Chrysler Centura is First Produced

The Chrysler Centura was a midsize car built by Chrysler Australia, based on Chrysler Europe's Chrysler 180.

These cars were based on the French Simca 180 bodies and were available with Australian made 3.5 Litre and 4.0 litre Hemi Sixes. About 20,000 Australian Centuras were built between 1975 and 1977.
Engineers from Chrysler Australia and Simca considered modifying the body and shortening the drive train so they could place the Australian 6 cylinder engines further back in the body but instead decided to lengthen the nose as Chrysler Australia apparently felt this created a more aggressive and better looking car. It also meant less changes were needed to "Australianise" the car making it cheaper to assemble. Additional changes though largely cosmetic included a new grill, headlights, bonnet and rear panel and taillights.
To compensate for the extra weight at the front of the car a brake proportioning valve was fitted, to compensate for weight shifts. When the car "nose-dived" under heavy braking, the proportioning valve reduced the brake pressure on the rear wheels, to prevent them from locking up and causing the back of the car to slide.
Chrysler also experimented with fitting a 5.2 litre (318 ci) American made V8 but decided that the body wasn't strong enough to cope with the larger engine and the V8 version never went into production.
The KB (from 1975) and KC (from June 1977 to the end of 1978) series Centuras sold and assembled in Australia not only had a 2 litre version of the 4 cylinder 1.6 lite Simca engine but were also available with Australian made 6 cylinder pushrod 3.5 litre and 4.0 litre hemi engines and Borg Warner Automatic (3 speed) and manual gearboxes (3 and 4 speed) and the option of Australian made steel sports wheels. The 4 litre 6 KC with the four speed manual and sports wheels is the most sought after by enthusiasts.
The 3.5 litre had a 3.23:1 differential ratio and the 4.0 litre a 2.92:1 ratio. These Australian sixes also came w...

In response to the growing success of the medium sized Ford Cortina and Holden Torana, Chrysler countered with the Centura.

Based on the French "Simca", the Centura was considered by many to be too little too late, being released in 1975, some 8 years after the Torana and TC Cortina had made inroads and established their market share.

Entry level Centura's had the donor Simca's 4 cylinder engine bored out to increase capacity from 1.8 litres to 2.0 litres. But to be competitive in the Australian market, and compete equally with the Cortina and Torana, Chrysler needed a mid sized six cylinder car.

Chrysler Australia engineers set about transplanting the Valiant's Hemi 245 engine, utilising an Australian Borg-Warner gearbox, tailshaft, and differential.

The Centura was criticised at the time for its handling, particularly in 6 cylinder form with a heavy front end and extremely light rear end. However unlike the Valiants and Chargers of the day that had torsion bar front ends with leafsprung rears, the Centura had coil springs all round.

To compensate for the 6 cylinder Centura's weird weight distribution Chrysler engineers placed a variable hydraulic pressure limiting valve in the rear braking circuit.

This device sensed the cars attitude and reduced the rear brake pressure when the front of the car dived, such as under hard braking, thereby preventing the rear brakes from locking up.

This device was bolted to the rear of the chassis and connected to the rear axle through a series of springs and levers. Few owners bothered to maintain the device properly and existing examples of the Centura have probably had the device "bypassed".

The Centura would not last 3 years in the showroom, initially being released as the KB and then followed by the facelifted and better optioned KC model. The European Simca C180 on which the Centura was based had slightly better longevity, being manufactured from 1970 to 1981.