Yards And Yarns

[thunder427]

..and Christchurch had 'Hamco' Speed Equipment,Oxford Tce,down by the 'Bridge of Remembrance',this was run in the 60's by the most patient gentleman,Mr Bill Clarke,we would buy those 'Have to have' items ,such as racing mirrors,the English bullit shaped,the only came in 'Chrome',you would order two then buy one one pay day,then the other a fortnight later........'Hood Pins' with the plastic covered cables......'Stick-on' GT/Racing stripes,that went along the door just above the sill's...'Chrome' wheel Nuts,looked great on the Anglia/Cortina/Mk1 Zephyr after one had removed the 'Hubcaps'.....And the MOST purchased item was the Cortina GT badge,we put them on every thing,instant Gooooooooo!!.....as I said Bill treated us all equal,he was a great supporter of our many 'Kustom Car Club' activities.....always had time to listen to my 'Hair Brain' scheme's, but would always put a 'positive Spin' on his answer.

Late 1969,Bill invited me to his beautiful old home/house, something to do with 'Autorama' which I was organising at that time,we meet in his garage out the back of the property,my memory still registers, WOW!!,in this workshop/garage was the Alfa,single seater ,1939/German Grand Prix Winner,in the final stages of restoration,this gentleman was there hand rubbing the Red Lacquer using 'Brasso'........(never 'ever' for got that tip!!!).........I believe Bill isnt so well these days,but if any Forum member is in touch with Bill, I would appreciate my regard being forwarded.........regards thunder427/MJ

[AMCO72]

OK, this is going to be a long one so get comfy.......One doesn't normally associate wrecking yards with motorsport connections but in the 'old days' we in NZ were at the forefront of the homebuilt special and much of the raw material for that special came from wrecking yards. Clever guys like Hec Green, Wally Darrell, George Smith, Frank Shuter, the Stanton Bros, the list goes on and on, sourced their engines...often but not exclusively flat-head V8's, frames, axles, and almost everything else from a wrecking yard. Actually Hec Green is probably the odd man out there as he was VERY clever and designed and manufactured a lot of stuff himself. By the time all these bits and pieces had been cobbled together, and a thing of beauty stood in the driveway, a lot of hours rather than money had been spent. I should say that most of these things were definately NOT a thing of beauty and the scrutineers of today would have a heart attack if such devices were presented for inspection. Never mind, they did the business and some were extraordinarily successful, and some are still racing today 60 years after their initial conception. I mentioned earlier that I had bought my first car from a wrecking yard, not to build a special, but as a means of escape! It was however engineless and that came from another Singer that had been 'trucked'...a sort of early ute....a common procedure in those days. This car/truck had been sitting in a dirt floored shed not far from where I lived on Mt Pleasant and over the years through non use had sunk into the soft earth floor. I had known about it before I purchased the car from the wrecking yard, and it's owner Bob Scott, who had parked it up after one too many fires in the engine room...Bob was frequently seen beating out the flames with a coal sack....agreed to sell it to me for 10 pounds. The deal was that he would get the motor going again. I thought, yeh right, thats going to take some doing, but no. After cleaning things up, it had a magneto for the ignition so no battery required, some fresh fuel in the gravity tank, and sparkplugs and leads checked, it didn't take too many swings on the crank to awake the old girl from it's slumbers. Was music to my ears and I can still hear it today! We jacked it out of the mud, pumped up the tyres, amazingly they still held air, and I drove triumphantly down the hill to my home. My Mother nearly had a fit when she saw it.....'what will the neighbours think'. Stuff the neighbours, I had my first car and everyone reading this site has been there and remembers it well. I kept the good bits from the 'trucked' machine, installed the engine in the car from the wrecking yard and went cruising. Well sort of. She was a cantankerous old bitch and I spent more time under the bonnet than driving, but hey I was free. The cause of the frequent fires that Bob had experienced became obvious one day when I was watching it running with hood open..a tiny pin hole in the fuel line was allowing petrol to drip onto the hot manifold and all the stray sparks from the magneto set it ablaze. As I related, my friend Stacey had an Austin 7 and we used to have races round McCormacks bay road on a traffic cop, and traffic free course. I was amazed that the Singer could not beat the agricultural Austin 7...my car had an overhead camshaft for goodness sake, and was rated one more horsepower...8, so should have been able to eat the Austin. But no, and dont worry I had the accelerator THROUGH the firewall [what an appropriate name for that car] Both cars could get up to about 45 mph, but I can tell you that at that speed with everything flapping, rattling and vibrating, and oil smoke issuing from places it shouldn't, you felt as though you were really getting on with the washing!!!!!! I eventually sold the Singer when I left home to go to Lincoln because my Mother said 'it lowered the tone of the neighbourhood and insisted that I 'get rid of that eyesore at the front gate'. Goodbye old girl, the car that is, you taught me a lot. All I have left are memories, photos, and the 4, ring and open ended Whitworth Sidchrome spanners that I bought you back to life with.

