News von Frank Gardners T/A #148625

[T5owner]

Seit 2005 warte ich drauf, daß die Bowden Familie mal ihr Geheimnis über die "Rettung" der Überreste des Gardner T/A Mustangs lüftet. Endlich ist es soweit, aber sicher noch kein Jubelschrei nötig. Leider durfte ich damals kein Foto machen. Aus den "Teilen" und Rahmen wieder ein Auto zu machen wird sicher heiß diskutiert werden.

Das Fahrzeug 1971
"When it arrived in Australia, it was delivered to Barry Sharp who was going to race it for the Jack Brabham Ford dealership, as was reported in "Racing Car News" March edition 1971. Sharp stated to me that the car was not dropped when they first received it, it did have damage to the rear 1/4 panel, but that was it. The car was still very intact and could have been raced with no problems. But it did sit on the wharves for a month when it arrived and a separate crate full of spare parts, sent with the car, did disappear from the time it was sitting.. It never had any trailer accident, but was trailered back to Sharps workshop and totally stripped of all it's running gear/ drive line.

The initial intention was to race the T/A in in our local touring car events, as they knew it was the same as Moffat's Mustang. However, it was decided not to race it as it would not help the dealership to sell the local product, a four door Falcon saloon car... This is why it was stripped and the transplanted into Barry's new lightweight XY falcon saloon, which featured prominently here in Australia.

The body went to Bruce Maxwell who initially had the Californian Mike Klein (His nick name was "Hash Brown" when he raced speedway in the USA) drive it for him, it's first race was in August 1971 (Image as shown by Wolfgang, we have a 3 page article on the car from this first race). Maxwell took over the driving duties himself and a few years later he sold the car to "Wild Bill" Templer, who painted it yellow, then raced it some more and sold it Peter Alit. This is when it disappeared off the planet and began it's life on the island of Tasmania. Len Robertson later bought it and continued it's life on the dirt ovals till finally it was acquired and continued to be raced by Brian Richards.
We tracked down each owner till we finally found an address for Richards and then after numerous failed attempts to contact him, we had a local friend go and visit him in 2006. He was I think a little bit suspect on mainlanders asking about his junker Mustang, so we needed the local contact, Trevor Stott, to purchase the sad remains of the T/A. In Tasmania, everyone heard rumours that the car was once raced by Jack Brabham, no one had a clue as to what it really was.

We finally had one of our mechanics go down and bring home the remains, which once we told old Frank Gardner about the finding and it's life he commented "At least the guys will not have much to bring back". And it was tragic, it had sat outside for a long period of time, a lot of the original shell was replaced by steel bars, like a space-frame chassis and it shows all the stress from the impacts it has had over the years on the speedway. It has been sitting in one of our shed corners for years now, with us wondering how to tackle it.

Years before this, we bought a heap of T/A mustang parts from out of Sydney, they were either from the Sharp Falcon or from the crate sent with the vehicle, we always thought these parts were from the Moffat Mustang, but we now realise that they were for this car. The engine was found to be in a speedboat and acquired. The complete, original interior (Bud Moore seat, switch gear, seat belt strap, gauges etc) were kept by Maxwell and he had them on display in his service station in Northern NSW, with images of him racing the car, but we now have them in place as well. Just recently we acquired a whole heap more original parts, so it will now be our intention to resurrect the T/A in the next few years, especially now that Frank Gardner, who was a great friend of our family, has passed away.

As I sit here I am in the middle of negotiating the purchase of a massive tourist facility for us to publicly showcase our and other significant car collections, making something worth visiting if any of you ever come to Australia! So my time is short, but I will, when I can, post some images ok.

Cheers,
Dan"

[maximus]

hallo

die geschichte kenn ich auch, habe diese aber leider schon vor einiger zeit aus den augen verloren.

toll das du die infos gepostet hast - bin gespannt wie sich das ganze weitereintwickelt

lg, daniel