Another George Fury Dr30 Is Back Racing In Historics

[cazz]

For those of you who already know me, I doubt there is any dispute that I am indeed a crazy skyline lady. Most would also know that I have been extremely fortunate to have been involved with Terry Ashwwod and Rod and Craig Markland with their historic events over the last couple of years. These guys, along with R31GUN, (hooks), have educated me in what fantastic events the historics are to be involved in. So, over dinner many months ago, Terry jokingly said that I should buy his Bluebird, and start racing with the team. I replied back to Terry, that as much as the Bluebird was a fantastic car, with heaps of history, even if I could afford it, I was a skyline girl, and if I was going to race anything, it would be a skyline. So the offer came up to buy the DR30, which after a couple of seconds of deep thought, I had said yes before I knew it.

After many sleepless nights, wondering how I was going to pay for it, with unreal excitement built in there, the car is finally in my garage. There were many drama's in getting her home, but she competed at the Phillip Island Historics last weekend, and even though not running at full potential, managed a very credible 4th outright in race 3, and a 1st in class in the same race. So please indulge me, while I load a pictorial of the events over the last few months.

After Eastern Creek Muscle Car Masters, I went and saw the old girl for the first time. There were 5 chassis numbers of the DR30 built by Gibson Motor Sport. One has been written off, One has been restored, One is Gavin Strongmans car, which unfortuantely was heavily modified, but he is currently brnging his back to it's former glory, One was an independant, and I think Ingle has it now, and the last one is mine, which is still in the condition she was raced in at the Adelaide Grand Prix in November 1987. This one is also the only one to run on Radial tyres, so the suspension setup and roll cage are quite different to the other 4. The car competed well at Bathurst in the same year. She has not been touched or seen a race track in all that Time. Terry Ashwood performed a major service on her when he aquired her, but nothing else has been done.

This is what she looked like at Trackside restaurant.

So money changed hands, and she went to a mechanic to be race prepared. We had a three month timeline to get her ready for Phillip Island. When the mechanic doing the job fell behind the mark, and then had surgey, we took the car out of there, and she went to Fernandez Motorsport in Sydney to have a hurried final prep for Phillip Island. There was so much work to still do that I never thought we would get there. Huge Thanks to Jetwreck (on this forum) and Rod Markland for devoting so much of his time to getting the car right. When the car was being loaded onto the transporter to come down to Melbourne, when the fuel rail popped off, and the car caught fire. Yep - it caught fire. The guys put the fire out really quickly, but we then had a dilema, of putting the car back together, cleaning it up, and still making phillip Island. This was all on the weekend before the event. Once again Jetwreck and Rod Markland put heaps of hours in to get the car cleaned up. Then Glen (My race mechanic and friend) along with a friend from Adeladie went up to Sydney to tow the car home, two days before the event.

Pics of the damage from the fire. Thank God Fred Gibson loved Braided lines.

I still can't believe the car got to Phillip Island, and running around 20 percent less boost than a safe tune, and all of the problems, and she did so well.

Next items on the list, are to sort out the boost issues, put a thermo fan on the radiator, some non asbestos brake pads, and a really good cleanup. Would also like to put a passenger seat in, so that I can learn to drive her well.

Thanks to Jetwreck for everything he and the boys have done, and for getting such a great result in her at Phillip Island. She came out of retirement kicking and screaming, but has now decided she loves the attention.

[Sarumatix]

That is freaken awesome. Check this thread out where we have been discussing your car and how great it is to see it back on the track: http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/Ph...20-t312385.html

I hope owning it is as fun as I would imagine and not ridiculously expensive and look forward to more updates .

[Roy]

Awesome! Thanks for posting, and thanks for being just that little bit crazy and bringing this thing back to the track Hope to make it a day and see it running

[cazz]

Owning it is quite expensive, but nowhere near the cost of the GTR's. I was so impressed by the reliability of the car, considering she hadn't seen a track in 22 years.

This little baby will make some token appearances at CSA events, and as many others as I can get her too over the coming year.

Here is some more footage of the car day before Phillip Isalnd when we were trying to get the boost issues sorted. In teh first part of the clip, car has no boost, and a second gear take off. (Holingers have 1st underneath reverse, so a bit confusing), the noise from the car towards the end of the clip is very ummmm noice.

Edited March 27, 2010 by cazz

[Ghostrider]

Mighty fine car you have.

Any reason why your not using the 17" Castalloy rims & brake discs Cazz?

D

[cazz]

Mighty fine car you have.

Any reason why your not using the 17" Castalloy rims & brake discs Cazz?

D

Not allowed to use them with Slicks, only wets, as they are magnesium, and they lose their strength over time.

