Sterring wheel goes to left

[LostKiwi]

Mike was probably best known for his Suzuki Fronté Coupé which he'd fitted with a transverse mounted Kawasaki Z1300 engine. It used to leave all the big V8s behind at Pukekohe....


The predecessor was a Fiat 500 (original one) with a Kawasaki 1000 engine mid mounted longitudinally.

I'd love to restore one of the old Heatway minis but unfortunately the cost of getting it to the UK or France would put it beyond my means.

 

[00slk]

Nice, I'll look at these later tonight
Seen a few names on the Heatway Rally list I know
My Cousin works at Hampton Downs as Chief Scrutineer for these guys, NZ Historic Muscle Cars and Historic Saloon Cars.
I started racing in the mid '70's in NZ but left in '79 for the States and then on to the UK. Had the chance to run BMW's but an unfortunate fire put paid to that.
Back in NZ again I got back into the race cars in 87 with a Mercedes 280se which was a real eye opener especially for the 3.5 V8 Mercedes and could give a 350 SL a run for there money. I used to run mid field most times and had some good tussles with the Jags, Lotus and Fiats. I have raced cars from Triumphs, Toyota's, Chryslers, Holden's, Rover and Mercedes.
When I arrived in the UK for the last time I did a few track days but could get the fact that you weren't allowed to overtake on the bends, got told a few times if I keep doing this I'd be putting the car on the trailer. It's no fun passing on straight.

 

[WDB124066]

I love you !!!!

What? Do you mean they would not allow you to drive like this? How do you overtake on a straight exactly without it just being a drag race, give the guy a nice wee tap on the rear bumper on the way out of a bend.....?? I need to stop now!

 

[00slk]

I love you !!!!

What? Do you mean they would not allow you to drive like this? How do you overtake on a straight exactly without it just being a drag race, give the guy a nice wee tap on the rear bumper on the way out of a bend.....?? I need to stop now!

Yep, pretty much 2003 Snetterton was the first bum steer off the official's, 2 times, after that, had to do the boring passes!
Then Oulton Park, brought in told off It's not a race, it's a track day blar blar blar
Silverstone........Well that day was different, had a heart attack
Back too Snetterton for the new track in 2012? That was fun, no red flag with car name on it and no naughtiness, just fun chasing my youngest son in his BMW

I was taken to Pukekohe one year, can't remember which year but remember Chargers, Falcons and David Oxton in a P76. His car broke the exhaust, it was removed and it was loud and seemed to go faster!! 1976 maybe or earlier. Anyway I caught the bug
I remember Paul Adams, Mike (The Snake) Marshall, Brian Robson from your Heatway list. Andrew Cowan rallied a Triumph PI in the 1970 World cup Rally, and Bob Holden rang a bell, did he run Bathurst?
Those were the days before H&S

 

[WDB124066]

I hadn't realised you were on a track day - sorry. You must drive for the others on a day like that otherwise it is just not fun for them too of course and that is the whole point of the day.

I never spent much time on track other than go to the National Triumph Weekend at Taupo one year – came away with the fastest time of the meet, I caught the bug so bad that weekend but also realised I did not have the funds to peruse a career on track so stuck to tripping around North Island midweek, midnight, keeping a close eye out for Farmers, goats and stock in general. A 320 with no roof became the instrument of choice because it meet so many criteria and could genuinely fit into almost in any scene.

I went to the races at Puke in the early 70’s too, Mother bless her soul, heart & spirit took me there as a little tacker to see the F 5000’s - and to find a hubby I’m sure looking back on it. She was a bit of a looker in her time! The F 5000’s have always been something special ever since. We had Gerhardt Burgers F1 Ferrari out here a few years ago and it took all weekend before the driver could deal with them, they are a very potent machine in their own right and spectacular to watch wheel to wheel.

