In recent year, John Smailes has become Australia’s most prolific author of motor sport books. His first, in 2018, was Climbing the Mountain, Allan Moffat’s autobiography. Then came Race Across the World: the story of the 1968 London-Sydney Marathon; Mount Panorama, our greatest race circuit; and Speed Kings, Australians and New Zealanders at the Indy […]
John Zachary DeLorean
It’s now over 40 years since my first and only encounter with the controversial John Zachary DeLorean, father of the famous eponymous gullwing sports car. In February 1981, having organised to attend the Arizona launch of GM’s new ‘import buster’ J-car (the front-drive Holden Camira), a contact learned that Delorean planned the first public showing […]
1971 Ford Falcon XY GTHO Phase III
Review by Peter Robinson I first became aware of Ross Vasse reading Survivor Car magazine. It quickly became apparent that Vasse, who produces the new-ish title, was also working on a book devoted entirely to the legendary Ford Falcon GT HO Phase 111. A few months later, my old Wheels magazine colleague Mel Nichols revealed […]
The Holden HK HT HG Story
This truly is a must-have book for anyone who owns or, especially, is restoring any model from Holden’s 1968-1971 HK-HT-HG range. Dr Norm Darwin’s latest Holden tome ($65) includes (almost) everything you could conceivably want to know about the models.
The SEAFORTH Grand Parade
Book Review by Hugh King (Chairman, AMHF) Bruce Polain has a sharp sense of what matters most to the older motor enthusiast. He not only conceived and gave life to a very special happening forty years ago but he skilfully made it seem like pure serendipity at the time. And now he has brought it […]
On the Targa with the Maestro
On learning that 88-year-old Nino Vaccarella died on September 23, I smiled quietly to myself. No, I’m not callous. I smiled because I was instantly transported back to that March day in early 1992 when Nino and I drove the Targa Florio course. If there has been a better day as a motoring journalist, I […]
The Ford Ghia Focus
Directly opposite my desk, sitting atop my model cabinet, is a voluptuous one-tenth scale clay model of an open sports car. It’s a daily reminder of a unique concept car about which on first sighting Giorgetto Giugiaro said, “it is not a car, it is a piece of art.” This is the Focus before the Focus. […]
Museums of India
THE MOTOR COLLECTIONS AND MUSEUMS OF INDIA [Firstly, a note from our Chairman about this special contribution: I met Kooverji and some members of the Classic Drivers Group in Mumbai, in March 2018 and we have been corresponding and Zooming since that fortunate morning. He was our first ‘Global Correspondent’ and his first letter on […]
Vale AMHF Ambassador Paul Barratt AO
Our first AMHF Ambassador, Paul Barratt AO, has passed away at age 77 in a nursing home in Armidale NSW. ABC News marked his life …
