Torque 1980 - Episode 03 

I'm 53 and still remember two great motoring tips he offered. 1. When you're stopped in traffic, especially waiting to turn, keep your wheels dead straight. Then if someone rear ends you, you want get pushed into oncoming traffic. 2. When on more open roads etc always have an exit strategy. Always be looking where to veer off to in a collision is immanent. He had a very hard end to his years, but no need to go into that. He is an Aussie legend.

Wish we could have this Australia back again

Spot on with predictions of more speeds with autos and manuals, and even mentioned CVTs!

Loved watching both Torque & Marque a few decades ago. Peter Wherrett was absolutely brilliant in his role.

Wow, this is from the year I was born, and what a bloomin good show. My, how things have changed, and not necessarily in a good way. Think I prefer this; Good old down to earth presenter giving clear and constuctive advice, plus fair reviews of the type of cars people actually buy. No cheap gags, no scripted fakery, and no silly money supercars that nobody's really all that bothered about. Absolutely marvellous.

If there’s one I’ll say about the Valiants made by Chrysler Australia, and that is they made the best six cylinder engines, especially the 265 Hemi 4.3 litre what a kick arse engine.

As a 48 year old old fart, I remember and loved this show. Wherrett was and is a fucking Aussie Legend.

I always preferred the bench seats as opposed to the bucket seats in the front. With the bench seats, it made it much harder for the parents to reach over the back seat and slap the crap out of you whilst the car was in motion.

It's 10 years today since Peter Wherret passed away. I judge him on his work, l liked his motoring shows. Wish that ABC would bring back a similar show, there is a demand.

I once had a 1979 CM Regal sedan 265, column auto with factory ac & power steering. Loved it. Powerful, economical and so comfortable. Wish I'd kept it.

Finally, after 46 years of life, I have the answer to that little light on the fender. I always thought it was part of the indicator.

I remember when I was going to O’halloran hill tafe this is going back to 1999 or 2000 I had a VJ charger It has a fresh 265 The lecturers there wanted to put it on a gas analyser to see how bad it was vs a TR Magna, the 265 was putting out less noxious gases than the 2.6! they suggested that even though it was running really well it needed bigger main jets, it was a great time and I learnt a lot. Like most of the car manufacturers in Australia that tafe is now gone. It’s truly a sad situation.

The GH Sigma was only sold with Chrysler badges for six months before changing over to Mitsubishi badges.

Still got a VK Ranger sedan 245 , VK Ute badged as a Dodge with a 360 , and a CM Regal Sedan with a 265. All quietly living in the shed hiding from the rust monster.

Love this guy! What a way with words, crystal clear.

Loved watching this show. This bought back some great memories. Always wanted a Valiant but never got one. Had 26 Chrysler/Mitsubishi's instead.

This is amazing. I barely remember this show, and it's surprising to see what Australia was like in those days. Thank you for this upload!

Today Peter Wherrett taught me how to correctly use an automatic transmission. Perhaps I should have watched this episode when it came out :-)

I am surprised the door handle didn't break on the XD when he pulled on it!

Bringing back child hood memory's. Thank you you tube and adoz56.

Those old valiants are probably the best cars made , done a million ks in my Regal se 318 . CHRYSLER really built some beautiful cars.

It was years after this that I discovered Leo Kottke's amazing guitar playing. I would have watched this in 1980 and probably enjoyed the music they picked to play behind the vision not knowing I would independently discover it later. Well done ABC!

My first car was an S series Valiant. Loved that car. So much room in the back.

What a great show. A TV show that gives the viewer credit for having a brain? Nothing like this in the USA, ever

Peter Wherrett was a straight talker, if a car was no good, he said so! Programs like this were very useful, with the amount of moronic drivers on our Australian roads now, a man like Peter Wherrett could give them some advice. The old BP driver tips commercials were really good too back in the 70's.

I had a GH Sigma as my first car in 2000. My grandad bought it new in 1981. Not that reliable but such great memories in that beast.

Eloquently spoken, highly intelligent and most analytical. Very suave dresser too. If it wasn't for Peter Wherrett, we wouldve still being having column shift , bench seats, drum brakes and leaf springs in local cars

How far ahead of the times he was. I've enjoyed a few of these Torque episodes recently - thanks for putting them up. Doubtless Peter would have had a bit to say about our Holden HX hearse - but at least he would have been pleased I changed it over to rear disc brakes. Vale Peter / Pip.

Thanks so much for uploading these. Love the old cars, the music, and the Australiana.

My parents bought the Chrysler Sigma SE 2.6 when it first came out, it was way above our home grown cars in features and refinement. That engine was a goer. Sigma’s went downhill after Mitsubishi took full control.

Thanks for this upload, Torque was a great show.

This TV show was cutting edge. Nowadays we get reality TV.

Ha those were the days when motoring in Australia was interesting and exciting. We built a lot nice cars. Thanks for posting this, really enjoyed it.

I drove manuals all my life and loved double de- clutching . The trucks I drove certainly needed it so became intuitive

I bought a 1980 Chrysler Sigma SE (2 litre) in 1990. Loved the sports steering wheel and the velour seats. Though, the car rusted like crazy.

