"The Beast"

This is not to be confused with another well known Mk7Chev that we used to refer to as "Docker's Beast". I have been asked many times today if I have any photos of "The Beast". Tony didn't because most of his photo albums went in the bushfire. I'm sure someone out there has some. Anyway, here's a couple. The first one is when it was a black coupe, posing with Garry's Nagari. The second is as a blue convertible. Note the tail-lights Chris.

Farewell Tony.

Most who know Bolwells know Tony Opie. Tony passed away a couple of hours ago and I feel really awful. That's fairly selfish of me I guess. How must his family and really close friends be feeling? I've given up getting angry about people with everything to live for going before their time but it does get hard to take. Tony himself has been saying you just play the cards you are dealt. Well, that's true, but gee, a devoted wife, the loveliest little ten-year-old daughter, a Nagari to build........... I know what Tony reckons we all have to do, go down to the Tonsley and have a beer and a laugh about all the fun times way back when. As you all know Tony had that ever changing Mark 7 called The Beast which, in its most memorable form was a roadster with a big Chev in it. A couple of years ago it was completely destroyed along with his Mark 5 in a bushfire that went through their property at Kangarilla. Lots of people will recall this little episode on the edge of the Murray at Renmark, 22 years ago. R.I.P.

Leyburn entry list

Here it is. You know the drill. Click to enlarge.

Leyburn is coming.

The Leyburn Sprints are coming up on August 15th & 16th. John Davies has his entry confirmed. He comments that the entry list is interesting as in addition to B8/26, there is the Peter Kordic Mark 7, the 2 Hinton Milanos, John Goodwin's Milano (no, not the Bolwell John Goodwin), Whelan's Fairthorpe Electron Minor, Bevan Batham's genuine 1962 Elfin Mallala and Centaurs, about 8 Ford V8 side valve specials and of course many of John's MGCCQ friends in their various interesting cars. There's lots of other very interesting entries too. I now know where all of the XYGTs have gone although how many are genuine I'm not sure. I'll post the list shortly, as soon as this computer starts to behave itself again.

A pictorial history of B8/46 - part 3.

When CAMS in their wisdom decided to allocate the Australian Sports Car Championship to a different branch of sports car racing, it left a large number of people with huge investments in their cars with nowhere to race except in insignificant club events. Barry decided to put his car on the market but for the above reason, buyers were a bit thin on the ground. Eventually he decided to dismantle it and sell the bits. Naturally, after all those years of racing, the chassis was well sorted and developed and Rob Luck bought it to form the basis of his concept car (below).

The body went to become part of the Holden V8 powered car built by John Van Wokum. I don't know John personally, it's a fact of life that you can't know everybody, and I've seen his last name spelt in a variety of ways, so, in advance, I'm making my apology for possible bad spelling. I believe John is one of those Bolwell stalwarts from way back because his name crops up from time to time in conversations about Mark 4s and Mark 7s.

Anyway, he built this rather different looking Nagari with very substantial "T" roof and flat side glass.

Many years later the car turned up in Western Australia in rather poor condition I'm told. A very impressive restoration job has been done on it as you can see from these two photographs below.

Found another Mark 5

Ages ago Trevor alerted us to a rumour of a Mark 5 in Roxby Downs. Recently, when I asked him about it, he couldn't remember who had told him about it, let alone any details. Usually these leads come to nothing (I just about turned Narranderah upside down to no avail after Col Watson was told about a Mark 5 in that town, for example - and I can tell you about a few others). Anyway, a very old friend, Ray Goldie, runs the newspaper in Roxby Downs, "The Monitor". I asked him if he knew of a Mark 5 Bolwell in Roxby. He didn't even know what a Bolwell was (he does now!). Anyway, he offered to ask around via the newspaper. I sent him a photo of Bill's yellow Mark 5 (complete with plastic plate and tennis ball on the bonnet - you know the one) and he wrote a great little article about Mark 5s (obviously some homework was done). A couple of days after publication, while I was out feeding the chooks, I get a telephone call from John Webber of Roxby Downs, proud owner of a Mark 5 Bolwell. He wants to come down to Adelaide to a club meeting and to see a restored and complete Mk.5. He has problems with a rusty old chassis, a common Mark 5 complaint, and we might be able to help him with that or at least join him in grumbling about it. Isn't all that amazing! Some of us thought we may have uncovered one of the lost SA Mark 5s, but no, this one came from Tasmania. Anyway, thank you Ray, a great outcome.

