Colin Bond | Part 1 - Discovering Motorsport and the power of throttle control

A Listener production.

I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust, and this is Rusty's Garage.

For this episode, I've taken a couple of mics and an audio recorder and headed round

to Colin Bond's house here in Sydney. It's mid-morning, it's warm, on a Monday after a very memorable

Bathurst 1000, won by young Kiwi Matt Payne for the first time, and Garth Tander, his

sixth win in the great race. GT would later decide it was kind of the perfect bookend

to his supercar's driving career. Bondy was at the mountain for some appearances. He's

among the names that made the Bathurst race and the Australian touring car racing scene

such a success, and laid the foundation for people like GT in the decades that followed.

My decision to get Colin on follows the recent John Smales feature episode that you can

find in our library. JS has written a fantastic new book. It's called Full Tilt on Colin's

career, and Colin's observations of so many areas that he made his presence felt

in in the Australian motorsport landscape, and the surrounding region for that matter

too. Colin, as you'll hear, has done it all. He worked with Harry Firth, drove in teams

with the late Peter Brock and Alan Moffat. He's in the unique position of driving

for the big factory squads back then too, Holden and Ford. There's round Australia's

hill climbs, single-seaters against some absolute guns, the Australian rally championship,

the Australian touring car championship, which later became the supercars we know today.

Sports cars and a whole lot more. VWs, Mitsubishi Colts, Ford Escorts, Falcons, Holden Taranas,

the Ford Sierra, Alfa Romeo's Porsche, the list of cars is huge. I forgot to mention

the Lynx Persho and someone will pull me up for not saying the Corolla too, no doubt.

We're not going to get to every aspect of his story or every car. This is a relaxed

convo that gently meanders across some key things while leaving you with plenty to read

in the book. John and Colin, in my opinion, have done a terrific job on it. There's no

commercial connection for us here. I just think that it's kind of right to support

the industry where I can. So if you're looking for a Christmas gift, search for full tilt.

You can find it in my colleague Aaron Noonan's V8 Sleuth online store, for example.

Aaron's wife, Robin, has kindly made us a coffee and I'm a sweet tooth, which I reckon

she knows or remembers. So there's some biscuits here too. And we have a couple of hours before

his daughter visits. This is Colin Bond. Humble, someone with great mechanical empathy, which

served him well in his career. He could have had quite the international aspect of his career

too, as the 1980 Formula One world champion Alan Jones reminds us in the book. But

the family man chose to make a career here and he chalked up some seriously impressive

achievements along the way. Supercars and the Australian Motorsport Halls of Fame and rightly

recognised in the Queen's birthday honours in the early 90s with an OAM or Order of

Australia Medal. Enjoy the conversation with Colin Bond. Colin, I'm immensely grateful

that you've agreed to do a bit of this and we're doing it basically after an epic

Bathurst 1000. And you've almost spent two weekends straight there, haven't you? You were

with the Cortina Car Club. We're celebrating a fantastic new book. It was terrific at the

mountain and then even at that car club gathering that people are celebrating your great story,

isn't it? It is because it's not just me. It's 50 years of motorsport through my

eyes basically. And when you consider all the times of motorsport, I suppose we've

done. And not only that, all the manufacturers that were involved and the people in the

manufacturers who were sort of pulling the strings at the time and making it all

happen, I think makes an interesting reading because it's not just about me and

what you've done and that it's just the whole industry. The connection, the people

and so on. I've put the link for the book, which is called Full Tilt and

written by a great friend and colleague in John Smiles. I put that in the

app description so people can go and buy that. Well, I think we're just

going to touch here on various aspects of your career. Can I start with your

childhood because you've basically remained true to your roots in terms of

where the Bond family were settled and established in Sydney. And you were

quite a good soccer player as a young fellow, weren't you? Or maybe even

potential to go that path? It was. Look, in hindsight, I had a three-year-old

brother. He was interested in sport as well and he always took on funny

sports like pole vaulting and things just because he could. And we all

played soccer. We all played cricket. My mum and dad played tennis. They

played tennis. But because he was three years old, you were sort of always

playing against them. Not that you're trying to be better, but you want to

play at their level. So was that the competitive thing? Did that become a

competitive thing for you? Very competitive, you know. And look, soccer

was easy. We started soccer sat six, you know, and you probably started

cricket at six. And you go through all the, you know, every two years

you keep going up a level, up a level, up a level. And yeah, when we

got to when I was 17, I played for representative soccer, you know, as

well. And we offered, you know, a couple of clubs, you know, one Arpia,

which was the Italian people, you know, and the other Croatia, which

all the Croatians, you know. And I went there, you know, the

Croatians only taught Croatian. And then speaking English, I bet they

could. But the same with the Italians. But the quality of their

football, I mean, that sort of underscores the level that you

were playing at. We were at the top level. I think the first, I then

played actually for the local team, which is not, you know, Gladesville

ride. And Gladesville ride with sort of the old poms that played

the division over there. But at least they spoke English and you

could talk to them. And I played one game in second grade. And I

was straight up into the first team and played there. And it was

sort of something that I always wanted to do. I was always good at

sport, generally any ball sport. And so I thought, well, there's

only two sports that you could still do in those days when

you were 50 and win. One was golf and the other was motorsport.

