Originally Posted by bob homewood
I agree with whoever said Jeff Hancock for the Coppertone Alfa
And Steve, I'm sure the the RX3 would have been Rex Findlay's
The show with the wheelstanding VW was the Lexington Motor Show, which was for the time a pretty big deal, using all the display halls at the Epsom Showgrounds. It was May 1969 and I think my hangover had gone by June!
The VW was bought over by George Stewart from Melbourne, it actually performed well considering a few mechanical issues and driving on the boards in the fairly constant drizzle.
And just on a timeline regarding stockcars, Waikaraka Park would have just completed its second season of racing, its coming up to season 44 at the end of this year!
I remember the wheelstanding VW, I saw them moving it around at less tahn walking pace and it needed someone to hold the front down it was so extremely weight biased to the rear.
Bruce.
..In America the Blue VW special is called a Stirling...In Australia they are called a Purvis Eureka.....Top lifts up and forward for entry,always wondered how you got out when its 'Upside Down' ????????????.................REGADS427/MJ
With regards to the Waltzing Matilda jet truck, it was built by a guy by the name of Terry O'Hare and driven in Australia by country music singer Ray Kernaghan, father of current country music singer Lee Lernaghan.
It had its normal diesel motor plus out the back was a 6000lb thrust jet engine from a Canberra Bomber.
It broke the world record (at the time) for trucks at 176.2 mph, with one of the two timed runs recorded at 228mph.
Ray sold it in 1982 and it changed hands a few times before ending up in the hands of Ewan Stephens, a honey farmer in Tasmania in 1994.
Ewan has put as many original bits on the truck as he could find, and cannibalised other trucks for parts. I think the jet engine is long gone as he uses the truck to cart honey around.
...'Waltzing Matilda-Jet Truck'....Built in about 6weeks,was purchased from 'RECAR' by country/western star Ray Kernaghan,went on 'tour' with the traveling road show,Lee Kernaghan, Ray's son wrote a song....'Waltzing Matilda Queen of the tar'..it actually had a 'speed' run that averaged out to about 175mph,the Kernaghans sold it to my Friend Jimmy Johnson,that was one of the First people to hire with driver,wedding cars in the Form of Rolls Royce's,Bentley's,Jaguars,Benz.....Jimmy was a real old style Entrepreneur,used to buy Carpet from hotel 'renovations',cut it into size's and sell it in the Melbourne 'Trading Post' a weekly 2ndhand paper...they used to Queue up at his gate to buy!!...the Limo service hit a snag with a new 'bank manager' this caused Jimmy to re-think his investments,sold Waltzing' to some 'Tassie' interest....there are many 'Wild' stories about 'Waltzings' demise...the jet body and engine burried in a 40ft container to avoid the 'Repo'man.....( mostly 'urban' myth!!) but I believe the 'rig' is back on the road these days as a ....'Wait for it!!.......A Truck!!........Google, Waltzing Matilda Jet Truck.........the complete Kernaghan history is there........regards thunder427/MJ
NB, Last I heard From JJ, was he was buying up Melbourne Trams.......!!!!!?
Ask Harvard Daniels, he put one on its roof in Riverhead rally sprint back in the good old days. His was Mazda rotary powered and went quite well. Apparently they had to guarantee that the rams for roof would hold car so they could get out, but when it became time it was the good old human lift her up job...In America the Blue VW special is called a Stirling...In Australia they are called a Purvis Eureka.....Top lifts up and forward for entry,always wondered how you got out when its 'Upside Down' ????????????.................REGADS427/MJ
Funny you should mention that. I was looking at that crash the other day from a link posted on the NZ Hillclimb thread posted by seaqnmac27! Here it is again to save looking. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCmPm...eature=related The link is to part 1 of the rallysprint but it may have been in part 2. Haven't had time to watch all the parts yet but it's good viewing.
Cheers
----------------
Chris
The display halls, if I remember, included a whole bunch of animal stalls that were used during the Easter show, which was then an A&P show as well. Plenty of well-groomed sheep and goats.
The move to Waikaraka gave the stock cars a home and for us, our weekly saturday night entertainment. They were mighty days with the likes of Sam Ferabend, Ray Wrecker Wright, Colin Webber, Alec Goryl and many other completely fearless drivers.
Does anyone remember the Aussie vs NZ "tests"? They were the most fun motor racing I have ever witnessed - two teams of three cars going at each other as hard as front-liners in a rugby test.
I remember in one test Sam Ferabend ended up with his back wheels hung on the top of the safety fencing and the car's nose on the ground. Despite being suspended in mid air he continued to try to get the car down, revving the snot out of it, exhaust headers glowing, blue smoke bellowing from the exhaust and steam pissing from the radiator cap. He was like a pitbull after a kitten.
Man we loved it. (Sam was my favourite - the guy had balls so big it's a wonder they fitted in the car.)
Last edited by Shano; 07-13-2011 at 12:49 AM.
Bob, thanks for filling in the gaps with the Alfa. Its a neat looking car. Do you know what happened to it? Whose is the Corolla next to it in your photo?
Steve ,some one will correct me if I am wrong ,but I think that Alfa ended up as a Classic race car ,I am not really sure about that ,might get a answer on here .The Corolla was my car which I raced for two seasons ,the first in the GTX class which sadly they changed the rules after that first season,then I raced in the 0-1300 Shellsport class the next season,until they axed that class as well,that was one neat little car ,have a lot of good memories building and racing that car ,it was interesting as it was probably the first Toyota in nz built up for circuit racing ,all the others up to then were Rally cars,would have loved it if that 0-1300 class had gone on for another season
Hey thats great Bob, do you have any more photos of it? So it would obviously have been quite different when run in the GTX series?
Steve here is one from Pukekohe ,which was the last time I ran in basically still GTX specs other that the small front spoiler ,I put that on for that meeting it was a toe in the water as to speak to see how it would stack up in the Shellsport Class
What an absolute ripper Bob! Can you post some shots of it in ShellSport guise? Where is it now do you know?
Heres one of it the first day we tested it in its Shellsport guise ,we changed the rear shock/spring units straight after this photo was taken as the shock people had got the rear shocks completely wrong,so I went back to the ones we used the season before ,this was also before the sign writing went on .That car ended up going to the South Island and I belieive it was finally dumped
Fantastic little car Bob. Are the flares MkII Escort forest flares? Too bad more people didn't race these, they make great looking race cars.
Steve ,yes they were Escort flares that Paul Ingram modified to fit ,he did the panel work,Steve Carter painted it,bit hard to see in the photo but the colours sort of merged into each other ,was a great idea but touch ups after close racing incidents were not easy and there were a few of them along the way that season,was a interesting project as I said I was disapointed not to have had another season with it
Steve Webbling was the name i was looking for with the Alfa after Hancock, he ran in sports sedans for a couple of seasons and then seemed to disapear until his son popped up in FF a few years back. i did hear that it had gone to someone who was using it in classics.
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