INSIDE: • McGregor ceases production • 3 Wheeled build continues

Index
INSIDE:
 McGregor ceases production
 3 Wheeled build continues
 Back to the drawing board with
miniature 4 stroke cycle cars
Magazine of the Constructors Car Club (Inc)
www.constructorscarclub.org.nz
APR 2016: Vol 28, Issue 14
Brian Worboys goes through the dipper in his
Road Rat. See Pg 29
Club Officials
President:
ph:
email:
Secretary:
ph:
email:
Club Captain:
ph:
email:
Treasurer:
ph:
email:
Phil Bradshaw
04 563-7368
[email protected]
David Clout
04 477-4356
[email protected]
Vacant
John Cumming
027 244-9190
[email protected]
What's in the magazine:
Club Minutes ................................... 3
Details of Shed Run .......................... 5
President's Report ........................... 6
Volunteers-The Sky Isn’t Falling ....... 7
Mr Ed’s Rant. ................................... 9
McGregor—A Car that made it’s
Marque .......................................... 12
Three Wheels on My Wagon .......... 18
Kiwi’s Can Do It .............................. 21
Back to the Drawing Board ............ 22
My Work-Horse—Leyland Ute ....... 27
Club Meetings
Sorr1; Getting a feel for dimensions30
The club has the following monthly meetings:
National Transport & Toy Museum 33
Club night: 7:30pm, 2nd Tuesday at Vintage Car
Club Rooms, 3 Halford Place, Petone
Highland Motorsport Park ............. 38
Club Committee meeting: 7:30pm, 3rd Tuesday at
Petone Community House, 6 Britannia St, Petone
Technical Committee meetings: as required
Contact Phil Bradshaw
Club Magazine “Spare Parts” is produced monthly from Feb to Dec each year. Contributions
and advertisements are welcome.
Cut-off date for contributions for the club magazine is 6pm on the Friday 11 days prior to
the club meeting. Send contributions to Stewart by email: [email protected] or
to Secretary by ordinary mail.
Club Correspondence to:
The Secretary, Constructors Car Club, PO Box 38 573, Wellington Mail Centre, Lower Hutt 5045
Editor: Stewart Collinson, phone 04 976-8594, [email protected]
Design and typesetting: Watsfair, [email protected]
Club bank account:
Bank: Westpac Lower Hutt | Name: Constructors Car Club | Account: 030531 0536795 00
Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the Constructors Car Inc., the
Editor or its officers.
8th March 2016
Introduction of President etc.
Committee Report:
Number of members attending
eventually rose to 28 during the course
of the meeting.
Usual club business
but we are still
struggling to think of
new and
entertaining vehicles
for club nights and
suitable Tech night visits.
Welcome/Visitors:
Those along tonight apart from guest
speakers –
Bob Griffin – has come back after a few
years absence, building a 535cc V2
commuter car .
Ido Lelie (hope I got it right in the end,
useless hearing). Thinking about a BMW
Z3 based car. Considering a Ferrari kit
car from England.
AGM is coming up in April . . . . . .
Technical Committee Report:
Past Events:
Phil to give a brief rundown on recent
LVVTA actions . . . . well that was the
idea, half an hour later, or maybe less,
whose counting, members present now
know that things are not all rosy at the
LVVTA at present but can only get
better. To this end Phil asked those
present to endorse a motion that he will
raise at the next LVVTA Management
Committee meeting. This will be to vote
on whether to expel the group known
as VANZ (Vehicle Association for People
with Disabilities) because of their less
than desirable behaviour over the last
year or so. Their actions have cost the
LVVTA quite some considerable $
recently and can only get worse unless
checked. Passed.
None.
Technical Questions:
Treasurers Report:
Phil asked a question about who has
past experience with the Wilwood
brand of brakes.
Coming Events:
As per magazine.
Any help with suggestions for club night
vehicles would be appreciated.
April – Grass Motorkhana? Interest? A
few hands went up, so Dave will
continue.
(Since then April 4 has come and with
uncertainties around the new legislation
Dave has backed out – Richard Kelly
might take over).
John Cumming had prepared the
financials and gave a brief rundown on
current finances and where we are at
with scrut repayments.
Roy Hoare and Steve Strain
commented . . . . make sure the supplier
is a genuine manufacturer and not a rip
off copy.
Magazine:
cheap, but it was small.
Stewart Collinson . . . . Stew gave his
apologies prior to meeting.
Guest Speaker:
Patrick Harlow brought along a
presentation (pictures below) on 1950s
American fibreglass cars. Anybody who
is interested in these should have a look
at the website. Forgotten Fibreglass.
Buy, Sell, Swap:
Members please note – they should fill
in a form before the meeting (available
from kitchen bench) if they want details
recorded in the next magazine minutes.
http://www.forgottenfiberglass.com/
General Business:
Guest Vehicle:
None.
None.
Tool of the month:
Mike had a tiny little flash drive device
that does OBD2 functions when coupled
with a blue tooth phone. It wasn’t
Raffle:
Number: 59
Name of winner: David Hanson
Meeting closed at 09.17pm.
Most of us know about early British
fibreglass cars. The cars shown
here are all USA production cars
which were seen in Patrick’s video
and predate the Chevrolet
Corvette.

It’s that time again, to check out what is lurking behind
closed doors.