Because like you look at the motorsport thing, he was about 40

or so. I'm not really, but it was a related life. So I thought,

well, that's a good sports that you could probably do. So they

make a living out of, you know, cricket was good. I was really

good at cricket. I used to be open bat, open ball, all that

type of thing. But in those days, carry back, I hadn't got

onto cricket. So there was no money in cricket. You'd heard

golf. So I thought, no, okay. So soccer was good. But I was 17.

And then I got a car. And that changed things, of course, again,

because with the car, you go, ah, that's more like it. So anyway,

we used to after the relics troll days, I mean, when I was a

kid, that sort of really got my interest in motor cars. And the

fact that they were sort of, you didn't have to leave. And I

think you had to give us any sound in the, in the, in

town or something, where they have the newsreels and keep going

around. And you could watch it three times or something. So, but

you know, it was one of those sort of situations that then we got

our push bikes, we were younger kids, and you sort of pretended

we're rallying around the Browning Park bush here.

I think that is sort of where, if I'm right, the fascination

with speed or manoeuvrability came from. You become quite a

good golfer in later life, these things like that, I

know. But that is, I think the true spark, because the

family didn't necessarily have a connection to motor racing,

did they? No, not at all. No, we never had a car, you know. I

mean, it was unbelievable, I suppose, in this day and age.

So it was your grandmother that had the car? Oh, absolutely.

You know, it was, my dad, in the war, you know, went to

Darwin, and he took the box that he never drove, was I

hadn't driven or something, but he learned to drive up

there on trucks, of course. This is World War Two, we're

talking about. Yeah, World War Two. Anyway, and then when

we came back, you know, mum and dad lived opposite of

each other, you know? Yeah. So, you know, you say, married

the girl next door, who was actually the girl across the

street, you know? But anyway, your mum's mum, you know? So

she brought the dodge. Okay. And my uncle was back from the

war as well. So he used to drive, and we'd all pile into

this and go down to Colorado or something on a Sunday. So

Sunday's girl went out the window, basically. And you'd

all be standing up behind the seat, you know, hanging on

to there's a thing where you could hang your coats in

those days. And you'd say, Overtake him, come on,

you know, and use no seat belts and as many as you could

pack in the car, of course, you know. But the bikes and I

guess that particular car lit a spark for you. Take us to

what happens next. Was it an invitation to go to a motor

car? Or did you borrow a car? How did it start? No,

possibly Andy Frankle's dad was a member of the ARDC,

right? And he was just one of the mates who used to

ride the push bikes around with us. And he took us

to Mount Drillet. And which was very different to what it is

now, obviously. Because it was a shopping center where it

probably was. But what in the early days, there were lots

of Air Force strips built during the war, just in case I

think it happened if it happened in Sydney. And the

guys took off their planes and they bombed the airport

here. You've got a secondary airfield kind of thing,

don't you? And they were all over the place, like

Pittown, everywhere, you know. So anyway, so we went

there. And there was a guy on a Dodge, Don Gibson, in

his side valve Dodge, same as my arse, you know. And he

was up against all these holdings that was looking

pretty good now. Fantastic. And of course there were

MGTCs. There must have been a hundred of them, I think,

you know, one Aston Martin and one Healy or something. That

was about the racing. But it was good. I mean, it

was funny, it was a little track that went down

around a hill, I suppose, started down. A hairpin was

a 44 gallon drum at the end. But, you know, Jack

Braden was there in a race car, you know, in his

Cooper Climax, you know, and it was really special in

those days. And there was this kid sitting here, it

happened to be George, I didn't know him at that stage

of the game. Yeah, so it was something like that. And

you looked at it. Were you hooked? Were you hooked

straight away? Was it like, this is amazing? Or

I wouldn't say straight away because we didn't have

any money. You know, it was one of those things.

And besides that, I hadn't got a license now. This is

well before, you know. But, you know, we're just, we're

coming back from Bathurst, and this is probably, we went

to Bathurst a couple of times and slept, you know, in the

camp and watched the racing that was on at the time. And

this is when we were still before we had a car. But

we're coming back from Bathurst was when I was, you

must have had to sing a night at the time I

was a apprentice mechanic at Grenville Motors at

Sydney on to the Harbour Bridge. Yeah. And this

bugle, it's right when passed, you know, we've gone to

the line of road. Yeah. And I looked at it and I said,

God, that's something I've got to have, one of those.

So you're an apprentice mechanic at this stage? Or

what are you? What are you doing to earn the money to buy

this? Yeah, if I was over 17, I was an apprentice

mechanic at Grenville Motors. And they were part of

the industry as a course in those days. So they

had Volkswagen and all that as well. And so I used

to, I used to somehow really get, I don't know,

well, I get the job in the back in the city when

someone was on holidays, and you would sort of go and

register cars for them and all this sort of stuff. And

if we sold Land Rover, say to someone post office

or something. You're almost delivery come test, let's

call it test driver. If you're doing for, if you're

doing for, the boys are driving out and you go

out in the Volkswagen and bring the boys back.

So when you're bringing you back, it was, you'd

scare the living daylights out of me.

I mean, it was always a bit of a joke. How'd you cobble

together the money to get the bug-eyed sprite? Because

you're a young fella. This would have been quite an

outplay. A thousand dollars, a thousand pounds, I

should say. Look, you know, Andy Frankel found one

for us. It was, you know, he's got a lot on

Paramount Array. And it was super charged for

some reason. I don't know about the guy, you

know, he'd jump into the wheels, a thousand bucks.

