Just for the petrol heads

[Unicorn]

:laugh2: Love it!

[JeffH]

Apparently there is a big car race on this weekend.
The way it was.

[Ozcoins]

Bathurst pretty much lost me when they stopped using even body shells from production cars.
With the death of local car manufacturing, maybe they can go back to something closer to "production cars as you can buy  them".  That would be much more interesting to me and plenty of others.

[JeffH]

:i_agree:
The current cars have very little in common with production cars and the 'parity' rules handicap the best cars and/or benefit the lesser cars.

It would be nice to see a big range of vehicles (basically production models with necessary safety modifications) up against each other at Mount Panorama. Then we might see a great race like the 1966 Gallaher 500 when the Minis sheeted the results -nine out of the top ten placings!
I do not suggest going back to the standard of the track of the early days.

[Basil]

:i_agree:
The current cars have very little in common with production cars and the 'parity' rules handicap the best cars and/or benefit the lesser cars.

It would be nice to see a big range of vehicles (basically production models with necessary safety modifications) up against each other at Mount Panorama. Then we might see a great race like the 1966 Gallaher 500 when the Minis sheeted the results -nine out of the top ten placings!
I do not suggest going back to the standard of the track of the early days.

Yeah,sad to see our premier Category morphing into Stock Car racing.

Also agree that here is a place for standard showroom models plus roll bar/belts to have a race each year.
I was involved in Series Production racing in the late 1960's early 1970's and it was a cheatathon.Carby jets drilled  out,'material' placed on pistons to up the compression ratio that slowly burnt off during the race,heads ported,compressed air used to pressurise fuel tanks to expand them to fit an extra few Litres of fuel in.Standard springs replaced with stiffer look-a-likes and Shockers revalved to also make them stiffer. etc,etc.

Eventually Cams just gave up when details of the Phase IV Falcon were leaked to Evan Green and pressure came from Govt's. to curb the GM-Ford Supercar war.

About 10(15?) years ago a guy tried to get a Showroom Class race going,his idea was Cams or the Organiser's would buy the cars at random from dealers and fit safety gear and seal various components such as the computer.
The Entry fee would include the price of the car so the the drivers would just turn up and race.
Cams were cold on the idea and he couldn't get any support from major Co.'s so it died before it even started but has the premise to make a great Race if it gets revived in the future.

[ausjack]

:i_agree:

[trout]

I agree as well.

It is ridicules putting a Ford, Holden or any other manufacturers badge of these cars as they are not even remotely similar to anything you can get off the showroom floor.

[JeffH]

Ford Falcons can be easy to break into.
A little while back my wife noticed that one door on our car (BA Falcon) never locked. A quick search of the Ford Forums showed that central locking failure on one or more doors is rather common in late model Falcons -the central locking module, screwed to the door latch, breaks.
I removed the latch and, sure enough, the little gearbox in the central locking module was broken. "Not a problem" I said, "There is a partly stripped AU Falcon down the yard which uses the same latch mechanism. Pulled it out and swapped to my car and....you guessed it; broken too!

Aftermarket modules are easy to obtain and much cheaper than from Ford. But, some disassembly and reassembly looks to be required as wiring harness connectors are internal -or splice new module wiring into existing wiring somehow. Anyway an eBay search soon showed several sellers have repair kits so I bought two (one for a spare) as the price is quite cheap. Door Lock Actuator Repair Kit Ford Falcon AU BA BF Series 1 2 3

Took me just on one hour to do the repair and replacement of the latch/lock unit. Only special tool required, that may not be in an average home tool kit, is a T-30 bit for the three screws securing the mechanism into the door.


Most satisfying to effect a repair all by oneself and save money. Not recommended for mechanical klutzes -instead they should buy the kit and ask their mechanic to do the repair at next service. Likely to be much more expensive at a Ford dealer than an independent mechanic.

I wonder if Triggersmob has come across this one, as well as the cup holder lid latches that fall apart?

It would be an interesting exercise to walk along a street and test all of the doors of similar vehicles. I will leave that to you; not for me.

[Triggersmob]

I wonder if Triggersmob has come across this one, as well as the cup holder lid latches that fall apart?

Can't say that I have Jeff. We do get asked for central locking actuators occasionally, but never noticed
Ford as being the major problem. We sell sets of 4 universal actuators  (Part number 4DCL) for about
$40 (from memory). Like you said though, some modification required to suit various vehicles.

[JeffH]

No doubt they would invoke the "Streaker's Defence" for this one -"It seemed like a good idea at the time".
Mazda Roadpacer
Performance comparable with the Holden six version and fuel consumption comparable withe the Holden V8 version! It was a flop and only 800 were ever produced over three years. As someone else said, in reference to this exercise, "to make a performance car put a big engine in a small car, not the other way around".

[ausjack]

:swoon: why oh why would you ever put a chook cooker in a holden, unless if a was a joke gone wrong, and they could have at least used a turbo one :blink:

[Triggersmob]

The rotary engines aren't big, there should be room to bolt 2 together.

[ausjack]

:laugh2: yes very true Steve

[JeffH]

Good looking Mini For Sale just popped up on FaceBook.
Main problem is have to go to Hamilton, NZ to inspect it.

[ausjack]

That look ok, tinted windows and flare kit. I could see you cruisin the main street in that Jeff