Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 86 i Australian Muscle Car

When I was just a wee lad of nine I saw Allan Moffat’s Monza race in Sydney, in colours not unlike the 1979 livery of his stunning Falcon hardtop. It blew my mind. I had never heard of a Ford Monza before, but I liked it. A lot. I was yet to buy my first motor racing magazine and as the only car lover in my family – my three siblings and both parents thought I was a freak for having petrol in my veins – I had no one to set me straight. Thus, it took me a long, long time to twig to the fact that Moffat’s Monza was not a Ford, but, in fact, a Chev. It just didn’t makes sense to a young bloke still at…

Reader Tim Chugg sent us images of some old T-shirts that brought memories flooding back for AMC editor West, who still has his old Tru-Blu Falcon tee somewhere, from when he was a wee lad. “Thought you may enjoy these pieces of Aussie racing history that I saved from the rag bin at my Dad’s house,” writes Tim. “Very cool old T-shirts! They’re too small for me, but they fit the wife.” Mrs Chugg sounds like a good sport, as we can’t imagine Mrs West donning 1979, 1980 and 1982 vintage racing T-shirts.…

Proving ground fun police The arrival of the new-age Ford Mustang has triggered memories of my first hands-on experience, in the USA, with genuine American muscle. Surprisingly, considering that I was an Allan Moffat fan from the early 1970s and a drive of the famous Coca-Cola Mustang still tops my personal bucket list, it took General Motors to get me really fired up about road-going Detroit iron. It happened in May of 1985, when General Motors-Holden decided it was time to host a large group of Australian media on a study trip to the USA. The visionary Senator John Button had just completed work on his Post-1984 Motor Industry Plan, which would progressively eliminate the protective wall that had shielded the five local carmakers – Holden, Ford, Toyota, Mitsubishi and…

The Capri RS3100 was the product of a heated arms race in the early 1970s in Europe between Ford and BMW. Ford had been victorious in the 1972 European Touring Car Championship with its German-built Capri RS2600, affectionately known as the ‘Plastikbombe’ because of its bulbous bodywork flares. It was also known for its evil handling, but the RS2600 nonetheless was effective enough overall to see off BMW’s stylish 2800 CS coupe. Perhaps it was the sense of shame in being beaten by such an imperfect opponent, but in any event BMW all of a sudden got very serious about winning the ’73 ETCC. The now-classic BMW 3.0 CSL (which replaced the 2800 CS) formed the basis of an amazing Group 2 homologation special that would forever be known simply…

Holden’s White Hot Special holds a special – albeit largely unknown – place in Australian automotive manufacturing history. It was GM-H’s first limited-edition option-package special. Based on the Kingswood sedan, the WHS was released in September 1969, four months after the introduction of the HT Holden model. Yet the White Hot Special wasn’t just about moving metal in the short-term. It was part of Holden’s longer term marketing strategy of convincing Aussies that eight-cylinder powerplants were what they really needed. The option of a V8 engine had been introduced to Holden buyers in 1968 in the HK series, as GM-H embarked on a campaign to push the benefits of V8 motoring to the masses. The WHS was released at the bargain price of $2718.55. No fewer than 5000 units were…

Kevin Drage is a quiet man whose demeanour gives no clues as to the intellect or determination that hides behind his placid face. To say that he has been one of the great unknown achievers in the Australian automotive scene is an understatement. This softly spoken Adelaide-born car enthusiast has a wealth of knowledge and experience that until now has rarely been shared. His inauspicious start to employment was as a tool designer in the early 1950s at Iplex Plastics where he was involved in the nascent plastics industry developing tooling for new products and a glass reinforced plastic process. From there he spent two years as a development engineer at Chrysler before moving across town to GM-Holden where he spent another two years further developing techniques for plastic products.…

The most revered classic racecars are loved not only because have they achieved great success, but because they have done so while looking a treat. Good looks, of course, is a subjective topic, but that hasn’t stopped AMC’s editor from presenting his top 25 Bathurst 1000 liveries. If we get enough responses we’ll include a top 25 best-looking Great Racecars comprised of reader favourites. No need to send us 25, just your favourite three. Remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Or in the case of those on top of Mount Panorama, beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder. 1974 Moffat/Glemser Falcon Traditionalists had seen nothing like Moffat’s big-numbered, in-your -face, NASCAR-style Brut 33 livery when it appeared in late 1974. The big blue beast was a…

The new Mustang has me at hello. Well, in truth, I’m hit by a muscle car sucker punch even earlier than our formal introduction. Two days before the overdue Australian press preview of the first full factory right-hand-drive Mustang in the car’s 50-year history I spot one on the street. It’s rumbling gently down past my favourite fish-and-chips haunt in Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast. The black-over-black V8 Hardtop is even more of a standout than I expected, and I just cannot help gawking. I’m not the only one, either. Two days later I’m sliding behind the wheel of a Mustang and I feel the same excitement I remember from my very first Ford press preview drive, with the XD Falcon in Melbourne, way back in 1979. “Clearly, it’s…

