The Roaring Season

Yeah Dale, 20 years ago I still had my Mustang, Would have been great, but Deano would have missed out on his car.

But Deano may have had a faster car by now, LOL, LOL, but do I hear yar John, just dreamin what could av, should av, been out loud, LOL. Still, no matter the final number they will all be HMC correct as adding numbers is not the issue, to me(and others) what's more important is the end result of achieving a stable historic saloon class, and as mentioned before we're still a few years away so one step at a time.

I was at the Sears Point historics 20 years ago when they had a "Historic Trans Am" demonstration with(from memory) just 3 restored cars and I thought it was unreal, today they exceed over 40 at events but I know we can achieve this a lot sooner.

Dale M

Would just like to give a special thank you to the officials who were so wonderfully understanding when I arrived on Sunday at about 1pm.
I had contacted TACOC committee members and left messages on answer phones at 9.45pm saying we were working late then and in the morning and would be arriving late if allowed to run. We were already entered.
We arrived and told 10 minutes before my race.
Time to take car off trailer, get kitted up, set tyre pressures and go straight out.
Huge thanks to Janice Holmes, John Ure, Dale,and Graeme Brown-scrutineer -who made sure this happened.
Oh, yes, and especially great work by volunteers and flaggies in such wet weather .
Thanks TACOC.

Kiwiboss wrote:This Gary Raiti's XA Falcon Coupe with minilites and Hoosiers fitted to meet HMC historic rules, Gary will be at the Festival. One would almost think Allan Moffat was at the wheel, LOL. Dale M

This is one lovely Ford in the flesh. Gary has done a great job in its presentation and what's more it went extremely well on Sunday. Just a gearbox issue in his last race. Good to have you on board Gary. Will probably do an HMC audit on it at the festival but pretty confident this girls 100% compliant.
Cheers Dave Graham

Tony Roberts has this 72 XUI Torana For Sale, advertised over in the "Cars For Sale" section with further pictures. Asking $45K ono. Needs wheel change to suit HMC but otherwise a driving ready to go Torana, Log Book and MANZ legal roll cage.

For further Details Phone Tony Roberts 021-133-2895 or Email mailto:?subject=&body=

Thanks Dale.
This is the ex Warwick Mortimer Targa car. Dry sumped, M22 gearbox, triple side drafts etc. Has a lot of potential for more power and would work well in HMC. I've seen how fast they get these XU1's to go in Australia, so would certainly be competitive on our tight circuits. These Torana XU1's won Bathurst 5 times! Tony Roberts

RacerT wrote:Thanks Dale.
This is the ex Warwick Mortimer Targa car. Dry sumped, M22 gearbox, triple side drafts etc. Has a lot of potential for more power and would work well in HMC. I've seen how fast they get these XU1's to go in Australia, so would certainly be competitive on our tight circuits. These Torana XU1's won Bathurst 5 times! Tony Roberts

And what's more Tony, they tend to keep all their legs in bed!!!! LOL. How is that 7 cylinder Corvette coming on?

Cheers Dave Graham

We have also allowed that Torana to run in the ERC Series, group, so we'd happily accept it again. There you are, two groups which makes it twice as valuable!

Thanks Ray.
Yes another benefit in owning a little "Aussie Battler"!

I do like Leighton Smith's idea of setting up the Holden plant in Invercargill in 2015 when it closes down in Australia. It would be fantastic job creation - Mayor Tim would be ecstatic!

The engines back in the Corvette Dave with the Muncie rock crusher rebuilt as well. Kept it as a 454 ci to hopefully ease the strain on the standard diff, half shafts and gearbox. I'm still running the 5 transverse steel springs on the rear end, so it goes through millimetres of toe-out on droop and toe-in on squat, which makes for eventful handling! I would like to put it on 15" wheels with Hoosiers like Dale's class to keep it period correct, but the cost of the engine and gearbox has prevented that this year.

RacerT wrote:I'm still running the 5 transverse steel springs on the rear end, so it goes through millimetres of toe-out on droop and toe-in on squat, which makes for eventful handling!