[thunder427]

AMCO72,there are a couple of things you and I have to discuss!!!!!,firstly I must appologise,Speed reading you last post,I read,Quote;'My Mother nearly had a fit when she saw it..."what will the Neighbours Think'..then the next line I picked up on stated..'she was cantankerous old Bitch'........I thought AMCO72 can't be talking about his Mother surely.....Ofcourse I slowed down a fraction and it all fell into place.....So, why do we call cars..SHE'???????????

Secondly I've had a security type camera mounted above my key board,I think I'm getting out of bed durring the night and posting short snipets of my life under the tag of AMCO72, truely!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My first car was a Singer.9,sorta like a Morris.8,I too, spent my wages at the wreckers keeping it on the Road, Marshland Rd wreckers supplied the Gearbox and a radiator,Papanui Auto wreckers starter mtr and brake parts, my 2nd car was an Austin.7 'special' that came home on a trailer,took me nearly 2yrs to get it registered,and to top it off,when I bought my '34 Coupe 'Hot Rod' with hand painted 'flames', my Mother (could have been related to AMCO72"S Mum!!) ...."youre not parking that inview of our Neighbours,you get out there and clean up the garage,your Father and I are not against you having the car Dear,but I think it would be better of out of site,you don't want them to think you are a ...(Wait for this)....'TEDDY BOY"!!!!!!

Papanui Wreckers was a great place,I would buy things on a small deposit,such as my 1957 Ford steering wheel for the 'Rod',I would go into make a payment,spot some other 'shinny' bit I thought I would need,so Mr Parry ( I'm sure that was the owners name ,but time!!!?) would put me to manual labour.."Right Young'in get those 4 wheels over there and fit those 4 tyres and tubes and well see just how much that will be"!!...no fancy tyre Machines of today,thank you!!!..tyre levers and the bloody heavey thing called a 'Bead Breaker',try 'Back Breaker'......I would finish as fast as I could then he would offer the part, if it was a, get you to the 'Dance' on Saturday night part,...."Ok Young'in, you worked well, I think you and that part and I are about square"!!!!!.."Now Shove off before I think of something else for you to do"!!!!!

AMCO72,this whole thing of you cycling down Ferry Rd ,has me wondering, if I wasn't learning to wash cars as you rode past.............and absolutely no malice meant towards your Mum ,it just seemed funny, the way I read it.....regards thunder427/MJ

[AMCO72]

Heaven forbid thunder 427 that I would call my dear Mother 'a cantankerous old bitch'!!!!!!! No she wasnt, she was very sweet, but she was always worrying about what other people thought, and I cant answer your question as to why we call cars [and boats] 'SHE'. I dont think you had better speed-read my stuff anymore or I will be getting up in the middle of the night to see if you have excommunicated me from the site!! Do you know that I have a piece of paper and pen by my bed so that any thoughts..no not those ones at my time of life....that come into my head can be jotted down...can even do it without turning on the light. Hamco speed shop has now gone the way of the flesh, maybe literally after the quake, and is now one of those yuppy type wine bars that have sprung up along that section of Oxford Tce. Lovely view while you sit there sipping your cheeky 'Chateau Avon' and the river glides slowly by. Hamco's stuff was out of my price range but the name speed shop brings to mind Hotrods, Dragsters, Bonneville and 'Roadsters'.....those chopped and channeled,usually B4's that became synonymous with Bonneville. One of my Lincoln pals had a B4, with a V8 transplant and I will tell you about it soon.

