Lost Race Cars

[David McKinney]

When Frank brought that car I think he ran his Zephyr motor in it then put the Jag motor in it,David will know

Yep. Ran an ex-Sprague Zephyr engine which blew up (where I was watching from) at Matamata in 1964. I grabbed a piston off the road as a souvenir and kept it for quite a while. The Jag engine went in for the next season

[bob homewood]

Thanks David,
Thats what I thought I rembered ,Frank used to be pretty impressive at the Chamberlain Road Hillclimb in that Zephyr ,I am actually doing some work on a Raymond Mays Zephyr motor in the next couple of months ,but I will save that for another story when it happens

[Steve Holmes]

Y block sorry meant to mention that it was basically stock with headers ,thats all the budget stretched to,I think the V8 blew up ,when Frank brought that car I think he ran his Zephyr motor in it then put the Jag motor in it,David will know

Bob, did Dave Jolly manage to purchase any speed equipment for the Ford Y? There wasn't a lot of aftermarket equipment made for those engines, they weren't very popular for any application, so would be interesting to know how he upped the power, or if he did up the power at all.

[bob homewood]

No from memory it was all just standard ,headers only ?,it was obviously not very quick ,but as I said the original concept of using the Chev engine I think would have given a different result especially if it had been up and running for the start of the season,I believe my original thinking using the Humber 80 would have worked ok as it had a reasonably rigid base to build on,wishbone suspension a huge step forward from the beam axles, etc of the coupes

[Steve Holmes]

One of those "what could have been" stories Bob. Even the standard Y in the small Humber bodyshell would have given good power to weight.

[Steve Holmes]

This beautiful MkI Escort twin-cam was raced during the 1970/71 New Zealand Saloon Car Championship season by Max Pennington. Magazine articles at the time said it was fitted with the wheels and twin-cam engine from Ken Smiths Lotus 41B. It was certainly a beautiful little car.

Pennington collided with the similar car of David Silcock at an event at Pukekohe that season, and later reappeared driving the ex Gary Sprague/Stan Baird Escort twin-cam. Was his own car too damaged to continue racing? Does anyone know what became of this car?

There is a Max Pennington who runs a car dealership in Taranaki, could this be the same person?



Mike Feisst Photo

[foggy]

Yep thats the same Max Pennington, still doing a bit of racing/hillclimbing in a GTi Pulsar, hes the Holden dealer in New Plymouth. I bought a mini powered sportscar from New Plymouth a few years back and it had those Lotus magnesium wheels on it.... wonder if they are the same ones ??

[bob homewood]

This beautiful MkI Escort twin-cam was raced during the 1970/71 New Zealand Saloon Car Championship season by Max Pennington. Magazine articles at the time said it was fitted with the wheels and twin-cam engine from Ken Smiths Lotus 41B. It was certainly a beautiful little car.

Pennington collided with the similar car of David Silcock at an event at Pukekohe that season, and later reappeared driving the ex Gary Sprague/Stan Baird Escort twin-cam. Was his own car too damaged to continue racing? Does anyone know what became of this car?

There is a Max Pennington who runs a car dealership in Taranaki, could this be the same person?



Mike Feisst Photo

Steve ,That is the same Max Pennington,at one stage Wayne Murdoch was perhaps living up in Taranaki with Max,they ran a Escort in one of the Heatway rallies together perhaps it was the 72 one which I did

[Steve Holmes]

Wow, could well be if the Escort was wrecked. I don't know how badly it was damaged in the crash, the other car involved was the Escort of Silcock, which Bob Homewood has just informed me he owned a couple of years later, so that one survived. Will need to dig further on this.

[Steve Holmes]

Steve ,That is the same Max Pennington,at one stage Wayne Murdoch was perhaps living up in Taranaki with Max,they ran a Escort in one of the Heatway rallies together perhaps it was the 72 one which I did

Ah, was just replying to foggys post above when you also replied Bob. Thanks for clarifying that.

[kiwi285]

Recently I was looking though the entry list for the latest Manfield meeting and came across a Max Pennington driving a Nissan SKyline. Sounds like the same gentleman and he is still enjoying his racing. Maybe we can contact him and get him involved. Have just found his dealership 'Max Pennington's Auto City' and have sent off an email asking him if he was the driver of the Escort. Hopefully an answer soon.

[David McKinney]

Pennington collided with the similar car of David Silcock at an event at Pukekohe that season, and later reappeared driving the ex Gary Sprague/Stan Baird Escort twin-cam. Was his own car too damaged to continue racing? Does anyone know what became of this car?

Pennington and Silcock tangled at Railway at the April Pukekohe meeting. Pennington had his car [the same one?] out at Bay Park in July, but didn't start after catching fire in practice. Stan Baird was also at this meeting, and continued to race [with the same car?] in the 1972 season

[kiwi285]

I have just got off the phone after talking to Max Pennington for some time. He still owns the Holden dealership but has retired and only goes in ocassionally. He is still racing and uses his Skyline (760 bhp) for tacmac sprints and rallies. He seems to love his racing and is keen to catch up with other historic racers.

