Early O.S.C.A saloons, 1971-75 era, any pics out there b/w or colour?

[Paul Kirk]

Sticking my neck in the nose !!!!!!!!......True or False ????

Mr Bellis, Ex Police deptment, proprietor/owner, 'Coachman Steak House', owner of the Ex Clyde Collins OSCA/Cortina, part-time 'Boy' racer, ordered a ,as quoted;.."A mega Motor Built"...from a Sydney/Australia engine supplier/builder, in those times you could send a motor out of the country of New Zealand for 'reconditioning',re-importing the then 'rebuilt' item did not incur the heavy import duty//Tax a 'new' motor would,so our 'Boy racer,(a paid up member of the Christchurch 'Party People', Great Fridaynights!!) exported some old ,read 'Junk' engine with the required Number stamped in place..........well the rebuilt engine arrived and was installed, but the 'Australian' end didnt pick-up the 'dud at the Sydney Docks...some Custom's officer poking around ask's the question....'whats with this piece of Shite"????...checks the 'Con-note',does some research I'm guessing, only to find the same motor/number was exported back to NZ some week's/months before...........I seem to remember that the Cortina may have been impounded!!!!!!!......the engine removed ........Our Paul Kirk should remember in more detail, he was at some of those Friday Night parties......all the Car yards personal got together after the 9oclock close of bussiness,somebody always had a party going or out to the 'Russley' or the 'White Heron' for late drinks,the line up of American Muscle Cars was something else, could be up to twenty 'Left Hand Drive' cars linning the street............Just the Best Times....when 'SEX' was safe and 'Sky Diving' was DANGEROUS!!!!!!!!!!!!.......................regards thunder427/MJ

Yeah, Thunder, I did get seriously involved with the ex-Bellis Molloy Weslake 32 valve Chev engine, but it was after the customs went around to his workshop and siezed it. It went to auction as a Holden Racing engine, and was bought by Roy Granger who installed it in a speedway supersaloon and suffered much frustration and expense, then sold it to another speedway competitor on the west coast (probably Greymouth). He later reposesed it (because he didn't get paid for it), and asked me if I was interested in putting it together for him. Like a silly buggar (I liked a chalange) I said "Yes".
Well, there's a long, and some may say, interesting story to be told and if anybody's interested I'll put pen to paper (so to speak), and tell that story another day!
PK.

[Paul Kirk]

Hey Paul it would be neat to hear more of the Weslake Chevy.
I remember it being for sale...the engine...years ago.
From memory it had been in a jet boat?
It is still in NZ somewhere, I remember reading about it in the NZHRM a year or 2 ago.
A grouse looking engine!!!

Rodney

Some details re Weslake 4 valve Chev 350, ex Bellis-----
The short block was just the usual racing small block v8, Steel GM crank, Carillos, roller cam, roller chain cam drive, forged pistons etc but the pistons were flat tops, in fact slightly recessed, and dry sumped with Weaver 3 stage pump.
The heads were were designed to just bolt on with a minimum of modification and had beautifull porting, twin rocker shafts, 2 inlet and 2 exhaust valves per cylinder that were operated by forked cast steel rockers with an adjusting screw at the pushrod end. (Tappet adjustment was done by grinding the lash caps so you had equal clearence at both valves, then adjusting the final clearences with the screw). The valve stems were same diameter as BMC A series and quite/very long, the heads quite small and the valve lift was quite low. It also had individule intake runners with slide throttle plates and Scintiller Vertex magneto locked with no advance and Lucas timed mechanical fuel injection. (To get it to idle at acceptable rpm I fitted an electronic distributor with centrifugal advance so the timing at idle was retarded because the throttles leaked so much air it idled way too fast.
The weakness with the engine design was the angles of the pushrods especially the inlets. Even thought they were 3/8 diameter hardened chrome molly tube they still flexed excessively as evidenced by the contact markings, yet when turning the engine by hand there was plenty of clearence!
When first running it on the dyno I was impressed by the exhaust noise, it was beautiful music! And produced 605 bhp at 6000 rpm, with a flat torque curve from 2500rpm. The power fell off very quick over 6500 due to the flexing pushrods losing valve control. Then we encountered issues with inlet valve springs, (breaking), and the valve covers and valley filling up with oil due to excessive oiling to the valve gear and poor drainage, this caused oil leaks and loss of oil pressure due to low level in the dry sump tank an probably aireation. These problems explained why Bellis could only do a couple of laps at a time before blowing smoke and oil at the two meetings he raced it at (Puke and Bay Park) After modifying the oiling system and the inlet rocker geometry and springs/retainers it started to go pretty well.
Roy Grainger raced it quite successfully in his leaf sprung old technology super saloon speedway car with a Powerglyde auto with no torque converter/clutch, locked in 2nd gear, but cooling was a problem so I converted it to run on methanol, this kept it cooler and gave if more power as well. (Not that it needed more)
I spent many hours on that project and learned heaps, didn't charge enough, but I enjoyed it and have a soft spot for that engine.
PK.

[bob homewood]

Paul,that is one good summary of events there in your final sentence you say you had a soft spot for that engine ,I understand what you are saying and how you feel,there has been more that a couple of projects I have felt that way about even though they gave me plenty of grief along the way you become part of them I guess and look back on them with fond memories

[nzboss]

That's great information Paul.
And well written.
Thank you.

