STIRLING MOSS: OUR TRIBUTE TO THE MAN WHO EPITOMIZED MOTOR R ACING NEW ZEALAND CLASSIC CAR MAY 2020 ISSUE 353
HOLDEN MONARO GTS 350 • DAIMLER DARTS: SP250 AND SP252 • BEATTIE PAOLO • ROVER 75 • FIAT 125 • TELSTAR TOURING CAR
STIRLING
MOSS 1929–2020
ISSUE 353 $10.99 INCL. GST MAY 2020
themotorhood.com
GTS 350
HOLDEN WINS! MUSCLE GARAGE
THE DART YOU KNOW A N D TH E DA RT YO U D I D N ’ T
SU N DAYS O N
THE BEATTIE PAOLO A F AT H E R ’ S M OV I N G TRI BUTE
IN THIS ISSUE
#353
May 2020
FEATURES
2
4
Stirling Moss
12
Beattie Paolo
22
Daimler Dart SP250
32
Daimler SP252
36
Monaro GTS 350
46
Comings and goings
52
Highway 6 revisited
86
Historic Touring Cars
A LIFE IN MOTORSPORT
O N E F O R T H E R OA D
THE BEST OF BRITISH
T H E OT H E R , S H A R P E R DA RT
A P E AC H Y B E E C H E Y T R I B U T E
CLASSIC CAR TRENDS
PA R T 2 O F A K I W I R O U T E 6 6
BROTHERS IN ARMS
NEW ZEALAND CLASSIC CAR
32
12
36
COLUMNS
62 MOTORSPORT FLASHBACK The best of The Brickyard 68 MOTORMAN Rover’s near miss — the 75 74 KITS AND PIECES You can’t have too many GT40s 84 PRICE ON ... Leaded petrol
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86 REGULARS 73
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80 BEHIND THE GARAGE DOOR 82 READERS’ WRITES 90 STAR INSURANCE MARKETPLACE 96 NATIONAL EVENTS 99 NOTICEBOARD 99 EVENT DIARY 102 LOCAL SPECIALISTS 104 DAILY DRIVER/NEXT MONTH
ISSUE 353/ MAY 2020
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Feature: Beattie Paolo
Reignited passion 12
NEW ZEALAND CLASSIC CAR
An unresolved pain, a creative mind, and a lovely Alfa Romeo quad-cam boxer engine and transaxle were the oxygen, spark, and fuel that reignited Stephen Beattie’s car-building passion By Ashley Webb, photography Strong Style Photo
S
tephen Beattie’s life changed during a visit to the Sports Car Club of New Zealand’s (SCCNZ) stand at the New Zealand Classic Car Magazine Ellerslie Car Show in February 2017. “A welcoming wave from Walter beckoned me over to look through his massive car album of Beattie sports cars I had built,” said Stephen. “Although some 20 years had passed since the last car was built, and a lot of water under the bridge, deep down an old flame reignited, which I recognized as being my passion for building and designing racing cars. It was still very much alive.” This revelation surprised Stephen’s partner Rose, who knew only about his sailing interests. Although he was approaching 70 and living on a yacht, this didn’t deter Stephen from his newfound desire to have another go, with a special purpose in mind. Stephen’s son, Paul, had recently passed away. This was a way for Stephen to honour this strong and courageous young man: by naming his new car after him. “Paul had helped me, and had followed the building and design of the Beattie Clubman from an early age,” Stephen explains. The Beattie Paolo was under way.
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“Paul had helped me, and had followed the building and design of the Beattie Clubman from an early age” TRACK PERFORMER The car Stephen and Paul worked on together, the Beattie Clubman, was influenced by the Lola Mk1 and Colin Chapman’s Lotus Eleven. However, this one wasn’t going to be just another replica; it had to embody the spirit of that period of sports car racing. Many Beattie Clubmans have been built since and copies have been made by Redline of Waimauku. The finish and attention to detail of these examples, often completed by keen owners, are outstanding, and many of the cars are competing in sports car racing today. Stephen also had the privilege of working with Peter Bruin on chassis No. 2, now owned and raced ISSUE 353 / MAY 2020
13
Feature: SP252 — Daimler Dart Mk II
It is also the last sports car to have been designed by Jaguar’s legendary founder, Sir William Lyons
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More to the point Despite its great ingredients, the Daimler Dart only just scraped into one-hit-wonder territory. What if Jaguar had gone on to make a Mark II Dart? It very nearly did By Ian Parkes, photography Bernard Gammon
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his Daimler SP252 is so rare, few people know it exists. It’s one of a kind. It’s the only surviving, in fact the only ever completed, SP252; the would-be successor to the SP250 Daimler Dart. It is also the last sports car to have been designed by Jaguar’s legendary founder, Sir William Lyons. Perhaps one of the original Dart’s biggest problems was its somewhat divisive looks. It certainly went well enough to win fans, although Sir William wasn’t among them. It crushed the opposition in the Bathurst 6 Hour race, finishing five laps ahead of anyone else, and it was snapped up by police forces in Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, as it was the fastest thing on the road. So, you’d think a stunning new body with the magic Lyons touch would have been a sure-fire success. Why this car never made it into production is still something of a mystery, as the official explanations barely stack up.
