It just seems like for a 2.6lt engine, these 1st gens arent as quick as what they could be... why is this?
I mean, if there are old cars out ther with small 4cyl engines, how come they always out perform the magna's?
i dont understand

The Magna is quite a large car, I mean the 2nd Gen a roughly the same size as the same vintage Falcon although in my eyes it doesn't appear so.
I never really opened mine up and never did use the power button, maybe I should have tried it, but I didn't need to. If I wanted a quick 4 I would have bought a small twin cam Corolla or simular. What I loved was sitting on 100kmh at only 1750 rpm and I loved the great fuel economy.

I now have that small 4 cyl, it is a fraction longer and 25mm thinner than a Mini Minor, it weighs only 650kg with a tiny 1000cc engine and believe me, my Suzuki Super Carry uses more fuel than my old Magna.

power to weight ratio is against
the magna and the gearbox/diff ratios

the old SOHC 8V engine design limits the engine. If you will note, the power figures are quite high (for a 4cyl) but the rev range is short (car topples soon after 4kRPM). Also, the magna is one heavy mother for a 4cylinder car; the 2,d gen is 1400kg and when mated to an automatic gearbox the engine really does struggle due to the automatic sucking the life out of the engine. To understand the difference between a manual on the Astron and an Automatic on the Astron, you would need to drive a manual straight after driving an auto. the MANUAL feels like a 6, which could easily keep up to an EA falcon.

The Magna is quite a large car, I mean the 2nd Gen is roughly the same size as the same year Falcon although in my eyes it doesn't appear so.
I never really opened mine up and never did use the power button, maybe I should have tried it, but I didn't need to. If I wanted a quick 4 I would have bought a small twin cam Corolla or simular. What I loved was sitting on 100kmh at only 1750 rpm and I loved the great fuel economy.

I now have that small 4 cyl, it is a fraction longer and 25mm thinner than a Mini Minor, it weighs only 650kg with a tiny 1000cc engine and believe me, my Suzuki Super Carry uses more fuel than my old Magna.


As for fuel economy.... My car doesnt rate too highly, i think im around the 11l/100km mark. its killing me.

i guess all the above makes sense. Spose i need to go manual then XD

As for fuel economy.... My car doesnt rate too highly, i think im around the 11l/100km mark. its killing me.

i guess all the above makes sense. Spose i need to go manual then XD

my fuel economy was even worse 14-15L/100km!! :wtf:

as far as performance on these engines, they are more of a torquey engine than a fast one, and there isn't A LOT you can do cheaply to give it a significant performance jump, other than a good service. Exhaust system upgrades respond slightly (I saw TM-N-P extractors on ebay about a month ago for about $170 INCL POSTAGE, dunno if they are still there or not though). There are a few turbo'd ones out there and that seems to be the best way to get something out of these cars, but it costs a lot of money. Check out Rostas TM on the fastmagna site for example. This would have to be my all time favourite first gen. It's not the prettiest 1g ever (although it still looks pretty hot!) but those mods deserve respect! http://www.fastmagna.com/gallery/Features/Rostas-TM/
http://www.fastmagna.com/gallery/d/421-2/rosta4.jpg
That is a mad 4g54 IMO

but $15000 to spend on a first gen isn't exactly everyones cup of tea. There are A LOT of cars you could buy for that, and many would probably outperform this, but it's gotta be one of the most unique cars out there...