Thread: Non landy favourite cars?

Originally Posted by Classic88

A GTV crossed with a Deefer could be my ideal car

No we are talkin ! Needs a bit better engineering though.

Originally Posted by Bigbjorn

Never came across a Slant Six that bad. It must have done a lot of miles and a lot of work. They usually lived forever. If they were using a quart of oil in 5000 miles between changes they were considered badly worn.

I had a mate that borrowed it to do a "last minute run" to make scrutineering towing a car float to Eastern Creek when his tow car broke down. Another mate took it well into Queensland with my Dad's box trailer in tow to retrieve his BIL who'd laid his bike down. Such was the faith in the Valiant. The crowning moment though was when the RTA and the police had a flying squad set up checking coal trucks just north of the Swansea bridge. We got waved in (yes, in a car) and the copper had a walk around and came back with "this thing's got 2 day's rego left on it and nobody's going to write a pink slip for it so I'm not going to waste my time writing a defect notice" and waved us back out.

Originally Posted by mike123

HX LE Monaro. The first was stolen :-( . The next one I that I had I had the 308 slightly worked. It was a very comfortable car and made the drive Sydney to Adelaide and back very pleasant. Just purred along.

HX LE Monaro,....Very very nice indeed,...one of my favorite Monaros, Leo Pruneau who was largely responsible for its design, had the original as his company car, and He liked it so much, He kept it for a year or so after it would normally be replaced. It is treasured by its current owner who will never let it go!
They are highly sought after in the Monaro Club,...problem now is the tartan trim,..almost impossible to replace,...a friend of mine, a well known member of the Monaro Club, bought what He thought was the last available many years ago for $5K, enough to do the whole car, but He kept the original stuff,...just in case.
Pickles.

Yes the seats with the tartan trim would be impossible to recover nowadays. I found the narrow chome dress rims on the honey comb wheels was another item that needed TLC.

I have a customer with a l322 v8 vogue and an LE monaro. Absolutely beautiful car...

Originally Posted by Bigbjorn

NTA420 is correct. 420 hp @ 2300 rpm. A rating supposedly reserved for crane carriers and fire appliances. Yes a V1710 in the biggest Autocars. I don't know what the rating was. RAAF had some with 6-71N, Allison, and scow stern dump bodies. Western Collieries had some 6 x 6 Autocar with mining bodies. I remember the last one we sold. It went to East Kimberley Transport at Wyndham for 6 deck cattle carrying. The 855 Cummins came in ratings up to 475 with twin stage turbos in the 1980's. The few KTA's that went into on-road trucks were mostly KTA525. KTA's were limited in application in road going trucks as they are too damn heavy and overweight on the front axle or nearly so. Autocar were then owned by White. Part of "The Big Four" as White promoted them. White, Autocar, Freightliner, Western Star.

Edit :- In the 1970's Cummins 855 series for on road trucks came in the following ratings to my sure knowledge - NH250, NTC290, NTC335, NTC350. The NTA420 @ 2300 we ordered in Autocars were for crane carriers & fire appliances. We wanted over 400 hp and a little mishandling of the truth was the way to get it. Late 70's came the "Big Cam" series of the 855. rated 300, 350, & 400 hp @ 2100 followed by the "Formula" so called economy engines. Same ratings but at 1900. Cummins wanted these to have 7 speed or 9 speed trans to make the drivers use the full torque curve and not keeping the engine up at the higher rpm range all the time. This was supposedly the path to improved fuel economy. Drivers hated them. Those V12 Autocars left the factory at 525 hp. I bet the wick got turned up as those engines could be rated at 800+. At least one was repowered by the owners with a KTA turned up to 800 hp. I cant find anything on what trans. were fitted. They did have super singles all around in duals on the drive.

Well a bit more internet research turned up that the trans was a 6 speed Allison, 30,000 lb front axle (Autocar made their own axles and they were GOOD!), monster hub reduction diffs, a bonnet like a billiard table. Numbers built are hazy. Some say only the one and others say up to five. Autocar have changed hands and moved house twice since then and no records exist.

I found a photo of two Autocar in WWII moving a battleship gun barrel down what looks like a steep grade. Lashed to a cradle between the two trucks, the front mover travelled in the normal direction and the rear one was travelling in reverse. The cradle was mounted on the truck's turntables. Given the poor brakes of the era this could have been an exciting drive. Battleship 16" guns weighed around 50 tons, big and long.

Originally Posted by Stuck

It's the LC / LJ Torana for me. Never been without one since before I got my licence and had 4 "in stock", as one of my neighbors put it, at one point (current one's an LJ GTR).

Another fan of the LC/J Torana here (where my username comes from). I've still got the first car I ever brought - LJ GTR. Thinking about putting a cage in it for doing targa rallies one day (with 4 kids its not a suitable family cruiser so might as well have some real fun with it)
Favourite 4wd for me is the 80 series Landcruiser - have owned two of them and I never sold one of them, but unfortantly both written off. I would have brought another one before my disco but the D3 has far better 3rd row seating so its a better suited vehicle for a family of 4 kids

Apart from Land Rovers my two standouts were a 997cc Mini Cooper blue with a white roof. Went like stink for a motor under a litre. Had John Cooper extractors, inlet manifold and a couple of HS2 SU's. Drank a lot of fuel for a little car but I tended to drive it pretty hard.

My other standout was a NSU Ro80.
It wasn't reliable, fast or comfortable but it was eye catching. It could drink more than a 3.5L classic RR EASILY and could require the use of a mate and a tow rope at any moment. It also leaked more oil than any LR has ever leaked. I'm not sure what cost me more. Fuel, oil, apex seals or CV joints. Changing gears took a while to get used to with its quirky vacuum operated clutch. Push down gently on the gear stick and it disengaged the clutch, put it in the wanted gear and let go of the gear stick.