Australian Muscle Car – July 01, 2019

Australian Muscle Car

mmortals special edition

volume 1) pays homage to

he ‘famous five’ V8 muscle

cars from the halcyon era of

mproved Production touring

car racing in Australia in the

ate ‘60s and early ‘70s:

Norm Beechey’s Monaro GTS

350, Bob Jane’s Camaro

and the Mustangs of Super

Falcons of Allan Moffat and

anGeoghegan.

AMC

SPECIAL

• IMMORTALS

V1

AU

$10.50

NZ

$11.99

(incl

GST)

93

4060

10

0088

9

01

aerodynamics of a house brick,heexhausts, no power steering and drum brakes on Twoback!apstorunTheinensestraightpressurehroughwhch

hadexplosbeenvestagebuldngMoffatapaterstilllapwthhadhsreachedseatbeltsan

unbuckledwindow to see, somehow set a new lap record (2.22.4) in his relentless pursuit of the Super Falcon. To put that lap time into perspective, it andhsheadpokngouttheside

was almost nine seconds under his previous fastest race lap in the Mustang set two years

carbeforelapTheeraceecoandCddrivingewsheasetstaggerupanandntheXYngdown^1971 Falcon^16 secondspit^500 GTaneHOmijusteunderPhaseproductionsaredheat

aroundheirMostopfatthatwakeptfinalchesuphncrediblesndisbeleociousefapattackoftheallmountaintheway

theits tyres’ adhesion as he tried to pressure Peteinto making the slightest error, but the bigMusangofensldingwaybeyondthelimmantof

wasn’t about to put a foot wrong. He knewwas the Super Falcon’s greatest momentvictory was there for the taking.It all came down to the final left handerthisand

Murray’s Corner, at the end of Conrod StraightThe two cars thundered into view over thehump for the final time, the drivers hard ontolastthe

brakes and back through the gears, Peteoutside and Moffat diving to the inside ashad done so many times throughout theontheacehepar

ace card and went in much, much deeperbrakes than he ever had. Moffat, no doubtsurprised, could not brake any harder andHowever, this time Geoghegan playedhisundercoud

only get the nose of hismiddle pedals pushedthe Falcon’s rear wheelhaMusBothdangndrovershealongsfirewalkeptdeheirsright

up to the apex of the turn

Lestory. Far right: Super Falcon’s engine oil tank spilledlttle bit of Castrol on its way to victory.t: Pete’s original practice and race lap charts telthea

MustangsoThemuchnspeedintoensefibrakingthatstgearMofforduelatthechosehadshortwashedtosprintstabohefohe

chequeredWhatowofthedowncornerhedidnpunchflagandtcountfigurhebeatneededonngGeogheganitthoughwouldtoaunchgivewastohhthehmsmthelinequartetout

of Weber carbs fl ooding at such slow speed and causing the engine to momentarily splutter when he mashed the throttle, which gave Pete the tiny

hesitation he needed to out-drag Moffat to the line and win by just six-tenths of a second.What a race!

in expectation of such a stunning fi nish, were and the fans, jammed around the fi nish line delirThe commentators were lost for words ousntiallyMofatdidntsharether

enSuperwnninghusFaasmandconthatashadheunfaGeogheganfelttherlyoilafectedspshoullngdhisfhavechancesomthebeenof

blacktheHeaceflaggedimmediatelyduring

protestedwcamebutthracebythetoinspecttheotimeficialsresultthey

Geoghegan’shis crew had already wiped away any oil smears with car

petrol and rags! Not surprisingly, the officials decided

against taking any action, not only because there was no evdencetobefoundon

the Super Falcon but also no doubt because Moffat had demolished the lap record on the second last lap! 109

Moffat’s windscreen had become covered with oil which had started spilling from the catch tank on the Super Falcon’s engine. From then on he was driving substantially blinded. He fi rst loosened his safety harness so that

he could stick his head out the side of the car to see where he was going, but he still couldn’t see around the windscreen pillar. In sheer desperation, he then unbuckled his seat belt and slid onto the edge of his racing seat,

all while somehow keeping his feet on the pedals and racing wheel to wheel with another car on one of the fastest road circuits in the world!

