Top 25 Sports Sedans

The Group U Historic Sports Sedan scene is steadily growing, and we are seeing more and more of these magnificently restored old beasts returning to the track in historic demonstrations. But let's have a look some of the best and most significant Sports Sedans, from when they raced back in their era. AMC found it hard to narrow it down to just the top 25 cars from the broad church that is Sports Sedans over the past almost 60 years, but here's our selection. We’ve listed the category’s heavy hitters and the high achievers, but we've also recognised those which either set new standards for others to follow, or which came up with an initial idea which others then went on to perfect. And others which maybe weren’t all that successful, and which maybe didn’t break any new technical ground, but were simply too good to leave out. There are, we must concede, some legendary machines that are conspicuous by their absence from this list. We know which ones we’d have liked to also include; we’d love to hear yours, too. Also tell us which car you consider to be the greatest.

Allan Moffat Chev Monza

In 1976 there were a couple of new Chev arrivals – both of them models which were virtually unknown to Australian fans. One was the Corvair; the other was Moffat’s Monza. Some unsuspecting Moffat fans may have assumed the futuristic looking machine was a Ford. But Ford had withdrawn from racing, and this was most definitely not a Ford. The DeKon Monza was conventional by design, but brilliant in its execution: for a while there was no faster Sports Sedan. Issue #86 has its full story.

Jim Richards Falcon XC Hardtop

The replacement for the Sidchrome Mustang, the XC debuted in 1978. Jim Richards finished the championship equal top on points but lost to Grice’s Corvair on a count-back – four wins to three. Ultimately, though, Richards didn’t have the budget to fully exploit the potential of the lightweight 351 V8 Hardtop, and he joined JPS BMW in 1982. Still, with that distinctive low-slung stance and side-exiting exhausts, the wildly modified coupe certainly looked the part. See issue #18’s MIA.