Non landy favourite cars?

My first car was a Lancia Beta Coupe which was damn cool by the late 90s when I was a student.

Followed it up with a 1968 Alfa Romeo Duetto which was bloody wonderful but I sold to move to Sydney from the UK.

In between was a 1965 which looked and sounded fantastic but was a piece of garbage.

Attachment 132786

When the Landies are resting, I'll take the Tesla...

Until last week, when I sold them both off to make room for the newly acquired D4 ...

I'd use this one to go anywhere:
Attachment 132784
'99 Jeep Cherokee XJ (pretty much stock, too!)

And this one to go anywhere, in a hurry:
Attachment 132788
'03 Audi TT Quattro

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pickles2

A very bad decision by you! Don't know about an aftermarket engine, but I would say that with its original matching numbers 426 Hemi, it would today be worth way north of $500K. No doubt you would remember the classic (1st edition) 1970s classic, "Vanishing Point" with Barry Newman.
A pretty rare car in Aussie,..where is it now?
As you might have guessed a Dodge Challenger 426 Hemi R/T rates pretty highly with me.
The "Best" (as in engineering/design etc) car we've ever owned was a special order (built for us) AMG C63, optioned with "Performance Pack" better engine, big brakes, LSD (could never understand why this wasn't standard on this car!). A very powerful, and a very fast car, which made a beautiful "noise"! My "favorite" was a black 1985 HDT VK Calais Director, the most expensive one of its model ever built by Brock's HDT Special vehicles ($46K in 1985, which was over twice the price of a new Calais upon which it was based),..tuxedo black (I bought it s/h in 1988, I never would've chosen black!), Optioned with Leather Scheel interior, Improved output engine, T5 (5 speed) gearbox, BBS wheels, electric sunroof, HDT Stereo (amp, equalizer etc) 3.36 diff etc. A very nice car, which was the subject of several magazine articles, and which is still around in Sydney.
Pickles.

---

It is still in Brisbane. Been freshened up a couple of times. Had a couple of coats of paint and is now in the original deep metallic blue. It was always a Hemi 426 but someone in the US changed over to a Mopar Performance drag race engine. Only a handful of Hemi convertibles were built and most were auto trans. Quite a rare car. The drag engine had a cast iron inlet manifold with two v. large Carter four barrels and equal length cast iron exhaust headers. A lot of surplus front end weight. I put on an aluminium inlet manifold and a single 1150 Holley and tubular exhaust headers. I sold it for $5000 because that is what it was worth in 1975 and we needed the money, being broke newly weds with a fresh mortgage. As an idea of values, in 1982 I was offered a genuine Plymouth Superbird in Owatonna, Minnesota for US$8500. I had just sold a block of land and was cashed up and wanted to buy this. I calculated it would have cost about AU$15,000 landed. SWMBO hit the roof. No Plymouth. These are now million dollar cars. In 1982 they were just a curious old race car. Bought as a play car by a prominent Owatonna businessman, never raced and rarely used. It had 17,000 miles on it. He also had a 1940 Ford coupe with Offenhauser 255 installed.

I used to run the Dodge on 115 octane Avgas. It used a lot of it too. Current owner tells me that now Avgas is unavailable he runs it on 98 Octane with 1:5 of benzol added and the ignition retarded. Compression ratio of a drag Hemi is 12:1. He says if he ever has to rebuild the engine he will get low compression pistons, about 9:1 so it will run OK on 98 unleaded.

Without doubt the MkII Mini Cooper S that I owned for 9 all too brief months in 1978. The most fun I've ever had with my clothes on.
2nd goes to one of the FIATs, so I'd choose the 1969 FIAT 124 AC sports Coupé, retrofitted with a 2 Litre Lancia engine and twin side draughts. Pretty car, and was capable of shattering the egos of a lot of V8 drivers.

3rd. Nostalgia mean that my first real car, other than the awful ( sorry, Nick ) FC Holdens that I tinkered with, a 1963 MGB Roadster, one out of the first shipment to land here. Boy I wish I'd kept THAT. MG prices aren't anything like what they got to, but an original, three main bearing B is still worth a bit.

Mentioned in dispatches; XA ex police interceptor. Not a GT, but wow. My first 4WD, a G60 Hardtop Patrol with a 308 in it. Later it had a Toyota 4 speed, but that was a stupid thing to do. The V8 didn't need the extra ratio, and the Nissan box was stronger.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sam_d

I've always wanted a 1977 Pontiac Firebird after watching Smokey and the Bandit as a kid.

