John Ohlsen - car builder. what happened to the two Katipo's ?

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Gavin, I'll ask Greg Stokes, he may be able to help with this.

[jim short]

John Olhsen is the heading so i will add my ten cents worth,1993 I bought the body and chassis of a ferrari 500 copy special or what ever you like ,the two of us {brother in law}arrived in Nelson at 5AM a cold frosty mrn.having caught an earler crossing.After killing time we got to see the car in the flesh ,I had photos sent to me before.Man it looked far better than we expected.On the long drive home spent a lot time looking in the mirror at this beautiful thing on the trailer..It sat at home for some time as my Mack truck was pretty busy up and down the country,John had told me when he gets some space I can work on it there as there was only him and Paul his son.Strange as life can be at the time I was told to stop driving or be in a wheelchair! John rang bring it over,.For the best part of a year I worked on it as there was only a chassis and body both very very close to a real one ,On more than one occasion John commented this chassis is not homemade??Whenever I was having a problem I would ask him a question about Carrol Shelby,He would drop what he was doing and come over to talk and take over my problem,He was Shelbys biggest fan thats for real ,and Shelby thought the world of him,Thursday lunch he would go out each week and get a curry for the three of us and man there would be steam coming out your nose as you tried to breath ,,no this is only 70percent hot he would say.When he went toUK in the late 50s currys was the cheepest food and as no one had a lot of money curry it was .Another good mem. hot rods John was a hotroder way back one story he told off to Wellington in this open car freezing cold big army coats on ,on the desert road sees another rod heading north as they approach they brake Johns car dives off to the left through the scrub back on the road parks along side Where you going ?,Wellington OK see ya..He was a great man not into all this bullshit what can run andwhat cant no car is ever the same so what???

[Paul Kirk]

I believe the first car John was built using a Matich , chassis hense the driver sitting offset, and the second was scratch built with the help from Mark Petch (MJ Racing.)
Would be neat to see them back on the track again.

Robbie Booth owned one in 1975 and was then raced by Russell Greer

I have read in Vercoe's book that in 1981 a M.Morrison owned one and then don't know where it went after that?

Not sure which car this was thou?

Anyone help?

Re the Katipo that Robby Franicivic raced/practiced at Wigram--- He asked me to set the ign. timing on the Chev engine in it, I said "where would you like it set?" "50 degrees" he said. "What? That's too far advanced" I said. Anyway thats sort of how the conversation went, and we finally compromised and set it a bit over 40 degrees. When he drove it at Wigram it handled incredibly bad due to bouncing off the bump stops and bottoming the shocks. I don't remember how he got on on race day or evan if he raced it.
But the other interesting thing about the car is that I understood it was originally one of the American Formula A cars that came out here to race at Baypark and was purchased and modified into a "sports" car by some guys in AK, but I can't remember who, but Robby had a couple of Dalmation mates who did a lot of work with him so it was probably a joint effort by a few people.
PK.
I could be totally wrong, of course, but that story has been in my memory ever since that time.

[Russ Cunningham]

Forum readers may have noticed that I have two new rear uprights for sale. MJ - Katipo uprights. Hey! build a car and invent a history - isn't that what it's all about these days?

Yours in cynicism,

Russ Cunningham
ps. Pallmall: Notice my "correct" use of capital letters.

[Kwaussie]

Robbie Booth owned one in 1975 and was then raced by Russell Greer

I have read in Vercoe's book that in 1981 a M.Morrison owned one and then don't know where it went after that?

Not sure which car this was thou?

Anyone help?

I remember one of the cars with Dave Morrison at Wigram at one of the first "Wings & Wheels".