Story: Mark Oastler Studio Images: Mark Bean Photography Historical: Chevron Archive, Autopicscomau

51

Pete Geoghegan’s 1967 Ford Mustang GTA is an icon in Australian muscle car racing history. It started life as a humble V8 automatic road car that was never intended for race duties,

and yet it went on to claim three consecutive Australian Touring Car Championships, numerous lap records and a race/win ratio virtually equal to that of arch rival Allan Moffat’s Trans-Am

Mustang. With the maestro ‘Big Pete’ behind the wheel, the ‘67 Castrol Mustang remained a competitive force at the top level for fi ve seasons. And, incredibly, it is still racing and still winning

today, which only serves to enhance its immortal status.

bytwoarrangement (ie one at the rightCamarogiantHolleyracesfourFord’sbarrels mountedCrossBossfrontoneinfeaturedanatoffsetthe

crankshaft with anti-frothing windagethe in-line design.left rear) of the engine but wasBelow decks was a forged steellesscrossefectivedriledthan

capacity baffled sump to combatconnecting rods with much meatvolume oil pump with triple pickupserolandbsurgetraygahighThickbg

supports were coupled to 12:1 fo(road versions used 10.5:1 compressionLarge diameter, equal lengthtubulargedaendsteelloyatpo)stons

capacity aluminium radiator andthrough huge, unmuffled side pipesthe lid on engine temps. exhaust headers dumped the spentolAgasescoolerlargekept

prepared Boss 302 engine was producing over 470bhp (350kW) by mid season and could endure up to a staggering 8000rpm in the heat of In 1969, Ford teams claimed a fully race-

Boss 302 had inherited some of the Tunnel Port’s lack of low and mid-range torque because of its battle. Mustang racers often complained that the

enormous breathing capacity, but no one ever complained about its formidable top-end punch!Not surprisingly, Ford’s official power ratings

for the factory rev-limited Boss 302 road car were capped at a modest 290bhp (216kW) @ 5800rpm. While many accept that these quoted ower figures were primarily aimed at keeping

much as 350bhp (260kW) - especially with the he insurance companies happy, those in the now claim the street Boss was good for as 150rpm factory rev limiter disconnected!

MC:elivered to you with one of the 1968 Tunnel Port 02 engines. Why was that? “David Bowden says the car was

OFFAT:ouldn’t really afford to be choosy when I was ing handed a wonderful brand new moon That’s true. One of the problems was

cket - free! In the first quarter of 1969 the tory Boss 302 engineprogramwasrunning

PortoutalioftleenghlatenesworkshopConsequentlyinitwthaBud‘68TranshadtoAmgetTunnelmycar

302 AMC“SoutheMOFFATengine?SoMywhenfirstdideventyouinswthetchcaroverwastothetheBoss

hardest to make sure that I didn’t. OfThere were three races. I won all threebut not without Pete Geoghegan tryn60”atSandownonMay^4 ng^1969 hisofhem

race results were fired back to Kar Kraft instantly (this win was the first for a ’69 Trans-Am Mustang anywhere in the world) and when I indicated that coursehe

these other guys were so damn close to me it didn’t matter, Jacque Passino (Ford US racing boss) who was not satisfied with his generosity by giving me a car, (see Moffat interview)

instantly organised a prototype Boss 302 engine which was flown out for me to use. One other difficulty which I also didn’t

complain about was that it had to have a Top Loader gearbox put in it to get it out of Bud’s shop, but in the NASCAR world where he

came from there were a variety of Top Loaders available and he fitted one that had a 125mph 1st gear. It was rather nice on corners like the old Peter’s corner at Sandown which led onto the

back straight, where I could go into the corner at 80km/h or so, get on the brakes, shift into 1st gear and as I went around the corner the

moment I planted it I had great acceleration yet was not over-revving the engine. It served me well. It was just about as high as 2nd gear in a

standard TopbtofanactwLoaderththeclutchsoofftheIcanlineassureitwasyou!qutea

AMCtwintwinHochokeWhyleyWeberdDomdyounatocarburettorsalwayssliketheunfour‘69nsteadTransdowndraughtofthe

