Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 84 i Australian Muscle Car

My duties usually see me chained to the desk here at AMC HQ. So it made a nice change to break the shackles and hit the open road during production of this issue. Not once, but twice. Apart from a trip to Bathurst to shoot our cover car, I also gallivanted south from Sydney to the Riverina and Murray region. I’d been saving up stories with this common geographic denominator and ticked them off my ‘to do’ list over a few days. Ah, bliss... The entire outbound leg was via the Hume Freeway, with dual carriageway the full distance between Sydney and the Victorian border. First stop was Wodonga to interview long-time Holden dealer and short-term touring car driver Rod McRae. When you read about Rod’s great escape, starting page…

The execution date for the Falcon has now been set. The final homegrown Ford will roll off the end of the Broadmeadows assembly line in Melbourne on October 7. And it’s most likely to be an XR8. The date had been a very closely guarded secret, ever since Ford decided to shut its unprofitable Australian car making operations back in 2013, but was revealed on September 11 by the Geelong radio station, BayFM. It was tipped off by workers called to special meetings to hear details of the plant shut-down by Ford executives. Ford quickly confirmed the date, but said that although the majority of workers will lose their jobs at Broadmeadows and Geelong ahead of the shutdown, some will stay until the end of October to ensure cars are…

No-one has ever complained about the engine in the Chrysler 300 SRT8. The 6.2-litre belter makes 350 kiloWatts with 637 Newton-metres and has always been the best thing about a car that, for anyone who can remember, is as reluctant to switch straight lines for twisty bits as the six-cylinder Ford Cortina and Morris Marina. But that changed in September with the arrival of an updated gangsta car that finally features suspension and steering that works for Australia and Australian drivers. It’s still not a VFII Commodore with FE3 sports suspension, but the 2016-model SRT8 is a well-balanced package that provides great driving enjoyment without threatening the sanity or safety of the person at the wheel. It’s a ripper drive, from the basic V6-powered 300C, through to the HEMI hero…

Have you ever wondered how many people have seen vision of Bill Brown’s roll along the fence at McPhillamy Park in the 1971 Bathurst 500? It must be well over 10 million – saturation coverage on news bulletins in Australia that night, and countless replays for the generations who have followed. Certainly, there would be very few readers of this magazine who have not seen the footage, and marvelled at how the fence could possibly have cut the Falcon open, leaving the yellow GT-HO Phase III broken-backed and upside down, without doing any substantial damage to Brown. It was indeed an extraordinary escape. But Brown had two great things going for him. First and foremost, he had the luck to roll along the fence, avoiding the head-on impact which had…

A quarter of a century on from the 1990 Nissan Sydney 500 and a host of drivers from that inaugural event hit the track at the 2015 Muscle Car Masters to help celebrate Sydney Motorsport Park’s milestone birthday. Of the class of 1990, Glenn Seton, Andrew Miedecke, John Bowe, Jim Richards and Neil Crompton all lined up in the Touring Car Masters events. Meanwhile, Charlie O’Brien and John English did battle on Father’s Day in the Australian Trans-Am races, as Neal Bates hit the figure-eight circuit in his Celica rally car. However, veteran Bob Holden (inset, far left) was the only competitor from ‘day one’ in 1990 to compete in the Heritage Touring Cars’ 25-minute 25th anniversary race. Unfortunately, Bob’s Corolla covered just a handful of laps before retiring... just…

Meguiar’s MotorEx is Australia’s largest and most prestigious custom car show, attracting the cream of Australian muscle car clubs and individual entrants. These entrants are grouped together in the dedicated Muscle Car Marvel area – one of MotorEx’s most admired attractions. If it has a sporting history or it has factory performance fl air, this is where you’ll fi nd it. In 2015, Muscle Car Marvel hosted 10 clubs and 75 classic performance machines. Of the 10 clubs in attendance, the Central Coast All Ford Club, Bosskraft Resto Shop Rodders, Chrysler & Valiant Owners Association, HSV Owners Club, Falcon GT Club and Mustang Owners Club will be of particular interest to Australian Muscle Car readers. Especially the Falcon GT Club of NSW; this club not only won Best Overall Club,…

Some muscle cars are bought by loving owners who pamper them like members of the family. Other muscle cars, though, aren’t so lucky. Some get stolen, smashed or thrashed. Some get parked and lost under a layer of dust in an old shed, others get left outside to brave the elements and slowly rust away. Sad, but true. We eyeball plenty of beautifully maintained and/ or fully restored muscle classics in AMC, but as serious car pervs we have to admit there’s few things more intriguing – or exciting – than spotting an old classic in a paddock, or a shed, or under a shady tree, that’s seen better days and in need of some TLC. Some are beyond saving, but they all have a story to tell. So, get…

