Reader Graham Mison, who previously shared the magic photos he took at Lismore Speedway when he was a teenager, has also kept his childhood stash of car magazines. He writes to say that he’s always been fascinated by the car that appeared in the November/December 1965 edition of Australian Hot Rodding Review. This beast is the Gee-Tiger, a Ford Cortina V8 built by no less than Ron Hodgson, later to become the owner of several Holden dealerships and entrant of Bob Morris’ 1976 Bathurst-winning and 1979 ATCC-winning Toranas.
Back in 1965 Hoddo was widely known as a Ford guy, described as a 'merry-faced young man who runs a bellowing used car business in Sydney’s Parramatta Road'.
The Gee-Tiger was a personal project by Hodgson, who had a full-race Cortina GT (from the old Appendix J era) lying around the yard and wondered what it would be like with a little more grunt. He initially considered installing the alloy V8 from the Buick/Oldsmobile/Plymouth series but these were impossibly rare in Australia, so instead went for the 260ci V8 from the Fairlane. It was heavier but had a full range of spares.
The swap was done by Bill Buckle Auto Conversions in Brookvale, specialists in converting American imports to right-hand-drive. The project was masterminded by Billy Wells, noted speedcar owner and mechanic.
The Fairlane V8 motor slipped into the little Cortina engine bay quite easily, mated to a modified Fiat 2300 four-speed transmission by a special driveshaft constructed by Buckle.
A Falcon rear axle assembly was installed complete with Falcon rear wheels, the rims widened to six inches by Peter Owen. The front Cortina wheels were already six inchers. Dunlop SP41 radials were fitted for road use. A special spare wheel was modified with eight stud holes, designed to fit front or rear.
According to Hot Rodding magazine tester Mike McCarthy, the result was a surprisingly functional road car with real potential as a limited-production special.
The Gee-Tiger was built as Ron Hodgson’s personal transport (note the RH 145 plates) with occasional weekend use at Castlereagh dragstrip in far Western Sydney.
Times of 0 to 60mph had been achieved in 7.4 seconds on street tyres with high 13s predicted for the standing quarter after further engine mods, including a four-barrel Holley.
Driven on the road, McCarthy noticed the heavy clutch action but also noted that gear changes were unnecessary for normal driving. The Gee-Tiger would start happily from the stoplights in top (fourth) gear.
“Second gear starts are normally used to give smooth take-offs with minimum wheelspin,” he writes. “In low the thing would probably climb walls!”
The Gee-Tiger is in the same pioneering category as the series of Falcon V8s prepared by Bill Warner at around the same time and shows that Australians were building their own muscle road cars before the manufacturers got involved.
Other interesting projects are featured in early copies of Hot Rodding Review. In the February 1966 edition there’s a feature on Victorian rodder Geoff Lee’s ‘Fresh Air Falcon’, a neat two-door four-seat convertible powered by a Studebaker Lark V8 and three-speed gearbox with overdrive. It was based on a ute chassis.
.jpg&q=70&h=226&w=176&c=1&s=1)