Rodney

[Steve Holmes]

Wow, Paul, thats a really good read! Thanks for posting.

[tonttu]

A few pictures I took at Ruapuna in November 1972 maybe with an instamatic or box Brownie!

I think this was an early outing for the Collins Cortina
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Again maybe the first or an early outing for the Sylvester Monaro. What happened to this car?
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Before the Starlet was the Corolla, again what happened to this Crowe car?
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McPhail and Hammond Escorts
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When at varsity a friend had one of these mildly worked over as a road car and I always wanted one (still do actually)
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[tonttu]

OSCA wasn't all about the big capacity cars, a couple more from Ruapuna Nov 1972. The driver's names escape me.
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[Steve Holmes]

Hey these are great! I've also wondered what happened to the Sylvester Monaro. It didn't race for long did it. Then is vanished. Looks like there was a bit of carnage at that event. Both the Monaro and Collins Cortina have damage. The Crowe Chevy Corolla ended up in Palmerston North, owned by Mike Moore (I think). My understanding is that it was eventually scrapped.

[woody]

777B is Barry Vuyk.

[bigbanger]

777B is Barry Vuyk.

That XU1 powered 100E Prefect was quite a car. I'm not sure what happened to it when Barry moved onto the Stilletto-Ford.

[Jac Mac]

It was bought by Don Peddie I believe, I remember him running it in OSCA a couple of times...then it probably went to the Peddie farm to retire... quite a few toys ended up there .....

The A30, IIRC there was one Ford powered & one with Triumph 2000 power anyone know more?

The Torana/XU-1 behind the Hammond x Crosbie/Simpson? Escort could be Peter 'bloody' Kocis (spl?)

All this stuff is not good for me.. If you wanted a wide rim..you made it... roll cage..make it...flare a wheel arch...just cut the inner out,weld it on the outside...fill in the gaps....Hell OSCA even paid prize money per event & then a bonus at season end on points earned during the season... Now what happens, pay a big entry fee, sign your life away in case you hurt someone, pay a fine if some turkey sitting 'on high' deems you were not far enough forward to actually pass...throw away perfectly good crash hats & belts every couple of years...dont even think about making your own wheels or roll cage, just be a good boy now and even though you can see the gaps in the welds of your MSNZ certified cage made by an 'expert', that little scrap of paper & the photos will stop it falling around your ears..use this fuel-yep we know its quality drops off after a couple of weeks, wont matter if your pistons melt, BTW, get the noise down a bit will you... Oh, and the prize money etc...we got over that..the new unwritten rule is that entertainers pay to do so in the name of progress...

[AMCO72]

Jac Mac.......you are a bitter and twisted old man!!!!!! Unfortunately, you are dead right.

[Jac Mac]

JUST RIGHT, Gerald....not quite dead ...yet!!! ...... isnt there an old quote?.... it takes one to recognise one....

PS, that is why I get much pleasure from sneaking as many old school ideas into Jack Ondracks TVR as I can...

[AMCO72]

No.....'it takes one to KNOW one'.......yep, thats me!!!!!!!

[Rod Grimwood]

Jac Mac, So right. The belts has me buggered. Car may be used 3 to 4 times and sits in workshop with cover but no, those belts are 2 years old now so you can not use them. (this is with classic rally car) no doubt by sound of it same with curcuit. i am putting my curcuit car back together so look forward to "you can not have that, that is not acceptable, you will have to change your roll cage".
Any way looking forward to this week end at Ruapuna, will be good.

[rogered]

AMEN to all that jac mac

on the subject of belts.
Now my thought process is gone this way which is no good at all
Do i buy a set of quallity belts, say willans or similar, knowing they will end up in the bin?
Tempting just to buy some cheap CHINA ones with the correct tap

takes me back to a fine i got a few years ago.
Turned up with the manz number on the cage, but no paper work.

"where is the paper work?"
"shit sorry left at home, but manz has a copy. anyway has a number here, see"
" Did you just stamp that on yourself"
"Sorry, parden me"
Heres the fine, complain to manz!!!!!!
Jesus Thanks!!!!!!!!

And your so right, paid the entry fee, fuel, tyres etc etc so the paying public can have some entitainment
I do scratch my head at times.

Apologies for the moan, it wont happen again

[Jac Mac]

Have a good time @ Ruapuna guys, unfortunately [ or perhaps some might see it as fortunate ] I wont be there, have been talking to Anthony Prendergast though about the old MKII, they hope to have it down at Teretonga in December for OSCA round so I might get a look see then...

Rodgered... it would seem to me that you should start importing 'parallel' Willans labels & sewing them into the cheapo chinese belts, might help pay for your race car .

[kiwi285]

Some great photos there just to remind us of what the racing used to be like. I can see why we miss it so much.

[tonttu]

And a few more from Ruapuna March 1975. Sorry about the quality but I was developing and printing my own photos back then

The Bates V8 Torana
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Dymond V8 Capri
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Vivas V8 and V6 - Brown and Kirk and if I remember correctly the Kirk Viva was always the quicker
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Diversity in Murdoch's Datsun 1300, the Ryan TC, Grant 2L Escort and the Prattley "S". This is what I used to love about that time - the variety of cars and engines
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and Bell's "S" following McPhail's Escort (which I never thought went as well as his old Farina)
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[kiwi285]

Weren't they great cars and the variety of makes run in those days. Photographer looks like he is in a hurry to get out of the way. Maybe he could see something that we can't.