With reminders of updating the web site coming in all the time, finally I’ve got time to post an update.  Since the season finished a while ago there doesn’t seem much point in trying to drag up memories, and from the end of the season until now not much has really been going on. 
So to wrap up the end of last season.  Bryce’s new car hit the track for the first time at the Auckland Superstock Teams Nationals, while the team didn’t quite manage to do as well as they wanted the new car held up very well.  In the subsequent weeks Bryce began to work on the kinks in the car and getting a handle on the new car and engine and setting some very quick lap times.

With the introduction of the new car, and new paint scheme, the 53a car was repainted to match.  This meant for the first time since 2001 both Marx cars would run with the same livery.  Also the big Transporter received some attention with a new hydraulic rear door built with slide out ramps.

Our season ended with the last night of Waikaraka being canned because of the rain, so our last race meeting was the final round of the Ollie Brown series.  This was a great meeting with a large number of Superstocks present, I’m not going to try and remember details of what happened that night.  All I remember is that I had a real bad vibration coming from the gearbox and as a result we packed up early.  Later on the following week we found out the problem, which was the gearbox bolts coming loose.  This had also damaged the clutch so it was a good thing I didn’t run the last race. The season ended with a good number of Superstocks based from Waikaraka, and the coming season looks just as good, if not even better.

So what’s happening now? 
Well Bryce has taken the 73a machine home for a bit of a tidy up, the most action it’s seen since was when the builder had to shift the car to finish lining the garage.  The builder whom likes his Holden’s, I guess couldn’t handle the power of the Chevy, resulting in a large chuck of concrete being removed from the garage floor

As for 53a, it was started for the first time since April last weekend and turned around.  It is now being stripped backed for sand blasting and repainting.  I did have plans to have another set of heads welded and ported but with the rise in living, travel costs and uncertainty of the property market those plans will need to sit on hold for a short time.

New 26a, yes that’s correct. Dad had some spare time between jobs so he and his worker decided to build up another chassis and a full chassis jig.  Not knowing the future of the new chassis when work started, it was only half way complete by the time it was sold to a current Auckland Superstock competitor wanting to update his car.  I know Lance is looking forward to getting stuck in a finishing the new car and hopefully being there by the beginning of the new season.  I’m sure it will perform well and he will be happy.  It is to be powered by a Ford V8 and I’ve been told it’s made from something called “Cast Iron”, being a baby from pretty much the 80’s and interested in History, I had to take the cover off the engine to take a photo, and then had to quickly cover it back up in case it started to rust or something.

New Chassis #3, the intention for this has always been to build it as a spare car and have other people lease/drive it or to give potential sponsors the chance to get more involved.  The only delay on this is still time.  But it is still slowly heading forward.  It will be powered by the Chevy from the original 16a and probably mid mounted.

Well thats all for now.

Catch ya......MadPhil