"V8's 'til '98" The V8 engine, Australian nationalism and automobility

The 1984 “V8’s ‘til ‘98” media-led consumer campaign to ‘save’ the locally-produced Holden V8 engine, was a direct result of the “economic rationalization” of the Australian automotive industry. The so-called Button Plan to overhaul the automotive industry by way of tariff reduction, forced automotive manufacturers to cull their model lines in order to prepare the Australian automotive industry to be competitive in global markets, and was one of the first policy-based waves of globalization in Australia. Due to cross-platform engine sharing arrangements and costs involved in environmental technology developments, one potential outcome of the market rationalisation could have been the absence of a locally produced vehicle with a V8 engine. For automotive enthusiasts, the V8 engine represented a monument of masculine and class-based automotive identity articulated through automotive performance. A market without a V8 was a dire set of circumstances for enthusiasts within modified-car culture. The “V8’s ‘til ‘98” campaign was led by Street Machine magazine and the tabloid Daily Telegraph newspaper and mobilized over 10,000 enthusiasts in a letter writing campaign to save the V8. During the campaign the V8 engine was articulated in familiar ways in terms of a class-based, masculine identity, but this time with a reactionary nationalist bent as the “Aussie V8”. In this article the “V8’s ‘til ‘98” event is critically analysed to explore the intersection of technology, identity and enthusiasm at the emergence of a globalised Australia.