Davo and the Gal

Ford's seven-litre Holman and Moody-prepared Ford Galaxie was early 1960s touring car muscle like Australia had never seen before. But while the thundering Galaxie was fast in a straight line, getting it to stop was another matter.

Story: James Cockington

November 1964 and Australian Grand Prix champion Lex Davison was sharing the massive seven-litre Ford Galaxie of English gentleman racer Sir Gawaine-Baillie during the first Sandown International Six-Hour race.

It was a white two-door hardtop ‘factory lightweight’ owned by the UK’s Sir Gawaine Baillie. Powered by a Holman and Moody-prepared 427cid (7.0-litre) V8, it made its presence felt to the crowd Sandown Park’s famous pit straight grandstand with its thundering acceleration and remarkable straight-line speed during what was to be an ill-fated appearance.

Brakes were bound to be a problem for a car this big and pretty soon Lex Davison noticed that, well, there weren’t any. The big Gal went straight into the wooden fence at Peters Corner and Davo very nearly ended up submerged in the Sandown Park reservoir. “The bitch nearly killed me,” he said afterwards.