THE CROWTHER: THE HOME-GROWN FIBREGLASS CAR THAT NEARLY MADE IT NEW ZEALAND CLASSIC CAR DECEMBER 2019 ISSUE 348
NASCAR’S WILD 1970 PLYMOUTH SUPERBIRD • COOPER 500 • W113 MERCEDES • DOLOMITE SPRINT • CROWTHER COUPE • TARGA ROUND-UP
Road Runner
Superbird
MUSCLE GARAGE SUNDAYS ON
ISSUE 348 $10.99 INCL. GST DECEMBER 2019 themotorhood.com
SUPER COOPER
50 0 CC O F R AC E C A R ROYA LT Y
PAGODA MERCEDES TI M E LE SS TEUTO N
DOLOMITE SPRINT
U N D E R -A PPR EC I ATE D TR I U M PH
INSULT TO INJURY — HOWDEN GANLEY: CRASHED, HOSPITALIZED … AND SUED
CONTENTS
348 DECEMBER 2019
FEATURES
6 PLYMOUTH SUPERBIRD
NASCAR GOES WILD
16 MERCEDES-BENZ W113
CLASSIC STYLE PERSONIFIED
26 COOPER 500
EVERYMAN’S RACING CAR
42 BACKCOUNTRY REP
A DUSTY ROAD RAMBLE
56 TARGA TURNS 25
RESULTS AND RACE ROUND-UP
98 MODENA CENTO ORE
AN ASTON ZAGATO? CERTAMENTE!
102 GOODWOOD REVIVAL
MOTORSPORTS AND GOOD SORTS
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COLUMNS 36 BRUNCH WITH: HOWDEN GANLEY — PART 3; THE FORTUNES OF FORMULA 1 61 PRICE ON: WARRANTS OF FITNESS 62 MOTORMAN — MIGHTY GOOD DOLOMITE 68 KITS AND PIECES — CROWTHER COUPE: THE ROTARY-POWERED, FIBREGLASS, FAMILY CAR 74 MOTORSPORT FLASHBACK THE START OF SOMETHING SPECIAL
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REGULARS 33 SUBSCRIBE AND WIN 34 READERS’ WRITES 80 BEHIND THE GARAGE DOOR 82 STAR INSURANCE MARKETPLACE 94 NOTICEBOARD 106 NATIONAL EVENTS 108 EVENTS DIARY
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110 LOCAL SPECIALIST
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FEATURE
1970 Plymouth Superbird Road Runner
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New Zealand Classic Car | themotorhood.com
WINNING SUPERBIRD O N C E , M E N T I O N O F T H E P LY M O U T H S U P E R B I R D ROA D RU N N ER WOU LD ELICIT B L A N K LOOKS. N O W A D AY S , E N T H U S I A S T S W O R L D W I D E A R E KEEN TO OWN ONE Words and photos: Quinton Taylor, New Zealand Classic Car archives
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FEATURE
1970 Mercedes W 113 280 SL Pagoda
NOT QUITE A BARN FIND Words: Ashley Webb Photos: Strong Style Photo
T H E 2 8 0 S L W A S T H E L A S T O F T H E S L S E R I E S , A N D T O D AY I S S T I L L I N S T A N T LY R E C O G N I Z A B L E A S A M E R C E D E S . I T I S CO N S I D E R E D BY M A N Y TO B E A D R I VA B L E C L A S S I C , A S W E L L A S A C O L L E C TA B L E I N V E S T M E N T
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FEATURE 1955 Cooper 500
Words: Terry Cobham Photos: Strong Style Photo
SUPER COOPER I T W A S A B U S I N E S S K N O W N N O T O N LY FOR THE CARS IT MANUFACTURED BUT F O R T H E C O M PA N Y I T K E P T. S O M E O F T H E G R E AT E S T R A C I N G D R I V E R S MADE THEIR MARK DRIVING THIS FAMOUS MARQUE
26 New Zealand Classic Car | themotorhood.com
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hen it comes to racing car marques, the name ‘Cooper’ is intertwined with motor sport in this part of the world. Names such as McLaren, Hulme, and Amon have all been associated with the Cooper brand. Even Chris Amon, more famously associated with other marques, drove a Cooper works car at one stage. Jack Brabham won two of his Formula 1 (F1) World Championship titles driving a Cooper, and there was a time here when no local motor racing grid was complete without a gaggle of them. The Tasman Series fields of the ’60s would have been only half the size without the Cooper cars. Bruce McLaren left Cooper at the end of 1965 and announced his own Grand Prix (GP) racing team, with co-driver and fellow Kiwi Chris Amon. It would be fair to say that the first F1 McLaren owed a lot to the Tasman Cooper.
