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The Muscle Cars Of Austalia
The muscle car era in Australia was short but sweet. It started about the late 60's and ended in the mid to late 70's. It
produced the Holden Monaro, the Ford Falcon GT. and the one and only Chrysler Valiant Charger the best by far in my opinion.
It was cut short due to a media frenzy "the cars are to powerful there not safe wah wah wah we need speed limits and restrictions"
bloody media. They were right in some way's there was no speed limit's on the open roads when these cars were made before
the muscle cars most cars struggled to reach 100kms/h. Then the high performance machines appeared and 100kms/h was 2nd gear
for them. No speed limits, cheap cars with plenty of grunt and inexperienced drivers, bad mixture. So there ended the muscle
car era from about 76 or 77 onwards it was downhill, no more high powered petrol guzzling cars. It was now about pollution
control and safety.
The Main Players
The main companies involved in the muscle car era were Holden, Ford and Chrysler. Holden was
the biggest of the three and Chrysler 3rd but always managed to build a more powerful vehicle. You here people going
on about how good the Monaro was and how the Falcon GT. kicked ass but the most supreme out of these all was the Valiant Charger.
It never won bathurst it came close, (2nd 3rd) but at the quarter mile the charger was unbeatable. The Monaro and Falcon both
had V8's in them and the Charger a six but no ordinary six a hemi six worked to E-49 spec's triple Webber's extractors big
cam big grunt. The Charger was the fastest accelerating car in Australia up until recently and his still the fastest accelerating
straight 6.
The Hemi Six
The Hemi Six was called Hemi for it's Hemispherical combustion chamber. The Hemi Six was originally
drawn up in America and was going to be used as truck motors but was put aside and America went on to focusing on big V8's.
Then Chrysler Australia needed a bit of a lift and a new look and new motor. The hemi six was picked up by Austalia and
the building began to make the fastest accelerating car in Austalia. Which they achieved with the Charger r/t E49.
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