Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 138 i Australian Muscle Car

Today’s Repco Supercars Championship is one of the very best professional touring car championships in the world. It might even be the best. It’s certainly one of the oldest, dating right back to 1960 with the inaugural running of the Australian Touring Car Championship at the old Gnoo Blas circuit. And while the ATCC has changed immeasurably since then, the basic framework of today’s series isn’t really much different from how things were 50 years ago. With the big rule changes to the cars and to the calendar schedule that came in for 1973 (see our ‘Ground Zero’ feature on page 32), that first year of Group C regs laid down the template for the next half a century. The cars have changed, of course. Today’s Gen3 Mustang-vs-Camaro formula bears…

Muscle Maniac Tickets are now on sale for the unique Red CentreNATS at Alice Springs in September. This will be the ninth running of the event, put on by Northern Territory Major Events Company (which is also responsible for the Hidden Valley Supercars round each year) and event partner Summernats. It’s a three-day event literally in the heart of the country that boasts a wide range of activities and attractions: drag racing, burnouts, 4WD events, the Yeperenye Shopping Centre street parade, Shannons Show ‘n’ Shine, and Lasseters Motorkhana. New to the Red CentreNATS this year is the Motorvation Supercruise, which offers entrants the opportunity to power skid their way down the Alice Springs Inland Dragway. Red CentreNATS is unique as being the only place in Australia where you can legally…

Jim McKeown passed away recently at the ripe old age of 85. He was one of our biggest touring racing stars through the 1960s and into the early ‘70s. He didn’t make many Great Race starts, but was part of Harry Firth’s factory Ford effort in 1968, the left-field entry of a Falcon GT automatic which he shared with Spencer Martin. I interviewed McKeown (with the assistance of his son, Dean) in 2018 about his part in the works Ford effort at the 1968 Bathurst 500 (AMC #102). Although not part of the brief, as a rusted on Alfisti, I couldn’t help but ask him about the dismal 1972 ATCC season he had with Alfa Romeo. McKeown was best known for his exploits in Neptune/Shell sponsored Lotus Cortinas and Porsche…

With new cars and new rules, this year marks a fresh beginning for Australian touring car racing. The new Gen3 format represents huge change, and not just in terms of the technical makeup of the cars and their all-new engines. Because what Gen3 also represents is the ‘final’ end for Holden; the absolute departure from top level motorsport of the Holden brand, if you like, as the new Gen3-spec Chev Camaro replaces the Commodore as GM’s ATCC/ Supercars contender. All told, it’s probably the biggest change to Australian touring car racing since the advent of Group A 38 years ago. But it’s not as big an upheaval as that which occurred half a century ago. It’s certainly not as sudden a change, either. Because while Gen3 was the result of…

Geoff Wood:“I’ve built it for myself, obviously, but I know that plenty of people with their own experiences and memories of Oran Park, when they see it, they will know why I’ve built it. Especially given that it’s not with us any more... So, yes, it’ll always be a tragedy that it’s gone, and that it’s now nothing but a bunch of nondescript housing, but I guess for me that was a final motivator: to have a three-dimensional memory of the place – and fortunately, my eyes, hands and brain were still capable!” If you’re a Sydney-based motorsport fan born before 2000, chances are that Oran Park is a place that’s close to your heart. With a lifespan for the old circuit of nearly half a century, there are many…

The car-mad Cooper was just 17 years-old and working as an apprentice bricklayer when he came home to announce that he was about to buy his boss’ Phase I Falcon GTHO. His father wisely (if bluntly) responded: “Pig’s arse, you’re not buying that. You’ll end up killing yourself. You need to buy a dirty old, oh, I don’t know, an old EH, and belt the shit out of that until you learn how to drive!” In a world that constantly seems to move on at light speed, adopting and then abandoning the latest fads, rehashing fashions of yesteryear then grasping at some new diversion because it deflects us from the horrors of a newfound calamity, we find comfort in the constants of life. We look for the reassurance that some…

