Canon Nagaris

Peter G writes:-

John,

I'm confused. The original Terry Spooner racer is the one shown in the Archives photos - big flares, MGB parkers etc. This car was totaled whilst on a trailer on its way to Surfers raceway. Was it replaced with another car or rebodied, the later racer has much smaller flares. This car was wrecked at Hume Weir by Chris Clearihan and replaced with B8/57, am I correct??



Canon had a photographic competition and the prize was to be the first racer, was the car rebuilt as a street car? Auto Acton articles lead me to assume this is correct. The winner of the car was Trevor Tilley from Frankston, who put the car up for sale unregistered. Where is the car now?



Both damaged bodies were very severe, probably requiring total rebody.



Can you make all this clearer?

Peter.

I don't know much about the original car having only seen it on a couple of occasions but I bet there's a number of people out there who do and I too would like to know its early exploits. I'm wondering whether it was rebuilt and raced after the trailer accident or did Chris acquire the wreck and build it up himself. Bearing in mind that he had a number of Nagaris in various states of repair. It seems to me that quite a few of the early Nagaris went to the area around Canberra and central NSW and a lot of them met their fates at high speed. Chris used to gather up the wrecks. He must have been collecting chassis plates. Anyway he would have had plenty of bits to build up a race car. He was on the ProdSports scene quite early in the piece. Not as early as Warren, Webb, Latham, Maclurkin, Jones, Tsakmakis etc but early enough to race against them. Hume Weir was a long time ago remember. Chris was over this way the other day and I did say I'd email him the address of this blog. I'll do that as soon as I finish this post. Then he might be able to make a contribution in the comments section. Yes Peter, the car was replaced by B8/57. After rolling the car at Hume Weir, Chris needed Bolwell to supply him with another body. Bolwell had the left-hand-drive car languishing around the factory and the quickest way to get him back on the track was to let him have that. He then went on to race the car in that form. By the way, Chris was pretty lucky to get out of that prang as well as he did because the roll bar which is in the car to protect him on such occasions, collaped, bringing the roof down to dashboard level. Don't be fooled by the size of the flares because I recall them changing a few times. When Chris moved on to Kaditchas and so on, I leased the Bolwell from him before Allan Hanns bought it outright some time later. I remember one of the first things that needed to be done was to redo the flares because they didn't conform to CAMS requirements. Beven Young spent a long time on them, getting a nice shape.(see the photo below). Actually these 4 next photos might be some for Gary Allen's album and I'll talk about them in a minute. (Gary is the current owner). Despite the number plate, it wasn't really a road registered car. However it did used to get road tested around the streets of Mitcham/Unley in the early hours of the morning after the finishing touches of an engine rebuild after burning the midnight oil. Sounded good too. After all, you couldn't wake the neighbours up revving it in the shed. Better to share it around with the whole neighbourhood. Isn't it funny how times change. Now on Friday nights I lie in bed and listen to the hoons doing their burnouts and wonder whether they ever think about people's sleep patterns being disrupted. The best way to start and run a tight new engine is to tow the car around the block. Thinking back, nobody ever had to endure discussions with the police or anything. Not so with somebody else I know. Many years ago I used to occupy a factory off Richmond Road making truck spoilers, or fuel savers as they wre called, for the interstate haulier industry. I shared the building with a man who, among other things, built go-karts. Because I had a day-job, this activity took place at night. I don't think this bloke ever went home because he was always there when I arrived and still there when I left. Anyway, he used to test out his go-karts around the streets of Richmond. One night he came flogging around a corner straight into the headlight beams of a patrolling cop-car. Actually he was on his way back from the Vili's pie factory nearby with a couple of pasties for us. Vili's had a 24-hour shop at the factory frequented by hungry taxi drivers and other overweight shift workers. Anyhow, he had to stop and explain what he was doing and why he had no lights on his vehicle (whoever heard of a go-kart with lights anyway). To cut a long story short, they didn't see any reason to charge him with anything and just said don't let us catch catch you again. To cap it off they obliged with a push start. I wonder if cops are still like that?

Now, Gary, after the ProdSports career, the car did get road registered and painted a nice shade of blue. (see below).

These photos were taken at Mallala when it was being demonstrated to Rob Wilson who ultimately bought it. Mallala was closed down then because Frank Williams, who developed AIR had an embargo placed on the track to protect his interests in his own circuit, but we were able to go there and do some "testing". The red car was Gus Safranko's. That car had a short career as a racer too. It was the Alex Tsakmakis car. When Alex disappeared, obviously the car didn't. That bloke is crossing the track with the boot lid because he was retrieving it after it blew off.

Peter, I remember the Canon photographic competition. I even got an entry form (twice, I think) at Calder or somewhere with good intentions. I never ever recalled there being an outcome but obviously there was. Rohan tells me that the prize car went to Sydney and ultimately was destroyed in a fire. There was another Nagari prize. It was the prize in a War Veterans Lottery. Does anybody know anything more about that?

I was going to go on with this post and actually had a fifth photo inserted but it has gone up in smoke. I'll continue in another post when I find it again.