Interesting photos, history and discussion
Shellsport

Nice find thanks for that, a good read.

Some 1200s in there too

I noticed one of the 1200's said "2 liter" one the side? Did these cars run an A-series engine or did they run L-series??


Tom

Thats a great website, I only spent three hours on there last night!

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hahahaha 1200 coupe wins in the 80s legend

Imagine they allowed a 1000 with an A16 :)

So what were the engine rules, could you just bore the thing out to hog heaven or did they use 1300cc etc. They look like our GT classes (tube frame and semi tube frame) lots of stuff allowed but you had to keep the same block and basic suspension layouts.

Tom

Quote:

Engine capacity limit was 2L. My understanding is they had to run the original engine block and that Tony Marsh's car won the 1984 championship running a very powerful 1300 (reputedly 160hp) on motorcycle carbs (yes just like is 'fashionable' again now). This was the car which had been lowered by raising the floor/chassis, engine set back 12" etc Marsh coupe - it was black when he raced it. Very trick racecar...

I had to look very close.

The Cook Datsun which says 2 LITRE looks like a 1200 with body kit, but I think it is an A10 (Stanza/510).

A lot of the 1200s turned out to be early Escorts. They look so much alike I wonder if Ford copied them.

The Cook car, in the South Island photo, is a 160J. It had a ?lt L series when first built and raced in under 2 lt Shellsport. The Cook Bluebird was originally built with a 6 Cyl L Series for outright competition, was unsuccesful and turned back into a 2 lt and sold after a while, it is the same car in the picture with Burrows driving in 2 lt form.
The first photo on that forum is Cooks Sunny, it was an a series engine for Shellsport but would often run an l series at outright meetings, it wasn't unusual to see them change engines after the last Shellsport race of the weekend and enter the last outright race with the "stump puller"
The Marsh coupe was also originally built and raced by Cook.