First published in Street Machine’s Australia’s Toughest Fords #2, 2004

What’s the use in having your name all over the toughest Falcon on the frontline if you can’t have a little fun with it, right? That thought must have occurred to Dick Johnson during development of his high-performance DJR 320 Falcon. So what does a racer do? He races, mate. Luckily, the 2004 Shannons Ford-Holden Challenge is tailor-made for Dick and his 320kW toy – even though he’s been a little quiet on the steering front of late. Just like the glory days, this rally pitched Tricky Dicky against his old Holden foe, Peter Brock, and his wicked Targa Tasmania Monaro.

Johnson versus Brock, Ford versus Holden; drawcards don’t get much bigger. In reality, Brock’s CV8 T3 Monaro is a purpose-built 330kW racecar, while Dick’s DJR 320 is a tear-ass streeter – a bit like bringing a knife to a gunfight. Fair fight or not, it didn’t stop the two old (as you feel) tearaways having a whale of a time.

The four-day event covered 1400km and 26 competitive stages from Melbourne to the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide. Dick and his Ford horde won the overall teams competition, with Dick finishing as the third best Ford, behind the Cobra Mustang of Michael Stillwell and Mark O’Connor’s tweaked AU III XR8. He’s a good steerer, that O’Connor, an honours graduate of John Bowe’s high-performance driving school.

This rally pitched Tricky Dicky against his old Holden foe, Peter Brock

In any rally you need a co-driver, and sitting in Johnson’s navigator seat was INXS bass player (and dyed-in-the-wool Ford man) Garry Beers – who was looking forward to having a good time and a good thrash. You can just imagine the stories. Dick: “I was just coming out of The Cutting at Bathurst when I saw what looked like a small rock on the road way up ahead…” Garry: “That’s nothing, mate. We were playing in front of 100,000 people at Wembley Stadium when I saw this chick in the front row take out her…”

Street Machine tagged along with the DJR 320 and the dangerous duo (they seemed to be experts at getting lost!) for most of the second day – from Calder Park’s quarter mile and national circuit, to Heathcote Park and DECA. As good as the DJR 320 is, the limitations of racing a road car slowed Dick a little. But that didn’t stop him from showing plenty of the ol’ magic.

“This is a road car and it’s warranted for 100,000 kays and three years, so I had to be a little bit sensible,” said Dick, as the brakes merrily smoked away in the background. “But it’s a nicely balanced car. The biggest restriction, as far as grip goes, is the road tyres [most of the other competitors, including Brock, were on semi-race rubber], but these Alcon brakes… you can just rush up to a corner and stop the car.

“It was on the wet Winton skidpan that the Dunlop SP9000s really showed their potential; we were quickest there. But this is all about fun, and I think a few blokes are learning just how little they know about driving.”

But it had been a while since Dick had done any competitive road rally-style driving. “I’ve done two Targas,” he admitted, “but the only other time I’ve done anything like this was the grand prix rally, years ago.”

While the DJR 320 might not have been the quickest car in the event, it sure put a lot of others to shame. At one stage, when doing sprints on the old short circuit at Winton, Dick lapped his group, and when he pulled into the pits they all followed like lambs, even though they hadn’t completed all their laps! Talk about the Pied Piper!

For a bloke who started on strips, he wasn’t too flash at the Heathcote Park Christmas tree, though, and he forgot to disengage the traction control on the Calder quarter mile!

“I think I need some help in staging,” Dick laughed, “which is funny because I started drag racing in about 1965 in an EH.”

Dick had fun on the slippery DECA skidpan, too – but once again the DJR 320’s onboard navigation system appeared to malfunction as Dick missed the cones and went off in completely the wrong direction.

“I cocked that up big time, didn’t I?” he laughed.

Wasn’t your navigator supposed to tell you which way to go? “I did,” said Garry. “It just wasn’t the right way.”

The jokes continued. “Yeah, I’m colour-blind and Garry can’t see,” Dick smiled. “I can do motorkhanas if I know which way I’m supposed to go because every road I’m normally on has got white lines and I just stay between them. Time for a Crownie.”

Some bloke called Peter Brock, driving a thinly disguised racecar, was the overall winner of the Shannons event. But Dick and Garry were willing to bet good money that he didn’t have as much fun as they did. And at the end of the day, isn’t that what driving a car like the DJR 320 is all about?

GRUNT EXTRACTION

We pressed the lads at Herrod to see what trickery they used to extract 320kW from the quad-cam Henry. “Not much,” was the reply. They’re admitting to cold air induction, new extractors, complete free-flowing exhaust system, piggyback computer and four new, high-lift cams. Then each mill is individually dyno-tuned to make sure everything is on the money.

Q&A GARRY BEEERS

SM: What’s it like driving with a legend?
GB: It’s been legendary! Driving around in this beautiful car in this wonderful country.
SM: Ever done anything like this before?
GB: No. I’ve driven on roads like this to gigs in beaten-up old hire cars over the years – old Commodores and Falcon station wagons. A Tarago was a luxury car because it had air. But it was great to do it in style with Dick.
SM: You’ve got an XR GT; fancy one of these DJR 320 jiggers?
GB: Absolutely. This is the most beautiful Ford I’ve ever sat in. I’ve driven the turbo six, but this car is spot on. I was wondering if they need anyone to drive it back to Brisbane…

DJR 320: OUR VIEW

It looks like Dick is onto a winner with the DJR 320, especially if street cred has anything to do with it. With the test car wearing Queensland DJR 17 rego plates, guys would come roaring up alongside to see if Dick was driving. Despite being disappointed to see the Nally noggin instead, they still gave the car the thumbs up. Big 19-inch BBS rims, a subtle bodykit and badging complete the muscle car stance; it certainly looks the biz.

There’s no sneaking around in the $90,000 DJR 320; it announces itself with a deep, racy rumble from its quad exhausts. The equally loud interior, trimmed in body-coloured leather and Alcantara, doesn’t help, either.

The engine feels as strong as an ox, making its claimed peak power at 5300rpm. Pity is, this is when things are really starting to go ballistic. It’d be an absolute rocket if it could be revved to 6500 or 7000rpm (car builder Herrod Motorsport reckons it has an engine management edit coming soon, which will raise the factory-governed rev limit). But with 540Nm of torque, it pulls like a freight train.

Dick and co-conspirator Rob Herrod build the DJR 320 off an XR8. As such, it gets the XR8’s five-speed Tremec gearbox. While the shift kit makes it better than standard, it’s not one of the car’s nicest features. The notchy shift can sometimes leave you in no-gear land if you make a rushed grab for third from second.

On the brighter side, ride quality is definitely a highlight. With Johnson-spec Koni shocks and King springs, it soaks up bumps much better than you’d expect from an 1800kg-plus car running on low-profile 19s. And that compliance also makes the DJR 320 a lot less daunting at speed, leaning more towards understeer than oversteer. Having said that, power oversteer is just a prod of the right foot away. Overall grip is very high, though, and turn-in is razor sharp.

The Alcon brakes are awesome. They are massive muthas, with 365mm front and 343mm rear rotors, gripped by six-piston monoblock front/four-piston rear calipers, and you barely need to do any more than rest your foot on the middle pedal to pull up sharp and sweet.

The one thing I really didn’t like about the DJR 320 was the skin cancer on the bonnet.

That not-so-fantastic plastic bit does nothing, looks crap, and has to go! There, I said it.