The brutal unions made sure Holden had to leave Australia.

Wonder how they get the V12 to meet the emission reqs ?

The fuel thirst would be frightening!!! A V8 is bad enough.

Does it have twin turbos ?

Total rubbish from a Lefty of course.

The excessive union demands simply made Ford and Holden and Toyota unprofitable here in Australia.

Australia's small population meant Ford and Holden and Toyota had to export and there they never stood a chance competing with overseas firms.

Ford and Holden ONLY persisted because the Labor "Govt" was laundering taxpayers' money through Ford and Holden to pay for the greedy unions excessive demands.

But eventually this illegal laundering of taxpayers' money had to stop.

Extraordinary BH on topic!!!

But an oversimplification.

Ford and Holden knew they could not go on forever with Labor Govt illegal handouts and so they did not invest in any new models.

So what they did was just tinker with the existing models until the end came.

And so Ford and Holden were able to exit the Australian market and get away from the vicious union brutality without any huge losses in new manufacturing equipment.

Toyota quickly realized Australia was a dead end with only a small local market and ever present vicious union parasites everywhere.

And of course Ford and Holden with their excessive union costs could not compete with the much cheaper imported models.

Prime Minister for Canyons wrote on May 10^th, 2019 at 2:54pm:


the automobile industry is even more heavily unionised in Germany than here, why do they still have a car industry?

Blaming unions is lazy.

so they are made for drag cars I take it, I hope they do well, lots of rev heads out there.... Baron needs one for his Torana...

juliar wrote on May 10^th, 2019 at 1:34pm:


Bullshit. It was Abort who stopped giving them corporate welfare ! Stop making up lies socko.

juliar wrote on May 10^th, 2019 at 2:36pm:


So how come germany can sustain a highly unionized car manufacturing industry and export luxury cars to Australia and the rest of the world ? Perhaps the key is that Germans own those brands and can export them to anywhere they like but we own nothing and take our orders from detroit and tokyo which was always going to end up a disaster !

Ajax wrote on May 11^th, 2019 at 8:18am:


Australia was not a leader in automotive technology or automotive manufacturing. Australia was a follower in both aspects.

Followers don't succeed unless they can do it for a lower price.

Johnnie wrote on May 12^th, 2019 at 4:00pm:


Bloody Sensational? Please don't thank me.

Johnnie wrote on May 12^th, 2019 at 4:05pm:


So what happened ? Couldn't sell enough of them to be profitable ?

Johnnie wrote on May 12^th, 2019 at 5:37pm:




There are plenty of good cars, just becaus ethey lack V8s and RWD

Laugh till you cry wrote on May 13^th, 2019 at 9:42am:



They did do it, but it wasn't a lot of HSVs

juliar wrote on May 13^th, 2019 at 11:24am:



Juliar is distracting once again.

No, I did, you kept banging on about Teslas.

The only thing Australian in the HSVs was the GMH logo and the BS. Most of the rest were foreign components.

https://autoweek.com/article/supercars/holden-rolls-out-australias-most-powerful...

Quote:

Have no idea what OCD is.

The Formula 1 cars I think use V12 engines but with much smaller capacity and they are revvin' to heaven at up to 17000 RPM.

Bet the union parasites are sniffing around.

Another possible use is those MONSTER TRUCKS. Or possibly racing boats.

Being petrol is a severe limitation in the big heavy equipment market as these are almost universally diesel.

Another use could be for LNG buses and trucks.

BH I believe you as I just had a vague recollection of v12s in Formula 1.

There is talk of ditching the V6 engines and going to 1000HP V12s because the fans miss the old man sized V12 roar.
Time will tell what happens.

One of these petrol guzzling 600HP monsters would twist the tail shafts off.

juliar wrote on May 13^th, 2019 at 4:30pm:



It won't happen. The engines arent the big issue in F1 at the moment.

Stig wrote on May 16^th, 2019 at 12:37pm:




So many reasons all contributing to the demise.

Another Greeny leaning hexspurt solves everything with a wave of the Greeny arms.

All the hexspurts miss the really big factors stopping manufacturing of cars here.

They compare Australia to overseas countries and make nonsense comparisons.

Our small population means there is only a small market here which cannot support the necessary economies of scale of production and so export is necessary to achieve the benefits of volume of production.

Cost of production here is sent through the stratosphere by the pressure of the blood sucking union parasites which makes the products made here TOO EXPENSIVE compared to the cheaper imported cars and also too expensive to export as they cannot compete with cars made in those overseas countries.

The crunch really came when the TARIFF BARRIERS were removed by Senator Button as this allowed Australians to buy CHEAPER imported cars for the first time. Suddenly Australia was swamped by European Fords and Holdens like BMW and Mercedes.

Now the increasing of the cost of power caused by the introduction of dodgy renewables is a further pressure to push manufacturing out of Australia.

There is always the Greeny type arm waving argument floated that Ford and Holden weren't making cars that people wanted.

