Beechey & Chivas tribute Chargers

By: Mark Higgins, Unique Cars magazine, Photography by: Mark Bean, Alastair Brook

Date: 20.03.2023

When Bathurst rolled around each year, the big three locals fired their best shot. For Chrysler in 1971, it was the Charger

The Charger story is a well-documented one.

Chrysler wanted a coupe to rival the Holden Monaro and upcoming Falcon two-door and be a competitive Series Production race car at Bathurst.

Series Production cars were near showroom stock and made up of classes according to price. The Charger competed in Class D for cars priced $3151 to $4350 up against Holden’s Torana LC GTR XU-1 with the new Falcon GT-HO Phase III competing in Class E for cars over $4350.

Beechey and McKeown were a strong pairing, Co-driving at Bathurst for the first time

Buoyed by a debut victory in the 1971 Toby Lee 100 at Oran Park, with R/T E38 Chargers filling six of the top 11 places and Doug Chivas winning, Chrysler went to Mount Panorama in early October, brimming with confidence. While an outright win may have been a big ask a class victory would be a good consolation prize and help move metal in dealerships.

For the 1971 running of the Hardie Ferodo 500, there were 10 Chargers, 11 LC Torana GTR XU-1s and 13 GT-HO Phase IIIs entered.

Shell yellow was a one off for the race

History shows by the end of the first practice session it was game over, with Allan Moffat’s Falcon GT-HO Phase III lapping the track an incredible 13.2 seconds faster than he did in the Phase II GT-HO the previous year. From pole position, he claimed his second of four Bathurst wins. Falcon GT-HOs filled the top three spots with Colin Bond’s XU-1 in fourth and the best of the Chargers, Leo Geoghegan finishing seventh.

But back to the two Chargers we have here.

| Read next: Ex-Bathurst Chrysler E38 Charger

Both are tributes to cars that were part of the Chrysler factory team In the Liverpool Chrysler colours is the Doug Chivas / Graham Moore car that finished 12th in class, after overheating and gear selection issues ruined their day.

The Shell Racing Charger fared better and snared sixth in class D. It was driven by tin-top stars Norm Beechey and Jim McKeown who were long-time teammates and competed in the Australian Touring Car Championship for Improved Production Touring Cars. Beechey won the title in 1970 with McKeown runner-up.

| Read next: Cult classic - Chrysler Valiant E37 R/T Charger

Class D pitted Charger against XU-1

Despite their illustrious careers Beechey and McKeown started in just four Bathurst 500s between them with both tasting success at the Armstrong 500 at Phillip Island, before the race shifted to Bathurst.

Doug Chivas is probably best remembered for pushing his race-leading and out-of-fuel Holden Dealer Team XU-1 up pitlane at Bathurst in 1973. Chivas, like Colin Bond, was extremely talented as a race and rally driver. He drove for the Mitsubishi works rally team, Alec Mildren’s Alfa Romeo touring car team, the Holden Dealer Team and of course Chrysler. He won his class at Bathurst in 1963, 1967 and 1968 and in 1972 gave Chrysler its best Bathurst result, finishing third outright and second in class in a Charger E49.

| Read next: 1972 Valiant VH 770 Regal hardtop

Plenty of room to work on this beast

A key figure of the Charger race program was John Grant, a young Chrysler Australia executive at the time. A mechanic by trade, he was working in the experimental department before taking a senior role in the newly formed race team, that had run Valiant Pacers in 1970.

According to Grant, motorsport was a vital marketing tool for brand recognition with win on Sunday, sell on Monday applicable for the showroom standard cars.

"Communications between Australia and Chrysler US started in 1967 and it was going on behind the scenes for many years," says Grant. In 1970 John Ellis was appointed Competitions Program Manager for Chrysler Australia.

Grant reveals, at the request of Chrysler US, one of the Valiant test mule utes employed in the Charger’s race development had a 340 cubic-inch engine in it with a US four-speed transmission and a Borg Warner supplied special rear axle, with disc brakes.

This is how they raced ’em, plus a roll bar and harness

The utes were used as the Charger was still an ‘under wraps secret project’ and only in prototype stage. To replicate the Chargers wheelbase two utes were shortened to the same length and fitted with big fuel tanks in the tray, simulating the weight balance of the Charger.

