Warning—Check all email addresses

Sent in by Peter Butler

And also from Peter —

An elderly Italian man who lived on the outskirts of Rimini, Italy, went to the local church for confession. When the priest slid open the panel in the confessional, the man said: "Father, during World War II, a beautiful Jewish woman from our neighbourhood knocked urgently on my door and asked me to hide her from the Nazis. So I hid her in my attic."

The priest replied: "That was a wonderful thing you did, and you have no need to confess that."

"There is more to tell, Father. She started to repay me with sexual favours. This happened several times a week, and sometimes twice on Sundays."

The priest said, "That was a long time ago and by doing what you did, you placed the two of you in great danger, but two people under those circumstances can easily succumb to the weakness of the flesh. However, if you are truly sorry for your actions, you are indeed forgiven." Thank you, Father. That's a great load off my mind. I do have one more question". "And what is that?" asked the priest.

"Should I tell her the war is over?''

Donn Whites 1973 Mini Clubman GT

50 years ago this month I purchased an Aussie built Mini Clubman GT brand new from R N Morton Ltd in Putaruru. I took delivery of the car on 13 June 1973 and driving it home that evening I wondered briefly if the fact that I purchased the car on the 13th would prove to be unlucky. That certainly hasn't been the case - I've had a number of race and rally successes with the car, travelled extensively with it, met some really interesting and talented people - some whom are still mates to this day.

The story with the car starts a year earlier in 1972 when I followed the Heatway International Rally. This event had a huge following with the competitors and it captured the imagination of the public who turned out in droves - even in the middle of the night to watch. The overall winners that year were the late Andrew Cowan and Jim Scott who seemingly performed miracles with a new factory prepared Mini Clubman GT.

I wanted one - badly! So I went into the local dealership and was told that if I was serious about making a purchase they wanted some money there and then to prove that I wasn't a 'tyre kicker'. In the next breath they told me that delivery would be some months away. Turned out that the wait took a year, so I carried on racing a Cooperised 1275cc modified MG Midget which was fun but by then saloons were becoming the hot favourite on the tracks.

When June 1973 rolled around I was told that a shipment of Mini Clubman GT's were on their way to NZ. I was asked if I was still serious about the purchase, and that being the case - 'what colour would I like?' The salesman rattled off a number of colours with unusual names such as 'Home on The Range' and so on. I settled for a bright green colour called 'Hairy Lime' and the salesman appeared very relieved with my choice. When I asked why - he said that he was worried that the 'Hairy Lime' coloured Mini they had on order could prove to be a slow seller. I then said that I wanted a garish colour as it would stand out on the race track. It certainly did - the race scrutineers would make a habit of shielding their faces and putting sunnies on when they checked the car over before an event.

I still have the original bill of sale for the car. It cost $3317.00 plus $18.83 for 'on roads'. I was just 20 years old and the envy of my mates owning a car which at the time was the highest spec Mini available virtually anywhere in the World. Some of the locals thought that my Dad must have paid for it. I can honestly say that the purchase was the result of lots of 'do ups' with cars in the years prior, plus working every single hour of overtime that was going! Dad would sometimes come to the party in the years ahead - but his sponsorship only materialised if he felt that I was getting results - he never let his passion for motor racing cloud his judgement when it came to opening his wallet! Thinking back my involvement with the car over the years taught me a tremendous amount of life skills…

Don & Silverware Tirau 1974

Donn Whites Mini Clubman GT

Racing back in 1973 was pretty special thinking back. It was the days before the first Oil Shock, unemployment and gas stations having to close on the week ends. 1973 saw a record for the number of new cars sold in NZ. The figure eclipsed 100K and big fields of new cars were out there competing. Production Car racing was very popular and hoards of Falcon GTHO's, Chargers, Torana XU1's, Fiat 124's and so on appeared right down to lots of small fry such as Minis and Datsun 1200 SSS's . We'd drive to the meetings, practise and race, drive home, then drive the cars to work on Monday. Sadly that all changed after the Oil Shock when many race meetings were cancelled altogether. The grids then took some years to regain their pre 1974 level of support once the immediate effects of the Oil Shock had passed.

October 1973 Hamilton CC Meeting, Holland Road

In 1974 I sold the Mini Clubman GT tempted by the fact that despite the racing I still managed to make a profit on the purchase price of the carpost Oil Shock inflation contributed thinking back. The Mini then changed hands many times over the next two decades - 17 times officially. Often I would see it on the road - the 'Hairy Lime' paintwork always stood out and one day in 1978 when racing at Pukekohe I saw the Mini in the pits. Turned out that a lady named Heather Spurle had just bought it and she was a first timer at a race meeting. Heather obviously caught the motor racing bug as she went on to race a number of cars successfully both in NZ and overseas. She was awarded a MBE for her involvement with motor racing and setting water speed records. Heather now lives on the Gold Coast and we keep in touch. She speaks fondly of her very first race car.

Donn Whites Mini Clubman GT

By 1990 I was looking for a cost effective way to be racing regularly. People that I was mixing with were keen to see me take up the Bridgestone Porsche Series on a permanent basis and others were advocating that I become involved with the popular Mini Seven Series. Racing other people's cars is one thing - buying and paying to race them yourself every second week end is another....especially when you're a family man with mortgages.

