This car started life as a drag car. It was powered by a 426 cu. in. Chrysler Hemi (check the number plate). Also check the rear wheels and wheel arches. While you are at it note the door windows. They are fixed perspex units with no quarter windows. Actually the very first Nagaris produced had fixed one piece windows while they developed their winder mechanism but not as late as no. 27. This is the John Hartney dragster. John is the first owner and the present owner with Graeme Lang owning it in between.
This black and white picture is from a Custom Rodder magazine showing the car at the 1972 Melbourne Hot Rod Show.
These last pictures were taken at the 1989 Victorian branch Show 'n' Tell and as you can see they show the car reverting back to something standard. The Hemi has gone too. I shouldn't say "reverting back" because the car started life in that radical form. From my own point of view, if I wanted to wake up that debate on the integrity of standard cars, I think that the car has a history of its own in that drag car format and that history has now been lost. It's the same as the 3 six-cylinder Nagaris and the four-cylinder one, they have all been changed to 302 V8s. Anyway it is good to see John reunited with his old car. Did you get that Mk.7, John?
This black and white picture is from a Custom Rodder magazine showing the car at the 1972 Melbourne Hot Rod Show.
These last pictures were taken at the 1989 Victorian branch Show 'n' Tell and as you can see they show the car reverting back to something standard. The Hemi has gone too. I shouldn't say "reverting back" because the car started life in that radical form. From my own point of view, if I wanted to wake up that debate on the integrity of standard cars, I think that the car has a history of its own in that drag car format and that history has now been lost. It's the same as the 3 six-cylinder Nagaris and the four-cylinder one, they have all been changed to 302 V8s. Anyway it is good to see John reunited with his old car. Did you get that Mk.7, John?
Gee John did i ever look that young?
ReplyDeleteFrom memory it was up around Ferntree Gully was it not?
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ReplyDeleteJohn I agree its a shame that the car is lost in that form, but like many race cars totally impractical for everyday use.
ReplyDeleteJohn H. is currently updating the car with most modern accessories, should be a very useful and practical road car which is what he now wants.
John and Penny visited me yesterday with broad beaming smiles, happily putting more K's on the clock of their newly purchased Yellow Mk7, a very practical and well finished car. The rebuild of the Nagari may now take a little longer.
Peter Marr is now complaining about having too much room in his shed I hear.
ReplyDeleteFrank had a car that colour, called it "The Vomit." I think that it would be nicer in a red or black.
ReplyDeleteLove
Louise
It was all green. Doesn't have the characteristic orange specks.
ReplyDeleteNote in the last photograph, the yellow Mk7 with the black racing stripe, that was the late Carl Moorfoots car from Colac, unusual for the fact that it was rotary powered, does anyone know where it is and whether it retained the rotary?
ReplyDeleteBeven Young once told me about a rotary powered Mk.7 he saw when he went to a Bendigo Swap Meet. I thought it was red and I thought I remember him saying that the owner lived in Bendigo but I could be wrong.
ReplyDelete