Ford Maverick -

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: Silk
That Centura is a Hillman Avenger - I can't imagine how they would've gone with a 265 in there, they had enough trouble coping with the 1.6.


If you look up the definition of "plough understeer", there's a 265 Centura there illustrating it.

 

[AZjeff]

The difference in styling of the period here/there is amazing.

This is interesting, I forgot some of the models: 1975 GM lineup

Nothing to do with a Maverick but the era.

 

[dishdude]

Did you get these Chevette sedans in Australia? I saw a bunch still on the road when I was in Uruguay and Argentina last year.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: dishdude
Did you get these Chevette sedans in Australia? I saw a bunch still on the road when I was in Uruguay and Argentina last year.


Dishdude, they were the Holden Gemini down here.
sedan (petrol and diesel)
Coupe
Panel Van

 

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted By: Olas
140 HP from 5 litres and 8 cylinders?!? When did Ford employ blind retarded engine builders with paralysed hands?
We commonly see 80-100 HP/l with 1 atmosphere. What did they get so catastrophically wrong?


STIFLING early U.S. emissions/smog controls, that's what.

 

[Silk]

Vauxhall Chevete, an update of the Viva in NZ...in Australia Holden slap their badge on every GM product.

 

[hatt]

Originally Posted By: dailydriver
Originally Posted By: Olas
140 HP from 5 litres and 8 cylinders?!? When did Ford employ blind retarded engine builders with paralysed hands?
We commonly see 80-100 HP/l with 1 atmosphere. What did they get so catastrophically wrong?


STIFLING early U.S. emissions/smog controls, that's what.

Yep. Engines looked like a bird built a nest on top of the engine. Most of that junk failed after a few years and the engines turned into poor running pollution machines.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: hatt
Originally Posted By: dailydriver
Originally Posted By: Olas
140 HP from 5 litres and 8 cylinders?!? When did Ford employ blind retarded engine builders with paralysed hands?
We commonly see 80-100 HP/l with 1 atmosphere. What did they get so catastrophically wrong?


STIFLING early U.S. emissions/smog controls, that's what.

Yep. Engines looked like a bird built a nest on top of the engine. Most of that junk failed after a few years and the engines turned into poor running pollution machines.


Oz had ADR 27A (Australian Design Rule).
EGR, with ridiculously poor manifold distribution.
Hot air intake
Vacuum advance controlled by temperature and gear that you were in.

Typically dropped you down at LEAST one engine size in power, and up one engine size in fuel consumption.

And yes, as it failed and the hoses cracked, valves jammed up (we were still leaded) they became polluting dogs.

 

[Number_35]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
Here's Oz's mid size offerings in 1975...

Chrysler Centura...available in 4, and 6, up to and including the Oz grown 265 c.i. (in E49 Charger trim, triple webers, that was good for 224 rated kW). Although 1975 was ADR27A, with the engines being emasculated with EGR and spark advance control.

Ford had the Cortina. 1.6L 4, the 2.0 Pinto engine, and 200/250 6 cylinders.

Holden had the Torana 1.9 (Opel) or 2.0 (Holden) 4 cyl. 173 or 202 c.i. sixes, or 253/308 V-8s.

Very interesting!

The Chrysler Centura did not register with me at all, until Silk said it was a rebadged Hillman. We never had Hillmans (Hillmen?) here under their own name, but Chysler did bring them in for, I think, the 1971 model year, rebadged as Plymouth Crickets. They were quickly replaced by rebadged Mitsubishis, which were also sold as Dodge Colts. (Chrysler did not have a home-grown domestic to compete with the Chevy Vega or Ford Pinto.) Silk having pointed out the Hillman roots, I can now see the family resemblance.

Cortinas were quite popular here for a few years - most of them were the boxy style of the previous generation, but they were imported through, I think, the 1973 model year, and I remember seeing this body style but with round headlights.

The GM (Holden) is intriguing - to me it has an AMC look to it - sort of like a smaller Hornet. I guess it's got element of Vega and Monza styling in it too.

 

[JTK]

Ugh.. We had a mid 1970's Maverick with a 3 on the tree. I was very young at the time, but my Dad would let me start it and practice 1st and reverse going up/down the driveway. Parents bought it used and it didn't last long between rust and constant front end issues IIRC. Plus I had ~16-19yr/old siblings at the time that beat the [censored] out of it. It was a nasty baby poop brown color with brownish-plaid interior that smelled like BO like weathered vinyl seemed to do at the time. I can still smell that smell. Barf..

