Sunday, February 1, 2009

John Harrland's Mark 7

This car rated a mention or two in the comments arising from a recent post on Cortina front blinkers. It inspired John to wonder about the history of his car when it lived in Melbourne prior to being purchased and brought to South Australia in 1973.
Well, this is what I know about it. It started life in 1971. It was painted a mustard colour and was fitted with a 186 cu. in. Holden red motor. The original Victorian reg. no. was KWT-930 and the engine number was V7155oP. There's one of those Victorian engine numbers allocated at the time of first registration again. Here's the part that nobody seems to know and will jog the memories of a few of the old Victorian stalwarts. The original owner, and I presume builder, was Keith Williams who lived at Belmont. He used it after it hit the road for a couple of years before selling it on 12th of May, 1973 to South Australian, Noel Gardem. Noel took it back to Port Noarlunga where he lived and 3 days later it was registered in SA with the number RYO-626. Very soon after that, Noel, who worked for the government, was transferred to Port Augusta and for the next few years it had a very busy life travelling between Port Augusta and Adelaide on weekends and around the backblocks of the Pt. Augusta area through the week. When the registration expired in 1976 in the name of Jillian Gardem, the car seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth and it was assumed that it had gone interstate. Ages later it was found that that wasn't the case but it would be fair to say that the car was the subject of a property dispute (since resolved amicably). JH was able to purchase the car and the 2 pictures below depict how it was when he bought it and took it to his brother's place in the hills to store it.
These 2 following photos show more or less how it looks today. It gets driven regularly yet it is John's constant work in progress. He surprises us often when he turns up with something new on it. A few good examples are when it appeared with a Toyota 5-speed box, then later with a Ford V8 motor and more recently with a completely new chassis.



2 comments:

John L said...

Just looking at the numberplate surround, the 1971 would refer to the year first registered, not the year the kit was produced.

Anonymous said...

It is an early kit - the floor pan is corrugated - (not flat) which is I believe the sign of an early one