The BRE Transporter  

Not many articles profiling a race team would mention the team transporter. BRE’s first transporter, however, deserves a special mention. The truck, a right hand drive Hino, was part of the BRE inventory going back to the Hino racing days. As with most transporters it was driven many miles most weekends. Parts were hard to come by and the Hino was eventually given an engine transplant. The transplant was carried out by none other than Max Balchowsky. Max, the race driver, race car builder and Hollywood stunt co-ordinator, dropped a Cadillac V12 into the truck. 

Unique on US roads, the Hino served the team right through to 1971, when Pete took delivery of an articulated transporter for his Datsun 510 Trans-Am team, which held three cars. 

The BRE Sedan Delivery  

Another BRE team vehicle of note was Brock’s 1963 Ford Falcon sedan delivery. Pete bought this car new while he was working for Shelby. A regular tow truck and parts carrier, it was not a standard Ford. While still relatively new, the Shelby crew fitted the Falcon with a 289ci Hi-Po Ford engine and gearbox, along with a fancy exhaust set up. After these modifications, the Falcon was just the ticket for towing Shelby’s Cobras to tests and race meetings. 
 

The Falcon was also apparently the first car at Shelby to sport racing stripes. Along with the Hino transporter, the Falcon proved a useful workhorse throughout Brock’s Hino and Datsun days, when it wore “Team Samurai” badges. Pete only sold it in the 1980s and it now forms part of the Shelby-American Museum in Boulder, Colorado.

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