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"Plastic" Powered Torana on cover of Street Machine?


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#1 _Viper_

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Posted 19 June 2019 - 06:10 PM

So on the latest street machine they have a nice LJ on the cover and the caption is "Plastic-Powered LJ Torana will punch your lights out"

Its mentioned again in the contents.

Its powered by a 355 Holden and is not explained in the story? So yeah curious what they meant by plastic powered?



#2 UCgazman

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Posted 19 June 2019 - 06:38 PM

Maybe it eats Hyundai's for breakfast?



#3 Uncle

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Posted 19 June 2019 - 06:51 PM

Holden 253 and 308 engines ( mostly 308’s ) were always refers to as a ‘plastic’ engine - I’m not sure why, but it is a very old term used to describe these engines

#4 mick_in_oz

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Posted 19 June 2019 - 06:57 PM

One suggestion for the term "plastic" for the Holden V8 was due to the extensive use of alloy for construction vs the typical cast iron of chev and ford, using cast iron for intakes, oil pumps and water pumps.

 

But if you hunt about you'll find a few other suggestions also.



#5 _Viper_

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Posted 19 June 2019 - 07:29 PM

Hmm so im guessing its one of those confuse the audience tactics to get people talking about you....

Guess it worked.



#6 rexy

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Posted 19 June 2019 - 11:11 PM

Plastic was a term used in a derogatory fashion.

It was a reference to the early days of Holden V8s when there wasn’t much performance stuff for them and the common opinion was “if you want real power you need to go chev”. I.E the holdens were lightweights.

Stroker cranks and VN onwards heads fixed this! (Among other performance upgrades)

Edited by rexy, 19 June 2019 - 11:13 PM.


#7 myss427

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Posted 20 June 2019 - 08:57 AM

Yes was a not favorable term used, also meant fragile, was back in the early days before people learnt how to make them go.



#8 arrimar

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Posted 20 June 2019 - 10:49 AM

Plastics have come a long way since then.

#9 grumpy xu1

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Posted 20 June 2019 - 09:48 PM

Now, they're plastic fantastic ! Little cubed chev's were mouse engines too, in the days.

#10 Ice

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Posted 20 June 2019 - 10:10 PM

Plastic won Bathurst and a shit load more races

#11 _red roar_

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Posted 21 August 2019 - 01:28 PM

It’s a bit amusing when you think about it, as the term has been around forever, but as other guys have already said, the early days meant it needed a chev if you wanted it to go. Clearly that’s no longer the case.




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