20 replies to this topic

[Gary C]

..........then again, it might not!

  I have been given these six large format negatives by a friend of a friend.  We have no idea when or where they were taken, which is why I'm putting them on here.

For some reason, I'm thinking Africa, New Zealand or Australia...just going by the terrain and fooliage.

 What do  you guys think? I can ident the MG 'A' and the Elva Courier (I hope), but what about the rest?

As usual, click on the pic for a larger image.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rupertlt1]

#56 is a GSM Delta? Points to Africa? RGDS RLT

[Gary C]

Ah yes, the #56 is what I thought was the Elva. I know I'm on firmer ground with the MG though!

[Rupertlt1]

GSM points to 1960 or later (possibly as early as 1958 - what about the portholes on the car?). RGDS RLT

Edited by Rupertlt1, 31 December 2018 - 17:37.

[Gary C]

The registration number on the Austin Healey is NK9652, might that give us a clue?

[Rupertlt1]

Is #50 a Yimkin? Clive Puzey? Rhodesia? RGDS RLT

 

Edit, see:

 

https://library.revs...ion=p17257coll1

 

https://forums.autos...ia#entry6639945

 

That would make not before 1960 or later. Best guess 1961-1962.

Edited by Rupertlt1, 01 January 2019 - 02:20.

[D-Type]

I can confirm these are definitely NOT East Africa (Kenya, Uganda,Tanganyika, Zanzibar) as I don't recognise any of them.

[mikeC]

NK 9652 is a Triumph TR3A (not a Healey) which dates it as post 1957; the registration style certainly looks African rather than Australian or New Zealand.

[Ray Bell]

The trees look African...

The FVee-type device is unlike anything in Australia.

[Gary C]

....and notice in the last picture, on the very righ tof the shot, a Morris Minor 'Woody'. 

[Rupertlt1]

Ref NK registration number see:

 

https://blog.europla...thern-rhodesia/

 

RGDS RLT

Edited by Rupertlt1, 01 January 2019 - 00:13.

[Rupertlt1]

See:

 

http://www.classicca...rom Malawi,.jpg

 

RGDS RLT

[DLM]

To me it is Garneton, a suburb outside Kitwe, Northern Rhodesia ( Zambia )

Around 1963/4

 

The No. plate  NK  is a Kitwe plate.  N for Nkana ( The copper mine which started the area ) and K for Kitwe the town that followed. 

 

In 1963 the prefix changed to EA.  kitwE / nkanA.

 

I lived there at that time.

[Rupertlt1]

See: https://forums.autos...g/#entry4367481

 

RGDS RLT

[Gary C]

DLM, would you have attended at the time? And what would the title of the event have been, any idea (also, date?).

   Thanks indeed everyone for your replies....I'm thinking we may well have a definitive answer.

[Rupertlt1]

In Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, Clive

Puzey has built a Formula Junior car

using a B.M.C. engine, a Volkswagen

gearbox, Mini disc brakes, etc. The car

has performed very creditably over

there—even hanging on to Alfa-engined

cars! Clive Puzey started racing in

Britain in 1960 with a Formula Junior

Yimkin.

Autosport, 25 May 1962, Page 735

 

Was this the Beagle?

 

This would date the photographs to circa 1961? Assuming Puzey is driving?

 

See: https://www.yimkin.c...esia-connection

 

Subsequent Yimkin owners: Gordon Littleford > Peter Huson

 

(By 1963 Puzey was campaigning the ex-Hocking Lotus 18-Climax.)

 

See also:

 

https://www.classicc...y_Critcher.html

 

https://www.yimkin.c...1962-3-rhodesia

 

RGDS RLT

Edited by Rupertlt1, 23 February 2022 - 09:26.

[9203RW]

To me it is Garneton, a suburb outside Kitwe, Northern Rhodesia ( Zambia )

Around 1963/4

 

The No. plate  NK  is a Kitwe plate.  N for Nkana ( The copper mine which started the area ) and K for Kitwe the town that followed. 

 

In 1963 the prefix changed to EA.  kitwE / nkanA.

 

I lived there at that time.

Are we looking too far north?  NK is (or was) the registration prefix for Richmond, Natal while looking at a blown up image of the MGA, it looks as though its registration starts with the letters NE, which was the prefix for Estcourt, Natal.  Looking at Google maps, these places appear to be respectively about 30Km south and 75Km north of Pietermaritzburg, so might the photographs have been taken at the Roy Hesketh circuit there?

