Never ever missed an episode of this show..my half brother Colin Gersch was the set designer for quite a long time and my Dad would always wait for the credits to see his name come up in them..Dad would never fail to smile when he saw it..made him feel so proud.
I wonder if that cool organ music was on the cool radio station they were both listening to ? They must have tuned into the "car chase music by hammond organ" channel !
Well, I do remember back in 1979, my VG Valiant 245 hemi on a flat country road, i wrung it out to 103 mph !!. The engine ran smoother around town too, after blowing out the cobwebs doing the ton.
Many decades ago I drove one of these at 130km/h on an open road, no hard shoulders back in those days, car was all over the road, which was straight, though rough. If anything came the other way I'd have had to slow down to 100 or so.
@@saxongreen78 not until recently did a buy a 1998 Ford Fairlane which showed me how much big cars have improved. I think an interesting comparo to my Lane might be Jaguar XJ6 ? Both are low, compared to modern cars and I'm sure my Lanes lowness, helped it handle better, than some of the modern soft roaders?. I never owned a valiant but the 2 seventies I hired were both manual Collum shift. A large manual car, Gee, driving and parking was a bit of work back then. Love to see how I'd go parking an F type Ford truck with manual gearbox and no power steering. They were common back then, even on Australian TV shows like Prisoner, the cars the prison staff drove said a lot about the character. From a tall male teacher in a Moke to the equally tall and we'll suited Stuart Gallespie in his P6 LTD. Fletcher doesn't need an ego flog, so he drives a Datsun 200B. One thing I disliked about prisoner was most men were so useless, they couldn't even boil an egg. Very politically correct?
Oddly enough .....if that VH valiant had the Hemi 265 six cylinder it would have actually beaten the XR Falcon GT ..... And that's a great thing to say about the Hemi , considering its not even a Pacer or a R/T , E38 or E49
1:51 - The GT is dancing in the rain at high speed, but the VH is more of a graceful ballet! Just shows that radial tyres aren't the be-all-and-end-all. 2:10 - The GT would have been on a dry straight road when this was taken!
Yes there was, from 1969 all cars had to have "Safety Belts", but the national rule to wear them "or else" came out in 1/72. You can see the copper is wearing the Chrysler lap/sash seat belt.....the GT probably would have had lap belts only.....that's what we had.
I remember this episode...........The guy who owns the GT Falcon gets electrocuted when his bitter twisted phsyco old neighbor wires his front gate to the mains power / electrified mantrap .BTW: Great note on the Falcon
Note how in every movie/tv police chase, worldwide, the police siren shuts down as the car stops? To good effect yes, but I think the the copper would have more important things on their mind than flicking a switch ( timed perfectly)? Just keeping a 70s Valiant in the road with it's ship helm steering is task enough. Charming old cars though. The 2nd chase in this episode is good too, with the kid unable to drive the GT Falcon properly.
Yeah those old Valiant's handled like the QE2 trying to do a tight jet boat course. They were shocking, especially at high speed where the cars would get very light at the front end and and steering just about went out the window. And as former racing great Pete Geoghegan reported, even putting a much heavier 340 V8 in them didn't help because they had a higher top speed and the aero of the car actually created front end lift. Even the much loved R/T Charger's handled like a cruise ship at high speed.
+russell brown I've driven several of these 1970s Australian Valiants and the steering was so sloppy, feeless and innacurate. It would be a mental workout just to keep modern traffic off your rear bumper and the tighter the road, the harder. 2 lovely classic cars from a different era ( less than 1/2 as many cars on Australias roads then and life was more laid back)
+John Sergei Brakes were pretty atrocious too, by today's standards, as was the road death toll.The combination of bad roads, very poor driver training , overpowered cars, and generally lax DUI enforcement, was deadly. Many horrific wrecks on country back roads just like the one in the film clip.
