151 replies to this topic

[SteveHolmes]

I've loved 1st and 2nd generation Camaros and Firebirds all my life. They played an important role in saloon car racing here in New Zealand during the late 60s and early 70s, and are a popular choice among classic/historic competitors today.

As well as the locally owned 67 Camaro of Spencer Black/Rod Coppins which won the 1970 NZ Saloon Car Championship, the '69 Joe Chamberlain Trans-Am Camaro which came out here in late 1970, then sold to a local and driven by Dennis Marwood throughout the 71 and 72 seasons, plus the T/G Racing built '69 works Trans-Am Firebird brought here by Ron Grable in late 1971, and which was bought by Rod Coppins to replace his Camaro, and with which he won the 1973 Saloon Car Championship, plus the beautiful gold 2nd gen Z28 of Red Dawson, we've also had Frank Gardner here in his '67 SCA Camaro, Terry Allen in his big block '67 Camaro, Bryan Thomson in his big block '68 Camaro, and Joe Chamberlain in another '69 Camaro all race here in the early 70s.

So can we start a thread on 1st and 2nd gen racing Camaros and Firebirds from around the world, of both historic photos and modern day ones of cars in classic/historic/vintage racing?

[B Squared]

Four Penske/Donohue Camaros. My personal favorites.

photo: B²

[SteveHolmes]

Beautiful!

Four Penske/Donohue Camaros. My personal favorites.

photo: B²

[SteveHolmes]

This is Kiwi driver Rod Coppins during the 1971 season. Photo taken by my good friend Terry Marshall.

[SteveHolmes]

American driver Joe Chamberlain, when he visited NZ in late 1970. Photo taken by Mike Feisst:

[Lee Nicolle]

This is Kiwi driver Rod Coppins during the 1971 season. Photo taken by my good friend Terry Marshall.

That would be a very slow trip to the track, Unsprung trailer with 1300 kilo of Chev on it behind a HR Holden.

[SteveHolmes]

Aussies Terry Allan and Bryan Thomson in the big block Camaros in late 1970.

[SteveHolmes]

Frank Gardner in late 1972:

[SteveHolmes]

Red Dawson during the 1974 season:

[SteveHolmes]

That would be a very slow trip to the track, Unsprung trailer with 1300 kilo of Chev on it behind a HR Holden.

Not to mention our windy, hilly, goat track roads!

[Ellis French]

Terry Allan Symmons Plains Tas 67





Bryan Thomson



Don Elliot / Robin Pare (ex Thomson)






James Smith



Jane

Edited by Ellis French, 04 February 2011 - 06:52.

[SteveHolmes]

Fantastic! Thanks for posting. I LOVE the Bryan Thomson car!

[Ellis French]

John Zeigler Baskerville Tas 2009

[Ellis French]

Fantastic! Thanks for posting. I LOVE the Bryan Thomson car!

As far as I know its still in Tas but was for sale in restored to Thomson colours about a year ago.

[SteveHolmes]

Yeah I know, I saw it at the Muscle Car Masters. Great thats its been restored. Sadly the Allan and Beechey Camaros have never resurfaced.

[Lola5000]

Yeah I know, I saw it at the Muscle Car Masters. Great thats its been restored. Sadly the Allan and Beechey Camaros have never resurfaced.

about 15 years ago the Beechey car or similar appeared at a Sandown historic and drove of into the sunset.

Edited by Lola5000, 04 February 2011 - 03:59.

[Lee Nicolle]

Terry Allan Symmons Plains Tas 67



Bryan Thomson



Don Elliot / Robin Pare (ex Thomson)






James Smith



Jane

The James Smith and Bob Jane Camaro are the same car.

[Lee Nicolle]

Has Thommos Camaro been restored with the 396 or does it have a small block?

[Ellis French]

A few more ....

Edited by Ellis French, 04 February 2011 - 06:53.

[SteveHolmes]

You've got a great collection there! The #6 '69 Camaro is that of Kiwi Dennis Marwood when he visited Australia. Would you happen to have any pics of Rod Coppins when he was over with his '69 Firebird?

[Lola5000]

Has Thommos Camaro been restored with the 396 or does it have a small block?

