hi all.
ok, first off, this isn't the real car. the real one was raced at Bathurst in this colour scheme in 1982, and was re-painted green for 1983, which is when Dick set if off into the trees in qualifying, completely destroying it.
the rest of the Dick Johnson XD-XE Falcon story is a multi-page history document in itself. if anyone is interested, i can write it all up and post it later.
this car is owned by my old man, who many of u know as "Wal". he owns a couple of cars, including a mark 7 Bolwell that he's had since new. this car was found on the side of the road in 2003, and it's a genuine factory 351 V8 XE Falcon. if u know your Falcon history, u'd know this is a very rare car. it turns out it was originally a South Oz police interceptor.
anyway, we've done ALOT of work to it, and use it in club racing. Wal hasn't driven it for a few years now, so i get a steer of it from time to time.
the colour scheme came about when we were re-painting it (it was white when he got it). being a Johnson fan, a Johnson-inspired scheme was in order. some research showed that this car no longer existed, so it was the perfect candidate to replicate.




the pic below is from the weekend just gone (7 & 8/8/2010). the event was the "Victorian 6 Hour Relay" at Phillip Island.
we spent hours and hours in the weeks leading up to the event (hence why i've been quiet on here!) getting the car ready for the event, as it's a huge effort for all involved to just be there, let alone 6 hours of racing.
then i came down with a horrible head cold on the friday before the event, that's still with my as i write this on the following tuesday................... made it interesting to say the least.
the race has 50 teams competing (yep, 50 cars on the track all day. it was crazy out there, i can tell ya!) and briefly, our team had 5 drivers and 4 cars (1 car was shared between 2 drivers). 1 car died on saturday in qualifying, so we started with only 3 cars. we qualified 38th due to some slower qualifying times set by a couple of guys in our team. 10am sees the start, and i started the race, was up to 15th in the 1st hour, and 10th at hour 2. one of the other guys then got a small lap penalty, dropping us to 20th. then our 3rd car died, leaving myself and 1 other car to do the second half of the race. we climbed back to 16th, only to be pipped in the last half an hour when my car had the needle and seat in the carb jam open, flooding it and requiring a quick fix. our goal for the race was to beat the other team our club entered (good ole inter-team rivalry!), and a top 20 would be a bonus. when we found out we finished 18th, and our rival team was 44th, we were extremely happy with the result, as none of us had done this event before, alot of more fancied teams finished behind us, and with only 2 cars finishing, the poor bloody things got a flogging all day but they survived. by the time the 4pm finish rolled around, i was more worn out than the car!

ohh, BTW, it only had number 24B on it due to it being allocated by the race organisers, meaning number 17 had to be covered for the race.
enjoy!

nice work guys looks like a beutifully presented car well done on the results but it's not a Bellett so we will have to forgive Wally for that lol. Will send a text of a Bolwel that I took at work
again well done

thanks K.

here's some in car video's i've just found of the event.
they have been posted by a guy driving a yellow R31 nissan skyline turbo.

1st video is from the start. watch it all and u'll see how busy it was early on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY8wXuyu ... re=related

2nd video, i pass him on the inside over lukey heights and down in MG at only 20 or so seconds into the video.
i try to pass the pink commodore on the outside entering the front straight, but run wide and have to catch up again. i end up passing him down the inside again into honda at about 1min 40 into the video.
i then pass a dark green mini on the outside going over lukey heights again at 2 min 20 on the video.
after that, i'm gone!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7DaOjKr ... re=related

and this guy has also posted a 3rd video of the first stint. about half an hour on the track in total.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEkFji8v ... re=related

enjoy!
brett

Looks like great fun was had by all.
I enjoy seeing some of the neat old cars back and running.

