Hi there, I have info on the katipo.first let me introduce myself, I'm Paul Lancaster from timaru, nz, I remember this car well, I used to sit in it as a kid.yes it was owned by Murray Morrison, and was in the care of his brother David.I researched this car and had a good chat to mark petch about it.it started out as a match chassis which petch got as payment after working for frank.petch took the chassis back to nz and built it up, building the suspension the same as a maclaren m10b.
When I asked petch for info on the matich, he replied,"it's not a effing matich, it's a katipo m70, the only thing of the original chassis left was the roll hoop.
It was run by francevic under petchs watch, and there was a funny story behind the engine in it.
One of petchs business mates that he knew, had imported a camaro or similar from the USA, and had gone overseas on holiday, and had parked it up in petchs garage.so patch decided to borrow the engine out of that and fit it to the katipo.they didn't have much success with it in race trim as it kept overheating, and after 2 or 3 laps, the temp gauge was rising, and being a "borrowed" engine, instructions were to switch it off.
Francevic put it on pole at timaru, and held the lead till he had to switch her off.overheating plagued them all season, until they finally figured out what the fault was, you guessed it, a dodgy temp gauge.
Then as far as I know Robby booth had it, and also Ian algie owned it for a while, transplanting the transaxle out of the katipo, into an alfa alfetta v8 That he drove in sports sedans.
Murray Morrison from southland bought it, drove it in a few club events, then it sat in the shed on Dave's farm at maungati.the chassis was pretty rusty Dave built a new one for in and installed the engine, box , suspension, complete with huge tyres, but it never ran with that chassis.then 2 yrs ago it got sold complete with original chassis, fairings, new chassis to john gobe in chch, who also owns about 12 shellsport cars, and from what I have been told he is a bit of a hoarder of old racers, not many getting the dollars they need thrown at them , so there you go chaps, I'll try andcsendcin the one and only pic I have of it,