Historic touring cars at Bathurst, Easter 2007

[johnh875]

Its a bit late, but I have some photos up now from the (rather grandly titled) Bathurst International Motoring Festival which was held over Easter, concluding with a 12hr production car race on Easter Sunday.

The support categories consisted of GT Sportscars - GT3 Porsche (incl 1 GT2), Ferrari 360GT, Lotus Exige, and 2 Lamborghini Gallardos - Aussie Racing Cars (aka Legends), Commodore Cup and the subject of this post, the historic touring cars. They had qually and a race on Friday followed by 2 races on Saturday. Here are some highlights:

Note the gallery link is HERE.

The famous 67 Mustang that was originally raced by Ian "Pete" Geoghegan - this car won 3 Aust Touring Car Championships


The other really fast car of the weekend - the Pearce Mustang


Ford Escort


69 Camaro and Mk1 Cortina GT


Mazda RX2


Chevy Nova


A flying brick up on top of the mountain

[johnh875]

Some more, a train of cars heading down the Esses


Skyline. The walls here were covered with tributes for Peter Brock after his death


Another 68 Mustang on the straight heading out of McPhillamy Park


Another RX2 heading up to Skyline, nice view in the background


The all-alloy 427 engine in Bob Jane's ZL1 Camaro. It won the 1971 ATCC after a hard-fought year-long battle with Allan Moffat in his TransAm Boss 302 Mustang. Then the following year he won again with a 350 engine after a capacity limit was introduced!


Bob's Mark 2 Jaguar, which won the 1962 ATCC followed by the ATCC in 4.1L form. So in total we had 7 ATCC's won by 3 cars there for the weekend, not bad! The staggering thing was that Des Wall was out racing the Geoghegan Mustang, and he wasn't mucking around either. He missed the second race and had to start at the back of the third, before working his way up to third place!

[zefarelly]

lovely stuff ! Is the the BJ Jag from the museum ?

I bet they never took the MK1 GT 500 out !

[John Turner]

Well done, John; great to see these.

[zefarelly]

looks like we're heading out for xmas this year, I doub't I'll need to take my suit helmet, but I'd love a drive round Bathurst one day in something other than the in laws 4x4 !!!

[johnh875]

No, Bob Jane owns both of his cars (the Jag long-term and the Camaro was re-purchased and restored <10 years ago), they live in Melbourne. I'm not sure if it still the case, but the Jaguar used to live in the showroom of the North Melbourne T-Marts store on the roundabout at the top end of Elizabeth St.

Both the 65 winning GT500 and the 63 winning GT Cortinas were on display from the museum, along with the 74 Morris Torana, 77 Moffat Falcon, 84 Brock Commodore and a replica of the 66 Aaltonen/Holden Mini Cooper S.

On Sunday afternoon when I was waiting to go back through the tunnel, the Torana and Falcon drove past on their way back to the museum, which was good timing I thought!

[Bullett]

Thanks John, nice pics. There was certainly more there than I knew about

[zefarelly]

I know the 63 cars a replica, and I have a few anyway but the GT 500 is just lovely ( I'm still gutted i sold a mint white 2 door super that would have made a great replica )

[QUOTE=johnh875]Both the 65 winning GT500 and the 63 winning GT Cortinas were on display from the museum,

QUOTE]

[275 GTB-4]

Thanks John....she sure is a national icon.....just watch this country destroy it as they have just about everything else NIMBYs consider PC

[johnh875]

Zef - it would be one of the easiest race cars to replicate! All you need is a 2dr red Cortina GT and a couple of numbers...

[zefarelly]

Originally Posted by johnh875

Zef - it would be one of the easiest race cars to replicate! All you need is a 2dr red Cortina GT and a couple of numbers...

I know that, the GT500 is a little more involved

3 stripes and some aluminium guttering under the front valance and a pair of fuel fillers in the rear scuttle

given the scarcity of the things it'll have to be a replica, its easier to find a genuine Lotus with no pigeon poop welding !

[DAVID PATERSON]

In the 8th picture, you can see a train of cars heading towards the esses. I'm in the Green Torana, following the orange Camaro.

[275 GTB-4]

Originally Posted by DAVID PATERSON

In the 8th picture, you can see a train of cars heading towards the esses. I'm in the Green Torana, following the orange Camaro.

Hi Dave....shouldn't you be checking your VIN etc to see if you have ex DJ XU-1.....good to hear from you again

[johnh875]

Cheers David, that is the only shot with your car - although I still haven't yet had my films processed

[Alan52]

It was a great weekends racing and the Historic Tourers showed what a great field they have even without the Biante cars.Roll on Muscle Car Masters.

[DAVID PATERSON]

Originally Posted by 275 GTB-4

Hi Dave....shouldn't you be checking your VIN etc to see if you have ex DJ XU-1.....good to hear from you again

Mick, i checked my VIN years ago, my car left the factory in September 1972 as an LJ Torana S 6 cylinder manual.

[275 GTB-4]

Originally Posted by DAVID PATERSON

Mick, i checked my VIN years ago, my car left the factory in September 1972 as an LJ Torana S 6 cylinder manual.

Dave you have to find something significant about that date, maybe DJ was in the line behind you

How else are you going to talk-up the price of this historically significant vehicle