Franicevic entered the car as 1650cc in the 1964/65 season...
Franicevic entered the car as 1650cc in the 1964/65 season...
I may be wrong but the only Allardette that I can remember at Teretonga was Morrie Hogan - January 1964 & 1965Originally Posted by Carlo
Last edited by Kwaussie; 06-20-2013 at 11:00 AM.
I'm pretty sure Hogan's car was the only Anglia regularly entered as an Allardette - for several years
In latter years did it have a white arrow shape - bit like a Surtees's over the front.
To get back on track never a fastback that I can recall. Very nice little Anglia from memory!
Have to get back to early memories, Yes seem to remember Hogans name on the ownership papers but it was Ivan who I remember first seeing driving the car at Teretonga, it may have been during the last race of the day for saloons and it flew. Mind you Ivan was pretty good at driving cars that he worked on and seem to remember the Flying farewell at Waimate a year or so later when he drove Dave Simpsons Anglia pretty damn quickly.
The car never was a fastback but it did have the headlight buckets turned around and a little bit of body filler to give it the "Sabrina" look.
When I rubbed quite a bit of the car back to bare metal during a period of repainting, including undercoat I did discover 17 different layers of paint on the roof so it had enjoyed a few adventures before we got it.
As for the 1474cc three bearing engine which was run at Wigram and where the car made that Shell photo where it was in the midst of the pack at (I think the hairpin) and the passengers door was wide open, in talking with Robbie in later years it was an engine that they built up out of the remains of a 1650 that disintergrated but the pistons were ok and they were fitted to the only engine they could lay their hands on at the time and it went much better than expected so they kept using it.
My understanding is that engine later found its way into one of Doug Henny's early Lotus single seaters which he later onsold to Peter DeLore.
Grant, a little off subject but as you know the Sth Canterbury District have produced and continue to do so today a number who have done ok in our sport. But if you think about those two blocks either side of the Stafford & North Street intersections where Sth Canterbury Toyota now stand there sure have been some good ones. When I was at the end of my apprenticeship there was Ernie, Pumpkin and Speed Richardt at Sprague Motors with Angus Laurenson President of the NZACU next door then we had Bruce Baylis & Elwyn Mackie at HP Baileys, Brent Hawes and Leo Leonard later joined by your brother Wayne at Speedway Motors and across the road Brian Livingstone at Noel Brady's and the late great Gerry McKissock and myself at the NZPO Workshops along with many of the SCCC committee who were based in the NZPO Engineers office block on the corner. Going South there was you elder brother Gary at Smiths and Graeme Hathaway across the road at Lucas Brothers while going North was Max Trilford, Joss Timms and then Des Knauff were all very prominent with motorcycling and Hepburn & Sides just around the corner produced Warren Burt, Graeme Vaughan and Andy Green.
About the time Wayne started at Speedway Motors a young Kevin Pateman, current President of the SCC started working in the area at Oliffs Office Supplies.
With three pubs on the boundaries and the Police Station in the centre of the area how could we go wrong.
Over the years the workforce within that period of time have gone onto to produce at least 5 presidents and 8 Life members for the South Canterbury Car Club.
Carlo, yes amazing statistics I could add more , those were magic days & dont get me wrong , the people down there seem to support each other as they do in most towns & citys , I do notice up north here though the groups move in circles rather clicky , mind you more population up this way , but yes you are correct a great bunch of home style kiwi racers , i like meeting up with Bairdo & Pete , & Drakey at Timaru , they even love the atmosphere there, we often talk of just that , there is something magic about you guys & Timaru , Even Pumpkin was an icon a bit naughty but gee I miss that guy, must tell you some stories of their trips to UK etc !!
I always thought the David Simpson Lotus Anglia was pretty sleek. Have had a go at building a scale replica for fun.
Last edited by 45DCOE; 11-27-2013 at 09:36 AM.
Great effort, looks good. What is the scale can you put something beside it to show.
I do remember , one year at Puke, whilst being in the Timaru B&H [or Wills ]group , seeing Dave Simpson in [I think] the first lotus twin cam escort , white in colour , it seemed so fast in those days & sounded so good , was not long after that we saw many more arrive . What happened to Dave ?????, never really meet him but was good in his day ............Grant
Grant- I have a good article on Dave from autonews 1968 all about Anglia days- says it was easier car than Escort.
Do you want me to scan and email it to you? pm me with your email address
Got one similar on Gary with some of Ernie- MK3 days.
