Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 107 i Australian Muscle Car

Our Top 10 racing Camaros feature last issue prompted Phil Harrison to rummage through his files to find these old photos. They were taken in June, 1980, and they show a Chev Camaro road car at Laguna Beach, California, about to be shipped to Ron Dickson Racing in Sydney. For those unaware of Phil, in a long career in motorsport he’s fulfilled various important behind-the-scenes roles over the years. He was part of the team that introduced stadium supercross to Australia in the 1980s, and more recently was co-ordinator of the Muscle Car Masters event. These days he helps run the Toyota 86 Racing Series. But in 1980 he was working for Mike Goodwin, the man who created Supercross, at Laguna Beach, California. The job he’d left in Australia had…

AMC’s legend columnist Bob Morris explained in issue #103 how with the offer of Ford support from Al Turner not transferring across to the subsequent Howard Marsden stewardship, he ran a Phase III in late ’71 as a privateer, including at Bathurst. By early ’72 had “run out of money”. “I didn’t race much at all that year,” Bob explained of 1972. “But I did go to Bathurst that year helping out a couple of guys, the Gulsons. They damaged an engine in practice, and Ray Gulson said, ‘Oh well, that’s it then, and he went off to dinner. But I said, ‘Look, let’s go and talk to Ford and see if we can get an engine. So we did, and they said, ‘Okay, wait till 8 o’clock tonight after…

In motor racing today they’re known as ‘corporate suites’. Plush, fully appointed air-conditioned lounges situated in rows atop the circuit’s pit building complex, offering VIP guests an excellent vantage point of the action both in the pits and on the track. Back in the day, however, few Australian race circuits had pit buildings, let alone corporate suites on top of them. Anyone wanting to host corporate hospitality therefore had to make their own arrangements. The ‘corporate suite’ of the 1960s and ’70s often took the form of a large tent. One of the most memorable of these was the Holden Dealer Team’s giant dome-shaped marquee. It’s so vast that it appears as an unmistakable presence in the background of many mid-1970s pics of Hell Corner at Bathurst. And then there…

Darren Koziol Car: VJ Valiant hardtop Hometown: Salisbury, SA What is it? “What we have here is a rough-cut 1973 VJ Valiant hardtop, with a 265ci six-cylinder engine.” When did you buy it? “I bought it around 1996 or 1997. It looks pretty much the same now as when I purchased it!” Why did you buy it? “I always wanted a Valiant hardtop. My Dad always had Valiants, I was brought up with them being the family car. We had a VE, a VJ ex-taxi and a CL ex-cop car, among others. I wish I had them now. Chargers are great, but I love the long sleek hardtops better. This one came along and, rough as it was, I saw it, I wanted it and I bought it.” What do…

The upcoming 2019 season of Australian touring car racing heralds in a new era for Ford as it prepares for the race debut of its new Supercars-spec Mustang racer – the first V8-powered two-door coupe to compete in the Australian Touring Car Championship in almost 30 years. But the arrival of the Mustang also means the departure of the iconic Falcon model from top-level touring car racing in Australia. And that, of course, also means Bathurst and the Great Race, in which the Falcon nameplate boast the extraordinary distinction of being the only model name to be represented in the first Armstrong 500 and also last year’s Bathurst 1000 – 58 years apart! So, as we say farewell to the Ford Falcon in racing, here is AMC’s top 25 most…

In July 1967 we transitioned from being a sole trader to a registered company and the business became Perfectune Automotive Services Pty Ltd and I became Managing Director and my wife Jan Secretary-Director. In the same month I took delivery of one of the first HR 186S four-speed Holden Premier sedans. It featured Silver Mink paint with a black vinyl top and the all-black interior featured front bucket seats. This model is recognised as being Holden’s first real attempt at producing a performance car, at a staggeringly low $3165 compared to the Falcon GT at $3890. Standard mechanical equipment included a steel crankshaft in a High Performance block plus a special camshaft, a dual throat carburettor, cast iron exhaust headers with a split exhaust system into one pipe, front power…

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 out…

The closest thing we’re ever going to get to a reborn Ford Falcon GT-HO is about to go on-sale. No, Ford’s Campbellfield assembly line hasn’t cranked into production again – how cool would that be! – but the desire, groundwork and plans for a reborn version of Australia’s greatest muscle car have been brought to fruition and are being offered in a new performance upgrade. Dubbed Holy Grail – as in HOly Grail, geddit – it pumps the power and torque of the Miami supercharged V8 to an earth-rocking 483kW @ 6800rpm and 753Nm at 4500-5200rpm. A GT-F fitted with the new upgrade will be unveiled at the All Ford Day at Geelong on February 17. Now just to put those performance figures in perspective, the last Ford Performance Vehicles…

