September 2011 Newsletter

Hi all, I just noticed the last update was in March this year so I apologize, we’re way overdue for a catch-up.
Three cars that have been long term projects are nearing an end now, both are days away from making noise.

After Dave Best’s Corvette left here on a rottisserie Steve Jones from the Deuce Farm made an awesome job of the fibreglass work & the car now looks as if the cage and floor/firewall mods were done by the factory. This has been the goal with this car all along – to keep it looking as if it were a roadcourse race car from the late 60’s- 70’s. The floor has been “dynamat’d” and heat sheilds have been added where needed. Suspension, steering and all the running gear are back in, Dave has freshened the engine, the Jerico “dog-box” and locker diff are in to stay, brakes and clutch bled etc etc.

All the driver controls – brake bias, shifter, seat and steering wheel position have all been set. All the motorsport requirements ie. Fire extinguisher, window net, harness’s and other safety gear are all sorted ( the cage has been Motorsport NZ homologated) and as the pics show the car is now on the ground. We just have a little rear spring work to do and other than a full and final “set-up” the car will be ready to test. The car is now off to Paul Sattler for wiring, then it will return for the last few finishing bits and start-up. From there it will be leak-checked, roadtested , Paul Sattler will do his final certification work and the car will have a WOF checked/issued.

Dave and I have the discussed the “track” side of the car and it will be “shaken – down” at Hampton or Taupo then we’ll get a professional driver in enable us to establish a good balanced race set-up. For this we will put the race brake pads in and work on springs, shocks etc.

Gary and Tina Walker from Matamata’s 69 Mustang has reached a similar stage, All the running gear is in and fill with fluids, the entire floor dynamat’d, air conditioning/heater installed, pedalbox fitted and set, brakes and clutch bled etc. We then lowered the car onto the scales and set the car heights, weights, cambers, toe’s etc. It then left our shop briefly to go back to Matamata for wiring and a little more panelwork.

With the car now back in the shop we mounted the Link computer, fusebox etc and are currently working on the dash configuration which will feature all the required Stewart Warner gauges.

Finally after multiple phone calls and emails to Australia the correct Simmons wheels are here and Gary and Tina are making the final call on tyre sizes. With gas the car could run now but we will carry on and get the interior more complete, the custom K&N air filter adapted and the front sheet metal and bonnet scoop finished. It will then go through the same start up procedure as Daves Corvette to ensure we don’t miss anything. The first-time start-up of any car is critical and if things aren't right a lot of unnecessary damage can be done. The car will then be “shaken down” on the road before going to Bob Homewood’s HiTech Motorsport to be dynoed.

Frank Edgley’s 63 Corvette has been in for its rear end upgrade. We completely stripped the rear suspension out of it and overhauled both the trailing arms, all joints, bearings, bushes etc were replaced and we tidied up the chassis a little while we had access to it. We inspected the diff head itself and the gear set was perfect but the side drive –flanges had a little too much end-play – this is quite common with early Corvette diffs so we modified the retaining clip grooves to help minimize the problem.

In the past we upgraded the front brakes from the original drums to 65 Corvette discs and so now while the rear is apart we will complete the brake update. The rear was a bit more involved with the handbrake and cables to contend with.
With the rear end all assembled, brakes adjusted and bled and alignment done it was time to road test. The car rode a lot quieter and smoother with none of the “tail wagging” experienced before the upgrade.

On the racing front its quieter than its been in a while thanks to the slow economic recovery, spring then summer usually bring the toys out though. Mandy Sinclair’s Chickadee Commodore is getting dry-sumped and this will cure the oiling issues the car had last season. Mandy and Andrew will campaign the car at selected meetings this season. Tony Boyden will most likely do the same and just pick a few select meetings to run.

News just to hand on John Rae, he has just suffered a sporting accident and will be out for the season. He is looking to get a driver in the Americarna Corvette to run the full Tier 1 season around the country this summer. Last season we qualified on the front row at most meetings and ran towards the front at most tracks, there were great battles with Nick Chester and Andy Greenslade amoungst others. For the up coming season we’ll have a new shock and rollbar set-up along with some aero changes to test. John and Buckwheat have also been busy building/ obtaining spares and working on getting the overall car weight down so we are looking forward to another competitive season.

A car that has been in storage for a long time here, Ross Fords Graham McRae built Masserarri has rolled out the door.

Graham built this tube-frame car when he was a teenager using mostly Austin and Hillman parts with a hand formed aluminium body.

We finished the chassis work which involved repairing some pretty dodgy previous repairs while keeping the tube-work as close as possible to Graham’s original chassis concept. We also changed a few “service” items to make the car easier and more practical to work on. We altered/fabbed the sheet metal as required to reseal the cockpit, painted the chassis and reassembled to whole front end. With the bodywork now assembled the car is complete and rolling and Ross has decided to move it on. Things have changed with his health and he would rather see this special piece of NZ motor racing history go to someone that will get it running and keep it in the condition it warrants. The engine and brakes need freshening and the gearbox just needs an eye over it – there are a TON of spares that go with the car that Ross has collected over the years and he has gathered a lot “paperwork” history as well.

And lastly we at Sonic have decided to build a ute based on the classic HQ Holden. With any custom build whether it be a racecar, Hot Rod, Musclecar or whatever we go in with an agenda or “mindset” with the customer – whether it be a rulebook to comply with or just a “look” you want. For a racecar you build to the rule limits and work on low CG’s (center-of-gravity), weight distribution, tune-ability etc. For a Hot Rod or Musclecar it is primarily about the look so wheel choice, body style, bodylines and height, colours become the main priority and the vehicles ultimate performance i.e ¼ mile time or lap time take a back step.

With our Holden the mindset is if Holden were to build a concept ute back in the late 60’s - early 70’s that was a “summer” type vehicle and it was able to raid its and Chevrolet’s parts bins – as they did back then - what might it look like?. We wanted a practical vehicle that we could throw the kids in the back and go the Beach Hop, use as a ute and be a “bench seat-column change” cruiser. It needed to have the long-low straight lines used during that period and this what we’ve come up with.

It will have Chev running gear (probably just a crate 350), larger Camaro/Corvette style Rallye wheels, chopped screen, the ute sides have been wedged to follow the door lines and the body/doors have been extended six inch’s to fit over the longer chassis. The ute was twist-tested before we took to it and we have modified the chassis to ensure it will be stiffer than ever to make up for the lack of a roof and its support. As usual its all the little things that make the difference and suck up the time, such as --- we will use a rear sedan type gas tank so we can keep the side lines clean, the front seat will be a rear wagon seat so it will fold and it needs to be modified so it will slide back and forth also etc – etc.