Here in New Zealand, as with Australia, because of our much smaller population, there weren't anything near the number of big bore sedans built during the late 1960s and early '70s period, and the cars that were racing back then are now cherished pieces, and rarely, if ever, actually raced. So unfortunately it just isn't possible to be able to bring together a field of these historic cars as you guys are able to do there in the US. Therefore, our only option is to create a set of regulations which, as closely as possible, captures the spirit of the cars that created history for us, and allow people to build cars to go historic racing with.
In Australia, the Confederation for Australian Motor Sport has had in place for many years, its Historic Group Na, Nb, and Nc regulations. Na is essentially the internationally recognised FIA Appendix J regulations, while Nb and Nc are Australian creations, that fall somewhere in between the Standard Production and Improved Production rules they used in period.
Here in New Zealand, Dale Mathers, Tony Roberts, and myself have worked about creating a historic racing class using rules created in the early 1980s by Motorsport New Zealand for historic sedan racing, but we've then worked them over to make the cars as similar as possible to what raced here during the late '60s and early '70s. So wheel sizes up to 15" x 10" are allowed, as is mechanical fuel injection or multiple carbs, which were allowed here in period. The class is called Historic Muscle Cars. It really isn't a racing class, as there is no emphasis on winning races, there is no championship, no points etc, its really just been created for enthusiasts who wish to build and enjoy the types of cars that created history here in NZ. Our history is quite a mix, as our big summer events usually saw several international teams and drivers bringing their cars here to race, with sedan teams coming from Australia, the US, and England.
To create that tie between our sedan racing history, and what we're doing with HMC, we've celebrated the drivers and cars of our past. The class officially debuted earlier this year, and we had along as special guests, Jim Richards, Paul Fahey, and Dennis Marwood. We set about creating posters for each to sign and give away to enthusiasts at the event, and this here is that which we created for Dennis Marwood, who raced the '69 Camaro Trans-Am car Joe Chamberlain brought out here in late 1970. This was Joe's first Trans-Am Camaro, his second he also brought with him in late 1972, but then took home with him again, and this is now a well known car within the Historic Trans-Am group.
Ideally we'd love to have enough original cars that we could bring them all together as you're fortunate to be able to do in the US, but for us, this is the next best thing.
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