Holden TX-TC-TD Gemini: How Brocky and the Geminis blitzed Bathurst
The Gary Leggatt/David Seldon TC Gemini coupe on its way to a belated victory in the 1600cc class at the 1979 Hardie-Ferodo 1000. Leggatt entered the car as an ‘Isuzu’ Gemini just to be different, which inadvertently created some baseless media rumours about secret factory homologations!
On Sunday September 30, 1979 Peter Brock and Jim Richards in their Holden Torana A9X wrote a special page in Bathurst history by winning the Hardie-Ferodo 1000 by a record-smashing margin of six laps. However, few were aware of a similar thrashing which took place at the other end of the field that day, courtesy of Holden’s Gemini coupe.
The introduction of a new class for cars up to 1600cc engine capacity attracted a bumper entry of six 1.6 litre Holden Geminis, which were as merciless on their feeble competition as the 5.0 litre Torana A9Xs had been in the outright division.
The Geminis finished 1-2-3-4-5, with the coupe shared by Melbourne brothers Allan and Kel Gough taking the chequered flag six laps in front. Sadly for the Gough boys, post-race scrutineering of their race engine revealed cylinder dimensions that did not comply with local CAMS rules (see story) and they were disqualified.
Even so, the second-placed Gemini shared by experienced Bathurst hands David Seldon and Gary Leggatt upheld Holden’s rout of the small car division when it was promoted to the class win, followed by three other Geminis. The last car in Holden’s ‘awesome foursome’ finished eight laps ahead of the first of the non-Geminis, with only one of the six failing to finish.
Peter Brock in his HDT Torana A9X leads the charge towards Hell Corner moments after the start of the 1979 Hardie-Ferodo 1000, as he and co-driver Jim Richards begin their unprecedented domination of ‘The Great Race’. Dozens of grid positions further back, hidden in all those exhaust fumes and swirling dust, the Holden Gemini was about to do the same in the 1600cc class.
Clearly, the Gemini’s Bathurst blitz was as every bit as demoralising as that of its V8-powered big brother and was without doubt its greatest racing achievement in Australia. Given that the Gemini’s local release was in 1975, the fact that it took another four years before it achieved such a dominant victory was because a suitable Bathurst class did not exist for it until 1979.
Creation of the new 0-1600cc Class D was indeed timely for The General’s pint-sized performer, as it could never have shown its true colours on the Mountain had the 0-2000cc class not been subdivided into 0-1600cc and 1601-2000cc that year. That may also help to explain why Holden never openly provided direct factory support of the Gemini in Group C touring cars.
That’s not to say that the Gemini wasn’t enjoying great success and popularity in circuit racing; it was just that the bulk of its activities were in one-make series in which its only competitor was itself.
That all started in 1975 when a group of Queensland Holden dealers supplied a dozen showroom stock Geminis to compete in a series of support races for the Australian Grand Prix meeting at the old Surfers Paradise Raceway. The 12 identical cars were driven by the top open-wheeler stars of the era and the concept proved to be a real crowd-pleaser, with eventual AGP winner Max Stewart defeating Kevin Bartlett in atrocious wet conditions.
Although the Gemini was released in 1975 to wide acclaim, Holden provided no direct factory support for its popular small car in touring car racing. The Gemini’s first Bathurst appearance was in 1977 when Melbourne brothers Allan and Kel Gough teamed up in this privately-entered TX coupe in the under 2.0 litre class. The 1.6 litre Gemini struggled against faster 2.0 litre opponents and retired early with engine trouble.
The success of the AGP initiative quickly evolved into a dedicated one-make series for Geminis being run at Melbourne’s Calder Park, providing a low-cost entry into the sport. Several years later another Gemini series kicked off in Queensland, providing an affordable but competitive training ground for future touring car stars including Bathurst winners Tony Longhurst and Paul Morris.
However, these activities were not providing the Gemini with a chance to measure its performance against some genuine competition. The lack of a 1.6 litre class both at Bathurst and in the Australian Touring Car Championship meant the Gemini was always caught short in the 0-2000cc class, where it was outclassed by battle-hardened 2.0 litre road rockets like the Alfa 2000 GTV and Ford Escort RS2000.
This was evident in the two appearances by the Gough brothers’ lone Gemini at Bathurst prior to 1979. In 1977 they qualified last in the 2.0 litre class and after starting from the back row of the grid their Gemini was forced to retire after only seven laps due to piston failure. In 1978 they were again outgunned in qualifying before suffering a roll-over at the end of Conrod Straight, falling short of the minimum laps required to be classified as finishers.
