WHAT’S IN THE WORKSHOP – TILLEY AUTOMOTIVE

What’s in the Workshop – Tilley Automotive

Bathurst is not only a big event for the Supercars teams competing in the 1000 next weekend, but it provides a rare opportunity this year for New South Wales-based competitors to compete at The Mountain, including Brad Tilley.

By HEATH McALPINE

Known in recent years for steering his bright green Ford Falcon XY GT-HO in Touring Car Masters, but Tilley returns to The Mountain next weekend at the wheel of his all-conquering Group N-specification Ford Mustang.

It will be one of four entries his team will be overseeing across the weekend, one of which was raced by two-Australian Touring Car champions at Mount Panorama 40-years ago.

Now owned by Terry Lawlor, the Everlast/Breville/Channel 7 Ford XD Falcon was the first XD Falcon to be raced by Bob Morris after splitting with Craven Mild Racing post-1980 ATCC.

He linked up with privateer Bill O’Brien for that year’s endurance events, but had cross-entered his Bathurst winning co-driver John Fitzpatrick, who was partnering Allan Moffat that year.

When Moffat’s yellow Federation Insurance XD retired during the opening laps, Moffat jumped into Morris and O’Brien’s entry before it too retired later in the race.

This XD now resides in Tilley’s workshop after being recently purchased by Lawler.

“He’s really keen to give the XD a run at The Mountain, I think that’s great and it’s a nice car to drive,” said Tilley.

“We raced the car at Phillip Island at the start of the year, but that was a bit of a rush because I only had two-weeks turnaround from the purchase to the grid. We did get there, but we did have problems.

“There was stuff that needed fixing so since then we’ve come back, changed the wheel bearings, brake cylinders, overhauling the brake calipers and the rotors were all cracked. Some of that stuff from back in the 1980s you can’t buy, a lot of it was custom Harrop stuff so we had to make something else work and do it your own way.

“The first time you actually do the car properly it’s a lot of work then after that all the parts numbers and how we machined this to make that happen. We’ve got to the point where I’m happy that all that stuff has been done.

“We did a test day in the car where I drove it myself where we compared Hoosiers and Dunlops, while making sure the car was right, and it went really fast.”

On the outside, the XD will look no different to how it raced back in 1980 right down to the original paintwork. There are even remnants of the Racecam it raced with back in 1980 to be found within the interior.

Another of Lawlor’s machines is an ex-Dick Johnson Racing Ford Sierra raced by the man himself, which is now a common sight at historic racing events.

Another of Tilley’s customers, Adam Walton will live out a boyhood dream at The Mountain contesting the combined historic event in a pristine 1966 Ford Mustang Nc, built by Tilley Racing.

“We built that car nearly two and a half years ago,” said Tilley. “He was new to motor racing at that point and he’s already won an NSW Championship.

“The car’s won a few best presented awards, at Phillip Island last year he won the best car of the whole race meeting!”

Tilley’s son Jamie will also race at Bathurst in a 1964 Ford Mustang Nb, which was built by the team 15-years ago, but had done minimal racing and needed a bit of work completed. The recent enforced hiatus allowed Tilley Junior to complete an overhaul on the Mustang.

“He’s just everything to bits, he’s been going through it all and finally got it all back together,” Tilley said.

“He’ll be running that car for its first full-on meeting at Bathurst. It will be exciting for him and he’s worked hard to get it to that point and to race in Group N cars up there together means a lot to me as that was my background.”

Tilley’s made improvements to his Nc Mustang and hopes to be a contender among the faster Group A machines.

“I’m thinking my Group N car will be a fair bit quicker than the Group C cars,” Tilley said.

“I think Steve Webb is taking the Caltex Ford Sierra so going by the times from a year and a half ago when we last ran there, I reckon I will be a second or so off his pace, but I do have some improvements in my car.

“I’d like to think I could give it to the front guys really.”

Tilley has been hard at work during the racing hiatus on the engine dyno improving the reliability of historic engines since the introduction of the Elf Racing 102 fuel. Tilley puts it down to losing the lead that was in the previously used AVGAS and the high oxygen content of the new fuel.

A side project as well has been helping a client located in Tuggerah in building Jaguar E-Type Low Drags from scratch, the whole chassis, everything. Tilley has been helping with the engines and is currently developing a fuel injection kit for these cars.

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