Team Cambridge Monaro

[John McKechnie]

Milan-can you tell me what number Autonews that was in. I have vol 3, number 11.
In this the Monaro was for sale and gave its lap times for practice at this meeting-
Apparently at this practice session, Coppins in the Monaro was lapping in 65.8 .
The Camaro was lapping 65.7, so there was not much between the 2.
Fahey was doing 67.2, Dawson 64.4,Riley 65.3
$8000 could buy this Monaro complete ready to go with new four wheel trailer.
Had 48 IDA Webers with Moon manifold, now have found this to go with the car.

[John McKechnie]

Stu-All info you can give will be greatly appreciated to help fill in all the gaps on my Monaro. Lap times are really good as it really gives an indication of the performance

[John McKechnie]

My sincere thanks to Bob Homewood who gave me the details on this 1969 November 1 meeting.
Rod Coppins driver Monaro 73
Jim Palmer driver Camaro 59.
Sign writer must have been kept busy, these numbers changing every meeting.
Have posted program on 67.
And Rod-your buddy Patrick Smith is here with his Capri-before he got GTHO Twitch.
Red Dawson entered as 135 as 35 was maybe on a Band H car?

[Milan Fistonic]

This is from Autonews Vol 3 No 14 in the Teretonga report.

Thompson has bought the [Monaro] from Spinner Black. He bought it minus motor and installed the 350 mill from his brand-new road-going GTS350, shoved in a cam, added a set of side draught Webers(!) and has gone motor racing. "There's a lot of work to be done before I do any winning."

[Milan Fistonic]

Milan-can you tell me what number Autonews that was in. I have vol 3, number 11.
In this the Monaro was for sale and gave its lap times for practice at this meeting-
Apparently at this practice session, Coppins in the Monaro was lapping in 65.8 .
The Camaro was lapping 65.7, so there was not much between the 2.
Fahey was doing 67.2, Dawson 64.4,Riley 65.3
$8000 could buy this Monaro complete ready to go with new four wheel trailer.
Had 48 IDA Webers with Moon manifold, now have found this to go with the car.

It came from Vol 3 No 12 though the actual magazine has Vol 2 No 12 on the cover.

[John McKechnie]

.

[John McKechnie]

here is program for this race

[stubuchanan]

here is program for this race

Here is my page of same programme with grid noted on top right corner of page, Riley on pole. Not sure who was supposed to be on row 2 with Rodger Anderson or on row 5 beside Brocklehurst, but clearly they non-started.
Dawson used '35' race number not 135 as in programme. Not worth repainting both doors I guess!



Also Fahey Escort getting close scrutiny -



And the 2 North End Motors (Kamo) Mini Coopers of John Weston and Tim Slako. I presume Tim was from the North, like Weston



Don't seem to have a picture of Bob Homewood's car, sorry Bob.

Stu

[John McKechnie]

.

[Malcolm McLeod]

Yep, Tim Slako is an expat Northlander, from Waipu.

[Malcolm McLeod]

Mr McKechnie sir,
If it's the John Stone I'm thinking of, then he is the chief photographer at The Northern Advocate newspaper in Whangarei, you should be able to get him at: mailto:?subject=&body= . He still competes on occasions in the Classic Trial events, in fact was champion a few seasons ago. That's if I'm thinking the right person....

[John McKechnie]

Malcolm- thank you very much for this lead.I will keep this thread informed of any contact with him.

[John McKechnie]

I contacted John Stone at the above address and it is the same person.He remembers the car and he said he will look through his photos to see what he can find. He was photographer for Autonews and Wide Wheels .There is every chance he may have some pix of the Monaro and other cars that we have not seen before. Also the reporter at the time Howard Harris lives in Whangarei as well so maybe they can both come on board and pass on there memories of this period..Great solid lead Malcolm, take a bow.

[fullnoise68]

John, I hope you`ve got one hand on the keyboard and the other in the toolbox LOL!!!

[John McKechnie]

Here is the HK Monaro that was once a proud race car.This is the ex Team Cambridge Monaro. Found 15 years ago in Otara. This thread is about this car.

[Bruce302]

great archive photo John, I know how hard that was to get. In some ways it is good taht it did sit for so long and not actually get totally demolished on the road.

Bruce.

[John McKechnie]

.

[Milan Fistonic]

Milan-back with new request on this Monaro quest. I have had a very kind gentleman supply to me a pic of the Monaro at the Port Road Drags , Wellington about 1970. Got the best time of 10.07 seconds.
This was 3/16 of a mile standing start .Was running 58 DCOE Webers with McKay cross over manifold, and very F5000 exhaust type system .That is fast!!! Anyway they were experimenting with a down draught set up as well.This was featured in an early 1970 Wide Wheels mag.
Would you have this mag, as if there are pics I would love the get a really good copy of it-some of these pix can be grainy.

I can't find anything about the Drag meeting but the May Ruapuna Mercury Series report has this photo of the Monaro carbs.

In the report it mentions that the Monaro had been repaired after the Levin shunt. Thomspon finished second to Fahey in the second preliminary race and retired from the main race after the gear lever broke. He tried to carry on changing gear with what was left of the lever but eventually the gearbox stuck in second and he was out.

The shunt happened at the mid-April Levin meeting where "most saloon events except the championship races were supposedly for all-comers, but the only significant addition to the fields was the Monaro of Grady Thompson, which apart from its un-necessarily gutted interior, and over 5.5-litre engine, would have qualified for the championship events in any case."

In practice Fahey did a 54.0 sec; Coppins a 54.2 sec; Nazer 54.8; Riley 56.0 and Thompson also 56.0. Thompson finished third in the Levin Saloon Car Championship race behind Fahey and Coppins.

"In race 9 Grady Thompson had the Monaro going extremely well, but it looked very twitchy, and eventually he lost it at Beach Bend, and caught it again, only to hit the bank at Rothmans, doing considerable damage to the car. This was said to have been caused by a blown tyre."

Then at Ruapuna "the next day."

"After stuffing his hot Monaro into the bank at Levin, Wellington driver Grady Thompson won the main race at Ruapuna the next day in the similarly painted production Monaro that he usually uses as a tow car."

[John McKechnie]

Thank you Milan for this beautiful photo. Gerard told me about this pic where they changed the carbs from the 45DCOE and McKay cross over manifold to this 48IDA with Moon manifold set up. He said the caption was-"Where Grady gets all his air from". I have contacted the photographer of this mag at the time-John Stone , is his name next to this pic as photographer?

[Milan Fistonic]

No, not John Stone. It's a Robin Curtis photo.