Aim is twofold - to visit builders in order to provide some
guidance and advice with their projects and to identify
any obvious shortcomings, and to check out ‘neat stuff’
tucked away in people’s sheds.

Please contact Phil Bradshaw (027 442 1968, email: [email protected]) if you want to put your project
or shed onto the day’s programme.
Phil Bradshaw
I
will not be able to
attend the 2016 Club
AGM as I will be in
Auckland yet again
with work. I am not standing
for President for this coming
year as I believe it is time for
someone new to take the
helm and lead the club into
the next stage of its
development.
Looking back I note that I
have been President for the
past five years (I did not realise
it had been this long). Looking
forward I want to be able to
devote more time to
supporting the LVVTA,
primarily through my
Outgoing President Lieutenant Commander
participation in the LVVTA
Phil Bradshaw
Management Committee, and
Picture credit. Otago Daily Times
through that being able to keep
CCC informed. I am also considering
years now, which at less than the price
ways to reinvigorate the CCC Technical
of a coffee per month has to be a
Committee and how to use that to both
bargain. The magazine continues to be a
CCC’s and LVVTA’s benefit.
cornerstone of the club, and its quality
I have enjoyed my time as President
and variety remains undiminished.
and really appreciate the efforts and
I am also looking forward to making
support of the various committee
some headway on my vehicle projects
members throughout the past five
and being able to write about them for
years, and once again encourage the
Spare Parts; who knows, I might even
wider membership to contribute by
put my garage on the annual Shed Raid,
taking an active part in the management
details of which are on page 4. Please
of the club going forwards.
contact me if you want to add your shed
The projected budget for the
or project to the itinerary.
incoming club year indicates that the
annual subscription will be able to
remain at the same level it has for many
Volunteers – The Sky Isn’t Falling
by Stewart Collinson
The new Health and Safety at Work
Act took effect on 4 April 2016. It is a
major improvement for the safety of
workers in New Zealand and stems from
the Pike River disaster in 2010.
It’s too easy to see monsters under the
bed. I understand this. The Act is new and
looks to punish irresponsible managers
and directors with fines, and even
imprisonment.
But let’s get it straight. It does not affect volunteers and volunteer
organisations that do not have employees – i.e. the Constructors Car Club.
The Government has recognised that volunteers contribute greatly to New
Zealand communities and wants to ensure the new law will not negatively affect
volunteering.
The Act affects PCBUs (Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking). The
definition of “PCBU” is broad enough to include all types of modern working
arrangements such as joint ventures, principal-contractor, employer-employee,
and franchise arrangements.
However, a purely volunteer organisation where volunteers work together
for community purposes and which does not have any employees is known as a
“volunteer association” under the Act.
Volunteer associations are excluded from the Act and cannot be prosecuted
for a health and safety breach under the new law. This exemption applies to all
members of the volunteer association including trustees and volunteer board
members.
A volunteer organisation would be a PCBU if it actually employed someone.
Even then exceptions apply, and under the Act volunteers are not workers if
they undertake the following activities:

Participation in a fundraising activity

Assistance with sports or recreation for an educational institute,
sports or recreation club

Assistance with activities for an educational institution outside the
premises of the educational institution

Providing care for another person in the volunteer’s home.
In a recent article in Stuff (11 Feb 2016) Mike Mitchell of Preston Russell Law
says that “For example, volunteer marshals for an annual race would fall under
this exemption.”
But even if a volunteer organisation actually had employees, under the Act
the officers of the volunteer organisation cannot be prosecuted for breaching
health and safety duties. The duties are therefore effectively guidelines for
volunteer officers.
Ok, let’s wrap this up. Far from threatening volunteers the Health and Safety
at Work Act actually encourages volunteering. Of course you may not trust
politicians (who does!) but from 4 April the Act was out of the polys hands and
in law.
Health and safety is important at club events. CCC, MNZ and other codes
strive to run safe activities for members and the public. There is a huge buzz that
comes from running an event and having fun as a club. The committee is
increasingly putting requests out to members to run events. The CCC needs
volunteers – the CCC needs you.
Credit Manawatu Car Club
And Our President, Phil, reminds us of the big picture
The only comment I’d make is the fundamental driver behind the new
legislation – far too many people are getting killed in NZ through industrial
accidents. We are way off the OECD ‘averages’ . People should rightfully expect
to go home at the end of the day to their families, not to a funeral parlour.
Justifiably the government, in the wake of Pike river, CTV building collapse,
forestry deaths etc has had enough, and is aiming to reduce the workplace
deaths by 20% by 2020 – and this legislation (which is largely in line with UK,
Aussie etc) is the mechanism for doing it.
In my day job I am heavily involved in the development of the safety case
construct for the NZDF as it relates to major capital projects, and more
specifically things like determining how ‘safe’ it is to send a ship worth $250M
with 350 people onboard into rough weather where the nearest help is 48+ hours
away – so I feel I have a bit of a handle on this.
As far as the club goes, we have more than adequate processes and practices
in place for the types of events we do. There is a lot of ill informed scare
mongering going on in the industrial/commercial sector, which is baseless.
Stewart Collinson
M
r Ed says thanks to
everyone who
provided articles.
Talk about last
minute and stretched deadlines
though! Jan Nixon shows the fun that
comes from the ‘Alternative drive
Style’. Mr Ed now wants a ute – how
about a JO Bedford.
