New tyres, surprised...

[poohbah]

As an impoverished student I could only afford a set of retreads for my VG Valiant Safari. They were great til I ignored the recommended speed limitation and the tread separated on two wheels simultaneously when I was doing 100 on the freeway.

[Paul Gulliver]

" My VG Valiant Safari."

Now your talking. I had a VF ute, 3 speed colum shift with the old slant six in the mid 70's, it  weighted nothing I also had the 1750 GTV at the same time.  I remember the ute being quicker in a straight line, went like a cut cat but it was bloody dangerous in the wet on the old cross ply's. Drove it to Perth a couple of times towing a boat . Never missed a beat

[Citroënbender]

Worm and ball non-power steering boxes on some cars of that era, more turns lock-to-lock than days in the week...  I believe a lot of sticky ends were precipitated by the pilot's inability to correct in a timely manner. We are spoiled now by comparison, and can crash harder at higher speeds. 

Being a bit like the bloke who goes to the Folies-Bergère and looks instead at the audience, I actually find it fascinating how much one can sometimes feel the machinations of a tyre as it's driven, courtesy of chassis improvements such as those noted above.

[poohbah]

My VG was one of the fastest cars in a straight line I have owned (or so it seemed at the time anyway). Big 245 Hemi with extractors. But no weight over rear wheels so it could get exciting in the wet. Great looking thing too, slept in the back. Drove Perth to Melbourne and back in it with my gf of 2 months who is now my missus.

[kaleuclint]

VG?  VF?  What luxury!!  I bet they even had heaters, right?  Not like my AP6. 

Funnily enough was talking to a bloke at work about retreads only yesterday, and how I've never been that desperate.  He did indeed have a choice of tread patterns back in the day and Pirelli was one of them.

[poohbah]

Working heater yes. Locking doors no. And by the end, she wasn't burning oil so much as pumping it straight out the exhaust (I think valve stem seals were shot).

I traded up to a '75 VJ Wagon with key operated electric rear window, and plastic wood trim on the dash.

Bloody luxury.

Except for the porous cooling system which meant I had to top up the radiator at each end of every journey (and often midway too).

But those were the days - I had no money to fix 'em, so I just bought old bangers and ran them til they died. Bloody loved those cars. And the poo brown HJ Kingswood wagon that followed: three on the tree with nice fat chromies, a bent rear passenger door that wouldn't close completely and which started by turning the ignition lock with your fingers (look mum, no keys!)...

[johnl]

Back in my student days I never once resorted to buying retreads, I'd seen too many falling apart. 'Remoulds' were my usual purchase (if I didn't happen to score some decent second hand tyres for a good price). Remoulds (I think they were branded 'Falcon') were much like retreads, but with the new rubber bonded from bead to bead instead of just to the tread area, so everything you could see was 'new'. I ran a number of these on my Nota, and never had a single problem with them.

The new bonded rubber was invariably quite soft, and gripped amazingly well, espsecially when you got a bit of heat into them, especially when embarrasing a GTHO Falcon on the Galston Gorge Rd (and other youthful misbehavior that I choose not to recount...).

Of course this softness also meant that their longevity wasn't the best, but the Nota only weighed about 550kg, so they lasted well enough. A substantially heavier car may well have tested their probably questionable structural integrity more severely, so they may not have been so trouble free with a  less featherweight car...

Regards,
John.

[poohbah]

I had to Google Nota John. What model was yours?

[johnl]

It was a Nota 'Sportsman'. Think something somewhere between a Lotus 6 and 7, but a semi home made Aussie version. No two were the same, but basically a two seater open topped spaceframe chassis with a mid / front mounted engine (north / south, unlike the better known 'Fang', with it's east / west Cooper S engine in the rear).

When I bought it, it had a 1 litre BMC (Sprite) engine and four speed box, which I modified with a polished 1100S head, Waggot 'rally' camshaft, twin choke sidedraught Dellorto, oversized Mahle pistons (11 - 1 compression ratio), lightweight flywheel, racing clutch (actually a stock Triumph Herald clutch, same part number as the BMC 'special competition' clutch for the Sprite, but much cheaper...). This little engine put out about 70hp at the rear wheels, estimated near enough to 100 at the flywheel (according the bloke running the dyno). It broke about four gearboxes, one or two differentials and a couple of half shafts.

The front suspension was a Ford Prefect beam axle, cut in half to form a low pivot point swing axle (which worked much better than it sounds like it should). Front brakes were Ford Zephyr drums. The rear axle and rear drum brakes were BMC A40 Farina (I think), with the axle located by four radius rods and a panhard rod. Other odds and sods from this and that.

When I sold it, it had a Fiat 1800 Twin Cam and 5 speed box from a 124 Sport, front brakes from a Mk2 Cortina GT, rear axle from an RX2 (unbreakable, unlke the fragile BMC axle and differential...), rear disc brakes from the same Fiat 124 Sport as above. The Fiat engine was far less temperamental than the modded BMC engine, with significantly more power and a lot more torque at lower rpm (the BMC engine wanted heaps of revs all the time and didn't feel happy at lower rpm, which was a bit licence threatening...). Eventually the mighty little BMC engine died, hence the Fiat conversion.

It was a rather shabby little thing (cosmetically challenged), but with either engine it was pretty rapid (with only 550 or so kg, and geared for only about 110mph at max rpm, which equated to about 6 seconds 0 to 100kmh, very good for the time, and would keep up with big bikes from traffic light to traffic light). It handled fantastically well in the dry, but routinely would try to kill me in the wet (pay attention, or else...). No roof, no windscreen, no speedometer (you just had to know that X rpm in Y gear equalled Z speed, I had a little chart on the dashboard detailing 60 80 100 and 110 kmh at certain rpms in 4th and 5th gears...).

The joke was that NOTA stood for "No Other Transport Avaialable", and to prove the truth of this it was my daily transport for 13 years. When I sold it, with the proceeds I bought an Alfetta sedan (1800cc), and a racing kart...

I'm feeling a bit nostaligic just now, wiping away a tear...

Regards,
John.

[Citroënbender]

So, where/how did you carry your guitar, surfboard, pulpit, tap shoes, whatever the accoutrement was - that a young bloke figured most likely to impress young women?  (Answers squarely above the waistline, please!)

[johnl]

Everything that came with me had to fit in the 'tunnel' that also doubled as a footwell for unsuspecting (or foolhardy...) passenegers (and best if any said items were reasonably waterproof, in case of rain...). In wet weather you got wet, in cold weather you froze, in hot weather you fried, which was of course all part of the fun. It was very much like a four wheeled motor cycle, that you sat in.

The NOTA did impress young women, briefly. After their first ride, with the lack of any actually functional wind protection messing the hair, the lack of any meaningful suspension movement painfully jarring their breasts, and on one occasion the gearbox oil that unbeknownst to me had leaked all over the passenger side floor terminally staining the party dress, quickly disabused any notions of my reflected sex appeal...

The Nota was fairly poor as a 'chick magnet' for the above reasons, it was just too uncomfortable and too 'hard core'. My wife married me despite my car, not because of it, which must be true love (and, we could go wherever in her horrid Corona...).

Regards,
John.

[poohbah]

Great backstory John.

[Citroënbender]

Well, PB - maybe I can sell you the go-fast bits to build a Special out of a Ford 10 chassis? Extractors, nice big downdraught carby on a Kleinig manifold and modified Y-link for the front suspension. 

[Paul Gulliver]

CB , Don't laugh to loud something like that won this years Targa Tassie

[poohbah]

I could use some decent extractors on my GTV, but the rest would be wasted on me I'm afraid CB.