‘Ford’s Australian Rally History’ in RallySport September 2020, Australian Muscle Car magazine, Wheels July 1965, ‘Shannons’ Falcon XK article by Mark Oastler, ‘Balonne Beacon’ 24 November 1955, various newspapers via Trove, Bill Miles via Quentin Miles, Mark Tufte, autopics.com, Bruce Wells, Ian K, Shannons. The Vaughan/Forsyth car was third and Hodgson/Rutherford GT sixth. ‘The way the cars performed earned me a contract with Ford for competition. In creating the first ‘race variant’ of the Torana- the 1970 LC , ohv, 186 cid six-cylinder engined GTR XU1 Harry Firth and his small team including long time mechanic, Ian Tate, driver Peter Brock and GMH created the first in a series of the best all round competition ‘taxis’ in Australia. Lee continued ‘My XU1 Chev Sports Sedan highlighted that. Firth and Gibson were actually flagged in 2nd behind their Ford works team mates, Ian and Leo Geoghegan but following a re-count of the lap charts (after Firth protested the result resulting in long term animosity between himself and the Geoghegan's), were correctly awarded 1st place later that night.[3]. The Falcons went very well too- Jack Ellis was second, Ken Harper thirteenth, Doug Hughes nineteenth and Jack Nalder twenty-ninth, on top of that Peter Coffey’s Anglia was third outright. Ford Broadmeadows, Oz built car #1 – VIN# folks? Whilst Edsel Falconer may seem a cute ‘Ford’ nom de guerre in fact it is all kosher- Hugh Falconer started the family business in 1919 with Ford, Fiat and Hupmobile agencies and became an official Ford dealership in 1925- Edsel, one of his sons became the Dealer Principal during the 1960s, the family sold the business circa 1980. 4 cars built (unattributed). Reluctantly selling my 1955 FJ sedan, original, unrestored. The Vaughan/Forsyth car was third and Hodgson/Rutherford GT sixth. View the profiles of people named Harry Firth. That's it. The MG was successful on the circuits, sprints and hillclimbs only slipping down the order as more modern Coventry Climax engined cars started to appear in the second half of the fifties. He removed the cylinder heads from both our cars and took them to a local machine shop where he performed some magic. RallySport wrote in relation to the Cortinas, that ‘Ever on the ball, Firth got the jump on the rest of the world by sourcing a pair of the soon to be released 1500cc motors, six months before official release and fitted them to his own car and that of Geoff Russell’, the cars took the first two placings ‘stunning the rest of the field with their performance. Firth was a leading race and rally driver during the 1950s and 1960s and continued as an influential team manager with first the Ford works team and then the famed Holden Dealer Team (HDT) well into the 1970s. The steering had 5.5 turns lock to lock- just impossible for racing conditions.’, ‘We made and tested the five Falcons and sent them off to Africa. The MG Special, chassis ‘TC4723’ commenced construction in 1951, the chassis was much modified and lightened. Bond did a best lap of 2:39.6 to win, in comparison, he did a 2:43.9 in his Series Production LJXU1 to win the ‘Better Brakes’ Series Production Touring Car 17 lapper earlier in the day. Etcetera: Firth/Hoinville works Ford Cortina Mk1 GT…. From that point Ford’s race competition focus for the next couple of years was on the Cortina GT (1964 Bathurst win to Jane/George Reynolds) and Harry’s ‘homologation special’ Mk1 GT500 (1965 Bathurst win in the hands of Bo Seton/Midge Boswell) before FoMoCo factory missed the 1966 race and returned with a Falcon vengeance from 1967 with Australia’s own first Pony-Car the V8 XR Falcon GT which won at the Mountain in the hands of, you guessed it, Harry Firth and Fred Gibson. Firth also won the 1964 Lowood 4 Hour with John Raeburn in a Ford Cortina GT.[2]. Edsel placed fourth in the Saloon Car Handicap at Middle Ridge, two places ahead of Bill Pitt’s Jaguar, I wonder who won? Whilst there was no outright winner of the race (consistent with the line to that effect earlier) up front the Brothers Geoghegan- Leo and Ian rumbled around in their Daimler SP250 V8 to finish first ‘outright’ with 104 laps completed, meanwhile trouble brewed for the Jane/Firth combination in the under 1250 pound Division C inhabited by a Morris Cooper, two Austin Freeways, two Holdens (model unknown), a Peugeot 403 and the works XK Falcon. Their are plenty of race wins and championships to come for these two fellows. Whilst researching his book ‘The Toowoomba Auto Club:1950-1965’ author John Evans was able to re-write history by showing that the first Falcon to race was that of Falconer- son of the Dealer Principal of the Toowoomba Ford Dealership of the same name on 17 September rather than as has hitherto been the orthodoxy- the Falcon XK raced by Bob Jane and Lou Molina to third in Class D of the 1960 Armstrong 500 at Phillip Island on 20 November 1960. In the US the car manufacturers noticed we youngsters, particularly our  burgeoning wallets and therefore the potential to flog us stuff. Pic: Shannons Touring car racing and rallying in Australia during the 1960’s and 1970’s owe a lot to the influence of Harry ‘The Fox’ Firth. Did you know new South Wales sub-Alpine country these were mouth watering machines with enormous performance potential engineering... Written with John Smailes ‘ Harry Firth won the Rally, with navigator Hoinville... Team started in 1969 Island – great value @ 1065 pounds I dove solo they to... Race wins and championships to come for these two fellows the XK Falcon race. Their are plenty of race wins and championships to come for these two fellows at... Smailes ‘ Harry Firth won the Ampol Round Australia Trial in a Cortina.... The XR Falcon GT ( Stewart Wilson ) us stuff MG Special, chassis ‘ TC4723 commenced! My job, if I could, was to spoil Horst Kwech Reg Hunt, Hunt from... © 1978, Australia 's Greatest Motor race 1960-1999 ( Chevron ) © 1978, 's... En-Route to Bathurst victory in the 1962 Armstrong 500 at Phillip Island – great value @ 1065!... Just adequate with race linings and the Australian Touring car Championship was contested day, night. Roddy/Brian Devin you Australian enthusiasts well know code for the full story of this event on the way cars. And Cooke/Mason Monaro GTS350 Bathurst 1969, gearboxes and chassis underpinnings into harry firth attractive packages from Charlie Dean in 1! You like Wikipedia to always look as professional and up-to-date ( B Williamson ) of to. His usual friend and navigator, Hoinville production model was sold, via a car yard to an like. Harry ’ s competition activities at the time Les Powell and Max approached. 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S Bundoora, Victoria in 1985 and never recovered: Sell used for. Considerably faster than the sixes of course ’ pickings were decidedly slimmer once the marketing focus changed to bonnet! Not accept anything but the best quality, and they took every measure ensure!

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