Location: Glendower Street, Perth WA
Kms so far: 14267
I think it’s time for a long overdue introduction to Cindy Lauper, our 1985 Holden Jackaroo. She is many things to us: our primary mode of transport, our refuge from adverse conditions, our fully stick stereo system and our lifeblood, without which cold cheese and white goon would not be possible. She’s also super stylish, comfortable, and above all, a pop icon.
First, the specifications: She is a 1985 build of the first generation of Holden Jackaroo, which is really an Isuzu imported from Japan and rebranded by Holden. She’s equipped with a SuperPowerfulTM 2.2 litre Turbo Diesel engine, equipped with all the cutting edge technology that 1985 had to offer... like, erm, a Turbo. And not just any Turbo... we’re talking a plain bearing jobbie a bit smaller than a Barbie hairdryer, and with slightly less output. Notable in its absence is any form of Intercooler, yet again a nod to early 80’s Turbo technology which can be summed up by the philosophy “See that engine on the shelf over there, Mr Graduate Engineer? Drop the compression and bolt on this Turbo. There’s a good lad. Make sure you don’t forget to tell marketing to print out some very big ‘Turbo’ decals for us to slap on the bonnet, sides and rear of the car. Run along now!”
For all my mockery, this engine is pretty bloody good. It may only put out about 1.5hddp* and working out the 0-100km/h times may require the hour hand of your watch, but it has not missed a beat. We’ve had it wound up chugging along at 95-100 all day through 47 degree heat with aircon on full blast and the only hint of complaint is the temperature running a bit higher than normal. We’ve also charged at some pretty crazy sand hills, even fully loaded, and it’s made it up without getting bogged. That says a lot- soft sand requires serious horsepower, and that is something that little old Diesels are just not designed to put out. It’s also a pretty quiet diesel- It puts the Land Rover 300tdi to shame and would give the TD5 a run for its money on the dB front.
The driveline of the car is a little less hardcore than previous four wheel drives I’ve been involved with. She has a part time four wheel drive system with auto locking hubs. She’s also got a two range transfer case, which means you can engage ‘low range’ to gear the car lower, allowing for much greater torque to be applied in each gear (and much less speed! Flat out in 5th gear low range is around 50km/h). This is great for ploughing through sand and up steep hills. She’s got independent front suspension, generally a no-no on serious four wheel drives as it doesn’t maintain the ground clearance under the front of the car over rough terrain. Finally, she’s got a limited slip rear differential in the back to help her traction on slippery stuff.
The spec sheet reads like a serious four wheel driver’s bad dream. Their Landcruser has more power than you can wave a stick at, beam axles front and rear, full time four wheel drive, big spotlights and a bulls skull attached to the bonnet and therefore would go all kinds of places our Lauper would never even dream of going. To them, our car is more of a toy than a serious outback adventurer’s car. Fortunately, they are wrong. Lauper has taken us over all kinds of terrain, including some of the most hard core four wheel driving tracks that I’ve come across (and I’ve seen a few in my old Landy and with Dad in his Defender) without getting bogged. We’ve come close- the afore mentioned dune hopping saw us nearly run out of guts during one climb, but that was expected given the little diesel engine. She’s climbed some pretty impressive ledges (thankyou limited slip diff!), ploughed through plenty of sand, clambered over sandy hills with SERIOUS dug out holes in the track that tested the cross axel articulation (eg hole in one side of the track at the front wheel, and another in the other side of the track at the rear wheel- one of the most difficult situations for a 4wd to maintain traction in) and crawled over rocky riverbeds without even a hint of scraping the underside. All this with only minimal reduction in tyre pressure – around 18psi is the lowest I’ve been so far as she’s got tubeless tyres and I don’t want to roll one off the rim. Ooops- serious four wheel drive guy has just passed out. I guess he couldn’t handle the thought of someone going Outback with tubeless tyres!
So why did I buy Cindy if I knew so much about ‘hard core’ four wheel drives? Why didn’t I get a LandPatrol Discoverover? Well, it all came down to price.
I was on a serious budget when we were buying the car. I had $5000 to play with and that was absolutely it. Five grand had to get me a car, completely ready to go around Australia, that would not let us down in the outback, that was registered, insured, and with some kind of road side assistance. That is a VERY big ask. Several times I nearly had to push back the leaving date so I could save more and blow the budget out to about $8000. But I did it- I got the perfect car and haven’t looked back since.
