Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 125 i Australian Muscle Car

When you love driving your muscle car, but COVID has meant lockdowns, cancellation of events and a general reduction in activities, what’s the answer? A group of NSW-based enthusiasts comprised of members and friends of the Brock Commodore Owners’ Association of Australia and NSW Torana XU-1 Owners’ Club recently answered that question by embarking on a drive taking in as many highlights as possible over the course of seven days. Departing from Sutton Forest Maccas was a fleet of nine of the General’s finest, the oldest being an EH and the newest a VY Crewman Cross-8. A combination of rain and roadworks saw the cars pull into the first stop – Junee’s Chocolate and Licorice Factory and GasWorks Garage Museum next door, looking somewhat battle-weary. The ensuing days saw the…

Hybrid VK I just finished watching the 1984 Bathurst 1000 and I noticed a no-spoilers, no-flares VK Commodore. It was entered by Big Rooster/ Queensland Highway Patrol and driven by Lester Smerdon and Wayne Park. I couldn’t find any info on the car. It wasn’t entered as a Group A but, as you can see, it’s not really a Group C either. During the race when the car was on screen the commentators mentioned that it was close to Police Interceptor spec (BT1?) and the race team had had some help from Peter Brock in the prep, and he (HDT?) was keeping an eye on how it went. Seems like a smart idea seeing as how Group A was the main game the following year. I’m guessing the Commodore wasn’t…

It wasn’t just the finest race meeting ever held at Oran Park, according to Racing Car News: it was ‘Australia’s mightiest race meeting ever’. Half a century on it’s a day that’s still talked about. It might even today still be our ‘mightiest race meeting’. As the final round title decider, it culminated in a straight fight between two of our all-time touring car greats, Bob Jane and Allan Moffat. But there was more to it than simply two great drivers competing for a title. The rivalry that had developed between these two fiercely competitive men was personal and it was bitter. Any time in the early ‘70s when Moffat faced off against Jane was one not to be missed; there was always the feeling when those two met on…

Bob McArthur Cars: Ford XD Falcon Police Pursuit and Ford AU III Falcon XR8 Hometown: Sydney, NSW What are they? The first is an XD Falcon, 351 manual, ex-Police Pursuit car; the other an AU III XR8, again manual. When did you buy them? I bought the XD in 1983, straight from the police auctions, and I bought the XR8 new from Peter Warren Ford at Smithfield in 2001 – although I didn’t actually get the car until January 2002. There is a bit of a story to the XD. Many years ago I owned an LC GTR Torana, (wish I still had that!) another ex-police pursuit car, this time from Taree, and it doubled life as my race car as well as the family hack. It went to the…

We’ve seen the occasional Prime Minister front up at the Great Race over the years (current PM Scott Morrison made an appearance in 2018, just a couple of months after assuming office). It’s a bit of mystery as to why our esteemed leaders think being seen at major sporting events is such a good idea, however, when most of the punters see the pollie’s appearance for what it is - a cynical vote-seeking exercise (you can tell this by the way said politician is usually roundly booed when introduced to the crowd). Malcolm Fraser was one PM who made the pilgrimage to the Mountain, in 1977, but the thing about Big Mal was that it was genuine – Fraser was a motoring and motor racing enthusiast. You can event see…

There was no HDT or HSV in the 1950s. But there was Repco. And Repco was the place to go for Holden owners who weren’t satisfied with the performance of their Holden as it left the showroom floor. One example of a late ‘50s Repco-Holden – what might be considered the ‘50s equivalent of a HSV Clubsport R8 Tourer – was featured in the May 1959 issue of Wheels magazine. It belonged to Holden racer Lou Kingsley, who opted for a Repco-enhanced Holden wagon as his new touring/towing vehicle rather than his usual choice of a large American car. Kingsley (then a sprightly 70 year-old!) wanted a ‘small car’ but with large-car power, and from his racing exploits he knew full well what Repco was capable of when it came…

