Manufacturer wants help.... Options

[Russell Sheldon]

I received an e-mail from Chris Boyer, the person behind the fantastic new Proto Slot-kit cars, in which he mentioned that he is considering doing the Team Gunston version of the Ferrari 350 but he needs some good pictures. If anyone has some or knows a source, please e-mail Chris at contact@chris-deco.com.

The Team Gunston cars were always superbly presented, resplendent in the orange, gold and brown livery of the Rhodesian cigarette company. Team Gunston driver and multiple South African Champion, John Love, was a real gentleman and always willing to talk to his fans. I vividly remember watching the Ferrari 350 being driven by Love and Paul Hawkins in the 1968 Springbok Series round at Killarney, Cape Town. South African artist Dave Adnams has depicted the car beautifully in this painting:



In the 1968 Springbok series, the Team Gunston car raced as No 6 in the Cape International 3 Hours at the Killarney circuit, which it won, and as No 4 in the Kyalami Nine Hour race, where it finished 3rd.

The car was originally built as a Ferrari 330/P4, chassis number 0858, before being converted to a "350 P4". In 1967 it finished 2nd in the Monza 1,000Km driven by Scarfiotti/Parkes; 5th in the Spa 1,000Km and 2nd at Le Mans. In the BOAC 500 it finished 6th with Hawkins/Williams at the wheel.

It was then converted into a "350 P4 Can-Am" car and driven by Scarfiotti at Mosport and Amon at Riverside, with Williams doing the driving at Laguna Seca and Las Vegas. Then in the Tasman race at Surfer's Paradise (Amon/McKay; DNF), and in the 1968 Springbok Series.

I suspect that the chassis was converted back to a 330 P4 before it went on to race in Europe where it finished 1st at Magny Cours with Hailwood and had a DNF at Dijon, also with Hailwood driving.

The chassis was then sold to David Piper and in 1969 was driven by Walker and Widdows (as a 330 P4) in the Springbok Series. At the end of the series the car was sold in the USA to a collector by the name of Medlin, who restored it as a 330/P4.

To my mind, the Ferrari 350 P4 was the most beautiful racing car ever built. Chris has certainly captured it's looks superbly:



Pendle Slot Racing should have them in stock sometime this week, along with the fabulous Porsche 908.

Kind regards

Russell

[Tropi]

You have posted that Gunston car on previous occasions elsewhere, Russell, and it looks better every time I see it - incredibly attractive in every way.
Thanks for giving us another look.

[Doug]

Russell,

There are a couple of factors coming together that will prevent you from finding this information (right now).

• 1968 - long time ago
• South Africa - they only got TV in the mid-70's
• Relatively unknown event outside of the country and international racing circles.

There might be someone with photos, but he's too old to have a computer, scanned the photos or be connected to the net.

Sorry to sound cynical, but the only way for an event prior to the early 90's to have any presence on the net is if a certain critical mass of people are sufficiently obsessed with it - take the Le Mans races for example.

Perhaps in the future all archived information will be made available on the net - at least I hope that it will.

Regards,
Doug

[Russell Sheldon]

Fly / GB Track did a nice job of the Team Gunston Lola T70 MkIIIB, Porsche 917 and Chevron, as well as the Scheckter "Wynn's" Chevron and the Charlton "Lucky Strike" Chevron all from the Springbok Series. A number of 1/43rd scale examples of cars from the Springbok Series exist, including a Pallino resin kit of the Team Gunston Ferrari 350, so there must be some reference material out there somewhere.

Kind regards

Russell

[Doug]

But not on the net (yet).

I'd check the newspaper archives. Argus and the Cape Times. Try and find any sports photographers of the time who might have personal collections. Find them by looking at Copyright info from photos taken at F1 events over the same period. Also, perhaps Gunston themselves might have photos. Quite often the sponsors got given posters and such to hang in their lobbies and commissioned photos for use in their print ads.

Remember the "Gunston 500" surfing events? How popular they were... Just try searching for images and logos from that.

Doug