2020 50c 1971 Chevrolet Camaro ZL-1 – 60 Years of Supercars Coloured Coin in Card

Australia enjoys an enduring love affair with Supercars racing and this year celebrates 60 years of the Australian Touring Car Championship. The first Australian Touring Car Championship was held in 1960 at Gnoo Blas, NSW where the single-race title was won by David McKay driving a Jaguar.

An Australian-made car first won the ATCC in 1970 – the second year of the title being decided over a series of races – when a Holden Monaro GTS 350 ended a decade of dominance by British and American cars.

Jaguars dominated the early years, but the V8 power took over in 1965 when Norm Beechey won at Sandown in the first Ford Mustang brought to Australia. V8-engined cars have subsequently accounted for all but 10 titles. Since the arrival of the Mustang in 1965, Australians have had a passion for V8 engines that remains the foundation of the sport. This fascination of V8s reached its zenith in the Supercars era from the 1990s to now, a Holden-versus-Ford era that has the Red Lion ahead with 15 Supercars titles to the Blue Oval’s 12. However, over the total 60 years of the ATCC Ford leads with 26 titles to Holden’s 21. In the hundreds of races since its humble beginnings in 1960, the ATCC has created champions and legends through classic races and rivalries.

Camaro ZL-1

Having won the 1962-63 titles in a six-cylinder Jaguar, tyre magnate Bob Jane’s response to seven years of playing second fiddle in the ATCC was to build a bigger and better mousetrap.

The hard-nosed Melbourne businessman imported a Chevrolet Camaro ZL-1 from the US with a massive all-alloy 7.0-litre V8 engine that simply overwhelmed 1971 pre-season favourite Allan Moffat’s 5.0-litre Mustang.

Sporting a menacing-looking bonnet bulge, the rare Camaro ZL-1 (only 69 were ever built) was the pinnacle of Chevy high performance, and the biggest challenge for Jane’s bright orange version was keeping the transmission alive under the duress of more than 450kW of power and 800Nm of torque.

Coin Set Features

• Uncirculated coloured coin in presentation card featuring information on the 1971 Chevrolet Camaro ZL-1 driven by Bob Jane
• Obverse features the effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II sculpted by Jody Clark
• Australian legal tender

Technical Specifications

ABOUT THE ROYAL AUSTRALIAN MINT

The Royal Australian Mint is the sole producer of all Australia’s circulating coins. Opened in 1965 and situated in the Australian federal capital city of Canberra, in the suburb of Deakin, the Mint is also a very popular tourist destination for visitors and locals alike. Swan Bullion Company is proud to be an authorised distributor for The Royal Australian Mint’s bullion and numismatic products.

* Coin is not to scale in image 1 *