[AMCO72]

" I'll think about it"......didn't that phrase get you out of jail. On my many inspections of car yard stock, that was my standard reply to awkward questions from the salesman. But not all used car salesmen were rogues...thunder427 mentions Barry Brown as being a good guy, and I can think of a few who you thought you could trust. Stan Richardson comes to mind. Stan had a yard in Hamilton East and frequently had sports, or at least sporting cars on the lot. He had, on one of my visits, a Mini Cooper 1071 S, grey with a white roof which Stan in his inimitable style tried to sell me. Now Stan was what I call a real car salesman, obviously an educated guy and he had as they say...'a good turn of phrase'... but you never got the impression that he was trying to talk you into something...... 'you catch more bees with honey'. I took the 1071 for a spin, as you did, Stan being a very trusting man, although I had more than a passing acquaintance with Stan as we had met a number of times at the Vintage car club. The car went very well of course, but the racket of the gears inside was something I couldn't come to terms with, so on that occasion Stans' sweet talk had no effect. I tried out a couple more Coopers around the same time but just could not bring myself to buy one. It wasn't until much later when Angus was doing rally-cross at Mystery creek with 'Mincer' that I got interested in Minis, and in 1984 we bought the X Rod Collingwood 2 time championship winning car to compete in classic racing. But that's another story as they say.

[AMCO72]

Lincoln College, formerly Canterbury Agricultural College is hardly the sort of place one would associate with buying and selling performance cars, or have any connections with motorsport, but bear with me and I will explain. I have mentioned Lincoln a number of times in these stories...was there from 1959 to 1961 and the student car parks certainly resembled used car lots and a number of the cars parked therein were definately past their use buy date. I have already mentioned one of my escapades on the AJS 7R to 'win' the 5 shilling Morris. Christchurch,22 miles away was our entertainment centre, and Springston 3 miles up the road our drinking centre, so it was essential to have some form of transport or be able to hitch a ride, or you were house-bound. I did own the MG TC at the time but was kept at my parents home. We had an amazing collection of vehicles from which to choose, any one of which would be prized possessions in the VCC today. Lots of Fords...model A's and T's, Overland, Hudson, Chrysler, Whippet.....'finger-tip-control'....Reo, Buick, Austins and Morris's....no Jaguars. The bikes, all English of course, AJS, Triumph, Norton, BSA, Vellocette, Ariel, and Scott. There was a sort-of L.M.V.D. system working at the College, without the 'L' as vehicles were traded between the students so tended to stay on the campus. The ultimate car in my opinion was a 1928 Chrysler 77 roadster, the same model that came 6th and 7th in the 1929 Le Mans 24hr race. It had no hood, but who cared we just put on a raincoat when it was wet. Under the bonnet was a big lusty 6 cylinder side-valve engine that had a big lusty thirst for petrol, and we regularly exceed 70 mph in her on our forays into Christchurch. We had fitted our 'patented' oil injection system to some of the cars.....a small pipe leading into the exhaust manifold connected to a pump oil can in the cockpit. If we needed to set up a smoke screen, for what ever reason, all that was necessary was to pump some waste oil into the hot exhaust and, hey presto, instant smoke. We tried it during the capping procession through the streets of Christchurch in 1960 and the authorities were not impressed!! The old 5 shilling Morris never needed this device as it produced its own smoke screen.....not so much 'follow that car but follow that smoke'. Motor bikes were usually, but not always cheaper to buy than cars and were certainly a lot cheaper to run. I didnt have a bike licence...did you need one then, cant remember.. certainly no compulsory helmets and I did a lot of miles on them. My favourite was a Triumph Tiger 110. It that glorious sound that the Japanese manufacturers tried hard to imitate later..Suzuki I think,..I kid you not. Most if not all of the bikes had at some stage been raced and had good histories, and some were getting distinctly tired. Now the Lincoln pub, our 'local', was under the watchfull eye of Constable Paddy McGrail....'och aye the noo Jimmy'...who resided in Lincoln township. He knew that under age [21 years] students frequented the pub and would make lightning raids in his Ford Zephyr. Word quickly got around when he arrived and us illegal drinkers would try to escape out the back door, but Paddy was wise to that trick and generally rounded us up. What a sheepish looking lot we were!! I got fined 13 shillings and 6 pence for...'.being on licenced premises whilst under age' Wow, big deal. Well it was for my poor Mother when my name appeared in the court appearances section of the newspaper..'what will my friends think'!!! Actually Paddy, unlike a lot of the police, was an OK guy. He was just doing his job and we didn't hold it against him....I think he enjoyed giving the Zephyr a blast from Lincoln to Springston. So that was Lincoln, best years of my life and I'll bet the student car-parks today are filled with Jap imports. As beowulf said...boring.

