Thread: Car show elitists

Originally Posted by PhilipA

They were seam welded also.

I built one for Edsel Ford when he was deputy MD and it caused hell to pay as it was not in the computer and a guy had to walk beside it down the line. It should be worth something! But of course there are probably dozens of them now.LOL The plant manager rang me fuming and I pointed out Edsel's name was on the car.

Regards Philip A

If you had the right contacts in the plant we could get our staff order cars seam welded. They would take it off line after being spot welded together in the body shop, mig the seams then put it back in its bubble. Cost you a couple of cartons. You could get the service garage to bung in an LS diff. the same way before the car left the plant.

Special orders were relatively easily done at GM-H using the SVO system (Special Vehicle Order) as long as the necessary bits were in the system. Common examples were Chev. 350's in panel vans and One Tonners. Had to be built in a plant that both made the model and had the jigs for the special bits. This meant that a 350 One Tonner could only be built at Elizabeth and a 350 panel van could only be built at Dandenong. Kingswood trim in panel vans was a common SVO. Panel vans were all Belmonts then but later a Kingswood model was released because of the Kingswood trim popularity. All sorts of odd combinations were built using the SVO system.

One SVO that received virtually nil publicity was the Kingswood HT version built for the ACT Police. I can't remember the numbers built, not many I suppose. Canberra would not have had a big police force. They were quite standard looking Kingswood four door sedans in nice conservative two tone colour schemes, 300hp four bolt 350 Chev, US sourced police spec auto, LSD, 6" wheels, ER70radial tyres, usual police heavy duty suspension and electrical options. Went like bloody hell and looked like a public servant's family car.

I remember the foreman of the touch up shop at Pagewood buying his wife a Kingswood out of the company fleet.He took it into the shop, gathered his leading hands around him and told them it was his wife's new car and to tell him when they had it ready. Best finished Kingswood you ever saw when it went out the gate. I had to turn a blind eye to the Premier trim, weathershields, sun visor, etc, etc, etc that had miraculously grown attached to it (and the LS diff).

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

1967, beat minis at Bathurst.
1968 got well and truly rolled by Holden Monara GTS327
1969 Holden GTS350 took 7 out of the 10 first places
1970 &1971 won Bathurst against Toranas with barely more than half the Ford's engine capacity
1972 got rolled by said Toranas
1973 Torana was winning until Doug Chivas decided he could go another lap without refuelling

I don't think it was Doug Chivas' decision, I remember their pit board saying 'get max laps' displayed not long before.

Jeff

Originally Posted by PhilipA

You may remember way back to XR where the Interceptor became the GT but with the 289..
Now my memory is not all that clear on this but I am absolutely sure that the XY Interceptor was a 351 2V not a 4V. I remember one of the guys in Brisbane driving one to run it in and was terrified by the bonnet flapping at 150MPH.
The police cars were no faster than any others but there were lots of rumours around which bore no relation to reality.They were still pretty quick.
I am not sure about the XW, but it may have had a 4V, as the ZF Fairlane had a 4V which changed to 2V in ZG.

Actually the fastest XY GTs that I ever drove were 2 press cars in Quicksilver and Peppermint (faster than a couple of HOs I drove). The Quicksilver manual was bought by a colleague who got it home to find a "blueprinted by Fred Gibson" tag on the sump. Noooo Ford didn't dummy up press cars in those days. Heaven forbid! They were seam welded also. i remember driving the first TC cortina press car. The thing went like excrement off a shovel with about 8 secs 0-100. Funny about the production ones.

The XC of course had the ****house emission 351 which would not pull the skin off a custard.(relatively)

The XD also had the the Carter thermoquad motor and I remember running out of petrol a couple of times going to work in my XD GS wagon with a 351 auto at 9MPG. It still went pretty well and would chirp a bit into second. For some crazy **** by the marketing boys you could not get a 351 XD ESP which was the successor to the GT,as they wanted to reposition it as "European" inspired.

I built one for Edsel Ford when he was deputy MD and it caused hell to pay as it was not in the computer and a guy had to walk beside it down the line. It should be worth something! But of course there are probably dozens of them now.LOL The plant manager rang me fuming and I pointed out Edsel's name was on the car.

Regards Philip A

I know of a couple of (what I believe are) factory 5.8 XD ESP's

I don't know about XD ESPs with a 351 but you could get an XE 351 ESP.

Originally Posted by BigJon

I don't know about XD ESPs with a 351 but you could get an XE 351 ESP.

I had an XE ESP 351 it was stolen and written off at high speed...

Not the best pic, but here it is in the better days...

Originally Posted by Tombie2

I had an XE ESP 351 it was stolen and written off at high speed...

Not the best pic, but here it is in the better days...

very nice, good to see another green AND blue oval fan

Well you cant have pic's of ford without a holden there to challenge it,

And yes it gets driven, hard, this pic was from willowbank drag strip, still own it now.

Jason.
P.S. Im not a fan of the trailer queens

Originally Posted by tapout

Well you cant have pic's of ford without a holden there to challenge it,

And yes it gets driven, hard, this pic was from willowbank drag strip, still own it now.

Jason.
P.S. Im not a fan of the trailer queens

cool pic mate, just curious what diff do you run ??