The Roaring Season

Steve Holmes wrote:A bit of a mix here. This is a neat shot.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]42813[/ATTACH]

The Halliday, soon to be banned, Escort.

Thanks Sean. Why was it banned?

Does anyone know what happened to either of these Tom Donovan sports cars?

Steve Holmes wrote:Thanks Sean. Why was it banned?

I am sure someone else here will know more details, but here goes.

There were two Mk2 Escorts built up for the new Shellsport series, the Halliday one and the Bryan Hartley Zakspeed liveried one. Halliday first appeared in his at Bay Park in late October 77 at that race it needed about 500lb of ballast to make it legal, but it also made it a handful to drive, by its next appearance it was the correct weight, however it as well as the Hartley variant had squared flared guards and it ws these that eventually would make both illegal. i do not know what happened to either car.
The Hartley Escort at Manfield early 78

Steve Holmes wrote:Thanks Sean. Why was it banned?

I am not sure that is was banned. I think this was the Escort that Don ran in Shellsport and then later switched to a Mk1 Twin Cam in order to be more competitive.

As always, I am willing to be corrected

The Donovan "Sprite" was bought by a fellow who now lives in New Plymouth, runs an EH in Enzed colours on occasion, he crashed very heavily in the Sprite, sorry, I can't remember his name right now, but I will have it for you soon. Good Holden for your book Steve!

Steve Holmes wrote:Does anyone know what happened to either of these Tom Donovan sports cars?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]42859[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]42858[/ATTACH]

The Typhoon is part of a collection in Christchurch. The current owner said that the track was so narrow and made the car so unstable it was scary to drive. So it just sits in his collection.

Lurker wrote:I am not sure that is was banned. I think this was the Escort that Don ran in Shellsport and then later switched to a Mk1 Twin Cam in order to be more competitive.

As always, I am willing to be corrected

Ok, so let me be clear, no they were not 'banned' From Feb 3 1977 Motor Action. The Halliday Escort was impacted by the same ruling

seaqnmac27 wrote:I am sure someone else here will know more details, but here goes.

There were two Mk2 Escorts built up for the new Shellsport series, the Halliday one and the Bryan Hartley Zakspeed liveried one. Halliday first appeared in his at Bay Park in late October 77 at that race it needed about 500lb of ballast to make it legal, but it also made it a handful to drive, by its next appearance it was the correct weight, however it as well as the Hartley variant had squared flared guards and it ws these that eventually would make both illegal. i do not know what happened to either car.
The Hartley Escort at Manfield early 78
[ATTACH=CONFIG]42862[/ATTACH]

The Hartley Escort ended up in a Wellington car yard for a while converted back to road car. Was fitted with a 1600 pushrod. Took if for a test ride, it certainly created plenty of attention.Do not know where it finally ended up.

Stewart Kidd was the fellow who had Tom's Sprite.

Thanks for all the great info everyone, on all these cars.

Steve Holmes wrote:A bit of a mix here. This is a neat shot.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]42813[/ATTACH]

The Escort I posted here looks very similar to the car(s) in this ad and photo. Note that the car in the ad is running a Cosworth GAA motor and was built for the 4.2 litre category of the NZ Saloon Car Championship.

Definitely it Steve, note the reference to the Zakspeed guards

Thanks Sean.

Anyone have info on this Escort?

Steve Holmes wrote:The Escort I posted here looks very similar to the car(s) in this ad and photo. Note that the car in the ad is running a Cosworth GAA motor and was built for the 4.2 litre category of the NZ Saloon Car Championship.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]42886[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]42887[/ATTACH]

Sorry Steve, I was in the process of replying to this when the tail end of Cyclone Debbie came through on Thursday afternoon, we have just got power back on, anyway...Here is the Halliday Escort on debut at Bay Park and part of the report on the race the issues it had.

It was also the debut of Ken Sager in the newly purchased Fristcort and Escort 108 is the ex Blair Paton Escort now in Mike Moores hands

Thanks Sean, thats great info. Hope you got through the cyclone OK?

Further to the info posted above on the MkII Escort, I contacted Rob Halliday to get the story behind it. Here are his replies:

"The car was never banned, and they were not Zakspeed guards, in fact they were X-pac guards that you could buy thru Ford, or order an Escort with them factory fitted. We ran the MK2 escort in Shellsport, then Don purchased Ken Horburns MK1 Escort, and ran that with a short stroke 1600 twin cam. The GAA was our old engine, the car was owned by David Honore, who owned the car when we ran in Shellsport".

The above I put together from a couple of emails from Rob. So essentially, the Hallidays built the MkII for the new ShellSport 2 litre series, then Don bought the MkI and sold the MkII to David Honore. David also purchased the Coswoth GAA V6 the Hallidays had run in their Capri, hence the advert posted earlier.

Neat car, I wonder if it survived?

Steve Holmes wrote:Thanks Sean, thats great info. Hope you got through the cyclone OK?

A lot better than many!