Minis and Imps

[Chris Read]

Has anyone thought of including Barry Vuyk's BDA Imp in this thread which he ran in Osca. I think it was a Stiletto. It was very neatly built car which went well but not for long in the Series before he sold it. I believe it went into Rally Cross and then downhill from there and may be around still. Any ideas or photos? Barry is still in Dunedin I think. I have the 5 speed gear set out of the Hewland trans axle in my garage somewhere.
Murray Cockburn lives in Queenstown and in his early Oamaru days he ran a mini - was it the Brink mini??
Still the same character he was.
Also for many years Brian Houston in Dunedin owned the London Sydney Marathon Mini in its original form as well as an important Rally Cross mini. Great historic cars. Chris Read-Arrowtown.

[Steve Holmes]

Chris, I'm sure there are photos somewhere on this site of the Vuck Imp. This damn place must be getting too big, I can't seem to find anything anymore! Ha ha ha.

[Chris Read]

Has anyone thought of including Barry Vuyk's BDA Imp in this thread which he ran in Osca. I think it was a Stiletto. It was very neatly built car which went well but not for long in the Series before he sold it. I believe it went into Rally Cross and then downhill from there and may be around still. Any ideas or photos? Barry is still in Dunedin I think. I have the 5 speed gear set out of the Hewland trans axle in my garage somewhere.
Murray Cockburn lives in Queenstown and in his early Oamaru days he ran a mini - was it the Brink mini??
Still the same character he was.
Also for many years Brian Houston in Dunedin owned the London Sydney Marathon Mini in its original form as well as an important Rally Cross mini. Great historic cars. Chris Read-Arrowtown.

SAD THAT YOU HAVE TO REPLY TO YOUR OWN POST BUT CAME ACROSS THIS WHILE SEARCHING FOR THE RORSTAN INFO AND SEEMS THAT THE STILETTO CAME TO A BOY RACER END. Chris Read
Posted by Graeme Farr #348 Lost Race Cars Thread:
When I bought the Mini off Sandy it was sitting under a hedge - I asked what ever happened to the ex Barry Vuyk Stilletto he had - and he pointed me to another hedge!. There is was all complete with rotary and even still had the cool Haliday wheels. A year or two later an Imp nut from Chch advertised looking for the car and I put him in touch with Sandy. But I think he just took out the Hewland and flogged it off and took the car to the dump. Sad end to a cool car.

[Steve Holmes]

Chris, is this the same car? Martin posted these on the Lost Race Car thread:

[Milan Fistonic]

Not sure if this Mini has been mentioned already, and with dial-up it takes too long to check, but it has to be one of the widest Minis ever raced.

[Steve Holmes]

Woah! That really IS wide! If you took those flares off the wheels would be attached clean outside the bodywork. I wonder how they got them mounted so wide? Surely not spacers?

[Oldfart]

Britwell, the Hamilton boys!

[tmann]

Barry Vuyk stilletto was purchased by a guy in christchurch, I went to chch and looked at purchasing the car.

Got there, looked at it, took photo's, told the guy I'll get back to you in a couple of days, left it a week and by then he had taken it
to a scrap metal yard. I called the yard and it "was gone" too late!!!!

it is the car in photo's above as it looked the same,

tmann

[driftwood]

1 what is dial up? are you referring to the technology of internet access 10 years ago?
2 wel known phrase snooze you loose
throw in
he who hesitates is lost
every race car I have bought has been instant
IF i took the effort to go see the car I have either bought on spot OR called next day and put my offer on table
anything after that and i didnt want it or was not interested enough in it having seen it
I have bought many cars off fotos from hysterical FFords to Gp C cars

you pass this way once in your life and now a race car is dead for 2 reasons
1 a fkwit bought the car
2 you deliberated and you even went to see the car so why did you not move yer lips there n then- you obviously wanted it at the price advertised otherwise you would have stayed at home
I do not think I can forgive you for your actions unless you can ply with me leg of lamb supper followed by lots of beer/wine port whiskey and many story's of racing in NZ followed with photos
so be warned no leg of lamb no forgiveness

[car mad]

just spotted this on trade me ......now the big question can i make the link work lol
http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/specialist-cars/competition-cars/auction-509854439.htm

[Oldfart]

just spotted this on trade me ......now the big question can i make the link work lol
http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/specialist-cars/competition-cars/auction-509854439.htm

