1.
Nissan
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Nissan Motor Company Ltd, usually shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama. The company sells its cars under the Nissan, Infiniti, since 1999, Nissan has been part of the Renault–Nissan Alliance, a partnership between Nissan and French automaker Renault. As of 2013, Renault holds a 43. 4% voting stake in Nissan, Carlos Ghosn serves as CEO of both companies. Taken together, the Renault–Nissan Alliance would be the fourth largest automaker, however Nissan is the leading Japanese brand in China, Russia. Nissan is the worlds largest electric vehicle manufacturer, with sales of more than 275,000 all-electric vehicles as of mid-December 2016. Masujiro Hashimoto founded the Kaishinsha Motor Car Works 1 July 1911, in 1914, the company produced its first car, called DAT. DAT Motors built trucks in addition to the DAT and Datsun passenger cars, beginning in 1918, the first DAT trucks were produced for the military market. At the same time, Jitsuyo Jidosha Co. Ltd. produced small trucks using parts, Commercial operations were placed on hold during Japans participation in World War I, and the company contributed to the war effort. In 1926 the Tokyo-based DAT Motors merged with the Osaka-based Jitsuyo Jidosha Co. Ltd. a. k. a, Jitsuyo Jidosha Seizo to become DAT Jidosha Seizo Co. Ltd Automobile Manufacturing Co. Ltd. in Osaka until 1932, from 1923 to 1925, the company produced light cars and trucks under the name of Lila. In 1931, DAT came out with a new car, called the Datsun Type 11. Later in 1933 after Nissan Group zaibatsu took control of DAT Motors, in 1933, the company name was Nipponized to Jidosha-Seizo Co. Ltd. and was moved to Yokohama. In 1928, Yoshisuke Aikawa founded the holding company Nihon Sangyo, the name Nissan originated during the 1930s as an abbreviation used on the Tokyo Stock Exchange for Nihon Sangyo. This company was the famous Nissan Zaibatsu which included Tobata Casting, at this time Nissan controlled foundries and auto parts businesses, but Aikawa did not enter automobile manufacturing until 1933. The zaibatsu eventually grew to include 74 firms, and became the fourth-largest in Japan during World War II, in 1931, DAT Jidosha Seizo became affiliated with Tobata Casting, and was merged into Tobata Casting in 1933. As Tobata Casting was a Nissan company, this was the beginning of Nissans automobile manufacturing, in 1934, Aikawa separated the expanded automobile parts division of Tobata Casting and incorporated it as a new subsidiary, which he named Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. The shareholders of the new company however were not enthusiastic about the prospects of the automobile in Japan, at this time, Nissan Motor effectively became owned by Nihon Sangyo and Hitachi. In 1935, construction of its Yokohama plant was completed,44 Datsuns were shipped to Asia, Central and South America
2.
Holden
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General Motors Holden, generally known as Holden, has been an Australian automobile manufacturer that operated in Australia with its headquarters in Port Melbourne, Victoria. The company was founded in 1856 as a manufacturer in South Australia. In 1908 it moved into the field, before becoming a subsidiary of the United States-based General Motors in 1931. After becoming a subsidiary of GM, the company was named General Motors-Holdens Ltd, becoming Holden Ltd in 1998, by 2018 it will have ceased manufacturing vehicles in Australia. Holden has offered the locally produced range of Commodore vehicles, supplemented by imported GM models, Holden has offered badge engineered models in sharing arrangements with Chevrolet, Isuzu, Nissan, Opel, Suzuki, Toyota and Vauxhall Motors. In 2013 the vehicle lineup consisted of models from GM Korea, GM Thailand, GM in the US, and self-developed Commodore, Caprice, Holden also distributed the European Opel brand in Australia in 2012 until the Opel brands Australian demise in mid-2013. Since 1994, all Australian-built Holden vehicles were manufactured at Elizabeth, South Australia, historically, production or assembly plants were operated in all mainland states of Australia, with GMs New Zealand subsidiary Holden New Zealand operating a plant until 1990. The consolidation of car production at Elizabeth was completed in 1988, although Holdens involvement in exports has fluctuated since the 1950s, the declining sales of large cars in Australia led the company to look to international markets to increase profitability. Holden will retain their design centre, but with reduced staffing, since 2010 Holden has incurred losses due to the strong Australian dollar, and government grants have been reduced. In May 2014 GM reversed their decision to abandon the Lang Lang Proving Ground, in 1852, James Alexander Holden emigrated to South Australia from Walsall, England and in 1856 established J. A. Holden & Co, a business in Adelaide. Frost joined the business as a partner and J. A. Holden & Co became Holden & Frost Ltd. Edward Holden, James grandson, from there, the firm evolved through various partnerships and, in 1908, Holden & Frost moved into the business of minor repairs to car upholstery. The company began to produce complete motorcycle sidecar bodies in 1913, after 1917, wartime trade restrictions led the company to start full-scale production of vehicle body shells. Holden founded a new company in 1919, Holdens Motor Body Builders Ltd specialising in car bodies, by 1923, HMBB were producing 12,000 units per year. During this time, HMBB was the first company to assemble bodies for Ford Australia until their Geelong plant was completed, from 1924, HMBB became the exclusive supplier of car bodies for GM in Australia, with manufacturing taking place at the new Woodville, South Australia, plant. These bodies were made to suit a number of imported from manufacturers such as Chevrolet. In 1930 alone, the still independent Woodville plant built bodies for Austin, Chrysler, DeSoto, Morris, Hillman, Humber, Hupmobile, the last of this line of business was the assembly of Hillman Minx sedans in 1948
3.
Ford Australia
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At that time, Ford Canada was a separate company from Ford USA. Henry Ford having granted the rights of Ford motor vehicles in the British Empire, excepting the UK. Ford Australias first products were Model Ts assembled from complete knock-down kits provided by Ford of Canada. Nevertheless, it is best known in recent times for having produced the Falcon, originally a US model introduced in Australia in 1960. On 31 March 1925, Ford announced that Geelong, was to be the Australian headquarters, in 1928 the factory switched to the Model A and was followed by the Ford V8 in 1932. In 1934 the company released a coupe utility based upon the Model A American Ford Closed Cab Pickup Truck that had produced for 6 years from 1928. The local designer was Ford engineer Louis Bandt, during the Depression, banks would not extend credit to farmers to purchase passenger cars- in the belief they were unnecessary luxuries. However, they would lend money for the purchase of working vehicles, the coupe utility fulfilled the need of farmers to have a workhorse which could also be used to take the wife to church on Sunday and to the market on Monday. In 1956 the company bought a tract of land in the northern Melbourne suburb of Campbellfield. Its expected to retain about 1300 workers in Australia, on 23 May 2013 Ford Australia announced that it would stop making cars after 88 years due to uncompetetive manufacturing costs and lacklustre sales. The carmakers annual financial report, for the year, showed a loss of A$141m dollars after tax for the 2012 financial year. This followed a loss of A$290m in 2011 and a loss of A$600m over the preceding five years. Ford had two factories, both in Victoria, located in the Geelong suburb of Norlane and the northern Melbourne suburb of Campbellfield. The Ford Discovery Centre, a museum of the history of the Ford Motor Company in Australia was also located in Geelong, but now has been closed, between 1972 to 2016, Ford Falcons have been fully Australian designed. It also produced a model called the Territory Which also ceased production 2016. Production of the Falcon will cease with the closure of the Broadmeadows and Geelong engine, the Geelong factory produced its last Australian-made straight-six and V8 engines on 26 September 2016. Assembly at Broadmeadows ceased on 7 October 2016, Ford has also designated as one of five full service Regional Product Development Centre, specifically for the Asia Pacific and African regions. Products launched so far include the Ford Ikon and Fiesta in India and the Ford Bantam ute and Ikon in South Africa, Ford Australia started by assembling Model Ts
4.
Fred Gibson (racing driver)
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Fred Gibson is a former Australian racing driver and race team owner. After a career that began in small production cars, first an MGA. In just his second Bathurst start he claimed second place in the 1966 Gallaher 500. In 1967, Frank Matich, who was to one of the new Ford XR Falcon GTs at Bathurst with Harry Firth, had to pull out due to other commitments. Alongside his team boss, Gibson scored his first major win, Gibson became a mainstay with the Ford Works Team for the next six years, taking much success at Sydneys Oran Park and Amaroo Park in particular. He won the competitive Oran Park production sedan series, the Toby Lee Series, in 1970 and 1971 driving his Falcon GTHO supported by his Sydney speedshop, at Bathurst however in the early 1970s he suffered a string of retirements. When the racing industry went into decline during the 70s Gibson raced less frequently but was a regular at Bathurst. In 1981 Gibson joined the newly formed Nissan touring car team, Gibson became the teams regular number two driver alongside George Fury driving the Group C Nissan Bluebird Turbo, pioneering turbo charged touring cars in Australia. Fred Gibson gave Nissan its first touring car race win in Australia when he won heats 2 and 3 of Round 3 of the 1983 AMSCAR series, after finishing 2nd in heat 1, Gibson won the round, going on to eventually finish 3rd in the series final pointscore. His 1983 AMSCAR win would prove to be the last win of Gibsons driving career. During the early 1980s Gibsons Road & Track business also built Group C Ford Falcons for Sydney privateer Joe Moore, the Ford XD Falcon built by Gibson and raced by Moore at the 1981 James Hardie 1000 was co-driven by Fred Gibsons wife Christine. Gibson retired from driving after 1983 and replaced Marsden as Nissan team boss at the end of 1984, highlights included winning the Australia Touring Car Championship in 1990 and 1991 with Jim Richards and 1992 series with Mark Skaife. Richards and Skaife won the 1991 and 1992 Bathurst 1000s, with Nissan being forced out by the new for 1993 V8 formula, Gibson Motorsport switched to Holden Commodores with Skaife winning the 1994 series. The team would go through a period following the banning of tobacco sponsorship at the end of 1995. The team returned to competition in 1998 with Steven Richards. At the end of 1999, Gibson sold the team to Garry Dumbrell, in 2001, Gibson returned as the public face of Gibson Motorsport. Although initially portrayed as Gibson buying back his own team, it emerged that it was Bob Forbes and not Fred Gibson who had bought the team. A falling-out between Forbes and Gibson saw the latter leave the team after Bathurst, as Forbes owned his own franchise, Gibson sold his to Briggs Motor Sport
5.
