aussie ford zephyr's

[AustinA40]

Pic of my second car in the early 60's, better than the other brand !#^*+> for sure.

[last fairlane]

Hi all I forgot to say that when you got a Mk2 Zephyr the first thing was get a consul manifold (walking stick) and use your Zephyr one and cut it in half and then cut a bit off the Consul one then use your Zephyr down pipe and one Consul downpipe and you ended up with a set of headers (exctractors)
and the Bling back then was to find a Wolseley 2480 and grab the head light covers ( the eyebrow ones)
One more thing I had a red stop light in the back window of my Mk2 back in the 60s and was told by the cops to take it out as it was illegal to have an odd number of lights front or back dont know how Rovers got on
thanks John

[ebxr8240]

Funny thing is when 50+ woman look at these cars they always look at the back seat... Aha don't know why... Good times I guess ?? Atleat they can still remember !!!

[AustinA40]

The Rover 75 with a single light in the centre of the grille, the Austin A90 Atlantic also had a single light in grille were disconnected and not allowed to be used.
The pedestrian cutter light shades were banned as well as hood ornaments that stuck out with pointed beaks (like a bird in flight, etc etc)
Many pedestrians were first dazzeled by the lights, and then cut to ribbons and then impaled on hood ornaments, not a nice thing for the driver, not to mention the pedestrians.

[AustinA40]

When buying an early car the back seat was a good indication of condition and usually the first thing to be repaired so the tradition could be carried on in comfort.

[GT0132]

Originally Posted by ebxr8240

Comparing a mid 60's model to a 70's car is a little unfair ??
Besides back then the Cortina would be fairly new..
Plus the difference in engine size.. 2.6 against 3.3 or 4.1..
Not that the 3.3 was a grunt machine...

Just came back to this thread after being back in NZ ...(rushed trip...Dads funeral) The Cortina I had was a 2.0L 4cyl and 8 years old in November 1979
when I bought it, so hardly fairly new.

The 3.3 and 4.1 engines weren't available in NZ Corty's, although the 2.3 V6 was available in the MK5 (TD) from mid 1980 to early 1983

The point of my post was to highlight the reliability of the VC Valiant (and Aussie 6's in general) compared to the UK comparables - Not to show that Cortina's were better than mid 60's Zephyr

[max]

Originally Posted by castellan

Yes last fairlane.
1961 EK is a 3 sp auto.
The EJ to EH may even be called a 4 sp auto. weird how it works.
Holdens had 2 sp powerglide from HD to HT in 6 cyl and all V8's and also in the HG 350. were as all other HG got the trumatic 3 sp auto.

Valiant RV1 & SV1 were a fine auto. do you know when valiant went to the B/W35 in the 6 cyl. I am thinking maybe the VH.

I'm pretty sure EK, EJ and EH had 3 speed Hydramatic auto
HD, HR and HK had 2 speed Powerglide auto
HT and HG had 3 speed Trimatic Auto

[John Roberts]

Originally Posted by ehast13

Zephyr had a McPherson Strut front end.

Way faster than a comparable Holden.

My first car was a new FC ute. It did 85mph flat out. I got a repco 'supersport' exchange engine and it was timed at 96 mph. I got a Zephyr Ute in 1961 and it did 97mph standard!

Mk2 Zodiac claimed an extra 10hp than Zephyr.

The consuls had a slightly shorter front and 4cylinders only.

The Zodiac was kinda like the Fairmont Ghia of the Zephyr

It was quicker, better handling, braking than the first few falcons. It had a nice short throw manual that was miles ahead of the falcons' big long throw shifter. Disc brakes were offered on the last of the Mk2's.

The Mark 3 was a beauty. Look back at old footage of armstrong 500's and you'll usually see a mk 3 on the front row or two.

Nah, in Oz the Zephyr and Zodiac had the same power. You might be thinking of '59 when the six went from 80 to 86bhp after the comp. ratio went from 6.9 to 7.8 to take advantage of the new 93 octane super.

