Hmmm.... Never drove an auto one but my 1.6l JB manual was quite good compared to most cars in it's class of the era. It was no rocket but still went ok though. Reaper
alot of them did suffer from valve stem seal failure. Try the local Library for the workshop manual .As for the panels rusting out ,it must have been a desigh flaw as they were built along side the commodore on the same production line and were subject to the same anti rust treatment and painted in the same paint shop .
There was a big variation in performance between models: JB, with the 1.6 carb. were pretty slow, particularly in 3 speed auto. and 4 speed spec. where geared fairly tall and widely spaced. Add in A/C and power steering and the little engine was working pretty hard. Incidentally, JB Camira A/C, when working properly, is like a refrigerator - i.e. very good. The leaded 1.8 EFI (Bosch multipoint) JDs - October 1984-December 1985 - were reasonably quick as they had significantly more power (83kw vs 64kw, I think) and better (lower and closer spaced) gearing, at least on the 5 speeds. JD unleaded were slow again with a lower compression ratio and use of Delco TBI - back to 60 something kW (the exact level is best forgotten, so I have) and taller gearing once more. (I think the engine was adopted with minimal changes from the US J-car as a quick and dirty means of complying with the introduction of unleaded petrol - GMH was effectively bankrupt at the time.) JE (unleaded) used a 2.0l multipoint and were back up to 85kw, with the inherent torque of the bigger engine. Gearing was somewhere between the JD 1.8 leaded and the others. There was also a 1.6(?) TBI version (initially?) available on the base (SL?) model which hardly anyone bought. Camiras were a bit bigger than the small cars of their time but not quite as big as the other '2.0l' cars so they sort of got a bit lost in who they were aimed at. They were (are) fairly light at around 1030-1070kg so with the bigger, more highly developed engines they were pretty quick for their time. The 83 and 85kW power levels give power to weights similar to that of the contemporary Series 1, 2 and 3 RX-7. Most people (at the time of release) didn't think they went to badly. Tuning and condition make a big difference too. If the cam belt is stretched or out a tooth, power takes a big dive, as does having the ignition timing set improperly. With JE, the early fuel and ignition maps in the memcals are better than the later ones which were updated to fix customer reports of knocking.
Agree with last post! I bought a VL Commodore (3.0L) and JE Camira (2.0L) in the late 1980's. I really liked the Nissan 6, but the Camira was a great runabout. Good performance, good response, good economy, good handling and fun to drive. From all reports at the time, so were the early JD's. The JB and the unleaded JD were underpowered, and probably challended the old 120Y on the "pulling the skin off the rice pudding" test. Drivers had to trash them just to get going, let alone keep up with traffic. That is not a good recipe for reliability. The low powered derivatives were aimed at those seeking better economy due to the fuel shock in the 1980's. However, the JE with the 2.0L was probably the most fuel efficient as the engine handled the job without straining. Yes, JB's were unreliable. But JE was a really good car. I was sad to see it pass away in the mad scamble for shared models pushed by the Button Plan.
Yeah - replaced by a rebadged bloody Toyota! The only good thing about that was that the Camry of the day was a good model too. I hate Toyotas, but that 86-91 model was a neat and well proportioned car. It just looked stupid wearing Holden badges.
Stupid commercial I remember the Camira being released and that stupid commercial. The Camira was anything but a supercar, but the bloke who named it that probably got his job by naming the four cylinder motor the "Starfire" a few years earlier. Now, THAT was a real piece of pus.
The Camira 'supercar' campaign might have been developed by the same long haired trendy ponces (it was the '80s) that came up with advertising the contemporary Nissan Bluebird as a 'limousine'. Long lunches and coke probably have a lot to answer for . More (useless?) Camira trivia: It is possible to change a (JB at least; I think the some of the later models used a different design) clutch pressure and driven plate in about 20 mins. (The book time is 30 mins from memory). There were tools; three little clips that were used to hold the pressure plate off the driven plate and the gearbox input shaft was pulled back from the flywheel after accessing it through a cover on the end of the gearbox. If the flywheel also needed machining, the 'box had to come out though. There are actually quite a few clever pieces of engineering on Camiras. It's just a shame they didn't spend as much time working out how to put them together properly.
