That's interesting, OFOriginally Posted by Oldfart
Only one Valour was raced in FJ spec, but Trevor Larsen's idea was to build them for sale, so maybe he laid down a couple more frames. One of those could have gone to the Crockers
The later dedicated FF Valours were, I believe, Titan-based, as the man said
In 1971 six imports raced in NZ at one time or another (one Elfin, one Merlyn and four Titans) and eleven converted NF cars.
NZ-built cars were one each Begg FM3 (Rob Allen), Valour (John Hyde), Holeson (or MJ, Mike Hole), Sharp (Phil Sharp), FBA (Francis Atkins) and Johnston (Bob Johnston).
Only new local car in the 1972 season seems to have been the Southland-built Lyon
Additions in 1973 were three or four more Valours (including Alan Crocker’s) and one each GLH, Hustler and Autocraft (which may have been something else under a different name)
That’s as far as I’ve got with my digging so far
We must not forget the Larry Mulholland (Chch) built Swift FF which Jeff Pascoe used with great effect, including a National title.
Not be be confused with the non related US built Swift Formula Pacifics/Atlantics of a few years later.
1. Alan Crocker started in the first FF race in NZ (and as an aside still competes today in European historic FF where he runs a number of customer cars and one for himself very successfully) in a Lotus 20. In the newsletter for the 40th anniversary there is a lovely photo of a very youthful Alan standing disconsolately beside his rear wheel-less car at Railway. Perhaps you have more info on that particular car David which would have been an ex National Formula car.
He then built a new Valour FF from a kit which were available from Trevor Larsen either as a fully built car or kitset. Alan sometimes entered the car as an "Allmeown" (geddit?).
For the '74/75 season Alan bought the Ray FF which my brother had run the previous season, a car we had built up from a pile of parts and a "backdoor" chassis obtained (legitimately) from ex Bert Ray employee Don Hutchison.
To complete the Crocker family tree, early 1975 we also sold our original Palliser WDF2 to Alan's brother Kim who rebuilt the chassis in 1978 incorporating the extended gearbox spacer set up we had used on the Cheetahs and renamed the car a Trident Palliser. This car is curently owned and energetically raced by Phil Foulkes and is the car we took to Philip Is for the Aus 40th.
2. I did say JM1 was "probably" the only purpose built Begg FF. However as Wilson Crosby was virtually a neighbour of George Begg, it is entirely possible his car was built new for him. Neil Whittaker was the other Southlander whose name you were looking for. The third member of that Southland trio was Dennis Lyons (spl?), was he also Begg mounted or was the Lyon his creation?
I think the Crocker Valour preceded the FF series cars, so OldFart's contention that it was an earlier (FJ-type) design could well be right
The first Begg FM3, as mentioned, was raced by Rob Allen. I'm pretty sure Brian Scobie had the second, and Wilson Crosbie the third
I seem to remember that Brett Riley didn't go to bad in a Begg. The OB's tell me that 5 GLH's were built and that there is a chassis still sitting in someones rafters (not theirs either)
I would like to find the whereabouts of the ex Mike Finch /Lyn Johnson Cuda as I was involved with both drivers and that car.
Much to many people disgust Lyn and I had a small bet over a couple of ales one Saturday night which resulted in the Cuda, bodywork missing and replaced with ripple cardboard & race tape plus a set of my rally wheels and tyres off the Escort turning up at a gravel hillclimb and dusting off our local lads.
We both drunk well for the following week..............!
Carlo,
Brett's Begg was the ex Jim Murdoch JM1 from the previous year and yes I should have included that result in my first list, very close second overall in '74/75 season to Grant Walker's Titan. The result decided in the last race of the year at Manfield if I recall correctly.
Brett's previous car, a Titan Mk 6C was also ex Jim M, which Jim sold to build the JM1, then sold the JM1 to build Begg 018.
I am sure you are right about the number of GLHs and the OBs would know! There was a collection of several chassis, body moulds etc for sale recently and Paul Dold still has his so there are a few accounted for already.
As a result of some very sad situations and a combination of "friends" who did not get on too well with Alan Crocker I sadly lost touch with Alan at the Christmas/New Year of 69/70 and had no knowledge ( as an insider) of what he was doing after that. I wish that had never happened, he was a part of a very interesting family. His dad Bob was an amazing source of knowledge too, but that is OT. That, in my mind, dates his Valour (at least the one I had involvement with) very clearly.
Earlier I referred to an FF with "one too many gears". Howard has mentioned that car, being the same one that lost a wheel. The gearbox issue had been rectified by then.
The other southland guy with a Begg FF I was trying to think of was /is Neil Kidd...always smiling & nicknamed 'no hair'... an apt title now shared by many of those who bestowed it upon him!
