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£300K and it isn't even a Cobra


Jerry_Atrick

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I had a look at the web site and it looks to me that what was mediocre when new can after 40 years be worth a lot. In its day I thought the Falcon was distinctly undesirable, you needed to have double jointed elbows to steer the bloody thing. Remember "Not the Kingswood"? The Falcon GT was put aay by people with a view to cashing in on them years later. A friend of mine did that and he would take it out for a spin about once a month, if it wasn't raining.

 

That GT Ford was hyped up and so was the Valiant with a hemi head, forget what model it was, but my old GT Cortina would outrun them. Maybe not the GT, but one corner in a mile would see me ahead of it.

 

 

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We're starting to show our kids the "Back to the Future" movies, so I looked up the DMC De Lorean the other day.

 

Turns out it was an underpowered, overpriced piece of sh*t which was meant to retail for $12,000 in 1983 but ended up being over $25,000. Made in Ireland by inexperienced workers.

 

But put it in a couple of Steven Spielberg movies and now you pay well over $100,000 for one.

 

(To be honest though, I'd love an XB GT coupe Interceptor - think Mad Max...)

 

 

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Not a very successful model. and a hard thing to keep running.. when it's far from new.. Lots of alloy equals lots of headaches. It's a science and heartache to keep older exotic vehicles going especially liquid cooled ones.. Few have the skills (and money) and lots of these things do have some very poor engineering in them in some places. They weren't necessarily designed to last long, either.. One of the best racing Mercedes engines pre war had a design life of 3500 Kms If you want a long life engine get something like a Gardiner Diesel.but don't race it.. Nev

 

 

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Gardner diesel. Now you are talking. Cylinder heads come in pairs, so a six cylinder had 3 heads. Go forever, but at the rpms it did it would take forever to equal the revs done by my Toyota. I did like the Gardner and also the AEC.

 

I jumped in a Matador, way back in the day when they were in general use. Noticed an unusual lever on the side of the engine, reached up over my shoulder to the start button and nothing happened. It didn't take long to realise that the lever was manual advance and retard and the engine was petrol. I drove dozens of Matadors while in the army and never came across another petrol engine one. I am pretty sure it was built by AEC.

 

 

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Associated Equipment Company (London) built a lot of busses too. I guess they may have made petrol ones but I've never seen or heard of one. Nice quality but cranks broke at around 600,000 miles. which many did.. I nearly ended up working on them for the Northern NSW distributor RW Brown in Newcastle. Nev

 

 

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The old London buses all had pre selector gear boxes. The Matador had a crash box, but we did have pre selectors in the armoured cars like the Whippet.

 

I don't know who builds London buses now but they have hardly changed in shape in 60 or so years.

 

 

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