It wouldn't get through LVVTA's requirements for a modified car then...

Would HMC accept open cars, if period correct?

[Would HMC accept open cars, if period correct?[/QUOTE]

Hi Ray. It was decided early on that sports cars would be difficult to mix in with the sedans. It is the difficulty of defining a muscle car as much as anything. Obviously a Corvette complies in most respects, especially big blocks, but Corvettes ran in sports car races, not with the sedans. Then you have the question, are Sunbeam Tigers, Jaguar E Type V12's and De Tomaso Pantera's muscle cars?
In the end, after a lot of discussion, we decided to keep HMC as 'pure' as possible and avoid complications!

Until numbers increase, maybe it is an option worth considering in the shorter term? Isn't it far better to mix it with those larger sports cars than with the under 3 litre class, where the smaller cars are dwarfed in terms of physical size and power? Just a thought.

To me, a 5.3 ltre XJS or 7 litre Corvette can foot it with 5 litre Muscle cars rather better than with a 1950cc MGB. You'll no doubt have noticed that many of the slower regular runners haven't supported the Festival and one reason is that physical size and huge horsepower in both HMC and Sports Racing and GTs alienates and intimidates the genuine smaller engined road-going cars. I think that the only MGB entered so far is Grant Kern's V8.

Pity about the MG's Ray, we need Fodder for the cannons! Have a great Christmas. Tony R

Well guys and gals, its been an interesting year so far with several new cars being built and hopefully at 2014 Festival. There has been some great threads on TRS, some humorous, some marginal and some plain informative. This really is a great site and is a reflection of the interest in yesteryears cars, so with that said all the very best for 2014, I look forward to catching up with you all at the Festival and don't forget to bring those COD,s (or those that have them) We will be auditing a number of cars over the two weekends!
Merry Christmas and best regards
Dave Graham
HMC Technical Auditor. (and passionate motorsport fan)

[ATTACH]22991[/ATTACH]
I found these pics from Lakeside in July on my cellphone.
Not sure what the suspicious character was up to but combined with the previously posted one below it almost looks like the beginning of a HMC Rogues Gallery?

Javman wrote:Can anyone help identify this character. Was seen lurking around in a Media vest.
[ATTACH]19665[/ATTACH]

May I wish Dale, Steve, Tony, John and all the other regulars on here, a very Happy Christmas and although not part of your group as such, I welcome your addition to the Classic ranks and totally accept your philosophy. It may differs from ours in the execution, but we all (well, nearly all) respect that this level of racing really is about participation and using the cars as they were meant to be used.

I just hope you get the support so you richly deserve and that it converts to more cars on the track, sooner rather than later so that we on the outside can enjoy them. No doubt we'll catch up with several of you at the Festival meetings and I look forward to taking pics of most of you at some stage.

Keep up the good work.

Hillbilly wrote:[ATTACH]22991[/ATTACH]
I found these pics from Lakeside in July on my cellphone.
Not sure what the suspicious character was up to but combined with the previously posted one below it almost looks like the beginning of a HMC Rogues Gallery?

I think what actually happened here Paul, was Pete was just walking past Jims Falcon, tripped over, realised you had a camera, and made out to be technically interested....... aye Pete!

RacerT wrote:Thanks Dale.
This is the ex Warwick Mortimer Targa car. Dry sumped, M22 gearbox, triple side drafts etc. Has a lot of potential for more power and would work well in HMC. I've seen how fast they get these XU1's to go in Australia, so would certainly be competitive on our tight circuits. These Torana XU1's won Bathurst 5 times! Tony Roberts

Didnt quite manage 5 victories, actually closer to 1, but i hear what your saying

Rodger- stats would show your model collected more wins on the montain?
Also a message for you on the Sports Sedan thread- love you to do a post on your Torana, please.

rogered wrote:Didnt quite manage 5 victories, actually closer to 1, but i hear what your saying

Yeah, why is it these GM boys use those Bic pens that write for miles and miles ……., especially when they are trying to sell something !

All the best to everyone on TRS.