This even made it on Hot Rod magazine at the time Red Dawson in blue Mustang
This even made it on Hot Rod magazine at the time Red Dawson in blue Mustang
Last edited by John McKechnie; 07-12-2012 at 08:58 PM.
Grady Thompson in bronze Monaro.Ex Spinner Black, Rod Coppins, John Riley, George Bunce.Was Team Cambridge colours at the beginning also.Any more photos in early colours?
That was a tough old nail that Monaro. I believe it became a road car in later life and got wrecked in the '80s. Bruce302 has a photo of it when his buddy owned it as a road car.
Reminds me of another Kiwi racing Monaro, Ron Sylvesters example. I wonder what happened to that?
I really want to know what happened to it .It is the only unaccounted for V8 from the 60s-70s era. I was going surfing at Port Waikato and passed happened to stop at the Pukekohe race track.It was a Saturday and they were practicing.Surfing did nothing for me after that . Saw all Team Cambridge cars- Jim Boyds Lola T70, Radisichs MacLaren M10A, Barry Phillips Cooper -998,Black with Camaro, Coppins with Monaro was in race program.We went in and apparently there were discussions- Coppins was not happy with Monaro handling so Black let him use Camaro. Both cars had 327..Coppins won first time out in it next day Monaro never fronted at Puke again in Cambridge colours.Motorman mag covered the South Island series with Grady racing it still in the same livery.Caption showed pic of him sliding out of control at Wigram with word-Spinner said she was a flyer..wonder if I should park it in the hanger.Later showed at Puke with 350 painted bronze-that is the earlier photo with Uncle Jack in Cossack Escort. Was an absolute bolter- this was on the BIG track (remember that) and at the beginning blew Coppins into the dust for 5 laps. , but brakes werent up to it. Riley had for a short time , but know nothing about this except distributor probs at Puke, was not happy with it.George Bunce -think he may have put the Elfin 400 motor (came out of a boat) in to it-said the same thing about the brakes.He said Bernie Beckett ended up with it.Would love to build a tribute car to its memory.Shame all others survived and it died. Remember Sylvesters running in SI , all I know is they were unreliable as reported in ...Motorman.Thanks for all the memories Donn.
John, take a look at this thread: http://www.theroaringseason.com/show...-Holden-Monaro
The Spinner Monaro is on the first page and appears in a couple after that in its various states of condition. Hard to believe how rough it got. Check out post #20!
When Grady fit the 350 he wasn't actually eligible to race in the NZ Saloon Car Championship races, as they had a 5.5 litre engine limit. It only ran as an Allcomer at that stage.
Bernie Beckett, now there is another bit of history. The upholstery guru from Mairangi Bay had little shop in Parity Place off Sunnybrae Rd that backed onto Peter Bruins workshop. He was more a hot rod man but did a few jobs for us.
last saw Bernie a few years ago still driving his neat red truck, had it for years.
John, on Monaro thread there is a photo of car when George Bunce ran it (with Lyall carpainters on side). It then spent along time sitting outside John Windleburns entrance to his Automatic workshop.
Always was a distinctive car- HK body with HT grille.I have always been curious as to was it a cylinder or a v8 originally. Dont know if they really did start with a Bathurst model. If it was a genuine Bathurst would be worth a tidy sum.Was an article on Spinner Black a while back , but no detail on this car. Must be someone out there who had an inside running .Any contributors here?
#13 - Now that is what I call a decent grid!
John Dennehy now runs the Halliday Escort and Mike John the Silcock Jaguar 100 occasionally, in the ERC Series.
Rob Halliday and his son Robbie also run Lotus Cortinas in the series. Rob & Robbie have bagged 103 and 102 and were in first so John Dennehy now has to run number 3.
The upholstery guru was called The Prince of Stitches by Classic Car Magazine.
The late Dave Thomas was also a hot rod upholsterer
John is that the guy from down Target Road, didn't he run a three quarter at Springs years ago.Originally Posted by John McKechnie
My lovely mummy and daddy are up for the weekend and she presented me with a paper bag with bits in it. Amongst them was a old (1962) Shell Racing Cars Of The World book, which you had to collect a card each week to fill your book. My old boy said i was a bloody nuisance because each week i had to go with him to put petrol in the car so i could get my card. Good work by Shell as there was 48 of them, why not 52 so i could have taken a whole year out of the old boy, maybe they allowed for Xmas being a family time. Any way i will post some or all of book as it is interesting reading back then. Remember this was 1962, so the technology is limited.
Will do page and then close ups hopefully.
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