Members Motorbike related Hobbies outside of Gelblaster appreciation

[DocBob]

Similar experience in my industry with building and modifying big dollar Hot Rods/Muscle Cars/Classic Vehicles.

Have had the opportunity to Drive and “thrash” some pretty amazing vehicles of all kinds, but without any Company Hierarchy or restrictions of any kind whatsoever

It’s weird how many customers actually tell me to “give it shit” or to “give it a good thrashing”……. but it wasn’t my thing to do stupid stuff in someone else’s much loved investments!

Sure I had many fun times with them at track days, drags and driving events, but on the streets I only gave them as much stick as was necessary on my own picked out deserted back roads to diagnose whatever issues were being dealt with at the time.

It must have been a real killjoy for the modern world to slowly creep in and take away the old freedoms of being left alone to do your job, and not have to end up being constantly supervised like a preschooler on an excursion!

[Maiphut]

It’s happening with damn near everything, a lot I didn’t even or still don’t know like the bike test ride. Been 20 years since I’ve been for a bike shop test ride mind you.

Soon be regulated to stay home, touch nothing. I saw it killing the automotive industry I was in ROH days. Miles of red tape and safety standards that physically slowed production down by an average of half, depending.

[DocBob]

Laughed when I went with my sister to the big smoke in Perth to look for a new car to replace her 4.1 Litre/4 speed Cortina Ghia that she had just sold.

Found a genuine RS2000 Cortina in a car yard that took her fancy and wanted a test drive.

Pretty squeezy and shithouse power to weight ratio when me, my sister and the large 130kg Car Salesman gorilla packed ourselves into this thing and took off.

Halfway through I said to the Salesman that he should let my sister have a drive, because she was the one looking to buy it after all.

Sister drove around a few blocks like a Nanna, but much better on the gear changes than the useless driver Salesman!

Eventually he told her to turn around and head back to the dealership, where my sister and I had pre planned as the excuse to have me get behind the wheel “because he’s my brother and knows more about cars than me”.

Poor bastard didn’t know what happened as soon as I dropped the clutch and wrang the neck out of each gear

He was trying to hang on for grim death and shouting at me to back off/settle down etc, but I just told him that I needed to make sure there was no driveline/steering/brake/suspension issues when driving above Nanna Spec!

Was great fun, but she never ended up buying it because it didn’t have a Glovebox or Centre Console……being the “Racing” RS Version fun car.

Yeah, she ended up buying another bloody 250/4 speed Ghia just like her old one but in a different colour

Edit: would you believe that this little white rocket had a car yard price of only $2500 back then.
Previous owner was a nutbag who had a book of receipts for expensive engine/exhaust/suspension modifications as well!

[Maiphut]

Oh man if only you snapped that up then for $2.5k, you’d be sitting pretty now on retirement funds from it’s sale today.

I’m more interested in the Cortina with a 250 in it. I thought they were only 4 cyl. I can’t remember tbh. They were all 2.0L screamers I had been in.

[DocBob]

Yeah, she loved the little Esky at the time she drove it, but was a very different little car compared to her bigger and more powerful Cortina Ghia’s that she was used to.

She has said many times since that she now regrets not buying the little Esky at the time, but in all honesty, she would still have sold it to upgrade to another vehicle at some point in time anyways.

Her Cortina Ghia’s were the last of the models produced.
Standard Corties were only 4 cylinder models mostly, but the Ghia’s had the mighty 250 Cu In Crossflow and Single Rail 4 Speed/LSD Diff.

They were a bloody weapon on the road and were loaded with all of the latest creature comforts such as the cloth interiors, bucket seats, air conditioning, rack and pinion power steering and everything else that made headlines in 1978

Her first she owned/sold was the piss yellow/black vinyl roof version, and then found the Bronze/Cream vinyl roof coloured one the same day that we looked at the RS 2000.

