Greens Tuff Bathurst Model

[sarobinson]

I just found out that biante are making another greens tuff model but this time it's the bathurst car, which will be better than the one already made and will probably be even more wanted.

scott

[v8coupe]

Originally posted by sarobinson
I just found out that biante are making another greens tuff model but this time it's the bathurst car, which will be better than the one already made and will probably be even more wanted.

scott

Last one was a bathurst car. Have read on these forums in the past that there most likely will be another Greens Tuff, red roo etc, and I have heard it has more history related to it than the last.

[pdg666]

The Johnson-built XE Falcon made its debut in 1982 at the Oran Park endurance race before being campaigned by Dick Johnson and John French in the James Hardie 1000 that year. Still painted in Tru-Blu colours and signage, the XE Falcon started the annual Bathurst race at the front of the field and was among the leaders all day, the car crossing the line in fourth place. Where Dick Johnson had dominated the local touring car scene the year before, 1983 would prove to be a frustrating year for the small team. Now running Red Roo signage (another product of sponsor Palmer Tube Mills) the 1983 Australian Touring Car Championship was a disastrous exercise, the XE Falcon finishing sixth after missing a number of rounds. Now painted in its famous Greens Tuff colours, Dick Johnson and Kevin Bartlett debuted the 'new' car at the Australian Endurance Championship at Oran Park later that year, the car leading its first race in new livery until valuable time was lost in the pits with a stuck wheel bearing. This delay dropped the car to second place where it would eventually finish. Johnson and Bartlett teamed up once again for the annual James Hardie 1000 at Mt Panorama, but the original Greens Tuff Falcon would never seen the green light on race day. During the traditional run off for pole position in Hardies Heroes, Dick Johnson clipped the end of the Forrest Elbow wall. This broke the steering sending Johnson on a wild ride through the trees totally destroying the Falcon in what must be one of the most awesome accidents in The Mountain's history. But while many thought the spectacular exit would end Johnson's 1983 Bathurst campaign, a Greens Tuff Falcon was on the start line the next day. Testament to the Johnson team's commitment to The Great Race, the crew had worked through the night to transfer the internals from the wreck to another Falcon to give Johnson his chance at a third title. However, despite their best efforts, 1983 was not to be a victorious year at The Mountain for the Johnson camp with a blown fuse eventually sidelining the hastily prepared Falcon. A brand new Greens Tuff Falcon was built for the 1984 Australian Touring Car Championship and Johnson raced to his third National Title.

Cheers
Paul

[Graeme]

I know we've discussed Greens-Tuf previously, but just to clarify, Dick Johnson ran a green XE Falcon at Bathurst in 1983 and 1984.

The 1983 car featured "Greens-Tuf Steel Tubing" logos along both flanks whereas the 1984 car featured "Palmer Tube Mills" logos along both flanks.

As also reported, Dick's 1983 car was destroyed in the pre-race Top Ten shootout. That day another competitor, Andrew Harris, offered his #8 XE Falcon as a replacement. Yet another Queenslander, Barry Lawrence, offered his #27 VH Commodore to Dick's team. Ultimately, Harris' car was loaned to Dick Johnson and Lawrence's Commodore was purchased outright by Dick's sponsor, Ross Palmer, and then loaned to Harris. Both cars had to be repainted, but the Falcon was an ultra rush job as Dick's team updated the running gear from the wreck.

The signage on Dick's race car differed slightly from that of his crashed car as did the interior and underbonnet colours. Harris' Falcon was painted white with blue accents and a grey interior - it was only the outer panels that received the green repaint.

[Forbesy]

Just a question, how many laps did Dickie & KB last in the '83 event?

Cheers,

Forbesy

[ferrari fan]

63 laps:(

[Nick Short]

Which is better - the '83 or '84? I missed out on the '83...

