Aussie Iron

[BangShift McT]

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?

[cmexlr8]

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.

[ImpalaKonrad]

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.

[ImpalaKonrad]

Re: Aussie Iron

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

[shaun callaway]

Re: Aussie Iron

wow

that will look good when its done though.

[ImpalaKonrad]

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.

[shaun callaway]

Re: Aussie Iron

the valiant wagon is freakin sweeeeeeeet :o

[Ron Ward]

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

[Dirt Rod]

Re: Aussie Iron

That Valiant Wagon rules!!

Ax

[ImpalaKonrad]

Re: Aussie Iron

[ImpalaKonrad]

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