Showing posts with label musclecars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label musclecars. Show all posts

Saturday, March 16, 2013


This site is dedicated to South African built muscle cars and other rare South African cars. In the late 1960's and early 1970's several muscle cars were built in South Africa. Very low volumes of these cars were produced and they are becoming very rare.

 Some of the cars like the Fairmont GT and Chev SS were imported in CKD form and assembled in South Africa. Other cars were high performance versions of models sold through dealerships like the Capri Perana, Granada Perana and Chevy CanAm.

One thing that is similar amongst all these cars is the fact that they were all built in South Africa.  Information on these cars is extremely hard to find. The goal of this website is to provide a central place where information on all the different muscle cars can be found.

Ford

Ford Motor Company of South Africa built several muscle cars and uniquely South African cars. Some of the most well known are CKD (complete knock down) form imports that were assembled in South Africa.

These include both the 1970 style Fairmont GTs and 1971-1973 Fairmont GTs. Many of the uniquely South African cars are homolagation specials like the Sierra XR8, and Capri Perana.


 Although many of the Perana cars produced by Basil Green are homologation specials, there are some that were not used for racing at all like the Granada Perana

Chevy

The Chevy Canam is an insane car. It was built in 1973 for racing consisting of a very light Vauxhall Firenza body and the Z28 engine used in racing in America, but better known for their use in Camaros. The high performance engine and light body gave it superior performance figures.


The Chev SS is another car that was imported from Australia in CKD form and assemled in South Africa. It is mechanically virtually identical to the Holden Monaro. It had a modified grill and two lights on each side in the front grill.

 
Plymouth

Valiant Barracudas are nearly identical to the Plymouth Barracudas of the US. The were assembled in South Africa from 1967 to 1971 and sold as Valiants. They are beautiful cars with the fastback design. In the US the Formula S version is starting command quite a good price, here we also have Formula S versions.


Above is named a Valiant Charger. Obviously, a Duster 
Below, named a Valiant Barracuda. Why they held onto Valiant is a mystery

right hand steering wheel visible through the windshield

http://www.africanmusclecars.com

Sunday, April 22, 2012

 1971 Barracuda, the coolest accessorized body for Mopars in my opinion. The shark gills, the shaker hoods (normally), that great grill, the driving lamps under the bumper, hood pins, and the billboard engine size call out. Wow, it got all the cool stuff



 I was wrong when I called the 340 Wedge hood decal the best and biggest factory engine size call out. I forgot about this, the 1970 Charger hood cove decals. These are real uncommon to see, I have no idea how few were ever sold on cars from Mopar, vs how many have them installed by eager owners... but wow, impressive and bold


 Chargers has the flip top cap on the drivers side, and Challengers on the passenger side. I don't know why.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012




 The above is fuzzy, it isn't your eyes or computer. Sorry about that
 Though not either, this AAR (Dan Gurney All American Racer) decal fits here nicely, and was technically the strobe stripe I believe

If you love Mopars, these are nothing new, but there are a lot of people that haven't seen as much of the variety of muscle cars as you and I. Some have seen another world of muscle cars, the south American variety, Australian, or the African varieties. Cool stuff that here in the USA we are totally unfamiliar with.