A Corvette engine in the Commodore will ensure the red lion roars – and roars loudly – until the end of Australian car production. The 6.2-litre LS3 engine is Holden’s final gift to the Australians who have supported the car since 1978 and the keystone to the recently unveiled VFII, which rolled out in showrooms in October. It’s also an admission by GM-Holden that the Commodore’s days as the archetypal Aussie family car are well in the past. As Aussie families continue the conversion to SUV haulers, buying them each month in record numbers, Holden has shifted the focus of the Commodore completely to performance fans. The VFII becomes, in effect, a four-door Camaro and sales of V8-powered cars are forecast to grow from the current one-third of deliveries to…

A stunning XW GT Falcon was the talk of Shannons’ Melbourne Spring Classic Auction when it sold for $77,000. The Vintage Burgundy-coloured beast was used in a promotional capacity for Bib Stillwell Ford. It was highly optioned from new, including air-conditioning and rear seatbelts and long-range tank. Although the original 351ci engine is still under the bonnet, the auto transmission was replaced with a four-speed Toploader gearbox during its life. A 1973 HQ Monaro GTS 350 sedan, with a four-speed Muncie gearbox, was expected to give the XW GT a run for its money, but was passed in. But a one-owner and unrestored 1976 Holden HJ Sandman proved a bargain at only $14,500. Shannons has auctions planned for both Sydney and Melbourne in November.…

Stirling’s special sedan Thank you for the great article on the Stirling Moss Special VG Valiants in issue #82. It brought back some fond memories of my first Valiant. I was really surprised to read that the Stirling Moss Specials accounted for only 148 of the total VG build and even more surprised that there were only nine ‘Stirling’ sedans. However, I can shed some light on one of the previously unaccounted-for Moss sedans. In 1970 my father purchased a new VG Valiant Stirling Moss Special sedan from Batson’s Garage in Gympie, Queensland. Our 1960 FB Holden Special station wagon joined the list of Holdens in that big parking lot in the sky when it lost an argument with a cow on a country road at Mary’s Creek, outside Gympie.…

Vanished Noon, June : Leo Pruneau, assistant to GM-H’s director of styling, is on his way to lunch in the executive dining room at Fishermans Bend. Before doing so he ducks into the styling studio to check on the special project nearing completion that’s closer to his heart than his stomach. It’s product programme ‘XW7’ – the Torana V8 that company insiders feel confident will see Holden victorious again in the prestigious Hardie-Ferodo 500 at Bathurst and other races. All is well, with no apparent sign of what is about to happen over lunch. Pruneau takes up the story of what he saw – or more to the point, what he didn’t see – upon leaving the dining room. “I wanted another look at the cars after lunch, but when…

The Last of the Big Bangers. It’s the now-famous catchphrase that was coined as a fond farewell to the old Group C touring car racing category at the end of 1984, as it made way for the brave new future world of the slower, less powerful Group A machines. At the time it felt like a golden era of V8 muscle car racing had ended. Indeed, times were changing. Big V8s were going out of style: it had been more than two years since the last V8-powered Falcon rolled off the production line. Now there were no Falcons in touring car racing at all, with Ford represented only by a handful of imported ‘compact’ Mustangs with a modestly tuned 5.0-litre Windsor V8. Under international Group A regulations, the Mustangs and…

Motor racing circuits have come to life in a wide variety of places – disused airfields, horse racing venues, scenic tourist drives and on pastural land that was surplus to requirements. In many cases tracks have been built in improbable locations, but few as unlikely as the circuit crammed into in an abandoned quarry next to a dam wall on the NSW/Victoria border. Hume Weir was born at a time when Aussies went mad for motor racing in the wake of Jack Brabham’s first World Championship. But it was a world away from the glamorous venues of continental Europe and the long sweeps of Britain’s best tracks. Hume Weir was a low-budget battlefield for local racing enthusiasts that quickly caught on as a laid-back venue in the carefree sixties. It…

We pause to remember the teams that hit the track for practice, but ended up hitting the highway out of Bathurst before Sunday’s race. This leftfield Whaddayaknow topic stems from viewing Autopics’ recently released slideshow DVD, Bathurst: The Great Race – 1970 to 1979 which displays stills of every car that raced in the Bathurst 500/1000 in the 1970s. And even some that didn’t! Over 600 vehicles feature, many of which we’ve never seen photos of before. Not only does this slideshow DVD display images of the cars that started the race, but also many of those that practised and for one reason for another failed to grid-up on Sunday. Some crashed in the lead-up and could not be repaired in time, while others suffered insurmountable mechanical woes that left…

