The Roaring Season

Allan wrote:Note the roof damage to the Louise Smith coupe.

Good spotting Allan
Racing was not for the faint hearted back then

At Taupo people were asking me about the differences in classes
HSC- modified cars with standard bodies and same manufacturer factory components
HSS- modified bodies and different manufacturer components
The Allcomer era, 1960 to 1967 and only the type of cars seen on our circuit in NZ thru that period.
Mechanical components should be only those available during those dates.
Also those like the Custaxie 2, Coppin's Zephyr Corvette, Morrari replicas there can only be 1 car.
The real cars that exist can not be replicated.
Heaps of room for an Uncle Jack Anglia ,A40 Farina and a Marwood Jaguar powered H80...
There were plenty of V8 Coupes then to chose a suitable replica now- Robin Tanner, Rod Coppins, John Riley-later George Bunce, Nazer etc
No championship, series or need to upgrade or modify the cars.

Here is one for you lads to drool over, not sure when or where this is;


Plus I located another project for Paul B. You can have this 61 Falcon for free but you are not allowed to cut down the tree !
On a positive note you would not need a hoist to replace what remains of the rear end or do a complete brake job etc.. !
Just a long ladder !


Cheers,
Ken H

The Falcons Nest Ken!... or pearch - great shot
Cheers

Thanks to Nigel Watts I am able to put photos to each entrant in this class at Taupo except for Dennis Running or Wayne Baxter in the order of their car number in the programme.

# 4 Jamie Coyle-Bennenbroek, . 1973 Holden Torana XU1


# 7 Peter Hooper, . 1982 Toyota Starlet.


# 23 Bob Hyslop 1986 Mazda RX 7



# 34 Graeme and Murray Park. 1976 Morris Marina.



# 39 Cam Neil. 1939 Chevrolet Coupe.



(To be continued .. )( Thanks to Nigel Watts for the excellent photos )

# 40 Adrian Dobbe. 1969 Vauxhall Viva.



# 50 Paul Tulloch driving the Robert Bartley 1955 Ford Customline Custaxie.



# 59 John McKechnie. 1969 Holden Monaro.



# 68 Roger Davis. 1976 Holden Torana SLR 5000



# 69 Jon Telford. 1991 Mazda RX 8



# 72 Robert Jack. 1979 Ford Escort.

# 77 Neil Deighton. 1974 Hillman "Chavenger" .. see reason for name below..



# 83 Bruce Thompson. 1973 Ford Falcon XA Coupe.




# 96 Richard Quinn. 1979 Toyota Starlet.





# 118 Graham Barnes. 1970 Ford Capri.

# 141 Craig Stacey. 1957 Ford Zephyr Corvette.




# 181 Ron Findlay. 1970 Ford Capri Perana.



# 302 Bruce Goodwin. 1965 Ford Mk 3 Zephyr.



All photos here thanks to Nigel Watts except for the last Hyndman photo of the Goodwin Mk 3

Ken- #26. Number 77 , Neil Deighton is in fact Chavenger.
Hillman Avenger with a Charger motor.
A real time capsule

I saw somewhere that the All-Comer racing era began in NZ in 1960.
As this is at Ardmore on Jan. 9th 1960 is this a photo from the first All-Comer race ?

Australian, L. Kingsley, going wide in his Holden # 123 as he fights to stay ahead of G. Dixon in his 1937 Chevrolet Coupe # 110 and T. Doherty in his 1934 Ford V-8 # 111.


The race as in the Hyndman; 7th New Zealand International Grand Prix at Ardmore programme.

(Ken Hyndman )

Check this 1939 scene of a NZ country road somewhere showing these cars, coupes etc. nice and clean, lined up waiting to get into a horse racing meet.
Can anyone identify the sports car/ roadster 4th car from the back ?

Turnbull Library photo. WH Raine photographer.

Ken H

Ken- As the term Allcomers is not in the title, then this probably is a Saloon Car race.

