I’ve always enjoyed watching my Grand Tourer DVD’s over the years, great to see Neil’s legacy of meticulous originality and attention to detail well and truly alive!!
Absolutely stunning attention to detail through Grand Tourer, no one gets things this right in the Holden scene. Im predominately a GM guy, but love anything Aussie and US muscle, id love to take a tour of this shop.
Can you PLEASE do more videos of Grand tourer Workshop on Builds and what's happening there please as im a mad Ford Fan and love watching you in this elite workshop please. Not enough videos you are doing for the almighty Classic Aussie Muscle Car Icons.
@@davesclassicgaragetours 3 hours Drive for worthy great amazing footage of an amazing Team that conduct themselves through Genuine restorations and Replicas is justifiable mate. Make it happen Legend. Keep up the great footage of the Aussie Muscle Car industry please. Great work you do.
Nice to hear a bit of truth about the 3 red cars for a change...''...Came off the Line as STANDARD GT's...''.rather than more toss being created about them...Proyotypes....and special welding on the assembly line. Its an act of GOD, how a car has turned into a full factory racer, when even the bloke that built it, and its first owner even say that it wasnt.
Special welding is just a couple of extra spot welds, nothing really special, and maybe wasn't done for the HOs, or not talked about, maybe the extra bits were supposed to get welding in as part of the race car builds, don't forget they also had 'Bathurst Specials', more so in the later days, but there would be nothing stopping things being sneakily added during those builds. There is plenty of stories of Firth fighting to get things built but not being able to. Block strength was one in the webs for the mains, and building a diff for the A9X that had a 1 Tonner centre with Torana axle tubes with the disk brakes, but to make it all fit together, all Holden had to do was cut an inch or whatever off the Tonner axles and respline them to fit back into the 1 Tonner centre. Brock almost had a special division at Holden just for him - yeah, ok that is an exaggeration. Moffatt couldn't even get spark plugs out of Ford in the late 70s that's how much Evan Green had knifed Ford, they were too scared to invest any money into motor racing to the point they were going to stop production of the V8. Johnson definitely walked the shells down the production line getting extra strength in the base shell, mostly through extra spot welds, possibly doubling up of strengthening plates. Perkins had a couple of his race mechanics sitting in the engine casting room scraping sand off the castings to get extra strength in the engine blocks, something Firth was fighting for them to do with the L34 and A9X engines 20 years earlier.
@@stevegraham3817 In regards to the Phase fours. There was never any mention of '.special welding on the assembly line', that has only recently been put forward by the guy in Sydney, who started coming out with all sorts of claims to do with his car; the one that was delivered to McLeod Ford.. The extra welding done to those 3 cars was done at LOT 6. Which is why I posted the original comment *Nice to hear a bit of truth about the 3 red cars for a change...''...Came off the Line as STANDARD GT's...''.* I knew James Brock very well, and was told the history of his father and HDT. Even Green wasnt the reason for Fords withdraw from motor sport in 73. and as for Johnson walking shells down the line, i find that hard to believe.
@@daniellebcooper7160 And I did say maybe it wasn't done for the GTs and HOs, and every other manufacturer had extra things done for Bathurst Specials, and thats not to say that special things weren't done in the factory before it went to Road and Track for the race Prep. 3 very different areas before a car went to the track. And as I agreed, they may not have have had anything done on the GT production line. Cool that you knew James Brock, nice bloke and I'm sure you learnt more from him than I ever watched or read in the 'official biographies along the way. Dick Johnson mentioned, either in an article or some sort of documentary or biography, that the only support he got from the factory was a couple of body shells, and he said he walked it down the line and got extra spot welding done in some critical areas to strengthen the shell. Ford America never liked being associated with motor racing and never had any official program, so a lot of motor racing by Ford Oz was mostly done on the quiet. Evan Green may not have made Ford withdraw from motor racing, but he certainly destroyed a massive chunk of the Oz factory muscle car industry.
@@stevegraham3817 Steve, I dont know where you get your information from, but please research a bit more. Out of all the car manufactures in America, the FORD motor company had a 'ALL or Nothing' approach to motor sport, especially back in the 60's.. Whether it be circuit racing, Drags, or Nascar. They built purpose factory specials with a 'Win at ANY COST' approach to motor sport...money was NO object. As for Peter Brock, regardless of what anyone says, he (and Bev) genuinely cared for other people. Also, when he was OUT of a car, he could best be described as another 'Frank Spencer' !!!.
