The Poms and their trafficators.

This was an A30 Garry Rainsford was selling. I love these semaphore signals.

I have visions of Brock flicking out the signal as he pulls out to pass another Mini.

Which Mark 4 is this?

Advertised in Unique Cars in 1992.

It doesn't seem to link up with any Mark 4 on my list. Can anybody help?

The Pellandine saga.

This unusual article appeared in the Advertiser on Monday, 9th June 1980. This was after Peter Pellandine had gone back to England and set up his Pelland kit car company.

Is that not the same body shape that housed the steam engine that he produced in SA?

Mk.7 drag cars 2

I'm pretty sure these are one of the same.

Markson mystery unravels.

Graeme B (as opposed to Graham, the Markson owner) has come up with some photos.

This is a 1965 or 6 Markson back in the day. It was built by a Gordon Hook who went on to make a kit car called Amero and later built Corvette replicas. How the Mark 5 bits came to be used is quite interesting.

This is another Markson (or the same one) seeing daylight from under a tarp.

This is an Amero, fairly similar looking.

And this is a later model Amero.
Graham has written this:-
That is exactly my car.Over a period of time I have spoken with all the people you have mentioned as well. I also found trying to locate MR or MISS Hook to be impossible, as well, I think at one stage, I spoke to someone, who may have been a son of his, but the son??? was very vague in our conversation, but he did say, he new of a GORDON HOOK, and was going to get back to me, but this never happened, so I drew a blank in that area. After reading all sorts of article's on cars of this style that were built here in NZ back then, and putting together all the info that I have managed to collect over time,my own personal theory of this car is,that it is, an Australian MKV Bolwell body and chassis purchased from Bolwell in the mid 60's.After speaking to Graeme Bolwell personally,he does remember them selling a couple of bodies and chassis, back then, for cash flow reasons, but cannot remember to whom, or what ever become of them, and they have no records of the MKV's, as they were destroyed when the factory was burnt down.. I believe,the body and chassis was purchased from Bolwell , was cut into pieces to a shippable size, also the chassis,which was common practice back, then to enable someone to bring a car into NZ, without and import licence or not having overseas funds. I believe it was then shipped to NZ by someone who work for Air New Zealand (TEAL) at that time, and was assembled at TEAL at Whenuapai.According to a Don Subritzky,of Spitefire restoration fame, who was an apprentice for Teal, at Whenuapai, at that time, and went on to be in charge of the air frame maintainance, for Air New Zealand at Mangere, all sorts of things were made at Whenuapai, and he does remember a couple of cars being put together out there, but was not sure what they were, or what they turned out to be, and when Teal became Air New Zealand and moved to Mangere in 1967 all that sort of thing finished, and no more homer's were undertaken at Mangere.I believe at that time the unfinished body and chassis was on sold to Gordon Hook who took a molding off the car which become the Amero , and then onsold it to who ever, maybe a person named Reynolds who was the first owner of this car. But I could be wrong .
TBC


The activities at TEAL sounds a bit like some former employees at Qantas and WRE (and Chrysler/Mitsubishi) taking advantage of their workplace facilities.

Mk.7 drag cars

Are these two the same car?

if not, where is the other one?

Chrysler Turbine

I still have my souvenir card from when the gas turbine car came to Australia.

Peugeot jeans

Markson

This is the New Zealand Markson.

The present owner bought it believing it to be a Bolwell. Bryan C, of Melbourne understands that they were built on a Mark 5 chassis. The sills look like the Mark 5 as do the front hinging bonnet pivots. Does anybody know any more about the Markson? I've tried Googling Markson and and the best I could come up with was someone wanting the stretch MARKS ON his penis explained.

Milano GT coupes.

Dick Willis has compiled a list of Milano GTs that he knows of to this date. He has accounted for approximately half of the GTs produced. If anyone can expand on this list please let us know.

Milano GT Coupes, brief list.

1. The Ian Johnson prototype, raced etc. to 1968, then sold and disappeared for 30 years, found in a bad state and restored, now with a Sydney owner since 2008 but not a goer at the moment.

2. The Bruce Leer sister car to the above, raced everywhere by Leer and others into the 1970’s, restored and raced in historics since 1989 with a Sydney owner.

3. The Ray Kenny car, built in conjunction with above two, restored and raced in historics since 1992, sold to UK in 2003 and then to current owners in Switzerland since 2009, very active in racing etc in UK and Europe.

4. The Dick Willis car, first to use a Holden 179 and very active and successful in NSW sprints and hill climbs 1964/66, sold to SA and wrecked at Mallala, rebuilt 1982-94, raced in historics from 1998, now in Albury,

5. The John Wright car, raced to 1992, next owner had big accident at Amaroo, repurchased by John Wright in 1979 and rebuilt, now occasional events in NSW.

6. The Ken Dunne car, raced in country NSW, Cobar etc, rescued in 1991 by Scott Whittaker and restored, raced in historics from 1993, sold to UK in 1999 where it has been very successful.

7. The “Newcastle” car, Hillclimbs and lap dashes etc in Newcastle and Sydney, various owners to 2000, then Canberra owner who restored it then Dick Willis in late 2011 who restored it again.

8. The Mike Raffan car, raced as Group A sports car since 1974 at Sydney circuits, now with another  Sydney owner but unused for many years.

9. The Rodney Dewey car. Raced at Oran Park and Amaroo, wrecked in late 1970’s, Rescued in 1996 and restored, Sold to current owner in 2003 but little use. On eBay March 2012 but no bids.

10. The Valano. Built in SA by Alex Smith with Valiant 6 motor unslanted, and used in sprints and hill climbs in 1960’s but little use later, Sold to Sydney in 2005 and very active in historics, Most original Milano of all.

