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Doug's New Feature Article

  • 1. "Your knowledge and input is always welcome but please respect the team, the drivers and other members. Abuse or harsh criticisms will not be tolerated".

    2. "This forum is designated 'Family Friendly' - (ie. we have young & impressionable readers - even if they're not Members/Posters) - therefore language must be moderated! - (how would YOU feel about YOUR 9 year old reading it?)

    3. "Use of characters (eg. #$*@!) that only 'partially' disguise an intended vulgar/offensive word(s) is unacceptable!
    If you MUST express yourself in such a manner... use ***** and let the reader's imagination 'fill in the blanks'."






    Thank you for your cooperation.
M

Mitchell

Retired Admin
Ive uploaded Doug's new feature on Dick Johnson & Bathurst in the 1970's...

... 'tis another fine effort on his behalf...
 
B

Bigcol

Active member
Well done Doug.
When Vern Schuppan raced with Dick he said the car was biggest heap of S$@# that he has ever driven.
I don't rate him anyway.World sport's car champion in something that was a little bit more costly than a Hardtop Falcon.Vern was supposed to be able to drive but he couldn't come to grips with the big Falcon
There is a picture of that McRae Torana in the latest Australian Muscle Car magazine.How they got out of that amazes me.
After reading the article on the V8 Toranas, it makes me wonder how well they would have went if Ford hadn't pulled the plug on their motorsport activities in 74.They were fast but very fragile and as we saw in 77 the big Falcon with a half decent budget was more than a match for them. Even with Harry Firths bending of the rules with illegal bits and pieces.
 
B

Beejay

New member
Big Col

I think you're a bit hard on Vern. He was a good F5000 driver, which takes real cojones. He did struggle with our tintops but his main mission was to try and bring the thing back to Dick in one piece. At that time, Dick's cars didn't often finish long distance races without some problem.

Vern went on to do well at Le Mans, first in a Mirage Renault and was then picked to join the Porsche works team and their stellar driving crew. His victory at Le Mans in '83 was the highlight of his career. Many a tin-top driver would have swapped his left nut just to drive for Porsche, let alone win the Big One.
 
H

Henry

New member
Le Mans 83 wasn't plain sailing IIRC... the #3 956 lost a door, which was apparently fairly crucial to the air flow to the radiators, or caused damage to the cooling system or something, and she just got home. Vern did a line in road-registerable (in some parts anyway) Porsche 962's for a while...

He didn't have many complimentary things to say about the Byrt Falcons, especially in comparison with Moffat's car from 1976.

But back to Doug's article... a beauty, about my favourite decade (and honestly, it's not cos of the bell-bottoms and sideburns either...)
 
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