1967 - 'Lil Bounty Hunter' (Danger - BIG photo's)

[Bob Honeybrook]

Hi Drewfus, my filing system is no system known to man, I do have a few pics of that era but I only find them by accident when I am looking for something else. I do notice that in the report of the 67 Nats there is a pic of Ralph Donohue's model T Hot Rod A/CR 13, the person on the far right of that pic is me, we went up to Surfers to help the local officals out, we were there to teach them what to do. A bunch of the Castlereagh Officals went up we got free entry to the drags and accomodation.I think we got some petrol money as well.

[zacs56]

The Little Bounty Hunter Fiat Altered was driven by Maurie Mundey I think, not dead sure of this.

If it was mundie from victoria (Echuca) he drove the bushman which was the same as this car . As i ended up with it and was holden 6 powered , and then i had the first STROP ( holden 6 powered morrie) And then i had half built a 48 anglia p/van powered by a holden 6. And thats when i started into HOTRODS.

[Retired32]

Drewfus,

The 'Lil Bounty Hunter' Fiat Altered was drive by Maurie Mundey. He raced it at Calder against myself in the 'Rojin' and John Comber in the 'Gold Minor' in late-60's / early-70's when Calder first opened up drag-racing. Maurie sold the car (I am not sure in what year), to John Comber, who then campaigned that car for a couple of years. John's original car was a FJ Holden that was 2 door - the body had been shortened 11 inches. It had a flip front. It ran a 3 3/16" bore about 10.5:1 compression; and 3 amal carburettors. I think it used to do about 14's. As we are having trouble posting photo's I have asked Leo 40 to post a couple for us.
Jim

Lots of old memories.

[Bob Honeybrook]

Hey I have a picture somewhere of the Rojin and I think one of the Comber 2 door as well I will have a look through the week.

[Leo]

[Oldcol]

Hey Jim, did the body for the Rojin come from an old house in Holland Rd., up from the high school?, cheers, Col.

[Eeyore]

What exactly is the body on Rojin? I'm loving the Willys grill shell though It sure looked like a sweet little altered with a nice set of mags and a drop axel

[Oldcol]

It's a cut down Willys 77 tourer.

[Retired32]

Col - How did you know about the car in Holland Road?

Yes, it did come from there. It started it's life as a 1935 Willeys 77 Tourer. It was cut down to a roadster; all the body woodwork was removed and holes cut in the body-work to lighten it and let the air out. The chassis started it's life as an overhead, milk bottle conveyor - ex-scrap from the company I used to work for, which used to make dairy equipment.

The engine was a Canadian block, bored to 3-1/4". It had a modified head running 15-1/2 : 1 compression ratio, port and polished, running 3 x 1-1/4 amel carburettors; which were fine until we decided to change from 145 avgas to methonol, when we discovered we couldn't get enough air into the engine. It was then decided to change to 1-3/8" Delauto's - Italian motorbike carburettors, which came off an FJ Holden from Ray Collie Bodyworks. He used to circuit race this car when Norm Gowan was circuit racing.

The billet steel flywheel from Norm Gowan's circuit racer ended up in The Rojin. The gearbox was an EJ Holden, running 2nd and 3rd gear only; the cluster gear had the circuits welded in to stop it exploding, as was common with early model Holden boxes when you revved them too hard. Our's used to rev to about 8,500 rpm.

The diff. was a stock 3.9:1 FE Holden Ute diff, complete with drum brakes, which was the only braking on the car (no front brakes), worked by a single master cylinder and hand-lever.

The drop front axle was a legacy of the accident Alan Hussey had in the Ampol GT Rail, when he barrel-rolled it at Calder. The axle was bent and they weren't allowed to use it again. Being in the stainless steel game, I was able to straighten the axle and repair it, and we stuck it under the Rojin.

The grille was laid back from standard to make it more aerodynamic.

The car weighed 836 lb. and was 155 cubic inches. We were right on the minimum weight of 6.5 lb per cubic inch.

We did some pretty quick times with the National record of 12.24 sec. in mid-year 1970, with the National Record Holder. Our best time ever, was 11.86 sec. @ 134 miles per hour. We held in Adelaide record in 1972 and won the Nationals in 1974 in Sydney. A fairly quick little car for its day.

[Retired32]

For those who dislike the word 'Billet', we had in 1969 "BILLET STEEL" Flywheel. Ha Ha Ha!!! That will keep you complaining about your 'Billet'.
Jim.

[HYPORX]

Great historical info on "The Rojin" there Jim, thankyou.

Did you have a photo collection or scrapbook with more of these brilliant images? Would be great to see them.
Oh and I heard you've still got it in the shed, any plans for a reserection?

Caleb.

[Oldcol]

Hiya Jim, no big mystery there...I used to go to school with the kid who lived at that house, Henry Westerhoff. I remember looking at that little car in the shed and thinking ....never seen anything so 'orrible before... , but now, perceptions have changed a bit.... . I often wondered if it was the same car , seeing as it was just up the road from your old place. I also had a bit to do with Ray Colley around the time he was building the Tangerine Early Holden, a pal and I used to do a bit of mechanical work there on some of the projects.... and had my first engine balance thru Norm Gown....coincidence, hey ?....

[Retired32]

Hi Col, That is a co-incidence, as Norn Gown built our very first engine when he lived in Canterbury Road, Surrey Hills. He used to build engines for Norm Beechey Speed Shop from where we bought the first engine. We had a small bit of sponsorship. After 4 years of racing on the same engine, with no 'blow-ups', we rebuilt the motor - we just wrapped a new block around the old internals, as one of the main bearing caps had cracked and some of the threads on the top of the block were starting to stretch as we were pulling the head down to 75 ft lbs, instead of 55, to try to hold the head gaskets intact. I'll try and hunt out some old photo's from drags - I used to have heaps - we have a scrap book somewhere mixed with all the books we still have packed in boxes, from when we moved up to the farm 20 years ago.
Cheers, Jim

[Drewfus]

Jim (including Bob, and anyone else), would love to see more...really would, finding that alot of Oz heritage is lost on someones back shelf, so really would like people to bring it back to the forefront so it's not lost in time

Cheers,

Drewfus

[Bob Honeybrook]

Hi Jim good to see you on here, question? where did the name of the car come from. The six cylinder classes of the '60s were the backbone of the sport and 1966, '67,'68 saw the sport go through a boom that did not taper off until the early '70s, Street racing went through a busy time in the early '70s and prompted the introduction of Street Meets at Castlereagh in 1972. The street race boom followed the production of the Aussie muscle cars of the late '60s and saw the introduction of Aussie Pro Stock. This time also saw the downturn of the six cylinder classes and their eventual loss to the sport.