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Aussie Iron

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  • Aussie Iron

    When living in Australia I fell in love with a bunch of these quirky cars. Anyone else know about them?






  • #2
    Re: Aussie Iron






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    • #3
      Re: Aussie Iron

      That Valiant Wagon rules!!

      Ax

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      • #4
        Re: Aussie Iron

        These are Valiants! Woohoo!!!

        The blue one is a 1962 Valiant as evidenced by the round tail marker lamps. I used to see one (sometimes 2) every morning in my driveway. This one was factory equipped with an iron-headed, aluminum-block 225 cid Slant Six with a pushbutton A904 Torqueflite and a 7-1/4" rear end. All that stuff went away and we stuffed a 360 with a 727 and an 8-3/4 with 4.10 gears in that puppy. It was still extremely light and tipped the scales at a scant 2750# with driver. With the low-compression 360 (8:1??) from a 1977 Dodge van which still had the original bearings and rings, we ran for 8 seasons with only minimal problems. That engine logged over 1500 dragstrip runs!

        Just for you A-Body Mopar fans (and future fans), the engine bay on the '60-'62 Valiants and Lancers are the same size as the '63-'66 A-Bodies (Valiant, Dart, Barracuda) and we had our best luck with headers from Hedman that were originally designed for an engine swap to put a 340 into a 1966 Barracuda. Although they are a fenderwell design, they fit perfectly around the dual-reservior master cylinder (1975 Dart) we put on the car to accomodate the disc brakes. I used a pair of engine mount pads from a 1977 Dodge Van and elongated a couple of the bolt holes to get them to mate up with the factory K-member in the Valiant. The result was a solid motor mount arrangement that kept the 360 from banging on the hood. Later in life, we replaced the old 360 with a Magnum 390 crate engine and blasted out a best of 11.66@118.



        I would really like to have another one.

        Ron
        It's really no different than trying to glue them back on after she has her way.

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        • #5
          Re: Aussie Iron

          the valiant wagon is freakin sweeeeeeeet :o

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          • #6
            Re: Aussie Iron

            I was lucky enough that the junk yard I worked at in Sydney had a "panel beater" (Aussie term for body shop) across the street who specialized in old Mopar restoration and I got to see all sorts of neat projects from start to finish. Here are a few pics of a Dart that was so rusted that it could have come from Canada. Apparently the Ocean air distroys cars just as bad as our North Americian rust belt does.



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            • #7
              Re: Aussie Iron

              wow

              that will look good when its done though.

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              • #8
                Re: Aussie Iron

                Or how about this right hand drive 409?.....Oh, and this was his parts runner.



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                • #9
                  Re: Aussie Iron

                  Too bad most of the drag racing was done at night under poor lighting because there were lots of Ford 351-GT's and early 70's Holdens in attendence.



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                  • #10
                    Re: Aussie Iron

                    The blue valiant had 'Tilley Automotive' on its fender. I wonder if that is Cameron Tilley - that dude has a badass turbo'd slant six that runs in the 10's in a full weight street car.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Aussie Iron

                      I've developed a taste for Aussie stuff...had a pilot that had a early-mid-70's Fairmont (think Mad Max Falcon shape) that was blacked out with a 351M on nitrous, I've seen Amxautox's Aussie Charger, and I'd kill for a GTO with the Monaro front end. Not to mention it's one of the maybe 3 countries Nissan sent the nasty version of the Skyline to...wonder if the western parts of the country are free-roam and fast?
                      Editor-at-Large at...well, here, of course!

                      "Remy-Z, you've outdone yourself again, I thought a Mirada was the icing on the cake of rodding, but this Imperial is the spread of little 99-cent candy letters spelling out "EAT ME" on top of that cake."

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