A question for you kiwi historians :-)

[Richard Gee]

All - I'm after some info on a 500cc racing car - NZ made I think - called the Norton Cullen. Guess it would have had a 500cc Norton engine? I think it was driven by John Cullen in the Waimate 50 race of 1959?

PS - Not trying to track down the engine to replace the K George!! :-)

[Kiwi XTR2]

Hmmmm . . . targeting different combinations in an advanced Gooooooogle search doesn't work too well does it.

What you need is a local-paper historian, who has every edition of the local rag going back 70 years, had an uncle who was the official photographer for the race, and lives next door to Cullen's eldest son.

[Richard Gee]

Does such a man or woman exist?

[kylie]

You could search district libraries www.timaru.govt.nz/index.asp?sidenav=servnav.html&mainpage=services/libraries/

Heres Timarus one, but this info could be sourced anywhere in NZ.
I have always found Auckland Library really useful for stuff like this.

[roger A]

or you could write/email NZ classic car-they seem to have a fair collection of anoraks.

[Kiwi XTR2]

Richard Gee said:

Does such a man or woman exist?

Absolutely no idea, but chances are her name is Doris, Mavis or Ethel and she's the secretary of the local Bridge Club

Good luck mate, I'm no help.

[GravelBen]

If it raced in the old Waimate 50 then the South Canterbury clubs (or branches of clubs) are most likely to have somebody that knows of it, especially the classic clubs. not sure how exactly you'd get hold of them though, apart from www.southcanterburycarclub.org.nz for the SCCC.

[marksteamnz]

Historic Racing Cars of New Zealand by Graham Vercoe pub 1991
Any library will be able to interloan a copy
Pg 106 Cullen 500
Lightweight single seater 498cc Norton Built in the SI 1957 by John Cullen.
Raced with Bill Ingle from 1963 class win in 1965 at the Frytt St sprint.
Now powered by a 1000cc HD Sporter Motor owned by Kevin Telford in Dunedin.

Now a caveat I have been told G Vercoe's publication is very error prone and 1991 is a few years back so good hunting!!
Cheers
Mark Stacey
www.cncprototyping.co.nz