Marv’s Garage: the Superfalcon is one of the hottest Fords

There were 2 levels to our touring car racing of the 60s and early 70s: Series Production for dead-stock cars sold new here, and Improved Production which featured mostly imports built into full-on racing cars. Bob Jane ran a 1969 Chevy Camaro ZL1 with a COPO aluminium 427 big-block, while "Stormin'" Norm Beechey's Holden Monaro was a fan favourite. Canadian Allan Moffat had a Kar-Kraft Trans-Am '69 Boss 302 Mustang, fighting Ian "Big Pete" Geoghegan's '68 Mustang GTA.

In 1970, to capitalise on the success of their Series Prod Falcon GT-HO Phase II, Ford Aus built a pair of extreme "Super Falcons" for Geoghegan and Moffat. Race team manager Howard Marsden had John Whynne put lightweight shells together, dripping in alloy and magnesium, with fat arches. Ian Stockings and Bill Santuccione built a pair of fuel-injected 351 small-block Fords producing over 600hp. Reportedly costing $125,000 each the Super Falcons were, in the words of the Virgin Mary, the cat's whiskers.

Except they were frail, and Moffat preferred his Mustang so his Falcon was stripped and left at the dump. Geoghegan persevered and it all came to a head at the Easter '72 round of the Touring Car Championship at Bathurst, regarded by most as the greatest tin top race Down Under. The fastest cars and drivers, at our best track!

Moffat had the pole by 3secs but fluffed the start. Jane's Camaro took the lead, but quickly dropped out after losing a piston while Beechey's Holden trashed its gearbox. So Big Pete and Moffat went at it, swapping places at 11ty around the 6km circuit. To see past oil on his screen Moffat actually undid his belts and drove with his head out the window, setting a lap record.

But the Super Falcon got the win by less than a car length. It was a fitting high point for IP racing, which was replaced in '73 by Group C regs. Today Big Pete's Trans-Am Falcon shares garage space with the same Kar Kraft "Moffstang" and Beechey Monaro it fought so famously, as part of the epic Bowden Collection.