Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 145 i Australian Muscle Car

Editor’s Induction This year’s Le Mans 24 Hours has just been run and won. It was a cracker contest; it’ll go down as one to remember in the now 102-year history of this epic event. The ’24 Le Mans 24 Hours was certainly epic when it came to manufacturer participation. How’s this for a lineup of factory entries in the outright Hypercar class: Porsche, Ferrari, Toyota, BMW, Lamborghini, Peugeot, Alpine (Renault) and Cadillac. All bar one of the 23 Hypercars was a works-team entry (and even the sole supposed privateer, Isotta Fraschini, might be termed a manufacturer in its own right, because it plans to sell 12 road registerable versions of its Tipo 6 LMH Le Mans Hypercar racer. It’ll have just over 1000 horsepower, and will sell for more…

The Monaro Club Victoria will host the 2024 Monaro Nationals, to be held at Wangaratta from October 24-28. A big celebration is planned, with the theme of this year’s event being ‘Monaro is back’, marking the Nationals’ return to Wangaratta – where the inaugural Monaro Nationals were held back in 1998. That year Holden fans celebrated the 30th anniversary of the original HK-model Monaro; at this year’s Nationals there is another important Monaro milestone to be honoured as it’s the 50th year for the HJ Monaro GTS sedan, HJ Monaro LS coupe and HJ Monaro GTS coupe. The Monaro Club Victoria is now accepting entries for the event. The closing date for final entries is September 24; entrants who nominate before July 14 receive a complimentary entrant polo shirt and…

The beautifully turned out Apollo Blue XB Falcon Hardtop you see here is not a faithfully restored example of Ford’s limited edition 302 V8-powered John Goss Special. For one, it’s no longer fitted with its original 302 Cleveland engine – or a 302 V8 at all, for that matter, because this John Goss Special has 351 Cleveland V8 power under the bonnet. But it’s not just any old Cleveland. The engine in this car is one of the actual 351 V8 race engines which powered Goss’ XB Hardtop GT Group C race car in 1975 – and we’re taking here not just about the engine block, but also the crankshaft and conrods. This engine was rebuilt by the same man who helped build and maintain Goss’ XB Hardtop race cars…

Chrysler’s Valiant Hemi Pacers and R/T Chargers are revered as the finest high-performance road and track cars to wear the famous pentastar badge in Australia. However, local motor racing history has generally overlooked what happened in the 1960s, before the famous Hemi six was released. During that decade, local Valiants were powered by US-designed engines which are icons in Mopar performance history. The 225cid (3.7-litre) inline six was known as the ‘slant six’ due to its unusual 30-degree lean to the right. This not only allowed lower bonnet heights for stylists, but also provided more engine bay space for long-runner intake systems popular with Chrysler engineers. The other was the 273cid (4.5-litre) V8. With a lusty 180bhp, it was small and light thanks to the latest thin-wall casting techniques used…

Got a Jaguar? Yeah baby! The recent arrival of a second John Goss Jaguar XJS had me pondering the selection of slot Jaguars that can be given an Australian theme. Looking back at the formative years of the Australian Touring Car Championship, Jaguars have made an enormous impact on the series. Jaguar saloons were very potent cars built on a Le Mans sports car winning pedigree and racing Jaguars of all types made their way down under via the Australian importer, Bryson’s, in Melbourne. Bryson’s had a high degree of trust with the factory and were instrumental in importing racing cars, and obtaining parts and information from the competition department run by Lofty England. Much later Jaguar were incorporated into British Leyland and Jaguar Rover Australia were the importers. Along…

Ford Falcon XC Tooheys Ute Finally, a NSW beer! Mind you, I don’t drink this either. No, it’s pale ales for me, or single-malt Whisky. Anyway, the Utility tray on this model can be loaded with vintage styled cartons; it also includes two detailed diecast kegs with handles. The hinged tailgate can be opened, and features retaining cables just like the real car. The interior features the GS Rally Pack including sports steering wheel, comprehensive instrumentation including tachometer, oil and temperature gauges. 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 linked to the steering wheel. The chassis bears an individually numbered etched metal plate which is…