While Allan Moffat made the Monza name famous on Australian racetracks in the 1970s, the following decade it was Peter Brock through his HDT Special Vehicles operation who tried to bring it to Australian roads. Same name, but very different car. Brock was loaned an Opel Monza when in Europe to race in the Le Mans 24 Hour in June 1981. The 3.0-litre six-cylinder may well have been suitable for the German autobahns, but Brock’s thoughts were on the opportunities for an Australianised V8 version. This was very early days for HDT Special Vehicles, but the seed had been planted. It wasn’t until late 1983 when the plan finally made some serious progress with a single Anthacite Grey car arriving into HDT’s workshop. The independent rear suspension that set the…

AMC Reader: Brett O’Grady Muscle car: HQ Sandman panel van Hometown: Brisbane, QLD What is it? ”A 1974 Holden XX7 HQ Belmont Sandman panel van – Azure Blue.” When did you buy it? ”Early 2008.” Why did you buy it? ”I have had a fascination for Holden panel vans, especially the Sandman, since I was six years old. My father, Michael, told me stories and showed me photographs of his 5.0-litre HX Sandman, which was bought unknowingly to his parents in November 1976. My grandmother was not impressed! “Dad sold his HX Sandman in 1978 to buy a block of land in Yeppoon. I have a few old photographs of dad’s Sandman on my wall at home. So when I was 17 and it was time to buy…

Allan Moffat used two imported and exotic racecars to win the 1976 Australian Sports Sedan Championship – a ‘Cologne Capri’ and a DeKon-built Chev Monza. This was a turbulent period for Moffat, as running the GM machine shocked Blue Oval devotees and helped jolt Ford Australia into backing its former factory team spearhead. When the Monza was parked, the Capri was again pressed into action to seal the deal. Over the coming pages AMC outlines the Capri and Monza chapters of Moffat’s career. But first, we wind the clock back 40 years to examine the events of the inaugural Sports Sedan title fight.…

Without the BMW 3.0 CSL ‘Batmobile’, Allan Moffat’s Cologne Capri would never have existed. The only reason Ford went to the trouble of building it was to beat the BMW in European racing. And nor might Moffat’s Chev Monza have existed, had it not been for the BMW 3.0 CSL… Well, not exactly, but the fact is Moffat’s Monza – one of a 14 specially built-for-racing Monzas – was built partly because of the dominance in American GT racing of imported European cars like (especially) the Porsche Carrera RSR and (to a lesser extent) the BMW 3.0 CSL. Moffat himself won one of the big US GT events, in a one-off drive for the factory BMW team, in the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1975. These superfast European machines were…

Mention the racing version of the Holden Torana L34 and instantly the names of Colin Bond, Peter Brock, Allan Grice, Bob Morris and many more spring to mind. The likes of the cars from the big teams – the Holden Dealer Team, Ron Hodgson’s squad and Grice’s Craven Mild crew – are all revered and celebrated machines in Australian muscle car history. Sadly, many of them have either gone to the car gods or their history was so murky and not correctly documented that there is confusion over which is what and what is which. But there are plenty more of these cars from this era that have lived on, but sometimes their stories have been glossed over. One of these cars is the privateer Max Wright Motors Torana L34…

Our Sacred Sites section has changed. Until now we’ve covered circuits from the prime muscle car era that have been lost to the sport. From this issue we switch our attention from the dearly departed to the living treasures – long-serving circuits that still host motorsport today. We start with a little gem of a track, Lakeside, with a truly unique claim-to-fame. It’s a facility that closed down for seven years and looked certain to be lost to the sport. But then, in a move that would make Lazarus proud, it re-opened as a boutique, limited-use racing venue. Tell us of another circuit in the modern era that’s shut its gates for an extended period and then successfully fended off the NIMBYS and property developers to return from the ashes.…

In Whaddayaknow issue #84 we asked what happened to various 1970s Great Race challenges that hit the track for practice, but ended up hitting the highway out of Bathurst before Sunday’s race. One such entrant was Trevor Meehan, who, aboard a Falcon GT-HO Phase III set the seventh fastest time in practice for the 1972 race but failed to grid-up on Sunday. We wondered why, so we tracked him down, dropped him a line and asked why such a fast car went MIA before the flag dropped? Trevor Meehan was a very quick privateer who had very little luck in his six Bathurst campaigns. Before we tell the tale of Meehan’s 1972 Hardie-Ferodo 500 misadventure, his last Bathurst, here is a brief overview of his career. Meehan, from Sydney’s southern…

