This is the article that appeared in todays Daily News. The pictures are from Craig Jeffrey so thanks to him for allowing me to put them up here.
World famous race car innovator, Clive Lintern and his son Rob have been secretly building New Zealand’s first ever Formula One stock car in their Hawera workshop.
CRAIG JEFFREY lifts the lid on the project and discovers a family intent on perfecting the art of stock car design.
Keeping secrets in a small town is never easy and is even more difficult when the word is out that someone is doing something special.
Speculation and rumour has abounded within speedway circles that someone in Taranaki was building a stock car to take on the world.
The shroud of secrecy has now been lifted.
Clive and Rob Lintern’s state of the art, world championship challenging, formula one stock car, is ready and will make its debut at the Radio Hauraki Stratford Speedway on Boxing Day.
The British specification stock car has been built by the Lintern’s to compete at the World Formula One Championship in England next September.
At Stratford, the car will have its first run in a head to head battle with one of New Zealand’s top super stocks.
Clive Lintern’s stock cars have won every major UK and European title there is.
A 27 year career in the UK saw Lintern senior pioneer innovation in speedway racing suspension and chassis design and led to him having a massive influence on the way stock cars are built there.
Hawera race engine mechanic and partner in the project, Murray Phillips, say’s the car is unlike anything previously built.
“It is state of the art. There is nothing like it in the UK and none have been built in New Zealand before. We have used a 434 cubic inch Chevy small block engine, with the internals being much lighter and stronger,” he says.
Phillips would not be drawn on further details of the cars make up, citing the sport’s secretive nature.
“We don’t want to give too much away, we’ve dyno tested it at 750 horsepower, but that’s not unusual as most of the British cars are about the same. Most run the big block motors.
“The difference we have is that the big cubes are in a small block engine.”
Phillips says his collaboration with the Lintern’s came about in the usual kiwi way – over a few beers.
“A group of us just got talking one day and decided it was a good idea. Clive is an extremely talented and focused engineer,” he says.
Clive Lintern’s career began as a self taught engineer fabricating stock cars during the early 1970’s in Staffordshire, England, while earning a living from building agricultural implements and farm buildings.
He is regarded in the UK as being the best stock car builder in the game and one whose suspension system is still the top choice in the fiercely competitive British Stock Car Association’s (BRISCA) professional ranks,
Lintern’s innovative coil-over suspension devised in 1989 is the most copied and the most effective there is on both dirt and tarmac surfaces.
But the urge to be near family saw Lintern, his wife Linda and son Rob emigrate to New Zealand in 1997.
Semi retirement saw him divert his interest to restoring vintage tractors at his home on the out skirts of Hawera.
Stock car building, however, was in the genes and it was Rob who took over his father’s mantle when he began building New Zealand spec stock cars four years ago.
Rob Lintern has become New Zealand’s next rising star in stock car construction, suspension and chassis design.
A keen interest in speedway, saw Rob racing in England from the early age of ten and scrutineering race cars at 15.
He became an integral part of his fathers business, building the formula one beasts with his dad for a further five years.
His interest in the technical side of construction saw Rob shy away from racing as he grew older and his skills were directed into the art of innovation.
Ten, Rob Lintern built race cars, currently grace the speedway tracks of New Zealand and none are the same.
His reputation has sky rocketed with the unique look of his cars and the name that goes with them.
In fact, osmosis has meant a continual procession of would be customers is regularly knocking on the Lintern door.
“We don’t advertise as it’s not actually our core business. We do general engineering. Stock car building is just an interest,” he says.
There had been much speculation on which New Zealander would pilot the new car in England, but it can now be categorically stated that Hawera’s Roydon Collingwood has the drive.
Collingwood is the current Taranaki super stock champion, has raced in England before and has at least 20 years experience racing stock cars.
“It’s an opportunity to drive a pristine car which is a step up from our own, in both speed and horsepower,” Collingwood says.
And Taranaki speedway fans can count themselves lucky to be the first to see the car in action.
Other tracks around the country have shown huge interest in the project and also wanted it first.
Racing at the Stratford speedway begins on Boxing Day at 7pm, with the feature event being the Taranaki midget championship.
A demolition derby also features along with the John and Gary Adamson Memorial for super stocks.
See you there.
