R12 G Website

REN TIN TIN

REN TIN TIN

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Don't know if any of you guys have come across this website yet, but if you're into R12 Gordinis then this is got to be the best site for information on the model.

You name it, it's got it. Copies of brochures and technical articles, cars and parts for sale, a forum, photo gallery, press reviews, etc.

The bad news is that it's in French but hey, you can't have everything.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://gorde.typhon.org/minis.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3Drenault%2Barchives%2Br12%2BOR%2Br1177%26num%3D20%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26safe%3Doff%26as_qdr%3Dall



Ren
:cheers:
 
Interestingly, they list 2 R12G's in Australia.
David Cavanagh of course gets a mention (and some photos) but there's also a R12G owned by Mike Garafillis. (chassis number 9801102).
I know there were 6 imported and modified to RHD by Renault Australia, are there only 2 remaining?



Ren
:cheers:
 
REN TIN TIN said:
Interestingly, they list 2 R12G's in Australia.
David Cavanagh of course gets a mention (and some photos) but there's also a R12G owned by Mike Garafillis. (chassis number 9801102).
I know there were 6 imported and modified to RHD by Renault Australia, are there only 2 remaining?



Ren
:cheers:
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All 6 cars still exist, mine is one of only 2 on the road, the others are still being restored. Mike's car is nearly finished after a 6 year restoration, we were hoping it would be finished be the French Car Festival but that's not going to happen. Mike and I are the only ones who have given our cars details to Bernards R12G site thats why he only lists 2 cars in Oz.
Mikes car is the original Bruce Collier car and is chassis numbered one car after mine, they look good when they are both sitting in the workshop at French Connection together.

David.
 
David Cavanagh said:
Mikes car is the original Bruce Collier car and is chassis numbered one car after mine, they look good when they are both sitting in the workshop at French Connection together.

David.
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So does that mean that the 1988 owner of 9801104 was stretching the truth when he said that it was the ex-Bruce Collier car? Or did Collier have both cars running at the same time?
 
Simon said:
So does that mean that the 1988 owner of 9801104 was stretching the truth when he said that it was the ex-Bruce Collier car? Or did Collier have both cars running at the same time?
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Who was the 1988 owner???

9801104 isn't the Collier car, not sure who has it now but I can tell you it wasn't the Clollier car. Mikes car is 9801102 and we can prove it was Bruces car because of a few modifications that Bruce did to his car like mounting the gear lever dirrectly on the back of the gearbox so it wouldn't jump out of gear. Bruce's driving style meant he sat up close to the steering wheel and because he had a problem of it jumping out of gear he cut a hole through the tranmission tunnel and mounted the gear lever directly onto the back of the box so that it wasn't attached to the body at all. To everyone else the gear lever was mounted way to far foward to be drivable and eventually someone bent it back (a bit like early 504 S/W). We've taken it back to original but we've kept all Bruces work just to proove the authentisity.

The 3 cars Bruce prepared were mine (ex Rod Slater/John Large) 9801101, Mikes ( Bruce Colliers own car) 9801102 and Daniel Boyles (ex Tom Barr-Smith) not sure on chassis number but easy to find out.

David.
P.S. Mike has record of who owns each chassis number so I can find out who currently owns 9801104 if anyone is interested.
 
No idea, it was one of those things where a mate had a look at the car in Sydney. It was advertised in Unique Cars at the time for $7.5K. He sent me some pics to find out if it was a genuine car, then the mate said he wasn't interested, I sort of thought about buying it for about half a minute. However after Collier's said it was "a very tired car", and it didn't have a five speed at the time I figured it was a bit on the pricey side and I never really followed up further on the claim that it was THE ex-Bruce Collier car.

So Colliers converted and prepared some 12G's as well? I thought that he prepared the team of 8G's, but the 12G's were done by Bob Watson at Heidelberg? Perhaps that may explain why some cars have the AUS spec Wibroc mirrors, while the Victorian cars kept the French spec CIPA mirrors?

Good to know that someone ended up rescuing 9801104 though.
 
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Simon) So Colliers converted and prepared some 12G's as well? I thought that he prepared the team of 8G's said:
There's quite a few deferences between the Collier cars and the 3 Vic cars. Have you seen the article in Just Cars yet?? One of the biggest differences and biggest puzzles was why Bruce put the batteries of his 3 cars in the boot, we can't understand why, Just Cars magazine doesn't know why, surely it wasn't to take more weight off the drive wheels :confused: But the mirrors was one difference I didn't know about, thanks for that one :cheers:

As for car 9801104, it's currently owned by Peter Rasmussin (sorry about spelling) from Dandenong in Victoria and it was 4 sale in Sydney back in 1988. Peter bought it back then and has been undergoing a full rebuild ever since, I'm told it's nearly finished and looking very good, it's got the correct box in it now and hopefully it will be the next one finished (after Mikes).
We think it was the Qld rally car from Townsville but we need Qld car club members input here. It went to Sydney when it was privately owned and was regulary serviced by Colliers (that's probably why it was thought to be Bruces car).

David.
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Hopefully this may put some light on the subject, or just throw some more pieces of the jigsaw into the puzzle. After thinking more last night, I reckon 9801104 would be the initially Qld based car of Brian Michaelmore Qld rego PWP-934. That car was subsequently purchased by Rod Browning in mid 1973.

The Townsville based Lenellis Motors car (Qld rego ODU 953) was reportedly the ex-Bruce Collier car at that time (early 1976) owned by Bryan Janson.

It really is a nuisance that AUS does not have a UK like logbook system where the owners can be traced back though the documentation......

As for the batteries in the boot, my thoughts would be that it would be to neutralise the understeer, as Tom Barr-Smith is known to have disliked the 12G for that reason, it just understeered too much for his liking.
 
Simon said:
Hopefully this may put some light on the subject, or just throw some more pieces of the jigsaw into the puzzle. After thinking more last night, I reckon 9801104 would be the initially Qld based car of Brian Michaelmore Qld rego PWP-934. That car was subsequently purchased by Rod Browning in mid 1973.

The Townsville based Lenellis Motors car (Qld rego ODU 953) was reportedly the ex-Bruce Collier car at that time (early 1976) owned by Bryan Janson.

It really is a nuisance that AUS does not have a UK like logbook system where the owners can be traced back though the documentation......

As for the batteries in the boot, my thoughts would be that it would be to neutralise the understeer, as Tom Barr-Smith is known to have disliked the 12G for that reason, it just understeered too much for his liking.
Click to expand...

Yes your right there,
About 1990 or thereabouts 9801102 was advertised in Unique Cars from Perth, a mate of mine, Paul Stewart (G4ME) bought it and yes it had been rallied by Lenellis motors in Townsville, when we got it here we discovered all Bruces modifications and checked its numbers to verify Bruces car. Don't know much about its life in Qld except that the owner in Townsville apparently got it for nothing when it broke its gearbox during a rally and was stored in a farmers shed, apparently Lenellis motors asked the farmer if they could store it until they could come and pick it up. A few years later it was given away free to the bloke who rebuilt it and sold it to the bloke in Perth who we got it off. So the story goes.
 
Virage Racer said:
That's quite funny, I always thought in was in the 12 Gordini!
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No, 1972 the year when the 12G was used by Tom Barr-Smith, he finished midfield in the scores for the drivers championship. From memory the 1972 championship was won by Chuck Mora driving a 16TS too.
 
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