A pictorial history of B8/46 - part 2

In 1977 AIR had a round of the Australian Sports Car Championship and the big black Bolwell was one of four (and the highest placed) Nagaris at the event. Allan Hanns was still in his Datsun and Robbie Rowlands was still in a Healey then. Another big black car was Rusty French's Pantera (still no match for the Allan Hamilton Porsche).

Here's a few Nagaris in the pits and among the people here are Beven, Barry's bum, Tim Sherman, Maryanne Van Elsen, Bobbie Gay and Bruce Tonkin.Some time later Barry picked up a reasonably substantial sponsorship package from Brian Wood Ford hence the change of colour scheme to that beautiful blue with the red and yellow stripes, just like Murray Carter's Falcon. The Bridge Hotel was Barry's pub at Werribee and that's Barry's off-sider, Norm Hamilton giving him some last-minute instructions.

The sponsorship didn't go as far as getting the Bolwell into this snazzy transporter but the grandstand on top was pretty nice.

Finally, here's one of B8/46 at Baskerville after an allmighty spin and stall.

A pictorial history of B8/46 part 1

This is where it all began, it was raced for some years, mainly in Sydney by motor dealer, Peter Warren, seen here at Oran Park in 1974. There were a few Nagaris racing up that way and names like Webb, Bond, Clearihan, Donnelly and Ullrich come to mind.

Some years later, when Peter went on to other things, Barry Main purchased the car and it moved South where in Victoria competed with the Nagaris of Gourlay, Edwards and Latham among other interesting sports cars. From time to time, Barry and his friends used to come over to SA to get a bit more racing. Here he is (no.33) on a start grid at AIR. The other cars in the picture are the red Nagari of Bernie Van Elsen, the white Mark 7 of Murray Willmott, John Veale's Austin Healey and Peter Smeets' Sprite.Probably the same meeting, Mike Finnis in the E-type is seen here giving Barry a bit of a hurry-up. Michael was a pretty hard punter, later going on to race the ex-Latham Porsche.

In the pits at AIR. Sharing the same bedroom with B8/46 is B8/26 and the sensationally quick Motorlab Asp of Jim Doig. I included this photo because of the familiar faces of Beven Young, Alwyn Harris (well, the back of his head) and Garry and Rosemary Warren.

And this is a youthful looking Barry, same pits, different occasion.

This is how I'd like to be.

Just have a look at Kevin with his Model A based racer telling some young blokes what it's all about. That car goes like the clappers and it and Kevin have been at it for donkeys years. No signs of either giving up.

I'd like to be doing that when I'm his age or older. I'm younger than him you see.

A very nice Queensland Mark 7

Here is Peter Kordic's completed car after registration. It looks magnificent and I hear it goes pretty hard too.

Nagari for sale

For those who haven't seen this month's Unique Cars, this might send a few scurrying down to the newsagents. For a while now I have had a heap of photos of this car in its many guises sitting on my desktop waiting for a story about its exploits in 3 states. I'd better get my finger out. I didn't know Andy Hamilton had a hand in this one but am very much aware of the good work he has done over the years on Nagaris and the extent he goes to to make or procure the right part for the job. I recall his having steel templates for glass side windows and have bought some many years ago.

The many colours of 38 (part 2)

Photo 5. John in the multi-coloured Bolwell lined up at Calder alongside the previous owner in his TVR Griffith V8.

Photo 6 shows the car in the black, red and yellow colours of sponsors Contour Photographic Images.

Photo 7. All black at a Show'n'Tell in 1984.Photo 8. One year later as a road car at an Easter event. It's the one on the left of course. So far this is it's last colour.

The many colours of 38 (part 1)

Further to Peter's comments about this car's many guises, here are just a few of them. I am using the word "few" genuinely because there are others that I am not including in this 2 part series of 8 for copyright reasons so if you have photos in your collection that could be added, please feel free to send them in.
Photo 1 is where it all began when Ranald introduced the car to Sportscar racing.Photo 2 still in Ranald's hands but now with red and yellow stripes through the centre.

