28 replies to this topic

[Redzone]

Hi guys, I managed to get a few pics from facebook recently from a fellow who is very deep into the Tasmanian racing scene and has been for years, he has been going around scanning the photo albums of his old racing buddies so there are a few corkers here. Enjoy!

 

Garth Wigston's L34 fresh off the boat, ready to be turned into a race car:

 

 

Then out she came:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brock in the sports sedan:

 

 

Lost a wheel!

 

 

More sports sedans & group C:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dad's mate Stewart Salter's Gemini sport sedan (torana running gear):

 

[A9X]

wow  so used to seeing these in b & w

[Potta]

Interesting seeing the way the flares are done on some of those cars.

 

They look very familiar!

 

Loving the pics, it is an era I love but haven't seen much of.

[RallyRed]

wow......great pics..rare too....that guy driving the BMW sports sedan must be sitting on a milk crate....he is leaning over in his seat sooo
far

[SP5000]

Love the old motorsport pics, thanks for sharing

[Potta]

That's a big bit*h

 

Is that a Deuce Bigalow reference or just your opinion?

[xu2308]

Great Photos from back in the day

[xu2308]

Looks like the Gene Cook Torana, behind the grid girls

[madtoranajzedded]

great pics,she looks packed at baskerville.never seen so many cars,

[Redzone]

I have a billion more old race pics from Tassie back in the 60's, Symmons, Baskerville, Longford etc but they are mainly of my dad racing non torana's of course. If you guys like, I could throw them up too?

[Torananut]

Cool pics, great to see the old cars in their heyday.

[A9X]

thanks Dave.

 

be very keen to see more

[Potta]

Fr0ck yes

[sagman]

Great selection of pics there Dave ... really enjoyed looking at them ......... does the guy you got these from have any of the action at Bathurst around the A9X  to Commodore era as well as the Tassie action ??

 

By all means keep putting some pics up , i think all would enjoy seeing them ....

 

 Laz

[Redzone]

Not as far as I know Laz, he has wayyyyyyy more of these type of pics from Tasmania back in the day on his FB page, I just cherry picked all the torana ones as I knew this forum would like to see them, and who knows, might recognise an old sports sedan in there somewhere!

 

The one's i'll post from here on in are from my family's collection of pics, i'll put the ones of 28C when dad had it into another thread though..

[Redzone]

So basically to try to cut a long story short, Dad was a rev head who also had a rev head father, Dad had a very serious (road) motorbike accident in sydney in 1959 that led to him being told by his mother not to race motorbikes anymore and that he should race a car instead as it was safer! He moved down to Tassie (taking his supercharged straight 8 1936 Auburn roadster) in 1961 due to being offered work there with his existing employer, and knowing that the racing scene in Tasmania was where it was at in the early 60's..

 

 

He ended up working for a fellow by the name of Norm Knott, who owned the Paramount Auto Service garage in Launceston Tas, the same shop is still there today, a Midas now IIRC. Norm was also a bit of a hot rodder and he helped dad build a Ford Y block powered special, this car became known as the Paramount Ford, dad & friends built the fibreglass body using what he called "birdcage" construction, using 3/8 steel rod overlayed with chicken wire and then fibreglass over the top! Needless to say when he weighed it upon completion he got a bit of a shock and trimmed all the 3/8 rod out lol..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Redzone, 29 January 2014 - 11:22 PM.

[Redzone]

Dad was a crowd pleaser, he used to slow the thing down by throwing it sideways into corners, and then he loved to smoke the bags up the road on corner exit.. He actually had a seperate bank account just for tyres!! A copy of the statement is up on the wall at the Longford pub, they made a big tribute to him and his cars and it's up on the wall of the pub alongside some pretty big names..

 

Drag racing 1964 style! This car was also nicknamed The Purple Petrol Eater, a take-off of a popular song of the time, the Purple People Eater.. It was featured in Tasmanian Hotrodding review magazine in 1965 and a guy in Hobart has actually recently built a "tribute/replica" of it..

 

 

Edited by Redzone, 29 January 2014 - 11:36 PM.

[Dodgey]

Great stuff. Gotta love the old days when passion and hard work were more important than technology

[sagman]

Cool stuff there Dave , pretty cool old special mate ....  keep em comin'...