1960's era racing v8's

Racing history organised by manufacturer
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GRUNTY
Posts: 103
Joined: Thu 27 Dec 2007, 10:22
Location: Pietermaritzburg

1960's era racing v8's

Post by GRUNTY » Wed 15 Jun 2011, 00:59

Hey 993 Kadett,your articles are amazing,keep them coming.Would you have a recollection of the Ford/Lincoln Mercury Comets built for the East African Safari in the early 1960's.The one in Pietermaritzburg was a Holman/Moody and Bill Stroppe car,2 door,289ci screamer that was painted in stars and stripes with the rear seat being replaced with a huge fuel tank due to the wicked fuel consumption of the V8.
The owner took me around the block and in those years to hear that small V8 revving at around 7,500 rpm was something!
The story goes that the competitions dept. canned racing them because they could not carry sufficient fuel to complete the stages, so they were left in a warehouse at the harbour to rot and although rumour has it that about 4 cars were rescued from being dumped in the ocean,due to huge costs to return them to USA. I seem to remember a couple being raced on tar circuits in Kenya and Rhodesia.The remainder,30 or 40, were dumped at sea!
Have you any knowledge or recollection of these amazing vehicles and perhaps even a pic or 2.Yours in sport,Grunty.

993 Kadett
Posts: 64
Joined: Sun 16 Dec 2007, 13:33

Re: 1960's era racing v8's

Post by 993 Kadett » Fri 17 Jun 2011, 14:22

Hi Grunty glad you enjoy but no info on the cars in question. Do know of the hot Mercurys of that era but what a waste to chuck them all away. You right of course too on the sound of a good 289, hate to tell you this but the best sounding car on the GT playstation is the 289 Shelby GT350 Mustang. Having driven many hard real miles in a Camaro 302 Z28, which also has that beautiful intake scream, cant understand why the playstation version sounds like a vacuum cleaner :? P

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