Three speed gearboxes. & six cyl motors was the norm for most Aussies
Submitted: Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 20:18
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Member - Axle
A lot of credit has to be given to the early, fords, Holdens , Valiants, in regard to the engine hp, and gearing!. Especially utes, My first vechicle was a EK Holden ute and on weekends for some extra cash we used to work around the local orchards, vege farms etc. It was not uncommon to have that thing loaded up with a ton of fertilizer, or tomatoes beans etc, and take off on hillsides with out to much drama, The thing is they only had three speed gear boxes, but yet on a down
hill run were good for 90-95 mph, So in my opinion the hp and gearing was matched very
well, makes you think with some of the jap 4cyls utes that probably claim the same hp as those old bangers, how they would fair with a ton in the back and a three speed gearbox?? It also makes me think they have a different method in calculating torque figues these days!,...lol. Not talking about 4wds and hii &lo range boxes, Just fairdinkum ozzie work utes.
,
Cheers Axle.
Reply By: Member - Phil G (SA) - Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 20:34
Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 20:34
The 1962 EK (138 ci) with 3 on the tree was listed in redbook as having 56Kw. No torque listed - they obviously have unlimited torque :-)
The 186 Holden could pull pretty hard. Seemed to be better than any other holden red, blue or black motor.
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Follow Up By: Member - Axle - Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 20:52
Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 20:52
Looking back Phil , they were all good engines!, My next one was a vc valiant - dodge ute, 225 ci slant six, Taking off with a load it felt no better than the old Ek, But when it hit mid range revs , that was another story!
Cheers.
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Follow Up By: Member - Phil G (SA) - Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 21:04
Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 21:04
Yeah the Valiants were a cut above - as
well as the power, they won a 1000 demolition derbys to show how strong they were :-)
The Holdens also had the automatic option in the EK - a 2-speed Hydramatic :-)) Now that says something about gearing!
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Follow Up By: TD100 - Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 21:37
Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 21:37
i believe the EK was a 3 speed hydramatic,the 2 speed came out in the EH,then trimatics and powerglides came on the scene.cheers Paul
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Follow Up By: Member - Axle - Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 21:47
Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 21:47
Yep they were the autos!, not in that order though..LOL
Up todate, The chrysler torque flite eight, and the C series autos fitted to ford would have to be the most reliable things built , right up to present time
Axle.
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Follow Up By: Member - Davoe (Yalgoo) - Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 22:23
Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 22:23
And the Borg warner 35 fitted to some Valis would be the least reliable
- And did someone mention Economy?
I remember leaving
Adelaide in my CM Valiant with a full tank and having to get Butch Phillips outa bed at
Iron Knob coz the old girl wasnt gonna make
Kimba ---- And i was doing the limmit
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Follow Up By: Member - Phil G (SA) - Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 22:40
Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 22:40
Paul,
You're right, the EK was 3-speed. But so was the EH - I think the hydramatic came out with the HD.
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Reply By: Member - Phil G (SA) - Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 21:07
Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 21:07
Just to make this thread relevant to Exploroz (and not just old farts reliving the past )...
One of the best outback utes I saw was a HJ ute which was substantially raised, had a decent LSD and 15 inch offroad tyres. He reckoned he could go anywhere the 4wds could. It would be nice to build up something like that for the desert trips.
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Follow Up By: Member - Vince B (NSW) - Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 21:16
Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 21:16
We will all end up as old farts eventually LOL
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Follow Up By: Member - Phil G (SA) - Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 21:28
Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 21:28
"We will all end up as old farts eventually LOL"
Yep, thats right Vince - we'll all remember how good the 3litre nissans were compared to the garbage they are building in 2030.....hehe
Then there will be a trend to build vehicles that work mechanically and have no electrical stuff......
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Follow Up By: Member - Vince B (NSW) - Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 21:33
Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 21:33
How true Phil.
Bring back the XT v8 falcon ute. What a great tow vehicle!!!.
Vince
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Follow Up By: Trevor R (QLD) - Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 21:47
Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 21:47
One current ute that may go OK for desert trips could be the RV falcon ute, with locked rear end. Good stats on the dyno to boot. I have never owned one so know nothing of reliability which could
well be the most important thing in a car out there LOL!!
Just a thought for us new kids on
the block that have not had enough time on this planet to be able to reminisce.
Regards, Trevor.
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Follow Up By: Member - Phil G (SA) - Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 22:48
Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 22:48
Trevor,
In the
Birdsville pub is a great photo of Barnsey's Valiant airborne over the top of Big Red. Maybe a few extra Kw's is worthwhile ....
