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.

Editor’s Induction Steve Normoyle

Australian Muscle Car

Mach 1 arrives in Oz

Sydney MasterBlast is back!

Powercruise and Tuned on Saturday night

Motorsport the winner in Queen’s birthday honours

A beautiful noise?

New Supercars book

Auction update

Janson ‘Le Mans’ A9X for sale

A9X road car tops 800k

AMC BEST LETTER

Paul Newby

The last Brock Holdens • These are the last Peter Brock Holdens. It’s a fact that’s not widely known but, in the year before his death – the year ’05 – Peter Brock developed a performance package for VY and VZ Holden Commodores, Utes and Monaro CV8s, offering them in Group 1, 2 and 3 variants reminiscent of the old Brock HDT Commodores of the 1980s. It was not meant to be a direct reprise of the old business – and in any case HDT continues to this day in a different guise – but rather an alternative high-performance Holden package from what was available elsewhere in 2005, and one which came with the personal touch of Peter Brock. Unsurprisingly, when word began filtering out about these new ‘Brock Enhanced’ high performance Holdens it attracted its share of interest among potential buyers. Perhaps also unsurprisingly, however, it was met with somewhat less enthusiasm behind closed doors in Port Melbourne.

First Brock and the Green Meanie

A Falcon Cobra with real sting • A Shelby XY Falcon? Yes, that’s right – the XC Falcon Cobra Hardtop in 1978 was not the first Ford Falcon model in Australia to be adorned with the iconic Shelby Cobra snake. But where the XC Cobra was an unashamed attempt at cashing in on one of Ford’s iconic high-performance names from the halcyon days of the 1960s, the famous Cobra snake on this XY was the real Shelby deal – this was an Australian Falcon with genuine Shelby Cobra sting.

Leffo • Australian Formula 1 superstar Mark Webber may have trademarked the term ‘Aussie Grit’ in recent years, but if any driver from the classic muscle car era ever deserved the tag it’s John Leffler. Universally known as ‘Leffo’, his story is one of hard work, steely determination and a desire to make it to the top of the sport. From very modest beginnings in home-built Mini 850s he graduated to Formula Ford where he won the national crown, raced competitively in Formula 2 and finally won the Australian Drivers’ Championship in a Formula 5000 Lola against the country’s best drivers. His career in touring cars was equally impressive, with three top 10 finishes in 10 Bathurst 500/1000 starts as well as two class wins. Along the way he won the respect of his racing peers and is remembered fondly by his many friends and fans to this day.

Retro Vision

Sharp performance • He was Sharp by name and sharp in his performances on the track – even though his most of cars would be best described as blunt instruments. He may not have been a champion racing driver but Barry Sharp was a colourful presence on the motorsport scene in the 1960s and early ‘70s with a bewildering array of weird and wild home-built V8-powered Sports Sedans.

Explosive ladies race

Bathurst

Strip Teaser • Barry racing Sharp exploits time is in well Sports and known sometimes Sedans for his but road in at the same ( to his neck in secret drag racing ) Sharp – with was , just up like his road racing activities, a series of cheaply-built, wild V8-powered machines.

Classic Action • A Melbourne Covid outbreak kept the Victorian entrants away but the HSRCA Sydney Classic over the Queen’s Birthday...