Au Xr8

[warps]

are you sure a falcon is wise idea for a tow car?

Out of all the family sedans out there, it would have to be among the best (provided it's rated to 2300kg or whatever the Ford rating at the time was). If you're going to be towing a dozen times a year, then there's no reason it won't handle it OK. They were still built on a fairly decent, solid chassis.

If you're going to be towing every week, or multiple times a week, then I'd suggedt springing for a good 4WD tow vehicle. These are always a nice to have, but not essential, specially if money is tight.

[adamskill]

Out of all the family sedans out there, it would have to be among the best (provided it's rated to 2300kg or whatever the Ford rating at the time was). If you're going to be towing a dozen times a year, then there's no reason it won't handle it OK. They were still built on a fairly decent, solid chassis.

If you're going to be towing every week, or multiple times a week, then I'd suggedt springing for a good 4WD tow vehicle. These are always a nice to have, but not essential, specially if money is tight.

i just worry about the brakes. even my patrol suffers from fade when towing the gtr, and ive up graded the brakes on it as its a work ute. would hate to see anythin go wrong cos of a braking issue, thats all.

cheers adam

[warps]

Are the brakes on your trailer up to scratch and properly set up? If they are, then this shouldn't be putting any significant extra load on your car's brakes under normal driving. Towing a GTR means you're likely over 2 tonnes ATM, meaning you need to have brakes on all trailer wheels. Do you have this?

Not sure how good / bad the brakes on the Falcon are - I remember I was mightily impressed by the brakes on my XR6 ute many years ago, even when towing an unbraked car trailer with a S4 RX7 on the back (the trailer had electric brakes and at that stage I didn't have my car set up for it. Didn't know about it till I lobbed up in the morning to pick up the rally car / trailer to tow to a rally I was servicing at - yes stupid I know).

Can't say I've ever had brake fade while towing - even with the PAthfinder's squishy confidence inspiring brake package.

HAving said all that, at least you have the right approach to towing. Don't do it unless you're confident that the tow vehicle is up to the task in every way. As I said earlier, if you have to use a family sedan, I'd rate the Falcons above just about anything else.

[paulr33]

Bit of a tangent here, but on the question of what feels faster, a torquey, low revving V8 will often feel slower than a high revving turbo 6 as it makes power everywhere which means no "coming on boost" which can often give the false impression of speed.

My mate has an SII BA XR8 and it's almost neck and neck between it and my R33 GTST (mine is ever so fractionally faster in a straight line) however the R33 feels much faster. I remember the first time I took him for a spin in it his head nearly exploded as he thought it was so damn fast. Fact is, it's not much different to his car, and he flogs his thing everywhere. It's just his thing makes pwer from idle so lacks that kick in the pants feel that pretty much everyone on here is likely addicted to.

So while something like an XR8 may feel a lot slower than something like a turbo skyline, fact is there's probably a lot less between them than you think. And when it comes to corners, it's about 70% driver 30% car so a good steerer in an XR8 will likely spank a nubcake in a skyline.

youll find thats probably due to the 4.11 diff gears in the GTST

[KezR33]

youll find thats probably due to the 4.11 diff gears in the GTST

True. I know I've said this a lot, but my NA Supra and the Monaro have the same 0-100kph time of 6.7sec. Everyone knows the Monaro is far more powerful and faster, but their gears are ridiculous. Apparently if you're doing 100kph in one and put it in sixth gear it nearly stalls.

[DivHunter]

I had an AU Fairmont with the i6 engine and then a AU Fairmont Ghia with the 175kw V8 (dyno'd at 130rwkw). The Fairmont was over 211000km when I bought it, was a great car. Traded it in for the Ghia V8 which had over 120000km and the oil came out after 10000km the same colour it went in. Did about 450-500 to a tank. I had no mechanical or electrical issues with either car.

My dad had similar issues to those on his au.

I was looking at them a while ago. The basic 5.0 L engine isn't much more powerful (13kW) or torquey (32Nm) than the xr6 at the time. And, worst of all, made at about the same rpm. It certainly felt pretty slow and heavy, despite extractors and twin 3" exhausts (well, felt and WAS slow and heavy). Getting out of the r34 and straight into it didn't help though.

(Source: http://www.trueblueford.com/AU_XR_Specifications.html )

When I was looking at them the problem that kept coming up was a whining diff, which needed some pin replaced, can't remember how much it was. Certainly wasn't cheap. I also found the pedals sticky and numb, not smooth like in almost every japanese car I've driven.

All that said though, it's a lot of car for the dough and the noise was fantastic!!! Also cheap to fix and your average mechanic is capable of working on it.

Twin 3" is way too big on a N/A 5L.

[Galois]

Maybe that was part of it. The earlier au v8's weren't much good though, it was the later au's that had a lot more torque over the xr6 (500Nm). I think the torque came on song earlier too, someone can confirm that though.

With a v8 you don't want to be revving to get the torque, the thing's don't rev and have like a 5k redline.

On towcars, massive topic here

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/topic/272151-good-tow-cars/

[Cowboy1600]

youll find thats probably due to the 4.11 diff gears in the GTST

It's all relative.

You can't compare diff ratios in two totally different cars.

True. I know I've said this a lot, but my NA Supra and the Monaro have the same 0-100kph time of 6.7sec. Everyone knows the Monaro is far more powerful and faster, but their gears are ridiculous. Apparently if you're doing 100kph in one and put it in sixth gear it nearly stalls.

The Holdens, like the Fords, ave a double overdriven gearbox. Top gear is for highway cruising only.

The rest of the ratios, and the diff ratio, are relatively the same as most other cars. And quote 0-100 time is pretty much meaningless. Get them both ont he strip and see what outguns what. I bet in real world the Monaro (I assume a 350ci) would eat the Supra.

[Mickyb]

My dad has an AUII XR8 220kw manual, standard except for K&N filter and bigger exhaust. The thing goes very well, some people think that they steer better than the BA. They also have a (heavier) better IRS setup than the BA. He averages about 10.9l/100km, mixture of freeway and some suburban driving. Depending on what you are paying, you will struggle to get more car for the money.