Have to use new one piece wheels with the slicks on them. So if it rains, you will see them on the car.

Edited March 27, 2010 by cazz

[Ghostrider]

Not allowed to use them with Slicks, only wets, as they are magnesium, and they lose their strength over time.

Have to use new one piece wheels with the slicks on them. So if it rains, you will see them on the car.

Mmmmmmmmmm interesting.

Forgive me if you can, for me not getting into raptures of awesome & freakin awesome, but most of these comments are coming from persons that probably never saw these cars on the track, as they would have to be about 40 years old. Yours finished it's career 23 odd years ago which would make them 17 at the time.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly sure this car has been for sale before, maybe a couple of years ago, as I think it was on Powerplay's site for sale.

As your aware I have been an avid follower of these cars from when they first appeared back in I think, late 1985.

I know the 15 car that Glenn Seton campaigned in, is in a long term restoration to bring it back to original and it would be nice to see the other #30 car in original livery and as homoligated, not in it's present form. I know if I owned it, it would be that way, but the present owner wants far to much money for it, to do this.

My problem is space for any other cars & I'm not hiring a factory to store them in.

I hope you & everyone understands my thoughts on the matter.

Something off topic, but I wish someone would tell me what the $145.00 early bird buys me for the nationals in September. I have all my accommodation booked and have had for some time, even Mildura for an o/niter on the way. I have sent a couple of messages to administrators of the nationals site and had no replies.

Cheers, D

[warps]

I know the 15 car that Glenn Seton campaigned in, is in a long term restoration to bring it back to original

Do you know where this one is? My machinist was doing a lot of resto work on one of the DR30's (I thought it was the 15 car) about 5 years ago - maybe a bit more. This was on the gold coast. I'll have to ask him about it next time I see him (is away on holidays at present). I remember talking top him at the time he had sourced a lot of homologation info, and was trying to sort out the different specs the car ran in.

I'm 43 now so yes, I remember seeing these things run, but I wasn't a huge Nissan fan back then - they hadn't released much here worth remembering since the 1600 and 240Z. Pretty much everything local was a disappointment after that. Hell, I remember the motor magazine articles on the 200B - 180B with 20 more mistakes?

[cazz]

Mmmmmmmmmm interesting.

Forgive me if you can, for me not getting into raptures of awesome & freakin awesome, but most of these comments are coming from persons that probably never saw these cars on the track, as they would have to be about 40 years old. Yours finished it's career 23 odd years ago which would make them 17 at the time.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly sure this car has been for sale before, maybe a couple of years ago, as I think it was on Powerplay's site for sale.

As your aware I have been an avid follower of these cars from when they first appeared back in I think, late 1985.

I know the 15 car that Glenn Seton campaigned in, is in a long term restoration to bring it back to original and it would be nice to see the other #30 car in original livery and as homoligated, not in it's present form. I know if I owned it, it would be that way, but the present owner wants far to much money for it, to do this.

My problem is space for any other cars & I'm not hiring a factory to store them in.

I hope you & everyone understands my thoughts on the matter.

Something off topic, but I wish someone would tell me what the $145.00 early bird buys me for the nationals in September. I have all my accommodation booked and have had for some time, even Mildura for an o/niter on the way. I have sent a couple of messages to administrators of the nationals site and had no replies.

Cheers, D

You say hmmm interesting like you don't believe me. I would love to race on the original wheels Ghostrider, it would certainly have saved the 1200 bux a corner it cost me for these ones. I am only allowed to compete with wets or semi comps on the old wheels. And thats the truth. It's only because of their type of magnesium that I can't race on them with slicks on them

My car hasn't been for sale on the Powerplay site Ghostrider, Gavins number 30 car has. And to make it perfectly clear, Gavin did not modify the car, he bought it already modified. This car will now be bought back to it's original 1986 livery, as Gavin has sold the GIO GTR, so now has the funds to get his DR30 back looking beautiful, and in the right colours. My car was for sale for a little while tho.

The number 15 car has been finished for some time, and is now for sale. Glenn Seton put this car on pole at the last round of V8 supercars at Oran Park, and the car did exceptionally well, adn looked fantastic.

Your $145.00 early bird special is for Sprint entry, show and shine and promo gear. As a member of the nationals committee, and one of the people who receives all of teh emails Dennis, I haven't seen one from you I am sorry. I have answerd your pm in here tho.

I really do believe that the fact that young people are really pleased the car is back out on the track is a good thing, not a bad thing. It's fantastic to see such huge interest in this category of motorsport again.

Edited March 28, 2010 by cazz

[cazz]

Do you know where this one is? My machinist was doing a lot of resto work on one of the DR30's (I thought it was the 15 car) about 5 years ago - maybe a bit more. This was on the gold coast. I'll have to ask him about it next time I see him (is away on holidays at present). I remember talking top him at the time he had sourced a lot of homologation info, and was trying to sort out the different specs the car ran in.

