The Roaring Season

fullnoise68 wrote:Thanks Dale, the restoration and presentation of these cars really is a huge credit to the Bowdens, and it would be great to organise a tour to coincide with when we take some of the HMC cars over to Queensland in June.

Steve - that would really make the trip worthwhile for a historic petrolhead. I have seen some of the cars at various times at Eastern Creek but not the whole collection together.

I am sure that there must be a heap of historic race cars in the Brisbane that would be worth trying to get to see - like some of the Dick Johnson cars (Steve Empson where are you).

Not sure Steve, We met up after that season and had a bit of a de brief on the season and then lost touch until we met up again in the Pacific Series he with the Cuda me with Millens Chevron.

Must have been just before he headed off to work for McLaren then Dave?

No Jimmy, the car was worked on at a company called Dynatune, they had previously done the Vauxhall Cresta for the Bryan/ Davies entry in the 6 hour and Jimmy worked there. I opted out after the 3 hour drive but Jimmy did the whole of that season with the car.

Dave Silcock -assume you mean Ray Stone. I did not know Jimmy was on the scene in 1967.

Bruce Newell is pretty much the only guy left that can detail the Byrant/Dawson Shelby TA Mustang history!! he is a friend of Wayne Hills(and the Hills gang) that works for me and when i bought this car back into NZ for Nigel MacDonald Bruce came down to meet Nigel and talk about the car, unfortunatly i was USA bound the next day so never got to meet Bruce but he has constantly been intouch with Nigel about this historic Mustang and Nigel and Diana have spent time with Anita Dawson and have collected alot of the paperwork and history on this car including its brass tag from its first Riverside 3 hour race stateside. Although most famous with Dawson at the wheel it was at some stage converted back to a street car and sold off and probably spent almost 10 years been past from piller to post around NZ until John Chapman took ownership as he knew what the car was. What i liked about this shelby was it never got "Butchered" like some of the others did for OSCAR(for instance) and retained most of its original shelby parts and body work, in other words it "survived" the kiwi gas axe!! were as the other 2 have questionable NZ history later in there life. I checked with my USA contacts prior to purchase and its the 2nd too last 67 Shelby coupe built and was ear marked accordling to the paperwork for Peru, but knowing the stories i've heard about Mr Shelby, he probably took both buyers money, LOL but at least it ended up on a boat NZ bound, along with Bruce.

Dale M

Yeah that sounds right Steve. The SCCA ran/run a whole bunch of events, classes, championships etc all over the US and Canada, including Can-Am, Formula A, and Trans-Am, plus more localised events for sports cars, sedans, production sports cars etc. Trans-Am was really just a professional championship race series for A&B-Sedans, but the full championship was usually only contested by the big professional teams. At most rounds, much of the grid was made up of local privateer teams taking out their A-Sedan car when the Trans-Am came to town, in the hope of scoring a good result and picking up some prize money. But other than the Trans-Am, there were a large number of events that catered to A-Sedan cars, and this is where most of the privateer guys ran for most of the year. Most privateer teams could only afford to race on their local tracks.

So while these days the factory cars of Shelby, Penske, AAR, Bud Moore etc are hugely desirable, so too are other privateer cars that might have just contested one or two Trans-Am races in their entire careers, even though they're worth a lot less than the factory cars. The Bob Egan Mustang was raced by both Egan and Bob Kennett in the Trans-Am, on only a small number of occasions, and was well out of contention overall, whereas the Bryan/Dawson Mustang never actually did any Trans-Am races prior to making its way to NZ.

So even though the Egan/Kennett car was a pretty old nail by the time Dexter Dunlop entered it in its first NZ event in the 1972 season, and it never even won an NZ Saloon Car Championship race, let alone a championship like the Bryan/Dawson car, it likely has a great international value, because it can go and race in the Historic Trans-Am races because it has Trans-Am history.

I read an article a few years back which said when Frank Bryan first got the car from Carroll Shelby, Shelby organised a local car dealer/weekend racer to pair up with Frank Bryan in a local track `enduro', so he could get used to the car prior to shipping it back to New Zealand. I think it may have been at Riverside. Although it was a SCCA event, it wasn`t a sole `Trans Am' event with the likes of Donohue, Posey, Follmer,etc, and that is probably where the Bowdens see the difference. I`ll get Barry to ask Bruce Newell, as from memory he accompanied the car back to NZ, aboard the same ship.

Yep thats right Dave, it had competed in at least one long distance race in the US before it was freighted back to NZ. But for A-Sedans, the SCCA Trans-Am series is considered the most important championship, so a car that raced in the Trans-Am between 1966 - 1972 is now more desirable in the US than an A-Sedan that hasn't, unless its something a bit special, like Smokey Yunnicks Kar-Kraft '69 Mustang. The Bryan/Dawson Mustang raced in the US before making its way to NZ, but not in a Trans-Am race, unlike the Egan/Kennett/Dunlop Mustang, which came from the same batch of 27 or 28 Shelby Mustangs built for A-Sedan competition, but which had quite a bit of Trans-Am racing history before it ended up in NZ. Sounds a bit strange really, to most Kiwis the Bryan/Dawson car is more important.

There is now a racing series for cars that competed in at least one Trans-Am race between 1966 - 1972 called Historic Trans-Am, but only cars that actually raced in the Trans-Am in this period are eligible, and its quite a desirable group to be involved with.

When I was asked to co drive the Bryan in the 67 3 hour race I was told it had been raced in the States in a long distance race that required a co driver. It had the regulation two 4 barrel Holley carbs and had certainly done some work. Jimmy Stone and I fitted the 48 IDA's to it and made up a throttle linkage

At one stage four of the five early NZ racing Mustangs were in the Bowden collection. David Bowden recognised their value and importance possibly before most Kiwis did, and bought the Geoghegan/Coppins car, the Fahey car, the Frank Bryan/Red Dawson car, and the Egan/Kennett/Dunlop/Haig car all in quick succession.

The Geoghegan car will obviously never leave the collection, while of the two '67 Shelbys, the Egan/Kennett etc car probably has greater international value due to having raced in a Trans-Am event in the US, whereas the Bryan/Dawson car, although it never started a Trans-Am race, has greater NZ significance, and this car was sold back out of the collection to Nigel MacDonald.

Thanks Dale, the restoration and presentation of these cars really is a huge credit to the Bowdens, and it would be great to organise a tour to coincide with when we take some of the HMC cars over to Queensland in June.

Yes, Mustang #43 is the ex Doyle car imported in NZ by Bob Kennett in about 1971, and has quite some USA Trans Am race history which is what the Bowdens liked, and like the MacDonald Ex Red Dawson 67 TA mustang its a Factory Shelby built car! persons have always confused the 2 over the years seen we had both racing in NZ for quite a number of years. In 67 Shelby only made 28 of these special coupes thats why having Nigel race his one with us at the Festival was quite a treat!!

Dale M

Should be , as its got no bumper, then is a transam model- Paul has bumpers (Shelby) and Bruce 302s does not for that reason.
Boot lid also has a transam petrol filler cap just like Nigels.

Dale, is the #43 the ex Doyle Shelby that the Bowdens kept in preference to Nigels ex Red Dawson one?

Heres a couple i took back in a 07 Visit. Dale M

These on Facebook today when I got home from work. Hope the link works. There are a whole heap of photos of her today and racing in the day.



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