Ford Cortina (Mk1) GT500 1965

[Pete05]

1965 Bathurst 500 winner

A close-up of the brake ducts

Notice the original fuel filler blocked off & replaced by the twin fillers located at the base of the rear window; a much better place for refueling during a pitstop.

A peek inside the boot at the extra fuel tank fed by the twin filler necks and it's feed to the original tank found in all Cortinas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Cortina

 

[Pete05]

http://www.pixelmatic.com.au/cortina/gt500.html

 

[Pete05]

http://uniquecarsandparts.com/car_info_ford_cortina_gt500.htm

 

[GBO Possum]

http://www.pixelmatic.com.au/cortina/gt500.html

The line I really liked in the story of the GT500 is

"The car came with an air cleaner, but it wasn't fitted. Why? So it didn't have to be fitted for racing."​

As a Mini Cooper owner back then I was cheering for the Mini to win at Bathurst, but I got over the disappointment quickly and admired the GT500 achievement for what it was. Those were exciting racing days. The only reason I didn't order a GT500 back then was that the close ratio gearbox made it a pig to drive at low speeds in normal day-to-day driving. Oh, and the fact that I couldn't afford one! The gear ratio excuse served me well.

 

[Pete05]

The line I really liked in the story of the GT500 is

"The car came with an air cleaner, but it wasn't fitted. Why? So it didn't have to be fitted for racing."​

As a Mini Cooper owner back then I was cheering for the Mini to win at Bathurst, but I got over the disappointment quickly and admired the GT500 achievement for what it was. Those were exciting racing days. The only reason I didn't order a GT500 back then was that the close ratio gearbox made it a pig to drive at low speeds in normal day-to-day driving. Oh, and the fact that I couldn't afford one! The gear ratio excuse served me well.

I would've bought the Mini too 👍
This Cortina with the Lotus gear ratios was a perfect example of Harry Firth focusing on lap 130 at Mount Panorama and showing no consideration for anything else.
I expect many owners of the road car would've been very friendly with their local clutch specialist

Hope you're doing well mate

 

[GBO Possum]

@Pete05, thanks for the good wishes, we are doing well, and how about you?

I can't imagine that many GT500s became daily drivers. Unlike the Cooper S 1275, which was a civilized pocket rocket.

At the time, there was a lot of negative talk about how focused the GT500 was on winning at Bathurst to the detriment of its behavior as a "normal" car. Some almost saw it as "cheating", others regarded it as a quite reasonable winning strategy. So long as they met the homologation rules, it was fair and above board.

When the Mini Cooper S 1275s marched across the finish line sweeping all before them, THAT was also regarded in some quarters as "unfair". Putting so much power into such a tiny car was unseemly!

 

[Pete05]

Enjoy this footage of the Cortina domination at Bathurst in 1965.

 

[GBO Possum]

Great footage. No Safety Car, in fact no Safety Anything!

Those were the days! The days when wheels fell off and drivers' appendages of brass did not.

 

[Pete05]

Great footage. No Safety Car, in fact no Safety Anything!

Those were the days! The days when wheels fell off and drivers' appendages of brass did not.

The good old days indeed. I love the opening in-car footage of Geoghegan chasing the Triumph & the way it's wagging it's tail at him.

 

[GBO Possum]

Geoghegan chasing the Triumph

...in street shoes!

 

[Sick Cylinder]

View attachment 136909
1965 Bathurst 500 winner
View attachment 185475
View attachment 185476
A close-up of the brake ducts
View attachment 185478
View attachment 185480
Notice the original fuel filler blocked off & replaced by the twin fillers located at the base of the rear window; a much better place for refueling during a pitstop.
View attachment 185483
A peek inside the boot at the extra fuel tank fed by the twin filler necks and it's feed to the original tank found in all Cortinas.
View attachment 185485
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Cortina

Hi Pete - I just clicked like because I've only just noticed your post. As far as I'm concerned every racing game worth its salt needs to have a Cortina Mark 1 - and most games apart from Gran Turismo already have one.

Regarding the car in the black and white picture (race number 11) - do you know what team that car is from? I ask because a broad central stripe with a thin stripe either side - if they are red stripes on a white car or white stripes on a red car were used by the Willment team which was one of the world's largest teams in the 1960's - at one time running 27 cars across 9 teams and 3 continents. When "Gentleman" Jack Sears won the BRSCC championship in 1963 he was racing for Willment - first in a Cortina 1500 GT then a 7 litre Galaxie then he finished off the season in a Cortina Lotus when that became available.

I've pasted below a link to the Willment Cars website which has some great period photos.


http://www.willmentcars.com/

 

[Pete05]

Hi Pete - I just clicked like because I've only just noticed your post. As far as I'm concerned every racing game worth its salt needs to have a Cortina Mark 1 - and most games apart from Gran Turismo already have one.

Regarding the car in the black and white picture (race number 11) - do you know what team that car is from? I ask because a broad central stripe with a thin stripe either side - if they are red stripes on a white car or white stripes on a red car were used by the Willment team which was one of the world's largest teams in the 1960's - at one time running 27 cars across 9 teams and 3 continents. When "Gentleman" Jack Sears won the BRSCC championship in 1963 he was racing for Willment - first in a Cortina 1500 GT then a 7 litre Galaxie then he finished off the season in a Cortina Lotus when that became available.

I've pasted below a link to the Willment Cars website which has some great period photos.


http://www.willmentcars.com/

Hello mate,

Regarding your question about the race winning car 11D, it was driven by Barry 'Bo' Seton and Midge Bosworth. From what I can find out over various sources, the car was a privately purchased GT500 road car with a balanced engine. That's it! It wasn't a 'factory' prepared example from the Ford Motor Company's workshop so essentially it was what was known as a privateer run car.
I have previously heard about the Willment Team and how the spread their racing efforts around the globe. However, I have no knowledge of any official Australian effort.
Thanks for liking the car, although not as universally popular as a Lotus Cortina, the GT500 was the fastest of the Ford engined MK.1s.

 

[Sick Cylinder]

Hello mate,

Regarding your question about the race winning car 11D, it was driven by Barry 'Bo' Seton and Midge Bosworth. From what I can find out over various sources, the car was a privately purchased GT500 road car with a balanced engine. That's it! It wasn't a 'factory' prepared example from the Ford Motor Company's workshop so essentially it was what was known as a privateer run car.
I have previously heard about the Willment Team and how the spread their racing efforts around the globe. However, I have no knowledge of any official Australian effort.
Thanks for liking the car, although not as universally popular as a Lotus Cortina, the GT500 was the fastest of the Ford engined MK.1s.

Hi Pete - I did some more research and found these photos:

The top picture is the 1965 Seton Bosworth Cortina and the bottom picture was taken in 1963 of the Cortina 1500 GT's and Ford Galaxie entered in the BRSCC by Willment. The Cortinas were driven at Silverstone in 1963 by Richie Ginther, Frank Gardner and David Haynes while Jack Sears drove the Galaxie.

The Willment Cortinas were not prepared by Ford - they were supplied by Ford then prepared under the direction of ex-touring car champion Jeff Uren, Manager of the Willment team from 1962-4. John Willment provided the finance. Given the colour schemes it seems likely that John Willment was involved in some way, perhaps in financing the Seton Bosworth car and they may have had technical assistance.

Jack Sears drove the Cortina 1500 GT in the BRSCC in 1963 until the Galaxie was ready and was the only person to beat Jim Clark in the Colin Chapman prepared DOHC Cortina Lotus with an OHV Cortina GT.

 

[Pete05]

Great work @Sick Cylinder

The additional info I posted this morning was taken from a book written by the man responsible for developing the Cortina GT500, Harry Firth.
In that book, there's a pic of several GT500s in his holding yard and all are plain white without any stripes of any kind.
I can only suspect that the Willment team was well known within Ford competition circles and perhaps, Seton/Bosworth painted their car in Willment colors as a mark of respect. To say it's a coincidence that their car somehow ended up with identical stripes has very little credit in my opinion.
I'm not sure what technical assistance Willment could have offered Seton/Bosworth as the cars were strictly showroom spec with blue printing & balancing as per Ford factory tolerances the only allowances.

