Dan Gurney Impala – on UK soil, the restoration begins

So, the good news: the car is absolutely fantastic and it’s in good shape. There’s no rust – having spent almost the entirety of its life in Australia – and everything that was supposed to be there, is there. The bad news? It won’t be racing at the Revival. We’ll come to that in a bit.

The left-hand-drive conversion was not the work of a moment. Verne Frantz, who sold the car on behalf of the Australian owner, undertook the task with metal man Justin Lipick and they did an excellent job. First of all, Verne sourced a donor car (a very dilapidated 1961 Chevrolet Biscayne), which then needed to be shipped from the west coast of America to the east coast. Once the Biscayne had arrived, Justin set about cutting it to pieces for everything he needed, from the dashboard and firewall, to the instrument cluster housing, handbrake mechanism, heater assembly and speedometer cable. The list was quite long, but importantly included the same cigarette lighter and radio that Dan Gurney had in the car for the race in ‘61. The firewall then needed to be cut out of the Impala and the new one put in, along with the new dashboard and parts. It was only when Verne sent me a photo of the project in progress did I fully appreciate the work involved.

By this time Mike and Andrew Jordan were asking when the car was going to arrive with increasing frequency. Suitably panicked, I pushed for it to be shipped as quickly as possible. A mix up meant that there was a long delay when the original registration documents had to be sent from Scotland to New Jersey, but the car did eventually board YM Evolution in May. Arrival date at London Gateway: Saturday, June 2^nd.

By the time it cleared customs, and was unpacked, the arrival day at Jordan Racing Team near Tamworth was Wednesday, June 6^th. I cleared the diary and arrived, untypically, two hours early… It was amazing to finally see the car – photos really can’t do the sheer size of it justice. It is enormous. It’s also quite a pretty car. I know that sounds a little odd when talking about a 1.5-tonne, five-metre-long American muscle car, but the lines are quite pure, and small details like the bend in the A-Pillars make it look ‘designed’. More than can be said of many similarly aged American cars.

By the time we had the car up on the ramp, Mike Jordan had gone quiet. Turning this thing into a race car was never going to be a small task, but with the Revival only three months away, it was starting to look impossible. Neither of us wanted to do an average job, and quite quickly the decision was made to change plans.

The current one is this: We’ll return it to the exact specification that Dan Gurney had it in for the British Saloon Car Championship race in 1961 and it will be at the Revival, just not racing. After that it’ll then undergo a nut-and-bolt restoration, getting it race ready. One of the (many) problems with the project is that the chassis doesn’t extend to the sills of the car so, to put a roll cage in, we’ll need to modify it. However, whatever we do will be reversible so that it can always be turned, easily, back into a road car.

The engine, which was built over in America, is currently on a boat in the middle of the Atlantic. The very early 409s in 1961 ran with a single inlet carburettor, while the later ones in ’61 went to a twin-inlet setup. If you’re keeping the engine completely correct to the car, the most you can hope for power-wise is 440bhp (which is what we have – alongside 440lb per square ft of torque). The later engines can be pushed much further – closer to 500bhp. I doubt I’ll miss the extra 60bhp when the car’s on the road… Apparently, there are only two cars remaining of 147 built in that original, early 1961 specification – this is one of them. The original ’61 block (we used a ’62 block for the new engine) is what my father would refer to as “a hen’s tooth”. If we built an engine up from it they go for $45,000 in America. Madness. It’ll be put safely to one side…

Hopefully, the next update will be in August when the car runs for the first time. We’re also making a three-part video series on the car, thanks to Motul, so you’ll be able to see and hear the drama when it finally fires up.