Found this the other day, reminding me of the times we all played cars in: https://fb.watch/8TstOuut7q/
The Years Roll By!
- Thread starter Kim Luck
- Start date
Thanks Kim, I was a crew member on an Escort Twin cam that year. Very hot and windy.
Brings back memories to see how much the track has changed. The dipper is much flatter now, it really was a country road racing track back then. Really was "the great race" with a 55 car grid and mixed classes, not the limited franchise system for 23 cars it is now.
Brings back memories to see how much the track has changed. The dipper is much flatter now, it really was a country road racing track back then. Really was "the great race" with a 55 car grid and mixed classes, not the limited franchise system for 23 cars it is now.
To think they ran F1 cars, Brabham in his BT23, big sports cars Matich SR4 with no safety fence and trees on the edge of the track. They were just normal racing conditions back then, very organic, not digital or enhanced, plain skill and daring.
I longed for the day that production cars and capacity classes were re-introduced to motor racing in Australia. Never to be, unfortunately!
They still have multi-class Production Car racing, quite big fields at the Shannons Motorsports Australia meetings, and others. Personally, because we have much faster and more exciting cars to watch, I don't find the production cars too interesting these days, but geez it was good in 1971.
I was there at Bathurst in 1971, same year as that video above, which is very good quality for that era by the way.
Memorable was using the track to drive up to viewing areas on the mountain, first photo pit straight about 0600 Saturday after driving up from melbourne. Check out my parking spot in the 2nd photo - that's my maroon Falcon with the roof rack viewing area on top - you can't do that any more! Then Moffat's lead on the first lap. Next just a nice photo. Ending with my photos of Bill Brown's famous accident - I didn't see it happen but was there a few minutes later.
Loved those big banger sports cars - beautiful and fast machines. The spare wheel has me a bit perplexed, I know that to qualify as a Sports car it had to have 2 seats, doors (small as they may be) and I thought head and tail lights. However, I didn't remember that a spare wheel must be carried, and why else would they be doing it?
The spare wheel was a requirement to race as a sports car. That photo of Matich was 69, the year Bevan Gibson was killed when he pulled out of the slipstream from Matich over the last hump and it flipped onto its back around 300kph. I was watching from McPhillamy through binoculars. Still remember it well.
I remember some cars had the spare tyre on top of the dashboard under the front Perspex windscreen.
Bevan Gibson
Matich at Warwick Farm, accurate and committed to nailing that apex
I remember some cars had the spare tyre on top of the dashboard under the front Perspex windscreen.
Bevan Gibson
Matich at Warwick Farm, accurate and committed to nailing that apex
i grew up close to the Matich garage and was used to seeing the cars being built /serviced in the back of the servo ,as a kid , huge slicks stacked everywhere ,interesting Frank and his cars seldom rate a mention ,he was a serious competitor both here and in the U S ,
Fordman. You may recall the Negus Plymouth Special at Caversham. Alternating between a single seater and a sports car by the simple addition of a small cane chair ! Of course Syd Negus was a Senator.
It never left..
Improved Production Racing Association of Australia
Find out everything you need to know about racing in Improved Production racing motorsport
ipraaus.com.au
Is the national body representing the various clubs at a state level. I think even AASA run their own improv production series along side the cams one? Or maybe its the cams one that isn't run anymore?
Exhibit a)
A turbo Suzuki Swift (Jordon Cox of all people) smashing the field
Yeah, and then you all had to go and hurt yourselves and ruin the fun for the rest of us
Hey Bowie, most of the safety upgrades required at race circuits in Australia were in response to Rally events overseas.
The chase at Bathurst was built after Mike Burgman was killed in the Camaro on conrod, the chase was modified after my mate Don Watson lost his life when a brake rotor shattered and took out the brakes and steering on the straight just before the chase.
The fun continues however it is not quite the same ride now that the dipper has been flattened out, and I used to love getting airborne over the last hump before they built the chase to slow us down.
I don't even bother to watch Le Mans now that there are chicanes on Mulsanne straight. It is not Le Mans anymore.
The chase at Bathurst was built after Mike Burgman was killed in the Camaro on conrod, the chase was modified after my mate Don Watson lost his life when a brake rotor shattered and took out the brakes and steering on the straight just before the chase.
The fun continues however it is not quite the same ride now that the dipper has been flattened out, and I used to love getting airborne over the last hump before they built the chase to slow us down.
I don't even bother to watch Le Mans now that there are chicanes on Mulsanne straight. It is not Le Mans anymore.
The Armstrong 500 and early Bathurst 500's were run for UNIMPROVED production car classes (apart from the ones Harry Firth, Howard Marsden and others cheated on) and were literally identical to those sold in the showroom. Hardly the case with improved production! Also, manufacturers brave enough to enter their products either sold a good few cars after the event or left the racecourse with their tails between their legs and a list of production modifications for next year. Racing improves the breed!It never left..
Improved Production Racing Association of Australia
Find out everything you need to know about racing in Improved Production racing motorsport
Is the national body representing the various clubs at a state level. I think even AASA run their own improv production series along side the cams one? Or maybe its the cams one that isn't run anymore?
Exhibit a)
A turbo Suzuki Swift (Jordon Cox of all people) smashing the field
Ah ok ya got me there but to be fair.... the "great race" ended up being a Grp C and Grp A event right? So modified touring cars before the Nissans in the 90's won and made it about "local" consumption?
