Australian Muscle Car Masters
September 7, 2009 by George Skentzos
It is no coincidence that the Australian Muscle Car Masters falls on Australia’s Father’s Day weekend, and for many dads there’s would be no better way to spend their day than with the smell of vintage automotive ‘muscle’ in the air.
I arrived at Eastern Creek International Raceway, in Sydney, with my own dad at perhaps the most convenient of times, just as the Bathurst Legends took to the track for a nostalgic recreation of motor sport’s past.
As it did on that Bathurst 1000 day when Jim Richards addressed the heckling crowd as a “pack of arseholes”, the 1992 Winfield Nissan GT-R – or just Godzilla – led the field for the duration of the event, leaving little doubt that this was and still is the world’s ultimate Group A car.
As the last Nissan to be built by Gibson Motorsport, boasting Chassis Number 5, it was one of the most controversial cars ever to race in Australian motor sport, earning it the affectionate nickname, “Arsehole”.
For all the GT-R aficionados out there with their eye on a new R35 it may come as a disappointment to know the elusive and highly sought after New South Wales registration plate ‘GTR’ actually resides on a Volkswagen Touareg.
Not all GT-R’s are driven on the road, so it’s fitting that the registration plate remains with the owner of this very special example of an Nissan Skyline GT-R R32, which earned the nameplate much of its legacy here in Australia.
The race finished without incident, leaving each of the historic muscle cars on the grid relatively scratch free and intact to race another day. So precious are these machines to their owners that each team administers a thorough wash and wax following each stint out on the track.
Only one of the pension-eligible entries suffered any shortfalls with the pink Barbagallo Holden VL needing to be pushed into its garage from pit lane.
It seems every entrant was keen on having their not-so-serious side on display, meaning the whole day made for a rather entertaining and family-friendly affair.
Despite having donned a Media bib that would usually grant me the privilege of popping over barriers and into otherwise private areas, each team was more than happy to let the punters in to take a look around the pit garages.
As team mechanics and drivers tended to their vehicles, a crowd of eager onlookers was never too far away – with most teams even propping up their bonnets to give spectators a decent gander at the engine bay.
While Holden and Ford was represented in the thousands, this was certainly not merely a red and blue affair with many European entries making the cut such as Jaguar, BMW, Porsche and the ever persistent Mini.
One look at the car park told you this event was not just aimed at the ‘singlet, shorts and thongs’ wearing crowd, with Porsche 911 Turbos, BMW M3s and Range Rover Sports littered in between shiny new HSVs and FPVs.
There was good reason for this too, with most of the cars on show fetching more than their current-day luxury-performance counterparts at auction, the result of dewy-eyed youngsters growing up to realise their childhood racing aspirations.
While the classic Australian race cars were towed to the event by some rather serious machinery, most competitors arrived at Eastern Creek behind the wheel of their pride and joy – soaking up Father’s Day in the best way possible.
This was no more evident than during the parade laps where privately owned road-legal muscle cars were allowed onto the circuit, often brimming with family and friends, all queued up behind a specially prepared Lexus Hybrid pace car.
I’ll be the first to admit classic muscle cars are certainly not my forte, and since most of the cars out on the track were older than I am I couldn’t revisit fond memories of gawking at a Falcon GT-HO on my way to school – or work – or whatever it was kids did in those day.
Never having lived in that time certainly didn’t put a dampening on the spectacle for the younger generation in attendance, equally enthralled by the colour, noise and excitement as their parents were with the history, passion and legend.
If your Dad was a little underwhelmed by the socks and undies you gave him this Father’s Day, perhaps it’s time to pen in Eastern Creek next year for the Australian Muscle Car Masters.
Very cool.
where are the real muscle cars…. there was heaps of classic muscle cars there!! GTR was very out shaddowed by all he gleaming GT’s, GTS’s and toranas…. i know the GTR had a place in aussie motor racing history but why not feature the real aussie stuff!! it was 40 years of the GTHO and nothign was mentioned in the article! not to mention all the other beautiful falcon GT’s, monaros, toranas, capris and lets not forget the valiant stuff!!
maybe a muscle car enthuiast should of written this!
hey you sound like someone who knows abit about musle cars and im looking to invest in getting a project car im only young and wount to be working on it for 5 years atleast i LOVE torries slr 5000 LH and but in qld australia it cost 3000$ a year to insure it before you are 25 that;s when i started looking at vl cuase there nice cars and have alot of power and it only takes 10,000 or less to make it nice for when i get my p’s cause in QLD not aloud anything past a v6 i also like the gemmy and the datsun but all the ones i like are 4cly and its illegal to put anything besides the stock motor in when ur on your p’s even a 2cly so im wondering what car to get out of the musle range of ford holden chevy and any other nice old classic looking cars P.S it cant be a classic other wise 3000 insurance a year
Group A in the 80s was the best!
