Our intrepid man down under in New Zealand has posted a raft of shots from the Wheels On Windsor Show at the Cohort. One that caught my attention was this rear shot of a Chrysler Charger with its tunnel-back C-pillar. There are all kinds of Australian and NZ goodies, including numerous Chrysler “Hemi” sixes in various stages of tune. Here’s another one I couldn’t resist:
I’m pretty sure this is a Holden six (Bryce didn’t label it), but this one has been turbo’d in a rather intriguing fashion, with a couple of SU carbs providing the mixture. Now that’s not exactly what you’d expect to see hereabouts. But why not?
Bryce’s shots begin here.
Damn that Charger is a great looking car. The Southern cars have all the Detroit styling excitement, and being a bit smaller they have better proportions to my eye.
+1 That green car is absolutely gorgeous. I love the concave rear fascia and grid taillights. What a nice break from the opposite Bloat-O-Bubble SupaPod styling trend that burn my retinas daily.
When new Chrysler couldnt build them fast enough available with engines from 215 cube to 340 the pick of the bunch was E38 or E49 spec performance package it took BMW to build a faster 6 in the late 80s. The E49 package was available on all models of Valiant and Ive seen a genuine ute so equipped.
Please, the word is “Aussie”.
“Ozzie” is for Osbourne.
My apologies; fixed.
Priceless insider war-stories from Chrysler engineer Pete Hagenbuch, who helped develop the Aussie Six:
http://www.allpar.com/corporate/bios/hagenbuch-interview.html
I’m impressed at how gracious he is in praising the Chevy Small-Block.
That’s a great read on the down-under Hemi-Six (my favorite part is how the guy instructed the Aussies to run the coldest possible sparkplugs in their endurance test engines to keep them from crapping).
I think most (if not all) really good engineers are like that. They’re as competitive as anyone else, but don’t have egos that won’t allow them to admire and praise a competitor’s engineering when it’s worthy of it. While the SBC might have had some weak areas, it was still a remarkable achievement and is generally accepted as one of the top five automotive engines of all time (if not number one).
Love the Vauxhall Velox, especially from a rear 3/4
Me too,the green Charger is a great car there was a blue one with a 318 V8 down my Gran’s street, only one I’ve seen in the metal.Thanks Bryce
Hey, Charger!
Hey thanks guys this was my Hillmans first time amongst its peers and it was the only one there its later in the walkaround when Im permitted more upload, This weelend is the vintage farm machinery expo I have a friend who has old engines and tractores who will be there so I’ll take you along and send Paul the results, Yeah its a Holden 6 some rodder has tuned I couldnt resist Im a bit of a Bogan meself
The red Valiant Pacer sedan beside the green Charger is very rare, because while they were the sporty version of the earlier model Valiant once the Charger was released anyone who wanted a performance car bought one of those – well nearly everyone!
The suck-thru turbo setup is old-school, I saw a Ford Capri V6 with a similar twin turbo setup. I also like the pair of Daimler V8s, if you here those driving you wouldn’t guess they are half the size of a US V8 from the sound.
Or the performance those Daimlers get up and go
Thanks for sharing Bryce. I love seeing those down under variants. Also a fan of the style of that Charger.
As you can see from my avatar, I am a fan of Aussie metal since about 2 minutes into Mad Max, the first time I watched it. I have seen Aussie Ford Falcons at car shows in the US. Someone has imported a few of them and shows up at the Carlisle all-Ford nationals here every year. A couple in the collection are done up just like the Pursuit specials and Max’s interceptor in the movie. A few are stock.