Lost Race Cars

[Habu]

Yeah that car was built by George, or at least it was built for George. He still owns it. I always thought it was imported from the US, but he just painted it up that way.

To the best of my knowledge, the car in question is now owned by Mike Oldham. George bought the car from someone in Wellington? It was built/finished over a very short timeframe, and was powered initially with a Cleveland engine - possibly later with and SVO Windsor style engine. It definately gave George a taste of Transam style cars, and when the opportunity arose, he of course purchased the Sylvester Mustang.... Im sure Mike Oldham, or someone who knows him could fill in all the correct details of his car.

[Jizim]

To the best of my knowledge, the car in question is now owned by Mike Oldham. George bought the car from someone in Wellington? It was built/finished over a very short timeframe, and was powered initially with a Cleveland engine - possibly later with and SVO Windsor style engine. It definately gave George a taste of Transam style cars, and when the opportunity arose, he of course purchased the Sylvester Mustang.... Im sure Mike Oldham, or someone who knows him could fill in all the correct details of his car.

Isnt funny how you can get things so wrong...! (I have never lived in Wellington....) I bought the body which was the latest thing from Jack Roush in the USA.. I got my good friend Lynsay Willis from Rotorua to build me a spaceframe chassis for it....and I had all the latest and greatest engine stuff done in the States along with the last two close ratio gearboxs to come out of the Super T10 factory just before it burnt to the ground....(leaving a major problem for GH's Corvettes which ran these gearboxes for a long period of time..) The car had a Speedway engineering quick change diff in the rear. This car was almost completed when personal reasons forced me to stop and sell it to my buddy George Shewiery. George actually ran the car for this time at Wellington street race. May have been the same year I did the Group A race in a Toyota with champion Sports Sedan driver Brian Friend. The collection of all the engine parts, heads etc, and gearbox was to be organised for pick up before I was to fly with my wife to be a guest of Jack Roush and pick up the Mustang body. The slowness of the Yanks that were doing my special cylinder heads forced me to put back my flight to the East Coast by one day. I was pretty pissed off but didn't wanna leave without my heads. What occurred next sends shudders down my back. Those Yanks that were so slow that I had to re schedule my flight saved my life! The plane we were to fly back to the West Coast..(LA's John Wayne airport )...on crashed on take off killing everyone on board! Crazy! Another little snippet of interest is that a week or so later on board the flight back home to NZ via Hawaii for a weeks rest was none other than Randell Edgell and his wife Janice. They had been there to sort out the purchase of a Jack Roush Merker XR4i which I had seen in a corner of one of Jack's shops. This is the car Kayne Scott pedalled for the ever popular Mark Petch... To my knowledge Mike Oldhan still has the car....(I will ask him when I next see him)...I have so many snippets of interest to share on this site I better start recalling. Thats another day. Kindest regards, Tony Rutherford.

[Steve Holmes]

The slowness of the Yanks that were doing my special cylinder heads forced me to put back my flight to the East Coast by one day. I was pretty pissed off but didn't wanna leave without my heads. What occurred next sends shudders down my back. Those Yanks that were so slow that I had to re schedule my flight saved my life! The plane we were to fly back to the West Coast..(LA's John Wayne airport )...on crashed on take off killing everyone on board! Crazy!

OK, thats pretty bloody freaky!