What an incredible battle between two top drivers that respected each other immensely. And at no stage did either driver look like taking the other off the track and there wasn’t a scratch on either car. I loved Allan Moffat as the ultimate professional and ‘bad guy’ in the Ford, those were the best days of Aussie car racing.
wow, the way Alan Moffat throws that boat around is impressive. those XA-XC bodies were big and heavy. Harvey has a great machine in that Torana. this was the real Bathurst/Mt Panorama days... back when productions cars ruled, as they still should, but somehow it all got glorified into a class that nobody drives in reality... production car racing still exists but tv and sponsors are focused on the glamour racing... it really fell apart after they banned turbos and turned it into Ford vs GMH/C.
I feel so lucky to have lived in the period of this racing. Surely was the great race, great cars and great drivers. Too technical today, like formula one, with slot car bodies.
In Moffat's biography I discovered that he actually did a lot of racing with Brock in Europe towards the end of his career. I had more respect for Brock after reading Moffat's book. He was very generous.
Ford could have made 400 cars with an after market 'factory' steel crank, 25 cars with the Boss 302 Trans Am roller rockers for homolgation, and used the Concorde/ Monza ( later Mad Max!) show cars 0.36 drag factor front end with fiberglass pieces replacing all body panels except for the roof, doors, and quarter panels. Thats right where the 1983 Falcon moved to, a car benching at 1285 kilos, with 4V heads and with a Moldex steel crank. Instead, Edsel Bryant Ford II got funding for a paint job and a few durability and tyre size mods. In an environment where the A9X had F5000 reciprocating durability parts, weight reduction body, Ford under did it for the next 26 years. Ford then knobbled the Holden winning streak with Project Blueprint. Holden lovers got all the ammunition in 78, and never looked back...
@@deanstevenson6527 Holden boys got all the ammunition fuck me. A smaller capacity engine up against the so called MIGHTY 351. The fact is a the Torana A9X was ALREADY a generation ahead of the ford land yachts who’s suspension dated back to the 50s
In those days the race was recorded on several reels of 2 inch broadcast tapes. As time past some reels may have lost,taped over or damaged. This is way 1976 1977 and 1978 races are missing parts of the telecast.
That is true but it is still missing about an hour before they have there break. They come back on air just as they are pushing Moffats Falcon to the back of the pits. The missing parts which was aired includes Brock running out of fuel on conrod and the first round of pit stops etc. Check the highlights on RUclips and you will see some of the lost footage.
Furthermore the (1978) off-air includes more missing pre race pieces from after it returned from Hardies Heroes replay (which is where the off-air taper started taping). I think either 78 or 79 (I think its mainly 78) the off-air contains the pre-recorded driver interviews that featured during the broadcast.
Under the Supercar rules of today, because Moffat had pitted and Harvey had not, Moffat would not be shown the blue flag. Back in 1978 there was no obligation for Moffat to move over at all.
@@robossuperchannel9434 from my memory Moffat would of been under a BLUE FLAG to let the faster car past. Supercars of today are not as much ŕal racing as the pre 1980 cars
Ah the good old days of real production car racing rather than identical "cookie cutter" V8 supercars that are all the same and under the skin, just dressed up to look like different makes of production cars.
Moffat as usual being a mobile road block in the wallowing barge XC falcon. The mighty 308 A9X had no equal.. so superior it was laughable. Moffat would’ve been wrestling that boat while Harvey would’ve been laughing in his helmet. What’s even more hilarious is the so called mighty 351 getting OWNED up hill 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
@@daniellebcooper7160 Always the excuses Ive heard them all. Oh it was a lighter car blah blah blah. The fact is the two door falcon was a heavy lumbering dinosaur whose suspension and steering dated back to the 50s. No rack and pinion steering and brakes that would be lucky to do 10 hot laps before they were struggling. In 79 the first ford to finish was in 25 position as they all fell to the wayside under the relentless pressure of a field of A9Xs whose lap times couldn’t be matched. Only fools like moffat and Carter Johnson ect who’d spent YEARS and millions trying to get 351s to hang together for race distance hung on for the ford diehards to cars CLEARLY a generation behind the Torana in development. To prove my point the first 8 cars over the line in 79 were A9Xs and many were NOT factory backed. So your theory or EXCUSE goes out the window. The only reason the fords won in 77 is because the A9X was in early development and was brand new. As a footnote Brock’s last lap in 79 where he won by 6 laps was not broken until 1983 by Alan grice in a VH group 3 commodore. Meaning the A9X could’ve easily been used for 4 years without a challenger.
