#95 AUTO ACTION '74 - Bathurst preview; new XB falcon

• Magazine: "Auto Action"
• Issue: #95
• Date: 4 October 1974
• Cover pic: Pete Geoghegan's Porsche at Lakeside
• Magazine condition: 7/10 Good ... very good for its age ... remember that these are printed on newsprint, so tend to yellow with age ...
• Poster:
  • No poster ... instead a 4 page lift-out "count down" to the Hardie Ferodo 1000 at Bathurst ... great stories: the HDT L34 Torana; Moffat's new Falcon; Murray Carter - "Ford's quiet private entrant"; Frank Gardner joining Bob Jane's team;Class A
• News:
  • Lack of clarity about eligibility for the Australian Rally Championship
  • Moffat unveils his new XB Falcon GT (not the car he raced at Sandown) for Bathurst ... great paint scheme! (& lengthy write-up on it's preparation)
• Race reports:
  • Hume Weir: Bryan Tomson (VW Chev) narrowly beats Jim McKeown (Porsche) in sports sedans ... Frank Gardner qualified Bob Jane's Monaro in 3rd, but didn't race it - the race report doesn't say exactly why, but there sounds like a good story underneath: "In a local TV interview on Saturday night, Gardner explained that he had asked Jane after practice what he could do to the car to improve it.  Jane had replied tersely that as Gardner was back on the 3rd row of the grid, he would incorporate a gas mask to get him safely through the tyre-smoke of the front runners." Frank spent the day signing autographs on his new book instead ...
  • Symmons Plains: Leo Geoghegan (Birrana 273) wins F2 race
  • Calder: Torana Club win the 6 Hour Relay
  • State rallies: Vic; NSW
  • Catalina rally cross
  • Silverdale hill climb
  • Park Orchards observed section trials ... the last one
• Columnists: 
  • John Leffler
  • Tony Alcock
  • John Sheppard
  • Bob Watson 
  • Peter Janson
• Classifieds include ... 
  • Max Stewart's March 722 for $POA
  • Tom Naughton's Porsche sports sedan for $9,500
  • "Miss Edwards" selling her SLR 5000 Torana for $5,300
  • Mollison Motors selling the rolling chassis of ex-Colin Bond (Bathurst) HDT XU1 Torana "ideal for rallies" $POA

One of many issues of the then bi-weekly "Auto Action" magazine I will be listing as I have surplus from collecting them for myself.  I will be listing other issues in date order, plus a wide range of other car & racing magazines (primarily Australian) - please check out my other auctions.

These early Auto Action magazines are very difficult to find as most people threw them away after reading. However, they contain very detailed race reports (unlike today's car racing magazines!) and fantastic black & white photos.

This early 1970s period featured the emergence of extremely strong "tin top" racing. In the last years of "improved production" were the legendary driver/car combinations like Norm Beechey (Monaro), Allan Moffat (Mustang), Bob Jane (Camaro), Ian "Pete" Geoghegan (Mustang, then Falcon). The emerging "Series production" races saw battles between the Falcon Phase III GT-HO (Moffat, John Goss, Fred Gibson, etc) and smaller XU1 Torana (Peter Brock, Colin Bond, etc) - with a few Chrysler Chargers (Leo Geoghegan, Lawrie Nelson, etc) thrown in. And "sports sedan" racing was just starting to take off.

For payment, I prefer direct deposit from Australian buyers or PayPal from international buyers.

Shipping is A$3.70 within Australia - I will combine for postage (usually works out to be around $1 extra per magazine).  Overseas shipping via Air Mail - A$8.50 to Asia; A$11.00 to Europe; A$13.50 to USA.