3 Most Rare Australian Cars That Will Blow Your Mind!

I nearly bought the SR3 in the 1990's. But didn't quite have enough to purchase it.

His name is pronounced Mat Itch………

The torana looks like a Chevy Nova

The Holden V8 was a family car engine. Nothing special at all. The Gp A engine was a slightly hotrodded homolgation version for Touring Car racing.
The cars were quite fast and also very twitchy as they were so short. There had been a couple of Alfa GTVs raced as Sports Sedans with Chevs in them. So the idea was far from new. Still at least two of those around
The SR4 was a very competitive car in the period BUT there was also the Elfins who made more cars that were semi budget friendly. Using the Repco Holden V8. And the MS7 was a alloy monocoque car. I have seen both up close and seen them on track and the Elfin to me was the better car.
Most of what I watched re XU1s is plain wrong. And waffling about LCs showing pics of LJ and even the larger LH is stupid.
Yes XU1s and their base model cars were quick. But in reality a bloody awfull car with the seat in one place, the steering wheel in another and the pedals in a third.And the 2 doors you had to drive with your right should hunched up to keep the belt on your shoulder.. The cars were rehashed Vauxhall Vivas, the 4s simply were. The 6s had a far stronger 'chassis' under the floor and got far heavier fron chassis and suspension. Weight was about 1100kilos. Plus any extras.
Very narrow gutted, rode terribly and were Wheels Lemon of the year. Every car with that award was a lemon. Though Torana better than many.
I know all this because I raced various Toranas for over 40 years. Recently finally a Torana Free zone after 40+ years.
For a racecar they had reasonable power to weight, handling was ,,,, well ok. Being so narrow they did not push a lot of air. Braking was for the period ok,, though using later Holden brakes, a bolt on gave them decent brakes. That being raced as a modded 6 cyl car. My main car was a Sports Sedan, near anything goes rules. That ended up with a near 600hp 6 litre Chev and was a decent racecar,, great never but plenty of straight line speed. Most of the above faults were fixed. Though not quite a streetcar!!

That old Can-Am series really was something else. The imagination on display there is likely not something we will see at that scale in circuit racing again. Now you only get that level in things like hill climbs or this or that rally (like Dakar). Which is still great (and tbh I prefer time attack but I digress) but will never come close in terms of scale.

Where's the original motor from the Matich Can-Am?

That photo isn't Don O'Sullivan, it's Jack Brabham

The XU1 isn't just a car. It's a weapon.

Giacatolo vented disc flywheel brakes must be good 😜

Loved the giocattilo. Love your photos of the wrong version of the motor. And of course butchering how its said.

never knew these cars existed

You're saying it wrong. Now say fast, ju cattle oh.

Please bring back Can Am....👊

That's Jack Brabham! Not don O'Sullivan

That's so obviously an Alfasud Sprint with a tacky bodykit. Although the V8 amidships sounds fun..

Xu1's arent exactly rare, they made nearly 3300 of them ,E49 Chargers ( a unique Australian designed and built Charger) were less than 150 made. Thats even before we got to the Leyland Force 7 which was barely in double digit production. Then there is stuff like the Bullet Roadster, far rarer than an XU1.

I've been fascinated by the Giocattolo since I first saw it in a motoring magazine (Wheels IIRC) in the mid 80's and it remains a favourite.
I think it's one of the most beautiful looking cars and it sounds amazing.

One more Aussie car you can add to your list is the Holden "Parrente"
👍

Shows Ford engine bays when referencing V8 Torana, typical of this type of video.

The Torana SLR 5000 is a 5 L V8, I think from 75, that was street legal.

Don’t know how the sR4 car didn’t continue when the McLaren sports car continued race many years further. More to the story than what’s here.

In the early 90’s I was in the market for a performance car, preferably something a little quirky/unusual. I used to scour ‘the trading post’ newspaper each week looking through all the car adverts. There I saw a Giocattolo for sale for $7,500. That was well within my budget and was an absolute steal at that price, even if it needed a great deal of work. I immediately jumped on the phone to enquire about it with the owner. It was a very short conversation…….There was a misprint; the car was for sale for $75,000. Definitely out of my budget!

Giacatolo can’t be seen as a production car. It required an Alfa as a the donor and then completely altered. If it was considered anything other than a kit track vehicle Alfa wouldn’t allow it.

