Bryan Thomson is renowned as the driver of a series of wild and spectacular V8 muscle racers - cars such as his Chev-powered Torana XU-1, the legendary VW Fastback and Mercedes-Benz Sports Sedans, along with the famous gold Camaro he raced in the Australian Touring Car Championship in the late 1960s, and the ex-Norm Beechey Ford Mustang before that.
In early 1967 he shipped his ex-Beechey Mustang over to the UK for two seasons of intense racing on the tight English circuits against the top British saloon car drivers. He was the first local driver to compete overseas in a car built for the Australian sedan series.
When he returned to Australia in 1968, he imported a six-cylinder 1964/1965 Mustang from the United States, which he converted it to right-hand drive, and gave to his wife, Loel.
“In its day it was the cheapest Mustang at $2300 that you could buy and it has only a three-speed manual gearbox and drum brakes. But, it is a Mustang and 50 years on it’s now probably a collector’s item!” Bryan told AMC when we spoke to him about the car in 2015.
That was when the Loel Thomson Mustang was resurrected for the 26th Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport (PIC).
Following the death of Sir Jack Brabham in 2014, Bryan Thomson was appointed Patron of the 2015 PIC. He drove his wife’s car in the Mustang parade, a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Ford Mustang in Australia. These cars were briefly assembled here by Ford Australia in RHD format as part of their ‘Mustang-bred Falcon’ campaign.
Star attraction at the festival was the Allan Moffat Coca-Cola Mustang, now part of the Bowden Collection in Queensland.
To find out more about Bryan's international exploits in the ex-Beechey Mustang check out our latest issue.
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