Other than that I loved the Rover SD1 as a kid and even though they have now come down into my price range I'd doubt I'd ever get one. From the outside I think they still look great but the insides are dated as anything.

---

I bought a 1965 Mustang GT as it was my dream car as a kid. Like the Firebird, it looked amazing and sounded great but really was terrible (and terrifying) to drive. My same vintage Alfa by contrast was perfectly fine in modern traffic.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sam_d

I've always wanted a 1977 Pontiac Firebird after watching Smokey and the Bandit as a kid.

---

A mate of mine has one - as mentioned in the previous post, looks great, sounds great, goes hard in a straight line, but is a diabolical vehicle - even 'fully sorted' it tries to kill you at every turn - I mean that exactly as it's written, getting the bastard to go around a corner without feeling like you're about to die is very difficult unless it's idling, it's not a car you can drive hard. It has pretty much zero traction in the arse end and it isn't even overpowered. Understeers like a bitch even at what would be considered normal speeds to a modern car.

Add to that the rattles, bad build quality, crappy panel fit and things continually falling off it and breaking, they are a hard car to own - my mate almost never drives it because it's such a stinker but it sits in his garage next to an XB Coupe looking very nice. The XB is a very different story - a much better car to drive and turns as many heads. Both have been restored and are very good examples of their respective marques, but are chalk and cheese when it comes to driving them. Having said that, if you've got the room to keep one, then why not huh?

As to my favourites, I'm a bit boring - loved driving Dad's HQ so bought an HX and HJ after that, also owned a couple of Subaru 4WD wagons - also great cars IMO and very reliable.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bigbjorn

It is still in Brisbane. Been freshened up a couple of times. Had a couple of coats of paint and is now in the original deep metallic blue. It was always a Hemi 426 but someone in the US changed over to a Mopar Performance drag race engine. Only a handful of Hemi convertibles were built and most were auto trans. Quite a rare car. The drag engine had a cast iron inlet manifold with two v. large Carter four barrels and equal length cast iron exhaust headers. A lot of surplus front end weight. I put on an aluminium inlet manifold and a single 1150 Holley and tubular exhaust headers. I sold it for $5000 because that is what it was worth in 1975 and we needed the money, being broke newly weds with a fresh mortgage. As an idea of values, in 1982 I was offered a genuine Plymouth Superbird in Owatonna, Minnesota for US$8500. I had just sold a block of land and was cashed up and wanted to buy this. I calculated it would have cost about AU$15,000 landed. SWMBO hit the roof. No Plymouth. These are now million dollar cars. In 1982 they were just a curious old race car. Bought as a play car by a prominent Owatonna businessman, never raced and rarely used. It had 17,000 miles on it. He also had a 1940 Ford coupe with Offenhauser 255 installed.

I used to run the Dodge on 115 octane Avgas. It used a lot of it too. Current owner tells me that now Avgas is unavailable he runs it on 98 Octane with 1:5 of benzol added and the ignition retarded. Compression ratio of a drag Hemi is 12:1. He says if he ever has to rebuild the engine he will get low compression pistons, about 9:1 so it will run OK on 98 unleaded.

---

Sensational,...Pickles.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by trout1105

I loved those side boxes, you could fit all sorts of stuff in them [thumbsupbig]
I ended up putting a rubber glove over the dizzy and the leads and this helped heaps.

---

I found the rubber glove just kept the moisture in when it got in.

I used an old icecream container wedged between the grille and the distributor for the primary protection.
Then, there are two holes on the bottom of the distributor. I drilled and tapped them. screwed in nipples. Ran a line to vacuum. Ran a line into the cabin. sealed the distributor cap and the LT lead entry with a smear of vasalene.
Kept it dry enough.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

I call bull****,,

they'd float before that happened[bigrolf]

---

They have drain holes, you know. Otherwise they'd fill up in a thunderstorm.
Oh, and most have rust holes (from driving up rivers).
Attachment 132790Attachment 132791
(Not my Moke. Just examples.)

Triumph Mayflower - 1250cc of neck-snapping power (alloy head side valve 4 cylinders) That was my first car. Paid $100 for it, and got $110 when I moved it on.