<< HORDE JOINED ~ MAIN ~ NOW DARKNESS IS GOOD >>
BATHURST 2007
Top-ten qualifying begins in a few minutes; the race starts at 10.30am tomorrow. Car to watch: the #4 Ford of James Courtney and David Besnard. Some Bathurst highlights:
• Bill Brown survives a Ford-flattening rollover in 1971; in fact, he walked away with only a black eye.
• Peter Brock leads from start to finish in 1979.
• Dick Johnson heads for the trees during qualifying in 1983.
• No car sounded sweeter than Tom Walkinshaw’s V12 Jaguar in 1985.
• Skating lessons from Glenn Seton in 1987.
• Allan Grice cruises to victory in 1990.
• The fastest lap yet - Greg Murphy misses a gear but still sets a Mountain record in 2003.
Compare how Greg Murphy handles a car at speed compared to Henri Paul.
Posted by mr creosote on 2007 10 06 at 02:36 AM • permalinkSuch a nice change to see a Jaguar from that era not sitting in a puddle of oil/wreathed in clouds of steam/stuck on the side of the road with the owner kicking the crap out of it due to total electrical failure.
Posted by mr creosote on 2007 10 06 at 02:41 AM • permalinkMan,. Bathurst looks like it would be a fun track to drive (just not in my own car.) About the closest track to it in the US I can think of would probably be Road Atlanta (which, incidentally, is hosting the 10 hour Petit Le Mans today,) and that one isn’t nearly as twisty. In the past few years, Speed Channel has replayed some of the V8 Supercar races in the US during the “off-season.” I’ll have to see if I can catch a couple this year.
Your memory’s not long enough, Tim. Let’s go back further to when it was the Gallaher Hardie-Ferodo 500 - an unashamed cigarette sponsor and no metric distance crap.
1967: Ford releases arguably its best-ever GT, the XR. Outright first and second.
1968: General Motors-Holden’s releases the HK Monaro which hits back and re-writes the record books along the way. Outright first, second and third.
Go Glenn Go!
Even though you’re peddling a Holden this year I hope you have a really good crack.
Posted by deadparrot on 2007 10 06 at 04:07 AM • permalink#4
Vexorg, you can drive it in your own car, it’s a public road when it’s not a race track.Ahhhhh, Bathurst.
I also preferred the 500’s - when they had Minis and so on. That was a race.
As I mentioned before, these days they’d have Priuses; they’d be the clown cars at the back and several laps behind….
As a Ford man there was no greater Bathurst moment than seeing Mark Skaife crash out of last years race on the first lap. :-)
Posted by Hank Reardon on 2007 10 06 at 04:47 AM • permalink#5 - In 1969 GMH’s success continued with the HT Monaro GTS350. But then in 1970 they replaced the Monaro with the Torana GTR, which wouldn’t win until it was revamped as the GTR-XU1 in 1972.
Any nine-year-old boy (like me in 1970) could have told them that 16 gallon petrol tank (vs 40 gallons for the Ford GTHO)
Posted by David Morgan on 2007 10 06 at 05:13 AM • permalinkBugger - hit enter too soon.
Meant to say:
Any nine-year-old boy (like me in 1970) could have told them that the 16 gallon petrol tank (vs 40 gallons for the Ford GTHO) was going to cost them refuelling time.
Posted by David Morgan on 2007 10 06 at 05:15 AM • permalinkAnd not exactly a highlight, but notable, was the death of 1967 Formula One Champion Denny Hulme in the 1992 race from a heart attack - the first F1 champion to die of natural causes.
Posted by David Morgan on 2007 10 06 at 05:18 AM • permalinkThe youtube film of Brown’s accident shows about half the actual number of rollovers I think. Could be the tricks of distant memory, but I’ll stand by that claim.
I couldn’t believe that anyone could live through it, the car was practically cut in half as it traveled along the fence.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 10 06 at 05:24 AM • permalink1970s Bathurst Winners
Shame Chrysler didn’t continue factory backing, development of the E55 340 V8 Charger to (USA) R/T 6-pack status would’ve helped to make it a 3-way contest.There’s a racer named Dick Johnson?! Too funny.
I love the sound of V-12’s, but my all time favorite exhaust note (Probably some nostalgia) of all time was the old turbocharged Indy Offenhausers: It was like a high pitched Zhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhz… Amazing. The new ten cylinder F1 motors sound good too. They do such high revs today that it’s like a shrill wistle.
There’s a racer named Dick Johnson?! Too funny.
Pretty good, hucbald, but this guy really takes the prize.
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 10 06 at 07:21 AM • permalinkSwinish,
I guess you don’t know of everyone’s favorite NASCAR driver, Dick Trickle.
Posted by Eric Jablow on 2007 10 06 at 08:59 AM • permalink24 - No. But I do now, thanks Eric, and I see a long post-retirement career for Mr Trickle in the endorsement of incontinence products.
They might even name one after him.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 10 06 at 09:03 AM • permalinkHucbald, you’ll just have to be quicker next time…
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 10 06 at 09:07 AM • permalinkI just watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for about, oh, the gazillionth time… *sigh* Ziyi Zhang is just about the hottest human female I could ever imagine. I’d watch Zwinky ads if she was in them. Hell, I’d even watch Al Gore speak in Bejing if she was translating. Soooo impossibly lovely.
Oh yeah, this it TOTALLY OT.
*sigh*
Brocky tribute and his last completed race leg - Targa Tassie.
Car was a local Shelby (Ford) Daytona replica, powered by a GM/Holden L98 (GenIV) 6.0L V8.
#30
Brock Coupe: the only licensed continuation of the original Shelby Daytona coupe ...Oz version: Brocky’s last drive.
A fitting tribute to 2 motoring greats.
#4 - I’ll second that - I had never heard of Mount Panorama before, and it looks like a great track, not least because of all those elevation changes, and the old-style length.
The Walkinshaw videos are incredible - the contrast between how calm Walkinshaw looks inside the car and how hairy the Jaguar seems from the outside is astonishing. Modern cars seem much more buttoned-down and glued to the road.
I think I’ll be downloading this track for some GT Legends action, even if the result (crashing in every corner) is predictable.
Posted by Crispytoast on 2007 10 06 at 02:45 PM • permalinkBah!
V12 and Cornering PracticeCheers
Posted by J.M. Heinrichs on 2007 10 06 at 03:19 PM • permalink28 - I read all the way to the end expecting a punchline, and what do I get?
I feel cheated.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 10 06 at 05:38 PM • permalinkProlly the antithesis of the smoothness of the Jag V12 is another English creation: the English Electric ‘thumper’: 4 cylinder, 4-stroke turbo-diesel: 500kW at a mere 750 rpm from 4 x 10 in. pistons.
Had the dubious pleasure of being enclosed in a room with a synchronised pair of such for a 1MW backup power supply - the power pulses from the pair in synchronism in a confined space was very unpleasant, Harley hogs pale into insignificance.
The audio will prolly give your subwoofer a very good workout.There’s a racer named Dick Johnson?! Too funny.
Or an Arizona D-Backs baseballer named ‘Randy Johnson’? That’s not funny at all.
And for the record, at Bathurst it was…
1st - Ford
2nd - Ford
3rd - FordEat slugs, Holden scum!
Posted by Apparatchik on 2007 10 07 at 11:45 PM • permalink
Page 1 of 1 pages
Members:
Login | Register
| Member List
It should be a great race.
I wish they’d let me drive.