[TWX]

Wow, that's a lot of leaves in those rear springs!

Looks cool. There are several half-ton trucks around here for sale at the moment (with the auto auctions in town) but nothing as heavy a that other than a 6x6 that's been custom-built into an old crew cab that I definitely couldn't afford.

 

[trevorhedge]

She is definitely a heavy duty workhorse. With it completely loaded with wood, over the side rails and up to roof height towards the front it still carries it well, and motors up my incredibly steep driveway just fine. Nothing up around here (Eildon, in the back woods of Victoria, Australia) really seems to rust either so no structural rust to speak of, fair few dings and stuff in the metalwork but even those bare patches that have been that way for god knows how many years just change a rusty colour, but rust doesn't seem to really go much further than that here.

 

[dana44]

That is one nice truck for a workhorse and all, thanks for sharing.

 

[trevorhedge]

I see you have a 440 sixpack Charger, nice. Here is Australia's version, the 1972 Valiant Charger R/T E49, they had a 265 cubic inch six-cylinder Hemi with triple dual-throat Weber Carburetttors (six-pack) . This was mine, had a five page feature story in your (American) Mopar Action about ten years ago. These were good for 14.1 second quarter miles back in the day, fastest six-cylinder car in the world at the time in regards to acceleration, 3-seconds faster to 100mph than the Porsche of the time.

This is the standard engine, as it came out. Rated at 302hp. The car was under 3000lb

 

[trevorhedge]

As for our 'utes', which are sportier versions of your (American) modern pick ups. This was my most recent ute and about the fastest of our Aussie utes today. These are rated at 310kw as standard with a turbocharged 4-litre six, but mine was tweaked a little and made 426hp at the tyres with 730Nm of torque by 3000rpm. This is called an FPV (Ford Performance Vehicles) F6 ute.

 

[dana44]

Very nice, and I do recall that article, still have it in a box of my collection of the magazines. Of course, the 440 six pac is not a stock option in 1968, but I ran the setup on a 361 big block for ten years and couldn't think of parting with the setup when I upgraded, this one can be scary fun to say the least.

As for our 'utes', which are sportier versions of your (American) modern pick ups. This was my most recent ute and about the fastest of our Aussie utes today. These are rated at 310kw as standard with a turbocharged 4-litre six, but mine was tweaked a little and made 426hp at the tyres with 730Nm of torque by 3000rpm. This is called an FPV (Ford Performance Vehicles) F6 ute.

Actually, for a Ford, that is pretty nice. Nicer than the Lightnings over here. I have a buddy that got into them a couple years back, always going over there to help him figure this or that out. I like this better than his. Is it a custom or is this the real thing?

 

[trevorhedge]

That is how it comes, the hardlid is optional and I rarely ran with it on as I carried motorbikes in the back of it a lot, I took this picture just after I bought it and on the way home. They come with those rims, four-piston Brembo calipers, 310kw and 565Nm standard, ZF six-speed auto. They are a trick rig for a ute. You can also now get them with the new quad-cam 5.0 Mustang engine here, except in all Aussie Fords they are supercharged as standard, we don't do a naturally aspirated version of the new Ford V8, only blown.

 

[dana44]

Are those DCOE45s on there?


And is there a special name for the 'ute, such as the Lightning, or is it called something else besides Ford?

 

[trevorhedge]

This is the top of the line Ford sedan over here, an FPV GT-E. It has the supercharged version of the new 5.0 quad-cam Ford engine. Six-piston Brembo up front, four-piston at back. This is my day to day ride. Cars cost a fortune over here compared to what they cost in the US though, this here costs twice as much as a 5.0 Mustang in the states. 911 Porsches here cost more than four-times as much as they cost you in the States....

Are those DCOE45s on there?

And is there a special name for the 'ute, such as the Lightning, or is it called something else besides Ford?

Yep they came standard with the 45mm Webers. Chrysler Australia actually flew two development cars to Italy where they did over 10,000 miles of testing to be adapted properly to the 265 Hemi, so the carburettors were not just off the shelf, but were tuned/produced by Weber especially for that engine.

As for the ute, they are called an FPV F6 ute, that is it. The V8 version is called the FPV GS Ute. A few years ago the F6 ute was also called the Tornado and the sedan the Typhoon but those names were dropped five years ago and just the F6 name is used now.