MOFFATInductionwereusng?IsystemsnevertriedwerethefreetwinunderHoleythesetAustAmupalcarsan

rulesPete’s car (Geoghegan’s ‘67 302 Mustangevery little freedom under the bonnetwith quad-Webers) was seriously fastandbythattmeIwastakingadvantagebecausealsoof

imposed redline for the engine was 7500to have as much engine throttle responsepossible to match Pete’s performanceandMyIasselfhad

but any time I downshifted with a 7800rpm over-rev, it sent us racing for a newvalve springs immediately. orsetrpm (^8000) of
AMC:more grunt - why was that not successfuCleveland V8 on occasions in the searchMOFFAT: You also ran a fuel injected 351ci(5for? (^8) ltre)
it was being lowered into the engine bay!a full steel motor, I think it weighed so closethat engine in the car it virtually bent the I can remember the first nightwecraneItputwasas
600kgs it didn’t matter. The poor little carand groaned when it got lowered in and‘oh, this isn’t good’. The first time I roaredIintomoanedthoughttoturn
one at Calder it was immediately obviousextra weight had destroyed the car’s handlwasn’t bad in a straight line, but it wasn’tdo me any favours in the handling departmentgoingthatngtheItto
Bare in mind wefavoursalhateextratherwe”ghtddn’twasnhavetdopowerngmysteeringarmsanyso
Port 302 engine, made a stunning debutPark in May, 1969. Below: On several occasions, MoffatTop: Moffat’s potent new Trans-Am raceratwiSandownhTunnel
fuel injected 351 Cleveland V8 in themore grunt, but the extra weight destroyedcar’s fine handling. Note injection trumpetsthrough the bonnet hole. installedsearchthepokingfora
“When we did the first ‘69 Boss 302‘catwalk’ which is the inner fenderthere was an area in the engine baythe spring towers. If you look at asheetmetalweracecalledprototypetheabove
the top of the spring tower and wherefor the fender to bolt onto (see insetthere’s about an inch difference inwe trimmed a long ‘pie slice’ of sheetmetalstandahepic)theghtbetweendEssentiallyflangeoneis
we’d welded it all up, the seams lookedbodywork of the car one inch (25mm)down towards the front and droppedtop of that inner fender on either sidethewhichThenfrontaftertaperedoffthe
v- LEE DYKSTRAwe dropped them by two inches (50mm)said ‘hey we can go a little more’ so Dykstra told AMC that a little knownonthe”sogreatracecarswe
season’s end. However, Moffat’s carreverting to the prototype’s 25mm noserule revision by SCCA scrutineers inTrans-Am series resulted in the Boss^302 the^1969 dmidMustangsopseasonby
so damn tough!aggressive 50mm chop. No wonder thstarted, so it would have retained Dykstra’sAustralia before the 1969 Trans-Am seasonswasthingflownevenmorelooksto
inner guardStandard
Moffat’s quad-Weber 485bhp TransBoss 302 is a glorious looking raceNotedryAmcsumpankcaseoiltankFalconGTradiatorengineand
breatherstowerwerenotcrossusedMobacenfatthetohadTransventilattfitoaroundmakeAmontheserieshissetWebersownupshockwithwhichtwin
40
I’m concerned a vehicle is nottoday’s V8 Supercars still doif it’s got a wheel off the deckthat. Diagonals come into it atEvenhandlbutyousomengcancorofstopectly
AMC:front, you fix it at the back.your left or right front wheel, you What was involved in bulotdon’tfyou’fixetliattinghe
more actually. It was fully blueJS: litre engine?Well, we could have doneaprintedhellldingtheofalot^70
polished and balanced, dry-sumpedall that sort of thing. The intentionfuel injection like Bruce was runningwasandinportedtoCanfit
Am. However, we were runningCalder (early 1971) so we putcompleting the car and Bob wantedtheverystandardlatetoruninitatinlet
manifold on it with the 1180cfmbarrel carburettor) and he wenteveryonenopointintotheweedsSoweHolleyouthoughtand(fourblewthere’s
alreadybottomsstuffongot!toutnwhenpuWeoftinggearboxeshewerecan’tawholealreadyhandlelotblowingofwhatsophisticatedhethes
lastranasinglethatthingca 7 we 0 litbureneededeenginetorwaswmorethatanythatpowerhingstagemoreWesoneverthanhe
Above left: Stark, efficient cockpit showsLeft: Quality craftsmanship is evidentflimsy by today’s standards.integral roll cage structure and seatswhichhoughoutthecar’slookrather
thecar
41
