anuary 25, 1965. All one seems to remember about that day is that it was bloody hot. Well, hot enough for a chap who'd just come from the midst of a lovely English winter! This was the day I became an Aussie. A day of new beginnings and challenges. I am not going to warble on about 'ye good olde days' too much for we are here to chat about my role in the development of the Mk 1 Cortina. I had decided that Melbourne would be a good place to set myself up in. I rented a residence in the lovely suburb of Hawthorn, which I still call home. I quickly found myself employed as a mechanic of sorts at a place called 'Nimrod Motors'. If you nostalgia freaks out there are scratching your heads, there's good reason. Nothing significant happened over there and the place went bust in May 1965. So it was time to look for job number two. Whilst at Nimrod's though, one of our clients, I think his name was Larry, would bring in his GT Cortina. We'd have a bit of a tinker every once in a while and she was quite a weapon. I was curious about the car's progress over here and I was soon enlightened on the Cortina's racetrack success. Two wins in a row at some place called 'Bathurst' hardly seemed credible… little did one know.

Anyway, I came to the conclusion that Ford was quite serious about racing Mk 1's, so I figured I'd approach them and offer my services. I must say I was somewhat surprised when they rejected my offer. It seemed that Ford was quite happy with the job a chap by the name of Harry Firth was doing. I had never heard of a Mr.Firth before, so I presumed he was some boy racer having a fiddle in his backyard. A rare misjudgment on Cyril Saunder's behalf, let me tell you. It turns out that he was responsible for the GT's success in Australia, not only in circuit racing, but also in rally circles.

With factory involvement out of the scheme thing, I resorted back to doing my own thing. I started a business called 'BRD Racing', which stood for Basingstoke Racing Developments. Oh, I forgot to tell you lot that that was the name of my business whilst in England also. The memory can be a bit of a sieve these days! Things were a little slow at first, but began to pick up once word began to spread. About this time I had also purchased a 1964 GT Cortina. Needless to say, she got the treatment. By July '65 it was running on Lotus suspension on six inch rims. The 1500 was rebuilt with a downdraught head, twin 45s, and a home-built dry-sump system. It was bored and stroked to 1750cc using an offset ground five bearing Cosworth crankshaft (no one wanted to supply me with a custom three bearing job), Lotus rods, and custom pistons. I backed this dyno-certified 148 hp beast up with a 2.5 Elan gearbox and a 4.4 LSD rear. She was christened 'Sexy HXY', after its registration plate, HXY 069. Let me tell you, she was quite a terror around the streets of Melbourne. I also ran the car once at Calder where I took 1.2 seconds off the quickest time for a pushrod Cortina. Not bad for a daily hack, eh? Sexy's racing career, however, was prematurely ended on Sydney Road by a runaway truck. I quickly discovered that Cortinas do not stand too well to being T-boned by a rather large object, and that I did not like hospital food.

The injuries healed up soon enough, but the Cortina was a mess. It was September and I was out looking for a new toy to play with. As luck would have it, Ford had just released the Cortina GT500. Seems our friend Mr.Firth had a lot to do with this new car. I was impressed by the spec sheet. Tweaked engine, Elan box, and other neat tricks such as twin fuel tanks made for a smashing car. Word was out that this was Ford's weapon in the Bathurst endurance race coming up. After lots of thinking (and even more alcohol), it was decided that I could get myself into one 500's and give the local lads a good whipping. Seemed like a good idea at the time, so off I went to Auburn Road with a fistful of the Queen's finest.