396

[Ellis French]

A few more...

[Redneb]

They were great years in NZ motorsport. I clearly recall seeing the Spinner Black Camaro for the first time and it was, I think, the first time a Camaro raced here. I was astonished at the speed of the car down Pukekohe's long back straight.

I also remember Spinner having a wild high speed spin coming out of the left hander after the hairpin, with the car ending up in the swamp that used to be there, buried up to the floor pan.

Then there was the two-car match race between Spinner and Rodger Anderson, with Rodger in a 1275 Cooper S. It was to decide the saloon car championship - in those days whoever won the most points in any of the classes was overall champion. The Camaro would blitz past the Cooper on the back straight, only to be overtaken with demon late braking by Anderson into the hairpin. This went on lap after lap and the entire crowd was on its feet, electrified at the spectacle.

Black won the race by a hair's breadth.

Fantastic to see the Coppins and Marwood Camaros restored and looking magnificent at the Amon Revival meeting last weekend.

Edited by Redneb, 04 February 2011 - 08:48.

[SRB]

They were great years in NZ motorsport. I clearly recall seeing the Spinner Black Camaro for the first time and it was, I think, the first time a Camaro raced here. I was astonished at the speed of the car down Pukekohe's long back straight.

I also remember Spinner having a wild high speed spin coming out of the left hander after the hairpin, with the car ending up in the swamp that used to be there, buried up to the floor pan.

Then there was the two-car match race between Spinner and Rodger Anderson, with Rodger in a 1275 Cooper S. It was to decide the saloon car champion - in those days whoever won the most points in any of the classes was overall champion. The Camaro would blitz past the Cooper on the back straight, only to be overtaken with demon late braking by Anderson into the hairpin. This went on lap after lap and the entire crowd was on its feet, electricfied at the spectacle.

Black won the race by a hair's breadth.

Fantastic to see the Coppins and Marwood Camaros restored and looking magnificent at the Amon Revival meeting last weekend.

Some pictures from the Amon meeting. Not the best photos I've taken but may be of interest;








Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[GD66]

Yeah I know, I saw it at the Muscle Car Masters. Great thats its been restored. Sadly the Allan and Beechey Camaros have never resurfaced.

So, the dark blue Camaro with the silver Minilites of Garry Treloar isn't the Terry Allan car ?
Drat. Well, it's not a bad tribute build, then...

[gavinevitt]

[GD66]

Gold, Gavin ! Enjoying the Chamberlain Camaro pics until the double-take : modern cars in the background ! A very pleasant "gotcha".

[oldtransamdriver]

Anyone have a photo of the 2nd 69 camaro that Joe built and took to NZ? This car passed thru my hands in the nineties and is now alive and being vintage raced in CA.

When I went to see Joe he told me that he and the race promoter couldn't come to terms after he took the car to NZ and he brought it back to the US, but I can't remember if he actually did some racing with it before bringing it home. That car went on to be raced all thru the seventies in both Trans-Am and IMSA. When I located it, by accident, it had been languishing outside in a field for many years, and was in rough shape.

Robert Barg

[SteveHolmes]

American Airlines sponsored it Robert, same as who sponsored the Firebird Ron Grable brought out the previous year. It raced at Bay Park and Pukekohe.

[Redneb]

Very good article in a recent Classic Car about the restoration of the Chamberlain/Marwood Camaro. It had been seriously hacked about but it was returned to mint condition - probably better than the 70s.

Love the photos of the Black Camaro in Team Lexington colours.

Here's a photo of the Black Camaro from its first Pukekohe meeting, taken with my $8 "Brownie Starmite" camera when I was about 10. Taken near the scrutineering bay at Pukekohe. It was pale yellow in colour ...



And in Lexington colours, chasing down Paul Fahey in his Mustang with Red Dawson (Mustang) following. Apologies for the picture quality - no 600mm F2.8 lenses on a plastic Brownie.

Edited by Redneb, 04 February 2011 - 21:22.

[aportinga]

Got to say I like this thread!

[Lola5000]

Got to say I like this thread!

this is a great thread.As a kid the early cars in Australia never had the measure of the Mustangs or the Monaro,pity as thet sounded and looked great.

[watkins]

Smokey Yunick's 1968 (trick) Camaro...now owned by Vic Edelbrock. The photos were taken at the 2006 Watkins Glen Vintage weekend.

[Wirra]

Norm Beechey

Edited by Wirra, 05 February 2011 - 00:55.

[raceannouncer2003]

LOTS of pictures here:

http://www.racingspo...let/Camaro.html

and here:

http://www.racingspo...c/Firebird.html

Vince H.

[wenoopy]

Gold, Gavin ! Enjoying the Chamberlain Camaro pics until the double-take : modern cars in the background ! A very pleasant "gotcha".

The Portaloos would be another giveaway. Non 1970's NZ.

[SteveHolmes]

Wow, loads and loads of great photos, thanks everyone for contributing. How about a few more from the Northern hemisphere though? The US, and England and Europe? The American cars raced in England and Europe had a really unique and very tough look about them which was quite different to the rest of the world. How about a few photos?

[SteveHolmes]

In 1971, a new series was created in NZ for production cars called the Castrol GTX series. The rules were changed every 2 years because one make/model would end up dominating, such is the down side of production racing. In 1975 the rules were changed again to allow 2nd gen Camaros to race, and about 8-9 Camaros were entered, with the only outsider being Rod Coppins' L34 Torana.

This is Art McKees Z28 with which he won the 76 championship.

[SteveHolmes]

Inky Tulloch

[SteveHolmes]

Doug Allen

[SteveHolmes]

Dave Baker

[SteveHolmes]

This one was owned by Paul Fahey but driven by Kevin McNamara

[SteveHolmes]

This one was owned by Neville Crichton but sometimes shared by Jim Richards

[Bruce302]

Rod Coppins at Pukekohe 1973, shot by Jack Inwood, copywrite The Bruce McLaren Trust.

[wenoopy]

A couple of slightly foggy black and whites of the Spinner Black Camaro, Pukekohe, October 1968


free image host


free image uploader

This was at 1968 Benson and Hedges meeting where there were also 2 Group 5 Saloon Races. Looks very much like the car's first NZ appearance - no decals, no signwriting, only the number. Even the stripe across the nose doesn't seem to be in the first photo.

Looks like the camera back wasn't shut properly, several negatives are fogged on one corner.

[David Shaw]

I'm sure that the stripe is on the car when the first photo was taken, but due to the taper of the nose you can't see it.

[Lee Nicolle]

A couple of slightly foggy black and whites of the Spinner Black Camaro, Pukekohe, October 1968


free image host


free image uploader

This was at 1968 Benson and Hedges meeting where there were also 2 Group 5 Saloon Races. Looks very much like the car's first NZ appearance - no decals, no signwriting, only the number. Even the stripe across the nose doesn't seem to be in the first photo.

Looks like the camera back wasn't shut properly, several negatives are fogged on one corner.

Its clear those blokes spent all their money on their racecars and very little on trailers. Or towcars, that is I think a Mk4 Zephyr or Zodiac

[Bruce302]

Ron Grable Pukekohe, January 1972 Photo by Jack Inwood, Copywrite THe Bruce McLaren Trust.

Edited by Bruce302, 06 February 2011 - 09:00.

[wenoopy]

Its clear those blokes spent all their money on their racecars and very little on trailers. Or towcars, that is I think a Mk4 Zephyr or Zodiac

Spencer (Spinner) Black was probably running a car yard somewhere in the Waikato area at the time. Tandem trailer looks like the sort of thing a yard might have for pick-up or delivery of cars purchased or sold, so as not to tie up an extra man. Mk 4 Zephyr/Zodiac would be OK for 150-mile round trip to Pukekohe and back - mostly flat good roads even in those times. Spinner's finances might have been stretched a bit at times.

[Patrick Fletcher]

Brian Crosbie raced a gold Firebird in the South Island during 1970.
The Firebird's owner Bill Farragher purchased a silver & black Z28 for Crosbie to race at Wigram 1971 but sold it on to Dexter Dunlop on the eve of the event.
Sorry no photos but the mags. of that era would have a few.