For years, my mates Stewart and Ross Perry and I have dreamed about getting our classic Aussie muscle cars together and making a pilgrimage from Melbourne to Bathurst, NSW, home of the iconic Mount Panorama race circuit that cemented these cars in Australian folklore in the 1970s. Happily, in October 2023, the Bathurst Light Car Club’s Speed Weekend presented us with the perfect opportunity to make that dream a reality.

First published in the September 2024 issue of Street Machine

Each year, the BLCC’s Speed Weekend offers regular punters the opportunity to race on the famous track, perfectly encapsulating the spirit of true ‘road car’-style 70s touring cars. This suited our street cars and racing budgets perfectly, and it was refreshingly cheap to enter, too!

I’ve known brothers Stewart and Ross since high school. Like me, they’ve each got a few classic cars, and we’ve always loved getting them out for memorable trips that reach a bit further than your average Sunday cruise. And while we don’t race for sheep stations, we each enjoy strapping on a helmet and giving our rides some stick on a closed course a few times a year – after all, these brothers are responsible for the annual Retrospeed Wilby Park Sprints!

A genuine XB GT was Stewart’s weapon of choice for our adventure to Bathurst. It’s a neat car – and a high-miler, with many big trips under its belt, including a Perth expedition across the Nullarbor, a Tassie tour, countless east coast adventures, and plenty of track events along the way in the 20 years Stewart has owned it.

My own Torana hatch (SM, Sep ’23) is the XB’s opposite in a number of ways. It started with pretty much zero pedigree as a garden-variety UC Sunbird and has only recently hit the road after I’d spent eight years giving it a serious redevelopment – and an LX-style makeover – for this exact type of use. This trip would be the farthest it had been from home!

Bathurst can be reached from our home base of Melbourne in a day, but we decided to take a week off work to take our time following the coast north, with plenty of detours via forgotten towns and any curvy lines on the map that took our fancy – as long as we could find barbecue fuel along the way (the unfashionable drink of choice for our V8-powered rides).

From Melbourne, we chose a twisty route through the Dandenong Ranges to get the journey underway. Across the rolling hills of Gippsland, a spanner was thrown into the works when a wheel bearing noise developed on the Falcon. Not the biggest deal for a few handy enthusiasts, though, and we swapped one bearing outside an auto store. The problem was that it was hard to tell which one was complaining, and we obviously picked the wrong one, as the problem persisted. Stewart guided the Falcon back home so he could swap the remainder, eventually finding the culprit to be one of the rears.

Meanwhile, Ross and I went two-up in the Torana and continued on our way. We zigged and zagged up the beautiful Sapphire Coast in NSW, stopping along the way for a swim or two at idyllic beaches and rock pools, some scenic walks along coastal cliff faces, and a few unplanned breaks at breweries. Not to mention some great bakery pies – the kind you only get once you leave the big smoke. The Tathra Hotel & Brewery (and its Black Whale Stout on tap) at sunset was a favourite in this area, and further north, the waterfalls and hikes of the Illawarra were well worth getting the car dirty on the access roads.

While in the area, it would have been rude to not dash up the super-tight Macquarie Pass on the way to visit Jeff Micklem’s shed in Bowral, made famous by his Home Built By Jeff YouTube channel. After Ross and I checked out Jeff’s awesome V8 ‘Alfarrari’ project car, Stewart caught up with us in the Falcon just north of Wollongong, and we headed off for a much-needed brew.

We ticked off a requisite drive over the Sea Cliff Bridge and up through the Royal National Park before cutting west to finish our day exploring the Blue Mountains. We spent a damp night in Katoomba, keeping warm with some Mountain Culture beers.

The next morning, the windy cuttings of Putty Road were awoken by our roaring V8s as we made our way to Broke in the Hunter Valley, where we spent the afternoon exploring some of what the region has to offer. From there, we headed west to roll down Bylong Valley Way and on to Bathurst.

Because of the flat landscape that surrounds it, Mount Panorama gives one the impression of being on top of the world, and after such a big build-up, with all those years in the shed and all those miles covered in the previous few days, it was an intoxicating feeling for all three of us. I felt like Burt Munro arriving at the salt flats in ‘The World’s Fastest Indian’, knowing that we were on the hallowed ground that played such a huge part in forming the enduring passion for our hobby.

