There have been some strange models take on the Nurburgring 24 Hours, but an Australian Ford Falcon has to be among the top oddities.
Iconic models to regularly participated in the race to gain a cult following include Olaf Beckman’s Opel Manta and now the Ollis Garage Racing Dacia Logan, but one to re-emerge is the Ford EL Falcon XR6 of Fortech Motorsports.
More than 200 entries were received for the 1997 Nurburgring 24 Hour race including this XR6 Falcon, which featured support from Ford Motorsport Australia.
Designed and built in Australia, the Falcon was not too far away from a stock specification as it used the same straight six found in its road counterpart tuned to 380hp and a TKO 600 gearbox sent power through the rear-wheels.
Touring car privateer Llynden Riethmuller, Ian Green and Michael Glynn finished second in Class 8 21 laps down from the winner in 1997.
Returning two years later in 1999, the XR6 competed in the A6 category against Porsche 911 Cup Cars, BMW M3 E36 GTRS, Nissan Skyline GT-R, Ultimate GTR, Chrysler Viper GTR-S and Ford Shelby Mustang, but failed to finish.
The XR6 didn’t compete again at the Nurburgring, though did return to Australia and contested state level racing in New South Wales where it was recently move onto another owner.
An Australian flavour continued at the Nurburgring nearly a decade later when another touring car privateer, Mal Rose raced his ex-Garry Rogers Motorsport Holden VY Commodore V8 Supercar.
That’s another Repco Garage story.