Legend's car rebuilt in labour of love

Murray Fleet is building a replica of his childhood hero's stock car. PHOTOS/STEPHEN PARKER

Former stock car driver Murray Fleet is recreating local legend Tony Baker's car.

Mr Fleet has loved the sport since his dad dragged him away from his favourite TV show to go to a race at Rugby Park.

"I wanted to stay home and watch Dr Kildare, but he took me anyway. When I actually saw it, that was me. I never wanted to do anything else."

As soon as he was old enough Mr Fleet got his own car and started racing until taking a break to raise a family.

"My kids raced the mini-stocks and did all that too. Helping them out refuelled my passion, and I thought 'God I love this. I've missed this.' I'm too old to start with a modern car, I just wouldn't be interested, so I thought I'd try with the old cars."

Starting with this project is a way to get back to his roots, when he used to watch Tony Baker speeding around the track.

"Tony was a driver that really stood out, he was so good if anyone else wanted to win they had to get rid of Tony. He was my hero and I wanted to be him.
"Not Superman, or anyone else, him.
"I don't know if he realises the effect he had on some of the guys my age. Everyone thought he was cool, everyone knew his car - black number four. I thought I'd love to build his car, to get it going again."

Mr Fleet had even worked with Mr Baker at one point, so was able pick his brain for what he remembered about how the car was built. Mr Baker also supplied his scrapbook and old photographs of the car. Another piece of reference material Mr Baker supplied was a metal model, built for him by a 12-year-old fan in the late 60s.

Mr Fleet said the way they used to put stock cars together made it difficult to replicate one exactly.
"They used different bits of old cars, so I couldn't just go into a wrecking yard with a list of parts. I had to work out what was used from [the reference material]. Basically, an old stock car was a body from this, an engine from that, and pretty much everything else was homemade from whatever was laying around.

"I want it to go on the track and people to go 'that's Tony's car'. It won't be exactly right, but most of us only knew Tony's car from a distance. Even Tony can't remember a lot of the details on the car now."

The build got off to an auspicious start. Mr Fleet needed the body of an 1937 two-door Ford Coupe to match the original car. The model is popular with hotrodders, and worth a lot of money, so they always get snapped up quickly regardless of condition.

Plans for the replica stockcar are based on old photos of a fellow fan's model.

"Two weeks after I started looking it was sitting on my lawn. Everybody said 'how the hell did you get that? Obviously it's an omen.' After that all the bits and pieces I need have just appeared."

It's taken him a year to gather enough of the right parts to get started, and Mr Fleet reckons it'll take another year before he can take it out on the track.

"It's all about figuring out the right piece, and why Tony used it. I can't be certain what ones I'll need until things are further along. I'm building the chassis now, sort of stitching it together because I might have to move bits. I'm working with a measurement from this photo and another parts measurement from that photo and trying to make sure they match up."