These Valiants are certainly not hard do drive & I like them for the history they reprisent ( Falcons/Holdens of the time have dated weezy 6 cyl engines) But I would be very reluctent to ride in one, doing 120 MPH 190 km/H in these conditions. Doesn't mean they were really going that fast? but it's well filmed & looks fast. Later, the chase is on for real when the lad nicks the GT but can't drive it properly ( end of GT)
The problem with those old Valiant's is that their steering got very light at high speed, mostly because the aerodynamics were skewed and actually created lift. Late Aussie racing legend Pete Geoghegan test drove a 340 powered Valiant ute on the roads outside of the country town of Mallala in South Australia in the early 70s (the car that never was according to Chrysler executives in the wake of the Supercar Scare). Even he said that the handling was shocking because the car got light at high speeds even with the much heavier V8. And to add to the problem, the V8 was a lot faster than the Hemi 6. I've driven old GT Falcons and those Valiant's. Neither handled or braked very well at all, but the Falcon had the advantage with the Windsor and later Cleveland 351's. But I don't think I've ever driven a worse handling car than the Valiant.
Neither did the GT, in the 2nd chase. GT owner is a guy who can drive, chasing in the thiefs old bomb Holden, Till the GT ends up in the trees, cause the lad can't drive it properly. The look on the owners face to pull up & see his car wrecked, great episode.
I used to own a ex cop VJ Charger it handled great I also had a Ranger the same as the one in this video, I'd hate to be a copper doing a chase in a Ranger like that, the Charger yes though
Who are they trying to kid a bloody 245 ci six in the Ranger against the 4 barrel 289 in the XR GT & not only that but the suspension on the GT is far better than the torsion bar equipped Queen Mary ah sorry river barge ah sorry Valiant Ranger but I spose it’s only just a TV of the day but even back then me and my mates would just laugh and I like the way that just because their coppers everyone thinks that they were the best drivers we also laughed about that too
Never ever missed an episode of this show..my half brother Colin Gersch was the set designer for quite a long time and my Dad would always wait for the credits to see his name come up in them..Dad would never fail to smile when he saw it..made him feel so proud.
Never ever missed an episode of this show..my half brother Colin Gersch was the set designer for quite a long time and my Dad would always wait for the credits to see his name come up in them..Dad would never fail to smile when he saw it..made him feel so proud.
@Perpetual Grin Dave Sullivan on a pushie.
6000 RPM 289 Cubes.
I wonder if that cool organ music was on the cool radio station they were both listening to ? They must have tuned into the "car chase music by hammond organ" channel !
They must have been using a drill chuck and camera shake to get the VH Valiants speedo up to 100mph :-)
Well, I do remember back in 1979, my VG Valiant 245 hemi on a flat country road, i wrung it out to 103 mph !!. The engine ran smoother around town too, after blowing out the cobwebs doing the ton.
@@billjackson4703 Restricted top speed diff ratio.
Had a X2 HD Holden Back in 1971,Blu 3.55 diff, Replaced it with HT Kingswood auto 3.08. Diff,115 MPH
All car chases need a Hammond organ 😎😎
nah , usually frantically hammered bongo drums
@@chopperking1122 Hunter?
And notice when there were car chases in built up areas, there just happened to be virtually no other vehicles on the road?
Skidded off course at 100mph and stopped gently after a couple of fishies...who needs Traction Control when you can drive a 1971 Valiant?
Thats physics for ya
Many decades ago I drove one of these at 130km/h on an open road, no hard shoulders back in those days, car was all over the road, which was straight, though rough. If anything came the other way I'd have had to slow down to 100 or so.
@@johnsergei Indeed - they were light in the rear and had a marked tendency to wander...prone to drifting into a spin!
@@saxongreen78 not until recently did a buy a 1998 Ford Fairlane which showed me how much big cars have improved. I think an interesting comparo to my Lane might be Jaguar XJ6 ? Both are low, compared to modern cars and I'm sure my Lanes lowness, helped it handle better, than some of the modern soft roaders?. I never owned a valiant but the 2 seventies I hired were both manual Collum shift. A large manual car, Gee, driving and parking was a bit of work back then. Love to see how I'd go parking an F type Ford truck with manual gearbox and no power steering. They were common back then, even on Australian TV shows like Prisoner, the cars the prison staff drove said a lot about the character. From a tall male teacher in a Moke to the equally tall and we'll suited Stuart Gallespie in his P6 LTD. Fletcher doesn't need an ego flog, so he drives a Datsun 200B. One thing I disliked about prisoner was most men were so useless, they couldn't even boil an egg. Very politically correct?
@@saxongreen78 ..That Actor from RYAN said the same thing and the Valiants were'nt popular with VICPOL due to handling issues...