I thought I didn't have a lot of money, but I

probably had enough, you know. And my mum said,

I'll give you the rest, you know. Lovely. And I said,

I'll pay you back, which I'm not sure whether I

actually did fully pay you back. That's beside the

point. Yeah. Because then when you got it, it

had your judge and supercharger on. That was

hopeless, basically. Because it had drip

feed oil to lubricate the veins. Okay. And when

you're just in traffic and everything goes,

it didn't get too much oil and you fell a

couple of spark plugs and all this sort of

Oh my God. Yeah. So we decided that's got to

go, you know. Are you are you hands on and

fixing this? Absolutely. Absolutely. So we

did what you normally do and those things

you bought out the 1060, get a web and all

that, camshafts and whatever. And we, we're

then members, we joined the MG car club

New South Wales. Yep. And just still strong

today. Yeah. They are very strong

anyhow. I was club champion, I think in

about 1965, you know. And before that,

we, there was what they used to call the

camsquare robbery, which was the biggest

motor car event we had in New South Wales

every year. Nice. And all the car clubs we

go to Pit Town, which is another old

airstrip. Yeah. And I won that twice out

of two attempts. Yeah. And looking back

at it now, it's one of the, one of the

things that I think was really good

because with motor cars, even like

straight flag bends and things, you had

to be close and do it smoothly and

short distance and just do the right

turn and come back. And that was fast.

When you attacked it, and you think,

yeah, you know, you think, oh, that's

really fast, but it's really fast.

Yeah. It's really slow. I'm intrigued by

that because I mean, your career is so

diverse from circuit racing and

rallying and so on. But you put a

lot of value in that period, don't you?

I took it, I took it all my way.

It's how we approach hill climbs. You

know, we were three times New South

Wales hill climb champion. And we had

the far, we had the outright

record on all the hills we ever went

to. But I got done twice in the

Australian ones by Tim Shanken and

the other by Alan Hamlin. The first

one was in Melbourne and Tim had

this, you know, go-kart with a bloody

500 CC motor in the back or something.

Do you two wind each other up about

that even now? Oh, I know. I used to

keep saying Tim, when you went

overseas, did you tell, you know,

in a Ferrari that you beat me and

that gave you, it got you the job

or something like that, but it was just a joke.

Love it. No. And the other one was

when we were in Collingrave, you know,

the following year of Alan Hamlin out

of Porsche, you know, box of thing.

And I still only had the link to Peugeot,

which was a great car. But anyway,

but I needed a supercharged Peugeot

motor in a proper open-wheel car. It

was quite a big car, really. Yep.

So, you know, and even in rallying,

you know, I used to go for night,

which you could do in those days.

And you could go up to Gosford

when I had my Volkswagen's and

things. And you'd, you'd, you'd

go through some of the stages

which you knew and you'd drive

it really out, not out of control,

but you're just sliding it and

sliding it. But with that

perfection you're talking about from

the motor car, is that what you're

trying to say? No, no. Then I'd do it

like a race car, you know, and drive

it straighter and tighter and things.

And it was more constant doing it

that way than attacking it.

But I must admit, when we got the

BDAS goods later on, you know,

with a lot more horsepower and

things, it was, when you'd be

good to me was one of the best

areas for rallying. It's like

a conic, got conic roads down there.

Yeah, yeah. The, yeah, the

Shire roads would have to be the

best Shire roads in the, in the

world, I reckon, because they're

really well packed. Yep. They're

banks. Yeah. You know, so the

water runs off them. A bit of

Canberra almost, so to speak.

Yeah, just Canberra. Yeah.

And, and you're sitting it up

and you, you know, you've

got one and you're already set

for the next corner, but you're

not there yet, you know, and

all this sort of stuff. And it's

a fantastic thing. It's, it's

one thing I liked about rallying

over racing, that in rallying, if

you tried really hard, you went

faster. Yeah. Whereas in racing

sometimes, you try really hard and

go slower. And you think, well,

that's doesn't, that's, that's not

right. You know, I should have

been going faster because I was

trying harder. Yeah. So you had

to work out what's fast and

what isn't fast. I love it. You've

already sparked a couple of

things in the conversation which

I want to dive around. Firstly,

can we come to Lynx Persia? Because

in, in the book, there's, there's

a number of signature cars, right?

And I feel like that's a stand-out

car for you. Tell me about it and,

and, you know. Yeah. Well, it was

after the round Australia, we went

with Andy Frankel and that we did

it in 65. There was an award for

the crew under the age of 25, which

we all were. And we thought, oh,

this is pretty simple. Go on that,

win that. It was 250lb of prize.

That will pay for the, for doing

the event. You did it with your

brother, is that right? No, I

don't remember the car. Oh, he

liked, sorry, thank you, thank

you. Thank you for correcting me.

We'll get there in a second. I think

my brother was my first sponsor

when I, when I considered it because

back to Lynx Persia, well done.

But anyhow, Bob Holden was in the

same event in a Persia, of course.

Okay. I mean, we didn't have any

accommodation. I think we used to

sleep in the grandstands and

things, you know, in those days

and yeah, sleeping bags and that

was it. Anyhow, and Bob was sort

of there and, and he was saying

he had this Lynx Persia and he

really thought he should sell it,

you know, and he said, why don't

I buy it? And I said, oh, you

know, maybe. Anyhow, we decided

Bob Riley himself then we said, oh,

we sell this bright and that, and

we can buy the car. So we went to

Oren Park because he, Bob was

racing it there and, and you

always, in those days, you always

bought the car as soon as it came

off the racetrack. Gotcha. Of

course, if you let him go home,

you never know whether you're

going to get the same engine

or whatever, but anyway. We'll

take delivery now, thank you.