[Shano]

Well told Amco, loved the story about the smokescreen device. (BTW I got my car licence in about 1972 and that automatically qualified you for a bike licence, so you were legal.) Still got it, still ride bikes.

[AMCO72]

Thanks Shano....we certainly had some fun, dont know how we found time to swat. As for bikes. I got all interested some years ago and thought I would just love to have a bike again. A dealer in Hamilton had a lovely Triumph Bonneville 750cc machine that had had total, 100% restoration. He had a sheaf of invoices and receipts an inch thick. The dealer allowed me to take them home where I spend ages checking them out. The restorers name was there so I gave him a ring. He was a Triumph man of course and the bike had been 'rescued' from a gang situation. He said he never intended to go so far on the restoration but just got carried away. Needless to say the cost in hours and money would never be recovered but he had to sell to pay some bills...very sad. Anyway I went for a spin, and do you know I got cramp within about 100 meters of the shop. The bike had low ape-hanger bars and I just couldnt get comfortable. Certainly went well although everything was tight, he cant have done many miles on it, and with my replacement knees screaming at me I decided, NO, I didnt need this. Anyway I would have had to put a snig chain around it in my garage or the 'tanga te whenua might have sneaked in during the night and 'borrowed' it. So I flagged it away. It didnt last long in the shop needless to say and I hope the new owner gets a lot of pleasure form it.

[105angria]

what was the garage that was famous for WOF,s if the car wasnt quite right Tai Tap ?

[AMCO72]

Tai Tapu.......dont know. We never used to worry about such formalities as a WOF. In those days the Rego and WOF were not tied, so all we did was register the vehicle, and if we got pulled up and had no warrant the fine was 10 shillings. So we paid that and got on with living. Actually cops were few and far between then. I have a story about a cop chasing me for 8 miles.....stupid really. I was in my XK120 C just minding my own business cruising back to the farm at Leeston at night, sitting just on 100mph. Imagine doing that today. I'll get it together and post later.

[Shano]

THe said he never intended to go so far on the restoration but just got carried away.

That's what is known in bike resto circles as "scope creep."

Re warrants: we were sweet with that. Someone I know purloined two WOF books from the local garage when they left them lying round, so we had a ready supply of genyoowine wofs. I recall a traffic cop walking round my VW Kombi van - motocross bike transporter - shaking his head in disbelief looking at the totally rotten bodywork, and going back several times to study the newly-minted warrant on the windscreen. Computers have wrecked that sort of carry-on.

[AMCO72]

