aussie muscle

hey there, any of you guys here not from New Zealand or Australia up with what was goin on in aussie with the holdens and falcon muscle cars in the 60s and 70s? just wondering what y'all thought of them compared to the american muscle hapning at the time in regards to the technology they were using and opinions on styling etc. i imagine holdens wouldnt be too known as theyre more australian but coming from the american design of falcons before being discontinued there and continued in aussie the ford falcons more of you would probably be farmiliar with, the xb falcon "interceptor" hardtop in the mad max movies commonly mistaken for a torino. it wont take long for other oz and kiwis to join in and enlighten everyone once they see the heading id imagine.

ill put up some websites if anyone wants to see and read up on what im on about

Yeah, quite interested!!!! At one time I gave some thought to sending out some resume's and trying to get hired on with one of the Aussie road race teams for a season. I've watched the races they televise on SPEED and it looks like some super competitive racing!!!!! Of course, never got around to it, so now I'm so dang old and crippled probably couldn't pay them to take me on as a lap counter!!!!!!

Always fun to see what's happenin' on the other side of the world, especially when it deals with street and or track action with muscle cars, regardless of their heritage!!!! Also, I've seen bits and pieces on the Land Speed Record racing in Australia, and a bit on some of the Aussie and New Zealand teams that bring their cars to Bonneville, anything you could dig up for a link on them would be fun, too!!!!!!

I'd love to see more Holdens. Been watching Mcleods Daughters, and noticed the Holden Jodi drove looked sort of like a 57 chevy! Started this thread recently please add some more aussie hot rods to it!
http://www.clubhotrod.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40024

yeah apparently bathurst in aussie is quite competitive really competitive on an international scale, everyone down here is either ford or holden thats pretty much it because aussie produce their own cars so they make it hard to import others. the whole place pretty much stops when bathursts on. for me the magics changed though and its lost the appeal, back in the day they were working class muscle cars and exactly the same as sold on the showroom floor except they were allowed to blueprint the engines and when youve got 351 cleveland falcons against what were going to be 186 six cylinder engines in the monaros (before holden cheated and took the 327 from the states at the last minute) that was real grass roots racing! what one manufacturer had against the other! not like $300,000 cars they have today with the same suspensions, diffs, brakes, roll cages etc the only differences being the driver and engine and body shell haha. the cars nowadays use american chev ls1 and ford boss engines but i dont really care about post emissions stuff so dont quote me on that haha. holden also put what you guys would call a compact which was the torana about the same size as the average jappa with a tripple 2 barrel carb 6 cyl engine against the falcons with 351 clevelands!!!!!!!!!!!!1 hahahahahaha......they won but only because the weather on the day at bathurst was wet and they were more nimble :o

hey also if you guys are into 351 clevelands the aussie ones are the ones to get, they kept casting them after the usa stopped but beefed them all up in all the right places for strength and also released a 302 cleveland with smaller combustion chambers than the 351s for higher comp ratios and in 2 and 4v versions and theyre the bees knees to get down here, they strokin them out to around 400 cubes with an easy streetable 500hp. THAT is a stout smallblock in anyones language

what about the "hemi" 6 cylinder chargers with sidedraft webbers

hahaha yea them too, yea and the p76 leylands haha. yea man what do you think of them? yea them chargers had some nuts 6 cylinder hemis and in their peak were gettin dam near as much power as the 351s but used alot more gas in which case id tend to opt for the falcon as it had the v8, the power of a v8 and was more economical because it was less worked in comparison. slant sixes early on i think. . yea theyre the budget muscle cars as far as they go down here, the company didnt last long. they also had 318 v8s and the early valiant regals and pacers were plymouth chrysler based the first ones being re badged imports of plymouth valiants from the states. in 2nd pic . The big thing with the VG Valiant was the all new Hemi-6 engine, replacing the Slant-6. The Hemi-6 was introduced as a 245 cu in (4 L) unit with quasi-hemispherical combustion chambers. The "Hemi" name was already legendary in America with Chrysler's use of the Hemi V8s, so it was not hard for Chrysler Australia to market the Hemi-6 as a desirable engine.

The 1-barrel version of the 245 produced 165 bhp (123 kW) and 235 lb·ft (319 N·m).

