Chrysler Drifter - circa 1977

[Tim754]

The business at the other end of the street I live on specializes in USA Chrysler and Valiant restos. Noticed Challengers , Cudas ,Chargers and a Drifter Panel van all on the resto go there. The name on the wall is "Michie Street motors" Elmore Victoria.  if anyone is interested. (They do bare metal type resto's so add  an easy Hmm $30,000 say to get the ball started rolling....

[asasin]

Gees Firko are you sure were not related? I have a 300 c as my good car and am restoring both a Charger and a V12 XJS. my mates in the 70S had V8 Vans , 1 had a 289 in a transit the other a 350 in a bedford., good times had by all . Funnily enough the charger I am doing up was painted in the drifter colour scheme.

[firko]

Hey Firko, That Cuda picture that you posted is a 1970. The 1971 had the gills in the front fender.

Doh! I'll have to smack that Google Photos editor in the chops next time I see him . Thanks mate.

Gees Firko are you sure were not related? I have a 300 c as my good car and am restoring both a Charger and a V12 XJS. my mates in the 70S had V8 Vans , 1 had a 289 in a transit the other a 350 in a bedford., good times had by all . Funnily enough the charger I am doing up was painted in the drifter colour scheme.

If I hadn't bought the Jeep, a 300C was the other choice. Sadly, I'm toying with the notion of selling my XJ-S as I don't use it nearly enough, which isn't fair on the car. I've been offered an imported 1968 Ford Ranchero GT ute for a good price. It's a 10 year old restoration with 302/auto/9", disc brake upgrade, decent metallic gold paint and old school Cragar wheels. I reckon it'd be a very cool bike transporter and would get used far more often than the Jag. The only thing holding me back is that the Ranchero is left hand drive and my long term connection with the Jag....I've really become attached to the car .
                                                                   
                                                                                                        A similar 1968 Ranchero to the one I'm considering.

[FourstrokeForever]

The Ranchero would be a cool transporter Firko. Plenty of room in the cargo area too which is more than you can say about today's utes...
I did want to go the V8 route with my Bedford but I might have left it too late. I have been told that it wouldn't pass engineering in Victoria anymore as they have changed the engine transplant rules. I was even thinking of putting in a 289 or 302 windsor for no reason other than the Ford small blocks are a lot narrower than the Chev. Putting the Ford motor in would mean I could move the motor back and lower in it's mounts without having to eat into the Bedford's cramped drivers left leg room. It might even be possible to decrease the size of the engine cowl which would be a bonus.
Would you believe I had one of the old Mitsubishi L300 express vans with a 302 windsor, FMX auto and 9" in it? The tailshaft was 7" long! Talk about a hoot to drive      . I could pull up on the inside lane at the lights and drag off pretty much anything if I got traction. Even Harleys were no match for the flying matchbox! And yes, it was legally registered in NSW.

[frostype400]

A mate of mine is doing a ranchero with rhd conversion it used a xy front end but still the ranchero panels and it will have a fairlane dash he has it sitting low too it is looking good.

[piney]

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Firko here's my interpretation 

[firko]

Didn't turn out Piney...have another shot at it.

[80-85 husky]

bedfords had 308 / 253 and 307 chev as std so rego should be no issue? I always thought the valiants were poo because they always failed on the race track. now I know about politics which effectively rogered a  Chryslers efforts a the majors (sandown Bathurst etc) as there is a very quick 6 pack E38 charger on the historic circuit that slaughters by laps, anything gm or ford can put together. seeing a charger put 200 metres on a HO phase three ++++ historic falcon down PI's main straight is a an eye opener and a realisation if the factory could have got its act together in the same way firth grabbed holden by the cobblers, a charger would have won Bathurst by a mile!

[TT5 Matt]

over in kiwi land the E38 and E49's were  the king of the track beating everything ghm and ford could throw at them,even moffets Bathurst winning shaker which even moffet said those chargers are too fast for him and the car got given to kiwi driven jimmy Richards who failed to beat the chargers either so the ford came back with its tail between its legs!! the kiwi chargers got no factory backing other then getting the car given to them and its was up to the teams to get the cars to handle within the rules at the time, a lot different to what was happening in aussie between gmh and ford teams.

[FourstrokeForever]

bedfords had 308 / 253 and 307 chev as std so rego should be no issue? I always thought the valiants were poo because they always failed on the race track. now I know about politics which effectively rogered a  Chryslers efforts a the majors (sandown Bathurst etc) as there is a very quick 6 pack E38 charger on the historic circuit that slaughters by laps, anything gm or ford can put together. seeing a charger put 200 metres on a HO phase three ++++ historic falcon down PI's main straight is a an eye opener and a realisation if the factory could have got its act together in the same way firth grabbed holden by the cobblers, a charger would have won Bathurst by a mile!

Wrong! The aussie Bedfrods had the biggest motor available to them in it's original form...either a mighty 186 Holden red motor or later the 202. No V8 Bedfords were produced by the factory. Which is a hell of a lot better than the Opel petrol 4Cyl or the german diesel that the poms got stuck with.....

And yes, If Chrysler would have put some effort into production racing in Australia by giving the car some decent brakes and a MUCH BIGGER FUEL TANK, they could of, would of, should of beat all before it....Before the little Torana came along anyways 

[frostype400]

What do you mean bigger fuel tank have you seen the chargers with the big tank option it takes up the whole boot and had fillers on both quarters.

The problem was there gearbox first was a three speed then the 4 speed but the ratios were wrong.

[FourstrokeForever]

They were very thirsty motors Micheal....even with the "Bathurst" tank they had to stop for fuel more than the Fords or Holdens. All that mumbo had to come from somewhere.....Fuel and air is what helped make them so quick

[piney]

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here we go Firko 1982 and a right hooker

[piney]

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oops meant 1972

[firko]

That yours Piney? What engine does it have? Is it for sale by chance? I like the side view of the '72 but the front is a bit iffy in my opinion. My favourite is the '67 Ranchero which has the same front sheetmetal as our ZB/ZC Fairlanes, or the '66 with XT front bodywork.