Originally Posted by
Ray Bell
I suspect nothing was done prior to the fitment of the Halibrands...
I phoned Ron today and discussed this with him. The story on the Bowden site is essentially correct (though they've got the meeting date wrong, it was a fortnight later than that), Ron watched as they used a plumbob to check the tyres were within the bodywork. Only about 3/16" of ballooning sidewall wasn't, all the tread was, Ron felt it was pretty lame of them, then to be told he could tape the wooden coathangers to the guards topped it all off. He ignored, them, practised, lined up on the grid and was then told he wouldn't be in the results so he parked the car.
Later he had a good alloy man put a slice of extra width into the rears so the Halibrands would fit the rear with a bit of stretching to the fronts.
As we talked about his time with the car, which began with the 1965 Warwick Farm International meeting, he reminded me of how much time he spent at hillclimbs.
He told me of driving the car to Melbourne (Ron was in Wollongong, just south of Sydney, at the time) for the Australian Hillclimb Championship at the new Lakeland course. He asked on his arrival what class he could run in, being told he could run as a Sports Racing car, as a Sports Car (production based) or as a Racing Car.
"Good," he said, "I'll run in all three!" After winning his class in each category, and getting three times as many runs as anyone else, he loaded their gear back into the boot and drove back to Wollongong.