Cannonball Cup 40th Anniversary

2024 marked the 40th anniversary of the Australian Cannonball Cup and one enthusiast has paid tribute to the event by retracing the Melbourne to Fremantle route in one of the original cars, which he fully restored.

Originally entered by business man and Medal of the Order of Australia recipient, Andre Razums, the Ford ZF Fairlane is one of the most well-known cars from the event that ran in November 1984.

Andre had the car purpose built for the Cannonball Cup and named it "Trans Aust". It famously started the race on the back of a tow truck as there was no way the police were going to let it through – mostly due to its huge bonnet hump which was needed to clear the supercharger. And like a scene out of the Cannonball Run movie, they also trailered the car through a police road block in South Australia, where many other teams were defected out of the race. The car went on to finish in 39.5 hours and 25th place.

Andre later sold the car and it changed hands more times over the following decades and lost some of its original build features but eventually made it into the hands of its current custodian, David Downie, who painstakingly restored the car, honouring its Cannonball Cup history.

Which leads us to 2 November 2024. A group of original entrants and enthusiasts gathered in Digger's Rest – the original start location – for a get-together and then Dave fired up the Trans Aust Fairlane and headed West, making his way towards the original first checkpoint in Berri, South Australia.

Then it was across South Australia, and through Port Augusta which was the scene of that police road block that slowed teams and ended the race for several of them back in 1984.

The Trans Aust then crossed the Nullarbor Plains – 1,200 kilometres of mostly straight highway and tree-less surroundings.

And then just across the Western Australia border, at Eucla, Dave was pulled over by police. Ironically, back in 1984 the WA police were the toughest on teams and were waiting for them in Eucla.

Back in 1984, the organisers added a list minute rule to appease police that any driver who was found to have committed a serious driving offence would be disqualified. Fortunately this time Dave was and able to continue and made his way through to Norseman and then on to the original second checkpoint, at Albany.

Then it was the final stretch from Albany to the finish in Fremantle. Many of the teams were followed by police for this part of the run back in 1984, forcing them to drive at the speed limit for hour after hour.

A massive congratulations to Dave for celebrating the 40th anniversary in the best way imaginable. Sadly Andre Razums passed away in 2018 but I know he would have been proud to see the Trans Aust out there doing what he built it to do.

More info:

• Read more about the Trans Aust team car 11.
• Check out Dave's YouTube channel, ablokeinatroopyaustraliawide.
• Read about the restoration of the car in the Street Machine magazine February 2024 issue.