New Zealand ShellSport Saloon Series 1978 - 1985

[Carlo]

Finally caught up with Kevin Ryan today. The history of the Escort starts like this. It was built by AVO in England with a 2 litre BDG, ZF gearbox etc for a series in South Africa which did not finally take place. Rex Hart purchased the car and ran in in NZ in that configuration. Kevin purchased the car for $5000 as a rolling shell minus engine and fittted it with a 1600BDA and then went about winning OSCA with it. When he decided to go to Shellsport with Big Bertha, the ex XCookie 160J he sold the car to Warren Steel who fitted the twin cam engine and went Shellsport. Steelo of course later onsold the car to the Hallidays

[driftwood]

when i was in NZ in early sept 1990 i recall seeing the blue white Imp at Puke with a nissan motor in the rear
somewhere i have photos of it
it was the only race meeting i attended back then in NZ before I made the trip home via Bathurst Tooheys 1000 and Sydney and HK
Did you guys had etch Shellsport Gold star promo for race and class wins in NZ
we had it circa 75-79 IF you ran with Shellsport sun visor won the race or your class you got a gold star sticker and £ which back then covered the entry fee

[Milan Fistonic]

Good to see you here Rex. Here's a photo of the RX3 you mentioned in your first post.

[stirlingmac]

Seafield Rd Hillclimb, Napier, 2010.
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I have always had a thing for this car..The first time I saw it was at Manfeild and Francis Pointen had it in green and white with a Lotus Twin Cam in it. Later on a club mate Kevin Simpson bought the car and painted it black. He changed the engine for an alloy BDA that he got out of the Ralt of Davey Jones at the end of the Puke meeting. The engine was also set back at that time. During the rebuild a number of parts were replaced and I ended up with the seat and dry sump tank. The seat still does service in my kids go kart.!!!

[Rex Findlay]

Hi Jim, Yes Glenn built the Morrari for Garth Souness who had a caryard in Greenlane about where the Kia agents are today. Glenn told me that one night they went around a few caryards with a measuring tape to see what car had a similar wheelbase to the Super Squalo Ferrari and it so happened that a Morris Minor was spot on. That dispels the theory that the Ferrari chassis was shortened to suit ! The Squalo was not a good handling car at the best of times so I cannot imagine draping a Minor body over it would have improved the situation which may explain why it always looked a bit twitchy.

[bob homewood]

Rex,
Yes thats always been what I was told how it came about ,to dispell the shortened chassis story some time ago ,I scaled a Minor body on to the Ferrari chassis measurements ,wheel base etc if you do it you will see with slight bit of repositioning of the body it fits well,the Squalo as you say was twitchy ,putting the V8 in and changing the weight,postion etc around did not help the cause either

[kiwi285]

I had a phone call from John Gobbe (Christchurch) on Monday evening and he mentioned that the Revival Series that they are working on at present has had a great response to date. They have had 35 drivers register and are aware of 27 cars that are available to race with other racers talking about recreating their cars and joining in. The first race will be at next years Skope meeting. They are due to send out a newsletter in the next week or so so if you are interested please contact John on mailto:?subject=&body=

[Nigel Barclay]

Hello Shellsport fans,

Nigel Barclay here originally from Timaru, the Collingwood Escort was built in Dunedin after Rod sold the Datsun, had some radical engine ideas, was originally pale blue with no signwriting, Dad (Stu Barclay) started looking after it but Rod lost interest after sponsor Jons peperoni beer sticks didnt pay (sounds familar), Dad actually purchase it off Rod and was going to build conventional 1600, crouched in old Wilson Sprague King Street yard Dad had before Ron & Mark purchased, Rod then got the Trueno and Dad looked after it at his Church Street yard. I beleive it was an x Factory Rally car, Dad or Alan Dunn would know, I was just a kid and remember the Toyota always had engine problems (oil system I think). I need to get into Dads photo collection as have seen shots of Shellsport days where they went on tour with Murdochs/Burt etc.
To keep on subject this Escort became the McNaughton BDA turbo OSCA car and years later Dave told me it was wrecked and the shell scrapped, real pity as one of my favourite cars and Rod had spent a lot of money and had all good gear in it.
Will catch up with him and see if I can raid his photo collection as well.
cheers

[Nigel Barclay]

Gidday Carl, tell A Farr to put back in SULCO tools colours, looked great. cheers Nigel

[Steve Holmes]

Hi there Nigel, welcome aboard! Thanks for the info.

