Historic Sport Sedans

[John McKechnie]

How Adrian Dobbe found the Warwick Gray Viva as a "barn find", this car was first raced in 1974.

"it all started with a race down the middle of Avondale in 2002.
I was driving around in my 1973 GTR Torana -had a Holden V6 in it, other car was a Torana XU1.
We stopped and got talking, turned out he was Chris, the son of Warwick Gray.
He started talking about his fathers old race car- a 1969 HB Viva, and that it could be for sale and that Warwick had built it up himself..
I thought to myself-who the hell wants to have a Viva ?
Nothing more happened for a couple of months until I bumped into Chris again, and we ended up at Warwicks place.
After a cup of coffee , , he took me down to the old shed where it took a good 10 minutes just to get the garage door open.
The car had been locked up there since 1984.....18 years !!!!!!!!!!!
Well, I looked at it and just fell inlove with the damn thing..
Warwick must have liked me, took my money and I came home with a Viva.
After all those years in the shed, we had it going within one hour.
One year later I had finished restoring it.
I didnt have to do anything to the engine except paint it.
Took it to Pukekohe , had a really neat, fun day and did a 1.06 after just 3 laps.
I have owned the car for 14 years now and still enjoy driving the damn thing.
I did Hampton Downs in 1.14 last year as it is so light and has great steering.
This is more there, but as I want to live longer, i am not the guy..
I had a video camera with me when I met the car for the first time in the barn, and John will put it on youtube and post the link here.