JAGUAR: A RACING HISTORY IN NEW ZEALAND. PART 14 JAGUARS IN LATER YEARS
JAGUAR: A RACING HISTORY IN NEW ZEALAND. PART 14 JAGUARS IN LATER YEARS
Marcus Bishop
Posted at 17:05h, 16 FebruaryWondaful collection, I have super 8mm film of racing at Pukekohe of the highly modified MK2 Jag I think was owned by Clive Gott at that time 1980-81 , it had a fibreglass front section ,motor mounted 6-8″ back and lowered ,huge flared guards etc etc , probably at the very end of its development shortly before being retired and returned to original race spec , also Erroll Flynn in his modified E type ,Being the early days of classic car racing the cars were probably a long way from being correct spec wise but wow that MK2 going full noise was something special ,I would hang over the railings as it came past the finish line into the esses before the main straight which was as close as you could get . Shots of Les Parkinson in the later film’s 1985 .
Also Bay park 1990 must be nearing the end of its racing life.
These are home made unprofessional films ,some I’ve spliced together as the films were only 3 minute long .
also have some of the Ellerslie Concurs 1985 & 1989 ,when I owned a 1951 Austin A90 Atlantic ,Lord Nuffield’s take on what the Americans wanted in 1950 about as wrong as you could get but his arrogance cost him and his shareholders millions of pound as the car was a total flop only selling around 2000 coupes and even less convertibles .and my 1951 Jowett Jupiter which by contrast was moderately successful and was a great handling car designed by the well respected ex Auto Union ,ERA and Aston Martin designer Professor Robert Eberan von Eberhorst , just lacked power . I restored it and sold it to buy a 1963 Aston Martin DB4 Vantage . I also raced a 1966/67 Mallock U2 MK6 built under licence by Erroll Norris which was great fun and I am planning on racing once I sell the Aston . A Mallock MK11 Twin Cam from around 1971/2 is on top of the list but will consider other cars especially running the Ford Kent based motors .John Olhsen rebuilt the DB4 motor and did many other jobs for me and it was very sad he died so young ,I would go down to his Onehunga shop at lunch time and hear his European and American stories when he worked for Carroll Shelby ,he was so modest about his work there ,its only much later I learned he was crew chief at LeMans and many other races for the Daytona’s and that he was the actual builder of the first coupe ,he and 1 other fellow with Pete Brock were reluctantly spared from a business workshop to build it as most were very sceptical of its potential, 3 moths later having cracked 185mph and absolutely thrashed the cobra times at Daytona and other race tracks did Shelby and others believe that they were really onto something big , John retold to me the cars top speed down the Mulsanne straight at Lemans was close to 200mph!
Regards Mar us Bishop
Jim Barclay
Posted at 08:59h, 02 AprilThank you Marcus. You have some good stories! I think Clive Gott used the motor from the Mk2 in the Lister Jag replica that he built?
Regards,
Jim
Jim Barclay
Posted at 09:14h, 14 AprilHi Marcus,
Clive Gott would like to contact you – can you please give me your email address?
Many thanks,
Jim
14 April 2026