I run a historic motorsport website/forum which covers most aspects of road race motorsport history. One of the forum members owns a cool old New Zealand race car called the GeeCeeEss special, which was very successful in the '50s, winning just about every major race and championship including road racing, hill climbing, and beach racing, that there was. The GeeCeeEss was built from a Ford midget base and fitted with an Edelbrock equipped flathead, but then the owner/builder/driver George Smith somehow got hold of a set of Ardun heads, as pictured. I don't know how the hell these heads found their way to New Zealand, they were rare enough in their home land, but there were a small number of them that did make it down-under. Smith ran them on the GeeCeeEss for a while, before eventually replacing the Ford motor with a Chrysler Hemi. I just wanted to share this. I figured a few of you would get a kick out of seeing what Kiwi racers got up to in the 50s, and its such a cool old car. It still exists, but the Ardun heads are sadly long gone. Hopefully they're still sitting under someones work bench, waiting to be re-discovered.
Great story, you're right, there were not that many Ardun sets made originally, amazing how one made it to NZ...But then again I ran into a guy in Lancaster, OH, running a set on his roadster and said he had two unboxed sets in his garage...you never know where they might turn up...
hey!! thats the same Stewart Quertier whos 39 deluxe coupe is in my shop for restoration!!! his flathead special is real cool and boy does he have a good stash of hot up parts in his shed! PB
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