Saturday, January 10, 2009

351 Nagari in Canberra.

From Tony Briton has come the following:-
"Happy New Year.
The site is a bit slow but maybe you can shed some light on a story that was just relayed to me by a guy professing to know about a Nagari with 351 in Canberra in the early 70s that was said to destroy diffs etc and was the subject of an article in Wheels also in the 70s. The Nagari had a reversed scoop etc.
Any clues - it was not Hollywood Clearihan.
Have fun.
Tony"
With a bit of luck this could generate some discussion but I'll throw my 10c worth in first. I think the magazine article referred to was in "Sports Car World" not "Wheels". For a long time it was thought that the car in the article was B8/20 but I have since discovered that this is not the case. The SCW feature emphasised that this car was the first to be fitted with a 351 Ford and the owner lived in Canberra. At the time of writing, the car was green as was B8/20 originally although it became metallic blue some time later. The car in the article turned out to be one owned by a friend of the owner of B8/20. B8/20, I know, was still in Canberra in 1981 but the owner, Terry Pike, a chef, moved with the car to Surfers Paradise about then. At that time the car had a hot 302. Somehow it made its way back to Canberra and was owned for many years by Paul Komnacki who had brought it to the odd Easter. You may remember it as the one that had the roof cut out in a Targa style and was usually in undercoat grey. The car deteriorated over the years and in 2006 Wayne Murphy bought the wreck, selling it to his friend, Peter S in 2007.
I actually think that the car in the article was B8/19. I recall years ago that this car was painted orange and white in the 2-tone style of the Canon car but that wasn't its original colour scheme. It was fitted with a 351 Phase III and auto trans. It was very badly accident damaged in the early 70s and the wreck was picked up by Chris Clearihan. Chris had a habit of buying all the wrecked Nagaris around that area and there appeared to be no shortage of them. He actually sent the car to the Bolwell factory for a body rebuild. He owned the car for many years but never used it. Eventually, in approximately 1979 - 80, he sold it to Wayne Stehbens in Coonawarra, SA. It is the blue coupe that Wayne and Michelle took to the 1998 Easter event at Mt. Gambier.
Here's a little anecdote, almost unrelated to the original discussion here. Nagari enthusiast and owner of B8/26, John Davies, enthuses over one of his favourite Shirazs, Katnook and recalls his visit with his wife, Di, to the Estate in Coonawarra. Little did he know at the time that this is the Stehbens' winery and lurking there was B8/19 and a Nagari sports in the process of construction.

2 comments:

Paul Komnacki said...

I can vouch for the history of B8/20 as I owned it for many years. Originally with a 302 I soon fitted a 351 and finally a 289 with quad webbers. The car had a 8 ½ inch diff, not a 9 inch which is what everyone fits to take the power of the 351 so I doubt prior to my purchase it had the 351 motor.

When I started a body off restoration (started but never finished) I found a huge crack in the central chassis which had been plated over so at some time the car had been in a pretty serious accident.

Cheers

Paul Komnacki

Garry Sheldrick said...

Hi Guys the car in the mag was mine it was yellow in colour until we hit a tree nearly 20ft from the ground ( u should have seen the copers face trying to work out how that happened)

Graham Bolwell came to Canberra and trailed it back to Melb behind a Valiant ute, after what seemed like an age i finaly picked it up from Melbourne in the new green colour
After some time i sold it to Hollywood Chris Clearahan who at the time also had another one.

I had a 351 put in which came out of a police car that crashed in Canberra.

The car featured in "Sports Car W"orld 1972/05 you can usually find this one on ebay for around $20
It was also in another addition but i cant remember the numbers ( i have a copy on storage in Canberra )
It was also in a 1972 addition of The Worlds Fastest Sports Cars and was used as the Forward in the mag for all cars featured.

If you look at the pics you will see a small dent on the front that i did on a tow bar while parking the day before Mel Nickhols did the artical.

He Mel also blew a Diff while doing burnouts on a lonly Burra road out the back of Queanbeyan near the ACT.
(Terry Pyke bought his car in Victoria it was a 302 and i remember him having a lot of trouble at REGO because of all te dogdy welding. ( i thought he sold it before moving )

Hope this clears up some of your thoughts.
Garry Sheldrick