Dunedin Street Races - revival meeting January 1984

[Roger Dowding]

Milan Fistonic, Ray Bell and John McKechnie - Guys -thanks so much for all the extra information - now gathered on one thread too !!.

Milan - interesting that Colin didn't venture too far, Pukekohe, Matamata [ Alan Boyle may have more photo's of it as he went there to watch around that time from a showroom on a corner ]
Race number 112 appears on all the photo's I have so must be from the same meeting in December 1964.

*** October 2019 The Austin Healey 4000 of P A T [ Peter ]McLoughlin a Healey 3000 with the Austin 4 litre A125/A135 Six installed was raced at that meeting - more on this car on the Austin Healey thread - a story in progress at the moment.

What will the next car be that we look at ?? -

[Roger Dowding]

Roger- the wikipedia probably covers only the American market.- thus left hand drive
All right hand drive were Canadian assembled, usually base models- different specs to USA.
Safe to say I remember Diplomats, but not many of these shapes.

Agree John Mck, and I also know it is only as good as guys like us who contribute information which gets picked up by Wiki .... !!
as you mention NZ had a lot of US cars that were actually assembled or CKD packed in Canada - unlike Australia where many were chassis and front boywork - to scuttle then local coach builders [ like Holden ] finished them off with there own but similar bodywork.

[Ray Bell]

John, this De Soto is one never seen in Australia...

And Roger, I doubt that GM pressed panels for any US models after Holden production started. All CKD stuff in Chevs and Pontiacs, with Pontiacs having Chev running gear in the latter stages, probably from about 1961 onwards.

Pommy Fords (Prefects, Anglias) might have been pressed in Broadmeadow or Geelong. Likewise Vauxhalls at Fishermens Bend.

[John McKechnie]

Adding some more NZ content about Aussie cars., I hope no one minds-
I am a Motor Trimmer-40 years at it-, so I get to see details about different country cars that most wouldnt-.
1-1936 Austin 8 sedan...had Holden plate where Austin usually is on firewall
2-LIP and EIP Vauxhall , were only available as Roadster in Aus.
3- Have trimmed 1937, 1938, 1939 Ford V8 and Chevrolet Roadsters...not convertible. Aus only model.
A roadster has side curtains, a convertible has wind up windows

[Spgeti]

John I think Vauxhall also made in Aussie a Ute ....Vagabond ?

[John McKechnie]

Vagabond Utes are the support class at Bathurst 1955..
Late night Vagabond drifting Parramatta road Saturday nights.
Duna derbies with Vagabond utes with the trays full of yahoos at Bribie Island sunday afternoons?

Long live Utes.

[Roger Dowding]

John I think Vauxhall also made in Aussie a Ute ....Vagabond ?

Bruce, I thought the Vagabond was an EI series Vauxhall Convertible 53-57 [ two door ] Holden also did a LI series 47 - 52 ?? Ragtop too !!

a 1953 Vagabond - P.S. - Vauxhall EI series was also built in Switzerland !! as a Van ..??

The comment re the LI series - think they may have been coachbuilt - not by Holden ??
Could be the start of some other thoughts -
Not a Vagabond but the Australia only Vauxhall Caleche ..

John Mck - could just imagine drifting an EI Ute .. a mate had an LIP, he was in Northern Sports car club, had wide rear wheels under grafted on Escort Mk 1 round flares, an inline Hurst shifter for the Vauxhall gearbox - took the tree of the column.. had twin carbs - went well in a straight line and sounded good 2262 cc of sheer power ..

[Roger Dowding]

John, this De Soto is one never seen in Australia...

And Roger, I doubt that GM pressed panels for any US models after Holden production started. All CKD stuff in Chevs and Pontiacs, with Pontiacs having Chev running gear in the latter stages, probably from about 1961 onwards.

Pommy Fords (Prefects, Anglias) might have been pressed in Broadmeadow or Geelong. Likewise Vauxhalls at Fishermens Bend.

Ray, would agree the built bodies would have been pre - 1948 when the 48-215, later FJ came along .. although look at the Vauxhall stuff, was that Holden bodies or another " Coach Builder " .. Caleche and Vagabond ..