Next time you pass one of those ubiquitous self-storage facilities, with their rows of identical and nondescript roller-doors, ponder what vehicular treasure might lie within. Dilapidated sheds and garages in rural settings might be more readily connected with dream car finds, yet here’s proof these distinctly unromantic high-security suburban storage units are now more likely to house wonderful automotive finds. As we learnt when invited along to document the retrieval and pick-up of an A9X Torana that had changed hands for the first time in 37 years, self-storage centres are the new ‘barns. For here was an A9X hatchback that had been gathering dust unmoved in the same industrial ‘box’ in Sydney’s west for over 15 years. And not just any A9X Torana. This one played a significant part in…

Had there been a rookie of the year trophy offered at the 1972 Bathurst 500, it would have been engraved with Paul Gulson’s name. Seventh on debut in difficult conditions was a sensational effort, especially given that his GT-HO mount was the polar opposite of the Minis he normally campaigned. The ’72 event would be Paul’s only Great Race in an outright car until 1980, when he again snared an impressive result – third outright with Ian Geoghegan in a VB model Commodore. All up, Paul contested 12 Bathurst classic between 1982 and 1984, the last three with John English in an XD Falcon. The Gulson brothers, after ’72, teamed up another three times at Bathurst, always in one of Ray’s familiar Alfa Romeo GTVs. They finished each time. The…

Both works Ford entries returned to the pits at the conclusion of the 1973 Bathurst 1000 on the back of a flatbed truck. But while the Fred Gibson/Bo Seton XA Falcon GT had to be retrieved at the end of the day after exiting the race early on with engine failure (here the ambulance symbollically escorts it home), teammates Allan Moffat and Ian Geoghegan (and Ford team boss Howard Marsden) enjoyed pride of place atop the ‘McWilliam’s Wines’ winner’s truck.…

The Ford Mustang’s return to Supercars racing conjures up memories of the great ponycars of Australian touring car history. Norm Beechey’s blue beast was followed in quick succession by Ian Geoghegan’s white Castrol car, Allan Moffat’s history-changing Coke example, then, much later, Dick Johnson’s Group A green machines. In contrast, the most recent racer of a Mustang in the Australian Touring Car Championship has few fond memories of his steed. History records Lawrie Nelson as the last driver to start an ATCC/Supercars championship race aboard the American muscle car. His brief appearance at Phillip Island’s 1990 round is the latest for the iconic nameplate, up until Supercars-spec Mustangs take to the grid at the 2019 Superloop Adelaide 500. It was not a glorious history, however, as Nelson’s Group A Mustang…

Chevrolet holds a special place within Australia’s rich automotive history.Yet, few car enthusiasts born before 1953 fully appreciate just how historically significant it is. It will come as a surprise to many readers to learn that it was General Motors’ well-known ‘Chevrolet’ brand, and not the ‘Holden’ brand as widely believed, that initially established the General Motors-Holden’s company (GM-H) within Australia. Chevrolet’s recent official GM-sanctioned return to Australia has come via the Camaros and Silverado trucks sold through the Holden/ HSV dealership network. So it’s timely to look back at the time when GM-H assembled Chevrolets in Australia were sold alongside Pontiac, Vauxhall and Holden through GM-H dealerships across the land. While this article focuses primarily on the post-World War II decades, the 1950s and 1960s, it’s important that we…

Ah, the early 1970s; a time when a Falcon hardtop owner could don a pair of snazzy corduroy jeans that matched the colour of his car and head bush. Here’s a series of images received from a reader that caught our eye and had us scratching our heads – and not just because of the ‘lilac at bottom with black top’ theming. Just what on earth was the purpose of this photoshoot? Selling cars? Promoting fashionable threads? Or something else? Four aging prints mounted on dusty, yellowing cardboard arrived via snail mail from New Zealand from a ‘D Croker. The pics were accompanied by a brief message that read, “Found in a box at auction. Where is the car? Rare colour? Note stickers including New Zealand. Falcon 500 with 351ci…

Ford took the wraps off the 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 at the 2019 Detroit Motor Show to reveal what it describes as the fastest-accelerating factory Mustang ever built, with the most powerful V8 engine ever offered by Ford in a road car. The numbers are compelling. The supercharged 5.2-litre V8 (a development of the GT350 engine but without the flat-plane crankshaft) has, Ford claims, “more than 700 horsepower” (522kW). Coincidentally or otherwise, that figure is exactly twice as much power as that of the original Ford Mustang GT500 from 1967. With that sort of grunt, performance is in the supercar territory. Ford claims the Shelby GT500 is capable of 0-100km/h in the mid three-second bracket, and runs the standing 400 metres in under 11 seconds. A key contributor to…

