Superformance Zodiac

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ZA Perana
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Superformance Zodiac

Post by ZA Perana » Fri 15 Feb 2008, 22:19

After gaining some newfound inspiration I decided to go back into my archive of magazines….and have unearthed some interesting but obscure things

Firstly we often read about the racing Fords of the 60’s, the Lotus Cortina’s, the Mustangs, Galaxie, Fairlane but you can be forgiven of not knowing about the Superformance Zodiac.

I think I may have posted a bit about this in other thread but at that time I couldn’t find the spec sheet for the car. In essence the car was based on the MK3 version of the Zodiac, for reference that was the one with the small wings at the back. In std form it was powered by a 2.5 liter straight 6, apparently not the most tune able engine due to its strange porting, can assume it was a small port engine. In an effort to sort this problem out a guy by the name of Raymond Mays created a 6 port head made out of cast aluminum, quite novel I think for the time (1964).

Basil van Rooyen then bored the motor out slightly taking the capacity to 2.8 liters, this was achieved by using oversize pistons, and the result was an increase in compression. On to this was added triple twin choke Weber carburetors and the std exhaust was junked in favor of an equal length straight through exhaust. The std gearbox with 4 gears and overdrive was retained was the 3.9 diff ratio, which must have given the car pretty good acceleration. All the engine modifications contributed to an effective rev range of 7000 rpm and I can but wonder what this must have sounded like, I am sure it must have sounded glorious as it blasted down the main straight at Kyalami…

The car was raced on an experimental basis in 1964 and despite some teething troubles it did fairly well in its class, not surprising considering its claimed power figure of 222 bhp was in effect equal to that of the leading Lotus Cortina’s. Claimed top speed at the time was around 120 mph or 193 km/h, though this was limited by diff ratio, in theory the car could top 142 mph or 228 km/h.

Tasked with driving the car were two of the more famous drivers of the time, Trevor Blokdyk and Bob Kelsey, the latter went on to drive a Hillam Imp…

Sadly this car seemed to be a one off experiment from Superformance because I cannot find mention of it in 1965, it seemingly disappeared. I thought this was pretty interesting as I am sure when most people think Ford and 6 cylinder they think of the Essex V6 and not this earlier 2.5 straight six.
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Re: Superformance Zodiac

Post by FairmontGT » Sun 17 Feb 2008, 18:06

Very interesting. Another one that just dissapeared?
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Re: Superformance Zodiac

Post by 72XYGT » Sun 17 Feb 2008, 19:04

I think there were quite a lot of "experimental cars" that we dont know about. Nice to get some info now and then of these golden oldies. I for one very much like the Ford Corsair, but this car was never used a lot in motor racing.

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Re: Superformance Zodiac

Post by Killarney Racer » Mon 18 Feb 2008, 09:18

This Zodiac story is interesting. I can remember seeing Trevor Blokdyk racing the car once at Killarney. In my then little mind, it seemed quick but it was not a reliable car and I doubt competed in more than a couple of races. That is why pictures are so scarce. Blokdyk was of course a very successful motor cycle racer before moving to single seater formulas. He was offered a works drive with Ken Tyrrell in F3 in Europe and did very well before crashing and injuring himself badly. This F3 drive would probably have lead to F1. Blokdyk came back to this country and drove the Zodiac briefly and a bit of F1 before retiring.

My brother mailed Basil recently and asked him if he knew what happened to the Zodiac. Predictably he doesn't know. But in those days cars were put together, taken apart, swopped with this and that and often were converted back to road cars, such as Pardini's Valiant I believe.

Who remebers the Zodiac MkIV raced very successfully by Pat Sonnenshein in the Onyx series at Kyalami?

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Re: Superformance Zodiac

Post by Killarney Racer » Mon 18 Feb 2008, 09:24

Daan - I also like the Corsair. Neat and clean lines. I think in the racing world it got a bit 'lost' due to the hype of the Lotus Cortinas at the time. I would love to find one to put into classics on the track. Strangely when I was thinking of this the other day in traffic, I saw a lovely example driven by an old chap just a few cars ahead of me. I felt like making him an offer but I guessed he had been driving it since new!!

