The current Monaro's also sold in the States as a Pontiac GTO, I think.
Back in t'owd days - about 30 years ago - there were some really heavy duty pieces of kit from Oz. The Great Race down there was the Bathurst 500, a mad saloon car race around the side of a ruddy great mountain in NSW. The circuit is something like a cross between a goat-track and a roller-coaster, with all sorts of crests, blind bends, sudden drops and the odd implausibly long straight - it's quick and bloody frightening to watch races from there!
Holden and Ford both wanted to win it, because it was the key to a big sector of the market - and 'cos it was run to production-based saloon car they had to sell some pretty outlandish kit to homologate it for racing.
Ford concentrated on the Falcon, which was about the size of a Granada here, but had a range of wacky engines up to a 350ci (5.7l) full-blooded Mustang-based V8. This was a genuine 150mph four-door family saloon, when you think that your average Eurobox was barely good for the ton at that point..... there's a wonderful early-70s pic of one of them hurtling through the outback at an obscene speed, a great image of Aussie motoring.
Holden's answer to this was the Torana XU-1, which was effectively a Vauxhall Viva HB (call it 1200cc in Britain!) with a ruddy great 3.3l straight-six in it, the thinking being that a slightly smaller and nimbler car than the Falcon might be the thing to have round the Mountain...
in time of course the Torana grew up and got a slightly bigger body.... and a 5.7 V8 ;)
Aussie touring car racing is still mad, five-litre Ford Falcons vs Holden Commodores, driver rivalries that have been running for 30-odd years, and plenty of paint-trading.
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Back in t'owd days - about 30 years ago - there were some really heavy duty pieces of kit from Oz. The Great Race down there was the Bathurst 500, a mad saloon car race around the side of a ruddy great mountain in NSW. The circuit is something like a cross between a goat-track and a roller-coaster, with all sorts of crests, blind bends, sudden drops and the odd implausibly long straight - it's quick and bloody frightening to watch races from there!
Holden and Ford both wanted to win it, because it was the key to a big sector of the market - and 'cos it was run to production-based saloon car they had to sell some pretty outlandish kit to homologate it for racing.
Ford concentrated on the Falcon, which was about the size of a Granada here, but had a range of wacky engines up to a 350ci (5.7l) full-blooded Mustang-based V8. This was a genuine 150mph four-door family saloon, when you think that your average Eurobox was barely good for the ton at that point..... there's a wonderful early-70s pic of one of them hurtling through the outback at an obscene speed, a great image of Aussie motoring.
Holden's answer to this was the Torana XU-1, which was effectively a Vauxhall Viva HB (call it 1200cc in Britain!) with a ruddy great 3.3l straight-six in it, the thinking being that a slightly smaller and nimbler car than the Falcon might be the thing to have round the Mountain...
in time of course the Torana grew up and got a slightly bigger body.... and a 5.7 V8 ;)
Aussie touring car racing is still mad, five-litre Ford Falcons vs Holden Commodores, driver rivalries that have been running for 30-odd years, and plenty of paint-trading.