I've owned, and worked on many Vals, a CM 3 spd manual was a rarity, luckily.

I loved this show in the 1970s.

So funny looking at the old Chrysler's, that one had the mid range 245 ci Hemi Six , it's also funny when he is driving the 1980s Ford Falcon it has a Borg Warner D20 Single Rail 4 Speed , designed by Borg Warner Australia originally for the Chrysler , that's why all D20 single rails have Chrysler " box to Bell housing pattern" and then he looks at the Chrysler Sigma , it has a D25 single rail , essentially a D20 4 speed with overdrive ! The original D20 Single Rail 4 Speed evolved into an alloy case and overdrive 5 th , renamed T5 and sold all over the world , it's no coincidence 80 percent of internals of the D20 4 speed fit a Borg Warner T5 . This episode must have been sponsored by Borg Warner Australia, !!! But I wish he had tested a optioned Chrysler with the 360 V8 and D20 Single Rail 4 Speed ! That would have been nice ! I remember as a kid in Australia in Nundah , Brisbane , Queensland every morning going to the train station walking past a lime green Chrysler Charger ( Aussie one so same car as in the video but 2 doors ) and the panel badge said 340 ci V8 , I now know how rare that car was ! Not many 340 s were optioned in Aussie Chrysler's.

Excellent I just remember watching this as a child. Good to see he was almost impressed by the Valiant CM upgrade after watching him can a VJ V8 Charger

Back when motoring journalism was more about science and less about BS.

You can't beat the ' Marrickville Mercedes . You can drain the engine of oil and refill it with sand and water and the motor still runs beautifully . Definitely superior to a Holden .

Amazing to hear the discussion about CVT way back then.

Great presentation

Wow oran park then and now full of houses.

And now we have CVT's in most modern cars..... bloody horrible.

Interesting hearing the Borg Warner engineer talking about CVT's before they were anywehere near ready.

I owned a range of Valiants through the 80s and later. VH Pacer 265 3 speed floor shift in metallic dark grey and black interior. VJ Charger 265 4 speed, Centura 245 4 speed, CM Regal wagon 5.2 auto (14.5 MPG) and a VH Charger 265 4 speed. The 265's were all more economical than the V8. The ELB never worked properly on my father's CM sedan 265 auto. The GJ GLX Sigma I had was a nice car. The VR4 was better and the Raliart Magna was beautiful to drive.

I liked this show too. Peter Wherrett died in 2009 of prostate cancer, Check out his Wikipedia entry as he was a cross dresser and live the last 2 years of his life as a women. All those Holden's, Chrysler's and Fords are history now too.

Loved the theme. It was written by Rory O'Donoghue of Aunty Jack fame.

Funny to see him in the first of the GH Sigmas and the comments which to the the upgraded GH Peter Wherrett limited Edition Sigma.

Infinitely variable transmission by Borg Warner - This is what we now call a CVT Transmission - 35 years later haha

Those were the cars anybody could work on easy

Looks to be filmed at Oran park which no longer exists.

Peter Wherrett knew what he was "torquing" about. Has there been a better produced Australian motoring show?

The Sigmas suspension looked very cushy on the dirt roads, floated like the CM. These days your fillings would drop out on any car you took on a dirt road as they're all developed at the Nurburgring.

Chrysler Sigma .... It's a SENSATION !!!

Another reminder of when the ABC produced quality shows without the current woke agenda.

I had a CL an CM , CM panel van 440 , 4 speed , even then it was 5 $ every few ks , I Love em (wgaf about Peter Wherrets taste ) its about the cars

Interesting the sigma he test drove was a Peter Wherret special version model only available in GH

Apparently the steed was taken to America track and was one of the best handling cars

That Sigma was a good looking car and went ok with the 2600 Astron motor

I never knew what that light was for, now I do

The man, he talks a lot of sense, especially over gearbox use. And still valid 40 years on. Never got that sort of sense from clarkson, just powweer! 👍

Here is one interesting thing. The 3 on the tree manual Valiants need to be in reverse to get the key out and the gear shifter is locked. It was a safety feature to prevent kids from playing with the gear shift or something like that.

A Sigma 2.6L is likely the worst handling car I've ever driven...ignoring my awful 3.3 VB. _19:25__ Peter takes his hat off to go into Borg Warner, very period correct. =)_

Very cool vintage.

Interesting talk about the cvt types of transmission towards the end. It's really only the last decade that they have become more common.

The reason why the doorhandles break on the xd is because the doorhinge bushes used to wear out quickly and you had to start lifting the weight of the door to get it open by the doorhandle. Whe you open the doors on xds when car is new they usally pop open at you but not for long as i mentioned above but you can get bronze hinge bushes to overcome the inherant door issue with xds to replace the poor quality origionals.

The Sigma was once one of the best cars in Australia!