Clearly, given the Gemini’s enduring popularity with a broad spectrum of Aussie car buyers, it deserved a chance to prove what a tough, spirited and sweet-handling small car it really was in the premier division of Aussie tin-tops.
The Gough brothers returned to the Mountain in 1978 in the latest TD Gemini. With only 1.6 litres against 2.0 litre Ford and Alfa Romeo rivals, the Gemini again faced a steep battle in more ways than one. It also ended up on its roof after rolling at the end of Conrod Straight. However, the following year would see the creation of an under 1600cc class which was tailor-made for the Gemini.
Available in four-door sedan and two-door coupe styles, the local Gemini was one of several regional models to be derived from GM’s first ‘world car’ known internally as the ‘T Car’. With a light kerb weight of just over 900 kg, the sharp response of rack and pinion steering was matched with excellent double wishbone front suspension. Its coil-sprung live rear axle was located by lower trailing arms, a panhard rod and a torque tube in preference to upper control arms to minimise spring wind-up and maximise traction.
The over-square 1584cc inline four showed its performance breeding with a chain-driven single overhead camshaft, aluminium crossflow ‘hemi’ head and two-barrel carburettor. Rated at 63.4kW (85 bhp) at 5000 rpm (it would happily rev to 6500 rpm) and 135 Nm (100 ft/lbs) at 4000 rpm, the four-speed manual Gemini was capable of 150 km/h-plus top speeds in standard form.
With engine modifications allowed under Group C touring car rules at the time, which included higher compression pistons, hotter camshaft, larger twin-choke Weber carburettor etc, power outputs rose to more than 110 bhp at 7000 rpm with top speeds exceeding 180 km/h.
The very quick Toyota Corolla Levin twin-cam shared by Japanese ace Kiyoshi Misaki and Mark Thatcher (son of British PM Margaret Thatcher) set Mount Panorama alight in the early laps of the 1979 Hardie-Ferodo 1000. After a cautious start, Thatcher was running away with the lead of the 0-1600cc class until forced out with engine trouble. Note the Brit’s very patriotic Union Jack painted on the roof. Jolly good show, old chap!
Bathurst 1979: A chance to shine
Entries for the 0-1600cc class in the 1979 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 showed that most teams were thinking alike when it came to deciding which car would give them the best chance of success.
Keep in mind that crews competing in the ‘baby car’ class in those days were typically club amateur and semi-professional drivers on tight budgets. Therefore, the opportunity to purchase one of the many Geminis already competing in either the Victorian or Queensland-based series to race at Bathurst made plenty of sense.
The Gemini’s toughest competition on the Mountain in 1979 would come from a rapid 1.6 litre twin-cam Corolla Levin coupe entered by Celica racer and Toyota dealer Peter Williamson, to be driven by Japanese champion Kiyoshi Misaki and more famously Mark Thatcher (son of then British PM Margaret Thatcher).
Although this hot Corolla model was not sold in Australia, it was allowed to compete here due to its FIA global homologation as a Group One car (just like Willo’s Celica GT, KB’s Chevrolet Camaro etc). On paper it had more than enough performance to blitz the 1600cc class if it had a trouble-free run, as the only other Class D competitors beyond the Geminis were a lone 1.6 litre Ford Escort and VW Golf GTI.
After two tough years pioneering the Gemini’s development at Bathurst, the Gough brothers’ persistence appeared to pay off handsomely in their third attempt in 1979. Just like Brock and Richards in the outright division, the Goughs took pole position before dominating the small car class. Sadly, their post-race celebrations would only last until scrutineering.
David Seldon and Gary Leggatt were under no illusions about how quick the twin-cam Corolla would be at Bathurst. The Sydneysiders only got a start in the race due to a late and unexpected offer of commercial sponsorship.
“I got to know a guy who worked at Cinzano (at the time a popular brand of alcoholic mixer) and he asked me if I was going to race at Bathurst that year,” Leggatt told Shannons Club. “At that stage I didn’t have anything lined up, so he said ‘okay, I’ll give you ten grand’ just like that. And ten grand ($10,000) was a lot of money back then, particular if you were racing one of the smaller class cars. You could do a lot with that.
“David Seldon agreed to co-drive for me, so then we had to find a car. 1979 was the first year they had the under 1600cc class and I thought the Gemini would be half alright and everyone agreed, so off we went looking for one. By then it was August, so we didn’t have much time.
“In the Calder Gemini series you were allowed to modify the cars a bit more, so we thought they’d have better brakes and all that sort of stuff. A guy had a (Calder series) TC Gemini for sale and I bought it on the spot. I think I paid about six grand for it.