AMC: that engine producing?JS: 600bhp because the Can-Am cars at the time The exact figures escape me, but at least What sort of power and torque figures was
injection). The torque multiplication of the thing was enormous. Torque was probably 600ft/lbs were making more than 700bhp (with fuel
(800Nm) or greater. It was very, very strong.AMC: keep the gearboxes together with all that torque You’ve mention the problems trying to
on tap. How did you solve the problem? JS: gearbox in it, then we tried a Rockcrusher (Muncie M-22) and various other things without success. It originally had a Muncie (M-21) four-speed
off the aluminium gear housing and put ?-inch thick steel plates either end so that the housing wouldn’t split. The gear strength was okay - it was I then decided that we should machine the ends
actually the casing that couldn’t take it. Anyway, we didn’t think that modification was going to be strong enough either, so finally we made up a
pair of ?-inch thick steel end-plates and actually heated up and hammered a whole new housing out of 1/8-inch steel plate. I had a very good panel
man who used to work for me in those days by the name of John Brookfield. ‘Brooky’ did most of the
fabrication work. Peter Holinger also made some special internals and a special shifter for it. AMC: So how did you get away with using a
steel-cased gearbox when it was supposed to be cast aluminium?JS: Well, we sandblasted it and anodized it so
that it looked like aluminium!We also put the original alloy extensions and bellhousing back on it. It was bending the rules in a way, but no more than anybody else did in those days.
AMC: drivetrain?JS: The rear axle assembly was a 12-bolt which What about the rest of the chassis and
you could buy direct from GM’s hot bits department. It had full-floating axles and all the trick stuff but we designed and built the Watts Linkage assembly
(rear axle lateral locating device) locally. The brakes were Chev four wheel discs.AMC: unit which locks and unlocks depending on Did you use a Detroit Locker (a differential
individual rear wheel traction) were all the rage?JS: in it, which was a totally different thing to a Detroit I think we finished up with a Weisman Locker
Locker. Bob never had a very successful time with Detroit Lockers, even when we ran them in his earlier Mustangs. They’d lock and unlock all
the time and Bob could feel this chattering in the rear end of the car and he just didn’t like it.AMC: The lowered fuel cell or ‘drop tank’ as it’s
JS:gravity as low as possible, plus it had all the become known was also pretty cutting-edge stuff at the time... Yeah, we wanted to get the car’s centre of
latest in safety fuel cell technology (like the Can-Am cars).AMC: car with that alloy engine...Overall, it must have been a relatively light
JS:actual figure, but we went to a lot of trouble using the right materials and lightening the car Yeah, it was for its size. I can’t recall the
AMC: in US Trans-Am racing at the time – did you ever wherever we legally could. There was a lot of acid-dipping going on
venture down that path of vehicle lightening? JS: ZL-1. The car had so much grunt that lightening it off anymore would have only made it worse. It No. We really didn’t need to do that with the
was the sort of car where you really could have used a couple of bags of cement in the boot to get it to stick to the track a bit better. Some of the
“The car had so much grunt that lightening it modern aero stuff you see on the V8 Supercars now would have been a big help for that car!”
off anymore would have only made it worse.”
86
BRAKESAmong new technical freedoms allowed under the revised 1970 ATCC rules
(Improved Production) was that any type of brakes could be used, provided they were of the same confi guration as originally specifi ed (ie disc or drum) and were produced by the
same parent manufacturer. General Motors allowed Norm to use powerful The fact that Holden was a subsidiary of
Chev Corvette four-spot callipers and 260mm ventilated front discs, fed plenty of cooling air via some neat aluminium ducting fabricated by Alan Standfi eld.
