Well, thought you may be interested in recall of past weekend, while at rod run, caught up with old hotrod friend i hadnt seen for many years and was asked if i was interested in some y block engines, he told me of his mechanic friend who had a race car with rear engined y block that he had worked on and there were some left over bits for sale. With  curosity raised and keen to find out what was what, we finished 2 hour cruise to country pub, had lunch and went off to check this out. well the story emerged that 2 guys owned it and had it into this mechanic to restore it  but owners had disagreement and took it back, it had been 2 years prior so all that was there was a short std bore 272 and some t bird heads and odds/ends. I asked what it looked like and he dug out this framed photo of it, to my supprise it was like a Cooper style racing car with a Citroen transaxle coupled to the 292. He was good enough to lend me the photo to copy!

As i looked at this car, i recalled probably 14 years back, a guy came in to buy genuine 292 for what he described as a rear engined hill climb car that had blown up engine, i can recall him describing it as rear engined with exhaust pipes that stuck up in the air! could it be this car? and as the car was at mechanics for build up of 292 engine, it may be it?

My y block curosity aflame, i headed 2 hrs home and took pic from frame and there was track photograpers stamp with date 11/1993. i then googled his name and among posts were  that he had retired and moved up near me, and another post that he had handed all his pics and race programmes to the historic race car assoc. i then found his phone number and he had done all this but to contact secretary of that club, i then found that site and spoke to wes who said he would put pic in club magazine asking members for any info on the car. i posted picture copy today. I guess it doesnt have to be the find of a hoard of rare parts to get you going, it was better than that as i,m sure there were few of these race cars in this style, after talking to mechanic today while returning photo and picking up the parts, it felt obvious that the car may never be finished due to the nature of the dispute between the owners but who knows? But be sure i will be watching?????

aussiebill (7/12/2010)

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Well, thought you may be interested in recall of past weekend, while at rod run, caught up with old hotrod friend i hadnt seen for many years and was asked if i was interested in some y block engines, he told me of his mechanic friend who had a race car with rear engined y block that he had worked on and there were some left over bits for sale. With  curosity raised and keen to find out what was what, we finished 2 hour cruise to country pub, had lunch and went off to check this out. well the story emerged that 2 guys owned it and had it into this mechanic to restore it  but owners had disagreement and took it back, it had been 2 years prior so all that was there was a short std bore 272 and some t bird heads and odds/ends. I asked what it looked like and he dug out this framed photo of it, to my supprise it was like a Cooper style racing car with a Citroen transaxle coupled to the 292. He was good enough to lend me the photo to copy!

As i looked at this car, i recalled probably 14 years back, a guy came in to buy genuine 292 for what he described as a rear engined hill climb car that had blown up engine, i can recall him describing it as rear engined with exhaust pipes that stuck up in the air! could it be this car? and as the car was at mechanics for build up of 292 engine, it may be it?

My y block curosity aflame, i headed 2 hrs home and took pic from frame and there was track photograpers stamp with date 11/1993. i then googled his name and among posts were  that he had retired and moved up near me, and another post that he had handed all his pics and race programmes to the historic race car assoc. i then found his phone number and he had done all this but to contact secretary of that club, i then found that site and spoke to wes who said he would put pic in club magazine asking members for any info on the car. i posted picture copy today. I guess it doesnt have to be the find of a hoard of rare parts to get you going, it was better than that as i,m sure there were few of these race cars in this style, after talking to mechanic today while returning photo and picking up the parts, it felt obvious that the car may never be finished due to the nature of the dispute between the owners but who knows? But be sure i will be watching?????

Well this morning i received call from current owner who heard i was looking for info, i wrote rest of this news but got lost due to site problem so will redo when i can recollect facts, plus he said he would email some details as he has the entire history of car, coincidently  i did know the original owner who had died and this was his car he got the engine for.

mctim64 (7/14/2010)

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Don't give up on posting just because of site problems, I want to hear the story.

Well I have some facts on this car, it was built in 1963 in Queensland Australia as a Le Chalutier. and owned by D Gordon until 1982 where it passed to John Campton here in NSW who I sold the 292 engine to in 90,s. John passed away in recent years and car had been at mechanics when new owner paul purchased it from the estate a few years back, that sort of ties up its history. I dont know of its actual racing history but was classed a Group M racer here and did hillclimb events.

It weighed 1540lbs ready to race, engine was basic with B intake and note 5.500 RPM redline. It had Citroen transaxle with 3.3;1 diff ratio.

I think it was a one off power plant choice and certainly would have stood out on its days racing! We all would love to see it in full flight! Regards bill.

YYY

Billy, thats a good question and originally i explained it in the missing reply previously lost with site problem and forgot to re explain. I too had thought hill climbs were the pikes peak, dirty, dusty, gravelly, up hill times trial racing and that interpretation of hill climb i had in my mind when Jon campton brought the 292 for it and i asked what sort of car it was for, he described the car as rear engined with pipes sticking up so i thought car was like a BAJA BUG? big desert racer style car, so didnt compare the picture of car as that car at this time. I believe the car ran circuit racing originally but was re classed and ran hillclimbs. I believe it is on a sealed normal style race track running times/classes, bit like  watered down formula racing hence its formula style lines.  Would love to have a drive!!

yyy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-DGMrLGnLg