Random's & pics you have 'borrowed'

[JoKer]

Mine was in it 2004 roughly (the white one when Trevor had it)

[oldschool]

OMG we have to wait another 8 years then??!!
They've got Chargers from Gore in this issue too...at least some Chryslers are getting noticed!

[JoKer]

Spotted in P-norf



credit to younggun who now wants to change his Suncatcher colour... too common!

[oldschool]

That's a 1974 English assembled 1600 GL, NZ new...4 headlights and 4 dial dash...maybe not twin carbs...Paddy will know!!

[Paddy75]

If its a Series 4 the window winders will be the flush to the door trim type with the plastic insert. S5 it would seem, got an all metal winder with a bevel to take the handle out further from the trim.

The round clocks might be the Delco type if its an early round-badger 1600cc and the steering wheel boss/motif will be blue.

Unlikely a TC by the look of the bling looks like a GL as oldschool says. The 1976 Supers got the GL front end and seats.

[NZTiger]

There were some Crickets in NZ, not sure how many but my first Avenger was a 73 1500TC but with a difference, it was called a Cricket. It was Todd made, but had a biege interior instead of black, sports steering wheel and was yellow (Lemon Twist) and some wide black stirpping and a liitle "Cricket" transfer on the rear guards?. I didn't like the paint jobs so soon repainted it.

From what I can remember it was a dealer mod. They even registered it as a Cricket.....Unfortunity I didn't take any photos of it before repainting.

[azza1600]

When I was living in P North in 94 there was a Yelowish wagan cruzin round, only seen it a couple of times, had cricket on front gaurds an side repeaters, I had a 80 1600GLS at the time, just thought someone had added them! wonder were it went too?

[oldschool]

Well...we'll know a genuine Cricket when we see it, coz it will be left hand drive!...LMAO

[azza1600]

Is that looking from the front or rear LOL

[oldschool]

Here's a very interesting article on the Plymouth Cricket...you can find out why they changed the name from Avenger to Cricket for the US market..!!

http://www.carlustblog.com/2012/06/plymouth-cricket.html

[Paddy75]

The American Horizon had the same body and everything else was diffrent.

Hahaha the Dodge front looks like a S1 Sunbeam, the S2 Sunbeam got the 'French' euro Horizon lights! Yep the Avenger lights do look better. I see that S1 Sunbeam headlight frames and grilles are being snapped up on ebay, wonder why!

[Paddy75]

The article on the Cricket, its as clear as day the man didn't drive one.

Sure its well said that the timing of the launch of the cricket, was with hindsight, all wrong.
In 1971 the American market was still in the era of the 'marshmallow suspended gas-guzzling land yachts' 12mpg was the average consumption and seating 20 the norm.

1973. In October of that year the Avenger got the longer stroke on the 1250 and a few thou bigger on the bore of the 1500 making the 1600 and more inportantly the improved manifolding and a longer valve stem.
So at the very time that the Saudi's threw the rattle outta the pram and gave the world the oil price shock, the Cricket was no longer for sale.
In America the poor turned en-masse to Toyota, Datsun, Honda etc while the big three struggled to compete.

There are of course huge diffrences in what people in Ireland for example and America wanted with cars.
The Americans and Austrailians have big wide, sweeping corner'd roads that are suited for big wide super comfortable tanks. Performance is all about the straight lined drag. Where roads are narrow, bumpy and lumpy with bad cambers, barely sealed and up and down hills then an agile car with plenty more torque than top rpm power is wanted.
The Yankees like go, we like pull.
I've even heard the Escort harriers say the Ave/Sunbeam had ''..a great wee torquey tough engine..''
What that practically mean't was better consumption and less bother to drive as you had to rev the head off an Escort or Viva to het them up the hills.

The unreliability. While the three 35A fuse system on the earliest (and Cricket) was indeed a mistake the likelyhood if a fire was still pretty low. Yes folks, a $1 jubilee clip around the carb feed union is a good idea!

Falling apart. Bullshit! What a load of crap I ever have heard! Believe me on the roads of County Down which are a hilly version of that 'path?' Avenger clip the Ave/beam, I have never heard of them being shaken apart.
If you drove a Ford Mustang around them it would be in bits after two weeks!

