Team Cambridge Monaro

[John McKechnie]

I was told to talk to Greg Tordoff, but am having trouble tracking him down.
Graeme Williams the mechanic at the time - remember him- is still going strong, running a business in Cambridge near Jim Carlyle who also was with Spinner. Quite a few people had been with him.
Both have very strong memories of that time and like you, can talk like all of this was just yesterday.
Its great that the time is kind to both of us right now and we can talk to each other like this.

[khyndart in CA]

That is a blast from the past..Graeme Williams..we did crazy stuff in Anglias back then.
Give my regards to Bob Summerell if you reach him..fond memories of his cheerful attitude always.
Also check your private messages as it stated it was full up. (Do I have your email ?)
All the best John. What a great job you guys do of bringing these cars back to life.

[John McKechnie]

my pm box now empty- will pm you when I get back from walking the dogs.........

[kiwi285]

That car is looking great John. Really looking forward to seeing the original Cambridge Racing Team colours again on track. Loved the Fahey 70 Boss Mustang in those colours and the Anderson BMW 2002.

You are the last person anyone should refer to as a 'gunna'. You have done more building, repairing and organising in the last year than most others would have done in a couple of years.

Do you have any timeline set out for the car now ?

[Spgeti]

Car is looking good John. Such good history. cheers, Bruce

[GD66]

That car is looking great John. You are the last person anyone should refer to as a 'gunna'. You have done more building, repairing and organising in the last year than most others would have done in a couple of years.

Agree with that. There's always some sad sack offering free advice, but you seldom line up bedside them on the grid. Car's looking good mate, and back in the days when it was running in the Cambridge colours it was still quite distinctive from the Mustangs and Camaros, so looking forward to seeing that again. Truth be known, it did look pretty good even in stock colours : was it turbine bronze metallic ?

[John McKechnie]

Car is looking good John. Such good history. cheers, Bruce

Bruce- got to laugh mate- when you and I had that COD in my hand at Legends, I was thinking- **** the Monaro, give me what you sent me the pic of and I will put this 327 in that .
More history too- Had 5 leads on people from 1969, so far a car painter remembers seeing a metallic blue Monaro next to a light coloured Camaro in 1969, that matches what is under the white. Also it was a 6 cylinder.More to come.

Now its in, things are looking good, and the motivation level is good.
I will be keen to have it at The Sound MG meeting November 13, 14, 15 to run in the Historic Sports Sedan class at Manfield.

[John McKechnie]

Agree with that. There's always some sad sack offering free advice, but you seldom line up bedside them on the grid. Car's looking good mate, and back in the days when it was running in the Cambridge colours it was still quite distinctive from the Mustangs and Camaros, so looking forward to seeing that again. Truth be known, it did look pretty good even in stock colours : was it turbine bronze metallic ?

I have old panels off the car that have this bronze on, you are welcome to come round and see if it is this colour- dont think it is GMH Daytonna Bronze

[John McKechnie]

That car is looking great John. Really looking forward to seeing the original Cambridge Racing Team colours again on track. Loved the Fahey 70 Boss Mustang in those colours and the Anderson BMW 2002.

You are the last person anyone should refer to as a 'gunna'. You have done more building, repairing and organising in the last year than most others would have done in a couple of years.

Do you have any timeline set out for the car now ?

Mike-Yes, push on and shorten the list each week. I am a 1 hour man- always find 1 hour to actually do something on the car
The other 23 hours in the day, I plan, trouble is 2 race cars, 10 kwakas...........................

[Spgeti]

Hi John, have a look at posting #18 on Racing on Sunday. David Hunter has a photo of the Monaro....might be worth following up.

Looking forward to catch up at Manfeild in November John.


Cheers, Bruce

[khyndart in CA]

John,
You may have seen this already but if you go to this site and click on the superb photos that Jack Inwood took of the Roger Anderson BMW you will get a very good example of the Cambridge Racing Team colour scheme.

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/topic/148322-sharing-some-vintage-race-shots/page-7


(Remember to click on the photos )
Cheers, Ken

[John McKechnie]

Ken- thanks for this.
BTW- John Paton says hello, got hold of Greg, he asked if you were still Stateside. Tadpole Harris and John Rowbotham- all remember you .

[Noo Noo]

Grady Thomson at Levin 15.02.1970. The bronze Monaro was the tow car for it. My understanding at the time was that Rick Rimmer was racing this. Interesting that it has #13 on the window.

