Enticed by Cars

Hello again and happy birthday to myself as I'm now 34 years old. And I felt it'll be good to bring up cars again even though my idea on working on them is on hiatus. Throughout my life, I've always been car literate and have been a proud passenger until I took up driving when I've obtained my learners permit at the time. I'll first give you my glimpse on how this has started.

As I've started my life with my family who lived at a dairy farm in Neerim South, we've had a Nissan Pintara sedan and a rusty Nissan Patrol primarily used as our farm vehicle.

For those who don't know, this is one model as an example. Being in the R31 chassis series along with the 6 cylinder engined Skyline, Pintaras are basically a 4 cylinder engined version. Ours was a sedan with a 5 speed manual gearbox and coloured cream, or beige if you like. It didn't set anything on fire but it provided good transportation for my whole family even some long distance vacations. I learnt to drive in it when I've obtained my learners permit. There were some bad moments but as I got better at driving as well as operating the clutch and not stall as much, I've passed my driving test for the first time.

After I got my probationary licence, I took our Pintara for a nice drive to Warragul as opposed to taking the Noojee bus which goes twice every weekday. And I sometimes borrow the Ford Falcon station wagon which we also had and a Subary Brumby ute which we also had. In 2009, the harmonic balancer in our Pintara eventually broke and the car was done for. The rest of the cars were eventually sold.

My whole experience with cars has always been fascinating. In fact, more fascinating than Thomas the tank engine and his friends. As I was growing up, there were the usual Fords, Holdens and various Japanese cars which I got accustomed to until we get access to the internet and getting into Gran Turismo games since having a PlayStation 2, knowing more cars grew greatly. I can remember when my cousins Brad and Michael brought in their PlayStation 2 along with Gran Turismo 3 A Spec, I was blown away with the cars they have. And it's not just high-performance sports cars, there were a few daily drivers such as a Mazda Demio (121 we have), some Honda Civics and Toyota Yarises, a new Volkswagen Beetle, a Peugeot 206 S16 and some sedans including the Toyota Altezza, Alfa Romeo 156 and the earliest model Audi S4.

As I took up the game, I eventually moved through the latest series of Gran Turismo games with later PlayStation consoles and I've been wrapped with it ever since.

And as I've been growing up and in later stages in life, there are cars I came across which'll be worth mentioning in honourable ways and I do admire car brands which go to great lengths to compete in the car market and offer some fresh and hot additions. I'll start off with the Peugeot 307.

It was the time when I first started high school in 2003 when I came across the likes of these cars. I was accustomed to small Japanese cars and I was a Nissan fanboy but after taking notice of the 307, one of these cars have set themselves high from the Japanese and some Korean offerings. They've offered 6 airbags, ABS brakes with Electronic Brakeforce Distribution, they handle greatly, are stylish and offer more creature comforts that make any Nissan Pulsar look passe. 

But the biggest problem with European cars are their sheer costs when they're brand new. Even the manual base model XS model costed $25,990 AUD whereas the base model Nissan Pulsar ST was around $19,990 AUD. And then, the higher spec models ran into $30,000 territory.

But if the XS model didn't cut the mustard much, there's this top of the range Peugeot 307 XSI as the 3 door hatchback. The styling doesn't disappoint and in my opinion, this model is the sexiest small family hatchback to date.

And with the competitors such as the Alfa Romeo 147, it doesn't want to disappoint. Alfa Romeo took pride designing these hatchbacks with their Italian flair and although it may look like a 3 door hatchback, it isn't. Their idea of discreet door handles for back doors goes back when they've developed their bigger 156 cars especially with their sedans who appear to be 2 doors but aren't.

Next car which greatly tickled my fancy is the Mazda RX-8.

With Mazda's rotary engined cars dating from the 1970s along with the RX-2, RX-3, RX-4 and then the RX-7. The RX-8 was released in 2003 as a wildly styled coupe but featured suicide doors and decent back seat space. It featured Mazda's Renesis 1.3 litre twin rotary engine capable of 177 kw (238 hp) of power with a 50:50 weight distribution for decent handling.

I can remember in one monthly cars and coffee with the My Unique Rides car club, someone brought in a Mazda RX-8 and I took an honour to talk to one of the 2 girls who were back seat passengers and is happy to talk about the car. She's especially happy with adequate back seat space and with sports coupes not renowned for room in the back seat, the RX-8 sets it apart. It's fair to say that these are more grand touring sports cars.

In 2003, the RX-8 won Wheels Car of the Year but the main drawbacks are it's fuel economy which isn't too great and the apex seals in the engine tend to wear out seeping oil into the combustion chambers.

And back to some ground-breaking small family cars, Proton in the 2000s wanted to step up in an attempt to set the car market on fire is this Gen2 hatchback. Considering how they're a Malaysian car brand, they wanted this car to be more suave, sporty and not be just a generic offering. They've turned to Lotus for it's suspension to make it a great handler especially in Europe where these classes of cars are king. And then in the Australian market at the time, they've featured their 1.6 litre CamPro engine with 82 kw (110 hp) of power and 148 nm of torque but at 4000 rpm.

When stacked with other cars in the competiton, their CamPro engines don't have much in a way of low-end torque and I would know after driving manual cars earlier. Plus they're not too common which is a shame in a way as it's a good step by Proton offering new cars from scratch as opposed to using old Mitsubishi platforms.

