The Roaring Season

If the chassis of the Morrari was from a single seater car, why was the Morrari left-hand-drive? Does someone know? Also why would the constructor move the wiper position from the scuttle to the top of the screen. They were bad enough in the original position but I imagine even worst up there. How successful was this car...you dont read much about. Did most of its races end up on the end of a tow-rope as depicted in one of the photos. Good luck with the recreation but put it back on wire-wheels which looked so much better. Imagine all that unsprung weight with the steel wheels and BIG tyres. AMCO72

Imagine the cost of Borrani wire wheels!

That photo may have been the only time on the end of a tow rope, the car possibly only did about 12 meetings in total over a couple of seasons. Unfortunately it was one of those things that you just had to see for yourself. A bit tippy toes around corners, but the acceleration was quite something else.

AMCO72 wrote:If the chassis of the Morrari was from a single seater car, why was the Morrari left-hand-drive? Does someone know? Also why would the constructor move the wiper position from the scuttle to the top of the screen. They were bad enough in the original position but I imagine even worst up there. How successful was this car...you dont read much about. Did most of its races end up on the end of a tow-rope as depicted in one of the photos. Good luck with the recreation but put it back on wire-wheels which looked so much better. Imagine all that unsprung weight with the steel wheels and BIG tyres. AMCO72

Gerald, I think the choice of guise is just down to the builders personal preference as much as the cost of steel wheels versus Borrani's. He was influenced by the car as a youngster and loved the way it looked with the steel wheels and exhaust stacks bursting through the hood.

Good question about the lhd thing, does anyone know why this was? The car was really only raced at clockwise circuits, so it would have been more of a benefit to make it rhd, which makes you wonder if he didn't have a choice.

On the Ferrari single seater the steering box was mounted centrally, with a shaft running over the top of the 4cyl engine. I would imagine with the V8 installed this wasn't possible, so an offset steering arrangement needed to be fitted. Possibly the parts available were suited to lhd.

This photo perhaps better shows how much further back the seating position was ,the steering might have been one reason ,but I also thought the transmission placement was another reason for the l/H seating,the wiper is still on the screen in this photo,but I think the wiper placement was a last minute addition ,in this photo you can see it already has a steam up coming from the rad o/flow

What act of vandalism allowed this to happen on , what is now, a priceless GP car. Im afraid that is how it was, and I was part of that era. We just did what ever was necessary to get ourselves a race car. Of course it would never happen today as OSH or some jumped-up little official would stop you before you had tightened the first nut!!! Now ,am I right in thinking that the Morrari in it's wire-wheel form was for sale in a Hamilton car yard in about 1967. The yard was in Kent road and probably had a name like 'Honest Jims Motors'. I am ALMOST sure I looked at it simply because of the wire wheels. Tell me if I'm dreaming. Was amazing the stuff that turned up on car yards in those days. Rather than the expensive Borranis Greg could find a nice set of wires from an English sports car! By the way it must have been quite a job changing from a knock-off hub to a bolt on one....why would you bother, as with the BIG tyres it probably didnt handle as well.

I have been rereading this thread,as I was wondering how I [think] I saw the car in about 1967 with the wires when clearly it should have had the steel wheels. I know I definately would NOT have shown any interest in the car in 'Honest Jims Autos' if it had not had wire wheels. They might have been refitted, as someone said when the car was put up for sale. Dont know when Gavin Bain bought the car but would be interesting to find out. It was a rough old nail in car yard and we are all idiots for not buying it.....probably for about a thousand pounds in the old currency!!!!!ARGH Could have been a wealthy man now. Ah well easy to be wise now.

AMCO72 wrote: Also why would the constructor move the wiper position from the scuttle to the top of the screen. They were bad enough in the original position but I imagine even worst up there. AMCO72

I imagine all the firewall or scuttle was cut away where the original wiper mechanism was positioned to accomodate the engine so there was probably no place else for it!

