Washing day

We’ve never done a story quite like this before. But then, we’ve never featured an Aussie classic caked in as much dust as last issue’s cover car.

To understand why photographs are presented here of a dirty Torana hatchback getting a tub, the answer lies in what was portrayed in AMC #107, as we documented the retrieval and pick-up of an A9X Torana as it changed hands for the first time in 37 years. We were invited along by the new owners, father-son duo Rob and Tim Macedon, to a self-storage facility in Sydney’s west to witness the ‘awakening’ of a car that had spent the last 15 years gathering dust unmoved in the same industrial ‘box’.

Belying its signage-free red paint, this long-slumbering hatch has extra special significance. It played a considerable role in the revered nameplate’s most famous moment – the routing of the Bathurst field in 1979. It was one of the Toranas that had locked out the first eight positions in that year’s Hardie-Ferodo 1000. Specifically, it was the A9X that had finished sixth that day, in the hands of privateers Alan ‘Scotty’ Taylor and Kevin Kennedy.