Last month Mr Ed asked for ideas for
a virtual car. Hmmm, not a dicky bird
tweeted (or emailed or texted) in reply.
Maybe our ideas are too secret to
share? Maybe we just don’t like
expressing ourselves in print. Maybe it
was a dumb idea for an article? Who
knows?
However Mr Ed is never daunted.
Two negatives make a positive:
Negative 1, the grass motokana has
been poorly attended of late even
though it’s a huge amount of fun; and
Negative 2 there are many concerns
about certification, cost and time in
building a road car. So the positive??
How about a grass based cycle kart? See
the article later in the mag.
Mr Ed is very pleased to report that
his RS60 build made it past the wheel
alignment test with flying colours.
Caster and camber were perfect on
both sides, which vindicated the
purchase of new parts and calculations
discussed in last month’s rant.
Kevin at Shock Shop Porirua was
pleasantly surprised… “I don’t have to
adjust anything!!”. He could move on
to the finer points of wheel alignment.
Toe in and camber. However, the
adjusters are hidden above the RS60s
floor pan and required impressive
manual dexterity and any number of
surgical instruments.
The front was set
almost parallel – only
0.18 degrees toe in –
and the rear was set
with significant toe in.
Mr Ed does not want
the back to have any
Front axle - approx 7.3
caster and 1.8 negative
camber
hint of rear toe out and rear-end
waywardness under squat or
braking.
The front was set for
maximum available negative
camber of about 1.8 degrees ,
and the rear for negative 1.0
degrees of camber. Is this the
right amount? Mr Ed will suck it
and see.
When Kevin checked the chassis for
squareness it proved to be out by only
7mm on the diagonal and 2mm on the
wheelbase. Kevin said “… some cars
don’t come any better from the
factory.” Maybe he was being kind. Mr
Ed was chuffed.
Ken Macadam collected the RS60
and roared off to the LVVTA garage,
Mr Ed the proud father.
Chassis straightness
passing a kilometre of stationary traffic.
Mr Ed’s Mitsy couldn’t keep up. Still, the
rapidly disappearing little silver car
looked wonderful
However, Ken is a master at not
being impressed – Mr Ed likes his style.
He complained bitterly that he couldn’t
find first gear, that the hand brake had
rearranged his anatomy, and that the
Kevin, from the Shock Shop, is a gold
mine of tips. He promises to write an
article.
turning circle was truly horrible. With
Mr Ed trembling in fear Ken found the
section in the Build Manual; that
requires a minimum turning circle of
25m.
Now, Mr Ed used to practice smallbore (Mr Ed has since become a big
bore) shooting over 25metres and the
target always seemed too far away. So
surely if stretch limos and
pantechnicons can turn 180 degrees
within 25metres the incy wincy RS60
can too
Anyway Mr Ed's car now sits at
LVVTA waiting its final tests and drive
check. No doubt it is busy flattening its
battery just to show it can’t be taken for
granted.
Kevin locks the brake pedal
Since writing about the McGregor way back
in February 2008 a lot has happened,
hence the need for this next chapter.
By Patrick Harlow
O
ver the years many kit
car manufacturers have
come and gone. One
that does not deserve to
go is the McGregor but it is possible
that this car will be another victim of
the Christchurch earthquakes. Despite
the quakes being several years ago, the
repercussions continue long after the
aftershocks subsided.
When John McGregor first started
the company back in 2001 this car was
never intended to be just another 7
replica although it would capitalize on
the simplicity and cost effectiveness of
the original Lotus design, it would be a
different car. Once three or four
McGregors had been produced John
decided to do a bit of quality control by
comparing his car with an original Lotus
7. Using contacts in the Lotus Club he
found somebody that was prepared to
loan him a genuine Series 2 Lotus 7 of
which he was able to take several
measurements. John had already
increased various dimensions in his car
that were subtle but very effective,
enabling the car to be driven by those
greater than 1.8 metres tall wearing
street shoes. Although John McGregor
played a huge part in getting the
company up and running, this story is
more about the contact and later good
friend who owned the original series 2
Lotus 7.
Robert Snow was not only an
importer of Hi-Fi electrical components
but he was also a huge Lotus fan. At the
time that he met John he owned two
Lotus’s, a ’66 Series II 7 and an Elan +2.
When he heard about the McGregor he
wanted to be involved and many hours
were spent in John’s Aranui factory with
Robert giving his time where he could
spare it. This arrangement worked well
for several years. However during 2005
John’s wife started quietly informing
John, now in his mid-60s, that it was
time to seriously consider retirement?
Eventually John agreed and sold the
company during July 2007 to Robert
Snow had who had offered to buy it in
partnership with Mark Roberts. Safe in
the knowledge that the company was in
good hands John hopped in his Rover
V8 powered McGregor and retired to
the North Island.
Robert and Mark were a natural
team with skills that complimented
each other and the future direction of
the company. Robert having brought his
knowledge of sourcing good deals on Hi
-Fi parts was able to
put his skills to work
sourcing parts for
the cars at a good
price. Mark already
had a lot of
experience doing
fabrication work so
he was able to look
at ways of fine
tuning and
simplifying production, and improving
the design.
By 2009 they had outgrown the
Aranui workshop and moved to bigger
premises on Maunsell St in Woolston.