Sex sells. This is rule number one for advertisers: you don’t need a degree in marketing to understand this most basic premise of marketing. And sex appeal can be an especially useful tool when the product you’re selling could do with a touch of excitement and glamour to differentiate it from its competitors. It explains why so many tyre ads back in the day featured attractive young ladies posing with said tyres. But when the product you’re selling is sexy almost by definition – such as aftermarket mag wheels – one might think female adornment would be considered superfluous. Apparently not … In the ‘60s and ‘70s the wheel makers were pretty much all into it, although perhaps none with more gusto than Aunger with its mid-‘70s ‘Wheel Appeal’ campaign.…

It appears that the Holden name will have no place in General Motors’ ongoing involvement in Australia. According to a report by whichcar.com. au, GM has decided to rebrand its remaining Holden service centres with the ACDelco name, GM’s parts and accessories division. The existing Holden Service Centres have been retained as part of GM’s legal obligation to offer parts and service support for Holdens for a decade after its exit from the new car market. There is a logic to the switch from the Holden brand to ACDelco in that it represents a more direct alignment of the service centre branding with the imported GM vehicles (such as the Chev Silverado ute and Corvette) which will be sold under the newly established General Motors Specialty Vehicles operation. The whichcar.com.au…

Another Shelby XY was very interested to read the story about the Shelby XY Falcon in AMC #124 as I own one of those Wright Ford Shelby-optioned Falcons. I bought it in pieces about 15 years ago. The guy selling it was making a big deal about telling me it was a special Shelby-optioned XY GT – I thought he was bullshitting me as I’d never heard of a Shelby Falcon. Not that was I even bothered about that, because as far as I was concerned I was just buying an XY GT, and that’s definitely what the car was. Up till a few years ago I was racing a Falcon Historic Group Nc. I tried the Shelby manifold on it on the dyno. It improved the horsepower a bit,…

Not much good has come of the coronavirus pandemic. But we can thank Covid-19 for this car. Because without the pandemic, this stunning 7.0-litre Holden Monaro race machine simply would not exist today. This car is the end product of what is surely the ultimate Covid lockdown project: a replica of the 2002/03 Bathurst 24 Hour Monaro 427s, built by the same Garry Rogers Motorsport operation responsible for the original cars – and even involving many of the GRM crew members who worked on those cars back then. It bears Garry Rogers’ name and his trademark 34 race number on the doors, which is fitting not just because it’s the work of Rogers’ own team, but because he had planned on building and racing a Monaro 427C just like this…

Allan Moffat fires the Brut33 Falcon XB GT out of Hell Corner during his ill-fated assault in the 1974 Bathurst 1000. As can be seen, it’s a very different Hell Corner scene from today, with photographers on the inside of the corner ‘protected’ by the old post-and-wire farm fencing, and the crowd being able to enjoy viewing the action from the comfort of their own cars – which would have been quite a luxury later that afternoon when the heavens opened… There’s some decent Aussie muscle parked on that hill, too – wonder how many of those cars are still around today?…

All forms of motorsport enjoy the involvement of female competitors, with varying degrees of success. But drag racing is the one category where they enjoy the greatest impact. Whether it be from the heady realms of Top Fuel and Funny Car competition or all the way down to the hobbyist ranks of off-street racing, girls have often fought their way to the top. But if you want a drag racing niche which involves the highest level of ‘driving’ then you need look no further than the stick-shift days of the sedan-based Super Stock wars of the 1980s and ‘90s, when the sport here was at its apex; the numbers were high and the competition at its toughest. And those were the days when a young mother from South Queensland, aided…

Repco is almost 100 years old. In its early years it was a retailer of automotive products – just as it is today. But in its middle-age Repco was an ASX-listed manufacturing colossus. It began as Geoffrey Russell’s Collingwoodbased ‘Automotive Grinding Co. By 1930 the company had expanded into the manufacture of pistons, and it took on a new name: Replacement Parts Pty Ltd. The company floated as Repco Ltd in 1937. Repco went on to have a ‘good war, and off the back of that became an original-equipment supplier to General Motors-Holdens from 1948. By the mid-‘50s, the company’s managing director Sir John Storey presided over a decentralised automotive conglomerate which comprised Patons Brake Replacements, Warren & Brown (tool maker), Replex electrics, Precision Metal Stampings, Repco Cycles, Specialised Engineering…

