Australian Muscle Car

Australian Muscle Car is a fresh, proudly Australian publication dedicated to preserving the legend of the unique ‘Australian made’ Ford vs Holden muscle car heritage. From 1960s classic Bathurst muscle to the super sophisticated Falcon and Commodore performance cars of the new millennium and everything in between.

Steve Normoyle

Australian MUSCLE CAR

Chev Corvette – Holden! • Here’s something different, good news for Holden. Really good news. For the first time, the Chevrolet Corvette will be sold in Australia ex-factory in right-hand drive through Holden dealers.

The real thing • Tickford’s Moffat Coca-Cola Mustang Trans-Am tribute

Finance the old fashioned way

Basking in past glories

A penny for your Fords

The stories behing the legend

Auction update

Luke West

AMC BEST LETTER

Bathurst 1979 • It’s 40 years since the HDT’s domination of the 1979 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 field. AMC puts the team’s unparalleled performance in an equally remarkable race under the microscope.

The Boss • Who better to open the batting for our lineup of Bathurst 1979 stories than victorious HDT boss John Sheppard. After all, he had carefully prepared a Torana A9X race package that was superior to its opponents in most areas. Then his champion drivers just strolled off into the distance to leave their pursuers choking in their dust. Here Sheppard reveals some of the secrets of the Brock/Richards mammoth six-lap victory.

The hired Gun • After Jim Richards’ own touring car effort with Falcons had turned pear shaped, the Kiwi got the call up from the HDT to accompany Peter Brock at Bathurst in 1978. That went so well thay they invited Jim back for ‘79 – which went even better still.

The Engine man • For Neill Burns, building race engines was never about just about the glory of winning. The important thing was getting the job done, and doing it right. And with the engines he prepared for the HDT Torana A9Xs for Bathurst in 1979, he got the job done in no uncertain terms.

The new recruit • Imagine being a young bloke with no racing experience and getting an entry-level job with the country’s best team a matter of weeks before it headed to the Mountain in 1979. Graeme Brown shares his wide-eyed recollections of witnessing HDT and Brock’s big moment.

Nice and juicy • Not many racing reunions are 40 years in the making, but then very few privateer efforts jagged results as juicy as this. The restoration of an unlikely Bathurst podium-finisher brought its two drivers together.

Patch not hatch

Brakethrough • Fifth place in only his second Great Race start was a real breakthrough performance for Garry Rogers – especially given that he had to get through much of it with no front brakes.

Rounding out the 8

Bathurst 1979 in graphic detail

What went wrong • Ford teams never had a more limp-wristed attack on the October classic than in 1979. AMC examines why.

Tables turned • Off the back of his ATCC success just a few months earlier, Bob Morris could reasonably have expected to have gone to Bathurst in 1979 as one of the favourites to win. But no one could have foreseen how completely the HDT would turn the tables at the October classic.

1979 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 Talking Talking points points

Ransom note • She went by the name Thunder Woman when she raced as a professional Jet Funny Car and Top Fuel dragster driver in the USA in the 1980s, but that was only one chapter in the story of Sue Ransom’s motorsport career. It began for Ransom in rallying but she soon transitioned to tarmac and made five Great Race starts before switching to drag racing. In between she was a motoring journalist, worked in public relations at Ford and Mazda, and played an instrumental role in the creation of the...