Yeah, exactly. But what actually

happened, the back, he broke an

axle, back axle and the wheel

disappeared, you know. Didn't do

much damage to the car at all

because it sat down on the

lower up. Anyway, so we put the

car in the trailer, that's how

it's paid for it, took it back

home and dabbed as it worked.

So I put it in the garage,

didn't have a car. Well, we

might have had a car. Anyway,

so I put a brick under the

suspension and just put the

tyre in its proper place.

Propped it up kind of thing, did

you always? I was sitting there

and he came down to have a

look at it when he came home

and he kicked the tyre and of

course it went in the garage. Oh no.

You see, shit son, I think it's

a bit fragile. It's alright though.

But I mean those were the

days where you never, like if

we wanted to change, you know,

put some new uni joints in the

back or something like that, we

would have to wait till Friday

night to get paid to then

go and buy the uni joints, you

know, and then you'd be working

all Friday night to do it all,

put it back together again, you

know, and we did, I think we

did 28 races with it, 121 of

them, plus owning all the

hill, like all the hill clump.

We didn't realise it was a hill

clump car, but the very first

race meeting was interesting,

it was a Christmas time down

at Humeware. And if you've

been to Humeware, well in

Humeware, you know, they have

the starting grid is off the

track, so you go on the next

race up before the other race

is finished. And not only that,

you go out and practice and

you only get about three or

four laps anyway. And then, so

I go to line up and the guy

says over here, and I'm on

pole, see, okay, so anyway,

next minute, we had Barry

Collison, it might have been

as someone in a rabble, I'm

on pole. Mate, if you want it

you can have it. I'm not

fast really. Anyway, as it

turned out, yeah, so that was

the first, we went well,

actually only finished third

or something like that. What was

that place like to drive? I

mean, it's held in such

esteem now, what was it like

to race? Well, look, it was

the bottom of the, when they

built the dam, you know, to

hold up all the water. So it's

just the base of the dam, and

when you went down, it was

only Fettie and Alho, and you

went around the corner, you

came back and there was just

a fence, you went down, did a

loop, came back. So the other

cars are going, like, it's

almost like on the highway, you

know, just with a bit of

armcage between you're sort of

eight months ago and this way,

one going that way, at one

area only. No, but it was

good. I mean, you go there,

and on one day, you could

practice, you know, have

25 practice sessions and

have 25 races. It was all

over and done one day,

you know, because... That's

how they did it then, they

just keep moving them

through, didn't they? Absolutely.

And it was quite a great

idea that you didn't line

up on the grid, there was no

warm-up laps, of course, or

anything like that, you just

got there in the way you went.

But that was you and me, but

I must admit that the

links was good. I mean, we

drove it at Bathurst. Well,

we went to Adelaide at

One Stage, Andy and I, because

we wanted to run the hill

climb, it was the Australian

hill climb championship, it

was going to be held there

later on the year, this is

the calling route. So we

went early, and this is on

when Bathurst used to be

on the weekend, and I think

the bikes are on Friday,

Saturday, and the cars were,

you know, Sunday, Monday.

So we went across there, did

the hill climb, broke it

and upright, but the guys

said, oh, you'd go and get

Harold Wint, he's an expert

welder in town, sort of.

Fix it for you? Fix it, man.

So he fixed it for us, and

he was a lovely guy. Anyway,

and then we drove all the way

back to Bathurst through the

race the next day. And so

we took off and there was,

you know, Spencer Martin

and KB in the two-and-a-half

leather cars, you know.

You can borrow it, yeah.

And I was actually, I could

say with him that they got

away because they had bigger

tyres and better brakes in the

end, but in performance-wise,

you know, I think in those

days, 162.4 miles an hour

down Condonance Peak, which

was fairly narrow with only

barbed wire fences

at the sides of it.

Yeah, but no chase back then.

They changed that.

No, no, no. Well, that chase

came much, much later.

Slater, yeah, yeah.

I mean, and over the last

hump, I mean, the bikes,

you know, Greg Hansford

and all those guys were

be following over the last

hump and things. And besides,

you know, it killed a few

people as well, Don Gibson.

You know, Gibson, Gibson from

that lived in Orby, not Don Gibson.

It's Don Watson.

Don Watson, you mean

from Watson Transport?

Is that the... No, no.

No, no. The young kid that

was driving for

Bob Jane at the time,

Bevan Gibson.

Okay.

Bevan Gibson.

Where the car just took off

and flipped on its back

and just get it down the road,

you know.

And Tom Solman, I think

Tom Solman might have

had that one there.

So, look, it's

it was, I don't know.

You say dangerous, but I think

in those days motor racing

was dangerous. Dangerous, yeah.

Generally speaking, it was

had a sigma to it to say

that motor racing's dangerous,

you know, and all that type of

thing. And when you look

at it, the cars were pretty

dangerous and the tracks

were very dangerous and

made a combination of both.

Whereas today, the cars are

much, much safer and the

tracks are much safer.

And you sort of, whereas I

guess in the old, I would

say old days, you know,

but when Jack Bram was

around, you know, I'm

killing one a day or one a week

or one a month or so.