OK, this has nothing to do with yards or anything else on this thread, it is just a bedtime story for your enjoyment. The story of the 8 mile chase happened in 1964 when I was managing a dairy farm on the outskirts of Leeston in Canterbury. Those familiar with the area will recall the long straight roads typical of Canterbury where high speeds could, and often were, maintained. These straights were bisected every so often by side-roads, often shingle, that gave access to the surrounding countryside. One summer evening after visiting my parents at Mt Pleasant and having enjoyed a nice home cooked meal...no wine...I was heading back to the farm. I had left the City boundary and was cruising along minding my own business, probably listening to the radio, or maybe the glorious sound of thre exhaust on the Jag, when, as I flashed past one of those side-roads I just caught a flash of a patrol car waiting just out of sight. I glanced at my speedo, as you did, needle wavering around 100mph, rev counter sitting on 4,500, and decided to keep going. After a short while I had another look in my rear vision mirror and could just make out the flashing light on the patrol car....they were small insignificant things then unlike the lighting displays today. I thought to myself....youll give up soon, Iv'e got a good start and I could easily push the old Jag beyond 100 if necessary. We continued like this for a while, the distance between us seemed to remain the same. Then I had a thought.....I wonder if the cop in the car was the one from Leeston, if so, I was known to him and he would get me eventually. Common sense prevailed and I 'slowed' to 70mph and kept going. Very gradually he caught me up, pulled alongside....they dont do that anymore....and ordered me to pull over which I dutifully did. He should have parked in front of me to prevent me from making a quick getaway as I was clearly a dangerous criminal, but no he pulled in behind. I again glanced in my mirror to see what he was doing...perhaps loading a gun... and noticed a cloud of steam/smoke issuing from all parts of the Zephyr, a mk3. The man himself hopped out, got halfway to my window, went back to retrieve his cap, and advanced to my now open window. He was clearly in a tiz. This was going to be official. His first words to me were not...'can I see your licence' but 'I'm going to throw the book at you'. Goodness I was in trouble this time.! My response in those days to jumped up cops was...NO response. The poor man was shaking from head to toe and not because it was a cold night....indead it had been a nor-wester that day and was distinctly warm, hence the elevated temparature on the Zephyr. [those Mk 3's were pretty good machines, had it been a Mk4 it would have blown up miles back] He eventually got the ticket written out, on a blue form I think.....my Dad used to get blueys regularly...and without wishing me so much as a good evening went back to the now clearly distressed patrol car. I was feeling very calm after all this, unusual for me, and continued on to the farm. Dont know what happened to the Zephyr but at the very least a head gasket job, and NO it wasnt the Leeston cop in the car after all, so I could have put my foot down and left him in the dust...bugger. I received a summons for my crime, although I didnt defend the charge, was only fined 13 pounds, probably because the officer had no idea what speed I was actually doing except for the last part of the chase when I slowed down to 70mph. I had expected a licence cancellation at the very least or maybe thrown in jail. You read of pursuits today that often end in crashes, but this was at 10 o'clock at night, on a safe and straight road, in a good car, with virtually no other traffic. A few days later I checked the distance from where I had been pulled over to the X road where it started......8 miles.

[AMCO72]

We will get back to yards shortly so be patient. Yes Shano, all the fun has gone out of motoring now in this politicly and culturally correct world. We didnt worry about WOF's at Lincoln because quite frankly half the cars would have failed, and the WOF test then was a lot easier than now. Todays testers, at my garage anyway, wern't even born when they put my 1966 MG 1100 through. Back then a few pumps with the grease gun JUST before you drove to the garage usually did the trick and took up all the slack in steering components. And remember speeds weren't anything like they are today. A 50 mph open road limit was all that most cars were comfortable with and with relatively poor brakes you learned to drive very defensively. Can't remember what the road toll was then but I dont think it was studied quite as closely as it is today.

[AMCO72]

What....no reply to my 8 mile chase story. Everyone must be in bed so I'll have a chat about another yard. Well not so much a yard as a dealership. Croziers in Christchurch was the Austin/BMC dealership in town and had in the early 60's one or two Mini Coopers on display.....cars that would later have a huge impact on the International Rallying scene. I remember visiting the showroom in 1958...my last year at school to check out the new Mini...probably an Austin Seven as they were called. Along with the rest of the ChCh car buying public I dismissed it as a funny little car that would never catch on. Croziers did a year or two later have a Cooper 'S' on display but they still looked like Minis and didnt interest me one bit. I was a 'dyed in the wool' English car enthusiast, as was my Dad although he made occasional forays into those funny foreign jobs....the Mercedes was one he did buy, but also got interested in Renault and Alfa Romeo, but I dragged him back into line fairly smartly. The little Lancia was the exception. Back to BMC cars. In those days we used to have the Mobilgas Economy run and the Austin 850's used to do quite well though I can't remember the details. Dominion Motors had the Morris version of the Mini and these two firms made a big thing out of the economy run results and eventually did very well.....so I was wrong about the Mini not catching on. While we are on the subject of ChCh, and I am obviously from there and I still have whanau down there.....we are thinking of you and how the place will change dramtically from how I remember it. I'm sure you will get it right eventually. Meantime keep warm and keep smiling....perhaps by reading some stories on this site.