 

[dana44]

I really like it. Too bad they didn't keep the names, makes them more personal than simple initials and numbers. I have a set of twin DCOE42s on my TR4 Triumph (when I get her reassembled, future project), but I am going with a 2.5 and 5spd out of a 95 Dakota and the carbs will go on there, even if I do go all out and turn them into throttle bodies and inject the 2.5, I have a couple years before I get to play with that project, plenty of time to figure out how to do it properly.

 

[trevorhedge]

Here was the previous ute model, the F6 Tornado. This was my one of those. These also had the turbo 4.0, but had 270kw compared the later models 310kw.

 

[dana44]

I like it, and think it would make a good Dakota replacement for a "lifestyle" pickup. Everyone wants a Tonka Truck looking thing, this is nicer.

Love the blade termite mounds in the backgroud.-

 

[trevorhedge]

They are actually a natural wonder (according to people who don't have to insult people with dismissive labels) called The Pinnacles, north of Perth.

Formation




The Pinnacles






The Pinnacles during sunset


The raw material for the limestone of the Pinnacles came from seashells in an earlier epoch rich in marine life. These shells were broken down into lime rich sands which were blown inland to form high mobile dunes.
The mechanisms through which the Pinnacles were formed from this raw material are the subject of some controversy, with three mechanisms having been proposed:

• they were formed from lime leaching from the aeolian sand (wind-blown sand) and by rain cementing the lower levels of the dune into a soft limestone. Vegetation forms an acidic layer of soil and humus. A hard cap of calcrete develops above the softer limestone. Cracks in the calcrete are exploited by plant roots. The softer limestone continues to dissolve and quartz sand fills the channels that form. Vegetation dies and winds blow away the sand covering the eroded limestone, thus revealing the Pinnacles.
• they were formed through the preservation of cast of trees buried in coastal aeolianites where roots became groundwater conduits, resulting in precipitation of indurated (hard) calcrete. Subsequent wind erosion of the aeolianite would then expose the calcrete pillars.[1]
• On the basis of the mechanism of formation of smaller “root casts” occurring in other parts of the world, it has been proposed that plants played an active role in the creation of the Pinnacles, rather than the rather passive role detailed above. The proposal is that as transpiration draws water through the soil to the roots, nutrients and other dissolved minerals flow toward the root. This process is termed "mass-flow" and can result in the accumulation of nutrients at the surface of the root, if the nutrients arrive in quantities greater than needed for plant growth. In coastal aeolian sands which have large amounts of calcium (derived from marine shells) the movement of water to the roots would drive the flow of calcium to the root surface. This calcium accumulates at high concentrations around the roots and over time is converted into a calcrete. When the roots die, the space occupied by the root is subsequently also filled with a carbonate material derived from the calcium in the former tissue of the roots and possibly also from water leaching through the structures. Although evidence has been provided for this mechanism in the formation of root casts in South Africa, evidence is still required for its role in the formation of the Pinnacles.[2]

 

[dana44]

I have pictures of them from around Darwin (from several outback trips during my Navy career). They all are oriented north/south, if I recall.

 

[TWX]

I've had a soft spot for Australian cars. I guess it comes from seeing Mad Max at a young, impressionable age, but I still wouldn't mind a VH Charger or any of the other locally-revised A-bodies. They're importing Holden Caprices into the US for police agencies as Chevrolet Caprices, and while they're not advertised as being for sale to the public, some people have managed to get them new through dealers anyway.

And I agree with dana44, it would make sense for the US to start looking at the Ute as a starting point for lifestyle trucks for the US market, now that all of the actually-small Japanese pickup trucks are gone. It was one thing when we had the Hilux and D21 Hardbody/D22 Frontier, but now that the Tacoma and Frontier have gotten big, The GM options got bigger, and the Ford Ranger is gone, it's hard to buy a small truck for the driver that doesn't need to put a literal ton of weight into the bed. My little Hardbody is getting long in the tooth and if I wanted the same type of vehicle the closest is the Chevy Colorado. With the increasing fuel prices, even contractors are being more cautious about how much junk they carry around and how much capacity they really need as well, and for some contractors, a small pickup would probably actually fit the bill.

 

[MoparNorm]

Thanks for the photos!
I'm somewhat curious as to why your flatbed was badged Dodge and not Fargo, although with Dodge, I never rule anything out when it comes to consistency.
Never say never!
Thanks again, great pictures!

 

[Dave Z]

http://www.valiant.org/ausval.html

 

[Donnie 3.0]

Interesting thread...