@@ToranaA9X308 The greatest comedy in Aust Touring Car Racing history is the ridiculous wallowing barge Falcon GT & the army of gronks who love them. A whole bunch of these great clanking mechanical monsters called Ford Falcon XY GTHOs packed the front rows of the Bathurst grid in early October 1972. Moffat had a factory backed example sporting a race developed 351 Cleveland loaded with the latest Amercan high performance goodies including a flat tappet cam, race prepped Holley etc & a super duty close ratio reinforced TopLoader gearbox & the typical caveman Ford 9 Inch Diff with factory Detroit Locker guts. By the time the chequered flag fell in the afternoon on that fateful Sunday every single one of those goomby Furd turdmobiles had been caught & overtaken by a teency little 6 cylinder Torana with a puny 202 red motor, Stromberg carbies, a little Aussie 4 speed gearbox & a tiny Holden Banjo diff. The Falcons were packed full of big time US race technology junk. The little Torana was built out of 99% practical, durable, reliable & economical Australian made bits. Any Australian who believes the Furd is a superior product to the locally developed Holden is best advised to sober up, get better medical help & to switch medications. The Ford Falcon GT was a barge ideally suited to zombified slobs. Moff had raced Hardtops since '73. He knew the very best recipe. Harry came up with the basic layout for the A9X & John Sheppard perfected it. After less than 18 months development time, no 351 Falcon could get anywhere near a sorted A9X as clearly demonstrated in both the '78 & '79 Bathurst events. Moff had raced hardtops for over 5 years prior to Bathurst '78. These numbskulls who moan eternally about a lack of factory support for Moff in '78 like to deny the fact FORD GAVE MOFF THE CARS, THE ENGINES, THE SPARE PARTS, IN FACT... THE ENTIRE FORD AUST RACING TEAM AFTER BATHURST '77! MOFF HAD PLENTY OF FACTORY SUPPORT! It just came via an alternate means. The truth is: The A9X easily outgunned the Falcon GT, Ford could see this, so they grabbed their chequebook & hid under a rock leaving Moff to suffer all the embarrassment. I never liked Moff. But, he was the greatest villain ever sent to fight our Holden racers & he did a damn good job acting the smarmyarse villain. Without Moff we would never have had all those years of fabulously exciting touring car racing. Moff arrived on the scene in '69 & at exactly the same time as Harry took on the HDT. Having Harry on our side & extremely capable Moff on the opposition side brought us the very best Touring Car Racing ever seen anywhere. We were extremely fortunate to live in a time where these two towering giants clobbered each other to bits with cars we basicly built here in Australia. The LX Torana A9X optioned up with the prepollution L34 308 & Borg Warner T10 was so damn good, race organisers banned it for the 1980 season. Similar LX HatchBacks currently run with 5.0L Chev Power & with Holden 308s in Historic Categories & no megabuck Falcons can get anywhere near them. History records some 351 Falcons did win races. The A9X put an end to all that. Long live the fabulous little V8 Torana & her rapid little sister; the GTR XU-1 which beat the best Falcon GTHOs on the day.
