The place: the old Castlereagh drag strip in Sydney. On that occasion we discussed his time as a driver for HDT, his role as chief engineer at HRT in the early 90s, and his massively successful Harrop Engineering firm. Symmons, Superbikes, Supercars, Shunts.. and Geese, COMMENT: Forget testing, and get on with it. It was drag racers and NASCAR teams that really exploited the big block Chev and Beechey picked up a lot of tricks from direct contact with US racers and tuners. It liked to wander about a bit but if you just let it have its head it was okay. Thanks for the correction on that, Bob. Motorcycle Insurance, and Why go through the pain and heartache of restoring a classic car when you can buy one as good as Had it not been for the Volkswagen Beetle's popularity, General Motors would never have built the Get your monthly fix of news, reviews and stories on the greatest cars and minds in the automotive world. Wilson Security Sandown 500 | Tickets | EventInfo. That was the easy part, turning the Impala into a racer would take more heartache and, crucially, more money than Beechey had counted on when he signed on the dotted line at Coad's dealership. Bob Jane continued with his hastily arrived Mustang in 1966 and was joined by Pete Geoghegan in the Touring Car ranks. Beechey had the last word in an interview in Sports Car World in 1970. "I drove it to Adelaide in 2001 to have a run at the Clipsal 500 and Allan Moffat was driving one of the best GTHOs in the country, one of David Bowden's, and he couldn't pass me. Racing Geoghegan was always tough but very fair. Beecheys Iso is an original right-hand drive example and one of just 160 powered by the larger 351ci Cleveland Ford V8 engine. But the Impala was the first of the muscle cars." Brad Jones Racing will pay tribute to Supercars Hall of Famer Norm Beechey for the Sandown 500 Retro Round. Live Statistics. At the time it was just what you were doing and it didnt seem that big a deal, Ron says of his time running the Howler. 'Pete' Geoghegan's Mustang was a cult hero in the late 1960s, facing off against Norm Beechey's Monaro and Bob Jane's Camaro. Racing Driver But by the end of that race, the first race for a Mustang anywhere in the world, the laughs had changed to cheers. Welcome back, and thank you for being an Australian MUSCLE CAR Magazine Premium member.Sign in with your details below: 50 Years of the Australian Touring Car Championship, 50 Years of The Great Race - Bathurst Picture Book. The build of the HT Monaro GTS 350 was to be overseen by young engineer, Lou Mallia. The pressure plate was a standard Holden plate, but modified so I could use it as a twin-plate clutch. This car - officially the EH 225 M-S.4 - had a pushrod 179 cubic-inch (2.9-litre) straight-six churning out perhaps 120hp SAE (90kW), three-on-the-tree, drum brakes, and steel wheels spanning all of 4.5-inches. The Gen3 testing plans of Queensland Supercars teams Triple Eight, Matt Stone, PremiAir and Dick Johnson Racing have been delayed due to wet weather. At the end we had 343hp at 7800rpm. Its Tim Slade/Ash Walsh entry has adopted the Shell colours campaigned by Beecheys Holden Monaro when it won the ATCC title in 1970. The Galaxie paddock bashing at the 1963 Longford. Norm and his wife Marg were friends of our parents, as were many competitors from the 70s so it makes the tribute a very personal one for us.. He was a very, very clever man. Norm Beechey, better known by her family name Norm Beechey, is a popular Australian Racecar driver. Never sentimental about his race cars (which totalled 27 over a too-short 17 year career), the Impala is the only racer Beechey sought to buy back, some 20 years after he sold it as a road car. Interestingly, Gurney would not race his Impala again, due to bureaucratic problems, and the car was reportedly sold to Laurie O'Neil in Australia. Because the R5 racing Dunlops of the day were only narrow, you couldn't turn the steering wheel when the car was stationary but once you got it rolling it was okay. N. Beechey / B. Jane Holden FX - Calder 1962 - Printed with a black border and a caption describing the photo. Its a 100% racing car and we have achieved it all here in Australia in one season, with a budget only a fraction the size the Yanks had to play with. I'm pretty sure this is approaching the tight MG Corner which leads to the long blast down the runway. Norm Beechey's