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

Last Firth HDT Torana changes hands

Craig Gore convicted of fraud

Tremec trauma no more

John Harvey diagnosed with terminal cancer

John French s 90th

Holden quiz

Mount Panorama sign

Who’s next?

Auction update

Burt shows ‘the way’

Wally’s Words • Winning: the best time we don’t remember!

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

AMC BEST LETTER

Team Work & Partnerships

Paul Newby

The Oriental Express • As a race car it wasn’t all that successful and its competition life with the Holden Dealer Team spanned barely 12 months. But it was Peter Brock’s first Torana race car, and it was also probably the first Torana to race outside of Australasia. It spent most of the ‘70s in Asia, so that by the time it did make its way home the car’s origins had literally been lost in the mists of time. Had it not been for an accident of circumstance, this HDT Torana GTR XU-1 may have been lost forever.

Muscle Car Events

Hairpin Circus

When you’re hot... • The LC model Torana GTR XU-1 in the middle of 1970 was a dynamic, exciting and even unexpected arrival in Holden new car showrooms. But Holden had a higher purpose in mind for the XU-1 than merely spirited road use, because this GTR-onsteroids existed for one reason only – to go racing.

The new Cooper S

Don Holland

Tanking at Bathurst

Giving it a red hot go • The XU-1 was a brilliantly executed concept but it was not exactly a new idea. Hot Holden red six engines with triple carburettors just like the XU-1 had been around since the EH Holden was released in 1963. It’s really not too much of a stretch to imagine, had the corporate will been there, a multi-carb XU-1-style EH or HD model Holden winning Bathurst in the mid-‘60s.

50 reasons to love the 1970 LC Torana GTR XU- • The LC Torana GTR XU-1 is now 50. To celebrate this half-century milestone, AMC presents 50 reasons to love the first mighty mouse Holden.

A sad ending • The 2020 Bathurst 1000 took place in front of a record low crowd of less than 4000. Thanks to the pandemic, what should have been a spectacular and emotional farewell celebration for Holden on the Mountain was instead a depressingly subdued occasion. But a Holden at least did get up for the win in the marque’s final official appearance at Bathurst – even if there were almost no Holden fans there to see it.

Holdens’ original Hero • There’s been some famous Holden victories in the Australian Touring Car Championship but surely none more so than the original. The first Holden to claim the ATCC – half a century ago this year – was a brutal, spectacular beast of a car, manhandled to perfection by its creator, the flamboyant and charismatic “Stormin’” Norm Beechey.

Landing the Barra • Twenty years ago when Geoff Polites became president of Ford Australia, his first task was to right the wrongs of the AU Falcon. He set up a team under the direction of longtime Ford engineer Trevor Worthington, and just two years later Ford was taking on Holden’s VY Commodore with a stylish looking new BA model Falcon that was even better under the skin, boasting among a dazzling array of changes an all-new engine lineup featuring two different 5.4-litre V8s and a turbo version of the new twin-cam four-valve 4.0-litre six. Worthington spoke to Bruce Newton about ‘Project Barra’ and the development of the BA Falcon.

Muiro The...