Yes, you made the link work.
That's a hell of a lot of car for the $

[Steve Holmes]

1 what is dial up? are you referring to the technology of internet access 10 years ago?
2 wel known phrase snooze you loose
throw in
he who hesitates is lost
every race car I have bought has been instant
IF i took the effort to go see the car I have either bought on spot OR called next day and put my offer on table
anything after that and i didnt want it or was not interested enough in it having seen it
I have bought many cars off fotos from hysterical FFords to Gp C cars

you pass this way once in your life and now a race car is dead for 2 reasons
1 a fkwit bought the car
2 you deliberated and you even went to see the car so why did you not move yer lips there n then- you obviously wanted it at the price advertised otherwise you would have stayed at home
I do not think I can forgive you for your actions unless you can ply with me leg of lamb supper followed by lots of beer/wine port whiskey and many story's of racing in NZ followed with photos
so be warned no leg of lamb no forgiveness

Well if he wasn't feeling bad before, he will now! Ha ha ha.

And yes, dial-up, long since gone in most 1st world countries, but still active in some 3rd world countries...........and NZ!

[Paul Wilkinson]

Has this wee beast got any history? Seem like a bit of a strange transplant...

http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/other/auction-509421895.htm

[Shano]

Man that thing would be a handful.

[Milan Fistonic]

This is what happens when the clutch in a Mini lets go at the end of the back straight at Pukekohe.

The bits smash their way out of the bell housing...

...and on their way up through the bonnet...

they clobber the master cylinder leaving you with no brakes and you leave the track at high speed...

...and end up in the tyre barrier.

[Steve Holmes]

Woah! I wonder where the pieces of high speed flying metal ended up?

[Paul Wilkinson]

I am certain that there is no cooler Mini currently for sale anywhere...


http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/specialist-cars/competition-cars/auction-509854439.htm

1966 Broadspeed Mini
Only 26 ever built this is the only known racing Broadspeed Mini in the world.
A very unique car with lots of history.
The 1380cc motor produces 140 hp has done only 2 race meetings since a complete rebuild is fitted with an AKM 7 port crossflow cylinder head,forged pistons,lightweight conrods,steel maincaps,paddle clutch,4 speed dog box,limit slip diff,electric water pump and 2 oil coolers.
4 pot alloy calipers,vented discs and alloy drums,front and rear sway bars.
This is a very quick car and heaps of fun to drive.1min 19sec at Hampton Downs
1min 22sec Manfield.
Has a C.O.D. and complies to schedule K
for Classic racing.
More photos and info available

At $25k it's a bargain I reckon!

[Steve Holmes]

I was sent the following photos just recently by Colin Warrington. These days Colin races a '69 Camaro in the Queensland based Australian Trans-Am series, but, growing up in New Zealand, he raced a Mini in the 1,000cc class in NZ saloon car racing.

As a young bloke he was racing on a shoe-string budget, so tried to make up for his lack of funds by driving the wheels off his race car. Colin's Mini was painted white with a bright orange bonnet and bootlid. The car also had a vinyl top! If anyone on here has any old photos of this car, he'd love to see them, as he was always just behind the main guys in his class; Barry Phillips, Rod Collingwood, Rex Hart etc who grabbed all the magazine coverage. So he was rarely featured.

Here is Colin at his first event, in either 1968 or '69, trying hard and cocking the inside rear wheel:

[Steve Holmes]

Here is the car a couple of years later, in 1971. Colin has picked up sponsorship from Boyle Motor Co. Note, because he had no money, he couldn't afford to buy the fibreglass bolt-on flares the other teams had, so welded on some flares instead, then ran the original trim pieces around the edges.

[Steve Holmes]

He may have struggled to get the magazine coverage of the guys in front of him, but he did get some media time for all the wrong reasons when, at Pukekohe, Roy Harringtons Imp blew its engine to pieces during practice at the NZIGP meeting, and Colin, following closely behind, slipped on the oil and slammed the bank heavily. Although the newspaper clipping said he was unhurt, in fact, he'd damaged his back.

This back injury has hampered him all his life, until, at Queensland Raceway in 2012, during an Australian Trans-Am race, he was shunted from behind by another car under brakes. The crash put Colin in hospital, and the Camaro required a complete rebuild. But, amazingly, the shunt had also realigned his back from the Pukekohe crash all those years ago, and for the first time in 42 years, he no longer suffers back pains!