[terrine]

thats like asking is the 83 grange better than the 84 grange
....both good vintages
....i was reading an article today which featured the 82 red roo XE.
on previous biante threads there has been discussion over the full wheel covers on the front of the released greenstuff model....

i noticed the red roo had wheel covers on all wheels...
......how about that

r/peter

[Graeme]

Nick, the 1983 model has not yet been released, so you haven't missed out on that one !!

It's interesting that Dick was still permitted to start the 1983 car from tenth on the grid when one could argue he shouldn't have been as it wasn't the car he practiced. As a matter of interest, Johnson's Friday practice time was 2:16.3 and Harris' was 2:24.0.
Nevertheless, in the race it was to be a case of losing places and not the other way round.

During it's run in the race, Dick was quoted as saying of the replacement car "It's such a dog we should have tied it to the fence and left it there". He was in fourteenth place when he made his first pitstop at lap 23.

A little over one hour into the race Dick came in again with the car suffering electrical woes. The problem was more than a blown fuse, as the battery had gone flat and with it the electric oil pump for the gearbox had stopped, threatening gearbox seizure. After six minutes in the pits, Bartlett took over with a new battery onboard.

The car continued to circulate although losing time in pitstops until about just over four hours into the race, when Dick brought the car into the pits with gearbox failure, caused by the ongoing electrical shorting fault affecting the electric oil pump. The car had only completed 61 laps in that period of time.

In 1984, Dick was running well from the beginning although on the wrong compound tyres for the warmer than expected weather. He was running second, only 14 odd seconds behind Brock at the time of his noon pitstop.

At lap 47 Johnson, who was yet to change drivers, passed Perkins ( in Brock's car ) for the lead. After 66 laps down, Johnson pitted to hand over to co-driver John French. Ten minutes later, Perkins pitted to hand the Commodore back to Brock.

French was not able to maintain pace with Brock and slipped further away in second place. Around 80 minutes later, French pitted to hand back to Johnson with Brock about half a lap in front. The great chase was on but within a few minutes, on lap 101, it was over when Johnson's car stopped with fuel pickup problems.

However, the car was trucked back to the pits and repaired, the offending item being a fuel pressure regulator valve. Dick then set off again and gave the car a pounding in catch up ....perhaps he tried too hard as on his 107th lap the car broke a rear axle whilst running in 15th place and improving. That was the end of Dick's 1984 race at around 3:15pm.

[ferrari fan]

in the book of australian motorsport 83-84 it is stated that he did the abovementioned laps .
Who is correct?:confused:

[Rascot]

Just looking at the new model show room and under Biante prototypes is a picture of the Johnson/Bartlett 1983 Bathurst Greens Tuf XE. Top looking model but no trees.

[the_goldie]

Hey Admin,

This model is a little too straight hehehe :D Might need to put a few dents and creases in it - what do you think?

I wonder how many people who have spare time on their hands will set up a replica of the crash scene?

Looks pretty good!

[Nick Short]

Just had a look at the XE and I WANT ONE! Very badly....I'm not so sorry I missed the other Greens Tuf now! What a great looking model.

[Renz Man]

I agree - it looks like a teriffic model (coming from a Holden man!).

I think it'll being interesting to watch how this one goes in the popularity stakes with collectors, seeing as there is similar 'Greens-Tuff' out there. I think there may be a number of people who pick this one up becasue they missed out on the first one & cannot justify the high price commanded now. Also, will this second release bring the high price for the 'original' down?? Time will tell on both cases I guess.

And for the record I don't have the original 'Greens-Tuff', & will not get the second generation either (2 Brock models due)!:)

[Graeme]

Very interesting !!

I've just visited the New Model Showroom, and for those of you, like me, who need to know.....

.....Biante have chosen to model the car that Dick crashed during the Top Ten ( Hardies Heroes ) run on the Saturday, rather than model the car that he ran in the race.

[brchi17]

I wonder how many more DJR XE we will see.
At present there has been the 1984 Bathurst Car (Last of the 'Big Bangers' Group C) and now it appears the tree model of 83 is comming. Its' also been stated in the forum, that the Red Roo XE of Late 82 is comming early next year.

