Historic Rally Cars

For those who wish to follow the daily progress of NSW Bolwell Club treasurer, Gary Williamson, in the Repco Round Australia you can go to hra.org.au Gary is driving his ex-factory Colin Bond Cortina TE that came 4th in the original 1979 event. He wasn't going too badly by the end of the first day but day 2 seems to have been a bit of a disaster. At the end of day 3 it looks like he's at the tail of a 37 car field. He should have known better and entered his Datsun 1600 rally car. At the moment the first three cars on the road are Datto 1600s, the first 4 cars are Dattos (4th is a Datsun Skyline) and there are 6 Dattos in the first 7 (there's a Peugeot 504 in 5th follwed by a Stanza and another 1600). Still it's early days yet, Gary.
Just to emphasise the power of the Mighty Datto take a look at this superb shot taken by Simon Orme of Jack Monkhouse and Neville Whittenbury giving the latest 4WDs a bit of a hurry up in Rally SA the other weekend. (Love the number plate.)

"Love the Beast" at the drive-in.

For those who missed seeing Love the Beast and will be in the Adelaide area on the Monday night following the Bay to Birdwood Classic, here it is. I've got entry forms and will arrange to get them to those people who indicated their intention of going, e.g. John H, Roger & Lynne, Barry & Kath, Scott & Julie, Colin & Sandy etc. and anyone else who wants one, give us a call.

Chassis Plates and Compliance Plates.

There has been a bit of forum discussion recently about the issue and recording of chassis numbers by manufacturers either at the time of manufacture or retrospectively. I have even noticed a reference to the issue of a chassis number on a compliance plate. This makes me think there might well be people who don't know what a compliance plate really is. A specification plate is placed on the car by the manufacturer and describes the car for future reference and may include the model, a chassis number and possibly the engine number if a factory built vehicle. Registration numbers wouldn't be included because they would not be known at the time of leaving the factory gate. The recorded chassis number would probably be stamped elsewhere on the actual chassis as well. The same goes for the engine number, it would be stamped on a designated position on the engine block. A compliance plate is a separate item and it is issued by the Vehicle Certification Board to indicate which Australian Design Rule numbers the vehicle conforms to. Below is a Nagari chassis plate. It is a blue one which says a bit about its manufacture date. Early Nagaris had black chassis plates and then they switched to blue. Sometimes you see a Nagari advertised for sale as a "blue plate" - well, that's why.

Here's an Ikara chassis plate. It's interesting that Bolwell recommended Golden Fleece lubricants. The very next year, Caltex bought Golden Fleece out and that was that. I've been looking around for Golden Fleece products for authenticity in concours events but they might be a bit stale. Talking about authenticity, I've seen GTS owners shopping around for redline Aquajets to put on their show cars. How hard would they be? You wouldn't want to drive on them.

Here's an early Bolwell chassis plate some people might not have seen before.

And THIS is a compliance plate.

P.S. Don't wory about ringing me with your unopened tin of Golden Fleece oil. I was only joking.

Errol's "Roaring Forties" - part 2

Here's some more.

Wheels have been ordered. They are ROH 3 piece Stradas. Fronts are 18 x 8, rears 18 x 9.5
They're expected soon.

Errol's "Roaring Forties" - part 1

This could be called "work in progress". It's come a long way since this but have a look at these photos first. I'm anticipating an update soon.

It's interesting to compare this with some of our Nagari chassis.

That GT40

Before we take a look at the progress on Errol's chassis, here's a few shots of the car at the Roaring Forties factory in Melbourne before it left for the trip West.

Handle with care.

Errol, over in WA, is building a Roaring Forties GT40. It's coming along nicely and I'll show you some photos of its progress. Meanwhile have a look at what he was confronted with when he opened the container after the trip across the Nullabor.

Fortunately there wasn't much damage.

Another Milano

Milanos can crop up anywhere. This one is a pretty quick Lake Gairdner salt racer and was at this year's Speed Week. And, would you believe, the owner lives just down the road from us - at Evanston.

A very informative article.

There's been a bit of talk about Mark 5s lately and this has prompted a few to drag out their copy of this article. It was in a 1968 edition (February I think) of Australian Hotrodding Review. For those who haven't seen it, have a read.

Goodies in colour

No colour shots of the Goodies livery have been forthcoming. This has prompted Peter G to get the coloured pencils out of his photoshop box.

Dimensions - Toyota 5-speeds.

More browsing of old Slipstreams.

Elfin Sports Car Heritage Weekend - 2009

This weekend is only a fortnight away - Saturday and Sunday 15th and 16th of August. Three functions are organised for the weekend. 1. Elfin Track Day event at Mallala Race Track on the Saturday where you can see all Elfin models participating as well as other Factory-built Marques non road registerable competition cars of the Garrie Cooper Elfin Era 1959 - 1980.

2. Dinner at the Sporting Car Club South Australia Club Rooms, Saturday evening. and......

3. Elfin Heritage Motor Show, a public event at the Wayville Showground Jubilee East Pavilion from 10.30 am to 3.00 pm, Sunday August 16.

All of this is to celabrate the 50th Anniversary of Elfin PLUS recognise especially the craftsmanship and talents of several long serving Elfin Sports Cars Employees who, with Garrie's vision created this extensive range of now famous cars.

It would seem that not a lot of publicity has been forthcoming for this event but I can assure you that those that count are well and truly participating and the available places at the dinner filled up almost immediately. John Davies reports that one of his fellow MGCCQ members, Vern Hamilton will be missing the Leyburn Sprints because he will be down here with his Elfin 623 which he bought in SA a few years back. Vern originally ran a 622 in the 70s but wasn't able to buy his own car back.