The sporty Pacer sedan was available again, but whereas the VF Pacer was only offered with the one power output, the new VG Pacer offered 3 different versions of the new 245 Hemi engine, though Chrysler Australia didn't publish any power output figures for the Pacers.
The standard Pacer had a 2-barrel carburettor and produced 185 bhp (138 kW). Option E31 produced 195 bhp (145 kW) and included a 2-barrel carburettor, higher-performance camshaft, smaller fan, and windage tray.
Option E34 produced 235 bhp (175 kW) and included a 4-barrel carburettor, high-performance camshaft, dual-plate clutch, manual choke, modified instrument cluster, torque-limiting engine mount strut, larger radiator, smaller fan, windage tray, premium engine bearings, shot-peened crankshaft and connecting rods, and high-capacity oil pump.
Option E35 included a 4-barrel carburettor, high-performance camshaft, heavy-duty engine bearings, a dual-plate clutch, torque-limiting engine mount strut, and the ordinary Pacer-spec transmission.
the E38 option was the one to have E38 Charger versions featured a 265 Hemi 6 which produced 280 bhp (209 kW) while the E37 and E48 were the street six packs. E38 was a race-ready Charger with the A84 Track Pack, which included a 35 imperial gallons (159.1 l) fuel tank. The A87 Track Pack included all the race track goodies with the exception of the big tank for endurance racing. not realy my cup of tea the valiants im more a falcon fan aye they were always king at bathurst

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stovens

I'd love to see more Holdens. Been watching Mcleods Daughters, and noticed the Holden Jodi drove looked sort of like a 57 chevy! Started this thread recently please add some more aussie hot rods to it!
http://www.clubhotrod.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40024

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hey i posted more about holdens on your other forum. check out wikipaedia for more holden info and holden heaven at www.holden.itgo.com which has more performance ones and youtube them and also youtube falcon coupes haha you wont regret it

Could you maybe send me one of those neat little Falcon 2 door cars, and a set of the aluminum 4v heads in the trunk??? I'll do the rest when it gets here!!!!!!!:whacked::whacked::LOL::LOL:

Yeah I'd settle for one of those 6pack six cylinder jobs!

hahaha gotta actually try track one of them cars down first to send! haha. they designed alloy 3v cylinder heads here a few years back which combine the best of both and are actually better than them both, are they over where you guys are for the boss engines and 351 clevelands etc?

Hahaha! I own one of each of the cars above! Not a pacer though, more like the black sedan. And my charger isn't a factory 6 pack either. But they're still cool, and more importantly affordable! (Pacers and factory 6pack cars are HELL expensive) My dad raised me to believe that Mopars were the best, despite the fact that he bought a 4 speed 351c XWGT Falcon back when it was brand new. I'm hoping to have my sedan on the road before the end of summer. And then I'll sell it to fund the restoration of my charger.
Although the valiants never won at bathhurst, they were highly sucsessful here in New Zealand. Ford sent Alan Moffet and his bathurst concouring Phase III GTHO Falcon over here to break up the chargers domination of the reacetracks. But our tracks were just too short and tight for the falcon and he was unsucsessful.
Funny to run into someone from the same city as me on a website on the opther sie of the world. Although Christchurch is a bit of a bogan* city. (*Kiwi slang for petrolhead)

hahahaha no way!!!!!! awesome! you got a gt from brand new? a one owner?? man! if you see me out cruisin flag me down for a yarn or cum cruisin too haha. i love this site, the guys are real helpful aye, the accumulation of knowledge is incredible. what part of christchurch you in? im in linwood, work at laycocks

Chopped66impala;
I Do believe Dave Severson and I can both get in to the Falcon and 351's.
Here is a picture of my 351Cleveland and my Falcon Ranchero. Kurt [IMG]http://http://www.clubhotrod.com/for...7&d=1227483140[/IMG]

yeah theyre a tough engine aye, i love the old falcon coupes. apparently ford copied the canted valve design of big block chevy heads on the clevelands? you may have to send that pic again though dude

sorry to get your hopes up there mate, I had a typo there. (fixed now) It was supposed to sat HE bought one new. I wish he still had it although I'm not a ford man as such. I grew up hearing stories about how it used to destroy most of the other stuff on the roads here back them. (He bought it back from Aussie when her moved back here shortly before i was born) I could show you a photo it if you like lol. He got a phone call from a bloke in oturahunga (spelling?) who owns it now. Been fully resto'd so I'm told. Very rare car too. Only the last 25 or so XW GT's had clevo's and 5 Slots, the rest had windsors and 12 slots. The XY's all had clevo's and 5 slots. The old man told me that when he bought it the dealer tried to get him to upgrade to Globes. They had to sell 500 to be able to run them at bathust. (back when it was still a "production car" race, as you mentioned earlier)
Does Jeremy still work at Laycocks? He is (Or was) the mate of a mate.