Commodore and Falcon V8 history featured in new books

A pair of books are being produced to celebrate the amazing history of the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon V8s that filled the tracks of Australian touring car and V8 Supercar racing through a golden era of the sport.

The ’Commodore Chronicles’ and the ‘Falcon Chronicles’ published by V8 Sleuth are now available to pre-order here now via the V8 Sleuth SuperStore.

The former traces the period racing history of Commodores ranging from the last Group A model VN through the first winged VP and its subsequent VR and VS replacement models.

The latter traces the period racing history of each Falcon, covering the EB, EF, EL and AU models.

From Bathurst 1000 winners to Australian Touring Car and V8 Supercar Champions, every car covering these model ranges is included in the new publications, featuring never-before-published, striking colour photos from the AN1 Images motorsport photo archive.

Each book is a 192-page hardcover and forms a ready-made reference guide to each and every one of these cars covering a span of 1991 to the early 2000s.

V8 Sleuth Publisher Aaron Noonan says the new titles are the perfect Christmas gift and reference source for fans, car collectors and industry professionals alike.

“The most common emails and social media messages we get at V8 Sleuth relate to the histories of these cars, particularly from this era we’ve focused on in these new books,” he says.

“It was an era that is so fondly remembered by fans from both sides of the manufacturer divide and these books are the perfect way for us to capture some of the flavour of this era in print.

“At V8 Sleuth we’re committed to documenting the history of our sport and these books are the next projects in the ongoing work of ensuring this information is not lost.”

There are 60 cars featured in chronological order in ‘The Commodore Chronicles’, including cars built and raced by the Holden Racing Team, Perkins Engineering, Gibson Motorsport, Wayne Gardner Racing, Bob Forbes Racing, Advantage Racing and Pinnacle Motorsport.

Privateer teams cars are also a significant feature of this book with cars from the Lansvale Smash Repairs team and fellow privateers Terry Finnigan, Bob Jones, Neil Schembri, Ian Palmer, Malcolm Stenniken, Bob Pearson, Tim Slako, Bill O’Brien and Kevin Heffernan all featuring.

There are a total of 73 cars featured in chronological order in ‘The Falcon Chronicles’, including cars built and raced by Dick Johnson Racing, Glenn Seton/Ford Tickford Racing, Stone Brothers Racing, Gibson and 00 Motorsport, Longhurst Racing, Allan Moffat Enterprises, Brad Jones Racing, Briggs Motorsport, Mark Larkham’s M-TEK, Paul Weel Racing, Prancing Horse Racing, CAT Racing, Toll Racing, Steve Ellery Racing and Paragon Motorsport.

Privateer teams cars are also a significant feature of this book with cars from Colourscan Motorsport, Playscape Racing, Garry Willmington and plenty others all included.