Chevy Monza Histories And Photos

[Steve Holmes]

After its big Manfeild shunt, Dawson had the Monza rebuilt, and sold it to John Briggs, who raced it in Aussie Sports Sedan events, and took the car back to NZ in 1979 for a couple of races.

Another Monza to visit NZ was the Graeme Whincup car, which Warwick also photographed. Note the different signage on the Whincup Monza in the two different shots. Did this car visit NZ twice? I know Jim Richards borrowed the car to race in NZ, did Whincup drive it himself on a different occasion?

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[Shano]

Not sure what's more horrible, the mess of that car, or the bloke in the plaid shorts and stripey shirt.

[Steve Holmes]

Anyone got any interior or engine shots of either Moffats or Dawsons Monzas? Or of the Dawson Monza when Briggs, Barnes, or any of its other owners raced it?

[aussiemonza]

Yeah, I need Rowan to chime in here, he is the expert on the Aussie raced Monza's. I have a copy somewhere of an Aussie motor racing annual for 1983, and in it is a very short article of a red Monza that had been built to take to the US and that a couple of high profile Aus drivers would race. I thought it was Peter Brock and Alan Jones, though could be wrong about that. Anyway, for some reason the whole deal fell through and the Monza ended up being raced in Aus as a sports sedan. And I believe this is the car the commentators are referring to at the start of the video in post #71, driven here by Mike Imrie.

The Bob Jane/ Bryan Thomson Monza did end up as a Supra Sports Sedan, which I think Des Wall still owns, though I think there is some talk it may be reverted back to the Monza.

Sorry for the late response. The Imrie Monza in the video is the ex Sidell car built by John Reardon. This car then morphed into Imrie's SAAB Sports Sedan (built by John Gourlay) and still competing. Imrie had the Sidell Monza body intact up to a few years ago and it is now with Andy Kilgour who is looking for a chassis. At about the same time John Reardon was building the Sidell Monza, Graeme Whincup decided to build a similar car, Sidell's for IMSA GT and Whincup's for Aussie GT. Whincup sold his original Monza, (known as the Rotex Monza) less running gear, to Bob Gill who reconfigured the chassis but did not get too much further. Gill later sold all the body to Chris Fing in Qld and I then bought the body back and it is about to be reunited with the chassis by Tony Edwards. The Whincup (Gen II) Monza was delayed as some of Whincup's components were "lent" to the Sidell effort but when it finally hit the track, Whincup ran spasmodically over a couple of years (refer photo at Amaroo). Whincup then sold the car to Steve Voight in Qld who still has the car. it is currently in 'mock-up' Bob Jane livery in the Champion Brock Museum.

[Steve Holmes]

Rowan, thanks heaps for that info. I didn't realise you also had the first Whincup Monza. The Tony Edwards you mention, is he the same Tony Edwards who races TCM? The second Whincup Monza bought by Voight, was this car rebodied as a Honda Prelude, or is the Prelude a completely different car? So many of these cars get rebodied, it gets confusing.

So Whincup had two Monzas or three?

[aussiemonza]

Whincup had two Monza's. In the shots above is the first car (Rotex Monza), the first image (Union Travel on screen) was when Jim Richards drove, I'm not sure which meeting. The second shot is when Graeme drove. Both Jim and Graeme may have shared the car at different rounds on the same visit or it may have been two different visits. The second Whincup Monza is all still intact, I think Voight may have built the Prelude. Tony Edwards is the TCM Torana SL/R 5000 pilot.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks for that info Rowan, so I take it the second Whincup Monza had its bodywork changed at some point?

[rogered]

Was the prelude not the ex greg crick car?

[Steve Holmes]

Yeah you could be right about that. Crick did have a Prelude built, by Elfin if memory serves???