I'm 43 now so yes, I remember seeing these things run, but I wasn't a huge Nissan fan back then - they hadn't released much here worth remembering since the 1600 and 240Z. Pretty much everything local was a disappointment after that. Hell, I remember the motor magazine articles on the 200B - 180B with 20 more mistakes?

This car is still on the gold coast and finished now - see reply above. It competed at the last V8 supercar round in December 2008 at Oran Park with Glenn Seton Driving it. It look fantastic. Glenn carshed it into the back of Stubbers Torana tho, and the owner was none too impressed. The car is now repaired, and has been for sale for a while.

I remember seeing these cars race too, (I am older than you), but wasn't a huge fan until the HR31 and GTR. I was buying new Nissan's at the time, so developed an interest.

As I said above, it doesn't matter how old the audience is, if they ahve an interest in this level of motorsport, it can only be a good thing. To see the people crawling over and under the cars in teh pit garage all weekend, it gives you some insight into how many people love this form of motorsport.

[Ghostrider]

I'm 43 now so yes, I remember seeing these things run, but I wasn't a huge Nissan fan back then - they hadn't released much here worth remembering since the 1600 and 240Z. Pretty much everything local was a disappointment after that. Hell, I remember the motor magazine articles on the 200B - 180B with 20 more mistakes?

That might qualify you for near fossil status ........... 43 on this forum? lol

But you, like myself is a minority here.

I agree with you, since the release of the 180B SSS in 1972 the Nissan line up has been fairly ordinary, compared to what was being sent o/seas from Japan. Even the 200B SSS was just a 2 door version of the sedan. It had no performance enhansement like it's predecessor. When Nissan ceased local production and went to 100% imports I thought we might have got some of their more exotic vehicles, but that wasn't to be. Thanks to what is referred to as grey imports, we now get some of the performance and others in the line up.

D

[Ghostrider]

Cazz,

I'm not knocking the interest, as I think it's a great thing and without the younger generations getting involved with these classic cars they are going to die off and become simply museum pieces, which wont be good at all for anything.

I just don't have the awesome interest as I have been following these cars for some time.

I first got a Nissan in September 73, it was an 180B SSS and after it was out of warranty, it spent a week with Ray & Don Selby at Planthurst Rd Carlton setting it up for series production and have followed them ever since.

My 24yo daughter has already put her hand up for my cars when I'm dedd, but only as memorabillia because she drives the modern works & jerks. Wasn't happy with the Nissan dad gave her.

If you need parts for your toy, drop me a line, PM preferrably as I don't part with them easily. My comment when you were talking lights still stands, it never came out with the hotplates from my sources, as it was campaigned in Oz, so why change it. Aussie lights are easy to find in any pick a part type wrecker.

Cheers, D

[cazz]

If you check some early footage D it is seen racing with the imported lights. Only in part of the last year it ran with the local ones. I prefer the hotplates, they give the DR it true skyline look.

[warps]

Haha fossil - it does indeed feel that way at times. Most of the places I hang around at this forum are populated by like minded individuals, so I don't notice it too much.

Cazz - thanks for the feedback. I just hear so many people talking about the ex-Fury Skylines, I get confused which one is which etc.. I must say when I saw Adrian working on the 15 car I spent a couple of hours drooling over it and talking to him. It wasn't till a couple of years later I met Adrian again at a different workshop and he started doing my fabrication and machining for my rally cars. Over the months we got to talking and it I put 2 and 2 together and realised he'd been the same guy who was working on the Skyline a few doors down from my work.

I must admit that at the time these things were racing, I was a Dick Johnsn fan if anything, but by the mid 80's, my interests were more with rallying than track work, so I didn't follow it very closely at all. When the GTR's came along, I agreed that they were serious weapons, but I didn't like them because they went against the ethos that was motor racing in Australia at the time - ie privateers building and racing their own cars with perhaps a bit of factory backing. (I realise this had well and truly started to change by the late 80's, with the Euro teams coming over here, but you can't change the culture overnight). The local cars never stood a chance against the GTR's, and I can understand why the "knuckle dragging V8 brigade" didn't like them.

Of course the history books only show that Australian motorsport enthusiasts hated the GTR because they were faster than their beloved low tech V8's. It's not quite as simple as that, but try and convince anyone of that these days (specially those who weren't even there at the time.). Probably a bit like the rally purists in the early 80's, when Audi unleashed its first Quattro on the unsuspecting Escorts and Nissans in world rally. The RWD's never stood a chance either.

