Eratik wrote:The VN doesnt make the Top 10. The VN by far wasnt the best Commodore ever built, but when compared to its rival of the same year...the EA Falcon, which makes up number 6 on the list (There you go, a scoop for you all) all i can say is.......at least the Commodores dash stayed intact.

It's still like comparing a bucket of cow excrement with a bucket of horse excrement. Both are unpleasant but are a necessary fact of life.

As for Number 8 ... it's going to be a Fiat of some description. Either a Croma or a Regata, I suspect.

tone167 wrote:As for Number 8 ... it's going to be a Fiat of some description. Either a Croma or a Regata, I suspect.

I don't like to speculate, but going by the quote in Eratik's signature, it will be an Alfa Romeo.

The capri was a BRILLIANT car....except build quality!

On the topic of telstar's, I couldn't fault the 88 model we had, brilliant brilliant car, the only fwd I got to drift actually! Bit by accident but it did drift and did it drift well! Handled, stopped, went, what more could you want!

Drifting a FWD, ur an idiot lol, sorry, but im serious.

Stoney!

Stoney! wrote:Drifting a FWD, ur an idiot lol, sorry, but im serious.

Stoney!

LOL! Id have to agree. Drifting is not exactly a FWD thing to do.

Eratik wrote:

Stoney! wrote:Drifting a FWD, ur an idiot lol, sorry, but im serious.

Stoney!

LOL! Id have to agree. Drifting is not exactly a FWD thing to do.

You shouldn't drift full stop. Its a stupid thing to do in ALL cars.

mbrowne1045 wrote:

Eratik wrote: LOL! Id have to agree. Drifting is not exactly a FWD thing to do.

You shouldn't drift full stop. Its a stupid thing to do in ALL cars.

Theres nothing wrong with it in a controlled race track environment.

Pity bendertiger does it on the street

In the telstar when I did it......I fell asleep at the wheel (there's a story behind that). I woke up, saw I was doing 80 into a 40 corner....I had two choices, do what I practiced on my rally games....or hit the brakes, smash the kerb, launch it, bend every component in the suspension then nail it into the concrete barrier that was on the other side of the road......I decide to 'f**k it'. What did I have to lose? SMASHED the brakes as hard as I could on purpose, I didn't want to brake, I wanted to keep going as fast as possible but lose alot of traction very quickly. That problem is solved. Now to take care of direction, made sure the front had lost most of it's traction, flicked HARD to the left, this was so I could upset the balance and the rear of the car, wanted the back to step out but didn't want to gain front end grip which would shoot me into the inside wall. Okay....that worked. Arse end is sliding, I'm heading towards the inside wall, flick it to the right and countersteer hold it. SMASH the throttle, grab traction, back still sliding, GOOD, I needed the rear to hold the speed so I could pull the front around. Keep on the throttle and power out of the curve at 100% throttle.......IT **** **** WORKED! Not even a scratch on the car! (Also, a little bit of light handbrake when the rear has no traction works wonders too)

But on the topic of drifting on the street. Yes, I have been known to do a bit of 'powering over' and feint on the street!

I have a 1994 Ford Capri convertible. It is a dream to drive. No leaks whatever, no rattles or squeaks. Still looks like new. It has now over 250,000 km. I service it myself with easy-to-find parts. It has never let me down. It is white with a hardtop, and a blue soft-top. I don't know what all the fuss is about. The early soft-tops were rubbish but ford installed better ones on later models. It has a back seat and an adequate boot. The Mazda running gear is great.

Figures that the last of the model has the bugs ironed out. It was the same story with the EA Falcon. Ford went to work when it quickly gained a reputation as the poster child for woeful build quality to the point where the extremely similar EB model got a name for being quite well put together (much better than the EA series one) but a long way from Japanese levels of fit and finish. A 1990 EA series two was far better than an 88 model. No comparison.
When Ford put their mind to it, they CAN make high quality vehicles. Trouble is they fell on their laurels early on and the reputation sticks.

Same with the VN Commodores, the 1991 builds with the upgraded version of the 3.8 V6(VP type motor) were much better than the 1988-89 builds, even the 1990 build VN's were much better than the first batches. The quality of the VN's went up a notch when the VQ Statesman/Caprice went into production.

The last batch of EA Falcons,the ones with the 30th Anniversary badges and the swirl type hubcaps(late 1990 and 1991 builds) were the best of the EA series.Had some EB parts.

I saw two separate VNs the other night after not seeing any for a long time. One was an excellently kept red one driven by a green p plater obviously obtained from a fastidious first owner and I could tell just by hearing it that it had the VP engine. It sounded much smoother than the usual gruff rope seal 88/89 examples.
Then later a group of yahoos were travelling in a Calais version.

Speaking of the late EA's I talked about above here is a time warp EA III Fairmont for grabs at the moment.

https://www.australianmusclecarsales.co ... ralia.html

Jan 91 build, so getting towards the end of the run, has some EB parts, mainly under the skin. My uncle had a June 91 build one in the same green colour with an EB auto shifter handle. The spoked rims that were seen on some XF Fairmonts and ZL Fairlanes made one last appearance on the EAIII Fairmont (from September 1990 build).

Wish there was a thanks button in this section. Another amazing find and it's my favourite EA with the 30th anniversary badge on the guard. This belongs in a collection with club permit.

Actually saw a Capri out on the road at the weekend. Might be the last surviving example?? LOL

The Capri's that seem to survive are the 1992-1994 builds which were better quality, and have been obviously well kept. I saw a Clubsprint version of the Capri, dating to circa 1992-93, with some Tickford input into it.

The 89 ones were shockers. I remember being told how an American car magazine lambasted the build quality and Americans can't really talk about build quality themselves.
Like most Fords the time, the Capri improved as time went on and Ford worked on addressing their problems to the point where the last ones were built to a standard the early ones should have been!!

The late 80s Capris probably had the same paint/build/quality control problems as the EA Falcon did. The EA was either a complete POS or bloody bulletproof, although the early builds which had the 3.2 sixes may as well have had the Capri's tiny 4 cylinder engine under the bonnet!

The bloody bulletproof EA's are most likely the ultra well maintained early models which had all the factory fixes applied (they had a lot of recalls and field service campaigns), or the later Series II and 30th Anniversary updates.

I have a copy of the first print run (December 87) of the EA Owners Manual which has the specs for the 3.2 litre engine (goes to cupboard to fish out book) 90kw@4000rpm compared to the 3.9 CFI's 120kw@4250rpm and the MPEFI 3.9 139kw at 4250rpm, the manual came from a 2/88 build EA at Pick A Part. I was offered a Capri one but I declined.

it was a rushed job the reborn Capri.FORD AUSTRALIA were having quality problems of their own with the EA FALCON/FAIRMONT/FAIRMONT GHIA range,Long wheelbase LTD AND FAIRLANE'S and then there was the project matilda nobody not even the ford dealers wanted that they were forced to have otherwise known as the nissan pintara by any other name known as the corsair.they had a great product after switching when ford europe went from cortinas to sierras with the mazda built but ford badged telstars and tx5's so why were they made to change only to see them switch back again prior to moving onto mondeos from 1995 onwards.