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[RallyRed]

 Barry Thomp. 1975 Bath. winner shrunk 3.png   702.02K   22 downloads
As mentioned earlier...here is pic of "1975 Actual Bathurst winner" ( as noted on screen ) for sale at BTPC in the 80s.
Anyone know where it is now??

[unclefestal34s]

i recall seeing that car infact at chris miller's yard not barry thompson's yard..and if my memory serves i recall seeing what look like the race number on the door which had sunken through the paint and on angle you could tell something had slightly come through the paint...
in the mid 90s i bought a yellow L34 which had a lot gowan& hindhaugh engine parts on it and the dizzy was specially marked do i called dick from scorcher ignitions who informed that infact it was from the 75 race winning car...

[RallyRed]

Thanks unclefestal34...I recall that car had a roll cage in it (see pic) and I always thought the flares looked "big"......not sure if the race cars had oversize flares or had to stick to factory ones.

I cant help but think "if only we had some spare cash" in those days, there was a whole suite of great cars just waiting to be picked up....do you still have that G&H modded L34? - would be a nice thing to have!

[REDA9X]

I have a feeling with some of those pictures there have been a few mix ups. The picture of the business card is hard to see however if the red car is an L34, why does it have square headlights? The white hatch looks like it could actually be a sedan but it's really hard to see. The picture of the actual Bathurst winner I don't believe is the actual car from bathurst 75, however, I believe it is a Brock L34. I am purely speculating here though.
The Brock L34 that Brock drove at Bathurst in 75 belonged to Gown Hindhaugh and after he went to team Brock/ Patterson in 76, the Gown Hindaugh guys did continue to use the car and from all the information I collected it remained in Tasmania until destroyed.
Brock did however go on to built a new L34 at team Brock/ Patterson and that was used during 76 and 77. I'll call it car #1
Mid 77 they purchased a new LX shell and built that into an L34 race car and then upgraded it to A9X specs. I'll call it car #2
Prior to Sandown they built up a hatchback shell into a race car, car #3.

All three of these cars raced at Bathurst in 77 in Patterson colours, #1 as an L34, #2 as an A9X and #3 as an A9X.
The team folded when Brock left and Patterson continued for a while with Phil Brock and then sold up. Brock didn't own any of the cars, he never owned any of the race Toranas contrary to what some believe. The ONLY exception to that rule is when he took over HDT in 1980 he somehow aquired the 1979 A9X (which he kept until 1993), but those HDT cars all actually belonged to Holden.
Car #1 was converted to A9X specs and sold and became the Cooke A9X.
Car # 2 was sold to (the name excapes me at the moment going purely off memory here).
Car #3 sold to Fred Gibson.
Car #1 was then eventually converted to a road car and sold off a car lot and later stolen in Lithgow never to be seen again. It was a dark blue colour at the time and there were pictures of it in AMC a few years ago. That picture of the car on the lot for sale seems to me to match up with car #1 and it's history.
Car #2 was eventually made into a road car, then sold again and converted back into a race car and still exists today and does some of the group C races.
Car #3 was continued to be raced and it's history from that point has a number of stories going around and since I don't know what the real truth is and all I have heard is rumour I won't even begin to speculate.

[Dr Terry]

As I said in an earlier post, I did a lot of work for these dealers back then & some of the salesmen were a little 'loose' with the truth about some of the cars' history, especially ex racecars.

Often they would bring me a car for a list of repairs & they would describe the car. After carrying out some repairs it was obvious to some that the story often didn't match the car.

Having said that, several genuine ex-Bathurst racecars did go thru those yards. I seem to remember the 3rd placed car from 1979 (Radburn/Smith A9X 4-door) being sold in Chris' yard in 1980/81.

Did anyone notice that the supposed 75 winning car has 05 on the windscreen, yet it raced as no. 5 in the race. The ARDC wouldn't let Brocky use 05 back then.

Dr Terry

[Ruts]

I had my first panel shop in the mid 80's and I use to buy V8 torana's and do them up as A9X replica's and then drive them straight out to Barry Thompson's and they would buy them from me straight away. Who knows maybe one the cars I sold was advertised as a genuine race car that even won Bathurst...lol

[RallyRed]

Thanks guys......I guess when you see that car with those words on the screen....when you are 18 y.o. you get excited and take a pic with the old 'polaroid'...tuck it away in a file somewhere and then find it in 2012....never really knew if it was legit.... but I thought you guys would know stuff....it really is amazing the level of knowledge on this forum!!..thanks again.

Hey Ruts....I posted a Q on the LH/LX ID forum the other day re my old LX "SLR5000"? that I bought from BTPC back in the day......do you remember that car...as I think it had some panel "work" done on it.?
Any memories of that car ( see post)

Thanks

[StephenSLR]

I had my first panel shop in the mid 80's and I use to buy V8 torana's and do them up as A9X replica's and then drive them straight out to Barry Thompson's and they would buy them from me straight away.

It seemed as if they were interested in anything with flares and looked good. I bought mine from Homebush Intersection, (4.2 SL/R) and by the looks of the cars in their yard it seemed like they'd get the cars Barry rejected but you'd still get original GTR's and SL/R's.