 

[Pete05]

All information below is taken from FORD AND I The birth of the muscle car era By Harry Firth

GT500 modifications to standard Cortina specification.

ENGINE

• 25/65 113E Wade camshaft reground to approximately 10 degrees a side over "Kent"
• Smaller steel crank pulley.
• Change conrod big end bolts.
• Heavier clutch pressure plate springs fitted.
• Inlet and exhaust ports cleaned up and combustion chamber modified.
• Cylinder head face shaved 0.030"
• Spacer fitted to oil pump relief valve spring (1 psi increased pressure)

EXHAUST

• Approximately 50% of primary mufflers had a cross baffle which was removed bringing about a substantial increase in power.

SPRINGS & MacPHERSON STRUTS

• Ride height lowered 2" front and rear.

BRAKES

• Cooling ducts fitted to front brakes
• Dust shields removed from front disc brakes
• Harder brake pads fitted

FUEL TANK

• Extra eight gallon tank fitted against rear bulkhead.
• Fillers, fuel tank sender and fuel line connected
• Old filler opening sealed
• Fit and connect two quick action filler caps near rear window so as to allow boot to be opened normally during refueling if required.

AIR CLEANER
Placed in vehicle boot as optional fitting to engine.
* ARDC could have ruled that the air cleaner had to be carried in the boot or on the engine. In retrospect it would have been better to have described the part as a "delete option" as was done with the MK.II version.

CARBURETTOR

• Primary and secondary chokes became 27 and 29 respectively.
• Secondary Main Jet redrilled and stamped 135 then fitted to secondary throat
• All other carburettor specifications remained standard.

* Special care had to be taken to ensure that the needle and seat were correctly sized. Many were found to be too small causing fuel starvation at engine speeds in excess of 6000 rpm.

TRIM

• Lightweight plastic mats fitted
• All bodies were supplied without body deadener
• All bodies were supplied with the barest minimum of paint. The cars tended to look 'flat' as a result. Polishing GT500 vigorously was discouraged as most were going to workshops or dealers anyway.

In general there was a complete race package made to run a race with one stop and no tyre or brake work.

The Jack Murray car was the fastest produced and was timed at 118 mph (190 km/h).

A total of 110 GT500s were built for the factory with another 85 for private owners in varying states of tune.

 

[GBO Possum]

I seem to recall that the final drive ratio was modified (as well as individual gear ratios), which would likely be confirmed by the 118 mph speed of the Jack Murray car. Now was that a legitimate speed test on the flat, or maybe clocked down Conrod Straight?

I'm guessing many cars were red-lining for extended periods on Conrod. Recalling the days when Minis and VWs battled at Bathurst, I took a standard 1200 beetle down Conrod in GT6 and it red-lined for ever. I took pity on it and replaced the transmission. Sorry, I know, I'm WAY off topic!

 

[Pete05]

I seem to recall that the final drive ratio was modified (as well as individual gear ratios), which would likely be confirmed by the 118 mph speed of the Jack Murray car. Now was that a legitimate speed test on the flat, or maybe clocked down Conrod Straight?

I'm guessing many cars were red-lining for extended periods on Conrod. Recalling the days when Minis and VWs battled at Bathurst, I took a standard 1200 beetle down Conrod in GT6 and it red-lined for ever. I took pity on it and replaced the transmission. Sorry, I know, I'm WAY off topic!

