So, the good news: the car is absolutely fantastic and it’s in good shape. There’s no rust – having spent almost the entirety of its life in Australia – and everything that was supposed to be there, is there. The bad news? It won’t be racing at the Revival. We’ll come to that in a bit.
The left-hand-drive conversion was not the work of a moment. Verne Frantz, who sold the car on behalf of the Australian owner, undertook the task with metal man Justin Lipick and they did an excellent job. First of all, Verne sourced a donor car (a very dilapidated 1961 Chevrolet Biscayne), which then needed to be shipped from the west coast of America to the east coast. Once the Biscayne had arrived, Justin set about cutting it to pieces for everything he needed, from the dashboard and firewall, to the instrument cluster housing, handbrake mechanism, heater assembly and speedometer cable. The list was quite long, but importantly included the same cigarette lighter and radio that Dan Gurney had in the car for the race in ‘61. The firewall then needed to be cut out of the Impala and the new one put in, along with the new dashboard and parts. It was only when Verne sent me a photo of the project in progress did I fully appreciate the work involved.
By this time Mike and Andrew Jordan were asking when the car was going to arrive with increasing frequency. Suitably panicked, I pushed for it to be shipped as quickly as possible. A mix up meant that there was a long delay when the original registration documents had to be sent from Scotland to New Jersey, but the car did eventually board YM Evolution in May. Arrival date at London Gateway: Saturday, June 2nd.
By the time it cleared customs, and was unpacked, the arrival day at Jordan Racing Team near Tamworth was Wednesday, June 6th. I cleared the diary and arrived, untypically, two hours early… It was amazing to finally see the car – photos really can’t do the sheer size of it justice. It is enormous. It’s also quite a pretty car. I know that sounds a little odd when talking about a 1.5-tonne, five-metre-long American muscle car, but the lines are quite pure, and small details like the bend in the A-Pillars make it look ‘designed’. More than can be said of many similarly aged American cars.