Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 139 i Australian Muscle Car

The 2023 Repco Bathurst 1000 later this year will celebrate the 60th year of the Great Race at Mount Panorama. In this issue of Australian MUSCLE CAR, we’ve skipped ahead 10 years to focus on the 50-year anniversary of the race: the 1973 Hardie-Ferodo 1000. It was a pivotal time in the event’s history. For one, it was the first 1000km-distance Bathurst classic. The ’73 race also marked the end of the race as a ‘showroom showdown’. Series Production was dead, replaced by the new modified Group C touring cars. With these changes, the basic framework of the race as we know it half a century later was now in place. So ’73 was hugely significant in the development of the Great Race. With the benefit of half a century’s…

Muscle Maniac Any Brock HDT Commodore in tidy condition is a sought-after car these days, but how about a Brock Commodore that was Brock’s Commodore? And by that we mean Peter Brock’s own HDT company car. The car in question is a manual 1983 VH Commodore SL/E ADP (the ‘Australian Dealer Pack’ stop-gap option to meet Holden dealer demand in the months between the end of VC HDT production and the new VH SS model). In essence, the HDT ADP package was a VH SL, SL/X or SL/E modified by HDT according the customer’s wishes (the available mods included engine and exhaust upgrades, Bilstein suspension upgrades, Stratos seats, 15-inch Irmscher or 16-inch Centra allow wheels, 90 litre fuel tank and spoilers and guard flares0. Brock’s car was finished in Mercury…

At Bathurst in 1972, Ford had raced the superseded XY Falcon GTHO rather than the new XA model. This was of course due to the Supercar Scare that year which forced the company to abandon its planned XA GTHO Phase IV. For a while in 1973, however, there seemed every chance that Ford might again be fronting up at Bathurst with its older model Falcon. The works team was still racing Phase IIIs as late as mid-July, ’73. Even as entries closed for the Great Race, Ford’s motorsport boss Howard Marsden couldn’t be sure he would actually have new XA GT Hardtops race-ready to take to Bathurst. One of the reasons the works team hadn’t debuted the Hardtop in the Australian Touring Car Championship sprint races was because of problems…

The ARDC would ask for bond money with the entry fee, which it would use to buy ‘at random’ cars nominated by the entrants. The cars would be impounded and entrants only allowed to make certain modifications for race safety. A llan Moffat and Ian Geoghegan score a triumphant win in their Ford works team Falcon in the 1973 Bathurst 1000. It is the first Bathurst victory for Ford’s 4.1-litre six cylinder engine, which proves too strong for the smaller capacity 3.3-litre HDT Holden Kingswoods of Peter Brock and Colin Bond, who finish second and third. As fanciful a scenario as that sounds, something like this could actually have happened. Because while the ’73 race was held for modified Group C touring cars, behind the scenes there was a concerted…

Carpark Muscle For Holden fans in NSW in August, all roads led to Windsor, north-west of Sydney, for the 35th running of the All Holden Display Day at the Hawkesbury Showground at Clarendon. Held on August 6 and running in conjunction with a Holden swap meet the previous two days, the event attracted more than 850 cars on display – as can be seen here; it was a veritable feast of the General’s finest. For more shots from this fantastic event visit musclecarmag.com.au…

Ford XC Sundowner in Red Flame Okay, this looks amazing. From a Holden/Chrysler family, Fords like this could have me on the turn. The interior of the rear turret shows the rear tray pressing and roof structure. The Sundowner also featured a full-length roof liner, and rubber boot mat, reproduced in this model. Buckets seats and sports centre console with arm rest were standard features included in the Sundowner. Raising the bonnet with the etched metal hinges, displays the highly-detailed Cleveland 5.8L (351ci) V8. The front chassis shows the engine sump, exhaust system and working suspension. The front wheels are even linked to the steering wheel. A limited run of 1500 of this Classics Carlectables release will be available, so get your order in soon at your favourite hobby shop.…

Muscle Maniac Hot on the heels of the announcement of new GT3 and GT4 Mustangs comes news from Ford of another track-only Mustang model, Mustang Dark Horse R In Australia, it’s probably what you’d call the ultimate Ford Mustang track day car. In America, it’s a new grass-roots Mustang racer which will be the basis of a one-make ‘Mustang Challenge’ series starting in 2024. “Mustang Dark Horse R bridges the gap between Dark Horse and Mustang GT3 and GT4,” said Mark Rushbrook, global director, Ford Performance Motorsports. “Production-based Mustang vehicles have raced from the very beginning, all the way back to winning the 1964 Tour de France, even. Dark Horse R offers our passionate customers not just an attainable, factory-built race car, but also a racing series to compete with…

