Go Mad with Max in Broken Hill

When you love driving your muscle car, but COVID has meant lockdowns, cancellation of events and a general reduction in activities, what’s the answer? A group of NSW-based enthusiasts comprised of members and friends of the Brock Commodore Owners’ Association of Australia and NSW Torana XU-1 Owners’ Club recently answered that question by embarking on a drive taking in as many highlights as possible over the course of seven days.

Departing from Sutton Forest Maccas was a eet of nine of the General’s nest, the oldest being an EH and the newest a VY Crewman Cross-8. A combination of rain and roadworks saw the cars pull into the rst stop – Junee’s Chocolate and Licorice Factory and GasWorks Garage Museum next door, looking somewhat battle-weary.

The ensuing days saw the cars traversing the Hay Plains then the Silver City Highway to Broken Hill. It’s these types of roads that provide the opportunity to enjoy the cars without the interruption of traffic lights or the worry of inattentive people coming through an intersection, and enjoy them we did! Along the way stop-offs included Hay’s Water Towers, which pay tribute to the contribution made by the people of Hay to the World Wars and a visit to Mildura Holden Museum (conveniently located on the NSW side of the border in Buronga). The museum houses a great range of Holdens and is a must-do for any lover of the brand.

Broken Hill was the end-game, the visit to Silverton the pinnacle. Mundi Mundi Lookout overlooks the area where Mad Max 2 was lmed, and every muscle car enthusiast needs to drive the road where much of the action took place. The Mad Max 2Museum is, of course, a must, and the Silverton Hotel provided requisite refreshments!

The return leg of the trip saw us go via Cobar, where Running on Empty was lmed. For anyone who hasn’t seen it, this 1982 movie, starring Terry Serio and a young Deborah Conway (better known for her work a solo vocalist and lead singer in the ‘80s out t, Do-Re-Mi), as well as starring plenty of Aussie and American muscle cars, is de nitely worth a look.

A detour via Trundle allowed us to see the Trundle Hotel (its claim to fame is having the second-longest pub balcony in NSW, the longest coincidentally being where we’d just been, in Cobar). Opposite the pub was a long abandoned General Motors dealership. This set the theme for the day, with us heading on to the former Holden dealership at Peak Hill, noteworthy for still having cars in the neglected showroom.

The stop-off at ‘The Dish’ at Parkes was brief with no time for cricket, as we needed to get to Orange for the night. The nal day included the obligatory lap of Mount Panorama and visit to the National Motor Racing Museum, with everyone happy to be home that night with heavy snowfalls where we’d just been.

All up, I ticked over close to 3,000km in my Torana. A great shakedown for the planned lap of the map next year to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Brock’s rst Bathurst win. A big trip in a muscle car may not be for everyone, but everyone on the trip loved it and nished wanting more. The more miles, the more smiles in my opinion!

We did this trip before the Sydney and NSW regional lockdowns came into force, so we can also count ourselves lucky – at the moment in NSW we don’t know when we might be allowed to do it again!