I believe the first car John was built using a Matich , chassis hense the driver sitting offset, and the second was scratch built with the help from Mark Petch (MJ Racing.)
Would be neat to see them back on the track again.
Robbie Booth owned one in 1975 and was then raced by Russell Greer
I have read in Vercoe's book that in 1981 a M.Morrison owned one and then don't know where it went after that?
Not sure which car this was thou?
Anyone help?
Not just the Katipo cars, how about expanding this to a John Ohlsen thread, a few of you must have known John through the years. I knew him when I was a school boy and John was involved with Hot Rodding with the Ferabends, etc and his involvement with Epsom Stockcars. I probably only saw him a couple of times after his return to NZ in the seventies though.
There must be lots of stories out there.
Would love to get more info on the Katipo F5000. Anyone have any photos of this car?
Hi Steve, post number 6 in the Hillclimb Thread has a picture of Dennis Phillips in the one and a half seater Katipo.Originally Posted by Steve Holmes
Hi Steve, Just happened to come across your question on the roaring season site.
been a while, however Johns son Paul and I [Jean Ohlsen] have a garage in Onehunga [been here 13 years]
we have many photos and stories etc......so if you're still interested? our phone number is (09) 6365-436
Last edited by Paul Ohlsen; 09-11-2013 at 03:40 AM.
Copyright Mike Feisst , cheers Mike
The second Katipo driven by Robbie Francevic at Puke 1971
# 10 car built on the matich chassis.
Some time ago I did some research on this car when Robbie Booth ran it as the Michigan special,you may have to ask David Mc kindly if he will share some of it with you as it was for his use
There are a few pages on John Ohlsen and his building of the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe in forum member David Manton's new book, Enzo Ferrari's Secret War...
My understanding is that there was only one Katipo
As stated, it was built as an F5000 car on a Matich sportscar base, as in Javman's first Mike Feisst photo
It was then fitted with a Gemco sportscar body and offered for sale as a “McLaren replica”
It returned to the circuits, again as a single-seater, with Robbie Booth in 1975/76, but now called a Matich, as it was when Dennis Phillips and later Russell Greer used it for hillclimbing
Thanks for that David , great to have your input , cheers.
Hi David,
Do you know which and what Matich sportscar chassis was used to build the original car?
regards
Craig
Sr3 chassis
What a trick looking car!
No, never figured it out, and Australian Matich experts never seem to mention it
I scratched my head a bit about this one ,somebody told me it was a SR3,some one else said well Bob Britton built the chassis,so possibly it was just a chassis and components that was supplied ,some one else told me it was a Renmax,maybe someone should ask Mark Petch
Think you will find that it was a SR4 chassis that may have been built by Bob Britton, seem to remember Robbie running it at Timaru at what may have been its first outing as the Katipo
First race, but not first outing. It had practised at Wigram
It was an sr3 chassis that was hanging up in frank matichs workshop
The original rear wing you can see in the pics has had a good life of it's own, it once was fitted to Dave Morrison's Lyon ff back in the hill climb days when the Lyon reined supreme on the shingle, and now that wing, still owned by Dave, adores Donny mclarens rotary powered escort, still with begg and Allen signage
OK Carl, I never followed it that closely at that stage ,but my informant who obviously could be wrong said it was a Britton built chassis ,the SR4 was built by Henry Nehrybecki ? I'll do a bit more digging over the week end
Last edited by bob homewood; 08-11-2011 at 10:33 AM.
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