The Escort was converted into a rally car and he and Wayne Murdoch wrote it off on the last day of the Heatway Rally. It went over a bank and impaled itself on a fence post. The body work was sold to Neil Cowley who was building up a speedway car and it raced for sometime. The engine and gearbox etc were sold to a person in Geraldine. Max can't remember the name at present but is going to look through his paperwork.

He is interested to know what happened to it all in the end.

[bob homewood]

I have just got off the phone after talking to Max Pewnnington for some time. He still owns the Holden dealership but has retired and only goes in ocassionally. He is still racing and uses his Skyline for tacmac sprints and rallies. He seems to love his racing and is keen to catch up with other historic racers. The Escort was converted into a rally car and he and Wayne Murdoch wrote it off on the last day of the Heatway Rally. It went over a bank and impaled itself on a fence post. The body work was sold to Neil Cowley who was building up a speedway car and it raced for sometime. The engine and gearbox etc were sold to a person in Geraldine. Max can't remember the name at present but is going to look through his paperwork. He is interested to know what happened to it all.

Thanks for that ,that is what I thought I remembered happening to it,I will see if I can think of who the engine went to down that way ,Blair Paton ??

[Steve Holmes]

Nice piece of investigative work there Mike. Bit sad to learn the fate of the car, I was kind of hoping it was one of those cars pushed into someones shed and forgotten. But at least now we know the outcome. It was a very cool little car.

I have just got off the phone after talking to Max Pennington for some time. He still owns the Holden dealership but has retired and only goes in ocassionally. He is still racing and uses his Skyline for tacmac sprints and rallies. He seems to love his racing and is keen to catch up with other historic racers. The Escort was converted into a rally car and he and Wayne Murdoch wrote it off on the last day of the Heatway Rally. It went over a bank and impaled itself on a fence post. The body work was sold to Neil Cowley who was building up a speedway car and it raced for sometime. The engine and gearbox etc were sold to a person in Geraldine. Max can't remember the name at present but is going to look through his paperwork. He is interested to know what happened to it all in the end.

[pallmall]

The Neil Cowley speedway Escort.

[Steve Holmes]

Wow, so thats the same car then?

[Steve Holmes]

Back in the mid-70s, Bill Leckie built a Ford Capri for the ShellSport New Zealand Saloon Car Championship, 4.2 litre category. The Capri was built around McLaren M10 F5000 components, including fuel injected Chevy (which must have been sleeved), wheels, tyres, suspension and brakes. It ran a Ford top loader gearbox and (I think) an Atlas rear, or possibly a Ford 9".

It debuted for the 1975/66 season, painted red/white/blue and had heavily rolled wheelarch flares.



For the 1976/77 it was repainted white, fitted with box flared guards, and sponsored by Sleepyhead beds. This season Leckie ran the full championship, finishing 2nd overall to Jack Nazer and 1st in the 4.2 class. Despite the Capri catching fire at Manfeild, where Leckie suffered severe burns, the car was rebuilt, and raced at Pukekohe a few weeks later driven by Jim Richards, who broke the outright saloon lap record, and beat Nazer to victory.

Following the '77 season, MANZ placed a 2 litre engine limit on the ShellSport championship, and effectively outlawed the V8 machines. Many cars were pushed into sheds, some ended up in the South Island in OSCA, but the Leckie Capri vanished.

I tried to trace its fate a couple of years ago when I phoned Bill Leckie about the car. He told me that because he was a young guy on a budget, and MANZ had just outlawed his race car, he couldn't afford to just park it up, as much as he would have liked to. He had to sell what he could from it to help fund his next project, a Mitsubishi Lancer for the new 2 litre ShellSport series.

All the McLaren F5000 equipment was sold off, and he said he swapped the Capri bodyshell with all the molds for a small block Chevy engine for his Bedford van to a guy out in Papatoetoe (Auckland) who ran a small backyard junkyard. The guy said he planned to rebuild the car for racing using his own running gear, but it seems the car never resurfaced.

Bill can't recall his name, or even where he was based exactly.

Does anyone know the fate of the Bill Leckie V8 Capri?



Phil Robinson and Mike Feisst Photos.

[GD66]

Here is another shot of the Fuller/Brader Escort, supplied to me some time back by "faminz". Its taken at Bay Park, during the 1971/72 season, chasing Dennis Marwood (Camaro), Brian Foley (Alfa), Rod Coppins (Camaro), and leading John Riley (Mustang), etc.

"Etc" in this case including Reg Cook, Dexter Dunlop and our own Bob Homewood...

PS: that Dulon Wildfire Escort of Max Pennington used to look VERY snappy, but as I recall used to have terminal understeer...

[Steve Holmes]

PS: that Dulon Wildfire Escort of Max Pennington used to look VERY snappy, but as I recall used to have terminal understeer...

Pretty impressive to remember that!