THE SEVENTIES Options

[wonkipop]

out for my saturday morning long distance grocery walk.

........lo and behold.



1973 ford falcon XA.
pepper red. GT. 351 cleveland.
(aussie ford that is).
however ......styled in detroit. last of the aussie fords styled in the USA.
put me in a good mood all day.
owner was standing nearby and i had a quick chat.
freshly restored by him.
cracked a joke about it having its nose up like a 914.
......he knew what a 914 was and asked me why i said that.
told him i had one that was one shade of orange off his pepper red.
or was that pepper orange?
ie phoenix red. or is that phoenix orange. he knew what phoenix red was.

car blokes. top blokes.



70s. top era. go fast stripes. wild colors. emotionally crippled cars suffering from epa strangulation pillow suffocation.
sure beats the 21st century. what shade of grey is that again. oh yeah. mirage grey.
ah i thought it was saharan grey. nice polar silver SUV there mate. its not silver. its uber unsaturated black. tops. beaudiful touch screen you got there where the gear lever used to be. yeah. gear levers are for pensioners. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[wonkipop]

@bkrantz

fiat 124 spyder another one of those cars aussies never got.
we got the coupes but not the converts.
fiat never made the spyder in right hand drive form for some reason.

there are few down here that are private imports.
came in from the states in the late 80s and early 90s.
similar kind of thing as me and my 914.
you had to then convert to right hand drive.
which people did using coupe mechanical parts.

nice little cars too. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

another bit of aussie muscle brawn.
holden torana SLR 5000. 74-78. came out around about the same time as my 74 914.
usual formula - stick a bigger engine than is sane in the "compact" model.
don't worry too much about the brakes. suspension - whats that?
general motors product - ie holden.
many a young man met an untimely and early end in these monsters.
gallows humour named them "gum tree magnets".
spotted this one in the traffic a few months back and got a quick snap.
rare to see one around.

[bkrantz]

@bkrantz

fiat 124 spyder another one of those cars aussies never got.
we got the coupes but not the converts.
fiat never made the spyder in right hand drive form for some reason.

there are few down here that are private imports.
came in from the states in the late 80s and early 90s.
similar kind of thing as me and my 914.
you had to then convert to right hand drive.
which people did using coupe mechanical parts.

nice little cars too. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

another bit of aussie muscle brawn.
holden torana SLR 5000. 74-78. came out around about the same time as my 74 914.
usual formula - stick a bigger engine than is sane in the "compact" model.
don't worry too much about the brakes. suspension - whats that?
general motors product - ie holden.
many a young man met an untimely and early end in these monsters.
gallows humour named them "gum tree magnets".
spotted this one in the traffic a few months back and got a quick snap.
rare to see one around.

Holden just did what lots of shade tree Yanks did, but with more money. Speaking of worry-free transplants, I once saw a guy trying to shoe-horn a V8 into a Chevy Vega. I never saw it done, but I heard that the first time it was running, he floored it and twisted the engine off the home-made mounts.

[ClayPerrine]

[
Holden just did what lots of shade tree Yanks did, but with more money. Speaking of worry-free transplants, I once saw a guy trying to shoe-horn a V8 into a Chevy Vega. I never saw it done, but I heard that the first time it was running, he floored it and twisted the engine off the home-made mounts.

]The Chevy Vega was quite capable of having a V-8 put in it. GM rebranded the Vega as the Monza, and later put a 302 V-8 into it for racing. Of course you had to drill holes in the inner fenders to change the spark plugs, but GM offered a kit with the hole saw and rubber plugs for the holes.

With stock GM parts, you could put any small block into the Vega. With the 4-cylinder rear gearing, the were monsters in a straight line. I had lots of friends in high school with V-8 Vegas.

[bkrantz]

[
Holden just did what lots of shade tree Yanks did, but with more money. Speaking of worry-free transplants, I once saw a guy trying to shoe-horn a V8 into a Chevy Vega. I never saw it done, but I heard that the first time it was running, he floored it and twisted the engine off the home-made mounts.

]The Chevy Vega was quite capable of having a V-8 put in it. GM rebranded the Vega as the Monza, and later put a 302 V-8 into it for racing. Of course you had to drill holes in the inner fenders to change the spark plugs, but GM offered a kit with the hole saw and rubber plugs for the holes.

With stock GM parts, you could put any small block into the Vega. With the 4-cylinder rear gearing, the were monsters in a straight line. I had lots of friends in high school with V-8 Vegas.

The guy I remember almost certainly did not use parts from GM or even a local speed shop. It was strictly DYI, fueled by beer.