We actually walked back and forwards a few times between finding the Bronze Ghia further up the road and the RS 2000 trying to make her mind up between the two, but in comparison the Ghia won over her and we drove it back to our home town that very afternoon

Funnily enough, the Ghia also had a Glovebox full of receipts for engine modifications that had been done to that big 250 Six, and it went like a cut cat and pulled like a freight train……. which I think is what sealed the deal for my revhead sister after driving the two different vehicles, which the little RS 2000 simply couldn’t compete with the size, power and creature comforts of the Ghia……… and even as a Holden boy, I must admit that Bronze looked pretty classy way back in the early-mid 1980’s

[Maiphut]

Oh yea that’s mint. Bit of a Hold on boy myself, but damn I used to shit bricks with my crazy mates 2.0L cortina which looked similar with the square headlights and fire engine red. Damn that 4 pot used to rev to the moon, he’d purposely hold gears until it would not rev anymore. Something like 9k iirc hectic.

With a 6 in it damn they would have been a weapon. Another mate used to argue, nope if he still had his Centurion with 265 in it would blow all away including V8 Fords and Holdens. Probly right too if he could drive.

[Bikersmurf]

My mom had this exact same Cortina except she opted for the four cylinder version as it spent most of its time in inner Sydney.
It was the last car she owned
It sat for 5 year’s unused in the garage.
She gave it away to my uncle 11 years ago.
He is still driving it
Before buying the Cortina
She found a Mercedes in a little car yard near king’s Cross.
She took it for a drive but did not like opening the funny gull wing doors.
So she passed on it.
When she told me about it some years later I nearly cried
It cost only $4000
The year was 1979
Have a guess what’s it worth now

That’s my one year old daughter sitting on mums Cortina
Now seeing the pic’s
I realise hers was just the base model

[DocBob]

Yeah those Chrysler Centura 265’s were probably the most insane small car on the market, but the 250 Cortina certainly could certainly hold its own against them!

I was unfortunate enough to be given a Deceased Estate 2.0 Automatic Cortina Station Wagon from a mate who didn’t want it, and it didn’t take long to find out why!

I thought I’d use it as a “cheap” work car, but that was a terrible mistake
It was gutless, flat out at 80 kph, chewed fuel worse than a big block V8 and was just a crap vehicle all round, even though was like brand new, one elderly woman owner and again, a whole glovebox cram packed with service history/parts receipts.

Poor old woman was getting screwed over by her many years “trusted” mechanic, which after going through the receipts and having the vehicle in my possession…… there was thousands of dollars worth of parts and work that had simply been paid for but never completed

The P.O.S. came to a spluttering halt just as I rolled into the car park at work one day, pushed it into a parking bay and went into work.
Knocked off and got a lift back home with a workmate and simply left the fkn Cortina Wagon in the car park with the windows down and keys in the ignition, and it sat there for nearly 4 months

Company Security eventually tracked me down through the number plates and asked me what the deal was……. I told them I didn’t care and to tow it away and donate it to the local Fire Brigade for a training exercise vehicle

The bucket of crap had simply done a timing belt, even though the old lady had receipts saying she had paid for it being replaced 4 times in servicing previously, the busted crap that I looked at was still the original factory fitted belt from 1978…… and this was around 2008!

[Bikersmurf]

Looking at the pictures I posted I realised hers was the base model not the Ghia.
Didn’t the 4cyd motor come out of an American Ford Pinto

[DocBob]

Yeah, they were the US/Canadian Pinto engine…… because that’s what FORD did, using Northern Hemisphere/European pieces of equipment that were totally unsuitable in those parts of the world let alone what was required for the Australian driving community and conditions

Overseas people lose their shit when you tell them that FORD Australia put 250 6 cylinder engines in Cortina’s, 265’s into Centura’s and 186/202’s into little British Opel cars (LC/LJ TORANA’s).

This was needed for Australian drivers covering large distances and towing all sorts of crap around our vast country roads, which was not something that was ever required in the small US/UK/EU countries.

That nanna spec 2.0 automatic Cortina wagon was honestly the slowest, most underpowered and fuel guzzling buckets that I’ve ever experienced in my entire lifetime in the automotive industry

[Maiphut]

Damn that is dodgey as hell. Taking advantage of a person that wouldn’t know better. Karma will get that one.