[Tonz]

congratulations, congratulations, Mr John Roberts on being the activator for the oldest thread starter on this forum. 2009 - 2024. 15 year gap has set a new recorord

[lra]

I am less concerned about the thread dig than the laughable inaccuracies posted initially, but thankfully corrected in later posts.
Zephyrs were better than the equivalent Holdens of the day by a long way, but were outdated by 1960. Thankfully Ford Aus decided to build the Falcon rather than the weird looking facelifted Mk2.

My father bought a Mk1 Zephyr from the Yelarbon (look it up) Ford Dealer in 1954, drove us to Sydney to run it in while visiting rellies, and then returned to our sheep station during the 1954 floods. I learned early in life how to negotiate flooded roads and creeks, being sent out to paddle / wade though the water and point out dodgy spots.

1956, we drove from Yelarbon to Esperence to check out prospective grazing land, but Dad decided that sand dunes were not ideal sheep country and we drove back 2 days later. The only mods he made to it was a homemade sump guard, and 'Jeep-type' tyres on the back wheels. Those tyres were not kind to the diff, and it whined something terrible after that trip. Despite its somewhat hard use on crappy dirt roads, it help up pretty well. I learned to drive in it, and developed muscles courtesy of the steering, clutch and brakes. I think he sold it about 1985.

I bought a 1957 Mk2 (egg-crate grille, high roofline) when I left school in 1965 for $500.
First mod was extractors, lovely exhaust note, which led to a lot of wasted $$$ and a steep learning curve.
Re-duco-ed, twin inch and half SUs, ported and polished head, big cam, rebuilt and balanced engine, and 6.5 inch rims steel rims with SP41 tyres was cool in 1967.
But it was an old car, in looks and mechanically in 1968, I had learned a lesson about modifying cars, and traded it on a new HK Kingswood with all the good fruit.

[Charliewool]

As soon as I think Zephyr, I can’t help but think of John Peterson! A great mate and an out and out Zephyr legend! To hear that 289 Windsor scream it’s nuts off.. you were just waiting for the huge “bang” (which never eventuated!) was amazing!
Also never seen someone swap cogs with a toploader like him.. Absolutely brutal!
https://www.streetmachine.com.au/fea...-john-peterson
RIP John…

[98TLS]

Fwiw pic of my mates wagon over here in NZ,goes very well.

[lra]

Originally Posted by Charliewool

As soon as I think Zephyr, I can’t help but think of John Peterson! A great mate and an out and out Zephyr legend! To hear that 289 Windsor scream it’s nuts off..

Had to dig the memory bank for this ........... Barry Sharp had a 289ci Mk2 that he used to race at Calder during 1967.
Photos of it at Oran Park seem to show it as LHD. Hmmmm .....Curious.

[John Roberts]

Originally Posted by Tonz

congratulations, congratulations, Mr John Roberts on being the activator for the oldest thread starter on this forum. 2009 - 2024. 15 year gap has set a new record

I am an (old) ex-Canadian, and as we used to say in the frozen back country where I was dragged up: "It don't matter how long it takes, s'long as you don't die doin' it."

I'm into Mark IIs because I'm heavily into Neil Young, and his parents had one: bitly.ws/3hIRt.

Keep on Rockin' In The Free World! (while it lasts).

[IanC]

In 67 I had a Mk2 Consul. It was a clapped out banger. The wipers were vacuum powered and when you accelerated they slowed down almost to a stop. Take your foot off the gas and they went crazy. It was massively under powered for the size of the car not helped by the engine being so clapped that the blow by from the cylinders blew the sump oil out the dip stick hole.

[mick taylor]

Originally Posted by John Roberts

Nah, in Oz the Zephyr and Zodiac had the same power. You might be thinking of '59 when the six went from 80 to 86bhp after the comp. ratio went from 6.9 to 7.8 to take advantage of the new 93 octane super.

