Some pictures from my good old days.....

[00slk]

Late 80s and early 90s

 

[rorywquin]

Wow the reminded me of when I was a kid & (probably 30 or so years before the above photos) ) still living in what is now Zimbabwe. My dad would always take me to the weekend races and at the end of the racing there was a free for all with spectators getting on track with their cars and having a bash.

 

[LostKiwi]

Looking at the cars in the top photo all of them are now covetable classics and worth a fortune (especially the Charger if its an E49!!!)

 

[Jim2]

In the pic on the right hand side, black merc leading followed by a white car, is it a Singer Sunbeam Rapier????

 

[Blobcat]

Nice, Just a pity you didn’t have @Vintage Racer behind the camera

 

[00slk]

Wow the reminded me of when I was a kid & (probably 30 or so years before the above photos) ) still living in what is now Zimbabwe. My dad would always take me to the weekend races and at the end of the racing there was a free for all with spectators getting on track with their cars and having a bash.

I can remember seeing car racing at Pukekohe Race Track in 1974? There was a Triumph PI, Chrysler Valiant's and a Charger plus a Leyland P76, then I caught the bug

Looking at the cars in the top photo all of them are now covetable classics and worth a fortune (especially the Charger if its an E49!!!)

Yes, that is a genuine E49 owned by the Cross brothers, all the makes racing in this particular club had to have had racing history. So any fakes were soon spotted.

In the pic on the right hand side, black merc leading followed by a white car, is it a Singer Sunbeam Rapier????

Yes that is a Sunbeam Rapier, there were some very quick ones around as well, no match for the 280se though. The Mercedes was Maroon Jim, hard to tell as the picture is a reprint and well, old

Nice, Just a pity you didn’t have @Vintage Racer behind the camera

I do have or had some rare glimpse on TV of the 280se racing at times. I have many hours of in car footage of the Holden and Triumph.
I started out racing a Vitesse in the late 70's progressing up to Rover V8, Chrysler and Toyota to name a few. Lost my competition licence though after a heart attack
I did have the opportunity test drive a private entry BMW in 1980 for the touring cars race but unfortunately there was the fire and the car was destroyed

 

[LostKiwi]

Those E49s were quick.
4.3 litre cast iron straight 6 302hp, 1365kg weight. 0-60 in 6.1s was very rapid for the time.
Surprising they were so light - especially given the cast iron block, head and gearbox casing and the front and rear bumpers were 3mm steel girders and were the jacking point!

Racing versions were even lighter by the time they lost all the trim and usually had even more power.

 

[00slk]

Those E49s were quick.
4.3 litre cast iron straight 6 302hp, 1365kg weight. 0-60 in 6.1s was very rapid for the time.
Surprising they were so light - especially given the cast iron block, head and gearbox casing and the front and rear bumpers were 3mm steel girders and were the jacking point!

Racing versions were even lighter by the time they lost all the trim and usually had even more power.

They were certainly fast, but didn't corner! I had the Charger e37 with 3 speed and track pack suspension, I set this up to race but made the big mistake of over lightening it in the rear using alloy, it was useless in the wet. I did own an original Bathurst e31 Pacer with all the options, this car was bought from Bathurst and imported to NZ in 1974. She was getting a little tired when I had it. I did race a 4 barrel Pacer for a season but found it too slow. I traded that car in on an 1971 350 SL complete with 4 soeed auto and lsd, even took that our on the track, much to my Misses disapproval. You could say I was a Mopar Man. Had many of the brand

 

[A.J.]

In the pic on the right hand side, black merc leading followed by a white car, is it a Singer Sunbeam Rapier????

Looks like a Sunbeam Rapier to me Jim. I used to love the Touring Cars of that era, I was those days a Marshall ta Silverstone.

The other formula I loved was the old Formula Libra, great racing, real belt and braces stuff

 

[LostKiwi]

They were certainly fast, but didn't corner! I had the Charger e37 with 3 speed and track pack suspension, I set this up to race but made the big mistake of over lightening it in the rear using alloy, it was useless in the wet. I did own an original Bathurst e31 Pacer with all the options, this car was bought from Bathurst and imported to NZ in 1974. She was getting a little tired when I had it. I did race a 4 barrel Pacer for a season but found it too slow. I traded that car in on an 1971 350 SL complete with 4 soeed auto and lsd, even took that our on the track, much to my Misses disapproval. You could say I was a Mopar Man. Had many of the brand

I had a VH Pacer with the optional 4 speed and 3.23 diff (2.92 was standard).
That was a hoot. Took it to Baypark for a sprint event. The original plan had been I'd tow a mates mini down and in return I could share his car. Unfortunately his car developed a problem and he wasn't prepared to put it through two lots of drivers so I used the Pacer....
Funny thing was I beat him around the track in a stock road going car! In fact I was only beaten on the day by a 289 powered Capri on slicks
There were a few red faces in the pits given they'd all said "You won't get anywhere but it'll be fun"

 

[00slk]

I had a VH Pacer with the optional 4 speed and 3.23 diff (2.92 was standard).
That was a hoot. Took it to Baypark for a sprint event. The original plan had been I'd tow a mates mini down and in return I could share his car. Unfortunately his car developed a problem and he wasn't prepared to put it through two lots of drivers so I used the Pacer....
Funny thing was I beat him around the track in a stock road going car! In fact I was only beaten on the day by a 289 powered Capri on slicks
There were a few red faces in the pits given they'd all said "You won't get anywhere but it'll be fun"

Takes a good driver to make a big sloppy handler beat the well prepared purpose built race cars.
I did that on track with the Jags in the 280se

 

[00slk]

Looks like a Sunbeam Rapier to me Jim. I used to love the Touring Cars of that era, I was those days a Marshall ta Silverstone.

The other formula I loved was the old Formula Libra, great racing, real belt and braces stuff

I used to Marshall too back in the day for some Rallies, helped many cars back on track too when they misjudged their corner!!

 

[Vintage Racer]

Nice, Just a pity you didn’t have @Vintage Racer behind the camera

I did not always get it right.......maybe I should have been behind the LENS on this occasion.

After a 'Double axel' and 'Triple toe loop', I ended up being cut out of the car!

IMG_1754 by Glynn Hobbs, on Flickr

 

[00slk]

I did not always get it right.......maybe I should have been behind the LENS on this occasion.

After a 'Double axel' and 'Triple toe loop', I ended up being cut out of the car!

IMG_1754 by Glynn Hobbs, on Flickr

You were lucky on that occasion Vintage Racer
I had 5 incidents during my 'good old days' First putting my car through a hedge on a type of auto cross. Second was sending the Mercedes sideways into a set of water filled tyres Then a brick wall, but luckily at low speed, another on a street circuit when I took out a power pole after being nudge and the biggest was another load of tyres, (tractor tyres) filled with water which did make a mess of the car

 

[Jim2]

Reading all the above post's ( and I worked on cars from that era, like the Singer ) puts us all in what is politely called " Of a certain age " bracket.....

 

[Bay Leaf]

My brother and I used to race Vanwall's back in the late 50s early 60s God I do so wish I still had that Scalextric.