Innholdsfortegnelse for #338 24-03 i Just Cars

When you receive praise from the organisers of the Goodwood Revival and Festival of Speed, you know you’re doing something right. That praise was recently directed at the Bay to Birdwood. Read on to find out why. While South Australia is thought of as the state of food, wine and festivals (and churches!), it also has an incredibly rich and diverse motoring history. Obviously, South Australia was the birthplace of Holden and Chrysler’s local operations, as well as being the Australian home of Mitsubishi. The annual Bay to Birdwood run is part of that heritage, too, but it would be wrong to look at it purely as an “historical” event. Yes, the Bay to Birdwood celebrates the cars of the past, but it’s a living, breathing and very modern event…

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Ford is set to return to global motorsport endurance events, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with an all-new Mustang-based car to suit the FIA’s global GT3 category. Officially unveiled on the eve of this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, the Mustang GT3 will race at Le Mans in 2024 as FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) events transfer from GTE regulations to GT3. Ford’s most recent success at Le Mans was a class win with the GT supercar in 2016; a feat they’re aiming to equal with the Mustang GT3. “Ford and Le Mans are bound together by history. We’re coming back to the most dramatic, most rewarding and most important race in the world,” said Jim Farley, CEO, Ford Motor Company. “Going back to Le…

Triple Eight Race Engineering have signed Will Brown to the Red Bull Ampol Racing team on a three-year deal, replacing Shane van Gisbergen. The 25-year-old will leave Erebus Racing at the end of this season of the Repco Supercars Championship. The deal means Brown and van Gisbergen will both exit their current contracts one year early; the former to take up one of the most coveted seats in Supercars and the latter to pursue a full-time drive in the NASCAR Cup Series. Van Gisbergen won on his debut in the US stock car series in July and backed that up with a Top 10 finish in his second start. “As we’ve made clear from the very start, Triple Eight wholeheartedly supports SVG’s decision to showcase his world class talent abroad,”…

More than six years after the last one was built, HSV’s ClubSport remains an Aussie icon. While the GTS had the extra features and the Maloo had the load carrying capability, the ClubSport was a favourite and became the top-selling vehicle of any type to wear an HSV badge. While the ClubSport was essentially the entry-level model, HSV kept adding and expanding on it in the years following its introduction, culminating in the ClubSport R8 LSA, which was arguably the best ‘Clubbie’ you could buy. The ClubSport story starts in 1990, back when Holden Special Vehicles was barely three years old. HSV had wanted to create a more affordable entry point to the range, so the company’s marketing head, John Harvey, ordered a batch of VN Commodore sedans with the…

Burns & Co. Auctions enjoyed a strong result at their 13 August auction, with a high percentage of vehicles consigned finding new owners. Beyond the good clearance rate, what was notable at this auction was the large crowd, showing that ‘in-person’ attendance at car auctions is approaching pre-COVID numbers. Fifty vehicles, covering a wide range of makes, models and eras, made up the 13 August auction, with rarities including a 1948 MG YA saloon, HR Holden X2 wagon, 1966 Plymouth Satellite 440, 1924 Dodge Tourer and a Subaru-powered sand rail buggy. Leading the lot was a 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1, finished in Black Jade with a black vinyl interior. What made this Mach 1 desirable was its original, unrestored condition, along with its ‘R Code’ 428 Cobra Jet with…

David Reynolds, one of the most popular personalities in the Repco Supercars Championship, will part ways with Penrite Racing (Grove Racing) at the end of the 2023 season, after the Victorian-based squad announced he would not be remaining with the team beyond this year. A statement issued by the team on 21 August read: “Penrite Racing will not be renewing David Reynolds’ contract for 2024. We wish Dave the best in his future endeavours.” The impending departure ends a three-year partnership between Reynolds and Penrite Racing that started with high expectations, but has delivered no race wins and only a handful of podiums at time of writing. Reynolds started the 2023 season with a pole and podium on the Newcastle street circuit, but has visited the podium only one other…

Compared to all other automotive styling features, the tailfin had an impact out of all proportion to its time as a design element. While they were used on cars for little more than a decade, tailfins came to symboilise an era. Cadillac’s 1959 offerings were the biggest, while the Chevy and Buick fins from the same year were arguably the most daring. General Motors weren’t alone in expanding and exploiting this styling feature, though. Just about every automaker got on board to some degree, and the Chrysler Corporation were in the ‘fin game’ just as deep (or should that be high!), as evidenced by cars like the 1960 Chrysler New Yorker. It’d be wrong to look at the New Yorker, particularly the 1960 model, as just a styling exercise. The…