Andy once told me how Robbie still shakes his head when describing driving the Katipo...
Andy once told me how Robbie still shakes his head when describing driving the Katipo...
Robbie was definitely brave to drive that Katipo. Bear in mind that he had lost part of a leg before he started racing which would not have made driving any easier, especially a truck like F5000.
He went really well in the Begg FM4 and was no slouch in FFord before that.
[QUOTE=Howard Wood;30671]Robbie was definitely brave to drive that Katipo. Bear in mind that he had lost part of a leg before he started racing which would not have made driving any easier, especially a truck like F5000.
I guess it was a handfull on the gravel too........
Remember when Bill David had the Begg he kept it in a shed down Porana Rd Nth Shore infront of Lyalls painters workshop. I think he also had the GEMCO sitting in there,(it was a big sports car that was there) used to drop in and spend a bit of time chatting way back then. He told me one day (having a beer after work as you did then on a Friday) that i should buy the sports car and he would do a deal with me, being in early 20s and finding it hard to buy a decent pie then, I just dreamt. Me and Lyall talked about it a bit but that was as far as it went, talk. Most probably good that we didn't get it as the paint shop burnt to the ground and there was some neat cars lost in the fire.
[QUOTE=BMCBOY;30676]WOW!Originally Posted by Howard Wood
Robbie was definitely brave to drive that Katipo. Bear in mind that he had lost part of a leg before he started racing which would not have made driving any easier, especially a truck like F5000.
I guess it was a handfull on the gravel too........
Rod, I wonder if the car you are thinking of is the Gemco bodied Elfin 400 of Grahame Harvey. I think Bill David also owned that, and the ex Noyes/Lawrence Brabham BT29.
That's it Michael, as been chatting with mates about it and we thought the Elfin was involved, I think it was a orange colour then. And yes he had a smaller single seater in shed as well.
Not to poke my head up as an anorak, but the Gemco and the Elfin are two different cars and can be seen together in post #49 of the Kiwi Big Banger Sports Cars thread. Needless to say, they are both orange...
They had to be two different cars to race against one another - Harvey fitted a GEMCO McLaren M8 body to the Elfin 400 - and yes it was in the orange livery of Wix.
I recall the actual GEMCO ending up being a kind of mustard colour of Duckhams - sadly all near the end of big banger sports car racing here. When the GEMCO first arrived, it was an orange/red as I recall.
The slots on the rear bodywork, the side scoop on the left rear and the batman-shaped exhaust to the front rad all look the same to me both in the WIX configuration and the earlier, light blue format pictured earlier in the thread. Can't really agree that it looks like an M8 body at all.
But anyway, we were lucky to have those two ripping round duking it out pretty competitively for our entertainment, with earlier the Stanton and then the T70 in the mix in Jim Boyd's hands. Used to love standing down the end of the back straight, hair-raising stuff...
Michael the car had WIX on it, remember that part.
Let's backtrack
When it was pale blue, it had the Elfin 400 body that Garrie Cooper intended - agree that that is nothing like a McLaren M8
The 400 body was painted in WIX orange, as was the M8 GEMCO body.
For the avoidance of doubt, the 'M8' body was never pale blue...
Roger that, got it now.
The Elfin sits in a garage in Auckland with both bodies there.
I wish it was my garage...
If it will ease the pain Michael, in 1972 you could buy the GEMCO bodies-$484 for the front, $230 for the rear..........
And you could buy the moulds, which I paid for and then was unable to get delivery of after a number of trips, and blew the money I paid for them, no moulds, no refund!
Rhys- is this an experience you would like to tell us more of as I wondered what happened to them
I'll have two fronts, a rear, and two dollars chips please
The moulds were in West Auckland. I went and looked, paid over a deposit and returned a week later with a trailer, as agreed and as written on the receipt. "Owners wife" told me that they had been sold to another guy who collected them the day before I came back. I had a receipt etc, however before the small claims could serve notice the "seller" disappeared. I had taken the intake snorkel mould, which I lent to a garage owner in Warkworth (name will not be given publicly) and bugger me if that did not disappear too. I understand there are more than one set of Gemco moulds, I absolutely know these were the ones taken from the original alloy body.
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