Thread: What was your most Crap Car?

Coming from a Ford/Holden/Valiant family myself - I am impressed to see others have had the same when you hear so much about the Ford versus Holden debates.

Maybe us LR owners are more open minded that we get credit for.

As a young and very naive youth in the late 50’s, l thought a red British sports car would impress the opposite sex. However, with a dire shortage of cash, the only thing I could afford was a Singer 9 . It was red, but I soon realised that was its only good feature. The brakes were operated by a fiendish system of rods and I could only ever get one to work at a time, and then it would lock up just one wheel. The body was aluminium on a wooden frame, but it was not supported behind the front seats, so it sagged and cracked and threatened to part company with the rest, the hood leaked and the side curtains flapped, but I persevered for a year or so,even though the opposite sex were singularly unimpressed. The end came one wet night coming back along the Geelong road when a piston which had been frantically buzzing up and down the tiny long stroke motor fell apart. My mate and I left it where it was, around Werribee somewhere I think, and hitched home.
I wonder how many 18 year olds today would put up with a car like that?
The other disastrous car we had was a Saab 99, and yes, the motor was related to a Dolomite. The most reliable, toughest and longest serving non 4wd we owned was a VE Valiant, which a grandson intends to restore one day. Hope I live to see it!
Cheers,
Woolly.

Originally Posted by Tombie

Yep.

Also seen the price of XE ESP 351s and I had one of them before some thug stole it and wrote it off.

That’s a $100k vehicle now.
The VK Director is worth a bit too...

Oh well..... they were fun whilst I had them.

Me n me mates had an XE 351 which we used for endless nightime amusement much to the annoyance of TasPol. Bought used tyres and chucked in for fuel. We Never got it to top speed tho...it was too scary even for drunken trainee techies like us🙄

Great engine tho...geez it took a hammering😎

The first 3 vehicles that I ever owned, when I was aged 15 through to 20 and I wouldn't mind having each of them back again....in this order...and hows this for trading up with each step.....

SII 109 ex army(purchased at army disposal auctions).....then moved up to....
HX Holden ute 202 motor.......then moved up to....
1971 Corvette Stingray 350chev.

I suspect the local Ministry of Transport traffic coppers had a picture of me and the stingray on their dartboard.

Originally Posted by INter674

Me n me mates had an XE 351 which we used for endless nightime amusement much to the annoyance of TasPol. Bought used tyres and chucked in for fuel. We Never got it to top speed tho...it was too scary even for drunken trainee techies like us🙄

Great engine tho...geez it took a hammering😎

Ha ha the Clevo would accept all sorts of battering. I remember many times in the wee hours of the morning trying to sneak into the driveway in the Fairlane hoping the folks weren't woken up by the tap tap tap of a few collapsed lifters. And another time where I held the poor old thing at 104mph for as long as the road would let me, ( long straights in rural WA) and thought it was handling a bit crap at speed. Later discovered an upper control arm pivot bolt had almost been hacksawed through. as the bushes had stopped squeaking a week or so earlier I guess I should've checked them before some country low flying...😲

Talking about noisy vehicles , my FE Holden ( with a few mods) had extractors , on the end of them was a Hot Dog about 6" long straight through then a straight length of 2" copper pipe out the back , boy did that thing bark ( may be why I am almost deaf now). On my way home from girlfriends ( now wife) had to drive past the police station , I would knock it out of gear & coast past then into it again. All my mates had FE's or FC's & one of them was going out with the police segments daughter , she would let us know when they were looking out for us. The copper pipe made its way onto my mini when I 1st started to do some modifications on it but was soon replaced by a Cooper S system which had a nice note but a reasonable noise level. "O" the memories those were the good days doing observation runs on a Friday night finishing down by the Brisbane River somewhere for a party or all going to the drive in & parking in the back , 6 FE/FC's & one FJ in a row.

Originally Posted by Woolly

As a young and very naive youth in the late 50’s, l thought a red British sports car would impress the opposite sex. However, with a dire shortage of cash, the only thing I could afford was a Singer 9 . It was red, but I soon realised that was its only good feature. The brakes were operated by a fiendish system of rods and I could only ever get one to work at a time, and then it would lock up just one wheel. The body was aluminium on a wooden frame, but it was not supported behind the front seats, so it sagged and cracked and threatened to part company with the rest, the hood leaked and the side curtains flapped, but I persevered for a year or so,even though the opposite sex were singularly unimpressed. The end came one wet night coming back along the Geelong road when a piston which had been frantically buzzing up and down the tiny long stroke motor fell apart. My mate and I left it where it was, around Werribee somewhere I think, and hitched home.
I wonder how many 18 year olds today would put up with a car like that?
The other disastrous car we had was a Saab 99, and yes, the motor was related to a Dolomite. The most reliable, toughest and longest serving non 4wd we owned was a VE Valiant, which a grandson intends to restore one day. Hope I live to see it!
Cheers,
Woolly.

My Red British sports car was a Morris Minor S2 convertible , not very sporty but a cool car, until a backhoe ran into it when it ran a STOP SIGN & wrote it off .

Another Crap car I had was also my first car.
It was an XT ute with a 302 Cleveland motor.
It had a fair bit of rust, the motor had been on fire at some stage, the drivers door used to fill with water (known as the fish pond) & it had 3 fair sized holes in the floor.
We put a 2.5 inch twin system on it, sounded great, wide tyres on the rear & a second hand 4 barrel carbie with a sports filter.
It had a slippery bench seat & no seat belts which was a good way to get the girlfriend to sit nice & close, 3 on the tree & a bull bar made out of leaf springs.
It went well & was flogged from Toowoomba to Brisbane on a regular basis. Uncontrolled oversteer was a ton of fun & only a panel van was better backed in at the drive in. 2 lounge chairs in the back, esky in-between.
It never got washed so had grass growing in the tray. The heater was putting a foot above the exhaust pipe on your side. When it rained there was more water in than out & the key was a screw driver.
It really was a pretty ordinary car (except for that motor) but it was my FIRST car, so I loved the thing!
I was living at a boarding house while I had it & drove out of the driveway & off down the road in a cloud of tyre smoke, reve's & bad manners. When I cam back a couple of hours later everybody was asking what the Cops did to me?
Apparently, after my high speed launch a police car had come past with lights & sirens & going like the clappers.
I still don't know if they were chasing me but, if so, they didn't catch me.
Jonesfam