The TD Gemini coupe shared by Bernie McClure and David Langman gets up on two wheels just like the good old days of the Torana XU-1s as it powers through The Dipper at Bathurst in 1979. Their hard-fought third place in Class D would become second after the class-winning Gough brothers Gemini was excluded on technical grounds.
“After it was rail-freighted back to Sydney we took it out to Oran Park to have a bit of a fang around and see what it was like. With the extra grip from the racing slicks combined with some really stiff springs, shocks and what have you, it turned out to be a real ‘two-wheeler’ in left-hand corners.
“Because the Gemini’s panhard rod on the rear axle angled up towards the driver’s side, it wanted to push the body over (due to lateral weight transfer) in left-hand corners. It was getting seriously tippy through some of those turns, to the extent that you could see right under the car.
“When we started thinking about Bathurst, we thought it was actually going to be a bit dangerous to drive. So we took it back to the workshop, pulled it apart to check everything and rebuilt the suspension with new springs, Bilstein shocks, better wheels (Rebel 13 x 7-inch) etc.”
The Gemini’s Bathurst rebuild also included a fresh race engine by Merv Waggott which included 10.5:1 pistons (8.7:1 stock), 42mm twin-choke downdraught Weber carburettor on a special manifold adapter, hotter camshaft and free flowing exhaust. This was matched with a homologated five-speed gearbox (as per TD model) and a 3.9:1 limited-slip diff.
Of the six Geminis in the new 0-1600cc division, five were entered as Holden Geminis but the Leggatt/Seldon ‘Cinzano’ car was entered as an ‘Isuzu’ Gemini. This gave rise to all sorts of theories about secret factory homologations, but Leggatt said it was nothing of the sort.
Jim Faneco and Garry Rowe shared in the Gemini blitz of the 0-1600cc class at Bathurst in 1979, finishing third aboard their nicely presented TD coupe. Note the securing straps at the front of the bonnet to ensure it couldn’t fly open at high speeds. Other teams used either these or bonnet securing pins, as demanded by the safety rules.
“I knew a guy up in Tokyo who ran a speed shop,” he explained. “I was enquiring if I could get any assistance from Isuzu in running our car at Bathurst, as they (the speed shop) were supporting a team in Kyoto rallying Isuzu Geminis. He didn’t speak much English and I didn’t speak much Japanese, but he was a good guy and he supplied me with lots of competition parts like special hard compound rubber engine mounts, gearbox mounts, that sort of stuff.
“I thought he was a pretty handy contact to have so just to be a bit different with my car, as I always liked to do, I also got some Isuzu badges, a workshop manual etc and decided to enter it as an Isuzu Gemini. You could run them at Bathurst because (like the twin-cam Corolla) it was also a Group One homologated car. So we did it just to be different, it was as simple as that.”
The qualifying session on the Mountain was held in wet conditions and from the outset it was the Gough brothers that set the pace, quickly securing pole position at 3 min 7.0 secs on a slippery track. Seldon soon matched that time but had to settle for the second grid slot, as the Goughs were the first to do it.
Class D looked like it was going to be a three-way fight between the two fastest Geminis and, if weather conditions improved on race day as forecast, the Misaki/Thatcher Corolla Levin. The potent Toyota was clearly not performing at its best in the wet conditions after qualifying fifth fastest, but on a dry track it was expected to set a blistering pace.
The Gemini coupe’s big brother, the thundering LX Torana A9X hatchback, was untouchable at Bathurst in 1979. Here the winning ‘05’ Brock/Richards HDT entry is charging down the Mountain during its pulverising performance on the Mountain.
And that’s exactly what happened after the national flag dropped to start the 1979 Hardie-Ferodo 1000. As Peter Brock leapt off pole position in his Torana A9X and into a lead that he and Jim Richards would never relinquish, a similar thing happened some 42 grid places further back as the Gough brothers Gemini leapt into an early lead of the 0-1600cc class.
Unlike the Brock/Richards Torana, though, the Gough brothers Gemini held it for only 10 laps before the Corolla Levin with Mark Thatcher at the wheel stormed past after a cautious start. During the following hour Thatcher built a commanding gap over the fastest Gemini, which had no answer to the Japanese import.
However, just when it was starting to look like a Corolla walkover, the exotic Toyota coupe suddenly stopped on top of the Mountain with a reported broken distributor (other reports cited oil pump failure). Unsuccessful attempts to get the Corolla back in the race saw it retired after only 41 laps.
This left the fight for class honours between the Geminis of the Gough brothers and Leggatt/Seldon. However, the Goughs were showing far superior pace and after 50 laps and the first scheduled pit stops they held a full lap advantage over the Cinzano car, with the rest of the Geminis and Class D contenders getting strung out further behind.