Photo 3 after a couple of other colour schemes it became red and white as Ranald secured some assistance from Litre Motors. The wheels and flares are a bit wider here. As time goes on you will notice the flares growing even larger.

Photo 4, now in the hands of John Gourlay it becomes a deeper blue with a yellow hip line.

Alloy half cage

George at Racecraft has had to build a half cage for one of the racing Silvias he looks after - "alloy for weight reduction and looks not half bad all polished up!"

Press release - Drewer now 5th in Championship.

The "Goodies" days.

Following my last post (I was almost tempted to put LAST POST in inverted commas following an unusual email I received yesterday referring to the demise of this blog), Peter G has asked a question:-
"B8/38 raced with many liveries during its long career. At various times the Original Pale Blue, then with Stripes then later with multistripes along the hip line, later Pale Blue with Red Roof, White with a Red roof (Litre Motors), Dark Blue with Yellow along the Hip line, Black(?) with multi striping along the Hip Line (Contour spons.), and probably most recognised (remembered) of all Goodies Speed Shop Purple with Yellow diagonal striping across the sil panel (circa 1980). I'm not sure of the exact sequence, but it was painted Red during the Steve Bernard/Richard Gac street registered period after retiring from track duty.
I have attached the only photos I have of the famous Goodies Livery. Do you have any colour photos of this Livery?"

Isn't that amazing. I have to admit that I don't have any colour pics either. I agree that the car is well remembered in that form. It was so bright and looked spectacular. I have photos of just about, if not all, plus a few others, of the colour schemes described by Peter, in a few cases with the assistance of Henry, and a pictorial might be in order, but not in purple and yellow. I'm sure someone out there would have and if they don't mind, we could show it on the blog as well as any other pictures of this car. My email address is listed in my profile.

Bolwell race cars from AA

2 action shots in the one newspaper. This is Auto Action, November 20, 1981. Firstly we have John Gourlay leading at Calder in ASSC round 4 in the "Super Bolwell" and secondly we see Matt Pintar in the Mark 7 at Amaroo.

The next hot item.

Well, this is my prediction anyway. With Cobra replicas, GT40 replicas and Clubman sportscars consuming the attention of car builders and would-be car builders around the world, what's next? It has to be Hotrod replicas. It may well have been happening for a while already and I haven't taken it on board to any great extent. Earlier in the year when at the Healey Factory, the Ford coupes/roadsters with beautiful paint jobs and leather upholstery didn't go un-noticed. My last post on the Veskanda didn't attract much interest in the sportscar but a few emails arrived enquiring about the rods in the same picture. Then look at the roadsters that get to the salt racing at Lake Gairdner and all of the early 30s coupes etc. that go on the various rod-runs around the country. I suppose it's like that all over the world. It looks like a huge cult following to me. Some time ago Colin alerted me to the professional way a company in America called Factory Five went about the production of Cobra and GT40 replica kits. Last week, "Winding Road" visited Factory Five to take a look at their latest offering - sure enough, '33 Ford Hotrod replicas. Just look at the chassis and suspension packages and that body. I think it's great. In a way, the concept is not unlike clubman building - same only different.

I suppose Mike Davidson is aware of all this. Then again he's still engrosed in his twin flathead
engined streamliner and renewable energy projects. I'll be watching the replica hotrod scene with interest.

More in the Veskanda chain of events.

Here's that Veskanda again. After it left K & A it went to a motor body works, which just happened to be near to a well known automotive book seller, before going to Norm's. Those hotrods bring me to another matter, a good subject for my next post.

Zinfandel

Zinfandel is a red wine grape seldom seen in Australia (well, from my limited outlook anyway). I know that it is very popular in California but I have thought that the average Californian's taste in wine was a bit like the average Queenslander's (I did say AVERAGE so don't get too excited you West Coast and banana bending wine buffs) so hadn't given much thought to it. Some friends of ours have a winery over at Bethany and some time back they put in 3 rows of Zinfandel vines. Well, I really love it. You can't really drink just Merlot all the time. I guess, if you're anything like me, you go through stages and the Merlot stage has lasted for a while.