But you didn't know any different.

That's how it was back then,

wasn't it? You know, that's

what you did. What I'm intrigued

about in this phase,

maybe I haven't covered

everything in the timeline,

that doesn't matter.

But are you sort of working

and doing this part-time?

Are you now starting to get

to the point where you're

making a name for yourself

and maybe this is going to

lead to something?

Where are you in your career

at this point?

Yeah, you know, what actually

happened, we were paying

for everything, except

Mitsubishi came on board.

Doug Stewart, these two

cars came from Mitsubishi

and they just wanted to-

Were they Colts or Colts?

Yeah, the Colts.

These are early Colts, right?

Number 10, they're living

off the assembly line, they

actually work.

That's how it works.

Anyhow, and Doug got some

of his mates together

and the two Japanese turned up

and they just did some

trips in Australia,

like as though it was

the red X-Troll again,

more or less, you know.

And I mean, it was a funny

situation, you know, Doug

said their first,

when they took off from

Sydney, you know,

they're going across

the Harbour Bridge

in those days and you had

to pay the toll.

And he pushed back

to get his money out

and broke the back seat

and he finished lying down

in the car,

so he had to turn around

and go back,

world and all up again.

He said, but that was fine.

But they did this test

and in the end,

they left the cars here,

the Japanese,

like now they just

crunch them up

or do something again.

Yes.

But so they left them here

and Doug Donaldson,

who I think was then,

you know, Griffin Motors

and so on,

which was selling them.

So Doug Stewart was the mate of his

and they,

he said,

look, can we make some rally cars?

He said, yeah, sure.

So he got me and he said,

you know,

so we bobbed our eyes

so we had them in our place.

So we,

you know, garage became

the Mitsubishi rally team.

That's amazing.

And we started them off

very basically, you know.

And then the Japanese

got a little bit enthusiastic

about it.

So Southern Cross turned up,

they bought out a new car

for us and,

but the old ones

around the 850 CC.

So the next one was probably

950 or something.

Okay.

And then the following year

was a thousand or something.

The next one was 1100.

And the last one I drove

for them was a 1500

and that was in 69

just after winning Bathurst.

So Mitsubishi,

you know,

in those days,

when you had to stay holding

that 50% of the market,

forwarding that 20%,

Chrysler had 10,

BMC had 10.

And there was only 10 left

over for everybody.

It was like even Peugeot,

Renault.

Because Mitsubishi was like

an emerging brand.

Absolutely.

The Japanese had this much of

the atonement rather, yeah.

And the big boys

didn't say I'm coming.

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What you did,

and I think that became

a hallmark later on

when you did the

the four escorts and so on,

you and Bob

and I guess the crew

that you formed there,

you were very good at

building a world-class

car more or less.

Oh, yeah.

You did some very good things,

didn't you,

around the build?

No.

When we went to Ford,

obviously in 77,

when Moffat, you know,

said we want to drive

and Harry at this stage

of the game was

telling me it was a bit

suspect, you know,

and we agreed

and it was a good deal,

you know,

and when we went to

Moffat the first year

with the Falcons,

you know,

we were first and second,

everything first and second

in the championship.

Yep.

You go to Bathurst

and you're first and second,

you know,

so it was a great year

and because the Ford

in that particular time

were the car.

The next year,

I think the A&R Next

come on board

and it was probably

a bit better

mousetrap than the Ford at the time,

you know.

Anyhow,

but

when we went with Ford,

I was talking to Jeff Pilates,

Ford, you know,

and Jeff in those days

was just a junior

coming through the ranks

and I said,

look, you know,

we should have a rally car

because easily I know

we brought them out

once before,

you know,

with all these,

you know,

their top drivers

and things,

cost us a bomb,

he said, you know,

and they all broke down

and sort of didn't do any good.

This was in the Southern Cross, man.

I said, yeah,

but they're winning

the real championship.

They just won the East.

Our things are firing.

They've got to be okay, you know.

So he agreed

and what he did,

he got two BDAs scored.

We're talking Martin 2s, aren't they?

Yeah.

Sorry, keep going.

That's okay.

I got one in New Zealand,

got one.

And, you know,

we had a bit of swing

because they didn't really

want to send them out

in the first place anyway.

Okay.

So that's okay.

So,

I went down

with Greg Carr

and Greg was actually,

well, we had a,

we made an escort

just an ordinary two litre thing,

you know,

for him initially.

And then the BDA,

so I took it to Canberra

and said,

take it for a drive.

You know,

and he came back

with a big smile on his face.

Love it.

He said, love it.

You know.

And then when we went

to the Southern Cross,

you know,

and in those days,

you know,

the Nissan people sort of

would bring out about

five or six overseas drivers

and things,

you know,

and then top of cars.

After about three stages,

Greg was about six minutes

in the lead,

you know,

absolutely annoying.

And then we had

an alternator problem

and we didn't have

any spears.

This is just a new car.

So anyway,

and in the end,

you know,

we had to change batteries

and you'd have to have

torch out the window

or something at night.

And they still finished,

but you know,

they were down the field

probably fourth

or something like that.

But you know,

and then we,

he ran that in the

Routy Championship, of course,

and we,

in those days,

we only revved it

to eight and a half revs

the first year.

And a half thousand more

has still been sounding sweet.

Oh, they do sound as well.