We now go to Australian cars which have had always been the battleground with Ford and Holden. In 2002, Ford Australia have overhauled their Falcon after a not-so good run with their AU series Falcon. Their successor, the BA series had undergone some big changes with their new Barra engine which is an update from the previous engine. It utilises 4 valves per cylinder (24 valves in total) and a set of 2 camshafts along with variable cam timing and you'll see a big difference in power and torque.

The Barra engine produced 182 kw (244 hp) of power and 380 nm (280 lb-ft) of torque which left it's arch rival the VY series Holden Commodore to dust with it's Ecotec 3.8 litre V6 engine producing 152 kw (204 hp) of power and 305 nm (225 lb-ft) of torque so at the time, Holden decided to call it quits with their faithful engine sourced from Buick and used in their VN Commodores.

But Ford wasn't sitting back though as they've developed turbocharged Barra engines making a good alternative to a V8 engine.

First was their Barra 245T producing 245 kilowatts (329 hp) of power but their finest 270T engine produces 270 kw (362 hp) of power and 550 nm (406 lb-ft) of torque. Compared to Holden's Gen III 5.7 litre V8, it made do with 235 kw (315 hp) of power and 465 nm (343 lb-ft) of torque. That meant Holden had to switch to a bigger 6 litre and finally 6.2 litre LS V8 engines.

And with Ford staking it's claim with their turbo Barra engines producing comparable power to a V8 engine but being smoother, producing more torque and even better fuel economy, taking this G6E Turbo which is by the way my favourite Australian car, expect fuel economy to be around 12 litres per 100 kilometres (19.6 mpg). V8 engines would use a little more fuel but nether less, Falcons along with Territory SUVs and the G6E Turbo will certainly give the likes of the Toyota Chaser and some powerful European sedans their run for their money.

But don't forget that BMW who are renowned for their straight 6 engines got into turbocharging their engines that make V8 engines unnecessary. With the case of this BMW 335i with 225 kw (302 hp) of power and 400 nm (295 lb-ft) of torque, that can potentially give V8 purists a headache.

With regards to Holden, this VE series Commodore wagon shouldn't be ridiculed. Their latest approach is their Sportwagon offering but unlike traditional station wagons which use a longer wheelbase, Holden insisted using the same wheelbase as the sedan models for nippier handling which you want in a more sporty car and a unique option for those who dread SUVs which it's intended to do. And with SV6 and SS models, Holden offered manual models for those who aren't fans of driving automatic versions.

And back to cars with serious engine performances, I came across an odd Toyota Blade Master which is exclusively sold in Japan. Released in August 2007, the Blade Master featured larger brakes, upgraded suspension and won't you believe their 2GR-FE engine. For those who aren't car people, it's basically their 3.5 litre V6 engine capable of 210 kw (282 hp) of power and it's found in Aurions and Klugers (Highlanders in America).

With the big engine in a hatchback, its power to weight ratio would be incredible and could terrify my past grandmother who was a loyal owner of Toyotas when a driver hits the accelerator pedal hard.

And moving away from petrol powered engines, car brands have made significant efforts to engineer their latest diesel engines which bring in line with petrol engines making them cleaner emitting and maintaining great fuel economy.

Although diesel engines are around 41% thermal efficient, they're not as powerful and not to mention blow black smoke of soot and noisy which was the case of our Patrol ute we've had in the past. But as times changed, engineers have improved injectors squirting finer droplets of diesel which'll combust better and more thoroughly resulting in more power and less soot coming from exhaust pipes.

With the case of this Jaguar XF above, their late diesel engines aren't to be laughed at. Take the one with their new 3 litre turbo diesel and it can accelerate to 100 km/h in 6.4 seconds. Other diesel 4 wheel drive utes wouldn't hope to accelerate that quickly and with the Patrol we've had, what's the point?

But unfortunately, internal combustion engines can still emit some pollution particularly with diesel engines. Although modern diesel engines are cleaner emitting, they'll have to use diesel particular filters and exhaust gas recirculation but if there's too much soot, the particular filters can clog up and with AdBlue which is used for post exhaust treatment breaking down polluting substances that don't pollute when they're out runs out, diesel cars wouldn't be too clean.

And then there's the supply of crude oil to be used for our vehicles. Lately, we face petrol prices of around $2 AUD per litre along with developing countries around the world with expanding economies using more oil, coal and gas and no thanks to Russia's invasion on Ukraine, this is another bit of mess we're in. However, no one is sitting doing nothing as Porsche and Bosch teaming up to make eFuels which are made up of hydrogen and carbon which functions like petrol. And no modifications are required but it'll take a few years for it's infrastructure to catch up and therefore filling up with eFuel would be affordable.

And then, Toyota aren't willing to give up on internal combustion engines as they're using liquid hydrogen as an alternative. So we mustn't lose hope if we want to still drive cars with engines and save us from driving electric cars only.

As for me currently living in a sharehouse for 2 months, I've had time to re-evaluate on what I want to do. I've decided to whilst I'm living where I am, I'm seizing the chance to build up my savings account as well as my second bank account which I'll intend to use for my hobby working on cars. Once if reached the goal, I'll intend to move into a bigger rental and have someone live with me as a room mate which'll reduce weight financially but better still, I'll use another garage space to work on cars starting with flipping to make extra money.

And before I finish up, I feel like sharing Car and Driver's review of the Falcon XR6 Turbo with the link below.

caranddriver.com/reviews/a15132384/ford-falcon-xr6-turbo-specialty-file/

See you next time!

Credits: Mitchell Young