The window of relative freedom for regional Victorians between consecutive lockdown periods just happened to coincide with our scheduled August monthly meeting at the Drouin Golf Club on the 19th. Taking advantage of this, we managed to almost max-out the restricted 50-guest limit at the venue and all those present enjoyed the opportunity to catch up with friends over drinks and a lovely roast dinner.
General business consisted mainly of previous events that were unable to run, and future events that are clouded in uncertainty. News since the meeting has confirmed that the Philip Island 6-Hour Relay has now been cancelled again this year after being unable to proceed on its previous two scheduled dates. Hopes are that it and many other high-profile events will be back in 2022. The current State-wide lockdown is due to end on September 2nd, but things are not looking good for restrictions to ease sufficiently for our Breakfast Club and the Maffra Museum/Swap Meet on the 12th to go ahead.
Local Ford enthusiast Keith Trotter had been invited to bring along to our meeting his limited-edition Ford Cobra coupe, but repairs to the exhaust system were unable to be completed in time. Keith was however, able to substitute the Cobra for his BF Falcon GT which was a model produced between 2005 and 2007. The GT was fitted with Ford?s 5.4 litre, quad-cam V8 which produced 290kW and 520Nm of torque. Keith, who worked as a photojournalist with Street Car as well as several other magazines and established the Latrobe Valley Street Machiners Club in 1983, gave us a rundown of the special vehicles he had owned in the past, such as an XY Falcon GT and a V8-engined XU-1 Torana, as well as many of those he had photographed and reported on in his career.
Our next monthly meeting is scheduled for Thursday 16th September ? hopes are that the lockdown will be over by then.
2 Responses
John Cobbledick: “Would have liked to hear a little about the BF Falcon GT, even if it was just a substitute for the Cobra Coupe”.
Reply from Editor: “John, I can tell you that it was an automatic … and that he bought it because the blue and white colour scheme matched the white and blue colours of his Cobra … and that the numbers on the rego plate were the same as the Limited Edition build number of his Cobra”.
Jeff Goss: “As an old school friend of Keith’s it was wonderful to catch up again and we had a chance to reminisce about our early days in Moe. I remember the gearbox explosion in the XY and I was a guest at the wedding with the two XY GT’s in the photo. The Monza green XY GT is still owned by one of my work colleagues who purchased it in 1973. Keith is a Ford man through and through and always liked nothing more than driving them HARD”.
Would have liked to hear a little about the BF Falcon GT,even if it was just a substitute for the Cobra Coupe.
As an old school friend of Keith’s it was wonderful to catch up again and we had a chance to reminisce about our early days in Moe. I remember the gearbox explosion in the XY and I was a guest at the wedding with the two XY GT’s in the photo. The Monza green XY GT is still owned by one of my work colleagues who purchased it in 1973. Keith is a Ford man through and through and always liked nothing more than driving them HARD.