no not creative writing just the truth , many race cars  were cut welded and chopped for years , example  pixie my mini race car is 1/2 1962 cooper  ad 1/2 1964 cooper s  the car crashed  had had a  body and chopped .    the race moke was a army brat   the guy who i bought it from got the moke from the us army was pained bright red and used at a gun range ,   so you never know.    my race mini had mk2 lights on a mk1 body   when it raced as a BL sponserd car  it had to be up to date  so when the mk2 came out  BL insiste it have mk2 lights .    thats racing .    and your welcome  on the original mirrors, notice the bright red color , well maybe it was brighter 40 year ago. must have worked  the moke had no bullet holes in it .

Is that part of creative wining Bob?

I finally opened the box containing the windscreen yesterday, I wasn't aware that it had mirros in there too. Thank you Sir.

 yes and no   to qualify for  vintage racing with a 1275 and disks it had to be a ausy moke , i bought a ausy moke and transfered the rear arms for the 13 inch wheels ,  made fender extensions and called it a ausy moke   , but the body is a 67 uk moke  . 

I thought it was a UK Moke? The article stated Aussie Moke.

Don Sobering  with a “I can’t believe it look on his face”

1967 Australian Mini Moke                 Race car                “ Matilda “                                                                                   

         

This is the ultimate Mini moke    very light weight very fast.   Very much a wild ride.  

 

Built by Robert Tarzwell and raced in Canada and USA  at  Mosport, Roebling rd , Mid Ohio, Summit Point, Shannonville and  Waterford.  Won every where it ran.  Was the fastest mini at Mid Ohio mini sprite challenge 2 years running. Won third over all, first in class at Savanna enduro against Hurley Haywood and his super Porsche. Won first at Waterford against f5000, Mustangs, Camaro, and  a  real Gt40.  Second in  Canadian GT championship   1996.

 

Based on a 1967 1275 Australian Moke, with USA title slip.  Right hand drive.  Cost to build $ 40,000. Body gone over strengthened and a full dom. tubing roll cage welded in.   Extra pick up points for  two race seat belts and seats front and rear sub frame and engine.  Suspension modifications for lowered pickup points and shock strengthening as well as lowering.  HI lows suspension , Spak racing shocks all four corners,   race suspension rubber donuts , special rear lower rate donuts.   Rear negative camber plates. Big 8.4  inch front 4 pot cast calipers, large vented rotors, performance friction 93 carbon pads front . Copper “s” rear brakes, aluminum mini fin with carbon shoes. Rear sub frame welded, strengthened, and lowered in weight. Longer 13 inch wheel rear arms with picture of Australia cast in, rear sub frame bolted to roll cage.   6 13 inch aluminum wheels  panasport mini lite, with  4 new Avon intermediate grooved tires.  new front sub frame  welded, strengthened and lowered suspension pick up points.  Special ball cage front lower radius arms, negative camber front lower arms stainless steel braded brake hoses, competition bump rubber stops. The entire car is assembled with grade 9 super race bolts and nuts.

 

Aluminum race wrap around seat, 6 point race belts 3 “ . Race seat lower to floor, race steering wheel, reverse lock out on shifter.  10,000 rpm meter, oil pressure gauge and water temp.  Aluminum passenger seat  Fire extinguisher on board.   Aluminum  bladder Fuel safe fuel cell 8 gal  ( custom made to same  dimensions as original over $2400.00) electronic fuel pump, safety shut off switch, wide wink mirror and small Lexan windshield.  Custom made Tonneau cover, rear and passenger area.  Alternator fitted.  Roll over cage meets all sanctioning bodies rules. 

 

 Original engine

 

Motor is a high revving short stroke 1300 cc metro turbo block, 4 bolt main cap, Arp cap bolts. forged billet crank, 73 mm omega pistons, with total seal rings. Carrillo rods, full floating  rod end,   Teflon piston plugs.    12 cc longman head  large intake and exhaust moved .050 each.  Keith dodd  rockers, harden thicker rocker shaft.  310 lb race dual springs , aluminum spring tops.  S.S race valves  hardened seats. Dyno at 140 hp at 9000 rpm , will rev over 10,000 rpm.   Arp head bolts, “s” aluminum water pump, extra large race oil pump. Oil modifications to block for better return flow.  Twin “s” timing chain adjustable sprocket. Vpsp 5 cam,  chilled cast followers.   This engine is built to be super strong and reliable. Straight cut transfer gears, tapered  large roller bearings on idler gear.   Ultra Lightened steel mini spares flywheel, ceramic clutch plate, Ultra lightened backing plate, gray diaphragm,

4 blade race fan,  Kevlar race belt , large radiator.  Large oil cooler. Heavy duty aluminum oil filter head.  Aldon Red race distributor.  S.S braded clutch hose.    Straight cut jack knight extra close ratio involute dog box. Rod change box.  Straight cut differential 4.1 ratio, Tran-x limited slip diff, clutch pack, special dual ramps.  “s” drive shafts with “s” hubs    3 in to one competition  wrapped header straight through exhaust.  45 Weber carburetor, 6 inch manifold.  Aluminum rocker cover, oil return catch system.  High rpm clutch bearing.