The standard final drive ratio for the GT500 was a 4.1 to 1. Harry says in his book that many private road users changed that to 4.4 to 1.
The gearbox ratios were exactly the same as those used in the Lotus Cortinas hence the tall first gear.
As for the Jack Murray speed quote, Harry doesn't say specifically but, they used to measure the cars over a given distance down Conrod during practice and the race so I suspect this is what he is referring to when he says the car "was measured at 118mph"
Like you, I've always wondered about many of the cars over the years given their gearing and factory rev limits. I can't imagine many would like part throttle at or near the redline either. That's asking for something to put a dent in the bonnet or create an air conditioned sump.
I did exactly the am thing with the '66 VW at Bathurst and found the same results. Then again, it wouldn't surprise me if PD got the gearing wrong. It certainly wouldn't be a first! Some of the cars in GT6 aren't even in the ballpark!
No apology required mate 👍

 

[Sick Cylinder]

Great work @Sick Cylinder

The additional info I posted this morning was taken from a book written by the man responsible for developing the Cortina GT500, Harry Firth.
In that book, there's a pic of several GT500s in his holding yard and all are plain white without any stripes of any kind.
I can only suspect that the Willment team was well known within Ford competition circles and perhaps, Seton/Bosworth painted their car in Willment colors as a mark of respect. To say it's a coincidence that their car somehow ended up with identical stripes has very little credit in my opinion.
I'm not sure what technical assistance Willment could have offered Seton/Bosworth as the cars were strictly showroom spec with blue printing & balancing as per Ford factory tolerances the only allowances.

Hi Pete - by coincidence I am currently reading the autobiography "Alan Mann a life of chance" - he ran a Cortina 1500 GT for Jimmy Blumer in the 1963 BSCC (Group 2 regulations) with which Jimmy scored the most points over the year in the under 2 litre class. Alan describes in the book making some of the changes listed by Harry Firth so the changes made to the 1965 500GT model were obviously copied across from 1963 cars, but incorporated as standard on that model.

He also confesses to an interesting bit of cheating - in those days in British saloon racing the cars were weighed with the spare wheel in, but then it was allowed to race with the spare wheel removed. They used to fill Jimmy Blumer's spare tyre with water to make it heavy and bring the car up to the homologated weight. When it was then removed it gave them a weight advantage over the Willment Team Cortina's.

I thoroughly recommend the book to anyone with an interest in 1960's racing. There are lots of little nuggets describing things which could never be imagined today - such as Jochen Rindt being so reluctant to test his Cooper-Maserati F1 car that the Alan Mann Ford team would sometimes take it to the track with their cars and the Ford saloon car driver Frank Gardner would test it when he got time and report his findings to the then Cooper F1 team boss Roy Salvadori. It's difficult today to imagine Lewis Hamilton refusing to do testing and McLaren giving their car to a saloon car driver contracted to another company and saying "Would you mind testing this for us when you get a spare moment and giving us some feedback because our star driver can't be bothered."

 

[Pete05]

Hi Pete - by coincidence I am currently reading the autobiography "Alan Mann a life of chance" - he ran a Cortina 1500 GT for Jimmy Blumer in the 1963 BSCC (Group 2 regulations) with which Jimmy scored the most points over the year in the under 2 litre class. Alan describes in the book making some of the changes listed by Harry Firth so the changes made to the 1965 500GT model were obviously copied across from 1963 cars, but incorporated as standard on that model.

He also confesses to an interesting bit of cheating - in those days in British saloon racing the cars were weighed with the spare wheel in, but then it was allowed to race with the spare wheel removed. They used to fill Jimmy Blumer's spare tyre with water to make it heavy and bring the car up to the homologated weight. When it was then removed it gave them a weight advantage over the Willment Team Cortina's.

I thoroughly recommend the book to anyone with an interest in 1960's racing. There are lots of little nuggets describing things which could never be imagined today - such as Jochen Rindt being so reluctant to test his Cooper-Maserati F1 car that the Alan Mann Ford team would sometimes take it to the track with their cars and the Ford saloon car driver Frank Gardner would test it when he got time and report his findings to the then Cooper F1 team boss Roy Salvadori. It's difficult today to imagine Lewis Hamilton refusing to do testing and McLaren giving their car to a saloon car driver contracted to another company and saying "Would you mind testing this for us when you get a spare moment and giving us some feedback because our star driver can't be bothered."