@@ToranaA9X308 All youve done is back up what ive said. Ford fully supported Moffat in 77, Moffat won easily. Then theres youre Golden excuse...*The only reason the fords won in 77 is because the A9X was in early development and was brand new.* (Always the excuses Ive heard them all ) Was the a9x brand new?...maybe to some it was. Except for the rear disk brakes and super T-10 gearbox, the Toranas were pretty much the same spec as 1976, with a years development done to them. And why did they get those two crucial upgrades?...because the factory had a race program. In 1978 Ford had dramatically cut their funding, where as GMH boosted theirs. Ford brought out an homologation special with a couple of improvments to the chassis, but nothing like the toranas got. In 1979 Ford completely dropped funding for motorsport and any development for those racing falcon coupes. GMH kept up its funding. To prove my point even further...heres a quote from you>>>>*To prove my point the first 8 cars over the line in 79 were A9Xs and many were NOT factory backed.*
What an incredible battle between two top drivers that respected each other immensely. And at no stage did either driver look like taking the other off the track and there wasn’t a scratch on either car. I loved Allan Moffat as the ultimate professional and ‘bad guy’ in the Ford, those were the best days of Aussie car racing.
The good old days , dont ya miss em .
Yeah, I sure remember these battles. This is footage you don't want to go missing. I'm looking at a big picture of Brocky's '79 A9X right now.
Love the XC Falcon, Dad owned one and he always says he wishes he'd kept hold of it.
wow, the way Alan Moffat throws that boat around is impressive. those XA-XC bodies were big and heavy. Harvey has a great machine in that Torana. this was the real Bathurst/Mt Panorama days... back when productions cars ruled, as they still should, but somehow it all got glorified into a class that nobody drives in reality... production car racing still exists but tv and sponsors are focused on the glamour racing... it really fell apart after they banned turbos and turned it into Ford vs GMH/C.
I feel so lucky to have lived in the period
of this racing.
Surely was the great race, great cars and great drivers.
Too technical today, like formula one, with slot car bodies.
As I said elsewhere, "Who would have believed that these two would share a Commodore to a victory in Europe only nine years after this"
In Moffat's biography I discovered that he actually did a lot of racing with Brock in Europe towards the end of his career.
I had more respect for Brock after reading Moffat's book. He was very generous.
It was a better race when it was run with multiple classes of cars together!
so much better than the current racing
Wonderful to not have safety cars out there every few minutes ruining the race.
How good is that helicopter footage
Ford could have made 400 cars with an after market 'factory' steel crank, 25 cars with the Boss 302 Trans Am roller rockers for homolgation, and used the Concorde/ Monza ( later Mad Max!) show cars 0.36 drag factor front end with fiberglass pieces replacing all body panels except for the roof, doors, and quarter panels. Thats right where the 1983 Falcon moved to, a car benching at 1285 kilos, with 4V heads and with a Moldex steel crank. Instead, Edsel Bryant Ford II got funding for a paint job and a few durability and tyre size mods. In an environment where the A9X had F5000 reciprocating durability parts, weight reduction body, Ford under did it for the next 26 years. Ford then knobbled the Holden winning streak with Project Blueprint. Holden lovers got all the ammunition in 78, and never looked back...
@@deanstevenson6527 Holden boys got all the ammunition fuck me. A smaller capacity engine up against the so called MIGHTY 351. The fact is a the Torana A9X was ALREADY a generation ahead of the ford land yachts who’s suspension dated back to the 50s
how good do the toranas and falcons sound
Thanks for this ! would you have any rounds of the Touring car championship from the group c days ?
I don't have anything that is not already up on other channels.
Tuffest looking race car ever Xc Cobra
Top shelf racing 👏👏👏
How good was the Slug?
Brocky was definitely invincible in this car💯😎my dad would get so dirty🤭
I wonder why this particular hour was missing from the archive?
In those days the race was recorded on several reels of 2 inch broadcast tapes. As time past some reels may have lost,taped over or damaged.
This is way 1976 1977 and 1978 races are missing parts of the telecast.
Well 76 I believe was the last Sportshour show hence as broadcast no one would have recorded it.
That is true but it is still missing about an hour before they have there break. They come back on air just as they are pushing Moffats Falcon to the back of the pits. The missing parts which was aired includes Brock running out of fuel on conrod and the first round of pit stops etc. Check the highlights on RUclips and you will see some of the lost footage.
