Grp C/Grp A/V8SC 'Where are they now?' continued...

[A9X05]

Originally Posted by Henry

What was the timeline on the Forbes project? I'll have to wade through the rubbish in my garage and see if I can find that edition of AMC myself!

Henry I think it was 1976 ish the Forbes Le mans project car ended being the Janson /Perkins car that ran at the mountain in 77!

[A9X05]

Originally Posted by A9X05

Henry I think it was 1976 ish the Forbes Le mans project car ended being the Janson /Perkins car that ran at the mountain in 77!

Sorry I was out on my guesstimate?? Forbes plan for Lemans was 77 and to race it in 78 Janson / Perkins did run the same car at Bathurst in 79, Ran 2nd to Brocky! Looks to be a second one that ended up on the strip! Doesnt seem to be any connection to Bob Janes Torana! I did get my wires crossed
----Borrowed from AMC issue 16 Moffats Mustang on the cover!

[Driver TBA]

Hmmm....wonder if these are left overs from the lightweight falcons of the mid 90's? Or were they EF's?

P.S. Hope the link works
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Drag-or-Racin...QQcmdZViewItem

[Amonfan]

Originally Posted by racer69

Interesting if so, a past AMC edition indicated that this car (well the shell at least) was gone.

The car was sold to Garry Rogers in late 1978, who used it into 1979, when he had a big accident in it. He transferred the mechanicals into a new shell, and the original Jane shell was presumebly scrapped.

The replacement shell/car, the white, green & blue Greater Pacific Finance Torana popped up recently at the AMC Masters.....interesting as well i thought, as i was under the impression this car was butchered into Rogers Torana Sports Sedan?

The Rogers Sports sedan was the ex Rex Monaghan car, i think it was raced once with Ray Cutchie at the wheel before Rogers took delivery of it....

[Sultan]

Weren't there 3 lightweight A9X shells made?

[cavvy]

In recent times I heard Bob Jane questioned about the so called lightweight
A9X by Miles Johnson (aka Thunder road, restorer of the ZL1 etc)

".. is it urban myth, you rolled up to GM in Adelaide with a trailer load of lightweight steel & out popped a lightweight A9X?"

" It was a truck load of lightweight steel & out came 6 x A9Xs"

Can verify the conversation, not the facts ...

[Henry]

Originally Posted by cavvy

Can verify the conversation, not the facts ...

Still puts you well ahead of most of us, cavvy!

Be nice to know what became of the other five shells....

[cavvy]

Thanks Henry, just a bit of earwigging.

I am not an A9X student but are these the GMP & A shells sometimes referred to ?

[Henry]

Originally Posted by cavvy

Thanks Henry, just a bit of earwigging.

I am not an A9X student but are these the GMP & A shells sometimes referred to ?

If we can ascertain that, it might tie up the two projects - the Forbes cars were certainly stamped as GMP&A items, as mentioned in the AMC article... but if BJ was sending in a load of steel for a run of shells, surely he would've been taking some sort of proprietary role over the finished product? Who's game to ask him how it went?

[Shiney]

Originally Posted by cavvy

Thanks Henry, just a bit of earwigging.

I am not an A9X student but are these the GMP & A shells sometimes referred to ?

From the A9X onwards, all of the shells built for racing on the production line, (seam welding instead of spot, big fuel lines, slightly stretched wheel tubs, aluminum panels??? etc) are marked GMP&A. The A9X was the first holden with the shell available as a spare part, and they ran with this system at least up until the V.L. Commodore. I think however that most of the Toranas that were raced were built from road cars bought from the dealers and therefore would not have GMP&A stamped into the VIN plate..
I doubt that anybody would know how many of each model were built as most cars (excluding Toranas) were converted to the next model, so I'm guessing only a few new ones would come on stream each year. I have a VK, and Holden have no records of who it was first sold to as these cars have no VIN number.

[lloyd12a]

Originally Posted by lloyd12a

Somebody,Anybody? Half a leed,anything.

STILL Looking for a Group C mazda RX-3 or RX-7.

