NZCC #331 Preview

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ISSUE 331 $10.99 INCL. GST JULY 2018

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FAMILY HEIRLOOM

FORD FALCON XA GT

MG SA RETURNED TO FORMER GLORY

BUCKING THE TREND MERCEDES-AMG E63 S

GRAVEL RACER

TOYOTA S TA R L E T K P 61 R A L LY C A R

T A R G A H A W K E ' S B A Y, R A L LY O F W H A N G A R E I — F U L L C O V E R A G E

CONTENTS

331 JULY 2018

4 FORD FALCON XA GT A LOYAL FRIEND

16 1936 MG SA FAMILY HEIRLOOM

28 1983 TOYOTA STARLET CLASSIC APPROACH

40 MERCEDES-AMG E63 S BUCKING THE TREND

68 COACH-BUILDING SECRETS ART IN MOTION

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COLUMNS 50 56 62 92

MOTORMAN KITS AND PIECES MOTOR SPORT FLASHBACK PRICE ON

EVENTS 78 84 86

TARGA HAWKES BAY 2018 RALLY OF WHANGAREI NZ JAGUAR NATIONAL RALLY 2018

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FEATURE 1973 Falcon XA GT

LOYAL FRIEND

MANY WOULD SEE THE HISTORY OF THE F O R D X A FA LC O N A S C U L M I N AT I N G I N I T S FA M O U S ’ 7 3 B AT H U R S T W I N . T H I S I S C E R TA I N LY A N I M P O R TA N T P A R T O F T H E F A L C O N S T O R Y, B U T, F O R O N E PA RTI CU L A R 197 3 X A GT FA LCO N , I T I S T H E LOYA L S E R V I C E T H AT H A S L A S T E D 4 4 Y E A R S T H AT M A K E S THIS CAR ONE TO REMEMBER Words and photos: Aaron Mai

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Australian-designed Ford, and the GT version was a much ussie muscle cars are among the most more refined car than its tarmac-shredding predecessors, desirable and collectable cars of today; in which were designed primarily as road-going race cars rather particular, the GT versions of the Falcon, than true grand tourers. It also marked the return of the which are undoubtedly the most famous of Falcon hardtop, and the streamlined bulging shape of the the breed. One word, ‘Bathurst’, instantly Falcon made this coupé the sexiest Australian car ever. The conjures up images of decades of nail-biting battles XA was the largest Falcon to roll out of the Broadmeadows between the two Aussie arch-rivals, Ford and Holden, plant, sporting, arguably, the boldest styling yet, with its battling for supremacy. In fact, Bathurst was the uniquely vented (albeit non-functional) front guards and inspiration behind Ford producing a car as celebrated as twin bonnet scoops — unlike any other GT. Unfortunately the GT Falcon. for Ford, the XA GT had shed some of the basic, unrefined During the early years of the ‘Great Race’, the annual appeal that had endeared the earlier XR–XY GT models 500-mile (805km) event at the mountain road course, to the public. It wasn’t as if the XA GT was any less potent Mount Panorama, Bathurst attracted countless entrants in terms of straight-out muscle; on the contrary, the XA driving virtually every known variety of foreign and GTs were unquestionably good cars. Although they were domestic car, including the very first purpose-built local fitted with the same intoxicating 351-cubic-inch (5.8-litre) Ford ‘race’ car, the Cortina GT500. In 1967, however, Cleveland V8, they appeared not to be as fast.

Ford, who was keen to promote its current Falcon XR However, Ford had Plan B on the back-burner in the model (which was the first Australian Falcon with a V8 form of the four-door XA Phase IV. Sadly for Ford and engine), set about planning something different. The rest its passionate fans, a surge of negative media hysteria over is history, as they say. The mighty GT Falcons reigned 160mph (257kph) supercars and party-pooping politicians supreme at ‘the Mountain’ during the ensuing years and who merely saw it as a road-rage weapon, led to the were involved in some of the most hard-fought tussles in cancellation of Ford’s new missile. the event’s history. Between 1969 enough, regardless and 1973, these mighty machines The story of our feature Interestingly of the public’s perception of the had a huge impact on the Australian car begins in 1970, when XA GT’s performance, in racing touring car scene when a young upand-coming driver, Allan Moffatt, Peter and Mary Heremaia hardtop guise, it remains the only to have won twice at Bathurst. got behind the wheel of the Phase I, crossed paths with their Falcon In 1973, Ford replaced the II, and III GT-HOs, and fired very first GT Falcon. discontinued Phase VI GT-HO Falcon up the imagination of Ford fans throughout Australasia, winning at “We immediately took (of which only four vehicles existed) the XA GT RPO 083, producing Bathurst in 1970 and 1971. a liking to it, especially with only 131 sedans and 129 coupés.

