New DVD relives the golden years of Bathurst

No other motorsport event has imbedded itself in the Australian psyche as much as the long-distance touring car race fought out every year at Mount Panorama in Bathurst, NSW.

Starting as an innovative, strictly unmodified production-car endurance event that originated at Victoria’s windswept Phillip Island circuit in 1960, the big race was eventually relocated to the Mount Panorama circuit in NSW in 1963, and has stayed there (with many name changes) ever since.

Bathurst immediately captured the imagination of enthusiasts and of course the car-makers who were keen to push their image through motor racing. Even in the very early days, manufacturers were putting funds into developing vehicles for the annual event.

The first real stars were smaller, early-1960s cars such as the Morris Mini Cooper S and Ford’s Cortina GT that dominated the headlines. In fact the Cortina became the first Bathurst special when it morphed into the purpose-built GT 500 that lined up for the 1965 race.

But that didn’t last long. In 1967 Ford campaigned its 289 V8-engined Falcon GT – a development that began as a police pursuit vehicle – and startled some sceptics by winning the race ahead of supposedly more credentialed competitors such as Alfa’s purebred GTV, or even the hitherto successful Mini Cooper S and Ford Corina GT 500.

By 1969, all stops were out, with Ford entering its now-fabled GTHO for the first time, and Holden – successfully, as it happened – wheeling out the GTS 350 version of its Monaro coupe.

The claim at the time was that sheer V8 power was what was needed to win at Bathurst.

But come 1972, and Peter Brock drove his six-cylinder XU-1 Torana to victory, beginning his legendary tally of nine Bathurst wins and demonstrating that a balance of power and agility could still win over brute force.

Of course the V8s eventually shouldered their way into the limelight again, with Ford and Holden staging mammoth battles as they sought the correct power-to-weight formula.

This resulted in cars like the 5.0-litre L34 and A9X Holden Toranas that used their combination of power and agility to confound Ford’s bigger-engined Falcon GTs.

In 1973, the regulations were changed to allow entrants a certain amount of modification under new Group C rules, meaning engines, suspensions and braking systems could be upgraded to improve reliability, speed and safety.

This further intensified the focus of the bigger manufacturers and took the cars another step away from the original, purist concept of pitting supposedly showroom-standard cars against each other.

In this titanic struggle for supremacy by Australia’s dominant car-makers, other outright-victory hopefuls such as Chrysler developed Bathurst specials such as the short, light and tight six-cylinder Valiant Charger E38 which took some attention away from the previously two-make race for outright victory.

Although the cars have changed beyond imagination from those early Armstrong 500 days, Bathurst remains a must-watch event for Australian motorsport enthusiasts. Today, the field comprises new-generation V8 Supercars with Euro brands such as Mercedes-Benz and Volvo entering the fray.

Over the years, the amount of material produced – books, documentaries, photographic essays – since those early Bathurst days has been enormous and you would hardly think there was any new material to be uncovered. But it seems that the more time passes, the more people are interested in the history of Bathurst, particularly the golden years of the 1970s.

The most recent is a new DVD Bathurst The Great Race 1970 to 1979 that has been produced by motorsport photography specialists Autopics to present enthusiasts with two hours of viewing of the way Bathurst was in the 1970s.

The DVD is available now for a price of $30 and includes “every car that started the Bathurst 500/1000 in the 1970s and also has most cars that practiced and didn't start the race.”

More than 2000 screen-size images – many of which are previously unpublished – of 660 racecars, along with descriptions of each car and each driver can be viewed on either a computer or TV. The images depict “all angles” of the cars where possible, and include candid pit and spectator photos.

Just the thing for whiling away a cold winter’s day.

For more information at autopics.com.au, or e-mail info@autopics.com.au