Good cars you don't see any more?

[Edbear]

Is that a Charger I see in the background of the second shot?

The old E49 Big Tank Charger is still the only car in Bathurst history to do the whole race on one fuel stop. That is how well they had the thing tuned. Because of it they were like a lap or two ahead of the whole field, and the only reason they lost the race was when the team decided to bring the car in to do the wheel change, and some monkey decided it would be a good idea to fit cold nuts onto hot studs and they seized while he was tightening them back up. Yet in NZ they were cleaning everything up and beating V8 Falcons that Ausies brought from across the ditch.

I still have a soft spot for the old E49s and E38 Chargers. Beautiful cars.

I will never forget watching Leo Leonard win the Benson and Hedges 500 at Pukekohe in '73!

[Flip]

I know what you mean - up until last year my daily driver was a 69 MGB GT - never let me down and a pleasure to spanner on but its a toaster in the summer and I felt like I was thrashing it just to keep up with modern traffic. I've only taken it off the road to do a V8 swap and fit Aircon/insulation.

Took me a day to do what I thought would be an easy water pump replacement on my girlfriends Fiesta. Would have been a couple of hours on the MG. I won't work on anything modern now - those mechanics earn their money and I don't begrudge paying them. Modern cars are hateful things to work on.

I still have a Mk3 Midget on the road.

The V8 conversion adds a lot of weight, where you dont want it to a B. There are a lot of bolt in go fast bits available for 1600 B's. My Cooper Midget has big valves, LCB exhaust, med high pistons, scatter cam and has been ported. It runs OK its a bit cammy but goes fast enough to knock the pants off most moderns. It has many of the go around corner faster bits as well.

[Bikemad]

I will never forget watching Leo Leonard win the Benson and Hedges 500 at Pukekohe in '73!

what was he driving?............or have you forgotten?

[5150]

what was he driving?............or have you forgotten?

VH E38 or E49 spec Charger ofcourse

[swarfie]

I still have a Mk3 Midget on the road.

The V8 conversion adds a lot of weight, where you dont want it to a B. There are a lot of bolt in go fast bits available for 1600 B's. My Cooper Midget has big valves, LCB exhaust, med high pistons, scatter cam and has been ported. It runs OK its a bit cammy but goes fast enough to knock the pants off most moderns. It has many of the go around corner faster bits as well.

Holy crap it would need the "go around corner faster bits" too. My missus has a MKI Midget and it handles like a bucket of wallowing puss

[Edbear]

what was he driving?............or have you forgotten?

E49 Charger! I can clearly see in my mind the front discs glowing all the way down the back straight. His rear brakes, (drums), had gone by that stage. A lot of the cars including the Fords' brakes were red hot!

[jonbuoy]

I still have a Mk3 Midget on the road.

The V8 conversion adds a lot of weight, where you dont want it to a B. There are a lot of bolt in go fast bits available for 1600 B's. My Cooper Midget has big valves, LCB exhaust, med high pistons, scatter cam and has been ported. It runs OK its a bit cammy but goes fast enough to knock the pants off most moderns. It has many of the go around corner faster bits as well.

Fully dressed Rover V8 weighs 20 kg less than the old B series. I havent weighed the ally T5 gearbox against the old overdrive box but its bound to be lighter. Nice Midget!

[Flip]

Holy crap it would need the "go around corner faster bits" too. My missus has a MKI Midget and it handles like a bucket of wallowing puss

Mine used to wallow a bit, it now has urethane bushes, 3/4" sway bars, Spax shocks, panhard rod and all the springs are uprated and 1" lower. The single best improvement was fitting new swing arm bushes to the front, it made a big improvement for a few dollars. It also has negative camber.

[MD]

I know. I know. It's a stunning, timeless example of perfection of engineering encased in beauty with lines to die for and curves that, well people thought the early Vettes were sexy. Clearly they missed out on seeing one of these. Sadly you just don't see these on our roads anymore. I never took a single picture of mine (I wonder why?) so this is not quite as pretty as I remember my gorgeous pale blue beast.

You want power. Try 850cc with three forward gears! Easier for learners I guess. With so much power more gears would have been wasted.
Funny thing was it ran on a 6 volt system so I couldn't use the fan heater at the same time as the headlights or wipers. Was a bugger on cold wet nights. This example has additional fog lights added. Ha, what a joke they wouldn't have operated.
So who can guess what it was.

[Hitcher]

So who can guess what it was.

A Renault Dauphine?

[Grumph]

A Renault Dauphine?

Ha - that's what he's pictured. The only good one of those was the Dauphine Corvette which ran in early Allcomers saloons. The replica running now is better engineered - and much less wayward...Still fun to watch. But standard ? Bleh....you can have it.

[SPman]

A Renault Dauphine?

Indeed yes. They made a very nice Dauphine based coupe as well - the Floride.

I prefer this version

[SPman]

Is that a Charger I see in the background of the second shot?

Probably Graeme Addis's Charger - I think it was Leo's ex winning car - but with, basically, a Mclaren M10 rear end grafted into the back. It's still around, as is the Sidchrome Mustang and Miss Victorius is awaiting rebuild to racing condition......

1984



1979



Now

[Voltaire]

Holy crap it would need the "go around corner faster bits" too. My missus has a MKI Midget and it handles like a bucket of wallowing puss

and taking up valuable bike room

[swarfie]

and taking up valuable bike room

You can say that again. Know anyone that wants one?...apart from retracting seat belts and after market steering wheel it's all genuine MKI Midget, fully reco'd engine including new oil and water pumps, radiator tanks off and flush. Even made new rocker shafts and rocker bushes for it. PM me if anyone...eerr... fool is interested in a piece of Pommie crap....eerrr...history