But anyway,

so at the end of the year,

we thought we'll send

the motor back

to Cherry Oil.

It was a Cherry Oil motor

in England,

which we did.

But then we got it back

and all he did

was put two new carbredders

on it and put some in

big end bolts in it.

I said,

shit,

we could have done that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The only reason why

the carbredders

of course the spindles are worn,

you know,

in the big end bolts

are things you can change,

which, you know,

but so after that,

we did all our own work

on the cars,

yourself.

We did the engines

and everything.

But what was really nice

about it was that,

that Ford were building

escorts just over

at Homebush,

which wasn't very far from us,

you know,

we were glades

for those things.

Yeah.

And what we could do,

we could take one

of the boys in a trailer

and we take a two door body

that's just been dipped

to make it rust proof.

Yep.

Put it on the trailer,

bring it back to the workshop,

take all the brackets off

we don't want,

modify the guards

and things

and what have you.

We could modify the floor

for the ZF gearbox.

You could,

you know,

we do all that.

And what we end up,

we made our own dip

for it as well

because they were only

using Capri diffs,

basically,

in their cars

with limited slip diffs.

We could use the Falcon

which uses the

Borgwarn R78 series

with the tubes.

The tubes are heavier

and thicker

and you could have

different sized thickness

in the tubes

if you want them as well.

Okay.

And then we just made

the fully floating

things for them.

And then we put

the forward nine inch

centre in it

which was

a 31 fine splined axle.

Okay.

The old ones

but they were using

what I think

was something like

Land Rail for Axles

or something.

And as soon as they ran

a flat,

they would change

an axle over there.

Got you.

So,

so we had much bigger

axles and things in there.

Feels like you're

building them tough?

Were you,

you were building them?

Oh, you were building it

a bit tougher.

And the other thing was

it was nice

that we could do too

because of this.

When we,

when we finished

doing all the

factory

and four linking

the rear suspension

and doing all that

sort of stuff,

of course we copied

now off the original car

all that sort of stuff.

I take it back

to the factory.

They put it back

on the line

that we get dipped again

and go down the line

without a motor gearbox

to have wheels and things.

Two days

and we'd have a back

at the workshop

complete a car

with everything swinging painted.

Wow.

So we only ever took it

when I'm painting yellow.

That's pretty impressive

for a small team to do.

I mean,

that's a great example

of what motor racing is like.

You have to be like that, don't you?

I think we made six like that in there.

Did you?

Just for other people, wouldn't you?

And that naturally leads me

to the fact that

that program

must have been

so well respected.

I mean, you had

Ari Vartanen come and drive

and all sorts of things.

No, we'll see.

The good thing about that was

that the cars we had here

were identical basically

to what they're racing

in Europe.

Fantastic.

And winning, getting.

So

when I did the first time

we bought beyond Watergarden

and of course Sealy is our

when they were world champions.

And they ran the Southern Cross

rally.

And they were terrific.

The boys loved them.

And we could still break axles.

But what we did,

I had a Detroit locker

which Ford brought out

for their race teams.

But we never used them

because they weren't any good

as a race.

Everyone just runs spills

in race cars

because you can break better.

That's the biggest thing.

But in the rallying,

the spill worked perfectly

because you're on loose surfaces

all the time.

And because it's gear driven,

you had to spin the wheels

to get the gears both locked in

and then you would just power out.

And you could drive on one wheel

because it was a proper

lock diff.

And whereas if you had a limiter

step diff,

the limiter step diffs

to still work for a while

on one axle.

And then all of a sudden

you'll wear the

thing away of this

and just wouldn't have enough

grip anymore

when you're driving to a halt.

You know.

So it got,

it can get you then out of

trouble that which happened to

be on.

You know, like,

you should get to the end of the stage

but you're going to drop time.

And, you know,

so we put a new diff

and everything else in it

for him for the next day.

And after the first stage

he says to me,

oh Colin,

this rally could end

very soon for me.

I'm driving very fast.

And of course,

when,

with Ari and the guys in New Zealand

would know all about it,

Ari, because Ari

used a couple of events

over there, you know.

And I think at one stage

you're one of the local navigators

and I think you scared the living

bailouts out of him.

Anyway, that was just Ari.

But we competed against Ari

in Canberra

before this,

before we brought him out

and with David

and he was driving the

Masport car

which was out in New Zealand

and the New Zealand boys were there.

And now it was like

an event which they run over

even at times of the second

and things now,

you know what, have him.

So we had Greg and myself.

Greg Carr, yeah.

So anyhow,

the first stage

is a bitumen stage

around the building thing

that hadn't been built yet.

It was a housing development.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No houses.

Yeah.

But anyway,

and it had low,

the gutters were just low.

They didn't have big gutters,

they just had low ones

which I thought was terrific

because if you built a house

you could just,

you could make it run

wherever it was

without smashing up

all the concrete

and then putting it in.

So anyway,

but we, I was running on better times

in our area,

area of the Dunlop switch

every one they ate too

is what everyone was using overseas.

We had Bridgestone

we'd made.

Anyhow,

an area,

when he up to it,

he had to look at,

there's a movie made on this

and he said to me,

oh Colin, you had much more grip than me.

And I sort of,

of course I'd get an area here.

We had better ties in here.

So I was beating him

on those bloody bitumen stages.

Yeah.

And when there's shot in the book

where I'm up on two wheels

because I'm hit the curb.