OK so you do remember the Super was 93 octane was 93 in Australia, Standard must of been 83 octane then ?
As Standard fuel was only used in all Grey Holden engines.

But when the big Falcon came out they had high compression engines of 8.8:1
back in 1961 but you could opt for the 144 Low comp so you would not get stung at the fuel pump !
Holden's did not get 8.8:1 until late 1963 EH.

But i do remember the MK III Zodiac did perform well for back in them days.

A HQ 173 6 CYL low compression was 8.3:1 and this was running on Standard 87 octane.

[John Roberts]

Originally Posted by mick taylor

OK so you do remember the Super was 93 octane was 93 in Australia, Standard must of been 83 octane then ?
As Standard fuel was only used in all Grey Holden engines.

But when the big Falcon came out they had high compression engines of 8.8:1 back in 1961 but you could opt for the 144 Low comp so you would not get stung at the fuel pump !
Holden's did not get 8.8:1 until late 1963 EH.

But i do remember the MK III Zodiac did perform well for back in them days.

A HQ 173 6 CYL low compression was 8.3:1 and this was running on Standard 87 octane.

Yes, I remember the 93 petrol. Never used Standard at that time, as I was a leadfoot, but yeah I believe it was 83. The laugh was my Zephyr still pinged on Esso 93 (the Tiger in the Tank must be have been geriatric, or had died) if that was the only gas station open in the small Aussie country towns while on a trip.

No octane checks in those days unless someone complained. Thoughtfully, Lucas provided a knurled nut at the base of the distributor to retard the timing for such an eventuality (all those Eastern Bloc countries using Russian surplus pumped from drums left over after the War)!

Some of the tin-pot towns in the outback still had manual pumps where the petrol was pumped into a sight glass from underground, then released into the tank by gravity by the attendant wielding a lever graduated into whole gallons only.

This by-guess-or-by-God method meant I always had to keep my jerry can partly empty for overflow, lol.

I owned both the Mark II Lowline Zephyr 7.8:1 high-comp automatic new and traded it on the replacement - the XK Falcon auto 8.7 to 1 high-comp with the clear sticker on the base of the windscreen reminding you to use 'premium' fuel (obviously a US sticker as Aussies called it 'Super') - some years later (belonged to a little old lady, so low miles). Each went as good as the other.

[John Roberts]

Originally Posted by last fairlane

How many mistakes in one post as I recall
for a start it was 1957 and Ford 7a Customline had a 'Fordomatic" 3 speed
(where do you think we got the "FMX" name from) Chrysler had a manual overdrive you could also get a Standard 10 ( think Triumph) with push button clutch on top of the gear stick

Holden got 3 I repeat 3 speed auto in 1961 with the EK and then 2 speed with the HD/HR and back to 3 speed in the HK but not the V8s they were 2 speed I had the pleasure of winding out a brand new HK Premier 307 "5 Litre " to 75 MPH in first gear but still couldnt get away from a BMW 2002

Zephyr had BW 35 in 1961 along with Wolsely and Austin Freeway and Mk 2 Jags

Falcons on debut were 2 speed air cooled transmissions they werent conected to the radiator and dont forget Valiants had auto from 1962 push button "Torque flite" 3 speed
thats my recollections thanks John

Thanks for your thoughts, John. Being ex-Canadian I never liked GM products and always plumped for Fords. But both marques could have good designs with crappy executions. My then-new '59 Mark II Zephyr had a Borg Warner 'DG' (Detroit Gear) 3-speed auto that was used by some British makes, with cooling through the radiator and a full-time lock-up torque converter in top gear as there was no 2nd-gear hold! I think the Zephyrs got the '35' in '62.

What was crap about Ford using the DG was there was no lockout between R and L. Great for rockin' her out of a mud puddle, but imagine you are hanging it around hairpin uphill bends at 20 mph in Low (held). You swing your hands hard left and you brush the shift lever. Bang! It goes into Reverse and you come to an embarrassing halt in a cloud of burning rubber! One of the reasons I tried to put a big gap between me and following traffic...

