Alfa Romeo Owners Club of Australia Forum

General Category => Photos & Videos => Topic started by: Evan Bottcher on April 09, 2015, 11:45:58 AM

Title: 1971 Holden dealer team promo
Post by: Evan Bottcher on April 09, 2015, 11:45:58 AM
Sorry no Alfa content but still found this fascinating.  Another great video from super100mph on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41rbQsGSq58
Title: Re: 1971 Holden dealer team promo
Post by: Gary Pearce on April 09, 2015, 07:08:47 PM
I was there at Catalina Park (Calder) parked on the hill in my mates 186S HT Monaro. (sorry too...not an Alfa)
Brock in the supercharged beast was almost boring to watch. It was Brock first and then daylight. They eventually made it a handicapped race with Brock at the back and Renos and Minis up front. Didn't make much difference really.
Thanks Evan.
Title: Re: 1971 Holden dealer team promo
Post by: Barry Edmunds on April 10, 2015, 09:40:58 PM
Good post Evan. I was photographing at Calder during the rallycross years and it was great fun to watch and very entertaining. They were all dead serious racers too and had good sized crowds. Bob Watson drove the Renault, Gill Davis was in the red Torana and I'm fairly sure that it was Bill Evans in the Mk ii Cortina. Allan Moffat also drove the Mk II Cortina in a few events as well. HDT even ran that Beast with duel rear tyres a few times. The Monaro may have been driven by Warwick Henderson from Geelong. It was areal handful on that Calder rallycross track. Moffat and Brock had some close battles at rallycross as well as in touring car races. Barry
Title: Re: 1971 Holden dealer team promo
Post by: Paul Gulliver on April 13, 2015, 07:03:04 AM
I think the reason that kind of motorsport ( rallycross ) was so popular at the time was because the track surface was almost identical to the road surface in a lot of outer eastern Melbourne at the time . You could go to Calder on  Saturday  and watch rallycross, then go home the back way and practice.

As a side note it was interesting to watch the mini cooper's in the water jumps in rallycross . In reality they were usually parked on the side of the road 100 meters after that as a consequence of  the forward facing distributor on the east west engine. Water & small BMC east west engine based cars never went well together.

AS a further side note I was recently reading a book and the subject of mini moke's in the South Pacific islands came up . A common fix for the forward facing distributor  and water problems was to cover it with a half a coco nut shell .  Argh. The 1970's
Title: Re: 1971 Holden dealer team promo
Post by: colcol on April 13, 2015, 10:05:00 PM
A common fix for the water in distributor was to use a rubber glove placed over the distributor cap, with the tops of the finger nail area cut out for the ignition leads to poke through.
They were going to have the distributor at the back of the engine to stop water ingress, but with the SU carby at the front of the car, in the cold British winters, the carby would ice up, so they did a switcheroo.
The Calder Rallycross was televised and was a real hoot, with well known tin top drivers in Holdens and Fords racing, now that all the Motor Racing is on Fuxtell, they should get Rallycross going again to put Calder to use, except all the housing that are now getting closer, Colin.
Title: Re: 1971 Holden dealer team promo
Post by: Sheldon McIntosh on April 13, 2015, 10:18:08 PM
Quote from: colcol on April 13, 2015, 10:05:00 PM
A common fix for the water in distributor was to use a rubber glove placed over the distributor cap, with the tops of the finger nail area cut out for the ignition leads to poke through.

I thought that was a brilliant idea, and so I did it on the shitbox Mario Speedwagon I.  It works really well for a while, keeps most of the water out.  Unfortunately, some water still gets in, and the rubber glove makes it very hard for the water to get out again.  Probably good for splashes, not so much for wading.  Ah well, lesson learned......