Australia has a long history of enterprising maniacs attempting to build the definitive Australian sports car. A few – such as the Bolwell brothers and their brutal Ford-powered Nagari and the Holden V8-powered Giocattolo – found some success, but many more were stillborn,  including Holden’s own Torana-based GTR-X. Another less well-known, Torana-based could-have-been was the Recaro Mystere.

The Mystere was dreamed up by journo Rob Luck and the then-head of Recaro’s Australian arm, David Bones. The concept was to create an exotic coupe based on a platform that was already built to cope with Australian driving conditions, would be readily serviceable at any Holden dealer and offered plenty of performance. Holden’s LX Torana hatch fitted the bill, but the trick would be to disguise the car’s heritage.

Enter designer Peter Arcardipane, who started his career with General Motors, before moving to Ford, where he designed the Concorde – a wild Falcon panel van showcar. The Concorde nosecone was so striking that it was incorporated into the Mad Max Interceptor. Arcadipane soon went freelance and was snapped up by Recaro to design the Mystere. Arcardipane’s design was no mere bodykit, with the tail sliced off by a massive 355mm. A wedge-shaped nosecone was added at the front, blended into the boxed guards. 

Engine-wise, the car was identical to a normal 5.0-litre Torana, but with the presumably improved aerodynamics, the makers claimed an extra 25km/h in top speed. Underneath, the Mystere ran shortened springs, Bilstein shocks, big sway bars and 8×13 and 9x13in rims. Inside, the Mystere offered luxuries that Torana drivers could have only dreamed off – Recaro’s top-shelf seats, an AM/FM radio cassette player, electric windows and air conditioning. 

The Mystere debuted at the 1977 Sydney International Motor Show to great acclaim and Recaro announced that the car would indeed go into production. The ask? Up to $17,500 depending on options – a big ask back when a stock 5.0-litre Torana hatch cost $8500. 

Despite the hype, the prototype remained the one-and-only Mystere ever built. Holden dropping the V8 option from the Torana line was bad news for the project, and when Bob Roman took control of Recaro at the end of 1977, the car was sold. “The car was later sold to someone in Queensland and that was the last I heard of it,” recalls Bob today. And was the Mystere actually destined for production? “I think so,” says Bob. “At that time we were all very interested exploring the possibility of building a limited number of high performance cars. The Australian Standards were not so well-documented as they are today, so we had a lovely time experimenting in those days.”