"We did a lot of testing at Mallala racetrack outside of Adelaide with Leo Geoghegan and Chrysler Australia spoke with US engine guru Keith Black who guaranteed engines with 500 horsepower for 500 miles," says Grant, but cost considerations, parts availability, local content, and the short lead time meant the Charger ran with the straight-six bolted to a three-speed manual.

Greg Psakis literally grew up in the back seat of a Charger and owns the Shell yellow tribute.

"One of my mum’s first cars was a white CL Charger, a K16 ex-patrol car with a 318ci V8 and we’ve always had Chargers in the family.

Chivas Charger is a head turner

"My uncle has one and his mate’s Magenta Charger was on the cover of Unique Cars not long ago. We’ve always had CL model Chargers, but I’ve always liked the VH and especially the R/T. This one I found and did a bit of research on.

"It’s an E38 tribute, a Ray Ikin-built car. The late Clem Smith (Charger racer, Chrysler dealer and owner of Mallala raceway) saw it in Albury and bought it and put it in his private museum. After he passed away the car went to auction and I bought it from the guy who bought it at the auction.

This is how it looked at Bathurst in ’71

"It started life as a VJ Charger and Ray put the stickers on it and it all the other genuine bits like the Webers and everything else. You won’t know it’s not the genuine thing unless you look at the VIN."

Long before he bought it Greg knew of the Beechey/McKeown Bathurst Charger having had a model of it as a kid and that was a big motivator in buying the car.

"I have photos of when Norm and Jim raced at Bathurst in the Charger, but I believe that car no longer exists," says Greg.

"I take it to car shows and it’s always a big hit and people ask if it’s real and I say, ‘I wish’.

"I haven’t had it on the track yet. And while it doesn’t have the roll cage I plan to fit one. It does have the twin fillers but I am reluctant to cut the boot floor to put in the big tank.

Greg’s Charger passion doesn’t end with the Shell car with a resto project sitting in the wings and the 770 that his mum had custom-built from the ground up in the early 2000s.

"She’s a bit of a rev head," says Greg. "These days she gets around in a Mercedes hatchback, an AMG one of course."

The Liverpool Chrysler stickered Charger belongs to Costa Litras and, like Greg, it was his childhood that led him to a love of Chargers.

"My Dad was a major influence, and he had a Pacer. It was our family car for many years and it just sort of stemmed from there. My first car was an R/T Charger and my brothers also own Chargers. It’s a family of Chargers and Pacers and all are R/Ts and Pacers. There are a couple of E38s, one E49 and three Pacers.

My Charger is a replica of the 1971 Doug Chivas race car that started life as a VH 770 with a six.

Big tank steals the boot

When Costa bought the car it was already in the Chivas/Liverpool Chrysler livery and since then he has done a fair swag of work to it.

"I’ve added the big tank and wheel well although it already had the twin fuel fillers. I put on the genuine extractors and Webers, spruced up the interior, re-machined the wheels and put the correct exhaust upsweeps on, added the roll cage from Bond cages, who did the Chivas car back in 1971, put in the 16 to 1 steering box.

Immaculate engine bay

"I’ve basically gone through the whole car to make it as authentic as possible. It now has everything it should have.

"I bought it because it was a Chivas tribute and I was after the race car look. As I said I’ve had a lot of R/Ts but I wanted one that would stand out and it wasn’t just another replica as such.

"I met Doug before he passed away and he was a real gentleman. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to show him the car but he did have some fond memories of it and the race.

"I do club racing and track days with it as well as driving it to shows.

Sporty dash and high bucket pews of the R/T

"When people see they love it and ask if it is the real car. I have made it virtually identical to the race car and there is nothing other than the compliance plate telling you it is not the genuine car.

"I looked at plenty of photos of it for reference and it was quite easy to do an exact replica. Back then they were not that different from the road car, just a few decals stuck on it and a roll cage fitted and away you went. The interior is all factory there’s nothing different about that, even the seats were standard.

1971 style roll bar, vastly different from today

"It is enjoyable to drive that’s for sure it has power where you need it and gets a lot of looks and makes the right noises."

From Unique Cars #475, Feb 2023

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