Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 119 i Australian Muscle Car

These days Supercars teams usually secure their endurance race co-drivers before the season even starts. That’s because experienced and capable part-timers – who can steer the tricky V8 beasts swiftly and safely with minimal practice laps – are in short supply. Such was the case with 10-time Bathurst co-driver David Russell, who was announced way back on December 19 last year as Garry Jacobson’s partner in Matt Stone Racing’s #35 Commodore for the 2020 enduros. That’s 10 months before the big race! Contrast this to his father Geoff Russell’s 11th-hour call-up from Rusty French in 1984 to contest the James Hardie 1000 in the John Sands SEGA VH Commodore. Despite the last-minute arrangement, the pair finished a stunning sixth outright, Russell Senior’s best Bathurst 1000 result. Not bad for a…

Relationships in any way, shape or form are essential to harmony and working together. None have been more so than the one between Hare & Forbes and Brad Jones Racing. The two enterprises have a lot in common and have been in partnership for ten years. 1986 Bathurst 1000 In motor racing circles, long time followers will remember seeing Hare & Forbes on the 1986 Bathurst 1000 winning Holden Commodore of Allan Grice and Graeme Bailey. But who were/are Hare & Forbes? You could well be forgiven for thinking they were solicitors or something along those lines. Like the company itself, Hare & Forbes has not only grown in stature but in recognition as well. 1930 Hare & Forbes Begins Hare & Forbes Machinery House is an Australian-owned family business…

Pacer racers I enjoyed the article on the two and four-barrel Pacers in issue #118. The Pacers were a near miss if ever there was one; if only the Factory had a bit more determination and a larger budget. I had a bit to do with the Pacers back in the day and recall two Queensland-based drivers racing them. Tony Paul, now deceased in a New Zealand light plane crash, had a factory blue four-barrel followed by a vitamin C Charger. Alan Whitchurch raced a Hemi Orange two-barrel Pacer, then a blue four-barrel, an E38 Charger that was also Hemi Orange, I think, and finally an E49 in Mercury Silver. In between all this he raced a Hemi Orange Galant in the 1971 South Pacific series. Returning to the Pacers,…

Wet Warwick Farm action from 1973 as John Goss guides his XA Falcon GT through the Esses. Goss had debuted the car seven days earlier at Surfers Paradise on February 4, which was the first-ever race for the then-new Group C touring car category. Somewhat bizarrely, while Goss was up and running with his new XA Hardtop in early February, the factory Ford team would continue with the (discontinued) XY Falcon GT-HO Phase III for the entire Australian Touring Car Championship, not making the switch to the new model XA until late August – almost seven months later! As for the Warwick Farm race, Goss clobbered the fence at the Causeway while trying to stay with Colin Bond’s Torana XU-1, but recovered to finish second behind the Holden Dealer Team…

It might seem hard to imagine today for readers under the age of 50, but 1970 was a massive year of celebration to mark the Bi-centennial of Captain Cook’s ‘discovery’ of Australia. Even if Covid had not happened this year, by contrast we doubt the 250th anniversary would barely have earned even a backward glance. However, half a century ago the celebrations ran from special Bi-centennial 50-cent pieces to a re-enactment of the Endeavour’s arrival in Botany Bay, and a royal visit. And a Round Australia Trial, the Ampol Bicentennial Round Australia Trial. So with massive festivities in 1970, Australia’s own oil company Ampol would again step up and back its fifth Round Australia as part of a patriotic celebration of Cook’s ‘discovering Australia. The 10,000km 12-day trial started in…

The ‘truck’ Long before Australian MUSCLE CAR magazine was even a twinkle in the eye of one of its founders, Ray Berghouse, there was Australian MOTORING NEWS. Established by Berghouse and Tom Floyd, this was Australia’s first motoring and motor racing bi-weekly magazine/newspaper, predating the now iconic AUTO ACTION by a year or two. During the latter period of the mag’s life, in 1973, Holden, Ford and Chrysler were all producing high-performance versions of their respective station wagons for those with a need to carry loads of ‘stuff’ at high speed. Floyd owned an XW Falcon GS wagon (Vermilion Fire), so Berghouse ordered a yellow HQ Kingswood direct from Holden. Having high-level contacts in Holden’s marketing department allowed for some very non-standard extras to be attached to the order. When…

Last issue we focussed on Dick Johnson’s rise to fame during the 1980 Hardie Ferodo 1000 at Bathurst. As has become Australian motoring folklore, Johnson hit a bowling ball-sized rock that rolled onto the famous circuit while he was running away with the big race. When it looked like the car-destroying incident would terminate Dick’s career, donations flowed in via an impromptu telethon. Money pledged by the public (and the odd police officer – stay with us here) was matched by Ford Australia. The final sum was enough to get Dick back on track the following year in a new XD Falcon. Dick and the Tru-Blu Ford went on to win the ’81 Australian Touring Car Championship and that year’s Bathurst classic. As it turned out, one police officer’s donation…

