Honestly, do you Aussies take offense when us Yanks pic your treasured cars apart? Like pointing out the Falcon XB favors Yank '70-'71 Torino, or the Morano is like a Buick Opel with a Camaro front?! No disrespect meant, damned fine cars, all!
Argentina's IKA Renault Torino (yes). There's nothing Renault about it, you're looking at a modified Rambler body with a Jeep Tornado engine enlarged to 230 ci and up to 300 hp (gross) on the hotter versions, coupled to a ZF 5sp box. Oh, and proper suspension (not the old torque tube). See more here: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cur...rino-ts-the-legendary-rambler-south-american/
Or Brazil's Chevrolet Opala SS, which used a German Opel Commodore (not like the Aussie Holden Commodore!) body but Chev 250 six and 4sp?
I really wanted one for my Comet but never had the cash needed to buy and import it. A twin cam turbocharged factory engine that would have been basically a bolt in swap was very appealing.
I seem to recall that years ago the "hot ticket" for the Falcon six crowd was to get the Australian cross flow head, and bolt it on to a 200 or 250 engine.
I listed a few here: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/factory-terrors.1317999/#post-15262751 We had those, with a different front end, as a Chevrolet Kommando SS: A Kiwi friend of mine tells me that that front end was also available in New Zealand at the time? There is a whole Brazilian automotive culture about performance-tuning Chevy sixes. Some of the turbocharged ones are insane. I've done some "what if?" Photoshop fantasies on European muscle cars that never were:
Identical to the Aussie version, except for the front end and badges, down to the Holden 308. It's a bit of an epidemic here, local people who don't understand that the Holden V8 wasn't a SBC. They're even easy to tell apart at a glance: while the SBC has the familiar E-I-I-E-E-I-I-E porting, the Holden is the only V8 I know of which has I-E-I-E-E-I-E-I porting, exactly the reverse of a Buick Nailhead's E-I-E-I-I-E-I-E. (Weirdest I've seen is the Mercedes-Benz M116/M117: E-I-I-E-I-E-I-E.)
Yup. There is also an (Argentinian?) top end that’s a popular swap. Anything that gets away from the integral intake is a good thing on that engine.
No it wasn't. [I've never seen that front end in all my years of dealing cars] All Monaro's in NZ were imported as Aussie Assembled Cars. The nearest front end to that was the HT Brougham [but still different] Or maybe the earlier HR Premier
My friend was obviously mistaken, or he'd found a stray ZA-spec car — or parts — which had somehow ended up in NZ. I understand that that sheetmetal was stamped in Australia and shipped to South Africa as part of a CKD kit, though I'm speaking under correction. Strangely, wholly imported HK/HT/HG Holdens were sold alongside the locally-assembled Chevrolet versions here.
Nice. I'd have one of each please. As I'm sure you know, Peugeot did have such a thing with basically the same V6 engine as in the Delorean (PRV), and as you would also be aware there were turbocharged Renault versions which might be utilized to get the extra umph those deserved (or if you can find one, the 3L 4V version from the Venturi sports car having 400 hp)... But the one I'd have in the parallel universe is Panhard's 24 CT prototype with the Maserati V8 (as in the Citroen SM) which Citroen killed... More pics here: http://www.citroen-ds-id.com/ds/DS_Cit_Panhard_Proto.html
That XB Coupe looks nice with the period correct "Cheviot Hotwire" wheels. This above is how Falcon Coupes should look [not like those Mad Max movie car monstrosities that people spoof in their pants over]
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