Innholdsfortegnelse for #290 20-07 i Just Cars

In a saddening but not entirely surprising move, Holden has axed the Commodore from their range for 2020. Holden made the announcement on 10 December, with what the brand is calling a “modified portfolio” to be SUV and ute only by the end of the year. Stocks of the fully-imported ZB Commodore currently in Australia will not be replenished once they’re gone, with the current BK Series Astra to also be deleted under the SUV-ute initiative. The last Commodores are expected to leave Holden dealerships sometime in 2020, ending a 42-year run for the nameplate that, for several years, was Australia’s best-selling car. “Holden is taking this decisive action to ensure a sharp focus on the largest and most buoyant market segments,” said Holden Interim Chairman and Managing Director, Kristian…

Weeks after the Chrysler 300 SRT Pacer tribute was announced in November, the production version was confirmed. Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the original Pacer, which was released on the VF Valiant platform in 1969, the modern 300 SRT Pacer is limited to just 50 units. Design details that pay homage to the original include ‘Pacer 392’ decals on the front guards and bootlid, with the number referring to the displacement of the 6.4-litre V8 engine in cubic inches. A black and red bootlid stripe, black and red bodyside striping that reinforces the 300 SRT’s Hemi V8 engine also features, while a custom build plate in the engine bay is individually numbered and unique to each vehicle. Inside, Pacer 392-branded sills and Pacer-labelled floor mats feature, with special-edition badging on…

Bentley’s centenary year was wrapped up with the announcement of a limited-edition Continental GT celebrating Bentley’s class record at the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb earlier in 2019. While Bentley had already set a class record on the 12.42-mile, 156 corner hillclimb course in the USA with their Bentayga SUV in 2018, they chose to attempt another class record in 2019 – this time for production cars - with their Continental GT. With three-time Pikes Peak champion Rhys Millen behind the wheel, that goal was achieved, with the Continental GT shaving 8.4 seconds off the existing record to complete the word famous hillclimb course in 10 minutes, 18.4 seconds. HONOURING EXCELLENCE “The new Limited Edition Continental GT is distinguished by a number of carefully curated features to honour the outstanding record…

On the eve of the 2019 Turin Motor Show, Maserati marked the anniversary of the launch of their 5000 GT at the same show 60 years ago. With bodywork by Carrozzeria Touring, the first 5000 GT received the nickname "Shah of Persia” in honour of the customer who had commissioned the build. The style of the Shah’s car led to two more being built to the same pattern. But subsequent cars were built with bodywork by Allemano, Pininfarina, Monterosa, Ghia, Bertone, Frua and Michelotti for Vignale. Like most halo cars, 5000 GTs attracted prestige clients, including Prince Karim Aga Khan (bodywork by Carozzeria Frua), film star Stewart Granger (Carrozzeria Allemano) and Mexican President Adolfo López Mateos (Carrozzeria Allemano). And like most halo products, the 5000 GT lost money for Maserati,…

When it came to his own Corvette, Bill Mitchell applied his own tastes. And as this car was built during Mitchell’s tenure as the head of GM Design, he could oversee every detail and ensure he got exactly what he wanted. In this case, what Mitchell wanted was a coupe instead of a convertible and less pizzazz than the Corvette that was built for Earl, but like that car, this one would also carry several one-off and pre-production parts. Externally, features that set the Bill Mitchell Corvette apart from a production example from 1964 include the open-pattern die cast grille and vents on the front guards. Production Corvettes only carried indentations on the guards in ‘64, with the ‘egg crate’ side vents not reaching production until 1970. The extra pair of…

Wise heads in motor sport have always muttered, “a good big ’un will always beat a good little ’un” (cars), and “a good young ’un will always beat a good old ’un” (drivers). The latter was the case in the HTCAV in 2019 when 23-year-old Harrison Draper (no relation to fabled Mini quick Henry Draper) took out the big win. It was a ‘come from behind’ win, too: after Historic Sandown in October, the 2018 champ, Darryl Hansen (Mustang) and Under 2-Litre competitor Rob van Stokrom were tied for a potential split win, while young Draper was almost 30 points in arrears. However, Hansen’s Sandown accident ruled out the chance of achieving back-to-back championships in the final fling at Island Magic, while van Stokrom’s points total was amassed over six…

Best known for building winning rally cars, Prodrive is now authenticating, servicing and restoring them under the ‘Prodrive Legends’ programme. Devoted to Prodrive’s historic circuit racing cars, too, Prodrive Legends is similar to restoration and verification services now offered by most of the major prestige and luxury car brands. What drove this programme to become a reality was what the UK-based company described as a significant increase in requests from owners of competition cars to verify the provenance of their vehicles and then restore them. Since its formation in 1984, Prodrive has built more than 1,100 race and rally cars, from the first, a Porsche 911 SC RS, to the latest Aston Martin Vantage GT. The bulk of that total is made up of Subaru rally cars, constructed when the…