11. The Milano Zephyr. Built up in Canberra, used mainly in hill climbs with s/c Zephyr engine. Discovered in Northern NSW and restored, in historics since 1993, Sold to present SA owner about ten years ago.

12. Early history not known at this stage but believed to have been delivered new to Victoria, now with Jason Nicholls in Vic, restored and used regularly in historics.

13. The Ron Sando car, Same as the early GT’s except that hardtop removed from new and Milano 750 rear body and headrest fitted, raced in NSW but damaged at Oran Park in 1960’s, with present NSW owner since 2008.

14. New body/chassis kit sent to WA but never used, repatriated in recent years to Nowra, NSW but still not a going concern.

Note ; We believe about 30 Milano GT’s were built and we have accounted for about half. Quite a few went to Victoria but their histories are not known

They were not issued with chassis/body numbers from new making them harder to trace and consequently we have identified them with the original owners name where known. Further information is very welcome.

Dick Willis.

My favourite car brochure.

A museum piece?

These photos were taken during a Canberra Torana Club visit to Stuart Saunders' museum in 2003.

The red Nagari coupe is Sean's I think. I have a feeling he's living back in Australia now so the coupe and it's red sports shed mate are probably no longer there and are most likely being enjoyed on the road along with the DeTomaso and the Ferrari.

The museum is in a tiny town up the road from Canberra. Stuart is a Bugatti enthusiast and authority of long standing.

How many Hunters still exist?

Geoff Bott seems to have tracked down quite a number of the existing J & S Hunters over the 20 years that he owned his.

Here's his list to the best of his memory........

Mine(005) is now owned by Luke Manton

other cars  are located at

Parramatta

Coalcliffe

Echuca 003

Camden 018

Wangaratta

Perth (Stacey Nicoloau)

& one hanging up with no roof in a  shed

Plus two others that were shells only and a V8 version in the ACT

Thats about all I can think of

One was written off on the harbour bridge and the prototype 001 has disappeared, last seen on the Mornington Peninsula Vic

Good photos get around.

I found this on a New Zealand rotary site.

Shot in Orange Lane's studio, it's another Mazda from the Trethewey household.
Hi to my old friends at Orange Lane.
Orange Lane actually did the photo for one of our calendars way back in 1982.

It's Udo in B8/26 driving up Montefiore Hill. In 1982 our family car was a HZ wagon. Back then Holden station wagons had a back window that wound down into the tailgate. Drew took the photo from the dog box by hanging out over the tailgate while we were also going up the hill. The club still has copies of this calendar as they do for most years from 1976 if anybody is interested.

A bit of a pictorial history of Joe Curcio's Mark 4B.

These first two photos are from 1967 when owned by Neil Hawker.

Then some from June 1976 when Joe purchased it.

And here it is today, April 2012.

Underneath the nose is a plastic parts container carrying a sticker saying "storage box on wheels". That reminds me that some time ago an unkind person suggested that my Ikara was merely a storage box on wheels. I can assure everyone that it has progressed from that. It is no longer on wheels.

Now here's something that makes Joe's car valuable.

This application form for a CAMS log book in 1967 actually shows that log book number 455 was issued in that year. If Geoff Medley and Kym Burton had such a document they could have been enjoying historic racing in their Mark 4s today.

Out of the mouth of Stacey.............

What the sandgropers do for amusement on the easter trip over in a borrowed mk4...chase after a evil black stig( and who was he Baz)and a naughty gnome....

by the way, try asking in Kimba for glasses for a gnome- they just shook their heads!!!don't know why.

 

Not being conversant in Groperspeak, I can't interpret this. I do feel that the black stig and the naughty gnome are the same person. We in crow country have our own resident gnome. Try as I might I just can't put my hands on the pictures of the little fella. I will when I find them. Meanwhile here's a few more Western ones.

 

2000GT

When the Toyota 2000 GT came out we were all given this item. It was a single page, printed both sides, specs on one side and some B/W pics on the other. Had we moved from foolscap to metric then? I think not. This piece of literature was wider than A4 which I discovered when it hung over each side on my A4 scanner.

A 302 for a 289.

Rob Wragg is a stickler for originality. That's probably why he bought coupe no. B8/49 - beautifully restored and about as original as you could get.

To keep it company in the garage, he's also bought sports no. B8/47 which, as we all know was the prototype sports.

For the sake of originality, Rob's planning a return to its first colour, silver.

I'm wondering if this means removing the quarter windows and going back to the narrow bonnet bulge as well.
Anyway, originally the car was fitted with a 289 engine. Rob wonders if there might be a way of tracking down that original 289 or parts of it, like the block for example. Is John Allsop still around?

What do I like about the Poms?

Well, they're not afraid to drive their cars that's for sure.

The passenger in the back of the Bentley is there to put some weight over the back wheels when the mud gets really slippery. A bag of sand won't do it because a bag of sand can't bounce up and down to get even more traction. Over there they call these events Trials. We call them English Type Trials because we're not over there.

Kapunda - week 47.

The Farm Fair was on yesterday and today. Lots of tractors and headers and solar systems and sheep and rainwater tanks and lovely old steam engines to see. Also the star of the best movie ever made who lives just down the road at Freeling. Chocko wasn't allowed in to see him because she's a dog which is a bit discriminatory. Dustan is a dog too but he's a film star. Barossa Funerals dragged out their immaculate 1940 Studebaker for the occasion. Isn't it beautiful?

It has a basket-weave coffin in the back. Maybe they were fashionable in the old days. The running boards are very wide for 1940. Perhaps the pall bearers rode on the side.
Take a look at this off roader.

It's huge!

The trailing arms were like girders and the rear springs and shockers were monstrous. The big V8 hangs out the back. Off roaders can't get away from the Volksie principles they were brought up on can they?