What a tragic state of affairs motor racing has become. No real relativity to a road car, which is what it used to be about and not an Aussie nut or bolt amongst any of them. God l miss the way we used to do motor racing, the pridictable farce we have now may be faster but devoid of any character. Fortunately people still like what its become but sorry its not for me. I wonder how many yonger ones have had a good look at the touring car races of the 70s and 80s, much more interesting in my opinion. Still l do respect the committment of the teams and drivers, its just the format.
Well, I'll tell you now that I'm one of the younger ones. Not even an Aussie but I watch these races. You hit the nail on the head about the problem with modern homologation. GT3/4 are still somewhat close to the road cars but these old touring car races are the best. Much prefer watching old highlights than a full modern NASCAR of Formula One race. All the cars are regulated to hell.
So true mate I'm a Holden man but don't watch it anymore.did 20 bathurst from 85 to 05.great memories.i drive a 2011 ssv and love it.no more Holden's for me so 😔.cheers buddy
what a great time to be alive.... the mid to late 70's may just have been the best years ever for humans.... people weren't so hung up on their identity crisis.... now all we have is a society full of people looking for someone to blame for their lives.... people now think they are free?.... you were already free back in 1977.... then the do-gooders and civil libertarians took over.... now little kids are deciding their own gender and casualties of life are everywhere.
Yes it just was not their year, sometimes it is just the way it is, Ford had their share of these too! Bathurst can bring the highest of highs and the lowest of lows!
A9X Torana was fairly new and poor reliability. 12 or 13 broke down with DNF and others had problems. The Moffat Falcons basically was the only competition, with team orders deciding an easy win. Holden invested big bucks after that disaster of ‘77. While Ford were dissatisfied with Cams over biased concessions cams gave the Torana therefore totally with drawing from the sport after ‘78.
clayton E : Yes your correct. Every time Ford are serious about racing they WIN. Whether it’s Bathurst - Touring cars ( Phase ho’s / Sierra RS500 etc ) ; Lemans (GT40 - Gt) and Formula 1 record ratio for entry : wins is higher than anybody including Ferrari. PS . Formula 1 , Ford easily has the most wins by a V8 engine . How many Formula 1 races have General Motors won ..........
Every motor race to this day should start with the tune being played at the start of this clip 'Those magnificent men'. National anthems are so 19th century and have become farcical.
In 1979 everybody was talking about the Penrith Pantherettes . Surely I am not the only guy who remembers them, not marching girls more a cheer squad. I really think the golden era for Bathurst was about 1993 to the mid 2000’s.Thevraces of this period was for amateurs. You had about 12 competitive cars, then small classes & amateurs.
Dont know how old you are but the golden era was really from 1968 (Monaro vs Falcon GT) right thru the 70's (Valiant Chargers) up to early 80's when Ford stopped making V8's and Moffat driving Mazda RX7's and Dick Johnson started making a name for himself.
@@wizzard5442 I do agree with that but even then it was not close racing 78 for example Brock won by about 5 laps.In fact and this is came from a source who knew. The car ran another 1000km at Lang Lang . There was huge amounts of money spent by Philip Morris & GMH on that team & Cars. The first racing Commodore was a pre production VB which could not be sold. These cars were mainly donated to tech schools (TAFE’s) Everything was stripped out of that car & HDT took a rolling chassis to build Brock’s first Commodore.
@@wizzard5442 A fair amount of races really. In terms of racing being close, the modern series is so much better. For qualifying, last is generally within a second of pole position. You obviously couldn't do that back then when the cars and drivers were vastly different.
Real Aussie muscle machines, on Aussie soil the good old days, now we getting Yank built Mustangs vs opels with lion badges built overseas racing on Aussie soil.......Verry sad at lest we have the Aussie muscle car masters.
To be fair. Mustangs and Camaros have already been used during what people call the golden period. Mustang in the 60s and 80s. Camaro in the 80s too. Heck. The late 80s/early 90s were dominated by foreign cars (RS500, Godzilla, M3 etc). The Commodore really struggled against the smaller, lighter and more advanced cars.
After a few tinnies I remember I got some sheila pregnant in the back of a Torana while watching the race near Conrod straight. I could never tell Dad though because he was a Ford man and woulda blown a gasket.
The Commodore was smaller and lighter 5ltr engine ( 308ci Holden engine? ) the Falcon was a bigger heavier car 351ci or 5.7ltr, i doubt the Falcon would handle quite as well as the Commodore but down Conrod straight the Falcon should have the grunt! Sorry but it just was not Holden,s year.