I wonder if Biante will release the ATCC winning car of 1984 ?
cheers.

[XR8]

Originally posted by brchi17
I wonder how many more DJR XE we will see.
At present there has been the 1984 Bathurst Car (Last of the 'Big Bangers' Group C) and now it appears the tree model of 83 is comming. Its' also been stated in the forum, that the Red Roo XE of Late 82 is comming early next year.

I wonder if Biante will release the ATCC winning car of 1984 ?
cheers.

The three cars mentioned above all have differing paint schemes,
and I think that is fair enough reason to bring them out.
I don't think the 1984 Bathurst car is too much different to the ATCC car, so it would really be a waste do so..

I love my Fords, but I don't want to see the same thing that's happened with the Commodores and particular teams..
I don't know how anyone can afford to get them all!!!!

The best way I believe that Biante can get their money back with the development of both the XD and XE race cars, is to produce replicas' of the other cars raced. There are at least a dozen of different cars to choose from, some more colourful than others.

I'd really like to see some of the other cars done, as they too deserve their place in our collections of Australian Group C cars.

What about a Group C collection???

This would then include other classic cars such as the RX7, Bluebird, Jaguar and others I can't remember!!!

I do realise this subject has been raised before, and I know I have contributed to it in the past.
It really does deserve considerable thought by those involved in building / deciding what cars we get!!!

Think about it, for Commodore and Falcon Group C cars, there would need to be 4 models done, the XD, XE and VB/VC and VK Commodores.. We already have the Fords, so the Commodores wouldn't be that hard to do. The VB and VC Commodores are virtually identical, save for minor grille and tail light changes.
The VK would require another model, due to the extra quarter glass window at the rear.

How easy is that!!!!

Ed :)

[brchi17]

Fair call Ed.
As i said it was only a thought and i personally would love to have all of DJ's ATCC winning cars lined up in a cabnet some day.
Your Group C Collections sounds good, however i had a feeling that the Jaguars (TWR ones i assume) you mention were raced in 1985, which was the first year of the new Group A era.
As i said it was justa though,
Cheers.

[ferrari fan]

It is in my book correct that biante models the DJR build car (treetrunktruck) as the other one hastely knocked up literarly overnicht was not the real item.
I for one hope that the silly price on the first issue is going down to a more realistic level.
The new to be released Nissan and also the Moffat Mazda plus the V(b/k) group C big bangers are being looked forward to by this ferrari fan

[Graeme]

I know we started on Dick's GREENS-TUF and transgressed a little.

Ed was right, there was a GROUP C Jaguar, driven by John Goss at Bathurst in 1980, 81,82 and lastly in 1984 when it was involved in the startline melee.

As for the Commodores, you all seem to have forgotten that it was the VH model that featured prominently in the Bathurst races of 1982 and 1983, so now we're looking at three body types, as the aero kits also varied between VB/VC, VH and VK.

[XR8]

Oopsss......
Yes I did forget the VH Commodore.....
Regarding the comment made about its aero kit, I've just
had a look through my Australian Touring Car Book to refresh my memory cells...
The kit really isn't all that different to the other early Commodores, and the body is the same as well.

Either way, it should be a simple task for our master craftsmen making the cars!!!

As for the original issue of DJR Greenstuf, at the end of the day, if it's made, I will buy it.
There can't ever be enough DJR memorabillia, provided it stands out for it's merits and we don't double up for the sake of it.

Ed :)

[loste_treasures]

if i can recall correctly....

the group c commodore, namely the HDT variety were in marlboro colours????

i dont think they would get licensing rights because of this. still it would make an excellent addition.....

[Nick Short]

If Biante are planning to make Brock's '79 A9X then it should be OK to make the Commodore (another twin set?).....Clearly, as long as the word "Marlboro" doesn't appear you can plaster the car in orange Marlboro chevrons and everybody's happy!