Top 10 classic Australian muscle cars 

We’ll come clean, this was meant to be a simple Top 10 list of the greatest Australian muscle cars, but it quickly became clear that attempting to whittle it down to just 10 would be like stuffing a sleeping bag back in its cover – there’s just too much to fit in. 

As such, we’ve split it into classic and modern – with the cut-off at 1990 – in order to shine a light on some very worthy cars that would otherwise miss out. And of course, if we’ve stuffed up and missed something, do let us know. 

Unlike our recent Top 10 Australian Cars list, which concentrated on full ranges and gave precedence to industry impact, this list is all about individual variants, cars that were the hottest things on the road in their respective eras. 

Here they are in chronological order. 

1967 Ford XR Falcon GT 

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You can’t have a greatest Australian muscle cars list without the machine that set the template. There had been fast locally-fettled cars in the years prior, but the XR Falcon GT was the first home-grown beast with eight cylinders under the bonnet. 

With 168kW/414Nm from the 4.7-litre V8, it changed the narrative that big V8s were too heavy and cumbersome to win at Bathurst, though it was a close-run thing.  

Ian Geoghegan was only 0.5sec quicker than the Alfa Romeo 1600 GTV of Kevin Bartlett in practice and after 500 miles, a pair of Alfas were still on the same lap as the two leading Falcon GTs, but the big Ford triumphed and became a legend. 

1969 Holden HT Monaro GTS350 

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A case could be made for any of the first-generation Monaros, but let’s go with the middle child, the HT GTS350. It incorporated plenty of improvements over the initial HK 327, including the larger and more powerful 224kW/515Nm 5.7-litre V8, while having the Bathurst accolades that elude the later HG. 

The latter looked unlikely, Ford’s XW GT-HO occupying five of the top six grid slots after qualifying, but after 130 laps Colin Bond and Tony Roberts in the lead Holden Dealer Team car saw the chequered flag first.  

1971 Ford XY Falcon GT-HO Phase III

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There’s nothing more that needs to be said about the mighty Phase III. The ultimate evolution of the XR GT that had appeared five years earlier, it’s the poster child for racing improving the breed. 

Ford threw the kitchen sink at its most potent sedan to keep ahead of Holden and the fruits of its labour were evident in the fact Allan Moffat’s pole time for the 1971 Bathurst 500 was 10.4 seconds quicker than his effort in the XW Phase II 12 months earlier.  

But it wasn’t just a success on the racetrack, its phenomenal performance immortalized in Mel Nichols’ iconic HO Down the Hume feature in Wheels. 

1972 Valiant Charger R/T E49 

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The E49 Charger proved that eight cylinders wasn’t a prerequisite for class-leading performance. After all, having clocked a 14.4sec quarter mile, Wheels declared the hot two-door the fastest accelerating Aussie muscle car ever – yep, beating even the Phase III. 

While the E49 eked a little extra power out of the mighty 4.3-litre straight-six – up to 225kW/441Nm – it was the installation of a four-speed gearbox that really righted the wrongs of the earlier E38.  

A lack of Bathurst success – its best of third coming in 1972 – means the E49 has never scaled the same heights as its Ford and Holden contemporaries, but it’s certainly not for a lack of potency. 

1972 Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1 

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With ever more powerful V8s having established that outright grunt was the key to Bathurst success, the Torana GTR XU-1 flipped the script once more with victory in the 1972 race. 

The sodden conditions undoubtedly helped, eventual winner Peter Brock the best of the Holdens in qualifying, 2.4sec slower than Moffat’s Phase III on pole, but it showed that light weight – the GTR XU-1 weighing just 1100kg – could match high horsepower.  

On the road this recipe was even tastier, its agility making the XU-1 a much more wieldy proposition on a tight, twisting road. 

1973 Ford XA GT Coupe RPO83 

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After The Sun-Herald’s infamous cover story put paid to the next generation of Aussie super muscle cars – including the XA GT-HO Phase IV, E55 Charger and LJ GTR XU1 V8 – Ford needed a way to get rid of leftover bits earmarked for Phase IVs. 

The solution was Regular Production Option 83, which shoehorned various bits into XA GTs. In a move that seems unfathomable today, this was all done in total secrecy and even today questions remain about what exactly constitutes RPO83. 

It’s believed 252 RPO83-optioned cars were built, 131 sedans and 121 coupes, but the actual content varied dramatically between each car. If you got lucky there would be the carburetor and extractors from the Phase III, the winged sump from the Phase IV and even rear disc brakes. 

1977 Holden LX Torana A9X 

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Of all the cars on this list, there’s no greater gulf between the race car that built the legend and the road-going version. Road A9Xs were relatively mild, but they were true homologation specials with everything engineered to make for a better race car. 

Rear disc brakes finally arrived, there was a larger 10-bolt Salisbury diff and Radial Tuned Suspension radically improved handling, but under the bonnet there was only an emissions-regulated L31 5.0-litre V8, as the race cars could use the already-homologated L34.  

As such, whereas a road-going Phase III wasn’t far removed from what Moffat drove at The Mountain, there was a world of difference between a road A9X and the car that won the 1979 Bathurst 1000 by a record six laps.  

1982 Ford XE Fairmont ESP 5.8 

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Ford’s decision to delete the V8 engine in the Falcon goes down as an all-time howler. In its defence, demand had dwindled substantially, but it handed Holden the performance high ground for a decade and forced its racing heroes into largely irrelevant imports.  

To get rid of the remaining V8 stock, it created the XE ESP, or European Sports Pack. It could be optioned on any-engined Fairmont, but the numbers at the end are very important for its inclusion on this list. 

We’re interested in the 178 examples that were built with the 5.8-litre (351ci) Cleveland, an engine that was only available with the four-speed manual. As the Fairmont designation suggests, this isn’t a road racer, but with the XE’s new coil-sprung rear end and plenty of toys (Scheel seats, power steering and windows, air-con, premium stereo and central locking) it’s a tasty cruiser that looks the part.  

1985 HDT VK Group A 

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There are a few worthy candidates when it comes 1980s Commodores, namely the original VC Brock and the wild HSV VL ‘Plastic Pig’, but the Blue Meanie is the true king, the apotheosis of Peter Perfect’s road car program.  

It was the most powerful Brock machine, the destroked 5.0-litre V8 producing 196kW/418Nm in a car that didn’t weigh a whole lot (1390kg), but while looks are subjective, we’d bet most would award it the best-looking, too. 

1986 Holden VL Calais Turbo 

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Should you have been sitting at the lights in your Blue Meanie in 1986 when a new VL Commodore rocked up next to you, however, you would’ve wanted to make very sure what variant it was. 

Not since the E49 Charger had the fastest locally-built muscle car had only six cylinders, but with the release of the VL Turbo a new era had arrived. Even in standard 150kW/296Nm guise it could give Brocky’s V8s a severe hurry-up, but it was the ease with which more could be extracted that really changed the game. 

It was far from a perfect car, but all of a sudden compressor surge and blow-off valves were as much a part of the Aussie muscle car soundtrack as the V8 rumble.