and earlier, much like the 1960's 70's
And as it could be/should be if we were not living in a nanny state, when people actually had enough sense to be self preserving.
Huge crowd and not much safety as was in the time and earlier, much like the 1960's 70's
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