1968 Rambler Rebel Reviews

What’s a car without a name? It’s an object that may function superbly well. It might even look impressively tough or beautifully sleek.

While those super expensive Aston Martins are out of the reach of 99.99% of collectors, there are other cars used in the movies and driven by 007 that will appeal to those with more modest budgets.How about a 1996 Z3 BMW? It appeared in Golden Eye and while it only was on screen for a minute or two they are cheap. A quick look on Carsguide suggests $11,000 will get you into one and I'm sure with a bit of arm twisting you could reduce that even more. Hairdressers paid over $70,000 when they were new.If a sports car is not your style, then there is always the 1997 BMW 750iL that Bond drove with his phone in Tomorrow Never Dies. When new BMW dealers were asking punters to part with $265,000. Right now depreciation is your BFF and you can snatch a high mileage example for under $7000. Be cautious though, it might be well shaken and mightily stirred.For a bit of Italian flavour, 1983 the Alfa GTV6 which 007 used in the movie Occtopussy makes for a cunning alternative. Some sell for as low as $3000 but good ones go for mid-teens. If something British is more to your liking, then what about the Triumph Stag? Bond drove a yellow one in Diamonds Are Forever while he was impersonating a diamond smuggler called Peter Franks. Around $15,000 seems a likely starting point for negotiations to get you into a true classic.Another British choice is the Sunbeam Alpine, which Bond drove in the first movie, Dr No. These are fabulous looking little convertibles. My neighbour in London had one and always referred to it as "the real Bond car". They range from about $16,000 all the way up to $40,000 depending on condition. As an aside, the Alpine was also the car of choice in the Get Smart TV series.But I'm saving the best two for last. In Man with the Golden Gun, Bond drives a red 1974 Rambler Hornet hatchback through the famous corkscrew aerial jump. Although the coupe never made it to Australia, 1,825 four door Hornets were built and sold here between 1971 and 1975. Many have been hot-rodded, but unmolested examples sell for less than $10,000 and are a bargain.So that leaves the red 1971 Mustang Mach 1 from Diamonds are Forever. A good one will set you back about $40,000 and there are plenty around. And yes, I know that's six times the price of the 750 BMW, but it looks way cooler!David Burrell is the editor of www.retroautos.com.au 

In April 1964, Gail Brown was 22 year old elementary school teacher and getting to work in her mother's '57 Ford Fairlane 500 convertible. She wanted a car of her own. It had to be cool and it had to be a convertible. Gail went to Johnson Ford in Chicago on April 15th, 1964. After looking at all of cars in the showroom she told the sales representative that nothing appealed to her. With a grin, he said, "I've got something in the back that's really new." In a storeroom, still under a cover, was a brand-new Ford Mustang convertible in Skylight Blue, with a 260-cubic-inch V8 engine and Rally Pac instrumentation. "That's what I want!" Gail said. It cost her $3,419. What makes Gail Brown unique is that she bought her Mustang on April 15th, two days before the car was set to go on sale, by chance becoming the first known retail buyer of an American icon. Today, Gail recalls with a great deal of fondness those early days of Mustang ownership: "I was the coolest teacher in the school that year and the boys fawned over the Mustang" she said "I felt like a movie star everywhere I went for the first few months," said Gail. "I remember everyone waving and flagging me down and giving me high-fives." In 1966, Gail married longtime sweetheart Tom Wise. The Mustang first became the family car and was then it was relegated into being the backup car for the growing family. Fifteen years of Chicago winters and everything four kids could throw at it eventually started to catch up with the car. By 1979 the mudguards were rusting, the floors were giving way and mechanical gremlins were making it difficult to rely on . So it was pushed into the garage and spent the next 27 years there. When Tom retired he began a restoration project and by 2007 all of the rust was cut out, a new top installed, the body repainted and all of the mechanicals repaired. Now their children have children, and as you can imagine the car is very popular in the family. "The grandkids love it, everybody loves it," says Gail. "We all go for rides around town". David Burrell is the editor of www.retroautos.com.au  

Ford Australia has confirmed the decision in a media statement this afternoon. The announcement will likely come as a shock to Ford fans, many of whom were planning to buy one of the last Falcon GTs and keep them as collector pieces. Ford will instead revive the Falcon XR8 when the new model goes on sale, using a less powerful version of the GT Falcon's supercharged 5.0-litre V8. A media statement issued by Ford this afternoon said the return of the XR8 is timed to coincide with the introduction of the 2014 Falcon sedan and Territory SUV update, ahead of the closure of Ford's Broadmeadows and Geelong factories no later than October 2016. As the Falcon XR8 returns to the Ford range, the Ford Performance Vehicles (FPV) range -- which includes the iconic GT Falcon -- will retire, the Ford media statement confirmed. Ford plans a series of limited edition GT models during 2014, the company said. Ford took control of FPV late last year and brought production of the GT back in house in February 2013 for the first time since 1976. But Ford has now decided to wind up production of the GT as well. It's the second dose of bad news for Australian V8 fans in two weeks. Last week, News Corp Australia exclusively reported that a leaked SA Government document revealed that Holden will not have a V8 in its lineup by 2016 or 2018. Buoyed by a string of Bathurst victories Ford sold more than 12,000 Falcon GTs in the eight years from 1968 to 1976. As a sign of the changing market, however, it took 21 years to sell the same number of Falcon GTs from 1992 to 2012. "FPV has been very successful for the last 12 years and our relationship with Tickford for many years before that," said Ford Australia Vice President of Marketing, Sales and Service Graeme Whickman. "We appreciate all of the great team members, dealers, customers and fans who have supported FPV through its history. We look forward to sharing further details of the final FPV models and the new XR8 over the coming months." "We have received a lot of interest and continued requests from Falcon fans to bring back the XR8. Re-introducing the XR8 sedan, packaged in our updated Falcon, will make our renowned locally-engineered and manufactured V8 engine available to a broader group of people." This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling

