"Bo" Seton and "Midge" Bosworth can count themselves eternally fortunate for not having had to use the headlights on the GT500 Cortina in which they won the Armstrong 500 at Bathurst in September. The simple flick of a facia switch could have sent their chances of piloting the car to overall victory in the most coveted sedan car event of the year spiralling in smoke.

But the Fairfield Motors entry was not doomed to defeat and a properly-adjusted regulator eliminated the necessity to drain the battery of excess charge. Not so fortunate were the SPORTS CAR WORLD staff who tested the vehicle: I was but 70 miles into the thickly-forested New England Highway upon a clear moonlit week night, bent on determining the top speed of the car in a post-Armstrong test, when the lights went out and blue flame licked up the steering console shroud. Immediately the cockpit filled with choking fumes.

A panic stop brought the car to rest on the edge of the highway and bare hands did not feel heat as they choked the iridescent glow from fused wiring. But even as I left the car through the passenger's door (the driver's door, damaged in the race, was unopenable) it flared out again, spilling more fumes into the passenger's compartment.

The black masking tape arrows on the bonnet, indicating the catches, reflected the moonlight easily, and the bonnet sprung open with little trouble. One hand holding the lid up, the other hand grasped the positive terminal and tugged desperately. The whole terminal and half the cell came out, rendering the battery useless and harmless.

Back into the cockpit again via the passenger's door and a piece of cloth wrapped around the binnacle snuffed the last of the flame. The car, rather ignominously, was towed back to Sydney, and to Fairfield Motors where the trouble was analysed.

During the Armstrong 500 the left-hand headlight had picked up a stone thrown by another car which pierced the outer glass and smashed the semi-sealed beam out of its casing, leaving the reflector dangling by its wiring alone. Either during the race, or after we took delivery of the car, another stone flew up inside the mudguard well and demolished the remaining parts of the glass reflector, leaving three bare prongs carrying the full charge when the headlamps were lit. These had apparently mated to the metal on the inner guard and fused the wiring. The flames emerged at the termination of the blinker wires - where the trafficator stalk enters the steering column shroud.

We picked the car up initially only days after the Armstrong. Jim Dunbar, whose guiding hand was responsible for seeing the car into the race in the first place, kindly loaned this rather special car for a three-day road test and impressions. After the incident of the fire, the car was returned to Fairfield Motors and new wiring looms installed.

We retook delivery of the car again a few days later, this time with two fully efficient headlamps and all other functions "go". The car was white before it received the usual gaudy Armstrong embellishments to help distinguish it from the host of other GT500 cars competing.

Three red GT strips - wide inner, two narrow outer - were run full length from the fake air scoop or bonnet decoration to the rear bumper bar. The scoop itself was covered in black masking tape with strips radiating to the bonnet edges.

A number of strips of black masking tape, strategically applied at the appropriate points readily identified the relative external positions of the bonnet catches and jacking points to speed up rapid pit stops. It must have all helped - the Fairfield Motors pit was one of the better organised private pits. Another black tape was applied to the driver's window (which must be kept open) to show the judges the position of the glass.

Whether by coincidence or design the GT500 was equipped with DVY-500 plates. The letters were masked over for the race and ARM was substituted on the tape. A racing mirror, and the appropriate numbering and lettering completed the car's external race preparation. Inside, the car was unchanged apart from the fitting of an aircraft type lap-strap safety belt.

In building the GT500, Ford gave the engine moderate attention to ensure adequate performance in the acceleration bracket, with the fitting of large dual throat downdraught Weber, slight head and gas flow attention and exhaust manifolding.

But it was the transmission that saw the most improvement. The gear ratios were upped so drastically that first gear ran easily to 55 mph (at 6500 rpm). This (together with the all-synchromesh set-up) made first gear ideal for the cutting on Mount Panorama.

Mated to the high rear axle, top gear was good for 120 mph-plus, the length of Conrod Straight permitting. Dragging such a high tail was too much for even the tweaked motor, and the car was initially incredibly slow off the mark, irrespective of the rpm in hand at the time of dropping the clutch. On road test we have found about 5500 to 6000 rpm was the best leaving engine speed but it would be fairly safe to assume that some GT tachos read 6500 and over when the starter's flag dropped on October 5, at Bathurst.

At clutch release the engine rpm falls as low as 1500, but the car picks up rapidly and is at its maximum first gear speed of 55 mph in very few seconds. Translated into line-departure speeds of the Armstrong this dropped the GTs deep into the pack in the initial rush, but halfway up the mount they were utilising the strong pulling intermediate gears to the full and carving viciously through the leaders.

The Armstrong winning GT500 had not been tuned since the race when we re-ran our performance figures. The engine protested with heavy pinking if the gearbox was not fully exercised, and throttle control carefully observed. We added a couple of gallons of methyl at the later stage of the test and this eliminated the complaint completely. However it was obvious that the car, although vastly superior to our original test GT500, lacked the slight edge of tune it would have begun the Armstrong with.

The car went very, very hard and cornered in a very stable fashion though still equipped with the shock absorbers and tyres it ran the whole race with. It was amazingly taut and firm, with the few minor rattles and vibrations traceable to places like the plastic dashboard mouldings working slightly loose and other small details. The body lacked judder or shake, despite the fact it must have required re-jigging due to the enormous shunt in the driver's side door. This was inflicted by the Vaughan and Lane Cooper Mini at Forest Elbow after having the big lose there about half-way through the race.

The car almost came to grief in the Saturday practice when the pushrod on the front off-side adjustable shock absorber sheared. All four adjustable shocker units were then removed and replaced with the standard units, which saw out the race and seemed still as good as new when we tested the car.

Performance-wise the car was still very boisterous. Standing quarter times came down to a best of 17.9 seconds and an average of 18.2 seconds despite the inferior state of tune. These times would almost certainly have gone as low as early 17s at the start of the race when the car was in peak tune. It nevertheless compared more more favorably with the GT500 test car's time of 18.7 and the standard GT time of 19.2 seconds (fastest). Top speed was only a best of 98 mph after three runs in each direction under favorably cool and breeze-free conditions, on a dead-flat strip with two mile run-in.

The car of course had the racing numbers carefully covered in newspaper in the best CAMS-approved manner before ventured onto the streets, but still attracted more attention than most other cars we have ahd this year.

It was after all, a unique vehicle.