Australia developed its own muscle car tradition around the same period, with the big three manufacturers Ford Australia, Holden or Holden Dealer Team (by then part of General Motors), and Chrysler Australia. The cars were specifically developed to run in the Armstrong 500 (miles) race and later the Hardie Ferodo 500 (the race's current 1,000 kilometre format was adopted in 1973).
The demise of these cars was brought about by a change in racing rules requiring that 200 examples had to be sold to the general public before the car could qualify (homologation). In 1972, the government stepped in to ban supercars from the streets after two notable cases. The first instance was a Wheels magazine journalist driving at 150 mph (240 km/h) in a 1971 Ford Falcon GTHO Phase III XY 351.
Whilst the car was getting exposure in the press, the second incident occurred in George Street, Sydney, when a young male was caught driving at an estimated 150 mph (240 km/h) through the busy street, in a 1971 Ford Falcon GTHO Phase III, drag racing a Holden Monaro GTS 350. This was known in Australia as "The Supercar Scare". Muscle Cars
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