[pallmall]

"What....no reply to my 8 mile chase story."

Don't worry, I think we are all totally enthralled by your stories, and the memories.

[AMCO72]

Thanks Pallmall, I was begining to get worried. Actually there was a Motorsport connection in the 8 mile chase bedtime story! The Mk3 Zephyr. May be it was too subtle.....think Ernie Sprague. Didnt Ernie and now Gary have a yard down Timaru way. I know nothing about it or them so perhaps someone can enlighten me and others. I was re-reading that 8 mile chase story and thought....100mph....160kph...wow big deal....your average 2 litre family saloon can do that today. Back then though your average 2 litre saloon couldn't get anywhere near that, 70 to 75 mph maybe, and that was it....downhill with a tail wind, and you better not keep it up for any length of time or your engine would end up like the Zephyrs'. You will have noticed that at 100 mph the big 3.5 litre, 220 hp Jaguar engine was turning over at 4,500 rpm, say 3200rpm at 60 mph. The family saloon now would hardly be doing 2,200 rpm at that speed now. They could really have geared up those long stroke motors a lot more, hence the use of overdrives, which made for much more relaxed driving. The XK didn't have overdrive, but had a close ratio gearbox with a very high 3rd gear which could take the car to around 110 mph, and on to perhaps 125 mph in top. Those high revs did not worry us at the time although the piston speeds must have been getting on towards the 2,500 ft/min that was considered unsafe to go beyond. Low revs on todays cars probably contributes to their long life, although I concede that metal technology, machining tolerances, oils and filters all help, and of course NO dusty roads so the engines are breathing cleanish air. Not sure what the top speed of the Zephyr would have been...probably about 90 mph, though the transport dept probably had 1/4 race camshafts and extractor exhausts on the patrol car engines, after all most of the stuff they had to 'chase' couldn't get anywhere near the Zephyrs top speed. I have never been a Ford man but have always liked the Mk3, unlike the Mk4 which was a pile of junk [in MY opinion] You see a few Mk3's restored today, usually in the hands of the rodding brigade, and it still looks a sharp car.

[AMCO72]

Continuing on from the Mk3 Zephyr adventure, we really do need to do a bit about Ernie and his car, not just a mention of his yard on this site. The combination had a fearsome reputation on NZ race tracks way back when. I have a short video documentary done by TVNZ years ago ,where Ernie is being 'interviewed'...a rare thing for Ernie. He talks about recreating the car and how he found the original head and carbs in Thames [ theres that town again] He recalled that he was going to hang up his hat and invited Gary to 'step into my shoes'. His various exploits in the E49 Charger are also covered. Not one of our most lugubrious characters but by God what a determined driver. The video has some footage of Ernie giving the car some stick at Levels, or maybe Ruapuna, with that lovely 6 cylinder exhaust note booming round the track. In the film Ernie looks very old, and I say that in the nicest possible way... can hardly recognize him. Can hardly recognize the car either as it looks very pristine, unlike the battered old warhorse the original became in its racing days. It, or another recreation, appeared in the 1993 Hamilton Classic Street race....not the ideal circuit for a Mk3. So go for it someone who knows about this character, and no, I can't put the video on this thread because I haven't a clue how to do it....hopeless!!!!

[105angria]

I have a clear picture of Sprague and Archiebold going nuts at Wigram both going off at last corner before start finish,into hay bales, finishing race with buckled wheels, all out racing

[AMCO72]

Yep, that was Ernie. There are pictures of him entangled in the hay bales in Dunedin....he had the race in the bag but blew it on the last corner. You could say that about other drivers to..... big names, couldn't just cruise to the finish, had to keep racing!!!

[AMCO72]

The documentary I mentioned is on Youtube. Just type in Ernie Sprague and youl'l see it. Good stuff. Turn the sound up!!!!