The Roaring Season

ERC wrote:2002 -

The café at Hampton Downs (outside) has this large glass wall that adjoins the Toyota Race Series workshop. Which begs the question, what happens to all the TRS cars when they are pensioned off, given that there is a new chassis for next season? We seem to have had a myriad of single seater race formulae over the years, but how many do we see in formula libre races?
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I had lunch in the cafe last week. The TRS workshop was filled with last season's cars, most stripped of their decals. The new TRS car was there complete with halo. One of my lunch companions had heard that the original TRS cars, like the one hanging on the wall in the cafe, were locked away in a warehouse in Onehunga. Whether they are still there he did not know.

Yellow #64, post 2877, is the superb restoration, by Louis McNair of the outboard powered Spider, originally built (and crashed) as a single seater.

As is often the case, a Mix of Pics...

Variety bash, 1989 but not being very up with cars of this era, what is it?


1994, Solar car demo at Whenuapai


Leadfoot 2019. Not easy grabbing shots from some parts of the hillclimb.




Whilst other areas are a lot easier

" Variety bash, 1989 but not being very up with cars of this era, what is it? "
Car is a Pontiac - mid 1960's - 1966 ..

similar to this - Note Rego DD4170 is no longer valid.
This Mark Dawber in Dunedin in 1984 in a " Bonneville " two door Saloon - Coupe .. - " MarkD " is a TRS member - his own photo.
Mark still has the Car - a restoration project when I last heard several years ago.



Another Hil Climb - Edit found out - location Houghtons Bay Hill Climb, Wellington -Wellington Car Club - they are often playing cricket on the ground below ;



And my model of a Coupe - two door version a Matchbox Model /Toy from the time



And yes I put all those stickers /transfers on a 1;72 scale toy as a teenager, part of my Matchbox collection that I kept about 20 of them.
The Faller AMS transfer came from my brothers 1;72 Slot Car set, that we had with my HO/OO Railway set and all the Matchbox Toys .. Supposed to be the current 1966 NASCAR Racer .. even put the " steel straps" on the back window -one has fallen off over the 50 years since done.
Sold or gave away a lot more

Thanks Roger.

February C & C 2019




Legends March 2019

Not sure who is aware of this museum proposal for the UK, but I sincerely hope it goes ahead.

http://www.attractionsmanagement.com/index.cfm?pagetype=news&codeID=340412

At the same time Bicester is expanding even more to do something very similar!

Bicester is a great home for specialist workshops, but not normally open to the public during the week, for casual visitors I was told. (I enquired last year.) However, the more that is located in that general area the better. Makes it a great place to visit! Weekends there are usually races to visit, but I'm running out of places to visit during weekdays.

I have just started a new web page, publishing scans of race entries from old race programmes, following requests from UK TVR owners doing some research.

Early days and just older UK stuff so far.

http://www.monza.org.nz/UK_entries/entries_01.htm

Roger Dowding wrote:
Another Hiil Climb - car and location unknown ;

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The venue is the old Houghton Bay Hillclimb, Wellington - looking back down towards Martin Luckie Park in the background. The Wellington Car Club clubrooms were (out of shot) to the right for many years, off Russell Terrace (which joined onto Mount Albert Road).

Alan Hyndman wrote:The venue is the old Houghton Bay Hillclimb, Wellington - looking back down towards Martin Luckie Park in the background. The Wellington Car Club clubrooms were (out of shot) to the right for many years, off Russell Terrace (which joined onto Mount Albert Road).

Alan H, Thanks for that - have seen other photos of the Houghton Bay events - believe it went back into the 1950's !!

Roger
That is still a great road today, and it would be great to have that brought back again as a hillclimb. Alexandra Rd and Shelly Bay are events that are still run today by the Wellington car club.
Cheers

Been busy (and still busy) with the scanning of old UK entry lists/programmes. I've done Mallory Park programmes from 1956 to my last visit in 1976 and now making a start on Silverstone plus various other tracks. Fascinating reading some of the race entries - cars and drivers.

Just to keep this thread rolling, a bit of a break from the time consuming scanning and web page build.

Back to 1994


2019. Not who you think driving, but a now carless rent-a-driver - Bruce Manon. Going very hard too!






New ERC driver - driving what looks to be the Scaffolding Special...


New car

2019...










Part of the Mexted fleet

I laughed at this!


Well known V12 Jaguar




Very smart.

Stewart's E Type Jaguar has undergone a freshen up.






What is this doing in here you ask?


This is why. A V8 tucked underneath.


Caffeine & Classics again tomorrow. Always something new.

