Wide Open Road

Cars united the nation and created some of our first national heroes. Once the US giants General Motors Holden and Ford started manufacturing cars in Australia, and particularly with the arrival of the Holden FX, cars became affordable, gave Australian families a new level of freedom -- and shaped our cities.

Cars quickly became integral to every aspect of our lives. By the end of the 1950s most parents experienced the world through the windscreen and most kids watched it go by from the back seat upon which many of them were spawned. By the 1960s the baby boomers had their own cars, often mum and dad's hand-me-downs that had been hotted up. They couldn't drive as fast as their hero, racing car champion Jack Brabham, but they felt like they could.

The 1970s was a period of great social upheaval in Australia - and it wasn't all peace and love. Inner-city trendies faced off against suburban gangs, Peter Brock and Allan Moffat intensified the rivalry between Holden and Ford, politicians were under siege by car lovers and it was a battle to stay alive on the roads because speed, youth and alcohol is a volatile cocktail.