The Alan Mann book should be a very interesting read for you as I know he ran Cortinas in the TransAm championship with Frank Gardner as one of his drivers.
Frank was an open-wheeler driver before his time in saloon cars driving for the Alec Mildren team in Australia and for Brabham when he first arrived in the UK.
Harry Firth used his 1964 Bathurst 500 Cortina GT 2-door as the development vehicle for the GT500 and claimed to have had the ear of Colin Chapman amongst others when talk centred around the OHV Kent engined cars. In his book is a picture of what seems to be a Ford end of year party for its Motorsport teams with everyone looking rather chummy.
Motorsport has always been a case of "it's only cheating if you get caught." The rulemakers needed to be absolutely specific with their wording of the rules as each man with a creative brain and an equally creative interpretation of said rules could find many an advantage.
Those early Bathurst 500 races required a minimum of 100 identical vehicles to come from the manufacturers production line. As Harry Firth says in his book, there's nothing in the rules to say that production line couldn't briefly exist at his own workshop so long as 100 'sets' of parts were made & fitted to the cars.
As for the info on Jochen Rindt, he was a bloody fast driver but I also think he got spooked by a car that wasn't 'dialed-in' to his comfort. Unfortunately, his reluctance to drive the Lotus 72 at Monza in 1970 was warranted. When he told Chapman he wanted a 49 brought to the track for the GP, Colin told him you drive the 72 or you don't drive anything. With the title on the line at that stage, he strapped into the 72 and paid the ultimate
price.
To think the guardrail that took his life was added as a safety measure...

 

[Sick Cylinder]

The Alan Mann book should be a very interesting read for you as I know he ran Cortinas in the TransAm championship with Frank Gardner as one of his drivers.
Frank was an open-wheeler driver before his time in saloon cars driving for the Alec Mildren team in Australia and for Brabham when he first arrived in the UK.
Harry Firth used his 1964 Bathurst 500 Cortina GT 2-door as the development vehicle for the GT500 and claimed to have had the ear of Colin Chapman amongst others when talk centred around the OHV Kent engined cars. In his book is a picture of what seems to be a Ford end of year party for its Motorsport teams with everyone looking rather chummy.
Motorsport has always been a case of "it's only cheating if you get caught." The rulemakers needed to be absolutely specific with their wording of the rules as each man with a creative brain and an equally creative interpretation of said rules could find many an advantage.
Those early Bathurst 500 races required a minimum of 100 identical vehicles to come from the manufacturers production line. As Harry Firth says in his book, there's nothing in the rules to say that production line couldn't briefly exist at his own workshop so long as 100 'sets' of parts were made & fitted to the cars.
As for the info on Jochen Rindt, he was a bloody fast driver but I also think he got spooked by a car that wasn't 'dialed-in' to his comfort. Unfortunately, his reluctance to drive the Lotus 72 at Monza in 1970 was warranted. When he told Chapman he wanted a 49 brought to the track for the GP, Colin told him you drive the 72 or you don't drive anything. With the title on the line at that stage, he strapped into the 72 and paid the ultimate
price.
To think the guardrail that took his life was added as a safety measure...

Alan Mann comments that "Rindt was one of the greatest racers ever, but to Roy's constant frustration he wasn't very keen on doing any testing".

From what I have read and heard from other sources, Rindt refused to drive the car unless the aerodynamic aids were removed from it - he was warned that it was not designed to work without them and no testing had been done of the car in a wingless configuration for that reason.

 

[Pete05]

Alan Mann comments that "Rindt was one of the greatest racers ever, but to Roy's constant frustration he wasn't very keen on doing any testing".

From what I have read and heard from other sources, Rindt refused to drive the car unless the aerodynamic aids were removed from it - he was warned that it was not designed to work without them and no testing had been done of the car in a wingless configuration for that reason.

Jack Brabham had very similar things to say about Rindt too. I've also heard Jackie Stewart give him great compliments.
I can understand his concerns about those early wings as their construction and being mounted high up on struts meant breakages/failures were a regular danger. I think it was Rindt himself that was pitched into the guardrail in Spain following a wing failure
on his Lotus.
One has to wonder how open-wheelers would've developed over the years had the brief ban on aerodynamic wings been continually enforced.

