Coppins Pontiac, come on Bruce!!

[Shano]

[Steve Holmes]

Thats a great photo Shane!

[Bruce302]

Do you have a date on that pic Shane, and can I buy a copy ?

Bruce.

[Shano]

Bruce, yes it was the NZGP Meeting at Puke January 1974. Happy to let you have the digital file if you send me an email.

[Steve Holmes]

Bruce, I notice the tops of the wheel well openings have been radiused at some point in the cars life since it was retired from racing, and after the photo Craig posted from when his brother owned it. Was this done before you bought it or is this something you've done?

[Bruce302]

No, the wheel openings are all the same, Alan used different wheels, or should I say he used the 'Span' wheels that were on the front, on the back, and some chrome items on the front.

'Span' wheels were made by Dave Wallace in Onehunga, 15 x 10 fronts, and 15 x 14 in the back, the same as used by Red Dawson on his Camaro. I still have the Span wheels, but they are a tad heavy.
The Titus cars had their fenders formed with a large die for clearance . They weren't allowed to add any metal but they could be bulged to clear the race wheels and tires.

Bruce


They look different to when Alan had the car more because of wheel size.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Bruce, must have just been the angle of the photos in its current restored guise that made me think the tops of the arches had been radiused slightly.

[Shano]

Bruce 302 - for some reason your pm was gone when I went back to get the address. I may have deleted it by mistake - but if you resend I'll fire that image through to you.

[Bruce302]

Thanks Shane.

[Bruce302]

Time to get back on track.
This is Rod at Calder Park in 1972, he was a regular cross Tasman traveller, part of the reason I think was that the cars were on temporary import licences, and if exported and re imported they would not have to pay the import duties but would start the whole cycle again. always putting off the tax payable. Denis marwood was also a regular trans Tasman racer.

Bruce.

[Bruce302]

Another shot from the same meeting. In this shot you can see the small 'Wingard' mirror, originally on English cars, it was smaller and lighter than the GM piece, every ounce counts when saving weight. Bud Moore used the same style mirror on the Trans Am Mustangs.

Hanging from the mirror is what I presume is Rod's lucky charm, if anyone knows what it was I'd love to know. I will need one for the restoration.

Bruce.

[Steve Holmes]

I love those photos Bruce. Did the car get sent to NZ with those Daisy mags? They would have been 15" x 8" I guess? They sure look nice. So this was the 1971/72 season just after he'd taken over the car from Grable?

[Steve Holmes]

Its interesting it doesn't have the centre hood scoop here. Coppins must have fitted the glass hood pretty quickly?

[Bruce302]

Yes, the fiberglass hood was fitted pretty soon after Rod took over the car, but he did fit a fiberglass scoop in '74.
The original steel hood was left behind the garage at Jim Richards' fathers place.

Bruce.

[Steve Holmes]

Bruce, do you know if those are the wheels it had fitted on it when Grable took it to NZ? I'd have thought it would have had Minilites, as these are surely what would have been fitted to it when new. Coppins had some very similar Daisy wheels on his Camaro, I wonder if he fitted these to the Firebird when he bought it.

[Bruce302]

The car apparently came with both Minilites, and American Racing Torq Thrust's, The daisey wheel (American Racing 200) was found to be prone to breaking. But Rod had some on the car early in '72.
The Australian regs had 8" max, then 10" max widths, so he may have borrowed some for the Australian races.
Here is a pic of the Firebird at Bay Park '72 that shows the ARE 200 wheels.

Pic by Jack Inwood, copyrite Bruce McLaren Trust.

[Steve Holmes]

It would have been fitted with 8" wheels when it arrived I assume Bruce? Aus had a 10" limit from 1970 onwards (up from 8") and I think NZ had a 14" limit, so I guess Rod must have wanted to get some big boots under there asap. But it would be interesting to know where they came from. And he must have only just run them for a partial season as for he had Minilites for the following season.

[Bruce302]

Here are partial race reports from the Australian visit.

[Shano]

Ouch - what happened there?

[Bruce302]

Shane, I can only believe the Aussie write up, the Kiwis just weren't up to competing so far from home, and of course the Aussies had the advantage of knowing the tracks, don't forget our guys could deliver a good whuppin' to the visitors when they where here.
The Kiwi's got better at it as time went on.
Here is the Coppins Firebird as it appeared during it's 1973 visit. The sponsorship was arranged by, and much more assistance provided by Rowan Harman ("camaroz") Hopefully he will drop by with some input.