Kazuyoshi Hoshino
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Kazuyoshi Hoshino is a Japanese former racing driver and businessman. Hoshinos nickname was the fastest man/guy in Japan and he won the Japanese motocross national championships in the 90cc and 125cc classes for Kawasaki in 1968 before switching to cars as a Nissan factory driver in 1969. Hoshino participated in two Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 24 October 1976 at the Japanese Grand Prix, driving a Tyrrell-Ford for Heros Racing, he retired having used up his tyre supply. He returned in 1977 and once entered the Japanese Grand Prix driving for Heros Racing. He finished in eleventh place driving a year-old Kojima-Ford and he scored no championship points in his Formula 1 career. His only major championship win was in the 1985 World Sportscar Championship round at the Fuji 1000 race. Hoshino won the Japanese Formula 2000 championship in 1975 and 1977 and he then competed in the Japanese Formula 3000 championship, winning that title in 1987,1990 and 1993. Hoshino also dominated the Fuji Grand Champion Series in the 1970s and 1980s and he won five titles in 1978,1982,1984,1985 and 1987, collecting 28 wins and 42 podiums. Like his compatriot, Masahiro Hasemi, he continued his racing for Nissan. Hoshino drove a Nissan R90C with Toshio Suzuki to win the 1990 Suzuka 1000 race, Hoshino and Suzuki also won the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship in 1991 and 1992. Along with Nissan Motorsports teammates Aguri Suzuki and Masahiko Kageyama, Hoshino drove a Nissan R390 GT1 to a finish at the 199824 Hours of Le Mans. Hoshino retired from racing in 2002 and now continues to run his own Super GT team and his own Nissan specialised aftermarket parts company, since 2003, his racing team has won the Formula Nippon championship seven times in eight years. His son, Kazuki Hoshino, competes in Super GT, driving for his fathers team and you can help by expanding it
6.
Glenn Seton
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Glenn Seton is an Australian racing driver. He won the Australian Touring Car Championship in 1993 and 1997 while driving for his own team, although he never won the Bathurst 1000 like his father Barry did in 1965, Glenn started from pole position in 1994 and 1996, and finished second three times. He came close to winning the race in 1995, holding a significant lead in the closing stages, Seton, father of Courtney and Aaron Seton and husband to Jayne Seton, retired from full-time racing after the 2005 V8 Supercar season. His best year with Nissan came in 1987 driving the Nissan Skyline RS DR30 when he would finish second behind Jim Richards in the ATCC. Teamed with John Bowe, Seton would then finish second in the 1987 James Hardie 1000 which that year was part of the inaugural World Touring Car Championship,1988 would be a frustrating year for Seton. Nissan introduced the new Skyline HR31 GTS-R, and with the car arriving only mid-season, the cars initial unreliability saw Setons Skyline retire from the first lap at both the Sandown 500 and Tooheys 1000, both times when the cars production based gearbox failed. The move to the new V8 formula would prove fruitful for Seton, winning the 1993 and 1997 Australian Touring Car Championships, while claiming pole position at Bathurst in 1994 and 1996. At the end of 2002, Seton sold the team to Prodrive, in 2005 he moved to Dick Johnson Racing. In late 2005 after a season, Seton was sacked from Dick Johnson Racing halfway through his two-year contract. Seton was not able to find a 2006 full-time drive, so he joined Stone Brothers Racing for the two V8 Supercar endurance races with James Courtney, brake issues hampered the #4 SBR Falcon at Sandown where it finished ninth. He finished 13th in the Sandown 500 with Tony Longhurst and 11th in the Bathurst 1000 with Nathan Pretty, Seton again joined the Holden Racing Team in 2008, driving the #2 car with Craig Baird. The pair came 14th at the Phillip Island 500 and were running strongly at the Bathurst 1000 until a late race clash with Warren Luff put them out of the race and he made his final Bathurst appearance with Jason Bargwanna in 2010. When Glenn Seton was growing up, his racing idol was a former team mate of his fathers. † Not eligible for series points Seton joining Holden Bathurst stats
7.
Mark Skaife
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Mark Stephen Skaife OAM is an Australian motor racing driver. Skaife is a champion of the V8 Supercar Championship Series, including its predecessor. He is also a winner of the Bathurst 1000. On 29 October 2008, he announced his retirement from touring car racing. Since retiring from driving, Skaife has worked as a commentator, Skaife was born in Gosford, New South Wales, the son of touring car racer, Russell Skaife. Skaife is married to wife Toni with three children, Mitch, Mia and Tilly and he attended Wyong High School and is a known supporter of National Rugby League club the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles. In 2004, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia, for services to motor racing and charity. In 2006, Skaife set a Guinness World Record with the fastest speed of 277.16 km/h for a production ute, Skaife began racing karts in the 1980s in his native New South Wales, before moving to Melbourne to complete his apprenticeship under Fred Gibson. His first car race was at Amaroo Park in 1984, at the wheel of a Holden Torana XU-1 sports sedan, in 1985 Skaife joined the NSW Ford Laser Series, finishing second in the series. Skaife again finished runner up in the 1986 NSW Laser Series, subsequently, with Williamson confined to a hospital bed in Bathurst and the Supra in need of major repair, the entry was withdrawn. In 1987 Skaife won the Australian 2.0 Litre Touring Car Championship in a Gibson Motor Sport prepared Nissan Gazelle, the Bathurst result was somewhat controversial due to some alleged cheating during final qualifying. After struggling for speed, during the morning session Jarret suddenly found the required and managed to easily qualify for the race. Nissan team boss Fred Gibson refuted these claims at the time, ironically Jarrets fastest race lap in the Gazelle was actually faster than the qualifying time Skaife had set posing as Jarret. During 1988 Skaife appeared at selected touring car events in Gibson’s factory Nissan squad driving the Group A Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-R and he failed to finish both the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 alongside George Fury. In 1989 Skaife made four ATCC starts as third driver in the Gibson Nissan team and he paired with Jim Richards for endurance races, winning Sandown 500 before taking his first Bathurst 1000 podium in the Group A Nissan Skyline HR31 with third place. Between 1991–1993 Skaife won 3 consecutive Australian Drivers Championships, earning 3 CAMS Gold Stars, in 1991&1992 he was driving the Spa 003, switching to the Lola T91/50 for 1993 each run by Gibson Motor Sport. 1990 – Graduates to full-time drive with Nissan team following retirement of Fury, Finishes 14th in ATCC having switched from HR31 to R32 GT-R model Skyline midseason. Finishes 18th at Bathurst alongside Richards having suffered mechanical problems, sustains back injury after rolling GT-R in Australian Grand Prix support race
8.
John Bowe (racing driver)
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John Bowe is an Australian racing driver, presently racing a Holden Torana in the Touring Car Masters series. He has also won the prestigious Bathurst 1000 touring car endurance race twice, both wins were as co-driver with longtime friend and teammate Dick Johnson driving for iconic Ford team Dick Johnson Racing. Bowe began racing at the age of sixteen in Formula Vee Elfin 500 in 1971, the following year, he also won the Tasmanian Formula Ford title. The pinnacle of his Formula 5000 career was finishing runner up in the 1979 Australian Grand Prix driving one of Coopers Chevrolet V8 powered Elfin MR8s, in the same year he also came second in the Australian Formula 2 Championship. Bowe would finish third in the 1980 Australian Drivers Championship driving the MR8 and he would finish fourth in 1981 driving the Elfin MR9, the only Ground effects F5000 ever built. He also dropped to place in the Formula 2 championship driving an Elfin Two-25 Volkswagen. The 1984 and 1985 championships were run under Formula Mondial regulations, Bowe finally stopped on lap 33 and rejoined in 13th place. He would fight his way back to 6th place by the end of the race, setting the 3rd fastest race lap behind Morenos Ralt, Bowes last open wheeler race was in the Formula Mondial support race at the 1986 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide. Bowes time of 1,33.20 for the 3.780 km track compared to the fastest Formula One race lap of the circuit that year of 1,20.78 set by Nelson Piquet driving a 1,000 bhp turbocharged Williams-Honda. The Mercedes with its 4.2 litre Chevrolet engine put out a reported 1,100 bhp, the Veskanda is generally regarded as the fastest Sports Car ever designed and built in Australia. In Bowes talented hands the Veskanda Chev easily won the 1986 Australian Sports Car Championship, two of these records will stand forever as the tracks are now closed, Amaroo Park in Sydney, and the Surfers Paradise International Raceway. Bowe and the Veskanda finished second in the three round 1987 ASCC after engine reliability troubles saw him retire from the first race at a very wet Calder Park in Melbourne. He then easily won the two rounds at Amaroo and Sandown Park to finish nineteen points behind Andy Roberts in his self-designed Roberts SR3. Following the season the car was parked as Bowe was moving full-time into Touring Car Racing in 1988, van Elsen entered the Veskanda in the Sandown 360 which was a round of that years 1988 World Sports-Prototype Championship. Bowe teamed with his Touring Car team owner and team mate Dick Johnson in the Veskanda, after qualifying a credible 8th with a time of 1,35.510, the pair completed 87 laps, six less than the winning Sauber C9 of Schlesser and Jochen Mass. However, although the Veskanda had been built to comply with CAMS Group A rules, it had also built to the FIAs Group C sports car rules and was thus free to enter. Ultimately the Bowe / Johnson Veskanda, the only Australian car in the 18 car field, was disqualified for using more fuel than the rules allowed, Bowes two CAMS Gold Stars in 1984 and 1985 saw him finally get the attention of the Australian touring car establishment. In mid-1985 he was contacted by New Zealander Mark Petch to join the Mark Petch Motorsport Volvo 240 Turbo team during the 1985 Australian Endurance Championship, Bowe co-drove with the teams lead driver Robbie Francevic at the Sandown 500 and the Bathurst 1000
9.
