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27-01-2012, 11:10 PM | #1 | ||
Young Ford Enthusiast
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: NQ
Posts: 287
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What was the entire thing about. I wasn't born then and my dad has no idea. Just seems like a whole lot of hysteria over nothin.
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27-01-2012, 11:13 PM | #2 | ||
Starter Motor
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Townsville, QLD
Posts: 9
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Have a read of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercar_scare Like you said, it was basically alot of hysteria over nothing...
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28-01-2012, 05:21 AM | #3 | ||
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
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Location: On The Footplate.
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Hysteria over nothing indeed.
I believe it was more of an excuse by manufacturers to limit making the expenive performance cars in an era of tightening regulations and more importantly rising oil prices in the early seventies...despite legend and what some people believe, people never have bought loads of V8's as a "normal" part of motoring in Australia...they've always been a niche market, and usually on stuff like Fairlanes, Statesmans, and Premiers...luxury stuff. The GTS Monaros (in V8 form) and Falcon GS and GT's weren't big volume sellers, but they did made vast numbers of six cylinder cars and the specials were V8's. It's similar to the hysteria at Bathurst when they put the "kink" in Conrod Straight...the XJS V12 Jaguars had reached 300kph down there, frightening a lot of people, and then Mike Burgmann got killed (the first fatality in the races history), so they put a kink in to slow the cars down. But cars now do faster lap times than ever even with the kink. A lot of things change because of whipped-up hysteria, and the Supercar Scare was one of them...headlines of "160mph supercars!", and claims that young people would be driving them...that's about as sensible as saying the Porsche 911 Turbo should be banned because a 17 year old could drive it...ignoring the P-plate restrictions, he probably could, but how many would afford to actuall do it? A GTHO Phase Four would have been a limited run extremely expensive premium vehicle...the only ones who could afford it would be older drivers. I love the quote from the Chrysler guy in that Wiki article..."The Charger R/T is not a super-car".... ...sure...just keep telling the unsuspecting public that...the E49 had 300hp anyway...300hp of V8 killing 265 six cylinder hemi in a light short wheelbase Charger. Last edited by 2011G6E; 28-01-2012 at 05:26 AM. |
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28-01-2012, 05:43 AM | #4 | ||
Cynical Idealist
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Orlando, FL, USA
Posts: 1,512
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We had something similar in the US. They didn't outlaw such cars, but the insurance companies added huge surcharges for cars with big-block engines and for younger drivers.
Then the fuel crisis hit and compression was dropped. That pretty much put an end to performance for 10-15 years here. I'm amazed at how long our new "muscle era" has lasted. I'd say it started no later than 1987, and it's still going strong.
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28-01-2012, 06:44 AM | #5 | ||
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
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You had to have lived through that era to truly understand it . Evan Green should have been shot for that article .
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28-01-2012, 07:00 AM | #6 | ||
Cynical Idealist
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Orlando, FL, USA
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That article killed the production Phase IV XA, didn't it?
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28-01-2012, 08:31 AM | #7 | ||
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
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Location: brisbane
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Hi all
Yes I lived through the so called supercar scare era and yes a 17 year old could in reality buy one but and it was a big but as the cost of a GT HO Ph3 was just on $5000 about half the cost of a house so in todays terms you would be looking at about $200,000 to $300,000 to buy one in relative terms they were very expensive for what you got (do you know any 17 year olds with that sort of cash) beside the cost of the car the Ph4 was going to have disc brakes all round never heard of in an OZ car so we all thought wow you would never crash that but that was not enough to stop the press ( Evan Green) from cruicifying them (just think Gover ) with the power to send a car co to the wall thats my memories of the S/C scare |
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28-01-2012, 08:55 AM | #8 | ||
Oo\===/oO
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Location: Tamworth
Posts: 11,348
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In retrospect, i don't think it was that bad...Annoying yes, but look where we are now...
Ford has a supercharged V8, we won.
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28-01-2012, 08:55 AM | #9 | ||
Regular Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 431
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I like this thread as i have always wondered what this 'super car scare' was all about. I was born in the '80's, so hearing peoples perspectives on the whole thing that lived through it is really quite interesting to me.