[Ray Bell]

To be honest, I am only guessing about these things. I know some strange things happened, particularly pre-war. Willys bodies became Vauxhall bodies and so on. But by mid-1949 the demand for Holdens would have stopped anything much happening with body pressing other than for the home-grown cars. All the same, I seriously doubt that any GM car had a body made in Australia other than one made by GM-H.

The Vagabonds existed in the earlier shape as well, like the Caleche body, I'm pretty sure. There certainly were utes in the Vauxhall range, but mostly labelled as Bedfords IIRC, at least until the later shape came on the scene (like the cream car above). A lot of that stuff would have come from England as CKD packs and been assembled in Australia.

I am pretty familiar with the Chrysler stuff in the fifties because of contacts I've made over the years and stories I've written for Australian Classic Car magazine which required some research.

[Roger Dowding]

[Roger Dowding]

January 2019, Good turnout but the overflow carpark was not full, there were two other events on though ; at Orewa and Hampton Downs, plus the 30 year rule - didn't seem to be imposed strictly.. UN7284 was there as a young 28 year old !!

Here from a previous event; August 2017 ;

No photo's downloaded yet, ERC [ in a modern ] and Kevin H [ in the 80's Celica ] were there and I think I saw Geebeez too in the distance.

Photo's will follow in a few days as away from home and using other peoples Wifi and data.

[Milan Fistonic]

Seeing you have been discussing utes I thought I should post shots of this Ford Prefect Ute that was at the Thames Wings and Wheels on Saturday.

[Roger Dowding]

Jim Bennett a well known car builder and racer from Dunedin has kindly sent me his story of the Furi cars and their racing.
I am in the process of converting the document so it can be shown here ;

As a start - here is a photo from Jim of his cars at Dunedin Autospectacular in 2010 ;

The idea of a story all started when I published photos of a " Jaguar powered - supercharged Special " I had seen in Dunedin in January 1984 at the Fryatt Street Sprints ; from that the Bennett Family commented on what the cars was, the fact that Furi 2 only did the Otago Sports car Club Sprints on the Saturday - The Vinatge Car Club Races were on the Sunday in January 1984.
- posting the photos again. [ must correctly rename the " Special "ones

Scene of the Sprints

The Car - Furi 2 apparently ;

The Jaguar engine - Supercharger - from one those wierd horizontally opposed Commer engines TS3 2 stroke Truck engines.

Jim Bennett wrote of the engine in Furi 2 well one of them as both GMC 6 and Zephyr were consdiered.
" Parts were being gathered for this car when I was offered a cheap Mk 7 Jaguar engine and about the same time was given a big supercharger off a Commer TS3 2 stroke diesel. These unusual engines had 6 pistons horizontally opposed in 3 cylinders operating through a series of connecting rods and levers to a crankshaft under the cylinders "

More to follow once I have printed and scanned the article - which has photo's inserted - I have some of the same photo's separately from the Bennett Family.

[Roger Dowding]

Working on the story - which not only includes cars called FURI - the Specials but includes a couple of modified Wolseley's
a 6/80 that became a BMC / GMC and a 4/44 too !!.

6/80 " 6/80 used a 2215 cc 72 hp (54 kW; 73 PS) straight-6 single overhead cam. "
GMC 6 advert - the car for sale - says " 276 ci GMC 6 " - think that it was actually a 270 ci - which is 4520 cc so twice the capacity of the Wolseley "

The BMC / GMC Wolseley 6/80 - that must have been a 6 / 100 something
The GMC 6 engine had been used by Gerald Hoare in a dragster [ rail ] before Jim decided use one - they were readily available.

Jim wrote about the car
" GMC engine was fitted with one of Gerald’s milder cams, I did a bit of work on the head including planing of 4mm off the face to bring the compression ratio up to 9:1. Two borrowed SU carbs, from a Mk7 Jaguar, and a free flow exhaust completed the engine modifications while a "bullet proof" Packard 3 speed gearbox was adapted "

just part of the story
The car was listed for sale after Jim owned it for a time ; Graham Woods archives

More to come - have read the whole story from Jim Bennett - just having fun with the photos.
- " Watch this Thread / Space "as they say

[Roger Dowding]

A couple of photos from Jim's collection.
of the BMV - Built from " Bits of Many Vehicles " - Furi 14.
The car is well used

2019 a tour

2011 an earlier tour
both in the South Island.

Article from a recent issue of " DriveSouth. " - Jim shared the article on his Facebook page.

