aussie ford zephyr's

[John Roberts]

Originally Posted by ehast13

Zephyr had a McPherson Strut front end.

Way faster than a comparable Holden.

My first car was a new FC ute. It did 85mph flat out. I got a repco 'supersport' exchange engine and it was timed at 96 mph. I got a Zephyr Ute in 1961 and it did 97mph standard!

Mk2 Zodiac claimed an extra 10hp than Zephyr.

The consuls had a slightly shorter front and 4cylinders only.

The Zodiac was kinda like the Fairmont Ghia of the Zephyr

It was quicker, better handling, braking than the first few falcons. It had a nice short throw manual that was miles ahead of the falcons' big long throw shifter. Disc brakes were offered on the last of the Mk2's.

The Mark 3 was a beauty. Look back at old footage of armstrong 500's and you'll usually see a mk 3 on the front row or two.

Nah, in Oz the Zephyr and Zodiac had the same power. You might be thinking of '59 when the six went from 80 to 86bhp after the comp. ratio went from 6.9 to 7.8 to take advantage of the new 93 octane super.

[mick taylor]

Originally Posted by John Roberts

Nah, in Oz the Zephyr and Zodiac had the same power. You might be thinking of '59 when the six went from 80 to 86bhp after the comp. ratio went from 6.9 to 7.8 to take advantage of the new 93 octane super.

OK so you do remember the Super was 93 octane was 93 in Australia, Standard must of been 83 octane then ?
As Standard fuel was only used in all Grey Holden engines.

But when the big Falcon came out they had high compression engines of 8.8:1
back in 1961 but you could opt for the 144 Low comp so you would not get stung at the fuel pump !
Holden's did not get 8.8:1 until late 1963 EH.

But i do remember the MK III Zodiac did perform well for back in them days.

A HQ 173 6 CYL low compression was 8.3:1 and this was running on Standard 87 octane.

[John Roberts]

Originally Posted by mick taylor

OK so you do remember the Super was 93 octane was 93 in Australia, Standard must of been 83 octane then ?
As Standard fuel was only used in all Grey Holden engines.

But when the big Falcon came out they had high compression engines of 8.8:1 back in 1961 but you could opt for the 144 Low comp so you would not get stung at the fuel pump !
Holden's did not get 8.8:1 until late 1963 EH.

But i do remember the MK III Zodiac did perform well for back in them days.

A HQ 173 6 CYL low compression was 8.3:1 and this was running on Standard 87 octane.

Yes, I remember the 93 petrol. Never used Standard at that time, as I was a leadfoot, but yeah I believe it was 83. The laugh was my Zephyr still pinged on Esso 93 (the Tiger in the Tank must be have been geriatric, or had died) if that was the only gas station open in the small Aussie country towns while on a trip.

No octane checks in those days unless someone complained. Thoughtfully, Lucas provided a knurled nut at the base of the distributor to retard the timing for such an eventuality (all those Eastern Bloc countries using Russian surplus pumped from drums left over after the War)!

Some of the tin-pot towns in the outback still had manual pumps where the petrol was pumped into a sight glass from underground, then released into the tank by gravity by the attendant wielding a lever graduated into whole gallons only.

This by-guess-or-by-God method meant I always had to keep my jerry can partly empty for overflow, lol.

I owned both the Mark II Lowline Zephyr 7.8:1 high-comp automatic new and traded it on the replacement - the XK Falcon auto 8.7 to 1 high-comp with the clear sticker on the base of the windscreen reminding you to use 'premium' fuel (obviously a US sticker as Aussies called it 'Super') - some years later (belonged to a little old lady, so low miles). Each went as good as the other.