The concrete floor was exceptionally
flat which made it ideal for setting up
all their jigs for kit car production. By
now McGregor cars had become
known as the go to place for repairing
or restoration of classic cars, especially
those made by Lotus. At one time in
the factory there was a Lotus 18, a
Lotus 20, 22, and 23b sitting beside an
Elan and a Series 4 Lotus 7, not
counting various McGregors being
constructed/repaired or serviced. It was
not uncommon to see kit cars from
other 7 manufacturers sitting on their
hoists either and included Frasers,
Leitchs and even a very rare Wilco 7.
Business was humming with a steady
supply of McGregor kits heading out
the factory doors.
It was in this factory that work
stated on a second kit slated for
production. Once again they turned to
Lotus for their inspiration except this
time it was a Lotus 11. For starters, a
one off 11 that had
been handmade in
Wellington and was
purchased in an
almost driveable state.
However Mark
decided that it would
need a lot of
development before it
would be allowed to
carry the McGregor
name and set about
designing a new chassis for it based on
the original Lotus design. Eventually it
was deemed to be ready and the first
kit was built and sold. It would be the
only kitset 11 to leave the factory.
(Previously John McGregor had built an
11 for himself but based on his 7 chassis
design.)
At 4:30am on the 4th of September
in 2010 the first major earthquake
occurred in Christchurch. Fortunately
apart from equipment falling off shelves
and making a serious mess nothing was
really damaged. It was to be a different
factory floor literally rising and cracking
beneath their feet, Robert was thrown
sideways several metres. Not only that
but both homes of Mark and Robert
were damaged beyond repair. Although
they did not know it at the time, the
quake was the beginning of the end of
McGregor cars.
Above: Robert Snow Director of
McGregor Motorsport.
story at 12:50pm on the 22nd of
February 2011 when the next big
earthquake struck. This time it was
quite a terrifying experience with the
Below: Redesigned McGregor Chassis
It took a while but eventually they
were allowed back into the factory and
could salvage what was still usable. That
was the easy part, what followed was a
long and expensive battle with their
insurance companies over their homes
as they struggled to get the factory back
up and running. Eventually Robert
decided to bite the bullet and buy a
new factory around the corner in Broad
Street. However, there would be many
months without any income before
production could restart.
When the pair did get the start-up
underway they found that not only had
the Christchurch landscape changed but
the city had a whole new economic
focus. People no longer had disposable
income to spend on hobby cars. Work
on specialist cars also
dried up as people
struggled to pick up
the pieces of their
lives. Rather than
wallow in depression
Mark and Robert
used this time to reevaluate the
McGregor design.
Despite it being a car
that already had race
car handling, Mark
believed that it could
still corner better.
The Sierra diff was
ditched in favour of a
Subaru one. The Subaru diff was easier
to get hold of and had a good range of
ratios as well as LSD.
Laser cutting had now become very
cost effective for producing specialist
steel parts. Not only did this enable
work to be done on a new design for
the front and rear suspension but it also
allowed Mark to redesign the
transmission tunnel and gain another
50mm of space across the width of the
cockpit as well as a greatly improved
torsional rigidity.
The car shown belongs to Grant Bird of Christchurch. When he ordered his
McGregor in 2010 he fully intended to build it. His choice of the McGregor was
greatly influenced by the fact that the car was local, it had more room and looked
better than the McGregor’s other 7 type competition. Having adjustable seats
ensured that others such as his wife and daughters would also be able to drive the
little sports car.
Unfortunately the earthquakes changed any hope he had of building it. Being
employed as an insurance loss adjuster meant that free time to have a hobby
became a thing of the past. The chassis had just been completed before the
earthquakes but with the amount of hours he was having to work he doubted that
he would have time to build it. However, every cloud has a silver lining and
eventually all the overtime meant that Grant could afford to commission
McGregor Cars to build it for him.
Grant enjoys driving the superbly finished car on the beautiful Canterbury
roads. Will he ever sell it? Not likely, especially if his daughters have any say in it.
Despite all this development there
were still insufficient orders coming in.
By now Robert was well past the normal
retirement age. A lot of money was
being poured into the company with no
real return. Midway through 2014 the
tough decision was made to sell the
factory and McGregor production
ground to a halt in January of 2015. Of
the 40 or so McGregor cars that were
manufactured 5 of them had the new
chassis.
Today the McGregor website
remains active so that existing
customers who are still building cars can
receive support and any specialist parts
to complete their projects but no
further cars have been made. Mark
continues to work as a fabricator albeit
for another company. Robert is enjoying
retirement just outside Christchurch in
West Melton. He remains positive about
life eventually returning to normal in
Christchurch and is confident that at
some stage, in the not too distant
future, people would once again want
to build their own unique sports car.
Robert hopes that it will be a McGregor,
consequently he has retained not only
the McGregor name but also all the
engineering drawings and data, jigs,
moulds and plans which outline all the
improvements that have been made to
the original design. These are now for
sale and Robert can be contacted via
the McGregor website.
Hopefully one day this fine little car
will be once again available to the
public.
Stephen O’Neill
Suspending
the three
wheeler
T
he
last
few months haven’t seen
as much work on my
project as I had planned;
but there has been some progress on
the front suspension.
Like most of the car I’ve used the
current Morgan three wheeler as the
basis for designing the front suspension.
