Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 146 i Australian Muscle Car

Steve Normoyle

Australian Muscle Car|Issue 146

Steve Normoyle

Last of the Big Bangers. It was nothing more than a catchy marketing phrase dreamed up by Holden’s PR team for its pre-race publicity blurb. But even now, 40 years on, you only have to say those five words and everyone knows you’re talking about the 1984 James Hardie 1000. Those brand-new Brock/Holden Dealer Team Commodore VKs with their outrageously large rear spoilers, front air dams, fat guard glares that barely concealed the widest tyres ever seen on a Holden at Bathurst, and dressed in that spectacularly ostentatious day-glo white-and-red livery. They made Dick Johnson’s bright green XE Falcon, despite its even fatter stance with those monster rear tyres and deep-dished 19-inch BBS wheels, look almost conservative by comparison. All that V8 fury, and yet it was a fury of…

Australian Muscle Car|Issue 146

A race like no other

Has there been a more eagerly anticipated, action-packed and distinctive Great Race than the 1984 James Hardie 1000? If so, feel free to state your case in next issue’s Muscle Mail. Bathurst ’84 is hard to top for excitement, unique occurrences and diversity of field. No less than 12 marques came under starters orders, thanks to the race being the culmination of the indigenous and much-loved Group C era, while also providing fans with a sneak peak of local touring car racing’s international Group A future. Seven different badges populated the Group C entry (Holden, Ford, Mazda, BMW, Nissan, Chevrolet and Jaguar), while Group A offered a further five marques: Rover, Audi, Toyota, Alfa Romeo and Mitsubishi. Oh, to have such diversity each October these days… The purpose of this…

A race
like
no other

Dream day

Australian Muscle Car|Issue 146

Dream day

It stands as one of the great privateer results in Bathurst history. It’s possibly also one of the most overlooked. The first pairing of genuine part-timers home in the 1984 James Hardie 1000 was Alan Browne and Barry Lawrence in fifth place. The only cars ahead of the #28 Re-Car and Bayswater Spares-sponsored VH Commodore were the HDT VKs, Moffat’s Mazda and the Kmart Auto VK of Warren Cullen and 1980 world champ Alan Jones! Browne and Lawrence were the sleepers of the privateer field, starting 17th and largely going unnoticed throughout race week and the race itself. For Browne, who passed away in 2017, it was an enjoyable full-stop to a short-and-sweet period as a Bathurst racer. Prior to the final Group C outing on the Mount, he had…

Australian Muscle Car|Issue 146

The odd couple

Introduction The days of privateers competing together at the Great Race are long gone. The professionalism of today’s sport ensures that only the best drivers and the best up-and-coming drivers get a gig at the biggest race of the year. Today the lair of the privateer can be found at the Bathurst 6 Hour or, if they are good enough and rich enough, they’re called ‘gentleman drivers’ and they grace the Bathurst 12 Hour. Of course, it wasn’t always like that. Back in the halcyon days of the 1970s and ‘80s the privateer was part of Bathurst folklore – drivers like Murray Carter and Bob Holden defined what it was like to be plucky, penniless and pugnacious. To beat the factory team for a class win or to snag a…

The odd couple

Australian Muscle Car|Issue 146

Muscle Stuff

3 in 1 multi-machine welding trolley Finally, a heavy duty welding trolley capable of genuinely storing up to three machines – have your MIG, TIG & Plasma cutter all within easy reach on the all new Hafco Tri-cart now available from Hare & Forbes Machinery House. Constructed with super strong 2mm steel and weighing in at 36kg, the Hafco Tri-cart is no lightweight. It is solid enough to house up to three machines, including an E size bottle, and is even capable of holding dual D size gas cylinders, allowing you to set up multiple welders on the one cart (not recommended to use over E size gas cylinders as larger gas cylinders may cause the cart to topple when moved). The Hafco Tri-cart also features adjustable top and middle…

Muscle Stuff

Carpark Muscle

Australian Muscle Car|Issue 146

Carpark Muscle

#CarparkMuscle All Holden Day For Holden fans in the Sydney area, all roads led to the Hawkesbury Showground at Clarendon near Windsor on August 4 for the annual NSW All Holden Day. As usual, the event was supported by dozens of NSW Holden Clubs, and that meant that not only were there a lot of Holdens in attendance – more than 800 – but there were also a lot of different Holden types and models. The NSW All Holden Day dates back to 1985, the first event being held in response to an all-Ford day that was held at Peter Warren Ford opposite the old Warwick Farm circuit. If Ford could have a day like that, the local Sydney fans pondered, why not Holden too? If you’ve got a car…

