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

V8 Supercars at Catalina

New Falcon

Mirror mystery

Auction update

Winners’ post

Sharp dressed man

Auction update

Adelaide alive again

Paul Newby

AMC BEST LETTER • amceditorial@chevron.com.au | Locked Bag 5555, St Leonards NSW 1590

SS for success • Whether SS stood for Strictly Standard or Super Sport, or maybe a bit of both, those two initials would go on to become a special signifier of Holden high performance into the future. The original HQ-model Holden SS mightn’t be widely regarded today among classic Holden muscle, but it was Holden’s first-ever four-door V8 sporty/performance model, and it set the scene for the introduction of a four-door Monaro.

FPV Luxury Muscle: a Galaxie too far away • They thought long and hard about doing it, and no doubt it would have made an awesome long-wheelbase luxury muscle offering from FPV. In the end, though, it proved to be a Galaxie too far away. Here, then, is the untold story of FPV’s plan in the early 2000s to resurrect the Ford Galaxie name.

On the buses

Next big thing? • GT4 could well be Australian motorsport’s next boom category. A renewed push is underway to help it finally reach its potential down under. If successful, GT4 is every chance of rivalling the much-loved late Group C or early Group A touring car eras for diversity of makes, models, body shapes and engine configurations. Luke West examines the local and global GT4 scenes and investigates what’s next.

A one-make Triumph • Back in the late Seventies, Leyland Australia planned to go rallying to promote its Triumph TR7 sports car. When that didn’t eventuate, the marketing team had to come up with another idea. And so the Barclays TR7 Pro-Car Series – featuring a star cast of Australia’s top touring car drivers – was born. Mike Breen, the marketing man at Leyland whose job it was to make it happen, tells the behind-the-scenes story of how this innovative one-make pro-am series came together – and of the stillborn plan to upgrade it to the 3.5-litre V8 TR7 version.

Frankly speaking

Retro Vision

So close, yet so far... • The first serious V8s in the Great Race were not Fords or Holdens. There were Studebakers in the race as early as 1961, when one finished second – which unfortunately set the scene for six years of disappointment on Mount Panorama for the V8-powered Lark model which was always good but never quite good enough. The Needham name was a constant throughout that period of Studebaker competition, with Studebaker dealer/specialist Bert Needham Snr fielding the cars and son Bert Jnr driving. But just as the Studebaker marque would be short-lived, a falling out between father and son meant there be no ongoing Needham dynasty. This is the story of Bert Needham Jnr.

Slot car addiction

A Torana for the grandson • It’s not an A9X, but it’s a special LX just the same: a rare four-speed V8 SL model. This Torana was so far gone that it was close to being completely unsalvageable, but thanks to the persistence of its owner and the team of skilled craftsman the green hatchback has been lovingly restored to its original 1977 glory.

Mini Muscle

A Panorama of Holdens

Carpark Muscle

AMC Club Directory

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