JB's white wines are great too and included in their white varieties are Pinot Blanc and Clairette. I know I'm getting old because I savour and appreciate everything I do these days and drinking wine is no exception. Each sip seems to go to the back of my mouth, trickle off the sides of my tongue and slowly it is consumed and I love it. Mind you the same goes for Cooper's Stout. I find that everything I have enjoyed in my life is now much more appreciated as it happens. Even farting seems satisfying and cleaning out a cupboard and getting rid of junk, there's a bit of enjoyment in that, I must do some more.

Press release - Tom Drewer - 16th July, 2009

Hot off the press. Click to enlarge.

A drive in the countryside.

Last Sunday's run to Charleston began at the coffee shop in Burnside Village and wound through the hills on a scenic tour to the final destination. Jane and I live on the other side of the Barossa so elected to meet everyone at the pub rather that go down to Adelaide and then come back out again. We had a nice drive too, a very nice drive. There is so much to see on the way and there are so many ways to go. I don't think we will ever run out of alternatives. Might be time for a President's Trial soon. We travelled from Angaston to Eden Valley to Springton to Mount Pleasant to Birdwood to Mount Torrens to Charleston which is not surprising but getting to Angaston saw us going through Ebenezer, Stockwell and Penrice and going home we went via Moculta and Truro. This is the Charleston Hotel. It's a good little pub and our hosts were very nice. We'll have to go there again I reckon.

And here is Norm getting a charge.

New link.

You might notice a link to the Bolwell photos on Photobucket which is worth a look because on page 2 is the Mark 7 roadster that just sold on ebay arriving at its new Brisbane home.

At last!

I can't let last weekend's F1 win go by without expressing my delight. We've all been expecting it and at last it's happened. Mark Webber's first pole and first win as well. Now that the ice is broken, there'll be more where that came from.

It was a big weekend for Queanbeyan as Mark's classmate from schooldays, Brad Haddin was hitting up a century at Cardiff at about the same time as Mark was qualifying - Mark being glued to the TV watching the test match before stepping into the car.

Anyway, it seems to me that Mark certainly has his head screwed on the right way whether it's F1, mountain bike riding or arranging his finances that he's applying himself to. Switching his driving contract from US dollars to Euros is a good example. His 8 or 9 million dollar deal is middle of the road for Formula 1 I believe. Maybe it'll go up next year. Mark realises that the career of an F1 driver is short (like a footballer) so he is into saving. He no doubt thinks about the tough times in 1996 when he first moved to the UK. Van Diemen recruited him from Australia but in order to race he had to find his own sponsopship. His road car then was a very secondhand 1.1 litre Ford Fiesta. These days he doesn't need to buy his own road car, he is supplied with a Renault Megane Renaultsport 230 Team R26.

He does own a motorbike though, a Yamaha. This is despite his dad, who owns a motorbike shop, declaring that while he's alive Mark's not to get a motorbike. He doesn't want him to hurt himself. I've been through that when one of my boys got his first motorbike despite my protests. His comment - "Dad, you had some pretty good bikes when you were my age". My answer - "Well, that's different". Not a very good argument is it?

Ultimate road car

Remember a few posts ago we talked about a Veskanda for the road? This is actually car number 3 leaving the house of Clemente after a fair bit of chassis and body work.

Spycam 2

Here's the latest at the Clemente 2 secret workshop. I wonder if that sign under the car has a message.

1935 SS1 Airline saloon

When I was really young, like in my teens, there was a wreck of a car way down the back of a large block of land and under a tree that sat there for years and years. It was on Sunnyside Road, up in the twisty end, the Glen Osmond end. I bet there's no vacant blocks around there these days. The car was an Airline bodied SS. I'm sure others would remember it. Anyway I really loved the shape and went to the trouble of tracking down the landowner who wasn't all that aware of the car's existance and didn't want the old wreck anyhow. Unfortunately I didn't have the wherewithall or the determination to get it out of there I guess. If I remember correctly it had bushes growing up through the chassis and it wouldn't have been too easy towing an old car with flat tyres on my bike anyway. Over the years I managed to get over it all but the car sat there for a very long time. What got me thinking about it was this car below. Rainsfords have it for sale for $150,000. I wonder if it's the same one. Could be. They didn't make too many with the Airline body.