When I bitched to the dealer he told me, "Sorry, mate but Ford takes the rear auto pump out of these when they come here because they disintegrate and churn aluminium through the transmission!"

The rear pump protected the transmission and threw it into Neutral down to walking pace if something silly like a reverse-slip happened. It also allowed push-starts when the battery was flat (so THAT's why that hadn't worked when I'd left the parkers on over a weekend). Nice of them to tell me this after I'd experienced both issues with no rear pump!

No such problems with my 1960 XK auto (just a poorly-fitting grommet on the base of the stiff gearshift, and whose gear dial was not lit up at night either, making shifting bloody awkward!) - oh, the brakes were damn small too. I traded one in on the other, but have to say the 2-speed Fordomatic was no handicap for the XK on the road and having taken down times their accelerations up to 70 mph were absolutely identical give or take a tenth (because the XK was lighter and its Low wound out to 47 mph), as were their top speeds of 87 mph.

John

[John Roberts]

Originally Posted by lra

I am less concerned about the thread dig than the laughable inaccuracies posted initially, but thankfully corrected in later posts.
Zephyrs were better than the equivalent Holdens of the day by a long way, but were outdated by 1960. Thankfully Ford Aus decided to build the Falcon rather than the weird looking facelifted Mk2.

My father bought a Mk1 Zephyr from the Yelarbon (look it up) Ford Dealer in 1954, drove us to Sydney to run it in while visiting rellies, and then returned to our sheep station during the 1954 floods. I learned early in life how to negotiate flooded roads and creeks, being sent out to paddle / wade though the water and point out dodgy spots.

1956, we drove from Yelarbon to Esperence to check out prospective grazing land, but Dad decided that sand dunes were not ideal sheep country and we drove back 2 days later. The only mods he made to it was a homemade sump guard, and 'Jeep-type' tyres on the back wheels. Those tyres were not kind to the diff, and it whined something terrible after that trip. Despite its somewhat hard use on crappy dirt roads, it help up pretty well. I learned to drive in it, and developed muscles courtesy of the steering, clutch and brakes. I think he sold it about 1985.

I bought a 1957 Mk2 (egg-crate grille, high roofline) when I left school in 1965 for $500.
First mod was extractors, lovely exhaust note, which led to a lot of wasted $$$ and a steep learning curve.
Re-duco-ed, twin inch and half SUs, ported and polished head, big cam, rebuilt and balanced engine, and 6.5 inch rims steel rims with SP41 tyres was cool in 1967.
But it was an old car, in looks and mechanically in 1968, I had learned a lesson about modifying cars, and traded it on a new HK Kingswood with all the good fruit.

After I put my Mk II Zephyr sidewards due to locking the rear brakes when someone pulled out from the kerb in front of me in the pouring rain, my tyre man put wintertreads on the back (Must have been a 'thing' back then), and I had no more trouble under heavy braking in the wet. Didn't hurt the diff, but Ford diffs whine anyways, lol.

[John Roberts]

Originally Posted by last fairlane

Hi all I forgot to say that when you got a Mk2 Zephyr the first thing was get a consul manifold (walking stick) and use your Zephyr one and cut it in half and then cut a bit off the Consul one then use your Zephyr down pipe and one Consul downpipe and you ended up with a set of headers (exctractors)
and the Bling back then was to find a Wolseley 2480 and grab the head light covers ( the eyebrow ones)
One more thing I had a red stop light in the back window of my Mk2 back in the 60s and was told by the cops to take it out as it was illegal to have an odd number of lights front or back dont know how Rovers got on
thanks John

Would never have thought of doing that. Mine must have been a Christmas-rush build, as after a few years it started to leak at the curved ports on the hockey stick mild steel pipe.

