Yeh agree. Top bloke. Met him at Calder in 2000 in the commentary box along with Greg Rust and Mark Oastler. He was such a cool bloke to chat to. I was doing some media work experience with ch 10
Race cars on their own are expensive but historically accurate representation rebuilt is something that i just assumed was big money behind this channel Seeing the car sitting in a home garage was pretty crazy i bet you got neighbours coming to say hi
Lovely video brother. This is my first time coming across this project however I'm now eagerly along for the rest of the journey! 🙂I was born in 01' so this car is before my time. But watching those clips of it tearing around tracks was awesome. What a beautiful weapon and how fortunate you are to have such a historical car to bring back to life. I hope the journey is great fun and you feel accomplished once it's in a state you're happy with. Best of luck and I'll be here watching your updates as they come!
Awesome, ALL your updates are welcome and brilliantly presented and the quality of the video work matches the quality of the restoration, exemplar stuff, and I agree with all the others, it would be great when Car 31 runs again in anger and a re-uniting with the Ellery family would be bloody brilliant. Thanks again
what i would give to drive this thing, even just puttering it between a garage and a dummy grid! absolutely insane work you have done to bring this car back to essentially what looks like concours condition. absolutely stellar effort. i will be keen to see the same thing happen to FTR 3 in due course!
I was at Bathurst in 1999, AWESOME ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! Steve Ellery drove with DJR one year around 1999 can not remember the exact year. Good to see these cars still around, always Loved watching Marcos Ambrose Pirtek Falcon, he enjoyed many many good race wins over the years before going to USA The Ford 5.0ltr cylinder heads had better breathing than GM engine! ( I heard that during the racing at the time. )
I wasc at an auction in 2000 (ish) where a couiple of ride experience AU's were being disposed of. But amongst the stuff being auctioned off was a EA falcon race car ,90% complete having lost its engine and trans. It was listed as a shell car...not a Shell car as i think it was. Bob Romano was one of the bidders and I think he shared the same thoughts as i did,It was a johnson car originally.
I know the auction and i know the cars. The car was an EF updated to EL specs. It was an Ex Castrol (Longhurst built) car, chassis LR0195.The Shell/DJR error was likely due to the fact the drive experience cars were originally liveried as Shell Helix #17 cars and the V8 Experience business had been associated with DJR in earlier days, but the Supercar was definitely an ex Longhurst/Ex Colourscan car.
My favourite model of Ford is the au it just sucks that watching all the old races they only won like 20 odd races in 4 seasons but it's still my favourite era to watch
I miss those days of racing, right up to the last of the B Series Falcons; at least you could still go to a dealer & buy something that still had the same basic floorpan. I long for the ATCC, Group A & B days; different car brands, varying engines and the best drivers in the world at the time. Once Project Bluprint & the space frame crap started, racing was never the same
Awesome video, and appreciate the effort of all the history on the car, great content keep up the great work, Merry Christmas to you and your family and all the best for 2025, thank you for the videos and entertainment in 2024, Cheers 🍻 KC 🇦🇺🏔🪃🦘🤝🇦🇺🪃🦘🦘🎄🧑🎄🤶🎅🎄
Really neat thing with the bellhousing and oil tank combined. Was this something common on those cars back then? I did some googling but couldn’t come up with anything. Great restoration!
@@LS3TimeAttackMiata thanks for your support mate. A few teams ran this system, but mostly had an oil tank in the boot. Is makes changing the clutch a lot harder! 👍
@ I can imagine servicing anything clutch related would be a bear. But keeps all the weight nice and low and centered in the car. Looks like they have a long input shaft, is there a support bearing in the middle of the input shaft as it passes through the tank?
Absolute brilliant effort bringing this AU back from BA eww puke, keep the vids coming, this is very interesting. Good old growling Windsor, just gotta love it. I'm proud of you for going to such extreme.
this might be a stupid question, but could you drive one of these on the road with a permit or could you get it registered? as an awesome example of aussie racing history it would be great to see these driving around or at meet ups.
