The Roaring Season

beowulf wrote:Was this the Monaro that Grady Thomson and Rick Rimmer, they were a couple of likely lads, won the first international (?) rally with in New Zealand?

That Monaro was built up for saloon car racing by Spinner Black during 1969. Not sure of its history prior to that, but it was built into this guise in '69. Grady took it over in the later part of the 1969/70 season.

For those that like Monaros...

http://aso.gov.au/titles/ads/holden-monaro-three-models/

The first clip has lot's on "Names" from the period..... The second clip is thae advert for the car...

Note that Norm Beechey is there in the Nova in the first clip several times ...... an obvious tie in with the fact that he would be in the new Monaro....

How about these two?
Obviously Norm Beecheys Monaro when it raced in NZ and one other... anyone identify the other?

Cool photos Brett. Can you recall what colour the HQ Monaro was? This is Craig Pulman racing it here. If the car was lime green then its probably the old Neville Crichton Castrol GTX car.

Steve Holmes wrote:Can you recall what colour the HQ Monaro was?

no idea sorry Steve, Not my photos! I scanned them for a mate. Ill ask him next time I see him.

Thanks Brett, yeah that'll be great.

Steve Holmes wrote:Cool photos Brett. Can you recall what colour the HQ Monaro was? This is Craig Pulman racing it here. If the car was lime green then its probably the old Neville Crichton Castrol GTX car.

Hi guy's this is interesting, Neville's Car did have a roll cage in it at some stage, this could also be Don Scott's old Car? One and the same? Didn't Steve Dymand race one around the same time as well?
I reckon this one was Don Scott's Monaro, Don was running number 19 on the Splashe Drink Sponsored Car in 73/74, I think!?

81837HQ wrote:Hi guy's this is interesting, Neville's Car did have a roll cage in it at some stage, this could also be Don Scott's old Car? One and the same? Didn't Steve Dymand race one around the same time as well?
I reckon this one was Don Scott's Monaro, Don was running number 19 on the Splashe Drink Sponsored Car in 73/74, I think!?

Steve Dymands car, I had a feeling it was Orange/Black, remember him at Teretonga having a spectacular 'off' at 'old' control tower bend & got his photo in mid air as it nearly launched itself back onto the main straight. I am fairly sure it was here in Southland/NZ in early 80's and got fitted with a BBChev 454 and coincidently was also painted lime green during that period.

I'd say the the photo of the HQ Monaro pictured above would have been taken later than 1975, just because of the wheels its fitted with. During the time Crichton and Scott ran these/this car in the GTX series during the 1973/74 and 1974/75 seasons they weren't allowed to fit aftermarket wheels. Only standard wheels were allowed.

Steve Holmes wrote:I'd say the the photo of the HQ Monaro pictured above would have been taken later than 1975, just because of the wheels its fitted with. During the time Crichton and Scott ran these/this car in the GTX series during the 1973/74 and 1974/75 seasons they weren't allowed to fit aftermarket wheels. Only standard wheels were allowed.

Would it make sense if this car was run in the Shell 100 in 1975 ish?

This is interesting Jac, I'll have to hunt down the photo of my car, I'm sure there was an orange and there was definately another coat of Lina Mint before the Silver then the final spray can brown!
OMG! all of these cars could be one and the same Crichton car!

81837HQ wrote:Would it make sense if this car was run in the Shell 100 in 1975 ish?

I'm sure i saw a photo of it in an old MotorAction magazine. I'll see if I can find it. I'm pretty sure this photo would be taken after it raced in Castrol GTX, because it has the cage fitted, and even in the shot where the car is brown in the second season it raced it doesn't yet have a cage fitted.

Craig Pulman has been building race engines for years, and has/had a company called Pro-Action which built a bunch of those space-frame Trans-Am cars in the 90s. Someone on here should have a contact for him. No doubt he'd be able to fill in some details on where the car came from before he got it.

Another shot of the Bunce Monaro.

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Hey thats fantastic Milan! That was quite an old race car by this time, but still looked great.

IMHO, Steve Hildred's Monaro would have to be argueably NZ's most notable racing Monaro. A long history from drag racing to sports sedans to muscle car racing.

Bruce302 wrote:

Bruce, I can confirm this was Graeme Addis with this Monaro. This photo was taken at the 1975 Rod Coppins Motors endurance race at Pukekohe. A magazine description of the car said Addis had built it up for this race after watching the first round of the series at Manfeild. As the Manfeild race was round 1 of the endurance series, and the Puke race was round 2, there were only two weeks between the two events, so he must have built it in double-quick time!

I think the guy who's name is on front guard may have owned the car Steve, he was from Otahuhu and raced all kinds of things back then from mini boats to cars.

Yep was he a windscreen man or a panelbeater ?

Thanks guys, thats great info. The car seems to have vanished as quickly as it appeared.

Hi Steve
Was the Stillwell escort driven by Graham Ritter or micheal Stillwell at this time?