52 replies to this topic

[dublin]

Hi guys, reviving an old thread here, I love Gricey's 73 car, I reckon it's got one of the best paint schemes and for us guys from the lower hunter area a bit of a local hero!
My first experience with a car called an xu1 was as a teenager in the late 80's when a guy in my street got one, Salamanca red, lj, alloy roll cage. I was blown away by how it look and sounded. Then I saw that engine man triple carbs I had never seen such a thing!
Over the next few years I watched it come and go, when for a few rides and later when I got my licence got to take it for spin, way cool.
On day the owner told me it used to be an ex Allan Grice race car, I remember him showing me the CAMS log books. It was also owned by a few others after him. One memory that stuck in my mind was a pic of the car as a sports sedan with A9X flares and big slicks, painted red and Bargwanna on the side.
The owner told me he had seen the initials AG stamped into the ends of the axles and on the distributor, also some marking or initials under the dash or glove box or something. The axle housing had a pan hard rod too.
He had a mate that was into building show cars and paint and panel work and he said one day " it's had a new turret fitted"
He sold that car, I wanted it bad but didn't have the 12 grand at the time and was also turned away by the lack of any tags or jP engine, in fact it had a 186 block engine in it.
A few years ago I got to meet Dave McLean and I told him about this car and asked if it was the 73 grice car. He said no, the Grice car was never a road car and it's history is known, alway was a race car, he thinks the car I'm talking about was the damaged shell from the roll over at Amaroo Park. Dave also showed me a pic of the bent car racing up the mattara hill climb at Newcastle. He also said they striped that shell and sold it off with a bunch of parts and built the new car.
I wonder if that car is still out there......
Anyway, when it comes to old race cars they don't seem to pay much attention to chassis numbers, engine numbers or build dates I think. The guys that build em gather the parts they need, build em within the rules and the drivers thrash em around the tracks.

[dublin]

here is a pic of some Bargwanna cars, maybe the old shell became one of these sports sedans?

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•  OldRace154 (Large).jpg   127.01K   7 downloads

[dublin]

72 car at Bathurst

ok back on to the 73 car

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•  72784__52770_1406547970_1280_1280 (Large).jpg   136.27K   6 downloads
•  First-Grice-Torana (Large).jpg   150.7K   7 downloads

[dublin]

Cool! You couldn't get the pic of the 72 rolled car racing up the hill climb could ya?

[dublin]

http://www.katcode3....rice-Murray.jpg
Found my next Father's Day gift!

[gad05]

Great looking race car,I love those black wheels, really fill the guards out.

[LC-GTR-1969]

I am curious... Would the ho specs in the plate in the first pic be flywheel hp or rear wheel ponies? 228hp at the fly seems a little low for 73 engine specs... 72 specs I would believe but not under group c regs... I had always thought 73 Xu1s were closer to 260-280 at the fly when in race, group c specs

Edited by LC-GTR-1969, 08 June 2015 - 10:56 AM.

[jd lj]

Does anyone know if the Grice xu-1 ever ran triple webers on a Seton manifold?
I've recently been told by a previous owner of my carbs and manifolds that he bought them from a guy at Cessnock and although not confirmed at the time there's chance they could have been used on this car.

I saw this car many years ago at the muscle car master's and it had su's, but apparently it wasn't uncommon for the teams to use different carbs at different tracks.

Any information or engine bay photos would be appreciated.

[xu2308]

Add for Gricey Car  image.jpg   157.85K   11 downloads

[crabba67]

One more Al, A bit earlier interesting.

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[xu2308]

Suss the price jump from the two Ads crabba67

[crabba67]

I looked at the Grice xu1 in the late 80s and did'nt have the prime body BLJ28127A or the NP block.James if the car had weber carbs it would have used the the original inlet manifold under group C rules.

cheers.

[jd lj]

Good point Crabba, I hadn't taken that into consideration. I guess it also depends on what sort of racing there were doing as to the specifications which had to be met.

[dublin]

A bit more info about this cars history in the eBay section of the forum now, under Dick Johnson XU1

[dublin]

http://www.gmh-toran...ck-johnson-xu1/

[Shiney005]

.

Edited by Shiney005, 01 June 2017 - 09:09 AM.

[crabba67]

I'ii correct my post #41 it should be BLJ29127A...... What's the chassis now.

Cheers

[piquet]

One of the Bragwanna Torana Sports sedan cars is currently here in Melbourne.

It was raced in the early 80's by Ian Jones  then sold to Trevor Talbot and then to Adrian Read and converted back to Grp N specs. I believe that it then went to Gary Edwards? as a Grp N car and is now being raced by Elliott Barbour in the Nc part of the Grp N catergory.

It was involved in a hard hit at PI  during the Historic earlier this year.

So you cant kill a Torana

[FLY_AGAIN_XU-1]

Cool! You couldn't get the pic of the 72 rolled car racing up the hill climb could ya?

 

 

 

 thumbnail_Agrice_KEP%20(HILL%20CLIMB).jpg   31.99K   5 downloads

[davea79]

One of the Bragwanna Torana Sports sedan cars is currently here in Melbourne.
It was raced in the early 80's by Ian Jones then sold to Trevor Talbot and then to Adrian Read and converted back to Grp N specs. I believe that it then went to Gary Edwards? as a Grp N car and is now being raced by Elliott Barbour in the Nc part of the Grp N catergory.
It was involved in a hard hit at PI during the Historic earlier this year.
So you cant kill a Torana

The late Ian Jones?