Bathurst Museum

[marcus]

Last week I paid a trip to Australias legendary racetrack , Mount Panorama in Bathurst , NSW

they have an excellent little museum there filled with the history of the mountain track and many race cars and racing bikes of years gone by.

I took a few snapshots while i was there and thought I would post a few pics here for you folks to have a look at and maybe fill in the blanks on a few of them.


This is a Ford Falcon , no idea who the drivers were or what year it raced , but it is in very good condition and actually deserved a better photo than was taken.

[marcus]

the next is of a nice looking blue car , thats about all I can tell you about it LOL

there are little blurbs about the cars written on the podium in front of them , but of course my memory is completely shot and I can remember anything.

maybe someone else knows ?????

[marcus]

the next is the legendary Peter Brock Commodore from the early and mid 80's , this car was awesome just like the VB and VC before , the VK done up in its malboro livery was something simply awesome

one of my alltime favorite cars for sure

[marcus]

heres a little pearler , again Ive got no idea what it is , but it would have been one hell of a wild ride in this thing

[marcus]

this as you can see is an ex Roni orlando car (No idea who he is???)

but it certainly is a very nice car thats for sure

[marcus]

this is also a very famous car that raced at bathurst , its a classic Holden Torana raced by Stirling Moss and jack brabham , there was alot of hype having these two great racers show up at the mountain but sadly things didnt go as planned , when the car only went 50 metres or so off the line before being involved in a startline shunt.
sad way for these two great drivers end there Bathurst campaigns.

[marcus]

and the final pic i have for yas is of myself and my step daughter (Jamie , she is the short one lol) sitting in the Volvo 850 of Jim Richards and Rickard Rydell , when they competed together in the 1000km supertouring race in the late 90's.

all in all a great trip and one I will do again for sure , if you ever get the chance to go to bathurst then i say do it you wont regret it and drop into the Museum located at the final turn to see these and many more fantastic things all about the history of Ozzie motorsport.

I hope yas liked the pics


CHEERS
Marcus

[GTRMagic]

Nice pics Marcus, I didnt think you were allowed to take fotos inside the museum :confused:

The 850 Volvo was one of the 12hr cars suitably retweaked and reliveried to look like the SuperTourer... Amazing how big an 850 is to sit in isnt it??

[William Dale Jr]

I think that the Falcon is supposed to be the XR GT that Harry Firth and Fred Gibson took to victory in the 500 in 1967.

I've only made it to Bathurst the once, and that was a few months before the museum moved into the building it's in today, so they had much less room and as a result had much fewer exhibits. What they did have though was the ex-Andrew Harris car that Dick Johnson raced at Bathurst in 1983, the pole-winning Nissan Bluebird and the '86 Bathurst-winning Chickadee Commodore.

How busy was it when you were there, marcus?

[Milan Fistonic]

The blue single-seater is Ron Reid's Terraplane Special. It first appeared at Bathurst in 1950.

[DAVID PATERSON]

I've been to the Bathurst motor racing museum twice, it's very good and certainly worth a visit. Unfortunately, when I was in Bathurst nearly 3 months ago, we were so busy we didn't have time to check out the new bigger, better building with a lot more exhibits.

The VK Commodore is one of only 3 VK Commodores built to Group C spec, they raced just twice, 1984 Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000.

The XR Falcon GT is a replica of the '67 Gallaher 500 winner. Because the race was rtun to showroom stock rules, very, very few of the cars can be traced nowadays, they lost the signs and cage, if they had one and went onto the used car lots after a year or so of racing.

I'm not aware of any Volvo 850 running in the Bathurst 12 hour, like Marcus i sat in the ST 850 at the museum and it looked pretty legit to me.

[Morris 1100]

Originally posted by marcus
heres a little pearler , again Ive got no idea what it is , but it would have been one hell of a wild ride in this thing

The red car was the last road registered car to win the Australian Grand Prix
It is a George Reed Ford special and was driven to victory by Warwick Pratley in the 1951 AGP.

[Amaroo Park]

Originally posted by DAVID PATERSON
The VK Commodore is one of only 3 VK Commodores built to Group C spec, they raced just twice, 1984 Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000.