The original Morgan three wheelers
used sliding axle (often incorrectly
called sliding pillar) front suspension,
as have all Morgan four wheelers until
relatively recently.
The sliding axle design provides
essentially constant camber and low
unsprung weight, however, it has a
number of reported issues, including
rapid wear, high stiction and the side
forces generated in cornering tend to
lock up the suspension.
Top: Sketch is by Bruce Thompson.
More of his artwork can be viewed on
www. brucethomsonsketchsite.
wordpress.com
Left: Morgan sliding axle front
suspension
Morgan dropped sliding axle for
their ‘new’ three wheeler that was
launched at the 2011 Geneva motor
show. Well when I say Morgan dropped
it, the new Morgan three wheeler was
actually based on the Liberty Ace Cycle
Car built in Seattle
(http://www.cycle-car.com).
The Morgan Three
Wheeler and Ace Cycle
Car both use a double
wishbone front
suspension, with a
steeply inclined coil-over
shock. The upright in
both cases is designed to
look like a sliding pillar
by using a round tube
that carries the axle.
There are a number
of differences between
the two designs, notably
the Ace Cycle Car uses a
front mounted steering
rack and rods ends for all
pivots points. The Morgan
uses a rear mounted
rack, with standard
automotive rubber
suspension bushes and
ball joints.
Above: Ace Cycle Car
Below: Morgan Three Wheeler
My original intention
was to follow the
Morgan design, as I do
not like the steering
rack positioned in front
of the engine. Fitting a
rear mounted rack did,
however, provide other
changes which I’m still
sorting out.
I soon found that
suitable ball joints
aren’t freely available and having rod
ends would provide useful adjustability.
My submission to the LVVTA used a
hybrid design: inboard rubber
suspension bushes and substantial rod
ends at the upright, to provide plenty of
over engineering. The axles are Trojan
trailer axles that have been modified to
fit the knock on hubs.
The design was deemed largely OK
by the LVVTA, however, rod ends are
not permitted for the lower arms that
carry the suspension loads. I was
therefore stuck with not having access
to suitable ball joints for the tubular
upright and not being able to use rod
ends. What I found were ABWT10
spherical bearings used by Caterham in
some of their lower a-arms. These are
aviation quality spherical bearings with
aviation quality prices. I eventually
sourced these from Merlin Motorsport
in the UK, who I found provide
extraordinary good customer service
with sharp prices, they are highly
recommended. (Make sure you get the
axial and radial load rating for the rod
ends, the certifier will ask. Mr Ed )
I’ll be getting the steering arms,
lower arm shock mounts and some
other parts laser cut in the next few
weeks, which will allow me to finish the
suspension and get it crack tested.
As I keep saying, it’s a slow business
building a car!
Below: Suspension mocked up on chassis.
T
his was taken from
Graeme Crosby's book
“Croz Larrikin Biker”.
A highly recommended
read, especially if you have followed
motor cycle racing in New Zealand and
the world though the 1970's and 80's.
Croz's antics and ever present sense of
humour, make this a very enjoyable
read. As well as being a very successful
racer he was also the ultimate
entertainer. I can remember watching
him at Wanganui doing most of the lap
with the front wheel in the air.
I lifted the UV-cracked visor. 'Which
way does the track go and what’s the
lap record?' I called out over the noise
of the valve gear rattling and clanging
between my legs. The flag marshal's
eyebrows raised in disbelief. I could see
him muttering, 'And who the hell do you
think you are – Mike Hailwood?'
In 1979 Graeme Crosby arrived in
Britain with his worldly possessions in a
carry bag. His racing suit draped over
his shoulder, a scratched helmet in his
right hand and just $150.00 in his
wallet, he was ready to take on the
world.
Four years later Croz, as he is
affectionately known to millions of fans,
walked away from the glamour of world
championship Grand Prix racing, taking
with him a bag full of trophies and his
ever-present sense of humour. In that
short time, he had achieved more than
most riders could ever hope for in a
lifetime of racing.
By Stewart Collinson
R
ecently I’ve been touting
for ideas for a (next)
scratch build car... and
then Brian Worboys sent
me an email about cycle karts. His
email revived an idea that Matthew
Porritt was kicking around before he
discovered single malt whisky.
Cycle Karts
What fun. A grass track race series
based on home-built miniature pre 2nd
world war cycle cars and golden oldies.
Half scale Bugattis, Millers, MGs, Alfas…
Here’s a few pix
Parc ferme in half scale
MG cornering hard – is that a blower?
In California the tongue -in-cheek
Association of Moto Cycle Kartistes, has
been formed. Best to quote from them
“… (we) have posted these pages as a
means of adding to the level of silliness
in the motoring world and to try and
stave off the overwhelming need for
status-seeking
and hypercompetitive
aspects of the
automobile world.
The Alfa is flat out. No pedalling here
Our mission, so-to-speak, is to help
spread the word about Cycle Karting in
general, and to provide a place for
disenfranchised, alienated, and
enlightened eccentrics like ourselves to
view the craziness.”
“The A.M.C.K adheres to the loosest
of regulations, as one might hope, and
membership is largely in the minds of
those affected by the Cycle Karting bug.
Nonetheless, we do rather hold our
selves aloof, preferring our own mad
company. Happily, we don't really have
to define ourselves, do we?”