Muscle Maniac Bob Morris got in contact with AMC recently to correct the record regarding a couple stories in AMC #136. In The Unicorn feature on the only Falcon GTHO Phase IV to go down the Ford production line, it’s inferred that one of the staff at Morris’ Mk IV Air Conditioning business (which fitted the aftermarket air conditioning when the car was new) commandeered the GTHO centre console badge. Morris confirms that the badge indeed was retained by Mk IV, but that that is only part of the story, as he explains: “When we cut the console, of course we took the badge out, because that’s where the air conditioning unit went. We kept the badge. A couple of years ago, I was talking to my brother about it,…

Before too many of our readers decry our decision to put a Chevrolet Corvette on the cover of AMC (#138), I should point out that the introduction of the RHD Corvette C8 here is not where our ‘Australian Story’ starts. It actually goes way back to the early 1980s and the beginning of Australia as an automotive exporter. Girlock was an amalgam of two well-known former British companies: Automotive Products (AP), which owned Lockheed (brakes) and Borg & Beck, and Lucas, which owned Girling and Bendix. Alongside Melbourne’s PBR (originally Paton’s Brake Replacement), it was the OE (original equipment) manufacturer of brakes for Ford, Holden and Chrysler through the 1970s and into the ‘80s. Out of its Belmore (Sydney) headquarters and led by their Engineering Director Dimitri Caplygin, they developed…

Harry Firth couldn’t believe his ears. After a lifetime of career-defining victories, the Old Fox was more accustomed to adulation than criticism, but here he was being heckled by a group of admittedly well-lubricated fans lingering outside the Holden compound at Mount Panorama. Worse, they were wearing red. And they thought the General’s general had just thrown away a certain Bathurst victory. Two-thirds in, the 1973 Bathurst 1000 appeared to be the Holden Dealer Team’s for the taking. Peter Brock in the leading Torana XU-1 had matched the pace of arch-rival Allan Moffat’s Falcon Hardtop, forcing the Ford team leader into an uncharacteristic spin, and the six-cylinder Holden had the advantage of requiring one less stop before the finish. What could possibly go wrong? Plenty, as it turned out. And,…

Heavyweight muscle action on New Year’s Eve at New Zealand’s Bay Park in 1972 as Ian Geoghegan’s Super Falcon heads local star Red Dawson’s Camaro (on the inside) and Frank Gardner’s Camaro, fresh from the British Saloon Championship. Also there (but out of frame) was Allan Moffat’s Trans-Am Mustang, plus Paul Fahey’s Mustang and a Camaro for visiting American driver Joe Chamberlain. The three-race ‘series’ turned into a contest between the three drivers from across the ditch, with Moffat and Gardner battling hard until the Camaro’s brakes went and Gardner crashed into the fence. Moffat then had overheating problems, leaving Geoghegan to take the overall win.…

One moment you’re enjoying your pristine 1972 HQ Monaro GTS 350 coupe, and the next your pride and joy is a mangled mess in a ditch on the side of the road. But thanks to the expertise of Geoff and Laura Luck’s Gold Coast-based GC Restoration business, the ‘Munro’ – named ‘Marilyn’ naturally - was miraculously brought back to life. AMC has visited GC Restoration before, back in Issue 127 when we covered the company’s remarkable split personality ‘2Face’ HZ Holden ute restoration. That was an internal job to build a vehicle to help promote the business – and it continues to attract enormous attention – while this was one of many GC Restoration has done for happy customers over the last 12 years. Unhappy accident The Monaro’s owner crashed…

Hot on the heels of the Falcon GT Nationals earlier in the year up at Mount Panorama, the All Ford Day at Sydney Dragway at Eastern Creek in July was staggering success. With a whopping 1200-plus Fords in attendance, it was probably the biggest All Ford day yet – which is only fitting given that Ford fans this year are celebrating 120 years of the founding of the Ford Motor Company. For more shots from this fantastic event visit musclecarmag.com.au If you’ve got a car club or event that you’d like featured in AMC magazine, contact our Club Directory Manager Mat Clancy – mclancy@chevron.com.au…