original HK Monaro isn't nearly as famous as his 1970 title winning car, nor is it a car that could be described as hugely successful, but it is definitely signif. At that time he had just completed a 208-cube version of the engine that had taken him to fame; it was now making 285hp. It was Beechey's first of two Australian Touring Car Championship wins. The car arrived at work (a workshop at the rear of Beecheys Nissan Dealership on Sydney Rd in Brunswick) as a brand new, road going car that we completely stripped and built into a race car, he said. I watched Norm race from his six cylinder Holden days through the Mustang and then the Nova. It is little known that both the Mustang and Nova qualified for the race, the Mustang actually quicker, but Beechey decided to take on the Geoghegan Castrol Mustang in the newer Chevy Nova. So the evolution of the Howler began. Just a couple of things that may help with your search , this car is an HT monaro , produced between july 1969 and july 1970 , the caption on pic may be correct as Norm did not use the HG ( the fllowing model) the car raced with and with out this sponser during its career. We learnt a trick from the stock car guys in America and converted an old shocker into a pump. Thanks pete53 . Quite the same Wikipedia. It wasnt that trick; it was just: thrash it to death.. The Camaro was a very short-lived affair and just a few months later prior to the end of 1968, Norm would debut a new HK Holden Monaro. 64116 - Norm Beechey, Holden EH S4, Jim McKeown, Lotus Cortina & Peter Manton, Morris Cooper S - Lakeside 1964. sku: 62002-1. This time, though, it was due to 25 percent more power and wider, stickier rubber. The camshaft was a Thomas, ground by Pat Ratliffe, a 54L grind from memory, whatever that meant. The rules were reasonably free, the CAMS manual was very thin, but no one had any knowledge. "I've been up against GTHOs on Dutton rallies and this car just chewed them up and spat them out; they weren't even in the contest and didn't that break a few hearts. Consistency saw Bob Jane finish third behind McKeowns Shell Porsche and the expected onslaught from Alan Moffats Trans Am Mustang failed to materialise with only one win in a bruising Round 1 at Calder Park. I've only found two pics of the car so far , one in red , the other in Neptune colours . But not too many want to ring up and find out the facts. Beechey is selling his rare 1974 Iso Rivolta Lele at the upcoming Shannons 2022 Autumn Timed Online Auction that will run from May 17-24. John, Lex should have learnt from his 1963 Sandown accident that fixing Galaxie's add somewhat to his racing expenses. "I've spoken to my wife and we'll do the interview. We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous Racecar driver. Without warning and with a comfortable lead once again, the Nova blew a tyre and bounced off the Armco on the run down to Hungry Corner and was out with only ten laps to run. We only ever raced it with Chev conrods - it's got Carillos in it now - but we never had conrod problems, only bearing trouble." Post 870, but all are worth another look. Even in 62-68 they had numerous versions of the FEs. The HT Holden Monaro was unlike any other Touring Car built in Australia: Innovative and borrowing much from the factory built Trans Am cars, the Beechey Monaro would be the first locally produced car to ever win the ATCC. The Monaro took its first ATCC win at Round 2 at Bathurst and then went on to win in front of huge crowd at Melbournes Sandown Park Raceway. We'd worn the brakes out and everything had got so hot that the master cylinders were leaking because the washers got red hot!". Must be 4 doors? Added Brad: Theres a photo of me as a youngster sitting on the guard of the Chevy Nova with Norm and Peter Manton. TRT: The stories behind the sport. He raced a new Ford Customline that won the main Touring Car Race, beating Len Lukey in the procerss. Please see Wikipedia's template documentation for further citation fields that may be required. GRAHAM RITTER.1970 SANDOWN ATCC $ 495.00 On Sale. I note that pretty well everyone does that today. Despite the Impala's imposing size, brawny Beechey says it wasn't physically hard to drive, (even though he didn't use the road car's power steering) due to skinny, hard tyres and short races. Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by DDDenny, Sep 22, 2020. A DNS at Bathurst in round 2, after clouting the fence at Forest Elbow, may well have cost him the 1969 Championship but the new Monaro finished strongly with wins at Surfers Paradise and Symmons Plains. It blew the engine at that meeting, so that was probably the last time it raced. 1969 Australian magazine ad for Norm Beechey Speed Shop. It is a 1963 Ford. We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous Racecar driver The biggest headache was caused by the main reason Beechey bought the Chev; it's mighty donk. Beechey, Norm. A rare car today, the Lele has the added attraction of having an interesting Australian provenance and is expected to sell in the $90,000-$110,000 range. Hear, hear Norm. That helped to launch the car because it had fairly large Goodyear slicks in the end without a lot of power. The event: the Australian National Drag Racing Championships. $ 1000000 The achievement saw Beechey become the first driver to win the title in a Holden, adding to his 1965 triumph aboard a Ford Mustang. . he has decided to rationalise his car collection.. GREAT DAYS is a line Norm Beechey often adds to his signature when asked to sign various pictures and books from his racing career. Not only was the character himself one of the most popular drivers of the era, he went further by putting cars on the grid between 1965 and 1970 that were unique and won him even more fans. Quite the same Wikipedia. NORM BEECHEY , EH HOLDEN S4, RACING, aussie muscle car"aussie muscle cars" DRAGONSLiVEDin AUSTRALIA It was Holdens first ATCC, setting the stage for the Lions domination from 1974-2017. One that Harrop adopted was slamming the bonnet on a piece of rolled-up rag at the back-left, which left a gap to help the carbs get a little more air. Clinic Appointments - Appointments are based on clinical priority. And those cars are light at around 1700 kilos,, my 71 400 C6 a/c car is 1.990 tonnes. We didnt know those things in those days. The next HT Monaro, had real success in comparison,. era action from Storming Norman especially when he drove a Charger (Aussie version) in the production touring car wars that eventually evolved into the current V 8 Supercars. Wasnt a shiny red but it did have 406 in chrome on either front mudguard. It didnt take very long because the HK 327 was phased out at the end of 1969 and we started the 70 season with the new car, so we built it over the Christmas New Year period.. But it wasnt. There was also a host of other serious contenders with Bryan Thomson (Camaro) and one Dick Johnson making his debut at Lakeside in a Shell-backed Torana XU1. As soon as you got it slowed to a reasonable speed you would throw it sideways to wash off more speed then stand on the throttle as soon as she got lined up. However, the numbers vary depending on the source. Norm had retired the Impala and Lukey offered his car. 4 seconds ago viscount freddie soames wright brothers names. his net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. It was based on a Chev Duntov grind that had a bit ground off the nose. Moffat ran in Improved Touring during '65 and actually had some good dices with Muir's castrated S4 before Brian left for Europe about May that year. Frankly, it was a humble beginning. There is no mention of the Chev's kerb weight in Beechey's catalogue and why should there be? Copyright 2023 Wheels Media, a division of Are Media Pty Limited. The rivalry with Pete Geoghegan was one of the greatest in Touring Car History in Australia and Beechey still speaks fondly of it. The Lele comes with an original brochure in an original folder, as well as a laminated photocopy of an Owners Manual. Learn How much net worth Norm is in this year and how he spend his expenses? Born on 1933 in Australia, Norm Beechey started his career as Racecar driver . Facebook @autoactionmagTwitter @Auto_ActionInstagram @autoactionmagOnline Shop, Bruce Williams[emailprotected] Half a century ago last Sunday (November 15), Beechey was officially crowned Australian touring car champion following the final round of the 70 series at Symmons Plains, outside Launceston in Tasmania. I was going to do the model in Neptune colours , but , the red looks good too . Darryl Hinton My new for 71 Galaxie LTD in the US had 2 and 4bbl versions of that engine along with numerous others from 240 6 through to 429 Cobrajet. 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