@@Lightning_aus no chance unfortunately, they aren’t roadworthy and way too low to move around without getting beached everywhere. I agree it would be awesome to see one fly past on the way to pick up the milk 👍😊
@V8SupercarResto Ahh yea, I was more so asking about back in its day! I'm an au tragic myself and the late 90s early 2000s were tuff. I was always very eager eyed when it came to all the Ford runners and any improvement in their performance. Dicks Au's at Bathurst in 2000 I believe was something else, they were absolutely steam trains. However I never really spotted the Ellery car as being such a grunter. Do you know whom supplied them with engines or if it was in house...
@ ah ok sorry mate. There is a video uploaded on the engine- the car was built from an Alan Jones Racing EL (early stone brothers) so it’s all AJR/SBR Gear. The car has engine AJR965 in it, the original engine it was log booked with back in 2000 👍😊
Why did the AU struggle to win races? It was a big deal at the time. I vaguely remember them complaining that the falcons had what I thought was a macpherson strut front and the commodore had a double wishbone, but watching your series I realised the falcon has a double wishbone front so that theory I had remembered from a commentator I must have remembered wrong? Was it something to do with the suspension and not being able to change it?
@@dandewar8403 I think it was down to tyre wear from the aero the au was a fast car but always used its tires more then the Holden's I think they change it in the mid 2000 season and there where a few more wins the following races untill 02 where I think skaife won like 80%
It seems like too much rear aero and not enough front aero! Ford were not allowed to run the original front undertray they designed (this only ran at Australian GP 1999 and never again, however it's not like the AU Falcons were faster at that meeting) and were told to use an EL Falcon undertray from then on up mid-2000 when it changed to the Commodore front bar. You can tell the original spec AU front bar as the brake duct inlets are a little lower in the air intake, a bit more like an EL, compared to the 1999-mid 2000 AU front bar. The original AU front bar is pictured in the 1999 FTR launch photos as well as the race program for the 1999 Adelaide 500. There's no indicator cutout on the original AU front bar, then there was one on the main spec that was raced and then no indicator again on the TEGA Commodore front bar for the AU. There was even an extended front undertray added to the AU Falcon in 2003 (when it didn't matter anymore...), you can see some of the Larkham AUs from 2003 with the extended front splitter tacked on. [I'm not sure if FPR ran it on the Seton and Besnard AUs in 2003, it's hard to find photos nowadays.]
"Was it something to do with the suspension and not being able to change it?" Definitely not the suspension! Larry Perkins always wanted the same suspension as the Falcon -- double wishbones in the front and longer trailing arms in the rear -- and he eventually got it with the VY Commodore. The Group A and VP Commodore had much shorter trailing arms than the Falcon (in the EB Falcon, the diff upper links went nearly to the B-pillar!) and Holden Motorsport had advocated for that on the VR Commodore (which would have required all the VR Commodores to be brand new shells) but they were knocked back and told the the VR Commodore had to be a converted VP Commodore with the same running gear. There was more talk of it with the VT Commodore, including Ron Harrop wanting the double wishbone Falcon front-end for the VT, but it seems like the diff links were increased in length a bit but the VT still used the same VP-VS strut front end. It was only with the VY Commodore that the Commodore got exactly the same suspension layout as the Falcon. It's why 888 switch from Falcons to Commodores in 2010 would have been fairly straight-forward as all the running gear like the suspension would be exactly the same -- apart from the engines, although by this time Holden were using the "Holden Motorsport" engine which is essentially the same as a Ford Windsor (e.g., evenly spaced exhaust ports) and different to a normal Chevy small block V8 as they wanted that difference removed as well! You had this interesting situation where people still using the carryover 18-degree Chev small block were still allowed to use lightweight engine parts (contributing to Murphy's lap of the Gods for example?) while those running Windsors or the Holden Motorsport engine had to meet minimum weights for pistons and conrods and so on that were introduced in 2003.
