Five members of an extended family racing in one competitive class makes for serious rivalry – and some damn good fun!

A driver being supported by his or her family is a common sight at race meetings. The partner and kids in the pit area between races or sitting in the grandstand while the drivers are out strutting their stuff on the track. But a much less common sight is when several members of a family all go racing together, in their own cars, in the same class.

Back in 2004, just prior to what would be the second season of Central Muscle Cars, I got an email from Andrew Sinclair. Andrew and his brother-in-law Paul Urquhart wanted to come and do a bit of racing with CMC. They’d both been involved with the Production Muscle Car series, based in Pukekohe, but wanted to race on a few different tracks south of the Bombays.

Andrew was racing a VK Commodore at the time, painted to look like the 1986 Mobil car of Peter Brock, while Urquhart had a green XE Falcon, which carried a colour scheme replicating Dick Johnson’s infamous Bathurst livery of 1983, which blasted its way through the scenery in that year’s Top Ten Shootout.

Both Andrew’s and Paul’s cars fitted the CMC Group 2 regulations, and the 2004/’05 CMC Group 2 championship turned into a battle between these two, with Paul eventually coming out on top. (more…)

Clarke Hopkins’s Torana blurs the line between show car and race car, but that doesn’t mean it’s all show and no go.

One of the driving factors (excuse the pun) behind car modification is that we are all looking for different things from our vehicles.

For some, the ultimate goal is for a car to be as fast as possible in a straight line. Others aim to turn as many heads as possible, while a select few attempt to defy the laws of physics by raising or lower their cars as much as possible.

Clarke Hopkins, however, was torn. As a result, he built a race car. He’s also ended up with a show car. It’s just that in Clarke’s case, both cars are in the one package.

Right Time, Right Place (more…)

It’s hard to imagine now, but when the General Motors styling department was carving out the shape for its first true pony car, the Chevrolet Camaro, the company wasn’t happy with the end result. GM’s concerns over the first generation Camaro stemmed from the unexpected success of Ford’s Mustang, which was first released in 1964. Ford’s own projected sales for the Mustang were just 100,000 units in the first 12 months, but such was the demand for the car that more than 20,000 orders were taken on the day it was released, and nearly half a million Mustangs were sold within a year.

To cash in on the new pony car market created by the Mustang, GM fast-tracked its own version, eventually named the Camaro. But in an effort to control costs and shorten development time, it would have to share a platform with the next generation Nova, due for release in 1968, which brought about several compromises for the Camaro designers to overcome. The most notable of these was the height of the cowl and length of the bonnet.

Despite those handicaps the first generation Camaro, which debuted in September 1966, was generally considered a styling victory. GM’s designers brilliantly disguised their constraints with a combination of perfectly executed swoopy lines and curves, and the result was a massive success in every sense.

For the 1967 model year General Motors sold 221,000 Camaros, compared with the market-leading Mustang’s 337,000. (more…)

40th NZDRA Nationals: Paul Stubber, an Aussie whos come over to New Zealand to compete in the Central Muscle Car Series with his Camaro. Paul joined the Kiwis at Eastern Creek for the Aussie Muscle car Masters and then competed against the CMC cars in the Trans Tasman Challenge. We catch up with Paul while competing at Pukekohe last weekend to check out his SS Camaro Muscle car.
Central Muscle Cars: Repairing the 3 CMC cars of Mandy Sinclair, Shane Johnson and Bruce Kett who all but wrote their cars off in a huge crash at the Aussie Muscle car Masters. The team from Moselle Panel and Paint offered to do it for free. This is the result.
NZDRA: The 09/2010 NZDRA Championship series began at Fram Autolight Dragway. We check out a Super Sedan Impala, and talk to Tony Christianson competing in his Altered 355ci,
Drag Race cams: try using racecams on a 250mph top alcohol drag car. If it looks like this, whats John Neilan feeling at the wheel. Also inside Wayne Grimmers Top Street Barracuda and Sam Levine’s Plymouth Duster.

Central Muscle Cars race 4 from Eastern Creek. Classic muscle cars including the Pinepac Mustang, GIO Walkinshaw Commodore, Falcon XC Cobra and VH Commodore. Plus a minter split-window Chevrolet Corvette from 1963

Central Muscle Cars race 4 from Eastern Creek. Classic muscle cars including the Pinepac Mustang, GIO Walkinshaw Commodore, Falcon XC Cobra and VH Commodore. Plus a minter split-window Chevrolet Corvette from 1963

It’s Chevrolet Corvette nirvana with this 1969 big block Corvette race car and a 1965 Corvette street muscle car. Also, we travel to Eastern Creek for the 4th annual Australian Muscle Car Masters to watch some of the most notable historic muscle cars in Aussie motor racing history battle it out once more.

It’s Chevrolet Corvette nirvana with this 1969 big block Corvette race car and a 1965 Corvette street muscle car. Also, we travel to Eastern Creek for the 4th annual Australian Muscle Car Masters to watch some of the most notable historic muscle cars in Aussie motor racing history battle it out once more.