Rust. What, compared to a RWD Corolla! When you bought a new car in the 1970's you were a total spanner if you didn't take the new Avenger/Escort/Viva/Renault/Toyota or what-the-heck-ever, straight to the paint shop for a good squirt of bodyseal.

What peoples last car was.
A new Avenger in 1973 was replacing a Morris Minor, Ford Popular or Anglia or a BMC 1100/1300 as some guy had his hear and bank-balance ruined by severe FWD problems and wanted the conventional RWD layout. The Avenger had thr rep' of being a good driving, reliable and easier on fuel car than the 'Tinas. Thw Avenger was more of a 'light Cortina' than a better suspended Escort.

In America your last car was indeed a big spongy land-yacht, there is no comparing the car market in America with other western countries.

So to make a long story short, the American market turned to Toyota because of the mpg. Sure Toyotas are good and they didn't have a couple of things that the Avenger had, torque and better driving feedback.

Now, can we at all help the N.American guys with Crickets? Give the lads a spare set of manifolds or even ship a 1600cc in reasonable shape?

Some article comparing a Toyota of the ear with a Cricket IF it was launched in late '73/74?

Torque makes the diffrence.
Grrrrr!!

[oldschool]

Who knows, maybe the Chrysler Avenger would have done better in the USA as a city car?
More chrome than the Hillman model, cruises quieter on the motorway and has that mini-Yank Tank look about it...lol
I guess after the Cricket debacle, Chrysler didn't want to risk a repeat and stuck with the Mitsubishi based Dodge Colt until 1994.

[Paddy75]

Yeh sure when Chrysler tried to sell Valliants in the UK they were a total flop, too big for the roads. The Cricket was too small and underpowered foe American tastes at the time.

I got my rally driving Escort MK2 nut mechanic uncle-in-law a wind-up crimbo prezzie, a Feb 1970 newspaper magazine suppliment with John Wayne, The Duke himself as the main article which will please him, unrtll he gets to page 18 & 19 huhuhuhu...
An article about how the shape and colour schemes of the new Hillman Avenger 'more car in your hands' was developed.

So what had a mini-skirt and a broken bra-strap have to do with an Avenger?

Roy Axe, the guy who headed Rootes design team, called in a young woman Vivian Fletcher a 22 year old design graduate.
While she (her story) was learning how not to bend over in a room full of guys, it was the late 1960's she was probabbly tortured with wolf-whistling and all the rest, she influenced the interior design of the Avenger in two ways.
The T-bar knurled drum controls for the lights and wipers we all know and love were designed so a woman couldn't break a bra-strap while wearing a static seat-belt and so encourage her to wear the seatbelt.
She advised the guys to use the fabric centres on the seats of the GL model because a woman in a mini-skirt doesn't like vinyl seats. I think the Avenger was the first (later on they all did) car to have the part fabric panelled seats. After reading that article I noticed that the fairly wide Avenger seat, the centre section would fit a young womans butt, right enough, the part where the fabric 'amblair' panel would be.
This was a bit of a masterstroke by the designers. A woman sits in a car for the first time etc etc.

She also advised the guys not to worry about the bright flame red colours many Avengers had being too vulgar as they suited the Avengers shape - thank you Vivian!

According to the parts of the article where Roy Axe was interviewed we have Chrysler to thank for the straight line of the Avengers front flanks.
When Chrysler took full control of Rootes they had a look at the 'semi-secret' designs of the new B-car and persuaded Roy to straighten out the hood and crown the wings instead of the Hunter-like swoop-dropping design he and his team were going with.
Also the Rootes guys were going with a more MK3 Cortina like double coke-bottle, broken waistline, swoop over the front and rear of the car. Chrysler advised that they straighten the midsection out to clean up these lines.

After a full sized clay model was made they all agreed to go with the modified body design.

The Avenger cost ?25 million (1970 money, x10 that today!) to develop and start to produce so its pretty clear Rootes could never have did that by themselves.

Finally as I read before Roy Axe had decided in 1966 when the Avenger design was embryonic to go with a 4-door design as 4-door cars developed from 2-door designs never look so great.

The article was titled 'The design of a new car with a womans touch.'
People have a habit, as is said, of falling in love with Avengers. A 22 year old female designer just may be that lady the guys fall for.

[JoKer]