High hopes for Targa tailwind

WITH a good tailwind and slight downhill lean, Graham Copeland’s vintage beauty has a top speed of 170kph _ but when you’re behind the wheel it feels more like 270kph.

Copeland’s GMC Jimmy Special open-wheeler is a 1934 Chevrolet chassis combined with a 1941 truck engine salvaged from a WWII sixwheel army duck.

Boasting a four-speed gearbox, drum brakes all around and leaf springs, Copeland’s blue bullet will be a handful when he debuts it in Targa Tasmania over the next week, starting in Launceston today.

“It’s pretty exciting when you’re doing top speed,” said 58-year-old Copeland, an electrician, of Toowoomba.

“Driving a car like this in Targa is a massive challenge.

“The weather is the first challenge, and we don’t run on race tyres, we’re on radials so grip is another challenge.

“And we run out of brakes pretty regularly — it’s interesting.”

While it is the GMC’s first Targa, it is Copeland’s 17th, having won the Vintage title twice as well as a Classic title.

Copeland’s navigator is his 34-year-old son-in-law Josh Herbert — the “bravest navigator in Targa”.

“He’s crazy enough to sit next to me.”

Copeland hand-built the Jimmy Special over the past year.

After a shakedown at Symmons Plains Raceway and final scrutineering yesterday, a field of 283 cars assembled at the Silverdome in Launceston.

The 27th running of the world’s premier tarmac rally starts with three stages on the way to George Town today.

Targa heads to Hobart on Friday with the official finish at Princes Wharf 1 from noon.