Today, some of these rare beasts with the grunty rumble, Surprisingly, these cars came on to the — namely, the Falcon XY GT-HO market without fuss or controversial Phase III — are highly sought after and it looked great in advertising claims, and only those and regarded as Australia’s greatestDiamond White and people in the know were aware of its ever muscle cars. black-with-gold hockey- existence. Not so now, of course. An Introduced in March 1972, the XA GT RPO 083 is the next best Falcon XA GT was actually the first stick striping”

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FEATURE 1936 MG SA

A FAMILY

HEIRLOOM TH I S M G SA H A S B E E N PA RT O F M U R R AY G R I M W O O D ’ S F A M I LY S I N C E H I S FAT H E R TO W E D I T H O M E B A C K I N 1 9 6 0 . H E SHARES THE STORY OF RETURNING THE MG TO ITS FORMER GLORY Words and photos: Murray Grimwood

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FEATURE

1983 Toyota Starlet (KP61)

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1 3 0 0 C C O F H I S T O R I C R A L LY C A R F U R Y Words: Marcus Gibson Photos: Adam Croy

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here was a time in the not-sodistant past when the likes of the humble Toyota 4K 1300cc with a pair of side-draught carbs, plenty of compression, and a hot cam was a formidable weapon for anyone who put the pedal to the metal and danced on gravel, swapping lock to lock.

But, as any motor sport stalwarts, rally folk were not perturbed by advancements in technology, and the quest for victory soon saw such cars superseded by bigger capacity engines and, of course, boost!

Some 30 years later, and here we are, blasting up a wet and winding road as the Lampola five-speed screams away under the floorpan, the Stack tacho licks 9000rpm, and the trees and the Armco are but a blur through the side window. The lack of technology, capacity, and boost, for that matter, simply melts away as the nimble little Starlet dances on its Alcon brakes and proves just how well these little 112kW terrors would have gone in their day.

West Auckland–based F40 Motorsport.

That work has seen the transformation of a 1983 Toyota Starlet Sprint into a historic gravel racer, one compliant with the most stringent historic rally regulations set by MotorSport New Zealand (MSNZ) and the FIA. It’s the machine in which F40’s Steve Cox will make his return to the gravel following a 20-plus-year break from the sport that he got his start in, as he recalls: “I rallied as a young man, from 21 through to my early 30s. I started in a Datsun 120Y, which didn’t last long, and then a MkI Escort that we did two or three seasons with, followed by a Group N Daihatsu Charade, and, finally, an early Ralliart Evo I. We binned the Evo in a pretty big way. We fixed it, but it was never the same — the car was, but I wasn’t — and the general feeling towards rally in the family had cooled, so we took up circuit racing. But I never retired from it; I always intended to go back to rallying. I guess when Hayden Paddon lifted the profile of rallying again, I

Hard graft But this is no 30-year-old survivor that we are riding in. What you see before you is the culmination of 27 months of hard work headed by the team at

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The 1300cc 4K doesn’t come much tougher than this.

The Hartley-built block features Denco pistons, Carillo rods, a custom cam, and plenty of compression. The head received CNC porting and has a lightweight valve train and roller-rocker conversion

started watching again, thought a little harder about it, got itchy feet, and decided [that] I would find a car.”

It was decided that historic rally would be his chosen class, and he’d run in the Silver Fern Rally and as many hill climbs and rallies as possible.

When motor sport was dangerous The exacting regulations of historic rallying are based on upholding the way it was done when sex was safe and motor sport dangerous, with every modification coming under stringent scrutiny to ensure that it is period correct, and just the way it was back in the ’70s and ’80s. So, with a little more than just MSNZ Schedule A to worry about, Steve had MSNZ technical advisor Andy Culpin involved from the project’s inception, overseeing each component to ensure that it would be valid under the regulations — everything from the configuration of the rear suspension to the way the engine was pieced together.

However, these limitations on the build did not mean that some modern technology could not be put to use working smarter, rather than harder, before any steel was cut or welded, as Steve explains: “The rear trailingarm suspension was all designed using a