An Australian-built Ford XF Falcon ute and the legendary Baja 1000 desert race in Mexico are quite an obscure mix, but Jim Hunter experienced success in his local creation at the event.
An underrated achievement in Australian motorsport, Hunter took his brand new XF Falcon ute to victory in the 1987 Baja 1000 in a surprise result.
Hand-built by Hunter and his team, the XF featured a 400bhp Cleveland 351ci V8, large 35 x 12.5 R15 BF Goodrich tyres, torsion bar suspension and an automatic transaxle, which was a set-up copied by Baja runners in future years.
The inspiration to tackle the Baja in an Australian-built model came after Hunter entered the 1986 Baja 1000 in a US-developed Chevy Blazer, so used his knowledge from being a qualified aircraft engineer and working for Frank Matich to construct his own entry.
It took six months and a lot of long days to complete due to the revolutionary design of many parts of the XF including suspension, steering and centre of gravity surprised the Americans.
Based in the Mexican city of Ensenada, the was a typical torture test around the barren Baja Peninsula covering a near 1000km, which ran non-stop reaching altitudes of 25000 metres through the mountains and hitting speeds of approximately 240km/h.
Hazards include cactus, boulders, rattlesnakes and the Mexican crowd, who place obstacles or even throw weapons or shoot guns at competitors to amuse themselves during the event.
Hunter teamed with experienced Baja competitor Randy Salmont to secure Class 6 for production-based cars after nearly 24 hours of balls-to-the-wall driving. Beginning on Saturday at 8am, Hunter and Salmont finished at sunrise on Sunday to be among 100 of the finishers out of 400.
The brand new XF didn’t make the trip trouble free as was expected, with overhearing and electrical problems arising during the early stages though these failed to halt the brute.
It moved through various owners until finding a spot at the National Motor Racing Museum at Bathurst where its ingenuity can be viewed in person.