Nah that HDT VK is actually the Harvey car that fifnished second and the Brock 05 car went to the UK and was raced by John Cleland in the late 80's

[William Dale Jr]

Actually, the Group C VKs raced three times - Brock and Harvey also did the Surfers enduro after Bathurst, and AFAIK that was the last time they saw active competition. I also think that there were more than three built; there were the two HDT VKs, the Roadways VK, the Cullen KMart VK, and I think there were a few more.

colinbond, any more info on the Brock VK? Did Cleland race it in Thundersports or something?

[racer69]

I know Cleland raced one of the ex-Mobil Holden Dealer Team Group A Commodore's in 1986, it was one of the cars left in England after their attack on the 1986 European Touring Car Championship. Was the Harvey/Parsons car re-stickered with the 05 and Brock/Perkins name if it did go to UK? You used to be able to sit in it, i've got a pick of myself in there from 1999. Even the James Hardie 1000 sticker, positioned for Racecam, was till in the car, faded, but still there.

I think only 4 VK's were built, the one's that you mentioned WDJ. Both the Roadways VK and Cullen's VK were upgraded to Group A specs though in 1985. There may have been some upgraded VH's though.

I've been to the museum a few times, the last time i was there was April 2002, judging by the pics it seems they move the cars around abit. The last time i was in the museum they had the Bob Morris/John Fitzpatrick 1976 winning Holden Torana, and also the Sterling Moss/Jack Brabham Torana and the Dolomite that ran up the back of it during that same 1976 race, situated one behind the other in the museum. Also in there was the 1992 winning Winfield Nissan GTR, and one of the 12hr winning BP Mazda RX7s, along with the Chickadee '86 winning Commodore, and the '88 winning Sierra RS500, amongst a heap of others.

Quite alot are Replica's, but there are some real deals in there. Apparently there are quite a few more cars that they have than are on display, but they rotate them around. Did anyone read in MSN about Bob Holden and his old Ford Escort, his car went in there, or into the care of someone who put it there, straight after Bathurst 1983, he pulled it out the other week to race in a Group C Historic race at Wakefield Park, Bathurst '83 tyres still on and all.

As far as i know factory Volvo 850s raced in the 12hr at Bathurst in 1994, then at the Eastern Creek 12hr in 1995 in Triple M colours. Brock and Scott were the drivers if my memory is correct.

Is the hollowed out Team Toyota Australia Corolla still out the front?

I've got a heap of pics from in there, no scanner though. Another good feature of the museum i like is the memorabilia round the walls of it.

What year was the Museum opened. It used to be on the inside of the track in the James Hardie Centre under the podium, i remember going in there in about 1989 or 1990, and seeing the shell of a Schnitzer BMW M3 from 1987, well the hollowed out shell at least, minus doors, bonnets etc... sitting out the front.

[GTRMagic]

Originally posted by DAVID PATERSON
I'm not aware of any Volvo 850 running in the Bathurst 12 hour, like Marcus i sat in the ST 850 at the museum and it looked pretty legit to me.

As racer69 has said Brock/Scott ran an 850 turbo at Bathurst in the 12 hr in '94, and a 850 normally aspirated car for John English

The 850 turbo ran in the Eastern Creek 12 hr, not in those colours, but in the colours of MMM FM radio. 2 cars, one for Brock/Scott, another for Ordynski/Percy

Both cars had power steering problems from their supertourer style body kits restricting airflow into the engine and overcooking the fluids

The 2 Volvo 850 supertourer sedans brought to Australia by Volvo went back to TWR UK at the end of the 97 season. The car in the museum is the showcar built if I recall rightly out of one of the 2 Volvo 12hr turbos. I could be wrong, but that car is not a pukka supertourer

[Beejay17]

Here is another pic taken in the museum in October last year. The '77 Moffat XCs actually did a parade lap prior to the 1000 with Colin Bond alongside, still in second place (waits for the flames). In the backgropund you can see the Bruce McPhee Monaro from '68.