I wanted a four wheel drive to open up our options when we were travelling. I didn’t want to be stuck on good dirt roads and tarmac, and I definitely didn’t want to be in a situation where we looked at a road and were unsure if we’d make it. The NT has shown me many roads like this- good dirt roads that any 2wd or campervan would get down without a problem, except that they crossed a number of creeks. And they don’t bother with bridges out there, so you’d struggle to get a 2tonne van through a lot of the crossings.
So I started shopping, and shortlisted a few options: 80’s landcrusers, early 90’s Hilux/4runners, Nissan Pathfinders, Patrols, Mitsubishi Pajeros and Holden Jackaroos. Landrovers didn’t make the cut- Discoverys hold their value fairly well, and Defenders and 110’s were too noisy, and Range Rovers were too thirsty. I love Land Rovers, but there is one other problem- reliability. Breakdowns are a hassle, but can also be a great adventure and opportunity to meet interesting people in remote locations. However, they cost MONEY. And given that a single significant breakdown would probably mean the end of the trip due to using up all our funds, they were to be avoided at all costs. Good bye Landrover!
Next was the Land Cruiser option. At our pricepoint, we were looking at VERY old crusers, often with 400,000 kms on them! Toyota may be a brand with a reputation for reliability, but with 400,000kms already under the wheels, nothing is guaranteed. Then came the Hilux/4Runner option. Lauren’s parents have one, and its seen 360,000 kms and still going strong. However, I found that they also held their value really well, and the best one I could find came in at about $6,200. With some serious bargaining, I may have managed $5,600 or so, but that still blew the budget. Also, they’re pretty small inside the cabin and pretty stiffly sprung, so the ride is pretty average.
Then there was the Pathfinders- also too small inside, and didn’t seem to suffer the Kms so well. The stuff I looked at had around 200,000kms on it and was pretty clapped out. That left the Patrols- and there was some pretty good buying to be done. We narrowly missed out on a MQ Patrol with a 2.8 litre petrol engine that was in MINT condition. It had been clearly owned by an old boy who’d polished it every weekend. It would have been interesting to see how the 2.8 handled all the weight we put in it, but as I said, it got sold whilst I was trying to sort out a RACV check on it. I looked at loads of other Patrols, but again, the age was a factor at our price point. The 3.0 litre petrol ones were almost affordable, but a lot of them seemed to have knackered bottom ends.
Next the Pajeros. The 80’s vintage Paj seemed to be pretty good value, but all I found in my searching was clapped out rust buckets (rust in the roof was a big problem!) and dodgy grey imports. No dice.
Finally, the Jackaroos. I drove a contender at a car yard early on in the search, which is what put them on the map. A bit small, but the cabin space was better than a 4runner or a Pathfinder. And they are cheap! There also seemed to be a number of them that had been really well looked after. I looked at both the first generation and the second generation, but in the end the 2nd gen ones (post 1990) were too expensive. So finally I found Lauper sitting in a mechanic’s workshop in Malvern... 129,000 kms on the clock, immaculate interior and paintwork, and most importantly, it was one of only TWO cars (out of what must have been around 50 I looked at) that had seen a grease gun in the last few years. The other one was a patrol that a couple of Israeli guys had driven to Cape York and back... mechanically excellent, but the body was a bit stuffed!
Lauper was a bit expensive. The guy wanted $5000 for her, and the other 85 Jackaroos were generally going for $3,500. However, this was registered til October, had a RWC and brand new tyres. After some serious negotiations I got him down to $4,200 and picked her up on New Year’s Day.
I got a bargain. After getting her home and conducting a service (all oils/filters, repack wheel bearings, full grease), I got a true sense of just how good the condition of the car was. She has clearly been loved, with everything in superb condition. Even the under bonnet area looks like it just rolled off the factory line. I’ve seen cars at shows that would have had dirtier engine bays that Lauper had when I picked her up.
She didn’t have any oil leaks (that’s changed- thank Margaret River Auto electrics for the new oil leak. More later) and everywhere you looked she was clean and well maintained. She’s since done 14 thousand km/s and the only trouble has been with the Alternator, which is more to do with the salty water crossing that it endured than the overall condition of it at the start of the trip. The previous owner must have been seriously anal. I wonder if his wife was jealous of how much attention he paid the car...
This post is getting far too long, so I’m going to leave it there for now. There’s more to tell... a fair bit of work went into preparing Cindy for this trip, and I’ll bore you with that another time. I’m off to do a job interview now, so wish me luck.
*half-dead donkey power, an imperial measure of power output that has fallen out of use since the advent of engines that actually produce reasonable power outputs.