AMCO72 wrote:I have been rereading this thread,as I was wondering how I [think] I saw the car in about 1967 with the wires when clearly it should have had the steel wheels. I know I definately would NOT have shown any interest in the car in 'Honest Jims Autos' if it had not had wire wheels. They might have been refitted, as someone said when the car was put up for sale. Dont know when Gavin Bain bought the car but would be interesting to find out. It was a rough old nail in car yard and we are all idiots for not buying it.....probably for about a thousand pounds in the old currency!!!!!ARGH Could have been a wealthy man now. Ah well easy to be wise now.

Gerald,
Yes if only we had foresight,as you probably read in my earlier post it sat outside in John Rileys yard for ages ,come rain wind and shine,I used to go to Otahuhu for night school ,so on those nights I used to check if it was still there,mind you it was a busy corner for motor racing in those days ,some nights John would still be there in his workshop working ,Graeme Harvey had a shop just arond the corner and it was not unusual to find them there as well,Jim Fenton had a shop at the top of Otahuhu town and in my earlier days of bussing to night school. I used to have over a hour to fill in before school ,so invaribly I spent it at Jims shop,he was resurrecting the Connaught at that time,he was a dam good alloy body man and a neat person as well

Bob....isn't great to be old, and I'm older than you! The young fellas today just look at you sideways when you tell them stories about carsales yards, and yes they did have names like 'Honest Jims Autos' implying that the yard next door was not so honest. The one I used to frequent was Des Wild's in Christchurch. Now there was a dealer who knew a thing or two about cars and especially performance cars, as Des had spent time mucking around with the racing fraternity and knew the difference between a sparkplug and a sump plug! I bought my XK120 C from him in 1963 for 625 pounds...in mint and original condition. Hey we seem to have drifted away from the Morrari a bit...sorry. Would love to start a thread on old car yards....there are lots of stories but not sure whether they fit into this type of forum, although car yards amazingly were often the places where old wornout race cars ended up....no Ebay or Trade me in those days. Gee all this nostalgia. Back to the Morrari. I see it suffering from that scourge of the race engine....overheating. Always has been a problem, always will be. More races have been lost because of that from probably any other reason.

AMCO72 wrote:Would love to start a thread on old car yards....there are lots of stories but not sure whether they fit into this type of forum, although car yards amazingly were often the places where old wornout race cars ended up....no Ebay or Trade me in those days. Gee all this nostalgia.

Go ahead and start a new thread on car dealers Gerald, that would be the subject of a great thread.

Sharky Cameron in Dunedin was a second hand car dealer. His son Ross done a bit of racing down south.

I guess its difficult to pinpoint a suitable era to recreate or restore a car that changed guises (and other cars changed a great deal more than this one). There is always going to be some people that prefer the wires and some that prefer the steel wheels and wide tyres.

I guess (and I have been thinking about this quite a bit) our excuse for the steel wheels and wide tyres could be aligned to the fact that we come from a hot rodding background and the Morrari looked tough and nasty with the steelies and fat rubber and stack exhaust. I can see the reasons that it might be frowned upon amongst roundy round circles but my own views are that race cars should sound and look nastier than a junkyard rottie.

I must admit that I have been looking for other wire wheel alternatives. But ultimately this is Dad's car and he wants to do it how remembers it. Another link to the hot rodding roots - Garth Souness raced a Corvette powered 32 Ford Coupe before the Morrari. So that said Garth is a bit of a legend in rodding circles - his old 32 coupe still exists and is owned by Mike and Steve Philps who intend to restore it to Garth Souness guise

Will post some photos i dont know if many have seen shortly for you Greg, i have had a collection of photos lent to me by Glen Jones wife Lenore and once all down loaded and resized will share.

Thanks Rod that would be fantastic. We have been trying to track down anyone involved with the car. We had heard that Glenn had passed but were not aware that his wife was still around. Thanks again.

[quote="Greg Stokes"]I guess its difficult to pinpoint a suitable era to recreate or restore a car that changed guises (and other cars changed a great deal more than this one). There is always going to be some people that prefer the wires and some that prefer the steel wheels and wide tyres.