The R32 GT-R is the ultimate of the real cars, before they turned it into a two-horse race with cars that have no resemblance under the skin to what you can buy off the showroom floor. The GT-R has the same block and heads as the showroom model. The current cars have no mechanical resemblance.
I have a severe soft-spot for old Valiants tho – there’s something about an inline 6 feeding it to the V8’s.
You say that apart from looks the V8 supercars have very little in common with the cars on the showroom floor.
However; [believe it or not] The Winfield racing GT-R that was built and developed by Fred Gibson Motorsport had very little in common with the Road Going R-32s
Yes the block was the same as a regular GT-R but it [and the ECU] was extensively worked to produce as much power as it did. whilst the brakes the suspension the gearbox which were all modified to withstand the torture of modern motor racing.
Infact their was so much over-engineering and modifications involved with the GMS GT-Rs that Fred Gibson himself said that he was finding it hard to keep the cars on the track.. Infact he said that he doubts whether he would have been able to race the GT-R after 1992 as he was finding it hard to find sponsorship [and they were winning] it cost him over $100k for each car just for wheels.
As for your comment about the Charger and its inline 6 giving it to the V8s -
I agree the Charger is an Awesome Car.. Yet it never actually won Bathurst; which lets face it is the only race that matters [in Oz]
To me the R32 was a tuned and upgraded car, not a total redesign. I dont know maybe its just me, but having totally different engines, gearbox, rear axle configuration – its just a race car with a shell banged on it to look the same – thats it? Name one part of a modern ATCC car that is shared with the road going car – except the badge and a few cosmetic pieces?
Yeah – but at the time of the GT-Rs so were the rest of the other Group A’s such as the Falcons the Commodores and the Sierras.. they were Homologated
I mean inorder to be eligible to compete in the Group A Competition [which includes Bathurst] the manufacturers of the car had to produce a certain number of road going cars with similar [race bred] features performance etc
That’s why HSV created the Walkinshaw SS Group A and Ford revived the GT
You think the Winfield GT-Rs were the same as a road going GT-R.. then show me a road going GT-R that cracks its wheels every 500ksm like the Winfield GT-Rs did
Yeah your right – Holden and Ford had to have homologated cars and sell a certain amount too, thats my point – these were based on real cars that you could buy. The thing is the GT-R’s were untouchable, hence them being at the pinnacle of this league. After this era the ATCC has become a joke (my opinion) as the cars are nothing to do with Holdens and Fords you can buy. Just out of interest, was there ever Sierras sold with Aus compliance thru Ford dealers? I’m guessing they had to sell the minimum amount to satisfy the rules?
GTR doesnt belong in this …….wheres the pics of the cruise ? Shame CA ,this article should have been written by someone with more knowledge on the subject.
Australia the country for every culture except Australian.
Its about Muscle Cars Robin, I think you will find the real cars that deserve to be in these shots are those from the Seventies……….straight off the show room floor in some cases.
No patience for those that have no knowledge of true Australian Muscle Cars…..and whats the go with the pic of the GMC Truck………..WTF ?
Matt Brogan should have written this…………..
I used to own an original VF Pacer, so I hear where you are coming from – but the GT-R has its rightful place in Aussie motoring history whether you like it or not.
Robin I never said the GTR didnt have a rightful place . Im annoyed at the the writter of this story deadicating 3/4 of the story to it. Have have you seen the event ? The best part of the day is the Cruise where the cars drive around the track……..wheres the photos ? Its not all about cars with dots on the doors,other private people from Clubs also take there cars out on the track and none of that is reported here .
He says himself he knows nothing about Australian Muscle Cars ,thats very clear.Matt Brogan has a classic Muscle Car so has a much better understanding of the category’s following .
Yes but maybe Matt didnt’ go to the event
Isn`t it funny how the Ford/Holden lovers hate the fact that the Nissan kicked their butts. The GTR was the Greatest Touring Car ever, end of story.
hahaha ,always good to have a laugh when you get out of bed,thanks for that Jon………very entertaining!
Damn I thought you had fallen off the face of the earth, one can only live in hope.
