This Sydney collector spreads his car love across multiple marques, but his new Boss 302 Mustang is his latest flame
Terry Daly’s Collection
Daly Driver
Enthusiasts collect cars for a variety of reasons, but for Terry Daly each car in his collection holds a special place in a motoring life that began when he joined the Sydney University Car Club as a student back in the mid-1960s.
“Basically, I’ve tried to collect the cars that inspired me when I was young but simply couldn’t afford,” says Daly.
The retired former managing director of an information technology company has put together an eclectic collection, with a number of cars holding special memories of his competition days.
However, his latest acquisition breaks the mould: a newly-imported 2012 Ford Mustang Boss 302 fresh out of the carton and in imposing silver and red livery. It’s already firmly established itself as Daly’s flagship collectable.
Ford’s reincarnation of the Boss 302 name commemorates the success the company had with the original Boss hog between 1969 and 1970.
While many high-performance models have been produced since the Mustang’s inception in 1964 – like the Cobra, Bullitt and the Mach 1 – true pony car aficionados know that the revered factory high-performance Mustang was the 1969 Boss 302.
Back then the Boss took on the likes of the Chevrolet Camaro, Plymouth AAR ’Cudas, and AMC Javelins in the Sports Car Club of America’s Trans-Am Cup, winning the series in 1970 in the hands of Parnelli Jones.
Daly’s Boss 302 is special because it has the optional Laguna Seca package, named after the racetrack where the Boss 302 won the season-opening race of the 1970 Trans-Am series.
The performance package lifts power from the 5.0-litre V8 to 330kW, 24 more than the standard Boss 302 thanks to revised induction, forged pistons, beefier conrods, sodium-filled valves, warmer cams, re-mapped electronics and an oil cooler.
The Laguna Seca edition also gains special body graphics, a 300-mm deep front splitter, which Daly is yet to fit, plus 19-inch alloys and a rear spoiler, both highlighted in red. The rear seats also make way for a massive X-shaped cross-brace to stiffen the chassis.
Final drive is through a six-speed manual shift to a three-link, live rear axle with a Torsen limited-slip diff. Official test times out of the US show it will sprint to 100km/h in 4.1 seconds, 0.5sec quicker than the standard Boss. Offering perhaps the best of both worlds, Ford suggests the Laguna Seca is designed to be raced on the track but then driven home.
Around 8000 street-version Boss 302s were produced by the Blue Oval between 1969 and 1970 to homologate its 302ci V8 for racing. The latest incarnation had a limited production run of just 750 and already four have landed in Australia. Daly’s car is number 229.
Very active in motorsport in his younger days, Daly raced at Bathurst from 1976 to 1981 in a Ford Capri. He’s owned many race cars over the years and entered many rallies, including three Targa Tasmanias, and is a member of seven car clubs.
As the president of the Thoroughbred Sports Car Club of NSW, his 1966 Ford Mustang holds a special place. Daly drove the superbly prepared ’Stang in the 1973 London-to-Sydney Marathon and then backed up for the London-to-Mexico Rally two years later. But it was the 1997 20,000 kilometre Panama City-to-Alaska event that holds the strongest and most exciting memories.
“We drove on closed and mostly unsealed roads at speeds of over 200km/h in 40-degree heat with a promise from the local police they would not book us. It was very exciting,” Daly winks. “I was seeded third behind some top-ranked internationals.”
The potent Mustang, fitted with a highly-modified Shelby Boss V8, sits alongside another performance Ford he relishes, a Ford GT40 replica built by Roaring 40s in 2000. It is one of the first GT40s produced by the Melbourne company and Terry says the quality of the sub-frame, welding and workmanship is to an incredibly high standard.
His Jaguars are also special to him and he has four, including two 1966 E-Types – a roadster and a coupe – both the more desirable Series 1 4.2-litre manuals. The latter was originally dispatched to Zambia and purchased fully restored by Daly from another enthusiast in 2005. More modern Jaguars include a 2000 XK8 Coupe and a near new XKR Coupe.
Pride of place in Daly’s ‘motor house’ – as opposed to garage – however, is a massive 1981 Series II Aston Martin Lagonda saloon. This wedge-shaped marvel is one of only 639 produced and the first of the model imported to Australia. “It’s one of just 17 in the country,” beamed Daly, who has a deep affection for the British saloon.
Measuring nearly 5.3 metres long and just 1.3 metres high, this sleek saloon was considered a superior luxury car to the rather conventional Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit in its day and cost considerably
more at $225,000.
Power comes from a 5.3-litre cast-iron V8 driving through a three-speed automatic. Equally British, and a car Daly stumbled across by chance, is a charming 1936 3 1/2-litre Rolls-Royce 20/25 Hooper saloon.
This car was auctioned in the United States by the Department of Inland Revenue in 1982 and has an interesting history, Daly says. “The US government believed the Hells Angels had purchased the old Rolls with the proceeds of drugs.”
Purchased and imported by a Sydney businessman, little happened to it over the next 25 years until it was discovered by Daly in a factory unit in 2007.
“What I like about this time warp Rolls-Royce is its originality. It still has its original nickel-plated tool kits under each of the front seats and the original owner’s initials in gold leaf on the driver’s door. It also features a windscreen demister, which was somewhat of a novelty in 1936.”
Two Lotus coupes also feature in the Daly collection, a 1962 Series II Elite and a 1969 Series III Elan purchased fully restored from a former aircraft engineer. Daly only recently sold his 1998 Targa-roofed Lotus Elise with just 7800 kilometres on the speedo which he purchased new.
One wonders when Terry Daly will be finally content with his collection – the only limitation to it growing it seems will be the size of the motor ‘house’ he stores them in. Then again, he could build an extension.
Photography: Mark Bean