Quote:
Originally Posted by ToryMikey
I remember the IRS bleating from the 90s, and everybody having a go at the antiquated Falcon's Watts link rear suspension. Drum brakes have not been available on a Falcon sedan/wagon since 1986, and I'm not sure about Commodore but they have definitely had discs all round since 1988.
Not too many cars have IRS these days. Heck even the Ranger only finally, just now, got a Watts link rear. The FWD stuff is mostly all torsion beam (even models that got IRS in the past like the Mazda 3).
Also...a bog standard 4.0i OHC from 1992 or so is more refined than any Thai Special engine on the market, excluding specific performance ones like the Raptor. |
Great post!
A common theme of the reviewers in the mags back in the day was this constant pursuit of better engineering. And so everything from RTS to
ABS to
IRS to discs happened. And we ended up with some very good cars, monocoque, 4 wheel discs,
ABS, traction controls, increasing amounts of airbags, better crumple zones, more sophisticated suspensions.
In recent years the mechanical spec has gone backwards in volume sellers, the drums/separate chassis/live axles that gave my minesite Hilux 3 star safety (while locally made utes had to be 5 star) has become widespread everywhere. Party like it's 1982 with Watts links! Torsion bar on Mazda 3 zoom zoom...
At the current rate hopefully bench seats and 3 on the tree transmission shifters will return.