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Group N Australia cars rebirth.


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#1 Lee Nicolle

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Posted 14 August 2024 - 03:39

Looking at You Tube and there is a clip on what was?? the Bob Jane 67 Mustang 390. From callanrs2000.

From my memory the car was totalled by Chris Bauer a couple of years after its debut.

Now it has turned up at PI this year 'restored'

It was used on speedway for several years up to 76 by Dale Button from Mt Gambier where like most it was bashed to death. I remember the car racing.

I researched 'Bob Jane 67 Mustang' on google and there is web page about it and the pics of how it was found after sitting in a paddock for a couple of decades. Beat to death and rusted to death. This would not be the only speedway sedan built from a wrecked road race car.

In the 70s most were built from wrecks. I crewed on a EH, then a HD and eventually a HQ Monaro 4 dr. The EH was bought as an existing car. The l/r chassis rail was replaced with 2" square tube and the boot floor was the remants of a Prince Skyline door. When we updated to a HD so as to run twin carbs with the then visually standard rules on engines. The shell had had a very hard hit in the front and was in a creek at a hills motor wreckers. A pair of Y frames were obtained. Pick up points beaten back in shape and then we used the EH rollcage [the floors are entirely different and the EH front suspension etc. Steering box was FE which bolted in to both of those models. So lik most speedway cars was built from wrecking yards.

A few were diffeent. The Skyline was built from a tatty road car. When the rules extended to V8s which had been banned hee in SA one bloke bought a brand new povery LH Torana and built and SLR5000. The mechanicals ofcourse were bought where ever. Late 70 early 80s a main road wrecker had about 10 brand new 'body in white' HQ Coupe shells which ended up on speedway.

The 4 door Monaro we built started life as a HQ taxi which in 75 already had a rusty floor. And had been hit in the front. That was a half decent shell, a write off but the shell was straight and that is all we got, a shell with a front chassis. All the front stuff was scrounged, all lightly damaged. Ended up using brand new GMH door skins. 

I guess my question is WHAT was left to build this car from? The shell was stuffed, the 67 mechanicals long gone as were the wheels etc.

This is way different to the Bob Jane Camaro which was rebuilt from what it became as a drag car. But the original cage and shell were still there and rebuilt by Miles Johnson [Thunder 427] Or the Jane HQ couple rebuilt from a Sports Sedan back to a touring car or when it even comes out the Beechey Mustang also being saved from a drag career. All 3 of those cars while much modified were identifiable and the basic car rebuilt.

This 67 must have been rebuilt around a couple of bolts.

Does anyone else know anything about this car 54 years after it was written off.

If they save this the HDT Beast should be able to be recreated after several years in speedway with Chris Taylor from Geelong



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#2 cooper997

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Posted 14 August 2024 - 04:27

That 'Bob Jane' Mustang was shown at the final Motorclassica in Melbourne, back in 2022..

 

If memory serves it was restored by Gavin King, mainly known for Jaguar restorations.

 

 

Stephen



#3 Ray Bell

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Posted 14 August 2024 - 04:39

The Mustang was crashed by Chris Brauer in July,1970, the same meeting as Glyn Scott was killed in the same spot.

 

Calder on March 19, 1967 was the debut date of the car and it had a 289 engine throughout that period. This was Jane's second Mustang, painted in red with a yellow stripe, and it replaced the one crashed at Catalina Park in late 1965.



#4 Lee Nicolle

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Posted 20 August 2024 - 04:28

The Mustang was crashed by Chris Brauer in July,1970, the same meeting as Glyn Scott was killed in the same spot.

 

Calder on March 19, 1967 was the debut date of the car and it had a 289 engine throughout that period. This was Jane's second Mustang, painted in red with a yellow stripe, and it replaced the one crashed at Catalina Park in late 1965.

The research states it was a 390GT. Later down sized to a 289 as the FE lump would kill the handling.



#5 Porsche718

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Posted 20 August 2024 - 05:42

The research states it was a 390GT. Later down sized to a 289 as the FE lump would kill the handling.

 

Lee,

 

I'm fairly sure it was genuine 390 Shelby. I'll have to dig out my notes again, but initially Jane couldn't run the 390 because the engine hadn't been in use in the US for long enough, so CAMS wouldn't allow it.

