markcoorparoo
The mind gets a bit foggy after forty years but it must have been 1973 that I was in and out of the Fiat 128’s pit for most of the day. The Fiat was entered by Tony Brancallion’s Europa Garage, they also ran an Alfetta and a Charger. I think that may have been the year that Tony Allen did the first stint in the Charger and handed over to Phil Brock who quite promptly hit a fence when a wheel bearing seized. A mate of mine from that era was more or less the lead mechanic on the Fiat. Initially there was a Mini involved in the battle (if my memory serves me correctly the driver was John Leighton who suffered a very nasty injury to his lower right leg) that went over the fence after running through some gravel thrown up by the Fiat on the way up the hill, same spot that Bondy went over the year before. Now for the meaty bit, from memory the Fiat backed off towards the end to get to the end. It had been spinning over at around 8,500 RPM to stay with the five speed Datsun all day!! As for the tyres, I don’t remember what brand they were but if they were Goodyears they would have been fitted by a bloke I worked with and probably a fairly standard size. I don’t recall the Fiat running on anything other than the same size wheel all day. I always remember the series of comments attributed to Jim Laing-Peach at the time regarding the five speed. A few other people had considered running the Datsun 1200 at the time but didn’t because of lack of speed on Con-Rod Straight, so after investigating the paperwork they went to JLP and asked him how he got the five speed Homolagated. He replied that it was homolagated in Japan. The other people said that they had checked in Japan and couldn’t find a five speed on the market. JLP replied that it was done by a special workshop. The other people said that they had looked for someone doing five speed Datsun 1200’s in Japan and couldn’t find one. JLP replied that "YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE TO LOOK" All these years later I think it may have been a little bit of "Handicapping" by CAMS. The Fiat was later discovered to by able to rev past 9,000 RPM. When further developed it blew an engine to bits going up the hill at Amaroo when revving past 9,100 RPM! I have since fitted a five speed to a Datsun 1200 ute and found that a bit of massaging is required with a 32 oz. Ball Pein Hammer on the trans tunnel! The five speed came out of another Datsun model and bolted straight up to the 1200 engine but it wouldn’t fit into the trans tunnel without "Modification". So there you have a bit of my memories of events at Bathurst 1973.

MarkOastler
Some great memories of Bathurst ’73 there. I don’t think the controversy surrounding the legality of the five-speed gearbox in that Group C Datsun 1200 will ever die! It caused a huge stink at the time and four decades later it’s still causing a stir.