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The BRE Transporter
Not many articles profiling a race team would mention the team transporter. BREs 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 Brocks
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
Shelbys 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 Brocks 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.
Credits/Acknowledgements My thanks indeed go to Peter Brock for assisting with these pages and for his enthusiasm towards this project. Credit for other information/images on this page go to Jim Kellar and www.speedvision.com. If you have any further information or images that you think would benefit these pages please E-Mail me or sign the Guestbook. Rob Beddington |
These pages, unless otherwise stated, are copyright ©1999, 2000, 2001 & 2002, Rob Beddington & The Classic Fairlady Roadster Register. Do not redistribute in any form without the prior permission of the owner.