[pallmall]

John Olhsen is the heading so i will add my ten cents worth,1993 I bought the body and chassis of a ferrari 500 copy special or what ever you like ,the two of us {brother in law}arrived in Nelson at 5AM a cold frosty mrn.having caught an earler crossing.After killing time we got to see the car in the flesh ,I had photos sent to me before.Man it looked far better than we expected.On the long drive home spent a lot time looking in the mirror at this beautiful thing on the trailer..It sat at home for some time as my Mack truck was pretty busy up and down the country,John had told me when he gets some space I can work on it there as there was only him and Paul his son.Strange as life can be at the time I was told to stop driving or be in a wheelchair! John rang bring it over,.For the best part of a year I worked on it as there was only a chassis and body both very very close to a real one ,On more than one occasion John commented this chassis is not homemade??Whenever I was having a problem I would ask him a question about Carrol Shelby,He would drop what he was doing and come over to talk and take over my problem,He was Shelbys biggest fan thats for real ,and Shelby thought the world of him,Thursday lunch he would go out each week and get a curry for the three of us and man there would be steam coming out your nose as you tried to breath ,,no this is only 70percent hot he would say.When he went toUK in the late 50s currys was the cheepest food and as no one had a lot of money curry it was .Another good mem. hot rods John was a hotroder way back one story he told off to Wellington in this open car freezing cold big army coats on ,on the desert road sees another rod heading north as they approach they brake Johns car dives off to the left through the scrub back on the road parks along side Where you going ?,Wellington OK see ya..He was a great man not into all this bullshit what can run andwhat cant no car is ever the same so what???

Well, if true there is some resemblence to the Spectre that Ron Grable ran at the first FA/F5000 race at Bay Park. The person behind the Spectre was Ken Holden, an American who spent some time living in NZ and involved in various cars, speedway and circuit. So there is a possibilty that this could have happened.



Good stuff Russ, much more civilized, and readable.

[pallmall]

Re the Katipo that Robby Franicivic raced/practiced at Wigram--- He asked me to set the ign. timing on the Chev engine in it, I said "where would you like it set?" "50 degrees" he said. "What? That's too far advanced" I said. Anyway thats sort of how the conversation went, and we finally compromised and set it a bit over 40 degrees. When he drove it at Wigram it handled incredibly bad due to bouncing off the bump stops and bottoming the shocks. I don't remember how he got on on race day or evan if he raced it.
But the other interesting thing about the car is that I understood it was originally one of the American Formula A cars that came out here to race at Baypark and was purchased and modified into a "sports" car by some guys in AK, but I can't remember who, but Robby had a couple of Dalmation mates who did a lot of work with him so it was probably a joint effort by a few people.
PK.
I could be totally wrong, of course, but that story has been in my memory ever since that time.

The Katipo has some resemblence to the Ron Grable Spectre that ran at the first FA/F5000 race at Bay Park. The guy behind the Spectre was American Ken Holden who had stong NZ connections, including living here for a time. So its possible.



Thanks Russ, much more readable and civilised.

[pallmall]

Here is a cutting from NZ Hot Rod magazine, late 1970.



I have been trying to follow up on the possibility that there is actually a connection between the Katipo and the Spectre FA car, somebody must know, lots more people to talk to yet, so maybe one day the answer will be found.

[Steve Holmes]

Do you think the Spectre could have become the Katipo? Did Grable sell the car while in NZ? According this this page: http://www.myf5000.com/classifieds.html under Spectre HR1, a Ron Grable 1968 Spectre HR1 was advertised for sale in the Competition Press & Autoweek in California in 1970. But he likely could have had more than one car.

[pallmall]

As I understand it the Spectre was built by Ken Holden, who was also crew chief on the Grable McLaren in 1970.
Ken Holden spent some time in NZ, including racing a car at the Drags and bought down an Edmunds style Modified and raced at Western Springs. There was talk back in the day that the Spectre remained in NZ and was being converted into a sports car.
No smoke without fire, so it is worth investigating.

[Bruce302]

I was talking to Ron Grable yesterday and I asked him about the Spectre. He tells me that it did go back to the States, and he thinks it is being restored "in the South somewhere. He is looking for any recent info he has on the car.
Ken Holden evidently married a Kiwi, but went back to the States after a while, not sure where he is now, but he would be about 80 or say now.
Bruce.

[Dave Silcock]

I was in partnership with Mark Petch at the time, Mark and Dave' Marave.' the chassis was bought from Frank Matich and shipped over from Australia by Mark. I was to build a car from it but not a 5000 but a Matich copy. I had one discossion with Frank at Auckland airport about some problems i was having at the drawing board stages with migrant roll centers and he was most helpfull. The partnership with Mark collapsed before much was done and my understanding was that John Olsen built the car as a 5000 as he took my place at Marave.
Cheers Dave

[pallmall]

Thanks Bruce302 and Dave, that puts to bed any theory that the Spectre and the Katipo are related.

