Greatest Australian Cars

[johnh875]

Keeping with the other lists we have seen from the UK AOL website, I thought I would (finally) come up with a list of the greatest and/or most significant Australian cars.

Rather than try and put them in order (coming up with a proper list of 20 is enough work) I thought I would list them from oldest to newest.

Need I say that this is my opinion only, and there are half a dozen cars that are on the shortlist of those that missed the cut - I would be interested to read your thoughts.

1 1896 Shearer steam car
This was built at Mannum on the Murray River in South Australia by David Shearer who was a blacksmith and agricultural machinery manufacturer. This was a side project for David Shearer who wanted to build a steam car. After commencing work on the car in 1885, it was first driven in 1896 and is powered by a two cylinder 20 horsepower steam engine. It also features a type of rack and pinion steering and a differential, de rigeur today but not 111 years ago! The vehicle is currently in the National Motor Museum at Birdwood and was operational until the boiler was removed for restoration in recent times.

http://www.abc.net.au/adelaide/stories/s1266363.htm

2 1913 Caldwell Vale
This is the one I dropped a hint on in the German list thread. Caldwell Vale started off building trucks & tractors (also called road tractors), that were simply astonishing for 1907. They featured both four-wheel drive and steering – the steering was in fact power assisted, as turning the wheel engaged a clutch that drove the steering mechanism. They had 80hp, which is really quite a lot for 1907, at only 800rpm from a 4 cylinder 11.25L (!) engine (6” bore x 6” stroke) – this was needed as they would be used to pull loads of 50 tons. One truck featured the first known use of a tipping tray. They built the best part of a hundred of these trucks & tractors, and in 1913 built a car. It was tested successfully on the sand dunes at Botany Bay, but unfortunately the company went out of business because of legal costs incurred in a lawsuit – ahead of their time in that regard too… The car was sold and eventually used on a Queensland sheep station until the 1960s – I wonder what has happened to it?
http://images.fotopic.net/yrer9f.jpg
http://www.4wdonline.com/ClassicTruc...dwellVale.html

3 1919 Australian Six
Over 30 manufacturers were introduced between 1900 and 1920, but the most serious attempt to establish an indigenous car manufacturer was the Australian Six. This was the work of Frederick Gordon who after consultation with Louis Chevrolet (who by that time was not with the company bearing his name), bought in the main mechanical components from the same suppliers as Chevrolet, and built a large, strong six-cylinder car of the type which had been proven to be very popular in the Australian market in the boom following the Great War. Over time, local content was increased to 60%, but with the small scale of production the cars were never profitable and regular problems such as supply delays forced the price of the cars to gradually rise to 50% above the initial level. Despite the cars themselves being perfectly sound and proving to be reliable, only 900 vehicles in total were built with the last batch of 20 in 1930. As many as 16 vehicles survive today. It is said that one million pounds was lost over the course of the venture, and it should be noted that at this time the government did not see fit to provide any protection or assistance to the local industry.

The other major attempt to establish an automobile manufacturer was the Lincoln which was produced by George Innes – the American manufacturer of the same name started a year later. Despite this, legal action was undertaken by Ford after purchasing the US Lincoln company in 1922 to prevent the use of the name. Innes won the case, but Ford threatened and rather than spend yet more money on legal fees Innes changed the name to Lincoln Pioneer. Over five years 200 cars were made before the inevitable occurred, and only one is known to survive.
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/coll...&images=&c=&s=