When it still leaked after pulling it off half-a-dozen times with the bolts holding the stick to the downpipe warped from the heat (at least their nuts were brass), and the bloody exhaust-heated inlet manifold and fuel pipe having to come off each time, and using absolute tubes of exhaust putty, in desperation I put a straight-through muffler on to reduce pressure, then finally a set of Sonic custom-made extractors and quieter muffler (I didn't want to spend money on a then-new hockey stick that could have the same issue). Waste of bloody time. Also fiddly to fit the aluminium spacer blocks to the curved head ports - more putty.

Had to bend the kickdown rod to clear the extractors, meaning that never worked right again. Took the car out down the length of Heathcote Rd and back - a distance of about 30 miles. Down on power and 57 mpg! So it was running hit-you-over-the-head lean + no heated inlet manifold. Rejetted the Zenith, but it never ran the way I liked.

Got a job in the city and left the Zephyr parked at my place and only drove it weekends. The extractors rotted after two years! (out of warranty, natch). Traded it on the XK with a proper cast exhaust manifold (which cracked years later, but was able to get it welded and fit it without taking the inlet manifold off as it was cast into the head, lol).

[jaydee]

Just for interest sake, here is a pic of a Zephyr my Dad took in Halls Creek, Kimberley region of WA when the Redex Reliability Rally came through in about 1958 or 59

[Captain Stubing]

Originally Posted by John Roberts

Would never have thought of doing that. Mine must have been a Christmas-rush build, as after a few years it started to leak at the curved ports on the hockey stick mild steel pipe.

When it still leaked after pulling it off half-a-dozen times with the bolts holding the stick to the downpipe warped from the heat (at least their nuts were brass), and the bloody exhaust-heated inlet manifold and fuel pipe having to come off each time, and using absolute tubes of exhaust putty, in desperation I put a straight-through muffler on to reduce pressure, then finally a set of Sonic custom-made extractors and quieter muffler (I didn't want to spend money on a then-new hockey stick that could have the same issue). Waste of bloody time. Also fiddly to fit the aluminium spacer blocks to the curved head ports - more putty.

Had to bend the kickdown rod to clear the extractors, meaning that never worked right again. Took the car out down the length of Heathcote Rd and back - a distance of about 30 miles. Down on power and 57 mpg! So it was running hit-you-over-the-head lean + no heated inlet manifold. Rejetted the Zenith, but it never ran the way I liked.

Got a job in the city and left the Zephyr parked at my place and only drove it weekends. The extractors rotted after two years! (out of warranty, natch). Traded it on the XK with a proper cast exhaust manifold (which cracked years later, but was able to get it welded and fit it without taking the inlet manifold off as it was cast into the head, lol).

Hello John, just to make sure you know, you are quoting a members post from 15 years ago, and that member hasn't logged on to the forums for about a year and a half. Just advising in case you were seeking conversation with them, which might not be forthcoming.

[lra]

Originally Posted by John Roberts

Would never have thought of doing that. Mine must have been a Christmas-rush build, as after a few years it started to leak at the curved ports on the hockey stick mild steel pipe.

When it still leaked after pulling it off half-a-dozen times with the bolts holding the stick to the downpipe warped from the heat (at least their nuts were brass), and the bloody exhaust-heated inlet manifold and fuel pipe having to come off each time, and using absolute tubes of exhaust putty, in desperation I put a straight-through muffler on to reduce pressure, then finally a set of Sonic custom-made extractors and quieter muffler (I didn't want to spend money on a then-new hockey stick that could have the same issue). Waste of bloody time. Also fiddly to fit the aluminium spacer blocks to the curved head ports - more putty.

).

I had a set of "Speco" ( I think ) extractors on my Mk2.
They had the curved blockey bits that fitted the head attached to the individual pipes moulded in, with gaskets included.
Bolted straight in, no leaks in the engine bay. 2 inch exhaust came out just in front of the RH rear wheel. ( You could do those sort of things in the olden days )