Mark 7 pictorial

Here are a few more shots of Phil and Rita's Mark 7 taken outside the Charleston Hotel yesterday. This is, of course, "the car that Sam built" in NSW. Sam's dad bought it for him when he was eight years old I believe and the meticulous build took 18 years. Eventually, with Sam now in his twenties, the Bolwell reluctantly had to go to provide a deposit on "the first home". Sam's loss is Phil and Rita's gain and they're loving it.
Picture 1 shows Rita, Sarah, Norm and John (L) behind the car. 2. Front view shows the low stance of the car.

3. I recognise that spoiler. It was actually designed to fit the exact shape of the Nagari front but it doesn't look too bad on the Mark 7 either. I almost fell over the mould for it in the shed when I got home.

4. Attention to detail is just as amazing under the bonnet as well.

5. The leather upholstery has a nice feel to it.

What's in a name?

This article in "The Age" on the upcoming MX2 has sparked that "age" old question regarding the similar Japanese and Aboriginal words with exactly the same meaning with the reference to the Mazda Nagare coming from the Japanese phrase "to flow".
Peter Garvin writes:-
"John & Tony,
I know this has been discussed before, just what are the origins of the name 'Nagari', was it Aboriginal or Japanese or purely coincidence? Just what is the origin of the name, and how did Campbell and Graeme arrive at the name?
Peter."
Campbell is really a bit vague about it but reckons they found the word in an Aboriginal phrase book that happened to be lying around the house and thought it sounded pretty good but can't recall where the book has got to. Over time, various Nagari fans have rushed about looking for books of Aboriginal terms with what success I'm not sure. The reference to "Aboriginal phrases and words" is fairly vague to me anyway, as there is no one Aboriginal language but literally heaps of them. The debate continues.

Lunch at the Charleston Hotel

What a great day it was. So many people turned up. It was good to see new members Rita and Phil with their very smart looking Mark 7 V8. Jenny Young won the raffled Bolwell boxed keyring. I hope she puts it to good use. Maybe she'll get her own Bolly if she can't wait for Beven to finish his. Here's a few photos from today. 1.Phil in the Mark 7 looking pretty pleased with himself.

2. Same car, different angle.

3. The Mark 7s of Ron and Brian respectively.

4. You'd think this bloke would buy a new battery wouldn't you?

5. A couple of gangsters off to hold up a road house in an unmarked car.

B8/107 part 2

Ray Gulson was the ACT agent for Nagaris. B8/107 was to be Ray's crowning glory, purchasing the "very last factory produced Nagari" (although I've heard that title given to a few other chassis in my time). Anyway, Ray went down to the factory to personally "drive the car off the production line" in October 1973. He kept the car for a few months then sold it to a professor who used it in Canberra for 2 years before moving with the car to Goulburn for another 2 years, finally returning to Canberra and selling it back to Ray Gulson Motors. Gulson's advertised it for sale from their Fyshwick premises in August 1979 for $9,000. It was bought by Allan Davey, an ecologist, who lived at Red Hill ACT. In June of 1982, Allan was moving with his job to Perth and decided to sell the car before he went. It was still very immaculate and I really wanted to buy it. However, I had an earlier one that I needed to sell in order to do so. It wasn't easy to do at the drop of a hat and finally I stuck my neck out and got it while I still had the other one. Leah and I drove up to Canberra in the red one and stayed with Chris and Bronwyn (they were living at Queanbeyan then) while we did all of the necessaries to purchase the car. With Chris being a hotshot salesman, we decided to leave the red car there for him to sell on our behalf. This didn't happen and we later went and got it, took it back to Adelaide and sold it on to Perth. We were then able to enjoy the use of the silver car. Later, it got a bit hectic because we were minding the GTHO powered B8/59 for Max and then Ikaras came on the scene and we had B9/001 and B9/002 to contend with as well. To lighten the load we decided to sell B8/107 and Andrew Daff came over from Melbourne to buy it. Andrew was more into surfing than fast cars and some time later while competing at an MSCA sprint meeting at Sandown or Phillip Island he left the track backwards and wiped out the back of the car rather badly. Roycey bought the wreck and turned B8/107 into a Fibrecar sports. I presume this is the car that Dennis Oste has now. As most people know, Royce was later killed in a road accident and the remains of the silver car sat around the farm for ages until Richard took it up to Queensland and made a new car from it using a new chassis and a new body. He gave me the slightly bent steering wheel to remember it by when I was up there once and it's still hanging in the shed. I do remember the steering wheel in particular, it was one of those flat ones with the Valiant centre. What I remember most was when you took the car out for a good workout in the hills the wheel would be out of shape when you got home. Then you bent it back into shape ready for next time. About this time, Peter Ingram-Jones had his big prang in the Targa Tasmania. Richard sold him the front half of B8/107 for the repair. I remember Peter saying that eventually all these cars return home and when B8/76 came to live in SA, the front half of my beloved silver car had returned. Recently I was telling Ned McGovern (the Milano man) that I had picked up a UC Torana and that I planned to salvage the front and rear ends for a Nagari project and throw away the rest but I wondered if that was a good idea as the big bodied Torana track was wider than the Nagari track as stated in the famous Nagari brochure. He said that Dennis had one of those front ends in his Nagari and he had done a bit of work on it. Small world isn't it.
Anyway, here's a few photos of B8/107 when it was a silver coupe. 1. 107 and 43 at the Clearihan's.

