Article: Tru-Blu

[Steve Holmes]

Beautiful photos Tony! Thanks for posting. Thats really a handsome car. Thats Johnsons 1981 car, with which he won the 1981 ATCC, and Bathurst, and 1982 ATCC. Pretty special car. I spoke with John English earlier this year about the 1980 'rock' car, as he bought the body off Johnson. I think from memory he said its sat in someones shed, but hasn't been seen for a long time.

[TonyG]

By shear accident I stumbled across Chris Donnelly on Facebook and he has some shots of the John Donnelly/Simon Harrex Falcon at Bathurst in 1984. He states that it was originally the Johnson "Rock" car body. The car still exists and they (Donnelly's) would like to buy it back but its current owner will not part with it.
PHOTO COURTESY Alan McConnell

When asked about the car and how much of the car they actually got off Dick, the reply was -
Just the bent body shell . The roof still has evidence of the hit as no matter how we tried to pull it straight, the roof would spring back to where it was. It's hardly visible, but when you took a close look at it you could see it. When we got it, it had no swinging panels or running gear. When we rebuilt it using standard panels, it ended up about 200kg heavier than when DJ had it, proving how much effort DJ went to to make it LIGHT!

I had been told that this car was built from the same "Rock" car but can't confirm although by coincidence it does have the name English on it and the guys that had it on display were very quick to point out it was a replica of the English car.

[Steve Holmes]

Wow, what an awesome post Tony! I'll email John English and ask him the full history on the rock car. He did actually tell me earlier in the year, but I'd had a couple of beers at the time, so my memory wasn't as sharp as it could be!

[TonyG]

Just got this message from Chris Donnelly.
Hi Tony, The photo was actually taken by QLD Photographer Alan McConnell if you want to give credit to the actual photographer. To clarify a post by Steve Holmes, John English didn't buy the body off Dick Johnson (despite what he may have suggested). The bent body shell of the 1980 Rock Car was "given (donated)" to my father John Donnelly by Dick Johnson, in Dick's words "if you want it" because Dick didn't think it would be much good after the hit!!.

The English car in the photo below in Pye Audio colours is a replica of English's ex-Allan Moffat Falcon XD (that Moffat ran in Federation colours in 1980). I believe the Bowden's now own this vehicle. Regards, CD.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Tony, great info! Re the person that got the 1980 body off Dick Johnson, I don't think it was John I got that info from, it was from a couple of older books/magazines.