Now the Labor Govt was laundering taxpayer money through Ford and Holden to pay for the ridiculous blood sucking union parasites demands.

Of course Ford and Holden realized this and simply went onto standby mode and not introducing any new models because they knew the end was coming and so they just tinkered with the existing models until the final curtain came down.

This allowed Ford and Holden to exit Australia and avoid the huge cost of new manufacturing equipment.

Now you all know.

juliar wrote on May 16^th, 2019 at 1:20pm:



They weren't though the market changed from big cars to SUVs. They both tried to respond, but whilst the Territory was a agreat car, the Adventra was not. That suited big families, but also couples were starting to buy small SUVs. Couple that with the increase in utes.

Stig wrote on May 16^th, 2019 at 12:31pm:

Expect to lose 49% of your outlay on a BMW in 3yrs and if you need repairs be prepared to cough up an arm and a leg, who would buy one after 6 or 7yrs, the holdens and fords will go 20yrs with 2 oil changes.

So what are these V12 engines used for ?

The description mentions petrol so that would dramatically reduce its applications as the thirst would be frightening.

If the V12 block can be used for diesel then that would greatly expand its applications into things like diesel generators, large machinery, large trucks, etc.

But diesel engine blocks are quite different from petrol engine blocks.

The walls of a diesel engine block are normally far thicker than a block designed for a petrol engine, and they have more bracing webs to provide extra strength and to absorb stresses. ... Pistons, connecting rods, crankshafts and bearing caps have to be made stronger than their petrol engine counterparts.

Go away lame brain Tweedledee you are like pollution.

Johnnie wrote on May 21^st, 2019 at 4:18pm:

If you have a BMW , Holden or a ford that's been thrashed for 7 years I wouldn't imagine it would be cheep trying to keep any of them on the road.....

Johnnie wrote on May 21^st, 2019 at 4:43pm:

so no performance HSV or XR's get thrashed only performance BMW's do ?

Johnnie wrote on May 21^st, 2019 at 5:20pm:

It's not the performance of the car that gets it thrashed, it's who owns it... Ive know guys with very hot cars that look after them like a baby and then others with the cheapest nastiest car that think they are race cars...… To automatically think someone is going to pay around 100k for a vehicle and thrash it is a bit misguided.
The older a commodore or a falcon get the faster they go, because as they get cheaper, they get younger drivers who flog the rings out of them.

How many times have you been booked for speeding ?

A super fast car is of no use now with the extreme policing of just about every road and street.

The max speed is 110km/h which just about any car can do now.

20km over and you are walking. 40km over and you are crying.

Extra power is needed if you tow a boat or caravan or trailer.

juliar wrote on May 22^nd, 2019 at 8:46am:


Which is low revs torque, not high revs horsepower.

DonDeeHippy wrote on May 11^th, 2019 at 6:30am:


My SS Torana is worth more with original matching numbers engine which doesn't really mean a lot as I have no plans to sell it despite a recent offer of $100K

A standard 300KW Ls1  picked  from a wrecked Commodore can be put in with no worries just need to change sump and engine mounts. 300 KW is 400 Hp which is the same as Brock had at Bathurst in 1979. A few have installed these into Toranas they do high 11 second quarter mile while getting 7-8 L per 100Km on the highway. The Ls1 in a Torana gets 20% better highway economy than a Starfire 4Cyl Torana.

juliar wrote on Jul 1^st, 2019 at 9:08am:


I try not to break road rules I value my license so I don't bother trying to race people on the street.

No Turbos I have put fuel injection from a VN Group A commodore on it, I have ADR27A on compliance plate so this was the easiest way to meet emissions with modified engine. The VN Group A did 6 seconds to 100KPH I have a bigger camshaft more compression the Torana is also much lighter just under 1200 Kg.

I raced Karts about 20 years ago so once or twice a year I take the Torana to Eastern Creek or Wakefield park so I can open it up without fear of being fined. I wallop a lot of late model cars most are more impressed by the handling and brakes. I do have Bilstein shocks ($600 for 4) and stiffer springs. It's a well balanced car easy to drive on the limit.

Karts are more fun for track work and racing.

juliar wrote on Jul 1^st, 2019 at 6:49pm:


Update the BMW kidney grill! Actually they have if you look at some of the future car studies but it is still recognisable.  Car manufacturers spend heaps on a design language, Audi with its grill, Lexus with the new spindle, Jeep with its 7 slats, Mazda Kodo language, jag and it’s proportion language, thought recently updated by Callum in the new Electronic jag.

You can look at time fade of mustang and Camaro from ends to see the elements moving around.

The BMW double grill thing is so daggy and out of date. It is ridiculous to see this same daggy grill stuck on their every model. BMW seem to be in a time warp.

Range Rover 4WD's are awkward old age looking things too.

Mercedes used to cling to an old fashioned look but they have totally abandoned that now.

I have heard that BMW and Mercedes are like Ford and Holden in Europe.

Apparently the Bentley has a twin turbo V8 or V12 I seem to recall.