Another nicely turned-out Gemini in the 1979 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 was driven by Ian Wells and Ken Price. The pair rounded out the little Holden's domination of the under 1600cc division by finishing fourth in their TD coupe.
Like Brock and Richards at the head of the pack, the Goughs also continued to build on their class lead throughout the afternoon. That became a six-lap advantage after the Leggatt/Seldon Gemini reportedly threw a fan-belt at around 3pm and spent several laps in the pits while a replacement was fitted to get them back in the race.
When the chequered flag fell, Holden had demolished its rivals in more ways than one. Brock and Richards won the race outright by a staggering margin of six laps, having also taken pole position, never being passed for the entire race distance and with Brock setting a new lap record on the final lap. Not only that, A9X Toranas filled the first eight finishing positions.
At the other end of the field, Holden also did a demolition job on the under 1600cc class thanks to the Geminis. Not only did the Gough brothers ‘do a Brock’ by take pole position and winning the race by six laps (from Leggatt/Seldon), but Geminis also filled the first five finishing positions with only one retired. It was unquestionably the Gemini’s greatest racing achievement in Australia.
The only Gemini sedan to race at Bathurst in 1979 was this TX model shared by Mal Smith and Mal Owen. It was also the only Gemini not to finish the race, retiring early with engine trouble. Sports Car World magazine claimed that the Gemini coupe was favoured over the sedan by race teams because it had a slightly smaller windscreen and lower roofline, which reduced its frontal area (and therefore aero drag) by around five percent. And, like the A9X hatchback, it looked sportier too.
Victory champagne can be bitter-sweet
“The Gough boys were always a long way in front of us, they were really fast all day and we didn’t know why until we got to scrutineering,” Leggatt revealed.
“The first three Geminis were there - the Goughs’, our car and I think Bernie McClure’s. I was watching the scrutineer as he was measuring the bore size on the Goughs’ Gemini. He said ‘83 mm’ so I walked straight over to him and said ‘that’s 1.0 mm oversize and that’s illegal!’ Then they measured our car and it was 82mm and the other car was 82mm, so after some discussion I lodged an official protest and it went before the stewards.
“In the FIA recognition documents for the Gemini, it showed the maximum allowable engine capacity (in cc) and that figure allowed for a 1.0mm overbore (1623cc with the standard 75mm stroke). That’s what the Gough brothers were relying on, but the CAMS manual said the engine had to use the standard 82mm bore size (or 1584 cc). Our argument was that that the FIA papers were irrelevant because this was Australia and we were running under the Australian CAMS manual. So consequently the stewards agreed with us and disqualified them.
“Naturally the Goughs appealed that decision and we had to attend a CAMS hearing in Sydney where the steward’s original ruling was upheld. We thought that was the end of it until I was contacted by (CAMS chief) John Keefe who said he was also going to let it run through AMSAC (the highest appeals court) to ensure the Goughs could exercise all of their legal options, but again the original ruling stood.
The Gemini was seen as the spiritual successor to the dominant Torana XU-1 in local rallying, but it failed to deliver. The Holden Dealer Team’s four-year Gemini rally program was managed by George Shepheard in Sydney. After a promising start, various engine combinations were trialled in coupes and sedans at both state and national level, including a potent turbocharged version. The factory cars were very competitive on occasions but consistently fragile, as trying to match more powerful Ford Escort and Datsun 710/Stanza rivals was always a stretch. The HDT-backed program was shut down at the end of the 1979 season. Image: www.gallery.oldholden.com
“So after about six months or so, David and I were finally presented with our Bathurst trophies by George Hibbard (MD of Hardie-Ferodo) and officially announced as the first winners of the under 1600cc class at Bathurst.”
Scrutineering of the Geminis after that 1979 race also revealed alarming inconsistencies in the inlet manifolds being used on different cars, which prompted the publishing of further documentation by CAMS to define what was and wasn’t legal.
So how does Gary Leggatt feel today, having shared with his good mate David Seldon in what was unquestionably the greatest triumph by the Gemini in Australian motor sport?
“Look, there’s no doubt that twin-cam Corolla would have beaten all of us if it didn’t have any trouble but it did and that’s just motor racing,” Leggatt reflected. “The Gemini really was a good little thing. Nobody in those days had much to spend in that class. They were mostly battlers, just guys running automotive repair shops and things like that. The Gemini was excellent value for money as a Group C touring car, because for not a huge outlay you could run competitively at Bathurst and we proved it.”
