IIRC some of the early McKay manifolds were made up of several pieces [ castings ] and then those were all welded together. Would have been a nightmare to cast in one piece, whereas this way the four pairs of runner castings were the same and then the valley/port casting.
Hey Nick, you say he injured his arm badly in a crash in the US. Could this possibly be early in 1971 when he did this? He was quoted as saying he was heading to the US with Joe Chamberlain after his NZ races at the Bay Park Xmas meeting to buy a small block motor for the Camaro. Is it possible he took in a race while he was there and crashed then? He had big plans for the Camaro for 1971, but then suddenly it was for sale a few months later. If he had crashed in early '71, that could explain why he suddenly put the Camaro on the market and stopped racing.
Hey Nick......in post 91 you mention that Barry Wearing purchased the Camaro from Lakis Manticas. My interest in this is that Lakis did some guest drives in the AMCO Mini in about 73/74 when it was owned by Warren Reid. Have only heard snippets of Lakis Manticas and his exploits on the track but by all accounts was a pretty spectacular driver!!!! Would this be right? We now own the Mini, and any history of it, and it's drivers, is always welcome, so anything you can tell me would be useful.
Yes Lakis was a well known Mini driver from what I've read when doing some research, I certainly don't pretend to know to much though. I'm sure there are members on this site who would know more and might reply to you. Coincidentally I was actually speaking with him again early today just asking a few questions about the Camaro and what may have happened to the cars racing Log Book and the running gear.Originally Posted by AMCO72
He does have a Facebook page so you might like to send him a message to get in contact with you. If you don't have access to that just google his name, he is a real estate agent and his mobile number is publicly available.
You could be right Steve, I'll check that with Graeme Blanchard next time I contact him as he mentioned that he spend some time with the family when he was negotiating to buy the Camaro. Its just unfortunate that none of his close family are around any more to find out this history, I'm not sure who else might know at this stage. Mum is pretty certain that he almost lost his arm in the crash and that is was in the US, she remembers that Auntie Lucy (Terry's Mother) spend some time over there helping with his recovery. Graeme might be able to at least shead some light on why Terry changed his mind about continuing to run the Camaro and sold it.
Thats interesting Nick, I hadn't realised Allan had started the 1971 ATCC with this car. I assumed he'd sold it before the start of the championship. This round was held on March 4. Was he at Calder for Round 2 on March 21?
Steve it looks like although he may have raced at the event he didn't enter in the ATCC as he is not shown on the official records. My info comes from the motorsportarchives.com site that shows a photo of the car on the start line at Symmons with a caption suggesting it was on 1/3/71 ATCC.
http://www.motorsportarchive.com/bits_and_pieces.htm
The photos Ellis posted and the ones of Ray Sinclair seem to be from the same event with the white paint and Castrol sponsorship.
Looks like he is racing with the same spec as Bay Park, 10" minilites and the big front spoiler and brake ducts, maybe these ruled him out of running in the ATCC so he just raced at the event without gaining points??
I noticed they had 72 on the Oldracephotos.com site for the photo of the car in the pits but I'm 100% certain this is a wrong date as Graeme Blanchard had the car by then and never ran it with the Castrol sponsorship, he said he purchased the car all white with the new red centre stripe.
I haven't seen any evidence that he may have raced at Calder in 71, maybe that smoke indicated some serious repair work needed to be done so that ruled him out.
Steve another questioned answered with a yes, Terry not only started in the 2nd round of the 1971 ATCC at Calder on March 21st. He also started at Sandown in the "Malboro Southern 60", the 3rd round of the ATCC on April 14th.
Both the 2nd and 3rd rounds are featured in the May 71 Racing Car News, the 2nd round also in the May 71 Australian Auto Sports.
Terry Allan put his Camaro on the back of the grid after working overnight to repair the parts that let go first thing in practice..............Beechey filled second now, ahead of Geoghegan, McKeown, Allan (smoking like a steam locomotive).................Allan slipped past McKeown, but it was obvious that he would not last long as smoke was pouring out the back of the Camaro from a fractured oil line.............on lap six Allan was black flagged in.
The overnight repairs from the practice "let go" are explained in Australian Auto Sports.
After Terry Allan dragged his mechanic from a party on Saturday night to replace a shattered valve insert, his Chev Camaro looked anything but happy with smoke pouring from the back of the car..............Allan still had enough squirt to make things frustrating for McKeown's Porsche, but the Camaro's race was run when it pitted on lap seven
It didn't appear the 3rd round at Sandown was much better for Terry.
Beechey and Allan on the back row after missing practice............already Allan and Beechey were carving through the mid field.............Allan was pushing the Camaro along at a great pace, taking McKeown on lap three.............on lap five, Allan's camaro had started to smoke somewhat and he pulled into the pits on the same lap, after showing great promise
That seems to be the last time Terry raced the Camaro, it was up for sale with all spares in the June 1971 Racing Car News. After three races ended in mechanical failures it seems enough was enough and the Camaro was sold to Graeme Blanchard.
Last edited by nick_tassie; 10-27-2011 at 01:21 PM.