Muscle Maniac AMC reader Phil Minns got in touch to tell us about the HQ Holden SS that Motor Manual magazine gave away in a competition back in 1973. The mag announced the competition in late ’72 just after Holden released the SS (the subject of our cover story last issue). This was not just any old Holden SS, either. It was, as the magazine described, the only one of its kind in the world, complete with $450 (not an insubstantial sum 50 years ago) worth of added accessories. They included a Tudor Webaso fabric sunroof, Bosch halogen driving lights and rally horns, Tail Burner front and rear spoilers and bonnet scoop, Britax child safety seat, Dunlop SP Sport Aquajet radial tyres, Smiths rear window demister and the choice of…

Muscle Maniac Highly-regarded model car brands Mini GT, Topspeed Model and TSM Model will be gaining a higher profile in the Australian market, after a change of distributor. Richard Poole, who made his name at Biante before branching out to form Apex Replicas, is back from his career break to take over the distribution of these great models. Mini GT is a world-leading brand in high quality diecast 1:64 scale models. Mini GT models are produced with diecast metal body and chassis with rubber wheels but still at an affordable price. The Mini GT range is extensive, covering everything from road cars to Formula 1 and Le Mans. “With the economy slowing and people watching what they spend, collectors still want to collect and Mini GT is a great sweet…

Muscle Maniac Steven Johnson has enjoyed a purple patch of success since taking over the driving of the Hancock Racing Mustang in the Gulf Western Touring Car Masters Series late last year. His dominance has continued into 2023, and as the series reached the halfway point at Winton in June the ‘23 TCM title was increasingly looking like Johnson’s to lose. A pair of wins at Winton made it a total of five victories from the most recent seven races. The other two races at Winton went to LX Torana drivers Andrew Fisher (winning the trophy race) and John Bowe, as the veteran continues his ‘Patridge Family’ farewell TCM tour. But with Johnson in such solid form, Bowe has his work cut out if he wants to add another TCM…

amceditorial@chevron.com.au | Locked Bag 5555, St Leonards NSW 1590 Gen3-1 I’ve just finished reading Issue 136 of AMC, and as a reader and collector since Issue 1, I found it thoroughly enjoyable. However, I spotted a couple of topics worthy of a comment. In Paul Newby’s excellent column, he discusses the evolution of Supercars, and raises the subject of future market relevance. I understand his sentiment, but it needs to be placed into perspective. Market relevance has a minor place within the current Supercars environment, but it should not become the determining factor for its future development. It thrived when the Falcon continued racing years after production ended, and achieved the same in the wake of Holden’s demise. It will undoubtedly achieve the feat once the current Camaro is placed…

Back in the day Warwick Farm’s last meeting for 1972 featured a triple bill: the Sam Hordern Trophy final round of the Gold Star Series for Formula 5000, the AJC Trophy for the Series Production Falcon GTHOs, Torana XU-1s and Charger E49s, and the Sports Sedan Trophy, which included Allan Moffat’s Mustang, Ian Geoghegan’s Super Falcon and Bob Jane’s HQ Monaro – all up, not bad value for just $2 admission (kids 40c). Interestingly, the pre-event advertising reminded fans that the October 29 date was ‘Daylight Savings Day’ so they didn’t get caught out and end up running late – as it was only the second year of daylight savings in NSW, people were still getting used to the idea (and clocks back then didn’t automatically switch to daylights savings…

Festival time I had always promised myself that if I got to England one day, there would be a bucket list of things to do and see. Going to museums and race tracks, and catching-up with international slot friends were all items on the list, and my friends from Slot Car magazine said I must get along to the annual UK Slot Festival. What is the Festival? Well, it is a celebration of all things slot, for the full spectrum of the slot car community. As well as the enthusiasts, everybody comes along to participate including manufacturers, retailers, suppliers, media and the increasingly popular slot bloggers, such as Travis, That Slot Car Guy from Australia. The festival is held at the British Motoring Museum at Gaydon in Warwickshire, but it…