Just doing a recon of the circuit at road speed was surreal – and daunting! You’ve heard it before, but it’s a lot steeper in real life than it looks on TV. The blind corners, crazy camber and elevation changes made it hard to fathom how the pros wrestled big cars at full pace there while rubbing door handles.

The 2023 Speed Weekend began with the Supersprint on the Saturday, but our event was Sunday’s Mountain Straight Hillclimb: one car at a time from the straight to McPhillamy Park. While the BLCC runs a tight ship, the number of entries meant only three runs per car for the day. For me, it was absolute heaven; the Torana felt perfectly composed and thrillingly fast through the aggressive slopes and curls of the breathtaking track. Once you got some pace, it became apparent how little room for error there was, with concrete walls right at the edge of the tarmac. The biggest challenge was committing to the blind crests and corners at speed; to be quick, you had to trust what you remembered was next, even though you couldn’t see it. I was the quickest of four entered Toranas, but a few local competitors in well-prepped Commodores were multiple seconds ahead!

Carrying more weight, with less power and rubber on the road, the Falcon was never going to match the Torana up the hill. It’s much more of a grand tourer, with some basic mods like Koni shocks and Whiteline sway-bars. Ross beat Stewart by a fraction in Stewart’s own car, which he was chuffed about. Being a power-steered car, the boys reported that the big Falcon was a bit lacking in the steering feel department, but they had a cracker day and were absolutely thrilled with how the car performed.

Despite some niggling concerns (and comments from naysayers) about the availability of LPG, the Torana never dropped below half a tank for our entire journey! And on the road, both cars were adept at covering long distances quickly and comfortably. The engines in our trusty steeds were super-tractable, with plenty of performance on tap, complemented by intelligent gearing, with both cars running versions of the venerable Tremec TKO five-speed. They’ve also had some road-holding upgrades, along with simple modern amenities like Bluetooth stereos and improved insulation, and offered legitimately cost-effective motoring on LPG, roughly equivalent to a soulless late-model Camry.

It was a testament to both cars that they offered camping practicality, competence on twisty roads, and performance on-track, and once racing finished, they delivered long-distance comfort as we bombed the highway back home to Melbourne, ready for work the next morning.

This year’s Speed Weekend is set for 30 November and 1 December, so if you’re keen to put yourself and your ride to the test around the world’s best race track, visit bathurstlightcarclub.com.au for more information.

The road trip:

1. From Melbourne, we headed east to take the coast road up into NSW. A few hours from home, we found the Wairewa Trestle Rail Bridge in the Gippsland Lakes region. Built in 1914, it has been ravaged by bushfires but remains an impressive sight.

2. The GT at Audley Weir in the Royal National Park, just south of Sydney.

3. Stewart’s XB came down with a squeaky wheel bearing on day one, and after a car-park job on the front right, he opted to duck back home and replace the other three, just to be sure.

4. With fresh wheel bearings in the XB, Stewart was suitably thirsty after the long drive to rejoin us in Bulli.

5. The Sapphire Coast has to be one of the most spectacular areas of Australia, and you certainly don’t need a 4WD to see it.

6. We stopped to visit YouTuber Jeff Micklem in Bowral. Jeff has turned out some cracker cars from his modest work shed, including his Ferrari V8-powered Alfa 105. Jeff does everything himself, including mechanical work, fabrication, trim, paint and panel.

7. While Stewart took the Falcon back home to sort its wheel-bearing issues, Ross and I continued along the scenic route in the hatch, including some unplanned dirt roads. Not too many Street Machine cover cars see this kind of use!

8. On cold mornings, voltage drop demanded a few jump-starts for my Torana during the trip.

9. My Torry is thrust along by a 500hp, 383ci Holden stroker, backed by a five-speed TKO 600 ’box and full-floating, 3.9:1-geared BorgWarner 75 diff. Along with plenty of chassis and suspension work, as well as weight reduction, it all makes for a car that looks like an LX A9X but it drives a hell of a lot better than one.

10. Stewart’s XB sports a 2V alloy-headed 351ci Clevo, producing about 400hp, along with a TKO 500 five-speed, 3.7:1 Truetrac 9in, and mild suspension improvements throughout.

11. The Torana hatchback becomes its own hard-floored tent via the Hatch Hutch accessory. You can strap down a lot of camping equipment in the back, while still having space to stow the sunroof under the false floor. The jungle gym does have to be unbolted to sleep in the back, though.