In 1983, Nissan Motorsport, managed by the late-great Howard Marsden was beginning to hit it’s stride in Australian motorsport. The James Hardie 1000 was going to be an all out assault with a three car team featuring two Bluebirds, the first driven by George Fury / Gary Scott and two masters of the mountain aboard the second car, Fred Gibson / John French. The third car was a Nissan Pulsar Exa, driven by Fred’s wife Christine with Bob Muir.

Gibson and French had a long history with Mt Panorama, with Gibson having won the 1967 Gallaher 500 with Harry Firth and French having a Class win in the 1972 Hardie Ferodo 500 and also co-driving to win the 1981 James Hardie 1000 with motorsport legend Dick Johnson.

Teammate George Fury was only beaten by Peter Brock in the Hardies Heroes shootout for pole position, showing that the Nissans were not lacking in pace for the 1983 running of the Great Race. What they were lacking however, was reliability. Over the course of the race day, Gibson and French’s teammates would fail to finish the race, both with gearbox troubles, with the two stalwarts of the mountain crossing the finish line in 22nd place.

This would be Fred Gibson’s last race at Mt Panorama, as he formally retired from racing and took over from Marsden as Nissan Motorsport team manager in 1984 and went on to push Nissan to legendary status in Australian motorsport history fielding the Skylines throughout the Group A period. Gibson went on to become one of the giants in the sport, working with such greats as Mark Skaife, Jim Richards, Craig Lowndes, John Bowe and Neil Crompton to name a few.

John French went on to drive three more James Hardie 1000’s but would not better his placing from the 1983 race with a string of DNF’s and DNS’s stymying his chances before his retirement from full time racing in 1986.

As history shows, the 1983 Bathurst 1000 Bluebird of Gibson / French is an important car for both fans of Nissan Motorsport and the Bathurst 1000 and this limited edition release will be another great addition for collectors. This model will sit nicely alongside our previously released and sold out 1984 Bathurst 1000 Pole Position Bluebird in this scale.

Don’t miss this model in 1:18 which is scheduled to be produced by Authentic Collectables as a sealed body with clear windows and detailed interior. As with all our releases in 1:18, this model will produced in an exclusive limited edition and will include an individually numbered Certificate of Authenticity.Please place your pre-order at your local stockist or register your interest for it online here to be notified exclusively when this model is released.