Muscle Maniac …is something no doubt that you would get at the wheel of a 700-plus horsepower Sports Sedan. The Duggan Family Hotels Racing Team will carry VB branding on its two-car assault on this year’s National Sports Sedan Championship, with Mark Duggan’s Aston Martin and Scott Cameron’s Commodore. Duggan returns to racing this year after Supercars star Andre Heimgartner campaigned the Aston Martin in 2022. And it’s not just any old Aston Martin; it’s a carbon-fibre bodied, full tube space frame chassis conceived by former F1 designer, Australian Ralph Bellamy and built by Kerry Baily in 2012. In place of the original Aston Martin 4.7-litre V8 is a 6.0-litre Chev V8 fed by Motec-controlled Kinsler individual throttle bodies. The second DFH entry is Scott Cameron in his familiar Commodore…

It’s a cold Saturday morning but the atmosphere is warm at Lake Wendouree on the outskirts of the Melbourne regional city of Ballarat. It’s the venue for the 2023 Corvette Nationals and plenty of the faithful are checking out more than 200 of the iconic American muscle car. Like the cars themselves, they are predominantly a mature lot, most of them are well preserved, a few look a little tired and a couple have definitely seen better days. They wander among a smattering of first generation C1s, a few C2s including a couple of ’63 split windows, more C3s and even more C4s, some C5s, C6s and a few C7s. And a surprising number of C8 Corvette Stingrays. Ah, the C8. The first C1s appeared in 1953 but it took…

The 2023 Falcon GT Nationals at Bathurst was always going to be big. After all, Mount Panorama is a kind of spiritual home for the Falcon GT lineage. It was this track, and the October Bathurst 500, that was the reason the original XR model Falcon GT was conceived in the first place. This was the 19th running of the Nationals, but it in fact should have been the 20th. Held every two years, the Nationals literally travels the country, migrating from state to state, and organised by the host state’s Falcon GT club. In accordance with that rolling schedule, the Falcon GT Owners’ Club of NSW (along with the Grand Tourer Muscle Car Club Inc) this year was to have staged the 20th running of the Nationals. But the…

When the Stinger GT is discontinued, an era ends: the only remaining affordable four-door, rear-wheel drive high performance sedan available on the Australian market will be gone. Let’s first get one thing straight. This is really just a bit of fun. AMC has not set out to conduct a serious road test comparison between a current model Kia Stinger GT and a 2003-era Commodore SS. However, as you can see here, we have indeed lined a VY SS up alongside a Stinger GT. And we’ve tried to objectively reflect on both cars – but within the context of their respective places in time, 20 years apart. What this really is, then, is a look at where we’ve come in 20 years: a reflection on the recent evolution of affordable rear-wheel…

Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1 – Zodiac Blue The interior features authentic GTR XU-1 dash detail, including GTR steering wheel and full instrumentation. Take a look at these pics: there’s amazing engine detail including etched metal hinges, even throttle linkage detail and a tangle of pipe work, just like the original. The boot opens to reveal the standard fuel tank with cover and spare wheel. Superb chassis detail with working suspension, sway bar and steering. The tyres are soft rubber featuring the road tyre tread pattern. Ford XA Falcon RPO83 Sedan – Cosmic Blue The interior includes XA sports steering wheel, full dash instrumentation and components, with driver’s and passenger side rubber floor mats. The engine and surrounding bay have an outstanding level of detail including accurate graphics. The chassis…

Anyone remember Kelly-Springfield? The Kelly brand was a popular aftermarket performance tyre for a while in Australia in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s with its Super Charger 60 and 50 series (low profile back then!). That large, chunky white sidewall branding was all the rage in the aftermarket hot-up world back in the day, but unlike rival Goodrich with its now-classic T/A Radials, the Kelly range didn’t stand the test of time down under. It probably wouldn’t have made much difference but, as visually appealing as this 1979 ad is, we’d have thought Kelly-Springfield might have at least gone to the effort of creating a specific ad for the Australian market (with an Aussie muscle car looking cool on the beach with Kelly Super Chargers fitted), rather than simply…