More on the Kadala Mark 7

These are the wheels that come with the car, standard Torana by the look of them, which stands to reason as the donor car was a Torana. The paperwork and credentials for the Torana have been kept just to be on the safe side as have the actual Bolwell details and registration material.Experienced Bolwell people will recognise that the condition of the body and chassis is very unusual as they have not suffered the deterioration normally found in well used cars after all those years.
As a Kadala car it has the larger footwells similar to the Nagari and the Nagari dash is standard and not fitted later as happened to many early examples.
The chassis, too, is different in these later versions. e.g. the main side members are bent in a "U" shape with the "U" facing into the running gear rather than the "Z" shape with the top part facing the centre of the car and the bottom coming out under the floor pan at a short angle.
Other inventory items include:-
*Bolwell tags and builder's diary with rego number quoted
*donor car tags (original builder was a car dealer in Bendigo)
*chrome door window surrounds and the windows
*windscreen and rear window
*door handles
*headlights
*windscreen wipers
*heater demister unit
*front end which includes Torana disc brakes and two wheels and tyres 215:65:14s
*triple SU equipped Holden red 6 motor with custom extractors and cast plate Opel gearbox and gear shifter (these boxes are highly sought after among the restorers of early XU1s I believe)
*an additional Aussie 4-speed
*engine mounts
*starter motor and alternator
*a couple of radiators
*pedal box and pedals
*steering rack, steering column, steering wheel
*door trims in black
*sports seats in black, one needs minor fabric repair
*rear end including brakes
*trailing arms
*several diff centres
*boxes of springs and shockers
*2 more wheels and tyres 215:65x14
*fuel tank
*tail lights and chrome surrounds (Galant and rear panel has been smoothed to fit)
*more boxes of stuff
The car was stolen by and recovered from a man who wanted to make a drag racer out of it, hence the dismantled nature.
To the knowledge of everybody concerned there are no issues with the car in any legal respect and it has been known to car club members for many years.

The Mad Dat ute

The purple Mad Dat ute was there on Sunday too. Just look at the attention to detail on this car! The beautifully made tray cover and the roll bar you'd hardly know was there.

Here you can see the carbon-fibre bonnet.

........and here's part of the reason it's so damn quick at Mallala.

Peter Lehmann's.

There were 5 Bollies at the MSCA trophy presentation day (all Mark 7s) at Tanunda as well as Jane's 240Z, Lynne in the Turbo MX5 and Norm's Clemente. It was good to see a good collection of Mark 7s again although a few went home early.

At the start at Golden Grove another Mark 7 appeared, Bryan's black one. I shouldn't say black, although the paint mix was equal proportions of Mercedes Black and RX7 Black, but just look at the car in the sunlight, it sorta looks blue.

These were a couple of shots I took a few days earlier in Kapunda just to show that cute little bobtail and the shape of the rear quarter windows.

AMC AMX

Isn't this AMX a beauty. I took this photo Tuesday night outside the Gawler rooms. It belongs to fellow club member, Doug A, who seems to be as much into Ramblers as I am into Bolwells. The AMX is a 2-seater coupe with a high compression 390 cu. in. (6.4l) AMC V8. It looks great in signal red. Doug bought it 20 years ago as a body shell and a few boxes of bits, including the engine in bits. He collected parts for 20 years and then took 12 months to restore it to this. What a great job.Another good car there on the night was a 302 John Goss Special (blue bonnet not green) but it was too dark to take a photo. It belonged to David, a young bloke who had just joined the club. He bought it in Sydney on eBay and flew over and drove it back.

The guest speaker that night gave us a good rundown on importing cars from America. Makes you glad Australia is full of nice cars anyway.

Roger's front spoiler.

Remember last month we talked about the simple but effective rubber front spoiler Roger fitted to his Mark 7? On Sunday, Roger and the car were at the presentation day at the Peter Lehmann Winery and here's a photo.

This is a "big block".

Had to show you this. The car is a 1961 Dodge Seneca 413. That's a 413 Cross-Ram V8. It's got a 4-speed behind it which is pretty rare in North America. This one lives in San Diego. The Cross-Ram is rare anywhere in the world though. Just how far is it between carbies? Can't see it fitting under a Mark 7 bonnet. I read where there is enough metal in those inlet manifolds to cast some 4 cylinder engine blocks.

more JWF Italia Spider

Beautiful isn't it?

JWF Italia Spider

Rob Suttie's dad has finished the Italia an it looks fantastic.

I'll post some more pictures later on when I get a chance.

Mark 7 project for sale

This is a late, Kadala Mark 7. The body and chassis is in exceptional condition as it was driven only briefly before being dismantled and it has recorded Victorian registration credentials and the paperwork to go with it. It has a hot 186 & 4-speed. Just about everything is there except for a wiring loom, guages and rear shockers.

$10,000 will buy it. email vidstud@gmail.com Telephone 0413 226 009.

Buchanan bodied drag car.

This is a page from the Feb. 1968 edition of Auto Sportsman.
It's Victorian, Barry Ferrari's car. It had a Holden grey and a Singer 4-speed. Where's this one now?

Some overseas Nagari links.