This sort of spirit sounds very
familiar – alternative drive style right? I
can feel John Bell, Iain Macrae and
other fathers of the CCC beaming down
on the idea.
Here are the “loose” specifications
abbreviated from the AMCK website
The AMCK from experience - and no
doubt mad experimentation – has
sought to t generate he most fun while
keeping seriousness to a minimum. The
aim has been a small scale that retains a
romantic pre-war sporting machine
appeal with enough room for running
gear, but to avoid the size and feel of a
normal sports car, with all the
attendant problems of venue, transport
etc.
 A one-seat car
 Honda 17"x 1 3/4" or 2" rims, 2.50 x
17" tires The wheels are Honda
Super Cub, Passport, or Trail 90.
 A 970mm (38”) track and wheelbase
as close to 1676mm (66") as the
aesthetics of the car will allow
(erring on the shorter side for more
abstract cuteness and general
attractiveness),
 Weight no more
than 115 kg
(250lbs)
 Powered by a
200cc, single
cylinder, 6.5 hp
Honda OHV engine
(the GX200).
 Max Length: 2490mm (98"),
Max Width: 1016mm 40"
 25mm (1") X 75mm (3") ERW steel
frame rails with thin 1.5mm (1/16")
walls.
 Front springs 24" X 1 1/4", 2 leaf 1/2
elliptic (buggy seat springs, – I’m not
sure where these would be from any ideas readers?)
 There is no lower weight limit, as
AMCK feels that this is a perfect
place to "cheat" – at
the expense of
reliability
 Power is
transmitted
via a Comet
TAV-30 unit
to one wheel
only.
 Braking is also on this same rear
wheel by mechanical Comet disc. NO
front brakes (“A very important
consideration is that with these very
skinny wheels and tires, you will
certainly lose almost all of your
steering with front brakes, and just
when you don't want to lose it.”)
 No rear suspension (weight gain not
worth it). All of the cars have the
same front and rear axle
dimensions.
 The front axle is
made up from 1
5/8" O.D. tubing,
and is dropped to
accommodate the
leaf springs, Azusa
spindles and
brackets are welded
on. Front axle angles
are taken from
an old Amilcar
blueprint but
builders are
free to
experiment;
 The rear axle,
drive sprocket,
and hubs are
also Azusa: 1"
X 36" long
axle, 72 tooth
main sprocket,
#40 chain.
Azusa rear wheel hubs are used on
their 1" axles, and the lug bolts are
ground to fit inside the Honda
motorcycle hubs. Only one hub is
keyed
 A Cyclekart should not cost more
than (roughly) NZD 2,500 (an
element of scrounging adds to the
fun).
The main structure of the cars is the
monocoque plywood box which forms
A Delage in miniature takes shape.
An MG takes shape
the core structure. This is strong and
light. The side frame rails are
rectangular steel tubing and are
primarily for locating the axles fore-andaft. The fake “exhaust pipes" on all of
the cars are a necessary part of the
structure; they add torsional stiffness to
the box structure around the cockpit.
As AMCK says “As far as designing
your car, the most important criteria
should be the aesthetics: Make it look
good. Performance
is secondary.
Perhaps even
tertiary, as you
should make sure
the car is wellmade so that the
embarrassment of
nasty gashes or
broken limbs can
be avoided.”
All of this looks like
fun, but there is
one caveat? Things
break and cars
crash; the cars
don’t have roll
cages, but they do
roll. They come
from the USA
world of regulation
be damned. I can
imagine cars
finishing the day as
splintered
matchwood What
would MNZ think of them – would they
even be covered by MNZ. Is it better
covered by the go-karting body? Is it a
backyard free-for-all? I’ll ask this
question of them for next month’s
magazine. .
I’m also not sure about the NZ
equivalent of Azusa, or the cost and
availability of Honda parts? What’s a
good kiwi alternative? What can you get
from Aliexpress? Readers please help
out here with an email to
[email protected].
It would only take a few builders and
winter nights in the shed to start a race
series of three or four cars in the
summer of 2016/17. Maybe this would
be a trend?
All photo credits to
http://cyclekarts.com
My Work-Horse
By Jan Nixon, (Mrs.)
1977, colour of Harvest
Gold, well English hot
mustard yellow to me!
Based as a coupé
utility and badged as an
Austin. Apparently, it
states on Wikipedia
there were never many
of these truck variants
sold, apparently they
were not popular in the
70s.
D
ifferent horse-power
than my usual hobby
but an absolute great
work-horse and that is
my 1977 Austin Morris Marina 500 kg
10 cwt 1275 cc Pick-up/Utility,
registered in NZ (Oxford) on 1 June
And I don’t care what
Richard Hammond says, I
love my pick-up and think
it is absolutely awesome.
It ticks all my boxes as a work wagon
and fun drive. I’ve made new friends
because of it and my Gardening work
has increased many-fold because it
stands out in the streets both in and out
of Taupō and often people turn and
look because
they hear it
coming first!
Already
taken it to
our local
Vintage Car
Club and yes
I am eligible
to become a
Member
being over
30 years old
(the pick-up,
not me, well
ok I am too)!