2. Same 2 cars at a Healey Club concours at Bonython Park. That's a cheeky young Andrew Low standing alongside the silver one which is by then sporting the familiar JL-0000 plates.

3. A picnic at National Park. The people in the photo are Wendy (seated), Rose, Garry, Gus and Leah. The other Bolwells were the black Chev powered Mark 7 coupe of Tony Opie (before it was a blue roadster), the yellow B8/37 of Garry and Rose and Gus's 351 powered B8/75 which was the Alex Tsakmakis racecar.

4. B8/107, B8/59 and B9/002 at Scott Street, Parkside.

Log books

Just a little bit of housekeeping. Those who are going to the lunch at Charleston tomorrow, could you remember your logbooks. It might save me a bit of work later in the month.

B8/107 (1)

Both these cars below are B8/107. Doesn't look like it really. Full story tomorrow.

I love this shot, looks like a 3-wheeler. Must be the angle.

MX2

What a great little car the MX2 is going to be. Not due out until 2012 but all the forums and salons feature it. I read where the styling is influenced by

last year's Furai concept car so I went looking for that and WOW!

B8/43

This was a coupe I had for a fair while, selling it only because a much later one came up, which I'll also tell you about , probably later in the week. I was going to make this a "where is it now" post but I know the answers because I've checked. The car was built in 1973, the colour was Vermillion Fire, with black trim and black dash and was fitted with the familiar 302 V8. Extras when I bought it included twin exhaust, a front air dam, an Airporte glass sunroof and the nose piece had the two extra holes on either side of the opening into which I inserted spotlights at one stage. The dodgy bit was the tubular sleeves over the broken bits of the original wishbones.

I don't know if he was the original owner but Philip Williams of Bairnsdale (100 miles the other side of Melbourne) sold the car to a Morwell car dealer (K.W. Motors) in March 1981 for $9000 with a slightly noisy third gear. In May of that year, Donald Till of Strathalbyn SA paid the dealer $10,000 for it. "Strath" is a fair way South of Adelaide and is actually where our Macclesfield stage in the Classic Adelaide finishes. It was Don who I bought the car from. It wasn't long before the front spoiler had to go. It and spoon drains just didn't see eye to eye.

When the other car came up I wasn't able to sell B8/43 straight away so we had two coupes for a while which put a bit of a strain on finances and relationships but we're a resilient bunch. Eventually John Arcus, in WA bought it. I have a feeling John lives in Indonesia now. Anyway, John had a big prang in it and that was that. Greg Wigger, who has another Nagari coupe bought the wreck. That was ages ago. I have heard that nothing further has happened but I have also heard that Greg intends to rebuild both Nagaris as a retirement project, one day when he retires obviously.

Bloody bushfires!

