Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 108 i Australian Muscle Car

The 50th anniversary of the Falcon GT-HO will be celebrated on Bathurst 1000 race day this October with a ‘Back to Lot 6’ event on the former site of Ford’s famed in-house race team in Melbourne. The Ford GT-HO Lot 6 Foundation, in conjunction with Elite Automotive, is hosting a special ticketed function on Sunday, October 13, 2019 at 224 Mahoneys Road, Thomastown, the birthplace of the racing HOs in 1969. The day will include attendance by former mechanics and drivers, a sit-down lunch, viewing the Great Race live on a big screen and special celebratory activities. The latter includes firing up GT-HOs to signal the race start and a ground-kissing ceremony. Although the building’s facade has been reworked and the old workshop area divided, inside retains the look and…

Forty years of Dick Johnson Racing cars will be celebrated in a brand new, limited edition collector’s hardcover book being produced this year. The book will feature all of DJR and DJR Team Penske’s Ford racecars from the famous ‘rock’ Falcon XD of 1980 through to the Shell V-Power Racing Team Mustangs competing in this year’s Supercars Championship. There will be at least 46 individual cars covered within the 400-plus-page book including detailed history information, comments and recollections from former team drivers and comprehensive statistics. Previously unpublished photos covering the entire range of Falcons, Sierras and Mustangs raced by the team over the last four decades will also be a major highlight of the publication. The team’s three Bathurst winning cars – the 1981 Tru-Blu Falcon XD, 1989 Shell Sierra…

Like many of us, Geoff Wood was appalled with the distorted look of the new Mustang Supercar. So much so, the Adelaide-based model maker made his own 1:18 version of what an actual Mustang would have looked like as a Supercars racer. Working with a Falcon Supercars model, Geoff had to lower the B-pillar roll hoop by 4.5mm (81mm on the real thing) and A-pillar arms by 3.5mm (63mm). He also had to lengthen the body – the stock ’Stang’s wheelbase is 135mm shorter than that on the Supercars chassis. Geoff’s amazing handiwork shows what might have been. He took the model to the Britannia Hotel during the Adelaide 500 as a protest and to gauge fan reaction, which was overwhelmingly along the lines of, ”Mate, l wish the real…

Frank Gardner is probably best known down under for his Formula 5000-inspired Chevrolet Corvair that revolutionised Sports Sedan racing in the 1970s – and his long spell running BMW’s touring car programme over the following two decades. But before all of that, Frank Gardner the driver starred on the international stage in open-wheelers, sports cars, and in particular in touring car racing. The versatile Australian was British Saloon Car Champion three times, in addition to three BSCC class wins. This car is the first of two Camaros Gardner raced in the BSCC and elsewhere in Europe in the early ’70s. It’s actually one of the very first race-prepared Camaros to hit the track. Built as a racecar in late ’66 by Bill Mayberry, the man who also built the Team…

As the sun’s first rays stabbed across the endless red Mundi Mundi plains on a cold May morning, just a few hundred metres from the location of the rollover scene in Mad Max 2, the desert started to thaw a little, and with it, my numb fingertips. I was sitting shotgun in a black 1971 Mach 1 Mustang with Rick Beecroft, best known as Wolf Creek’s first assistant director, behind the wheel. What Rick doesn’t know about shooting action vehicle sequences, and outback filmmaking in general, isn’t worth knowing. Far away, director Heath Davis crackled on the walkie-talkie as we sat waiting for our action cue. “Standing by…” Our scene that morning involved the Mach 1, the unspoken star of upcoming Aussie independent crime-thriller Locusts, ripping across Mundi Mundi plains…

Peter Janson and Larry Perkins are not exactly two peas in a pod. When they drove together in the Bathurst 1000 in the late seventies and early eighties, one was an entrepreneurial Melbourne socialite, who was prominent at equestrian events one weekend, before enjoying the many delights of motorsport the next. The other was a no-nonsense, engineering-focused bloke usually absorbed in solving all manner of mechanical problems. Janson was English-born and lived a showy lifestyle supported by an occupation he described as being ‘a gentleman. Perkins, in contrast, grew up on a farm in Cowangie in the Mallee region of Victoria, and had doggedly forged a career in motorsport that took him all the way to Formula 1. Yet, despite being motor racing’s odd couple, at least from the outside,…

