Article: Ford Falcon Sprint

[Ellis]

The guy in the Pics is Danny from Wollongong NSW. he did all the moulds & body work for our sprints

Thanks
Knew it was on the big Island

[DANTRA]

The guy in the Pics is Danny from Wollongong NSW. he did all the moulds & body work for our sprints

Thanks Les for remembering me & the work I did in the Falcon Sprints, the contract called for 1 set of moulds & 3 complete set of panels.

As you may well remember there was also inner door, bonnet & boot panels, gearbox floor cover, front & rear bumpers to complement the outer panels.

Many years have passed since I last spoke to you, what are you up to now, I gave Auto Racing away & now fly R/C model planes, cheers mate.

[Les Laidlaw]

Thanks Les for remembering me & the work I did in the Falcon Sprints, the contract called for 1 set of moulds & 3 complete set of panels.

As you may well remember there was also inner door, bonnet & boot panels, gearbox floor cover, front & rear bumpers to complement the outer panels.




Many years have passed since I last spoke to you, what are you up to now, I gave Auto Racing away & now fly R/C model planes, cheers mate.

Hey Danny, I have sent you a PM

Cheers Les

[DANTRA]

[quote="Frosty5"]Hell that is a smart looking car. A real credit to the builder.[/]

Les if this is the ex Tweeds car than it has been sold to the UK where it now resides & races, as for panels being made else where in Oz there was quite a rumble of ownership of the moulds, Tweeds saying that all moulds belonged to him but with Meek insisting that the build his car included one set of panels & the moulds in the building contract.

The last time that I spoke to Bill Meek he stated that his is now the owner of all the moulds.

There is another set of moulds & panels somewhere in Oz from the building of the Qld car that Tony Gone was looking after but they were of very poor quality & very heavy, I think they went with the car when it was sold.

If other panels were made for the Sprints then it would of been out of moulds that others had made which I have never heard off as they were loan from Tweeds & Meek on a Rental basis or they had the panels made & sold them on to the want ant owner.

Hope this clears up the story of Sprint panels made in Australia.

[Steve Holmes]

CAMS in Australia only issue 4 licenses for Sprints to run in Nb mainly due to none racing in period in Oz but in recognition to their world
popularity and race heritage maybe.
Several years ago , one of the 4 licensed cars (from Tas) was sold and went to England.
A replacement license was obtained from CAMS and new one built to high standards in Tas. It has recently been sold to Victoria. It never raced in Tas....only did display /test laps at Historic meetings.





That is J Bowe looking in window. He was interested in leasing car at one stage...it never happenned

Ellis, I'm just curious, did CAMS make a special exception in the case of the Falcon Sprints? My understanding is that to be eligible for historic touring cars racing, the cars model must have started at least one ATCC race?

While on the subject of historic touring cars that didn't race in period, I remember back in the 1980s Laurie Donaher raced a beautiful Iso Rivolta in Appendix J. Do you know how this slipped through?

[Ellis]

I believe that CAMS made a special exception hence the limit. That what the guys who built up the Blue one inferred. They are friends with the Tassie ex owner of the one sold to GB a few years back so knew it was gone and applied for a replacement license which incidently Cams tried to renig on at a later date but didnt succeed. I believe JR was originally interested in building an Nb Sprint but apparently couldnt get it licensed so went TCM with his.
The Nb record at Symmons is still held by an Iso Rivolta...not sure if its the same car you refer to.

A couple of pics from recent Qld meeting at Morgan Park...Courtesy Saundo

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Ellis. I have a feeling the Iso was eventually moved across to Grand Touring or Sports Car class, as it was quite fast in Appendix J, and only a small number of Rivolta's were ever built. Donaher did crash it a couple of times, I recall he reversed it into one of the walls at the top of the mountain at Bathurst one year. His car was red with gold stripes from memory.

Those are great pics. The black car with four headlights looks like a Mercury Comet to me?

[Ellis]

Yep
Black car is Comet
Just put it on a closer up as it appears in other shot.

[Marty]

Here are some photos of the Jim Richards -Touring Car Masters version. Taken just before delivery, 2005.

[tbro]

Thanks Ellis. I have a feeling the Iso was eventually moved across to Grand Touring or Sports Car class, as it was quite fast in Appendix J, and only a small number of Rivolta's were ever built. Donaher did crash it a couple of times, I recall he reversed it into one of the walls at the top of the mountain at Bathurst one year. His car was red with gold stripes from memory.