( The Cambridge car) To me the bonnet looks dark blue rather than black but the sun is shining on it so it could be deceiving. Also the leather straps holding the bonnet shut have been dispensed with.

Photo quality is not brilliant. My camera was a Agfa Clack. About one step up from a Box Brownie.

David Hunter

[John McKechnie]

David- Wow, this is neat.
So this is the first colour pic, also Spinner has sold the car to Rick and Grady and this is their first outing.
Interesting features are no leather straps holding the bonnet down, the bonnet is blacked out and the bumper has its distinct treatment
Rick told me Gradys favourite number was 13, so maybe he was in the bronze car as Rick won a race in the Cambridge. Also Grady did fastest time of the day in the Cambridge.
It must have been an amazing sight on this Sunday.
Just checked pics from Wigram and it has the proper Cambridge bonnet with colors and sign writing where as this is simple blacked out.
David - can you please email this to me so I can expand it for more details. I am at-

mailto:?subject=&body=.

[Noo Noo]

David- Wow, this is neat.
So this is the first colour pic, also Spinner has sold the car to Rick and Grady and this is their first outgoing.
Interesting features are no leather straps holding the bonnet down, the bonnet is blacked out and the bumper has its distinct treatment
Rick told me Gradys favourite number was 13.
It must have been an amazing sight on this Sunday.

Glad you find it of interest John. I only had one exposure left in my camera (8 exposure film) after using the first 7 at Wigram in January and thought the Monaro the the most worthy car to use it on.

I noticed recently in the book Rally New Zealand- Celebrating 25 Years, a photo of the Thomson/Rimmer Monaro in the 1969 Shell Silver Fern rally showing it was number 13. Presuming the number was allocated by the organisers did Thomson then adopt it as his lucky number after winning the rally?

David Hunter

[John McKechnie]

David- yes , this pic is of great interest to me as it shows changes., many thanks for using the last exposure on my baby.
Ken tells me-
I do not remember the Monaro having a dark painted hood / bonnet at the time I hung around Spinner’s.Perhaps it was done after he sold it.
That date of 15.02.70 means something to me as that was the date I first left home to go to Oz in search of a better income. (Still searching !)

OK, so Wigram was earlier and that had the Cambridge paint job on the bonnet with the straps.
Pictures from Wigram show damage to the bonnet #366 , so they repaired then repainted the bonnet to be blacked out between meetings.
Grady had 13 on the Cambridge car for Wigram, next meeting in South Island it had 59.
When he won the first standard production Glenvale 100 at Baypark in the rally car the number was 1.

Ken-a better picture of your leaning post is #333 of this thread.

Still looking for an old Cambridge cigarette packet if anyone has one laying around.

[John McKechnie]

Hi John, have a look at posting #18 on Racing on Sunday. David Hunter has a photo of the Monaro....might be worth following up.

Looking forward to catch up at Manfeild in November John.


Cheers, Bruce

Hi Bruce- well spotted, definitely was worth it.
Thanks for pointing it out as I missed it

[Spgeti]

It's a cool photo John. No cage....gauges on the dash pad and those wheels....David has done well and he may have other gems in his photo collection.

[Noo Noo]

David- Wow, this is neat.
So this is the first colour pic, also Spinner has sold the car to Rick and Grady and this is their first outing.
Interesting features are no leather straps holding the bonnet down, the bonnet is blacked out and the bumper has its distinct treatment
Rick told me Gradys favourite number was 13, so maybe he was in the bronze car as Rick won a race in the Cambridge. Also Grady did fastest time of the day in the Cambridge.
It must have been an amazing sight on this Sunday.
Just checked pics from Wigram and it has the proper Cambridge bonnet with colors and sign writing where as this is simple blacked out.
David - can you please email this to me so I can expand it for more details. I am at-

mailto:?subject=&body=.

Hi John - I've just re-read this and noted your e-mail request. I won't try to do it myself because I'll make a pigs ear of it but it's alright, I've got a crack team of computer experts on call (my wife and the young bloke next door). I'll get one of them to do it this evening.

[GD66]

Still looking for an old Cambridge cigarette packet if anyone has one laying around.

Have you been in touch with the bloke running the ex-Jim Boyd Lola T70 ? In pics that looks absolutely crack-on for an accurate period colour scheme.