THE original Holman & Moody-built, carburetted Ford V8 engine used in the Allan Moffat/Cenovis Falcon EB when it made its racing debut nearly 30 years ago has been reunited with the car.
Four-time Bathurst winner Moffat famously opted for the American-sourced engine for his car’s debut at the 1993 Bathurst 1000, where it was driven by Charlie O’Brien and Andrew Miedecke.
Cheaper than the fuel-injected motors of the period that were run by fellow Ford entrants Glenn Seton Racing and Dick Johnson Racing, the distinct exhaust note of the carby-powered Ford makes it a Bathurst classic.
The fluro yellow and black Falcon swapped to a fuel-injected engine via Dick Johnson Racing for its 1994 assault on Mount Panorama, a powerplant that remained with the car over the rest of its life.
Western Australian collector Andy Brown now owns the car and jumped at the chance to secure the original engine and has had it re-installed in the car by Peter Finch.
“Peter’s been a lovely bloke to deal with on this whole project,” he told V8 Sleuth this week.
“He worked on the car when it was with Alan Heath and advertised the engine for sale. I called him and did a deal on it and he and his son came over west to fit it.
“He’s 80 and wanting to retire and the engine has been in bits in a box. So he’s put it all back together, reconditioned what needed reconditioning and I sat in it this week, pressed the button and it started up and sounded great!
“I’ve already had a few people ask me what I’m going to do with the fuel-injected engine that was in the car!”
While the car currently sits in its #9 Bathurst 1994 livery, Brown says he has no plans in the near future to revert it to its #10 Bathurst 1993 livery to match the engine that is now under the bonnet.
“I’m going to leave it as it is for the moment,” he says.
“It’s one of those things with getting these cars correct, where do you stop and where do you start! If it’s not too difficult, we’ll probably do it when we get some time to do it.”
The Cenovis Falcon made four Bathurst 1000 starts between 1993 and 1996 and was sold to South Australian Alan Heath, updated to EL specification and badly damaged in a multi-car crash in that year’s FAI 1000 Classic at Bathurst.
Rebuilt, it returned to compete in the inaugural Konica V8 Lites Series in 2000 in the hands of Ross Halliday and later purchased by current owner Brown.
