The Best And Worst Australian Cars.

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If you want to talk about the reliability of Australian made cars / engines, try anything with the old Starfire (misfire) four engine.

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Yes , I remember when I first came back to OZ there was a bloke with a Sunbird( remember them) with a Starfire in it with no go.
I found that the dizzy wasn't turning so it had either done the fibre timing gear or the dizzy shaft was broken. I have never seen that before or since.

GM had a habit of chopping cylinders to make smaller engines eg Holden 3.8 V6 which started as a Buick 300 V8 with 2 cylinders off. So it is a bastard Grandson of the RV8 which was the father of the Buick 300.

Makes sense if you pull it off , as you can use the same tooling as for the other engine,as bore spacing etc is the same, and hence the PUMA 4.5 and 6.
Regards Philip A

After I started this thread it got me thinking,what is the worst Australian car I have ever owned,and I came up with the woeful Ford TF Cortina Ghia. For a 17 year old I found it fast,but the brakes were rubbish,it felt very nose heavy,shocking in the corners and things always fell off or broke. It was just a horrible bastard car. It felt like the 4.1 engine was never intended for the car.

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Originally Posted by disco man

After I started this thread it got me thinking,what is the worst Australian car I have ever owned,and I came up with the woeful Ford TF Cortina Ghia. For a 17 year old I found it fast,but the brakes were rubbish,it felt very nose heavy,shocking in the corners and things always fell off or broke. It was just a horrible bastard car. It felt like the 4.1 engine was never intended for the car.

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It was just another of the trend at the time to drop large engines into cars originally designed for much smaller, lighter and less powerful engines.

They all did it - Ford Cortina, Holden Torana, Chrysler Centura. Even the poms did it with the Marina.

None of the above was ever what you would ever call a "well engineered" or safe motor vehicle.

The next step was to drop a V8 into the same vehicle. Holden got in ahead of the bunch and got away with in in the Torana, but the practice was banned before Ford released a 302 V8 Cortina and Chrysler released a 318 V8 Centura. But the latter two were definitely on the drawing board, and protorypes developed.

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Originally Posted by BMKal

It was just another of the trend at the time to drop large engines into cars originally designed for much smaller, lighter and less powerful engines.

They all did it - Ford Cortina, Holden Torana, Chrysler Centura. Even the poms did it with the Marina.

None of the above was ever what you would ever call a "well engineered" or safe motor vehicle.

The next step was to drop a V8 into the same vehicle. Holden got in ahead of the bunch and got away with in in the Torana, but the practice was banned before Ford released a 302 V8 Cortina and Chrysler released a 318 V8 Centura. But the latter two were definitely on the drawing board, and protorypes developed.

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Thanks mate,that makes a lot of sense. I have always wondered why the V8 Capri was not released in Australia,not wishing to start a war,but maybe it might have been better car to take on the Torana?

I recall when the little Toyotas that came with either a Toyota or a Starfire engine were reaching the end of their useful lives, the ones with the despised Starfire were still rattling and vibrating along and most of the Toyota engines had gone to the big Geisha house in the sky.

The best and worst from Holden, Can't argue about the HQ :)

Holden's best and worst


The best and worst from Ford,Bloody Au Falcon:(

What are the worst Fords ever sold in Australia

The best list is not much different from the worst:o

What are the best Aussie Fords?

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Originally Posted by disco man

The best and worst from Holden, Can't argue about the HQ :)

Holden's best and worst


The best and worst from Ford,Bloody Au Falcon:(

What are the worst Fords ever sold in Australia

The best list is not much different from the worst:o

What are the best Aussie Fords?

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What was so bad about the AU apart from numerous styling disasters? Same with the 380.

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Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

What was so bad about the AU apart from numerous styling disasters? Same with the 380.

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The series III was good but the earlier ones were a bit dodgy,My oldest brother got a series I brand new and under a year the roof lining had sagged the boot release had broken,power window switch,glove box lid,power steering pump,central locking, had all broken. I don't know if all of them were like that,but his was. I felt sorry for him as he had worked bloody hard to save the money and it was the very first car he had bought brand new.

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Originally Posted by PhilipA

GM had a habit of chopping cylinders to make smaller engines eg Holden 3.8 V6 which started as a Buick 300 V8 with 2 cylinders off. So it is a bastard Grandson of the RV8 which was the father of the Buick 300.

Makes sense if you pull it off , as you can use the same tooling as for the other engine,as bore spacing etc is the same, and hence the PUMA 4.5 and 6.
Regards Philip A

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At one time GM were making 7,000 Buick V6 per day. Used in a number of their makes, not just Buick. Made millions of them during its production life. About the same period they were making 10,000 Chev. small block per day.

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Originally Posted by BMKal

It was just another of the trend at the time to drop large engines into cars originally designed for much smaller, lighter and less powerful engines.

They all did it - Ford Cortina, Holden Torana, Chrysler Centura. Even the poms did it with the Marina.

None of the above was ever what you would ever call a "well engineered" or safe motor vehicle.

The next step was to drop a V8 into the same vehicle. Holden got in ahead of the bunch and got away with in in the Torana, but the practice was banned before Ford released a 302 V8 Cortina and Chrysler released a 318 V8 Centura. But the latter two were definitely on the drawing board, and protorypes developed.

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A Centura sufficiently strengthened would have been a great little muscle car with a Chrysler LA small block installed. With the shorter and lower engine the centre of gravity would be much lower and further back. The understeer would have mostly disappeared with the change in weight distribution. This is the lightest and most compact of the big three small blocks and in 340TA form with all the Mopar Performance good bits would be a stunning performer. Eat your heart out Foulcoon GTHO's.