Australians have always loved their cars and ever since there were cars there were also people and businesses intent on making them go faster, look tougher and sound better. Muscle car culture arguably took off in the late 1960’s when the local manufacturers started producing V8 versions of their locally produced family cars. At that stage V8 powered cars had been available to the Australian consumer but they were only found in expensive, low volume, luxury cars. It was not until Holden, Ford and Chrysler started offering a V8 option on their economically priced family sedans that horsepower was readily available to the ‘average’ buyer.

Chrysler released the Valiant AP6, an all Australian model with an optional 273CI small block V8 in 1965. This was the first locally offered V8 and despite there being no performance option, its popularity was a sign of the shift towards more powerful cars.

Ford Falcon buyers were able to select the V8 option for the first time in 1966. They released the XR Falcon GT in 1967 with a more powerful version of the 289CI Windsor small block V8 which was sourced from the American ‘Mustang’ parts bin. Marketed as the ‘Mustang-bred Falcon’, Ford Australia were keen to cash in on the interest that was sparked by the success of the Mustang in America. An XR GT won the Bathurst 500 mile race in ’67 being driven by two men who would become legends of Australian motorsport – Harry Firth and Fred Gibson.

Holden’s answer in 1968 was to offer the new HK model with the 307CI Chev small block as an option and the new 2 door Monaro version was available with the more powerful 327CI Chev, which was a winning move as this car won the Bathurst 500 in ‘68 along with the imaginations of every young male in the country. The Australian Muscle Car scene was born and the models that followed from Holden and Ford, and Chrysler to a lesser extent, backed up their Muscle Car credibility with proven race track ability.

At this time the locally manufactured cars were quite fundamental in design and rugged in construction. Australian roads were some of the roughest in the developed world and the cars needed to be able to handle the harsh environment and be cheap and easy to repair. Due to the long distances between towns and cities and the spread of the urban environment our cars needed to be reliable and easy to service and maintain. For these reasons the push rod V8 was the king of the road. High powered, technologically advanced turbocharged, twin cam, high revving engines with tight tolerances and short maintenance schedules from the likes of Alfa Romeo, BMW, and other European brands were not designed to cope with the tough Australian conditions and therefore were prone to breaking down. When they did break down the parts were not always available and took a long time to come from across the globe.

Cars were never more affordable than in the 1970’s when the average family car cost the equivalent of about 40 weeks of the average wage. These cars sold really well and by the late 70’s there were a mountain of good second hand examples around and the parts were cheap and readily available along with lots of factory performance parts.

Australian muscle cars were also buoyed by the fact that these cars were raced in the Australian Touring Car Championship. Everyone wanted to emulate their racing heroes who mostly drove Holdens or Fords generally with big V8 engines. The strong link between the ATCC and Australias muscle car culture would continue for the next 40 years.

Images:

Chrysler Valiant AP6 Series available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/30474136@N07/ under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0. Full terms at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0.

1967 Ford XR Falcon GT Sedan available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/42220226@N07/ under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0. Full terms at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0.

1965 Mustang GT Fastback available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mustangjoe/17346880995 under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0. Full terms at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0.

1968 Holden HK Monaro GTS 327 available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/42220226@N07/ under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0. Full terms at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0.

1968 Holden HK Kingswood Sedan available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/42220226@N07/ under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0. Full terms at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0.

Muscle Car Culture in Australia – The Early Years