Top Gear last night...

And the Monaro isn't exactly what I'd call a good handling car.

Fraser

Unlike the new Mustang?

I know Seras are pretty common in .au - but NZ did have a local car industry once! I'm told the cars made there have lasted quite well, too.

Forgot the name of the plant, but it's made a few marques. Not the same as the Local Content stuff in .au where you got delights like the P76 and Austin Nomad.

Richard

Seras are pretty rare. You hardly every see them on the road here. And the P76 was one the worst shitboxes ever built by British Leyland. And that's saying someting. Never heard of an Austin Nomad.

Fraser

P76s have quite a good rep with the V8, and a lot of their development was copied over here in plans for the Rover P6 replacement, so I'm not sure why they would be considered so bad.

And the Nomad? Austin 1500 (ADO16 derivative, with E-series) hatchback. Before the Maxi, IIRC.

I mean, Seras are rare in the UK with an estimated 300 on the road, but there are more Australians showing up on the mailing list than UK people. They're more spread out, I reckon.

Seras are getting into Canada now ;)

Richard

Poor build quality. A lot of the V8s were pulled for engine conversions in other cars.

Can't say I've seen one.

Pretty rare here. I test drove one about 8 years ago but the large glass areas put me off. Way too hot.

Fraser

V8 engines can't have been that bad, then ;)

They're old, obviously. And probably didn't survive well, ADO16s are pretty scarce here for such a popular car.

That's what the sunshades in the boot are for ;)

Richard

The biggest you can sensibly go with an A series is 1380cc, and even with that you are doing pretty well to make anything over 120BHp, unless it's full-on rally spec, in which case they'd struggle to drive it there.. :-)