Like a classic hits radio station, Steve has given us the best of the sixties, seventies and eighties! It’s a rather random collection of pics, headlined by a soggy Saturday in 1981 trudging around Bathurst, having a ‘Garth Tander’ at the Tru-Blu Falcon and the Seven Network pit setup. There’s something so atmospheric about Mount Panorama in the rain, especially when you stumble upon a withdrawn car, in this case the Charlie O’Brien/Mike Quinn Commodore. And look over there – where? – there’s Gossy’s K-tel Cat heading out of pitlane to race Murray Carter up Mountain Straight. Steve was there 13 years earlier to witness the start (quite literally) of the Holden versus Ford rivalry in ’68. Then there are outings at Oran Park and Amaroo Park in the early…

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 availability of manual transmissions and the ZL1 high-performance model – that’s the big news from HSV’s 2019 Camaro model lineup announcement. With its supercharged 6.2-litre LT4 V8 delivering 480kW and around 860Nm (HSV is yet to confirm the final torque figure), ZL1’s performance will be in the realm of HSV’s previous flagship, the GTSR-W1. It should also shape up nicely against Ford’s new limited-edition supercharged Mustang, or indeed even Premcar’s just-launched Falcon ‘Holy Grail’ 483kW upgrade. The ZL1 model – which celebrates its 50th birthday this year – is the fastest, most powerful Camaro GM offers. Expect the Australian right-hand drive version to reach 100km/h off the standing start in 3.5 seconds along the way to clocking the 400m in mid-11s. All that performance comes at a hefty price…

Steven Johnson s quest for a third Touring Car Masters series title began in fine style at the Adelaide 500 meeting with a trio of race wins in the #17 Mustang. Adam Bressington was second overall, while series debutant and fellow Camaro driver Ryal Harris was third. SL/R Toranas dominated the grid numerically, but it was a different story on the results sheets. Perennial frontrunner John Bowe suffered engine woes on Saturday and, with a cobbled together engine, played catch-up thereafter. Marcus Zukanovic’s XD Falcon created plenty of interest, and it will be joined on the grid at some stage this season by Team Johnson’s tribute to the famed DJR Tru-Blu XDs. The series now heads to Phillip Island for round two over April 12-14. Subsequent rounds will be held…

Forget the Bathurst 1000, the motorsport event with a big future, we reckon, is the Baskerville 1000. This six-hour enduro is the Hobart Sporting Car Club’s new speed event – for $1000 cars, when first purchased. In many cases, the liveries were worth as much as the vehicles they coloured, with teams encouraged to present their cars in replica or tribute paint schemes of more famous machines. Thus, a JPS and a M-liveried BMW took part, so too Pieter Jackson- and Monster-flavoured Falcons. Need car finance? Perhaps contact F A Credit, which never sponsored Glenn Seton. Less famous racing vehicles included an Adelaide-built Mitsubishi 380 and a Falcon stationwagon. Never seen examples of those on the track before. The inaugural Autocraft-sponsored two-day event saw 220 drivers competing in Tasmania’s first…

Under the covers Long-term Perth-based Ford enthusiast Grant Matusiak was enjoying a Christmas party in 2004 with family and friends when a friend of Grant’s brother volunteered, “My dad’s got a GT-HO at home.” To raised eyebrows he explained that it was a special car (Duh!), with a “special” Windsor engine. Later that night the ‘dad’ – Chris Stanley, an ex-Repco executive who had long since moved to Western Australia – rang and his son put Grant on the phone. There was no talk of buying or selling, but Stanley suggested that Grant might like to come and have a look. What Grant had innocently stumbled upon was a single vehicle, pushed into a carport-cum-garage, with a tatty cover over it. But any lack of presentation was more than made…