Muscle Maniac The Hidden Valley round of the Supercars Championship was not a joyous weekend for Ford, with a single fifth place for Chaz Mostert on Saturday being the best result for Mustang drivers. But elsewhere in the motorsport world there was plenty for the blue oval brigade to smile about as Ford celebrated a class podium result on debut in the Le Mans 24 Hours for its GT3 Mustang. The GT3 class was won by our own Yasser Shahin, in a Porsche (shared with Richard Lietz and Morris Schuring) bearing the familiar ‘The Bend’ logo representing the motorsport complex at Tailem Bend that the Shahins built. Ford went into Le Mans with three Proton Competition-entered Mustang GT3s and ended up claiming third in class with the Dennis Olsen/ Giorgio…

Muscle Maniac And we thought the Valiant ended with the CM model back in 1981… Not so: the Valiant nameplate has reemerged unexpectedly, although this time it’s attached not to a Chrysler but rather is on the back of an Aston Martin. The newly-unveiled Aston Martin Valiant is the road-legal, track-day version of the Aston Martin Valour. The new Valiant is the result of a ‘personal commission’ by Aston Martin F1 driver Fernando Alonso. It’s powered by a 548kW 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12, with a bespoke six-speed manual transmission. Unusually for a high-end performance car like this in the modern era, the gearshift action is old-school H-pattern. Presumably this is one of the featured which Fernando specified – it’s also what you’d hope to see if somehow this new Valiant was…

SUPERTEST: Australia’s fastest car meets the world’s quickest motorcycle. The coverline accompanying the speed-blurred image on the cover of the April 1978 issue of Modern Motor magazine lays it out in simple terms: Torana A9X vs Kawasaki Z1000 Z1-R, in a contest of pure performance. To determine the winner, Modern Motor settled on a Decathlon-style series of tests consisting of handling, braking and acceleration comparisons, a slalom and race track corner section tests, top speeds, chassis dyno tests and even noise and fuel consumption. To make sure neither car nor bike left anything on the table during the tests, the magazine enlisted motorcycle racer Mick Hone and Holden Dealer Team ace John Harvey for the respective bike and car. At the time Hone was a rising young star in production…

Here at Australian MUSCLE CAR it only feels like yesterday when we rolled out issue number one of the magazine. And yet in just a few years we’ll be celebrating our quarter-century anniversary. But just as 25 years (well, almost 25…) is a long time, it’s remarkable (and, sadly, regrettable) just how much things have changed since AMC first hit the stands in 2002. Back then, Holden was riding high with the sales success of the VT/VX Commodore series, and especially the introduction of the Chev LS1 5.7-litre alloy V8. And that ‘Gen III’ engine was just the start for the LS series of V8 Chev muscle that would power the SS Commodore and the HSV range right up till the very end of Holden. Ford was still working towards…

This amazingly genuine and very original Falcon GTHO Phase II is one of 287 built. It is also one only four ‘phantoms’ known to exist, these being the handful of Phase IIs that due to a clerical error were never listed in the factory production records. Thankfully the original registration records, sourced through the Freedom of Information Act, show documented proof when sold new by BS Stillwell Ford in Kew, Victoria, and first registered with Victorian number plate KUK-732. Of course, when we think of a Phantom, the colour purple springs to mind from the fictional cartoon superhero of the same name. But sparkling Grecian Gold metallic lends itself well on this ‘phantom’ Falcon GTHO. This car, Build No.152, is one of 19 made in this colour, of which 17…

