The Ron Hossack Mark 7.

With Darren Hossack in town for the Sports Sedan Championship round at Mallala this weekend I'm prompted to show you some photos of the Mark 7 his dad, Ron, built. Actually Darren is going to be very busy as he's contesting the Superkart races as well as the Sports Sedan races, he's the current National Champion in both categories. In Sports Sedans, he's driving the John Gourlay Audi A4 and no it's not the old SuperBolwell chassis. This car is a new one built in 2007 - 6-litre Chev and Hewland transaxle. There's a couple of Saabs there this weekend and one of them is equipped with a Ford 9" diff which sounds more like the remnants of an old chassis, but even the Dean Randle Saab Aero was built by him and is not a collection of old bits. Actually Sports Sedans are becoming pretty big-deal again these days, with lots of powerful cars, mainly Chev powered, but there's the odd V12 as well. I see Charlie Senese is running the Honda Prelude that was built in SA by Elfin Sports Cars. The association has an excellent website and I've put it in the link list. They have a great forum with lots of activity and I enjoyed seeing the references to Trump Engineering, Brian Randall's rotary powered Karmann Ghia, MacCormack's Charger and Jag etc. etc.

Anyway, it is Ron's Mark 7 that we're talking about here. Ron is an engineer and it shows. He has been, and possibly still is, involved in the construction of the Gourlay Sports Sedans. I have heard that he built his Bolwell on a tight budget, "investing mostly in his own labour." The wheels - steel rims and hubcaps.Note the body mods and how well executed they were. The exterior door handles were push buttons on the C pillar, to reduce weight in the doors. The interior releases were on the console (very TVR as Pete Garvin says). The window glass actually fully drops into the door cavity, the flat glass travels in an arc away from the door frame on its journey into the door. I can't explain it but it is a thing of beauty to witness I'm told.

Ron also did his own upholstery.

Interestingly, both the Mark 7s flanking the car are now convertibles and have been sold interstate. The yellow one (previously purple with pearl steering wheel - featured in Custom Rodder No.4) is Colin Moffitt's old one and is now in SA and undergoing a major rebuild in Wynn Vale and the red one is Allan Cox's old car and now lives in NSW.