The Roaring Season

Apologies if someone has already posted this but I just discovered a review of the Rothmans NZ national formula 1.5 litre championship race at Levin in 1968. This was in the Autosport Dec 13 1968 magazine and it notes that the 1.5 McRae-Ford t/c was the first aerofoil to be seen in NZ... so I thought it may be of some interest.
(Had to split the scan into 2 images to get uploaded.)

Never seen this article myself so I'm glad you posted it. That's a great find, Faminz. I enjoyed reading it.

Where is that car now?

I remember Motorman article saying Dexter Dunlop used a McRae T/C as part of a deal on the Shelby Mustang he got from the States,.
Is that a lead Allan?

Not that car.

GM built three NF cars but only two ever raced - this is the first one that was built for the 68/69 season. For ease of reference, I call this the red car. Vercoe's book refers to it as S1 - a designation totally lost on the man who designed, built and raced it.

This was that season's championship winning car - it went via Jack Oakley to Peter de Lore in Christchurch. As I recall, and this may be incorrect - it was sold by him, got turned in a FF, may have gone to Australia - but whatever happened, it is now back with Peter.

It was the black car that was traded on the ('68?) Mustang but is now safely back in NZ with the Windleburns.

Thank you Michael

The "red car" was a very pretty, and very effective piece of kit. First impressions were that it was at least as good as any "factory" car.

Here is some interesting information from a 2005 NZ Classic Driver magazine.. ( Kevin Lancaster photo)



Dexter Dunlop in his turquoise # 8 McRae S2-2 at Pukekohe.


Congratulations to those that rescued this car and put it back together.
Do we have a 2019 update ?
Also I heard a rumour that the reason the car was sold to Dexter Dunlop was because after Graham had completed the car he found he could not comfortably fit in it..whoops! ( any update on that is also welcome )

(Ken H)

khyndart in CA wrote:Here is some interesting information from a 2005 NZ Classic Driver magazine.. ( Kevin Lancaster photo)
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Dexter Dunlop in his turquoise # 8 McRae S2-2 at Pukekohe.

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Congratulations to those that rescued this car and put it back together.
Do we have a 2019 update ?
Also I heard a rumour that the reason the car was sold to Dexter Dunlop was because after Graham had completed the car he found he could not comfortably fit in it..whoops! ( any update on that is also welcome )

(Ken H)

Ken H, a familiar name " Kevin Lancaster ",
He was / still is a great Mate of BMC BOY - Ross Cammick, and I knew Kevin back in the 1970's - we are back in touch - Greg Lancaster a brother or cousin was a serious peddler of a Vauxhall Victor V8 and other cars and Kevin was a serious Rally Driver and navigator in the 1970's too !!
Ross C was a navigator for Kevin in some Rallys - Small World again !!

A colour shot of Dexter Dunlop in the McRae T/C

Great photo Milan.

That is the car that GM raced in the 69/70 National Formula. Dexter Dunlop replaced the Twin-Cam with an FVA.

This chassis was built when the GM discovered he'd made the intended 69/70 chassis overly tight for him - that was never completed and the last I heard of it, was in a timber yard on Auckland's North Shore.

[quote="Michael Clark"]Great photo Milan.

That is the car that GM raced in the 69/70 National Formula. Dexter Dunlop replaced the Twin-Cam with an FVA.



The story went that the FVA came from Paul Faheys Escort. The car was traded on the Mustang and
went to Bob Kennett, who took it to Seattle apparently

As I recall the story, it ended up with an Alfa Romeo engine. It was spotted on a site described as something like 'Alfa Romeo Special' purely by chance by an observant Kiwi

I found this photo of Graham McRae in a 2005 Classic Driver magazine.
The quote was : " In a stunning drive, McRae, in the first McRae Twin Cam built using running gear from his Brabham, holding off Graeme Lawrence in the Ferrari at Levin in 1969.


(Photographer unnamed)

That is a neat photo.

(Ken H)

So that's the first car - the red one

Lower and wider than the first photo. Great shot!
Was Scott Wiseman's wing on E-Type a bit later than this - it was in the same era.

khyndart in CA wrote:I found this photo of Graham McRae in a 2005 Classic Driver magazine.
The quote was : " In a stunning drive, McRae, in the first McRae Twin Cam built using running gear from his Brabham, holding off Graeme Lawrence in the Ferrari at Levin in 1969.
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(Photographer unnamed)
That is a neat photo.

(Ken H)

I would love to know more about this car. Was there more than one car?. Did he make his own wheels as they looked beautiful at the time. Why is the front coil overs at a different angle in the second photo and the roll over hoops is also different. When Dunlop drove the car at one stage it was red. I would have though this could all make a book while G M is still around to explain...

If we ignore the chassis that was 'set-aside' on account of being too tight, then there were two complete McRae twin-cams.

The 'red car' was built in the garage of GM's parents - I believe that was in or around Miramar - during 1968. He had been very impressed by the Ferrari that Chris Amon had driven in the 1968 Tasman and, as I recall, that influenced both the body and the colour. It ran, in GM's hands, with #36 and he won the 1968/69 National Formula title with it.

When he went overseas on the 'Driver to Europe', the car was sold to Jack Oakley and was largely unused by him.

The black car was built for the 1969/70 National Formula. I am re-looking at that photo of Graeme Lawrence chasing him at Levin, and now asking myself - 'how could that have been the red car?' because it would have been owned by Oakley at that point. Page 283 of the Vercoe book deals with the Levin meeting at the end of 1969 and states "...McRae rushed the completion of his new NF car" so my apologies when I said "So that's the first car..."

The black car went to D.Dunlop - I have no idea if it was ever red in his ownership but my guess would be that it was black on the day of purchase. Obviously it became turquoise but I can't say if there was a livery in-between. It is that car that lived for many years in America.

John H wrote:I would love to know more about this car. Was there more than one car?. Did he make his own wheels as they looked beautiful at the time. Why is the front coil overs at a different angle in the second photo and the roll over hoops is also different. When Dunlop drove the car at one stage it was red. I would have though this could all make a book while G M is still around to explain...

There were two NF cars The picture at the very top of this page is the first car, and the lower picture is the
second car, which is the one that Dexter purchased from Graham The shape around the cockpits, and the
roll hoop difference make them easy to distinguish The first car was red when Graham raced it, and the
second car was black when it first ran I think the wheels on the second car are by Brabham It also used
Brabham uprights Graham thought that they may have been Elfin wheels, but Elfins wheels look different
to the wheels on the McRae

When it was run by Dexter, at one time it was in the 'Lexington cigarette' colours, which appear to be
a red and white chequered colour scheme

Bailey wrote:There were two NF cars The picture at the very top of this page is the first car, and the lower picture is the
second car, which is the one that Dexter purchased from Graham The shape around the cockpits, and the
roll hoop difference make them easy to distinguish The first car was red when Graham raced it, and the
second car was black when it first ran I think the wheels on the second car are by Brabham It also used
Brabham uprights Graham thought that they may have been Elfin wheels, but Elfins wheels look different
to the wheels on the McRae

When it was run by Dexter, at one time it was in the 'Lexington cigarette' colours, which appear to be
a red and white chequered colour scheme

Thanks for that. Now that I think about it perhaps I am mistaken and it was black at Puke. It did look just beautiful. The first time I saw the first red car I was flagging at Puke and water was flying out the engine. I think Levis won that race. In the pits later G M car had a red Mustang as tow car. I thought then this guy has money!!