The Tin Tops

In 1973 I spotted an advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald for a damaged Mazda RX2.  A doberman had gone completely bonkers in the car and had ripped all the trim in the back to pieces. It was available at a very substantial discount and money duly changed hands.

So it became my company car at IBM during the weekdays and at weekends it morphed into the race car.

We bought some wider rims and a set of slciks and went to Bond Rollbars for a half cage.

We initially put twin megaphone exhausts on the car and a downdraught dellorto carburettor and the main advancement was a huge sheet of flame out the back on the overrun. I subsequently purchased all the bits off Gary Cooke’s South Pacific Championship winning car and got the Mazda going a bit better. I also got a heap of experience.

I think it was in 1974 that Bob Holden and Lyndon Arnel approached me in the pits at Amaroo and asked me if I would like to join their team. 

They explained that MIke Griffin had a Twin Cam Escort for sale and they would be happy to help me run it. It was the start of a great friendship with all of them. 

The Escort had been purchased by Mike from a policeman and was a triple cut and shut. The left hand side of the car was complete and the right front corner and the right rear corner were from two other cars!  The copper had done the paperwork correctly and the car was eventually registered for the road when I sold it. 

So we ran the Twin Cam in 1975 and in 1976 Bob offered me a RS2000 for $5,000 when a new one was $12,000. It was still a stretch and I traded the XW V8 Falcon Wagon towcar for a 1962 Plymouth Fury with pushbutton auto and a pillarless coupe body. Cool!

I also did a personal loan with Custom Credit and we hadf a great year in 1976. Here are some pics: