These ones are from the Steve Twist Collection:
These ones are from the Steve Twist Collection:
Hi John,Originally Posted by John McKechnie
It is taken round the back of the main pit building at Eastern Creek.
Love the towbar on the second car in post #62!
George Sheweiry, Brett Walker, Gary Douglas (XA on fence)?
Kirk Benge
I went to Manfield in mid 80s and watched a red XAGT coupe passing everything until it blew up!! My guess has always been that it was the Schubert car. A few years later I wanted a GT....XYs were too dare so I ended up with an XA. I still own the same car but have fully rebuilt it over that time.
The race history here in NZ for XAs is quite extensive as I have learnt over time. People such as myself who were too young to know about racing in the 70s donot know about it.
Hopefully info we get here and the excellent articles which Steve writes fix this.
I know a large number of Ozzies are intrigued by our race history as well. I have attended there GT nationals and seen some fantastic cars.
Thanks to the people who have posted pictures so far. I am amazed at the quality of the 70s ones.
PS: I was at MCM Eastern Creek in 07? when Gossy was pedalling the XA coupe around at sunset. I have been to a lot of race meetings but that car humming down the straight and blasting into turn 1 was one of the best viewing moments I have ever had.
Hi Wayne,
I was there in the 70s as a young man .I know that there was real excitement with GTHOs and earlier Monaros- Bruce Anderson, Richard Brocklehurst,Jim Palmer, Bill Minty, Graham Addis and many others.Racing was tight Later at the time of the XAs I felt the intensity seemed to wane a lot-only competition was between Richards and Crichton.As a result I didnt follow as much this series.Remember the GTHO was the wild one,the XA wasnt so spectacular and only 1 Monaro to run against it.Then later it was Chargers......I look at those photos and remember that I was there, but wasnt hanging off my seat.These were road cars, some had towbars to get the real race cars to the track.Also I felt cheated that Aus had these XA fire breathing Coupes running all the time , but we still had sedans. My embaresing comments show no disrespect to those competitors, their driving skills, and the hard working teams at the time. Just the fickle nature of spectators and their demands for entertainment at a rock bottom entrance fee. I would also like to congratulate the tireless efforts of the enthusiasts with cameras who have captured so brilliantly our history for us to revisit here. Nostalgia would be nothing without them.
Turn 1 at Pukekohe, July 1998.
Hi ,just got some more information on Barry Lloyd and his Lime Glaze XAGT Coupe- won the 1978 Castrol GTX production saloon championship, other winners of that championship were guys like Jim Richards so that was definately his biggest win. He won a couple of South Island championships and had over 200 individual race wins between the 4 door and the coupe between 1973-1981 all over the country. He used to love running in the North Island when ever he could, yet I have not found any other photos. His orange XAGT sedan photo from Ruapuna in 1974 will follow..This is a name that definitely belongs up there with the greats and look at what he was driving to do this.
Barrys son Paul has agreed to give all these details - Dads car was sold in the early 1990's with 30,000 genuine miles on the clock.....mostly race miles!! It still had the original matching numbers engine block etc..from memory the car was rust proofed by the first Australian owner from new.....I can definitely remember it as the best example of a rust free Falcon coupe I have personally seen...... garage stored the entire time Dad owned it.
Wayne Murdochs name is mentioned in the thread a couple of times as a driver of XAGT four doors in the early 70's. He is also an incredibley talented car engineer, he built and maintained Dads four door and coupe for him along with all of his other race cars. They took a trip to Aussie together a while after building the coupe and contacted some aussie race teams they bought back all manner of good competition brake pads, suspension tweaks ,tricks and components etc..from this trip.
was sold to an enthusiast in Dunedin. At the time this guy already owned a nice tidy restored genuine XAGT coupe also Lime Glaze with white upholstery basically identical to Dads car but with a lot more miles on the clock. Dad traded this car and and received a large pile of $$$ for his race car. Dad kept the other coupe for a few years before selling it. Where that car went neither of us can remember!!
As for the race car all race damaged panels were to be replaced with NOS Ford items the guy from Dunedin had collected from various Ford dealers around the country during the 80's when they were clearing old stock at bargain prices. He basically had enough stuff to rebuild an entire XAGT coupe. To the best of our knowledge after the rebuild it was then to be put in secure storage as an investment.
The 4 door XAGT that Barry Lloyd raced -as shown in the pic is dead.
Paul Lloyd said that Paul Urquart ended up with it and asked me to find out where it is.
Paul U said that he owned it in the early 80s.It was sitting at Mainline Motors for $18k.
He got it for $15k and owned it for some time.
Had a major in it and was totaled.
We now can complete and finish the history on GF1858 racing XAGT 4 door.Didnt make it.
Next car to carry on?
Here is the 4-door John was referring to:
Where was this photo taken Paul? Looks like Bay Park? Some pretty cool cars in there. Whose are the HT Monaro and the orange Falcon hardtop?
Kirk Benge
That yellow Kirk Benge hardtop was for sale a year or two back. Does anyone know what happened to it? Did he have the Falcon before or after the Torino?
I think it will be Baypark as he raced there a lot, and expect the XA could be Phil Schubert?
The Torino was much later.
I see Kirk is on here now an will know......Captain Kirk, time to chime in!
Thanks Paul. Yep he joined yesterday, hopefully he'll fill in the gaps.
Hi Steve, looking at the red Monaro I am sure it is a HK ,you can see the shiny crossbar running horizontal on the grille, rear taillamps look smaller than HT.Could be the man from Steely Gears-is it Tony Rattray?
Last edited by John McKechnie; 07-25-2012 at 09:54 PM.
Craig Harris was driving it here under control of Father, John and very sedately. John French driving Tru Blu, put about 6 laps on them as well as made a pit stop in the 20 minutes they were on the track doing the demo.
According to the Dick Johnson 35 years of racing book the deal he had with John Harris when he first got the XD was that he take the running gear out of the Coupe for the XD race car and transplant the XD's gear standard gear back into the coupe and give it back to Bryan Byrt Ford. I do not know how much the car has been restored to race trim since then as it does not say.
They also had the ex Melfords Jim Richards coupe on display which was purchased for the Johnson team as a spare.
Last edited by TonyG; 07-25-2012 at 08:41 PM.
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