HMMM. I

watched the link you sent me and – apart from it being a lovely little look into how things were – it does in fact point out that only one person can be filling the car during a pit stop. That race was, though, in 1964 and the Harry Firth-designed Cortina GT500 didn’t come about until 1965. And as anybody who has dealt with motorsport’s governing body in this country can tell you, 12 months is a long time in motor racing. So maybe the rules were changed about that time; a move that could easily have given Harry the inspiration to fit the GT500 with twin tanks. Or maybe it wasn’t and the move to twin tanks had more to do with keeping an even weight distribution as the race progressed and the fuel load lightened. Hell, maybe it was just Harry being Harry.

That said, the Mini Cooper S certainly did pre-date the GT500 and its fuel-tank layout, and with a launch date of 1961, the Cooper S was a good handful of years before the Firth Corty. But I think the GT500 can still lay claim to being the first Aussie design with twin tanks and twin fillers. The other lovely thing about the video link you sent was the unlikely looking gadgets that were turned into race cars in the day. I mean, was that a Volkswagen Type 3 Notchback I saw rounding turn one? Almost as silly looking is the big, finned Mercedes-Benz 220SE, complete with big upright grille and vertical speedo. Then again, Harry Firth and Bob Jane did win the Armstrong 500 in one of those in 1961, so enough with the sniggering.

By the way, I stuck my head in at the National Motor Racing Museum at Mount Panorama after the 12-hour a few weeks ago, and there’s a GT500 on display. And you know what? It still looks the business. And if you’ve never been to the museum that sits right at the bottom of Con-Rod Straight, then do yourselves a favour.