Australian Muscle Car

Bob Jane

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The recent passing of Bob Jane has had me re ecting on his legacy. I have also been thinking about some of his most famous racecars and which ones live on in the form of model cars.

The rst model I want to talk about came from Queensland, a one-man-band operating under the name of Heritage Model Cars. This 1:43 scale model was cast from a buck made by hand – no 3D scanning, no CAD/CAM. It’s handcarved in resin, from which a mould is created and parts cast.

Of course, Classic Carlectabl­es made a couple of versions of the same car some time back, this time in 1:18 scale. They sold out in a trice and now command a healthy price online and in the shops. I saw one for over $600, which was well above the odds.

Classics also made the 1964 Bathurst 500 winner in 1:43, the Cortina Jane shared with George Reynolds. You can also get this car as a Scalextric slot car in 1:32 scale. Jane’s earlier car, the lightweigh­t Jaguar E-Type is another available as a slot car.

Jane was best known as a muscle car driver and alongside the Camaro, Classic Carlectabl­es

made his Mustang, in which he contested the ATCC in 1965 and ‘66. Then there’s Bob’s XR GT Falcon, his mount for the 1967 Bathurst, shared with Spencer Martin to a troubled 18th at the nish.

From Biante, there’s an LC Torana GTR XU-1, as raced at Bathurst in 1971 and shared with John Harvey.

Add to these the many, many cars sponsored by Bob Jane and you have an enormous list of models, with more coming all the time. Biante have announced a 1:18 Commodore, the 1987 Allan Grice/Win Percy VL Commodore. This model should be available in the next year or so.

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