Saturday, August 16, 2008

A New South Wales Idiosyncrasy

Back in the sixties, each state had their hard-core group of Mk.7 builders. When someone came up with something useful that their mates thought was OK, everybody else adopted that idea as well. A case in point was the bonnet power bulge on the green car below. This car was (and still is I think) Graeme Ferguson's. Someone in NSW came up with that bulge and I would go so far as saying that it is a good way of knowing that a Mk.7 comes from NSW originally if it has that bulge. Take a look at Ron Westren's bronze example. Now in South Australia but originally built in New South Wales. It has the bulge. On the left is Norm Clements' old Mk.7 which Peter Taylour's brother, Bill bought and I'm not sure where it went after that. Maybe there's another candidate for "where is it now?" On the right is Bruce Tonkin's "Yellow Dolly" - the original Yellow Dolly as that was the colour it was painted, Yellow Dolly being the name given to the Torana XU-1 shade. Doug Seath called his Mk.7 Yellow Dolly too but it was a very different shade of yellow.
The above photo gives a side view of the Ferguson car. This picture was taken in the yard behind the Pancake Parlour on Goodwood Road. Many years ago we had our meetings at the Pancake Parlour when it was owned and run by members, Peter and Heather Nelson. Behind the green car is the V8 Mk.7 that Peter Mac had at the time which is now having an extensive rebuild by Chris Gascoigne. Next to that is the Zephyr powered Mk.7 of Bobby Gay and Yellow Dolly is on the end.

1 comment:

Colin said...

In the photo that I took behind the Pancake Parlour in 1973/74 the owners of the cars were, Yellow Dolly-Bruce Tonkin, V8 MK7-Colin McAskill,Green Mk Ferguson and Ken Strattons Undecoat grey Mk 7.