Since the Victorian bushfires I've been wondering how the Bolwell population fared, knowing there was reasonable representation in that area going back to the very original Mark 7 building days. Early Bolwells seemed to strike a chord with people working in the brown coal and electricity generation industry for some reason. I didn't hear any negative reports and began to relax a bit but then this morning I read Rick's report in the latest Slipstream. Both Frank Rushton and John Szabo lost their Mark 7s and the sheds they were in , and John lost his whole house. That's terrible news. Both these guys built their Bolwells in the very early days of the Mark 7 and retained them ever since. How must they feel? A bit like Tony Opie, as you know he lost his trusty Mark 7 and a Mark 5 in a South Australian bushfire a season or two earlier.
Below is the Rushton Mark 7 as I remember it, competing at Calder in the Six-hour as part of one of the Bolwell Club teams.

And here is John's Mark 7, same team, same time. Behind is John and the legendary mid-engined, 289 powered Transit van.Here is the same car at an Easter event at Mt. Gambier, complete with the board rack which was bolted through the roof.

I am very sad to have heard this news.

Where is it now?.....No.10

These photos were taken quite a few years back in a back yard in Broken Hill, so long ago that I can't really recall who was responsible for them - probably Colin who has a very uncanny knack of sussing out these rather remote gems. The car is a very early Mark 7 with the early tail treatment and early dash, ribbed floor and certainly pre the stamping of chassis numbers.

Not only would it be good to find out what has happened to it but also to ascertain its previous history. I must catch up with some of my old Broken Hill friends because, not only is there this car, there's also the Mark 5 that disappeared into Broken Hill that we have been discussing not all that long ago.

The recession hasn't hit Abu Dhabi yet.

These 3 photos turned up in my emails yesterday with the comment "No wonder oil is so expensive." The car is "a Mercedes Benz owned by an Abu Dhabi oil billionaire festures the newly developed V10 quad turbo with 1,600 horsepower and 2800nm of torque, 0-100km/h in less than 2 secs, 1/4 mile in 6.89 secs running on biofuel.
That's not stainless steel, it's white gold.

"IN" joke number 1

WOULD YOU BUY A USED CAR FROM THIS MAN?

B8/62 to B7/357S

In the previous post I posed the question - what happened to the original Nagari body and if you check the comments part at the bottom of the post you will see that Jim has answered that - it is mounted on a Mark 7 chassis. If I were naive I should now ask - "what was wrong with the old body?" but I didn't spend all of those years getting that accounting diploma for nothing. Anyway, the original body was married to a Mark 7 space frame chassis, the car being built by Drew Hunter and subsequently sold to John Egglestone of Echuca. It carries the very authentic looking chassis number B7/357S. I presume the "S" stands for "sports". The photo below is from the Henry Stork collection and was taken at a Show & Tell, year unknown. It's certainly a smart looking unit. In the May 2002 edition of Slipstream Victoria, John placed the following ad - For sale - Nagari convertible, space frame chassis, Leyland P76 4.4 ltr V8, Celica 5-speed, 3.08 diff, Holden front end, modified Meteor dash, 1990 restoration, $16,000. The car was bought by Gary Williamson and went to NSW.

Peter G reckons "Jim's question is very relevant, what happened to the original 7 body and chassis, for that matter I suspect a lot of chassis' were destroyed in the 80's when replaced with space frames."

Where is it now?.......No.9

This is B8/62 and was once owned by John Katona. This photo was taken by Henry at a Show & Tell after it was rebodied. It turned up briefly at the Bairnsdale Easter, still in John's hands and still with the stickers. Some time later there was a comprehensive article on the car in Unique Cars. As a result of the article, it sold via that magazine for $75,000. Everybody was amazed at that extraordinary figure. These days it's no longer amazing. I haven't heard of it since then. The other question is....whatever happened to the original body? At least I know what has happened to all the 260Z bonnet vents.

GP Dino Replica

Remember the photos Peter sent me from Seaforth in the 80s? This is the last of them. It is Sam Johnson's (JWF) Ferrari Dino Replica which is so authentic in appearance that the handmade fibreglass body is complete with fake rivets. Sam must still have it because when I was talking to him recently, I asked him what Milano stuff he still had and he said that all he had to play around with these days is the Dino replica. Ned McGovern obviously has the Milano moulds. He's the one who makes the bits to keep them on the track. Incidentally, all you Milano owners, Ned has a couple of pairs of new headlight covers if anybody needs them.