Styled by the House of Ghia, the fast, sporty and luxurious four seater was Fiat's entry into the Pber classy "GT" high performance market. First shown in prototype form at the 1960 Turin Motor show everyone who saw it said "Fiat must make this". And so they did and by the time it reached dealer showrooms in 1962 it was twice as expensive as the new E Type Jaguar. John Slater has a 1964 example, and it is one of about 20 coupes still believed to be on the road in Australia. "Fiat made approximately 7000 between 1962 and 1968, and only about 200 were factory right hand drive. It is estimated about 70 went to the UK and maybe only 40 to 50 came to Australia. No one really knows for sure because the coupe was never separately identified within Fiat production numbers", John says.  That means his 2300s is a seriously rare automobile. Built on the same frame as the Fiat 2300 sedan, the coupe was penned by Sergio Sartorelli, who was the styling chief at Ghia at the time. Tom Tjaarda and Virgil Exner Jnr, whose fathers were car design legends in the USA, also contributed to the shape. The distinctive reverse-sloped c-pillars and large wraparound fastback rear window was crisply executed and provided ample interior space for four plus luggage. "It just drives wonderfully", says John. "The six cylinder motor was designed by ex- Ferrari engineer Aurelio Lampredi and the Arbath people warmed it up to 136 BHP by strapping on an extra Weber carburettor and using special pistons and a modified camshaft. It has a four speed gear box and four wheel disc brakes so it stops very quickly". The Fiat attracts attention when ever John takes it out for a cruise. "So few were imported here and so few now exist worldwide means that many people have never seen one before," he says. So why is it that so few now exist? John explains: "Fiat's capabilities in the 60's did not include rust protection so most of the cars in Europe have succumbed to rust." As you would expect parts for the Fiat are hard to find, however the driving dynamics of the 2300s far outweigh the difficulty in keeping it on the road. "It is such a great touring car ", he says. David Burrell is the editor of www.retroautos.com.au  

We’ve seen some clever 3D printed things, but so far they’ve all been small items – and some of them smaller than small, such as the microscopic 3D printed race car. But a New Zealand 3D fan is thinking big. Car-sized big, and a 1961 Series II Aston Martin DB4 to boot. Auckland-based computer programmer Ivan Sentch is spinning up a replica DB4 piece-by-piece on a 3D printer that costs around $500. His blog, Replica DB4 Project chronicles the process – and the problems and pitfalls he’s faced – since starting the build late in 2012. Sentch says he’s completed about 72 per cent of the body printing, which will then be used to create a fibreglass mold, and build the final body onto a custom-built spaceframe with power coming from Nissan Skyline GTS innards currently being used in his Ferrari 250 GTO replica. The Ferrari, by the way, will get a BMW V12 engine as consolation. Sentch says his decision to do the Aston Martin was prompted by family needs. “It was partly because I need four seats, and the 250 GTO kit car I've got hardly gets used as it's only a two-seater and I can't take the kids in it,” he says. “But also because an old Aston Martin is very very cool and a DB4 over a DB5 or a DB4 Zagato because I just like the look of the DB4 more -- I'm going for the no bumper GT lightweight look, though. He says the wheel track of the Skyline made it the ideal donor car for the Aston Martin DB4 project. “It had the right wheel track to fit in the body -- wheelbase doesn't matter as you can get a custom propeller shaft -- it's a six-cylinder like the DB4, and the Skylines are very cheap. The printing has so far gone smoothly for him, but the project hasn’t been without hurdles – the biggest being the glass. “Sourcing the glass has been difficult,” he says. “There's plenty of ways to make the body, and making a spaceframe chassis doesn't represent too much of a challenge, but it falls over if you can't get the glass. “I finally found a place online that can supply it relatively cheaply and I've yet to contact Pilkingtons classic car division in the UK who have the moulds for the DB4, and who probably supply the other places selling the glass.” Sentch says the Aston Martin won’t be his only project. “I have many I want to do… if I do another one of these (from scratch) type builds I would think about a 300SLR, Ferrari 250 GTO SWB or one of the DB4 Zagato Sanction 3 recreations. The Sanction 1 and 2 Zagatos were what Aston Martin re-made a few years ago with some spare DB4 chassis they had lying around, then someone made a Sanction 3. It’s not officially an Aston Martin but it looks really good.” Are we seeing the start of being able to DIY our own cars at home? An Aston Martin DB4 is an ambitious project, but Sentch is showing it’s achievable. Which leaves Carsguide.com.au wondering how hard it would be to do a 1955 Mercedes 300SL Gullwing. Somebody call the stationery suppliers: we urgently need to upgrade the office printer...