Yards And Yarns

[Grant Ellwood]

Bryan probably would be a drifting star these days... Do you remember the Atkins brothers, Ross and Francis? Prior to racing Formula Fords they both had Anglias and drove sideways everywhere, likewise other Levin Car Club racers Malcolm Emmerson and Tony Ashdowne. Probably left someones name out of the Levin Anglia mafia.
I last saw Ross Atkins at Manfeild circa 1996, I was strapped into the Ralt about to head out to the starting grid when Ross leaned over and advised me to "be carefull out there, today is the anniversary of Faloony's death" - not quite the words of encouragement I was expecting to hear.....

Grant it annoyed me today ,had to find it ,would have been the 28th November 1964 meeting,he tripped over Rex Flowers and he ended upside down ,another strange bit of trivia that is connected I took Bryans LSD centre down for him on the Friday before that meeting ,it was one of the Ray Stone / Merv Mayo built ones and Merv finished it on the Thursday night in time for me to take down on Friday ,
Yes Lou was the outgoing Mungavin from memory, (the entertainer ),you are right about Bryan he was a quiet guy ,but he made up for it in his driving,he let it all hang out there

[Carlo]

THE OXFORD!

After the Oxford the Wahine & Rangatira were pretty good too for those of us who had to travel South on the Sunday night. Back in Lyttleton between 5.30 to 6.00am Monday and at work in Timaru by 8.00am

[bob homewood]

Bryan probably would be a drifting star these days... Do you remember the Atkins brothers, Ross and Francis? Prior to racing Formula Fords they both had Anglias and drove sideways everywhere, likewise other Levin Car Club racers Malcolm Emmerson and Tony Ashdowne. Probably left someones name out of the Levin Anglia mafia.
I last saw Ross Atkins at Manfeild circa 1996, I was strapped into the Ralt about to head out to the starting grid when Ross leaned over and advised me to "be carefull out there, today is the anniversary of Faloony's death" - not quite the words of encouragement I was expecting to hear.....

That was the quickest way around Levin in a Anglia in those days on the tyres we used,even later on with tyres with more grip you still tended to drive that way around there

[Russ Cunningham]

Was it Frank Gardners mechanic that did that ,if I can find it I will pass it on here,ohh then there was the case of the World Champion and the Kiwi Mustang driver at one of the meetings ,car vs sack dunny from memory

What makes you think that the man from Mauriceville grew up to be a responsible adult? Hello Richard!

[Trevor Sheffield]

That was the quickest way around Levin in a Anglia in those days on the tyres we used,even later on with tyres with more grip you still tended to drive that way around there

Yes Bob,

Entering the sweeper at full throttle, setting the car up to drift round on a progressively falling throttle and then with a little on the brake, getting the revs exact to make a very smooth down change so as not to upset the drifting rear end, was a delight not experienced, or for that matter required these days. Sticky tyres spoiled all the fun. LOL

Cheers, Trevor.

[bob homewood]

Yes Bob,

Entering the sweeper at full throttle, setting the car up to drift round on a progressively falling throttle and then with a little on the brake, getting the revs exact to make a very smooth down change so as not to upset the drifting rear end, was a delight not experienced, or for that matter required these days. Sticky tyres spoiled all the fun.
Cheers, Trevor.

You summed that up nicely Trevor ,the other thing that sticks in my mind was the ever increasing amount of tarmac that came into view through the drivers side window as the car leaned and the corner tightened up ,I don't think Grant will agree as I think he got see a bit too much of the tarmac one day

[Trevor Sheffield]

Bob,

Just downed a whisky and i can sit here on my lean back chair and live it again, like singing in the rain.

Genuine cheers this time. Trevor.

[Trevor Sheffield]

Yes, yes Bob and another thought, or obtuse angle of thought.

The thing does not have to go round as if on rails, provided that it answers the helm. Frightens hell out of the opposition and they let you go by, or is it bye, or even bye-bye! It used to be first at, or up to the corner, was first into the corner with right of way, AND IN FRONT and winning. To hell with how tidy you got round, a race has no relationship with a time trial.

Again cheers, Trevor.

[Grant Ellwood]

Bob, my memory is not too hot, I can only recall a couple of solid offs at Levin - first (and my first concussion) was front on into the bank at Cabbage Tree in my Anglia, the engine ended up under the driver's seat. The second was sliding off the sweeper in the Begg FF and leaping the horse fence (inverted). I always found the bent bits of track "difficult".

