Gasket in a tube

“It is amazing what turns up after all these years,” says Russ Wise, a collector of Ford Capri memorabilia who noticed the Allan Moffat endorsed tyre marker kit shown here a few issues back.
A couple of years ago he bought a box of junk from a deceased estate auction, which included a tube of Dow Corning’s ‘Silastic Gaskets’ RTV Silicone Rubber still in its original packaging. It shows Allan Moffat and the ex-works Cologne Ford Capri RS 3100 he ran here as a sports sedan in the mid-1970s.

“For years in his racing cars Allan Moffat has depended on Silastic Gaskets made on the spot in his workshop or at the track,” claims the fine print. Silastic also sponsored Moffat’s two-car team of XC Ford Falcons in their super successful 1977 season.
Ironically, this space age super goop also contributed to Moffat’s worst Bathurst appearance in 1980, when excess material that squeezed out from a sump gasket (as the sump bolts were tightened) dropped into the oil pan and blocked the oil scavenge pump!
Moffat’s bright yellow XD Falcon completed only a few laps, with low oil pressure and trailing a huge cloud of smoke, before retiring from the race. The cause was not discovered until much later.