December 2017 - Apologies as some photos were lost when Photobucket turned rip off merchants and high jacked all the picture links. I have tried the best I again to find all old pictures and link via IMGUR - a very time consuming process. Thankfully this is now complete as I can make it
I have been lurking here for a number of years now ever since we stopped to look at a 1979 Volvo 242GT ex race car on the way home from an interstate race meet. As it turns out my friend bought the car and he and I are now 50/50 partners and are well progressed in the rebuild of the car for historic racing here in Australia.
A bit of history on the car
1979 242GT homologated as a group C race car for the 1979 Bathurst 1000. It was driven by Spencer Martin and David McKay and finished 20th that year. It was bagged somewhat by some of the front runners as it was basically a standard Australian Spec Volvo 242GT with B23E engine and M46 gearbox. It ran on standard Uniroyal steelcat road tyres as opposed to the slicks the rest of the field were running. After the race Uniroyal ran full page advertisements in weeks following race in major newspapers and magazines pronouncing the cat that licked a thousand slicks. It was fitted with a 120litre dry brake fuel system, rollcage, Koni shocks, 15 * 7 Bathurst Globe Wheels, Modified side exit exhaust and a number of safety improvements.
Here is a montage of photos from race day
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Here is a race day photo giving some perspective of the height the Bathurst track climbs to. You can also see the damage caused by a shunt from a fellow competitor which nearly ended the race for the Volvo
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Here is another showing the car was actually road registered and actually drove to the track each day for practice and racing and drove home to Sydney the day after the race with straight through exhaust with race Livery. It is a good shot as it shows the 120 Litre race tank with the pickup clearly shown.
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Another Race Day Photo - If you look closely near rear wheel you can see exhaust exit in front of it
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Some more race weekend photos
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There were numerous articles written on the car after the race. It was returned to the Volvo dealer in North Sydney where it was put on display for a number of months. After this time the alloy tank, roll cage and other race items were removed and scrapped and the car returned to a road car and sold on as a low km road car. You must rember at the time a road car was worth more in the market than a race car (not the case now). The same thing happened to many race cars from this era.
I have been lurking here for a number of years now ever since we stopped to look at a 1979 Volvo 242GT ex race car on the way home from an interstate race meet. As it turns out my friend bought the car and he and I are now 50/50 partners and are well progressed in the rebuild of the car for historic racing here in Australia.
A bit of history on the car
1979 242GT homologated as a group C race car for the 1979 Bathurst 1000. It was driven by Spencer Martin and David McKay and finished 20th that year. It was bagged somewhat by some of the front runners as it was basically a standard Australian Spec Volvo 242GT with B23E engine and M46 gearbox. It ran on standard Uniroyal steelcat road tyres as opposed to the slicks the rest of the field were running. After the race Uniroyal ran full page advertisements in weeks following race in major newspapers and magazines pronouncing the cat that licked a thousand slicks. It was fitted with a 120litre dry brake fuel system, rollcage, Koni shocks, 15 * 7 Bathurst Globe Wheels, Modified side exit exhaust and a number of safety improvements.
Here is a montage of photos from race day
Here is a race day photo giving some perspective of the height the Bathurst track climbs to. You can also see the damage caused by a shunt from a fellow competitor which nearly ended the race for the Volvo
Here is another showing the car was actually road registered and actually drove to the track each day for practice and racing and drove home to Sydney the day after the race with straight through exhaust with race Livery. It is a good shot as it shows the 120 Litre race tank with the pickup clearly shown.
Another Race Day Photo - If you look closely near rear wheel you can see exhaust exit in front of it
Some more race weekend photos
There were numerous articles written on the car after the race. It was returned to the Volvo dealer in North Sydney where it was put on display for a number of months. After this time the alloy tank, roll cage and other race items were removed and scrapped and the car returned to a road car and sold on as a low km road car. You must rember at the time a road car was worth more in the market than a race car (not the case now). The same thing happened to many race cars from this era.
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