Back in Old Blighty In 1947, life in the UK was fairly austere. Britain and her allies had won the war but were now paying the price. Everything was rationed, including petrol for private use. Looking at photos of the era, even colour seems to have been rationed. Although the thousands of young men who had returned from the war were on the lookout for some excitement, fun appears to have been included on the ration list. Before the war, motor racing had been reserved for rich adventuring types; skill behind the wheel wasn’t always a prerequisite, just plenty of money and derring-do. Now, there were plenty of young men and some women who had the derring-do; they just lacked the money. Motor sport resonated with this type of person, and wartime experience with technical and mechanical items had given many of the returned soldiers and those who had worked in related war industries a thirst for the ‘mechanical’ sports.
The start of something John Cooper and his friend Eric Brandon were two of these. Some of the disused wartime airfields, which could be found all over Britain, were being used for motor races; these complemented the traditional hill climbs and speed trials. The Coopers, Charles and son John, along
with Eric Brandon, decided to build a 500cc car to compete in the new 500cc category. Charles Cooper owned and operated a car dealership and workshop garage, and the trio set out to build a racing car with the available resources. They adapted the front end of a wrecked Fiat Topolino to make up the front end of the new small race car. They then attached another Topolino front end, back to back, to that. This gave them a car with independent suspension at each corner. The Topolino’s transverse spring was retained at both ends, and the space reserved for the motor was behind the driver. They had thus created the design formula that would ultimately change first the look of GP cars and then US single-seater motor racing cars.
Design genius or happenstance? Positioning the motor behind the driver was not new — Auto Union had done just that in with its GP cars before the war — but this time Cooper was to prove it was the way to go. Almost from the outset, the little motorcycle-engine-powered car started winning and impressing. Customers began to line up and, just like that, the Cooper Car Company was formed. This was effectively the beginning of what today is the UK’s very developed race car design and manufacturing industry. Customers flocked to the company’s showroom in Surbiton, London, to order the cars. Names that would become major players in international motor sport, such as Stirling Moss, Ken Tyrrell, Bernie Ecclestone, and Graham Hill, were painted on the
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FEATURE
2019 Modena Cento Ore
MODENA CENTO ORE Words: John Dennehy Photos: Courtesy Canossa Events
Top left: Town square, Arezzo Left: At Passo Dello Spino Above: On track at Imola 98 New Zealand Classic Car | themotorhood.com
DRIVING FOR PLEASURE M AY S E E M M O R E E L U S I V E IN THE 21ST CENTURY DUE TO CONG ESTION A N D R E G U L AT I O N . F O R T U N A T E LY , T H E BURGEONING WORLD OF TA R M A C A N D T O U R I N G EVENTS OFFERS TR ACKS, S P E C I A L S TA G E S , A N D ROADS IN BEAUTIFUL
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L O C AT I O N S
ll of that was foremost in my mind when my much used-and-abused race-prepared Aston Martin V8 Zagato finally needed a rebuild. For almost 20 years, we had raced in the UK, Europe, and Ireland, and more recently in New Zealand, where I now live. The options were to rebuild as it was — a lightweight, much-modified race car — or, given that was one of only 50 made, to take all the original doors, panels, bonnet, boot, trim and running gear, and electrics, restore them, and rebuild the car to a road/race spec. That included retaining all the safety features necessary for motor sport compliance but adding in road comforts including a full Bluetooth system and the original air-conditioning. The latter option was a hands-down winner. So, two-and-a-half years later, I collected the car from the Pebble Beach–winning Auto Restorations in Christchurch and drove the car the 1100 miles home to Auckland. Two Rod Millen Leadfoot Festival (our very own Goodwood) invitations later, as well as a handful of races in our European race series, it was time to think about returning the car to the UK and maybe a new home. That’s when I had a change of mind. I’d co-driven in the Modena Cento Ore (MCO) tarmac and race event in Italy a couple of years previously in Mike Sexton’s Healey 100S and I’d been bowled over by it. I enquired tentatively about entering. I was aware the cut-off date was for cars was 1985 and my car was built in 1986. “We’ve got to have it,” was the response, and a special invitation class entry was created. themotorhood.com | New Zealand Classic Car
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