PETER BROCK'S EXPERIMENTAL FORD AEROMAX

When a great of Australian motorsport put his mind to some slipperier bodywork for the Ford Aeromax

After digging through an old family collection of truck-related magazines, one our followers, Brenton Leigh Bachelor, sent through a photo of an article that appeared in Issue #61 of Custom Vans and Trucks magazine which was published by Eddie Ford Publications.

The brief article covers Peter Brock’s plans to enhance Ford prime mover trucks alongside passenger vehicles. In this case, the King of the Mountain was investigating the feasibility of commercially applying a revised aerodynamic package to the well-known Ford Aeromax truck.

In short, Peter Brock put his knowledge of race cars and aerodynamics to use in redesigning the bodywork of the prime mover truck that hauled his Mobil 1-backed Ford Sierra and the team’s racing equipment to circuits around Australia. A direct quote from Peter Brock in the article suggests that results from his testing of the aerodynamic package were encouraging for both handling and fuel efficiency.

In fact, a figure of 33 litres per 100 kilometres on a trip from Melbourne to Adelaide and Perth was recorded.

Brock held grand plans for the refined Ford Aeromax design with the article signalling his intention to modify trucks on a larger scale as part of a new range of vehicles produced by the Brock Motor Company. This was a couple of years after his well-publicised split with Holden after the launch of the HDT Director performance sedan and the Energy Polarizer device.

We also found an old newspaper article from the Sydney Morning Herald online archive published on Saturday, June 23, 1990. The article at the top of page 93 indicated that Brock viewed the trucks of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s as “aerodynamic disasters” and that was what triggered his interest. It also states that the redesign of the truck went beyond pure aerodynamics. With safety in mind, Brock's blueprint included more powerful 100-watt headlights along with revisions to the nose, side panels and mirrors.

The newspaper article was published prior to the Custom Vans and Trucks magazine write-up, as Brock mentions the prospect of a testing trip across the Nullarbor and was studying production possibilities including selling the aero kits through Ford Motor Company, its dealers or as a standalone aftermarket package. He was also said to be scouting the possibilities of redesigning aerodynamic packages for trucks produced by other manufacturers.

Brock’s Aeroliner design is similar to the ultramodern streamlined trucks produced by the leading American manufacturers today. Brock’s mind was certainly ticking over with ideas that blurred the line between the race track and the road.

We’re not sure what came of the idea after these articles were printed and we certainly do not claim to be qualified historians on the life of Peter Brock. But we did find the original truck in a backyard in Biddenden in 2017.

If you want to do some investigating of your own on the Brock Aeroliner topic, we used this Custom Vans and Truck article and this Sydney Morning Herald article to get the ball rolling.

Finally, the image accompanying this article is a press shot from Brock’s business at the time. However, to cover all bases, image credit is also given to Eddie Ford Publications.