 

[Sick Cylinder]

Jack Brabham had very similar things to say about Rindt too. I've also heard Jackie Stewart give him great compliments.
I can understand his concerns about those early wings as their construction and being mounted high up on struts meant breakages/failures were a regular danger. I think it was Rindt himself that was pitched into the guardrail in Spain following a wing failure
on his Lotus.
One has to wonder how open-wheelers would've developed over the years had the brief ban on aerodynamic wings been continually enforced.

I got my information from a recent interview with Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley, but this sounds like the full story: NB the wing didn't fail on his car - he was driving without them.

"During practice for the 1970 Italian Grand Prix in Monza, near Milan, Chapman and Rindt agreed to follow the lead of Jackie Stewart (Tyrrell) and Denny Hulme (McLaren) and run without wings in an attempt to reduce drag and gain a higher top speed. The more powerful flat-12 Ferraris of Jacky Ickx and Clay Regazzoni had been up to 10 mph (16 km/h) faster than the Lotus at the previous race in Austria. Rindt's team mate John Miles was unhappy with the wingless setup in Friday practice, reporting that the car "wouldn't run straight". Rindt reported no such problems, and Chapman recalled that Rindt reported the car to be "almost 800 rpm faster on the straight" without wings.[5]

On the following day, Rindt ran with higher gear ratios fitted to his car to take advantage of the reduced drag, increasing the car's potential top speed to 205 mph (330 km/h).[6] On Rindt's fifth lap of the final practice session, Hulme, who was following, reported that under braking for the Parabolica corner, "Jochen's car weaved slightly and then swerved sharp left into the crash barrier."[7] A joint in the crash barrier parted, the suspension dug in under the barrier, and the car hit a stanchion head-on. The front end of the car was destroyed. Although the 28-year-old Rindt was rushed to hospital, he was pronounced dead. Rindt was in the habit of using only four points on the five point harness then available and did not wear the crotch straps, as he wanted to be able to get out of the car quickly in the event of fire. As a result, upon impact he slid under the belts and suffered fatal throat injuries."

 

[Dr P Grunfelde]

Any Ford Cortina Mark 1 would be great addition to the game - either this one or the GT or the Lotus version - hopefully to race against a premium classic Mini like they did originally.

 

[GBO Possum]

Back in the day, the "street" Cortina 1500 was an exciting car to drive at an affordable price. Quite frankly, I'd like to see the 1200 as an available car, with the option to upgrade it to 1500 specs. If the GT, GT 500 or Lotus versions of the Cortina were to be included, then adding the "street" editions should be very doable, and would provide a great car for "club" type racing.

It's noticeable that most games tend towards wanting to give us the baddest, most powerful versions of cars, no doubt with a goal of making more sales excitement.

In reality, there is a fine level of enjoyment driving a stock, low powered, street car with reasonable tires.

As an example, the stock 1960's VW Beetle. IIRC, it has 40 horsepower, and tricky handling, so driving it requires a certain finesse. Take a less than perfect line through Hell Corner at Bathurst, and you pay the price all the way up Mountain Straight. Many is the time I have arrived at Griffin's Bend still kicking myself for doing poorly on Hell or even Murray's. Conversely, nail it right on the head and the rear view mirror scene is just so gratifying!

I mention the VW because it is one of the street cars available in GT6 and it's a premium.

This is my way of adding the 1200 and 1500 Cortinas to the list. If we can have a hundred Miatas in the game....

 

[Pete05]

Back in the day, the "street" Cortina 1500 was an exciting car to drive at an affordable price. Quite frankly, I'd like to see the 1200 as an available car, with the option to upgrade it to 1500 specs. If the GT, GT 500 or Lotus versions of the Cortina were to be included, then adding the "street" editions should be very doable, and would provide a great car for "club" type racing.

