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

Moffat’s Mustang mishap

New Maloo

LS is more

Around the Block for Brock

Auction update

Bill Brown 1941-2022

Cooma show

Vale: Alan Cant

Even more Miedecke

The last Holden Bathurst • Neither flood nor Ford could stop Holden on the occasion of the final time a Holden will start the Great Race.

Muscle Mail • amceditorial@chevron.com.au | Locked Bag 5555, St Leonards NSW 1590

Paul Newby

Hidden HO history • Any Falcon GTHO is a rare and special car, but a survivor with a racing history – including at Bathurst – is obviously even more special. This XW GTHO Phase II has been restored to its original 1970 Bathurst glory, but what makes its story a little unusual is that its current owner remained blissfully unaware of his car’s racing history for many years after he bought it.

The birth of Supercars • The birth of what we know today as Supercars racing involved an agonisingly difficult labour, but somehow it all turned out for the best in the end. As Supercars prepares to roll out the new Gen3 formula, here’s how it all went down 30 years ago when the original blueprint for the ‘5-litre V8’ category was hammered out.

From HB to VT • Phil Zmood’s first task as a young Holden designer fresh out of university in 1965 was to finish the front-end styling of the original HB model Torana. Thirty years on he led the styling team at Holden that developed the VT model Commodore. Here Zmood reflects on some of the Holdens he helped create – and some of his designs that never saw the light of day.

Thunder struck!

Mr Reliable • Tony Mulvihill wasn’t a front runner or a star name – although he did share a Commodore at Spa-Francorchamps with Allan Moffat. He was a solid privateer entrant, and Bathurst was always the focus – he was one of the ‘weekend warriors’ in the ‘70s and ‘80s who added so much colour and atmosphere to the Great Race.

Moonrockets on the Mountain • If you wanted to win Bathurst in 1982, you needed to have a ‘Commodore Moonrocket’. That was Allan Moffat’s description of the Holdens that year – a year that was dogged by controversy from almost the first race of the season until the very last.

Slot car addiction

Openwheelers are for sheilas • Everyone knows Allan Grice as a Holden racing superstar. But when Grice got his big chance in touring cars in the Cessnock Motors LJ Torana XU-1 in 1972, he’d already been racing openwheelers for some eight years – and had even gone close to winning an international grand prix. This is the little-known story of where it all began for Gricey – his early years in the sport before he got a roof over his head.

ARDC’s birthday bash • Images from some of the Sports Sedan and historic touring action from the Australian Racing Drivers’ Club’s ‘Super 70’ race meeting at Sydney Motorsport Park on Fathers’ Day, as the grand old racing club’ celebrated its 70th year of operation.

Mini Muscle • The Austin was an Appendix J car, quite hotted-up. Dad told me the head work cost hundreds of pounds in 1966. But it had terrible brakes; really awful, tiny little drums on all four wheels. At Bathurst they’d brake at the 500-yard marker – before the last hump on Conrod – and hope it slowed down enough to scramble around Murray’s Corner.

Light my fire

Carpark Muscle

AMC Club Directory

a word from our sponsors...