I know it's not Bellett, but I thought you guys would be interested all the same. My old mate Chris of CSR, who has helped me and quite a few others prepare cars for classic racing and the Revival, has finally decided to build one for himself...here's and example of one.

Over here in Pomland these rusty old buckets were known as Vauxhall Crestas, you guys in Oz may well have had a Holden equivalent...you certainly have the engine we're allowed to use, known here as the Holden 202.
I'm taking the Bellett over to his workshop this weekend, so I'll get some pics, in the meantime he's already found a set of triple Dellortos on the correct manifold, and with the usual 'whole lot of work' I reckon this thing could turn into quite a weapon.

Hi Pombellett,
The 'grandfather' of the annual Bathurst 1000 race was the Armstrong 500 (mile) race at Philip Island in 1960. The winning car was one of these Vauxhall Cresta's driven by Frank Coad. So they actually started off the whole touring car racing thing over here back when you had to race a standard car.
It would certainly fly with a serious 202. They are getting some big HP out of them here in the 'modified ' historic racing series.I think around 350 or more HP,
Rod.

still quite a few of those down here!

When I was about 10/12 yr old our next door neighbor had a two tone blue one. I used to love getting for a ride in it to school on rainy days as Clair next door would run us to school in it as mum never had a drivers licence. I love the lines of the Cresta's

they were still a Vauxhall over here. Holden never badge engineered them, but they should gave because they were far better than the crud they sold in the form of an FB Holden...
and FINALLY someone who knows that the "aussie" red Holden 6 wasn't a bloody Holden engine at all.... they stole it from the Poms!
they're getting about 330hp out of them without too many blow ups; but push them to 350 or so and they go well for a short time.
the better option is a 186 bored to 192. they really rev well, and hang together.
and as said, a Cresta won the first 500 mile race at Phillip Island, before it went to Bathurst, in 1960

Well here it is

Crickey.

Chris loves the idea of all that power, if any of you guys know of a hot 202 engine, that can be shipped to the UK, we'd be very interested, very interested indeed.

Hi Mark,
202 Red Motors should be a dime a dozen over here, they were in nearly every model Holden from 1970 until the V6 were fitted to the Holden Commodores in 1991. There would be plenty of hot up bits here as well. There were Red ones and Blue and Black ones as well, all different specks.
Geoff

best set up if u want to go with a 202 is get a "black" one from a VH-VK Commodore. they were the last of them, and much better than the early ones.
put an alloy "Yella Terra" 12 port head on it.
triple Weber carbs.
decent mechanical cam and all the fancy valve gear.
everything is easily available over here, and away u go!
basically you want a "Group Nc" spec unit like the boys run in the LC-LJ Torana's.
i've driven a mate's Nc spec LJ, and believe me.... they REALLY go well!

Ian Tate was the engine man for HDT back in the day, and he still build alot of them. 90% of the Torana's use his engines, so i'd talk to him. he's here in Melbourne too, and i only saw him last weekend at the historic races at Sandown.

You see I knew you guys would have all the info. Cheers Brett.

You know how an old dog starts drooling in anticipation of a plate of food, picture that as Chris reads all this

and fit Starfire 4 rods as they are stronger too I believe. Common mod.

glenn

no probs Mark.
if u want i can dig up Ian's direct contact details so u can see what's what too.
cheers.

ah yep forgot that one! thanks Glenn. it's easy to have something slip your memory when you're used to what we do these days i guess.
we use aftermarket rods these days tho as Starfire ones are hard to get now and the Carillo ones are better anyway.

Well, the Cresta is coming along....

And off to the paint shop today...

Chris has a new mean look in his eyes now, as we've just been given the thumbs up for this years Revival, so plenty to do before September. Including inserting a ready to race engine that landed from Oz last month!

Chris has a new mean look in his eyes now, as we've just been given the thumbs up for this years Revival, so plenty to do before September. Including inserting a ready to race engine that landed from Oz last month!

Is it a 202 Holden engine ?

Yes Glen, 202 red.
I'm off for a few days, but next week I can bring news of the latest project, a rare and very potent piece of Americana!

Looking forward to hearing more of the project. The Holden straight 6 was the mainstay of hotting up for many years. A lot of aftermarket parts were made for them and I would think can still be found.

Phat cage!

Cool car!

I went to O'Brien's Auto Shades to get a rear venetian blind for my Isuzu Florian and they showed me pics of a Cresta they had recently done. They said that because of the rear window, it was the hardest rear shade they'd made in 60 years of business!!!

Well here it is....it's a Studebaker Golden Hawk from the late 50s.


Apparently these monsters had something like 270 hp back in the day! Big V8 and supercharger I believe. It's so long (over 5 metres) I quite literally couldn't get far enough away to get it all in shot.

I image Dave will know a little about these machines.....I wonder if they rank as 'awesome'?

You get a COOL from me!