[John Roberts]

Originally Posted by lra

I am less concerned about the thread dig than the laughable inaccuracies posted initially, but thankfully corrected in later posts.
Zephyrs were better than the equivalent Holdens of the day by a long way, but were outdated by 1960. Thankfully Ford Aus decided to build the Falcon rather than the weird looking facelifted Mk2.

My father bought a Mk1 Zephyr from the Yelarbon (look it up) Ford Dealer in 1954, drove us to Sydney to run it in while visiting rellies, and then returned to our sheep station during the 1954 floods. I learned early in life how to negotiate flooded roads and creeks, being sent out to paddle / wade though the water and point out dodgy spots.

1956, we drove from Yelarbon to Esperence to check out prospective grazing land, but Dad decided that sand dunes were not ideal sheep country and we drove back 2 days later. The only mods he made to it was a homemade sump guard, and 'Jeep-type' tyres on the back wheels. Those tyres were not kind to the diff, and it whined something terrible after that trip. Despite its somewhat hard use on crappy dirt roads, it help up pretty well. I learned to drive in it, and developed muscles courtesy of the steering, clutch and brakes. I think he sold it about 1985.

I bought a 1957 Mk2 (egg-crate grille, high roofline) when I left school in 1965 for $500.
First mod was extractors, lovely exhaust note, which led to a lot of wasted $$$ and a steep learning curve.
Re-duco-ed, twin inch and half SUs, ported and polished head, big cam, rebuilt and balanced engine, and 6.5 inch rims steel rims with SP41 tyres was cool in 1967.
But it was an old car, in looks and mechanically in 1968, I had learned a lesson about modifying cars, and traded it on a new HK Kingswood with all the good fruit.

After I put my Mk II Zephyr sidewards due to locking the rear brakes when someone pulled out from the kerb in front of me in the pouring rain, my tyre man put wintertreads on the back (Must have been a 'thing' back then), and I had no more trouble under heavy braking in the wet. Didn't hurt the diff, but Ford diffs whine anyways, lol.