Motor Racing Developments may not be the best-known business in Aussie motorsport, so how about we use its more familiar name – Brabham. Established in 1961 by Jack Brabham and Ron Tauranac, Motor Racing Developments (MRD) built cars in lower formulae to help fund the Brabham Formula One race effort. The earliest BT cars (‘BT’ for ‘Brabham Tauranac’) were built for Formula Junior, with Brabham Formula Three and Formula Two cars following. Formula One cars were peppered within this programme, so there’s no straight sequence of all F1 or all F2 cars. For example, the BT7 F1 car was followed by a BT8 for Sports Car racing, the BT9 for F3 and the BT10 for F2. While Brabham is best known for his own-brand Formula One cars, his Formula Two…

When you talk about General Motors styling, two figures loom large: Harley J. Earl and Bill Mitchell. Between them, they would define the styling of GM automobiles for 50 years - from 1927 to 1977 – and oversee the creation of some of the company’s best-known production cars, from the 1953 Chevrolet Corvette to the ’59 Cadillac Coupe de Ville and the 1963 Buick Riviera to the ’69 Chevy Camaro. GM concepts with the Earl and Miller touch include what’s arguably the first concept car – Buick’s ‘Y Job’ – from 1938, as well as the Le Sabre from 1951, the quartet of jet-inspired Firebird concepts from the 1950s, the Cadillac Cyclone and Corvette Stingray from ’59, as well as the Corvette Mako Shark concepts from the ‘60s. STARTING STYLING……

As far as one-model car shows go, it’s hard to find one that’s as loved and supported as Toranafest. Organised by the Hunter Valley Torana Club Inc. and held in Maitland (around 30km northwest of Newcastle) every two years, Toranafest has become a must-do for Torana owners and enthusiasts. TURNING 40 Held on 14-15 September, Toranafest 2019 marked a special occasion – and we’re not talking about the 40th Anniversary of the Hunter Valley Torana Club Inc. For those at the event who didn’t immediately make the connection that 2019 marks the 40th Anniversary of Peter Brock and Jim Richards’s dominant six-lap victory at the 1979 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 at Bathurst, Jim himself was on hand to remind them! Jim was joined by Bev Brock, John Sheppard (Holden Dealer Team manager…

Mopar, in conjunction with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Heritage (FCA Heritage) have launched a heritage parts range dedicated to replacement parts for classic cars under the FCA umbrella. Kicking off the programme are front and rear bumpers for the Lancia Delta Integrale and Integrale Evoluzione. The moulding equipment that originally produced these bumpers was found abandoned at a plant in San Benigno. Fully refurbished electrically and hydraulically, the machinery is now being used to produce the new bumpers for the Lancia Delta Integrale, using special polymer thermoplastic compounds. As well as improving impact resistance, this material is said to offer high heat resistance, strength and hardness, low susceptibility to stress cracking and low moisture absorption. For the Delta Integrale Evoluzione, the bumpers use a different type of polymer thermoplastic, which FCA…

We’ve all heard of ‘barn finds’, but how about a ‘desert find’? Just such a car, wearing the patina of decades spent in the sands of Saudi Arabia, resurfaced last year and went to auction at RM Sothebys’ Monterey sale. The car in question is a 1961 Maserati 5000 GT; a model that had been born two years earlier. SHAH’S SPECIAL In 1958, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi test drove a 3500 GT, and while he liked the car, he wanted more power. ‘Mohammad who?’ you ask. You may know him better as the Shah of Iran, the dynastic ruler who was ousted in 1979 after an Islamic Revolution, that had been brewing for years, finally boiled over. Something of a playboy and jetsetter, especially in his earlier years, the Shah was…

Even though it carries Harley Earl’s name, the man himself had no involvement in the styling of this particular car. It was the work of Bill Mitchell, or at least staff under his direction, and given to Earl as a gift in 1964. Built at the end of the 1963 Corvette model run, the ‘Harley Earl Corvette’ carries a mix of ’63 and ’64 parts and even some ’65 parts. This car’s exterior badging, interior control knobs and four-wheel disc brakes wouldn’t be offered until the 1965 Corvette, while the ‘stinger’ bonnet stripe wouldn’t grace a production model until 1967. The Earl car also carries features that never made it to production at all. The most obvious of these are the side-exit exhausts. This functional exhaust system combined cast iron exhaust…

Like the Renaults 4 and 6 that preceded it, the 5 was unusual insofar as its mechanical components were located south-north in the body at a time when everybody else was mounting the transversely. The 5’s engine was hard up against the bulkhead with the gearbox at the front and the spare wheel sitting over that. And like the Renault 16, the 5 had a torsion bar suspension system that gave it a slightly longer wheelbase on each side. And again like the 4 and 6, the 5’s exterior appearance was challenging–not ugly, as such, but functionally different because of time spent in the wind tunnel refining the car’s aerodynamics. You have to also remember that Renault designed the 5 for the French market first and foremost; the rest of…