Designed for Supercars When first connecting with Supercars, Ryco understood that the category wanted to extend engine life to reduce rebuild frequency, with filtration playing a key role. Applicable to 2023 Ford and Camaro GEN3 engine, the Z5000RP Ryco Performance Fuel Filter is the first technical control fuel filter designed for Supercars. Where contaminants such as dirt, rust or even poor-quality fuel can be detrimental to an engine, this GEN3 Control Part ensures fuel is filtered efficiently even in harsh race conditions. Inside a race engine, the dynamic clearances are opening up and closing at a far higher degree because they’re effectively under higher internal forces. This can accelerate wear if contaminants are present. The E85 and racing fuel compatible filter includes a rolled element that filters down to 7…

It wasn’t easy for the police to detect drunk drivers back in the ‘60s and ‘70s before the advent of the breathalyser. And the ability to accurately detect drivers under the influence of various drugs has only been a relatively recent development. Back in the early ‘70s General Motors put a lot of work into developing a special ‘in-car’ system designed to detect when a driver was ‘under the weather’. It took the form of an additional special gauge on the dashboard, designed to test the sobriety of the driver. It worked like this: the needle on the dial is controlled by steering wheel movement, but at the same time is connected to the ignition. When the ignition is switched on, the needle begins to fluctuate. The driver must then…

Muscle Sport The 2024 Touring Car Masters Series is wide open at the halfway mark after the Hidden Valley round. In Darwin there were four different race winners, underlining how hotly contested the series has been so far this year. Danny Buzadzic took out the reverse grid Trophy Race, in the Torana LX Hatchback driver’s second win so far this season, but in Race 1 it was Steven Johnson who led in the Mustang off pole and was never headed. Behind him, Ryan Hansford battled hard in his Torana LX to hold out the Camaro of Joel Heinrich, but eventually the big yellow Chev made it through into second place. Fourth was Adam Garwood in his ex-Gerard McLeod Commodore VC (which featured in AMC #118), Jim Pollicina’s Torana LX and…

A non-interview with Peter Brock One of the more palatable things about getting on a bit – or a lot, in my case – is a bank of memories going back decades. Some good, some not so good, and some simply weird. My non-interview with Peter Brock in February, 1987, falls into both the ‘not so good’ and ‘weird’ categories. It came about from my need to talk to him as part of the research for my Holden: The Official Racing History book, a major work of over 350 pages published by Chevron (which publishes this magazine) and released in 1988. I flew to Melbourne from Sydney and turned up at the HDT Special Vehicles facility at Port Melbourne on the appointed day and time… and walked into what can…

Six years the junior of his famous late brother, the man nicknamed ‘Split Pin’ due to his height (6ft 5in/1.96m) and youthful skinniness was a more-than-decent steerer, got more good results than many are aware of, had some bad luck and dealt with the sport’s ups and downs. Just like most racing drivers’ careers... Highlights include finishing third and sharing the podium with Peter in the 1976 Bathurst 1000 driving the Team Brock/Bill Patterson Motors L34 Torana; teaming with Peter again in 1977 (the year of the Moffat-Bond Falcon steamroller) to score fifth place in an A9X; placing second in the inaugural Australian Production Car Championship in 1987 driving a VK Commodore and various other successes, including in rallycross. One of Phil’s most notable achievements was his work doing ‘stunt…

You’ve probably seen Kia’s brilliant ‘Kia’s getting a Ute’ TV and social media advert. If not, it’s worth a look. It’s a teaser ad for Kia’s new dual-cab, set for a 2025 release, and it features a who’s who of Australian sporting royalty. The setting is a country pub; the patrons are the aforementioned Aussie sports legends, as word gets out around the bar that ‘Kia is getting a Ute’. A debate ensues as what the Ute should be called; naturally each of the patrons thinks it should be their name immortalised on the back of the Kia’s tailgate. The ‘Kia Buddy’, as in AFL 1000-goal legend Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin; the ‘Kia Aloisi’ – ‘a name that really qualifies’, according to Aloisi himself, in a cheeky reference to his 2005…