Racing Fords......
Racing Fords......
Thought it might be nice to start a thread about Fords and various racing versions...firstly lets start with the Fairmont GT, some say that these werent ever raced here but this untrue as 2 were raced, one by Koos Swanepoel and another in Gunston orange by a guy I know...
Another interesting point is that a Fairlane was also raced here, after the Galaxie was retired Bob Olthoff drove a Fairlane in 1966, this also co-incided with with opening of his performance shop that specialized in Fords... This as far as I know was a 1966 Fairlane...
Of course there were the Mustangs driven by Koos and Basil, what actually happened to these cars remains unclear, all I can find is that they were apparently returned to Ford though evidence suggests that BVR actually bought his car...the other was prepared by Meissner for Koos.
In the 80's there were 2 XR8 Group 1 cars, one of these cars was subsequently coverted into the famous Animal and there is no evidence to show that the 2nd car was ever converted into another Animal. In fact further evidence backs this up by the fact that intially the Animal was blowing engines at a phenomenal rate and had there been a spare car surely that would have been used.....
Another interesting point is that a Fairlane was also raced here, after the Galaxie was retired Bob Olthoff drove a Fairlane in 1966, this also co-incided with with opening of his performance shop that specialized in Fords... This as far as I know was a 1966 Fairlane...
Of course there were the Mustangs driven by Koos and Basil, what actually happened to these cars remains unclear, all I can find is that they were apparently returned to Ford though evidence suggests that BVR actually bought his car...the other was prepared by Meissner for Koos.
In the 80's there were 2 XR8 Group 1 cars, one of these cars was subsequently coverted into the famous Animal and there is no evidence to show that the 2nd car was ever converted into another Animal. In fact further evidence backs this up by the fact that intially the Animal was blowing engines at a phenomenal rate and had there been a spare car surely that would have been used.....
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Re: Racing Fords......
It is one thing to express an opinion on this on any other website, but I believe it is quite another to state something as fact without proper evidence.
It is probably true that every Ford ever produced or imported into this country has been raced in some fashion or format.
It is something else for the car to have been part of an official race programme.
Although the Fairmont GT was no doubt raced in club and even regional events at some stage or another by someone, it was doubtfully ever part of an official race programme in this country, certainly not with any official Ford backing. Remember, this was the era of the Perana Capri , Sports Prototype and Single seater sponsorship for Ford and Team Gunston respectively.
As far as "the Animal" is concerned, there seems to be a lot of commited comment on this thread without any factual evidence what so ever. I would be most interested to have insight into the so called evidence which has led to the somewhat dubious conclusions which have been derived on this thread regarding this car.
As far as I know Bob Olthoff raced a 1968 Fairlane albeit without much success. The book " Springbok Series" by Greg Mills has a good photo of this car in action as well as many others which may help with the factual interpretation of this era of racing in South Africa by certain members of this forum.
It is probably true that every Ford ever produced or imported into this country has been raced in some fashion or format.
It is something else for the car to have been part of an official race programme.
Although the Fairmont GT was no doubt raced in club and even regional events at some stage or another by someone, it was doubtfully ever part of an official race programme in this country, certainly not with any official Ford backing. Remember, this was the era of the Perana Capri , Sports Prototype and Single seater sponsorship for Ford and Team Gunston respectively.
As far as "the Animal" is concerned, there seems to be a lot of commited comment on this thread without any factual evidence what so ever. I would be most interested to have insight into the so called evidence which has led to the somewhat dubious conclusions which have been derived on this thread regarding this car.
As far as I know Bob Olthoff raced a 1968 Fairlane albeit without much success. The book " Springbok Series" by Greg Mills has a good photo of this car in action as well as many others which may help with the factual interpretation of this era of racing in South Africa by certain members of this forum.
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Re: Racing Fords......
Za
One must not only look at main circuit remember there are other forms of racing where these cars raced oval track ,drag racing for example my family campaigned a fairmont for many years on the dirt ovals with great success so if one looks at racing fords don't only look at main circuit
Cheers Warren
One must not only look at main circuit remember there are other forms of racing where these cars raced oval track ,drag racing for example my family campaigned a fairmont for many years on the dirt ovals with great success so if one looks at racing fords don't only look at main circuit
Cheers Warren
Re: Racing Fords......
ant wrote: It is one thing to express an opinion on this on any other website, but I believe it is quite another to state something as fact without proper evidence.
It is probably true that every Ford ever produced or imported into this country has been raced in some fashion or format.
It is something else for the car to have been part of an official race programme.