@@daniellebcooper7160 Yes back in the 60s, especially in America, but Ford America did not support Ford racing in Oz in the mid 70s or 80s. I have a large collection Documentary DVDs of most of the Teams and Drivers, Harry Firth, Brock, Johnson, Perkins and Skaife. Commodore, GTHO, and HDT, plus a heap on Bathurst. Yes I am using what they say as half of my knowledge, plus a few official and unofficial biographies that I have read. Not to mention all the magazines from the first Street Machine until todays, all of fast fours and rotaries, Unique cars, Survivor cars, among many others, yes in the thousands. Maybe you need to do some more research as well. Yeah, I love Peter Brock even though I was a Ford and Datsun/Nissan fan, especially because of his philanthropical beliefs and actions. I was at Lakeside the day Johnson won his first championship. I saw Brock walking through the pits before the race and he said 'how are you going mate, I hope you are enjoying the racing' and I thought, wow, one of the best drivers said hello and cared about whether I was having fun or not. Even though I was happy a QLDer and Ford won. Brock had plenty of chances to run Johnson wide but he didn't. I felt for Brock that day. I was 11 and there by myself and he was the only person who spoke to me all day out of the thousands who were there. I had full respect for him from that day on. I really felt for Brock when he released the Director, if only he had showcased it as his concept car instead of saying it was being released, the public pressure would have made Holden go with it. That was my second saddest day in Oz motor racing history.
yeah people like him are why that industry needs to go the way of the dodo, as they ruin lives and spread lies for headlines and money, like their is truly nothing worse than a newsreporter as you lie, cheat and manipulate people just to get attention and reaction, and theirs nothing worse than a fu'c'kwitt gossip column c'u'nt like that who ruins peoples days for fun like that .
Great to see. Such great skills. Here. These Australia workshops are amazing 😉
Yes they are! Spread the word of you don’t mind 👍
these amazing australian muscle cars deserve to live on FOREVER.I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THEM.
Absolutely.
I’ve always enjoyed watching my Grand Tourer DVD’s over the years, great to see Neil’s legacy of meticulous originality and attention to detail well and truly alive!!
I shudder to think how much a full resto on one of those cars would cost at Grand Tourer.
That XB Coupe and XA would look amazing in my man shed !!
Imagine if FOOSE design done a resto on one, it wouldn't be like these guys do and cost I'd hate to imagine.
We are privileged that 1 fully road registered Calypso Green XA GTHO Phase 4 escaped in time.
Absolutely stunning attention to detail through Grand Tourer, no one gets things this right in the Holden scene. Im predominately a GM guy, but love anything Aussie and US muscle, id love to take a tour of this shop.
Great bunch of lads as well.
It was an awesome show loved every minute.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. Make sure you watch the rest of the videos from Grand Tourer
This is a great series,thanks.
Glad you enjoy it!
Can you PLEASE do more videos of Grand tourer Workshop on Builds and what's happening there please as im a mad Ford Fan and love watching you in this elite workshop please.
Not enough videos you are doing for the almighty Classic Aussie Muscle Car Icons.
There are plans afoot. It’s just that it a three hour drive from me nowadays
@@davesclassicgaragetours 3 hours Drive for worthy great amazing footage of an amazing Team that conduct themselves through Genuine restorations and Replicas is justifiable mate. Make it happen Legend. Keep up the great footage of the Aussie Muscle Car industry please. Great work you do.
Obviously the Ford Falcon is the best Australian vehicle ever made
Well, I couldn’t possibly say.
Nice to hear a bit of truth about the 3 red cars for a change...''...Came off the Line as STANDARD GT's...''.rather than more toss being created about them...Proyotypes....and special welding on the assembly line.
Its an act of GOD, how a car has turned into a full factory racer, when even the bloke that built it, and its first owner even say that it wasnt.
Special welding is just a couple of extra spot welds, nothing really special, and maybe wasn't done for the HOs, or not talked about, maybe the extra bits were supposed to get welding in as part of the race car builds, don't forget they also had 'Bathurst Specials', more so in the later days, but there would be nothing stopping things being sneakily added during those builds.
There is plenty of stories of Firth fighting to get things built but not being able to. Block strength was one in the webs for the mains, and building a diff for the A9X that had a 1 Tonner centre with Torana axle tubes with the disk brakes, but to make it all fit together, all Holden had to do was cut an inch or whatever off the Tonner axles and respline them to fit back into the 1 Tonner centre.
Brock almost had a special division at Holden just for him - yeah, ok that is an exaggeration.