1. Over the Bass Straight. Targa Wrest Point 2010 to be exact.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFDv-m716qk
2. Over the Pacific. San Diego to be even more exact.

http://shirazshiraz.blogspot.com/2010/02/nagari-visits-mornington-peninsula.html

Sounds like Mahatma Coat's wife.

Mark 7 blinker repeaters

That's the trouble with shiny cars, if you're not careful you can end up taking a picture of yourself, and I'm not very careful.

This is the ex-Lewis Hemi-6 powered Mark 7 of Bryan B's, all kitted up with SA rego etc. and about to go home to Adelaide. But what I wanted to show you were these lights. They were designed to go on that little raised up bit on Mark 7s and were from 1966 Toyota Crowns. As it turns out, they were also on some old Hilux utes. Anyway, these days they are like hens' teeth, no-one could find them anywhere. No-one that is, except Simon Wells, who has discovered a mob in Bangkok that are making them and selling them for $15 a pair plus $12 postage. How's that!This is the amount of rubber (295s) that is put to the road. Looks good and fills the flares quite nicely. It's about to get new rear tyres and different tail lights. The custom fuel tank looks good too. Keep an eye out for it on the Peter Lehmann run on Sunday.

Only at Bathurst

Where else would you find a gum tree falling on the track in the middle of a 12-hour race?This was at Forest Elbow. The race was won by the Gary Holt/Paul Morris/John Bowe BMW 335i. All of those Evos entered but the best they could do was 2nd.

The Matt Jenkins Mark 7

Matt's chassis is back in the Racecraft workshop. Look at the exhaust they are making for it.

A couple of nice Nagaris

Jeff Rowse sent me some Nagari photos from Queensland so I'm sharing them. The first car is the Fibrecar sports he used to have which is now owned by Jason Weber and the Nagari coupe in its Targa Tasmania livery is the one Peter Ingram-Jones used to have which is now owned by Peter Schmidt.

SR6 HISTORIC CAR CERTIFICATE OF DESCRIPTION

For those interested here is the Mark 6's certificate which accompanies its Group Q log book. It's a laminated folder of four pages but I think it comes out OK.

A Virgin Racecar

Here it is, the brand new Formula 1 Virgin VR-01 Cosworth, all ready for its debut.Drivers are Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi. (ref - VirginRacing.com).

DIY Mark 4

Here's an opportunity. Avalable at a considerable amount below cost is this package. It comprises a new professionally built Mark 4 chassis and a full set of body moulds for the 4B. The chassis only requires shocker mounts and pedal box to be complete.

All this for only $12,000 represents pretty good value. 0413 226 009 or vidstud@gmail.com

Nganti

Tony Briton took this photo of Bernie on the grid at AIR back in the 80s. I dragged it out more for the Metro Oil car on the next row. The other day I mentioned Allan Hanns driving for John Scotcher. Well, this was the car, the Nganti. Sounds a bit like Nagari. It had a 2 litre Ford in it, one of those single OHC units. The chassis was big and strong and heavy and would have easily accomodated a V8. I think the body was a Boral. There's still a Boral Ford V8 kicking around but I'm not sure what happened to the Nganti. This was about the time that ProdSports disappeared up its own exhaust pipe and everybody went on to other things. Bernie went radical with the Nagari and Allan went on to the Nganti. Smeetsy used to drive it before that. It's funny how the same old names keep cropping up. The article in Custom Kit Car on MGCC's Neville Daniel's Buchanan MG shows that Neville bought it from John Scotcher who bought it from Peter Smeets.

Another Buchanan turns up.

Here's another Buchanan. It belongs to David Homburg in Victoria. He was wondering if, between us, we might be able to trace the history of one of his (he has 2, "one Hard Top and one with no roof"). He is hoping that there may be someone who may have some old photos of his hardtop from its heyday.

He bought the car from a young bloke from Geelong about 2 years ago. He traced the previous owner who told him that he had bought the car at a clearing sale at Rockbank many years ago. He was going to drive it but it sat out in the weather too long and the plywood floors rotted out of it. "He then sold it to the young bloke I bought it off and he butchered it by trying to fit a V8 and narrowed rear end. He also tried to return the headlights to their original position and butchered that too! As far as I am aware it has always been a Victorian car.

It runs a standard width EJ Holden suspension (hence the flares). It has a Holden Grey motor and a Vic. Police number stamped in the chassis rail (if you need these I can give them to you later). I tried to trace it through Vic Roads but they have destroyed all information prior to 1971. I have been in touch with Roo and have had it on the VHRR website but to no avail. It was painted Purr Pell, a purple Torana colour of the early '70's. Maybe this might jog someone's memory as this would have been a stand out car in its day."

Well, I hope someone recognises it and lets us know some of its history as well. You can do this through the comments bit or email me at vidstud@gmail.com and I can pass David's address on.

A Spanish dash panel

The other day I showed you some work being done on the dash bit, away from the body. That guy is Vicente and he looks after the upholstery needs. He was really rapt to see himself on a blog from the other side of the world. Here he is finishing off the fitting of the crash padding.

It looks really smart now that it's all fitted up. It'll soon be time for the windscreen to go in.

This is how it looked only a few days ago.