We'll say we were both right
There was a hump in the dipper? Oh my lol. I need to look at that old footage a bit closer
Sorry to hear about your mates lives left there on the mountain. May I ask, does it make it a weird experience racing on it?
but to be fair.... the "great race" ended up being a Grp C and Grp A event right? So modified touring cars before the Nissans in the 90's won and made it about "local" consumption?We'll say we were both right
There was a hump in the dipper? Oh my lol. I need to look at that old footage a bit closer
Sorry to hear about your mates lives left there on the mountain. May I ask, does it make it a weird experience racing on it?
That video, what a classic. Seeing the grid blow by at the start was cool.
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"There was a hump in the dipper? Oh my lol. I need to look at that old footage a bit closer"
No Bowie, there is no hump in the dipper. When us old timers talk about "the last hump" on conrod, we are talking about a really big series of humps or hills that we went up and down like a roller coaster as we rocketed down the mountain. Where the current cars are turning into the chase, we used to stay flat and go down another hill and then over the crest. The last one was the biggest and had an airfield style wind sock on the side of the road so you could check wind direction at full noise down conrod. I think it is still on conrod but a bit further up the hill now. You had to be aware of wind direction when you had all 4 wheels off the ground over the last hump at around 280 kph back in the day before proper aero.
The braking area came up pretty fast however you had to wait a few seconds after you landed so that the suspension could settle before you buried the brake pedal coming into Murrays corner. That's why there was a long escape road heading straight ahead into Bathurst. There is a roundabout there now at the front of the motor museum.
The tricky part about the last hump was two or three cars side by side. The speed difference and lapped cars meant you often had three abreast. When you were side by side over the last hump, the air cushion between the cars made them quite unstable. A major factor in both the Bevan Gibson backflip over the hump and Burgman going sideways into the fence/bridge support.
As to the dipper, it used to be a really big dip that followed the terrain which was a huge drainage trench. The track used to just drop from under the car, it's all flattened out now so that the 12 hr cars and open wheelers can negotiate it easier.
Phil Ward in the Angli 1969, and me in about 1995
No Bowie, there is no hump in the dipper. When us old timers talk about "the last hump" on conrod, we are talking about a really big series of humps or hills that we went up and down like a roller coaster as we rocketed down the mountain. Where the current cars are turning into the chase, we used to stay flat and go down another hill and then over the crest. The last one was the biggest and had an airfield style wind sock on the side of the road so you could check wind direction at full noise down conrod. I think it is still on conrod but a bit further up the hill now. You had to be aware of wind direction when you had all 4 wheels off the ground over the last hump at around 280 kph back in the day before proper aero.
The braking area came up pretty fast however you had to wait a few seconds after you landed so that the suspension could settle before you buried the brake pedal coming into Murrays corner. That's why there was a long escape road heading straight ahead into Bathurst. There is a roundabout there now at the front of the motor museum.
The tricky part about the last hump was two or three cars side by side. The speed difference and lapped cars meant you often had three abreast. When you were side by side over the last hump, the air cushion between the cars made them quite unstable. A major factor in both the Bevan Gibson backflip over the hump and Burgman going sideways into the fence/bridge support.
As to the dipper, it used to be a really big dip that followed the terrain which was a huge drainage trench. The track used to just drop from under the car, it's all flattened out now so that the 12 hr cars and open wheelers can negotiate it easier.
Phil Ward in the Angli 1969, and me in about 1995
Aaaaaaah gotcha. Its a completely different circuit without those, aspects we'll call them.
Having to factor wind before the jump, and with who was next to you, before then braking from full noise would have been the coolest experience ever!
Having to factor wind before the jump, and with who was next to you, before then braking from full noise would have been the coolest experience ever!
It's all to do with Benoulli's Principle. Aerodynamics is a very interesting subject........
Ah, yes, aerodynamics is indeed interesting, all the more so because it is often taught incorrectly. Bernoulli's principle is best applicale to closed systems and incompressible flows. It does not explain why the air flows faster past the top of the wing and slower past the underside, and there is also no natural law that dictaes that the two flows must meet at the same point at the trailing edge.
The bulk of aerodynamic lift is created as a Newtonian reactive force to the high pressure region under the wing, not the low pressure above, and equates directly to the displacement of air mass from where it was ahead of the wing to where it ends at a lower altitude behind it.
Aerodynamics is best described with less complication as 'surfing' the air, and yet there are still textbooks being published lockstepping blindly to Bernoulli as the fundamental physical law of flight. Don't get me wrong. I love this: so many opportunities for the Engineer to tell pilots they have it wrong.
At least NASA knows:
Incorrect Lift Theory
The bulk of aerodynamic lift is created as a Newtonian reactive force to the high pressure region under the wing, not the low pressure above, and equates directly to the displacement of air mass from where it was ahead of the wing to where it ends at a lower altitude behind it.
Aerodynamics is best described with less complication as 'surfing' the air, and yet there are still textbooks being published lockstepping blindly to Bernoulli as the fundamental physical law of flight. Don't get me wrong. I love this: so many opportunities for the Engineer to tell pilots they have it wrong.
At least NASA knows:
Incorrect Lift Theory