Shannons Sports and Muscle Car track report

For the third year running the Shannons Sports and Muscle car spectacular was a great event. Held locally at Qld raceway we thought it would be a good opportunity for us to run a few shakedown tests on some of the cars in the collection.

 

 

The Hamilton 911 Porsche is a personal favourite in the collection of mine, such a stunning car to drive and it’s huge history and originality just makes it something special to get behind the wheel of.  This weekend was particularly special as the Porsche Factory had brought out three very significant cars from the factory, namely an exotic GT-1 super car and the amazing 600BHP 935 that sports the same rear tyres as Dick Johnsons Greens Tuf. I got to follow the 935 for a few laps in the Porsche, took a Lot of work to stay with it, but was just glorious hearing the big turbo wind up as it disappeared down the straights. Cannot imagine how awesome it would have been like to see it come up behind you in a race when driven by Jacki Icyx or Jochen Mass!   

 

Can you believe it has been 32 years since the Colin Bond #2 hardtop last ran on a track? It retired from racing in the end of 1978 and had its running gear exchanged with that of an XD falcon in 1980. For the last two years we have been slowly assembling it back to how it raced and came second in that famous 1977 Bathurst race, it is almost completed now, just some wheels and other things need to be done and then it is finished, ready for the first opportunity we can have Bond once again run it around a track. Our shakedown only lasted a few laps on the Saturday, when the mechanics found some small issues and Chris came back saying it was a little bit underpowered. This is all to be fixed by its next outing at lakeside in a few weeks time.

 

Our third car for the weekend was a car we had never run before, even after over 15 years of ownership.. Our old family friend Tony Longhurst’s last RS500 Sierra. I could not get kicked out of the 911, so Chris took the very serious duties of running this absolute weapon around on the Sunday. 600BHP is a lot to handle, especially with the way it comes in so dramatically when the turbo gets on boost.. Add to that we still had original 20 year old group A slick tyres, plus it being a bit wet made Chris’s drives more than just a little bit exciting.

 

 

 

It is the first car Chris had driven that could spin the wheels in all 6 gears, just awesome!! I get the next drive in this at the very forgiving lakeside track, I think we will be looking at some new tyres for the weekend at least. .. Will let you know how it goes in the next report!

 

 

Also in our pits was the 934 monster porsche as driven by Allan Hamilton and Moffat. This car won a few championships back in the day and  is regarded by Moffat as the fastest car he ever drove... We are good mates with the current lucky owner Larry "sheep stations" Mac,  and he allowed Chris and Duncan "the punisher" Mackellar a few laps to show this animal off. To say both Chris and Duncan were a bit over awed by the machine is total understatement, with Duncan later saying that he should have been on the track with the Porsche factory 935 so he could give his lessons about going fast! (Not sure how Jim Richards would have taken that, especially after seeing him drive the 935 to great effect on early Sunday morning). 

 

So in all, it was a great weekend at the track, big thanks to the team at Shannon's and Phil Ross for getting it all together, we cannot wait for next year! 

 

Special thanks to our pro photog Mark Pryor for the images of the weekend's races!

 

Love your car,

Dan Bowden

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