The Roaring Season

Wow, there were surprisingly large number built! Can you give more detail on you car?

been away skiing In Italy hence the silence
My car was allegedly built form the wreck of eddie cheers works car that crashed at solder in 77 Gustav Fischer bought the wreck took it home and built up a car for him to race in 78
in 79 Gerd Reiss bought the car and did some mountain races with it and 1 DRM race
the car was unused in 80 81 as Reiss teamed up with Albrecht Krebs to race his turbo car
In 82 the car was sold to Swede Kenneth Leim to race in Silverstone Spa Monza WCM 1000 km races with Peter Simonsen
The car was unused in 83 and sold to Peters son who did some local saloon races in 84 85 in sweden and Finland
The car was sold a couple of times to Finnish drivers who raced this car
My car had a number of engines BMW M12 Schnitzer turbo and Volvo B20 engine and there where 3 or 4 BMW 320 cars that race din sweden finland in the early 80's 3 have come back to the UK in the late 1990's but I had just had contact with Finnish guy who still has 1 car he is planning on rebuilding

My In Laws are family friends of Ian Knight and they have tracked him down at the Southport Yacht Club here on the Gold Coast where they had tea and bickies with him on Thursday. The Mother In Law passed on to me that he has just sold his Corvette and that the new owner will be running it at Willowbank in the Sprint series starting tomorrow (Sunday). She told Ian about this forum and he is supposedly keen to check it out so heres hoping he can supply more info on the missing escort. He was apparently going to make some calls before joining in here in order to track it down.
Regards
Tony

Hi Rod
I can't shine to much light on what happened to the old escort after I sold it. I can't even remember who I sold it to, but I believe the V8 came out and was replaced with a 2lt Ford. I'll try and dig out some old pictures. Unfortunately we have lost a lot of old photos whilst in storage so fingers crossed.
Just joined up today and have managed to spend several hours browsing. Very reminiscent, great site and will continue to go on from time to time to see what else has been uncovered.
Regards
Ian

Ian, a query - are you Eric Knight's brother?

Great to hear from you Ian, been a couple of years (about 20 plus). The Corvette you just sold was it the old girl you ran here. That was another bit of good gear. Wasn't the Escort red when you ran it. Be good to see some photos of it and also the Corvette. Hope all is good with you and if we come over some time will give you a catch up. Cheers
PS still got my little Escort.

Shano wrote:Ian, a query - are you Eric Knight's brother?

Hi Shane
Yes, Eric is my little brother

Hi Rod
Yes the Escort was red when I ran it with a 302 chev. I bought her off a friend Pete Hustler minus engine and transmission. Yes, sadly the corvette I just sold was my old girl that I use to race, but she has gone to a great home here in Queensland, in fact I am going out to Queensland Raceway today to see her run for the first time with the new owner. The new owner Matt is a great guy, and he actually saw her run at Pukekohe when he was a boy. His dad has flown over from Auckland for the weekend just for this. I will be telling him about this site today, I'm sure he will find this as interesting as I do.
Rod, it would be great to catch up if you ever come over - we have a spare cabin on the boat!!
Best regards
PS still working on some pics to post

Ian, it is amazing how you forget about things and people from way back when you loose contact, but thanks to this forum contact is back and so are some of the great memories. Re the Corvette, Bet it was hard to part with the old girl, you had her for a long time and it was a pretty car and quick as well. Remembering the escort and Peter as well. The Escort had some history and we were trying to put bits together a while back. I think Peter got it from John Scott.
Hunt out those photos.
Coming over to Philip Island in March for meeting, helping Brett Willis with the F5000 Lola, thats good fun.
Home email mailto:?subject=&body=

jim short wrote:Yes rod tony was always a sedate and safe with a nice litle wave each time i passed him

Hey you two.....cut that out! This site is about the history of great racers and their cars....not about a couple of old timers who came second more times than most to a true champion....you two try hards were a real asset to the fields in those days.....we needed mid fielders....and yes guys....I enjoyed my motor racing but most of all I enjoyed the comradeship and fun we had that doesnt seem to be around as much these days. But boys please please dont dispair...someone has to come second...(here come those fingers Rod!) As always with respect. Kindest ever regards, Tony Rutherford.

Steve Holmes wrote:900hp!!! Shit, that'd make your eyes water. I wonder if the new Singapore owner will race it.

make your eyes water all right Steve...wouldnt take off under 7,000rpm and ran up to 15,000 RPM. Belonged to a good friend of mine whom is currently enjoying some success in the open class BMW class. Took him about two years to actually take ownership under the radar and when the news hit town BMW were quite frankly bewildered that the car had slipped away from them........pity it has left the country. Regards, Tony Rutherford.

But Tony, I can only remember seeing one finger, you were such a friendly bloke. Right about the fun days ah. Did you have the BIG mirror so you could keep an eye on us or to make sure the hair was inplace.

Tony, it was a Chev V6 engine in my Escort and the only time it overheated was at Puke with the bigger second engine that Dave Green built for me and for some reason ran a lot hotter than the smaller engine. Once sorted it was quite quick, 1.08 around Puke and 62.7 around Baypark. Had the rules not changed to suit a select few I would have continued with it, having repaired it after the Manifield crash. I sold the car less motor/box and went on to racing other classes of cars.

Hello there Steve, gees i always thought it was a Buick. It went alright. I remember at Puke when you had the big one done, it got warm alright. Must catch up some time.

Hi Rod, have you got any photos of my Escort? I had some somewhere, including some of Mikes` Chevette, but I`m buggered if I can find them. Are you going to the Denny Hulme Festival? I`ve got a new toy coming from the US that I`ll be doing some skids in there!

Hi Steve. Thanks for that. I thought you had once told me it was a Chev engine when when we briefly spoke at Puke when my missus introduced us. Greg Marchant says to say Hi too.

fullnoise68 wrote:Hi Rod, have you got any photos of my Escort? I had some somewhere, including some of Mikes` Chevette, but I`m buggered if I can find them. Are you going to the Denny Hulme Festival? I`ve got a new toy coming from the US that I`ll be doing some skids in there!

Will have a look for you Steve. Love to see some photos of Mikes Chevette as some how most of his stuff has gone.
Will be at Festival so will catch up. Might see before because I am going to Ruapuna for Wigram Revival with Brett Willis so may drop in on way home if any time.

bigbanger wrote:The # 32 Mustang was Rob Kennard. The car was the former Bob Slade car which Rob raced prior to building the Cortina Ford V8.

I Came across this thread the other night and thought that the pictures of the Mustang was still when my Dad owned and raced it, but I did not get a chance to have him take a look at the pictures until tonight and he confirmed it was him driving the car. I was fairly young at the time he was racing it but I saw the car number, and remembered he ran #33 and then 32 at one time. I remember also helping him bleed the brakes one time in this car when we lived on Lake terrace
road and I had to hang off the edge of the seat and hang on to the bottom of the steering wheel to reach the pedal

Thanks Nick. I guess this must have been around 1980/81/82 or thereabouts? That looks like George Sheweiry in the Sidchrome with its Zakspeed paint scheme in the background.

thats the NZGP meet Dec/Jan 81/2