After Bob Jane badly damaged his first Mustang at Catalina, he quickly needed a replacement car to continue racing and chose the newly announced 1967 390GT big block Mustang. He successfully debuted the car at Calder Park on the 19th of March 1967, with two 2nd places. Two weeks later, the car was raced at the Easter Bathurst meeting in 1967 at the Touring Car Gold Cup, finishing 1st in two races and 2nd in the other.
The full race history is listed below with hyperlinks to photos or videos of that specific race meeting. The car competed in the 1967 (Bob Jane), 1968 (Bob Jane) and 1970 (Chris Brauer) Australian Touring Car Championships.
Bob Jane wanted the most powerful Mustang that he could buy from Ford, and in 1967, that was the 390GT quoted at 320hp from the factory. When decoding the VIN number details, the car left the factory as a Raven Black 390 4v V8 GT with standard interior, a 3.25:1 limited slip diff and 4 speed manual toploader gearbox.
When it arrived in Australia, the typical race preparation of the day was performed under the improved production regulations and of course, was painted the famous Bob Jane red with the yellow stripe (the two colours separated by gold pin striping).
The car was issued with CAMS logbook #257 and details the specifications of the 390 big block engine - the only Mustang to ever race and be log booked in Australia with a 390. Wheel sizes were specified as 9.20x15 front and rear and the final drive ratio specified was 4.11:1.
On the 3rd of November, 1967, Bob Jane racing applied for a second log book for the car to allow a 289 engine to be fitted. On the 26th of January, 1968, CAMS log book 521 was issued to reflect this change. All other specifications remained the same, including wheel size.
The 289 featured mechanical fuel injection and was considerably lighter and probably made more power than the 390 big block.
19-3-1967 Calder - Bob Jane #6
Debut race meeting. Two second places behind Norm Beechey’s Chev Nova.
27-3-1967 Bathurst – Bob Jane #7
14-5-1967 Warwick Farm - Bob Jane #2
11-6-1967 Warwick Farm - Bob Jane #7
2-7-1967 Oran Park – Bob Jane #87
-7-1967 Warwick Farm – Bob Jane #3
30-7-1967 Lakeside - Bob Jane #6
1967 Australian Touring Car Championship race. Retired Lap 2- gear box failure
-11-1967 Sandown - Bob Jane #
3-12-1967 Warwick Farm - Bob Jane #2
18-2-1968 Warwick Farm – Bob Jane #2 (First race meeting with the new 289 engine)
25-2-1968 Sandown – Bob Jane #6
24-3-1968 Calder – Bob Jane #6
5-5-1968 Warwick Farm – Bob Jane #3
8-9-1968 Warwick Farm - Bob Jane #7
1968 Australian Touring Car Championship race. Qualified 3rd, engine blew up Lap 9
1-12-1968 Warwick Farm - Bob Jane
29-12-1968 Hume Weir – Bob Jane #5
16-2-1969 Sandown – Bob Jane #1
4-5-1969 Warwick Farm – John Harvey #1
25-5-1969 Calder - John Harvey #7
16-6-1969 Mallala - John Harvey #7
13-7-1969 Warwick Farm – John Harvey #2
7-9-1969 Warwick Farm – Chris Brauer #4
21-9-1969 Oran Park - Chris Brauer #48
6-12-1969 Warwick Farm - Chris Brauer #4
13-12-1969 Oran Park - Chris Brauer #4
3-1-1970 Oran Park – Chris Brauer #2
15-2-1970 Warwick Farm – Chris Brauer #4
8-3-1970 Lakeside- Chris Brauer #5
30-3-1970 Bathurst - Chris Brauer #11
1970 Australian Touring Car Championship Round 2
12-4-1970 Oran Park - Chris Brauer #2
3-5-1970 Warwick Farm – Chris Brauer #2
17-5-1970 Oran Park – Chris Brauer #2
28-6-1970 Oran Park – Chris Brauer #2
12-7-1970 Warwick Farm - Chris Brauer #10
1970 Australian Touring Car Championship Round 5
26-7-1970 Lakeside - Chris Brauer #6
1970 Australian Touring Car Championship Round 6
During the last round of the 1970 Australian Touring Car Championship held at Lakeside (Queensland, Australia), the car was badly crashed by Chris Brauer, which ended the racing career of Chris and also the circuit racing career of the car- until now.
Following the nasty crash at Lakeside, the car was sold by Brauer and was repaired by Trevor Pollock. I am very fortunate to have three photographs of the car being repaired.
The car then went on to Dale Button, who built the car up as a very competitive speedway car. He successfully campaigned at tracks in Victoria and South Australia from 1971 to 1976.
The freshly built speedway car
The end of the speedway career
At the end of the Mustang's speedway career in 1976, Dale Button gave the car to his longtime friend, Stuart Douglas, who retained the car until 1998.
In 1998, prominent Australian collector David Bowden began a search for the car and via Steve Cahun, acquired the remains of the car. By this stage, most of the mechanicals were long gone and the body was pretty average to say the least!
David Bowden retained the remains of the car until 2015 when it was sold to historic racer Terry Lawlor. With the help of Chad Parish, Terry commenced the restoration of the car complete with a new 390 big block engine.
In 2018, Terry Lawlor sold the car to Gavin King of Concours Sportscar Restoration. Still with the assistance of Chad Parish, the restoration continued. Gavin entrusted his good friend Brad Tilley with the engineering and supply of all the mechanical components. Meticulous attention to quality and detail, along with research and focus, was the aim to faithfully restore the car to the specification that Bob Jane debuted the car at Bathurst way back in 1967.
Body: Restored using as much of the original car that was salvageable. Seam welded, CAMS and FIA roll cage installed and finished in the correct unique Bob Jane red (or orange to some) with the yellow stripe. Work completed by Concours Sportscar Restoration (NSW, Australia)
Engine: A period correct 390 big block engine was sourced and built by John Garutti of Cobra Automotive (Connecticut, USA) producing 500hp.
Gearbox: Ford Toplader
Differential: Ford 9in limited slip by Race Products (Brisbane, Queensland)
Suspension, brakes and steering: All upgraded to CAMS Historic Group N regulations by Brad Tilley (Sydney, NSW)
Wheels/tyres: Currently 15x8 replicas of original wheels used in period with Hoosier 8.50 x 15 front and 10.0 x 15 rear.
Misc: CAMS and FIA approved race seat, 6 point harness and quick release steering wheel. FIA approved fuel cell by Pyrotect (USA). PWR alloy radiator.
Copyright © 2023 Bob Jane 1967 390GT Mustang - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.