Dick Johnson brings Tru-Blue Falcon back to life

The Tru-Blu Falcon is back and Australian motor racing legend Dick Johnson is in his happy place.

We are rolling out of the pits at Lakeside Raceway in Brisbane’s north. The venue has been Johnson’s home track since the 1960s, and he is about to go loud in a car which pays homage to one of Australia’s most-iconic touring cars.

The old-school Ford Falcon XD is rumbling and grumbling, Johnson is getting settled and learning the basics in a car that is both all-new and new to him, and carsales is along for the very first ride.

It’s going to be a momentous trip in a car that looks like a 1980s throwback but cost more than a current-generation Supercars racer and rolls with 550kW of old school carburettored V8 muscle.

“I wasn’t nervous at all. I just wanted to get on with it,” Johnson says after his laps down memory lane.

“It brings back so many memories. The XD was really the start of my career. Although I had been around more racing as a driver since the 1960s, it had taken that long to break into the big time.

“I didn’t really know what to expect but what transpired really opened my eyes. And I’m still smiling.”

True-Blu 2 (as the car is nicknamed) is also a big-time project and was built to carry Steven Johnson into his title defence in the Touring Car Masters racing series in 2020. He is already a two-time champion, but in a Ford Mustang.

Johnson Snr’s original Tru-Blu is enjoying a languid retirement with a Queensland collector who also has Allan Moffat’s Coca-Cola Mustang and Norm Beechey’s Monaro from the 1970s. But this Tru-Blu is just starting its life.

The idea for the XD was hatched when the TCM rules were opened to newer cars but it was not just another built-in-the-shed project.

Dick and Steven hatched the plan with Ryan Story, team principal of Supercar Championship winning squad, DJR Team Penske. The plan was to build a modern homage to the XD with everything from a CAD-planned roll-cage to the latest in brakes, suspensions and 5.7-litre engine technology. Pace Engineering, under Paul Ceprnich (who did much of the engineering of the Brabham BT62 supercar), handled the chassis development work.

“This one is a lot less like a road car. And it doesn’t have the deep centre console where Frenchie [his Bathurst winning co-driver John French] used to put his sandwiches for the race,” Johnson laughs.

“With the technology the way it is -- being able to build a car on computer before you start -- makes an enormous difference. Everything is placed where it needs to go and you can rest assure that it is all going to work when you put it together.”

Rest and assurance are the last things on my mind as the crew pulls my harness down tight and DJ fires the car at Lakeside. I’m not really nervous but I know this is a special day, with a special car and a special driver.

Then we’re away to a thundering soundtrack as Johnson puts his foot down hard for his Lakeside comeback.

“I’ve probably done tens of thousands of laps at Lakeside. It’s only 2.4km but the average speed is over 160km/h. It’s very fast and very flowing. It’s a ripper circuit. It seems to even everyone up.”

Johnson is gentle on the brakes and eases through the four-speed NASCAR gearbox on our first lap, also warming the Hoosier slick tyres before he gets serious.

Into lap two and Dick uncorks all the power on the sweeping downhill right-hander onto the pit straight. He briefly bumps the limiter at 7000rpm in third before we’re into top and thundering past 220km/h.

The feeling in Tru-Blu is very different from an old-school touring car, or even a modern Supercars racer. This is far more raw than an old-timer, with none of the original cabin materials and only a vestigial dashboard. It’s built to race.

Compared to a Supercar, there is more sensation of speed, more of a whack in the back, and less precision. It’s more of an axe than a sword.

“I wasn’t expecting something that was so responsive,” Johnson says.

“It’s definitely got more horsepower than the original. Our car for Bathurst in 1981 had 413 horsepower and this one is around the 700 mark, a bit more than a Supercar.”

Johnson turns 75 in April and knows he is on the downside as a driver, but I know - from the inside - that he can still crack along.

“You don’t lose anything one thing, you lose a little bit of everything. I got into the groove, but it depends on the groove you’re talking about.

“Being out there on your own is okay, but I couldn’t go through the stresses of being in battle with 30 other cars.”

Johnson is fast and fluid, easing the XD up onto the kerbs and braking later with each lap, always eager to let the horses romp up through the gears.

You have got to feel things. You have to make sure you don’t get caught out. The last thing you want is to thump something like this into the fence.”

DJ stops, I jump out and an eager paying passenger jumps aboard for their Tru-Blu experience, but later there is time for us to debrief.

“I got a buzz. Man, I tell you, it handles extremely well. And for the first time out, I was extremely impressed.

“I was thinking about a lot of things. I was just amazed about the difference between the two cars. You have to remember, the technology has changed so much.

“Brakes? I never used them. There is so much more potential in the brakes.”

“Sliding sideways? It’s not that sort of car any more. This new car is so stiff, with the roll-cage, it’s night and day.”

A living legend of Supercars, Johnson might be older, and no longer racing, but he cannot disconnect his racing brain.

“I wasn't happy with a couple of little things on it. I’d like to fix those things and make sure it feels right before Steven races it.

“It has a bit of a vibration, but I’m pretty sure I know what it is. I’d like to just fix a couple of little things that I felt through the seat of my pants.”

But he admits he will probably leave the next step to his son.

“I probably won’t drive it again. If I do it will probably just be some demonstration laps.

“But I have a big smile today. Bloody oath. And I’m really pleased with the way it has all turned out.”