in braking performance, this set-up also eliminated the need for a brake booster which In addition to a substantial increase
resulted in more room being available in the engine bay for the carb ducting on the right hand side of the engine. The extra room also
allowed for the use of two EH Holdenmaster cylinders - one for the front hydraulcircuit and one for the rear - providingbrakeasmplec
means of adjusting front to rear brakeThis was done via an adjustable barbrake pedal stalk which controlled theof pedal pressure distributed to eachonbiasamountmasterthe
cylinder. The rear also benefi tted fromparts bin, with Camaro drums fi tted withsintered metallic brake shoes. theGMGM
“The Holden project was immense. Somebody claimed in printcost us a six-fi gure sum to develop the car. Well, it wasn’t thathigh. We could have run a team of cars for that amount. it
But it did take up a hell of a lot of time and money.” Norm Beechey, Sports Car World, 1970
Beechey hounds Bryan Thomson’s Camaro during practice for the rain-soaked fi nal 1970ATCC round at Symmons Plains. Engine woes forced Norm to be a non-starter in Tasmania
87
SUSPENSIONTrans-Am cars utilised welded full-length roll cages which undoubtedly provided
substantial crash protection for drivers. More importantly for the engineers, though, the intricate tube steel structures formed a stressed ‘space frame’ which contributed to
massive gains in chassis stiffness from front to rear. This not only provided a very rigid platform for accurate suspension tuning and
consistent performance, but also made for an extremely robust chassis that could withstand the punishment of a hard racing season.To provide maximum torsional stiffness, the
Monaro was fi tted with a welded roll cage which fully extended into the engine bay and boot area. The front cross-member was also solidly mounted to the body’s frame rails and braced to
the roll cage tubing. Additionally, all the internal front sheet metal was welded together to further increase chassis rigidity.The front suspension’s upper and lower control
arms pivoted from extremely rigid mounting plates which were also tied to both the cross-member and the engine bay roll cage tubing.
The suspension arms were adjustable by way of alternative mounting points to easily adjust the front roll centre. Three positions for the top arms
and two for the bottom arms were provided.lower than stock, to drastically lower the car’s centre of gravity and reduce bump steer. Heavier The static front ride height was a full 100mm
front coil springs and Koni shocks with adjustable bump and rebound settings - as used on the
Trans-Am Camaros - were speciallymagnesium Minilites from the UKThe front wheels were featherweightwhichmported 15 xwere 8 inchall
the rage at the time.billet bronze front bushings andas stipulated by the regulationsThe live rear axle was locatedwlinghterleafthutrasolspringsstrongdalloy
units in the back.tapered single leaf and multi-leaf units, with Beechey experimented with both specially
the single leaf set-up saving another 20 kilos in weight. The axle housing was also accurately located
in fore and aft movement by using upper and lower trailing arms fi tted with spherical rod ends. Ron Harrop’s superb Watts Linkage device provided accurate lateral location and also
allowedantimadelocatedrobylaboutforbarKenrearoneBox300mmrollofwasmanycentreabovehcomponenngedadjustmenthefombootthesThehandflrooorlrearcagewith
dropwondeOnelinksoffulyhetosimplethefinestsuspensandexampleseffectonpofckveBeechey’supsengineering
solutions was the car’s differentNo electric pumps needed here. The oil was pumped through a remote-mounted VW oil aloilcooler
cooler by means of a shock absorber mounted to the rear axle. The up and down movement of the suspension made the shock absorber work as a simple pump, continuously moving the oil
through the cooling circuit. Rear wheels were also magnesium Minilites, in the largest allowable 15 x 10-inch dimensions.
‘Get outta my way, Mustang!’ Norm cranks on plenty of steering lock as he tries an inside run on Bob Jane’s Trans-Am at Bathurst, 1970.
Great New Release