Preview: New Zealand Classic Car Issue No. 326

JAGUARSPORT X J -S — A PE RSONAL PROJ EC T LI KE NO OTH E R

CUDA ISSUE 326 $10.99 INCL. GST FEBRUARY 2018

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BETTER WITH AGE FORMULA FORD DRIVER’S RETIREMENT PLAN

MORRIS 8 HOME-FRONT CAN-AM

ENGLISH AS PORK PIE AND A PINT

WHEN BIG-BANGER SPORTS CARS TERRORIZED LOCAL TURF

CONTENTS

326 FEBRUARY 2018

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FEATURES

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1970 PLYMOUTH ‘CUDA AAR MOPAR’S TRANS-AM RACER

16 1937 MORRIS 8

AS ENGLISH AS A PORK PIE AND A PINT

26 KIWI HOME-FRONT CAN-AM WHEN BIG-BANGER SPORTS CARS TERRORIZED LOCAL TURF

38 JAGUARSPORT XJ-S A FAMILY HEIRLOOM

70 SOUTHERN FORMULA FORD A GREAT RETIREMENT PLAN

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54 COLUMNS 48 54 62 78 94

MOTOR SPORT FLASHBACK KITS AND PIECES MOTORMAN LOCAL MARKET REPORT PRICE ON

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EVENTS 84 86 88 90

2017 FORD MUSTANG NATIONAL CONVENTION ALL AMERICAN WEEKEND RALLY NEW ZEALAND 2017 PARKSIDE MEDIA CHRISTMAS PICNIC TOUR

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REGULARS 44 46 60 80 92 96 98 99 100 104 105 110 112

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FEATURE

1970 Plymouth ’Cuda AAR

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L ACHL AN DID A SPOT OF FISHING OVER THE CHRISTMAS BREAK AND HOOKED A RARE SPECIES INDEED … Words: Lachlan Jones Photos: Adam Croy

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FEATURE 1937 Morris 8

. . .W E L L N OT Q U I T E

THE HUMBLE MORRIS 8 -

A S E N G L I S H A S A P O R K P I E A N D A P I N T. . .

Words: Terry Cobham Photos: Adam Croy

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FEATURE

Kiwi home-front Can-Am – Part one

Leo Leonard in the Begg Corvette, Tramway Road (Ron McPhail Collection)

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KIWI HOME-FRONT

CAN-AM I N T H E F I R S T O F A T W O - PA R T S T O R Y, G E R A R D TA K E S U S B A C K TO T H E D E C A D E F R O M 1 9 6 4 TO 1973, WHEN BIG-BANGER SPORTS CARS TERRORIZED OUR LOCAL TURF Words: Gerard Richards Research assistant: Stuart Buchanan Photos: Gerard Richards, Stuart Buchanan, Ron McPhail, Mike Feisst

Motor racing groupie I’ve a confession to make, one I believe I should lay on you right at the outset of this little tirade. I was a hardcore motor racing addict through my late boyhood and into my teenage years and early adulthood. Pukekohe was sacred turf; to a small contingent of us, it was hallowed ground, ground that cast a hypnotic spell, possibly one not too far removed from the experience that might have been gained from the artificial stimulants of the time … But what would I know about that offlimits department.

There was something wild and surreal about ‘the scene’ in those impressionable days of my youth — as if everything out there at the track really was larger than life. Things seemed to happen in slow motion, and you just drank it all in — the colour, the sights, and the smell. I’m sure you’re getting my drift here, but no, we weren’t stoned, it was just a natural high, a supreme buzz being around all that wonderful vibe!

OK, so there we were, hanging out at

Puke during the golden years, when the sport on the home front was feeding off the overseas pursuits of our illustrious countrymen — Amon, McLaren, Hulme, Ganley, and McRae. This legendary era cast a lustre over the action on our patch … and then, it was gone.

The blue-ribbon events that the punters always packed the fences for during these front-line years of the sport were the singleseaters, pure racing cars, and the modified saloons. I get that; I was deeply into the wild, loud antics of the tin-tops and also loved the sleek projectiles of the openwheelers. But I had a secret passion — and this is where that confession comes in — for the strange and slightly weird world of the sports car racing fraternity. The sports car racers didn’t appear at a local meeting often, as events for this varied range of racing vehicles were almost an endangered species, but, when they did turn up, their appearance seemed to coincide with that exact moment your average motor sport spectator of the day had an inexplicable urge to visit the exciting long-drop excuse

for toilets or sate a craving for a bag of hot greasy chips!

Why would that have been, I ask myself?

I could understand the reason to vacate your prime fence-viewing location if a Formula Vee race came on or a one-make production-saloon race was the alternative to relieving oneself or indulging one’s desire for deep-fried sustenance …

The weird world of New Zealand sports car racing The ‘sporties’ captivated me. They were something of a breed apart from anything else on offer. To some spectators — those who obviously lacked appreciation for the wildly divergent array of machinery on a sports car grid in the late 1960s and early ’70s — they probably appeared to be a motley assortment of has-beens and homebuilt creations. Just how wrong were those people? Plenty wrong, I say. The sporties have embedded a long history into our racing folklore, but the period that lights my fire the most is the V8 rear-engine big-grunter era that coincided

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FEATURE

1984 JaguarSport XJ-S

F A M I LY

HEIRLOOM Words: Les Hughes, Jaguar magazine Photos: Jeff Drabble

W H E N A TA L E N T E D K I W I D E C I D E D TO B U I L D H I S O W N J A G U A R S P O R T X J - S AT T W R ’ S WORKSHOPS IN KIDLINGTON NORTH OF O X F O R D , T H E F I N A L R E S U LT W A S D E F I N I T E LY UNLIKE ANY OTHER ROAD - GOING X J-S

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KITS AND PIECES

Words and photos: Patrick Harlow

OLD NUMBER ONE ALMAC TG

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