Heron Mark 2/3
The third owner, Bill Robinson's recollections of this car
Some time during 1968-1969 I bought the Heron V8 from Norris Miles. My wife, at the time and I, drove up to Pukekohe to pay for and collect the car. Towed the car back to Wellington where I lived and arranged to store the car in my Father-in-laws garage. Did not quite make it, as I had a suspension failure with my tow car at the bottom of the road where he lived. Ended up unloading the car, firing it up, and driving it up to and into his garage. Great intro to race cars. As you probably know this was built by Ross Baker and based on the lotus 23 style chassis. And originally intended for a Chevrolet Corvair engine and gearbox. Ross did not get the Corvair bits so ended up putting a Daimler Dart V8 of 2558cc displacement connected to a Citroen DS 19 gearbox which was turned upside down to get the correct rotation for the drive shafts. The front suspension was the current trend of Triumph Herald uprights with disc brakes and fabricated wishbones using Armstrong coil over shock absorbers. Steering was also Herald. At the rear, if I remember correctly, there was a reversed lower wishbone with a complicated upper radius rod that had two mounts on the Baker built upright to try and control bump steer. This also used Armstrong units and the driveshaft was the top link. Wheels were 8 inch and 10 inch magnesium with Firestone tyres. A large triangular aluminium fuel tank was located behind the seats and used a Jaguar double SU electric pump to supply the engine. To get the engine low enough in the chassis the bottom had been cut off the sump and to compensate for the reduced oil capacity a VW oil cooler had been fitted. Norris had told me that he thought the clutch was on the way out so once I had the car into the double garage that I was renting I removed the gearbox and the clutch. As I worked for Engine Reconditioners parts were not a problem but identifying them was a bit of a drama. The Clutch is a classic example. Used a Citroen clutch plate (logical) and a Bedford pressure plate (?)With a diaphragm spring. Never did identify the flywheel as the Daimlers only came into the country as automatics. While the gearbox was off I took it to the Citroen agents and they rebuilt it for me. Put it all back together in time to do Alexandra Road hill climb which goes up Mt Victoria in Wellington. I did not do well as I had massive clutch slip. Graham McRae suggested putting washers between the flywheel and pressure plate as this would put the diaphragm spring back to a useful position. I decide to call it a day and went home to decide on a cure. Thinner linings on the clutch plate ended up being the solution. Next event was at the old Bay Park up against a Lycoming, a Begg an Elfin 400, the Stanton Corvette and other sports cars of the day. Well two laps into practice I spun on oil and damaged a rear upright. Still did meet some nice people. Back home for another repair. I stripped the rear uprights off the car and took them into work to crack test them as they had been damaged and repaired before I bough the car. Had a few cracks around the welds on the bottom were the bolts for the wishbone screwed in and the same thing around the welds on the lugs for the top radius rod. Still not knowing any better I had the cracks welded up and reassembled the car for the next event. A clubman meeting at Levin was to be a major event for me. Practice went well as nothing broke and I did complete enough laps to start my first race. I was put on the front row as I was expected to roar of into the distance and it would be safer for the other cars if I did not have to overtake them (so I was told). Race starts first lap I am gone, second lap as I go around onto the straight, I had trouble selecting top gear, tried twice then decided to go back to third, but by then I was on the dirt on the outside of the circuit. Looks bad as the others streamed past I politely backed into the back at about 80 MPH. I was fine as I had fitted full harness belts just before the Bay Park meeting. The car was not so good. Bent chassis, broken uprights, bent body, (my nice new paint job), but the wheels were straight so I had saved a bit on repairs. Still that’s racing, back to the workshop. After a strip down I decided that the best course was to do a total strip and rebuild of the whole car and include updates and modifications. As the chassis from the cockpit back was bent it was cut off and a new frame fabricated and welded on. This was to include mounts for the Collotti gearbox that I bought from Bryan Faloon. An AP twin plate clutch was obtained from Bruce Abernathy and as the gearbox did not have a second gear fitted but had been rebuilt a visit to Len Southward got me a brand new second gear. The engine was stripped and required a new crankshaft as well as the usual bearings and rings. Ports were cleaned up and I fabricated a crossover intake manifold to fit the four 45 DCOE Weber’s that I had bought. The flywheel was turned down and drilled to take the AP clutch then the whole crank assembly was balanced. The gearbox bolted onto the back plate on the engine but I never did work out a starter motor mount. All the alloy panels were replaced and various bits relocated. As I had done a little bit of work for Graham McRae he gave me a set of Brabham wheels fitted with Firestone YB11 tyres. I also borrowed his pattern for rear uprights and had a pair cast and machined them myself to take Triumph 2000 rear stub axles and bearings. I used driveshaft’s that came from an accessory drive on a railcar as they where sliding spline and had the correct flanges for both the gearbox and the stub axles. As usual this took a lot longer than expected but I finally took the car out to Naenae to have a body built. While all this took place my wife and I had been pursuing immigrant status in Canada for all the usual reasons. This finally came through and we had I think six months to appear at a Canadian port of entry. Snatched the car out off the panel shop and entered it at Port Road sprint. Bloody thing went like a rocket and I beat Colin Lane in his first dragster for FTD. Ended up leaving the car with Colin Roberts and took of to greener pastures and finally came home gain twenty five years later having worked on and built some interesting cars. Bill
Heron Mk 2/3.
 | Click on the image to view it at full size. |
Images from Ross Baker
 | Click on the image to view it at full size. |
 | Click on the image to view it at full size. |
 | Click on the image to view it at full size. |
 | Click on the image to view it at full size. |
At an unknown race meeting, photos copyright LT Ranson
Photos from the 1989 Sports Car Club of New Zealand show
 | Click on the image to view it at full size. |
 | Click on the image to view it at full size. |
 | Click on the image to view it at full size. |