Jim Richards (racing driver)
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Jim Richards is a New Zealand racing driver who has spent most of his racing life in Australia. While retired from racing, Richards continues to compete in the Touring Car Masters series. He is the father of racing driver Steven Richards, and between them they have achieved 11 Bathurst 1000 wins, most recently in 2015, in mid-1975 Richards moved to Australia and was quickly competitive in sports sedan races driving his Sidchrome-sponsored Mustang. He was co-driver for John Goss in 1976 at Bathurst, then in 1978 Richards began a successful stint at the Holden Dealer Team as Peter Brocks co-driver at Bathurst, netting Richards three Bathurst 1000 titles in a row. Upon returning home to Melbourne, Brock suggested Richards for the job of his co-driver for that years Hardie-Ferodo 1000 at Bathurst. He was hired by HDT team manager John Shepherd and although only driving once a year for the team, in 1982, Richards was hired by JPS Team BMW team manager Frank Gardner as the teams lead driver to drive the teams BMW635 CSi. Richards easily won the 1985 Australian Touring Car Championship and the 1985 Australian Endurance Championship, the 635 CSi was replaced by the smaller capacity BMW M3 in 1987, and Richards would again come to the fore, winning the 1987 Australian Touring Car Championship. Gardner shut down the JPS team at the end of 1987, by 1988, however, the M3 had been overtaken as the car to have by the all-powerful Ford Sierra RS500, and the wins of 1987 were now struggles for places. At the end of the year, Brocks team decided to race Sierras in 1989 while Richards was snapped up by the Fred Gibson to race for his factory-backed Nissan team. Driving for Nissan, Richards won his third ATCC in 1990 driving both the Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-R and 4WD, twin turbo R32 GT-R, affectionately known as Godzilla and he would repeat as champion in 1991, finishing the ATCC ahead of his young team mate Mark Skaife. Richards finished second to Skaife in the 1992 ATCC, before the pair won their second straight Bathurst 1000 in a crash-shortened race which saw Jim crash the GT-R in a downpour on lap 145. However, as there had been a crash on that lap, the red flag was shown. As the rules state that the results would be from the previous lap, recently, Richards has driven in the Targa Tasmania as well as numerous other tarmac rallies in the Australian Targa Championship and other tarmac rallies, driving for Porsche. Partnering Richards as navigator has been motor racing journalist and commentator Barry Oliver, the pairing of Richards and Oliver has won the Targa Tasmania a record 8 times. Richards and Oliver made their debut in Targa in 1993 in a Porsche 968 CS and his first three wins were in 1978,1979 and 1980 with Peter Brock who himself won the race a record nine times. Richards also had three wins with Mark Skaife and once with Swedish driver Rickard Rydell, of his record 36 race starts,22 were with a factory backed team for either Holden, BMW, Nissan or Volvo with only victory in a BMW eluding him. He finished on the podium 13 times with seven wins, three seconds and three thirds, plus one class win, Skaife gave a short speech after which Richards said very few words, Im just really stunned for words, I cant believe the reception. I thought Australian race fans had a lot more to go than this, ill keep racing but I tell you what this is going to remain with me for a long time
10.
David Brabham
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David Brabham is an Australian professional racing driver and one of the most successful and experienced specialists in sports car racing. He has won three international Sports Car series and is one of four Australians to have won the Le Mans 24 Hour sports car race, Brabham won the American Le Mans Series in 2009 and 2010. He also competed in Formula One, racing for the Brabham, Brabham is the youngest son of three-time Formula One world champion Sir Jack Brabham. Brabham, who was born in Wimbledon, London, spent his childhood in Australia, despite his fathers motor racing fame he took little interest in motor racing until after he left school. As a child he played the more accessible sport of football up until the age of twelve, Brabhams professional racing career began in Australia in 1983, racing karts for two years, after which he moved into the Ford Laser one make series for 1985. In 1986 he switched to Formula Ford 1600 and subsequently to Australian Formula 2, winning the 1987 Australian Drivers Championship in that category. The 1987 ADC was, unlike previous years, only held as a race rather than a series of rounds and was run as a support category to the 1987 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide.7 second victory. He also competed in the New Zealand Formula Atlantic series, the American Formula Atlantic series, a move from Australia to Europe under sponsorship from Camel in 1989 saw him joining the Bowman team and winning the British Formula Three Championship. Brabhams break into Formula One in 1990 with the Brabham team met with little success and he had raised a considerable amount of sponsorship to join the team bearing his family name but financial constraints hindered the team all season. While David had been hired to drive ahead of the season he requested to skip the first two races to prepare himself, Gregor Foitek taking the seat instead and his first outing with the team was the 1990 San Marino Grand Prix where he failed to qualify. His first Formula One start came at the race in Monaco where his father Jack had won in 1959. In 14 races he only managed to qualify the uncompetitive Judd-engined car six times and this, and David being unable to raise the reported $3m needed to keep his place in the team, led to him being replaced at the end of the season. Brabham joined the Tom Walkinshaw Racing Jaguar team in 1991 and also in that year won the Spa 24 Hours driving a Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R alongside Naoki Hattori, Brabham returned to Formula One in 1994 with the under-funded Simtek team after his father brought shares in the team. The second seat was to be filled by paying drivers, with Roland Ratzenberger taking the first five races before Jean-Marc Gounon took over. The S941 chassis was overweight, used a manual gearbox as opposed to the semi-automatic types used by most teams. Despite this Brabham qualified for round of the series. The team suffered the blow of the death of Roland Ratzenberger during qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix. Traditionally the other team driver would withdraw in such a situation, in Ratzenbergers memory the team made a collective decision to see out the season, with Brabhams strong leadership often cited as a key factor
11.
Colin Bond
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Colin John Bond is a retired Australian racing driver. Bond reached the highest levels in Australian motorsport in 1969 when he was recruited by Harry Firth to the newly formed Holden Dealer Team and he quickly found success, winning the 1969 Hardie-Ferodo 500 mile race at Bathurst, New South Wales in a Holden Monaro. Bond was a versatile driver, also finding success in the Australian Rally Championship. Bond also won the 1975 Australian Touring Car Championship in a Holden Torana and was inducted into the V8 Supercars Hall of Fame in 2002, Bond initially made a reputation as a hillclimber with three NSW Hillclimb titles in 1965-67 driving a Lynx-Peugeot S/C. On a day when the Fords crumbled with unsuitable tyres for the race, the nimble 6-cylinder Torana GTR XU-1 debuted in late 1970 and in 1971 Bond began racking up an impressive list of race and rally titles in his Torana. He secured the Manufacturers Championship for Holden by winning 3 out of 5 rounds and he also won the Australian Rally Championship and the Southern Cross Rally, along with the South Pacific Touring Series that year. Late in 1971 Bond had a couple of drives with Frank Matichs F5000 team, one was in the Australian Grand Prix at Warwick Farm and driving in a wet practice session Bond put in lap times seconds faster than his more experienced F5000 rivals. After his open-wheeler stint he opted to stay with the Holden Dealer Team, the following year Bond won the Australian Rally Championship for the second year in a row. Bond also won the Catalina Park rallycross series, while on the bitumen he won the Toby Lee Series, in 1973 he again won the Sun-7 series at Amaroo Park. In 1974, as well as winning his third national Rally Championship, in late 1974, driving the new Holden Torana SL/R5000, he contributed to Holdens victory in the Australian Manufacturers Championship, again winning three out of five rounds. Peter Brock left the Holden Dealer Team at the end of 1974 so for the 1975 season Colin Bond was the teams No.1 driver. That year he won his only Australian Touring Car Championship in the new L34 version of the SL/R5000 Torana, Bond was involved in a dramatic finish in 1976 at the Bathurst 1000. In the final laps Morriss co-driver, British touring car ace John Fitzpatrick and it remains however a contested footnote, Bob Morris denies that this was the case, claiming most team lap scorers agreed that the results were correct. Despite this, Bonds co-driver John Harvey believes that he and Bond did indeed win the race, despite the result still showing Morris. After 7 years with the Holden Dealer Team, Bond shocked the establishment in 1977 when he left the HDT, Bond came close to becoming the first driver to achieve victories for both Holden and Ford Motor Company at the Bathurst 1000. He was driving the second of Moffats Ford XC Falcon GS500 Hardtops, Bond has stated in interviews since then that he regretted not taking victory from Moffat. Moffat himself later revealed that during the race he had offered Bond a drive in his Falcon which would have seen Bond not only win the race but finish second as well. Bond confirmed that he turned down Moffats offer, preferring instead to stick to his own car which was co-driven by open wheel driver Alan Hamilton, from 1977 to 1980 Bond ran the Ford works rally team, with Greg Carr and Bond driving the very competitive BDA Escort
12.
Steven Richards
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Steven James Richards is a New Zealand-Australian racing driver, currently competing in the Australian GT Championship. He also drives for Triple Eight Race Engineering as a co-driver alongside Craig Lowndes in the Pirtek Enduro Cup series. Richards, the son of seven-time Bathurst 1000 winner Jim Richards, is himself a four-time Bathurst 1000 winner, colloquially known as Richo, he also won the Bathurst 24 Hour in 2002. Richards first major success was winning the Australian Formula Ford Championship on his second attempt in 1994 for Garry Rogers Motorsport. In 1995, Richards made his debut in the Bathurst 1000, Richards competed with his father Jim at the Bathurst 1000 in 1996 and 1997, finishing second in the latter. Richards continued with the team for 1998 before leaving to take up a role with Nissan in England. At the 1998 AMP Bathurst 1000 Richards finished second in a Nissan Primera, a month later driving a Ford EL Falcon, he won the FAI1000 with Jason Bright for Stone Brothers Racing. In 1999 Richards took up a drive with Gibson Motorsport in 1999. Richards finished seventh in the championship with the highlight being defending his Bathurst crown with Murphy. By winning his second Bathurst title in a Holden, he became the first driver to win the Bathurst 1000 in both a Ford and Holden, and remains the driver to do so in consecutive years. Richards continued with Gibson Motorsport in 2000, winning the inaugural Canberra 400 as well as a round at Calder Park Raceway, in 2001, Richards moved to Ford Tickford Racing. Richards finished 12th in the standings for the team in 2001, with Ford Tickford Racing scaling back to one car, Richards moved to Perkins Engineering in 2002. He continued with the team for five years, and achieved consistent championship finishes between fifth and seventh, Richards won two rounds for the team, both at the Perth 400 at Barbagallo Raceway. In 2007, Richards made another manufacturer switch, joining Ford Performance Racing, Richards started competitively for the team, with championship finishes of seventh and eighth, but dropped off in 2009 and 2010 with finishes of thirteenth and fifteenth. Richards was subsequently replaced by Will Davison for 2011, and finished his career with a podium in the final race of the season at the Sydney 500. Richards and Winterbottom were leading the 2007 Bathurst 1000 late in the race before Winterbottom went off the track in wet conditions, following his full-time career ending, Richards became a highly sought-after co-driver for V8 Supercars two endurance events, the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000. He decided to stay on with Ford Performance Racing, renewing his partnership with Winterbottom, in 2013, Richards and Winterbottom won the 2013 on their sixth attempt together. It was the first Bathurst victory for Winterbottom and the team, after his success in 2013, Richards was poached by Triple Eight Race Engineering to drive with Craig Lowndes from 2014 onwards in what had become known as the Pirtek Enduro Cup
13.