Why and how did I buy this! Well
Hubby Dave said “time I got rid of my
Primera” (it is over 20 years old and I’ve
owned it for over 15 and yes he’s right)
plus my Business workload and needs
had increased so much I thought yep
get rid and buy a real old-fashioned,
non-high tech. classic (yeah right, was I
going to be that lucky, well yes I was). I
got hold of our local classic car man
Chris who coincidentally enough a day
after I said to Dave I was going to try
and get hold of him we bumped into at
our local Pak n Save, karma strikes! I
told him I needed a work vehicle and
within days and whilst Dave was away
up North on business Chris contacted
me and the rest is history. What makes
this even more cool is it was a local guy
(well local in that he has a holiday home
here) who had purchased it from its
original first Owners down in the
mainland, undertook a little restoration
work on it in the three months he
owned it and then via Chris sold it to
me.
It came with original Manuals but I
have since purchased a Haynes Manual
too. Now I’ve got to jog the old grey
matter on the Car Maintenance Night
Classes I undertook in England around
35 years ago or I could just be lazy and
get Dave to teach me (one advantage of
being married to a petrol-head and I
mean that in a very endearing and
complementary way Dave).
Finally, as mentioned in
Spare Parts April 2002
“What’s in a name?” See
attached re Austin and
Marina!
T
by Brian Worboys
he last months has
seen some small
progress in two areas;
the sensible and the
fanciful. The sensible bit has been
making up a wooden tub (but it looks
more like a coffin?... don't go there,
Brian) to be used to assign the space
needed for the driver. The idea here is
that this will help with the location of
seat, restraints, controls and sight lines.
Basically, build the rest of the car tight
around this box and there should then
be space enough in the chassis for all
the driver needs. It also adds more
rewarding realism to the very
necessary part of any build which is
sitting in the semi constructed project
and making brimm brimm noises.
The fanciful component has been to
design a suspension system which
SORR1 dummy parts generally laid out
to get an idea of the size of things
completely separates the two
functions of (a) keeping the
car body off the road (the gravity
part) and (b) controlling the roll
during cornering (the sideways part).
I've been fooling around with various
ideas both on spreadsheets and with
knocked-up plywood bits in real scale
on the actual build table. I reckon I've
got a system here that will work OK but
a little voice keeps asking me "Are you
really making a car here or are you just
Suspension design with roll managed by
two spring-shock units
The rear of the car showing trial of
suspension ideas
fooling around trying to reinvent the
wheel?". Well ... reinvent the wheel of
course!! Why not? So I think I need to
just quietly forget all about that one
now and plan on building something
with a lot of adjustable rising rate and
address the roll with a crude Radicalstyle diagonal bendy push-pull rod. But
I'll include a few additional mounting
points on the chassis for possible
revisiting of the three spring concept at
some future date. I feel a rush of steel
purchasing coming on.
On the racing front the Road Rat
had another chew at the Alexandra
Road Hill climb in March. A nice fine day
for it and a broad range of cars
participating. At the fast end of the pack
Tim managed to fix the diff on his
Mallock between races and took the
fastest time with ease, establishing a
new course record in the process.
That's in a car he built himself in a shed
behind his house. I found my usual
comfortable spot about two thirds of
the way down the field but was pleased
that I came within a fraction of a second
of beating my previously best time for
the course. No dramas and the car ran
as sweet as can be expected.
Responding to a challenge by his
workmates at MSNZ, club member Mike
Macready turned up to race in his plainas daily driver Corolla station wagon.
The rumour round the pit area was that
he had brought the office car and how
cool it that to enter the work car in a hill
climb. It was an
excellent
example of just
how accessible
clubsport motor
racing is and
Mike had as
much fun on the
day as anyone
else. The person
who probably
Mike Macready
doing the business
in the quote office
car unquote
Road Rat at dipper
had the least fun
on the day was a
spectator who
parked their
very shiny
Mercedes 4WD
and forgot to
put the hand
brake on.
Shortly
afterwards it
quietly took off
down the slope
by its self, bounced off another parked
vehicle, crossed the road, climbed half
up a bank and tipped over sideways
back onto the road. Generally the day
was accident free, at least it was until
Bill McPherson cocked something up on
his first official run and speared his
Cosworth Cortina down into the
greenery. Bill himself was quite
undamaged by the incident, and at the
end of the day, when the car was reeled
back in with a long rope, it too was
reported as "just a few scratches". So ..
the only real damage was to a non
participating car, and it was selfinflicted.
Bibliography: The photographs here of
Mike's and Brian’s cars at the Alexandra
Road Hillclimb are reproduced with the
permission of Graham Meiklejohn who
invites you to visit his facebook page
www.facebook.com/GrahamsGlimpses
The only entertainment at the resort
we were staying was golf which I had no
interest in. Having never been to this
area before, I soon discovered that
there was lots of better things to see
and do.
R
By Patrick Harlow
ecently our editor
talked about his
experiences at the
National Truck
Museum (Transport World) in
Invercargill, Southland. Early this
year I also had opportunity to
travel south as my wife was
attending a conference for her
work in Arrowtown. I travelled
down in my capacity as the official bed
warmer. During daylight hors as I was
off duty I took the opportunity to
travel around the area in our hired
Nissan Note. (If somebody finds the
book which the Japanese use to choose
their car names, please destroy it)
On the first day I drove over the
Crown Range to Wanaka to see the
National Transport and Toy Museum. It
was an amazing road and could have
fallen off the side of any mountain in
Europe as it headed up the side of the
mountain in a series of tight ‘Z’
patterns. At the top is the most amazing
view of Queenstown in the distance.
