Try our newest merchandise
It was moist, chilly and much too early, and it virtually made me well-known for all of the unsuitable causes. Jap Creek Raceway – now generally known as Sydney Motorsport Park – was beckoning.
A darkish, brooding racetrack lined in a skinny movie of water as misty rain always leaked from the gray skies above.
I’m sitting on a tough race seat, clutching a thin-rimmed black steering wheel with fog filling the visor of a race helmet borrowed from my editor, Andrew Maclean – whose title you’ll additionally see at CarExpert as of late.
The automotive I’m sitting in is really irreplaceable.
A real icon, it’s the #76 Holden Supplier Staff (HDT) Torana A9X that raced at Bathurst in 1978 and 1979.
CarExpert can prevent 1000’s on a brand new automotive. Click on right here to get an incredible deal.
I can’t comprise my pleasure to drive a automotive that had sat throughout from its sister automotive, the #05 of Peter Brock – one of the dominant race automobiles in Australian motorsport historical past.
Brock gained the Bathurst 1000 twice in an A9X – the final time, in 1979, famously by a staggering six laps, after setting the quickest time in his last lap round Mount Panorama, in maybe the best efficiency ever seen in The Nice Race.
Is six laps a lot? Nicely sure, given the lap at Bathurst is simply over 6km lengthy…
The Torana A9X is a legend, however the HDT A9X is the top of the A9X set. They merely don’t come any higher.
The #76 was the second HDT automotive. Race driver Charlie O’Brien famously crashed it into the wall at Bathurst in 1978, however by the point I received my arms on it, the late, nice Jason Richards was working it in Muscle Automotive Masters.
My first automotive was a V8 Holden Commodore, however the privilege, honour and duty of driving a real piece of historical past was each salivating and considerably daunting.
Jase wanted it again – and, properly, if I binned the factor, I’d be
The automotive later offered for near $1 million, following rumours of $2 million being provided for an additional #05 automotive.
That’s how essential these automobiles are to Australia’s motor racing historical past, and to passionate rev-heads like me who grew up on HDT, sizzling Holdens and a ferocious hatred of all issues Ford.
It was an unlimited duty, layered on by the rain. Oh, and slick tyres, and a 2:60-to-one Detroit Locker diff.
That’s proper, a younger journalist within the age of good differentials, digital failsafes and – frankly – significantly better tyre and brake tech was about to be let free in an historical, priceless conflict horse. On a moist racetrack.
The A9X was uncooked. I imply, uncooked. As a race automotive, it ran a 780cfm Holley carb, and the hatchback physique was chosen so HDT might match wider rear tyres for the monitor.
The inside nonetheless had carpet and a touch with wonderful racing dials, traditional white-on-black, and the race seat was bolstered however had much less grip on me than a brand-new HSV highway automotive on the time.
There was a protracted, standard, chromed shift lever capped by an oddly white cue ball knob, which seemed misplaced at midnight, sinister cabin.
The passenger seat was road-car inventory, which means flat and broad, behind a glove field lid signed by the legendary Harry Firth – the previous Holden race boss who plucked a younger Brock out of obscurity for the workforce in 1969 – and the #76 automotive’s former custodian, 1983 Bathurst winner John Harvey.
In comparison with the plastic and leather-based of recent automobiles – and now vivid touchscreens and ambient lighting – the A9X was steampunk, industrial. It was heavy, metal, and uncooked, old style fire-breathing energy, again when you would make grunt anyway you knew how.
“Holy shit” I feel as I turned the A9X’s ignition key (sure, it had a turnkey, not a flowery starter button), and the 5.0-litre Holden V8 rumbles to life. What a sound to enhance what’s in entrance of me: my thoughts now is aware of that is actual.
“You recognize the circuit, proper?” requested the workforce boss earlier than I trundled out. I had by no means pushed it. “Sure, after all,” I replied. No person was taking this second away from me.
The three pedals are heavy. I put it into first to maneuver ahead. However I don’t. I stall it like a 16-year-old does the primary time they’re allowed to throw the L-plates on mum and pa’s automotive. The blokes within the storage are chuckling. Bastards.
Second time, I get it achieved – hopefully that’s the one subject as I get to know this well-known Australian.
Now it was time to not appear to be an fool (once more) by driving too sluggish or too quick and binning it.
I didn’t wish to appear to be they’d lent a Ducati to my mum, however I additionally didn’t wish to put my title on the map by burying an HDT icon right into a wall. Certain, it’s repairable, however no – that’s simply not on.
As I tip-toe across the moist, quick and undulating format – take a look at that slippery, shiny floor within the pics – I get a tad extra assured. Only a tad. However that’s tempered by the wheelspin in second, third and fourth alongside the principle straight.
This factor wants Brock heroics, and his driving talent was lacking from my DNA. The steering is heavy; the steering wheel itself is sort of giant, to offer the required leverage as there’s no energy steering.
Energy? Nicely, there’s a lot, however formally it was round 400hp (300kW) – and greater than I might deal with regardless of the race-tuned Torana chassis.
However, man and machine bonded after a handful of laps, earlier than the ultimate run virtually made me well-known.
As I ventured down the still-wet fundamental straight, then negotiated the lengthy left-hander that leads as much as Flip 2, I dropped – I feel – a wheel onto the white shiny kerbing paint on the surface of the monitor.
In a flash, I’m heading backwards – nonetheless with a little bit of tempo – and my thoughts says “cease the automotive”. Brake. Clutch in. Silence. My thoughts rushes – what did I do? Did I hit something? Not a smudge, or a dint – only a smirk on my face.
I simply received away with it. So I believed, “Rattling I hope the photographer received it!”. Sadly not.
I enterprise again, figuring out that I’ve pushed the envelope sufficient to have the ability to say I had a go, however I’m in a position to return this legendary automotive again to Richards – who’d raced it the earlier weekend – intact.
By no means, ever have I pushed a automotive in circumstances so daunting. I imply, it appeared extra forgivable to trash an unique supercar than bin a Bathurst-winning HDT A9X.
However you’ve received to say sure to these things, as a result of it by no means comes up once more.
That day got here from an odd mixture. Lexus needed to point out off its ISF Security Automotive, so it put the idea collectively primarily based on each automobiles having 5.0-litre V8s.
A tenuous hyperlink, however one I’m glad was made. I jumped into the ISF after the A9X, and it felt like driving a supersonic jet after using an almighty medieval catapult. The grip and the facility supply had been incomparable, due to the Japanese automotive’s trendy highway tyres, energy steering, fuel-injection, and extra.
But there’s one factor it couldn’t match: the pure, unadulterated connectedness and engagement of the Holden. It’s why it was so successful: it impressed confidence in an period of big-bore muscle automobiles, enabling Brock, Harvey, and Jim Richards to dominate Aussie touring automotive racing within the late Nineteen Seventies.
Come 2025, and it’s the ISF that’s lengthy gone and we’re now farewelling considerably of a collector automotive as the ultimate model of the IS500 – not offered right here – rolls off the manufacturing line in Japan later this 12 months.
Satirically, a by-product of its 5.0-litre V8 shall be on the Supercars grid in 2026, competing within the modern-day equal of the Australian championship gained by the A9X a number of occasions.
The Bathurst 1000 takes place this weekend, sadly with out a Holden in sight after Normal Motors retired the homegrown model in 2020 – earlier than its last win at The Mountain in 2022.
But Lexus’ mother or father firm Toyota shall be there in 2026 with its Supra, as Australia’s most well-known motor race rolls round as soon as once more, constructing extra legends within the course of.
Even when none could ever turn into as iconic as Brock and the #76 HDT A9X.