[marcus]

ok I will try and answer a few questions if I can.

yes you are allowed to take photo's in there in fact they encourage it, so theres no problem there , the museum was fairly busy when we were there , not overly crowded but at least 20 to 30 people went through in the hour or so we spent there.

the Toyota corolla is still out the front , driven by john Faulkner and someone else but I cant remember who in 86 and 87 ???

the chickadee commordore is still there , I thought I got a pic of it but I must have missed it , they also must move the cars around a fair bit and swap and change , be cause the last pic there posted by beejay shows Moffats car , it was not even there , so they must move the cars around the country or something.


and thanks for filling in the blanks guys , certainly a good conversation piece

[GTRMagic]

The Corolla is the John Smith/Drew Price unit from '85 '86 '87 that almost died a sorry death in the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Corollas" during the dreadfully wet part of the 1987 Great Race...

Most of the cars in the museum are on loan from their owners, well except for a few like the B&H Sierra that WD & HO Wills donated to the museum, and a few of the cars restored at the Bathurst TAFE... so I assume the owners take their cars back when they are off-rotation.

I read the same thing about Bob Holden's Escort too, I honestly cant recall seeing it there, and I have been inside the museum a few times, always leaving the camera at home. Doh!

The Chickadee car was quite rough the last time I saw it, Graeme Bailey's son Derek was using it as a sports sedan at one stage, when Amaroo Park was still alive, and the car got a bit damaged in that encounter. The livery isnt as it finished Bathurst either, if you remember rightly Graeme Crosby took the car over for the Calder ATCC round in 1987 with the hope of getting funding for the year... didnt happen unfortunately....

[racer69]

Yes i'd never noticed the Bob Holden Escort in there either. Maybe it was on rotation when i was there?

I've heard plenty of stories about the Chickadee car, ranging from that it went straight to the museum after the race, to running in the early rounds of the 1987 ATCC, although i heard that Grice raced it until he got his VL, although i have also heard that Grice drove the ex-Graeme Cameron Commodore from New Zealand, and that as you said GTR that Croz drove the Bailey car. The Chaickadee was in the paddock during the 1987 race, and was rumoured to be the car which Grice/Percy may have taken over of they could fix the VL which Percy put into the wall Moffat style at McPhillamy. I saw Graeme's son driving the Chickadee car, in those colours, even down to the #2, at Oran Park in Sports Sedans a few years back.

Pity Crosby couldn't get the backing for a full year in 1987, and we never really saw him again. He showed so much potential and promise (plus great racecam) in 1986.

[GTRMagic]

Didnt the Croz drive with Andrew Bagnall one year in his Sierra??

Grice started the 1987 year in his VL didnt he, with yellow & white paintwork, till it became Bob Jane orange from about Tassie onwards...

And I have a pic out of the middle of Modern Motor in Dec '97 at home and the paintwork is slightly different to the car in the museum.

The Cameron car was a Roadways unit too, updated from an old Roadways VK if I recall rightly....

15 years dulls the memory

[Crash Test]

Is this the Holden Escort ()? If it is missing, it might be on racing duties...

[GTRMagic]

thats the one Crash, but I have never seen that car inside the museum, and Bob only took the car back recently....

[DAVID PATERSON]

I believe Bob Holden had/has several Group C Escorts.

[racer69]

He raced them up until probably the Castrol 500 in 1984 i suppose, when he switched to a Group A Sprinter, which clocked up many many km's over the years.

Grice definatly ran a plain white VK Commodore in the opening 2 rounds of the '87 ATCC, Crosby as teammate in a VK in the same colours, both backed by Chickadee and Bob Jane. Then at round 3 Grice ran the new VL in white, yellow and blue, with the same backers, and was by himself. He changed to red colours, but still with same sponsers, at Amaroo i think. Crosby returned to partner him at the Calder 300 race prior to Sandown, and ran at Bathurst alongside John Billington in a VK.
I'm getting this off video's and books though, was only 4 at the time

Croz partnered Bagnall in '89 in a Sierra, then Bond in '90 and '91, and was Brock's co-driver in the 1992 Nissan-Mobil 500 series in New Zealand.