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Worst car I've driven was some sort of little Holden a girl friend had back in the 70's, I can't remember the name of it but for some reason I remember the motor was called "Starfire" or similar. Didn't go, didn't stop, didn't handle!
Worst 4X4 was either my daughters Lada Niva or my old Datsun 720 duel cab.
amongst the worst was a 70's TC Triumph 2500, constantly broke down, leaked, used oil but was comfortable & went well when it was going.
Jonesfam
The Starfire(better known as misfire) motor was the first 4 cyl commodore. About VC or VH. It was also used in some Toyota Corona's, RT 104 comes to mind.Quote:
Originally Posted by jonesfam
And Sunbirds, a renamed Torana.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Whippy
Sunbird, that was the thing. Horrible little car.
Jonesfam
Worst and only car I've owned, JB Camira. I have to come clean I had one, used more oil than fuel and rusted by the day, gutless, pinged like **** regardless of what fuel you put in even after checking the timing but just plain awful but at 18 when you're given a car for free as bad as it was it was transport.
After that I bought my first Rangie and been a Land Rover owner ever since. I do have a 99 AU falcon ute for work but despite it's being on the list of being unreliable mine has been fine and it's not exactly pampered!!
My mum bought a Sunbird (UC I think) what a pile of crap that was, done 2 head gaskets in 18 months and got rid of it. Previous to the POS sunbird was a TC Cortina 6 cylinder that was hard to kill til the front end collapsed and that was the end of the old Cortina. Dad had a 4 cylinder Cortina, that was also awful probably why I hate 4 cylinder cars as a whole it was bred into me from a early age.
Trav
Did they also apply the Starfire name to any Gemini engines?
Sent from my GT-P5210 using AULRO mobile app
Gemini engines were Isuzu.Quote:
Originally Posted by DiscoMick
No wonder you hate 4cylinders... The good old missfiire, I drove one of them ... just once.... Hideous... They made that thing by grabbing there big heavy gutless 6cylinder and lopping 2cylinders off.... Creating an even more gutless boat anchor in the 4cylinder variety.Quote:
Originally Posted by dungarover
You needed to go European for 4cylinders back then. Due to the tax laws over in Europe, any engine over 2litres was heavily taxed. So they built some rippa 4cylinders for the time.
The Renault 16TS here has rated a few mentions, 1.6litre, all alloy (block, head). High mounted camshaft... You couldn't kill 'em. Would run at it's redline in top gear all day (160km/h from 1.6litres). This motor is from the 60's mind you.
Citroen GS .... I'd bloody near kill for this car, it's the only nice one I've ever seen adn it's bloody cheap (it would cost be $10K+ to build a car as good as that one from your average rusted out piece of junk).
1972 Citroen GS
1015CC ( yes 1.1litre ) air cooled flat four. The motor will spin too 8000rpm like a sewing machine. Monster sized crank shaft and small capacity allow it to rev like crazy. Will cruise at 150km/h from 1.1litres. A lot of V8's in the early 70's couldn't do 150km/h.
Little cast iron lump in the mini cooper S .... How much fun is that ... I owned a mini van as a paddock bomb too... Gee's it was fun, and it was amazing where I could drive something with no ground clearance (due to it's short wheel base).
There just the garden vaiety poor mans French cars... What about the twin cam italians jobs .... droooolll.... afla's etc...
seeya,
Shane L.
Renault 16, brilliant little engine. Pity about the rest of the car which was even worse than other Renaults. The front end fell to bits and the bodies turned into iron oxide quick smart. Other than the engine, a pile of junk.
The Holden 6 was not a big heavy engine but a lightweight compact engine. Euros and Brits made bulky heavy engines. Go have a look under a few bonnets some day.
I have ... One of the old commonbores my brother had at one point with a 179, twin barrel weber, extractors... It actually went ok for one of those cast iron 6's. 253 autos were slower in a straight line. It was pretty rare a kingswood or commonbore could keep with me driving a ****ty old citroen cx2400 with a fraction of there power (unless of course it was one of the hi performance V8's which would leave you for dead in a cloud of petrol vapour and tire smoke).Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm
R16's were un-killable (other than rust) my mothers eventually died after she sold it, a new rental falcon wagon went through a give way sign (about 1992) and hit it at 60km/h in the front wheel 'T' boning it. They all got out un-hurt (even the un-restrained dog). The falcon was disintigrated ... nothing left of it. The renault twisted it's entire structure, but all the doors still opened (bloody lucky for the people in the R16... imagine if the falcon has hit the doors rather than the front wheel). My father has a piccie of my grandparents place many years ago. There is a line of R16's and R10's lining the street and drive of the house. All my aunties and uncles had 'em as did the grandparents. They were so far ahead of the local cars is wasn't funny.
The local cast iron motors really weren't that great though. I have an old fuel injected 2.1 litre Citroen DS that I'll restore someday when I have the money ... built from '68 with Djet injection. Big car, wheelbase longer than a chev impala. Wheezy little 4cylinder than dates back too the 1930's nearly. 0-100km/h in less than 11 seconds and 180km/h top speed. The local V8's couldn't even match it back in the 70's... Unless of course your talking the "hero cars". Not the likes of big statesmans or fairlanes :)
There all incredibly slow compared to just about any modern car.
seeya,
Shane L.