Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 154 i Australian Muscle Car

Don Holland remembers that Max Wright Motors was on the list to get a V8 LJ XU-1 when the ‘race’ cars were to be distributed to the dealers prior to the 1972 Hardie-Ferodo 500. That never happened, of course, because the XU-1 was killed off before it went into production, courtesy of the 1972 Supercar Scare. Like all the other Torana drivers, Don raced a six-cylinder LJ XU-1 at Bathurst that year. But there was a Max Wright Motors LJ Torana V8. “It was around the time the Supercar furore happened and the XU-2 got canned,” Don Holland recalls. “Somewhere around about that time at Max Wrights I fitted a 308 in a brand-new green LJ GTR for a customer. They’ve come in and bought the car from Max Wright,…

As a highly esteemed team manager over many years, including Ford and Nissan factory teams both in Australia and overseas, Howard Marsden would often be approached by wide-eyed fans and asked to advise how to get into motor sport. The looks on their faces must have been priceless when the debonair Englishman turned the question back on them and asked, “How can I get out of it?!” Marsden seemed to have a love-hate relationship with a sport that continued drawing him back into the heat of competition until his untimely passing in 2003 at the age of just 61, after a short battle with cancer. In his typically understated way, he didn’t share his condition with many people and continued working at Ford Australia until shortly before his death, making…

Jerry’s Little Car If you were present in the 1980s, you could not help but be aware of the controversy surrounding Allan Moffat’s efforts to race a Mazda RX7 in the Australian Touring Car Championship. Now that Revo Slot have produced the first generation RX7 in several versions, there are a whole range of cars that can be modelled from that prickly era. The bulk of the upset this car caused was based around the FIA homologation of the sports car bodied RX7 as a touring car. Back in the days of burly Jack Hinxman’s ARDC rule, it would never have been eligible for Bathurst – “If I can’t sit in the back, it’s banned," is the famous Jack quote. The only trouble was, the FIA had accepted it, and…

Doing my Block Lucy van Pelt used to call Charlie Brown a ‘blockhead’. Lucy wasn’t very nice to Charlie. I wonder if Charlie ever built things with those interlocking plastic blocks, like Lego or Duplo. Me? Of course I did, as a kid. And lately again. Lots of modelling people also build Lego. I don’t, much, but have done a bit over the last few years. And three lots, recently, only one of them actual Lego. So, I was in Big W and saw some boxes labelled ‘Hot Wheels’ that were rather larger than the norm. Closer inspection revealed they were a new range from the Mattel Block Shop. I bought their Cadillac GTP Hypercar and raced home with it. First of all, the instructions were nice and clear and…

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 people together…

As Elon Musk discovered when he tried to demonstrate the ‘bulletproof’ strength of the ‘Armor Glass’ in his Tesla Cybertruck (only for the glass to be smashed by a thrown steel ball not once, but twice), when attempting cheap stunts such as this it pays to be absolutely certain you can deliver on what you’re claiming. Back in 1966 GM-H’s PR department came up with a cheeky way of demonstrating one of the new safety features in the new HR Holden model – the seatbelt. Seatbelts weren’t mandatory in cars back then (and weren’t even common in motor racing); it wasn’t until 1969 that they became compulsory equipment, and even then only for the front seats. The HR was among the first cars in the world to be fitted with…

It’s been six years since the New Zealand TCM teams had ventured across the ditch to take on the Aussies at Mount Panorama, and so the 15 Kiwi cars were a welcome addition to the local TCM field. The Bathurst weekend was the first installment of the two-round TCM Trans-Tasman Challenge, the second round being held at Sandown on November 14-16 (the Supercars’ round). In a neat crossover, just as the Trans-Tasman rounds coincide with the final two rounds of the TCM series for 2025, they’re also the opening two rounds of the 2025/26 NZ TCM Series. At Bathurst, a single wet practice session prior to qualifying, along with engine issues for the fancied Angus Fogg Mustang, meant the Kiwis were coming from behind, but the quickest of them were…

Back in the day it really mattered what side of the fence you sat on. Blue or red, Ford or Holden. Lifetime allegiances were formed and never broken, whether you were a fan or even a driver. Only in the professional Supercars era would a driver switch from one side to another without serious repercussions to their career, at least in the eyes of their fans. A case in point is veteran Tasmanian racer Garth Wigston. During his frontline motor racing career from 1976 to 1983 he raced Holden Toranas and Commodores, including eight Bathurst 1000 starts. However, behind the scenes Garth Wigston was really a Ford man. In 1969 he bought an XW Falcon GT – that car is still in the family today. This yarn is about the…

Some say touring car racing was never better than in the early ’80s. It was the era of the classic ‘big banger’ Group C cars – and what a lineup: the V8 Falcon and Commodore, the turbo four-cylinder Nissan Bluebird, the six-cylinder BMW 635 CSi and the rotary Mazda RX7. But the diverse range of vehicles was at once a blessing and a curse. Group C might not have been the parity formula that Supercars is today, but there was still a need for the racing to be close and competitive. To get there the controlling body of motorsport, CAMS, was prepared to fiddle with the allowable mods on each car. That meant that each year the teams and manufacturers would take their cases to the Confederation and argue for…

The concept of ‘parity of performance’ in motor racing isn’t what it used to be. At face value, one might think it should be easy to arrive at a level performance playing field when the only differences between the cars are the engines and the body shapes. And yet… the issue of parity has been gently simmering in Supercars more or less since the introduction of the Gen3 Camaro-vs-Mustang formula more than two years ago. There’d been an adjustment (the Mustang got an aero concession) at the most recent round before Bathurst, the 500km race at Tailem Bend. It’s never a good sign when that happens; a parity adjustment so close to the biggest race of the year. As history has shown – particularly the history of the old Group…

This ad doesn’t have much to say other than to gently taunt GM’s opponents. But when you’re talking C3 Corvette, available with 350cid small-block V8 power or optional big-block 454; Camaro, with 350 small-block or 402 big-block; the more practical Chevelle SS with similar engine options to the ‘Vette; and not forgetting the ‘compact’ 350 Chevy Nova… we’d imagine Chevrolet’s 1970 lineup of American muscle probably pretty much sold itself. Mind you, it’s not as though potential Chevy muscle-coupe buyers in 1970 didn’t have alternatives. There mightn’t have been anything quite like the Corvette in the Ford range, but there was the Mustang (this was the last year of the ‘Moffat Mustang’ body shape), which for 1970 could be had with 302, 351 or 428cid Cobra Jet V8 power. Ford…

Since the F1 World Drivers’ Championship was first held in 1950, nearly 900 drivers have attempted to qualify for the starting grid. Only five of these have been women, just two of whom have managed it. With 17 entries and 12 starts, by far the most successful of these women is Lella Lombardi – otherwise known in Australia in the 1970s as the Tigress of Turin. Many a pub quizzer will tell you that Lombardi is also the only woman to have finished an F1 championship grand prix in a points-scoring position. That’s true, and it’s worth noting that she did so in when points were awarded for only the top six positions, rather than the top 10. As Lella’s sixth place came in a race that was stopped early,…