Top 10 Australian cars of all time

Meet the greatest motors of the antipodes

The death of the Australian motor industry has been widely proclaimed, yet the country’s love affair with the car is second to none: at its 1970s peak it was churning out close to 500,000 vehicles a year, making it the world’s 10th-biggest car producer.

Whether homegrown, built on-site by a global firm, or sent as CKD kits, Australian cars were often infused with a good dose of local personality. Throw in some native small-volume producers and men-in-sheds dreamers and, for a country of 23 million people, Australia has an impressive motoring legacy.

We’ve allowed all-comers for this list – including racing cars and prototypes – as long as they have something distinctively Australian about them. So, however familiar some may look, our top 10 are all true Aussie classics. Enjoy.

1. Shearer Steam Carriage

This vast, eight-seater 1899 ‘car’ – similar in principle to the UK’s Trevithick – is the first four-wheeled motorised vehicle confirmed to have run in Australia.

It took South Australian brothers David and John Shearer some 14 years to complete but, once it was ready, reportedly made a trouble-free 100-mile journey and was good for 15mph before it became unbearable.

Shearer Steam Carriage (cont.)

The siblings, from Mannum (about 50 miles from Adelaide), never built another car, but are said to have completed 3000 miles in the Shearer before retiring it from use.

The Sporting Car Club of South Australia restored it in the 1980s before the family donated it to Australia’s National Motor Museum at Birdwood.

When a team from the Australian NMM brought the Shearer across to the UK for the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run in 1999, the lofty conveyance took the start line banner with it.

2. Holden 48-215

Historically the most important Aussie car of all, the Holden 48-215 was the first mass-produced motor designed and built in Australia specifically to meet the country’s unique requirements.

Masterminded by former Vauxhall man Larry Hartnett, who had left the company and set up his own rival before his dream had come to fruition, the model (retrospectively dubbed the FX) was a durable monocoque powered by a two-litre straight-six.

Holden 48-215 (cont.)

Based on a discarded Chevrolet design, some 120,402 were sold over a five-year period, and the 48-215 was also the basis for what is hailed by many to be Australia’s original ute (although Ford had got there nearly 20 years earlier). The face-lifted FJ sold a further 170,000 units up to 1956.

Intriguingly, the 48-215 was originally marketed simply as a Holden, with no model designation, to evoke its local roots – before GM’s takeover in 1931.

3. Chrysler Valiant Charger R/T E49

Quicker than its Holden and Ford contemporaries to 60mph, the E49 Six Pack was introduced in 1972 and built for barely a year, with fewer than 150 leaving the factory.

It pips the E38 version in this list thanks to its more powerful 300bhp-plus 4.3-litre Hemi ‘six’ engine – complete with triple sidedraught Weber carburettors.

In fact, the E49 Charger was reckoned to have the most powerful six-cylinder engine in the world until Porsche turbocharged the 911’s 3-litre boxer motor in 1975.

Chrysler Valiant Charger R/T E49 (cont.)

Chrysler’s lowering of the diff ratio blunted outright top speed, but in recording a 0-100mph time of 14.1 seconds, the E49 proved itself to be a full second quicker than the Phase III GT-HO – and three seconds quicker than a Porsche 911S.

Ironically, the E49 didn’t win too many plaudits at Bathurst, but did enjoy phenomenal success in New Zealand.

4. Leyland P76

How can a car widely viewed as an unmitigated disaster make this list? Because the P76 was more than just a commercial catastrophe: it signified the first time that Australia’s former colonial overlords properly paid heed to what Aussies wanted – rather than simply shipping UK projects and adding a sun visor.

As a result, the Michelotti-styled machine had a boot big enough to hold a 44-gallon drum.

Leyland P76 (cont.)

Alas, despite the V8 version being made car of the year by Wheels magazine after demolishing its rivals in a comparison test – together with a decent showing on the 1976 World Cup Rally – the afflictions of Leyland in the UK seemed to have spread to its outposts.

The P76’s reputation for build quality nose-dived, with barely 18,000 being built between 1973 and ’75.

Likewise, the interesting Force 7 coupé variant never made it past 10 pre-production V variants, with 50 or so part-built cars being trashed and the huge Zetland, Sydney plant shutting for good. There was also a P76 estate, of which only one example is thought to have survived.

5. Bolwell Nagari

The Melbourne-based Bolwell brothers – Campbell and Graeme – had been producing small-volume kits for nearly a decade when they launched their first fully built car, the Ford V8-powered Nagari, in 1970.

Using Falcon underpinnings and a Lotus-style backbone chassis (Graeme Bolwell had been working for Colin Chapman in the UK before joining his brother’s company), the Nagari could be bought as a convertible or a coupé, both with glassfibre bodies.

