How about a competition to celebrate the automotive underachievers amongst us? Maybe even get it judged by someone unimpeachable, and who has never made a mistake? (Dr Terry?).
My unbeatable entry is the brilliant decision to upgrade the 1.6 litre carburettor Camtech engine in my girlfriends Camira with a 1.8 litre injected Family 2 from a JE Camira. Why would you bother? What was I thinking? Do you even remember the Camira? 151,000 someones bought them.
Bet you can't beat that.

I remember seeing an add for a Holden wreckers in a Melbourne paper quite a while ago, it stated Holdens Wanted all models NO Camiras, that about says it all.

Thanks Dr Terry. It was a 1.8tbi from a JD. I hasten to add that this was 20 years ago. "Just drops straight in", the man said. It did too. What he neglected to mention was changing the tank, the filler neck, running new fuel lines, new wiring loom to the fuel pump, a new interior loom and mounting the ignition/efi electronics, modifying the glove box so it would fit, and changing the instrument cluster to get the speed switch to swap the ignition advanve map at a given roadspeed. And a million others things I've forgotten. Maybe the four cylinder diesel would have been a better choice.
I do note your maths. 5 OR 6. Not really sure how many? That's a lot of cars to go through to get one that works.

I wonder if, in 20 years or so, at a car show somewhere, a immaculate original JB Camira will be on display, with an admiring crowd of geriatrics muttering to themselves "I had one of those, wish I'd kept it".

When I was an apprentice I remember seeing a ea falcon centre point fuel injection was fitted with a 350 holley.
pete.
The last camiras 2.0 mpi were rockets
pete

quote:

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Originally posted by gm5735

I do note your maths. 5 OR 6. Not really sure how many? That's a lot of cars to go through to get one that works.

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I have an automotive repair & parts company & go thru delivery vehicles at a fair rate. Some I get to keep for 450,000 km+, like one of my current VT wagons. Others, for one reason or another (usually careless driving) don't last as long. A few of the Camiras died in the line of duty.

Given that I've probably owned more than 120 cars over the last 40 years, 5 or 6 is not a bad guess for cars from over 20 years ago.

Speaking of silly conversions, I seem to remember Peter Wherret putting a Sigma 2.6 litre into a VB or VC Commodore (in place of the 202) to demonstrate how good modern 4-cyl engine technology was in the early 80s. What resulted was a car that didn't perform as good as the 6-cyl but used the same amount of fuel. I think that one should be made an entry.

Dr Terry

Dear me. There's just so much to like about that. From the cunning use of retreads as a safety valve for the diff, to the Salvador Dali surrealist exhaust system.
I think you may have taken the lead....

If that HR V8 doesn't win, I think the extractors should at least earn some bonus points.

An ex-cab with stock width retreads & a SBC V8 up front, It must have been a good handler.

Dr Terry

Brian Plankman and the 6 in a row HO with three on the tree racin' shifter? I wonder which forum that belongs in.

...great topic fellas .. the very first EH V8 conversion i saw was in 1974.. a burgundy coloured sedan with the Chev small block mounted via a big plate across the front of the engine utilising any and all appropriate holes, and then held up by welded steam pipe to bolted angles on the forward most area of the subframe just behind the radiator....no isolating rubbers or such....

....i have no idea what became of her....

Edited by user Saturday, 5 July 2014 6:19:00 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

i knew a gy with an XK120 jag.
blew the motor couldn't afford a replacement (this was about 30 yyears ago so motors were were scarce) so dropped in a stock 6 cylinder flat head 38 dodge engine and 3 speed (on the floor) box.
while he was at it he didn't think much of the white paint so painted it red. with a brush.
other manufacturers duds include ford's ranch wagon from about 1958, thousands of them went out with the thrmostat installed wrong so the countryside was littered with ranch wagons with cracked heads, the 1952 ford prefect AKA ford defect, which was unable to be driven on narrow roads because of the steering wander, it took a good deal of practice to anticipate just where it was going to steer next and correct in time, lets not forget the vauxhall VX 90 which couldn't be driven more than 10 k from a service station because of their unreliability, the many early VWs which formed impromptu barbecues usually at traffic lights, and tended to fall over at corners because the rear wheels folded in when pushed a bit hard into bends rather like the infamous corvair, and their endearing habit of spitting spark plugs and stripping the thread from the spark plug holes. finally we had the first falcons which looked cute with front wheela at a wierd angle because the strut towers were made too weak and tended to fold in gradually increasing the inner camber. nearly all of them had to be recalled and strut braces fitted. ford had no excuse for this they had been using macpherson suspension for years on the equally heavy zephyr, but it was no match for aussie roads, as no doubt we will find the current crop of eurotrash in a few years.
they were the good old days will they ever return? what replaces them now?