Those are great pics. The black car with four headlights looks like a Mercury Comet to me?

Steve,
Last I heard Laurie had the Mustang built as the Rivolta was getting too valuable.
I'll check with Jim Cutler as to where it is now.

Terry

[DANTRA]

Is car #64 the ex Jack Lacey car which was originally red & white or is it one of the other Sprints.

[Steve Holmes]

Steve,
Last I heard Laurie had the Mustang built as the Rivolta was getting too valuable.
I'll check with Jim Cutler as to where it is now.

Terry

Hey thanks heaps for that Terry. Yeah I'd love to know what happened to the Iso. It was a beautiful looking car, and with a small block 327 Chevy, had the legs on the Mustangs. There was an Iso running in the GT category in historics a few years ago, it was a different colour, and different owner, but could possibly be the same car? There can't be that many racing in Aus? There were only about 800 ever made.

[Steve Holmes]

Here are some photos of the Jim Richards -Touring Car Masters version. Taken just before delivery, 2005.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18121[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]18122[/ATTACH]

Wow, superb! That rollcage is incredible! Was JR allowed to run all the fibreglass panels? Thanks heaps for posting.

[Ellis]

Hey thanks heaps for that Terry. Yeah I'd love to know what happened to the Iso. It was a beautiful looking car, and with a small block 327 Chevy, had the legs on the Mustangs. There was an Iso running in the GT category in historics a few years ago, it was a different colour, and different owner, but could possibly be the same car? There can't be that many racing in Aus? There were only about 800 ever made.

The Iso that has the Nb Symmons Plains record is listed as driven by a Chris Stephen

[Ellis]

Is car #64 the ex Jack Lacey car which was originally red & white or is it one of the other Sprints.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18123[/ATTACH]

I have done a bit of checking on this #64 car and its apparently not one of THE big 4
Qld have a slightly diiferent class that covers their Historics and the car may not be eligible to run Nb south of the border

Of the originals the ex Tweedie car then Williscroft Tas is the one that went to England. The new Blue car was built as its replacement
approved by CAMS

The Red car was in SA Bryant at one time...not sure currently

[Ellis]

Meeke Oran Park ?...photo credit not known

[zombie289]

Sorry Steve, still need to dig thru my archives... The Stephens ISO ended up in the UK I beleive. maybe Europe.. It was last a frosty green color and you could tell she'd had a hard life! It ended up running in Gp Sb after Nc was introduced IIRC... mega fast cat and I beleive the ONLY reason they let it run Nb in the first place was that it was NOT a Mustang... (same for the Falcon rallye sprint!) ...
As a side note, you can race a 64 falcon in Nb but it will have to run the proper 260 and no glass panels... People think that the 64's had 289's..You could NOT buy a 64 falcon with a 289, only a 65... they ran 289's in the 63's and 64's that ran A/Sedan in the US because there was a 5 litre limit in place and because the 260/289 share the same stroke the SCCA considered the 289 a bored out 260 (not that you can bore a 260 to 289...but thats getting off topic!)

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Pauly, is this the Iso you're referring to? Reading what you've written about the Falcon motors, does this mean only the 1964 Falcon is eligible to run the fibreglass body panels in both FIA historic touring car racing and in Australia, given the '65 Falcons never ran in the Monte?

[Frosty5]

Steve, have sent you an email.

Cheers
Dave

[zombie289]

Yeah Steve, thats the one.. we used to call it the ImSO Revolting... Although they are quite a neat looking car, just not in that colour scheme LOL..
Honestly Steve I cant answer the question acurately on the glass panels... I doubt ford homologated them on the 65.... BUT IIRC, appendix J & K rules state (well they used to anyways!) that the car had to be produced before jan 1 1965, which lets the 65 falcons in, and thus 289 powered ones...but Im pretty sure thay would have to run steel panels... You would have to research that one me thinks...

Here in the states I believe they wont let you run a 64 with a 289, only a 65 and several groups will NOT aallow the glass panels... A guy restoring an original Trans Am falcon told me that the glass panelling was allowed when the car originally ran in A/Sedan, but had to be replaced with Steel when the owner wanted to race it in Trans Am in 1966....