The Roaring Season

My gut feeling they were 3.0 litre cars as was the BT31 that ran in 1969

If you mean the Courage car it was a BT24. The Bell car I think was a BT26.

The BT31 was a one-off Tasman special - I should have checked but someone will know if it had a 2.5 Repco or a DFV

mate of mine owns it...Repco V8.
I suspect that it like the 49s in the period might have run 3.0ls

JB didn't race the 31 in NZ Tasman rounds, only Oz

Did they not do engine capacity checks in the Tasman Series? Or maybe thats a naive question?

And in fact only one Oz round.

As regards engine sizes, I am reliably informed that 2.75 Climax sounded different to a 2.5 - and that the sound of the 2.75 was still to be heard after 1964.

When I did the book with Chris for the Amon Festival, we went through all the cars he raced and that meant him having to remind himself about the first of 1971 Tasman mounts - the March 701 Cosworth.

Given he had raced a F1 March 701 through 1970, I think it is reasonable to conclude he would have known if he had something less than 3 litres behind him - and he was in no doubt he did.

John Nicholson would be a reliable source for info about the capacity of the Cosworth engines (hopefully he is still alive and kicking).

No doubt the sound of different engine sizes are different.
I can remember going to NZ in the mid 90s for the 1st of the Tasman revival series ,my friends 5 litre chev in his Lola 430 had a different note to few of the other Chevs.
I can even remember a certain Le grand owner admitted to us ,his Chev was stroked.

In local group NB ,one could always pick a Ford 289 that had been stroked by the exhaust pitch.

Johnny Nick is very much alive and kicking - he spends summers in NZ before heading to the UK for our winter.

John McKechnie wrote:bp photos. Bill- I cant find that article I thought I read.
Did you run in any car at any time?

Hi John
I ran in Sth Is races and rallys during mid to late 70s, in an Aussie mini clubman GT, Datsun 1200 and Escort Mk1 1600, fairly low-key.
Cheers, Bill P.

Hi Bill, I was sure it was a Mini, I now know that it was not a senior moment- whew.
With these dates , I can dive into the mags and post here.
Any memories of my Monaro from 1970?

Found one- Teretonga in Motorman Nov 1973, Group 3 and 3 GTX cars-
*Graham Richardt had to use all his skills to keep in front of the forceful driving of Bill Pottinger in a Clubman GT from Chch.*
Bill finished 3rd.

Stunning shot here of Pedro Rodriguez lined up on the grid at Teretonga, 1968. That years grid formation was a busy 4-3-4-3, and Rodriguez started the race in 5th, but failed to finish. Note the spelling of his name on the nose of his car.

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A BRM mechanic does some final preparation, and adorning his tartan cap. Jackie Stewart wasn't at this event at Teretonga, so my guess would be this is the car driven by Piers Courage in this race?

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Another of Bill's wonderfully dramatic high-speed images, with description:

"Brent Benzie circulating Teretonga in the ex Bruce McLaren Mini Cooper which he upgraded to ‘1293 S’ specs. McLaren had brought this car to New Zealand some years earlier to run along with his Cooper single seater racers".

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Steve Holmes wrote: Jackie Stewart wasn't at this event at Teretonga, so my guess would be this is the car driven by Piers Courage in this race?

Or Attwood.

Yep, could well be. The only reason I guessed Courage was I assumed with the tartan cap this mechanic crewed on Stewart's car, which Courage was driving at Teretonga.

Aye, Janet. Ye may well be right the noo.....


Good pic of the V8 in the BRM. For all their perceived shortcomings, they were a good looker, and their distinctive note could be clearly heard in the live radio broadcasts from Bill Bryce and co that we were treated to in those '60s summers.

[font=verdana]Beautiful shot here taken at Teretonga, in 1970. This is Kevin Bartlett, belting through the Teretonga 'loop', with the inside front tyre sat right on the inside white line. Look how close he runs it to the track perimeter tyres! Now thats precision driving! Despite Bartlett's pretty little Mildren-Waggott being just 2.0 litres capacity against the 5.0 litre V8 cars he was up against, he was a top contender throughout the 1970 Tasman Series, and even took the overall win at Warwick Farm.

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Tin-top action from Wigram, 1970, and Rod Coppins gets the Cambridge Camaro crossed up as he works hard to hold back Paul Fahey in the Alan Mann Escort. Alas, it was all to no avail; Fahey slayed the V8's that weekend, in all three encounters.

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