John McKechnie wrote:Ken- As the term Allcomers is not in the title, then this probably is a Saloon Car race.

Bugger says Ken, before the definition of a saloon was that it had a roof - it was the Allcomer rule . there was a description that went as follows.

" Open roof does not a Sports Car make, nor Wind up windows a Saloon "

Then in the same vein, my Dad talked about cars with " Carbolic Brakes and a Sunstroke Roof " and they were modified with
" Twin Overhead Dipsticks and a Full Race Sump Gasket " .

llcom

Geez John I thought you would agree with me on this 1960 field at Ardmore as having Allcomers. Did they not start in 1960 as you stated and this has 1937 Chevrolets, 1934 Ford V-8, John Riley and Red Dawson etc.and a NZ built beautiful de Joux # 20.

I note the 1962 NZGP and 1964 NZGP programmes do not mention Allcomers just Open Saloon Car Races.
The 1969 NZGP programme has an Open Race for Saloon cars " Unlimited Capacity_ Allcomers Included"

perhaps I need reminding of what exactly is an Allcomer and when that term was first used in NZ programmes ?

Ken H..as Roger says Bugga !

The New Zealand Saloon Car Championship was first staged in 1960. It was won by Harold Heasley, driving a Humber 80.
From 1960-1967 it was mostly devoid of actual rules
Later the New Zealand Saloon Car Championship was held under "allcomer' regulations
1967 was the last year,in 1968 production based FIA Group 5 came in...no arguing with what is in your program.
suggest reading-

https://www.motorsport.org.nz/content/discontinued-race-championships


https://www.pressreader.com/australia/new-zealand-classic-car/20150824/281779923134832

Growing up in the UK in the 1950's, the addition of any saloon cars to any grid wasn't normal - even in Formula Libre, until the latter part of the decade. All race programmes initially, probably from the Brookland's days, had races for single seaters and sports cars - usually by capacity. In those days, you drooled over any car in the programme, as it was a rarity to see any on the streets - and when you did, it was a head turning moment.

There is a logical comment to add here, but I won't.

Formula Libre for us, was when Chris Summers was able to run the Cooper Chevrolet (usually the only single seater over about 3,000cc) as there were no other stand alone classes with big banger single seaters or larger engined sports cars.

When Mini's hit the race tracks very soon after their launch, we had a spate of fairly standard or lightly modified saloons (called touring cars), Riley 1.5's, Borgward, Jaguars, Zephyrs etc., until the super saloons (Jag powered Anglia, V8 A40's and Cortinas etc) hit the tracks, along with space frame Minis. At that point I suppose we had 'open saloons'.

We also had by the end of the 1950's, small GT's - mainly Lotus Elites, often mixed with sports cars then in the early 1960's, bigger GT's, such as Jaguar E Types, Ferraris and Aston Martins. Still the sort of machinery to drool over and relatively rare on the public roads.

Presumably, NZ followed a similar path, but may well have been racing saloons earlier?

Ardmore. Jan 9th 1960.

As I stated this may have been the first major NZ race to have included "Allcomers".





(Wait for it Ken !)

Steve Holmes did the #36 article.
So , who is going to be the person with the early NZ motoring mags from 1960 to 1965 that can first find the use of the word allcomer to actually refer to our subject?
Not to be confused with Open Saloon Cars or Unlimited CC.
Dont think that simply running a standard Coupe would make it allcomers though.
For me it would have to be something radical...fastback, fastfront, Lotus in Anglia not a Cortina, V8 in a Minor, SBC in a 30s Coupe , Dawsons Willys Coupe, they were originally a 4 cylinder, Jag in Humber.......any takers here ?

Surely, 'Allcomers' isn't in any way specific? Maybe just a race promoter's term to fill a grid with a mix of saloons conforming (or not!) to any specific sets of rules? If you like, it was probably just a saloon car equivalent of Formula Libre (or Free Formula), but excluding sports cars and single seaters?