October 1979... (LONG post) - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

Ghia5L · 09-08-2003, 01:58

I was rummaging around in my room today & found a Motor magazine from 1979! Here's some weird & wonderful things I found in it:

* Ford's trippy advertising for its Sundowner range (LOVE the XD vans!). If I had a scanner I'd copy the picture, but since I don't, you'll just have to take my word for it that the people at Ford were using another type of LSD at the time...

* Holden's yet-to-be-released WB was causing headaches for the engineers at Fisherman's Bend. Why develop a huge, fuel guzzling, yank-styled car in an era when smaller, economical, Euro cars (eg Commodore) were in vogue? This was the question being asked at the time...

* Escort to be replaced with (then unnamed) Laser.

* Sigma 2.6 Astron engines were being evaluated for the XD Falcon as a fuel economy special due to the fuel scare at the time (a whopping jump from 15c/L to around 33c/L!).

* Digital Fuel Injection developed by pommy company Lucas

* New Gemini ("Kadett" elsewhere) breaks cover, due for Oz in 1982.

* TE Corty released, $100 million invested into this car!!!

* Hints of (then unnamed) Magna to replace Valiant. ("The Valiant's place on the production line will be taken over by a smaller Mitsubishi-sourced model.")

* Heads-up to motorists given on cops taking delivery of Australia's first batch of speed radars.

* VW produces 35 million cars since 1945

* Holden exports 175 Kingswoods to Trinidad in recent shipment: 100 sedans, 25 wagons, 50 Staties. 600 are exported annually to the island nation (so if you go on holidays & you see old Kingswoods around, don't be TOO scared, they're not insane Holden enthusiasts!)

* ABS developed for BMW 7-series. (The i-Drive of the 80s?

)

* Mazda passes the 10 million cars milestone

* A Ford dealer in the US (named "Ben Hur") is testing his used cars & putting Mileage Performance Guide stickers (ie, "13L/100km") on them according to their economy. The idea catches on elsewhere.

* An XD Fairmont Ghia shows up at the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit, attracting a lot of interest.

* The HDT Commodore brigade makes a 1 2 3 podium finish at the Repco Reliability Trial. Brocky came first. A Volvo came 4th, & the first of the Cortina brigade came 5th. A Major arse-whooping by Holden. There's a picture of Brocky looking like a pimp/Elvis impersonater while chatting up a fan (hehe)

* BMW on the rise, as there are a few articles on their new Merc-bashing products.

* Article on SAAB 900 Turbo "the Turbo offers the spirited driver a fascinating and potent package!"

* VB Commodore 3.3 auto tested for economy. The point to the article was Holden was spinning the line that "There is negligable difference between the fuel usage of a carefully driven V8 and a six driven with spirit", so Motor tested the VB in granny-mode. The best result Motor could come up with for thrifty driving in Sydney traffic was 15.5L/100km!!! Then they took it down the quarter mile & got a time of 19.46 seconds. 0-100: 13.9 seconds. Top speed: 166kph. Claimed power: 71kW@3800rpm. Claimed torque: 213Nm@2000rpm. The outcome of the article: "The Commodore will remain something of a compromise at least until Holden gives us its updated, more economical range of engines early into 1980. We can't wait." -- Scary stuff, compared to today's cars eh!

* There's lots of ads regarding smokes & grog

* Radar detectors (I'm sure you'll love this one AP) were being advertised in, and recommended by, the Motor staff. "Smokey Patrol... is tuned specifically to cope with police KR-11 radar" hehehe

SOME PRICES...

* XD Falcons selling at $6798 to $9845. <-- LTDs $17872

* Used (duh) XY GTs selling at $3500 (damn!!!)

* Commodores selling at $7017 to $11321

* Kingswoods (HZ still selling new) selling at $7068 to $9216. <- Caprices $17403

* Valiants selling at $7021 to $12302

* Datsuns selling at $5399 to $19000

Fooly sikh datto!

That's all folks!

Dark_Horse · 09-08-2003, 03:03

Wow! I always wondered what things were like on the month and year I was born.

EBXR · 09-08-2003, 03:08

Hey Ghia5L,

That's a pretty good wrap up! Got any more up your sleeve!?!?

Ghia5L · 09-08-2003, 03:12

Scary, isn't it! Busy days, they were... Imagine owning a big thirsty V8 back then, & then fuel prices go thru the roof... oh hang on, deja vu!

-Dave-

PHoeNiX_EB · 09-08-2003, 03:35

Good stuff. I wish i had some Mags that old i could rumage through!

sideshowfreak · 09-08-2003, 22:09

i found an 87 mag can't remeber the title of it it was my uncles, was a good read, not much ford stuff but

tranquilized · 09-08-2003, 23:05

I used to have a box full of Wheels, Modern Motor etc magazines from the 70's and early 80's that belonged to my dad. The whole lot got lost during a house move which really sucks cause there was some really interesting stuff in there.
I remember reading comparisons between kingswood/valiant/falcon - i think it was XB or similar vintage. Stuff from the 80's like VK vs XF, also VN vs EA. I cant remember which cars won these comparisons.
So yeah, lost all those mags, but what I do still have is a heap of old brochures, like the 1977 Ford catalogue which had everything in it, from escort to LTD. I've got XD, ZK, LTD, and a brochure for nearly every model falcon post EA.
They're a spin out now, imagine looking through them in another 30 years time!

Aaron_EF8 · 09-09-2003, 05:30

The oldest car magazine i've got is the august 76 issue of Modern Motor.

In some of my other old Motor mags they had about Ford having a 2.3L 4 cyl ready to put into the XE... Thank god they didn't. Another thing they were amazed at were the 'computerised cars' that had trip computers, or shock horror, EFI

Ghia5L · 09-09-2003, 05:32

tranq: Yeah, I love looking thru old brochures/manuals. I used to read thru my XE one all the time when I was a kid (LOVE the 80s family on the cover all dressed in Pimp White).

EBXR: any particular brand/model/event you're interested in from '79? That's the only old-skool Motor mag I've got, all the rest are post-2001 (Wheels too). Actually, I've got a couple of Practical Classics magazines, with info on the Z-cars from the 70s/80s, the L34 Torana, & some Bathurst info. I'll transscribe some stuff from those if you're interested mate

-Dave-

XF Falcon · 09-09-2003, 07:06

Sweet man, cheers for typing that all out.

I'd love to have a Sept '80 issue of street/motor machine or something. the month i was born.