Bolwell Nagari (cont.)

Despite looking the business and selling well at home, new legislation put the kibosh on plans to market the rapid Nagari in the US.

When production ceased in ’74, fewer than 120 5-litre Bolwells (mostly coupés) had been built. The firm then focused on industrial plastics (said to be Space Invader machines), with Campbell later returning to cars briefly with the short-lived, Golf-based Ikara.

6. 1946 Maybach Special

Arguably the most famous home-built racer in Aussie motorsport history, the Maybach Special was the legendary steed of Stan ‘Alan’s dad’ Jones – and he might have won the ’53 Australian GP in it but for a pitlane mishap.

Created by Charles Dean – whose day job was at Repco – the original body was fabricated from discarded auxiliary fuel tanks.

Nuttier, still, was the Maybach’s first motor: a 3.8-litre straight-six pulled out of a German military half-track scout car and fed by a sextet of Amal carburettors.

1946 Maybach Special (cont.)

Later uprated to a Roots-supercharged 4.2-litre Maybach engine fed by twin SU carbs – before blowers were then outlawed – its best showing came at Ardmore in 1954 where it outclassed the likes of Ken Wharton’s BRM V16 to take the win.

Dean later constructed two more Maybach specials, II being destroyed at Southport in 1954 and the W196-like III ending up being powered by a Corvette engine.

7. Holden LC Torana GTR XU-1

Many cars from the long-running Torana range were candidates for this list, including the A9X – but the competition-honed LC XU-1 remains the one to have.

Based on a second-generation Torana designed in Australia (unlike its Vauxhall Viva-based predecessor) and developed by the Holden Dealer Team, it was powered by a 160bhp triple-Stromberg 3-litre ‘186’ straight-six engine.

Holden LC Torana GTR XU-1 (cont.)

Although the LC-based incarnation never toppled the Ford Falcons at Bathurst, by the third generation of the Torana – the LJ – the XU-1 boasted 200bhp and was driven to its greatest victory by Peter Brock in 1972.

If only the captivating GTR-X development had been built in numbers: the concept used XU-1 mechanicals shrouded by a stunning glassfibre hatchback body.

8. Ford Falcon GTHO Phase III

Like the Monaro, there were plenty of legendary Falcons (the XA GT Coupé chief among them), but this one is the holy grail.

Existing solely to claim Bathurst victory for the Blue Oval, just 300 of the Phase III were built.

Its 5.75-litre Cleveland V8 – fed by a four-barrel Holley and driven through a four-speed top-loader – could hurl the car along at rev-limited speeds in excess of 140mph.

Ford Falcon GTHO Phase III (cont.)

More impressive still, the Phase III could take its 3360lb heft to 60mph in just 6.4 secs. In fact, in 1971 it was the world’s fastest four-door production saloon.

The homologation special achieved its goal when it recorded a 1-2-3 at Bathurst in 1971, Allan Moffat in the lead car – and it hasn't lost its appeal today: during the Aussie muscle car boom of 2006-’09, Phase IIIs were reported to be changing hands privately for close to AUS$1million

9. Gvang

It might seem slightly off-beam to pick a car for this list that never made it into production, but in a way the Gvang sums up the ingenuity of the Aussie industry – when it wasn't being used as a theatre of motor manufacture by overseas concerns.

The sensational 1972 concept did without a clutch or gearbox, and took power from a rear-mounted twin-cylinder steam engine.

Gvang (cont.)

Equivalent to a 3-litre petrol unit, the engine took a full five minutes to ‘brew’ and would, in theory, have been good enough to propel the aluminium-skinned car to a top speed of 200mph.

Alas, when funds ran out and government backing wasn’t forthcoming, both production and an attempt on the steam-powered Land Speed Record were abandoned.

10. Holden Monaro HT GTS 350

This nomination, after fending off a strong challenge from both HG and HK Monaros, is for one of the two principal protagonists in the Aussie muscle car homologation wars (see also: Ford Falcon).

Distinguished from its predecessor by a plastic grille, two broad stripes, bigger taillights stretching around the flank and a pair of bonnet scoops, it was powered by Chevy’s small block 350 and is rightly regarded as one of Australia’s greatest cars.

Holden Monaro HT GTS 350 (cont.)

That Aussie-built engine was a 5.7-litre V8 – fed by a Rochester Quadrajet – and was a direct response to the 5.8-litre Windsor V8 which Ford had fitted to its Ford XW Falcon GTHO Phase I.

The GTS 350’s motor was good enough to win at Mount Panorama in ’69 with Colin Bond and Tony Roberts. About 700 are thought to have been built and they remain prized today.