The Roaring Season

Re Bay park and Manfield ..I'll ask Iain Eggleton, he may have footage

Thanks Bry. I know there is at least one member on here who has copies, but, them finding the time to to have them converted to dvd and then copied is the issue.

Talk him into it Steve, i would pay for a copy.

Ive got a copy I think, I'll double check and let you know. If so I was going to make a DVD up of a heap of early/mid 80's OSCA races along with some N.I. races and a wigram race to play and sell copies at out OSCA 40th Reunion night, Nov 5th.

Thanks Evan. I'll be first in line for a copy if/when you do manage to get them on dvd.

Hello all these pictures of special super saloons are amazing I love the other types from other counrtys cars an. Seeing serious engineering skill I was out in the escort 29th aug racing with the daf v8 baby bertha mick hills beetle now like the daf restored it was a fantastic honour too be on the same track as the heros it was a shame gerry marshall passed on as he would of been great in baby bertha I saw how joe. Ward was very carefull in it as it sposed be worth a fortune I did notice lots of special cars still simon allaway who infact raced with my dad come in the awesome bart simpson coloured esprit an blasted everyone there was lots of awesome home built great cars like andy gardners mellow yellow firenza what was bloody fast an also a mad 2door black jahuar what flew I saw soo many great cars I ill post up some good pics of it all when am not on my mobile

look forward to some pics please ,Octane Magazine ran an excellent track test article a couple of months back ,how did the revival meeting for these cars go lee

lee costello wrote:Hello all these pictures of special super saloons are amazing I love the other types from other counrtys cars an. Seeing serious engineering skill I was out in the escort 29th aug racing with the daf v8 baby bertha mick hills beetle now like the daf restored it was a fantastic honour too be on the same track as the heros it was a shame gerry marshall passed on as he would of been great in baby bertha I saw how joe. Ward was very carefull in it as it sposed be worth a fortune I did notice lots of special cars still simon allaway who infact raced with my dad come in the awesome bart simpson coloured esprit an blasted everyone there was lots of awesome home built great cars like andy gardners mellow yellow firenza what was bloody fast an also a mad 2door black jahuar what flew I saw soo many great cars I ill post up some good pics of it all when am not on my mobile

Lee, very cool post! I'm looking forward to seeing your photos.

Rod Grimwood wrote:The gentleman with the Suzuki was ..... Bish and he ran it at the original Taupo track and it was quick. It was white and green i know because I looked up the open Arse of it for a few laps. I think it had a genuine Yamaha race bike engine . A clever bit of work.

Was that Michael Bish? Drove a mini in the Rally of NZ one year, 1983 was given number 18 on the entry list, never quite sure why it was so high, especially when you look at some of the cars below his on the entry.


18 Bish, Michael Bailey, Roger NZ Mini Clubman GT Strong Bros. Mini Wreckers A

seaqnmac27 wrote:Was that Michael Bish? Drove a mini in the Rally of NZ one year, 1983 was given number 18 on the entry list, never quite sure why it was so high, especially when you look at some of the cars below his on the entry.


18 Bish, Michael Bailey, Roger NZ Mini Clubman GT Strong Bros. Mini Wreckers A

yip, he was strong bros wreakers here in hamilton

seaqnmac27 wrote:Was that Michael Bish? Drove a mini in the Rally of NZ one year, 1983 was given number 18 on the entry list, never quite sure why it was so high, especially when you look at some of the cars below his on the entry.


18 Bish, Michael Bailey, Roger NZ Mini Clubman GT Strong Bros. Mini Wreckers A

We're getting a bit OT here but the reason for Bish's seeding was the rules. All World Championship events have strict seeding rules which mean cars of a particular type are grouped together.

In 1983 The Groups were: A, B, N, 2 and 4.

The fabulous Group B cars headed the seedings; cars like the Audi Quattro, Lancia Rally, Nissan 240RS and Renault Turbo 5. Nine of these cars were entered in 1983.

Then came Group 4 which was for the older GT cars like the Escort RS1800, Datsun 160J, Vauxhall Chevette HS and Mitsubishi Lancer EX. Five of this Group were entered.

Bish was in the next bunch of Group A cars. He was seeded third behind Jim Donald's Nissan Bluebird Turbo and Possum Bourne's Subaru RX Coupe and ahead of another six cars. Donald's car was later re-classified as Group 2.

Group 2 made up the rest of the field and was for the older Touring cars that were not as highly modified as the those in Group 4.