Although the Fairmont GT was no doubt raced in club and even regional events at some stage or another by someone, it was doubtfully ever part of an official race programme in this country, certainly not with any official Ford backing. Remember, this was the era of the Perana Capri , Sports Prototype and Single seater sponsorship for Ford and Team Gunston respectively.
As far as "the Animal" is concerned, there seems to be a lot of commited comment on this thread without any factual evidence what so ever. I would be most interested to have insight into the so called evidence which has led to the somewhat dubious conclusions which have been derived on this thread regarding this car.
As far as I know Bob Olthoff raced a 1968 Fairlane albeit without much success. The book " Springbok Series" by Greg Mills has a good photo of this car in action as well as many others which may help with the factual interpretation of this era of racing in South Africa by certain members of this forum.
Ok personally I deam regional racing in 1971 to be official as it was sponsored by the Argus Newspaper and Koos Swanepeol did indeed compete in a Fairmont GT.
In fact when one looks at it what did Ford actually back in SA? Meissner was an independant, Superformance was independant, BG was also in a sense independant, there was basically no Ford works team in the late 60's early 1970's.
The Animal: Lets look at this: 198? CAR mag, Stuart Johnston did a track drive of the Animal and mentioned that there was numerous issues with engines which meant the car was not able to compete, if there has been a spare car why was that not used? In fact why then are there no recorded pictures of this spare car. What would be the sense to build a spare if there was only one driver, why waste resources considering the team was NOT backed by Ford in any shape of form.
Without getting heavy I wish to state I do have considerable material at my disposel as do other member of this forum.
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Re: Racing Fords......
Stealth GT wrote: Za
One must not only look at main circuit remember there are other forms of racing where these cars raced oval track ,drag racing for example my family campaigned a fairmont for many years on the dirt ovals with great success so if one looks at racing fords don't only look at main circuit
Cheers Warren
Didnt think tha far but the point remains that these cars were raced and they did appear on race programs......but how we define official is again a matter of interpretation....
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Re: Racing Fords......
Well lets assume that a spare car did exist, its almost certain to have been the other Group 1 Sierra which in comparison with the Animal was a std car, as mods sactioned by group 1 rules were very few.
As you eluded to in another thread classic racers are hard to trace and I accept that however when one is discovered its usually pretty unusual and pictures are taken, as happened I beleive withe the Z181 Perana when it was found in Namibia.
As you eluded to in another thread classic racers are hard to trace and I accept that however when one is discovered its usually pretty unusual and pictures are taken, as happened I beleive withe the Z181 Perana when it was found in Namibia.
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Chevy Lumina Supercharged
Wait not for tomorrow to do what can be done today, live each day for one knows not what the next day may hold.
Re: Racing Fords......
Is the spare car perhaps the car raced here in Cape Town by Jurgen Zu Bentheim?
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- FairmontGT
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Re: Racing Fords......
Guys this is quite off the thread, but dont you find it funny that were debating this? This should all be written up in books by you guys that have a passion for this. Its too important to just debate on a forum, someone should get all the boffins in the country together and do a decent history on all the racing that was done in the country in the 60's 70's and 80's, with the teams that were involved, special cars built, sponsorships etc. etc.
As a young guy I dont know this history at all, and cant really make a contribution, but I would love it if there was somewhere (like a good book) where I could find out nearly all the facts about what happened.
As a young guy I dont know this history at all, and cant really make a contribution, but I would love it if there was somewhere (like a good book) where I could find out nearly all the facts about what happened.
Yes we did build muscle cars in RSA!!!!
http://www.africanmusclecars.com
http://www.africanmusclecars.com
Re: Racing Fords......
FairmontGT wrote: Guys this is quite off the thread, but dont you find it funny that were debating this? This should all be written up in books by you guys that have a passion for this. Its too important to just debate on a forum, someone should get all the boffins in the country together and do a decent history on all the racing that was done in the country in the 60's 70's and 80's, with the teams that were involved, special cars built, sponsorships etc. etc.
As a young guy I dont know this history at all, and cant really make a contribution, but I would love it if there was somewhere (like a good book) where I could find out nearly all the facts about what happened.
I agree with you and strange as it might seem I am also a youngster......a book is a project I have in the pipeline.....
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Wait not for tomorrow to do what can be done today, live each day for one knows not what the next day may hold.
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Wait not for tomorrow to do what can be done today, live each day for one knows not what the next day may hold.
- FairmontGT
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Re: Racing Fords......
That would be great, I would be first in line for the autographed copy.
Yes we did build muscle cars in RSA!!!!
http://www.africanmusclecars.com
http://www.africanmusclecars.com
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