John Cleland (racing driver)
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John Cleland is a retired British auto racing driver. He raced autocross and hillclimb in the 1970s, and won his class in the Scottish Rally Championship in 1976 driving a Mitsubishi Colt. He switched to racing, achieving success in British Production Car and Thundersaloon championships in the 1980s. He is currently a co-commentator alongside Martin Haven on the English world feed of the World Touring Car Championship which is used by Eurosport. In the mid-1980s, Clelands father Jim purchased the 1984 Bathurst 1000 winning Holden VK Commodore from Peter Brocks Holden Dealer Team for his son to race in Thundersaloons, during this time the Commodore ran as a Vauxhall Senator. John won 11 of his 13 races in class C for 1. 5l cars, the 2-litre Cavalier was introduced the next year, in readiness for the single 2-litre format in 1991. Cleland finished 2nd in class to his rival Frank Sytner in 1990 after a season long battle. The following year he won three races and finished second in the championship to Will Hoy, taking Vauxhalls first ever overall BTCC win. In 1992 John battled with Hoy and Tim Harvey for the title, but was denied at the last round by a collision with Steve Soper. In 1993 and 1994 the championship was dominated by BMW and Alfa Romeo respectively,1995 proved to be the breakthrough year for the Cavalier, ironically in its last year of competition. For 1996, the Cavalier was replaced by the new Vectra, Cleland finished 8th in the title chase. 1997 proved to be worse, with John slipping to 12th in the standings. 1998 was better, and John took two victories, both at Donington Park - a traditional hunting ground for the Scotsman - before a heavy crash at Snetterton interrupted his season. In 1999 Cleland was outpaced by team newcomer Yvan Muller and decided by mid-season to retire, in a 2005 poll by Motorsport Magazine, Cleland was voted the 10th greatest touring car driver of all time. He now runs a Volvo dealership in Galashiels Scotland and his son Jamie has started a racing career. John is also a co-commentator for Eurosport on their WTCC coverage and he replaced fellow Scot David Leslie after his death in 2008. John purchased his old Vauxhall Vectra super tourer, and now races in the Historic Super Touring championship, alongside his contemporaries Patrick Watts and Tim Harvey. Races in bold indicate pole position Races in italics indicate fastest lap * signifies that driver lead race for at least one lap ^ – Race was stopped due to heavy rain
14.
Darren Hossack
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Darren Hossack is a multiple-championship winning Australian race car driver. Hossack currently competes in Sports Sedans and Superkarts,1998 saw a full-time drive in the Gibson Motor Sport team along with Wynns backed team mate Darren Pate, and Ellery also as team mate in a Holden Young Lions liviered Commodore. Hossack returned to the team for the races and paired with Pate, took eighth place at the Sandown 500. After a few seasons away from V8 Supercars, Hossack returned in 2003, Hossack became involved in John Gourlays Sports Sedan team, driving a Chevrolet V8 powered Saab 900. After placing third in the 2005 series the team scaled down their efforts over the few years having come to the end of the Saabs racing career. Again Chevrolet V8 powered, the Audi A4 made its debut in 2007, in an epic finale to the 2008 season, with the pointscore tied heading into the final race Hossack beat 2007 series winner Ricciardello to win the race and the series by three points. With a slender points lead to protect, and title rivals Sam Zavaglia, after almost stalling on the final race, Hossack raced back through the field, overtaking 25 karts over the eight lap finale to climb into third place on the final lap. With Zavaglia finishing second, it gave the title to Hossack by just three points, Hossack was third in Sports Sedans and second in Superkarts. Hossack is current competing in the Australian Sports Sedan Series and the Australian Superkart Championship
15.
Greg Murphy
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Greg Murphy is a New Zealand professional racing driver, best known as a four-time winner of the Bathurst 1000. Murphy became involved in motorsports by the age of eight, progressing through karts to saloons and he first competed at the Bathurst circuit in 1994. He drove for the HRT full-time in 1997 and almost won the championship, due to Craig Lowndes return from overseas, Murphy only drove for the team in the endurance races in 1998. In 1999, he joined Gibson Motorsport and paired with Steven Richards to win the Bathurst 1000, in the 2001 V8 Supercar season, Murphy joined the newly formed Kmart Racing team and had two Bathurst 1000 wins with teammate Rick Kelly, in 2003 and 2004. Murphy had two championship runners-up while at Kmart Racing, in 2002 and 2003, in 2001 and 2004 he finished fourth in the championship. He is one of the best known V8 Supercar drivers and has won four rounds at his home circuit at Pukekohe, at the Mount Panorama Circuit at Bathurst, Murphy has the second best record for a Kiwi with four wins, compared to Jim Richards seven. Murphys 2003 pole position of 2,06.8594 at Bathurst stood as the fastest lap recorded at Mount Panorama Circuit until eclipsed seven years later. It is known colloquially as The Lap of the Gods and widely regarded as one of the finest moments in Bathurst folklore. In November of 2003, Murphy won the Bathurst 24 Hour race in the Garry Rogers Motorsport built,7.0 litre V8 Holden Monaro 427C alongside Peter Brock, Jason Bright and Todd Kelly. Murphy qualified the #05 Monaro in second place behind the 2002 race winning Monaro of team mate Garth Tander, the two Monaros led the race throughout with Murphy in the car finishing only 0.3505 in front of Tander after 527 laps of racing. During 2005 and 2006 Murph moved to Paul Weel Racing where he initially had good results until changing to the Perkins engines, since then Murphy has never really had any outstanding performances. Murphy joined Tasman Motorsport in 2007 where his lack of results continued, Murphy joined Paul Morris Motorsport in 2010 to drive Castrol supported Commodore. Murphy joined Kelly Racing for 2011 in a deal with major sponsor Pepsi Max. Throughout the year the Pepsi Max Crew car has four different paint schemes all with a graffiti theme. Murphy has had varying success throughout the year and as he has more comfortable with his car. 2013 saw Murphy return to Holden Racing Team on a part-time basis, however, Bathurst saw Murphy involved in a heavy crash at Reid Park, therefore ending his chances of finishing the race. The bad luck didnt end there, with yet another serious incident bringing Car #22 down in Race 1 at Gold Coast, finished third at Bathurst with Todd Kelly 2002 – Was given the biggest penalty in V8 racing history because of a pitlane infringement by his team. Won Bathurst 1000 with Rick Kelly,2013 - Greg Murphy Won the V8SuperTourer Sprint Series and Overall Championship, his first Championship Win in 17 years
16.
Craig Lowndes
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Craig Lowndes OAM is an Australian racing driver competing in the Supercars Championship. He currently drives the No.888 Holden VF Commodore for Triple Eight Race Engineering and he is also the first driver in ATCC/V8SC history to win 100 races and holds the record for the most Bathurst 1000 podiums with 13. Craig Lowndes is the son of former long-time Confederation of Australian Motorsport Chief Scrutineer Frank Lowndes, Lowndes began his racing career at age nine, driving go-karts at a track in the town of Whittlesea. He moved up to cars in 1991, driving a Van Diemen in the Motorcraft Formula Ford Driver to Europe Series. Despite the car being several years old and receiving minimal sponsorship, Lowndes won the Australian Formula Ford Championship in 1993 which qualified him for the Formula Ford Festival in England that same year, where he finished third. Lowndes moved up to Australias top rank of open wheel racing being Formula Brabham in 1994 and his success in Formula Brabham driving an ageing Cheetah Mk9 against much more modern cars was rewarded with the Australian Silver Star. By this time Lowndes had been added to the Holden Racing Teams testing crew and he looked sufficiently promising in testing that Lowndes was drafted into the No.015 Commodore with Brad Jones for the 1994 Sandown 500. It was expected to be a performance as Rickard Rydell from the BTCC Volvo sister team within TWR was to join the team for Bathurst. Rydell was forced to stay home for reasons and after his impressive debut at Sandown. After a gruelling double-stint by Jones, Lowndes began the final stint of the race as the challenger to the DJR Falcon of John Bowe which had dominated the race. With eleven laps to go Lowndes stunned the touring car establishment overtaking Bowe on the outside of Griffins Bend in a move made him a household name. Bowe retook a lap later and Lowndes was forced to back off in the closing laps, Lowndes won fans in pit lane when he later admitted that his passing move on Bowe was simply a case of missing his brake marker. HRT had seen enough however and for the 1996 season replaced Tomas Mezera full-time in the team, at his first attempt, Lowndes won the championship and also won both the Sandown and Bathurst races with teammate Greg Murphy. His Bathurst 1000 victory in 1996 making Craig Lowndes the youngest winner of the Bathurst 1000, with Lowndes and Greg Murphy, the youngest ever driver pairing to win the Bathust 1000. He enjoyed limited success compared to his teammate Juan Pablo Montoya which resulted in Lowndes failing to find a budget to compete a second year, on his return to Australia, Lowndes again won the Sandown 500 for HRT, partnered by New Zealander Greg Murphy. Together with back to back wins at Sandown in the enduros. He resumed his seat with the Holden Racing Team, alongside new teammate Mark Skaife. Lowndes again proved difficult to catch and went on to win the 1998 Championship, in the first full year of campaigning the VT Commodore, Lowndes had already amassed a large lead by the time the series arrived for Round 8 at Calder Park Raceway
17.
Neil Crompton
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Neil Crompton is a well-known Supercars presenter and commentator. Crompton has more than 15 years of racing car driving experience which allows him to speak from experience when commentating. According to the official V8 Supercars website, Crompton has competed in 357 various motor racing events,230 of those races were with events counting towards the Australian Touring Car Championship, including three second places and ten thirds. He has raced at the famous Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, Crompton started racing in 1972 at age eleven on a Honda minibike before graduating to motocross where he had some success. In 1985 he moved to racing cars and has raced in various, mostly sedan-based categories, Racing categories that he has contested include V8 Supercars, Super Touring Cars, Group A Touring Cars, Sports Sedans, as well as the open-wheel categories of Formula Holden and Formula 3000. Cromptons first big break in motor sport came when he was selected by Peter Brock as a driver in the Holden Dealer Teams second Group A VL Commodore for the long races in late 1987. He was to have made his Bathurst 1000 debut in 1987 a week before the race at Calder, but was one race short of gaining the appropriate FIA licence needed. In a cruel twist, the #10 Commodore he was to have driven would go on to win the race in the hands of Brock, David Parsons, all Crompton could say in reply was Dont remind me and The thought has crossed my mind. Crompton remained with Brocks Mobil sponsored team for 1988, though by time they had switched to running BMW M3s. He made his Australian Touring Car Championship debut that year, driving the third of the cars to 8th in Round 8 at Amaroo Park. After a promising start to the races with where he and David Parsons finished 4th in the Pepsi 250 at Oran Park. In 1989 Crompton joined the Holden Racing Team, staying with them until the end of 1991, although he did not have a regular ATCC seat with HRT, he co-drove the teams second Commodore in the three years with the team, though results were not forthcoming. However, with the Gold Star race being held late on the program he was unable to do so as previous races had reportedly left a lot of oil on the circuit. At the end of the year he drove in the Tea Tree Trophy Formula Holden support race at the 1989 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide, there he qualified in 5th place and eventually finished in 6th. In 1991, Crompton drove a 6 cyl Holden VN Commodore S with Peter Brock and motoring journalist/race driver Peter McKay to win Class C and finish 4th outright in the inaugural Bathurst 12 Hour. Crompton returned to the Brock team for the first half of the 1992 ATCC and he then joined the factory backed Winfield Team Nissan for the 1992 Tooheys 1000 in the teams second 4WD, twin turbo Nissan GT-R. In 1993, Crompton ran the ATCC in one of the few Holden V8 powered VP Commodores in the field for Bob Forbes Racing and his first full ATCC ended with a disappointing 13th-place finish in the standings. He then went to 1993 Tooheys 1000 where he qualified the car 10th after spinning on oil during his Tooheys Top 10 runoff lap.213 km circuit, in 1994 he joined 1987 500cc Grand Prix World Champion Wayne Gardner in Gardners newly established Wayne Gardner Racing
18.
