Hot Rods Morrari - NZ Allcomers race car

I know theres been the odd photo of the original Morrari pop up here but I thought I would start a thread here on the recreation we did of this famous Kiwi car.

The car is owned by my father Mark who has always liked the original Morrari but has never seen it run. Over 10 years ago he embarked this project which was lots of research which was made harder with Garth Souness and the builder Glenn Jones having passed on. This is a recreation of the car which ran from 64 to late 66.

The build was based around recreating the Ferrari Super Squalo chassis the best we could - we had five good photos and that was it. Front suspension is hand made using arms from Rod Tempro and a Jag steering box by Phil Game at PG Hydraulics. Other parts were machined by Terry Bowden and Dave Graham. My shop GMS Hot Rods created the rest. We zoned in on a pic from Jan 1966 for the guise of the car which included the headers thru the bonnet and widened steel wheels. The thought process of it all is that it had to replicate the car the best we could. Gary Edgecumbe painted the enamel paint in a tin shed and Keith Ellis hand lettered the sign writing and numbers with a paint brush. Brian Bennett fabricated the alloy fuel tank similar to the Ferrari tail tank and Tim Valk wired the car with cloth covering on the wires.

It was a fantastic father and son project and we cannot wait to run the 64 327 Chev engine with a bit of anger. Lots of businesss and friends have donated time and or parts and it is all greatly appreciated. In memory of Garth Souness, Glenn "Jigger" Jones and Ernie Stokes.

These photos below are of the original car from the sixties - the Morrari - Morris Minor body on the Ferrari Grand Prix chassis

 

Here is Garth Souness racing with a broken windshield around the streets of Matamata [North Island NZ]
The car had registration plates in these photos
I just love those straw "Armco" barriers


In Colour
Crowd safety was "Please stand back!"



And also Glenn "Jigger" Jones at the old "long" circuit at Pukekohe NZ.


On a gravel sprint [It looks like Mt Pirongia in the background]

 

How cool was this cat? The late Garth Souness shown here in his stock car days of the 50’s in New Zealand. It looks like Louie the Leopard in the back ground. These guys were fearless and paved the way for the motorsport we take for granted today. Sure they didnt go out on a quest or a crusade back then to change the world. These guys did what they did for fun and did it with a real “run what ya brung” attitude. Souness then went circuit racing in a Deuce five window before they created the Morrari. The All Comers circuit car was based on that “run what ya brung” attitude as they took a worthless outdated Ferrari single seater grandprix car and cloaked it in a Morris Minor body (purely because its track and wheelbase measured the same) and then they threw a 327 Corvette engine at it and went racing at Pukekohe and Matamata. The rest is history and that is being relived with the recreation of the Morrari thanks to my Dad. His vision and his group of friends have collaborated to recreate one of the most obnoxious circuit racing saloon cars.

 

The recreation of the Morrari All Comers Saloon Car of the sixties was all about research then getting into the correct mindset.

The use of a 1955 Ferrari Super Squalo Grand Prix chassis meant thats what we also had to recreate. The front suspension consists of A arms from Rod Tempro with uprights machined by Terry Bowden with hubs and coil spring cups machined by Dave Graham.

The rear suspension consists of a DeDion style rear on four bars from Squeak Bell and a 35-40 rear spring from GMS. The five speed trans axle is from an Alfa and features a bell housing machined by Terry Bowden (he also did the engine bell housing too) and hubs etc by Dave Graham.

All other fabrication was by Greg & Mark at GMS with help from Tim Philps.

So the Ferrari part had to look as close to Ferrari as possible. And the modifications to fit the 327 Corvette had to be in the “spirit” of the day. On that note we studied the photos to get the wild headers as per the original too - seven and a half pipes and all.

Phil Game of PG Hydraulics excelled himself with making the Jag steering box look right at home. Thanks to Jackson Enterprises too for supplying the materials for this project.

 

More pics of the original in its day

 

Great job Greg, had to be a fun project!

 

Back in the day Australia and New Zealand were the last Countries on the Grand Prix/Racing schedule and many teams sold off the cars after the last event to save the cost of taking them back home, as they would build a new car for the next season.

For this reason the two Down-Under Countries had an amazing collection of outdated Grand Prix and Sports Cars available to our local racers.

You couldn't imagine a used Ferrari F1 chassis being used in this application today or even 30 years ago. Just too valuable.

How times have changed.

 

Now that's car racing.

 

Quoted by motoring journalist Eoin Young “Pat Hoare, who enjoyed a special, if mysterious, relationship with Enzo Ferrari and was supplied with bespoke single-seaters"

Here is Pat Hoare in his Ferrari 256 F1 Car [in Dunedin NZ in 1961]


Here being towed behind a Holden


Ferrari supplied them with blueprints and the car was converted to a GT Racer [and was faster than the GTO]

 

That is SO cool!!

 

Thanks all for your feedback. I have more pics and info to post.

Its been a fun build

 

Thank you oh yes it sure was - particularly with my Dad

 

Love love love those old Morris Minors...such style and class too...

Thanks for sharing Greg Stokes...

I wanna build another Morris now...full cage of course...larger than stock wheel and tires too...

MikeC

 

Have to say you guys do it right. Are these cars used in ralley racing?