Muscle Maniac In writing our Muscle Man or in this instance Muscle Woman profiles, often details have to be discarded to keep the feature to a suitable length and to keep our readers interested. However, sometimes relevant details get missed because the writer makes assumptions as to how history has panned out – a dangerous folly. Let me explain. In AMC #136 we told the story of Robyn Hamilton’s brief but notable frontline motor racing career from the 1970s. One of the key aspects of her story was graduating from the Geminis to the cutthroat national Formula Ford series in 1979. Earlier in that year she raced both the Gemini and Formula Ford Elfin at the same Calder Park meeting. I assumed this was the end of her Gemini racing.…

Presumably someone at Chrysler Australia’s Tonsley Park headquarters had the idea in late 1972 that there might be a market for the Charger 770 in Japan. Certainly there wouldn’t have been anything quite like the big-six Aussie coupe in the Land of the Rising Sun back then, but potential Japanese Charger 770 purchasers would have had to convince themselves that what they were buying was the down-under equivalent of a Porsche. Because the 3,730,000 YEN asking price for a Charger in Japan translated to a whopping $12,400 AUD – which at the time was about $1000 less than the price of a Porsche 911S in Australia. Or more than what it cost to buy three Charger 770s in Australia……

amceditorial@chevron.com.au | Locked Bag 5555, St Leonards NSW 1590 Seriously NOT Ford I note that Alan Lee picked you up about referring to the Studebakers being the first V8s to contest The Great Race. You are correct in that your introduction to the Studebaker article says (and I quote) ‘The first serious V8s in the Great Race were not Fords…’ The important word is SERIOUS. The Customlines entered in 1960 and 1961 were not SERIOUS contenders. The 1956 model entered by Murray Carter in 1960 was the only entry in the big car class and so it only had to finish to win. It did, but way down the field. In his report in the January 1961 edition of Modern Motor, David McKay writes that the ‘o.h.v Customline was bought…

Colin Russell was a mechanic at the Ford works team in the 1970s. In 1973 he was the team’s engine builder. To build the engine that won the first Bathurst 1000 is an achievement of which Russell can be justifiably proud. But his memories of that Moffat/Geoghegan win are bittersweet, because he believes it could – or should – have been a factory Ford one-two. It wasn’t, of course, because the sister Fred Gibson/Bo Seton Hardtop bowed out early with a blown engine. It was a failure which Russell says not only need not have happened, but was in fact brought on by a decision to change the camshaft the night before the race. Before going to Bathurst, the works Ford team had had a lot a problems with camshafts…

“I“was so excited to see the ute again,” said Fred Gibson following his reunion with the XY Falcon 500 utility used by his former business Road & Track Auto Service half a century ago. The occasion was a photoshoot for this story at Holbrook in southern NSW, the car restored to how it was and looked back then by electrician, Greg Tuck. The reunion was organised when the V8 Supercars Hall of Fame recipient, 1967 Bathurst winner, Ford works driver, team manager and owner was on his way from home in Melbourne to the Falcon GT Nationals at Bathurst, in company with wife Christine, herself a talented race driver of note. Fred didn’t know it was going to happen. Christine kept the surprise from him until it happened following negotiations…

Southern Model Supplies The ties between Scalextric and its Australian distributor, Southern Model Supplies (SMS) is the reason we have been blessed with such an extensive range of Australian muscle slot cars. In the words of Scalextric’s Brand Manager, Simon Owen, “With no other distributor do we have such a close and longstanding relationship.” To find out how it all works, AMC caught up with SMS boss Peter Thompson. Australian Muscle Car: What is the history of Southern Model Supplies? Peter Thompson: SMS began operations in 1954. My father was a keen aeromodeller, so we started manufacturing balsawood model aeroplanes. This proved successful and as the company grew we expanded the operation, and over time we formed strong partnerships with many overseas manufacturers. When these overseas manufacturers decided…

There are two 1:43 scale versions of the 1960s giant-killer from Trax. There’s a road car and a race car. The race car was John Lord’s, as raced at the Bathurst 100 0 in 1974-75. The Lordco Mini was out of luck in both its starts – in fact, probably Lord’s biggest claim to fame occurred the year before the Mini, in 1973, when he was accompanied in a Honda Civic by a co-driver making his Bathurst debut (as was Lord himself) – one Captain Peter Janson. That was the year before the Mini, and the car was a Honda Civic The Lordo Mini still survives; it was last seen by me in the hands of Troy Stapelton, who also has an ex-Dick Johnson Falcon V8 Supercar. These resin-bodied models…