Allcomer Saloon

[Steve Holmes]

I'm really enjoying all those saloon car pics you guys are posting. Keep it up. Britain has such a great history for saloon car racing. Its always been hugely popular in New Zealand and Australia too.

Not to be outdone, check out this great Terry Marshall shot of the Morrari at Pukekohe during the 60s. I've just finished writing a story on these old Allcomer saloons for an Australian mag. Basically, they were a saloon class with no rules. This is one of the more fondly remembered creations. It was built by car salesman Garth Souness. He had an ex works Ferrari 555 Super Squalo F1 car on his lot that nobody wanted, so he had the chassis shortened, fitted a small block Chev into it, and mounted the Morris Minor body on top. Hense the name 'Morrari'. Note the exhaust pipes exiting through the bonnet.

[Pierre Martins]

"Morrari..."

I like that.

My late father dropped a 327 Chevy into a 60's Ford Anglia (back yard jobby), entered the Kyalami 9 hour and had a ball...

I guess everyone here got a wild 'local' story to tell, like this one - In the sixties there was this guy, Jurgy Bauer, who built a rear engined F1 type car to compete in local oval track races against top fuel speedway cars at the famous local "Wembley" raceway in the South of Johannesburg. He even got a sponsorship from Gunston and literally ran circles around the sprint cars for a few years, but then they changed the rules to get rid of Jurgy's rear engined car...

I've actually got pics of this car. Gotta power up that old scanner sometime soon...

The purists here just soiled their anoraks though...

[mickj]

Steve
Which Aussie mag did you write story for?
Mick

[Steve Holmes]

The mag it'll appear in is called Australian Muscle Car. I've written a few articles for them before, and the latest issue has a brief story I wrote on a class here in NZ called Central Muscle Cars. The next issue of the mag will have a story I wrote on a unique Group A Falcon XE which Dick Johnson drove here.

If you want to see more on the Central Muscle Cars, check out the site: www.centralmusclecars.co.nz

[mickj]

Thanks Steve, Aust Musclecar is a good read. The centralmusclecars are wild looking racers. Nice story.

[Andrew Kitson]

Check this one out then...very similar, except for the Ferrari chassis!
http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...ghlight=morris

[Steve Holmes]

mickj, thanks for that. Glad you like the story. I'll do a follow up on the series once its finished. Paul Kirwan took me for a few hot laps in his 700hp big block 68 Camaro yesterday. What an eye opener! You wouldn't believe how short the straights become in that thing. It is FAST.

We've had a fair bit of interest from Australia since that story appeared. A couple of people want to know if we have the series available on dvd.