It's noticeable that most games tend towards wanting to give us the baddest, most powerful versions of cars, no doubt with a goal of making more sales excitement.

In reality, there is a fine level of enjoyment driving a stock, low powered, street car with reasonable tires.

As an example, the stock 1960's VW Beetle. IIRC, it has 40 horsepower, and tricky handling, so driving it requires a certain finesse. Take a less than perfect line through Hell Corner at Bathurst, and you pay the price all the way up Mountain Straight. Many is the time I have arrived at Griffin's Bend still kicking myself for doing poorly on Hell or even Murray's. Conversely, nail it right on the head and the rear view mirror scene is just so gratifying!

I mention the VW because it is one of the street cars available in GT6 and it's a premium.

This is my way of adding the 1200 and 1500 Cortinas to the list. If we can have a hundred Miatas in the game....

I'll have to double check this but, I think Harry Firth qualified a 1500 for class A around 15 seconds slower than the GT500 pace in '65.*
That's a big enough difference to include them in the game instead of every bloody version of a Miata/MX-5/Roadster ever to roll of a production line.
We can also compare the time it took to complete the 130 lap, 500 mile distance 1963 GT vs 1965 GT500 as both races were dry and unaffected (like today) by Safety Cars.
1963: 7hr 47m 14s
1965: 7hr 16m 45.1s

*Makes me wonder what the VW 1200 qualified in; and, yes, screw up Hell Corner at Bathurst & pay a very large penalty indeed.
Watching the '86 race recently, Dick Johnson in the Mustang talks on racecam about how the Commodores murdered him on the run from Hell Corner to The Cutting.

 

[GBO Possum]

That's a big enough difference to include them in the game instead of every bloody version of a Miata/MX-5/Roadster ever to roll of a production line.

Exactly!

Watching the '86 race recently, Dick Johnson in the Mustang talks on racecam about how the Commodores murdered him on the run from Hell Corner to The Cutting.

This me going off-topic (again!), however I have to say I love the challenge of finding the right combo of upgrades in the slower cars to optimize for Mount Panorama. It's such a great track requiring a sweet balance of top speed, ability to climb, high speed cornering and stability in corners with complex transitions. Weight, power, gearing, brakes, suspension, aero and especially improvements to the nut behind the wheel.

 

[Pete05]

Exactly!



This me going off-topic (again!), however I have to say I love the challenge of finding the right combo of upgrades in the slower cars to optimize for Mount Panorama. It's such a great track requiring a sweet balance of top speed, ability to climb, high speed cornering and stability in corners with complex transitions. Weight, power, gearing, brakes, suspension, aero and especially improvements to the nut behind the wheel.

That's what made those 1963-1972 races so interesting for me.
To a degree I could say the same about the Group C (73-84) & Group A (85-92) eras but nowhere near as much.
Certainly can't say that about the single class V8 era.

 

[acode66]

The standard final drive ratio for the GT500 was a 4.1 to 1. Harry says in his book that many private road users changed that to 4.4 to 1.
The gearbox ratios were exactly the same as those used in the Lotus Cortinas hence the tall first gear.
As for the Jack Murray speed quote, Harry doesn't say specifically but, they used to measure the cars over a given distance down Conrod during practice and the race so I suspect this is what he is referring to when he says the car "was measured at 118mph"
Like you, I've always wondered about many of the cars over the years given their gearing and factory rev limits. I can't imagine many would like part throttle at or near the redline either. That's asking for something to put a dent in the bonnet or create an air conditioned sump.
I did exactly the am thing with the '66 VW at Bathurst and found the same results. Then again, it wouldn't surprise me if PD got the gearing wrong. It certainly wouldn't be a first! Some of the cars in GT6 aren't even in the ballpark!
No apology required mate 👍

Hi guys, does anybody have any pics of the jack Murray 12D car? Or history?

 

[Pete05]

Hi guys, does anybody have any pics of the jack Murray 12D car? Or history?

If you know the year it entered the race, the website autopics.com.au is probably your best bet for a pic or two.
As for history on that particular car or Jack himself, I can only suggest using Google.