You summed that up nicely Trevor ,the other thing that sticks in my mind was the ever increasing amount of tarmac that came into view through the drivers side window as the car leaned and the corner tightened up ,I don't think Grant will agree as I think he got see a bit too much of the tarmac one day

[Rod Grimwood]

After the Oxford the Wahine & Rangatira were pretty good too for those of us who had to travel South on the Sunday night. Back in Lyttleton between 5.30 to 6.00am Monday and at work in Timaru by 8.00am

What was the attraction on these ferry's Carl, did they have movies or just sit outside and enjoy the scenery.

[Shano]

It must have been the friendly and helpful crew.

[bob homewood]

What was the attraction on these ferry's Carl, did they have movies or just sit outside and enjoy the scenery.

Entertainment ,yes I can remember a couple of crossings on the Maori ,one of them had a peculiar entertainment called the dance of the wooden deck scrubber or old scrubber as it was nicknamed ,trouble was she didn't like being the centre of attraction and fled from the scene,unconfirmed reports said she may have jumped overboard in the night ,I don't know if there was any official report on her disappearance,perhaps a search of the engineers log for the crossing might show a unexplained voltage surge of the generating capacity on the night of the crossing

[Rod Grimwood]

Now theres another thread "The Infamous Cook Straight Crossings" or "Trips North & South" some good, some bad, some not sure.

[bob homewood]

I'm sure there will be more ,leave it on here ,some of those trips got a bit unruly though ,I can vaguely remember something like boobs and bum measuring competition amongst the females ,but that got dropped when some one said it had to include a inside bare leg measurement as well ,all this measured with some tape measure some poor lady had taken to measure her knitting

[bob homewood]

[quote="Amerikiwi"]Bob, my memory is not too hot, I can only recall a couple of solid offs at Levin - first (and my first concussion) was front on into the bank at Cabbage Tree in my Anglia, the engine ended up under the driver's seat.

Yes that crash was a big one to fold the old Anglia up like that,I was just thinking around that 65 time ,I think I remember Bryan saying he had tried running his Anglia on methanol ,but had problems keeping the idle jets from clogging ,so it made the power a bit on and off ,I know I tried the same thing thats how we came to be talking about it ,when it came on the mains it really went ,no matter what I did with drilling the f holes in the idle jets etc could you cure it,I ended up running Shell TT which was a Motor cycle Fuel,50/50 ,Methanol,Av Gas with a trace of castor oil in it,that was pretty good ,you could run 13;1 on it with heaps of advance no problems ,plus it ran cooler ,but eventually they changed the rules so you had to use Avgas only ,you may remember back that time Tim Parker using Methanol in his Mini and Mike Meek used it in the down port Ford engine in the A40 he had,they used to gas you if you were around them on the grid or waiting to go out to practice ,to make things worse Meeks exhaust pipe came out across the front of the car ,that was also before they changed the rule so that all exhaust had to come out behind the drivers seat,hence the pipes through the bonnet also dissapeared

[Oldfart]

I have a bloody good idea what the methanol is, if you are the one on the quicklift behind Grant Clearwaters' Connaught you soon learn!

[ElCoyote]

Entertainment ,yes I can remember a couple of crossings on the Maori ,one of them had a peculiar entertainment called the dance of the wooden deck scrubber or old scrubber as it was nicknamed ,trouble was she didn't like being the centre of attraction and fled from the scene,unconfirmed reports said she may have jumped overboard in the night ,I don't know if there was any official report on her disappearance,perhaps a search of the engineers log for the crossing might show a unexplained voltage surge of the generating capacity on the night of the crossing

Until you had experienced the Tamahine you had not lived!!

[David McKinney]

I can second that!

[AMCO72]

Ah yes, the old 'Tamahine'....one of the old Union SS companies warhorses. It always looked quite smart in it's dark green livery. Quite a small ship, dont know what it's tonnage was, but my abiding memory of her was her 'list' when she was tied up at the wharf. I guess by rearranging the cargo she was at an even keel when under sail, but a 'real old roller' across the strait. Didnt they fit stabilizers to the 'Maori'......dont think it made a heck of a lot of difference. Still spewed my heart out on every crossing......didnt know about 'Avomine' seasick pills then. I could clear the main cabin with my retching.......I kid you not!!!!!!

[David McKinney]

The story about the dear old Tam was that she had concrete ballast on one side to keep her on an even keel...