Extrapolation on #19 in the post previous to the previous post
BOGAN ALERT!!!
Do not read further if excessive interest in internal combustion engines offends.
"What is a Maltese Ferrari" asked Rat. Oh, to be so young and innocent.
A Maltese Ferrari is, of course, a Valiant Charger. These days they'd probably be known as a Lebanese Lamborghini. Extraordinary motor vee hickles. 14.1 second quarter miles,140m.ph. top speeds (from a six cylinder engine - 318, 340 and 360c.i. V8's were available, but the 265 powered E38's and E49's were quicker) amazing (for the day) handling and the most amazing induction roar from the triple Weber 48mm DCOE carburettors; all wrapped up in an Italian designed body in a project overseen by a ridgy didge racing driver, who was possibly known as Leo Geoghan. I'm old, so any of those figures may be wrong - except the e.t. for the quarter; I'd bet my left nut on that. I only use the right one these days, anyway.
Of course, being Australian Chryslers, the Chargers had their share of problems due to poor build quality and cost cutting - the Bathurst homologation E38 had a three speed gearbox, f'rinstance.
My own particular Charger was a bomb yard special; a 1972, '73, '74, '75 model, arriving in my possession for the princely sum of $900 as an emergency transportation measure after some
Especially after I fucked with it a bit and got around 350 hp out of it. Total cost of the whole thing was about three thousand dollars - excluding replacement clutches. The running gear on the Falcon cost many times that.
I killed it in the end- a bit of brain fade, too fast into a corner on a dirt road, backwards over the bank, give it the berries in an attempt to drive it back up onto the road just like I saw Colin Bond do on 'This Is Your Life', attempt is working when the front guard hits a white post and flips the car over backwards down a thirty foot bank - through a clump of gum trees; one of which still has, to the best of my knowledge, scars on it eighteen feet from the base. I went out through the windscreen and the old girl tucked me in as she rolled over the top of me. The next car down the road was my sister-in-law, who meandered down the bank to see if I was o.k. I was unconscious and doing a pretty good impersonation of a claret fountain with my head. She got a bit upset, but not nearly as disturbed as she was when the the next car along stopped and the driver came down, looked at her, looked at me and started to steal the stereo out my car. Roaring Days, I believe ol' Henry called them.
P.S. I pinched the pitcher from The Chrysler Owners Club. I hope their lawyers aren't very good.
posted by Dirk at 3:33 pm
5 Comments:
Ah! Mopar! Gotta love those old Plymouths/ Chryslers....
I had an 83' Plymouth Grand Fury... Ex-police cruiser I toyed with for a while. It has a 318 CID V8 but needed a valve job. I sent the head out to be machined and the shop sent back the heads...
They looked the same, but somehow different... Turned out the shot send back 360 Hemi heads instead by mistake. But no worries, they bolted right up to the 318 block, and sure as shit they gave me about 40 more horsepower with better compression...
Sometimes I miss that old sedan... Was about as aerodynamic as a brick, but ran like a raped ape.
cool :-)
a mate of mine used to have one with a 340, i think it cost him about a dollar in petrol just to start it.
my mum drove a vh sedan with a 245 (i think, details are a bit vague) and a three-on-the-tree for a fair while. when we went on our yearly pilgrimage to ballina to visit the rellies she'd sit on about 100mph the whole way.
You forgot to mention the shit brakes...
Ranger,
I wouldn't like to get the job of arresting an ape-raper. It'd likely be a difficult task.
Rat,
is your Mum my auntie?
Adrian,
indeedy. As a cost-cutting measure a lot of Chargers came out with discs, but not power assisted. They worked alright, provided you had the leg strength of a front-rower. My little girl had bloody good brakes - short, straight stops on the bitumen, and because of the tyre size and brake bias, you could use them to help back it into corners at ridiculous speeds on the dirt.
heh, don't think she's your auntie, although my aunt and uncle managed a pub at charlieville for a few years, up until a coupla years ago. i think that's not too far from where you are.
i borrowed an older valiant off a mate of mine for a few months once. dunno what model but it had the slant 6 motor, drum brakes and a big wide brake pedal. i worked out why it was so wide, it was so you could use both feet. mind you when you did, it stopped pretty good.
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