The Roaring Season

Great photo's Rod - thank for posting them.

Whats the history on that purple Viva? Looks like the one that was around 15 or so years ago raced by one of the Heslin brothers. It was silver then. At the other Heslin was racing the ex-Ryan/Hyde etc V8 Capri, which I suspect is the blue car pictured earlier in this thread?

This little Chevron beauty ran with the OSCA class cars and what a great performance with its little 2Ltr against the huge horse power Nissans but it out handled them and was a picture to watch go around the outside in the esse's (where no one pass's) awesome.

There were the usual "specials' as Ruapuna and South are famous for.
Avon Hyde with his little black Austin Special, (5) this goes quicker than it is meant too, and Avon seems to have the late brake points down to a tee, great to watch and leads alot of bigger machinery home.

Some photos of the "Specials"

More 'Specials'

There were also the mandatory McLarens, this being one of my favorite little cars.

Mr Mauger had the big car out for a run, no doubt this will be one of the centre stage cars at Hampton in January. Love that sound.

And this one that Mr Mauger drove too and from home in, and gave a little squirt after practice, quick and impressive. Especially under hard braking when the boot turns into a big rear air dam.

Yes, those are exhausts under the front guards, and that does say McLaren on the guard.

Sports Car History

Formula Ford History, another of Mr Begg's babies.

Fantastic photos Rod, thanks heaps for posting these.

Can anyone fill me in on the background info of Stan Redmans Lola T333CS? Weren't the T333s built for the SCCA's new second generation Can-Am series? Obviously these were essentially F5000s with sports car bodies on top in the early years. Is this what Stans car started out as?

There were some beautiful Jaguars there and some with history.

An assortment of little Fords

And a little Chev. How is this for a service wagon, towing in car. This was a neat little wagon.

Steve Holmes wrote:Whats the history on that purple Viva? Looks like the one that was around 15 or so years ago raced by one of the Heslin brothers. It was silver then. At the other Heslin was racing the ex-Ryan/Hyde etc V8 Capri, which I suspect is the blue car pictured earlier in this thread?

This was built by fellow Kaiata resident JT Thorby (NI) with a little 3.5 alloy in it , I Remember him racing at Wigram circa 83 under the " Destitute Racing " banner in a striking lime green / black livery , he had his helmet painted to match ...... and his hair as well . I Remember John Harcourt telling me he was still washing the dye from the balaclava years later he got off JT after he quit racing , a right character he is as i,m sure a few OSCA members here will verify . Cheers , Bazza .

"Destitute Racing" ! I think they came north at one stage but cant remember if i saw them at Puke or Baypark. Ran a couple of cars from memory. I keep thinking one was a Ford Consul for some reason.

TonyG wrote:"Destitute Racing" ! I think they came north at one stage but cant remember if i saw them at Puke or Baypark. Ran a couple of cars from memory. I keep thinking one was a Ford Consul for some reason.

You are on the money there Tony it was built up there , I think the Consul was the 315 of Derek Mitchell and was Holden engined , will confirm with JT .

TonyG wrote:"Destitute Racing" ! I think they came north at one stage but cant remember if i saw them at Puke or Baypark. Ran a couple of cars from memory. I keep thinking one was a Ford Consul for some reason.

More of a case of John Thorby coming South. John ran the Ford Consul 315 with the Holden six for a few years in the NI, then moved to the HB Viva with the V8 (not sure who originally built it). Around 1985? John moved to Chch and ran the Viva V8 in OSCA with some engineering help from John Harcourt who knew a thing or two about Rover/Olds/Buick alloy V8 engines. When John T gave racing away, the Viva sat in John Harcourt's Prebbleton workshop for some time. I had left NZ before the car went to anybody else, but when John Thorby ran it it did not have the big box flares pictured, they must have been a later addition.