Beach Racing At Tahunanui Nelson 1960s

[Chris Read]

I might be wrong here, but I think the very first photo in post #1 of this thread might be the BCM Special of Brian Maybee ( Not sure on spelling ). If so it might be the accident that claimed his life. Im only going by the partial description alongside the phot with reference to 'special' and knowing that the car in question had a locally made transaxle which is clearly visible in the photo. When @ beach races ~ 1971 with Stuart Quertier { ex Neil Stuart/NG Smith, Stuart Special in other photos } we visited Brians Father at his home & amongst other things he showed us the wooden patterns for the transaxle in the car, I think from memory Brian built three cars in total, two of which ended up in southland during the grass track/gravel hillclimb era of motorsport.

In reply to this and post #28 and #34, like others I cant see how I missed this thread. The photo is the Brian Mabey car which I have owned and raced for 40 yrs. The first car Brian made in the early 50's had an Austin motor and wire wheels (photo #1). This became the No 2 car with the Vauxhall 10 motor and raced around 1955. It went to Southland in the main with various owners and also raced at Wigram (photo #2). This car was modified to a Consul motor and a different front body. This is how it finished its racing (photo#3). I acquired it as a box of bits from Winston ??- (used to work at AutoCourt Dunedin).
'Tweaks' (is that Lynsday Marr ?) did give me the list (photo#4) of components of the #2 car via John Nobles but I did not get the car from 'Tweaks'. The list is interesting. The last car Brian built was the Vauxhall 6 cyl motor and the later 1 3/4 ' triple SU's came off Earnie Spragues Zephyr. This is the car in which Mabey was killed. and car I have had for all these years (photo#5). The family did not want to have much to do with the tragedy even though I tried for may years to make contact.
Finally I visited Brian's daughter with the car and the photo #6 is his grand daughter sitting in the car. I have spoken with Brian's brother and he remembers the cars well but his wife who lives near her daughter in Wellington prefers to leave things as they are. While I respect this, I did say to his daughter that Brian was an influence in NZ motor racing engineering in the 50's that should not be forgotten. Even though she was only a few months old when he died she now appreciates what her father achieved in those few short years and I am glad we made contact some 50 yrs on. Chris Read - Arrowtown.