Quote Originally Posted by Gerard Richards View Post
I've always been a bit fascinated with the early era of O.S.C.A. Living in Auckland we didn't really see much of it but it all sounded pretty exciting down south. I remember on one occasion in early 1973, there was a sort of O.S.C.A. tour to the north, with several meetings. By the time they got to Pukekohe there had been several mechanical casualties, but I clearly remember Paul Kirk's yellow Viva with red wheels?, (really liked that car and it went well) and 3.5 Buick V8 motor, Blair Paton and Ron McPhail in there respective blue and black twin cam Escorts, plus Peter Kocis in his Torana, also possibly Grant Aitken in his 1450 Mini and Pat Pascoe's light weight ex McRae Twin Cam powered A40. I remember Kocis and Jim Richards in the Sidchrome Imp had a coming together shortly after the start with the Imp launched through the fence. I'd be really keen to sight some pictures of the early years of OSCA, in the pits on the track wherever, particularly from down south if anyone has any gems stowed away!
Giday Gearald,
I remember that Puke meeting that some of us OSCA guys went to!
Thanks for your kind words re the Viva Buick, actually it didnt suit that track for 2 reasons, (probably many more if I really thought about it), and they were (1) it was under geared so I had to throttle off down the straights, (I'd flogged the diff out of my road going XU1, 3.08:1, but it needed to be higher), (2) also around the sweeper after the start/finish line it felt extremely unstable, (this was unusual as the car was normally good in fast corners), this was due, as I discovered later, to the rear axles flexing! I know this seems strange but I had been having trouble twisting axles at the splines (they were Hillman Minx axles) so I'd waisted them down to just under the root diametre of the splines so the loads would be absorbed by the torsional flex/twist thereby reducing the concentration of the load on the spline. What I didn't think about was that the axles were also subject to bending strain when cornering, so I suspect the outside rear wheel was taking on positive camber or whatever else it wanted to do when subjected to high cornering loads!
And there was another issue---I remember the last race was a handicap event so I took off determined to make as much ground as possible, anyway down the back straight as the race wore on, I caught up to a Mini just before the CHICANE, yeah thats right, they put some Euclid tyres halfway down the straight in the form of an "S" bend! anyway I had to back right off and let the Mini go through first, by this time all the big V8s had cought up (and passed) so I just cruised to the end.
But I did enjoy going up North, and I actually won the North Island OSCA Championship outright, (the Viva was "B" class), but that was only due to the fact that I went North more often than the others from down here!
But they were GOOD days in those days, things have changed a bit and I haven't made up my mind whether it's for better of for worse!
PK.