The New Zealand built Ford...'Sports Sedan'.........'Gentleman' Jim Richards

[Steve Holmes]

Steve, your right about the Falcon being red at one stage, and having boxed flared guards. I don't have any photo's of it like that and only found one photo of it like that on the Autopics website. It says the year was 1987.
I suppose the constant changing of specifications of Sports Sedans is one of the problems owners have when restoring cars, especially with Sports Sedans having their own Historic category now. The Bob Jane Monaro now owned by Des Wall had been through many stages of development and I only remember it as a sports sedan, but it was taken back to Improved Production specs.

Thanks Timbo, I just found that photo on Autopics you mentioned. I'm pretty certain the car ran the box guards much earlier than 1987 as they've listed it as. I thought it was somewhere around 1983-85 when Sports Sedans in Australia became that crazy GT championship, with the 935 Porsche's etc that wiped the floor with the traditional cars. The owner of the car, Graham Booth, is a member on here, and I spoke to him yesterday. He is supposed to post some info on here so hopefully he isn't too far away.

I agree with you the challenges an owner of a historic car faces when restoring it, especially one with such a long history. Its probably made easier if the car has won a national championship, but other than that, I guess sometimes it comes down to personal preference.

[Graham]

Jim Richards NZ Falcon Sports sedan

I am the current owner Of the great N.Z. built Jim Richards Big M Falcon sports sedan. I bought it minus mechanicals in 1993. When I got it home and unpacked everything I had a good look at it all [in pieces] and thought what have I got myself into. At the time I was racing a full bodied Falcon XC coupe sports sedan which was simple, so when I looked at this space frame chassis with holes and mounts and brackets where an engine and transaxles had to somehow mount, I was lost. So I started reading how to build racecar books, how to make youre car handle books, looking at pictures, looking at other cars and taking photos, and fortunately being a metal fabricator it began to not look so hard.
So to cut a long story short, it ended up with the 351 Cleveland and Top Loader gearbox that was out of the old car, a CAE quick change independent diff with Lola rear uprights and I was racing with pretty good success [ at club level] on a low budget.
I eventually updated to a Nascar style Jerico transmission and later an SVO Nascar style engine.
In around 1995 I had an engine failure, and so decided it was time to start restoring it back to JRs 1980 days, as by then I was able to get hold of a lot of the important original bits of the car from the Brian Walden ex Robin Doherty VP Commodore to which they had all gone. So since then its been a long hard road but it is all coming together including the Gurney Eagle headed Cleveland with Lucas mechanical fuel injection.
In issue #18 of Australian Muscle car they did a story in the Missing in action section which led Murray Smith who was an apprentice working on the car to contact me, who has been of great assistance with advice, of which I am very thankfull, and I must also thank Jim himself for pictures and advise when I annoy him asking for help, Bob Gill, Prahans fastest plumber who has been a great source of parts, advise and contacts, which leads me last but not least Myles, aka thunder427 for lots of inspiration on doing things properly, and getting me going on this forum [what a gem].