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

Down under Corvettes confirmed

Super Utes saved by Chev V8 heart transplant

Mawson’s Gold Star

Trans Am turns it on

Bowe still on top

Little Lawrence Lola

New Phase III book

Charger 50th celebrations

Auction update

The Phantom Gobbler…

Always read the fine print...

AMC BEST LETTER

Wally’s Words The things you don’t see at Bathurst! • Adventures with Brocky: tales from Peter Brock’s PR chief

Paul Newby

Hey Charger! • Somewhere out there in Chryslerland this year will be a bunch of Charger owners and enthusiasts getting ready to celebrate a birthday milestone for the iconic coupe. Tinnies and flutes will be raised in a toast to the VH Valiant Charger as it hits the half century, and probably some clever chef will have baked a birthday cake shaped in the form of an E38 with 50 candles to be blown out. They’ll sing the happy birthday song and, of course, give each other that trademark two-finger salute: Hey Charger!

What might have been... • The Chrysler Charger E38 wasn’t perfect, but as a large, six-cylinder coupe it was an astonishingly quick machine in 1971. Just 12 months earlier a car with Charger-style performance could have won the Great Race at a canter – but in ‘71 the new Valiant hardtops encountered an unexpected obstacle in the form of Ford’s new XY model Falcon GT-HO Phase III.

The fencing wire incident

Laying the foundation • The AU Falcon series is not a celebrated chapter in the history of Ford Australia. But just as the passing of time has enabled some to see beyond the model’s awkward looks and recognise what was good about the AU, so too is there a growing respect for the FTE high performance versions – and especially the last and best FTE model, the T3 series. With its unique, locally developed 5.6-litre Windsor V8 and HSV-beating handling capabilities, the T3 a something of a forgotten Aussie muscle car classic.

The Mustang

Retro Vision

Magic Monaro • It was a one-lady-owner car for almost all of its first 40 years, and after having served as a faithful daily drive for most of that time this HK Monaro surely has earned itself a bit of love and attention. Which is exactly what it’s just been given by its current owner, who has just completed a comprehensive ground-up restoration of this genuine GTS 327.

Bowe's off-track battle • One of the true-blue legends of Australian motorsport is no stranger to doing battle on the track, and at high speed. He hopes a battle of a very different kind won’t slow him down.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE DIAGNOSIS

The story of the stickers

Max Stewart: Part two • The Jolly Green Giant was an apt nickname for the late, great Max Stewart, and not just because of his green-coloured driving suit. He was a giant of Australian openwheeler racing, certainly too large a character for just the one issue of AMC. This second part of our Max Stewart Muscle Man feature chronicles Max’s nine starts in the Great Race, his mentorship of a series of young drivers in the 1970s and the events surrounding his fatal crash at Calder in 1977.

Slot car addiction

Perentti the Claytons Corvette • With the body of a Corvette and the heart of a Holden, it was a kind of Claytons Corvette – or maybe that should be Bayswater Corvette, seeing as that was the Melbourne suburb where these home-grown V8 muscle coupes were made back in the eighties. It was an...