The Dunedin driver still managed to manhandle his misbehaving 1973 McRae GM1 on to the podium in two of the three races at the second Australian round of this season's New Zealand F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series at Sydney Motorsport Park at the weekend.
''It is a lot more enjoyable when your car is going dead right,'' Ross said.
The stock-block, V8-engined Formula 5000 single-seaters brought Formula One-like speed to circuits in Australia and New Zealand in the 1970s and the organisers of the current series have a strict list of regulations that keep them as close to the originals as possible.
This includes a ban on all modern-era digital equipment, such as traction control modules, tachometers, ignitions, in-car timers, and video cameras.
Consequently, although it was capable of reaching speeds of more than 260kmh, his McRae was a handful at the best of times, Ross said.
He won the series consecutively in 2011 and 2012 and had a dominant start to this season, claiming a solid points haul after clocking up a first, second and third at Sandown in Melbourne last month.
Ross (58) has a ''young fella'' rival this year in top Australian single-seater racer Tom Tweedie (26), who is driving a Chevron B24/28, and a long-time adversary in Auckland's Clark Proctor, pedalling a March 731/A.
In Sydney, Proctor qualified first then ran away with the first race, with Ross finishing runner-up.
Round one winner Tweedie broke a suspension arm going into turn one on his first qualifying lap and was out for the day.
After overnight repairs the young gun was back with a vengeance on Sunday, winning both races.
''He really showed us how to get around a track,'' Ross said.
He finished third in the second outing and slipped back to fifth in the final race, as the handling further deteriorated in his car.
Ross hoped that Christchurch-based company Motorsport Solutions, which has run his McRae for the past five seasons, will be able to rectify the problem before the first of the four New Zealand-based F5000 rounds, from January 16 to 18, at Hampton Downs.
''They are all easier to drive when everything is perfect,'' Ross said.
The fourth round will be held again at the Waikato track the following weekend, before the penultimate meeting at Mike Pero Motorsport Park in Christchurch on February 6-7 and the final at Manfeild the weekend after.