But you can see areas,

skid marks, you know,

worse than previous on the road

because he was ahead of us on the road.

Anyway,

and after that you're into the dirt again.

And he and Greg were having

a really dig-long battle, you know.

And Greg knew the area

that well of course.

And that,

so it was going along well

with those two.

And I was third

because, you know,

they were just that little bit more

than game them

and know the road anyway.

So at one stage of course,

you know,

Harry comes around in one of the corners

and the still digs in

and he rolls over.

And all the cameramen

are there taking photos,

of course, you know.

Anyway, they finally give him a hand,

push him back on the wheels

and he gets back.

And it was really funny.

And he says,

because he comes into control

and the car's a bit bent.

And he says,

what happened?

And I go, oh, I had,

I stood off the road

and rolled over.

And if your people

would have pushed me out quicker,

I'll be still winning this event.

And then he goes,

oh, but of course,

I should not have rolled over.

It was a golden period of rallying.

I mean,

Greg won by 40 seconds.

That was the movie

that was called 40 Seconds.

Yes.

But then Dave Richards,

you know,

his navigator

and his wife Karen,

and they had the baby.

They come and stay with us

here afterwards, you know.

And then when we used to go to England

when we were going to stay with David.

And in those days,

he just had the Rothmans money.

He looked after the Rothmans money

because he had four of them.

So if someone in Motorsport

went to Rothman,

they'd say, just go and see,

you know, David Richardson.

And we'll talk to David,

you know,

and see whether it's a good deal or not.

So anyway,

and of course,

what actually happened there,

like when they went group A

or whatever it was.

And he got the Superu,

you know,

yes.

And, you know, it was a good deal.

And he was over there with him.

We came,

he talked us to the airport.

And he just said,

oh, he said,

I was just at the best meeting

with British Tobacco today.

I've got an open checkbook

for the rally team,

but I've got to win the championship this year.

OK.

We're talking probably around the time

of Colin McCrae

or what are we talking?

Yeah, Colin McCrae.

Well, and,

but not only that,

Toyota were there,

of course, Mr Bishop were there.

Amazing.

It wasn't just as though

they're the only one,

probably Fiat and Lancia anyway.

Lancia, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And they won that year.

Yeah.

And since then,

he's just gone,

you know,

because after that,

he got the BAO Formula 1 too.

Formula 1 too, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know,

and the Superu thing was terrific.

And then he was chairman of Aston Martin.

And now he's had a pretty

motorsport or whatever it is.

Yeah.

And a lovely guy.

I mean,

when we go over there,

of course,

they use their helicopter like we do,

use a shopping truck.

That's great that you've been able to...

Oh, yeah.

We've been,

look,

we haven't been for a little while,

but we were just talking to them just recently,

and they said,

you better come over.

My daughter's getting married,

you know,

early next year.

So we said,

okay, we'll come over.

Probably.

Um,

but, you know,

I mean,

it was a different,

just a different world over there.

He made a money and that,

like for argument's sake,

even when he had

the first Superu when he had Ari driving,

he was paying Ari four million pounds

for the drive.

In those days,

it was three times,

like if you,

that would be equivalent to 12 million in Australia.

None of the teams in Australia

would have had

any money,

anything like that.

Anywhere near that,

do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

Um,

it's just,

it's just old money,

I guess,

and there's a lot of people there.

I think that's a great reflection of you

that you've had

these sorts of relationships along the way.

Can I come back

to round Australia?

You talked about your brother before

in the car and so on,

and you,

you

contested that event

on a number of occasions.

Yeah.

It's an event that's kind of part of the folklore

of Australian motorsport,

isn't it?

What was that like

when you did those?

Well, look,

when you look forward to them,

I guess,

you know,

like in hindsight,

I mean,

the Volkswagen,

I mean,

it was just like a Volkswagen race

because somehow or other,

that right,

we all lined up together,

all the Volkswagen's,

they put you in it,

like a group for that,

I mean.

Okay.

And they regrouped you

after all the

thing I said,

and so you kept on,

and you know,

you'd slipstream everyone,

and you'd get in the front,

then you'd be,

the back of the wheel.

You would give me.

This is all the way around Australia,

not really,

and that was a bit of fun.

But, you know,

we had one of the factory cars

start behind us,

and we used to see

when we were driving,

who could drive the furthest

before we got overtaken by them,

because they only had two people

in the car,

and they had a 1500 motor,

and they had all,

but you know, spare parts.

Yeah.

Anyway,

and then that was a bit of fun.

But then this next one

was for

in the Monara,

just after winning Bathurst

and the 12-hour race

with Danny Roberts.

So,

we got to run the Milarets.

We had three Milarets,

and so

there was Brian,

I hope,

myself,

and Danny Roberts,

you know,

in our car.

And then there was John Keiran

and I think Roger Bonner,

in the other car,

and probably Barry Ferguson

and David Johnson

in the other one.

So in those days,

it was a funny event

because you started

a bit like some of the ones

overseas,

where they start from different places

and they all come to a central point.

And then from there,

it was a common route to here.

To the next thing.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

But the main event

started from this one.

Okay.

Right?

Yeah.

So,

Harry elected,

just for us not to even do this

but we'll just finish up there.

We say Harry,

you mean Harry first, don't you?

Harry first, yes, yes, yes.

Only because he's at a cock,

if you're in your car,

really a bit of come down

and start working on it.

Okay.