AN ENIGMA WRAPPED IN A MYSTERY Aucklander Kevin Lindsell, who is also the owner of the Dart featured in the previous pages (making him at one time the owner of two of the world’s most beautiful Darts) bought this unique and important car in the UK, which prompted him to research its origins. THEMOTORHOOD.COM
The car’s murky history has clearly played on Kevin’s mind for some time, as he has turned this and some other intriguing motoring mysteries into the plot for a thriller novel. While there’s a hint of MGB — which came later — around the headlights, the overall lines and some of the 252’s styling cues show up surprisingly well in Pininfarina’s beautiful Fiat 124 Spyder, which debuted in 1966. Interesting … Check out the nose, the headlight recess, the hip line, and the long rear haunches — especially if you round off the tips of the fins. Then consider the startling similarity between Lyons’ MkI and II Jaguar designs and Pininfarina’s design for the Delahaye from a few years earlier … There’s clearly a lot of scope here to imagine high-stakes industrial espionage and payback shenanigans. But back to the Daimler. Jaguar bought Daimler in 1960, just after the Dart was launched, primarily for the extra production capacity at its factory just 3km from Jaguar’s Brown’s Lane works. The Dart’s brilliant V8 engine was quickly seconded into a Daimler version of the MkII Jaguar and Sir William assigned the project for a new Dart to Fred Gardner. They used three prototype SP250 chassis: 100003, 100004, and 100005. The car on these pages is No. 100005. ISSUE 353 / MAY 2020
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Feature: Beechey tribute Holden Monaro GTS 350
The right answer Simply restoring the Monaro wasn’t going to satisfy Dave Bouman. The solution: a tribute to a true Aussie legend, Norm Beechey and the first Holden to win the Australian Touring Car championship, his 1970 HT Monaro GTS 350 By Quinton Taylor, photography Quinton Taylor, Dave Bouman and archive
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he plan Dave Bouman thought about in his idle moments, restoring a Monaro GTS 350, was going to result in a full size version of a 1:18 model he had as a child, finished as per the model in a fashionable burgundy with gold stripes. This ‘one day’ vision sustained Dave for years as he got on with the business of living life and raising a family in Dunedin, and restoring a couple of other Holdens. He had the Monaro, or what was left of one, bought as a derelict in a paddock out on the Tairi. The farm belonged to a friend of theirs and the car belonged to a friend of the farmer’s. Dave’s wife Paula said he was in the right place at the right time, as other people were interested in buying the Monaro. “It was a 1969 HT Monaro GTS fitted with a 186 engine and an Opel four-speed box,” said Dave. “I went up and saw him and made an offer
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NEW ZEALAND CLASSIC CAR
and bought it. Glad I did. I paid $800 for that wreck as a wedding present to myself. I said to Paula I’ve got to get it.” That was nearly three decades ago.
Norm hooks into Hell Corner, Bathurst
Dave and Paula Bouman are members of the Otago Holden Enthusiasts Club and Dave is also current club president. Paula’s mint Holden HZ Premier shows Dave’s restoration talents but Dave knew that rescuing the Monaro from its decrepit state meant he would need to dig deep. “It was always going to get finished but for all the years I’ve owned it, which is 27-odd now, it had mostly sat on the farm. I’m 52 now and I only brought it home finally for my forty-fifth birthday, of all things. We had a huge homecoming party for it. I was into it like a bull at a gate. Then we hit the hard part, where it starts to cost. The real work starts from then, I think — when you start having to pay for things.”
SCRATCHING THE SURFACE Once pulled apart, the true condition of the Monaro was revealed. Five years ago he made a formal pledge to finish the car, resolving not to cut his hair until the Monaro was on the road. When the Monaro returned from the sand blasters, it's possible many owners would then have decided the car was too far gone. The wish list of replacement panels looked like a new build spec sheet, except that not all of them were available. “To start with there was a new boot floor, driver’s floor section, right-hand outer sill. The boot floor where the spare wheel goes was completely rusted out and gone. I had to make all that so there’s new lowers THEMOTORHOOD.COM
I paid $800 for that wreck as a wedding present to myself. That was nearly three decades ago on the back of the rear quarter panels, a new beaver panel [rear valance] right along the back because that was gone. I had to construct all the inners of that myself. I made all those panels that the beaver attaches to, as they were gone as well and making the right-hand outer sill. The left hand sill was fine. The firewall and pretty much up around the roof wasn’t too bad.”
Dave’s brother, a panel beater, made both of the rear quarters. They had both been hit at some stage and the left one had been repaired. The one panel that looked good, the right rear section, harboured an unwelcome surprise. “It had been replaced back in the days when you could still buy quarter panels for Monaros but the guy who had fitted it had fitted it in the wrong place. We had a bit of work to do there to get the fit right.” Fortunately some reproduction panels are available for restorers. Dave bought a new left front guard ($1500) but even this wasn’t straightforward as Dave wanted to flare the guards. “Paul did all the flares and he did a fantastic job on them.” He had to cut the guard, swage and flare it out; construct a new inner guard and fold in ISSUE 353 / MAY 2020
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Feature: Classic car import/export trends
Classics crossing the border For a long time now, we’ve suspected that British and European classic cars are slowly ebbing out of New Zealand, while the cars coming in are mostly American classics. We decided to check By Ian Parkes
A
s our borders are now effectively closed to people, it's a little ironic that we are looking at cars that have crossed our borders freely in the past, and presumably, as freight, they can continue to do so now. We decided to take a look at what’s happening in the classic car import and export market and ask if there’s any truth to the suspicion that our classic car fleet is being drained away overseas. For a while now, people have been wringing their hands about the state of the classic car movement in New Zealand. Club members are getting older and there doesn’t seem to be an influx of younger owners. Some have noted the number of lots being passed in at classic car auctions; that the buyers don’t seem to be there. Cars long considered stone-cold classics at the top of many people’s wish lists — like E-Type Jags for example — might be less desirable to younger drivers, as they weren’t the icons of their youth, and the gap between the driveability, reliability, and cost of ownership of these old cars and modern cars only increases. Of course, millennials, or 46
NEW ZEALAND CLASSIC CAR
can acknowledge a couple right away. Industry commentators seem to agree that concours-level cars here are priced little different to those overseas, as most of their owners are pretty canny like that. The biggest determining factor in the rate at which cars are exported is swings in the exchange rate. If the New Zealand dollar goes down, Kiwi cars are instantly cheaper to overseas buyers, while the price in New Zealand, where it is relevant to everything else, won’t move as quickly. We tend to think New Zealand is seen as a good place to look for classics,
Values of true classics tend to rise faster than most people’s earning power, which of course makes them a tidy investment for those with discretionary funds
at least the majority of them, don’t seem all that interested in cars full stop. Why would they, as everyday cars substitute character for efficiency and become more and more like (electrical) appliances? There’s also the spectre of increasing values to contend with. Values of true classics tend to rise faster than most people’s earning power, which of course makes them a tidy investment for those with discretionary funds. Many cars from the ’60s and ’70s, which might make fun hobby cars today, were scrapped as old rubbish before they sparked any nostalgia. But to return to our theme, does the connectedness of things today, where cars for sale in New Zealand are just as likely to pop up onscreen in the UK as they are here, mean they are easy pickings for overseas buyers? Does this global market mean that more of our cars are being picked off and sent overseas?
as we don’t salt the roads here so chassis rust is less of a problem. Our vehicle certification standards are also very high. But there are other mitigating factors that are just as important. Our rainy climate means car bodies that were designed with little regard for rust traps (which is almost all cars through to the ’90s) will still have suffered. And the fact we use our cars daily and maintain them on the cheap also means the average old car might have suffered some pretty shoddy repairs with chicken wire and bog. We’ll dig into those whys and wherefores later. In this article, we are just looking more at the facts and the trends in the data. We went to the New Zealand Transport Authority (NZTA) with a request for import and export data on cars over 30 years old for the 10 years from 2009 to 2018.
ALL SQUARE AT THE TOP
Over that period, we exported 1167 cars and imported 7157 cars over 30 years old. That in itself is great news for the classic car movement — it shows interest
We’ll look into the factors affecting those trends in another article, but we
THE NUMBERS
EXPORT TOTAL BY COUNTRY OF ORIGIN (2009–2018)
IMPORT TOTAL BY COUNTRY OF ORIGIN (2009–2018)
in classic cars is hardly on the wane! Of the exports, 325 were British, 146 European, 35 Japanese, and 106 American. As far as age goes, 106 were from the period 1900–1931, 264 from 1932–1959, and 797 from 1960–1987. On the import front, 408 were British, 434 European, 212 Japanese,
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and a whopping 5744 American cars came in. One hundred and seventytwo were from the period 1900–1931, 1501 from 1932–1959, and 5484 from 1960–1987. Overall, we can certainly say that while the export of classic cars over the past 10 years reflects the type of
cars we have enjoyed here for decades, the import is overwhelmingly turning towards classic American cars. We’ll have a closer look at that and get some industry comment on it in next issue, but it’s clear that the impression we have picked up from car shows and events is borne out by the numbers.
ISSUE 353 / MAY 2020
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