Don Elliot 66.The following commentary and pics were provided by Ellis French except where noted. This car was driven by Robin Pare in NZ. It is a K code and was purchased new by Don Elliot in Hobart and put straight onto the track with Pare driving. Elliot (Pare) campaigned it for a few years mainly in Tasmania where it evolved into the top tourer in Tasmania, after a lot of unreliability problems. It raced originally as LHD but was converted to RHD early in its life.
The second owner was Robin Bessant of Launceston who transferred to it, from a Lotus Cortina and a Cooper S.
The car was successfully campaigned by Bessant who now had to compete against similar machines as more Mustangs and Camaro’s etc were being raced.
Bessant on-sold the car to Graeme Scott who used it sparingly and eventually sold off all the race bits and converted it to a road car then sold it to a chap in Penguin Tasmania. Chas Kelly (of Port Sorell near Devonport in Tasmania) purchased the car from this owner about 4 or 5 years ago and had it restored over a period of a couple of years. He was not happy with the workmanship so had it done again by a different crew.
He also has purchased the Ford truck that used to tow it and other Elliot race cars and has had it restored as well.
Don Elliot is very well known in older racing circles and had a string of cars which he drove himself in the 50’s and then an even more impressive stable he provided for Robin Pare / Tony Edmondson to drive in the 60-80’s. Some of them were the ex McCormack Ansett Charger, Bryan Thomson Camaro, Elfin 600, BMW LWT, Anglia S/C, Cortina, and the Sports sedan built on F5000 Elfin with Alfa body which was very fast and driven by Edmondson. |