........Greg;,your so right!!!!....the very first comment I recieved when we debut the Bob Jane Camaro at the 'Bob Jane' sponsored Bathurst in 2002 was Quote;..'nice job Mate,but I think you may have over restored it'!!!...5years flashed before my eye's,so diplomatically replied,..."I'll be here for the next Four days,so please think about your statement and come back and explain to me how I can 'half' restore it so your happy and Bob will pay me for a job half done"!!!!!!!!!!!!!...........you're 'never, going to please them all........since that one encounter,never a negative comment,most people/Fans of the car/s are just happy to be able to get up close and personal with there favourite race car

Side bar; When we first presented the Camaro to the public I had created a 'Plastic Chain' fence for protection,when Bob was not so busy with the Bathurst formalities he called me aside to discuss the Camaro,as 2002 Bathurst was the first time Bob had seen the car,remember he had spent a considerable investment at this time (which he now affectionately calls the 'Jewel in the Crown') But had declined to look at the 'project' till it was 'Turnkey'......."Myles whats with chain fence"!!!????......"So nobody will damage it,Bob"!!!........"Loose the fence,I want people to enjoy the 'Ol Girl',Up close and personal,You OK with that ??,like you can alway 'touch' her up,True"?

We've never used a fence since,other tham when required by organiser's.....Not a Mark!!...we've done more damage in the transport truck (another story!)...the look on 6year olds face when you offer them a 'Kodac' moment, is most worthwhile!!!!!....regards thunder427?MJ

Well said Myles.

Greg, the Morrari was a mongrel car, amalgamating parts from several different sources. It was the ultimate hot rod road racer. Like Gerald said in an earlier post, this is what people did to keep cars going in those days. I can see why it appeals to your Dad.

It only raced for 2 seasons but had quite distinct differences for each season, and I think everyone who has ever had an interest in the car will have their preferences. There are probably just as many who like it with the steel wheels and hood exiting exhausts as those who prefer the Boranni's.

If you look VERY closely at the photos of the Morrari on steel wheels I believe you can see the knock-on spinners that would have held the borranis on. I was trying to figure out why you would go to all the trouble to change from knock-on to bolt-on. ie from the Ferrari hubs to a regular hub, but it looks as though this is how they did it by making an adaptor to suit the knock-off hubs. Otherwise if Gavin Bain is correct, and he of anyone should know what he is talking about, one wonders if for the second season the body was removed from the Ferrari chassis and bolted onto a completely new fabricated chassis to take the V8 engine. But then this would be back to front if Bain is right, as he says it was the steel wheeled car that appeared first. God, I dont know, but there will be someone out there that DOES.

AMCO72 wrote:If you look VERY closely at the photos of the Morrari on steel wheels I believe you can see the knock-on spinners that would have held the borranis on. I was trying to figure out why you would go to all the trouble to change from knock-on to bolt-on. ie from the Ferrari hubs to a regular hub, but it looks as though this is how they did it by making an adaptor to suit the knock-off hubs. Otherwise if Gavin Bain is correct, and he of anyone should know what he is talking about, one wonders if for the second season the body was removed from the Ferrari chassis and bolted onto a completely new fabricated chassis to take the V8 engine. But then this would be back to front if Bain is right, as he says it was the steel wheeled car that appeared first. God, I dont know, but there will be someone out there that DOES.

We have been able to confirm that the Morrari was only ever built with the Ferrari chassis. We met with Haydn Bennett who owned the car after Garth Souness who confirms this also. Garth got the car back and sold the chassis back to Gavin Bain with the Borrani wires back on it. As Bob Homewood says on here, alot of cars switched to Firestone tyres in that era or next season as that was "the thing to do" but looking back now the cars were over tyred as he says earlier in this thread.

Greg....hope you dont mind all this throwing of ideas around. It gets everyone talking and thinking about the car. It was around so briefly, and probably only in Auckland, that most folk dont have clear memories of it, and there were at that time a lot of other wild and woolly beasts racing so perhaps didnt stand out as it should have. I mean for goodness- sakes; a morris minor body on a Ferrari chassis......get off the grass!!!!!