Thread: The Best And Worst Australian Cars.

Originally Posted by SuperMono

Yes, but actual engineering didn't seem to be a strong point of Chrysler in Australia at the time. Tape measure, gas axe and welder seemed to be the tools of the day, no calculators or scales in sight
Although the real problem was probably lack of funds.

A new firewall allowing a E49 spec motor to be mounted further back would have been a starting point.

When Holden brought out its RTS (radial tuned suspension) option, Chrysler sent 2 cars the USA to get the parent company help make them handle better to counter the GM products. After driving the aussie Valiants the message came back asking how they made they made them this good and what was wrong with the handling, as it was better than US cars.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

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.

Agree with you there Bob. I knew a bloke in Adelaide who modified a Centura (stiffened it up where needed and changed the suspension layout a bit - not sure exactly what he did to it) and then fitted a 318 and a decent transmission into it. It used to go like a scalded cat ............... but still handled like a pig. His brother had a pretty stock V8 Torana - that used to struggle to keep up with it on the straight, but left it in the dust as soon as a few corners were involved (and I'm not a Torana fan by any means).

Another bloke in the same "group" of enthusiasts had a TC or TD Cortina with a Ford 302 in it - not as quick as the Centura but handled better and had less issues with torque steer and rear end body twist. At the time, I had an XW GTHO - could beat all but the Centura in a straight line (killed it on a windy road) - but the Torana would come close on a straight, and round me up in the windy stuff. The bloke with the Cortina was talking of dropping a 351 into it - don't know if he ever did this or not, but would have been interesting.

A couple of other interesting cars from that group of people - a Nissan "Personal Six" (model just after the Cedric and before the Super Six / early 240C) with a Ford 302 in it, and a 4 door / dual cab VW Kombi ute with a very worked 327 Chev mounted just behind the cab (don't know what transmission was in it). The high sides of the ute blocked any vision of what was hiding in there - it used to handle like a pig, but gave many people a very rude shock off the lights.

Today's trends of souping up high revving rice burners and putting hairdryers on things like a Falcon six just don't seem like fun by comparison (though admittedly some of them do go like stink). I don't care what anyone says - there's nothing that sounds as good as a well sorted V8.