The opening sequence for the ABC TV Torque series was memorable, featuring presenter Peter Wherrett flying out of a tunnel in a Bolwell Nagari convertible. It made you realise that this was no ordinary car show and this was no ordinary car. It was the famous Phase III specification Nagari. Wherrett notes in his book of the series that the Nagari suffered from chronic over-heating that day, a problem that would afflict it for the rest of its life.
Torque first screened on 12 March 1974, becoming Australia’s most popular motoring series until the end of the decade. Wherrett had raced cars as a young man so he wasn’t afraid to get in and have a go.
Most of Australia’s new muscle cars were reviewed on the show, not always favourably. Certainly not the lime green P76 he tested on the first show - “an ordinary car if ever I saw one,” he concluded.
The spectacular opening footage was shot near Denman, NSW, using what was originally intended as a tunnel for the abandoned Sandy Hollow railway.
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