Falcon awesome: 4000 hours behind DJR restorations
Nestled away in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, just outside Sydney, John Vergotis pulled off not one, but two miracles.
Dick Johnson Racing-built Falcons EB2 and EB3, two of Australian motorsport’s most significant and loved cars, were once seemed destined for history.
Now, they’ve been restored and reunited, and captured in an exclusive Supercars documentary, available to watch now.
“They've been restored to within an inch of their lives, they're beautiful,” John Bowe said before getting behind the wheel last December.
Revealed to private members in December, before being unveiled to the public at the Canberra Festival of Speed, EB2 and EB3 are presented in their glory, as it was in 1993.
It was in 2013 when veteran mechanic Vergotis, a racer himself, wanted a new project. In a lightbulb moment, he tracked down one of the cars. In years to come, it became two, with the other owned by David Murphy.
"When I bought this car, I was looking for a project,” Vergotis told Supercars.com in July.
"I rang Andy [Cantrell, previous owner] and I said, 'What'd you do with that Falcon?' And he had started to repair the car. It was a mess.
"When you look at that car, the enormity of the job would depress him. So he sold it and delivered it the very next day, and that was in 2013.
"I didn't work on it all the time. A lot of times I would come in at four in the morning and do three, four hours work before I'd open the workshop up.
"And really, if it wasn't for those hours in the morning, it would never have got done.”
EB2 and EB3 debuted in the hands of Bowe and Dick Johnson respectively in the 1993 Australian Touring Car Championship.
The 1993 season was the first of the 5.0-litre V8 Group 3A era that later evolved into V8 Supercars. Johnson won the first race at Amaroo Park, and Bowe won the round.
What we know as Supercars today, was effectively reborn in 1993 with the new V8 regulations.
“It wasn't until later I realised that this car's got more significance than I thought,” Vergotis said.
“It was pretty important to get everything right. But the things I had to fabricate, as long as I had something to copy, that was enjoyable.
"From the point of a painted car… I know I spent more than a thousand hours in the body repairs in this car. But from the point of when they've been painted to now, it's two thousand hours a car, and I've probably fallen short of that as well.
"I've worked out that I allow for working ten hours a day, and call it four days, but I work five. And you work out how many years that is, it's in excess of that.
"But I thoroughly enjoy it…. I've done to the best of my ability with all the information I've got, that we've got these pretty much bang on, and I'm comfortable with what I've done.”
Once restored, the two Falcons were reunited at Pheasant Wood in December, with Supercars Hall of Famers Bowe and Johnson on hand, along with Supercars.com.
In the final chapter of a three-part documentary recording, Bowe got behind the wheel of his old car, and was sent back in time.
“It’s 30 years since I sat in this car and it feels like yesterday, honestly,” Bowe said.
“Everything’s the same. It's been beautifully restored. It’s a work of art, honestly, and driving it again, I mean, it's like going back in time, honestly.
“I feel like I'm 30 years younger, which obviously I'm not."
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