A CM with manual 3 speed manual Bolt action. I worked on a lot of them back then but I only ever saw one with the three speed .It belonged to a retired Gent who ordered the lowest cheapest spec car he could get get for his 3 grand. it had a heater but no radio,manual steer ansd so on . He freaked out when I changed the oil filter... he told me he always washed it out and refitted it to save five bucks. The ELB is a curse and most were removed years ago. And as he says,"as long as the computer works.." The only thing that never seemed to stop working was the nanny light on the front guard to telling you to get your foot out of the loud pedal.

My first car was a CM Valiant 245 3 on the tree ex police car ( finned drums) ELB worked got 32 mpg.my second car was a GH sigma 2.6 5 speed. I learnt a lot by fixing up the Sigma.Changed the diff from 3.42 to 3.23 to boost economy. It made it around OZ in 2008. No a/C 55deg in the car better I overheat than the car.

Easily the CM Regal would be the best car I've ever driven and owned.

I saw the South African version of the Chrysler Valiant recently. It was built in 1975 and it was badged as the Dodge SE. I took a short video of it which is on my RU-vid channel. I also have videos of a 1970 Chrysler Valiant VIP & of another 70's Valiant all in the UK!

I really admire old cars,

We went from this to Top Gear... a sad reflection of societies dumbing down.

Shaking my head at how far we've come in power and fuel efficiency since then...

You can tell Peter loved sending it on a bit of dirt ;)

Would've been interesting to do a Chrysler Valiant GLX Peter Wherrett Special . MOMO steering wheel, Recaro Seats, Montego Alloys and Bilsteins etc

The base model CM Valiant by this stage had the old Regal woodgrain round instruments which was a much classier and better ergonomic design than the taxi like Ranger style instruments of the VH to CL base range . This also has the option W32 which was a sporty looking wheel previously a Pacer, Charger R/T or 770 and Drifter item. Bucket seats standard, so it's fair to say that the valiant eventually became almost Regal like by the CM era

i still give my dad stick about selling his vals one in particular was a windowless cl drifter van he used to blow off v8 falcs in i miss that car

I wish you did a drive of a 1970s valiant charger

My GH did have and LSD and rear disks from factory, a great little car.

That introduction. Here is a collection of museum pieces. And here is the current Valiant. Whack!

22:56 He was naturally drawn to the superior vehicle... 😛😁🤣

I had one of these sigmas 2.6 glx red with Scorpion Alloys gh great car as for the fuel light I just took the bulb out !!!😂lol

1986-1988 would see the VL Commodore Auto offering the overdrive auto from memory with the RB30.

Chrysler CM Regal SE was a nicer package ......I've always preferred Valiants to be the luxo versions

The valiant had a v8 well before 1971, AP5 AP6s had the small 273 as an option and later Val's had 318s up to 340 CID in some chargers I think. Out of the pigma and the Val I'd take the Val anyday and by the time the CL/CM was in production Chrysler did do some improvements but the steering was still a little vague in response, they should of used rack and pinion steering and there are now conversions available for these that have been round for a while now.

200th Like! The type of guy that Doug Demuro idolizes

Dad had a CM Valiant when new and Mum had a GH Sigma. The sigma was the biggest heap of shit ever built. No rear seat head room used to smoke more than a chimney and the early 5 speed gearboxes left a lot to be desired. Dad also had an XD for about 3 weeks in early 1984

True, the Chrysler Valiant body shape here is very circa 1976 and good looking enough. Can't believe the bubble shape body Ford Laser hatchback is only a mere seven years away or scary enough the 1984-1990 Mitsubishi Magna.

My first car was a 1980 XD 4 speed station wagon. I always thought it needed an extra gear.

How refreshing to see something from the Ministry of Propaganda not drenched in political ideology. I'd almost forgotten what Australia used to be like when it actually was Australian.

those early sigmas had a reputation for doing head gaskets. i'm surprised it has not been mentioned here. i'm a nissan man. have been for 40 years. a holden man before that. i was given a 'shit' mitsubishi 1986 l200 express 1 tonner. it is childish giving cars names. i've given it the name 'respect'. because this mitsubishi has earnt the name respect. i don't slag mitsi's any more. it has the gutless 2l motor. i've been told the doors and front fenders fit a ge sigma. so i think of it as a 1 tonne sigma. possibly the most underpowered car i've owned. it has my respect.

The pearl neck lace makes sense now, still loved the show

Great to hear some of Tommy Emmanuel’s early TV work!

this "economy" step forward in the Valiant compared to large GM and Ford products has an overall consumption of 14 litres per 100 kms. Wasn't fuel consumption just horrible in the 70s. Something had to give. I used really enjoy this show though. Wherrett knew his stuff and commented intelligently. To think my Subaru Outback 3.6 litre got 7.6 litres per 100 (over 37mpg) Sydney to Wagga Wagga return last weekend at posted speed limits with "air" on full time - and it's no economy car in this day and age.

Ah the days of the XD Falcon and VB Commodore.Have driven plenty of both cars.

Where did the last 44 years go? Visually things have changed so much...change is not always good.

Interesting to hear about the CVT transmission back in 1980. Fuel efficient but not liked in 2020.