Over 60 competitive vehicles at this year’s Quit Targa West in August features an exciting mix of track-ready modern and rare classic vehicles, making it a must-see event for Perth’s motoring enthusiasts.
The event is known for attracting some of Western Australia’s finest vehicles with competitor Paul Crute eagerly awaiting Targa events to be able to run his 1965 Ford Mustang Coupe in the way it was built.
“We love Targa West events, they are fantastic. It is more than just the racing. The racing is the adrenaline run, but the real love is the classic cars and the social aspect. There’s a really good atmosphere,” said Crute.
“We will never be at the front end of the field – we took to this far too late in life to be any good, but that’s not what we do it for. My car is like a show car that we get to race. I get a lot of pride in the car and then we use it in Targas.
“Five years ago, I bought the 1965 Mustang with the intention of myself and childhood friend, Paul Gusterson doing Targa West. It was a trip to Frank Huber’s workshop to get my 1966 Mustang street car serviced and seeing all the classic vehicles he was doing for Targa that sparked the idea.
“The car was brought in from The States as a road going coupe. Once it arrived, we stripped it right down to the chassis, sandblasted it and built the car around Gus (co-driver) and I. We are both big boys, so we bought the seats to fit us and then we made the seats fit the car. The car has modern Wilwood front and rear disc brakes, coilover front suspension, the traditional nine inch and leaf spring rear suspension, a Tremec T6500 five speed gearbox and a small block Windsor motor.
“When driving, you've got to work the car. There's no electronics, no traction control, no stability control, no ABS - it's all you and the car. You're driving around on a live rear axle with potentially upwards of 500hp, so if it's wet, you've got to be careful - that's part of it though.
“I can appreciate the modern vehicles for what they are, they are just incredible pieces of technology, but they don't have the spirit and soul of the classics”
Paul Crute’s vehicle is the second oldest in this year’s Targa field, competing in the Competition Classic category, a category for vehicles manufactured before 1985. Also competing in this field is the man who sparked Paul’s passion for Targa racing, and owner of Frank’s Classic Garage Racing, Frank Huber.
This will be Frank’s tenth Targa West event, and he and his co-driver Wayne Turner will be behind the wheel of a 450 horsepower 1965 Ford Falcon Sprint.
“The biggest difference between this vehicle and the modern ones is there isn't power-steering - we call them 'armstrong steering' because you've got to really throw them around,” jokes Huber.
“These cars are the real bare basics, they don’t do a lot for you and they don’t have many of the creature comforts. You have to keep your wits about you when driving the car, but that's the joy of having something different. They are not copies, they are the original, and the last thing you'd want to do is wreck them on a race track. The crowd loves them as well, people are always coming up on the old ones because they love the sound of that old V8 roar and seeing them being thrown around.
“Because they are old school, we don't have any computers so 99.9% of the time we can fix the car on the side of the road and get it going again, where trying to quickly diagnose the problem and repair most of the modern vehicles, it's not that easy. We can just about get the classics going any time and that's the biggest advantage, they never let you down.”
On the other side of the scale, the event also attracts a range of modern vehicles from the rally-ready regulars such as the Subaru WRX’s and Mitsubishi Evo’s, to the more exotic Porsche GT3’s.
In the Modern Competition category, Peter Rullo and co-driver Jimmy Marquet have their eyes set on a podium place, after missing out last year when their 2012 Nissan R35 GTR blew a front differential.
“We broke a front differential last year, and to fix that on a GTR you have to take the whole engine out. Fortunately we have the right engineer with us who knows these vehicles inside and out. The complexity of these machines does limit us from doing some of the things we want when it goes wrong,” said Marquet.
“Straight-off the showroom floor the Nissan GTR’s aren’t far off competing the way they are – it’s mainly the safety equipment that we add into them. We’ve done a reasonable amount of R&D on the car. There's been a few rule changes lately which seem to be favouring the lighter vehicles. With these changes lighter vehicles, like the Mitsubishi Evos, are allowed to take their modifications further than we are allowed to. It could be the swan song for the GTR now that everyone is trying to get into Evo's because they are more modifiable.
“Last year we were leading the event, but once the diff blew, it was event over. This year we are just trying to throw everything we can into it to finally get that win. I’ve come second once, Pete’s come third and we certainly want to give it a good nudge this year.”
The most modern vehicle of the field is the 2014 Porsche Caymen S of multiple Bathurst winner Jim Richards and co-driver Barry Oliver. This particular vehicle first made its appearance in Western Australia at last year’s Quit Targa West when the team achieved first in the Showroom category and 2WD category.
Quit Targa West entrants will tackle 34 stages and 250 competitive kilometres in and around Wanneroo, Malaga, Whiteman Park, Kalamunda, Toodyay, Lower Chittering, Bullsbrook and Perth City from August 13 to 16.
Perth’s car enthusiasts will be given plenty of opportunity to see the rally vehicles up close with the Ceremonial Start in Forrest Place on Thursday August 13 from 11am to 2pm, Northbridge car display on Friday August 14 from 6pm to 9pm, and the City of Perth Super Stages including the Perth City Sprint and the Shannons Classics in the Park on Sunday 16th August.
For more information on 2015 Quit Targa West entries, road closures, event program and spectator locations please refer to www.targawest.com.au.
The 2015 Quit Targa West is proudly sponsored by Healthway and the Quit message.
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