So, we're a week late

for scrutiny hearing

and you've got penalized

one point a minute, right?

So, I don't know how many millions

that's a fair few or something, right?

So, we really didn't have to worry

about this, you know,

all this bit.

So, we finish up here

and then we go straight from there

up to where it started

then at Alice Springs.

Yep.

And of course,

you know, it was dirt in those days

and so we took off and said,

well, if we get going,

we'll be there a day earlier

and we're going to have an ice fleet

and all this, which we did.

We looked at the car

and the back made guys

whooped in a bit, you know,

because it was serious production

in those days

and it bottomed me out on the struts.

It just sort of whooped the unguarded.

Okay, okay.

All right.

Anyway, that's okay.

But so anyhow, the,

when the others got there,

you know,

next day,

we drove down through

and controlled the wrong direction

because we're just on out of town,

coming in.

And the guy wanted to pig us

another 250 points.

And hope he's there blowing with him.

He said,

where do you think we're freaking

will come from, though?

Anyway, I was like, all right,

we're already down 5 million,

9 million.

What's another 200 million?

But I mean, that got wiped,

you know, when you started the event.

And anyway, then the city part

about that event was

we started Alice Springs.

The first day,

you went all the way up to three ways,

then across to Mount,

which the mining town.

Anyway.

Are you talking in country,

New South Wales?

Yeah, even New South Wales

or Queensland,

but I don't know.

He's anywhere there.

Forget about that.

Doesn't matter anyway.

And they had this really stupid stage

through the,

not very long,

about 20, 30 k something.

Anyway, and it was just

like a little dirt road.

And it went into a creek full of sand.

And we were one of the first cars, of course.

So I go through,

stuck in the sand

and you weren't supposed to have

outside assistance.

So we've got the surface so out.

So this thing is beached

in the river sand?

Is it in the river sand?

Yeah, we weren't the only one

there was,

and in any one that came along,

they got beached as well.

Anyway, but we had the surface

so we're off, you know,

we winch, winch, winch, winch.

This guy turns up

in a four-word line

and he,

you know, 50 bucks,

I'll pull you out or something.

And I hope you said,

we weren't supposed to have been

outside assistance.

Oh, no, no, we're nearly here.

So this guy then started pulling

everyone out.

Yeah.

It wasn't 50, maybe 30 or so.

Anyway, it doesn't matter.

Anyhow, he made a pretty good

living out of it.

Yeah, but, yeah.

And our other two cars

got pulled out, of course.

Okay, okay.

So we're off to the very first

stage.

I'm coming last, I think.

You know, because everybody

you've been pulled out

of the river sand.

So all of a sudden,

Harry doesn't love me anymore.

Okay.

So we started working on our own

car because, like, the service

crews would keep up with

with the care of them.

So you're having to do it

on your own, basically?

Yeah, basically, yeah, down the

back of it.

Anyway.

So we finally got going

and we were knocking off

things the other way.

Anyway, for two weeks.

Anyhow, we finished up,

well, we should have

finished up winning at Bitby.

OGA and Edgar Herman,

we were first on the same

points and I was next,

you know, so I don't know

whether I'm second or

third.

So we were first on the

same points and I don't know

whether I'm second or third.

But the amount of time we lost

in the creek, you know, we

would have been ahead of them.

But that was that one.

That was beside the point.

But it must have been a

rewarding thing, was it?

I mean, to go around, you

probably didn't have much time

to take in the countryside,

but you went to some

amazing places, didn't you?

Oh, you do.

But not any, though.

I mean, I used to really

like the Malaro, actually.

I rallied it the following

year instead of doing an

XQ1 for, it was,

yeah, can I say,

the XQ1.

And that's how you made it fast,

even racing.

You use the higher gears all

the time because it was

easier to drive.

It was putting the power down

better.

It wasn't sliding, you know,

and it was utilizing the

torque.

They had torque, though,

because they were serious

production, unlike a current

car, you know, which would

have more horsepower.

But anyway, so, yeah,

the difference between the

Malaro, basically, and the

Mitsubishi Colt frage,

I would say, you know,

if you had a mis-Q

when you speed off the road,

a bit, you're going through

the trees a bit,

you know, with the,

with the little...

The Colt.

Mitsubishi, you know,

you have to back, back, back

and go again.

With the Malaro, you keep going,

you're not given any go-over

and go back on the road.

Keep bowing through.

Get back on the road.

That's the end of part one

of my feature episode

with Australian motor racing

legend Colin Bond.

We're having a nice cuppa

and the convo is flowing,

so don't worry,

there is more to come for you.

Jump back to the library

and there you'll find part two,

all loaded up in the garage,

ready for you to hit play on.

There's recollections

of some cool cars,

the great work the Wives Club

did to improve safety

during a very dangerous period

for the sport,

plus Peter Janssen,

Peter Brock,

Ari Vartanen

and much, much more.

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Bye.

Colin Bond | Part 1 - Discovering Motorsport and the power of throttle control

About this episode

Bathurst 1000

Australian touring car championship

Mitsubishi Colts

Ford Falcons

Ford Sierra

Holden Torana

Mitsubishi Colt

Ford Escort

Toyota Corolla

Ford Cortina

MG TC

hairpin turn

Cooper Climax

Volkswagen

Bug-Eyed Sprite

supercharger

spark plugs

MG car club

hill climbs

uni joints

tyres

brakes

alternator

Ford Capri

Lincoln Navigators

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