Welcome to Most Wanted, Australia has had a lot of Stock Cars since 1988, some have vanished from sight, and some have clouded histories, where did they go? what is their story? perhaps you will be able to help solve a mystery.
We are looking for information on a Future Tourer, this is the #4 VS Commodore that was driven by Leigh Moran, and it was looked after by Image Racing.
It was an AUSCAR, a biography from the Touring Car Challenge states its AUSCAR history was from 1991, it became a Future Tourer in 1999, raced in the 2000s in categories like the Future Tourers in 2002 and in the Touring Car Challenge later on in that decade.
Chassis is named in the logbook as WSR1, possibilities are the car was Leigh Moran’s AUSCAR and it was converted or Leigh Moran and/or Image Racing acquired a Future Tourer from somebody, could WSR1 mean Wayne Smith Racing 1?
Could the answer be in its number which is 4?
John Maultsaid had three Thunderbirds, one is the ex-Terry Wyhoon Australian built car that Noel Heenan uses on the salt flats, one is a car that Todd Wanless and Dick Howe had both driven and got wrecked as the #11 at Albert Park in 1999, the third car was later owned and driven by Martin Borrows.
Where did the Martin Borrows driven Thunderbird go?
Pete Nolan drove his #47 Ford Thunderbird at Albert Park in 1999, this car was one of two ex-Charlie O’Brien Ford Thunderbirds (the other is the #41 Ford Thunderbird), the car went on to Rodney Brewer, and we don’t know where it went afterwards.
This #8 and later #27 ride car (now the #3 Lumina) was identified as being an ex-Race Cars & Engines #31 Oldsmobile in Winston Cup competition, and those ex-Winston Cup cars were used by NASTRAK which explains how George Elliot would have had the car to sell to Brad Jones.
The mystery is, did anybody use this particular ex-NASTRAK car to run a race or two before 1994/95?
Is this Oldsmobile that Ron Goodman had used on the Gold Coast in 1992 became the #8 and #27 ride cars? The 05 while an Oldsmobile at the front and back and was a Lumina in the 3/4 windows just like the 8/27, what are the odds two cars being such a Cutlass/Lumina hybrid? the 8/27 Lumina nose did not come with the rest of the body.
Ron Goodman’s Commodores, he had two, one was rebuilt after being famously barbequed in a crash, the other was a ride car, they haven’t been mentioned in decades, what happened to them?
The race car was up for sale for $10,000 without an engine in 1997, ads stopped running in Motorsport News in April 1997.
In 2023, the above #2 Chevrolet that was raced in ARCA was spotted in South Australia and Victoria, it has not been mentioned since, where did it go?
Brad Jones had the Chevrolet Lumina named ‘Elroy’ and the Chevrolet Monte Carlo named ‘Kevin’, where did they go? Could they still exist today in North America or another continent? We know that Bubba was destroyed in an on track fire.
Two Chevrolet Monte Carlos with Holden Commodore bodywork were prepared in the USA for the 2000/01 season.
After the Bob Jane era ended at the end of the 1999/00 season, they were left in America and were later used at Pikes Peak, who had ordered the two cars?
One thing that has puzzled us is that Bob Middleton was driving the #95 at Calder Park Thunderdome in 1999 looking like the above, in 2026 he was driving the #85 in Adelaide and its interior looked the exact same including the red square seen on the right side, a feature that is seen in ex-Phil Barkdoll cars.
Either the #85 and the #95 look exactly the same (and are both ex-Phil Barkdoll cars) or the #95 later became the #85, we’re curious to find out what’s the story.
In the 1998 Bathurst 100, what was the #02 Oldsmobile Cutlass that Gerry Raleigh was entered to drive? What was the Commodore that Nicholas Hall was entered to drive?
This Truck is now in Australia with Josh Dale but before that it was in America doing who knows what.
The Truck’s history that was put on the vehicle has some mixed-up history and is vague in places, it is also the #60 truck not the #90 truck.
Assuming it is part of the #90 team, it would have been sold before the 2002 season and went to who knows where before ending up in Australia.
Interestingly, the #91 was run by J. C. Stout and he raced an ex-#60 Truck.
Maybe somebody in America will remember owning this one.
If you have any answers to these mysteries, please drop us a line at any time, from email to Facebook, we’ll be there.