Still working on a bigger article on all the Furi's #1 to 14 and beyond.

[Roger Dowding]

The Marlborough Car Club have ' digitized ' and posted much of their archives - including lots of photos of the Renwick Road Races of the 1960's -including the Renwick 50.

a couple of photos one from MCC archives and some programme details.
These are of the Saloon Races.
Mixed field as this was practice

This from Floyd Dini ; 1963 Austin Prattley in the Herald - the Mini must check that out.

Race 5 from 1963 -Graham Woods archives Allcomer Saloons Scratch Race

Race 7 from 1963 Graham Woods archives Allcomer Saloons again Handicap Race

Front cover of the programme - the 3rd National Renwick Races - Ron McPhail archives

Map of the track - there were apparently 3 variations - this is 1962 - Ron McPhail archives

There is a Video recently uploaded from U -tube of the 1965 Renwick 50.
Will try and post it here - in a future post.

[Roger Dowding]

Two sets of photos of the Allcomer Races. from the Marlborough car Club archives.

" Renwick Road Races Saturday 16 November 1963
The start of Wellington driver Wayne Fuller's action on lap 4 during the all-comers race in which he finished 9th in his Humber 80 1592cc, after his spin
Thanks to John Penny for scanning, Marlborough Car Club historian Barry Voss and John Pierson for these images and notes "

" Timaru driver Ernie Sprague, MK3 Ford Zephyr, 2553cc has a moment coming off the West Coast Highway into Alma street on lap 4 of the all-comers scratch race. Sprague went on to win this race. Also in the action is Wellington driver Wayne Fuller having a spin. He recovered to finish 9th in his Humber 80 1592cc.
Thanks to John Penny for scanning, Marlborough Car Club historian Barry Voss and John Pierson for these images and notes. "

" Renwick Road Races Saturday 16 November 1963.
Coming into Alma St off the West Coast Highway, Timaru driver Ernie Sprague, Ford Zephyr MK3, 2553cc holds a slender lead over Christchurch’s Ray Archibald, Jaguar 3.8, 3718cc.
Sprague went on to win this all-comers Saloon scratch race with Archibald 2nd. Archibald had won the earlier over 1300cc saloon car scratch race with Sprague 2nd.
Thanks to John Penny for scanning, Marlborough Car Club historian Barry Voss and John Pierson for these images and notes. "

Race 3 the First Allcomer Race - entry list - Graham Woods archives;

Not a big field but many well known Drivers.

[Roger Dowding]

Humber faces Chev - Giff Tait in the Chev Coupe, after Wayne had Spun the Humber. see previous post - tried to have 7 photos.

Story from the archives - which are being posted on Facebook and shared to "South Island Motorsport" and Old New Zealand Motor Racing ".

" Nelson driver Giff Tait in his 4640cc Corvette V8 powered 1938 Chevrolet Coupe arrives on the scene of Wellington driver Wayne Fuller’s spinning Humber 80 on lap 4 of the all-comers race.
Tait went on to finish 4th and Fuller recovered to finish 9th.
Thanks to John Penny for scanning, Marlborough Car Club historian Barry Voss and John Pierson for these images and notes. "

The link to the Renwick 50 video - 4;30 minutes long.

" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3wmJvxoOU8&fbclid=IwAR1HJXmUKaP-RcHhDxN8zAuvAhoq3gSYZ6BkILIDm4BU_l7hJpOcEX8kyQM&app=desktop "

[Roger Dowding]

" Renwick Road Races Saturday 10 November 1962
Barry Cottle (Dunedin) in his Lola Climax 1098cc takes a look at the photographer as he passes.
He was placed 3rd overall in a sports car race early in the day and first in Class A up to 1500cc.
In the “Renwick 50” race Cottle finished 3rd behind 2nd placed Chris Amon (Bulls) driving a Maserati 250F 2495cc, second (Amon’s Cooper Climax did not arrive in time for the meeting) and the race was won by Angus Hyslop (Hastings) driving a Cooper Climax 2495cc.
Thanks to John Penny for scanning, Marlborough Car Club historian Barry Voss and John Pierson for these images and notes "

[John McKechnie]

#147- Giffs Coupe....Nice Coupe, lovely Coupe..Great Coupe...283 small block.We need to breed these and get more on the track