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

Carroll who?

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

Remembering Peter Brock • This September marks 20 years since the untimely passing of Peter Brock. AMC reflects on the life and career of the man universally known simply as Brocky: the undisputed King of the Mountain

Brock: before he was famous • Motorsport journalist Ray Bell met Peter Brock almost two years before Brock had his first race start in the Austin A30-Holden. At the time, early 1966, Bell was a volunteer motorsport official and Brock was still in the army doing National Service. Here Bell recounts the friendship and the times he spent with Brock over the following few years, and gives us a rare insight into the man before he became a racing driver, before he was famous.

Brocky’s top 05 • In early 1997 when Peter Brock announced he’d be retiring from racing at the end of the season, he was asked to list what he rated as his five biggest wins in motorsport. It’s probably not surprising, but it’s certainly ironic that for the man whose stock-in-trade was his supreme prowess in a racecar on bitumen, the personal high point for Brocky himself was winning an off-road event.

Memories and memorabilia • Taking the time to be with his fans was a Peter Brock trademark. Long after all the other drivers had left the circuit at the end of a day’s racing, Brocky would still be there out the back of the pits signing items of memorabilia for his legion of fans – an autographed event race programme or maybe a Brock-HDT cap or t-shirt. Just like some of the hundreds of items you see here – which have been collected over many years by one very dedicated Peter Brock fan.

1976 Hardie Ferodo 1000 Climbing that mountain • Mount Panorama is that kind of place that can throw up all kinds of scenarios: things that just don’t happen at other racing circuits. Like the conclusion to the 1976 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 – it wasn’t a close finish, but 50 years on there still hasn’t been an end to the Great Race to match this one this for sheer emotional intensity, drama and suspense. Here AMC celebrates Bob Morris’ fairytale Bathurst 1000 victory half a century on with some exclusive never-before-seen photography from the race.

Kai’s collection • Kai Allen has taken to topline Supercars racing like a duck to water. While he now plies his trade aboard a Ford Mustang, three classic Holdens played critical – and differing – roles in his rise to stardom.

Gun Smith for hire Pt2 • Last issue we explored Carroll Smith’s long and varied career in international motorsport. In this second part, we focus on how he engineered the Allan Moffat Racing Falcons in 1977 and speak to the crew who worked under him. George Smith was one of the mechanics and recalls Carroll writing up his reports at the end of each day: “He would sit there with a nice glass of red wine and pull out his pipe and start writing away. I would love to see those diaries; it would be sensational to look back at them now”. Thanks to the generosity of Carroll Smith’s son, Christopher, AMC has been able to reproduce some of those letters in this story.

Slot car addiction

Valano Valano the Italian Valiant • You’ve never heard of a Chrysler Valano GT, because there was no such thing. But there was a Valano sports car, with slant-six Valiant power, and it was built by Chrysler engineers in 1965 at the same Chrysler plant in Adelaide that pumped out...