Hour rule: Superbird edition

"Nauraushaun" (nauraushaun12)
09/20/2016 at 05:35 • Filed to: None

No idea if legit, or how many of these are in Australia. But still quite a sight!

DISCUSSION (24)

atfsgeoff > Nauraushaun
09/20/2016 at 05:49

If it’s a replica, it’s a really good one.

Nauraushaun > atfsgeoff
09/20/2016 at 06:11

That’s what I thought when I started reading about it. Stickers and all, it looks correct.

Scott > Nauraushaun
09/20/2016 at 06:52

Could be legit. A distant in-law of mine was from Australia and owned a business exporting cars and car parts from the US to Australia. Muscle cars, were a big part of his business as they apparently did not have enough supply of American Muscle cars to meet demand. He owned several hundred shipping containers and would fill them with American cars and car parts and send them to Australia where he would sell them for a sizable profit. I wanted him to bring me back some Mad Max cars, but at the time it was to difficult. He mostly leased out his containers for the return trips, but too often he had to bring them back empty.

I have no idea what cars were sold original in Australia, but I would suspect knowing what side the steering wheel is on could tell us a lot about that car. Or the VIN would tell us even more, but the owner would probably not appreciate that.

Frenchlicker > Nauraushaun
09/20/2016 at 07:36

It's seems that wealthy Australians love buying our expensive and/or ridiculous cars. So I'm going to guess its real.

BritishLeyland > Nauraushaun
09/20/2016 at 08:32

Beep beep!

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Scott
09/20/2016 at 08:40

I think anything to be used on the road AT ALL in Oz has to have the wheel moved, but I could be wrong.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Nauraushaun
09/20/2016 at 08:42

Am I right in remembering the wheel has to be on the right for road legality, no exceptions? I wonder what you’d use to effect that change - if Oz market Valiants or similar have parts that could be used.

Boxer_4 > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
09/20/2016 at 10:23

I seem to recall seeing before that as long as the vehicle is older than 15 years at the time of import, it doesn’t need to be converted. Anything newer does need converted, however.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Frenchlicker
09/20/2016 at 10:43

I can’t say getting out on a long straight road in rural Queensland somewhere with a Superbird sounds bad.

Nauraushaun > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
09/20/2016 at 18:59

Nah, older cars can remain LHD. We have lots of muscle cars (all of them Mustangs :\) over here, they’re all LHD.

Rules are here:

https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/registration/n…

Nauraushaun > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
09/20/2016 at 19:00

I agree. I don’t think it would be as fast as you expect (ie. not as fast as today’s Camry), but it would be a blast nonetheless.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Nauraushaun
09/20/2016 at 19:05

The odd thing about that is that a first gen Mustang would be fairly easy to swap to RHD, given an early Falcon firewall and steering box, etc... but given that over two and a half million first gen Mustangs were made, they likely as not outnumber first gen Falcons even in Oz by some number. Thus making an RHD swap an act of destroying something rarer...

Nauraushaun > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
09/20/2016 at 19:54

I’d dare say the amount of surviving Mustangs is also much higher than surviving Falcons.

That is a lot of cars! If only a sporty coupe could pull such sales these days.

That really does my head in - that killing a Falcon to save a Mustang would be killing something rarer than the ‘Stang. I mean, the Falcon is less loved, and in this country the ‘Stang might be rarer.

!?!

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Nauraushaun
09/20/2016 at 20:09

A lot of people in the US don’t realize this, but the first and second gen Falcons in the US (‘60-’65) amounted to nearly as many as first gen (first +facelift) Mustangs (‘64 1/2 - ‘73). No, really - it was a phenomenal sales success. Their attrition rates, however, were spectacular - a consequence of the double whammy of low price point and being “uncool”, particularly relative to the Mustang. Hence, at any given car gathering here you see probably three to six times as many first gen Mustangs if Falcons are even present.

You also can’t buy a whole new metal body for a Falcon, and many of the parts are more scarce due to the popularity of the ‘Stang - so while there are surely many US Falcons (of sorts) out in the woods across the nation, very few are/were being preserved until recently. If you think of a typical car as having a rubicon to cross of surviving thirty years sans protection , that means that any car with a well below thirty year lifespan in many climes (such as the Falcon in the US) simply won’t be around - whereas the Mustang pulled the remarkable feat of staying at least marginally cool enough for people to hang onto cars that otherwise would have died, through that attrition period.

Nauraushaun > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
09/20/2016 at 21:06

I wish it had died through that attrition period. There are too many around, even in Australia where it was never sold. If the Mustang love was distributed evenly amongst the other cool cars of the period, we’d have a lot of dope shit rolling around.

Michael_N > Nauraushaun
09/21/2016 at 12:01

My favorite car of all time

Nauraushaun > Michael_N
09/21/2016 at 18:37

I think they’re silly. I only know about them from Gran Turismo, and even the best of American cars tend to seem bloated and unwieldly next to the millions of light turbocharged Skylines in those games.

But I do understand that it was built for a purpose - built to win .

Michael_N > Nauraushaun
09/22/2016 at 11:08

They are kind of ridiculous looking, but it's what I love about them. I saw one for the first time when I was 13 and fell in love at first sight. That's what turned my interest in cars from just that-an interest. To a passion. But I can see how they might not be great in Gran Turismo I mean even I wouldn't use one.

Nauraushaun > Michael_N
09/22/2016 at 19:00

Gran Turismo is a funny one anyway. Even the Ferraris and supercars of the world are generally useless, when you can build an R34 that weighs nothing, has AWD grip, more power and none of the mid-engined twitchiness.

You end up sticking to cars you’d never stick to in real life.

Nauraushaun > Scott
09/25/2016 at 23:24

We could get the VIN if I had the licence plate - and I was THIS close to getting it!

Yes Australians quite like muscle cars, but of course all the old American heroes were never sold here. I guess that creates demand.

pip bip - choose Corrour > Nauraushaun
11/13/2016 at 21:37

GIB!!

i did see a Dodge Viper yesterday on Kings Way/Sturt St intersection, was gone before i had my phone out. rego was “VENOMY” i think.

Nauraushaun > pip bip - choose Corrour
11/14/2016 at 01:34

A VIPER!? I’ve seen some shit around, but if I saw a Viper I’d lose it all.

pip bip - choose Corrour > Nauraushaun
11/14/2016 at 01:39

blue with white stripes.

Nauraushaun > pip bip - choose Corrour
11/14/2016 at 17:17

Hnnng that’s the right combination. I saw a red one for sale down Frankston way once. Had to pop into the dealer and have a look, was just right