New Zealand Historic Racing Cars Book

[Steve Holmes]

Folks, I'm about to start work on a new book and would like your input.

The book is about historic racing cars that have NZ history. It'll cover both single seaters, sports cars and saloons, and I would say anything older than 30 years old.

The book will be around 200 pages long, which means if each car gets from 4 - 8 pages, there will be space for approx 30 cars. Also, photos need to be a consideration. It needs to be visual, so if a car is featured I need to be able to pair it up with photos so its not just text. Both current and period photos, if the car still exists.

The cars can be NZ built, or international but with NZ history. Doesn't matter if they're still in NZ or have since gone overseas, but they do need to have been either NZ owned, or spent a reasonable amount of time in NZ. Also, they need to have had NZ race history when new, or newish, rather than cars that have since been purchased by Kiwis for historic racing.

I'd be keen to know what cars you think should be included. Please list your preferences below.

Thanks in advance.

[Roger Dowding]

Steve,

Obviously not trying to redo a Graham Vercoe, book , which we know had lots of incorrect information , but was the first real attempt to get a huge amount on paper..
As you have seen have many photo's but all pretty amateur as mainly taken with Box Brownie type cameras and the odd borrow of a Leica .. happy for you to borrow any I have put on TRS ..

As far as Cars .. The Fleetwood Mustang, The Morrari, [ Allan Dick did a good article on it recently ].. Custaxie .. a Begg or two .. sports cars in particular .. and the Stantons various cars ..

Good Luck and Cheers

Roger D ..

[TonyG]

Cuda FF and Cuda Pacific cars. Nazer Victor, PDL Mustangs, Sidchrome Mustang, Fahey Mustang (In Bowden Collection), Halliday Capri.
Any Begg as mentioned by Roger D, are there any Mcrae's still in NZ ? on the fringes of your description Dennys McLaren F1 and if still in NZ any of the Can Am's of same.

[Allan]

Sounds like a great idea. Some race cars had many owners and even more drivers, the Begg FM2s springing to mind here. Another interesting group are the National Formula cars of the sixties that went on to become the early Formula Fords and in some cases sports cars. You have my collection of photos so please feel free to use them as you wish. Allan

[Grant Ellwood]

The Peter Bennett A40 Allcomers car is still in mint original condition and visiting some US tracks to add to it's CV.

[Swannie]

And here is a picture of Peter Bennett's A40 fin the pits at Levin.

[khyndart in CA]

Those reversed headlights add a nice touch !

[John McKechnie]

Swannie- do you have a date for this Levin meeting please?

[Swannie]

Swannie- do you have a date for this Levin meeting please?

Sorry I don't have an exact date but it would be around 1965 or 1966.

The photos are part of my late fathers collection that I have just had converted from slides to a digital format. Other photos in the collection all appear to be around the 65-66 period.

[John McKechnie]

Fantastic that you have them, and that they have survived in such neat condition, certainly look forward to seeing the rest when you have the time to post.

[Milan Fistonic]

Swannie- do you have a date for this Levin meeting please?

Peter Bennett's Lotus Farina was number 91 at the Levin meetings in November 1966 and January 1967.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks so much everyone who has posted. This is really great stuff, and interesting to get peoples opinions.

Before creating this thread I had created a small list of cars. They include:

Begg FM5 (Oxton)
Capri RS2600 (Fahey)
Ferrari 256 (Hoare)
Ferrari LM (Buchanan)
Maserati 250F (Amon)
McLaren M8A
Custaxie

I wasn't sure if I should include the McLaren, as it didn't actually race in NZ. This isn't a requirement for the book that the cars raced in NZ. What do you folks think? Should it have NZ racing history?

[Kwaussie]

You may be interested in the potted history of the HWM that came to New Zealand in 1954.

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/20929/lot/328/

Few more photos here.

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/hwm-tasman-grand-prix-car-1952.325605/

[GD66]

There is info a-plenty on the Hoare Ferrari in David Manton's book of surprises.

[Grant Ellwood]

Peter Bennett's Lotus Farina was number 91 at the Levin meetings in November 1966 and January 1967.

Quoting from the archival Twenty Year History of the Levin Motor Racing Circuit 1956-1976 published by Lance Hastie - "In the Allcomers handicap, JR Chrystal from Taihape lead most of the way in his MG powered Austin A50 from Dick Sellen's Mini. The sensation of this race was Peter Bennett in the very attractive looking Lotus powered Farina. He came through from the back of the grid, clocking one lap at 56.4 seconds for an outright saloon record. The result put him in third ahead of Dickie Butter's Anglia"

I'm guessing that time was a shade quicker than the Custaxie and faster than Dave Sinpson's twin cam Anglia lap record set the previous year. Perhaps Milan can confirm that for us!

[Grant Ellwood]

Oops, forgot to mention that was the November 1966 meeting at Levin.

[Swannie]

Peter Bennett's Lotus Farina was number 91 at the Levin meetings in November 1966 and January 1967.

Thanks for the Milan

[Swannie]

Thanks for that Grant, will have to try and get hold of the book.

[Grant Ellwood]

Hi Swannie, that book is invaluable, there were obviously a lot of contributors, I think the main ones were Murray Carkeek and John Climo. I know when I turned the pages it brought back a lot of personal memories of my connection with the Levin circuit.
I first started spectating there in 1964, I was 14 and drove my dads Ford V8 well-side truck to Levin from Foxton minus a licence or permission of course. While at high school at 13 I had started reading UK Autosport magazine so knowing F1 heroes Jim Clark etc were going to appear at Levin,nothing could keep me away. That was a great era and I have great regard for all the racing personalities of those days, many still with us and many gone.

[928]

Steve, a thought for you. If you split your book into two sections, one for imports and the other for local builds, it may be easier to write and use
928