[B24]

Search for GTR R32 bathurst in youtube.com and you will find the bathurst GTR doing a few laps at Wakefield.It was at a track day I was involved in this winter.

[Group'C']

in 82 - 16 VH Bodyshells were produced by GMH, the body plate had RACING 1 to 16 instead of a chassis #

They were built as rollers all painted white, No sound deadner,Velour covered brown back seats- no front seats, power steering rack, all panels(dont know if they were light weight ones) & Glass

Unsure who got them all, I do know of

RE-Car x 2
Roadways x 2
MHDT x 2 ?

Any one know of the others

Warren Cullen x 2 Maybe

[auzziemonza]

Hi GC

Did these cars have any Chassis # Stamping?

[Group'C']

Not that I can remember auzziemonza , only the build plate

[Shiney]

Originally Posted by auzziemonza

Hi GC

Did these cars have any Chassis # Stamping?

Of the three plates that usually appear on the road cars, mine has two of them. The VIN plate which reads "VK19 NASCO SHELL".
And the BUILD plate which reads "Model VK19 RACINR SHELL
Body No 9202310
Trim
Paint NO PAINT
Built
Eng LV2 Trans M39 Axle

It also has a number stamped into the left front strut tower. AVL044847M. (This is a VL number because it had a major shunt in the front and had the strut towers replaced.)
Unfortunately, neither the Body No. on the build plate, or the one stamped on the strut tower is the VIN number, therefore Holden have no records of them.

[lloyd12a]

Originally Posted by lloyd12a

STILL Looking for a Group C mazda RX-3 or RX-7.

BUMP!

[GTRMagic]

Not a Mazda.... but something interesting Here

[Shiney]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Not a Mazda.... but something interesting Here

So what has this car been up to since Thomas finished with it? Surely it hasn't been in storage since then?

[pete60]

Must have been , as it hasn't been racing.

[M-Kart]

I know we have the Gp C and Gp A thread, but this isnt really in either category - apologies if there already is a thread like this, but I couldnt find one after doing a quick check.

Inspired by, amongst other things, the MIA section of this month's Australian Muscle Car (profiling the Akubra Commodore Ute Allan Grice ran at 1992 Bathurst 12 Hour). There are a number of ex-production cars that have 'dissappeared' but have a bit of history.

The Akubra Ute
DJ's Mazda RX7 (or RX 7's teher were 2 at one stage werent there? a black one and a white one?)
A number of Cars Brocky raced over the years aswell.

Does anyone know where these, or any other Bathurst 12 hour/production cars of the late 1980's/1990s? it seems even more applicable now than ever, with the 12hr being revived next year.

So come on, what is out there? someone has to know something about some of the more 'historic' production cars of Australian Motorsport!

[mtpanorama]

You will find a lot of them went back on the showroom floor where they were sold as "company demonstrators"...............only driven on sundays.
I did the signwriting on quite a few proddy cars from the 90's and I know thats where they ended up.

There are still a few floating around in Improved production and combined touring cars in the state championships

[M-Kart]

I thought thats where a few of them finished - 'ex-dealer demos' (with a good 12 hrs plus of race miles...(just sweep that one under the carpet)..

What are some of the ones running in improved production/combined tourers? (I do know the ex-production Volvo 850 is running as an Improved Production car now)

[Falcadore]

DJ's RX7? He was a guest gun driver brought in by John Bowe to the Horsley run team. The white car that won the Eastern Creek 12 Hour for Dick and JB was on sold to Terry Bosnjak who went on to win a few more races in the car in SP2 trim, including a Bathurst 3 Hour with I think Tomas Mezera. The car still appeared in GT-Production car races until about '03 I think.

[M-Kart]

Was there not also a Black triple M car (sister to the white car i think- i saw them together on the front row at the support race at Indy in 95), as there was a silver/blue Mazda Sponsored one which DJ/Bowie won the Bathurst 12 hour in as well? ( i have a pic of it floating around somewhere i think) - or did this become one of the MMM cars?