The Roaring Season

Thats great Martin, many thanks. There are a couple of shots on another thread here that show the Monaro at Pukekohe during a Sports Sedan race. It seemed pretty common for guys racing in other classes to join in with the Sports Sedans to get some extra racing in.

Gary Bromley in the Falcon Gt behind Cullinane

Finally managed to get this to post and it will need to be blown up to read as file size is quite small. First meeting at Baypark for the "new" Sports Sedans. More articles and pics coming soon when I get things sorted this end....

Couple of pics of a little old XD Falcon the old man modified a 'couple' of years back....
Does anyone know where she is now....any recent pics would be awesome.
Cheers Nick

^^ This is awesome Nick! Can you provide more details? Did the customer supply a standard Falcon road car, or was it already a race car?

Last time I saw this car was at Puke,painted yellow had the words Buxton on the bonnet, number 19 on the door and had the words street skills motor racing series below that,had a very large rear wing on the back not the one you see here painted black and yellow, have 4 photos of this car but cant post them on here.This car has to be well over 25 years old.

Steve Holmes wrote:^^ This is awesome Nick! Can you provide more details? Did the customer supply a standard Falcon road car, or was it already a race car?

it was leo leonards XD b+h car

If it is the ex Leo Leonard car.......it belonged to local farmer Tim Buxton. He bought the Falcon and with some help from various engine men and body builders turned it into this. Unfortunately he destroyed what would have become an historic car. It never amounted to much and had an extremely poor reliability record. I think at one test session at Taupo it lasted one, yes one lap before disintegrating......could have been driver error of course.....a few too many revs etc.......maybe they didnt check to see if there was any oil in the sump/dry sump. Tims son drove it on occasion and he was a complete turkey. Someone with a bit of flair could turn it into something pretty classy.......certainly looks the part.

This car had a lot of work done to it in Auckland by a well known engine builder to be run with us in Production Supercars , but only run twice due to discussions between builder and owner over costs . ended up running in GTS sports sedans at the start of the season in the South Island .

Nick, when your Dad did the bodywork on the Falcon was it owned by Tim Buxton........I have an idea that it was but not sure. Mark Powell mentions that there were 'discussions' over costs when it was up in Auckland, and not sure if Tim still owned it then, but sounds like the sort of dialogue that would take place. Tim was well known locally as a 'slow payer', in fact it was usually a NO payer. The family built a new house here in Cambridge and the local contractors knew, by word of mouth ,not to quote on any jobs. However I had a friend with a one man band concreting business and he needed the work so priced the driveway for the new home, and surprise surprise, got it. I think he did a good job but it never satisfied Tim and he argued the point with my mate to the stage where Tim refused to pay until the job was ripped up and redone. My mate was in a no win situation and was going to loose no matter what he did so walked away. A few years ago Tim moved away from the district and to my knowledge the drive is still as it was laid by my friend. Nothing to do with the Falcon I know but I wonder how many engine builders/body builders ended up with the same arguments over costs.........I suspect all of them.

Have just been talking to the Engine reconditioner in Cambridge. He did a lot/all of the machining for the first engine that was in the car, but was left to the son to assemble. This would explain perhaps why it never lasted very long as he wasnt a qualified engine builder, and I think there is more to putting a race engine together than doing up a few nuts and bolts. By the way Tims nickname round the town was 'concrete mixer'........decide for yourself what that implied'.

Thanks for that great info everyone! You guys really know your stuff! When those pics were posted I did wonder if it might have been the Tim Buxton Falcon. But I do vaguely recall seeing that car race when Buxton first had it converted into a Sports Sedan, back in the early/mid 1990s, and from memory it looked quite different to that in the pics above. I think the flares were more boxy. Was it painted yellow? Looks like it has been changed a lot since.

One other thing, again I could be wrong. But I thought the Buxton Falcon was the former Gary Sprague car?

If it was the farmer from Cambridge Tim Buxton......... It was the white XD Gary drove as the ANZ winning car [also shared drives with Leo] owned by Peter Wilson from Picton, Ernie & Peter turned it into a race winner was an ex rental or taxi to start with ....[Pictons the Place] logo on the bonnet also sponsored by Ford NZ .. Pumkin [Peter] took a Falcon S as a trade when selling the white XD and was more than happy with the deal , the cream B & H XD was the B & H falcon that a won the big race , once again Ernie , Peter & Leo were involved


Gary owned that car, & later sold it to Don McIntyre .. John,s dad

Thanks Grant, yes that is how I remember it. Buxton initially raced the XD as it was raced by Gary, and it was still white. I remember my father (a hardcore Ford nut) being quite upset when Buxton had the Falcon modified into a Sports Sedan, as even then (early 1990s) it was considered a car with important historic significance.

The XD raced by Leo was a Fairmont Ghia with auto gearbox and 302 V8. It was cream. My understanding is this car was returned to the road when its racing career finished, and people saw it on the road for several years, but its since vanished.

Steve Holmes wrote:Thanks Grant, yes that is how I remember it. Buxton initially raced the XD as it was raced by Gary, and it was still white. I remember my father (a hardcore Ford nut) being quite upset when Buxton had the Falcon modified into a Sports Sedan, as even then (early 1990s) it was considered a car with important historic significance.

The XD raced by Leo was a Fairmont Ghia with auto gearbox and 302 V8. It was cream. My understanding is this car was returned to the road when its racing career finished, and people saw it on the road for several years, but its since vanished.

Yes the cream XD was a 302 Fairmont Ghia ....Gary bought it off Murray Renalds [a Tauranga car dealer ] , it was swapped for Gary,s cabin cruiser........ the year before Gary & I were at Puke and watching a B & H race Gary turned to me & said I can win this next year , it will be a piece of cake [ that he did but was not that easy] I would have been mid 20,s doing escort sports, Gary & Leo were to be the same old great team ........doing what the knew at the front .. As for the white XD that Peter owned Gary & Leo both had turns , when Gary moved to Auss Leo had a go......

That white XD (that Tim Buxton ended up with) was a great looking car too. Does anyone have any pics of it?

I can't believe non of you lot of come up with an answer for this one yet?