As if the LS3 in the VFII were not enough, Holden Special Vehicles is going all-out with its final tweak of the Commodore, by fitting all models with the supercharged LSA V8 previously reserved for the GTS. The GTS still retains its flagship status thanks to a slight de-tune for the Clubsport, Maloo and Senator, which have ‘only’ 400 kiloWatts and 671 Newton-metres. But those figures still mean a 60-kiloWatt boost from the Gen-F, as well as a staggering 101 extra Newton-metres. In addition to the power boost from the engine, HSV has upgraded the driveline with stronger gearbox, tailshaft, differential and axle components, as well as adding extra cooling for the transmission and engine. Visually, the Gen-F2 cars gain new-look 20-inch alloys, the bonnet vents from the VFII, a…

Nearly half of Australia’s new Mustangs will be delivered as Fastback GT V8 automatics. As more than 3000 customers wait for delivery details, and the early adopters who confirmed in March are expecting their cars from November, Ford Australia has reported on the latest details. “All the Australian suspension tuning and testing has been completed and is incorporated into the cars. There are no hold-ups with production in the States so we are on track to deliver the cars in December,” says Ford spokesman, Neil McDonald. However, he confirmed that the controversial ‘burnout’ system in the car, which uses a line locker to the front wheels, will not be activated for Australia. “It was decided it is not appropriate with the current anti-hooning focus.” Other details are much as expected,…

AMC Reader: Andrew HallMuscle car: VL BrockHometown: Brisbane, QLD What is it? “A HDT SS VL Group A Plus Pack.” When did you buy it? “November 1996.” Why did you buy it? “At the time I wanted a Brock and wasn’t too fussed on any particular model. This car appeared in the ‘Car of the Week’ classifieds of a local paper on the Gold Coast. The ad steered me towards it: ‘one owner, tint, tailored carpet in the boot, sheepskins (since removed), car bra, immobiliser, full service history, etc’. It wasn’t until I got to the dealership to inspect the car that I realised that it was the Brock full signature Plus Pack model. I walked away from the negotiations three times until I got the deal I…

Bathurst’s biggest names are frequently asked at official dinners to recall their first impressions of Mount Panorama as rookies. Those from the prime muscle car era tell of being whisked up to Skyline as wide-eyed debutants and shuddering as they peer over the side. Common themes of such stories are the first-timers’ surprise at the steep drop-off and the inadequate barriers ‘preventing’ cars from plunging to the bottom. Another shared trait of these driver recollections is the ‘glad I never found out’ tone. Yet one former race winner did experience the sensation of sailing over the single row Armco and falling to the base of mountain during the October classic. Tony Roberts won the 1969 Hardie-Ferodo 500 with Colin Bond in a Monaro GTS 350 for the Holden Dealer Team.…

Michael Strudwick If Michael’s shot of the two Moffat Ford Dealers Team XCs in pitlane looks familiar, it’s because it was published in last issue’s cover story. This issue we’re pleased to show you more of Michael’s amazing shots taken at Surfers Paradise International Raceway and Lakeside in the mid-1970s. He seemed to have an amazing ability to be on the spot when teams popped the bonnets on the high-maintenance Cleveland-powered Falcon hardtops. Graeme Clark Graeme has sent us three shots he snapped in the paddock at Bathurst 1977, including of the winner, Allan Moffat, as he passed by. “These were taken on either the Friday or Saturday (of race weekend),” Graeme explains. “I think of Jacky Ickx as racing royalty, so it’s funny to see him plonked down on…

Holden VF Commodore in 1995 Tooheys 1000 winner’s livery B iante Model Cars is excited to announce the very first release in a fascinating new range for collectors, called the Biante Modern Historics series. This brilliant series focuses on replicating iconic Australian racecar liveries from the past on modern, contemporary racing cars with the first edition of this range being the 1:18 scale Holden VF Commodore featuring the famous Castrol livery, as raced by Larry Perkins and Russell Ingall to win the 1995 Tooheys Bathurst 1000. Yes, our cover car! Given that it’s the 20th anniversary of their Bathurst 1000 win, it seemed fitting that the first model would replicate Larry and Russell’s 1995 livery, an absolute classic among racing enthusiasts. This landmark diecast model is based on Biante’s popular…