13 1973 Ilinga AF-2
This was intended to be a true Grand Touring car, powered by a 220hp version of the 4.4L Leyland P76 engine and featuring comfortable seating and good luggage capacity. It featured fully-integrated air conditioning, a self-seeking radio/cassette player, digital clock, anti-lift windshield wipers, remote-control door locks, electric windows, quartz-halogen quad headlights under electrically-operated flaps. and a delay switch which automatically extinguished the lights and locked the car if the driver forgot to. Top speed was over 135mph. The project was badly affected by supply problems with the BW auto transmission, as well as the fuel crisis and a general lack of willing partners – only two cars were built.
http://www.geocities.com/conceptcarc...er/ilinga.html
14 1974 Leyland P76 Targa Florio
This was car treads the fine line between woeful and wonderful. This was a native project of BMC Australia, and lead the way in so many areas compared with its rivals. Helped by having an enlarged version (4.4L) of the aluminium 3.5L Rover V8, the P76 was very light for its size, and gave good performance combined with economy that bettered its 6cyl rivals. McPherson struts, standard front disc brakes and flush-mounted windscreen were some of the up-to-date features that forced the other local manufacturers to have a serious look at what they were doing. The woeful side of things is represented by the car being built on a production line originally set up for far narrower cars, leading to a ridiculously high number of cars needing repair before they left the factory...
The Targa Florio was a special edition of the car released to commemorate the stage win on the 1974 World Cup Rally by Evan Green and John Bryson. The car shared the highest number of stage wins.
http://www.leylandp76.com/
15 Holden Overlander
Like the AMC Eagle, this was the first “crossover” vehicle, preceding the current trend by a good 25 years. However this vehicle was a conversion by engineer Arthur Hayward who ran Vehicle Engineering & Modifications Pty Ltd in Launceston, Tasmania, and demonstrated true Australian ingenuity. In an era when 4x4s had folded metal interiors and bone-shaking rides, this was comfortable, powerful and smooth – and actually had very decent off-road ability due to good clearance, wide track width and a low centre of gravity. By building a subframe to convert the wishbone front end into a leaf-sprung Dana axle sourced from a Chev Blazer, and running a complementary rear axle and Dana transfer case mated to the original Holden V8 and TH400 auto (the only option available). To give an idea of the thoroughness of the conversion, the purchaser was supplied with spare axles as otherwise they would be hard to obtain in Australia Over 120 vehicles were converted including utes, wagons, panelvans, cab chassis and two sedans (using the top of the line luxury Statesman model!).
http://www.australianmusclecarsales....le_view/102598