Yeah it would be; if it was Touring Car.. However; back when the GT-R was competing against the Sierras an BMWs etc the Category was known as “Group A” Racing [as shown in the Event Program Guides at the time as well as the stickers on the car]
Oh, but didn`t the GTR compete in the Australian TOURING CAR Championship and wasn`t it the winner from 1990 to 1992?
guys the GTR isnt an aussie muscle car…. this day is to celebrate the great cars we built here…. true muscle cars built in a era where you could drive what you raced…. in my opinion the GTR and ford sierra were the beginning of the end for australian motor racing! i just think there were so many great muscle cars there yesterday and some important milestones for australian muscle cars and there was nothign mentioned! and for the record…. the GTR aint a muscle car!!
Exactly Anthony………..
Give the writer a break!
He said in the article that muscle car’s are not his thing. It seems that George is simply reporting on his account of the day.
i have no dramas in giving him a break…. but seriously if he wasnt into muscle cars the big bosses should of sent someone that loved muscle cars and gave them the opportunity to write it…. nothing against george….
What is an aussie muscle car? American engine ,american body and aussie driver ;-)
Holden Red 202 and 308 are aussie, as is HEMI 265 and Ford’s inline sixes. That makes a few cars at least true aussie muscle. Even now most Yank enthusiasts would love to be able to get their hands on a Ford XR6 Turbo. Thats what urks me most about the ATCC, why do they have to use yank engines that are nothing to do with what is on the road? Acknowledge Holden dont really have a true Aussie engine option unless they turbo a V6, but the design of those V6’s is Yank anyway.
Chrysler Corporation in the US had been working since 1966 on an inline 6-cylinder engine, called the D-engine, to replace the Slant 6 (G-engine) in Dodge trucks, but abandoned the effort. Chrysler Australia wanted a new six-cylinder engine for use in the Australian Chrysler Valiant, and so Chrysler USA sent engineers to work with Chrysler Australia’s engineers to continue developing the D-engine. The first 245 cu in (4.0 L) variant was released for the 1970 model year in the VG-model Valiant.
Thats Aussie enough for me, as they all have some seppo heritage somewhere along the line. Were some of the Rambler and Jeep engines very similar to the HEMI 6 as well?
Mate, aussie is not adopted american design – aussie is designed and built in Australia.
WTF???? No R/T E49!
Shame CarAdvice
VC Commodore with the Starfire engine. Best. Aussie. Muscle. EVAR!
Especially an automatic one with aircon. Try starting off in one of those up a slight incline with the aircon going. hahahahahahaha
If the E30 M3 2.5 was allowed to run in its full homologation guise it would have won more than the one round @ Lakeside all thse years ago. As much as the GT-r was nobled to peg it back the 4 cylinder N/A was nobled quite a bit too
As for Muscle Carz GTHo’s XU-1,Charger and Group C cover that era.
Hey everyone. As a person who was at this event, and I must admit, being with the Nissan Heritage Motorsport race team, I think we have somehow lost our focus here. This report was about the Group A/C Race cars, not the whole event. I have to say, that even though this years muscle car masters was a celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Capri and the Ford GT, there were more decent Capri’s at the event than GT’s. I was actually disappointed in the turnout in the Car Club Corral. That of course, is not to take away from some of the fantastic cars that turned up.
This is a Race event, and is the most attended event on the Historic Touring car calendar. You can say what you like about the GTR, it is a touring car, and is very close in mechanical spec to a V-Spec GTR, including body panels and construction. Yes it is improved – dramatically, but is still based on the Homolgated Special, like every other Group A car was. It is and always will be the most controversial car in Australian Motorsport History. AMCM was the first time this car had been raced competitvely since it’s Bathurst win in 1992. That is what made it so popular at this meeting. It’s controversy is also what makes it the most influential and famous car in Australian Motorsport history.
It was sad not to see many Sierra’s there. It is also sad to see no mention of the HR31 of Rod Markland’s and the Turbo Bluebird of Adam Workman’s, but there is only so much room.
It’s seems we Aussies still are not over a Japanese car winning our coveted bathurst flag. We need to become better sportsmen and women, and appreciate the car for what it is. The spectators at this event certainly did.
Carolyn, most of these guys bagging the GTR and other foreign cars have probably never left the country or even their home state. Their idea of a taste of foreign culture is a Kebab after a heavy night at the pub.
Some footage from the Muscle Car Masters…..
Australian Muscle Car Masters from Marley on Vimeo.