The full Nelson – 182mph down Conrod

Achieving 182mph (292km/h) down Conrod Straight at Bathurst is no mean feat. That’s the speed today’s purpose-built Supercars reach on (the admittedly truncated) Conrod, but in 1972 topping 182mph was a seriously impressive accomplishment for any type of touring car. By way of comparison, the widely acknowledged top speed for a Series Production car from the era was the 154mph (247km/h) posted that October by the Bryan Byrt Ford-entered GT-HO Phase III, driven by John French, in the Hardie-Ferodo 500.

The man who built the engine that propelled Hibbard’s Improved Tourer Falcon down the mile-long rollercoaster ride at record speed was Barry Nelson.

“From what I can gather, this was the fastest (touring) car down Conrod Straight to that point,” Nelson says today of the Easter 1972 achievement. “It had tremendous power for its day. It was probably 200 horsepower short of what you could get from an engine like that today, but it was well in excess of 500 horsepower back then.”

Forty-six years on, Nelson cannot, understandably, recall too many speci cs of the engine modi cations to the standard Phase III’s powerplant, but he does remember the overall spare-no-expense approach which saw Ron Harrop and he head Stateside on a part- gathering mission.

“We went to Falconer and Dunn Engines at Culver City in California and got some cylinder heads, a forged crank and I think, from memory, we even got a block from America. We got the intake manifold from Bud Moore in South Carolina. That was the 351 NASCAR intake manifold with the big Dominator carburettor. Then we came back to Melbourne and put it all together.

“Every component in that engine was the best for its day; everything we did to it was the best you could do at the time.”

Pity then, Nelson didn’t get to see the car race, having parted ways with the team after completing the engine build and before the car hit the track. But then, maybe it was for best that Nelson didn’t witness Hibbard over-revving the engine when the rear wheels became airborne over one of Conrod Straight’s humps shortly after hitting 182mph.

Today, the ‘telltale’ on the car’s original Jones tacho points at 9900rpm. We can’t be sure, but maybe, just maybe, that was the point Nelson’s engine cried enough at the abuse it received.