Thanks John ....... much appreciated ....... looks like a PC prob 2nd time I sent but did not stick.......... ps hope you all good & merry xmas from the Tga Spragues.............grantsprague@kinect.co.nz
Hey Grant, I remember David arriving at Levels with the TC which was just a couple of weeks prior to Gary getting his hands on Tony Batchelors one. They pulled up outside of Ian Keenan's office for documentation and Ernie ducked under the rear of Dave's trailer to look at the Escort rear suspension, he was back out in a flash and nothing was said until a few of us were invited to view the rear of the Escort and there painted across the back of the Diff housing were the words were F#@k off Sprague.
Still remember Gary running the TC at Craigmore and the big slides out of Castrol and onto the back straight.
Carl..... I did not know Gary put the TC up the hill , probably missed that bugar..... was not long I put just about any thing I could get my hands on up ther , a beautiful part of SC , remember lots of cars had f....k off on diff housings lol , most handled like pigs back then , hit & misses.
As for Gaz in escort , we went home [him & I] after pumping gas at north Street...... on the way home for lunch to 41....... every corner was side ways either crossed up just b 4 for or through it !!!
As for Dad ,[ DREAM] last night weird as it might seem I was down at your new S I circuit helping Foggy in new Toyota sorting out understeer only to see Ernie there , wooooow crazy... have a good one Carl Grant ...merry xmas bro
That was a common message on diffs, and slam panels when bonnet was up.
Wow, good stories. The NI blokes just pale into insignificance. I think the real characters of the sport hailed from The Mainland. I could have done with one of those fu*k off signs on my Shellsport diff. Never thought of that. Mine would have to be in Japanese however. We found the head of Nissan Datsun Japan's racing department right under my Shellsport B110 coupe once. Just his feet sticking out. How he got under there I will never know, as the car was low to the ground. So what is fu*k off in Japanese anyway? I never did say anything to this man. This was at Manfield. The day before practice, I did some laps and the Cook Motor Racing team (Datsun Quazi works team) was timing me. Robbie Francevic came up to me shortly after to tell me how silly I was,....................to show them how quick I was. He said we cannot beat you, so this is what we are going to do. They worked all night to take the fuel injected dry sump running gear out of the Cherry and put it into the 1200 (B110) coupe that Robbie was suppose to drive. This was a big effort, and the car was a weapon on race day. I still was in front as we crossed the line for the win, even though Reg did get by me during the race for awhile. The reason I mentioned this is because, as I came around the last corner, I checked the mirror to see where Reg was and then had this big slow motion thing happening were I looked around the pit lane for my crew, however saw Mr Japanese boss man instead. I will never forget it, as he was looking directly at me in my car, and as he realised I was going to win, his body language changed completely and he just hung his head low in disbelief and what i thought looked like shame. I will never forget that, I laughed about it to my team that the ceremonial sword would be coming out tonight. Anyway sorry people, the story is sort of related to the fu*k off sign.
Steve, totally related. Good days ah.
Yep good stories 4 sure , now just imagine if we didnt have this site of Steve's to be on we probably would have slipped through life not telling our little stories & excited times ups & downs .. We would have to be reincarnated & come back & do it all over again lol , most here I have not seen for a yr or more , Steve E since we were Teens just fantastic guys , let the good times roll .... Grant
Last edited by Grant Sprague; 11-29-2013 at 04:26 AM.
Grant, Gary ran the TC at Craigmore about 2-4 weeks after he got his hands on it. The car was still running its original equipment India radial tyres that looked like a Dunlop Aquajet and they were about as slippery as an eel in a bucket of snot which is why it slid so well on tarmac. I remember that at one point during the hillclimb Gary had the tyres down around the 10lb mark trying to get some grip out of the thing but with no success, it was one of those dry dusty days where nothing worked. I was like the rest of the guys with the 105E's, seat out, girlfriend out, exhaust off and lets go hillclimbing then reassembling the car and heading down to the river for a quick swim and a few beers. Cheers
Yep beautiful Times Carl .... hey and what a river spent many yrs there & later on at the golf course with ex bro inlawJ ock etc at the bottom of the hill .... you guys must realize the beauty of the place a bit of a time warp I know ... I have a pik of Ernie going up there [ hill climb] in the old GP cars p3 alfa & 4clt maserati ...... I have sent these to Steve H .... with some others ....... when he gets the time they will get posted , a few of that special hill . etc .. thanks for sharing these times guys ... Grant
Last edited by Grant Sprague; 11-29-2013 at 09:23 AM.
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