Murray Carter

Kingair · 13 Feb 2016, 21:36 (Ref:3614470)

Being a good ten-tenths member doing such things as helping little old ladies cross the road, Santa Claus brought me the Ford In Racing gift pack for Christmas.

Having just watched the DVD on the Falcon Hardtop, one person that appears is Murray Carter.

It mentions at one stage on the DVD he was the unofficial Ford team, doing lots of development work for Ford and Moffat.

I can always remember his black XD/XE racing and I think later he ran an RX7?

Sounds like a guy that loved his racing and loved to go racing, and was a pretty smart guy in the workshop as well.

One of those guys that didn't get a lot of publicity, and operated under the radar but contributed a lot to motor racing in Australia.

Must be a few Murray Cater stories to be told.

mayhem · 13 Feb 2016, 22:34 (Ref:3614475)

He had the sweetest race car a 77 year old could have at the time: Little Red Corvette

His sweet DR30 Skyline and black Sierra were the ducks nuts in their day too.

Kingair · 14 Feb 2016, 02:21 (Ref:3614501)

Could be a worthy cause for a starring role in series 3 of Shannon's Legends of Motorsport?

Most 77 year olds are probably looking at buying a walking frame, not racing a little red Corvette?

Umai Naa · 14 Feb 2016, 03:01 (Ref:3614507)

All told, a ripper bloke.

The DR30 was nice, but the Sierra was a bit of a dog. A sponsorship from Windscreens O'Brien would've come in handy...

chavez · 14 Feb 2016, 04:19 (Ref:3614522)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Umai Naa

All told, a ripper bloke.

The DR30 was nice, but the Sierra was a bit of a dog. A sponsorship from Windscreens O'Brien would've come in handy...

Was the Sierra that was damaged at Lakeside in '89 the same one that caught fire on at least two occasions in '90?

I seem to recall him rolling a Nissan Pintara, of all things, at Dandenong Road on one occasion.

And somehow ended up wrapped in barb wire half way down Conrod Straight in the RX-7 on the aborted first lap of the '84 Great Race.

xrystl · 14 Feb 2016, 10:26 (Ref:3614585)

From memory he started way back in the fifties in a Ford Customline , great bloke and funny enough I can't remember him ever winning an event , he was sponsored for many years by Brian Wood Ford , he must be well into his eighties now .

db120176 · 15 Feb 2016, 02:29 (Ref:3614733)

Was initially concerned when I saw the topic heading that the first message would lead with "Today we lost a legend". Quite relieved now

coln72 · 15 Feb 2016, 05:11 (Ref:3614749)

That thought crossed my mind to....

rich07 · 15 Feb 2016, 06:27 (Ref:3614757)

Yeah me too. Glad I was wrong

Kingair · 15 Feb 2016, 06:38 (Ref:3614759)

In the Racing XD/XE Falcon DVD, the commentator at an Oran Park race meeting where KB in the Camaro and Murray in the XD are in a battle makes a good comment -Murray has to do all the car preparation, rebuilds, panel repairs and engine work etc so he will race but not push too hard.

Whereas today some of daddies little cashed up racers seem to run out of talent and tear up lots of dollars, and then proverbial dummy spit!

His cars always seem to carry the same paint scheme through the Falcon era.

chavez · 15 Feb 2016, 07:07 (Ref:3614760)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kingair

In the Racing XD/XE Falcon DVD, the commentator at an Oran Park race meeting where KB in the Camaro and Murray in the XD are in a battle makes a good comment -Murray has to do all the car preparation, rebuilds, panel repairs and engine work etc so he will race but not push too hard.

Of course on occasions the red mist did descend.

https://youtu.be/NbK8rxWlm1o?t=305

Terry S · 15 Feb 2016, 21:20 (Ref:3614950)

Three quick things I'd like to note on Murray Carter:

- The Carter Corvette that he self built in the late 50's early 60's was a fantastic car. It looked great as a sports car, not so good as a GT. It is still around in historic racing.

- Murray was portrayed as the poor privateer taking on the works team. In fact he got significant unofficial support from Ford. The Ford works team at 6 Mahoneys Road did not have an engine dyno, but Murray did. All the Ford engine development for the Fords was done at Murrays. Frequently when they left good parts were "accidentally" left behind......nudge, nudge

- Murray's Sierra was very late in its introduction. When it left for an Oran Park ATCC round it was only half finished. Unfortunately there was a truck drivers strike/blockade on Razorback and Murray could not get past. So they unloaded the Sierra off the semi trailer and finished building it on the side of the road.

This is an excellent article on Murray's racing life:

http://www.speedcafe.com/2011/05/06/55227/

Henry · 21 Feb 2016, 00:14 (Ref:3616385)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Terry S

Three quick things I'd like to note on Murray Carter:

- The Carter Corvette that he self built in the late 50's early 60's was a fantastic car. It looked great as a sports car, not so good as a GT. It is still around in historic racing.

- Murray was portrayed as the poor privateer taking on the works team. In fact he got significant unofficial support from Ford. The Ford works team at 6 Mahoneys Road did not have an engine dyno, but Murray did. All the Ford engine development for the Fords was done at Murrays. Frequently when they left good parts were "accidentally" left behind......nudge, nudge

- Murray's Sierra was very late in its introduction. When it left for an Oran Park ATCC round it was only half finished. Unfortunately there was a truck drivers strike/blockade on Razorback and Murray could not get past. So they unloaded the Sierra off the semi trailer and finished building it on the side of the road.

This is an excellent article on Murray's racing life:

http://www.speedcafe.com/2011/05/06/55227/

I loved the tale of his trip to Wanneroo in (IIRC) 1981... he left late, and knew it, but ran hard all the way across the bottom of the country, arriving in the West with the glovebox of the truck stuffed to bursting with speeding tickets... or so the story goes...

The Lot 6 push found Murray a great ally: in the case of some parts that weren't exactly kosher (apparently metalurgically, sometimes other parameters), Lot 6 would use Murray as the control sample for the scrutineers... he was often the only non-works Falcon around in the early Group C days, and usually off the pace of the works cars... so the logic would be that Murray's car would just have to be legal... so on more than one occasion, a Lot 6 an would be at Murray's workshop bright and early on a Monday morning with a set of their "slightly fuzzy" parts for Muz to install before the CAMS scrutes arrived for a look at what he had, to compare to the sample from the works cars....

Bob McWilliam, who co-founded Phase Autos with Wayne Draper, worked for Murray, and so many of Murray's paint schemes came from the pen of Wayne Draper... Murray also had a Ford development car for the Repco Trial in 1979 - apparently it was a hack with the XD underpinnings - but didn't fare well when the clutch and bell housing filled up with bulldust. Murray hadn't fitted all the guards up underneath and when the car stopped, somebody asked him why the guards weren't fitted to the bell housing.. the reply "I never put them on the race cars"...

redesp · 22 Feb 2016, 00:20 (Ref:3616622)

Bumped into Murray at the All Ford Day in Geelong yesterday.
He doesn't look a day over 60

.

The man took time to chat with everyone that went past him.
Top Bloke

fomoco · 23 Feb 2016, 10:16 (Ref:3616979)

I still think this was Murray's nicest's looking cars

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