582 replies to this topic

[xu2308]

Since you're quoting Harry he says the engine in the car used at Bathurst was basically stock and putting out 290HP. A far cry from a V8 Supercar with more than twice the power. Again, 290HP supposedly reving to 7000RPM pushing the XU1 V8 to 170MPH (273km/h), an A9X race car on the same length of road at 400HP at around 160MPH (260km/h) and a V8 Supercar on a lightly shorter bit of road but with 650HP reving to 7500RPM , six gears to get it up as quick as possible and able to put the power to the ground much better with 11" racing rubber doing 180mph (289km/h).
Reading Harrys story he said Larry held it at 7000RPM for around 30 miles on the way to Bathurst!! Please explain to me how 17 years later while they were still holding the Revs of the 308/304 race cars at no more than 7000RPM peak. It just doesn't add up that 17 years of technology couldn't keep up with harrys basically stock 290HP engine from 1972.

Well was the engine stock, mmmmmmmm to hit 7000 rpm in top, i would say no way was a stock engine, would a stock 308 V8 go to 7000 rpm, i dont think so, now is the 'H' not telling all on what was done to that 308 V8 in the yellow LC HDT XU-1, that is the Question, i know from peter brock who drove the Pink V8 LJ XU-1 Prototype at Calder on the 31/5/1972, that the pink car engine was blueprinted and balanced and worked heads and a lumpy cam etc, he told me this in april of 2006 when he was here for the tassy targa, now if holden dident build any hot 308 V8's in 1972 that means HDT did, Was the motor from the yellow car put into the currant model XU-1, mmmmmmmmmmmmm going off the Holden Letter dated 30/6/1972 , you might think so, there was a Currant model XU-1 with a modified V8 Engine been tested at lang lang, now if holden never did any modified V8 engines in 1972, that means HDT must of modified the engine in that currant model XU-1 on that 30/6/1972 dated letter from holden.
Red the motor wouldent be stock as there no way it would rev to 7000 rpm, and i do believe that Larry Perkins hit 8000 rpm during the 1993 Bathurst Race during the day in the last of the 308 V8's, and it won the race when everyone used the chevy donk.

[REDA9X]

Way too many holes in the story here, way too many. One minute it's a production engine, the next harry say's it stock with special lifters, the next it's HDT modified, but wait, it's what the production car would have had installed, but wait harry says it was only 290HP!
Larry couldn't have reved to 8000RPM because the CAMS rev limit with the V8's since it's inception in 1992 has been a 7500RPM limit.
I held the printout in my hand from one of larry's 304 engines from oran Park. The driver missed 3rd gear and went to 1st coming onto the main straight. The engine blew up at 8000RPM.
Check out Jack perkins facebook page and see the boxes of lifters and rockers larry recently threw out going back to Bathurst 1990. No way in hell in 1972 the equipment was as good, and they didn't use roller cams and lifters back then either. Even the L34's and A9X's etc racing today would potentially be better than in their day because lets face it the replacement parts are better. None of those cars are running around with the L34 rods and rocker gear they used in the 70's.

[myss427]

I missed a gear in mine a couple of years ago, even with a rev limiter it went to just over 8000 RPM and it destroyed most of my valve train. Roller lifters jumped out and turned sideways, nearly every pushrod bent like a banana and my motor was designed for constant 7400RPM with valve float at 7800. That engine had the best of components, and cost a bomb to build, revs are killers.

[xu2308]

Way too many holes in the story here, way too many. One minute it's a production engine, the next harry say's it stock with special lifters, the next it's HDT modified, but wait, it's what the production car would have had installed, but wait harry says it was only 290HP!
Larry couldn't have reved to 8000RPM because the CAMS rev limit with the V8's since it's inception in 1992 has been a 7500RPM limit.
I held the printout in my hand from one of larry's 304 engines from oran Park. The driver missed 3rd gear and went to 1st coming onto the main straight. The engine blew up at 8000RPM.
Check out Jack perkins facebook page and see the boxes of lifters and rockers larry recently threw out going back to Bathurst 1990. No way in hell in 1972 the equipment was as good, and they didn't use roller cams and lifters back then either. Even the L34's and A9X's etc racing today would potentially be better than in their day because lets face it the replacement parts are better. None of those cars are running around with the L34 rods and rocker gear they used in the 70's.

Perkins Engineering 5.0 Litre V8 in 1993
Had 580bhp (432kw) motor was rev limited to 7500 rpm, sorry red i was 500 rpm off, im bad
Larry says in the race he hit the rev limiter at the end of con-rod straight doing 291 km/h
The L.P 5.0 Litre had the slide throttle fuel injection that larry invented and was in the rules, made his car faster on that day at Bathurst in 1993.