So - what to do? Not yet 40 years old I still felt that I had some racing mileage left and then it occurred to me. Classic racing in New Zealand was in it's infancy and relatively cheap. All I had to do was find a car. People racing Mini Coopers seemed to be getting good results back then and I started thinking back to my old Mini Clubman GT. 'If only I owned that now' - I remember thinking often as it was a genuine Bathurst Homologated car with all of the Mini Cooper S goodies and more.

Back in 1990 one could trace cars quite easily. An enquiry at the Post Office Motor Vehicle Registration Centre would reveal the whereabouts of the owner of any car provided it was still live in the system and you knew the rego plate. Try doing this today! 33 years ago the Post Office people told me that my old Clubman GT was owned by a chap in Feilding. I rang Directory Service, provided his name and they gave me his phone number. I rang him - he remembered the Mini but had sold it two years previously. He'd sold it to his flat mate and he hadn't bothered to do the change of ownership paperwork. The guy in Feilding told me to ring back a day later and he'd have his old flat mate's contact details. This I did but the old flat mate had on sold the Mini to his brother in New Plymouth and obviously no paperwork was seen to formalising that transaction either...To cut a long story short I tracked down the New Plymouth owner who told me that he was thinking of selling the car as it was no longer running.

So in July 1990 I grabbed a mate, some tools, drew out $1500.00 cash and headed to New Plymouth with our seven year son old Sam (later to become a Petrol Head) hoping that I wasn't going on a Wild Goose Chase. We found the place in New Plymouth where the latest owner of the Mini Clubman GT lived. As we entered the street I saw a sad old brown rusty Mini parked up the side of a house surrounded by long grass and weeds. 'That can't be my old car' I remember thinkingbut obviously it was as the original plates that I'd obtained from the Putaruru Post Office were still on it. The owner came out and said that the car hadn't run for few months. We asked if we could try and get it going - he didn't mind. New plugs, points and a dizzy cap plus fresh fuel got it going within 20 minutes. Then we haggled over the price. After a while I said ' All I've got is $1500.00 cash - which was the truth. The guy accepted that and I think he was pleased with getting rid of a rusty old Mini which he couldn't get to go. Before leaving he found the Ownership Papers - I didn't have the heart to tell him that it was my name at the top of the page, but those papers secured the deal. I also noticed that all of the racing componentry was missing but the original Chassis Plate and of course the number plates were still on the car.

Believe it or not we drove the car back to Tauranga. It stunk from all the water leaks and young Sam was fascinated by watching the white lines on the roadway through the rusty holes in the floor pan! The reception from people when we arrived home was rather interesting with most of them thinking that with taking on this particular project that I'd 'lost the plot altogether.' My wife Chris appeared to instantly develop an affinity with the aforementioned group...

Donn Whites Mini Clubman GT

Under restoration Sept 1995

18 months later assisted by Roger Payne we had the car sufficiently intact to consider racing in the 1991/92

BMC Classic Car Series held at Taupo and Baypark. This was done after I'd spent time driving around some remote places in Queensland foraging for the rare Aussie made Mini parts. Even though lots of development and panel work was still needed I won the Category One/Production Class. We worked hard on the car over the next Winter and repeated our success and a bonus was that we also tied on points with VCCBOP member Bert Dove in the Intermarque Classic Car Series. Bert raced a Triumph TR3A prepared in the same Judea workshop and we enjoyed some great rivalry. I was to win the Production Class twice more in the BMC Classic Car Series in the years ahead before taking on other racing series, Targa Rallies, Leadfoot Festival, Pomeroy Trophy meetings, Historic GP meetings at Taupo, classic hillclimbs and so on. One of the Targas witnessed a class podium back in 1996 whilst the 2005 event saw my only ever DNF in literally hundreds of events. A side plate bearing between the engine and the bell housing failed which locked up the drive train at maximum revs. Gathering up the car without hitting a bridge railing and a power pole proved to be interesting...

1996 Manfield Whittakers Classic Race Meeting—leading a bunch of 1600cc stuff, Nov 1996

Another highlight with the car over the years was winning the Pomeroy Trophy staged by VCC at Manfeild in 2013. Being a VCC International get together Nick Mason - the Pink Floyd drummer and avid car collector was an invited guest. He instantly picked up on all of the differences on my Aussie Mini compared to Minis that he was used to seeing in the UK and Europe. He then asked many questions over dinner at the prize giving and was intrigued to hear that there are only 70 or so Bathurst Homologated Mini Clubman GTs left from a build numbering 1200 originally. His parting shot was 'Ship the car to the Goodwood Festival of Speed - I'll get you in!' Perhaps I should follow up on that - who has 35K odd that they don't know what to do with? Lol!

So that's a bit of a run down on my 1973 Mini Clubman GT - chassis number 1663 which has been fully restored to original spec and presentation with the exception of the roll cage, racing seats and safety harnesses. The race history has been fully documented by Motorsport New Zealand and it is gazetted as a Historic Race Car. The VCC have endorsed a similar paperwork trail. Some people tell me that maybe I shouldn't race the car these days as it's become very rare and is certainly worth much more than the $1500.00 cash that I paid when I repurchased it in 1990. However the car was manufactured with competition very much to the fore and once I'm too long in the tooth to foot it out there, our son Sam will keep reliving all of my bad habits.