Supercar scare

The Supercar scare was a national controversy that arose in Australia in 1972 in regard to the sale to the public of high performance "race homologation" versions of Australian-built passenger cars.

The cause of the controversy was an article published in the Sydney based The Sun-Herald newspaper on 25 June 1972. Written by motoring journalist, Channel 7 television commentator and successful race and rally driver Evan Green and entitled "160 MPH 'Super Cars' Soon", it claimed that Australia's three major car manufacturers, General Motors-Holden's, Ford Australia and Chrysler Australia (commonly referred to as "The Big Three"), were each about to produce new models, based on family saloons but with top speeds of up to 160 mph (257 km/h) (although some rural roads at the time had no set speed limits, the maximum limit on most roads in Australia was 70 mph (113 km/h)). The intent by each manufacturer was to sell at least 200 units of their respective models to the public, thus making the cars eligible for the Hardie-Ferodo 500, a major motor race held on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales which at the time was run under Group E Series Production regulations meaning that the cars that raced had to be available for sale to the general public, though the race cars did have safety features such as roll cages and racing seat belts. (the Hardie-Ferodo 500 mile race was a forerunner to the current "Bathurst 1000" event)

The proposed models were a 320 bhp (239 kW), 5.0 L V8 engined version of the Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1, the Ford Falcon GTHO Phase IV powered by a 400 bhp (298 kW) 5.8 L V8 engine, and an uprated version of the Chrysler Valiant Charger fitted with a 300 bhp (224 kW) 4.3 L Hemi-6 engine.

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Wikipedia