 GMH NEWS.jpg   782.32K   1 downloads
Read this letter from GMH, say they were testing a Currant Model XU-1 at Lang Lang with a Modified V8 Engine, Letter dated 30/6/1972 so currant model been LJ XU-1, my bet the car was the Pink Car that Peter Brock drove at Calder on the 31/5/1972 that had a Hot 308 V8 in it, in which he told me about in Tassy in April 2006 in front of his Co-Pilot Mick Hone and David Andrews and me and my son, Remember the C.A.M.S Rules of 1972 what raced on the track, was sold on the showroom floor, rules changed in 1973 to Group C due to the Supercar Scare remember.

[Statler]

I must be getting old. I have all the magazines quoted in this thread.

[xu2308]

I must be getting old. I have all the magazines quoted in this thread.

Look of your profile pic Staler, u are getting old

[REDA9X]

Larry used slide injection, he had been for a while, but that wasn't what made his car as fast as the Chevs.
The letter you produced says very little, the usual PR story and no details at all. We already know GMH was testing XU1 V8's, so not sure what the point is. Was it a black currant? lol
Seriuosly, Peter Brock was pretty unreliable with details anyway, we've been over that, and Mick Hone was racing bikes not cars back then. Mick rode the bike against John Harvey who was driving the A9X hatch JNO652.

[xu2308]

 Peter Brock.jpg   15.8K   0 downloads

Here is the pic i took of Brocky in orr st Queenstown in April 2006, the day he told me alot about the Pink V8 XU-1 GMH Prototype that he drove at Calder on the 31/5/1972

[xu2308]

The letter i produced says MODIFIED V8 in currant XU-1, mmmmmmm MODIFIED means not standard i do believe, proves to me that the LJ XU-1 V8 had a Modified V8 Engine, and they were considering making these for people involved in motorsports i do believe it says, and Brocky confirmed to me that the Pink V8 Prototype had a Hot 308 V8 onboard, Well i have no doubt the V8 XU-1 would have done over 160 mph down con-rod, Harry's 170 mph could only happen if they did hit 7000 rpm, if they got it, the "H" say they did, well i guess Larry Perkins could confirm as he did the road testing on the car.

[xu2308]

Sorry Current i ment lol

[REDA9X]

It says modified, it doesn't say what mods is my point. Modified could be a cam change (I'm sure it was more than that) but Harry still stated 290HP in the story you quoted.
The issue here is, how modified from a stock 308 was Harrys car, how different was that from what was going to go into the road going version, and what engine was this test car using. There are no facts to go on other than what people like Harry and Brock remember after 40 years and I'd believe harry before Brock, but still no real information, just speculation and heresay.

[REDA9X]

Is JNO652 still around? Is it public knowledge who owns it?

Yep sure is, a mate of mine owns it here in Sydney, I see it regularly.

[REDA9X]

He has had the car for a longggg time. It's unrestored, has simmons wheels and tank and a little chrome but has all the original bits for it still but not the number plates. I have a pic on photobucket

[REDA9X]

Number plates were gone before he bought the car, found out later it was that car. I doubt he'd ever sell it.

[REDA9X]

The plates are on a lazer lol

[xu2308]

Yeah Red i agree with you, what Mods are the Question indeed mate.
On page 68 in the A.M.C Magazine , issue 9 XU-1 Story
The Ian Tate interview in that story, he says that he never got to test that Pink Car on the Strip, but he built a V8 LJ Torana
to exactly the same Specifications for a guy, and the one he built for the guy did 12.9-13 secs every run on street tyres, so going off that,you wouldthink the Pink LJ V8 Prototype had abit done to it, but back from that in the interview, Ian say the 308 in the Pink Car only had 250 bhp (186 kw) but as i wrote above it could do 12.9-13 secs over the Qrt, mmmmmmmmmm
Sounds to me they dont like saying fully what the go is with the modification, so if Ian built a V8 LJ Torana for a guy to the
same specs as the Pink car, he must have the specs wrote down,and HDT must of modified the engine in the Pink car.
As P.B said it was hotted up the motor in the pink car, and a 12.9-13 secs tells me so.

[REDA9X]

Bob Morris had his race team build him one too. It looked just like a stock XU1. He had seen the prototypes and had one built to look the same. I bet Bob doesn't know exactly what went into that car but he did say it blew away a HT Monaro one night.
The fact is, anything could have been done to those engines, you wouldn't know, no two may have been the same or they could have been stock. Theres nothing to say.
Ian says he never tested the car but built one to the same specs? How did he know what the specs were?? This is the thing, to the same specs could just mean looked the same and we chucked a V8 in, you just don't know, way too much speculation.
Ian also told me back in 1998 that one day Ray Borret walked in and said "we just put the last one into the barrier", yet you're claiming one got away. You can't go one peoples memories for one statement then write them off on another.