And speaking of Trevor Crowe, here is one of the many wild Specials he built and raced. This was his 327 cu.in Chevy V8 powered Corolla coupe. I spoke at length with Trevor recently about this car and the pair of V8 powered Starlets he built and raced in the 1980s, and it turns out this car was not actually a factory coupe. It was actually a four door sedan that had been barrel-rolled near Christchurch, killing its occupants. Crowe purchased the wreck for almost nothing, and as he worked for Toyota at the time, was able to purchase a coupe roof and rear door panels, and by modifiying the doors, turned it into a coupe.

Crowe had no money at the time, and couldn't afford to buy a real coupe, which were still expensive cars at the time. The motor came from a jet boat which had sunk, the Muncie was from Sydenham Chev Spares, and like the engine, needed a complete rebuild, and the Jaguar diff he picked up for cheap from Archibald Motors, because he knew them well and did a lot of work for them.

The South Island based OSCA series was enjoying steady growth in the early 1970s, and a couple of North Island promoters, including Robbie Lester at Manfeild, got a team of them up to the North Island to strut their stuff.

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