Dark Oz is the name of a new Australian publisher producing a unique line of comic books with a strong retro feel, influenced by the eighties ‘Ozploitation’ movies genre – think Mad Max and Razorback – and from time-to-time featuring Australian muscle cars. Dark Oz’s first comic book, issue #1 of the horror anthology DECAY, featured a yellow VJ Valiant hardtop on the front cover. The Zombie Hunter, as the car is known, has appeared in several of the 24 issues published since and has now also crossed over to the sister comic Retro Sci-Fi Tales. Now that’s a contradictory title! The rough-cut car is identified by its numberplate CTHULHU (pronounced k-thoolew). You’ll either know what Cthulhu is or not. AMC’s staffers were in the latter category, but we looked…

And so we find ourselves well into 2019 now, a perfect time to bask in the golden anniversary nostalgic glow of 1969. What better way to get into the 50th anniversary spirit than to splash out at Shannons’ Melbourne Summer Classic Auction on a 1969 HT Monaro GTS 350. This car, an auto, has had just two owners across its 48-year life. It was repainted (white – inside, the original black and white hounds-tooth upholstery presents like new) about 15 years ago but is otherwise original. With early original-series Monaros becoming increasingly popular among collectors, Shannons anticipates this example to sell in the $160,000-$180,000 range. A similar sum is expected for the 1985 Holden Commodore VK SS Group A that’s also going under the hammer on February 18. This ‘Blue…

The clichéd ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ philosophy was doubly true for some car dealers during the Bathurst 500’s series production era. Not only did a model’s fine performance on the Mountain increase showroom traffic in the days following the race, many of the actual cars in the big event found new homes immediately after the October classic. With a large slab of cars entered for the 500 being dealer-backed cars, these very machines were commonly purchased shortly before the race and then sold shortly afterwards to an unsuspecting member of the public. After all, there would always be a new model to race next year... Except, it didn’t pan out that way for the Ford hordes keen to tackle the 1972 Hardie-Ferodo 500 – there were no new…

In 2015 Alice Springs hosted a truck show to mark the occasion of 100 years of trucks in Australia. Peter Champion attended the event, bringing with him five old trucks from his personal collection of vintage trucks and tractors. Champion may be best known for his HDT road car business and the impressive collection of Peter Brock racecars which recently sold for a record-breaking sum at Lloyds Auctions, but high performance Holdens aren’t his only passion when it comes to motor vehicles. It was at the Alice Springs show that Champion happened upon the crucial lead that would help him complete a personal quest, which was to locate and purchase the old 1970s Holden Dealer Team double-decker hospitality bus. He was introduced at Alice Springs to double-decker bus enthusiast Craig…

The Car You Always Promised Yourself With the European Union being at the heart of slot car production, it’s no surprise that the Ford Capri has been a popular model for manufacturers. In this issue we will take a look at some of the slot car Capris out there. The road-going Capri I was billed as Europe’s Mustang, with a tagline ‘The car you always promised yourself. It was a cultural contrast to American marketing, where muscle cars were a form of youthful freedom. In post-war Europe you were entitled to a little self-indulgence, but only after you had fulfilled your domestic and/or national responsibilities. Capris were also sold in Britain, and although they looked the same, the UK and German factories produced different versions with their own running gear.…

The trio of GM-H-assembled CKD Chevrolets shown in this feature belong to Melbournian Tony Maddaluno. If owning one special car is a hobby, surely having three is an obsession. “It’s an addiction,” Tony laughs. “I was brought up as a kid with my Dad and my uncles owning Chevs and Pontiacs. We lived in a country town where I virtually knew every Chev or Pontiac in town, who owned it and what year it was. So when I got to my thirties, I thought it would be a nice bit of nostalgia to buy one of these cars. I bought a’68 Pontiac in the early 1990s which I don’t own anymore. A little later I took a particular liking to the Chevs. I bought one and then I thought I’d…

1967 Mustang GT, ATCC winner How has it taken so long for Ian Geoghegan’s Mustang to be modeled in this, original form? This is how it first ran, before getting flared guards and that crazy negative camber. An Apex Replicas model, but sold through Biante, the resin-bodied Mustang is the first of three versions of this car planned. The others will be the 1968 and 1969 ATCC cars, logically. And let’s keep our fingers crossed for the final form of the car, with the aforementioned changes. By the way, this is a must for any Mustang fan – Ford absolutely nailed the styling of this car – for mine, still the best-looking of all the Mustangs. As with the VK SS (above right), we don’t have details of pricing, production…