My first car was an AP5 Valiant, current car a Mazda B2600, dream car, an AP5 Valiant, I stupidly sold the first one for $700 in 1995 to pay off some fines.

G'day there JAY of MELBOURNE...

There was nothing wrong with the Valiant in my opinion, though I never owned one, I have driven many of the earlier models with their magnificent 6cyl motors. Wasn't it Valiant, who developed the 'Hemi' 6cyl engines 'canted off' at an angle ? A Doctor I know had one of the earliest models (circa 1962-64 I think) and he kept it in pristine condition and the only reason he disposed of it, he was not mechanically inclined. Therefore he had to outsource just about everything the vehicle needed doing, even rudimentary tasks like changing plugs, points, and air and oil filters. The cosmetic upkeep he did himself with relish I'm led to understand.

Mazda make pretty good cars too I reckon particularly the very popular Mazda 121, a very stylized even cute little car according to many younger women ? You sold your Valiant to pay fines ? Mate, you sure must've had, very colourful traffic antecedents, to amass so many traffic fines, that you needed to sell your beloved Valiant ?

Perhaps you should've cut em' out in Gaol, like the truckies do ? I know the government in NSW absolutely hate the fact these truckies cut out thousands of dollars of fines for, being overweight, failing to maintain a log book, inadequate rest stops, giving 'the bird' to a HWP Police Officer, etc etc. I was with the old STP (the precursor to the Highway Patrol) and appreciate the many tricks the truckies pull to confound the coppers ? Anyway it was all a lark at the end of the day ! Thanks Jay or Melbourne.

Hi Rehctub, I've never been much interested in acceleration times. Hard standing starts are usually a bit too hard on the machinery for a poor man. I did once win the Australian sprint championships, before we had things like dragsters in Oz. It was in the F1 Brabham Repco, straight from Bathurst, with it's highest gearing. I was only just getting into 4Th at the finish. Of course, that was not my car.

It is a vague memory, but I think the time was something like 12 seconds, about HSV sedan traffic light times today.

My daily driver is an S2000 Honda. Probably similar to your Porsches in many ways. Not all that quick by todays standard, good handling with lots of grip in the dry. Both I believe would be just as happy killing you in the wet, as get you home safely.

I think that is pretty much down to todays tyres. They are a bit too optimised towards dry grip, & become far from good in the wet.

Hi there HASBEEN...

Though your last thread was directed to REHCTUB (Butch), have you even driven a 911 in racetrack or competitive conditions ? I've yet to experience my first ever drive, and as I mentioned at the outset, it was one of my nominated 'dream' cars as was the iconic Maserati, if I had the wherewithal ?

Boring to you perhaps, but I did enjoy driving our pursuit '76 5.8 V8 Falcon at work. It could move along, and 'drag back' most idiots attempting to evade us by failing to yield. Still that was the mid to late 1970's, and much has changed in vehicular engine design since then I guess ?

No o sung wu, I've only driven a couple of early Porsche, back when they were just a VW with a flash body. You could say I'm prejudiced against from that experienced, & they don't interest me.

Actually I have come very close, a couple of times, to buying a Bathurst 327 Monaro, but even using that special "man math" could not justify a car with such lousy fuel economy. Now doing much less mileage today, that would not be a problem, but the purchase price is now way beyond my spending.

I am not too impressed with the badge on the car. My Triumph TR7 was not well thought of in the day, & is still a cheap car, but quite the best car I know for a thrash through the boarder ranges. On the other hand, quite the worst car I ever drove was the Ferrari GT B I drove in the Surfers Paradise 6 hour endurance race in 1968. I tested a stock standard 327 Monaro around the track the next day & was 6 seconds quicker than the Ferrari, & much nicer to drive.

Would you believe some clown, who is impressed by the name/badge on the front, just paid $1.6 million for one, probably that one, just because of that prancing horse on the front.

G'day there HASBEEN...

Somehow I never thought you were an individual who was particularly daunted nor dismayed by the marque from which the car originated ? Rather more how it performed, or the potential for it to be modified and reworked sufficiently, to fulfil those expectations consistent with what you believed ? And I was right eh HASBEEN !

Anyway was it, what the 327 had under the bonnet ? Surely it would not be better handling and manners than the Ferrari ? The 327 Monaro had plenty of grunt though. Having not driven either I wouldn't have a clue ?

My first 'new' car was a 1965 BMC Mini Deluxe with 'hydrolastic' suspension. Bigger engine than the original 850cc Mini, and smaller at 998cc than the original Cooper with a 1278cc, if I recall correctly ?

Thoroughly unsatisfied with purchasing the Mini Deluxe, and lamenting the fact that I should've purchased the original Cooper and be done with it, I took it to Laurie OXENFORD at Pymble in Sydney, and had a Stage 1 - 'Port and Polish' with double valve springs, and an 'extractor' fitted.

The performance lifted markedly, but not enough to assuage my desire for the Cooper and later the iconic Cooper S. Anyway by then I'd exhausted all my available funds and couldn't afford it. But as things turned out, a couple of years later I managed to run-up a zillion miles in the departmental Cooper S's chasing errant speeders up and down the Pacific and Hume Hwys ! And were those poor little cars totally thrashed ! With these big fat coppers absolutely punishing them - they didn't care, it wasn't their cars ? I'd really hate to buy one from government auctions when their mileage rate had been met for disposal ?