I chalk it down to Ford putting eff all money into the sport as their main focus at the time was F1 and the Zetec project, Ford was willing to pull out of NASCAR at the time to see results in Europe, they failed miserably and pulled out of F1 completely further resulting in liquidating investments all over the world including Ford Australia
@@Joelontugs it’s very difficult. We wanted to run race used spares if possible as applied to reproductions. They are still out there, but very hard to find.👍
This is the final good era before project blueprint, built from a falcon road car. Well done! from a diehard holden fella.
@@ucwepn thanks for your support mate, you never know, if we keep it up we may be able to convert you to the blue side… 😂
Who else misses Barry sheen in the com box
Yeh agree. Top bloke. Met him at Calder in 2000 in the commentary box along with Greg Rust and Mark Oastler. He was such a cool bloke to chat to.
I was doing some media work experience with ch 10
@@BJ-jt7bz I’m with you there mate 👍
Oh shit, I think I'm friends with his daughter
Was Barry a footy player or something
Maybe Essendon or are the footballs sheen I have no idea
100% agree
It's never been the same since
Amazing job on the restoration. Love the old tin tops.
@@LukeAshton-u5h thanks mate 👍
Race cars on their own are expensive
but historically accurate representation rebuilt is something that i just assumed was big money behind this channel
Seeing the car sitting in a home garage was pretty crazy i bet you got neighbours coming to say hi
@@NickTaylorRickPowers it’s a low budget operation mate, one man band with the occasional help but it’s half the fun 👍
seeing that old v8 supercars logo again is really special
@@michaeljamesm the good old days! 👍
Incredible story, and an incredible restoration so far. Well done on this classic of Australian automotive history.
@@mattw1730 thanks for your support mate, it has an interesting story to tell! 👍
Looks beautiful man I miss the 2002 racing era
Thats a piece of history right there, the man with the worlds longest head used to race that car.
@@falconmclenny7284 it’s all history worth preserving 👍
We use to go to the Clipsal 500 every year, and the early 2000's Ellery Falcon was always the best sounding car there
@@Dylan-180 the twin pipes made it sing! 👍
Looking forward to seeing you out on the track! Great story and love to see the detail put in
@@toddscars thanks mate 👍
This is awesome I love the AU and to see you guys restoring the car back to original is amazing keep the good work up and all the best for 2025.
@@Tickford97 thanks mate, all the best for the new year 👍😊
God these days were good with thruster sheene and oastler in the box , rpm on ten to keep us up to date and interested and sick race cars
@@markreid56 we didn’t know how good we had it in the 2000’s 👍
Lovely video brother. This is my first time coming across this project however I'm now eagerly along for the rest of the journey! 🙂I was born in 01' so this car is before my time. But watching those clips of it tearing around tracks was awesome. What a beautiful weapon and how fortunate you are to have such a historical car to bring back to life.
I hope the journey is great fun and you feel accomplished once it's in a state you're happy with. Best of luck and I'll be here watching your updates as they come!
@@timothyjn100 thanks for your kind words and support mate 👍😊
Awesome, ALL your updates are welcome and brilliantly presented and the quality of the video work matches the quality of the restoration, exemplar stuff, and I agree with all the others, it would be great when Car 31 runs again in anger and a re-uniting with the Ellery family would be bloody brilliant. Thanks again
@@MarkJBWalton thanks for your support mate. I have no idea what I’m doing with the content side of things but learning as I go…
Thanks again👍😊
what i would give to drive this thing, even just puttering it between a garage and a dummy grid! absolutely insane work you have done to bring this car back to essentially what looks like concours condition. absolutely stellar effort. i will be keen to see the same thing happen to FTR 3 in due course!