  

Car has a very neutral race attitude, goes where you point it and can stop on a dime.  Slight under steer in to the corner controlled by the throttle and very side ways if needed with full control. This is the fastest mini I have ever raced.  Turn’s low 145 at Mid Ohio with the chicane in. 1:39’s at Mosport  all with  only street  legal tires This is the most fun car I have ever raced bar none and quite a crowd pleaser.  There is a second seat and race belts for rides for the very brave at heart.  A full race car   but will make a wonderful solo or slalom events car.

 

Car has raced in CASC, HSR, Jefferson 500, WHRR and has been approved for SVRA smaller events.

With 22 race’s,  10 first, 8 second, 1 third, 1 forth, one 5 th. ,  8 top 3 qualifying.  only one DNF and one NRAF.  Many first’s overall against much bigger and faster cars.  In rain races  she finished  first in class  and  2/55 and 2 /29  overall with very big fast cars.

  

Story about the Moke named Matilda.

 

I have spent many a race weekend beating the pants off larger much more expensive cars such as Jaguars, Porsche and Mustangs. It amazes people how fast a well prepared Mini can go. When I raced the Moke I had many a race organizer want to kick the car out. It is even reportable that it is banned from a few tracks it did not even run at. They would bump up the class and generally discouraged the ugly thing from racing. Why because it was so fast. Once at Waterford hills vintage race weekend I entered the Moke, The head guy was an old friend and fellow Mini racer Ted, well before the car was unloaded the cries of fowl play arose from the paddock. Ted calmly explained that the wimps did not want to get wommped by such an ugly car, so he bumped me two classes into the mg, lotus 7 and over 3 liter class. I literally wiped there butts in the first practice being over 6 sec a lap faster, So what could Ted do but bump me into the class with a F5000, GT40, Mustangs and Alfas, oh and a  mean looking Camaro  to boot.

  

       Picture of the little Moke lined up for qualifying with the big guys  qualified fifth out of 23 cars                   

 

      I looked kinda funny in that moke sitting on the grid ready to go out for qualifying. Well I put it 5 th over all first in class . Oh the cries of despair arose once again from the paddock. But Ted held fast, heck where was he going to put the thing. He did tell me not to take chances with the big cars as he was afraid of an accident and the thought of a big ass mustang at full chat hitting the poor little moke rightly disturbed him. I assured him I knew what I was doing (of course he knew better) and I was off to talk with the driver of the yellow mustang who was gridded beside me. The yellow mustang guy was a nice enough gentleman and he assured me he would let me get through corner one with out incident and we would have a good race. Yea so much for that theory, he pushed me right off the track before the first corner, bet you he was laughing like hell at the sight of a Moke bouncing in the air as it was going off road into corner one.

 

     All it did was royally piss me off.  I was now dead last in a field of 15 very fast cars. So I started to really throw the moke around, Waterford is a very small track with very tight corners. The Moke can be made to dirt track around a corner if you go in way to hot and toss the rear end around. After a few laps I was fifth, got by a nice Alfa now I’m forth.

Four laps from the end I was second and right on that big yellow mustangs ugly butt. He had much more power and would run away on the short straight. I could get close but could not quite pass under some extreme braking. Each time I tried to pass on the left and each time he blocked, the last lap and I faked a pass to the left but went right. HA! He drove right off the corner and into the dirt. Deserves him right!

 

 I had such a lead that when I got to the start Finnish line I stopped just before and sat there. The starter raised the flag and just looked at me. He wiggled his finger to suggest I might try and cross the line so he could drop the flag; I just shook my head no! . I have never seen such a poderance look on the face of a starter before, what’s he to do. I was however looking in the mirror to see where the big ass mustang was and right on cue here he comes. I floored it and burnt rubber across the line. Now that’s how to rub their noses in it. On the cool down and victory lap, all the marshals were on their knees bowing and waving their arms. No feeling like it in the world. Oh the yellow mustang guy came and found me in the pits and was not very happy, what could he do I beat him fair and square. Well hell no, actually I cheated, I used a Mini moke the BEACH BUGGY FROM HELL !

   

           Matilda was faster then a vintage race mini   probably because of the low  weight but suffered more drag.

1996  mini sprite challenge  

Jim Roberts       sprite             144.475

Tom Colby  sprite                   145.198

 Bob Tarzwell   moke              145.408   over 4.5 seconds faster then the best mini

Jim Furstenberg   mini “s”      149.993

  

Sept 22 1996    gt race Mosport   damp race, Matilda places in the big GT1  and SSG cars

 

Gt1     Ahmed Khodkar    corvette       1:57.826 

GtC     bob Tarzwell         moke           1:59.860

Gt1      David Diedrick                         2:02.840

Ssg       bob Monro           Camero       2:02.721