The TREMEC T56 was introduced in the early VR, VS and VT1 behind the Holden V8 and then with the Commodore VT Series II in late 1999, with the 5.7-litre LS1 Chev V8 engine. It was discontinued at the end of 2006 in the VZ, making way for a T56 in a different format for the VE from 2006 to 2008 and then progressing to the TR-6060 six-speed with the release of the VE Series II. Now owners of LS1-powered VT-VZ Commodores can upgrade from their old T56s to the new TREMEC Magnum-F – effectively a later model TR-6060 redesigned to fit the LS1 engine. Apart from the Magnum-F being a better transmission (and with a far superior shift action), it’s a solution for the growing problem of replacement parts…

No moment sums up the 1981 James Hardie 1000 more perfectly than when race organiser Ivan Stibbard announced to Channel Seven’s national audience that the race had been declared after the track-blocking lap-121 crash. Within a nanosecond of the solemn-looking Stibbard telling Seven’s Garry Wilkinson ‘the race has now concluded’ a red-helmeted individual behind him leapt skywards with a ‘woohoo!’ for the ages. The contrast in emotions between the sombre ARDC head honcho and race winner Dick Johnson could not have been more stark. So high does ‘Tricky Dicky’ leap in celebration, it’s like the weight of world was suddenly flung from his shoulders. Which, of course, is exactly how the then 36-year-old felt. It was his job-done moment, capping a remarkable 12 months of trials, tribulations and triumphs. Dick…

Slot Shop chat Sometimes it takes a fresh mind succeed in the retail market. One such fresh mind is Eddie Palminha, owner of Slot Shop at Arncliffe in Sydney. Australian Muscle Car sat down with Eddie to talk about what it’s like to make a living from your hobby. AMC: How did slot cars come into your life? Eddie Palminha: When I was seven I was already into cars, I always had a fascination, I used to draw them all the time. Even though I’d grown up in a Portuguese family and everything was about soccer, my Dad could see my passion for cars and he bought me my first Scalextric set. Eventually I got more interested in real cars and I still am – I own a classic Falcon…

The ‘50s were an exciting time to be part of Repco. Before long Repco Research had become the employer of choice for apprentices and engineers with a competition bent – some of them are still making their presence felt today. Repco was developing a competition culture throughout the decentralised management structure established by Storey and grown by McGrath, and it paid dividends into the following decades. The 1950s Repco Research Maybach and Holden six high performance programs were the first incremental steps that would take the company to two F1 world titles in 1966-’67. Those which followed are the ‘Repco Record’ Holden-powered coupe, the 1963-1970 Coventry Climax four-cylinder FPF ‘Tasman 2.5’ engine maintenance and manufacture, and then the 1965-1970 Repco-Brabham Engines program that saw the Melbourne-based engineering firm/ components parts…

Moffat Ford Sierra RS500 Biante Model Cars has a long and successful relationship with Allan Moffat. As we all know, Allan is now 80 years old and, like many people his age, is facing a battle with dementia. While Allan is happy, comfortable and being well cared for by family and friends, it is gradually becoming more difficult for him to work his way through signing each individual certificate for each model we release. With this in mind and out of respect and care for Allan, Biante has announced that this next release in Biante’s Allan Moffat Collection will be the final model that comes with a hand-signed certificate. In a very fitting end to this phase in the collection, Biante has chosen the car which, alongside Klaus Niedzwiedz, Allan…

Sandown in the seventies AMC reader and long-time Great Race attendee Brian (the 2018 race was his 50th in a row) sent us these gems from Sandown and Phillip Island in the ‘70s. Interesting to compare the different ‘transporters’ – at one end of the spectrum where the likes of Gricey and Rusty French with their trucks, but there were still a lot of prominent touring cars that made it to the track on the back of open trailers. Send us your own snaps for a chance to win We are after readers’ own pre-1990 road and racing shots. Please supply some details to go with your photo (who, where, when). JPG image files should be no less than 1mb in size. By email: amceditorial@chevron.com.au Snail mail: Punters Pics, Chevron…