The Roaring Season

RogerH wrote:Another photo of the Heron.

Roger thanks ,yes no bits of tin over the wheels in that photo,thats how I remember it the first time I ever saw it down in Rotorua and how it was when we got it

The Lola T70 when Jim Boyd had it and a couple of earlier evocative sports car photos.

Here is a period shot of the GEMCO being unloaded off its trailer at Pukekohe

Here is a photo of the Graham Harvey Elfin taken at Pukekohe.

If you do a "Google" search 'Ross Baker+Heron' you will find a website dedicated to "Heron" cars. On the home page there is a 'Links and contacts' in the index. If you look there you can email Ross. He may be able to help re whereaouts of some of the cars.

Here another photo of the GEMCO sports car

How about this?
http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/specialist-cars/competition-cars/auction-345538192.htm

This Lola was competing in the Silverstone Classic meeting three years ago. Still painted in Cambridge colours as it raced in NZ. I chatted with the driver, bemoaning the fact that it had left here. It blew it's motor later at the meeting.

Whats the #18 car Bob?

[ATTACH]1431[/ATTACH]

This next photo is probably not what Gerard was thinking of when he started this thread, but it had a variety of big banger engines in a long career, and was raced at least as late as November 1968.

The HWM-Cadillac was imported in the mid-50's by the Avery brothers. As well as the Averys, it was driven later, mostly at Ardmore and Pukekohe, by Ron Roycroft, Roly Levis and once, I think, by Jim Boyd. Later it was owned by J.Donnelly, seen above in practice at the 1965 GP meeting, and then by George Hallen and John Monehan. It was a fairly reliable car it seems, and sometimes outlasted some of the smaller and faster stuff. A one stage it was painted a delightful purple shade, but I can't find a colour picture.

The McBegg is currently being rebuilt in Invercargill by Wally Willmott who built the original chassis at McLarens. I was talking to Wall in the weekend and we were discussing the car. The original chassis is with the McLaren Trust but they have another chassis in Invercargill, and most of the original Begg built parts. Wall told me the story of how the McBegg came into being. I am not sure of the year, but McLaren were building the M1Bs and were also running the F1 car, and had a tyre supply contract with Goodyear for the supply of F1 tyres. Bruce felt that these tyres proved to be better than the tyres they were using on the M1Bs but were only available in 13" wheras the M1Bs ran 15" wheels, so it was decided to build an M1B chassis with altered suspension pickup points to suit the smaller wheels. The car was assembled and raced but did not handle as expected. It was tried again with 15inch rear wheels and 13" fronts, which improved the situation, but was still not as good as had been anticipated. The car was subsequently stripped of all the parts and the chassis thrown into the rubbish bin. Also in the rubbish bin was an M6 front body section (I was told by the original driver of the McBegg that this was from Denny Hulmes Can Am championship car) This was being used by Wally Willmott when they were building the prototype M8. The nose section had been sliced through the air intake ducts horizontally and deepened by 2". Moulds were then taken from this, and it to found its way into the rubbish. George Begg, who was working at McLarens at the time asked Bruce if he could buy both parts and was told to just take them away, which he did, and brought them back to New Zealand when he returned and built the McBegg.

stubuchanan wrote:[ATTACH]1431[/ATTACH]

This next photo is probably not what Gerard was thinking of when he started this thread, but it had a variety of big banger engines in a long career, and was raced at least as late as November 1968.

The HWM-Cadillac was imported in the mid-50's by the Avery brothers. As well as the Averys, it was driven later, mostly at Ardmore and Pukekohe, by Ron Roycroft, Roly Levis and once, I think, by Jim Boyd. Later it was owned by J.Donnelly, seen above in practice at the 1965 GP meeting, and then by George Hallen and John Monehan. It was a fairly reliable car it seems, and sometimes outlasted some of the smaller and faster stuff. A one stage it was painted a delightful purple shade, but I can't find a colour picture.

What a neat car that is. Thanks for the pic Stu. I read that Gavin Bain owned this car in the late 80s/early 90s. Where is it now?

I'd like to know the answer to that one, too, Steve

I haven't hard anything of it since that time (or if I have, I didn't make a note of the fact...)

Well This Is my old mate Jamie Aislabie at Pukekohe March 1972 ,but can anyone positively ID the two buggy drivers for me

The obvious answer would be Rod Millen in one of them - was it too early for Paul Swann in the other?

Dave ,my own reckoning is
that the rear one is actually Steve Millen in Rods car ,and possibly Paul Swan in the other or Jody McNamara ?

Baypark

Elfin