Of course if you were a Nissan lover, then the Bathurst GTR's would have appealed. As I said earlier, I was quite disappointed at Nissan's offerings to Australia at the time, so was far from a Nissan fan. It wasn't till the Z32 hit our shores, and the GTS Skylines were released that I started showing some interest in their products again.

[jrh001]

...

Here is some more footage of the car day before Phillip Isalnd when we were trying to get the boost issues sorted...  

Hi Cazz,

Nice car, would love to see it some day. Interesting test track you have there... I wonder where it is.

JohnH

[warps]

Oh, and I love your DR by the way, Cazz. Anything with real history is far more interesting in my book than most of the crap on offer these days. I went to the Bowdens museum a couple of months ago, and the collection of old race cars is awesome (thought I'd never get to see a real GHTO phase 4 in the flesh - or a real race GT40 either, and the sound!!)

It's great to see there is a category for these old cars to come out and play, rather than be stuck in a museum to slowly rot away. These old racers hold much more interest to me than most of the 1000hp track attack butcher specials out there. Yes, there's a lot of engineering in some of these race / drift cars, but they just don't do it for me. Anyone with a big enough budget can build a fast car, but a car that was actually there racing at bathurst in Australian motorsport's heyday is something you just can't build from scratch, no matter how big your bank balance.

Interestingly, Bowdens also have a V8 supercar lined up next to the Bathurst falcons (Ph1 through to ph4, then the last Moffat ph3 when the supercar scare canned the ph4) and nobody even showed any interest in the taxi

[R34]

Bring back racing the way it used to be in Australia.

Ford/Holden/Nissan/BMW/Jags/Mazdas etc etc all vying for the first corner

For me the V8 supertaxis are just so boring...they all look the same.

Can't even follow a driver as one year they're in a Holden next a Ford and then back again.

The appeal was the diversity of the cars and their strengths and weaknesses...cars with straightline speed being hounded by smaller nimble cars in the twisties .

Not over regulated racing where one car gets a poofteenth of a second advantage and then is handicapped.

A big thankyou to Cazz and people like her who put their money where our mouths are and invest in preserving the history of racing in theis country.

For the record I was 32 when the DR retired and raced against people such as George Fury in a few rallies and managed the beat him in a couple of bitumen special stages(my backyard special died couple of stages later :-( ).Great bloke and so approachable

Edited March 28, 2010 by R34

[Daewoo]

Hi Cazz, love it...

I am not in Dennis's fossil class yet, but I did see these cars race... I was officialling in the pits at Bathurst in the late 80s... and loved the Bluebirds, early skylines and GTRs, mainly because I didn't like the general Holden and Fraud fans... in fact, I was a fan of the talking microphone, Tony Longhurst, 'cause I loved the way he used to harass the V8s in his BMWs...

Him and Colin Bond, the nicest guy and best racer Australia ever produced...

great to see these cars living on, would love to know more about the differences in rollcages due to the radial tyres... anywhere that this sort of thing is described, or is it all through 'talking cars with old men'???

Cheers,

Darryl

[cazz]

Hi Cazz, love it...

I am not in Dennis's fossil class yet, but I did see these cars race... I was officialling in the pits at Bathurst in the late 80s... and loved the Bluebirds, early skylines and GTRs, mainly because I didn't like the general Holden and Fraud fans... in fact, I was a fan of the talking microphone, Tony Longhurst, 'cause I loved the way he used to harass the V8s in his BMWs...

Him and Colin Bond, the nicest guy and best racer Australia ever produced...

great to see these cars living on, would love to know more about the differences in rollcages due to the radial tyres... anywhere that this sort of thing is described, or is it all through 'talking cars with old men'???

Cheers,

Darryl

I am lucky enough to have all of the paperwork and race sheets for this car. But I haven't studied yet. My car for instance doesn't have a rear stabiliser bar, but the other 4 did. There are apparantly some quite unique changes to the roll cage in my car, and one of the early cars. I would have to see pics of them to determine what they are.

It's interesting to scan through all the hand written notes of the blokes keeping the records at Bathurst and the like. I am in awe of the detail of every lap and pitstop. It's worth having the car just to be able to read this stuff.

Edited March 29, 2010 by cazz

[Ghostrider]

If you check some early footage D it is seen racing with the imported lights. Only in part of the last year it ran with the local ones. I prefer the hotplates, they give the DR it true skyline look.

Wasn't your car an all new car, built for the 1987 Bathurst enduro?

I am of the belief the car Gavin now has, was campaigned in the ATCC of 1987 by George Fury. Hence both carrying the same number & livery.

The early footage you speak of, was the #30 car that Gavin now owns???????

I will check my videos and DVD's to be sure of the 86 & 87 seasons.

Cheers, D