New Zealand ShellSport Saloon Series 1978 - 1985

[kiwi285]

I have been trying to get hold of John but without much success to date.

Carlo I have sent you a PM.

[bob homewood]

So that would be this car when Mark was at Puke.

No this car 98 is R/H Drive it is the second of the two Escorts Mark Rutherford raced ,it was originally built up for Rod Collingwood ,after Rod had the Trueno,Rod raced it a couple of times ,then sold it on to Mark Rutherford.

[Steve Holmes]

^^^ Nice looking car. Anyone know what happened to it?

[Powder]

Owned since late 80s and still occassionally run by .... Don McIntyre (father on John - Johnny Mac) in HB. Still running BDA and quick.

Seafield Rd Hillclimb, Napier, 2010.

[Rod Grimwood]

That is one very nice Mk1. Be nice to see it at a classic meet.
Are they orig BBS wheels or aftermarket product. I am looking for wheels.

[Powder]

That is one very nice Mk1. Be nice to see it at a classic meet.
Are they orig BBS wheels or aftermarket product. I am looking for wheels.

Not too sure about the wheels. Here's a clearer photo if it's any help.

[rogered]

Hallidays

[WikiNerd]

Ah memories. Does anyone have a photo of (if I recall all this correctly) Reg Cook's car with "Cookie needs a sponsor" on it? Again if all is recalled correctly, the next time we saw him, we noted that he now had a sponsor!

[Rod Grimwood]

Hallidays

yep think you may be right.

[kiwi285]

That is a great looking Mk I - would love to see it on track for some classic meetings

[minihaha]

Not only jappers , escorts and avengers , but the occasional BMC too . This is the ex Brian Hartley shellsport clubman GT that l owned for a number of years after l purchased it from him ( the less said about that deal the better too ) . l only ever did one shellsport race with it at baypark and this is a picture of me and some helpers changing from wets to slicks in the pits . Possibly taken during 1981 or thereabouts , car was fitted with an arden 8 port engine that l had built myself but it only lasted one race before blowing a head gasket . This particular weekend the engine had only been fitted the night before we left Taranaki ( some things never change ) and we'd left the wheelnuts for the wets behind in our rush to get away . Ended up going to a garage where a friendly mechanic let us use his workshop to modify the wheels so we could use them . The nearest drill bit we could find in his drill assortment was a masonry bit * rolls his eyes @ the thought * but it worked . The car was very light and had some trick stuff done to it , l used to use it in hillclimbs and sprints and l think l still might have the 0 to 1300 record at the Kaipikari road hillclimb up at Urenui in Taranaki with it .

Hi, I have heard stories about this car, do you know what happened to it?

[AMCO72]

John.......xu1nut. As you know the Amco Mini was a Shellsport car for a year or two, a bit earlier than the 1978 start of this thread, and I was re-reading your post on the ex Hartley car. We, should I say Angus, has just completed the fitting of the new engine into the car.....8 port etc etc etc. I am driving it at HD on the first weekend of the festival next week. I hope it lasts a little bit longer than your effort!!!!! We have only been for a 'burn' round the block so will be interesting. I'm sure you will catch up with the boy this weekend at Teretonga. He will tell you all the gory details!!!!!!!!

[Steve Holmes]

John McIntyre raced the Halliday Escort on a few occasions for his Dad when his Touring car career was going through a quiet patch. As you'd expect, he drove the wheels off it!

[tsillay]

Hi All.
Here's what I think I know about the Datsun shellsport cars.! Please correct me where my memory has failed, or I'm just plain wrong.
The Schick Cherry and the Schick 1200 coupe (sunny) were Nissan Motorsport cars, managed (and possibly owned and imported) by Mark Petch.
Reg Cook and Grant Aitken drove the cars, Grant had a major at Pukekohe in the sunny and the car was destroyed. CMR built the new very radical 1200, to complete the season, which eventually went to Tony Marsh and won the champs in Sulco colours.
From memory, Tony said the car weighed in at under 580kgs, and made 101 ft/lb torque from that little pushrod!
This car had the cut and shut through the door sills to allow the extremely low ride height. It resurfaced in the early days of SS2000, running in dark green with yellow flares and a strong 1500.
The car is alive and well and living in Auckland.

The Cherry went to Dave Brown who is sadly no longer with us. Anecdotaly, Dave made mention after reshelling the car that the Nismo shell was different to the roadcar shell in a number of very subtle ways!

Grant Aitken went on to build the two 120Y coupes, with 1600cc L series OHC power. John Billington ran one in CoolWool GT before he went GrpA Commodore. These both re-appeared in SS2000, with the Steve Gill machine now sporting 2 litre power. The 1600 car went on to Alvin Watson and I now suspect is the machine Grant has back.