Question: When was the first all touring car endurance race held in Australia? Hint: The operative words are touring car. Answer: November 29,1964, when the first of two Sandown International 6 Hour races was held. The second took place on November 21, 1965. No, we haven’t overlooked the Armstrong 500s held at Phillip Island and Bathurst, but they were production car marathons for cars in showroom spec. In contrast, the Sandown International 6 Hour was held for FIA Group 1 touring cars, where homologation required a minimum build of 500 production cars. Two (modified) Group 2 cars, the Lotus Cortina of unknown Canadian Allan Moffat and the seven-litre Ford Galaxie of Sir Gawaine Baillie were allowed to compete in the 1964 affair, though not eligible for outright honours. Group 1…

These images of a 1968 HK Monaro for sale in Serbia first appeared on the internet last year when it went up for grabs. Incredibly, as we have recently learned, the Aussie six-cylinder coupe was bought by a buyer from Malta for € 7500 (A$11,900). Judging by the rusty floor, it will have been lucky to have survived the journey to the island nation in the Mediterranean Sea. Regardless, the HK has already led an incredible life, says, vendor Milos Dinic. “The guy who bought it in Australia was one of many Serbian workers that left Serbia (ex-Yugoslavia) after World War II when Tito’s Communists took [power],” Milos explained. “He came [back] here by ferry with the Monaro, but the Communist regime confiscated his car because it was right-hand drive...…

It’s a small world… Sometimes you don’t know where to start, but for this column it’s pretty easy. It’s a bit late now to wish you all Happy New Year, so instead I’ll wish you Happy New Season – racing season that is. Thanks for your continuing interest in Gibson Motorsport. I don’t know about you, but Christine and I had a great break. One of the things we did reminded me that while motorsport is a worldwide business, that world can sometimes seem very small. In early January we were invited to a birthday bash for my sister Margaret up on the Gold Coast at the home of Bruce ‘Richo’ Richardson and his wife Nola, whom we’ve known for many a great year. Bruce is an interesting guy in…

If the 1970s was the golden decade of Sports Sedan racing, then 1976 was probably the year it shone the brightest. Which is fitting because that was also the first year of the Australian Sports Sedan Championship. It was fitting, too, that the category had finally received national championship status. Emerging in the late 1960s from the humble Australian motor racing tradition of the ‘backyard special’ (wildly modified cars such as Peter Brock’s 186 six-cylinder Holden-powered Austin A30, or the early Sports Sedan pioneers like the Bob Morris Falcon XP ‘Faltang’, so named because of the 289 V8 Mustang engine jammed in the front, or any of Barry Sharp’s bizarre hybrid V8 monsters – the supercharged V8 Ford Zephyr, the Austin A95-Ford V8, the Holden FE with Chev V8 power…

Twice now AMC has featured Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing – cars in plain-wrappers that go like the clappers. Each time we’ve profiled a flock of Aussie-built or assembled cars that go faster than their looks suggest, we’ve followed up with the exact opposite: a group of flashy cars that were slower than their appearances suggest. Or Sheep in Wolves’ Clothing. In this instalment we turn our attention to small to medium cars that were produced in Australia. The criteria for Sheep in Wolves’ Clothing? Built or assembled in Australia, factory spec, able to be purchased by the public and built in sufficient numbers to be widely available in their day. Above all else, they needed to look like Bathurst specials even though, to borrow a phrase from Dicky Johnson, they’d…

There are many, many VH Valiant enthusiasts out there in motoringland, none more so than those who cherish their Chargers. However, in so many ways the VH was the least competitive of all the Valiants made here in Australia. Let me explain. When the R Series was released in January 1962 it set the local market alight. Here was a stunning looking family sedan powered by a big 225ci slant-six engine developing 145bhp and was capable of near enough 100mph straight off the showroom floor. It was followed 10 weeks later by the equally stunning S Series. These two sedans between them rewrote the rule book for Australian motorists. Until then what was the choice? The EK Holden was powered by an anaemic 75bhp six-cylinder grey motor that, on a…

2015 PRA Pepsi Max Crew, Mark Winterbottom FGX #5 Here it is: the 2015 championship-winning Prodrive Racing FGX Falcon. This is the car that helped Frosty win nine races and give him his first-ever driver’s championship. Apex Replica’s brand new scale models of last season’s top V8 Supercar come in two versions. The 1:18 version is diecast metal; the 1:43 in resin. Due for delivery around the middle of the year, both will be limited editions. For more photos and details of stockists, go to www.apexreplicas.com.au Holden Panel Van in Barbados Green For decades Aussies have been taking the humble Panel Van and turning it into their own Aussie icon, some to stunning effect. Classic Carlectables new 1:18 diecast release, based on the Holden VU, does the same. With psychedelic…