There is a nice one at Zwartkops. Now we need one for Killarney!

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Re: Superformance Zodiac

Post by ZA Perana » Fri 22 Feb 2008, 20:45

Killarney Racer wrote: This Zodiac story is interesting. I can remember seeing Trevor Blokdyk racing the car once at Killarney. In my then little mind, it seemed quick but it was not a reliable car and I doubt competed in more than a couple of races. That is why pictures are so scarce. Blokdyk was of course a very successful motor cycle racer before moving to single seater formulas. He was offered a works drive with Ken Tyrrell in F3 in Europe and did very well before crashing and injuring himself badly. This F3 drive would probably have lead to F1. Blokdyk came back to this country and drove the Zodiac briefly and a bit of F1 before retiring.

My brother mailed Basil recently and asked him if he knew what happened to the Zodiac. Predictably he doesn't know. But in those days cars were put together, taken apart, swopped with this and that and often were converted back to road cars, such as Pardini's Valiant I believe.

Who remebers the Zodiac MkIV raced very successfully by Pat Sonnenshein in the Onyx series at Kyalami?


Very interesting and glad that Basil still takes an interest in the enquires that we as enthusiasts have, to diverese just a little bit I am currently busy researching with the aim of writting a book on the Perana and Can Am....

That motor in the Zodiac seemed to be rather special...imagine that in a road car.....though I beleive Superformance did indeed do some conversions for the road.

Daan, Corsair's were raced, Team Meissner had a Corsair that raced with a fair bit of success in the Cape series.
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Re: Superformance Zodiac

Post by Killarney Racer » Wed 03 Dec 2014, 11:14

Eight years later and I find myself searching through old postings regarding the Superformance Zodiac that raced in 1964. I was trying to put some pieces of the puzzle together about this car.

ZA Perana do you have the spec sheet of this car? There was also a report in the CAR mag (if my memory is correct) about the Superformance road version. Any info and pictures would be welcome.

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Re: Superformance Zodiac

Post by Gavin RS » Wed 03 Dec 2014, 11:57

Interesting

Here is a Corsair for racing . advertised through Historic racing

Image


The Corsair;
An extremely reluctant sale due to (ongoing) relocation. Details on the car;

• Originally built by Gavin Ritchie as a replica of the ’65 Swanepoel “9 Hour” car (pic in “Sun on the Grid”). Gavin won the Legends Championship twice with the car before I took it over. As a bit of déjà vu, we won the Index of Performance of the first “9 Hour” recreation in 2008.
• A rare (in South Africa) two door ‘63/’65 Corsair, originally with a 1500cc pre cross-flow motor. Now has a 1600+ cross-flow with all the usual mods; twin 40 webbers, mild cam, balanced, gas flowed etc. Running a close ratio box on period Lotus wheels. Semi roll cage, Cressida discs and the usual (period) modifications.
• It has a twin axle, break-neck trailer (fully licensed and registered) that can go with the car.
• Price; Car R65,000-00 (it would cost a heck of a lot more to create a similar car) and the trailer R20,000-00.

It has been an incredibly reliable car over the years. The car, due to lack of use, needs a bit of TLC but earlier this year Alan Poulter drove it (in “Little Giants”) and was doing 1,24’s; so she is still “good to go”.

Graeme.
Mobile: +27 82 901 2442
Email: graeme@thereidbusiness.com


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Re: Superformance Zodiac

Post by Killarney Racer » Thu 04 Dec 2014, 18:04

Ummm, I was talking about a Zodiac :)

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Re: Superformance Zodiac

Post by Gavin RS » Fri 05 Dec 2014, 09:22

Killarney Racer wrote:Ummm, I was talking about a Zodiac :)

Sorry , I know, just the one posting mentioned the Corsair and this came up :D
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