Had one of those BMC Freeway 6 Mk2 cars, it was a 1966 year one of the last built I believe, bought it in 1968. More noise than action and later on I also had an MGB 1800cc re powered Riley 4/72 back in the early '70's and it would piss bowl the Freeway into the weeds in all aspects. Another failing (major IMO ) was they had a 3 speed g/box, with automatic optional. The "Blue Streak" 6 Freeway engine was basically a BMC 1622cc 4 cyl with 2 more cylinders added, a 6 cyl version of the BMC 'B' engines if you like, bore & stroke dimensions were same in both the 1622cc 4cyl & 2433cc 6cyl. Good low down torque though and they had a similar sound to the bigger BMC 'C' type 6 cyl engines found in various bigger BMB cars. I had one of them as well a 1968 Wolseley 6/110 Mk2 4 speed manual O/D with an Austin Healey BJ7 3 carb complete engine in it. Wished I still had that car today, big & heavy though it was it could haul arse rather well and sucked gas at a rate enough to frighten some if pedaled willingly, loved that car, it and the Riley would have been the most enjoyable of the many BMC I had up to 35-40 or so years ago?
franc123,
Sep 17, 7:36am
Haha, in fact now you mention it getting a VH with a hot engine that had been standing for an hour or so on a hot day restarted again wasn't always a speedy excercise either, about 7 seconds of cranking before it would fire and the vac gauge told you it was sucking fuel again! That carb was French IIRC, I mostly remembered the auto chokes being a pain
ema1,
Sep 17, 7:54am
Even right up to the VK-A Commodores and Sunbirds were in a word ruined by the rather wanting 4 cylinder power trains. Then talk about the earlier Opel 1.9 litre Cam in Head 4 cylinder engines foisted onto us. Hitlers GM revenge. piss poor excuse for an engine they were, you'd be hard pressed to find one that actually works these days . thank god. I recall the petrol smell hanging around plenty of them after being parked on a hot summers day, the odd one spontaneously frying themselves wasn't unknown either. Proof that German's could produce some absolute crap among their mostly excellent designs.
franc123,
Sep 17, 8:06am
That Opel motor only ended up in the local LH Torana because of a sales tax change didn't it? I think GMNZ only wanted to sell 173 powered ones but govt at the time changed their minds for them? I don't remember much of them and never drove one with the Opel, the last one I saw was in a LH or LX in a wreckers in the early 90's. I know they did a boyracerish version called a Plus4 which was some sort of a joke on behalf of the marketing men surely.
differentthings,
Sep 17, 8:26am
Yea the Plus 4 was green with some black strips on it from memory. Might of had some fancy wheels on it as well.
cone1,
Sep 17, 8:26am
Would have to be the 6 cylinder Morris Marina
v8_mopar,
Sep 17, 10:00am
Bit out of my depth with a lot of the vehicles talked about here but lots of good info. I see little talk of the Vauxhall and I would have thought they were assembled in aus?
I once had a pb velox that was prob cow dung but would take down the hq Holden and xa Falcon on normal nz roads. The Vauxhall having the smallest 6. That was the only good thing about it everything else was so dated. Looks, dash, seats etc
marte,
Sep 17, 12:00pm
I had 3 Mk4 Cortinas. Well 5 if you count the spare parts.
But, I wish they brought out the 2dr MK4 with a 2litre in NZ.
ema1,
Sep 18, 1:17am
Yep remember those and there was a hot tomlli ,crimson orange/red colour too. Basically they were just paint jobs. A similar exercise was done by GMNZ with Viva's with at first the Score 7 then a similar themed Viva "Coupe" with loud exhaust system, other than that basically just a paint/ swept up trim job & odd bits from GM parts bin. GMNZ had several other peculiar to NZ specials on various GMH and GMUK cars over the span of time I was with our local GM franchise outlet/service centre.
ema1,
Sep 18, 1:32am
1965-6 Vauxhall PB 3.3litre could haul serious arse. They would blow the doors off Holdens & Falcons at the time for sure and were very close to the 225cid (3.7 litre)Slant 6 Valiants straight line performance wise. Chrysler Valiants AP5-6 and early VC Slant 6 cars all had the genuine Torqueflite automatic which was regarded by far and way the industry leader in automatics. The later VC, VE & VF and onwards Slant 6 & all Hemi 6 Valiants VG onwards went and used a Borg Warner designed auto box while all the V8 models hung onto the excellent Torqueflite auto boxes. In North America The Slant 6 was available in 3 different capacities namely 170cid, 198cid & 225cid, the Chrysler Australia wisely used only the 225 Slant 6 brilliant engine they were and indeed still are. Chrysler Corp USA also produced an aluminium block 225cid Slant 6 and also a diesel version. The Slant 6 was used in many applications, marine, industrial stationery,farm machinery and in trucks, smaller buses as well as the many Chrysler Corp cars big & small.
