SCALEXTRIC 1965 Ford Mustang Pete Geoghegan - C4531F

SCALEXTRIC 1965 Ford Mustang Pete Geoghegan - C4531F

Ford Australia boss Bill Bourke's decision to import small numbers of the new Ford Mustang from the USA to Australia in 1965 - and convert them to RHD for a few well-heeled Aussies to drive on local roads - was a typically shrewd marketing decision (see Joe Kenwright's story on these rare imported Fords).

Bourke wanted Australia to get a taste of the euphoric 'Mustang-mania' that was sweeping across the USA at the time, as Americans in their hundreds of thousands scrambled to buy one of Ford's sensational new pony cars.

With the impending local launch of the new make-or-break XR Falcon series in 1966, Bourke wanted to maximise the positive image rub-off the new Mustang could bring to his new Aussie Falcon using the clever 'Mustang-bred' marketing theme he adopted.

What Bourke probably hadn't counted on, though, was the massive free kick his marketing campaign received from three of Australia's biggest names in motor sport at the time - Norm Beechey, Pete Geoghegan and Bob Jane - when all three chose to race Mustangs in 1965.

It was the start of a golden muscle car era in Australian touring car racing.

Stormin' Norm Beechey may have been the first to blood a V8 Ford Mustang in Australian motor sport, but it was arch rival Pete Geoghegan who showed Beechey and everyone else the sheer brutality of Ford Mustang dominance.

Beechey's Mustang defeated Geoghegan's 1965 Mustang from the moment they first clashed at Calder Park in August of that year. In total, Geoghegan won 68 races from 74 starts - an astonishing win ratio of more than 90 per cent - before his '65 was replaced by a new '67 model two years later.

Geoghegan's Mustang started life on the production line at Ford's San Jose, California plant as a 1965 Mustang Hardtop ordered with a four-speed top loader gearbox, nine-inch 3.5:1 rear axle assembly and the rare factory K code option (10.5:1 solid lifter 271hp Hi-Po V8).

But unlike Beechey's take-it-or-leave-it experience the previous year, Mustang production had caught up to the point that Geoghegan was not only able to order a brand new car through a local Californian Ford dealership but also specify certain features as part of a special build order.

These included deleting all the usual body sound deadening/waterproofing compounds and heater-demister system to save weight, fast-ratio steering, big Kelsey Hayes 10.5-inch front disc brakes with four-pot calipers, meaty 10-inch rear drums from the giant Ford Galaxie and the optional engine bay 'export brace' that improved chassis strength between the front spring towers and the firewall.

Like Beechey, Geoghegan also placed an order for a full-house Shelby Cobra race engine, after being advised by US race engine guru Keith Black to specify an Engel 338 roller camshaft in the build.