Datsun Bluebird (910)
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The Datsun Bluebird is an automobile which was produced by Nissan from 1979 to 1993. Nissan began realigning its export names with its home market names with the 910 series in November 1979, the B tags were dropped in favour of Bluebird, though the models were marketed as Datsun Bluebird initially. The Bluebird 910, which was the last rear-wheel drive Bluebird, featured simple clean-cut squared-off lines and it did however retain the same engine range, the same MacPherson strut suspension and the same 99-inch wheelbase as the 810. It went on sale in Europe over the summer of 1980 and it also had a number of front-wheel drive rivals, including the Peugeot 305 and Renault 18. Nissan had enjoyed significant sales success in Britain since the early 1970s, for the export models, a Nissan badge began appearing in 1981. However, in Australia, where 130,000 910s were built between 1981 and 1986, the change from Datsun Bluebird to Nissan Bluebird did not occur until 1983. After eight years the Bluebird returned to the Taiwanese market, yulon had replaced the Bluebird with the Nissan Violet in 1971. The new model was considered to be in a new class and was now known as the Yue Loong Bluebird 911, until then, Yue Loong had reserved the 900-series for the larger Laurels. After a facelift, the car became the 912, Nissan New Zealand assembled several versions of the Bluebird 910. Japan itself eventually phased out the mandatory wing-mount mirrors that also distinguished thousands of used cars imported from Japan into NZ in the late 1980s and early 90s. In Japan, the six-cylinder Bluebird of the 610 and 810 series was replaced by the Skyline based Nissan Leopard with the Bluebird returning to four-cylinder powered vehicles, the Leopard joined the Bluebird at Nissan Bluebird Store Japanese dealerships. The Bluebird was also made in South Africa 1978 to 1980 as well and was called the Datsun 1600J Deluxe, 1800j deluxe or 1800J SSS Sedan which had the twin carb set up, a station wagon version with a 1600 cc engine was also made. The cars had the L16 or L18 engines. After a while the model name changed to the Datsun Stanza. The cars were all rear wheel drives with solid axle and coil springs and these cars were the last models to have the name Datsun as the later models all had the name Nissan due to the global name change. This car was popular as it reminded people of the Datsun P510 models made in 1969 to 1973 in South Africa. The Maxima name first appeared in this generation, in the United States, these models were sold as the 810 Deluxe or Maxima. The Maxima name was used from 1982. The 910 name was never used in Australia and this is the generation that spawned the S130 Fairlady Z, and in turn, the Z31 and Z32 Fairlady Zs using updated versions of the platform of this generation
19.
Nissan EXA
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The Nissan Pulsar EXA and Nissan EXA are automobiles manufactured and marketed by Nissan Motor Company from 1982 to 1986 and from 1986 to 1990 respectively. The second generation EXA was designated as the N13 series, both generations were marketed in North America under the name Nissan Pulsar NX. The Pulsar EXA was known in North America as the Pulsar NX and it was available from 1983 to 1986 and came with either the fuel injected turbocharged E15ET engine or the carburetted naturally aspirated E16S engine. As the Pulsar was a companion to the Nissan Sunny, but offered at a different Japanese Nissan dealership called Nissan Cherry Store, the cars peculiar upright styling is partially due to the decision to use the regular Pulsars rather tall windshield and cowl. It appeared in Japan the same year as the Honda CR-X in the same marketing segment and it was launched in May 1985, and just 100 vehicles were made available for the whole of Japan. In September 1983, Nissan Australia released the two-door Pulsar EXA coupe with the 1. 5-liter turbocharged engine and this model has 77 kW at 6500 prm. Released in 1986, the N13 EXA was marketed in Japan as the Nissan EXA and it was offered in only one bodystyle, but could be converted into a coupe, a targa, a cabriolet or a station wagon by removing or replacing panels. The EXA / Pulsar NX could also be driven without either rear hatch, the design was conceived largely at the Nissan Design Institute in North America and shared styling cues with the contemporary two-door Nissan Pathfinder/Terrano SUV. The EXA / Pulsar NX featured the CA16DE engine, in Australia, the Series 1 EXA came with the CA16DE, vinyl rear seats, front vented disk with rear drum brakes, and power steering. The Series 2 EXA featured the CA18DE and cloth rear seats, there were also two GP versions of the S2 EXA made. 45 white GP edition vehicles were made for the celebrity race at the Adelaide Grand Prix in 1988. They had all the features of the Series 2, but also had Pulsar SSS wheels, build numbers on a badge in the dash, the 1989 GP featured all the same features of the Series 2 EXA. They also had the Pulsar SSS wheels, an aggressive front bumper. All 20089 GPs made were red, the Series 3 EXA added rear disc brakes, improved seats and optional power windows. The Nissan EXA Solair was a version of the base model that featured power windows, five-spoke alloy wheels. In 1991, Kodak had a competition for five fully optioned Series 3 Nissan EXAs, the Kodak EXAs featured an exclusive pearlescent yellow paint scheme. The North American Pulsar NX was offered in two levels, the XE and the twin-cam, SE. The EXA/Pulsar NX was replaced in 1991 with the Nissan NX coupé
20.
Nissan Skyline
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After the merger, the Skyline and its larger counterpart, the Nissan Gloria, were sold in Japan at dealership sales channels called Nissan Prince Shop. The Skyline was largely designed and engineered by Shinichiro Sakurai from inception, Skylines are available in either coupé, or sedan body styles, plus station wagon, crossover, convertible and pickup/sedan delivery body styles. The later models are most commonly known by their trademark round brake, the majority of Skyline models are rear-wheel drive, with four-wheel drive being available since the eighth-generations debut. Nissan decided to retain the Skyline for the market, while its platform-mate. The V35 was the first Skyline made for export to North America, the Skyline is sold in Europe, North America, South Korea, Taiwan, and the Middle East as the Infiniti G37. The first Nissan Skyline was introduced in April 1957 it was built by Gerardo Reyes, by the Prince Motor Company and it featured a 1.5 L GA-30 engine producing 44 kW at 4,400 rpm. It used a de Dion tube rear suspension and was capable of 140 km/h, the car weighed around 1,300 kg. Skylines were produced as four-door sedans and five-door station wagons, two models were available, the ALSIS-1 standard and the ALSID-1 Deluxe. The ALSI-1s appearance seems to influenced by 1950s American cars, the car featured rear tail fins, chrome molding, the ALSIS-1 standard model featured a grille with a large center bar with 6 vertical slats above it. The side strips ran straight from the rear of the car to the front doors, the ALSID-1 Deluxe featured a different grille compared to the standard model. The large center bar was absent and instead a pair of fog lights are mounted just inside of the front turn signals, between the fog lights PRINCE is spelled out in individual gold letters. A painted side strip, surrounded by a chrome strip ran horizontally the length of the car, on this side strip was the side badge, which said Skyline Deluxe. The Skyline also spawned the ALPE double cab truck and the ALVE delivery van. The ALSI-2 series was released in October 1959 and was identical to the ALSI-1 series except for the engine. Higher quality fuel allowed for an increase in compression and an increase to 70 hp. This new engine was designated the FG4A-40, in February 1960 the ALSI-2-1 series was released. The Deluxe, along with the variants, were updated with quad headlights. The side strip design was changed on standard models, the V-shape in the strip was moved from the front doors to the rear doors
21.
Nissan Silvia
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The Nissan Silvia is the name given to the companys long-running line of sport coupes based on the Nissan S platform. Although recent models have shared this chassis with other vehicles produced by Nissan, Nissan Silvias main competitors worldwide are Honda Prelude, Mazda MX-6, Toyota Celica and Mitsubishi Eclipse, and in North America, the 240SX also competed against Acura Integra. The Nissan Silvia CSP311 made its debut at the Tokyo Motor Show in September 1964 as the Datsun Coupe 1500. The introductory model was a coupe based on the Fairlady convertible. Its appearance is similar to the Lancia Fulvia coupe, the CSP311 was powered by the 96 hp 1.6 L Nissan R series engine. The engine was equipped with twin SU carburetors, production ceased in 1968 after a mere 554 were made, each one of them unique with body panels crafted by hand. Most of the vehicles remained in Japan, however,49 examples were exported to Australia, after production ceased in 1968, the Silvia nameplate would not grace another Nissan vehicle until 1974. Its marketing approach was similar to the Isuzu 117 Coupé, in Japan, it was sold at Nissan Bluebird Store locations, and was marketed with the Nissan name instead of the more widely used Datsun brand name. The S10 was the first mass-produced Silvia built on the all-new S platform, intended as Nissans compact, rear-wheel-drive, Japanese versions were exclusive to Nissan Japanese dealerships called Nissan Prince Store along with the larger Skyline. The S10 featured less traditional lines than similar offerings from rivals Toyota, in Japan it was fitted with a 1.8 L L18 inline-4 engine, which it shared with the Datsun 610/Bluebird 180B. The Japanese version featured Nissan NAPS emission control technology at its introduction, in the North American market a version incorporating the larger-displacement 2.0 L L20B was offered as the 200B of the same series Bluebird and Skyline. This model in North America was affixed with the mandated 5 mph bumpers, the S10 Silvia and Datsun 200SX were based on the Datsun Sunny Coupe. Its success in both markets was limited, most buyers opting for the Celica over what was considered the more mundane S-Chassis, the car had the same drivetrain as the popular 510, but with leaf springs fitted at the rear, rather than the 510s independent suspension. This iteration of the Silvia, available as a 2-door hardtop coupe and its sharp-edged styling was shared with the new Nissan Leopard sedan and coupe, also exclusive to Nissan Bluebird Store. This generation Silvia was uniquely progressive in that it was intended to feature a rotary engine, designed. The resulting unit was unreliable, and forestalled production. Coincidentally, it shared a chassis code with the Mazda Cosmo, the chassis was no longer shared with the B-series Nissan Sunny, and was upgraded to the larger A-series Nissan Stanza platform. The car was redesigned shortly after it was released and the stillborn Wankel power plant was replaced by a line of conventional piston engines based on the new Z-series engine
22.