I meet Dave Oxton once at Harry Booth’s Steering, Suspension and Brake shop in Newmarket, I got to know Shane Booth quite well for a while as we were basically the same age – would go to the batch with Anne, Harry, Shane and friends, water-ski & fish at Whitianga I never really thanked him properly for that. Harry taught us some tricks on the Southern Motorway with Anne up front on his knee should he lose his absolute cast Iron patience and composure [he never did], the best one was don’t move off line until you absolutely have to, he had a Holden Berlina with a Chev 350, Celica 5 speed, MY350 was the plate, in the 80’s before Holden made them for everybody else, actually that group of friends threatened me with a car for the rally of New Zealand once, they are all incredibly independently wealthy in their own right now, [one of them has a street McLaren now just for kicks] so I just might take them up on the offer, but I know I lost it after about 32 or so when the reaction times are just not there anymore, and I do not have the time or money to practice and get truly competitive, so I think it will remain a what if dream. I guess at 6’7” and 140 plus kgs I am not going to be all that comfortable in anything fast either, I simply cannot see out of the screen with helmet.

Dave was New Zealand’s answer to Hunt, He still to this day will not come back to the F5000 scene. He ran his Jag shop at the Domain, I stopped him from making a right hand turn off Mt Eden Road one day purely as an oncoming car, you could see the reaction on his face thinking if I had of been on track I’d have done that – frankly given who it was I would not have even braked if he had of, such is the timing of the man.

I will remain a midnight rambling hoon somewhere/anywhere on North Island with an MKM 36.6 sweater, roof down and heated seats on, on a full or near full moon = bliss.

 

[LostKiwi]

Dave Strong ran the Ex Paul Adams Toyota Starlet for a number of years and if I recall correctly won the National Rally Championship in it.
That was a very impressive little car - just 1300cc pushrods but it revved to hell and back. The only issue with it was it had a fearsome appetite for gearboxes. In one rallysprint we changed the gearbox twice (yes we had that many in the van) before retiring with a 3rd blown gearbox...
I still have the scars from changing those damned gearboxes. One of my jobs was to undo the starter motor bolts, a job that meant running your left arm under the red hot exhaust manifold to get to them!
We had those gearbox changes down to a fine art. 20 minutes tops from car stopped to moving. Best we managed was 15 minutes.
On the international when servicing for Mike Bish we had to change a cylinder head on the mini. That was also done in 20 minutes!

It's funny looking back on it... Those years working on red hot rally cars in the rain and mud and bitter cold are happy memories but there's no way I'd want to do it now!

 

[WDB124066]

Teamwork and experience together with all the tools you need - nothing beats it. I have a Starlet front wheel drive to this day - diesel mind. It's just a stupidly nimble machine, I call it Mr. Zippy as it goes extremely well on Moreys diesel additive @ twice the recommended rate, had it for over twenty years and still not board with it. Surprisingly it fits quite well, like no other modern car...??
What went wrong in the box with the rear wheel drives ones....

 

[LostKiwi]

Teamwork and experience together with all the tools you need - nothing beats it. I have a Starlet front wheel drive to this day - diesel mind. It's just a stupidly nimble machine, I call it Mr. Zippy as it goes extremely well on Moreys diesel additive @ twice the recommended rate, had it for over twenty years and still not board with it. Surprisingly it fits quite well, like no other modern car...??
What went wrong in the box with the rear wheel drives ones....

Used to tear teeth off 2nd and 3rd....
The 5 speed box was worse than the 4 speed but neither were immune.
The biggest issue with the 4 speed was it had a very high 1st gear so was hard to get off the line.

If you weren't bothered about homologation the cure was a Celica box but that wasn't an option for us.

 

[WDB124066]

I use Power-up in mine since about 100 00 kms and that has made a difference, most front wheel drive 5 speeds in Starlets get noisy, mine isn't and the changes are super smooth until it gets really hot then hard sometimes to shift out of gear. I did pull the gear level right out of its socket one day half way through an overtake, cables and wires going everywhere I ended up coasting right into a Porsche garage in Pirongia of all places, they fitted a slightly larger cable set and it has been fine ever since.