 

[dailydriver]

EVERYONE rags on these cars, but their body style can be made into cool looking 'Pro Touring'/Optima Challenge type rides with yes, A LOT of major work/coin.

 

[Silk]

Originally Posted By: Number_35
The GM (Holden) is intriguing - to me it has an AMC look to it - sort of like a smaller Hornet. I guess it's got element of Vega and Monza styling in it too.


The Holden Gemini was a rebadged Isuzu, and Holden rebadged the early Vauxhall Viva as a Torana. Vauxhall and Isuzu both used that body seen on the Chevette. The last of the Viva's had the slant 4 used in the Victor and Bedford van.

 

[HM12460]

Ha! Ha! Fun thread to read. I had a '77 Maverick 2 door way back in the mid 80's while stationed at NAVSTA NORVA on active duty, on shore tour. I liked the car, had a lot of fun in those days. Drove it up here to Michigan while on leave for 2 weeks and couldn't believe the offer's I got from folks wanting to buy it. It was a real clean, rust free car, 8-9 years old in Michigan. Local car's were all rusted by then. The 250 engine was a royal pile of junk. The intake manifold was an integral casting with the cylinder head. It surprises me how much sellers want for nice 2 door coupe's nowadays on e-bay.

 

[SeaJay]

When my granddad died, my brother inherited his 7 or 8 year old Maverick, which he wanted since he was a Ford fan. My brother then gave me his ten year old Nova for free. That Nova was not very good, burning quart after quart of oil in addition to a slew of other problems.

When it was all said and done, my brother got the far worse end of the deal with that Maverick.

 

[wander2039]

Mom's first new car was a Maverick. It died every time she turned left but after that was fixed it was ok. Most of us isn't old enough to know the name so recycling wouldn't hurt sales any!

 

[grampi]

I had a '73 Maverick with the 302...it would get with the program okay, but that thing was rusted so bad, one day one of my buddies was getting into the back seat and his foot went through the floor and onto the parking lot. The seats were starting to rust/fall through the floor as well. The electrical system eventually went haywire and we ended up using it as a moto-cross car. When it eventually died, we shot it to pieces with a 357 magnum and a 12 gauge....it looked like the Bonnie and Clyde-mobile when we hauled it to the junk yard...

 

[lovcom]

The Ford Maverick was junk. It helped Honda and Toyota get a foot hold in the American market. So did the Pinto, Vega, Chrysler K cars, GM cars of that period too. The '70s, '80's were a period of American shame, for its junk cars.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Smog Wheezers

 

[853okg]

Originally Posted By: Number_35
Originally Posted By: Shannow
Originally Posted By: Donald
I always thought the original Maverick was a wanna-be or poor man's Mustang.


Didn't they name the Pinto a Mustang at one stage ???
Yes, no, sort of. The Mustang II was based on the Pinto - I think it used the Pinto chassis, and, in base form, the same 2.3 litre pushrod engine. It was sometimes referred to as the "Pintostang". The Pinto carried on in parallel. I think the last year for both was the '78 model year.

The Mustang II was actually quite a marketing triumph - Ford's prophets had apparently foreseen the 1st gasoline crisis in the US, and introduction of the downsized version of the Mustang for the '74 model year coincided perfectly. Small cars were "in", and the Mustang II was in hot demand. I think the Mustang II was Lee Iacocca's brainchild.


Man, that brings back the memories. I can even hear the TV jingle in my head: "Score Mustang II, Boredom zero!" Next commercial, Farrah Fawcett-Majors as Creamy.

 

[Benzadmiral]

A '75 Maverick 4-door, with the larger 250 c.i.d. engine, a/c, power steering (but not power brakes), and AM radio was my first car. Actually it was my fiancee's, bought new (~ $4000) with a small inheritance. Metallic green inside and out, with cloth seats and vinyl everywhere else . . . but I loved it. After years of cadging rides from increasingly-reluctant friends and riding buses, almost any car would have been welcome, but a new one? And it was reliable enough, though not fast -- with, what, 100HP? -- and simple, and I learned a great deal about how to maintain cars while working on it. She sold it after we divorced in 1981, when it was about 5 years old.

Of course it probably rusted, and I know I'd find it impossibly tinny and slow today. But for a first car, when you've been waiting in the rain for buses since you were 12? Naturally I loved it.