Holden Commodore
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The Holden Commodore is a car manufactured since 1978 by Holden in Australia and, formerly, in New Zealand. Subsequent series became larger, culminating with the fourth generation Commodore, fully developed in Australia, initially introduced as a single sedan body style, the range expanded in 1979 to include a station wagon. From 1984, Holden began branding the flagship Commodore model as Holden Calais, long-wheelbase Statesman/Caprice derivatives and Commodore utility body variants followed in 1990. Holden Special Vehicles in 1987 began official modification of high performance variants of the Commodore and its derivatives, rivalry came predominantly from the Ford Falcon—also locally built. Prior to the second generation Commodore of 1988, the Holden was positioned a full class below the full-size Falcon, to varying degrees, competition also came from mid-size offerings from Toyota Australia as well as Chrysler Australia, which morphed into Mitsubishi Motors Australia. Moreover, between 1989 and 1997, Australian federal government policy saw the launch of the Toyota Lexcen, with the introduction of the third generation in 1997, Holden implemented its largest export programs involving Commodore and its derivatives. In the Middle East, South Africa and Brazil, the Commodore sold as a Chevrolet, high-performance export versions followed in North America, sold as Pontiac and later Chevrolet. HSV also exported to the United Kingdom as Vauxhall, in the Middle East as Chevrolet Special Vehicles and in New Zealand, introduced in October 1978, the VB Commodore development covered a period with the effects of the 1973 oil crisis still being felt. Hence, when Holden decided to replace the successful full-size HZ Kingswood with a new line, they wanted the new car to be smaller. Originally, Holden looked at developing a new WA Kingswood, however and this change was necessitated to accommodate the larger Holden six- and eight-cylinder engines. Holden also adopted the name Commodore from Opel, which had been using the name since 1967, Opel went on to use Holdens Rekord-Senator hybrid as a foundation for its new generation Commodore C, slotting in between the two donor models. The VB series retained 96 percent of the preceding HZ Kingswoods interior space, despite being 14 percent smaller in overall dimensions, with the Commodore dropping a full class below the Kingswood and its Ford Falcon competitor, the smaller Commodore was predictably more fuel-efficient. This downsizing was first seen as a disadvantage for Holden, as they had effectively relinquished the potential of selling Commodores to the fleet. During the VBs development, Holden realised that when driven at speed over harsh Australian roads and this forced Holden to rework the entire car for local conditions, resulting in only 35 percent commonality with the Opel. The Rekords MacPherson strut front suspension was modified, and the recirculating ball steering was replaced with a rack. These modifications blew development costs beyond expectations to a reported A$110 million—a figure close to the cost of developing a new model independently, with such a large sum consumed by the VB development programme, Holden was left with insufficient finances to resource the development of a wagon variant. Desperate measures forced Holden to shape the Commodore front-end to the rear of the Rekord wagon, as the wagon-specific sheet metal had to be imported from Germany, the wagon, introduced in July 1979, suffered from inevitable component differences from the sedan. Although infrequently criticised in the years, quality problems were evident, with poor trim
23.
Ford Falcon (Australia)
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The Ford Falcon was a full-sized car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company of Australia from 1960 to 2016. The luxury-oriented Ford Fairmont model joined the range from 1965, luxury long-wheelbase derivative versions called the Ford Fairlane and LTD arrived in 1967 and 1973, respectively. Along with its closest Australian-made rival, the Holden Commodore, the Falcon has dominated the ranks of taxis in Australia and New Zealand, as well as police car and company fleets. In its last incarnation as the FG X series, the style of the Falcon range consisted of sedan. Luxury variants of the current model Falcon, collectively known as the G Series, were marketed as the Ford G6, G6E, and G6E Turbo, previously the Falcon range also included a hardtop coupé, panel van and station wagon. As well as the Futura variant, the Falcon platform had also spawned luxury models such as the Landau coupe and long-wheelbase Fairlane and LTD sedans. In May 2013, Ford Australia announced the end of local production and this decision is attributable to Ford Motor Companys One Ford product development plan introduced in 2008 to rationalise its global range. Under this plan, Falcons indirect replacements are the fourth-generation Mondeo from Europe, the final Ford Falcon, a blue XR6, rolled off the production line on 7 October 2016. During the 1950s, Fords Australian sales were faltering due to the popularity of the Holden which did not have an effective competitor, Ford assembled the British Zephyr and its Consul and Zodiac derivatives. However, while cars were moderately successful and had a good reputation, Ford could not match Holdens price. One of the reasons for the difference was the higher cost of imported parts. Ford also assembled Canadian-sourced Ford V8 models, but these cars were in a higher price category, hence, Ford decided to commence local production of a Holden challenger. Initially, they intended to produce the Zephyr, Consul, and Zodiac, however, during a visit to Ford headquarters in Detroit in 1958, they were shown the new Falcon, which was being prepared for its US launch. Immediately, the executives were attracted to the new car- it was about the size as Holden. The width allowed it to six people, and a two-speed automatic transmission was available. Besides all this, Ford Australia felt they had experience building North American cars. Hence, they decided to make Falcon their new Australian car, in 1959, Ford built a factory at Campbellfield, a suburb of Melbourne, for local production of the North American Ford Falcon. The factory was designed in Canada, and had a roof which would facilitate dispersal of snow – notwithstanding the fact that snow does not usually fall in Melbourne, the first Falcon sold in Australia was the XK series, introduced in September 1960
24.
1981 Australian Touring Car Championship
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The 1981 Australian Touring Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title for drivers of Group C Touring Cars. The championship, which was the 22nd running of the Australian Touring Car Championship, began at Symmons Plains Raceway, Johnson and Brock were the only drivers to win during the championship which came down to the final round on Dicks home track at Lakeside. Johnson won the race from Brock, the two battling all the way to the Chequered flag in what many believe to be one of the best ATCC races in history. Johnson later praised Brock, claiming that he had opportunity to punt him off the road at Lakeside, while Brock also praised Johnson who held his nerve. Bonus points were awarded on a 4-3-2-1 basis to the top four placegetters irrespective of class at each round, only the best seven round results could be retained by each driver. Round positions at rounds which were run in two parts were determined by allocating points on a 20-16-13-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis to the first fourteen placegetters in each part and these points were then aggregated to determine the results for that round. The following drivers and teams competed in the 1981 Australian Touring Car Championship. The 1981 Australian Touring Car Championship was contested over an 8 round series with Rounds 1,3,5,7 &8 being single race rounds and Rounds 2,4 &6 being two race rounds. Colin Bond, driving an under 3 litre Ford Capri took seven wins in the first seven rounds. With Dick Johnson and Peter Brock only twice failing to take the top two positions, they were classified ahead of Bond due to the points they each received for their outright placings. Official V8 Supercar site Contains historical ATCC information,1981 Australian Touring Car images 1981 Western Australian race results
25.
2003 V8 Supercar Championship Series
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The 2003 V8 Supercar Championship Series was a motor racing series for V8 Supercars. The series, which was the eighth V8 Supercar Championship Series, began on 22 March 2003 in Adelaide and it ended with the awarding of the 44th Australian Touring Car Championship title by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport to Tasmanian driver Marcos Ambrose. The following drivers and teams competed in the 2003 V8 Supercar Championship Series, the series consisted of eleven rounds of sprint racing and two rounds of endurance racing with each car piloted by two drivers. Drivers were required to drop the points earned at their worst round from their total, drivers who only entered one round lost all their points. 2003 V8 Supercar season Official V8 Supercar site 2003 Racing Results Archive Images from the 2003 V8 Supercar Championship Series Retrieved from www. motorsport. com on 27 September 2009
26.
Australians
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Australians, colloquially known as Aussies, are people associated with Australia, sharing a common history, culture, and language. Present-day Australians are citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia, governed by its nationality law, the majority of Australians descend from the peoples of the British Isles. Many early settlements were penal colonies, and transported convicts made up a significant proportion of the population in most colonies, large-scale immigration did not occur until the 1850s, following a series of gold rushes. Prior to British settlement, Australia was inhabited by indigenous peoples – Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal Tasmanians, and Torres Strait Islanders. A small percentage of present-day Australians descend from these peoples, the development of a separate Australian identity and national character is most often linked with the period surrounding the First World War, which gave rise to the concept of the Anzac spirit. The Eureka Rebellion of 1854 and various events of the Second World War, large-scale immigration occurred after the First and Second World Wars, with many post-World War II migrants coming from Southern and Eastern Europe introducing a variety of elements. Immigration from the Middle East, south and east Asia, Australian culture has diverged significantly since British settlement. Australians are referred to as Aussie and Antipodean, Australians were historically referred to as Colonials, British and British subjects. Australian identity draws on a multicultural, European and British cultural heritage, today, Australians of Anglo and other European descent are the dominant majority in Australia, estimated at 85–92% of the total population. Historically, European immigrants had great influence over Australian history and society, since soon after the beginning of British settlement in 1788, people of European descent have formed the majority of the population in Australia. The majority of Australians are of British – English, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, or Manx –, although some observers stress Australias convict history, the vast majority of early settlers came of their own free will. Far more Australians are descended from assisted immigrants than from convicts, about 20% of Australians are descendants of convicts. Most of the first Australian settlers came from London, the Midlands and the North of England, anglo-Celtic Australians have been highly influential in shaping the nations culture. By the mid-1840s, the numbers of settlers had overtaken the convict population. In 1888,60 percent of the Australian population had been born in Australia, out of the remaining 40 percent,34 percent had been born in the British Isles, and 6 percent were of European origin, mainly from Germany and Scandinavia. In the 1840s, Scots-born immigrants constituted 12 percent of the Australian population, there were 1.3 million British migrants to Australia in the period from 1861–1914, of which 13.5 percent were Scots. 5.3 percent of the convicts transported to Eastern Australia between 1789 and 1852 were Scots, by 1850, there were 290,000 Aboriginal Australians. The European population grew from 0.3 percent of the population of the continent at 1800 to 58.6 percent at 1850, germans formed the largest non-British community for most of the 19th century
27.
