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Best Real Racing Car You Ever Seen?


jphanna

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everyone knows that the current v8 supercars owes its existence to godzilla domination of touring cars 22 years ago.

 

in the sports sedan championship in the 70's, was a car dominating with a radical setup......i saw it as a kid at Adelaide International Raceway, and it was a lethal combination with Frank Gardner as the driver.

 

the car was the Craven Mild Chev CORVAIR. it was a REAR 6 cylinder engined car in real life, back in USA in the early 60's, but Frank shoehorned a F5000 engine in it and the car dominated 3 years in a row before it was banned. Allan Grice drove it in the 2nd and third years to win the sport sedan championship.

 

i havnt been able to post pics yet but if you google it, you will see the car i am talking about.

Shed People Mutual Admiration Society

2 times Australian National Champion

1991-Flexicar 1999- Group 12 Sedan

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growing up with Liverpool City Raceway when younger had a lot of great cars to envy,,,, even the Mighty Midgets were awesome machinery......... but the car that has been etched into my brain would have to be.... Paul Ashes Super sedan....(Im fairly sure it was a Chevy Monza),,,,

 

only due to the fact he was one of,,, if not the best racer of the days... but after LCR had shut its gates my mum made a temporary (few years) move out to a house in the heart of Smithfeild Industrial area (oh how things have changed in the last 30yrs),,, across the road from us was a Chicken farm & auto eletrical shop but the first thing that caught my eye was the Orange /white Monza shell sitting on & adorned by a wall of used race tyres.

 

unfortunately I've no pics to show.......just as-well... would prove my memories wrong anyways

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there are so many inspiring cars out there. i remember when i first saw the magnum wheels lola t332 f5000, amazing. i remember first seeing a sprintcar at the melbourne speedbowl as a five year old in 1983, wow!

this said my first road racing meet was the 1986 winton round of the australian f2, clubman and sports sedan series. to this day if it has box flares, spoilers and only vaguely resembles the road car, i love it. a couple of stand outs on that weekend 27 years ago this august is keith carling's series 1 rx7, tony hubbards hardtop and bob jolly's vk, oh, and beating my sister at trivial pursuit... there was one other car there that weekend which has to be my favourite; rusty french and his porsche 935k3. seeing that car first back in action at phillip island historics 5 odd years ago holds a special place for me-i recall bagging my old man 20 odd years ago when he got excited by a historic 50's sports car running at whichever track we were at. he said 'one day your high tech gtr's will be racing in historics and then you'll understand. yep dad, now i understand.

Edited by manimmal

My mum says I'm an excellent driver

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It was built on Sydneys Northern Beaches by Tom Nailard ( himself a Sports Sedan driver who drove a V8 powered XU1 ) . I saw it's first ever race ( and plenty more ) at Oran Park when it had side mounted radiators and the scrutineers would not let it run competetively so he statrted from memory 40 seconds after the rest of the field and still caught them . There was a book written about it called " 41 out of 49 " as in it won 41 out of the 49 races it entered and won the 1977 title for Gardner and the 78 and 79 titles for Gricey . The rule makers eventually killed it off by returning to the engine in it's original location rule and the car was unsaleable , everything useful was stripped off it and the shell dumped at a rubbish dump . An ignominious end for a revolutionary ground breaking car .

 

B T W Jphanna " REAL " racing cars don't have doors .

Edited by Mr Ford

The older I get the faster I was .

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thank you guys for the photos and the write up of the corvair. i am grateful for this. its an unusual car compared to what was accepted as the norm back then. it was a wonderful beast of a machine driven by one of the aussie legends of motor racing.

i stood right next to the car, and Frank.

 

Thank you again! wonderful!

Shed People Mutual Admiration Society

2 times Australian National Champion

1991-Flexicar 1999- Group 12 Sedan

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