Ahh, OK, I didn't know they had two of them. Which is the one the Bowdens now own?Originally Posted by Ellis
Ahh, OK, I didn't know they had two of them. Which is the one the Bowdens now own?
No Steve. The other Alfa - the 1750 GTAm in Chesterfield colours that Foley was three wheeling around Lakeside is the car that Brian transplanted the Tasman V8 into. Foley raced both the GTAm V8 and GTA sports sedan in Chesterfield colours at the same time, which is why they are often confused for each other.
After Foley sold the GTAm to the wild west, the Tasman V8 was replaced by a more common V8 (a Rover). The Tasman V8 was eventually reunited with one of the Mildren single seaters (the Brabham BT23D I think). When Vin Sharp bought the GTAm shell, the the original engine was part of the deal but hadn't been in the car since 1972!
Paul
Thanks Paul, great info, keep it coming. I assumed it was the white car which became the V8 Sports Sedan, as both this car and the V8 are rhd, whereas the car he ran in the 1971 ATCC was lhd. Would he have converted it to rhd when the V8 was fitted due to clearance issues?
Hi Steve,Thanks Paul, great info, keep it coming. I assumed it was the white car which became the V8 Sports Sedan, as both this car and the V8 are rhd, whereas the car he ran in the 1971 ATCC was lhd. Would he have converted it to rhd when the V8 was fitted due to clearance issues?
I hadn't realised that Foley had converted the GTAm from LHD to RHD when he put the V8 in, but he must have.
I've attached a photo of the restored GTAm at its unveiling by owner Vin Sharp and Brian Foley, and you can see it is now LHD....
Wow, what a beautiful resto. Do you know where Foley got the GTAm from Paul ?
My understanding is that Foley bought it directly from the Autodelta factory in 1971. I suspect that Foley was expecting a GTAm in race ready condition, but I think it was pretty tired when it landed in Australia. I beleive it was supposed to have been a works car, but Autodelta records were pretty much non-existant even back then and I understand the car's European history remains a mystery.
It went to a Melb owner maybe 2 or 3 years ago who had it restored...again...its the 72 car I think.
They have the 71 John French works car that went to Beechey. It is restored to 71 guise.
Thanks Ellis.
Wow, that looks amazing! Thanks Paul. Is that one of the Colin Bond Ignis Fridges Group A cars next to it?
Yep, that is the rebodied and RHD "ex-Luigi Racing" GTV6 that Colin Bond campaigned in 1986. It is the only Alfa Romeo Australia "works" GTV6 race cars that survives.
I think the other yellow GTV6 on the other side of that photo would be the ex-Greg Carr ARC winning rally car.
Wow, the only survivor? How many GTV6s did Bondy race? I know he ran a two-car team in 1985 with Alan Jones driving the second car. Did either of these cars carry across to 1986?
Thanks Paul. I always wondered re its history. These thing were raced to death in Europe and I believe only 30 plus were constructed by Autodelta. A very valuable and desirable Alfa. The GTV 6s do you have any pcs of that as well.
There were three Alfa Romeo Australia GTV6s and Colin Bond raced all of them…
The first was the in-house built RHD GTV6 that started out in Network Alfa colours that Bond debuted in 1984, when Group A was allowed at Bathurst that year. This car was repainted “Ignis” yellow and used for the 85 ATCC, then raced by Allan Grice and Greg Hansford in white “Toy Shop” Colours before sold to Warwick Rooklyn and raced at Bathurst 86 in blue “Pye” colours with Lucio Cesario. Then it was sold to John Cotter and later Andrew Leithhead (both Alfa Club Presidents). Leithhead turned it into a sports sedan and he wrote it off at Amaroo Park circa 1992.
The LHD “Luigi Racing” was bought in for Alan Jones for the 85 ATCC. When he went to Europe it reverted to Bond who used it at Bathurst with Hansford to finish 8th outright. The car was written off at the Surfers Paradise enduro round later that year.
The remains of the Luigi car were transplanted into a new GTV6 shell sans chassis number and the original “Luigi” CAMS logbook was retained – essentially it assumed that car’s history. This is the car Melbourne Alfa specialist Hugh Harrison has owned for a long time.
As an aside the Ray Gulson “Dulux” Group C/A GTV6 survives in Melbourne in the hands of Scott Farquaharson.
And before anyone asks, Bond’s Group A 75 Turbo was turned into a sports sedan by another local Alfa club member Ian McDonald. It was raced on occasion by John Cotter but was written off by McDonald at Oran Park in the early 1990s.
Paul
Thanks Paul, great info. I'd almost forgotten about the Alfa 75. Bond ran it through 1987, before switching to a Ford RS500.
More from the Precision Driving Team.
This is Pete Geoghegan getting both inside wheels up off the deck in his Mustang GTA.
Jim McKeown cocks an inside wheel in the 911 Sports Sedan. Does anyone know where McKeown got this car from? And what happened to it?
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