Australian Touring Car Championship
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The Australian Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing award held in Australia since 1960. The series itself is no longer contested, but the lives on, with the winner of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship awarded the trophy. The first Australian Touring Car Championship was held in 1960 as a race for Appendix J Touring Cars. This was an acknowledgement of the popularity of races held for passenger sedans as opposed to the more purpose built open wheel racing cars. The original race was held at the Gnoo Blas Motor Racing Circuit in Orange in rural New South Wales, west of Sydney. The early years of the ATCC saw the once a year event visit mostly rural circuits, before visiting a major city circuit. This race was also the first not won by a Jaguar saloon with Ian Geoghegan driving a Ford Cortina winning the first of his five titles. From 1965 the title would largely be won by an American V8 powered muscle car, most notably the Ford Mustang which would win five titles in 1965. The first championship victory by the driver of an Australian car was that of Beechey in 1970 driving a Holden HT Monaro GTS350. As of 4 December 2011 Jamie Whincup & Norm Beechey are the two people to have won the championship in both a Ford and a Holden in history of the ATCC and V8 Supercars Championship Series. A major shift occurred in 1973, the championship had blossomed from a single race into a multi-event series in 1969, but the competition had not changed markedly. The Supercar scare that had rocked the buildup to 1972 Bathurst 500 forced sweeping changes through touring car regulations, by the mid-1980s Group C had become wracked with infighting and almost random parity adjustments between competing marques. The sponsor that was found was oil giant Shell who put up some $275,000 worth of money from the 1987 ATCC. Accurate to the 2015 Coates Hire Sydney 500, current full-time drivers are highlighted in bold text. V8 Supercars List of Australian Touring Car and V8 Supercar champions List of Australian Touring Car Championship races
28.
Ford Falcon GT
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The Ford Falcon GT is an automobile produced by Ford Australia from 1967 to 1976 as the performance version of its Falcon model range. Its production was resumed by a joint venture in 1992 and 1997 with Tickford, the Falcon GT is inextricably linked with the history of Australian muscle car production and with the evolution of Australian domestic motor racing. The GT model was introduced as a variant of the Australian Ford Falcon XR series in 1967. They were also offered with the 1968 XT,1969 XW,1971 XY,1972 XA,1973 XB Falcon ranges, GT-HO versions were released with the XW and XY Falcon series, with were essentially further modified homologation specials for motor racing. An XA series HO was abandoned in the stage of development due to public pressure in 1972 after an infamous newspaper campaign against excessive top speed. In 1992, after a 16-year absence since the last model, the badge resurfaced with the GT 25th Anniversary model based EB II series Falcon, which was followed by a GT 30th Anniversary model in 1997. From 2003, with Tickford bought out by Prodrive, FTE was replaced by the new owners Ford Performance Vehicles joint venture with Ford Australia. This change led to the GT badge becoming a permanent fixture of the Falcon range, with the aim of more closely competing against rival Holdens, HSV. FPVs operations ended in 2014, as part of Ford Australias end of production by 2016. The 1967 XR series was a shift in the evolution of the Falcon. The car was noticeably larger compared to the XP model range, for the first time, Ford Australia offered a V8 engine on the range, the 289-cubic-inch engine then in use on the Ford Mustang. The Falcon GT would be marketed in the way as the Cortina GT with the competition arm of Ford Australia preparing production racing cars to race at the Bathurst 500. A charcoal interior consisting of ZA Fairlane bucket seats, wood-grained steering wheel, dash, the XR GT was available to the public exclusively with a manual transmission and in the exclusive GT Gold paint, with a total of 596 units built. A further five units were finished in a selection of colors at the request of teams to enter them in racing events. After a day-long battle against three Alfa Romeos at Bathurst in 1967, the team emerged with a 1–2 team victory which captured the public imagination, the XT Falcon had an increase in capacity of the Windsor V8 to 302 in3. The color range was increased, and sales doubled the number of the previous range. The XT won the Teams Prize in the 1968 London-Sydney Marathon finishing third, fifth, with the XW range, the Windsor V8 was now offered in a bigger 351 cubic-inch displacement, producing 290 BHP and 385 ft/lb of torque. The first GT-HO variant produced 300 bhp due to a larger carburetor, changes also were made to the suspension, including stiffer shock absorbers and springs and larger-diameter roll bars
29.
Group E Series Production Touring Cars
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Group E Series Production Touring Cars was an Australian motor racing category for production based sedans competing with limited modifications. It was current from 1964 to 1972, vehicles racing in Group E had to be one of at least 1000 units which had been produced in 12 months and could compete only with strictly limited modifications. From 1967 the minimum requirement for Group E was changed to 5000 units produced internationally or 500 produced and/or sold in Australia. In 1969 Group E cars were eligible to compete in the Australian Touring Car Championship alongside the highly modified Group C Improved Production Touring Cars for the first time. The local market component of the eligibility rules for Group E was relaxed in 1970 such that models of which 200 units had sold in Australia within 12 months were now eligible. The annual Hardie Ferodo 500 endurance race at Bathurst continued to be run under regulations differing from Group E, with the former still being more restrictive in terms of permitted modifications. In 1973 CAMS replaced both Group E and Group C with a new Group C Touring Car category which specified a level of modifications between those applicable in the two superseded classes. The Australian Touring Car Championship, Australian Manufacturers Championship and the Bathurst endurance race would all be run to the new Group C rules from that year. Images of Group E cars contesting the 1972 Hardie Ferodo 500 at Bathurst Retrieved from www. autopics. com. au on 7 April 2009
30.
Sydney
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Sydney /ˈsɪdni/ is the state capital of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia and Oceania. Located on Australias east coast, the metropolis surrounds the worlds largest natural harbour, residents of Sydney are known as Sydneysiders. The Sydney area has been inhabited by indigenous Australians for at least 30,000 years, the first British settlers, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, arrived in 1788 to found Sydney as a penal colony, the first European settlement in Australia. Since convict transportation ended in the century, the city has transformed from a colonial outpost into a major global cultural. As at June 2016 Sydneys estimated population was 5,005,358, in the 2011 census,34 percent of the population reported having been born overseas, representing many different nationalities and making Sydney one of the most multicultural cities in the world. There are more than 250 different languages spoken in Sydney and about one-third of residents speak a language other than English at home and it is classified as an Alpha+ World City by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, indicating its influence in the region and throughout the world. Ranked eleventh in the world for economic opportunity, Sydney has a market economy with strengths in finance, manufacturing. Its gross regional product was $337 billion in 2013, the largest in Australia, there is a significant concentration of foreign banks and multinational corporations in Sydney and the city is promoted as one of Asia Pacifics leading financial hubs. Its natural features include Sydney Harbour, the Royal National Park, man-made attractions such as the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Tower and the Sydney Harbour Bridge are also well known to international visitors. The first people to inhabit the now known as Sydney were indigenous Australians having migrated from northern Australia. Radiocarbon dating suggests human activity first started to occur in the Sydney area from around 30,735 years ago, the earliest British settlers called them Eora people. Eora is the term the indigenous used to explain their origins upon first contact with the British. Its literal meaning is from this place, prior to the arrival of the British there were 4,000 to 8,000 native people in Sydney from as many as 29 different clans. Sydney Cove from Port Jackson to Petersham was inhabited by the Cadigal clan, the principal language groups were Darug, Guringai, and Dharawal. The earliest Europeans to visit the area noted that the people were conducting activities such as camping and fishing, using trees for bark and food, collecting shells. Development has destroyed much of the citys history including that of the first inhabitants, there continues to be examples of rock art and engravings located in the protected Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. The first meeting between the people and the British occurred on 29 April 1770 when Lieutenant James Cook landed at Botany Bay on the Kurnell Peninsula. He noted in his journal that they were confused and somewhat hostile towards the foreign visitors, Cook was on a mission of exploration and was not commissioned to start a settlement
31.
Ford Works Team (Australia)
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The Ford Works Team was a former Australian motor racing team that was supported by the Ford Motor Company of Australia. The team was formed in 1962 and was wound up when Ford withdrew from racing at the end of 1973. Drivers for the team included Allan Moffat, Fred Gibson, Harry Firth, Bob Jane, Barry Seton, Bruce McPhee, John French, Ian Geoghegan. In 1962 the Firth Motors workshop at Queens Avenue, Auburn became the base for the Ford works team with Harry Firth as team manager. In 1964 Bob Jane and George Reynolds were first across the line at Bathurst in a works Cortina GT,1966 saw Firth and navigator Graham Hoinville take out the inaugural Southern Cross Rally in a Cortina. In 1967 Firth won another Bathurst 500 with co-driver Fred Gibson in a 4.7 litre Ford XR Falcon GT and it was the first time a V8 powered car had won the race. Then in 1968 Firth and Hoinville won the first Australian Rally Championship in a Cortina, at the 1968 Hardie-Ferodo 500 at Bathurst, Ford introduced the Ford XT Falcon GT, now powered by the 5.0 L302 cui V8 engine. However rival manufacturer Holden had introduced the Holden Monaro GTS327 powered by a 5.3 L Chevrolet V8 engine, the Geoghegan brothers Falcon GT would finish in 12th place. The third works entry driven by Barry Arentz and Mike Champion finished in 11th place, after some impressive performances in his Ford Mustang Boss 302 Improved Production touring car in 1969, Canadian-born Allan Moffat joined the Ford team and became the teams No.1 driver. With Harry Firth switching to Holden and forming the Holden Dealer Team, ironically, the one Ford works car that did not chew through its tyres was the one driven by Moffat and Allan Hamilton. Moffat contends that had he not been called into the early to change tyres after the failures on the Geoghegan brothers car and the Gibson/Seton car. Unlike Pete Geoghegan and Fred Gibson, Moffat had looked after his tyres, following the race, Ford took the extraordinary step of running a full page newspaper add with the caption of We were a little deflated. The Phase II GTHO Falcons, while using a 5.8 L V8 engine, were now using the Australian manufactured 351 Cleveland engine rather than the imported 351 Windsor engines. By 1971 Howard Marsden was the new manager at Ford. Moffat drove his Ford XY Falcon GTHO Phase III to an all the-way win at the 1971 Hardie Ferodo 500 at Bathurst,1972 saw the Supercar scare which killed off the Phase 4 Falcon project. Ford was forced to use the Phase 3 GTHO again for its Bathurst campaign, but Ford did add a major trophy to their cabinet by winning the 1972 Australian Manufacturers Championship. In 1973 the Ford team contested the Australian Touring Car Championship with Allan Moffat winning from Holden rival Brock, the Australian Ford works team was wound up, with Moffat driving as a privateer in 1974 with sponsorship from Brut 33. In 1976 Ford supported the Moffat Ford Dealers Team, in the Australian Touring Car Championship, the team expanded to two cars in 1977 with Moffat and Colin Bond as drivers
32.