Australian Muscle Car|Issue 146

Jane’s Camaro launch

New racecar launches can take many forms. For a while in the early 2000s, Formula 1 teams seemed to be in a race with one another to host the most lavish (and most expensive) season launch, with some spending three-figure sums to put on all-singing.all-dancing entertainment spectaculars – a tiny part of which included the actual racecar unveiling. Back in the day, if anyone even bothered with a formal launch ceremony it was normally a fairly modest affair. But modest isn’t a word that was ever much associated with Bob Jane. When it came to introducing his newly-purchased Camaro ZL-1 Improved Production touring car racer in late 1970, Jane made it part of a huge all-day celebration. The location for the December 13 event was, naturally, the Jane-owned Calder Raceway.…

Jane’s Camaro launch

Failure to launch

Australian Muscle Car|Issue 146

Failure to launch

It was the last of the Big Bangers at Bathurst, and they certainly went out with a bang – literally. There was so much carnage on the opening lap (of the first start) that it was hard to know where to look. That was certainly the case with Channel Seven’s coverage – their cameras missed much of the first-lap on-track dramas while they concentrated on the start line track-blocking crash. Incidents off the start had thankfully been few-and-far-between since the first event at Phillip Island in 1960. The most significant came in 1976 when the stranded Jack Brabham L34 Torana was struck from behind by a Dolomite Sprint. So perhaps a track-blocking accident was simply overdue? With 63 cars on the grid, the ’84 James Hardie 1000 featured a record-equaling…

The 40-year
reunion

Australian Muscle Car|Issue 146

The 40-year reunion

It’s been a long time coming, but Australian motorsport’s most enduring mystery reaches its conclusion at the Repco Bathurst 1000 in 2024. The October classic will see a homecoming four decades in the making, with the cars that finished first and second in the 1984 James Hardie 1000 reunited wearing their correct race numbers – #05 and #25. This reunion could not have happened for other milestone anniversaries of that crushing victory by the Marlboro Holden Dealer Team. For the 10th anniversary, one of the cars still resided on the other side of the world. Twenty years ago, that same car was undergoing restoration. And for the 30th anniversary it wore the wrong race number. In fact, back in 2014, both Commodores wore the same number – #05. You could…

Project
Brut 33

Australian Muscle Car|Issue 146

Project Brut 33

What’s the ultimate Allan Moffat race car/livery combo? It’s hard to argue against the Trans Am Boss Mustang 302. For one, it’s widely rated as Australia’s greatest-ever touring car. But the low-slung ‘Stang had the looks to match its on-track success. In that simple yet so striking red Coca-Cola colour scheme, has there ever been a better-looking touring car racer? Mind you, the Mustang didn’t look too bad later on in silver/green Brut 33 Sports Sedan trim, or indeed in its final Moffat ‘Union Travel’ blue/white NASCAR style in this famous car’s New Zealand swansong appearances in early 1975. But that’s the thing: winning might have meant everything to Moffat, but making sure his cars were properly prepared and beautifully presented was always of the highest priority. For Moffat, putting…

Australian Muscle Car|Issue 146

Mini Muscle

You might remember last issue I’d been building one of DDA’s great XW Falcon kits as a Bill Brown 1969 Bathurst Falcon, when I realised I’d got the colour wrong. No problem, as I turned it into the Geoghegan brothers’ car instead. The Bill Brown crash-fest at Bathurst is well-known. Bill had terrible luck there and this car was the start of it: being forced up the banking above the Dipper, rolling over and triggering a pile-up took out about a quarter of the field. The roll itself was fairly gentle and no other cars hit the stranded Falcon, but their race was done. Well, rather than admit defeat, I bought another kit and decided I’d try a different way with the paint this time. VG Auto Paints in Girraween,…

Mini Muscle

Australian Muscle Car|Issue 146

AMC Club Directory

CAR CLUBS A9X Torana Club Australia Inc. Established to assist all its members identify and preserve genuine examples of the A9X Torana by providing assistance with information, parts, and services. WEB: http://a9xclub.org.au Brock Commodore Owners Assoc. of Australia Inc The Brock Commodore Owners Association of Australia Inc (BCOAA Inc) endeavours to bring together owners of Brock/HDT Special Vehicles built Commodores (VC-VL) and WB Magnums (Statesman and utility variants), produced and issued with a build number during the period that Peter Brock owned and traded under the HDT Special Vehicles Pty Ltd company name from 1980 to 1988. WEB: https://bcoaa.com Canberra Torana Club (CTC) The CTC was founded in 2003 with the goal of preserving the history and experience of the Holden Torana for future generations. The club is about bringing…