Loved Matlock police as a kid never missed an episode the detective driving the valiant was Allan Curtis played by Grigor Taylor
The old Valiant would never catch that old XR GT Ford. Great chase to watch.
Yeah I was trying to work out if it was XR or XT
@@hexturbation7283 XR Gt Falcon,289 cubes,Never underestimate 6 in line Hemi.👍
Oddly enough .....if that VH valiant had the Hemi 265 six cylinder it would have actually beaten the XR Falcon GT .....
And that's a great thing to say about the Hemi , considering its not even a Pacer or a R/T , E38 or E49
Grandmas, Shopping diff ratio had a lot to do with it,Plus 3 speed manual on tree!
1:51 - The GT is dancing in the rain at high speed, but the VH is more of a graceful ballet! Just shows that radial tyres aren't the be-all-and-end-all. 2:10 - The GT would have been on a dry straight road when this was taken!
No seat belt laws back then
Yes there was, from 1969 all cars had to have "Safety Belts", but the national rule to wear them "or else" came out in 1/72. You can see the copper is wearing the Chrysler lap/sash seat belt.....the GT probably would have had lap belts only.....that's what we had.
brings back memories Mr and my brother lived watching Aussie tv shows
I think the music is by Alan Hawkshaw on the KPM label .
If that is a GTHO, probably about $2 million worth of cars in that clip.❤
its an XR GT , but they show a XW-XY speedo
That is why Chrysler in Australia finished in the late 70s They could not catch a Cold.. let alone a Ford :)
+Fred Fungus No, Chrysler finished because of problems back in the U.S. It had nothing to do with the quality of the cars being produced in Australia.
but a 6 cylinder e49 charger was quicker than ghto falcons
That val is just a fleet bucket.......215 hemi with a 3 speed manual
@@timpriddy349 and 4 wheel drum brakes! 😮😬
@@DoctorBrodski the quality of CAL cars were in fact better than its US built counterpart!
Err, how come I can't find a comment about the speedo in the Val? Sorta looks more like a HK. Am I wrong?
yeah
Looks exactly like the base model HK Monaro that I had until it was modified by Footscray Speedometers.
I remember this episode...........The guy who owns the GT Falcon gets electrocuted when his bitter twisted phsyco old neighbor wires his front gate to the mains power / electrified mantrap .BTW: Great note on the Falcon
Those 351's had a brilliant sound at full noise didn't they. Though this one may have been a 302.
@@Holden308 those GTs came out with a 4.7 289 the 5 and 5.8 came later
@@sutherlandA1 yeah. the 5 was a 302 and the 5.8 was the 351.
the whole episode was on here , but its gone now
@@sutherlandA1 Those little 289 Windsors sounded great at speed
Note how in every movie/tv police chase, worldwide, the police siren shuts down as the car stops? To good effect yes, but I think the the copper would have more important things on their mind than flicking a switch ( timed perfectly)? Just keeping a 70s Valiant in the road with it's ship helm steering is task enough. Charming old cars though.
The 2nd chase in this episode is good too, with the kid unable to drive the GT Falcon properly.
Yeah those old Valiant's handled like the QE2 trying to do a tight jet boat course. They were shocking, especially at high speed where the cars would get very light at the front end and and steering just about went out the window. And as former racing great Pete Geoghegan reported, even putting a much heavier 340 V8 in them didn't help because they had a higher top speed and the aero of the car actually created front end lift.
Even the much loved R/T Charger's handled like a cruise ship at high speed.
How many gears did the Ford have?
26??
Would have been a four speed floor shift mate.
@@area51isreal71 Must have a celica 5 speed.😲
Road Ranger!
"Bullitt" in reverse, but the crim's Ford sure sounds good. I think both of those old irons would have been pretty scary on a wet country road.
+russell brown I've driven several of these 1970s Australian Valiants and the steering was so sloppy, feeless and innacurate.
It would be a mental workout just to keep modern traffic off your rear bumper and the tighter the road, the harder.
2 lovely classic cars from a different era ( less than 1/2 as many cars on Australias roads then and life was more laid back)
+John Sergei Brakes were pretty atrocious too, by today's standards, as was the road death toll.The combination of bad roads, very poor driver training , overpowered cars, and generally lax DUI enforcement, was deadly. Many horrific wrecks on country back roads just like the one in the film clip.
