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Australians have a long-standing love affair with the automobile and when, in 1948, the first Holden came off the production line, our cars also became part of our national pride. Our cars do more than take us from A to B, they are freedom on four wheels. What we drive reflects our personalities, and our aspirations, and even allows us to let out our inner bogan. This is the story of the car that your folks bought home when you were a kid and you climbed all over the back seat. It’s the car ...
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The Nissan Skyline GTR is no ordinary car, it’s a Japanese engineering masterpiece that redefined the supercar genre. From dominating Bathurst to becoming a digital icon on PlayStation screens, the GTR earned its legendary status. With its twin turbos, all-wheel drive and all-wheel steering, the Skyline GTR was a car that bridged worlds — from the …
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The panel van wasn’t just a vehicle — it was an oh-so-70s symbol of youth, freedom, and surf. Born as a humble workhorse, it transformed into something legendary, thanks to the van clubs that sprouted across Australia. Loud, colourful, and endlessly customisable, they had room for everything — a surfboard, a bed, a quadraphonic sound system, and ma…
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Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday. The '70s was a tale of two decades for Ford. Its early track triumphs faded into the rearview mirror as the '80s loomed. Fed up with pouring cash into racing for dwindling returns, Ford did the unthinkable... and might have gotten away with it were it not for a band of die-hard Ford employees. Working in secret, they …
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The Ford Falcon wasn't just a car — it was an Australian icon, a symbol of homegrown muscle, pride, and family friendliness that thundered down our roads, dominated our racetracks, put the "falc" in falcodore, and — let's face it — made for one hell of a taxi. In this episode, discover how the Falcon evolved from its 'trim, taut, terrific' beginnin…
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COMING SOON: Cars That Made Australia Season 2
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Think about it - every car you see on the road is like a chapter in Australia's big book of stories. Our cars aren't just ways to get from A to B - they're time capsules on wheels, each one telling a story about who we are and where we've been. In season 2 of Cars That Made Australia, Tim 'Rosso' Ross jumps behind the wheel once again to tell the s…
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I'm built for the bends at Burthst and the Aussie bogan looking to burn some rubber - what am I? If you answered "Holden Torana", you'd be bang on. From humble beginnings, the Torana grew to become one of the most collectible Australian cars of all time - largely thanks to Brockie's legendary exploits at Bathurst. The Torana is more than just a com…
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The Magna was the other other Australian-made family favourite from the late 1980s, a car that says "I have kids, a job, a dog, and I value practicality over performance". It was good but not iconic, sophisticated but never cool, forever in the shadow of Falcons and Commodores. It was, however, the thinking person's alternative, popular with those …
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The 1970s, often dubbed the "decade that style forgot", when Australia's automotive and suburban landscapes shared similar levels of austerity. Our locally made gas-guzzlers were overshadowed by the growing popularity of cheap, reliable, fuel-efficient imports from Japan. The cars were as boring as they were brown... but we lapped them up. The Dats…
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It was the stylish and sporty Australian-made, Italian-designed soft-top set to conquer the world - what could possibly go wrong? A lot, it turns out, and the Ford Capri's bold ambitions were dealt one bruising reality check after another. There was poor timing, poor build quality, and worst of all, poor comparisons to its direct rival: the Mazda M…
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When Australia said "Hi to Hyundai", we welcomed a car that changed the game. While others were affordable, the Excel was cheap, giving more people the chance to buy a brand-new set of wheels than ever before. In this episode, hear from the colourful businessmen who took a punt that paid off as Aussies everyone snapped up a new car from a new count…
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A famous TV ad had us screaming out "Hey, Charger!" for decades but the enduring appeal of this classic 70s muscle car runs deeper than a memorable hand sign and a catchy slogan. Hear about the "Hey, Charger!" on-set hijinks from the Hollywood director who cut his teeth on this iconic ad campaign, find out why rock stars prefer to take a ride in a …
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It's the colossal, designed-and-made-in-Australia family sedan with a boot big enough to hold a 44-gallon drum. Revolutionary in design, it won the coveted Wheels Car Of The Year award in 1973. It's also Australia's most infamous lemon, a badly built butt of many jokes, a victim of bad timing on top of its own ambition. Despite its status as one of…
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Emerging out of the fuel crisis of the 70s as a more economical replacement for the famed Kingswood, the Holden Commodore is an undeniable icon - making and breaking records on and off the race track and in production for almost 40 years before the last locally made model rolled off the production line in 2017. In this episode, you'll hear the stor…
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