[Maiphut]

That reminds me I read a bit I didn’t know today.

Mazda bought HJ Kingswood sedans and slapped a 13B Rotary in them to try sell on the Jdm. Holy cow no wonder it didn’t work out. Pig on fuel and gutless. They still had leftovers unsold 2 years later in 1979.

I’ll try find the article, on spacebook.

Here it is, Roadpacer it was called. Ever heard of it Doc? (that’s sacrilidge in my books) Some of the comments even mention the 6cyl Cortina.

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[DocBob]

Yeah that’s definitely a base model 4 cylinder, but they were still pretty decent cars for their time, especially if just being used for getting around the metro areas

Another funny story was with my grandfather back in the late 70’s when he bought one of these brand new model Cortina Wagons in 1975.

Had the 200 cu in 6 and was an absolute lemon from the very first day he drove it home.

I remember as a kid how angry he was, like constantly angry even when he was thinking about it just being parked in the shed, let alone actually having to go out and drive the “bloody thing”.

Spent most of its first year of ownership in the dealers workshop than his own carport.
No matter how many times he finally got it back home, it was a weekly occurrence for something else to break/fall apart or stop working.

The last time I ever saw it was on a drive to the shops in the next town a few miles away, where suddenly the fkn roof lining literally collapsed down over our heads and had to make an emergency stop onto the side of the rural road we were on.

This was the straw that broke the camel’s back! I had never seen my grandfather completely lose his shit, but he did that day!

He angrily told me to get out and he proceeded to reef a wooden guidepost out of the ground and beat the thing to death with it

We had to walk the rest of the 20 miles to town, which also happened to be where the rural dealership that he bought the Cortina from was located, and needless to say……. we never got to the shops, instead we got a lift back to my grandparents house in a Police car and he had to explain to my grandmother that they didn’t have a car anymore and there was going to be a few “issues” that were going to be needing to be resolved in the next few months.

Apparently he ended up getting a replacement second hand vehicle from the lot of the dealership that sold him the Cortina, but it was a 1967 HR Holden that he got in trade for his old “brand new 1975”model Cortina!

Turns out they actually had that HR Wagon right up until the late 1980’s, when I remember them trading it in for a brand new Mitsubishi Colt Hatchback……… but always sang the praises of the old HR Holden’s strength and reliability

[DocBob]

Yeah, they were called the Mazda Roadpacer and were produced in Asia as a”Luxury Vehicle”.

I haven’t opened your link as I try and avoid Spacebook, but I have plenty of firsthand knowledge and experience with them anyrate

They gained the nickname Mazda “Roadblock” very quickly as they were a clusterfck of bad engineering and overly complicated electronic components that failed miserably in the heat and humidity.

I’ve actually had the opportunity to work on one of these abominations for a collector in Perth who has one in his museum and was trying to get running.

They are very likely the worst vehicle to ever be “engineered” in the history of mankind!

Not many people know about them because of their limited overseas only release, and only to very limited customers who were rich enough to actually afford such a large “Luxury” vehicle, but vanished very quickly from the market as their woeful reputation became immediately apparent amongst potential buyers.

[Maiphut]

According to the article the Jap gov ended up buying them for gov vehicles. Likely to save their ass lol

That would be a weird sight a bloody Kingswood with a strangled chook trying to power it.

[DocBob]

Yes I do believe that Mazda was trying to market them to the Government as Diplomatic vehicles/Limousines.

If you get the chance to google and see what their gaudy 1970’s interiors look like, you might need a spew bucket on hand!

[DocBob]

This is an image of the actual museum vehicle that I was talking about!

[Maiphut]

haha oh no… I found another article that gave me a chuckle… A brief history of Mazda’s Kingswood - Drive

[DocBob]

Cheers, I’ll definitely check this out now for a good laugh I’m sure!

[DocBob]

That was a good article about the basics that made them a failure.

More technical articles that analyse deeper into their failings are even more horrific!

Surprised to learn that GM was considering the 13B for the Corvette though, I had never heard about that before!

Imagine the dismal failure that would have been.