2021-07-01 Australian Muscle Car

Brand Ambassadors1978 Championship of Makes
V ictory with Jim Richards at Bathurst placing second in one! That solitary defeat
in 1978 capped off a fairytale return came in Adelaide’s round three, where Colin
to the Holden Dealer Team for Peter Bond downed the two HDT Torana A9Xs of
Brock. Three weeks earlier Brocky Brock and John Harvey in Bond’s last win

had won the Sandown 400, after before quitting Moffat’s Ford team at the end

also having won the Australian Touring of the year. Bondy’s final win in the XC Falcon

Car Championship. But Brocky didn’t win Cobra not only denied Holden a clean sweep

everything that year. In a season that was of wins but also elevated Ford’s Capri to equal

one to forget for Ford, there was at least a second in the points (courtesy of 2000-3000cc

little late-season joy for the blue oval with class wins for Alan Cant, Lawrie Nelson,

its victory in the Australian Manufacturers’ Peter Hopwood and Steve Masterton). Brock

Championship. The win came not via Moffat’s won three of Holden’s four victories, but was

Ford Dealers XC Falcon Hardtops or Dick denied in the final round at Calder by Peter

Johnson (then a prominent privateer Ford Janson (Calder was a late inclusion to replace

driver), but from the class winning efforts of Phillip Island, whose track surface had broken

Ford Escort drivers Rod Stevens, Bill Evans up to the point of being beyond repair. The

and Graham Mein, who between them won track was then shut down and was only saved

the under 2000cc class in all five rounds. some 10 years later when it was refurbished

The Escort drivers were helped by a points to host the Australian round of the 500cc

system that only recognised class results (with World Motorcycle Championship). It was

no additional points for outright placings). Janson’s day at Calder but for a long while the

Because of the class-weighted points system, 250km race was looking like it would be Garry

Holden found itself in the bizarre position of Rogers’ finest hour as Rogers led for 100 of

being beaten in the points despite Torana 155 laps despite an inoperative clutch pedal.

drivers winning four of the five rounds and Sadly, the gearbox eventually gave up.

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Pics

SSteve Falconerome great pics from the spectator areas at various
Bathurst 500/1000s in the1970s from Steve
Falconer captures the atmosphere of the Great
Race back in the day perfectly - and reminds us
just how rudimentary things once were at Mount
Panorama. Even by the mid-late ‘70s the inside of the
circuit on the run across and down the Mountain was
more or less as it had always been, with a bare minimum
of amco rail fencing to prevent a car going off and over
the edge - and that’s if it didn’t hit one of the many trees
that still lined the left side of the road.

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Specialists Black Book

Back issues available

est. 1999

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On 29th November 1948, came
one of Australia’s de ning
moments, when Holden released
the rst locally designed and built
car, the 48-215 – fondly known
as the FX. And life would be
never the same again for those
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driven a Holden since.
The DVD box set celebrates
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www.cmsmotorsport.com.auTHE HOME OF AUSTRALIAN MOTORSPORT

a word from
our sponsors...

You could probably blame it on Allan
Moffat. Or maybe it was Holden’s and
Harry Firth’s doing, with the breglass
ared guards, front spoilers and bonnet
scoops on the Torana L34 and A9X.
Either way, if you were young and into cars
in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, the cool thing to do
was to tart your daily drive up with breglass
ared guards, maybe a front and/or rear spoiler,
a bonnet scoop, perhaps – or the ultimate

breglass enhancement of the day, the ‘Monza’
front end.

The bolt-on breglass craze was so big that
it spawned a plethora of body kit makers keen
to cash in. And not just at the muscle car end of
the market – if one wished, one could enhance
the look of one’s Cortina with an A9X-style
bonnet scoop, trick up the Gemini with front
and rear spoilers, or even get a bit of ‘Datsun
muscle’ with a front air dam, rear spoiler and
‘power bulge’ from Purvis Cars.

When two young lm makers Byron Kennedy
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An Arcadipane Monza front end was sourced
and attached to a white XB Falcon Hardtop
which was then painted black – before going
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movie making history. And the success of that
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mods.

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1985 Bathurst Winner 1978 Bathurst 3rd Place

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1977 Bathurst 4th Place 1972 Bathurst 2nd Place

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