First published in the November 2007 issue of Street Machine

Peter Brock wooed the crowds at the 2005 Goodwood Festival of Speed in his big-banger VK Group C racer. He enthralled them again in 2006 with exuberant opposite-lock slides in the FX sedan at the Goodwood Revival, just one week before his death. The Brock name and his famous race cars were welcome fixtures at the aristocratic Goodwood events.

For the 2007 Festival of Speed, organisers were keen to have another of Brock’s iconic Aussie brutes at the world famous event and invited the Bowden family to bring Brock’s immaculately presented 1978 Torana A9X.

This car comprehensively hosed the 1978 field, winning both the ATCC and the Championship of Makes (Endurance Championship). That included the Sandown 400 and the Bathurst 1000, where the brawny hatchback took pole and slashed a massive 13 minutes off Moffat’s 1977 race-winning time. Such dominance is a compelling reason to acclaim the flared and spoilered hatchback as the greatest Group C racer of all time.

Shipping an irreplaceable piece of Australian motor racing history from Brisbane to Sussex in the south of England is no small undertaking and the Bowdens needed to have the 05 Torana prepared and loaded into a secure container two months prior to the Festival! Fortunately the Goodwood organisers have 15 years’ experience in shipping priceless machinery all over the globe and provided excellent assistance with logistics — including clearing the car through UK customs, transporting the container to the venue, then unloading and even cleaning the car.

Rather than simply display an iconic race car as many owners do, Dan Bowden, a racer of some note, pedalled the bellowing hatchback up the challenging hillclimb circuit.

“The circuit is short but fast and quite daunting — it’s only a lane and a bit wide. I had six runs in total, with the first few being fairly tentative,” he said.

Understandable, considering Dan had never previously driven the car and was mindful of the fact that, down the years, more than a few over-exuberant drivers have written off their motoring masterpieces.

Once familiarised, Dan decided to have a red-hot go and was pleasantly surprised by the HDT Torana’s behaviour. “Unlike most of the other historic race cars I’ve driven, it didn’t do anything silly. It handled, stopped and went beautifully. It was fantastic!”

On the advice of folk familiar with the Goodwood circuit, the twin-Webered 308 was tuned for maximum bottom end.

“At the top of the straight, I was flat-out in fourth,” Dan said. “In the Torana that’s flying! At that speed, the double-stacked hay bales makes it feel like you’re driving through a hay tunnel.”

Dan was mindful of the fact that more than a few drivers have written off motoring masterpieces

Crowds gathered on the start line every time the 400hp V8 bellowed into life and to their rapturous applause, Dan left the line with the rear tyres well and truly ablaze — who’d have thought that Goodwood’s stiff upper lip, toffy motoring types would appreciate a good, solid smoky burnout. Hmmm, maybe V8 grunt is the universal language.

That said, among the motorsport elite at the event, it’d be understandable for the Aussie-designed and built hatch to be viewed as somewhat of an oddity.

“It was just the opposite,” Dan said. “Most people knew what the car was, as well as its significance.” One of the commentators even noted that Peter Brock’s A9X Torana was his favourite car at the event.

It’s obvious that Brocky was quite the international icon.

“All the racers knew who he was and held him in very high regard,” Dan said.

One of the commentators even noted that Peter Brock’s A9X Torana was his favourite car at the event

Even those who were not familiar with the car still loved the fact that it was V8-powered and that it ran twin downdraught Webers. It seems that Holden’s muscle-bound hatch is as popular overseas as it is here at home, though many apparently thought it was some kind of Vauxhall.

The Bowden guys had a whale of a time at Goodwood and couldn’t speak highly enough of the event organisers.

GARDEN PARTY

If you love automobile memorabilia, then you’ll love the Goodwood Festival of Speed, hosted annually by the Earl of March at his 5260-hectare estate in Sussex. Often referred to as the Garden Party of the Gods, it’s a three-day smorgasbord of historic and current motor racing machinery, with plenty of famous rides. Some simply display their cars in the concours d’elegance, while others prefer to compete on the narrow 1.9km hillclimb that normally serves as the stately mansion’s front driveway.

Competing is by invitation only and making up the mix are F1 cars, Le Mans winners, touring cars, dragsters, salt racers and at least one example of every supercar ever built — plus just about every other type of automotive machinery.