[jim short]

Sorry Rex just caught your post,was the storey about Garths first time down the back straight at Puke he was crossing himself and I am not a catholic he said??Of all the dealers I tried to sell my Buckler only days before my wedding he was the only one to help out I swaped plus thirty pound for that 39 gold painted coupe eddlbrock heads 3 carbs, black and white seats was always parked on the Gt south rd where the motorway ended penrose after honeymoon sold for a secton.evertown we stoped at it collected a crowd,

[Russ Cunningham]

Sorry Rex just caught your post,was the storey about Garths first time down the back straight at Puke he was crossing himself and I am not a catholic he said??Of all the dealers I tried to sell my Buckler only days before my wedding he was the only one to help out I swaped plus thirty pound for that 39 gold painted coupe eddlbrock heads 3 carbs, black and white seats was always parked on the Gt south rd where the motorway ended penrose after honeymoon sold for a secton.evertown we stoped at it collected a crowd,

Wonderful grammar Jim! Try spell check or buy a dictionary off Beowulf.,

[jim short]

Sorry Russ if you are having trouble understanding my modern spelling give me a call and I will run you through it slowly, I am in the book under my own name

[BWilliams]

Hi there,first post after having my dad point me to this site tonight over Skype.
Long story short,I am trying to find out what happened to the Raycroft Escort,driven by Dave Waldron.
My father,Garry Williams helped build it years ago and all I can remember of it is seeing it at Wigram in the pits in the early 80s (I'm 33),so would have been 3-4 years old.
I got some help from the forums on the OSCA site,before the forums disappeared from Evan Munt who put me onto Neville Agass in the USA.A few emails and some digging from Neville got me a positive lead that the car is up in Auckland and possibly still racing.He told me to contact Grant Brennan,who Neville was sure would know about it.I tried contacting him through his website,but never got a reply.
That's where the searching has sat for about 3 years,until tonight...When dad told me to have a look here and this is where I found this part of the forum about similar old race cars.
So,is there anyone out there that can help out?
Also dad mentioned the car was ment to be on display at the OSCA revival meeting at Ruapuna.While I was doing some research,I found out someone was going to build a replica,as the car was apparently under a tree in Timaru,still in the Raycroft colours....Which sounded a bit dubious as it hadn't been in those colours since Dave raced it.

[Rod Grimwood]

Any one with photos of Bryce Platts Escort in Fountain colours can you please forward on here or send to me. Also any photos of car in orig orange with Chequer Flag and Knitwear sponsorship.

[jim short]

tapes posted yesday sorry yesterday

[Rod Grimwood]

Thanks Jum

[Russ Cunningham]

I stand to be corrected but I've always understood that "the Shellsport category" came to an end because a smooth talking promoter and former MANZ employee had it diverted to support his family interests.

[Carlo]

I stand to be corrected but I've always understood that "the Shellsport category" came to an end because a smooth talking promoter and former MANZ employee had it diverted to support his family interests.

Is that a fact ?

Nigel, agree about Sulco

[Lurker]

Is that a fact ?

Nigel, agree about Sulco

I must admit I question that comment the same as Carl.

Having been closely involved with a ShellSport two time Champion during those years, I was disappointed when the ShellSport era came to an end but deep down I really felt it had sadly passed its use by date.

If Shell chose to channel their money into an academy that created the careers of people such as Greg Murphy then I have no problem with that.

All things have their day and I am so pleased that I had the opportunity to be involved during the ShellSport era and meet such passionate and friendly people such as Carl and the others who always made us welcome when we visited the South Island