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Reply By: mfewster - Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 21:59
Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 21:59
As an old fart I just have to add. One of the great car/engine gearboxes from that era is always overlooked. As unlikely as it sounds, The Austin Westminster. 6 cylinders, a 4 spd gearbox and just about unknown to most of the "boys" at the time. I got to find out about it because a friend's father had one. Dad never had a clue about what it did on Saturday nights.
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Follow Up By: Member - Phil G (SA) - Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 22:46
Thursday, Feb 07, 2008 at 22:46
Sheesh, Mal, how old are you :-)) Mind you, I guess it had a bench
seat in the front - big plus back then - bit more action at the drive-in :-)))
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Follow Up By: mfewster - Friday, Feb 08, 2008 at 08:16
Friday, Feb 08, 2008 at 08:16
Ah Phil. Yer right. Getting to be a very old fart. It's Mike, not Mal. The Westminster concerned was the 110 model. Here it was almost totally bought by staid older generation, about the same demographic that I am now in. It looked totally innocuous. A bit like a stretched Austin Cambridge. The engine had a lot of the goodies they were putting into the Austin Healey 3000 sports for the USA market. In Britain it was used for the BMC racing division. Here, no one seemed to have a clue about it and it had a Rover type image. Lost track of the number of times it dusted off GMH and Ford products when the owners thought they were up against a putt putt A40 or something similar.
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Reply By: Member - bushfix - Friday, Feb 08, 2008 at 07:46
Friday, Feb 08, 2008 at 07:46
G'day you blokes,
just in case some of you are not aware, there is a brilliant show on TVS (Ch31 in
Sydney) on Wednesday nights 2000 and repeated on the weekend sometime, called "Classic Restos." It is hosted by and enthusiast called Fletch and essentially is a show for post war V8s, Australian and American. It is a half hour show which showcases two cars. Fletch goes over the whole car with the owner then they go for drive.
Well worth catching it if you can.
btw, my first car was a six cylinder, 170 Ford Pursuit motor, with two speed auto......but in a Mercedes 180 chassis, 1967 250S. A great touring vehicle.
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Follow Up By: Member - MUZBRY (VIC) - Friday, Feb 08, 2008 at 09:41
Friday, Feb 08, 2008 at 09:41
Gday Mr Fix
My older brother had a MB with falcon things in it, i was wondering if that was you bro?
Murray
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Follow Up By: Member - bushfix - Friday, Feb 08, 2008 at 09:58
Friday, Feb 08, 2008 at 09:58
maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate
no sorry, don't believe so :)
but I did sell it to another fella who put a 250 cross flow in it. His name was Chris.
geez that car was a hit with the girls, and I could park it in the VIP bay at any hotel.....a loungroom on wheels.
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Follow Up By: Member - MUZBRY (VIC) - Friday, Feb 08, 2008 at 12:02
Friday, Feb 08, 2008 at 12:02
Gday
Didn't think so as big bro lives in
Bendigo. We all used to come from NSW , but things change as one gets older. I have been in
Melbourne on and off for 38 yrs now, and have been back
home a couple of time since leaving.And i mean only a couple.
Have a nice weekend and enjoy.
Murray
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Reply By: Member - Oldbaz. NSW. - Friday, Feb 08, 2008 at 11:25
Friday, Feb 08, 2008 at 11:25
As another old fart I must agree with you, especially the old FC
& similar
grey motor utes I had. Tough workers they were.
I was amused at the current Overlander mag comparo between
the Patrol 3 L diesel & the V8 LC traybacks. Waffled on about the obvious differences but didnt put one kilo in the back. How can you give any credibility to a
test that doesnt even consider that
these are basically load bearing working trucks. Many years ago I read a wonderful comparo between the 4 cyl diesel single cabs,
all carrying a ton, as they used to be rated, & you will not be surprised that none of them except Hilux made any impression
on the
test panel. You could read it any Tojo dealership for years & it sold a lot of Hilux. I would love to see that done again with todays models.... a real
test.....oldbaz.
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Reply By: Member - andrew B (Kununurra) - Saturday, Feb 09, 2008 at 07:18
Saturday, Feb 09, 2008 at 07:18
IMO, there is 2 causes of this, one being the possibility we remember the feeling we had in 'them there old days', it was great to be in a car, the fun times and the way we felt blocks out any bad stuff. (as an example, some TV shows I used to think were fantastic are being repeated on Pay TV.....a lot of them are crap now).
My other theory (with no supporting evidence) is that current engines have to comply with so many pollution laws, and different fuel's etc that they can't be tuned to produce the same torque curves as the oldies, so to get the power required they have much narrower torque curves.....
Just thoughts
Cheers Andrew......hemi fan......
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