@@nathanhigginson6256 let’s hope FTR3 comes up as well 👍
I was at Bathurst in 1999, AWESOME ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! Steve Ellery drove with DJR one year around 1999 can not remember the exact year. Good to see these cars still around, always Loved watching Marcos Ambrose Pirtek Falcon, he enjoyed many many good race wins over the years before going to USA
The Ford 5.0ltr cylinder heads had better breathing than GM engine! ( I heard that during the racing at the time. )
@@barryphillips7098 you are right mate, ellery was with DJR in 1999 and in this car for 2000 👍
@@V8SupercarResto Great job restoring this car i hope others have been 'saved' too!! Their value will quite high i imagine!!
I wasc at an auction in 2000 (ish) where a couiple of ride experience AU's were being disposed of. But amongst the stuff being auctioned off was a EA falcon race car ,90% complete having lost its engine and trans. It was listed as a shell car...not a Shell car as i think it was. Bob Romano was one of the bidders and I think he shared the same thoughts as i did,It was a johnson car originally.
I know the auction and i know the cars. The car was an EF updated to EL specs. It was an Ex Castrol (Longhurst built) car, chassis LR0195.The Shell/DJR error was likely due to the fact the drive experience cars were originally liveried as Shell Helix #17 cars and the V8 Experience business had been associated with DJR in earlier days, but the Supercar was definitely an ex Longhurst/Ex Colourscan car.
@@Mercmad it would be great to go back in time and snap more of those cars up, especially at the prices at the time! 👍
Back when you could simply watch V8 Supercars on TV without a subscription service
Steven Ellery and Mark Skaife were some of the most legendary V8 Supercar Drivers.
@@demanrunner847 they could steer!
They did more than steer! They fukn sent it!
Nice work…from New Zealand.
@@garrieclark24 thanks for your support 👍
Great channel ,love seeing your progress on these great race cars,keep the good work up ,the AU is certainly worth it 👌
@@mrfrdman Thankyou mate for your support. 👍😊
Thanks for another great and informative video - l thoroughly enjoy your content.
@@davidlemottee100 thanks for your support mate 👍
My favourite model of Ford is the au it just sucks that watching all the old races they only won like 20 odd races in 4 seasons but it's still my favourite era to watch
@@KBEXAU there weren’t too many wins for the AU that’s for sure 👍
Beautiful restoration
@@CW-yp9jo thanks mate 👍
I miss those days of racing, right up to the last of the B Series Falcons; at least you could still go to a dealer & buy something that still had the same basic floorpan.
I long for the ATCC, Group A & B days; different car brands, varying engines and the best drivers in the world at the time.
Once Project Bluprint & the space frame crap started, racing was never the same
@@maxrockatanksyOG it’s cool you can still get genuine NOS to restore these cars 👍
Great video and project. Subscribed!
@@carlbentley80 thanks mate 👍😊
Awesome video, and appreciate the effort of all the history on the car, great content keep up the great work, Merry Christmas to you and your family and all the best for 2025, thank you for the videos and entertainment in 2024, Cheers 🍻 KC 🇦🇺🏔🪃🦘🤝🇦🇺🪃🦘🦘🎄🧑🎄🤶🎅🎄
@@MetalMania3DTV-TAS-AUS thanks for your kind words and support mate. All the best! 👍😊
@V8SupercarResto you're welcome and thankyou ☺️ 😊
There’s John Bowe’s CAT V8 Supercar for sale on Carsales right now. Going for about $350k
Really neat thing with the bellhousing and oil tank combined. Was this something common on those cars back then? I did some googling but couldn’t come up with anything. Great restoration!
@@LS3TimeAttackMiata thanks for your support mate. A few teams ran this system, but mostly had an oil tank in the boot. Is makes changing the clutch a lot harder! 👍
@ I can imagine servicing anything clutch related would be a bear. But keeps all the weight nice and low and centered in the car. Looks like they have a long input shaft, is there a support bearing in the middle of the input shaft as it passes through the tank?
@ no mate, it’s not supported at all
Great work
@@paulblack1959 thanks mate 👍
Well done mate.