I often had to (try) and use a sunbird 4 cylinder put on cng by health board. Everybody complained at its inability to move itself, it was ridiculously useless.
andrewph,
Sep 18, 9:45am
One of my first jobs as an apprentice was replacing the shifter cables on a kimberly. The oil leaks on those were so bad they needed a drip tray screwed to the sump.
ladatrouble,
Sep 18, 10:45am
Not many Vauxhalls in Aus because they would be up against the Holden. can't have that. Same with Ford, couldn't have the Zephyr competing against the Falcon. In NZ the Holden had to sit on the showroom floor next to Vauxhalls, and the Zephyr with Falcons. both sold well.
ladatrouble,
Sep 18, 10:49am
I'd rather have the Opel 1.9 than that Starfire - but most of the running problems with the Starfire was because of that stupid French carb. Put a Weber from a 2.0 Cortina on them and they ran much, much better.
lonfa,
Sep 18, 9:44pm
The P76 was a hell of a lot worse in Oz because they had a 6 cylinder option that was crap, Only V8's were exported to NZ. These weren't so bad, you could fit a 44 gallon drum in the boot!
They were released just before the fuel crisis and Who wanted to put fuel in a V8.
One of the problems with the V8's, was the crew building the blocks on the P76 didn't clean the aluminum swarf out of the block properly BEFORE assembling them and the radiator did a great job of filtering it out and cooking the engine. Warranty work if you were lucky,Many people weren't.
They had several hundred engine left after the car was dropped and these made some of the best (for the time) Jet boat engines around. 230kg engine, 200 standard HP- Power to weight's ratio pretty good even today.
Some Landrover guys in Oz dropped the engine in series 3's (LD had a V8-3.5 litre -De-tuned) and had a bloody good run with the engine, Pity about all the broken halfshafts and drive lines. (. bit too much power- 4.4 litre V8)
One of the Mate at Uni dropped the V8 in an Ford Escort (That wouldn't fly now. ), Pretty much the ultimate sleeper, Blew away almost everything he raced. Engine weights 230kg, No wonder.
The good and the Bad, Not the worst in NZ by a long way.
lauzie,
Sep 18, 9:48pm
ema1 wrote: Had one of those BMC Freeway 6 Mk2 cars, it was a 1966 year one of the last built I believe, bought it in 1968. More noise than action and later on I also had an MGB 1800cc re powered Riley 4/72 back in the early '70's and it would piss bowl the Freeway into the weeds in all aspects. Another failing (major IMO ) was they had a 3 speed g/box, with automatic optional. The "Blue Streak" 6 Freeway engine was basically a BMC 1622cc 4 cyl with 2 more cylinders added, a 6 cyl version of the BMC 'B' engines if you like, bore & stroke dimensions were same in both the 1622cc 4cyl & 2433cc 6cyl. Good low down torque though and they had a similar sound to the bigger BMC 'C' type 6 cyl engines found in various bigger BMB cars. I had one of them as well a 1968 Wolseley 6/110 Mk2 4 speed manual O/D with an Austin Healey BJ7 3 carb complete engine in it. Wished I still had that car today, big & heavy though it was it could haul arse rather well and sucked gas at a rate enough to frighten some if pedaled willingly, loved that car, it and the Riley would have been the most enjoyable of the many BMC I had up to 35-40 or so years ago?[/quote
I had a Freeway wagon. I tossed the motor and gearbox out and put in a MK2 1800 and floorchange box it ended up faster better handling and more oeconomical. The Freeway had a higher ratio diff than most other BMCs.
sr2,
Sep 18, 10:28pm
Yes for the carb swap. The other Starfire issue involved the out of balance motor trying to shake it'self to bit's. Holden had to fit stronger rods to keep them together and we used to use them in our hot Holden 6's.
tamarillo,
Sep 18, 10:36pm
Goggomobil Dart. Surely worst Australian car! (Though I do have a soft spot for them - how wrong could they be about what kind of car Aussie likes!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goggomobil_Dart
Yes, the latest Australian Mokes were a vast improvement on the original British version, 1275 cc, disc brakes and 13 inch wheels.
ema1,
Sep 19, 12:02am
In response to post #68 =lauzie. Interesting you mention the diff ratio in the Freeway 6 cars in actual fact they had the same ratio as the MGB. My Riley had an MGB diff head 3.9:1 ratio the original was I think 4.3:1 ratio as in all the 4 cylinder BMC Farina 1622cc cars had fitted. The MGB diff head worked the Riley axles so essentially a complete Freeway rear axle assembly would have been an option too. The speedo was recalibrated to suit as well. All this was done when the MGB 1800cc 5 bearing crank engine was fitted in place of the original 1622cc. I also had the electronic tach guts of the MGB mated to the original Riley tach as Riley 1622cc engine had cable driven tach and most MGB 1800cc engines were electronic type tachs, loved that car. I was going to go the MGB O/D box and convert to disc brake system similar to MGB or the bigger BMC cars but never did which thinking back now was a pity, never mind. dreams are free?
franc123,
Sep 19, 12:31am
Pity that the Moke wasn't actually an invention of Leyland Australia, it only got pensioned off to there after BMC failed to make a success of it in Europe either as a civilian vehicle or to the British military that was its original target market.
v8_mopar,
Sep 21, 4:05am
Um yea. Not sure what to say about that one
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