+John Sergei I have two VJ Valiants and no problems handling them on the roads.
These Valiants are certainly not hard do drive & I like them for the history they reprisent ( Falcons/Holdens of the time have dated weezy 6 cyl engines) But I would be very reluctent to ride in one, doing 120 MPH
190 km/H in these conditions. Doesn't mean they were really going that fast? but it's well filmed & looks fast.
Later, the chase is on for real when the lad nicks the GT but can't drive it properly ( end of GT)
The problem with those old Valiant's is that their steering got very light at high speed, mostly because the aerodynamics were skewed and actually created lift.
Late Aussie racing legend Pete Geoghegan test drove a 340 powered Valiant ute on the roads outside of the country town of Mallala in South Australia in the early 70s (the car that never was according to Chrysler executives in the wake of the Supercar Scare). Even he said that the handling was shocking because the car got light at high speeds even with the much heavier V8. And to add to the problem, the V8 was a lot faster than the Hemi 6.
I've driven old GT Falcons and those Valiant's. Neither handled or braked very well at all, but the Falcon had the advantage with the Windsor and later Cleveland 351's. But I don't think I've ever driven a worse handling car than the Valiant.
Love the sideburns.
Grigor Taylor was so handsome!
@@zzzbbbooo The seventies.
The man eluding police was the sideburn king!
Reaching speeds of over 100 kilometres per hour !!! ... ok, yes I know it was mph.
And not one pothole to be seen!!!
no seatbelts back then
Holden Kingswood HQ was the first car to comply to Victorian seat belt laws.
How cool
The falcons exhaust note sounds orgasmic, that poor valiant never stood a chance
Neither did the GT, in the 2nd chase. GT owner is a guy who can drive, chasing in the thiefs old bomb Holden, Till the GT ends up in the trees, cause the lad can't drive it properly. The look on the owners face to pull up & see his car wrecked, great episode.
@@johnsergei Differential gearing played a big part of top speed,4 speed GT muscle car vs Grandmas 3 on tree shopping Valiant.
I used to own a ex cop VJ Charger it handled great I also had a Ranger the same as the one in this video, I'd hate to be a copper doing a chase in a Ranger like that, the Charger yes though
As long as you 2 bags cement in boot, one each side. Charger a cut down VH with little compensation.
But hell, Hey Charger!
@@AnthonyTolhurst-dw1nc The Charger had tougher suspension and a 16:1 steering box
ONE OF MY FAV. SHOWS. OF ALL TIME
The Valiant looks like an old woman in high heels on a slippery floor.
Cool..
This would never happen to Det. BargeArse.
the classic XR V8 with 3 speed impala shifter the old Val never had a chance
it was a 4 speed with a factory fitted Hurst shifter.
As said the Xr GT was a toploader 4 speed with a factory hurst shifter.
@@petergiannaros9037 sorry I thought it was an XR Fairmont .silly me
The Valiant must have had the 245cid, would have caught him with the 265 under the hood.
Yeah 245 3speed column manual
cop car has only done 3200 miles/ km
Those speeds clearly dont match the numbers the viewer is lead to believe.............nope
The original cast .
hahaha .....easy
Did anybody notice something strange about the speedo on the Falcon???
yeah , its an XY speedo
It works.
Rest in Paul.
Rest In Peace Paul.
Chevrolet?
+marty collette 1967 ford falcon XR GT
No seatbelts
Those old cars would have had sh.it handling, poor suspension, not very good brakes, no traction/or ABS, and cheese cutters for tyres.
Who are they trying to kid a bloody 245 ci six in the Ranger against the 4 barrel 289 in the XR GT & not only that but the suspension on the GT is far better than the torsion bar equipped Queen Mary ah sorry river barge ah sorry Valiant Ranger but I spose it’s only just a TV of the day but even back then me and my mates would just laugh and I like the way that just because their coppers everyone thinks that they were the best drivers we also laughed about that too
Never ever missed an episode of this show..my half brother Colin Gersch was the set designer for quite a long time and my Dad would always wait for the credits to see his name come up in them..Dad would never fail to smile when he saw it..made him feel so proud.
I's love to hear from you mate, as I've always been interested in Sets and their design...