The knowledge base grows ever stronger on here.

[crunch]

One of the Katipo's resides with John Gobbes who I think lives in Christchurch?

[David McKinney]

Why "one of the Katipos"?

There was only ever one

[kiwi285]

John Gobbe does own this car and is in the process of rebuilding it. He is looking for any info on the car and I have directed him to this thread.

[Steve Holmes]

I was in partnership with Mark Petch at the time, Mark and Dave' Marave.' the chassis was bought from Frank Matich and shipped over from Australia by Mark. I was to build a car from it but not a 5000 but a Matich copy. I had one discossion with Frank at Auckland airport about some problems i was having at the drawing board stages with migrant roll centers and he was most helpfull. The partnership with Mark collapsed before much was done and my understanding was that John Olsen built the car as a 5000 as he took my place at Marave.
Cheers Dave

Sure is good having you on here Dave.

[nick_tassie]

I've been doing some research on the Shelby American racing effort and came across these photos of John Ohlsen. The photo's and the descriptions are from a Web page on the the Second Edition book by Michael L. Shoen The Cobra-Ferrari Wars 1963-1965
http://cobraferrariwars.com/additional-photos.html

John Ohlsen working on the number 5 Cobra Daytona Coupe, a car he had helped construct from a bare frame in Modena. A tribute to John who has since passed this earth. Gramiger photo.

Dan Gurney and Bob Bondurant in the foreground and John Ohlsen cleaning the windscreen. Probably Fred Gamble in the blue Goodyear jacket aft of Ohlsen. Bruce Dowell photo.

John Ohlsen, who seemed to be everywhere --a long way from Onehunga, New Zealand. John played a huge role in the sucess of the Daytona Coupes. Jack Hoare, the European campaign Engineman, is still alive and a great guy. People like John and Jack made the Cobras sucessful. Skip Hudson: "The kind of effort that went into those cars, you could have taken anything and put it on Broadway."

Phil Hill awaits the start. The cars were sent off in 60 second intervals, otherwise mayhem would occur on this "goat trail" country road through the Sicilian mountains. John Ohlsen has his hand on the roll bar, Bob Bondurant , Innes Ireland, Joe Siffert and his wife Marianne.

This is probably Friday practice. The number 6 Daytona Coupe was assigned to Amon/Neerpasch and painted white around the headlights to identify it to the pit crews. Driver to pit radio communication was another 20 years down the road. If you look carefully at the coupe in the right of the photo, you will see John Ohlsen bent over in the engine compartment and, in the background, his wife Jean in a white Cobra t-shirt sitting on his tool box with her back to the camera. Gramiger photo.

[Steve Holmes]

Nice one Nick! I bought that book new from Chaters in England back when the first print was released. Cost me 65 pounds, but I see people selling them now for around US$1000! So not a bad investment. Mine was signed during a Chaters book launch by several involved with the car.

Interestingly, John Ohlsen was not only Crew Chief, he was also the first person to ever drive one of the Daytona Coupes. While he, Bob Bondurant, and Sherman Falconer were waiting at Riverside for Ken Miles to show up and test the the first car built, for the first time, still in its bare alloy skin, Ohlsen took it out for a couple of gentle laps around the track to make sure everything worked OK.

[nick_tassie]

Wow $1000 very nice investment indeed..!!

Thats interesting about John Ohlsen giving the Daytona its first run, it would have been extremely rewarding after the time and effort in building the car. There's a fantastic article about CSX2299 the 2nd Daytona Coupe in the Shelby Cars in Detail collector book, this was one of the european bodied Daytona's, it was mistakenly built with the incorrect windscreen height and as a consequence a different roof line, a mistake by Shelby American when they installed the windscreen cowl tube at the wrong height. Coincidentally CSX2299 was also the car John Ohlsen was seriously burnt when a fuel spill ignited under the car during a pit stop to fix an overheating differential.

Am I correct that Carroll Shelby's master fabricator Phil Remington was also an expat New Zealander, I seem to recall reading that somewhere but I could be mistaken.