First hairy-chested GT Launched in June 1969, the Ford XW GT ushered in the era of the real muscle car GTs with more aggressive styling than its tame by comparison forebears. They were hairy, lairy and a bit scary... to drive! That bonnet scoop A good example of the more aggressive appearance was the bonnet scoop, the first to be fitted to a Falcon GT model. Those stripes Next time your missus says she needs her hair done as she’s got a pronounced GT stripe – darker or greyer roots showing through – politely set her straight with a, “they’re not GT stripes, my dear. These are GT stripes.” Those blackouts The XT GT’s bonnet looks positively naked compared to the XW version which followed with its blackouts, sorry, ‘anti-glare…

Car: Mach 1 Mustang Hometown: Broken Hill, NSW What is it? “The car is a 1971 Mach 1 Mustang. The motor is a FE 427ci engine.” When did you buy it? “I bought the car in 2014 from a guy in Queensland.” What do you know about its history? “It was converted to right-hand drive when it first arrived in Australia not long after it was first produced.” How does it go? “In 2008 when the engine had a rebuild it was pushing about 280 rear-wheel horsepower and 550 foot pounds of torque.” Anything you’d like to add? “There’s a car club in town, the Desert Rats. They are doing great things there and are currently building a drag strip and burnout pad to hold events on the edge of…

Spare a thought for long-suffering motor racing wives. Not the stone-faced, over-preened supermodel WAGs gold-digging F1’s pitlane, but the loyal ladies who provided tireless support to husbands plying their trade as privateers. We salute the gals who kept the home fires burning while their husbands burnt the midnight oil preparing racecars then lugged them around the country. These are women who spent their annual holidays at such exotic locations as... Winton, Calder and Oran Park; girls who went without niceties at home because the other half’s race engine needed yet another rebuild. A perfect example is Irena Kaleda, wife of 1970s Bathurst independent Ray, the racer we profiled at length in issue #97. Ray campaigned a succession of Series Production cars, most notably finishing eighth and sixth in a Charger…

I honestly do not know whether to laugh or cry. Laugh because I am driving the stirring, whirring, snarling supercharged Holy Grail Ford Falcon around the Broadford racetrack. And it’s the best Falcon I have ever driven. Cry? Because I am driving the best Falcon ever and it’s more than two years after the last production example of that mighty breed rolled from the blue oval’s Broadmeadows assembly line. The Holy Grail is a revelation, a peek into what might have been in an alternate universe and an unexpurgated demonstration of how much life the Falcon still had in it when it died. Life? Holy Grail has all the vitality, energy and wildness of teenagers smashing bodies in a Violent Soho mosh pit. Yet it handles with the mature killer…

The TA2 Muscle Car Series has experienced a growth spurt for 2019, with 24 cars blasting off the grid for the season opener at Sydney Motorsport Park in March. Previous car counts have been in the mid teens. Third-generation racer Aaron Seton, watched on by grandfather Bo and father Glenn, claimed three out of the four race wins to head the standings in a Mustang. The other race winner for the weekend was George Miedecke (Mustang), who finished as round runner-up ahead of Ashley Jarvis (Camaro) and father Andrew Miedecke. Miedecke Snr ran a striking-looking Dodge Challenger, bearing the signage of the family’s RAM trucks franchise at Port Macquarie. Round two of the 2019 TA2 Muscle Car Series heads to Morgan Park, Queensland, over April 5-7. Subsequent rounds will be…

It’s no secret that Australian muscle cars have been attracting large – and ever-increasing – prices in recent years. At the recent Shannons Summer Classic Auction in Melbourne, for instance, a Monaro HX GTS 5.0-litre four-door sold for $51,000 – almost twice the sum Shannons estimated pre-auction. Now, though, the upward trend in the local market looks as though it’s crossing over to include American muscle. Chev Camaros in good condition have always attracted decent figures. But at the Shannons Sydney Autumn Classic Auction in March, a ’67 model Camaro 350 manual changed hands for a particularly decent figure: a cool $84,000. As it happens, this white RS model appeared in our last issue (#107) in our Muscle Mail section. Owner Nick Skalkos wrote to AMC in response to our…