An interesting fact about Bish's performance that year is that by finishing 21st and being the 7th Group A or B car home, he scored 4 championship points and became the first driver to score WRC points driving a Mini.

bry3500 wrote:no details on this one

This is silverstone circa 1977 or 78
Yellow Escort is Nick Whitings 3.4 GAA V6 Escort built by John Thomson ( allegedly he built 3 escorts 2 for Uk 1 for italian in LHD)
Beetle is the ex Mick Hill 5 litre Chevy Beetle now with scotsman Doug Niven
the red VD Variant is the ex Colin Hawker DFVW car that Hawker built on the Duckhams Le Mans sports car (that alain de cadanet raced at LM in 72 & 73 designed by Gordon Murray) and had ex Jackie Stewart Tyrrell DFV fitted. The car was sold to Walter Robertson in scotland to race
The DFVW has been converted back to the Duckhams LM car now resides in USA
The Beetle was later sold form Doug Niven to Gary Charlwood to race at Lydden circa 83 and was then sold off dismantled many years ago for its engine gearbox and its F5000 suspension and lay idle for years until Dave Taylor acquired the remains mainly chassis body and re created the car again
The escort was sold to John Kirk in scotland and later disappeared but i have been told that it was later used not far from me many years later as a rallycross car sans GAA

The skoda of Jim Evans was a Chevron B19 chassis with steel roof of skoda put on the chassis this skoda went on to be used by many brit special saloon racers and was the first car to utilise a proper race car chassis and spawned many special or supersaloons like the DFVW ( my favourite) we had many skodas on Group 6 2 litre sports cars as they where cheap to buy ( now obsolete race cars) and cheaper than building a steel shell car.
Later we had centre seater saloon and sports cars with Donington GT series some F5000 lola and chevron cars some F2 march chevron cars and many home built cars using F2 corners
we had skodas bmw m1 lotus europas esprits and many space frame escorts minis Imps Fiat 500 Fiat 1000 Suzuki SC100 cars that raced over the years and we have some websites in the UK with info on them
However the man who really kicked off our special saloon cars was Mick Hill with his Capri cars but Tony Hazlewood created the first super saloon with the DAF Repco engined car steel shell tube frame front & rear with March F2 corners. He sold the car and later created a Jaguar XJ12 with Lola T190 suspension

Where is the Paul Fahey Cologne Capri today?
in previous post with photos is a red white Capri is this his car?
Back in 1990 when i first visited Aeotera I sat next to a lady and we got chatting she was flying to Auckland to visit the family, when i said i raced cars she asked if I had heard of Paul Fahey?
She was his daughter !!
Also when i was in NZ there was an advert in the NZ race mag " wanted any parts off the Fahey Capri" it was stripped down and the chassis was on the south island.
To subsides my 4 month trip to NZ & Oz i sold my race Imp to a young lad in UK who was dating the daughter of the man who owned and built the Sid Chrome Imp that Jim Richards raced when he was a real kiwi and lived there !!

Steve Holmes wrote:I met the owner of this car recently Bob. He gave me his card, but now I can't find it anywhere. Does anyone have a contact for him? He flew over from the UK to race the car at Hampton Downs, and is very enthusiastic about it. I'm sure he'd enjoy this site.

i think you may be referring to Mark Dwyer he told me he had bought a kiwi mk 1 escort when he was down racing the F5000 series

driftwood wrote:The skoda of Jim Evans was a Chevron B19 chassis with steel roof of skoda put on the chassis this skoda went on to be used by many brit special saloon racers and was the first car to utilise a proper race car chassis and spawned many special or supersaloons like the DFVW ( my favourite) we had many skodas on Group 6 2 litre sports cars as they where cheap to buy ( now obsolete race cars) and cheaper than building a steel shell car.
Later we had centre seater saloon and sports cars with Donington GT series some F5000 lola and chevron cars some F2 march chevron cars and many home built cars using F2 corners
we had skodas bmw m1 lotus europas esprits and many space frame escorts minis Imps Fiat 500 Fiat 1000 Suzuki SC100 cars that raced over the years and we have some websites in the UK with info on them
However the man who really kicked off our special saloon cars was Mick Hill with his Capri cars but Tony Hazlewood created the first super saloon with the DAF Repco engined car steel shell tube frame front & rear with March F2 corners. He sold the car and later created a Jaguar XJ12 with Lola T190 suspension

Hey thanks for that info driftwood. I figured many of these cars would have been converted back to the single seaters and sports cars they started out as, or that were used for parts to build these cars, much like many F5000 based saloons would eventually get torn down and the parts used on F5000 restorations as the value of these cars began to rise.