[bry3500]

1984 1000km of Sandown Park - Allan Grice/Dick Johnson/Ron Harrop - Re-Car Chevrolet Monza
Photo by Dale Rogers. The 6.0 litre Monza didn't make the transition from sprint racer to endurance racer at all well. It had loads of grunt but the handling was off. Qualified 18th with a time of 1:40.300 (2nd in the special AC or Australian Cars class) but was eventually disqualified for receiving outside assistance after completing only 114 of the winners 206 laps. And yes Ford fans, this is actually Dick Johnson driving a Chev.

[bry3500]

1984 Australian GT Championship Rd 3 @ Calder Park Raceway - Allan Grice - Re-Car Chevrolet Monza

[aussiemonza]

Thanks for that info Rowan, so I take it the second Whincup Monza had its bodywork changed at some point?

The second Whincup Monza was built with a new body shape based on the Sidell "GE" panels.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks for that info Rowan.

[Rod Grimwood]

Here are a couple more old shots taken by a then keen young fella with his own little camera. I actually bumped into him at Hampton Festival and he said he had some old photos. he sent them to me and I will post them on threads and may even start a thread for them and any similar shots taken by amatuers with ordinary gear. It is all good.

[Steve Holmes]

I love seeing this stuff Rod, thanks for posting. Please go ahead and start a dedicated thread for these if you like. Its these amateur photos that the historians and the restorers really love, as most were taken with basic cheap cameras, so most were static photos shot in the pits. These photos end up providing more detail on the cars than many of the action on-track photos. The guys who took these photos think that because they weren't professional photographers, nobody wants to see their pictures. In fact the total opposite is true. This stuff is gold!

[Rod Grimwood]

My thoughts also Steve, some only have bits of the car, but thats what happened when you were shotting through pits with the big man chasing you.

[khyndart in CA]

Rowan,
I thought of you while I was at Laguna Seca last weekend and tried to photograph the Ken Epsman DeKon Monza which I believe to be either number 1010 or 1011. Anyway it ran well and did not lose a left rear wheel at this corner as it had in 2014 !
Sorry the photos are a bit smudgy but I wanted to post them and hope they can be of some help to you.
Both Bruce Thompson and I were admiring the high quality of workmanship such as the louvers cut out in the rear widow.

Ken Epsman in the DeKon Monza # 20 ahead of the 1979 Greenwood Corvette # 88 driven by Jules Gounon.

Epsman DeKon Monza interior with Chris Cord's signature on the dash.

(Note the rear window louvers )

(Ken Hyndman photos )

[aussiemonza]

Thanks heaps for these. I hope to pick-up Dekon 1001 from NSW in the next few weeks and will post images. CCR

[Steve Holmes]

This cool photo was taken by Bazza Morland at Ruapuna. A rare shot of Art McKee's Chevy Monza.

McKee had won the 1976 Castrol GTX series and decided to make the next move up to the ShellSport NZ Saloon Car Championship. It was clear to everyone during the 1976 season that Red Dawson' tube-frame DeKon built Monza was the car of the future, so McKee went to the US to try and purchase a similar DeKon. However, none were available at the time, so he instead bought a similar car built by speedway racer Grant King.

The King Monza didn't perform as well as the DeKon cars, and McKee had a tough time. But he persevered and slowly began to develop it. The car arrived as pictured, painted a light metallic blue with dark blue and silver highlights. But while in the US at an IMSA race, McKee watched the Al Holbert DeKon Monza racing and really liked the paint scheme, so changed his car mid-season.

At seasons end he had to send the car to Australia due to the import tax rules. While there the wharfies went on strike and the car was stranded for months. By the time it eventually returned to NZ, McKee had lost interest, and decided to sell it. It went to Australia and has been there ever since. Now owned by Rowan Harman who also owns DeKon Monza 1001, ex-Red Dawson.

[Muscle Garage]

This is the Ex John White Monza, Built in Qld by John White back in the late 70's, this photo is circa 1983/84. It was campaigned by John for quite a few years before being sold to the "Osborne" Family in maybe 91/92 one a few QLD Sports Sedan championships then sold to Maurie Pickering in 1994, Raced at the AGP and GC Indy then sold to NSW where it ended its competition life in 1998.