Mad Maxes - Australia’s iconic muscle car history

Australia has a thriving car enthusiasm scene backed by decades of muscle and performance car history. We talk to Simon Telford, Editor in Chief of Street Machine, about his most memorable muscle car community road trip into the outback.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Australia loves a good muscle car. For decades, car fans
have been popping out little baby car fans and giving
them names like Brock and Moffat and Scathy. Well maybe,
but what's it really like to be deep inside our
beloved revhead community. I'm Amanda Keller and this is Brain Feel,

(00:22):
Pray Dozzy Stories from the Road, fueled by Amphole, Australia's
own Simon Telford is a bit of a legend in
this industry. He's the editor in chief of Street Machine,
a magazine of high performance cars, custom builds, v eights,
hot rods, drag races and more. It's turning forty this year.

(00:43):
In all that time, the mag has seen some pretty
amazing stories and they all have one thing in common.
Australia's love of getting out there.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Putting yourself out there in the middle of nowhere is
outside our comfort zones. You are putting yourself against a
pretty hostile landscapes. So I think that appeals to people
and he still get a bit of a thrill that
dates back to Birkenwells.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Maybe there's a bit.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Of that our back romance. There's a bit of Wolf
Creek in there. You know, when we're out there on
a big road trip, even with our family in our
home and die, there's probably still a little bit of
a Mad Max, you know, in our back of our
brains when we go past a road train or stop
at a spooky rest stop.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Through his job, Simon has seen some incredible parts of
the country. He's driven a car he built himself through
the tiniest towns in Queensland. He's road tripped from Melbourne
to a car meet in the Red Center and back
again three times. But one story stands out above all
the others.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
The first couple of weeks I was at the magazine.
I thought I was going to be doing photo copying
and filing, and the boss handed me the keys to
a brand new, very expensive muscle. Current said, I want
you to go to Broken Hill from Sydney to this
Mad Max anniversary thing. This dude just put on his
own Man Max Union in Broken Hill and all the

(02:00):
crazy people from all over the country drove there in
their Falcon coops, which is the Mad Mexicar.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
A guy came from Japan in full weathers.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Simon's been with the company for almost twenty years now,
but he'll never forget the way the outback unfolded to
showcase all these amazing cars.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
I've never been to Broken Hill and drove out there
with a photographer and blew my mind. It was so
exciting and seeing always lured all towns and you know,
another side of Australia you don't get to see if
you're in the city. And then to go and be
out there where they film those films is pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
Doing those trips in an old car, like a really
old car without any comforts, is a challenge and his
heaps are fun and puts you in touch with the
landscape in a much more than when you're cocooned in
a new car.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
But his journey, like many Redhead assies, is far from over.
There are many more roads to travel starting Bush to explore,
and he's got a whole community doing it A long siding.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
For me, Mostly it's the people you go with.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Just being able to spend a lot of time with
my family racing cars and going to different events. As
new generations of cousins and nephews and nieces into the family,
it's a really good community for them to come in
and meet lots of other little kids and run around
and have crazy road trips.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
From building a car or whatever your journey, a pole
is the fuel that gets you there. Make sure you
follow our adventures for free and your favorite podcast app.
I'm Amanda Keller and this is brain fuel.