The Roaring Season

Never owned or lived on a farm, but have had a couple of tractors. (no smart commments about my cars either)

My first Mini 7 (ex Gerald Fava) in the early Eighties had a reg plate bolted to the floor. The registration document had been hand altered over the years from Morris Mini 850 up to Cooper S 1000 when it had a brief life as NZ saloon champs entry. Each time I registered it the classification on the paperwork baffled the post office so I told them to treat it as a tractor. Insurance? Nah. Trailer reg and WOF....not often. I toyed with getting an official replacement (lost paperwork?) for the ersatz Cooper registration and faking a Cooper. Too chicken. The thing broke in half eventually anyway.

[i][b][color="#0000CD"]Pretty sure Alec McLennan of Riversdale, Southland still has the ex Orton Bros Elin car ( which might also be the ex McKerrow car..). also the JBS & currently restoring another little car, model etc escapes my memory at moment[/color][/b][/i]

Regarding rego plates on race cars, in those days you had to nominate an insurance company on the registration form. In my case I had the ex-Bisman Begg back in the early 70s, jumped the safety bank at Bay Park (well the Begg did) and landed in the trailer park area, unfortunately running over several people on the way. Later on there was some sort of liability kerfuffle with my insurance co (NIMU) after Bay Park put some claims in, NIMU quite rightly not happy that they were unwittingly covering a racing accident.

[quote="beowulf"]From memory you had to have the registration plate attached to your race car. It was even checked at scrutineering. Having a farm was a big help as you always had a rego plate for something. To say nothing of rebate petrol. I remember Angus Hyslop having petrol problems in one of his cars due to dirty farm petrol. It was probably worth about 2 bob (shillings for the younger generation, 20 cents for the even younger) a gallon. Some of the trailers now and then are definately "home built". It would be mildy interesting to wander through the trailer park at a race meeting and check the WOF and rego. Incidently since ACC started ripping off motorbike riders the number of bike registration has plummeted. Down 25% according to one source. Taking less income now that they were when the levy was at the old level. Don"t ya love politicians.[/quote]

Elin sports cars. Graeme (WOP) Amos built 3. The first two were built at Otematata in Central Otago. The third built at Ocean View near Dunedin. Graeme McKerrow raced the third one for a season. Anyone know where any of them are?

[quote="stubuchanan"]I wondered if Dick Emery might not be related to Paul and Peter Emery, who (separately) made Emeryson racing cars in the 1950's and 1960's. Paul Emery in particular seemed to have a somewhat eccentric turn of mind, like Dick.

Probably not.[/quote][color="#FF0000"]Stupid boy PIKE !![/color] :)
As to trailers with WOFs and regos- how ridiculous !!
and as for the sheep fornicators across your " Tasman pond" and its daft import rules a duties they suffer from too many people in government positions akin to people that our grandfathers fought against in WW2 :mad:

Yes the trailer makers name .I think that must have sort of been up to clerk at the office doing it .I had a country garage for a time and we used to make and modify lots of trailers ,from memory they used to put wss as the maker on ours which was the initials of our business.mind you we did it our local Post Office which was just next door

In fact at a Taupo test day last year, I did go round having a look at trailers, not to check on WOF's etc, but to get some ideas, as I was about to build a 'homemade'. I was amazed to discover that a good few of them did not have either WOF or Rego and a couple of them had come over from Napier!!!! Beowulf, you will remember that day.

[quote="AMCO72"]And if youv'e not watched Dick Emery, youv'e not lived.!!!![/quote]

I wondered if Dick Emery might not be related to Paul and Peter Emery, who (separately) made Emeryson racing cars in the 1950's and 1960's. Paul Emery in particular seemed to have a somewhat eccentric turn of mind, like Dick.

Probably not.

Yes, a mechanic who works at my local garage where I go for my warrants, rides a new Triumph bike. because of the ACC levy he only registers it for half a year now.....the summer months, and uses his 1961 Morris 1000 van the rest of the time. Of course the Morrie is on the cheapish plus 40 year registration now so is a big saving, and who wants to ride a bike in winter anyway.