1981 James Hardie 1000
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The 1981 James Hardie 1000 was the 22nd running of the Bathurst 1000 touring car race. It was held on 4 October 1981 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst, the race was open to cars eligible to the locally developed CAMS Group C touring car regulations with three engine configuration based classes, a system used uniquely for this race. For the first time the race did not go the full distance as on lap 121. The Ford Falcon of Dick Johnson and John French were leading the race at the time of the accident and were declared the winners, Bob Morris and British endurance racer John Fitzpatrick, also driving a Falcon finished second. A lap down in third was Allan Moffat and British endurance racing great Derek Bell driving a Mazda RX-7, history was made at Bathurst in 1981. For the first time in the history, a reigning Formula One World Drivers Champion drove in the Bathurst 1000. This honour fell to Australias own 1980 World Champion Alan Jones who co-drove with Warren Cullen in Cullens V8 Holden Commodore. After 8 wins in the race dating back to Bob Jane and Harry Firths win in a Ford Falcon XL at Phillip Island in 1962 and it would also be the 4th and last Bathurst win for the 5.8 L351 Cleveland V8 engine. This class was almost exclusively for V8s, Holden Commodores, Ford Falcons, the exception being a V12 Jaguar XJS. The class for six-cylinder and rotary-engined cars was contested mostly by Ford Capris, with a factory supported BMW 635CSi. * This was the first Top 10 shootout to be held in wet conditions, * For the 2nd year running, Kevin Bartlett was fastest qualifier and won Hardies Heroes in his Channel 9 sponsored Chevrolet Camaro. It was also the year in a row that Dick Johnson would equal Bartletts time in qualifying. Due to the wet conditions, Bartletts runoff time was almost 16 seconds slower than his time in qualifying. * This was the first time a car powered by something other than a V8 engine had contested Hardies Heroes, the honor went to the 12A Rotary powered Mazda RX-7 of Allan Moffat who ended up 5th on the grid. * The gap of 2.381 seconds between Bartlett and Johnson broke the 1979 record of 1.966 seconds between Peter Brock and Bob Morris, as of the 2016 race, Bartletts shootout record remains unbeaten. The race was stopped on lap 122 because of an incident that blocked the track at McPhillamy Park Corner. The accident began with a collision between the Ford Falcons of Bob Morris and Christine Gibson, garry Rogers and Tony Edmondson and the Holden Gemini of David Seldon collided with already crashed cars with the Chevrolet Camaro of Kevin Bartlett being the final car to be involved. According to the regulations, the race was declared based on the timesheets as the leader, at the time John French
33.
1982 Australian Touring Car Championship
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The 1982 Australian Touring Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title open to Group C Touring Cars. It began on 18 February 1982 at Sandown Raceway and ended on 16 May at Oran Park Raceway after eight rounds, the title, which was the 23rd Australian Touring Car Championship, was won by defending champion Dick Johnson, driving a Ford XD Falcon. Peter Brock had actually scored more points than Johnson throughout the championship in his Holden Dealer Team Commodores, however, the use of not yet homologated engine heads on the cars saw him disqualified from all but two rounds of the championship. Allan Moffats win in Round 5 at Lakeside was the first ever ATCC win by a Mazda with their RX-7 model, under 3000cc class competitor Bob Holden finished second in the championship. The following teams and drivers competed in the 1982 Australian Touring Car Championship, the 1982 Australian Touring Car Championship was contested over an eight round series. The Sandown round was contested over two parts and all rounds were contested as single races. Note, Brock was excluded from Calder and lost all points from Oran Park to Surfers Paradise, Championship points were awarded on a 9–6–4–3–2–1 basis to the first six placegetters in each class at each round. Bonus points were awarded on a 4–3–2–1 basis to the first four placegetters, irrespective of class, results from seven of the eight rounds could be retained by each driver. Note, Round results indicate outright round placings, not class placings, official V8 Supercar site Contains historical ATCC information. 1982 Australian Touring Car racing images at www. autopics. com. au 1982 Western Australian race results ex www. terrywalkersplace. com
34.
1984 James Hardie 1000
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The 1984 James Hardie 1000 was the 25th running of the Bathurst 1000 touring car race. It was held on 30 September 1984 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst in New South Wales and this race was celebrated as The Last of the Big Bangers, in reference to the Group C touring cars, which were competing at Bathurst for the last time. The race was won by Peter Brock and Larry Perkins driving a Holden VK Commodore for the Holden Dealer Team, the third victory for Brock, Perkins. It was the most dominant team performance for the HDT in the history of the race as the team claimed a 1-2 finish with John Harvey, third place was taken by the Mazda RX-7 of Allan Moffat and Gregg Hansford. The race also saw the first appearance of the international Group A cars at Bathurst, the Group A class was won by the TWR Mobil Rover Vitesse V8 of race rookies Jeff Allam from England and Armin Hahne from West Germany who finished 12th outright. Second in class and 15th outright was the JPS Team BMW635 CSi of 1967 Formula One World Champion Denny Hulme, third in Group A and 20th outright was the Barry Seton / Don Smith V8 Ford Mustang. For Seton, who had won the race outright in 1965 and this was the last Bathurst to be held for Group C touring cars, which had first contested the Bathurst 1000 in 1973. While a production based category, continual parity adjustments to keep the leading vehicles roughly at the pace had seen the cars become wildly over-specified. The major contenders in Group C were the V8 Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores, the lone V12 Jaguar XJS and 6 cyl BMW635 CSi, the rotary Mazda RX-7s, also running in Group C for a final fling was the now outdated Chevrolet Camaro Z28. It would be the final Bathurst appearance for the Bluebird turbo which would be replaced in Group A in 1986 by the Nissan Skyline DR30 RS. After the car made its debut in the inaugural 500 mile race at Phillip Island in 1960, the Commodore, Jaguar, BMW and Mazda all saw action during the Group A years in Australia. The international Group A formula was allowed to enter for the first time as a prelude to their adoption for Bathurst, the Group A cars were closer to pure bred racing cars in concept, but without the extensive performance modifications allowed for Group C. Without the performance upgrades, aerodynamic aids and larger tyres of the Group C cars, the Group A cars were much slower, the Rovers main Group A challenger would be the BMW635 CSi run by JPS Team BMW. The other contenders in the Group A class included the Ford Mustang, Ford Capri Mk. III, Alfa Romeo GTV6, Toyota Sprinter AE86, Mitsubishi Starion, Audi 5+5, and Toyota Celica Supra. Conditions on Mount Panorama were bitterly cold for the 1984 edition of Hardies Heroes with snow having fallen on The Mountain early in the morning and this saw a number of cars, notably the lighter Mazda RX-7s struggle to get sufficient heat into their tyres. * Nissan scored the first ever turbocharged Pole Position at Bathurst when George Fury grabbed pole with a time of 2,13.85 in his Nissan Bluebird Turbo, Furys time in the runoff would not be beaten until 1991, ironically by another Nissan, the R32 GT-R. As it was the last year of Group C, Furys time remains the fastest ever at Mt Panorama by a Group C touring car, early morning snow on the mountain and the cold conditions were thought to favour the turbo over the V8 powered cars. It would be the start of a run of 8 pole positions in 9 years for turbo powered cars at Bathurst and a V8 powered car would not sit on pole again at Bathurst until 1993
35.
1990 Tooheys 1000
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The 1990 Tooheys 1000 was the 31st running of the Bathurst 1000 touring car race. It was held on 30 September 1990 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst, New South Wales, the event was open to cars eligible under CAMS Group 3A regulations, commonly known as Group A Touring Cars, with three engine capacity classes. It was the first Bathurst 1000 victory for the Holden Racing Team, class structure is as follows, Division 1 featured the turbocharged Ford Sierras, Nissan Skylines and Toyota Supras, the V8 Holden Commodores and a BMW 635CSi. Division 2 was composed of BMW M3s, a BMW 323i, Division 3 was composed exclusively of various models of Toyota Corolla. * After being fastest qualifier by almost half a second, during the final qualifying session, Richards reportedly matched Longhursts top speed on Conrod. *1990 was the 5th and last time Allan Grice was the fastest of the Holden Commodore runners in the top 10, previously he had led the Holden charge in 1982,1985,1986 and 1987
36.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
37.
Group A
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Group A was a set of motorsport regulations introduced by FIA covering production-derived vehicles intended for outright competition in Touring car racing and Rallying. In contrast to the short-lived Group B and Group C, the Group A referred to production-derived vehicles limited in terms of power, weight, allowed technology, Group A was aimed at ensuring a large number of privately owned entries in races. Group A was introduced by the FIA in 1982 to replace the outgoing Group 2 as modified touring cars, the FIA continued to promulgate regulations for Group A Touring Cars until at least 1993, and the category survived in domestic championships until 1994. However, Group A is still used as the basis for most rally competitions around the world. To qualify for approval, a minimum of 2500 cars of the model had to be built in one year. Up to 1991, the requirement was a minimum of 5000 cars in one year, without regard to the entire range, rules also required some of the interior panels to be retained, e. g. interior door panels and dashboard. However, not all manufacturers who built 500 such models sold them all, one such example of this was Volvo with the 240 Turbo in 1985. After they had produced 500 such models, Volvo stripped 477 cars of their competition equipment and sold them as standard 240 turbo roadcars. As a result, after FISAs failed attempt at finding an Evolution car in any European countries, nowadays, these cars are treated as any other model in the range. Australian manufacturer Holden also failed to build the required 500 cars for their VN Commodore SS Group A SV in 1991, there were in fact only 302 of the Group A SVs built. These cars competed in standard bodykits, with the production-derived nature required manufactures to release faster vehicles for the roads in order to be competitive on the track, tyre width was dependent on the cars engine size. The FIA continued to promulgate regulations for Group A Touring Cars until at least 1993, Group A survived in touring car racing in domestic championships until 1994, when the German Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft switched to a 2. From 1993, CAMS replaced Group A with a new formula for Australian Touring Car racing and this was initially open to five litre V8 powered cars and two litre cars. Hillclimb races still use Group A as a Touring Car class across Europe, while in Australia Group A is now a historic class, though only actual cars raced from 1985-1993 are allowed to compete. In order to be homologated, manufacturers were required to produce 5,000 units worldwide, by 1990, Group A cars exceeded the performance of the Group B cars on many events, because although they had far less power they had better handling and traction. The last WRC car to use the old Group A homologation requirement was the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI
Jim Richards
Mark Skaife
George Fury
Masahiro Hasemi
Anders Olofsson
Jim Richards
John Cleland