Moffatt couldn't even get spark plugs out of Ford in the late 70s that's how much Evan Green had knifed Ford, they were too scared to invest any money into motor racing to the point they were going to stop production of the V8.
Johnson definitely walked the shells down the production line getting extra strength in the base shell, mostly through extra spot welds, possibly doubling up of strengthening plates.
Perkins had a couple of his race mechanics sitting in the engine casting room scraping sand off the castings to get extra strength in the engine blocks, something Firth was fighting for them to do with the L34 and A9X engines 20 years earlier.
@@stevegraham3817 In regards to the Phase fours. There was never any mention of '.special welding on the assembly line', that has only recently been put forward by the guy in Sydney, who started coming out with all sorts of claims to do with his car; the one that was delivered to McLeod Ford.. The extra welding done to those 3 cars was done at LOT 6.
Which is why I posted the original comment *Nice to hear a bit of truth about the 3 red cars for a change...''...Came off the Line as STANDARD GT's...''.*
I knew James Brock very well, and was told the history of his father and HDT.
Even Green wasnt the reason for Fords withdraw from motor sport in 73.
and as for Johnson walking shells down the line, i find that hard to believe.
@@daniellebcooper7160 And I did say maybe it wasn't done for the GTs and HOs, and every other manufacturer had extra things done for Bathurst Specials, and thats not to say that special things weren't done in the factory before it went to Road and Track for the race Prep. 3 very different areas before a car went to the track. And as I agreed, they may not have have had anything done on the GT production line.
Cool that you knew James Brock, nice bloke and I'm sure you learnt more from him than I ever watched or read in the 'official biographies along the way.
Dick Johnson mentioned, either in an article or some sort of documentary or biography, that the only support he got from the factory was a couple of body shells, and he said he walked it down the line and got extra spot welding done in some critical areas to strengthen the shell.
Ford America never liked being associated with motor racing and never had any official program, so a lot of motor racing by Ford Oz was mostly done on the quiet.
Evan Green may not have made Ford withdraw from motor racing, but he certainly destroyed a massive chunk of the Oz factory muscle car industry.
@@stevegraham3817 Steve, I dont know where you get your information from, but please research a bit more. Out of all the car manufactures in America, the FORD motor company had a 'ALL or Nothing' approach to motor sport, especially back in the 60's.. Whether it be circuit racing, Drags, or Nascar. They built purpose factory specials with a 'Win at ANY COST' approach to motor sport...money was NO object.
As for Peter Brock, regardless of what anyone says, he (and Bev) genuinely cared for other people. Also, when he was OUT of a car, he could best be described as another 'Frank Spencer' !!!.
@@daniellebcooper7160 Yes back in the 60s, especially in America, but Ford America did not support Ford racing in Oz in the mid 70s or 80s.
I have a large collection Documentary DVDs of most of the Teams and Drivers, Harry Firth, Brock, Johnson, Perkins and Skaife. Commodore, GTHO, and HDT, plus a heap on Bathurst. Yes I am using what they say as half of my knowledge, plus a few official and unofficial biographies that I have read. Not to mention all the magazines from the first Street Machine until todays, all of fast fours and rotaries, Unique cars, Survivor cars, among many others, yes in the thousands. Maybe you need to do some more research as well.
Yeah, I love Peter Brock even though I was a Ford and Datsun/Nissan fan, especially because of his philanthropical beliefs and actions. I was at Lakeside the day Johnson won his first championship. I saw Brock walking through the pits before the race and he said 'how are you going mate, I hope you are enjoying the racing' and I thought, wow, one of the best drivers said hello and cared about whether I was having fun or not. Even though I was happy a QLDer and Ford won. Brock had plenty of chances to run Johnson wide but he didn't.
I felt for Brock that day. I was 11 and there by myself and he was the only person who spoke to me all day out of the thousands who were there. I had full respect for him from that day on.
I really felt for Brock when he released the Director, if only he had showcased it as his concept car instead of saying it was being released, the public pressure would have made Holden go with it. That was my second saddest day in Oz motor racing history.
There's another one at Finch restorations and they will fuck it!!
I still rate Evan Green as the worst motoring journalist ever.. completely destroyed an industry for the sake of a head line.
yeah people like him are why that industry needs to go the way of the dodo, as they ruin lives and spread lies for headlines and money, like their is truly nothing worse than a newsreporter
as you lie, cheat and manipulate people just to get attention and reaction, and theirs nothing worse than a fu'c'kwitt gossip column c'u'nt like that who ruins peoples days for fun like that
.