@@cameronjohnston5748 thanks for your support mate 👍
Great job, well done.
@@howardwilliams7399 thanks mate 👍
...awesome job, thanks very much for sharing
@@Pauleyjh thanks for your support mate 👍
When watching v8 supercars was exciting, now it's boring cause it's not ford & Holden's anymore .
@@malcolmhector2641 it was a great era that’s for sure
Good on ya mate
bloodhoung gang is so iconic for the era 😂
@@sfelton8943 it’s simply not the early 2000’s without it 👍😂
Thanks for the update. I was wondering if you fixed the vacuum leak with the airbox?
@@beyondcitylimits not yet mate, hopefully over Christmas!
Thanks for your support 👍
Absolute brilliant effort bringing this AU back from BA eww puke, keep the vids coming, this is very interesting. Good old growling Windsor, just gotta love it. I'm proud of you for going to such extreme.
@@JAStheACE thanks for your support mate 👍
Hey mate. I have a Rebel version. Do you have any suggestions on how to get sponsors to restore it?
There are less than 100 left.
@@Nibbly_Bits I’m not too sure what you mean sorry mate….
this might be a stupid question, but could you drive one of these on the road with a permit or could you get it registered? as an awesome example of aussie racing history it would be great to see these driving around or at meet ups.
@@Lightning_aus no chance unfortunately, they aren’t roadworthy and way too low to move around without getting beached everywhere. I agree it would be awesome to see one fly past on the way to pick up the milk 👍😊
@V8SupercarResto I should have guessed, since the government defects you for a stock exhaust nowadays 😂
Cool video dude 👍 who was responsible for the engine building/performance?
@@justin3131ify it’s all in house at the minute, with a little help along the way. It will be shipped off when it’s time for a full tune up
@V8SupercarResto Ahh yea, I was more so asking about back in its day! I'm an au tragic myself and the late 90s early 2000s were tuff. I was always very eager eyed when it came to all the Ford runners and any improvement in their performance. Dicks Au's at Bathurst in 2000 I believe was something else, they were absolutely steam trains. However I never really spotted the Ellery car as being such a grunter. Do you know whom supplied them with engines or if it was in house...
@ ah ok sorry mate. There is a video uploaded on the engine- the car was built from an Alan Jones Racing EL (early stone brothers) so it’s all AJR/SBR Gear. The car has engine AJR965 in it, the original engine it was log booked with back in 2000 👍😊
@@V8SupercarResto yeah that explains it, I can recall the pack leader ef of aj's having some good snort under the bonnet
Why did the AU struggle to win races? It was a big deal at the time.
I vaguely remember them complaining that the falcons had what I thought was a macpherson strut front and the commodore had a double wishbone, but watching your series I realised the falcon has a double wishbone front so that theory I had remembered from a commentator I must have remembered wrong?
Was it something to do with the suspension and not being able to change it?
@@dandewar8403 I think it was down to tyre wear from the aero the au was a fast car but always used its tires more then the Holden's I think they change it in the mid 2000 season and there where a few more wins the following races untill 02 where I think skaife won like 80%
It seems like too much rear aero and not enough front aero! Ford were not allowed to run the original front undertray they designed (this only ran at Australian GP 1999 and never again, however it's not like the AU Falcons were faster at that meeting) and were told to use an EL Falcon undertray from then on up mid-2000 when it changed to the Commodore front bar.
You can tell the original spec AU front bar as the brake duct inlets are a little lower in the air intake, a bit more like an EL, compared to the 1999-mid 2000 AU front bar. The original AU front bar is pictured in the 1999 FTR launch photos as well as the race program for the 1999 Adelaide 500. There's no indicator cutout on the original AU front bar, then there was one on the main spec that was raced and then no indicator again on the TEGA Commodore front bar for the AU.