From memory you had to have the registration plate attached to your race car. It was even checked at scrutineering. Having a farm was a big help as you always had a rego plate for something. To say nothing of rebate petrol. I remember Angus Hyslop having petrol problems in one of his cars due to dirty farm petrol. It was probably worth about 2 bob (shillings for the younger generation, 20 cents for the even younger) a gallon. Some of the trailers now and then are definately "home built". It would be mildy interesting to wander through the trailer park at a race meeting and check the WOF and rego. Incidently since ACC started ripping off motorbike riders the number of bike registration has plummeted. Down 25% according to one source. Taking less income now that they were when the levy was at the old level. Don"t ya love politicians.

Slightly off topic but in the same vein, bike rider John Boote is famed for being a great natural rider - but also for taking his TZ750 Yamaha to race in Daytona. To get it there he stripped it to constituent parts, packed it all into suitcases and took it on his flight as his luggage. Assembled it all at the other end (if my memory serves me, DNFed the first year and got second the following year).

And if youv'e not watched Dick Emery, youv'e not lived.!!!!

Isn't lateral thinking a great thing. We started discussing the provenance of a rather sharp looking 'homebuilt' special.....got into a discussion as to how its name was spelt....now were into 12 foot Parkercraft with trailers that aren't homebuilt but never the less the LTSA thinks they are, so it's no wonder that when we try and trace the history of car, the Government Dept that is responsible for all this is no help. I think I'll just go back to my knitting!! The comment on the ruinous duties of our neighbours reminds me of an chap here in Cambridge who had built a rather nice Jaguar D type replica with assistance from the manufacturer in the Sth Island. He wanted to sell the car but there were no takers in NZ but managed to find a buyer in Oz. To avoid all these duties and to get the car into the country, he had to completely dismantle the car and send it to purchaser in pieces. I think he then followed the car over and reassembled it. Sounds crazy to me but I think thats how it goes. Reminds me of a Dick Emery skit where Dick is talking to a friend about a dodgy mate of his who has been 'eliminated'. The friend says' I hope he is resting in peace' Dick replies ' He is resting in PIECES my friend' !!!!! There you go, lateral thinking again.

To add to the confusion, the registration for a boat trailer which came with a 12 foot tinny I bought some years back gives the make as "Parkercraft". They built the boat, but I doubt that they built the trailer! Probably we should be thankful that is the level of our complaints. Some other countries less than 2000 miles away from NZ have a whole raft of rules and prohibitions on non standard vehicles and ruinous duties on second-hand imports.

Yes, I wonder who the little clerk in the LTSA decided on the 'generic' homebuilt title. Just makes it easy for them. I'm sure Howard does not like his heavy trailers being called 'home built'!!!!!!! Likewise, TSV in Cambridge would object violently if you described their chassis and trailers as home built, knowing the expertise of the design and construction team there. Makes you sick, and we let them get away with it.

It was a requirement for all racing cars to be registered at least during the early '70's, something to do with public liability insurance I believe. At least for single seaters the usual category we used was "E class A" which was the same as a farm tractor, thus avoiding the various WOF requirements. Somewhere there will be a record of all those registrations and the make.

The term "Homebuilt" is a generic term now preferred by LTSA, I run trucks for a living and most of our heavy trailers are registered new as Homebuilt despite being manufactured by reputable trailer builders.

[quote="David McKinney"]Well, we've got to call the thing by some name...[/quote]

On the assumption that the car was registered for theoretical road use, as the majority of competition cars were at that time, would anybody know what was given as the "Make" of the Mase(a)r(rr)ari on its registration papers.

Or as a more general query, was there any restriction on what you could use as a registration name for a one-off vehicle in the 1960's.

I have a trailer which I bought(new) around 1990 and it annoyed me somewhat that the the papers had the make as "Home Built" because it was actually professionally built. After some years I queried this with Motor Registrations, and suggested it could be changed to Reeon or Reeon Engineering as they were the builders, but they would only agree to a change to "Factory Built".

Supercharged Austin A70!
That was followed by a Lycoming aero engine (run just once, I think) then a Humber 80 that grew from 1500cc to something around 1700 or 1800
When Lance Crawford bought the car from McRae he didn't get the big engine, but ran a 1500 Humber 80

And incidentally, what was the 2200cc engine in the car at that first meeting. Triumph?