Cheers
Rob

had this pic emailed to me today by a good friend who was involved with another team...... they qualified better than us, but we were in front of them at the finish!


for those who know the bellett-heads out there, you'll recognise:
'wal' (my old man and the car's owner) at 3rd from left. he was our team manager.
obviously i'm in the car.
'big gav' (65bellett on here) at far right. he was our chief lap timer and pit to driver adviser.

cheers.

fANTASTIC LOOKS LIKE A LOT OF FUN ITS OBVIOUS YOU ALL ENJOY IT WITH THE BIG GRINS ON YOUR FACES THANKS FOR THE POSTS REGARDS DAVE IN QLD

Hi Brett,
good to see you had a good run, and with the assistance of a lot of freinds, with which this would not be possible as we now, as it takes a huge effort to have this type of enjoyment. I ran a couple of 6 Hours at Amaroo Park in the 80's in my Bellett and as Dick Johnson would say it was like running a marathon around the clothes line. (though very enjoyable). To spend soooo much time at Phillip Island would have been outstanding. I have only been a spectator once there, but one day MUST come down and enjoy the pleasures the Island provides. Regard Geoff.

yep, the guys who helped were the heros, for sure. they did the work to keep us running, and more competative than we expected, while us drivers had the 'good' job of driving.
dick got that right! but was great fun. 6 hours does drain u tho, and as i wrote, i was more spent than the car was. in fact, i reckon the car could have done it all again, easy
phillip island....... ain't nothing like it geoff.
and trust me, going under the bridge on the front straight at somewhere around 140mph and just seeing water infront of u is a buzz!
the rest of the track is alot like other tracks, but the speeds are higher than normal just about everywhere.
the falcon is a good thing around there, but i reckon the bellett is better. they do near enuf to the same lap times, but with less horsepower in the bellett, that means more corner speed and later on the brakes. hence, it's a hoot, and coming onto the front straight at 110 or so mph is awesome fun, let alone the 130 odd around turn 3!
seriously, if u ever decide to have a run down there (probably at a clubby?), let me know and help i'll organise it.
will give me reason to get the bellett down there too!

Cheers Brett, will be looking at a run there maybe next year. At this stage will possiby be a supersprint, as I have let my GC go, but would still be a buzz. Geoff.

ok guys, it's been a loooong time since the old Falcon saw a bit of attention...
i gave it a run at Winton in late 2010 so i could take a few people for a ride, including Wal who hadn't been for a run in it since the new suspension and other bits went into it, and it was also a good test of the 4 spot brakes we'd fitted to the front of it after the 2010 6 hour.
well, the brakes worked better than i thought... to the point that i pushed them and PUSHED them till it spat the old, original fitment master cylinder out!! also, the poor ole 351 started to cry "ENUF" at the end of the day, but i guess it could be excused, seeing as it's never even had the heads off it since it was built, and with 400,000K or more since, usually flat out (it was a cop interceptor before it was a race car, so every K it does bloody hard!). by days end, it still ran strong, but just wouldn't rev over 4,500 without valve bounce.

anyway, we brought it home and said "we'll re-build it", then fixed the brakes, and it sat...
didn't do any events in 2011 with it, so it sat more...
then i received a phone call about a month ago, asking if i'd head a team of V8 Falcon's that's been picked to run and have a BIG crack at the 6 hour this year... of course i said "HELL YEAH!"
but that means some things need work. i could have just done a few bits and pieces to it engine wise, but we've (it's Wal's car, so he pays the bills... i just turn the spanners!) decided to give a full rebuild and make it a bit better than before.
so at this point, the huge lump that these engines are is out and on the factory floor, just waiting for my cousin to say "bring it over" so we can rebuild it in his workshop, as he's done a few and these 351's are new to me.
i've amassed a nice range of bits and pieces for it, both for reliability and to get a bit more HP out of it too, so it should be a good thing.
put it this way... in 2010, if it had 160HP it was probably doing well, and was still 1sec a lap quicker than a team mate's 485HP Falcon, and the engine HP calculator is saying the combo i've put together (same carb, new inlet manifold, very nice cam and valvetrain package, slight head work, bit more compression, few little mods in the oiling system, same ignition and exhaust, etc) is saying it'll have about 365HP... so it'll be a pretty good thing.
now, i know 365HP out of a 351ci engine isn't much, but these Ford "Cleveland" engines are strong if you leave the standard bore size alone, keep the revs under 7,000, and don't pump out more than 450HP... and that's why ALOT of guys have probs with them. some of the guys i know chase 550-600HP and 8000rpm, and get it, but the are handgrenades to drive, where as 365HP and 6,000rpm won't even have this one breaking a sweat.
i'll keep u all up to date!