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28-01-2012, 09:13 AM | #10 | ||
Regular Member
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 145
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The Japs call them ' Hero Cars ' quite apt when you think about about !
cars are bought and sold off the concept that " My car looks like the car that I realistically dream about owning" as opposed to the poster car I might have on my bedroom wall. It works that same as the old " Win on Sunday sell on Monday " philosophy of the 60's and 70's rog |
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28-01-2012, 09:18 AM | #11 | ||
moderator ford coupe club
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 6,640
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while it seems like an injustice when looking at the phase 4 (which seemed a much more refined car than the phase 3), i don't think the factories building race cars was such a good idea. it probably got canned at the right time. it would have been good if the phase 4 went ahead, but the cars seemed to be progressing too quickly
i don't agree with them being too expensive for idiots. while they were probably too expensive for younger kids, money does not buy you brains. they were not that expensive anyway - compared to the price of a house today, they wouldh've been around $200,000. however $5,000 was easier to find then than $200,000 now. buying a house for $13,000 was much easier then, than buying one for $500,000+. not easy at all, but not as difficult |
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28-01-2012, 09:23 AM | #12 | |||
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
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Quote:
I agree. All it took was that sensationalised article from that attention seeking, MG driving, B grade journo and it was all over. I was driving cars in that era and had a drive of a GT HO brand new. I was impressed with its performance but you can kill yourself in any car without trying to hard. |
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28-01-2012, 11:05 AM | #13 | ||
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
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Location: Melb north
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i remember growing up during my teens probably just after the super car scare(but was well aware of it) as a young petrol head in an area with many automotive shops in the surrounding suburbs , beaters mechanics, speed shops, a favorite past time by myself and my mate was guessing what car tore past our front window whether it was a GT or Monaro by the exhaust note,etc,etc,
my step dad was a towie, and many a factory hot rod ended up wrapped around a pole with dead occupants, hence when it came close to time to get my licence, i had my eye`s on an xc v8 interceptor, he was adamant i was`nt having a v8 and would`nt go guarantor that i needed to get a car loan at the time,\ i reckon it was a fair assessment that local cars did`nt have the braking performance for their speed capability, in hind sight it was probably a good thing, even an old HG belmont with a grandpa spec 6 cyl (4 wheel drums was common at the time) in it did`nt have great brakes, while they had plenty of power assistance they would lock up so easily(deadly) and you could be out of control, and that was common in those days. |
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28-01-2012, 11:16 AM | #14 | ||
Regular Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 459
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Herald Sun 2/7/1972
Herald sun 9/7/1972 |
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28-01-2012, 11:21 AM | #15 | |||
Cynical Idealist
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Orlando, FL, USA
Posts: 1,512
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The following text comes from Ford Falcon GT: 1967–2004, compiled by Ewan Kennedy:
Quote:
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28-01-2012, 12:29 PM | #16 | ||
Performance moderator
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Location: St Clair..N.S.W
Posts: 14,875
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I remember to buy one you needed a cams licence to buy one..
A few friends come over from N.Z at the time to buy one.. Friend Revs was the only one with MANZ licence.. Three weeks later it was in N.Z...
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28-01-2012, 12:31 PM | #17 | |||
Regular Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Sun Herald 25/6/1972
Quote:
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28-01-2012, 01:35 PM | #18 | ||
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 2,215
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It was a sensible thing to do.
Number one was tyres were shocking in them days and number two most mechanics were to stupid to even put better brake pads on a fast car as most were dumb as that if you wanted to fit high performance pads they would go into a fit and refuse to fit them because of dumb people comeing back winging that their disc were wearing out to fast. |
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28-01-2012, 02:27 PM | #19 | ||
Regular Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 459
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Wheels September 1972
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28-01-2012, 02:50 PM | #20 | ||
Peter Car
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: geelong
Posts: 23,145
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The silly thing was that the transport minister was expecting the big 3 to come and talk to him about it, and he would have let them continue if they had explained what they were doing, but the big 3 cracked it and killed them as soon as they heard threats about the cancelling of government fleet sales. It was a hollow threat.
