Evan Clifford Symons Green (21 May 1930 – 16 March 1996) was an Australian motoring publicist, journalist, TV commentator and novelist. He was also a rally driver with international recognition. He wrote many articles about himself and his experiences while rally driving.

Early life

He was born in the Sydney suburb of in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia. His first novel, '' Alice to Nowhere'', was produced by Brendon Lumney into a two-part television mini-series in 1986 directed by John Power. The film starred

John Waters John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including '' Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), '' Pink Flamingos'' (1972) and '' Fe ...

as Johnny Parson,

Steve Jacobs Steve Jacobs is an Australian actor and film director. Career Jacob's debut role was in this television film ''Man of Letters'' in 1984. The same year he appeared in feature film '' Silver City''. In 1985, Jacobs appeared in 4 episodes of TV m ...

as Dave Mitchell and Rosey Jones as Barbara Dean.

Motor racing

As a leading motoring journalist and being very well spoken, Green was a television commentator and interviewer for the

Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...

and was well known for his commentary at the

Bathurst 1000 The Bathurst 1000 (known for sponsorship reasons as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a Touring car racing, touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supe ...

motor race from the 1960s until his last Bathurst race as commentator in

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

. Green would continue doing motor racing commentary both in Australia and New Zealand until 1987. Evan Green was also a rally driver of international fame, competing in such events as the Round Australia Trial and the London-Sydney Marathon.

Supercar scare

In 1972 Green was credited by the Australian performance motoring public for starting the media controversy, known as the Supercar scare, which ended the Ford XA Falcon GT-HO Phase IV, the Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1 V8, and the rumored Valiant VH Charger fitted with a Chrysler V8 engine. (Former

Chrysler Australia Stellantis (Australia and New Zealand) Pty Ltd (formerly FCA Australia), is the official Stellantis subsidiary in Australia and New Zealand, operating as distributor of Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Fiat and Leapmotor vehicles. Ho ...

executives and their test driver, leading racer

Leo Geoghegan Leo Francis Geoghegan (16 May 1936 – 2 March 2015) was an Australian racing driver. He was the elder of two sons of former New South Wales car dealer Tom Geoghegan, both of whom become dominant names in Australian motor racing in the 1960s. ...

, denied that the Charger was to be fitted with a high performance V8. However, in subsequent years it was revealed that Chrysler Australia did experiment with a 340ci-powered VG Valiant coupe that "went like Hell" according to the Geoghegan brothers.

Test mule A development mule, also known as test mule or simply mule, in the automotive industry is a testbed vehicle equipped with prototype components requiring evaluation. They are often camouflaged to cover their designs. Application Mules are nec ...

s were fitted with both the V8 and the Hemi-6 and was tested at the Mallala raceway in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

, with the 6cyl proving significantly faster due to less weight at the front of the car). As a result of the Supercar scare, Green was often shunned or given short answers when he tried to do grid or pit interviews with Australian motor racing legends Harry Firth (

Holden Holden, formerly known as General Motors-Holden, was an Australian subsidiary company of General Motors. Founded in Adelaide, it was an automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter that sold cars under its own marque in Australia. It was ...

) and

Allan Moffat Allan George Moffat, Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 10 November 1939 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada) is a Canadian-born Australian racing driver known for his four championships in the Australian Touring Car Championship, six wins ...

( Ford), both of whom had been involved in the development of cars that had been killed off. For his part, Harry Firth's

Holden Dealer Team The Holden Dealer Team (HDT) was Holden's semi-official racing team from 1969 until 1986 Australian Touring Car season, 1986, primarily contesting Australian Touring car racing, Touring Car events but also rallying, rallycross and National Sp ...

had completed virtually all the testing and development of the V8 Torana (both on and off the race track), and years later said in an interview with ''Australian Muscle Car'' magazine that "Evan Green was no friend of mine". Despite his role in starting the Supercar scare, Green would subsequently become a director at GM-

Selected works

*''Journeys with Gelignite Jack'' (1966),

Angus & Robertson Angus & Robertson (A&R) is a major Australian bookseller, publisher and printer. As book publishers, A&R has contributed substantially to the promotion and development of Australian literature.Alison, Jennifer (2001). "Publishers and editors: A ...

. Also in a new edition ''Hit the Road, Jack'' (1991),

Pan Macmillan Pan Books is a British publishing imprint that first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the British-based Macmillan Publishers, owned by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group of Germany. History Pan Books began as an indepe ...

. The story of a tough outback journey undertaken for

Castrol Castrol Limited is a British oil company that markets industrial and automotive lubricants, offering a wide range of oil, greases and similar products for most lubrication applications. The company was originally named CC Wakefield; the nam ...

, in which his life-long friend and fellow rally driver Jack Murray figures prominently. *''Dust and Glory'' (1990), Macmillan. A novel whose action takes place in the fictitious 1956

Redex Trial The Round Australia Trial was a long distance rally (a form of motorsport that takes place on public or private roads), which was run on multiple occasions between 1953 and 1998, circumnavigating Australia. Its early years were tremendously popula ...

(the last Redex Reliability Trial was in 1955). Several real-life characters appear, notably "Gelignite Jack", and

Jack Davey John Andrew Davey (8 February 190714 October 1959), known as Jack Davey, was a New Zealand-born singer and pioneering star of Australian radio as a performer, producer, writer and host from the early 1930s into the late 1950s. Later in his caree ...

, who in the book longs to be taken seriously as a rally driver rather than for his celebrity. Green himself is thinly disguised as journalist Harley "Norton" Alexander. His other novels include: ''Adam's Empire'', ''Kalinda'', ''Bet Your life'', ''On Borrowed Time'', ''Clancy's Crossing'' and ''A Bootfull of Right Arms'' - covering his adventures during the 1974 London—Sahara—Munich World Cup Rally in an Australian

Leyland P76 The Leyland P76 is a large car that was produced by Leyland Australia, the Australian subsidiary of British Leyland. Featuring what was described at the time as the "standard Australian wheelbase of 111 inches", it was intended to provide the c ...

V8.

Family

Green's son Gavin served two stints as editor of the British motoring magazine ''

Car A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one billio ...

''.

References

* *
Evan Green
–

AustLit AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource (also known as AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway; and AustLit: The Resource for Australian Literature) is a national bio-bibliographical database of Australian literature. It is an internet-based, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Evan 1930 births 1996 deaths Australian rally drivers Motorsport announcers Motoring writers Motoring journalists 20th-century Australian journalists Racing drivers from New South Wales Writers from New South Wales 20th-century Australian novelists Australian male novelists Driving in Australia Australian motoring writers Australian motoring journalists