Original Owners

I have been told on more than one occasion that there are only 3 original Nagari owners that still have their cars to this day - Henry, Graham and Arthur. Well that doesn't include Bernie Van Elsen. Bernie bought B8/82, a red sports, new from the factory (via the SA dealer) in 1972 using it as his every-day road car. I remember him coming along to an MSCA sprint at AIR (this was prior to the reopening of Mallala). see below. He must have enjoyed it because the next thing we know he's joining our 6-hour and 4-hour teams
and then he's lining up on the grid for combined sports car races. At about this time the Australian Sports Car Championship switched to ProdSports and Bernie goes on to run his car in the National Championship. Here's a picture of Bernie and B8/82 taken at Baskerville just outside Hobart.
Wow! 2 piece racesuit and sneakers, they've been outlawed for donkeys years now.
Baskerville was great. It was a one-off event the organisers wanted to put on so they paid everybody's expenses to get down there which must have cost a few bob because there was a full grid of the best Production Sports Cars including at least 6 Nagaris that I can think of (2 from SA, 3 from Victoria and the Ross Bond car from NSW).
After a few years the National Championship reverted back to Group A and the next thing we know, Bernie, who just couldn't stop spending money, got K & A Engineering to build him a real race car. The old body was retained but the chassis was certainly replaced (which brings me to something else and I'll try and talk about it in a minute), in fact they really created a monster (only eclipsed by Bernie's VESKanda). Below is a picture of the monster Nagari coming off the bowl at A.I.R.

To me it's a far cry from the days when Bernie and Maryanne, his former wife, with 3 little kids crammed in the back, would set off interstate in the car.

I know I go off on tangents but that reminds me that at the same time we used to do the same thing with B8/81 but at the time we only had one little boy. When he was 2 (he's 35 or 36 now) we had a 4-point harness made up for him which was anchored in the boot, and he used to sit up behind us with his legs down each side of the tunnel. We were going through Bordertown one day and we were pulled over and given a lecture by some concerned people about torturing this poor little chap by exposing him to open motoring. He actually loved it.

This started out as a post about original Nagari owners so I'd better get back to it. We've established that there were three and Bernie makes four. But there's another! (It's a bit like the steak knives). I reckon I've been told by at least 6 different people (so far) that they have purchased the very last Nagari ever made by the factory. Anyway, there was a bloke from New Zealand who might just have the correct claim to that honour. I don't know what his chassis number is but I bet somebody out there can tell me. Anyway, I suppose it must have been about 1974, he walked into Bolwells and wanted to buy a Nagari only to be told that he was too late, "we're not making them any more" - They're out of production. That wasn't acceptable so money changed hands and a car was produced and he still has it (still in gelcoat form). Well, that makes 5. With a bit of luck we might find more - please let me know.

Somewhere in this post when talking about replacing the chassis I mentioned there was something else I wanted to bring up. I had a sports body (it was a lightweight one, only 2 layers) that Bolwell had made for me. I didn't have any plans for it at the time and Tony Britton in Canberra wanted to buy it. Well, he did, and we also teed up Bernie's discarded original chassis to go with it. Tony built a very nice car from all that and when he eventually wanted to sell it, I bought it and it became my company car for a while (this was pre-Pantera). Anyway, the point I was going to make is this.On the Bolwell Club website forum the banter has been going on for some time now about original cars vs. replicas. I've noticed that the people defending the integrity of their original cars have come up with a notion that a factory built body OR a factory built chassis is the basis for the car being genuine. Well, this car has a factory built body AND a factory built chassis yet it's still a ring in. So, what do you make of that? It's now in the hands of Garry and Rosemary Warren, not that they bought it from me, there was another owner in between.

Tony had installed a disc brake 9" rear end which is all very well but boy, they're wide (I also think the car was OVER braked). Anyway, the wheels stuck out so far past the guards it didn't look right, not to mention the attention you would get from South Australian cops. I didn't want to ruin the body by fitting racing fibreglass guards. Well, have a look at Bernie's car in the Tasmanian photo. When he fitted the race wheels and tyres he was faced with the same problem and solved it by getting those rubber guard extensions from Opposite Lock or somewhere, that they have for 4WDs and tractors. Anyhow, they solved the problem at the rear of this car too. They're great! You just buy the stuff on a roll and cut it to length and screw it to the wheel arches. Garry has sold the 9" and he doesn't have to go to the trouble of cutting off the guard flares.

A footnote : Bernie has registered the monster and is driving it around again.