Back in the mid-‘60s going touring car racing sometimes didn’t involve much more than simply turning up at the track and racing the car who arrived in. Safety items such as fireproof attire, proper roll cages and even seat belts were still in the future. Ken Stacey, who featured in AMC #117, reunited with the Falcon XR GT he raced at Bathurst in 1967 and ’68, remembers those days well – the Falcon was his daily drive, as was the Cooper S he’d raced before it. There was one particular race with the Cooper S at Oran Park that still brings a smile to Stacey’s face, as he explains: “My brother-in-law Murray Wells had a Ford Cortina GT, which he entered in his first race at Oran Park. He preferred…

Ask any motorsport fan to summarise the 1990 Bathurst 1000 in one phrase, most would probably say something like: ‘surprise win for Holden. Quite right, too. With the possible exception of 1987 – the sole time in the history of the race that the winning car was in such poor condition that even its own team thought it would only last a few laps – the 1990 event produced the biggest upset in Great Race history. In retrospect, the 1990 race has added significance, because it will very probably be the last upset of this type in the entire history of the race. No matter what cars contest the Great Race in five or 10 or 20 years’ time, you can bet your house on the fact that the regulations…

Rather than conquer the Mount, the turbo assault largely conked out in 1990. Poor reliability and excessive tyre wear were the common denominators in the detonating of many a Ford Sierra’s race-winning hopes. Detonating being the operative word. A blown engine and a destroyed clutch accounted for Glenn Seton’s pair of Peter Jacking Racing Sierras. Peter Brock’s Mobil versions chewed through their Bridgestone tyres like they were going out of style and Allan Moffat’s pair of Eggenberger-fettled ANZ Sierras suffered a series of setbacks that were all too familiar to fans of the fast and fragile Fords. One Shell Sierra, the #17 example of team boss Dick Johnson and John Bowe, stayed on theme with a blown turbo, while the Paul Radisich/Jeff Allam-driven #18 went off script. That second-string Shell…

AMC: Who came up with the GTR-X concept? Paul Beranger (PB): To answer that you have to put the GTR-X into context. Holden had developed a reputation in the late ‘60s for producing sporty cars with the Monaro and Torana, which was becoming our youthful sporty car. Even though we had the LC GTR when we started on the GTR-X, our sales and marketing people were keen to have a halo car, an image car for Holden. In the US, GM had developed the Corvette and although it got off to a slow start, with poor sales, it grew to become the GM halo car and Holden wanted one for themselves. Opel had launched its mini Corvette, a little four-cylinder GT coupe, a halo car for the Germany company.…

Going digital Slot cars have been around in one form or another for almost as long as the horseless carriage. In all that time, though, the basic concept of an electrically powered model car guided around a track hasn’t changed much. Throw in a speed controller of some kind and you essentially have what is around today, give or take quite a few refinements. Of course, to have a race, you need another car in its own lane, and the more lanes you have, the more cars can race. Unfortunately, the real cars we are trying to emulate, don’t stick to their own lane. But try and put your slot car in another lane and suddenly it is at the mercy of someone else’s controller. Both of these short comings…

Scott McLaughlin secured his third consecutive Australian Touring Car Championship crown after a near perfect score at the 10th round of the series at Tailem Bend. At The Bend the DJR Team Penske Ford Mustang driver put the issue beyond doubt with a pair of wins and one second placing. McLaughlin went to Bathurst, the final round in this year’s Covid-19 disrupted season, 305 points clear of Jamie Whincup. With only 300 on offer for winning the Great Race, the Red Bull Racing Commodore driver’s hopes of an eighth title will have to wait for another year. No doubt Whincup (and most of the rest of the Supercars) field will be hoping his Ford rival’s debut IndyCar race at St Peterburg the week after Bathurst goes so well that McLaughlin…

Peter Brock’s first retirement in 1997 was built up into such an event that just about the only thing missing was a celebratory ticker tape parade through the main street of Bathurst. It couldn’t have been more different from the way his long-time Bathurst rival Allan Moffat chose to bow out. By the time of the 1990 race, Moffat had already retired, having honoured a personal pledge not to race beyond the age of 50. He won the 1989 Fuji 500 on the weekend of his 50th birthday and quietly called it quits, without ever making his decision public. So when Moffat entered himself as a driver in both his cars for the 1990 race, the general assumption was that he would take part in the race. But Moffat had…

1965 Ford Cortina GT500 From the very early days of the Bathurst race, when the cars were very close to standard (OK, we’ve all heard some wonderful stories of fudging the rules, but that’s a story for another time). The 1965 Ford Cortina GT500 is considered one of the very first homologation specials for the Great Race. With extra fuel capacity and some other Harry Firth tweaks, like a smaller crank pulley to stop that Ford Kent drama of cavitating water pumps, a twin-choke Weber carby, carefully-selected pistons and fatter valve springs, they were the car to have. And Bo Seton and Midge Bosworth’s was the best of them. The model captures the very standard level of preparation really well – by showing the very basic interior and engine bay.…

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…