Australian Muscle Car 2020-02

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Sometimes it can be hard to evaluatehow good a driver was in his/her career.Did the quality of their machinery flattertheir ability? Or was the competitionbelow par? In the days where therewere few fulltimefessionals andnty of aspiringateurs orekend warriorss even harder.ne indicator isow you are ratedy your peers,eing asked backo drive – withoutaving to bringmoney – is oneway of gauging a driver’s ability.David Seldon certainly fits into that category.In a career that spanned twenty years he racedat Bathurst twelve times in someone else’s car,albeit some were entered by dealerships that hehad a financial interest in. He was always quickand often unlucky. He never shied away from astoush and sometimes came off second best,with the scars to prove it!Seldon sold cars for a living and saw value inthe ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ mantra. Itcertainly was the guiding light when racing Volvosin Improved Production in the 1960s and was stillrelevant through the Group C era with variousEuropean marques and then Group E SeriesProduction in the 1980s. There were diversions,such as two successful seasons racing in theclubman series and even a sports sedan.He was alwaysthere, or thereabouts, punchingabove his weightin class cars,but there wasone ‘wouldacoulda-shoulda’moment, wherehe felt he wason the cusp of movingto the next level. That was Bathurst 1972,where he believed that he had the fastestTorana GTR XU-1 on the day only to crashout late in the race. The jury may be out onSeldon’s racing skill, but that is not the casewith his ability to tell a great story. Read on tolearn more about ‘Seldo.’Paul NewbyEarly daysDavid Seldon was born in Sydney, the sonof a keen motorcyclist who had done abit of racing before the War. His family movedto Tamworth when he was six. A mate built adirt race track on his parent’s property andhe and Seldon raced his father’s FB Holdenand mother’s Fiat 500 around. Educated atHuntingtower School in Melbourne, Seldonreturned home to Sydney and at the age of17 got a job at British and Continental Cars,the NSW Volvo agent on William Street inthe City, as an office boy. He also joined theNorth Shore Sporting Car Club (NSSCC), as astepping stone to obtaining his racing licence,but faced parental objection, as he explains.“My old man said there was no way he wouldallow me to get a licence until I was 21. Onenight having dinner at home I was running lateto get to a NSSCC meeting. My old man said ifyou leave without washing the dishes then don’tcome home. So I didn’t! I left home aged 17.“The competition licence form required my oldman’s signature and he refused to sign it. I saidif you don’t sign it then I will sign it myself, whichI did and sent it in. My old man, being stubborn,contacted CAMS and told them his signaturewas a forgery. I got summoned before a CAMSState Council Meeting. NSSCC President JohnMcKittrick met my old man on the steps andwarned if you go through with this your son willbe banned for life. So he recanted on the stepsof the court, as it were,and I got my licence.”At British andContinental Cars, Seldon was soon sellingVolvos, so it made sense to race them. A 1963122S was modified for his first race at Towac(Orange) in 1965 and this car and similar modelswere raced up until the late ‘60’s at the Sydneycircuits, Easter Bathurst (in 1967) and at SurfersParadise in the 12 Hour with fellow British andContinental manager Gerry Lister. In the 1967race the duo finished a respectable seventhoutright but the next year things went pearshaped, as Seldon explains.“I had damaged my own car at Amaroo whenit broke an axle and lost a wheel. We took offthe cylinder head (with Weber carbs) andwheels and put them on another 122S forhe 6 Hour. That car broke an axle and losta wheel at full bore under the Dunlop Bridgeand did three barrel rolls and five end fornds with me in it. There was no roll cage,nly a genuine Volvo rally seat and a threeoint seat belt. I was uninjured. In any otherar, well…”Seldon sold his own 122S in 1968,ansferring all the good bits to a new 142Sodel, that raced around Sydney, at (Easter)athurst and then the Surfers Paradise 6ur with Digby Cooke, who blew a tyrering the race and rolled the Volvo into ale ball. Unfortunately the 142S was on hirepurchase with three years’ worth of payments stillowing! As a result, Seldon’s racing career cameto a full stop (though there were Bathurst 500appearances – see breakout.)Above left: Seldon’s Volvo 122S at Warwick Farm,before it met its maker at Surfers Paradise (inset).Below: The replacement 142S (which would also bewritten off), seen here at the ‘69 Easter Bathurst meet.62
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Issue 114AU $10.99 NZ $11.99 (incl
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HOLDEN A9X TORANA1978 BATHURSTLIMIT
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R-Spec sell-outThe Commodore and th
Page 11 and 12: Dodge stallsThe on-again off-again
Page 13 and 14: Reporting fromthe passenger’s sea
Page 15 and 16: From Porschesto Peugeots,we’ve go
Page 17 and 18: bolted in for the day. The other th
Page 20 and 21: www.autosportsltd.comPaulNewbyIn th
Page 22 and 23: Mailamce NSW 1590Harold Paynting Co
Page 24 and 25: Not a Hardtophave a couple of issue
Page 26 and 27: 26fl oGoStory: Bruce Newton & Steve
Page 28 and 29: Nagari 300said to me one day I thin
Page 30 and 31: It combines a 372kW (or roughly 500
Page 32 and 33: Campbell is predictingunder 3.0 sec
Page 34: Bolwell CorporationBolwell Cars was
Page 37 and 38: when an XW Falcon GT cost around $4
Page 39 and 40: Nagari era, Bolwell continued to ma
Page 41 and 42: trophy. But the race regulations st
Page 44 and 45: 44The end came for Commodore in Dec
Page 46 and 47: It wasn’t as though the news came
Page 48 and 49: Not the Kingswood!How the Commodore
Page 50 and 51: KiStory: Paul GoverofhillthDick Joh
Page 52 and 53: “It would have been easy to do a
Page 54 and 55: The mechanical key to the project w
Page 56 and 57: lower front grilles, flicks on the
Page 58 and 59: THE APP THAT PUTS YOUIN THE DRIVER
Page 60 and 61: WHERE AUSTRALIANMOTORSPORT LIVEShes
Page 64 and 65: Works drivern 1972 Seldon was appro
Page 66 and 67: Way out westGerry Lister and David
Page 68 and 69: Bathurst by the yearsIt’s a mark
Page 70 and 71: 19801976For 1976 Seldon looked at h
Page 72 and 73: kImages: Chevron archive, Project P
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Page 79 and 80: Former Holden Supercars driver Stev
Page 81 and 82: GREAt gift ideas for the motoring e
Page 83 and 84: there so long that the paintwork on
Page 85 and 86: It wouldn’t happen today. Even if
Page 87 and 88: The new Holden V8 made a spectacula
Page 89 and 90: 1 3SUBSCRIBE TODAYFOR YOUR CHANCE T
Page 91 and 92: Jazz DesiraCar: Ford XY FairmontHom
Page 93 and 94: Alan BardsleyCar: Falcon FG GTHomet
Page 95 and 96: Before there was drag racing there
Page 97 and 98: they fitted two Austin A90 fuel pum
Page 99 and 100: HAS IT ALLBOXED UPLOOKING FOR GIFT
Page 101 and 102: with a string of runs at 13.99, 13.
Page 103 and 104: Melbourne, the sport began to attra
Page 105 and 106: around. Similarly, Pete ran with th
Page 107 and 108: Brian McIvorWhen Brian got married
Page 109 and 110: Another Christmas has passed us by
Page 111 and 112: 1:18Craig Lowndes’ Holden ZB Comm
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Australian Muscle Car 2020-02

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