" Caffeine & Classics again tomorrow. Always something new. "

Enjoy Ray, I think John Vevers who has an Austin 3 Litre - the Landcrab 1800 derived Saloon will be there to and probably GeeBeez with his early MX5. I will miss it again .. damnit.

Love that 1938 Ford Coupe,
but the Japanese People Mover .. Why ??,
" Because you can "
- Compliance would have been a nightmare I would think, can't cut up moderns like you could in the 40's / 50's to the late 70's..

Wow! What turnout this month. They split C & C with the Hampton Downs meet on the same day, but this fantastic free show just grows and grows. Photos to follow. I'm buried in scanning old UK race programmes at the moment. What a revelation that is proving to be as I never realised there were so many one offs or little known cars running.

What is equally surprising is that cars such as Diva, Tornado, Peerless and Berkeley were so prolific on the tracks at the time. I also didn't know that the 8100cc CanAm BRM ran in a couple of clubbies at Croft!

Also interesting that over the years, few now bother with competing with cars up to 850cc, 1000cc, 1200cc, 1300cc etc, as they used to. Also that apart from the modern Radicals, Juno's etc, and Lotus 7 copies, so few cars could now be classed as sports racing cars and driven to and from the events.

Apologies if any of these have been shown before, but when I first started posting on this site, I didn't keep a good track of what I'd posted. Little did I know then that I'd still be posting, 820,000 views later...

Richard Seaman 1937 Donington


1948 Silverstone


1996 Goodwood Festival


Used to love this outclassed Porsche when cars didn't have to lap within 107% of the pole sitter. Donington 2004. Where is this car now I wonder?


Monaco 2012 Scirocco BRM


Techno

ERC wrote:Wow! What turnout this month. They split C & C with the Hampton Downs meet on the same day, but this fantastic free show just grows and grows. Photos to follow. I'm buried in scanning old UK race programmes at the moment. What a revelation that is proving to be as I never realised there were so many one offs or little known cars running.

What is equally surprising is that cars such as Diva, Tornado, Peerless and Berkeley were so prolific on the tracks at the time. I also didn't know that the 8100cc CanAm BRM ran in a couple of clubbies at Croft!

Also interesting that over the years, few now bother with competing with cars up to 850cc, 1000cc, 1200cc, 1300cc etc, as they used to. Also that apart from the modern Radicals, Juno's etc, and Lotus 7 copies, so few cars could now be classed as sports racing cars and driven to and from the events.

Shenstone District Car Club custodians of Curborough is alive and well with classes for just about everything. One of the most popular is unmodified up to 1400cc. Car of choice is MG ZR. The club owns a number which they loan to folks who want to get into the sport. I need to check out the deal!

I used to compete at Curborough regularly and well remember running events there too, for the Nottingham Sports Car Club. Hard work. Leaving home at 5am to drive past Curborough to pick up the keys; back to unlock. Overseeing signing on by my ex-wife. Running either one or two cars -1000cc Mini Cooper, later, Wolseley Hornet 998cc later still, with a tired pre-rebuild 1293cc, plus a 1300cc Allegro then an Allegro Equipe. Commentating, printing out results on an old Gestetner duplicator on the day, rather than posting them; locking up; returning the keys, getting back home, somewhat knackered about 8pm!

I had many class wins at Curborough in a popular class I introduced. Up to 1300cc road modified saloons cars. When I managed a run at a fraction under 40 seconds, the timekeeper disallowed it as no one in that class had ever gone under 40, so I had a re-run - and did it again! Tricky track Rhys, with turn 1, the long sweeping left hander being the key to a fast time - and the hairpin.

Happy days, but getting 2 practice and 2 or sometimes 3 runs, on a 900 yard course was expensive, compared to what I paid in NZ for my first race at Pukekohe 1985.

The first 998cc Cooper - with a later temporary fibreglass front end, after a season 1, 1971 crash at Silverstone...


Like the woodsman's axe, the engine and wheels were swapped to another Mini...


...and little did I know that I'd eventually graduate to a Marcos.


...and that engine and those wheels rolled over into the Hornet 1977. Later, fitted with a 1293cc engine. That engine I had rebuilt after setting a new class record, but never ran until I brought it to NZ and it now lives with Mike Lucas. Although the Hornet was being restored in 1982 with new metalwork underneath, I accepted the job in NZ and sadly, the shell had to be scrapped. My long term plan was to convert it to a Broadspeed replica, as I felt the Hornet/Elf was a better base.


The understairs temporary trophy shelf with the AMMC Dunlop class trophy for up to 1300cc Road Modified saloons, 1979 season.
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The Equipe I brought to NZ, 1983.