Thursday, May 12, 2011

David with the 3 Buchanans - Look what else he has.

Gidday John,
Was browsing awhile ago when you did a bit on Bolwell Drag Cars and you showed photos of the old Voodoo. It was at about this time I was looking at a drag car and realised it was the one and same. I have since rescued it from it's resting place under a tree and put it in the shed. As you can see from the photo's it has been heavily modified since those days.
It now has a full chromeolly chassis,has been stretched in the front by approx.6 inches to accomodate a big block,has adjustable coil overs front and rear and a 35 spline 9 inch diff.
The body now has a one piece lift off front along with hornet scoop a fully tubbed rear.
The bloke I bought it from said he bought it from a panel shop in inner Sydney about 15 years ago. It was then white with a black bonnet. He di all the fibreglass work and painted it the red it is now. It is a credit to him for the quality of his workmanship.
It doesn't have an engine ( he had a big block Ford sitting in it) but has a clutched Torquflite box fitted. I will do alot more homework before finishing her off. .
I acknowledge that the modifications done since virtually make it impossible to restore to original form but would only add to it's safety features. I would like any information on the running gear and would follow those lines. I am under the impression that it ran a 289 (being a Holden man this is a bitter pill to swallow but under the circumstances I can live with this).
This is a nice addition to my 3 Buchanans in the shed and am finding myself fascinated with the Aussie Fibreglass scene as all of this was before my time.
I would appreciate for any information from you and your followers could offer on which way I should tackle this build and any history available.
Thank you
David Homburg

John.
Forgot to mention that new chassis was built as left hand drive to counter act torque force on launch. Not real keen on this but will look at it later and contemplate converting back to right hand drive. Car is still in Sydney area.
regards
David Homburg

Well, now we know where "Voodoo" had managed to get to.
Dave's looking for advice. Feel free to comment.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great to see the pix, interesting that it appears to be LHD, a 427 would certainly be a handfull, it would be great to see it restored to it's later form.
PeterG

Colin said...

Who ever did the frame certainly spent $$. the last picture from the 1980's the car was already extended and wasn't the Docker car stretched by 8 " as well? The diff reminds me of work Aram did on drag cars in the late 1970's with the Watts linkage and all. Good to see the evolution of this car is still in good condition.

Dave said...

The fellow I bought it from said that it was built by a Jock McCleod. Does this name ring any bells? Is he still around? I was told he was getting on if this is the same bloke. I am new to this scene and am on a large learning curve. Overall it looks like he certainly knew what he was doing.

Colin said...

Jock Mcleod was a top Aussie drag chassis builder from the 1970's and 80's.

Colin said...

I have tried hunting for info on Jock Mcleod and can only find that he had a chassis shop in Granville Sydney in the 1970's and went to Queensland after Castlereagh drag strip closed in Sydney in 1984. I knew of him from magazine coverage in 70's. His personal Gelica racer is for sale at the moment on my.105 and appears to also be LHD probably for the same reasons the Mk 7 is. In the 1970's Develco (Aram) built drag chassis incorporating the Watts linkages to get drag cars to run straight and true off the line which simple 4 bars were loath to do and the MK 7 chassis shows this level of sophistication too. Re his age I guess anyone running a professional chassis shop in the 1970's would now have to be in their mid 60's at a minimum and possibly even a decade older. A bit like the original Bollie crew.

Dave said...

Speaking with the previous owner and he is positive that this raced under the Challenger name aswell later in it's racing life. Does this sound right?