Then it is down past the historic
Cardrona hotel, past Bradrona (I kid you
not), and down into Wanaka nestled on
the lakeshore and some fantastic
mountain scenery. The museum is
situated by the Wanaka airport with its
entrance
watched over
Entrance to the
museum is
guarded by
Rocketman
(above) in his
three wheeled
drag car and a
1941 Valentine
tank. (left)
by “Rocketman”. Inside is one of the
largest private collections in the world
with over 600 vehicles, about 60,000
toys, 12 aeroplanes and a Valentine
tank. The walk around it is estimated to
be about 2.5kms.
This museum was
started by Gerald
Rhodes, a car and
truck wrecker who
never seemed to
get around to
tossing things out
and appears to have
often brought his
work home with
him. Although
Gerald lives in
Christchurch, Wanaka was chosen as
the site for his museum because of the
dry central Otago air which is very low
in salt content. Being a truck and car
wrecker he managed to score several
bargains of which about three per year
are being restored. Officially opened to
the public in 1995 the museum has
been an asset to the area and has now
become a must see for any tourist.
Since its opening two more huge
buildings have been added to the site
and more items are being purchased to
fill them each week.
Initially most of the toys and bric-abrac were purchased from Christchurch
flea markets and by word of mouth. In
more recent times people coming
through the museum have been so
impressed with what they have seen
that they have donated their own
collections making it the largest toy
museum in New Zealand. At $17-00 per
entry it is a very reasonable place to
visit.
These days along with tourists, the
movie industry has become a regular
visitor to the site due to the amazing
range of period props scattered around
the place. Currently it is managed by
Gerald’s two children, Debbie and
Jason. They have big plans to keep
expanding it and hope to have a film
studio based on the site in the near
future. In the meantime, they spend
their days finding locations for the next
truckload of oddments that their father
is constantly buying.
Due to my limited
mobility, I was
not able to
venture further
than the one of
the five large
buildings on site.
(about 12,292sq
m all together not
counting outside
exhibits) Even
then it still took
me a good hour
and a half to see everything. As you can
see from the photographs it was worth
it.
Afterwards I had a quiet coffee in
the attached café. The automotive
theme is pretty strong even here with
the glass topped tables being supported
by old side valve engines.
Above: Glass topped
tables in the Café were
supported by old
engines
Left: These adult sized
pedal cars were
available for public use.
(left)
Below: Pedal cars
galore
By Patrick Harlow
T
ravelling
in the in
the
opposite
direction from
Wanaka and only 40
minutes out of
Queenstown is the
small country town of
Cromwell. Once again
it is a wonderful drive
through the Kawarau
gorge alongside the river of the
same name. Although Cromwell is a
great place to visit my destination
this time was just before Cromwell
as the Highlands Motorsport Park.
Having been recommended to me
by some of the people staying at our
location I thought that it was worth
a visit.
However, the museum was only a
very small part of the complex. The
Motorsport Park was just that. The
McLaren parked outside was able to be
hired, albeit not driven. For the cost of
around $170 you could be driven
around the track for one lap at speeds
in excess of 220km/h. Alternatively you
could be driven around the track twice
in a Porsche Cayenne Turbo, once at
speed, for $120. What that means is
that the more you spend the shorter
your time on the track. That would
The first clue of the trip being
worthwhile was the McLaren parked
outside which nicely complimented a
second McLaren parked inside
alongside a Lamborghini Diablo, an
Aston Martin Vantage, a Mossler and
other assorted automotive drool
worthy features. This place was very
upmarket to the National Transport and
Toy Museum I had seen the other day
and was reflected in the $25-00 door
charge and the much smaller museum.
Inside the museum and outside there is
something for anybody that has an
automotive interest.
probably make sense to some people
reading this I am sure. Still, if you
wanted to drive yourself around the
track for three laps in an American V8
muscle car you could opt to do so for a
mere $395-00. If you decided to do a
little bit of off road driving, in that
American muscle car, you could be
shelling out for some repairs to the tune
of $2000. Yup, definitely for the tourists.
Other motorsport events available
to the punter most days of the week are
laps in a go-kart in a specially
constructed go-kart track, and some
professional off road driving as well.
Officially opened in 2013 and owned
by Tony Quinn a pet food entrepreneur
Highlands took a year to build from start
to finish. Fortunately all the groundwork
had already been done by the
Queenstown Car Club who had been
determined to establish a racing venue
in the area including gaining the all
important resource consent. Tony was
at one stage looking at buying the
troubled Hampton Downs circuit near
Auckland. When the Queenstown Club
heard he was in the country they invited
him down to Cromwell to discuss the
possibility of his buying shares in the
venture. He was so
enthusiastic that he
was prepared to
buy the whole
project. For the
shareholders the
opportunity to
realise their dream
in such a short time
was too good an
opportunity to pass up.
Hardly had the cheque been banked
when work on the project started
during 2011 with the circuit opening
just over a year later during Easter of
2013. Originally Tony budgeted $20
million for the project but finally
costing $25 million as Tony kept on
adding things to the project, such as a
car sculpture park.
Now not only is a multi-event all
year round racing circuit but it is also
one of the biggest tourist events in the
area with people now visiting from all
over the world along with me from
Upper Hutt.