Australian Muscle Car – July 01, 2019

T

he 1979 RepcoRoundAustraliaTrial

is regardedasthelastgreatAustralian

motoringadventure,capturingtheattention

of thegeneralpubliclikenothingsince.I

wasin myrstyearin theworkforce,and

remembertheradio’shourlynewsincludingevent

updates.Holdenfamouslyprovedthedurabilityof

therecently-releasedCommodorewiththeHDT’s

1-2-3result,withPeterBrockconsideringit ashis

nestwin.

Whenit wasannouncedthattherewasto bea

‘Retrial’to commemoratethe40thanniversary

event,I thoughtit wouldbetheadventureof

lifetime.I justhadto doit! I wasfortunateto

havegoodmateJasonAshcroftjumponboardto

sharethefunandthatleftthequestionof what

carto use.Wethrewarounda numberof ideas,

butconsiderationsincludingcost,storageand

preparationtimepointedto thelogicalchoiceof

usinga carwealreadyowned.

Manypeoplemaynotthinka genuineVC

HDT‘Brock’Commodoreto bea wisechoice,

butI couldn’tthinkof anythingbetter.I’veowned

it since 2004 andcoveredabout80,000kmin

thattime.It’scomfortableandroomy,andwhat

betterwayto payhomageto theeffortsof HDT

andBrockin the’79Trialthanto runa carbuilt

bythatcompanyandbearinghissignature.I

thinkhe’dapprove.

Despitethecarbeinga knownquantity,

thereis stillmuchpreparationrequiredforan

eventof thismagnitude.A 3.36:1diffmaybe

neforgeneraluse,butwewantedto

lowerenginerevsto bekinderto theengine

whencovering17,000kmin a month.The2.6:

diffnowttedhasachievedthatgoal.A kinked

fueltankbreatherlinenecessitatedthetank

beingremovedandthelinebeingreplaced.

Thelong-rangetankwasalreadyin thecar,but

wecannowbecondentit canbecompletely

lledallowingusto coverthoselongdistances

betweensomeoutbackservos.

Usualprecautionsincludingttingnewwheel

hil almsley i

on the Retrial – the Repco Round Oz Retrial. Here the BCOAA

identity talks us through his planning for the big event, which will

see him circumnavigate the continent in a genuine VC ‘Brock’

Commodore, no less than AMC issue #60’s cover car.

ManiacMuscle

Issue 60 NZ$9.50$10^90 ((inclnclGST)GST)
http://www.musclecarmag.com.au
8/2/12 Set for a Retrial