@@michaeldawson735 also 77s replay includes a brief few minutes from the missing tapes as well
Furthermore the (1978) off-air includes more missing pre race pieces from after it returned from Hardies Heroes replay (which is where the off-air taper started taping). I think either 78 or 79 (I think its mainly 78) the off-air contains the pre-recorded driver interviews that featured during the broadcast.
A9X Torana the best car Australia produced...end of story💪💪
The LC XU1 Torana I feel is also up there too.
Nanas car 😂
I see Fords, Holdens, Mazdas, Datsuns, Toyotas, Chryslers. The modern Bathurst race is dull as fuck.
This is really good, is this the first 50 minutes of this 1978 race.
Robo's Super Channel do you have this whole 1978 race ?
It is available on DVD from CMS in much better quality than this upload. cmsmotorsport.com.au/shop/bathurst-1978-hardie-ferodo-1000/
At the end of 1977, Ford slashed their spending on motorsport, and Holden went "open cheque book"... the rest is history.
The gthos were the best racing cars ever at Bathurst. They just kicked arse. Holden's were no match.
Nice mate.Would be good if oneday AI could render all these old clips in 4K!
Getting to the same place in 2024, Yes nothing that twenty double b racing cars will not fix on the way to Bathurst
And Dick Johnson’s rock is lying in wait …on the bank somewhere ….about to pounce ….took a few years to pick the perfect time
can anyone upscale it? my machine can't handle it
Technically Moffat should of let the faster car past. Especially when he is 1 lap behind
Under the Supercar rules of today, because Moffat had pitted and Harvey had not, Moffat would not be shown the blue flag. Back in 1978 there was no obligation for Moffat to move over at all.
@@robossuperchannel9434 from my memory Moffat would of been under a BLUE FLAG to let the faster car past. Supercars of today are not as much ŕal racing as the pre 1980 cars
Maybe, but Moffat always put on a good show for the fans and his sponsors. Making Harvey battle it out for track position keeps it entertaining.
Technically, if the other car was faster it would have been able to get past by itself. It's racing, not keep left unless overtaking.
Holden should of been forced to race with the Kingswood, to even things up a bit. 😛
Ah the good old days of real production car racing rather than identical "cookie cutter" V8 supercars that are all the same and under the skin, just dressed up to look like different makes of production cars.
Shit allan was batting well above his average ,his wife looks beautiful
For sure.
Moffat was a good driver but a terrible sportsman
Why, because he was honest about things?
Moffat as usual being a mobile road block in the wallowing barge XC falcon. The mighty 308 A9X had no equal.. so superior it was laughable. Moffat would’ve been wrestling that boat while Harvey would’ve been laughing in his helmet. What’s even more hilarious is the so called mighty 351 getting OWNED up hill 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
full factory support helps, where Ford had cut their support of Moffat for 78.
@@daniellebcooper7160 Always the excuses Ive heard them all. Oh it was a lighter car blah blah blah. The fact is the two door falcon was a heavy lumbering dinosaur whose suspension and steering dated back to the 50s. No rack and pinion steering and brakes that would be lucky to do 10 hot laps before they were struggling. In 79 the first ford to finish was in 25 position as they all fell to the wayside under the relentless pressure of a field of A9Xs whose lap times couldn’t be matched. Only fools like moffat and Carter Johnson ect who’d spent YEARS and millions trying to get 351s to hang together for race distance hung on for the ford diehards to cars CLEARLY a generation behind the Torana in development. To prove my point the first 8 cars over the line in 79 were A9Xs and many were NOT factory backed. So your theory or EXCUSE goes out the window. The only reason the fords won in 77 is because the A9X was in early development and was brand new. As a footnote Brock’s last lap in 79 where he won by 6 laps was not broken until 1983 by Alan grice in a VH group 3 commodore. Meaning the A9X could’ve easily been used for 4 years without a challenger.
@@ToranaA9X308
The greatest comedy in Aust Touring Car Racing history is the ridiculous wallowing barge Falcon GT & the army of gronks who love them.