I have a real interest in early to mid 1970s British Super Saloons, when the cars were still heavily production based. I know Mick Hill raced at least one V8 Capri during this period. Do you know what became of his early cars? And also, what happened to the Corvair that appeared around 1973/74?

driftwood wrote:Where is the Paul Fahey Cologne Capri today?
in previous post with photos is a red white Capri is this his car?
Back in 1990 when i first visited Aeotera I sat next to a lady and we got chatting she was flying to Auckland to visit the family, when i said i raced cars she asked if I had heard of Paul Fahey?
She was his daughter !!
Also when i was in NZ there was an advert in the NZ race mag " wanted any parts off the Fahey Capri" it was stripped down and the chassis was on the south island.
To subsides my 4 month trip to NZ & Oz i sold my race Imp to a young lad in UK who was dating the daughter of the man who owned and built the Sid Chrome Imp that Jim Richards raced when he was a real kiwi and lived there !!

Welcome to the site driftwood, I'd love for you to post an intro about yourself, you sound like you've done some interesting things: http://www.theroaringseason.com/forumdisplay.php?12-New-Members-Please-Introduce-Yourself-Here And please post some photos and info about your Imp. There are a lot of Imp fans on here!

Re the Fahey Capri, that car has been owned by Roger Townshend for many years, and is undergoing a very big restoration, as the car was modified quite a bit over its racing life, including the fitment of a small block Chevy V8. More info on the car can be found here: http://www.theroaringseason.com/showthread.php?117-The-Fahey-Capri-From-Le-Mans-to-Levin-and-even-Coronet-Peak-!!

The red and white Capri was a different car, owned and built by Don and Rob Halliday. It was V6 quad-cam powered, and used many parts similar to that of the European built machines such as the Fahey car, but was built up in NZ. That car no longer exists. It caught fire in the early 1980s and burnt to the ground.

Thanks Steve
its 11 pm here in pongoland quaffing wine munch on cheese n biscuits while i surf the web and have " arf" an eye on some crepe film on tv so while i munch n quaff you lot are having your morning tea break !

I am slowly working my way thru your forum titles of interest to me, I don't know a lot of kiwi racing but i am aware of some names of car owners from Autosport reports
as you like the pommie saloon cars look here for some cars and info also you can look up the pom website 10 tenths for special saloon threads
http://www.racing70s.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/racing70s/menus/carlistmenu.htm

regarding info on myself I'm not that exciting !
I have a very good memory and my father raced special saloons and donington GT series in the 70's and 80's before he went single seaters with F2 March and now has F1 cars
I raced Imp classic historic saloons after karting late 1980s which is how i came to NZ having been contacted by a kiwi on a UK biz trip who was building Imp for NZ hysterical racing.

Regarding posting photos hmm i will need to educate myself on that score !!
Re Mick Hills cars off top of my head and well before my time
1 Capri 1970 this car was sold to another guy so he could build a better car there is a youtube film of this car running round mallory park I also have a cutaway drawing and article from Motoring news i was sent by a UK 10 tenther and on this form is more info on his cars
2 the second capri was bigger n better i think built with a 5 litre motor this car was sold later to Martin Birrane now Lola cars owner circa 1975
3 he then built the VW beetle around F5000 running gear ran this for 2 or 3 seasons
4 Im sure he then built a Skoda with a 7.6 litre surtees can am engine around 1979/80 he race this car but it was burnt in a fire at his garage and he built another car calling it the Phoenix and ran this for a while then he sold this car to build car no 5
5 this was a lola T400 with BMW M1 body on to for Donington GT championship this car doesn't exist anymore as the T400 is now in auckland with Shane but i did visit a man near silverstone 5 -6 years ago who had the bodywork and the motor from the BMW M1 car

I think the Skoda Phoenix car could still exist but the special saloon GT thing started to die out around 1989 and by 91 it was all over as a national championship and really only Oulton Park had a series running and I sold my father lotus Esprit for him end of 89 season so I stopped following what was going on.

Steve Holmes wrote:There is some real quality in that field. A pair of BMW M1s, a couple of DRM BMWs. Looks like a couple of Camaros too and an IMSA RX7. Real eclectic mix. But I'm struggling to find out any info on it.

post 171 Youtube is Finland special saloon race there is a longer film of the race
I have 1 of the BMW 320 DRM gp 5 cars in my garage that i will get round to restoring to race when i have some money/sold off some of my many other cars , F1 F3000 engines FTFGB gearboxes to get the funds

the BMW M1 is powered by a BMW f1 turbo engine and the car still exists today i saw youtube footage the other day
also in Japan they had a similar car running there 1982 ish but with 6 cyl motor again there is youtube footage of it racing in period and at historic festival in 07 09

Hi driftwood
To post pics, select the Go Advanced button and then the manage attachments button on the next page that opens