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Story by Stewart Perry // Photography by Ross Perry
You’re looking at cars from Australia’s marvellously eclectic Heritage Touring Car Series, which travels the country during the year, bringing a diverse and nostalgic field to race tracks.
There is something for almost everyone here: large and small, Aussie, European and Japanese. Throaty V8 Ford Falcons, Holden Toranas and Commodores slug it out against a plethora of BMWs, Jags, Sierra Cosworths, Mazda RX7s, Nissan Skylines and more. All participating cars have genuine historical significance, too—the series is limited to those with a period race history in their class, and maintained faithfully in period livery.
One of the most spectacular classes has to be the “Big Bangers”. Australia’s Group C category gained its nickname from the promotional campaign for the 1984 James Hardie 1000 “The Last of the Big Bangers”—heralding the final Bathurst race for a division that had been a staple since 1973.
Here at the recent Phillip Island Classic, the Big Bangers shared the spotlight with their Group A successors, whose heyday spanned the years 1985-1992. For fans of these machines, it was like having all of their favorites on-track at the same time.
try this… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCeF-bZK684
and another one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXPEJVHsi_k
We have fun down under too…
No, it’s not the same thing. Touring Car Masters are NOT historic or original racing cars. And they don’t run at these events. They do however support the V8 Supercars on a regular basis.
The Cars in this article are Groups C & A. The real Original racing cars.
You’ll find lots of incar footage on Youtube.
You can occasionally see it on TV before a V8 Supercar event, but the rights to the series was bought by FOX, so many people don’t get to see them anymore…