African Muscle Cars - Forum

You right Hi-Fi never mind the money thing for now the less we know the better. The day I begin to swindle with classics is the day I'm overdue to move over back to bikes because then I won't uphold a viable pace as a bussinessman and end up getting upset. That's just me, my choice, passion or a shortcoming I got to cope with. I'll keep a lookout for some tin rims for the Anglia.

Regading comments on the CanAm racer's two wheel antics, I have to tell you guys that this attitude is only possible having launched the car off a kerb. This is clearly the case with the Ray Emond car shown at Quarry in CT. Of course it's actually the exit of Quarry (Quarry being a RH corner), meaning it's probably been launched off the kerb at the kink that follows on the way to Damps. The pic of Geoff Mortimer at Clubhouse actually shows the high kerbing in the background. Having small wheels, sticky tyres & a high COG would help the car do this.

all very well but for one thing sorensen, thats nowhere near as cool...

Hello Richard and welcome!

sorensen wrote:Regading comments on the CanAm racer's two wheel antics, I have to tell you guys that this attitude is only possible having launched the car off a kerb. This is clearly the case with the Ray Emond car shown at Quarry in CT. Of course it's actually the exit of Quarry (Quarry being a RH corner), meaning it's probably been launched off the kerb at the kink that follows on the way to Damps. The pic of Geoff Mortimer at Clubhouse actually shows the high kerbing in the background. Having small wheels, sticky tyres & a high COG would help the car do this.

Hi
Having read this forum for the first time today i must say it is very interesting
Just a little error is the canam cornering at Quarry is not C.T. as read but Quarry Roy Hesketh
Ray Emond

Ray Emond wrote: Hi
Having read this forum for the first time today i must say it is very interesting
Just a little error is the canam cornering at Quarry is not C.T. as read but Quarry Roy Hesketh
Ray Emond

Off the topic for a moment, just a note to say to you I was one of your fans as a schoolboy. From the Viva GT days.

And you being the one driver that raced all three works cars at one stage or another, just the "flag" car post Dealer Team days (1974).

Then when I grew up we bought bigger bike's and we'd follow Dave Emond on his Yamaha's !

Such were the legend of yourself and BvR the name stuck and seeing we were 2 stroke & bike fanatics those days we followed Emond jnr's career too.

Lino

Hi Lino
Thanks for the reply Nice to be able to correspond with you
please contact me on my e-mail address ray.emond@emond.co.za and chat about the past
Regards
Ray

Will do that's very kind of you Ray.

Richad's (Sorenson) old man I saw at Kyalami mid 1980 while on an Army weekend pass taking part in the Castrol Clubmans. He was entered in the same race as the No. 2 ex-Dealer Team Can Am (maroon/white) which was then all black. That car did'nt run in the last race I saw it in the paddock but never knew at the time it was the same the late Paddy O'Sullivan was to restore.

Anycase I got two photo's of Sorenson's senior Can Am behind the old Kylami pits there was a pieve of road that run there. Where it was parked. That Can Am I remember started the race right at the back (handicap race) and passed the entire filed to win. It was a full road car with big wheels, some plastic spats on the fenders to cover them. and not even a race seat ! It had no rollbar I think and full interior as per road car. another thing I remember is that the exhaust headers came up, forward, down alongside the radiator, back under the crossmember and out the sides. It also had some fat striping down the sides was still standard road car colours and had one of those flashy spares shop "Chevy" stickers on the bootlid

Hows that for memory if Richard can confirm if that is correct ?

Reason I only got 2 photo's of the Sorenson car with (110mm cheapie camera) was that the Army only paid us R90 a month which R 45 they saved for us. So we hiked to Kyalami to save money (Ry Veilig), kept money for the gate, beer and just a 12 photo 110mm spool. The other 10 photo's were a couple of a raod Can Am I saw there and Willie Hepburn slamming into the embankment in his Manufacturers Challenge Chev Rekord. I only saw the Black Can Am at the end of the day after the last race. It looked rough and not worth the last two photo's left so I went to the Sorenson car and that was my whole 12 photo's finnished !

Welcome to the forum Ray.

Hi Guys

Nice to see some well know names from the past, welcome to the site.

.Regarding Mr Sorensen senior. my very first driving instruction day was at Kyalami in 1987, Dave Charlton gave the lectures and when we finaly got to go out on track with the instructor driving first, who should I get ...Dick Sorensen,(he was racing the modified Rover at the time, one of my favourite cars of the time) my road car for the day was ..a Rover SD1 V8 auto....

All the other instructors had a lot to say to Dick Sorensen about the fact that he had to pick the student who came with a Rover. ...man that was a day I will never forget, I learned a heck of a lot and I still have my certificate signed by Dave Charlton, framed and hanging on my wall at home...nice memories.

At least my Rover was faster than the GTi golfs of the day, it managed a timed 186kmh down the old straight.

With Mr Sorensen driving the first few laps I got a bit worried as we approached Crowthorn, I asked him why he was not using the brake markers after we passed the 100m mark, all he said to me was "he does not use the brakes much on a std road car" and pitched my Rover into Crowthorn at full tilt...I was impressed with my cars handling and never expected to go round the corner at that speed.

when it was my time to drive I listened to him seriously as this was quite a moment to have a proffesional driver in my passenger seat showing me the way.

one problem though was massive wheel spin coming out of Leeukop..






The good old days.