There was even an extended front undertray added to the AU Falcon in 2003 (when it didn't matter anymore...), you can see some of the Larkham AUs from 2003 with the extended front splitter tacked on. [I'm not sure if FPR ran it on the Seton and Besnard AUs in 2003, it's hard to find photos nowadays.]
"Was it something to do with the suspension and not being able to change it?" Definitely not the suspension! Larry Perkins always wanted the same suspension as the Falcon -- double wishbones in the front and longer trailing arms in the rear -- and he eventually got it with the VY Commodore.
The Group A and VP Commodore had much shorter trailing arms than the Falcon (in the EB Falcon, the diff upper links went nearly to the B-pillar!) and Holden Motorsport had advocated for that on the VR Commodore (which would have required all the VR Commodores to be brand new shells) but they were knocked back and told the the VR Commodore had to be a converted VP Commodore with the same running gear.
There was more talk of it with the VT Commodore, including Ron Harrop wanting the double wishbone Falcon front-end for the VT, but it seems like the diff links were increased in length a bit but the VT still used the same VP-VS strut front end. It was only with the VY Commodore that the Commodore got exactly the same suspension layout as the Falcon.
It's why 888 switch from Falcons to Commodores in 2010 would have been fairly straight-forward as all the running gear like the suspension would be exactly the same -- apart from the engines, although by this time Holden were using the "Holden Motorsport" engine which is essentially the same as a Ford Windsor (e.g., evenly spaced exhaust ports) and different to a normal Chevy small block V8 as they wanted that difference removed as well!
You had this interesting situation where people still using the carryover 18-degree Chev small block were still allowed to use lightweight engine parts (contributing to Murphy's lap of the Gods for example?) while those running Windsors or the Holden Motorsport engine had to meet minimum weights for pistons and conrods and so on that were introduced in 2003.
@@TassieLorenzo Great details! 👍
I chalk it down to Ford putting eff all money into the sport as their main focus at the time was F1 and the Zetec project, Ford was willing to pull out of NASCAR at the time to see results in Europe, they failed miserably and pulled out of F1 completely further resulting in liquidating investments all over the world including Ford Australia
Hey if they're busy, I'd happily drive it.
@@pirrracy that’s a generous offer mate! 👍😊
was it my105?
@@fillman86 no it wasn’t mate 👍
@@V8SupercarResto oh, I watched the whole video, I must have missed the site
Where do you find parts is the real question
@@Joelontugs it’s very difficult. We wanted to run race used spares if possible as applied to reproductions. They are still out there, but very hard to find.👍
Thats an important win beating scaiffe at sandown....
@@philipbrown2514 it’s a memorable one for sure 👍
@V8SupercarResto will remind him if I see him too
personally off my uncle Wayne Russell an cousins drew n arron
@@nmon9402 very sad news from the Russell’s recently 😔
What category does this fit in now?? I must have missed that bit?
@@AnyoneSeenMikeHunt there was several classes it can run in, hopefully historical soon! 👍
@@V8SupercarResto Cool. I'll keep an eye out. 👍
How much you didn't say? Where did you buy it.....
@@oldhobomanl1747 it was purchased after the failed auction and the listing is shown at the start of the video 👍
Back when we use to have real cars around here.
...anybody got an old race VR or VS Commodore for sale ?
PE18 is up for sale
@@Pauleyjh they a hard to come by now mate in that era 👍
Definitely seems like it was built on a Wednesday, au's never really get love like other gens get
@@jxpd7898 they are getting more desired as they get older - like a fine wine! 😂
Stuck it up Skaife
But, its a ford.
What a waste of money.
@@alexaitken9444 Each to their own 👍
Start by being a millionaire
@@NickGreiner1988 I wish! Buy them run down, do the work yourself and it’s surprisingly affordable 👍😊
I’d love to see the BJR John Bowe 888 ozemail racing au
@Bims-t5b that was a nice looking car in the black
@ yeah light green and black are my favorite colours and I love the au falcon and 2000s v8 supercars in general