The Roaring Season

John Mck.. have found a little on the Twombly too!!, an American Cyclecar
The Twombly was a cyclecar manufactured in the US by Driggs-Seabury between 1913 and 1915. The cars had water-cooled, four-cylinder engines, two seats in tandem, and an underslung body. Few of them are still in existence.

The designer was Willard Irving Twombly (1873-1953), inventor and aviator. His largest investor, Reverend David Stuart Dodge petitioned for bankruptcy in 1915 claiming he was owed $428,238 by the Twombly group of companies for loans and interest.[1] Shortly after this, Twombly became involved in an expensive divorce case and was eventually jailed following accusations of bigamy and misconduct.[2]

Wow, it seems that this race back then certainly had some very unique cars.
Any body remember it at all?
Twoomby sounds likes like a real character- half a mill in 1915
Oldfart- you know quite a bit on cyclecars-have you come across this one ?

After reading the very well researched Rorstan thread I was reminded that somewhere I had an old B&W photo from the 1964 NZGP at Pukekohe. I took this photo at the Elbow Corner and Tony Shelly had just gone past the left side and Jim Palmer is coming under attack from Bruce McLaren in his Cooper as he comes out of the corner and on the right is Jack Brabham slowing for the corner in his BT 7 A.
On the very next lap Brabham crashed into Shelly at this spot and was lucky to escape unhurt as his car just missed the horse stable building after being launched in the air. The next lap McLaren slowed to check on Jack and Tony and then gave Jack the "finger" as he accelerated away. The crowd roared at all the excitement.



( Ken Hyndman photo )

Roger Dowding wrote:[ATTACH=CONFIG]29802[/ATTACH]

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These could be small, A huge Pontiac amongst the small stuff, Mini's etc and the Lycoming 1966/67 not sure .. from my " Box Brownie " type camera days Ken ..

According to another Forum, the Pontiac is being peddled by either John Windleburn or maybe Colin Prast .. if anyone has 1966 67 Pukekohe Race proegarms, like the ones I gave away in 2008, will have the answer, can't quite make out the Race number.
The Lycoming should be Jimmy Boyd

In my garage again and found another piece of Motoring history " The History of the Dunedin Festival Road Races 1953 - 65 ", entitled " Racing Round the Houses " by Scott Thomson [ who wrote the Ron Roycroft History " Up to Speed " ], published in 1983 by the Vintage Car Club of N Z Otago branch, I purchased my copy at the 1984, Dunedin Street Race Revival meeting. Also found newspaper clipping and some photos both mine and ones from the Otago Daily Times.
here are the front and back covers of the book [ booklet really ]

Scott Thomson also put out a book on the Waimate races.

Milan, would certainly like to get hold of that. have read bits about Waimate, but never went there - too far away from Auckland and that bit of water in between the islands made it expensive too !!.

Posting these here as unsure which thread would be right. the Quickfire Club Circuit meeting Sept 1968 - as I have found out from the back of a photo. the meeting was on TV [ one in those days as not other channel and B and W too !!
Single seaters on the dummy grid


notes on the back say U@ Ford #4, Brabham -Fiat #61, Formula Vee #3, with Mini Special alongside, anoth F-Vee behind.


Formula Vees - #3, at back..

next one posted on the Mini's and Imps page but from the same day.



That Mini-Ford - Lotus Twincam motor.

Barney Pellow in the Brabham, ? in the U2 (fairly distinctive alloy wheels should identify it), the "Mini special" is an MER-possibly Doug Cross? The F Vee behind the MER (and in the large photo) looks very much like a McQueen Vee (Auckland built car based closely on an Australian "Elfin" design).

The U2 looks like the one my mate raced in the mid-sixties. He sold it to Graeme Morley. It was built by Graham McRae and was unusual in that it had independent rear suspension.

Edit: Morley is listed as competing at the Club Circuit on August 18 1968 so it must be his car.

The McRae u2 is currently owned and raced by Alan Service and still has the same alloy wheels as in the photo above.

Apologies for the typos on the photos U2 not U@, etc.. the photo of the F-Vee no number is me kneeling down looking at the gearbox, and my two mates Roger Allport [ back on ] and Ron Lucca [ side on ] so assume that Steve Fowler took the photo..

rf84 wrote:The McRae u2 is currently owned and raced by Alan Service and still has the same alloy wheels as in the photo above.

That's right, but it's lost the IRS.

The FV was used in McQeen's adverts for the car.

Milan Fistonic wrote:That's right, but it's lost the IRS.

that would be a step backwards then

AHH memories,Minimax on back of grid with Ken Flashman in the ex Peter Bruin Cooper Vincent.The U2 drivers name escapes me but will come when the brain electrodes join up!! [These comments relate to the dummy grid photo.] Have actually seen an 8mm film of this race,film exists in Australia with Doug Wentworth.

Just read other posts,Yes Graeme Morley ,should read before i type,did not realise i raced against it again when i had the Humber 80 Special.!

928 wrote:that would be a step backwards then

Perhaps not as it has now won the Historic Sports car class a few times!

Does anyone want more Vintage photo's .. Ken will be happy, have a few shots !!.

Ross Hollings wrote:AHH memories,Minimax on back of grid with Ken Flashman in the ex Peter Bruin Cooper Vincent.The U2 drivers name escapes me but will come when the brain electrodes join up!! [These comments relate to the dummy grid photo.] Have actually seen an 8mm film of this race,film exists in Australia with Doug Wentworth.

Just read other posts,Yes Graeme Morley ,should read before i type,did not realise i raced against it again when i had the Humber 80 Special.!

Ken Flashman comes to my mind, and Peter Bruin, ..there was a short sprint at Te Atatu, down the Industrial road to the now waste station, Well around 78-80, they had a sprint and Peter Bruin, had a replica Lotus Eleven, and lots of other cars, no photo's .. sorry.

Photo posted on Facebook on the New Zealand Rallying History page by Edward Porter - from his fathers collection of photos, have suggested Edward join TRS.
here is a photo of Pat Hoare in his Ferrari at Clelands Rd Hillclimb Timaru. late 50's early 60's. Hopefully there will be more.