But they were losing money on these programs anyway, so they were probably using it as a get out clause. HO's were rumoured to cost more to build than they sold for, but they wore the costs for the publicity involved in winning Bathurst. |
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28-01-2012, 04:06 PM | #21 | ||
Cynical Idealist
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Orlando, FL, USA
Posts: 1,512
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This is all quite fascinating to an American. We embrace the spirit that would enable your engineers to design and produce such cars, but we loathe the governmental disdain.
Over here we would find the condemnation of individual politicians laughable. They don't even bother to do such things here. Here it requires a congressional committee or the entire insurance industry to get such results. (But yes, the end result is the same. It's just a different process.)
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28-01-2012, 08:27 PM | #22 | ||
BLUE OVAL INC.
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 8,768
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I have read somewhere that the insurance companies tried to price the HO out of the market as the original term HO was to mean High Output and they sought a premium to cover them.
As a result of this the meaning of the letters HO were downgraded to Handling Option, or so the story goes. After reading some of the articles in this thread it could easily be concluded that the Supercar Scare was contrived to put an end to the horsepower battle between the three. The question would be, who had the most to lose from allowing the next generation to come to fruition... Holden was to release a 5.0l Torana which, although recieving a 50% increase in power over the six, only weighed 60kg more. Chrysler was to slot a V8 into its 6cyl 1/4 mile rocket. Ford were to release a detuned 5.8l sedan with better aerodynamics than its predecessor. Would have made for an interesting race... |
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28-01-2012, 08:44 PM | #23 | ||
Oo\===/oO
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In the end, GM-H got a V8 torrie, Chrysler a V8 charger and Ford had the RPO83...
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28-01-2012, 08:53 PM | #24 | ||
Thailand Specials
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Didn't cars have flat folding seats back then? |
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28-01-2012, 08:59 PM | #25 | |||
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
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Quote:
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28-01-2012, 09:00 PM | #26 | |||
BLUE OVAL INC.
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 8,768
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Quote:
History shows that the P3 is the greatest production racer built in this country, no argument there. It was also the last, excluding the 1 untested Calypso P4 of course. |
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28-01-2012, 09:35 PM | #27 | ||
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
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And to make the whole situation more laughable ... the NSW Minister for Transport, Milton Morris (CoupeXB post # 17) didn't have a driver's license and was driven around in a 1947 Chev Fleetmaster. Quite beyond the pale having a moron like that making decisions on what people drive.
Just goes to show ... nothing changes. |
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28-01-2012, 10:03 PM | #28 | |||
moderator ford coupe club
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 6,640
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Quote:
sure, a phase 3 was very expensive, but i don't think $200,000 is an accurate reflection in todays currency |
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28-01-2012, 10:20 PM | #29 | ||
Regular Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 208
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Don't shoot me down as I'm a massive fan of the XY's, but you have to wonder if it would have become the cult hero it is without the supercar scare, with the manufacturers due to bring out bigger and better cars (in theory). I think that that one of the reasons it's so popular is that it's the last of the era
Just sayin
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29-01-2012, 12:33 AM | #30 | ||
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just think, it was`nt all that long before the XYGT we had the first ozzy falcon GT with the 289 mustang v8 that was good for 125 mph !,
i had a shed load of magazines back in those days, on one very early mag cover it had a pic of a falcon with 289 on the front cover, they made statements like "how could anything be faster than this!" the XR did a 1/4 in 15.8/16 secs, the 2 barrel cruisomatic in about 17 odd , it was`nt all that long before the XR that the EH holden with a 179 ci six and 3 on the tree was considered rapid, good for a 1/4 of about 18 seconds, they did about100/ 105 mph or 110 with extractors (frightening speed in the EH). so in a space of 1964 to 1971 we`ve got the eh holden 100 mph ish to Monaros and Falcons doing 135 /140+ mph easily, so we where getting a fair bit of speed and power a lot faster than braking performance to slow us down, also probably a lot faster than qaulity roads being built also.. |
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