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.

Normoyle

Australian Muscle Car

Holden name set to disappear

Vale Graham ‘Cassius’ McRae

Go Mad with Max in Broken Hill

Coupe concepts

Auction update

The MOFF 302

Tremec TKX boxes

T56 replacement ‘box

Muscle Mail

AMC BEST LETTER

Wally’s Words • When their favourite colour is ‘grey’…

Adventures with Brocky: tales from Peter Brock’s PR chief

Paul Newby

Game Over: the last Holden • Garry Rogers cheekily likes to think of this as the last new Holden made in Australia. It might not have rolled down the Holden production line, but this 2020 reprise of the GRM Bathurst 24 winning Monaros of 2002-’03 certainly is a new Holden – and what a Holden it is... How ever legitimate the last-Holden claim may be, with this new Monaro 427C the Holden Lion can exit with a mighty roar rather than a whimper. It also brings a whole new meaning to Holden’s 2003 Bathurst 24 victory slogan: Game Over.

The James Hardie 740 • It’s 40 years since the 1981 James Hardie 1000, a race that completed the fairytale for its victor but, uniquely, proved disastrous for the runner-up. Luke West puts Bathurst ’81 under the microscope and into historical perspective.

Australia’s mightiest race meeting • It’s a race meeting that’s still talked about, even half a century on. It was the day Allan Moffat took on Bob Jane at Oran Park’s Australian Touring Car Championship winner-take-all final round, in front of a crowd so big it gridlocked the southwest Sydney region for most of the day. Oran Park would host the ATCC each year for the next 37 years but none of those subsequent ATCC encounters topped this one for action, excitement and the sheer sense of occasion. For some who were there on August 8, 1971, it remains the greatest day in Australian motor racing.

Retro Vision

The Bathurst specialist • Head into what is now the suburb of Oran Park and just off Peter Brock Drive you will find Leeds Street, named after this issue’s Muscle Man. Geoff Leeds raced for 25 years through the glory days of Australian touring car racing and established himself as one of the most sought-after drivers at Bathurst. He had a close affinity with Mount Panorama and drove everything in The Great Race from a Mini to a Camaro and numerous Commodores.

My Muscle Car

Your Car Here!

No quarter asked • And none was given by a little lady who drove the wheels off all the blokes in drag racing in the 1980s and ‘90s. Donna Sizmur was a young legal secretary when she met her would-be husband, and in a partnership bonded by a love of cars the couple embarked on a journey together that would see Donna rise to the top in Australian Super Stock competition.

Slot car addiction

Giving them the old 1-2

Playing a big part • Repco’s emergence from the racing shadows into sponsorship of the Bathurst 1000 and the Supercars Championship in 2021 takes the company back onto the centre-stage which it commanded for nearly 40 years. It’s fitting to see Repco back in racing with such a vengeance, as this is a company whose motorsport heritage is rich and deep.

Repco-Holden • Repco and Holden have shared a close association over the years. Through the 1950s and ‘60s Repco was one of the leading aftermarket makers of go-faster bits for Holden sixes, the company going on in 1969 to develop the then-new 5.0-litre Holden V8 as a Formula 5000 race engine – the Australian Grand Prix and Australian Drivers’ Championship winning...