The Roaring Season

You would not of thought that I have lost 11Kgs....more work to do...
No flies in the photo which was amazing considering I blamed Charlie O’Brien for bringing them over from Aussie with him !

Ken will be smiling all the way home and was great to have him over here.

This was a fantastic meeting, good attendance, no serious damage to our group and the theme was right on the button for this year.
Weather was seriously hot.
Well done BMMP for great event.
19 F5000, 24 HMC/HSC, 13 Historic Touring cars, 19 HSS and great field of FJ’s plus the bikes....something for everyone.

Paul Fahey sold out of books both days and HMC/HSC put on a great display of cars for Paul over the 2 days, thanks to Rayden for bringing the Willment Escort, John for the Cambridge Monaro, Don Fenwick for the Possum Cortina V8, Poul Christie for the Lotus Cortina, Sean and Jane for the Fleetwood Mustang, Pat Excell for the Anglia and Tony and Colleen for the PDL Mustang tribute and for taking Paul for a ride in his lovely car. A special moment for Tony.
You guy really made it happen for Paul, Kerry and Ray.

Thanks

Cheers
Bruce and Dale

About to leave Auckland for the flight back to Ca.
That smile will be with me for a long time as I look back on a wonderful 3 days.
Thanks to so many for making me welcome and topped off with a stop in to visit Spinner Black in Morrinsville today.
I have to go more soon.
Ken H

khyndart in CA wrote:About to leave Auckland for the flight back to Ca.
That smile will be with me for a long time as I look back on a wonderful 3 days.
Thanks to so many for making me welcome and topped off with a stop in to visit Spinner Black in Morrinsville today.
I have to go more soon.
Ken H

It was nice to catch up with you in Taupo Ken. Hope you have a good trip home. Bon voyage. Regards, Nigel

Safe journey home Ken,

Cheers
The HMC/HSC Team

Another time Ken! Safe journey home and enjoy the memories.

Brand New car to HMC for the final meeting at Taupo on the weekend was Sean McCaughans superb built Geoghegan Replica 71 XY Falcon. Out of the box it performed fantastic, a credit to the driver and builder. I'm sure some on-track action shots will come up on the RR soon.

What a fantastic weekend of racing for our final event of the season, the Taupo Great Lakes under HRC. Historic Muscle and Saloon finally grew up.............we started with 15 cars(1 sports car to test the waters) had an absolute fantastic weekend of historic racing and comradery......car of the weekend would have to have been Greg Goudies fabulous FIA BDG Mk 1 Escort.......taking it to the V8's. The Saturday night banquet dinner was a hoot, more pictures to come on this.

More pics

Not that we care about winning but a honorable mention goes to Tony Mexted for getting his first win on the weekend in the 70 PDL Replica Mustang after several seasons of trying, Tony and his mechanic Barry(Baza)keep this car in pristine condition, well done Tony.

I like the Geoghegan replica Falcon. How long has he been working on this?

Steve Holmes wrote:I like the Geoghegan replica Falcon. How long has he been working on this?

Guess its been a year or so in build Steve, like all builds they take longer than one thinks and always cost more.

Although a low key meeting it was a good one to shake down a new car like this. Infact I liked having only 15 cars, it made running the show easier, whats that saying "Less is More" and our class was still the stars of the weekend, certainly that's the feed back we received. It was one of the best and more friendly positive meetings we've had in a long time. Looks like we've picked up two more cars for the class as well, one is and old CMC LH Torana that's not chopped up and been parked for 10 years, you never know who turns up at these events.

Kiwiboss wrote:Guess its been a year or so in build Steve, like all builds they take longer than one thinks and always cost more.

Although a low key meeting it was a good one to shake down a new car like this. Infact I liked having only 15 cars, it made running the show easier, whats that saying "Less is More" and our class was still the stars of the weekend, certainly that's the feed back we received. It was one of the best and more friendly positive meetings we've had in a long time. Looks like we've picked up two more cars for the class as well, one is and old CMC LH Torana that's not chopped up and been parked for 10 years, you never know who turns up at these events.

I was very impressed with this car on its first outing. I don't remember them having any issues all weekend in fact they spent more time trying to get the 'orange roughy' running for Mike than they did with the new one. All that time getting psyched up and then only doing a handful of laps must have been a bugger.

kiwi285 wrote:I was very impressed with this car on its first outing. I don't remember them having any issues all weekend in fact they spent more time trying to get the 'orange roughy' running for Mike than they did with the new one. All that time getting psyched up and then only doing a handful of laps must have been a bugger.

Pretty much ran sweet out of the box, this car and Goudies Escort were the performers of the weekend.

For those interested here's a few shots of the 68 Camaro I'm reconstructing for Historic racing, shop has been extremely busy of late hence haven't done as much as i'd liked. This was built 20 years ago and gone though several owners eventually ended up in CMC but luckily that owner didn't butcher it too much. the roll cage was very old school so its getting a new one along with many other updates and period mods. Even looking at wedging the front like my Boss as they did Camaros as well.

Awesome photos Dale, keep them coming! I'm really looking forward to this rebuild.

Steve Holmes wrote:Awesome photos Dale, keep them coming! I'm really looking forward to this rebuild.

Will do Steve, makes a change for me to build a Gen 1 Camaro, not many know but I've owned quite a few over the years, mostly street cars. The prices in the USA are skyrocketing on these and early Mustangs currently making the ones in NZ good value. Here are the wheels I have for it.

Steve Holmes wrote:Awesome photos Dale, keep them coming! I'm really looking forward to this rebuild.

I agree with Steve - it is great to see these cars coming together and to see just what is involved.

Reading though some old Motorman Maganzines lastnight reminded me what Historic racing is all about so scanned of a couple pictures........

Rollcage construction almost completed...………..now looking to wedge the nose like they did in the Trans Am days, many don't understand this was done just to lower the front spoiler closer to the ground, SCCA solved that in 1970 by allowing any blade style front spoiler, I like the low stance look as its very cool and period...……...im pretty sure the Frank Gardner Camaro had this done? Dale M

Looking great Dale, I'm really enjoying this build.

The Gardner Camaro didn't have the wedged nose. I believe that was an old 1967 Bill Brown car, a very early Trans-Am car before they started wedging the noses.

But the Penske Camaros definitely had it done in 1968 and '69. Here is one of the 1968 Penske Camaros pictured in 1970 with then owner Craig Murray. I believe they took a slice out of the radiator support panel and then tilted all the front sheet metal forward, then repaired the rear section of the front fenders so it didn't show.

You can see in this shot the huge gap at the top rear of the panel where it doesn't meet up. I assume the panel was replaced at some stage but not modified correctly.