Slamming the HJ and I don't mean going lower

[Frosty]

Can't help but to agree with Peter. I love my old car but the '74 520 BMW was very good to drive in comparison. The Bolwell at the start had a 351 Ford motor and spent the day overheated when that shot was filmed. Thay don't make car like they used to, thank God!

[Sandaro]

It was partly as case of you get what you paid you. In today's dollars a 4.2 Premier would be $48k, the BMW 520 $71k.

For the everyday man (and the average driver-I include myself here) they turn corners and stop well enough. Testers (who regard themselves as professional drivers) expected them to handle like the Euros. I personally have never had one step out on me under brakes like that

[wbute]

Yeah I would love to see what he would have said about the M series Mercedes failed the moose test and rolled in 1997! That was effectively the same thing Wherrit was doing in that HJ.
It was no doubt cultural cringe that was becoming so popular in the 70’s and 80’s. It was good to be seen to shoot down local products. Having said that, they were agricultural and were also using out of date GM hand me down design and technology. The handling was rubbish and wasn’t corrected until RTS was introduced.
As for power steering failure, I actually had that happen heading into the M2 toll booths in about 2002. The bottom crank pulley split and the belt dissentgrated. I nearly ran into the toll booth. I couldn’t find the two row pulley I needed to fix it over the Easter weekend so had to drive it the 400km back home with no power steering.

[Sandaro]

Out of interest, what is the fail safe on power steering in other vehicles, ie, how are the systems run if not by belts etc. Or is it just that the old Holden one is particularly stiff to operate without the power backup?

[wbute]

Yeah good question. I guess most I have seen are belt driven but there is no reason they couldn’t be driven off the timing gears like a hydraulic pump would be. I don’t know how rack and pinion steering goes without the pump?
I know the cat dump trucks I drive have a emergency steering pressure setup that gives you about one turn of the wheel but that’s all. That’s probably not a lot with 250 tonnes on the back.