Repco, founded in 1922, in 1969 had a number of manufacturing companies that ranged from 25 employees to 2000. There were three major divisions – Repco Manufacturing Group, of which Repco Research and Repco Clutch Company was one, as well as PBR Brakes and a multitude of other companies; Repco Merchant Group that sold the components and Repco International, which was to target overseas expansion. All up the workforce at Repco at its peak was between 15,000 and 16,000. Repco had a considerable international presence, and as late as the 1990s PBR was setting up a substantial manufacturing plant for brake components in the USA. There was also a Malaysian clutch operation, for the Proton which was the Malaysian government vehicle. “Repco Research was a great talent,” Alan Warby related.…

With multiple drag racing titles under their belt, the Lamattina family knows a thing or two about fast cars. The three brothers who head up Lamattina Top Fuel Racing can trace their love of such cars back to a pair of XW GTs from their youth. “The reason we bought this (Silver Fox) one a long time ago was that my father had an XW GT, a Track Red one,” middle brother Phil explained to AMC. “It was the first car he bought new, in late 1970 or early ’71. He had it for 11 years, until he had to get rid of it to buy more of a family car.” That red machine went to a family member in the early 1980s, whom the brothers subsequently lost touch with.…

Paul and Sarah Horner Car: 1973 LJ GTR Torana Hometown: Adelaide, SA What is it? “My car is a 1973 LJ GTR Torana fitted from new with XU-1 options.” When did you buy it? “I purchased it at the start of 2016.” Why did you buy it? “My father was a motor mechanic who owned a Daytona Bronze LC GTR. Every morning he would leave for work at 6am and when the car started it would shake all the windows in the house and wake me up. He built two carburettor-fed turbo 179 engines for it, one was SU-fed and the other engine was Weber-fed. A trip in that car as a very young child paved the way for my expensive foray into muscle cars. My dad sold the GTR…

XY Double Shot Since my last column, most slot manufacturers have announced details of their expected releases for 2019. As far as Aussie muscle cars go, Scalextric is once again at the fore, with four cars announced: three Fords and a Holden. The Torana L34 gets another run, this time with the Bill Patterson car from the 1977 Australian Touring Car Championship. On the Ford side we start with a silver XW GT-HO street car with 12-slot wheels, which will be a great basis for making the Bruce McPhee GT-HO racecar from Bathurst 1969. From the XB GT mould we have the John Goss XB from 1975, which I also have designs on for a later issue, so watch this space. Lastly, we have the 1973 ATCC-winning XY Falcon of…

It’s hard to imagine a historic race meeting with more cars and more anniversaries to celebrate. In addition to hosting some 500 historic racing machines, this year’s Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport celebrated the 50th anniversary of Formula Ford and the Bolwell Nagari, and the 30th running of the Phillip Island Classic event itself. But it’s the 50th anniversary of the Holden Dealer Team, the 40th anniversary of Peter Brock’s (and Jim Richards’) six-lap steamroller Bathurst victory in the HDT Torana A9X, and, phew, Bob Morris’s touring car championship title the same year in the same Torana model that we wish to concentrate on here. By happy co-incidence, among the racing entries was one of the Ron Hodgson Racing Torana A9Xs Bob Morris used during his ’79 championship-winning campaign.…

2017 Holden Commodore VF SS-V The very last Australian-built Commodore. This 1:12 scale resin sealed body model of the final Commodore ever made and produced with the roof top sign as it rolled off the production line. Frankly, this would be the ultimate (in more than one way) Commodore model for the Holden fan. It’s a huge model is this scale and would make an amazing centrepiece for a collection. I wonder how many Holden dealers will buy them for their boardrooms? It would certainly make an appropriate dealership decoration. Production quantity and price are to be confirmed but it’s sure to be a limited edition model. They’re due in the last quarter of this year. Order early to avoid disappointment, as they say, and visit www.biante.com.au for more details.…