El Rancho further down the road usually had the obviously dodgy ones.

s

[slr5640]

thanks for sharing the pics col
Great to have a look back in time..
I may try and find Chris miller
I have lost motivation though .




I have a pic or two of the #3 Gibson car somewhere..

[RallyRed]

Thanks for the old King George pics...I dont recall seeing that car....you may get the "track my cars history" fever again....if not.... you certainly gave it a fair run.

Good luck and Merry Christmas

[WhiteA9XS]

thanks for sharing the pics col
Great to have a look back in time..
I may try and find Chris miller
I have lost motivation though .




I have a pic or two of the #3 Gibson car somewhere..

A little further history on this great car ,

Joe Moore , owner of King George Tavern purchased this car early 78 after brock returned to HDT , Gibbo was the driver only . After bathurst 1979 Graham Storah purchased the car from Joe and turned it into a sports sedan.

[REDA9X]

The bullshit wasn't just around back then either.
I looked at a couple of cars on the weekend at Holden dealers and the crap they spun was amazing. What I always love is when they are selling you a car it's something specila, but sell it back to them and it's just a car with nice wheels and body kit.

[Dr Terry]

You had to love the 80's a period where the dunnydore taxi was labelled as Holdens stylish new performance car. Made me vomit after the great 60's and 70's period of real Holden performance cars.

This is more opinion than fact.

I don't want to start an argument over which car is better than what, but some of those 80s Commodores, especially some the top end HDTs are pretty good cars, even if they have 4 doors.

Each to there own I say. If somebody thinks that an HT GTS 350 was the best thing that GM-H ever built or his Torana whatever is a great thing, that doesn't mean that someone needs to denigrate another type of car that he or she doesn't aspire to own.

There is another thread on this forum where they are talking about what owners dislike about their Torana. Some of the comments show up just how 'primItive' some of the early girls were. To some, Commodores were not as 'primitive' in some areas. There is a lot to like & dislike about various old Holdens, but they are all loved by their owners.

Dr Terry

[StephenSLR]

In the early 80's dozens of SLR's, L34's and A9X's filled second hand car yards.

Done up Toranas were everywhere Sydney in the mid to late 80's. Even the Asians were driving them. We'd jokingly refer to their cars as Chinese SL/R's which were typically a non SL/R colour Torana complete with S or SL badging and side body strips, with flares, razor blades (stock wheels), sunroof and K-Mart dragon or eagle decals on bonnet and doors and some dangly mirrored, red ribboned Chinese ornament from the rear view mirror.

dunnydore taxi was labelled as Holdens stylish new performance car. Made me vomit after the great 60's and 70's period of real Holden performance cars.

True in a way but I didn't mind the new Brock Commodores coming out each year and I recall the cops had some drool-worthy Commo's.

s

Edited by StephenSLR, 19 December 2012 - 12:02 PM.

[Dr Terry]

The bullshit wasn't just around back then either.
I looked at a couple of cars on the weekend at Holden dealers and the crap they spun was amazing. What I always love is when they are selling you a car it's something specila, but sell it back to them and it's just a car with nice wheels and body kit.

The crap they spin nowadays shows up how desperate some are to make a sale.

Some motoring writers must have gone to the same school. I like how a new model is released & the writer will fill pages of praise on how great it is, then a few years later, its update is released & they then tell you how bad the first one was & how good the new one is. Bad memory perhaps ??

Michael, how are you getting on with your BCM issues ?

Dr Terry

[REDA9X]

The crap they spin nowadays shows up how desperate some are to make a sale.

Some motoring writers must have gone to the same school. I like how a new model is released & the writer will fill pages of praise on how great it is, then a few years later, its update is released & they then tell you how bad the first one was & how good the new one is. Bad memory perhaps ??

Michael, how are you getting on with your BCM issues ?

Dr Terry

The argument I was having was over the price of a car and year models as I refered the salesman to a car I had just looked at that was 5 grand cheaper and the same model and km. I was looking at a redline sportswagon 2012 model, this dealer had a 2012 and a 2011 model. I explained the one I had seen at another dealer cheaper was most certainly a 2012 model as the 2011 had different wheels and silver calipers, while the 2012 had red calipers. That got into an arguement they were both the same and ended up dragging him back out to the yard with all the salesman watching. He then tried to tell me the wheels on the 2011 model were aftermarket! Seriously, you have to know the product you're selling if you want to push your point so agressively. When we walked back in the other salesman asked who was right and I noticed a distinct change in tone at that point.
As for the BCM issues I had, they fitted the Calais BCM and the car goes, but I think I will be sending my BCM for repair as the car doesn't run like it did.

[StephenSLR]

I thought all L34's were LH models, thus having square headlights. Or were there round headlights fitted to some?

http://www.gmh-toran...-lh-headlights/

s

[REDA9X]

L34 and plus 4 had round headlights

[u1 71]

in the early eighties there was a car yard in tempe called the sydney carriage co. that only sold a9x;s.it;s where tempe tyres is now.anybody have pics of this yard

[Dr Terry]

L34 and plus 4 had round headlights

Not just the Plus 4, but all 1900 4-cyl LH Toranas (S & SL) had round headlights.

Dr Terry