[Rupertlt1]

Are we looking too far north?  NK is (or was) the registration prefix for Richmond, Natal while looking at a blown up image of the MGA, it looks as though its registration starts with the letters NE, which was the prefix for Estcourt, Natal.  Looking at Google maps, these places appear to be respectively about 30Km south and 75Km north of Pietermaritzburg, so might the photographs have been taken at the Roy Hesketh circuit there?

 

The cars are passing the driveways of private houses on a street circuit — it does not look like a 'proper' circuit at all. No crowds.

We haven't cracked much about the cars? The #56 GSM Dart? The single-seaters? The only driver — Clive Puzey — from Southern Rhodesia? This appears to be a 'down home' event — not the sort you would travel a great distance to attend?

The Yimkin was offered for sale in London in September 1960, but Puzey took it with him to Southern Rhodesia — didn't he at sometime operate a garage at Umtali? On the border with Mozambique? Beira?

 

1960 F.J. YIMKIN B.R.G. Suitable for 1,000

c.c. sports car. Price £600 o.n.o.—

C. R. Puzey, 55 Leinster Square, London, W.2.

Phone: BAYswater 3704

Autosport, 2 September 1960, Page 345

 

See: https://forums.autos...s/#entry2831787

 

We know that Puzey was in Salisbury in early 1962, building and racing his FJ Beagle, entered by Clive Puzey Motors, so shouldn't we be looking round there? At the 4th Rhodesian Grand Prix, 1 December 1963, Puzey is listed in the programme: hometown Salisbury. At the 5th Rhodesian Grand Prix, 29th November 1964, Puzey is listed in the programme: hometown Salisbury.

 

Southern Rhodesia Calendar 1963

31 Mar, Salisbury Meeting (C, S, GT, T)

5 May, Mashonaland 100-mile race

2 June, Heany 100-mile race

6-9 July, Rhodesian Rally 

28 July, Rhodesian G.P., Kumalo, Bulawayo

22 Sept, Saxon Wood Meeting

29 Sept, Endurance Race

6 Oct, Selukwe Hill Climb

1 Dec, December Handicap

 

Also:

July 20-21, Taca Cid races, Lourenço Marques, Mozambique

18 August 1963, Angola G.P.

 

Ref 1960 Rhodesian G.P.: https://forums.autos...desian-gp-1960/

 

See also: https://forums.autos...esian-circuits/ 

 

RGDS RLT

Edited by Rupertlt1, 01 March 2022 - 06:09.

[arttidesco]

Sorry I did not spot this earlier. Robert Young identified what appears to be the second car in the OP as the Vincent Special driven by Rex Hutton at Garneton in the undated photo below :-

[Rupertlt1]

Both pictures of the Vincent Special are #13?

 

See: https://forums.autos...odesian-racing/

Do we have a picture of "Phil Liebenberg's Zephyr Special"?

 

See also: https://forums.autos...made-in-zambia/

 

WANTED for cash. Late Lotus 7A, 11 or 17.

Preferably in road trim. Purchaser will be in

London late November.—Please send particulars,

air mail, to J. Petersen, 63 Central St., Kitwe, N.

Rhodesia.

Autosport, 5 October 1962, Page 476

 

Motor Sport, March 1960, Page 196 has a photograph of a pre-war Singer Le Mans, registration NK 6267, in Kitwe. Owner N. J. Dinham.

 

From Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, to Kitwe would be a tow of some 525 miles.

 

RGDS RLT

Edited by Rupertlt1, 27 February 2022 - 17:34.

[Rupertlt1]

There were three drivers from Kitwe entered in the 1963 Rhodesian Grand Prix:

#11 P. Vermaak, Connaught (could this be #14, picture No 1?)

#14 D. Hanford, Cooper-Alfa — https://forums.autos...g/#entry4367897

See also: http://www.pallisercars.com/8.html

#22 L. F. Rankin, Cooper-J.A.P. — https://forums.autos...dpost&p=6540352

See also: https://forums.autos...-3#entry6418251

 

RGDS RLT

Edited by Rupertlt1, 01 March 2022 - 07:21.