Thread: Big engines small cars

Originally Posted by Hall

My brother is the mechanic in our family. When he was a young`n he had a ford Anglia that he cut and moved the fire wall back. Then he fitted a 186S into it. From the stories he tells it went rather well.
Cheers Hall

I remember meeting a bloke in Tassie years ago who had an Anglia with a 3.0 litre Capri V6 in it. Went rather well.

I had another mate down there who had a Nissan Personal Six (the model after the Cedric but before the Super Six I think) ................ with a souped up Ford 302 in it. That also surprised a lot of people at the lights around Launceston. But my favorite was an old VW Kombi dual cab Ute, which had a 350 Chev mounted in a bloody great hole in the floor of the "payload area" just behind the cab. That thing could lift its front wheels a couple of feet off the ground from the lights.

Not in the same league as the cars mentioned above but I used to love the Chrysler Centura as it looked like a crappy corolla or crown but came standard with 245. There was a guy that lived near us growing up that had a 318 in it apparently not much mod needed . A good mate worked in Bayswater for an Italian bloke that had a 450 chev in a Torana which was just plain stupid in the wet

During the mid-1980's I used to live near a guy who drove an old Datsun 1200 work ute. Nothing much to look at, but he had shoehorned a fully worked, turbo'd engine into it. Talk about the ultimate sleeper!

Originally Posted by BMKal

But my favorite was an old VW Kombi dual cab Ute, which had a 350 Chev mounted in a bloody great hole in the floor of the "payload area" just behind the cab. That thing could lift its front wheels a couple of feet off the ground from the lights.

Years ago, on Moreton Island, a young fella with the engine cover of his Kombie up waved me down. I was in my '85 Rangie & he said he was waiting for a Rangie to come along as he had a 3.5 V8 in the VW.
It had a radiator up front behind a bull bar. The radiator had got low on water & he had to bleed the whole cooling system to get proper water flow. Luckily, I had a full tool kit on board(as you do hey?).
He was saying it was a fun vehicle to drive.
Steve

Originally Posted by squizzyhunter

Not in the same league as the cars mentioned above but I used to love the Chrysler Centura as it looked like a crappy corolla or crown but came standard with 245. There was a guy that lived near us growing up that had a 318 in it apparently not much mod needed . A good mate worked in Bayswater for an Italian bloke that had a 450 chev in a Torana which was just plain stupid in the wet

There must have been a few Centura's around with V8's fitted into them. I also knew someone who had one in Adelaide. At first, he had a 318 in it, then later replaced that with a 360.

Last I saw of it, the body had "twisted" from the torque. He had pulled a decent size caravan from Adelaide to Perth and back, and there were very visible "creases" in the rear pillars from the edge of each back door to the bottom corners of the back window. Don't know what he ended up doing with it .............. but I wouldn't have trusted it too much after seeing that.

Bathurst would have certainly been an interesting race if they had ever held the Torana 308 / Cortina 302 / Centura 318 showdown that was planned before certain state governments got involved and refused to allow registration of the Ford and Chrysler products ......................

guy over here in perth put a 36 ford v8 into his about 49 morris minor 2 door. fitted quite well and had space as the morry was originally designed for a VW type horizontally opposed engine.

5.9 Cummins in a 101....

My brother new a guy who fitted a mini around a 454 chev, the local cop told he could not drive it on the road. It made 1 pass down the local dragstrip and then got parked.
A husband to one of my cousins tells stories of his stock 68 Ford Cougar with a factory 428 in it.
Over in the USA the AMC Hornets could be had with a V8. The one I had had a straight 6 in it. I could beat alot of other cars racing between stop lights. Could beat alot of V8s up to the 100mph mark then they would pull away from me, but that was on longer stretches.