G'day everyone,
Cheers for that guys, Hey Mowerfreak I used to also sometimes get that my old XC was a bit of a grandpa's car aswell! LOL!
Nice Fairlane you have there with the 5 litre V8 Mowefreak, I also liked these fairlane models when I was looking at getting a first car but they were a bit out of my price range back then, I also liked the EB falcon with the 5 litre V8 but again a bit pricey back in 1998 to 1999. I remember my mate was looking to buy an EB Fairmont 6 cylinder back around 1998 from a car yard and they were asking around 11 grand for one back then. Also my mate who had that black XB his dad used to also be a taxi driver here in those days. I remember him telling me that he also mainly had Holden Kingswood sedans as the Taxi's back then.
Speaking of the upgrades from the XA-XB to the XC, having driven my mates XB on a few occasions when compared to my XC the main thing you can tell from the drivers seat was how high and surrounding the XA-XB cockpit style dash is when compared to the later lower and sleeker XC dash. Driving the XB I noticed that the dash was higher and more in frontal view while driving. With the XC they flattened out the front dash area making frontal visibility much better. But then again now you just see more of the bonnet and guards on the XC with the now larger frontal view! LOL! Anyway that's one of the main differences I remember between the XB and the XC from the interior driving position. I do think I preferred driving the XC when compared to the XB. I just like to see more of the muscle styled bonnet and guards while driving! LOL!
Talking about the old Holdens, my neighbour is an old timer and has had various Holden's all his life. Years ago I helped him quite a few times in the garage when he was working on the old HQ and HZ sedans he had both fitted with 253 V8 engines. Anyway I do remember him telling me that when it came to driving them the HQ used to sort of "float" around when driving. But he says that the HZ is superior and drives like it's on "rails" when compared to the HQ. So I am thinking that when Holden brought in the "RTS" (Radial Tuned Suspension) and maybe some other upgrades on the later models that it actually made a big difference to the handling of those cars. I do also remember looking at a couple of HZ sedans with the 308 V8 engine when looking for a first car, but again some were quite rusty and they were asking for 5 grand and higher.
I also looked a couple of Falcon XE V8's to buy for a first car, but again they were rusty and were asking over 5 grand. I reckon at some point I must have looked at all the Ford XC, Holden HZ and probably a couple of Falcon XE cars that were for sale in the trading post in Melbourne around 1998 to 1999! LOL!
Also forgot to mention, I must say that the original Mad Max movie and some various Bathurst 1000 video's from the seventies did have some influence on me and purchasing the XC falcon. I think I also got my mate onto these old models that ended up buying the XB Coupe... lol. I do remember him saying he can't forget that classic Ford 1-2 form finish in 1977. That also had some influence on the cars we bought back then.
I notice these days you mainly see cars like these only coming out to club meets and show days, but back then they were our everyday cars. We used to go to work and shopping with them, then cruising around with them on the weekends. Great times they were.
I also do remember when driving a car like that back then you always seem to attract others that want to race you at the lights! Many times the people in cars next to me would rev their engines up as to hint to a drag race at the lights! Then I also got alot of people that used to walk around shouting out "do a burnout", or something similar! LOL! Oh yeah those were the days!
