I was at Sandown on the dull, wet, cold Sandown July 6, 1975 weekend that Jim Richards debuted his Ford Mustang Boss 351, he won twice in front of local hot-shots, including Allan Moffat’s Ford Capri RS3100, John McCormack’s Chrysler Charger Repco-Holden V8 and others.
Jim had special dispensation to run his Kiwi wheel-tyro combo, which was more generous than the ten-inch-wide rule here. The experts thought that would bring him back to the field…it didn’t! He took 13 wins from 30 starts that year, 27 of them podiums.
The amazing thing about that Murray Bunn-built car, long-term friend and JR collaborator, is that it wasn’t nearly as exotic as most of the Australian front-runners of the day: John McCormack’s Chrysler Charger Repco-Holden, the Bob Jane Racing Monaro and Torana Chev raced by Bob and John Harvey, Bryan Thomson’s VW Chev V8, Allan Moffat’s Ford Capri RS3100 and Pete Geoghgan’s Holden Monaro GTS 350.
It was lightened a bit, but the suspension front and rear wasn’t wild, it had a Ford nine-inch rear and Borg Warner ‘box, nothing special so far. The Gurney-Eagle aluminium-headed, Lucas-injected Cleveland 351 V8 was Murray’s too, now that was really trick! And mounted well back in the chassis, as you can see from these shots.
When it became time to build the Mustang’s successor, Jim Richards again turned to Murray Bunn to build the replacement Ford Falcon GT351 Hardtop sports sedan, with the only major carry-over item the raucous, roaring Cleveland Gurney-Eagle injected 351.
The shot above shows Murray Bunn and his apprentice, Murray Smith, setting up one of the two Hewland transaxle casings within the Hardtop’s multi-tubular spaceframe chassis in Bunn and Cumming’s Takanini premises just southwest of Auckland during 1977.
I was rummaging through Auto Action’s JR photo files and found an untouched envelope of 12 under-the-skin photographs that have never been published until now. So, if you are a Ford or Jim Richards fan, grab a copy of Auto Action Premium issue #1908, which is still for sale in Australia for another fortnight.
The car was fast right outta the wrapper, the only thing between Jim and the 1978 Australian Sports Sedan Championship won by Allan Grice’s superb, but category-rooting Chev Corvair V8 was the lack of a spare engine.
Despite that, his new, unsorted car bagged more points than Gricey, but the rules then had that ‘drop your worst result bullshit’. Anyway, have a read of the 4,000-word, eight-page and 25-photograph piece.
Jim was superb to work with, so too was the Beast’s restorer, Graham Booth; the car’s historic demonstration re-debut isn’t too far away!
Credits…
Chequered Flag, Terry Johnson, Ian Smith, Steve Elliott, Peter Husband, Competition Communicator Stephen Dalton Collection, Bob Williamson Collection
Tailpiece…
Finito…
primotipo... 