Premature emasculation

Motor racing is a complex sport, especially at the professional level. The reasons manufacturers spend so much money risking their reputations on the track are many and varied. For some, just being involved in competition is itself enough: a chance to show off their products in a sporting light, and in a very public way, and to attach a sense of excitement and glamour to their brands.

But in the end it usually comes down to one simple thing: winning. And for Ford and Holden in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, winning was the primary objective of their not inconsiderable investments in Series Production car racing – especially when winning also meant defeat for your direct marketplace competitor. This was never truer than at Mount Panorama, Bathurst, every October. Bathurst was what it was all about. Winning at Bathurst was everything.

Which makes the 1970 season one of the most curious on record.

Holden was fresh from a second consecutive victory at Bathurst with its V8-powered Monaro. This was by any measure an exceptional achievement from a manufacturer with no previous experience in racing. Since joining the Series Production fray in 1968, Holden had achieved