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Private Notes
The Phillip Island Classic is a true Festival of Motorsport, the biggest Historic motor racing event in the Southern Hemisphere. From open wheelers to touring and sports cars, there’s an array of stars and special machinery of all eras to enjoy, as the Shannons Legends of Motorsport team discovered.
The turbocharged Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth burst onto the scene in 1987 and remains an iconic car of Australian and world touring car racing from the late 1980s and early 1990s. To celebrate its 30th anniversary the Shannons Legends of Motorsport team caught up with Hall of Famers Glenn Seton and John Bowe to take a closer look at these impressive machines.
It was the car so powerful and dominant that it forced officials to change the rules of the popular Can-Am Sportscar series in North America in the early 1970s. With over 1000 horsepower and capable of nearly 400km/h, the Porsche 917/30 is one of the fastest race cars ever built, as the Shannons Legends of Motorsport team discovered with this special up-close story.
Allan Moffat is a legend of Australian motorsport and the Shannons Legends of Motorsport team has unearthed some rare, amazing vision of the four-time Bathurst winner’s preparations for the 1974 classic. Far ahead of his time, Moffat amazingly air freighted his Falcon race car to the United States for special testing in an operation dubbed ‘Project B52’; this piece is a brilliant rare gem from over 40 years ago.
Australia has a rich history and heritage in Grand Prix racing. Whether it’s drivers the ilk of Sir Jack Brabham, Alan Jones and Mark Webber or the award-winning F1 Grand Prix hosted by Adelaide and Melbourne since the mid 1980s, our nation’s history in the top
echelon of the sport is rich. But often over-looked is that a wide range of former F1 and Grand Prix race cars now call Australia home, as the Shannons Legends of Motorsport team discovers.
As far as Australian motor racing exports go, Vern Schuppan remains one of the very best. In a career highlighted by victory in the 1983 Le Mans 24 Hour winner for the Porsche works team, the South Australian went all the way to Formula 1 and the world-famous Indianapolis 500, along the way competing against some of the biggest names in the sport. The Shannons Legends of Motorsport team sat down with Schuppan to talk about his amazing career.
They were the thundering open wheeler race cars of the 1970s: Formula 5000. This brutish era of racing and these amazing machines remain celebrated parts of motorsport history across the world, particularly in Australia. The Shannons Legends of Motorsport team celebrates these V8-powered monsters with a special look back at this incredible era.
Nine-time Bathurst winner Peter Brock is a legend of Australian motorsport and the cars he drove at Mount Panorama are revered machines. He was synonymous with Mobil backed Holden Commodores and the Shannons Legends of Motorsport team takes a special, up-close look at the car he drove at Bathurst in 1993.
Dick Johnson's Greens-Tuf Ford Mustang remains one of the most famous race cars from the Queensland legend’s career. An iconic touring car of the 1980s when Australia followed worldwide Group A regulations, the Mustang was Johnson's weapon of choice in 1985 and 1986 before the arrival of his blindingly fast turbo Sierra Cosworths. The Shannons Legends of Motorsport team takes time out to look at this impressive Ford race car.
The late Frank Matich was the all-round Australian racing package. A driver, car constructor and engineering genius, his exploits in open wheeler and sports car racing landed him multiple Australian championships. The Shannons Legends of Motorsport team profiles this Aussie racing great with an up-close focus on one of his most impressive creations, the Matich SR4 with which he won the 1969 Australian Sports Car Championship.
At age 84, Bob Holden is showing no signs of slowing down. The 1966 Bathurst winner has enjoyed an amazing motorsport career that has taken him all over the globe - and he’s still racing to this very day in one of the Toyota Corollas he used to tackle Mount Panorama in the 1990s! The Shannons Legends of Motorsport team sat down with Holden to talk about his career that spans more than 50 years.
The Holden Torana A9X is one of the standout muscle cars in the history of Australian touring car racing and Allan Grice was one of the best drivers in the country to race these V8-powered Hatchbacks. The Shannons Legends of Motorsport team tells the story of one of these surviving Grice Toranas, which today is racing on in the ever-popular Heritage Touring Cars series for former Bathurst race cars.
The BMW M3 holds a special place in racing history, the 'David' that slayed 'Goliath' to claim both the Australian and World Touring Car Championships in 1987. 30 years on from its debut the Shannons Legends of Motorsport team celebrates the achievements of this mighty little 'pocket rocket'.
The Elfin Sports Cars company headed by the late Garrie Cooper was uniquely Australian. Born in the late 1950s it produced a litany of brilliant open wheel and sports cars for competition use throughout the country. The company’s thumping V8-powered sports cars of the 1970s were standouts and the Shannons Legends of Motorsport team brings into focus two of these amazing machines - the MS7 that won the ’75 Australian Championship and the ME5, both cars that continue to compete to this very day.
One of Australia’s greatest off-track motorsport exports, Malcolm Oastler headed to England in the 1980s with the goal of making it as a race driver but ended up with a career that took him to the peak of world motorsport. As a designer and engineer he helped turn Reynard into the dominators of IndyCar racing in America and worked in Formula 1 with BAR and Jaguar, but nowadays has returned to grass roots racing back home, as Shannons Legends of Motorsport discovered.