AMC BEST LETTER

Australian Muscle Car|Issue 146

AMC BEST LETTER

Mopar memories I have recently finished reading AMC issue #145, and found your article on Mopar in motorsport extremely interesting. It brought back a few memories, and made me realise what we have lost with the demise of the Australian vehicle manufacturing industry. Therefore, I thought you might be interested in a story from the 1960s that demonstrates to what extent manufacturers would go to secure a sale. My grandfather and his brother owned a building company in post-war Sydney, and the property boom meant that they made a tidy living. They weren’t rich, but could afford to buy things like a new car without cost being a major consideration. They were sitting discussing this one day and each decided that they would like to become the proud owners of…

Walkinshaw’s false start

Australian Muscle Car|Issue 146

Walkinshaw’s false start

There are endless hard-luck and ‘what if?’ stories at Bathurst. Such as the John Goss Jaguar XJS campaign in the ’84 race. This was Gossy’s fourth attempt on the race with the Big Cat. Up till then the car had never troubled the front runners, and nor had it yet even made the finish. But in ’84, the big V12 coupe suddenly loomed as a genuine threat. At first glance, that might have been attributed to the arrival of co-driver Tom Walkinshaw, of Tom Walkinshaw Racing, or TWR, which at the time ran the works Jaguar XJS assault on the European Touring Car Championship – which Walkinshaw himself had clinched at Zolder just the week before Bathurst. Goss had been in communication with Walkinshaw during the year, and arrangements were…

Night
Charger

Australian Muscle Car|Issue 146

Night Charger

When Chrysler launched the Charger R/T E38 at Sydney’s Amaroo Park race track in winter 1971 it insisted only journalists with a full CAMS race licence could drive, and then only for a couple of laps. That excluded almost all of us. It meant that Australia’s biggest-selling magazine, Wheels – where Peter Robinson was editor and I was deputy – would not be able to say what the most exciting car Chrysler Australia had ever made was like to drive. That wouldn’t do. We kicked up a huge fuss and the upshot was that Chrysler agreed not only that we could fly to Adelaide to pick up an E38 to drive back to Sydney but we could keep it for six months on long-term test, and then give it away…

Australian Muscle Car|Issue 146

Slot car addiction

Going clubbin’ Club racing is something I have wanted to explore in this column for quite a while. For a variety of reasons I have not had the time to do it, that is until now. The stars have aligned if you like, to take up the opportunity to join the Illawarra Slot Racers. Hopefully my experience can help you decide if it is for you too. While many clubs focus in 1/32 scale, the Illawarra group mainly use 1/24 scale metal chassis cars. With the demise of the commercial slot premises nearby, they now hold weekly race events that are organised at members’ home race tracks. The meetings are structured to cater for people of all ages and skills, varying from me at the bottom up to national level…

Slot car addiction

Australian Muscle Car|Issue 146

Bathurst Holdens and a big Ford

Holden EH S4 Special OK, if you’re a regular reader, you’ll know of my love for the EH Holden. I reckon it was, pound for pound, the best mass-market car in the world at the time. With the then-new Red six, lots of space and comfort, half-decent handling but terrible brakes, it was the equal of any other affordable car, anywhere. It’s not likely I’ll ever own one now, but maybe a model of the great car would take the edge off. The 1:18 scale model from Classic Carlectables has all the usual features: great detail and accurate reproduction of the original car. Look inside at the beautiful badged steering wheel and instrument cluster with every detail framed by a Dartford Grey crash pad. The boot interior is basic with…

Bathurst Holdens
and a big Ford

Australian Muscle Car|Issue 146

a word from our sponsors...

There are six cylinders working effortlessly to produce the smooth, quiet ride of a big car. Yet it’s compact enough to give you the crisp, responsive handling of a small car… If that doesn’t sound like your standard early ‘70s GM-H print ad hyperbole, it’s because it’s not. This ad appeared in the official programme of the 1971 Singapore Grand Prix, placed by local dealers Progress Motors in Singapore and Lyons Motors in nearby Malaysia, offering the LC Torana GTR as a fresh alternative to the average Toyota/Datsun/Mazda mid-sized sporty coupe. It was part of a concerted push into South East Asia in the early ‘70s from GM, and it was coordinated from down under by Holden. GM had bought a controlling interest in the Bangchan General Assembly company to…

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