 

Privately, the Jane team were developing the engine ready for homologation permission to run it. Which happened in early 1969. It was entered for Easter Bathurst with the 390 in 1969 IIRC, and a Warwick Farm meeting in the same time period, but failed to turn up at either meet with engine failure in testing.

 

The team could not get over top end issues. Breaking valves, valve seats, rockers, spitting pushrods and the like. I think Jane gave up when he was saw the speed the Moffat Trans-Am and later the Beechey Monaro.

 

However, as Stephen rightly suggests, the power gain would have needed to be substantial to make up for upset handling balance. The Moffat experiments with the 351 proved that point!

 

Cheers 

Steve W



#6 Lee Nicolle

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Posted 21 August 2024 - 12:23

Lee,

 

I'm fairly sure it was genuine 390 Shelby. I'll have to dig out my notes again, but initially Jane couldn't run the 390 because the engine hadn't been in use in the US for long enough, so CAMS wouldn't allow it.

 

Privately, the Jane team were developing the engine ready for homologation permission to run it. Which happened in early 1969. It was entered for Easter Bathurst with the 390 in 1969 IIRC, and a Warwick Farm meeting in the same time period, but failed to turn up at either meet with engine failure in testing.

 

The team could not get over top end issues. Breaking valves, valve seats, rockers, spitting pushrods and the like. I think Jane gave up when he was saw the speed the Moffat Trans-Am and later the Beechey Monaro.

 

However, as Stephen rightly suggests, the power gain would have needed to be substantial to make up for upset handling balance. The Moffat experiments with the 351 proved that point!

 

Cheers 

Steve W

The FE engine was a well proven piece. 390 and 427 are the same engine family. 427 is simply a big bore 390. With slightly better heads

The 390 engine goes back to about 1960 so was a bit old hat



#7 MarkBisset

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Posted 21 August 2024 - 23:31

see here: https://bobjane67mustang.com.au/



#8 ellrosso

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Posted 22 August 2024 - 07:23

Shot of the car at W Farm Feb 1968 with the 289 ci motor. We've got b/w's of the car at Bathurst 1967, Symmons, Hume Weir and at Lakeside in Brauer's ownership too.

TNF8601-F-Jane-68.jpg



#9 Lee Nicolle

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Posted 22 August 2024 - 10:53

End of story the 390 would make more power than the 289, a good deal more. But it would spoil the handling as the FE engine is a big heavy lump whereas the 289 is an anorexic little thing. Though they rev freely. 

Best one I have ever heard was a few years back Fraser Ross at PI sounded like it was turning 9000, I doubt it was but it was screaming. Makes the V8 Stupid cars 302s sound anemic. I dont know who did the engines because turned that hard,, especially with the early 289 5 bolt block they are supposed to use they are quite fragile



#10 Bunkered

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Posted 22 August 2024 - 22:25

Best one I have ever heard was a few years back Fraser Ross at PI sounded like it was turning 9000, I doubt it was but it was screaming. Makes the V8 Stupid cars 302s sound anemic. I dont know who did the engines because turned that hard,, especially with the early 289 5 bolt block they are supposed to use they are quite fragile

They do sound good! I was at an open day at Bowdens nearly a dozen years ago, and they fired up two cars from the collection for the assembled masses; the first one was the ex-Dick Johnson ATCC/Bathurst winning XD Falcon, and then GT40 #1034, which they still had at the time.

 

As good as the 351 in the Falcon sounded, the 289 in the GT40, through the "bundle of snakes" headers was an angry and feisty little beast!

 

And I remember Barry Wraith's Anglia sports sedan from a HIllclimb at Mountainview a loooong time ago as being similarly wild and angry :D


Edited by Bunkered, 22 August 2024 - 22:26.


#11 ellrosso

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Posted 22 August 2024 - 23:34

Few more of the car and a beauty of Chris Brauer at Lakeside before his big crash. Real shame as it ended his racing career - he was a talented driver. I was at the Syms meeting - Pare gave him a good run for his money from memory. Note front spoiler on Jane car.

TNF9668-F-Brauer-70.jpgTNF4588-P-Must-67.jpgTNF4529-P-Bath-67.jpgTNF1342-H-Pare-69.jpg


Edited by ellrosso, 22 August 2024 - 23:36.