You really need to research the photos you use 1 of the photos talking about the 253 v8 is a Ford falcon engine bay

I'm really Sorry. My editor really messed up this time. And Its only my fault. I should have double checked everything. But if you see my previous videos you won't see a lot mistakes there.

And I need to clarify one thing these vehicles are really rare so Pictures of them are barely available on google. So editors mixedup photos. But yeah some of the mistakes are pretty silly I agree. My editors are not very well knowledged about cars. And I can't afford high quality editors as they are really expensive.

So anyway Thank you for watching!

And Again I'm Extremely Sorry😔

I just saw a GTR XU-1 today, literally only a few minutes ago

"will"...really?!

I use to see the Giocattolo Toy 33 while I was coming home from school. I have never forgotten how beautiful it was.

How come Australian cars are so dam ugly? All the hot rods from down under look ugly grocery getters 😂

Your "ventilated disk" looks like dual mass flywheel.

Wrong! .... the LH and LX Toranas had 5 litre V8s.

I just showed the real Jim Hardman this video. He laughed at the American Buick/GMC dealership. That’s definitely not his

Very poor quality video with numerous factual errors.

I've a Giocatolo special of Wheels magazine going over all the details - somewhere ... in the garage - Love it and lusted after it.... The fact that all but one built are still around say something....

I currently work on and maintain Paul's actual Giocattolo, this is the only Black Giocattolo and is different from the rest of the units as he made his car a road going motorsport model. The story of the car's conception is far more wild than you can even begin to imagine and your video shows.

The NSW police were going too use them .but someone put it to a stop for anyone too have one

The LC/LJ Toranas, like so many "iconic" Holdens, were an exercise in turd polishing. The chassis was an evolution of the HB Torana aka the English Vauxhall Viva. The red six, while respectable for the time, was nothing special. Meanwhile Nissan/Datsun was making the 240K L24 engine with alloy cylinder head and overhead cam. The alloy head enabled higher compression and much more hp and ft/lb per cube than the red six. The 2.4 litre L24 made almost as much hp/tq as the 3.3 litre Holden six, as well as being more compact and lighter. The 240K chassis was miles ahead of the Torana too with better brakes and independent rear suspension. Holden caught up (copied the Datsun design) with the VT Commodore IRS in 1998, but by then it was outdated and surpassed by the double wishbone / multi-link designs virtually every other manufacturer was using. Different story with alloy cylinder heads of course. No Australian designed Holden engine ever had alloy cylinder heads because that was just too hard. The 304/355 went to the grave in 2000 with cast iron cylinder heads.

Heads up Mate dont show SLR500 V85.0 V8 When talking about inline 6 xu1 both torana's both significantly different.

A very interesting video!!! BTW that photo of Don O'Sullivan at 4m:40s was actually Jack Brabham. Sir John Arthur "Jack" Brabham (2 April 1926 – 19 May 2014) was an Australian racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from 1955 to 1970. Brabham won three Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he won in 1959, 1960 and 1966, and won 14 Grands Prix across 16 seasons. He co-founded Brabham in 1960, leading the team to two World Constructors' Championship titles, and remains the only driver to have won the World Drivers' Championship in an eponymous car. In 1962 Brabham he established his own marque with fellow Australian Ron Tauranac. In the 1960s Repco-Brabham became the largest manufacturer of custom racing cars in the world. P.S. Well done. Thanks for sharing all those magnificent Aussie machines.

Paul Halstead built and modified some amazing cars. He targa roofed a Lamborghini Countach and a Ford Falcon Cobra hardtop which he raced at Wanneroo Park in the streetcar class back in the nineteen eighties. The vents in the Cobras back guards fed air to oil coolers for the differential from memory. Kevin Bartlett was the regular driver of the Countach. I think he also had a black De Tomaso Pantera with a really impressive exhaust system as his road car. Tony Quinn was driving a Formula Ford at Wanneroo Park around the same time.

I was hoping to see the BMW M3R.....

Find me a 2008 - 2012 4 seater Lexus LS600hL anywhere in the right hand drive world. I will buy it.
5L V8. awd. 2 electric motors. Rolls Royce / Bentley killer. 400ish kw and 800 ish nm.

The 5.0l V8s , 304,305 and 308ci have nothing to do with HSV.