NZV8 Series leader Angus Fogg will swap his V8 Falcon for a tiny four cylinder giant killer as he turns back the clock a quarter of a century to relive the glory years of one of New Zealand's most famous race cars.
Fogg will pilot the legendary pocket rocket Amco Mini in the historic saloons races at Hampton Downs on January 28-30 and will be one of the crowd favourites at the second of the back-to-back weekends that will form the New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing celebrating Chris Amon.
Angus' father Gerald drove the famous little car at the Bruce McLaren themed Festival back in January and will race it again on the first of the two weekends on January 21-23 when Fogg junior will be gunning for victory in the NZV8 series at Timaru. Angus himself dominated Mini racing in New Zealand in the early years of his stellar career.
"I have driven this particular Mini a few times before including the last Classic Hamilton street race, where I damaged the car by clipping a tyre and lightly rolling it,” said the V8 ace. “It took us 16 odd years to re-restore it and get it going again.
“It is night and day different in all respects to the V8 and thrives on the old "chuck her in and power her out" style. It'll be great fun and I am really looking forward to seeing all of the old cars recreate those glory days."
The Amco Mini is one of the best known saloon racers in New Zealand. It was built in 1970 by Dave Panckhurst and Rod Collingwood in Auckland to compete in the 1970/71 Bank of New South Wales Saloon Car Championship. The car is the probably one of the most successful circuit racing Minis in the world and was built entirely in Panckhurst’s garage.
It was a 970 "S" Type Mini Cooper with twin Weber carburettors, a five port head and revved to 10,000rpm all day. Competing against specially imported factory cars mainly from England Collingwood still managed to win the championship for the 70/71 year. The first year the car raced it was sponsored by Dulux and was affectionately known as "Stripes” in deference to a striped and multi-coloured paint job. In that livery the car won 21 races that year and starting 34 times was only once off the podium!
For the 1971/72 year the team decided that in the quest for more power and speed it needed a trick 8 port Arden Head. This would help ensure the team was competitive with the high calibre adversaries like Jim Richards, Barry Philips, Rex Hart, Roy Harrington and many others that it would meet in the BNSW series again. Despite securing the Amco sponsorship, the season was a challenge as Collingwood explained.
"Because we had won the championship the previous year, Amco Jeans came to the party for the 1971/72 season with a substantial sponsorship arrangement which enabled us to race again in the highly competitive class," he recalled. "And again we were successful with 19 wins from 26 starts and only one missed appearance on the podium due to being punted off at Bay Park.
"As can be seen from the NZ Motorsport Rules and results records we really won the New Zealand BNSW Saloon Car Championship outright by amassing more points than Paul Fahey but the powers- that- be decided the championship should be noted as a joint championship title as we were only in the 0-1000 class and Paul was running his Mustang. Sounds confusing? Well, it was for us at the time as well! Perhaps they could simply not stomach a small car winning the prestigious BNSW Championship."
The Mini was sold to Warren Reid and then disappeared for a while before being purchased by Angus and Gerald and restored to pristine condition. Notably though, the base colour was a dark green rather than the original black.
