Stars set for Gold Coast 600

Legendary racers such as Dick Johnson, his Bathurst co-driver John French, "Big Rev" Kev Bartlett and "newcomers" Allan Moffat and Tony Longhurst will drive demonstration laps between races at the October 22-24 event.

V8 Supercars Australia boss Tony Cochrane yesterday said the veteran racers were brought in at the 11th hour last year to help salvage the event after the A1GP pulled out, but were returning this year because they had proved popular with the crowd.

French said it would be a great 80th birthday present for him to be able to race against his former competitors.

"The most nervous bloke will be (Dan) Bowden. He doesn't know it but they won't be just touring around," he said referring to Bowden's Own car museum at the Sunshine Coast which has loaned nine of the 14 race cars for the event.

Bowden said the cars were worth millions of dollars.

"I'm not scared of them crashing the cars. All those drivers built their race careers on not crashing," he said. "I'm more scared to put an exact figure on their value."

Johnson said he was looking forward to being reunited with his legendary Tru-Blu XD Flacon built with money received from well-wishers and the Ford Motor Company after Johnson famously hit a stray rock on the track and crashed out of the Bathurst lead in 1980. He scored a fairytale win the following year with French in the Tru-Blu Falcon.

"You don't often get such an opportunity to drive these old cars," he said. "To drive the Tru-Blu Falcon today is a real education. They're not really slow; they're still pretty quick."

Bartlett said his 1979 Camaro was also still capable of high speeds.

"That old girl will still do 160 miles per hour (257km/h)," he said.

Other famous racing cars in the Australian Legends category include Moffat's Mustang, Longhurst's Ford Sierra turbo, and the Bathurst-winning Nissan GT-R of Jim Richards.