[QUOTE=Oldfart;6296].... I sadly lost touch with Alan at the Christmas/New Year of 69/70 and had no knowledge ( as an insider) of what he was doing after that. I wish that had never happened, he was a part of a very interesting family. His dad Bob was an amazing source of knowledge too, but that is OT. ]
OF,
You will be pleased to know that Alan is very much alive and well, still racing and still full of fun!
He was here last summer and shared Phil Foulkes' ex Wood bros, Kim C Palliser Trident nee Palliser WDF2 and Van Dieman at HD festival.
OT but what the... his father "Big Bob" was, amongst other things, responsible for maintaining the Logan Fow Ferrari GTO.
And Alan always claimed he was able to run a 5 speed because he used the same ratio twice, thus making only 4 useable ratios. Yeah right!
I am still not convinced Alan's Valour was a converted FJ but won't poke the hornet's nest without some factual backup (or a decent exit strategy).
Last edited by Howard Wood; 10-20-2011 at 08:34 PM.
[QUOTE=Howard Wood;6312]I'm 100% convinced it wasn't an ex-FJ car. There was only one of those built, and it had long since gone to the South Island by the time AC raced his car
However, what I am prepared to believe, although I heard the suggestion for the first time only a few hours ago, is that it was built up on the basis of the FJ design - not only because OF says so, but because the pukka FF Valour didn't come on-stream until after AC had his.
He could have had the "works development prototype" FF car, I suppose....
Steve Millen had a couple of runs in a FF that Dave Schollum bought out here before the Pacifics, I think it was a Elden and I saw it at a classic meeting a couple of years ago. I have a photo somewere and I can remember his first run a Puke and think he had a win.
Dave crashed the car at Levin and it was rebuilt. Daves younger brother Lou was a top runner in FF as well. Lou actually did his apprenticeship at Rotorsport with Bill Sheilds. Lou was a clever fella and a nice guy with it.
[QUOTE=David McKinney;6314]That conjecture has some merit as one thing I remember about Alan's Valour is that as he first ran it (presumably as supplied by Larsen) the car had really bad bump steer front and rear. Being an ex Lotus 20 driver, Alan thought that was how racing cars were meant to feel!My brother Donald managed to dial most of it out for him and Alan went pretty much from one end of the grid to the other overnight.
Given that the production Valours were Mk6C Titan based and they would definitely not have suffered from bump steer, maybe Alan's car was some kind of development mule or interim model.
My MEMORY was that Trevor had got into some sort of financial difficulty and the the Crocker family acquired the job lot. I don't think it was a development car, could readily be wrong, perhaps it was another built off the jigs from the FJ and never completed? I wonder if Trevor actually saw a future for racing cars in NZ and then got into FF after seeing what was happening?
Whatever, it was a big step from Alan's Renault Dauphine based sportscar, scrutineers written comment in the logbook "This car needs an F&*(ing good tidy up" (scrutineer did not use &* signs) and the preceding MGTD with first Vanguard and then Peugeot power.
In regard Bob looking after the 250GTO that's how I got to drive it!
Crockers also did a lot of work for Palmer motors car sales.
Last edited by Oldfart; 10-21-2011 at 07:31 AM. Reason: More thoughts
Here's a few random photos from the early 80's, all taken at Baypark or Pukekohe.
From the Top.....
Mark Brownsey & robbie Lester etc
Richard Lester & Steve Richrds
Chris Abbott, Richards , Lester
Kevin Ingram
Mike King, Robbie Lester, Jeff Pascoe
Jeff Pascoe's Lola
Jeff Pascoe's Lola or Swift (Chch built by Larry Mulholland)?
Pretty sure it's the Lola, which he drove after the Swift
The Swift's the No.4 car in the first two pictures
Yes, that would make sense, IIRC Jeff won the FF championship in the 1981/82 season in the # 4 Swift, he would have carried # 1 in the subsequent season.
I'm struggling to remember who drove the Swift after Jeff Pascoe, for some reason I'm thinking John Crawford?, but my memory might be way off the mark here.
Last edited by bigbanger; 10-22-2011 at 01:29 AM. Reason: grammar
Rob Lester was the next Swift driver after Jeff Pascoe, but John Crawford's name does ring a bell in connection with it. Perhaps the car returned south after its spell in the North Island
The year that Robbie Lester drove the Swift was the year that John Crawford won the Formula Ford Championship in if I remember correctly, a Valour. Also if I remember correctly John was working for for Gary Mulholland at Swift Automotive in Chch at that time and there was a bit of feeling around as the car was not getting the results that it had the previous season.
We rather unkindly nic named Robbie Flymo during the time he drove the Swift as he did spend quite a bit of time on grass going around in circles
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