A whole bunch of these great clanking mechanical monsters called Ford Falcon XY GTHOs packed the front rows of the Bathurst grid in early October 1972. Moffat had a factory backed example sporting a race developed 351 Cleveland loaded with the latest Amercan high performance goodies including a flat tappet cam, race prepped Holley etc & a super duty close ratio reinforced TopLoader gearbox & the typical caveman Ford 9 Inch Diff with factory Detroit Locker guts.
By the time the chequered flag fell in the afternoon on that fateful Sunday every single one of those goomby Furd turdmobiles had been caught & overtaken by a teency little 6 cylinder Torana with a puny 202 red motor, Stromberg carbies, a little Aussie 4 speed gearbox & a tiny Holden Banjo diff.
The Falcons were packed full of big time US race technology junk. The little Torana was built out of 99% practical, durable, reliable & economical Australian made bits.
Any Australian who believes the Furd is a superior product to the locally developed Holden is best advised to sober up, get better medical help & to switch medications.
The Ford Falcon GT was a barge ideally suited to zombified slobs.
Moff had raced Hardtops since '73. He knew the very best recipe. Harry came up with the basic layout for the A9X & John Sheppard perfected it. After less than 18 months development time, no 351 Falcon could get anywhere near a sorted A9X as clearly demonstrated in both the '78 & '79 Bathurst events.
Moff had raced hardtops for over 5 years prior to Bathurst '78. These numbskulls who moan eternally about a lack of factory support for Moff in '78 like to deny the fact FORD GAVE MOFF THE CARS, THE ENGINES, THE SPARE PARTS, IN FACT... THE ENTIRE FORD AUST RACING TEAM AFTER BATHURST '77!
MOFF HAD PLENTY OF FACTORY SUPPORT! It just came via an alternate means.
The truth is: The A9X easily outgunned the Falcon GT, Ford could see this, so they grabbed their chequebook & hid under a rock leaving Moff to suffer all the embarrassment.
I never liked Moff. But, he was the greatest villain ever sent to fight our Holden racers & he did a damn good job acting the smarmyarse villain. Without Moff we would never have had all those years of fabulously exciting touring car racing. Moff arrived on the scene in '69 & at exactly the same time as Harry took on the HDT. Having Harry on our side & extremely capable Moff on the opposition side brought us the very best Touring Car Racing ever seen anywhere. We were extremely fortunate to live in a time where these two towering giants clobbered each other to bits with cars we basicly built here in Australia.
The LX Torana A9X optioned up with the prepollution L34 308 & Borg Warner T10 was so damn good, race organisers banned it for the 1980 season. Similar LX HatchBacks currently run with 5.0L Chev Power & with Holden 308s in Historic Categories & no megabuck Falcons can get anywhere near them. History records some 351 Falcons did win races. The A9X put an end to all that.
Long live the fabulous little V8 Torana & her rapid little sister; the GTR XU-1 which beat the best Falcon GTHOs on the day.
@@ToranaA9X308 ''Always the excuses Ive heard them all.''
@@ToranaA9X308 All youve done is back up what ive said. Ford fully supported Moffat in 77, Moffat won easily.
Then theres youre Golden excuse...*The only reason the fords won in 77 is because the A9X was in early development and was brand new.* (Always the excuses Ive heard them all )
Was the a9x brand new?...maybe to some it was. Except for the rear disk brakes and super T-10 gearbox, the Toranas were pretty much the same spec as 1976, with a years development done to them. And why did they get those two crucial upgrades?...because the factory had a race program.
In 1978 Ford had dramatically cut their funding, where as GMH boosted theirs. Ford brought out an homologation special with a couple of improvments to the chassis, but nothing like the toranas got.
In 1979 Ford completely dropped funding for motorsport and any development for those racing falcon coupes. GMH kept up its funding.
To prove my point even further...heres a quote from you>>>>*To prove my point the first 8 cars over the line in 79 were A9Xs and many were NOT factory backed.*