Thats a bit strange Nick, I can't imagine what other race he would have competed in at that ATCC opener. The 10" wheels with spoiler and brake ducts should have been OK for the ATCC race, as the wheel width limit was 10" from 1970 onwards. Perhaps the engine expired in practice and he never got a start?
Yes you're right, OldRacePhotos have listed their photo as being 1972, but Blanchard owned the car by this stage and it didn't look like that.
Also, re the OldRacePhotos image, if you look at the people in the background, you'll see several of them wearing short sleeve tops. The ATCC Symmons race was run in the wet, and photos of the race show the spectators to be well wrapped up with many carrying umbrellas, which makes me think the OldRacePhotos image was possibly taken not on race day. So if the race was on Sunday, perhaps the Camaro expired in practice in Saturday?
Now thats great detective work Watson..!! You could be onto something there Steve. I might check out the Examiner newspaper of the weekend, maybe it has a story on the blowup if that's what it was.
Here is an article from a Mallala race meeting in September 1969 kindly provided by Lindsay at Oldracephotos.com.
Sounds like the 100mph spin on the straight in the wet would have got Terry's attention.
I'm pretty certain the car has been repainted the metalic blue by now, the white stripes are long gone and it has the small pin stripes along the top edge of the guards and door as seen on the photos from Bay Park NZ
Last edited by nick_tassie; 09-13-2011 at 10:05 AM.
Its a bit hard to read the previous attachment so I've cut the story out and reposted it.
We have some answers to the questions if Terry started in the 1971 Symmons Plains ATCC round on March 1st, the answer is yes he did. In the April 71 Racing Car News feature on the Symmons Plains ATCC event Terry lined up 5th on the grid with a time of 1:02.7, behind pole sitter R. Jane Chev Camaro 1:00.3, A. Moffat TransAm Mustang 1:00.6, I.Geoghegan Mustang 1:02.3 and N. Beechey Monaro 1:02.4
The last of the big banger imports running was Terry Allan's Camaro, which was handling very poorly and Terry took a trip into the Boondocks before getting a best of 64.6 in the first hour................Allan got down to a 62.7 to be close to Geoghegan and Beechey
In the 10 lap Preliminary Race held on the Saturday he had a good run to finish 3rd behind Bob Jane and Ian Geoghegan
He did start the official 1st round of the ATCC on Sunday which was held in wet conditions, however had a day to forget.
Allan found the dry tyres he was forced to use lacking adhesion and spun, rejoining at the rear
Allan moved past Kent on the straight on lap 5, but withdrew soon after with a blown head gasket, caused by running the motor for a full 3 mins after the warm-up laps, rather than risk it not starting with the dickey starter motor.
Now this explains the photo of Terry in the pits with the bonnet up and steam (not smoke) billowing from the engine bay.
Thanks for posting that Nick, old magazine race reviews are always enjoyable. Yeah I agree with you, I reckon it was blue here too.
A couple of Camaro speedway leads that I'm currently chasing up.
The first #83 was called "The beast" and raced by Brisbane speedway hero Allan Butcher, this one is unlikely as I have read it was a car made froms bits of everything. I hope to talk with Allan this week to rule it out.
The second #7 was raced by Sydney driver Carl Jeffrey, the photo was taken at Granville raceway. I've tracked Carl down to Iowa USA and hope to have an answer from him sometime soon. Carl's son Lynton is successfully racing Sprint Cars at Knoxville. Carl's other son Paul seems to recall this car coming direct from the US so it may also be a dead end.
Don't forget if you have any potential leads where Terry's Camaro may have got to in, circuit, speedway or drag racing to let me know so I can check then out
No luck with the Jeffrey #7 speedway camaro, managed to get in touch with Carl in the US and he responded letting me know his Camaro wasn't Terry's old car.
[I]hey mate ..it was not mine..that was just a body on a 56 cheve frame we brought from over here..most of the rest of the camaros (in fact all of them i believe ) that were raced on speedway came out of my fibreglass shop in sefton ( j c racecars )I]
The search goes on..!!
Thanks again for the updates Nick. Boy, you're really earning your keep on this search. I really hope all your efforts come to fruition and you find the Camaro. Keep at it. It must still be out there somewhere.
Its amazing what you can unearth when asking the right people. I have been sent some fantastic photo's of the Camaro from David Blanch of Autopics.com. In particular a sequence of shots with the right rear wheel parting company with the big Camaro, at what looks like the kink at the end of the back straight of Sandown Raceway. Not the ideal place to lose a rear wheel that's for sure, the spin and tyre smoke indicates it would have got Terry's attention big time but at least he kept it out of the wall. The rigth rear can be seen sailing off towards the infield. Its a bit hard to tell from the sample photos if it was caused by a broken axle or wheel studs, I don't have the copyright approval to post them unfortunately. There are some other shots of him racing against the Norm Beechey in the big Galaxie, Thommo in the 68 big block Camaro, and either Geoghegan or Jane in their Mustangs (numbers are a bit small to read). All pretty cool and will be welcome additions to the ever expanding photo album.
Thats interesting Nick. Its likely there would have been some under body damage from when that wheel fell off. Could be useful as future reference should you find the car and need to ID some of its racing fingerprints.
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