I'm not sure if Steve Emson's 1200 coupe started life as a Shellsport car or as a production race car. After some years campaigned by Steve it was sold to Rex Findlay and became the Findlays Bakeries car. Then sold to Glen Jones and painted black where it picked up the Group5 aero grill. Somewhere along the way it assimilated a pure magic 1300 pushrod engine, I'd love to know if this was the Nismo engine from the early Shick 1200!
Glen sold to Brian Roycroft who used it to good effect in the Auckland club scene and went on to win the first years of SS2000, painted red with white/blue tail.

It lost the aero grill in an accident over the hill at puke, the 1300 eventually cried enough and Brian rebuilt the car in white with 944 porsche style flares and 1600cc.
When Brian sold to concentrate on the Aztec cars, the car vanished for a while, then turned up looking rather ratty in white with green universal flares in the hands of Brent, the current president of SS2000 around 2003. He's now sold it on, I dont know if he really knew what a piece of history that car was. I'd love to know where it is now.

Steven Gillards 1200 coupe became the second of the Orano Orange juice / Aztec corn chips cars campaigned in SS2000. The lead Aztec car I first saw running CoolWool GT in the hands of John Billington, white with black flares, before JB got the Aitken 120Y. I'm not sure of it's Shellsport providence. Both Aztec cars are alive and well.

There are other 1200's, eg, the Barry Bould car, of which I only know post shellsport history.

Phew, that was a bit of a diatribe! I should start an early SS2000 thread and post photos.

[David McKinney]

Thanks for that, ts

I probably knew which Datsun was which back in the day but have long since forgotten

[kiwi285]

tsillay - I have sent you a private message.

[shellsport]

Hi Tim , Do you have any knowledge of what became of the Max Crawford car ( Dunedin ) ?

[Steve Holmes]

Hi All.
Here's what I think I know about the Datsun shellsport cars.! Please correct me where my memory has failed, or I'm just plain wrong.
The Schick Cherry and the Schick 1200 coupe (sunny) were Nissan Motorsport cars, managed (and possibly owned and imported) by Mark Petch.
Reg Cook and Grant Aitken drove the cars, Grant had a major at Pukekohe in the sunny and the car was destroyed. CMR built the new very radical 1200, to complete the season, which eventually went to Tony Marsh and won the champs in Sulco colours.
From memory, Tony said the car weighed in at under 580kgs, and made 101 ft/lb torque from that little pushrod!
This car had the cut and shut through the door sills to allow the extremely low ride height. It resurfaced in the early days of SS2000, running in dark green with yellow flares and a strong 1500.
The car is alive and well and living in Auckland.

The Cherry went to Dave Brown who is sadly no longer with us. Anecdotaly, Dave made mention after reshelling the car that the Nismo shell was different to the roadcar shell in a number of very subtle ways!

Grant Aitken went on to build the two 120Y coupes, with 1600cc L series OHC power. John Billington ran one in CoolWool GT before he went GrpA Commodore. These both re-appeared in SS2000, with the Steve Gill machine now sporting 2 litre power. The 1600 car went on to Alvin Watson and I now suspect is the machine Grant has back.

I'm not sure if Steve Emson's 1200 coupe started life as a Shellsport car or as a production race car. After some years campaigned by Steve it was sold to Rex Findlay and became the Findlays Bakeries car. Then sold to Glen Jones and painted black where it picked up the Group5 aero grill. Somewhere along the way it assimilated a pure magic 1300 pushrod engine, I'd love to know if this was the Nismo engine from the early Shick 1200!
Glen sold to Brian Roycroft who used it to good effect in the Auckland club scene and went on to win the first years of SS2000, painted red with white/blue tail.

It lost the aero grill in an accident over the hill at puke, the 1300 eventually cried enough and Brian rebuilt the car in white with 944 porsche style flares and 1600cc.
When Brian sold to concentrate on the Aztec cars, the car vanished for a while, then turned up looking rather ratty in white with green universal flares in the hands of Brent, the current president of SS2000 around 2003. He's now sold it on, I dont know if he really knew what a piece of history that car was. I'd love to know where it is now.

Steven Gillards 1200 coupe became the second of the Orano Orange juice / Aztec corn chips cars campaigned in SS2000. The lead Aztec car I first saw running CoolWool GT in the hands of John Billington, white with black flares, before JB got the Aitken 120Y. I'm not sure of it's Shellsport providence. Both Aztec cars are alive and well.

There are other 1200's, eg, the Barry Bould car, of which I only know post shellsport history.

Phew, that was a bit of a diatribe! I should start an early SS2000 thread and post photos.

Wow, that was great! Many thanks for the effort.

[tsillay]

Hi Tim , Do you have any knowledge of what became of the Max Crawford car ( Dunedin ) ?

No, but I've asked a superior knowledge!! He's forgotten more about shellsport than I'll ever know.

[Jac Mac]

Crawfords old car, was it the one bought by Graeme Dyer who then got Grant Aitken to drive it?