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This
is one of four 1967 XR Falcon GT's that raced at Bathurst that year.
It was the only one finished in Ivy Green and it looks sensational.
I'm not sure how long those hubcaps would stay on for though!
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This
is GM's response to the GT Falcon's. With 327cubic inches to the Ford's
302 they had a slight advantage on the track. |
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This
is what the V8's were beating up on. The GT Cortina's were the hot
ticket, along with the Mini Cooper S until the big V8's hit the
scene.
This
one was piloted by Barry Seton, who's son, Glen is now an accomplished
V8 Supercar competitor.
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They've
been racing at Mt Panorama for quite a while. This racing special
is based on a Hudson Terraplane and by the look of it, has seen a
fair bit of racing. You've got to admire someone who can pedal one
of these around at a rate of knots! |
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Plenty
of information to take in here! Good to see the tacho takes pride
of place whereas the speedo is waaaaaay over the other side. Probably
a good thing to NOT know how fast you were going. |
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Mt
Panorama wasn't always the beautiful racing surface it now either.
I'm not exactly sure what the history of this car is, but if they
ran this down Conrod Straight at full tilt, that would have been something
else. |
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High
tech racing engines, 50's style. Don't let the red paint fool you,
that's a mighty Grey motor lurking under all those carbs and those
crazy pipes. By the look of it, the "lakes" style pipes
just slip over the "zoomie" exhaust. I'd love to hear what
this sounds like with the zoomies. |
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This
is a Renmax Formula Junior and has recently been restored to be raced
again. I love to see that. It is a very nicely presented car and would
be great to see on the track. I believe they ran with either 1300
or 1600 cc Ford motor's. |
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There
were also a handful of motorbikes there. This Velocette is a great
looking machine and apparently it was quite a terror in it's day straight
from the factory. |
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Here's
a closeup of the tank. It says 1926-28-29 T.T. Winners. Nothing like
a bit of bragging. Sorry about the photo, but obviously they had a
problem with people drooling over the bike as it was totally enclosed
in a perspex case. |
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This
is one of the most famous cars to win Bathurst due to the fact that
it was the winner in the first ever formation finish at the Mountain.
It is amazing to look at these cars and think that they were race
cars in their day. Apart from a roll cage and a couple of extra gauges,
there isn't much different to the factory car. Scary! |
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This
looks like a fairly stock engine. I have a feeling that during the
restoration they just slotted in a fairly stock 351 Cleveland, but
then, as I said before, there wasn't really that much separating these
cars from the factory. |
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As
they say... "The last of the Big Bangers". The production
cars had gotten a little out of hand by the 80's, sporting flares
and spoilers that were nothing like the cars they were based on. These
were Group C cars, they changed the rules, the cars got a little tamer
and they were called Group A's. |
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Apart
from an odd looking Weber carby setup, the motors don't look too different
from your average Street Machine of the day... in fact, most Street
Machine's looked better! |
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This
is actually the same model Commodore as the one above, but as you
can see, with much less plastic bolted to it. I'm not sure how much
slower the cars were in this format, but I'm sure the drivers weren't
too pleased about going slower... after all, doesn't that defeat the
purpose a little? |
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I've
jumped around a little in the chronology of it all here, but anyway...
This is what they used to race before the Commodore came out, the
much loved (by Mulletheads the country over) Torana. This one is
especially interesting as it's driver's were none other than Formula
1 LEGEND'S, Stirling Moss and Jack Brabham. Unfortunately they had
a problem with gear box and lost quite a few laps at the start before
the engine finally failed. Love the "denim" paint job
too.
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I
remember this car from my childhood watching the "Great Race"
and it was great to see it in the metal. It's a great colour combination
and really stands out. |
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Here's
the engine of the #7 Torana. Apart from an interesting side draft
Weber induction setup it looks like any old 308 with chrome rocker
covers. |
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...and
finally, some arty stuff.
One
for the Ford fans...
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...and
one for the Holden boys. |
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...and
in case you ever wondered why they call it Mt. Panorama.... Check
out the view mate! What a great race track, truly one of the world's
greatest. I ended up driving around it 4 or 5 times, unfortunately
there is a 60 kph speed limit on non-race days.
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