These German-made head gasket keyring tags could be one of the coolest car-related gifts this Christmas.
If you’re searching for a last-minute Christmas gift for the car enthusiast in your life but don’t know what to get them, we may have found the ideal stocking filler – keyring tags stamped in the shape of their favourite car’s engine head-gasket.
Listed by German firm ‘DisagrEE’, the company offers a range of keyrings which incorporate the head gasket designs of popular car engines – from the Subaru WRX’s ‘EJ’ flat-four, to multiple iterations of BMW’s straight-sixes and the Ford Mustang’s ‘Coyote’ V8.
While the website’s best-selling products are based on European, Japanese, and North American engines, it also offers three Australian-designed choices.
For fans of turbocharged Ford Falcons, the ‘Barra’ head gasket keyring celebrates the 4.0-litre straight six engine which was produced in Geelong from 2002 to 2016.
Across its 14-year lifecycle, the Barra became the most powerful production engine to be made in Australia, with Ford increasing its initial outputs of 240kW/450Nm in the ‘BA’ Falcon XR6 Turbo to 325kW/576Nm in the ‘FGX’ XR6 Sprint.
The Barra was also sold in non-turbocharged guise across the same period of time – with the final Ford Falcon to roll off the Broadmeadows assembly line on 7 October 2016 was fitted with the naturally-aspirated engine.
A pair of closely-related Holden engines are also available, with DisagrEE offering keyrings based on the design of the iconic straight-six and its unloved four-cylinder ‘Starfire’ sibling.
Introduced in 1963, the Holden’s six-cylinder ‘Red’ motor was found in multiple generations of the Australian car-maker’s most popular models, powering the Kingswood, Commodore and Torana.
In 1972, Peter Brock won his first of nine Bathurst endurance races, doing so in a Holden LJ Torana XU-1 which was powered by a Red motor.
The Red motor was superseded by the ‘Blue’ in 1980, while the ‘Black’ launched in 1984 and lasted for just two years. From 1986, the Holden straight-six was replaced by Nissan’s RB30E engine (also available as a keyring).
Throughout its 23-year Australian production run, the Holden six-cylinder engine ranged from 2.1 litres (138 cubic inches) to 3.3 litres (202 cubic inches).
In 1978, Holden launched the ‘Starfire’ 1.9-litre four-cylinder engine in the Torana-based Sunbird, replacing a 13-year-old Opel design.
The Starfire was largely based on the design of Holden’s popular six-cylinder, though it was criticised for its low power and torque outputs (58kW and 136Nm), which led to higher than expected fuel consumption.
This excessive fuel consumption led to the Starfire being nicknamed the ‘Misfire’ and ‘Backfire’.
Holden decided to make the Starfire available in the VC and VH-generation Commodore, but the six-cylinder and V8 engines proved to be more popular with new-car buyers.
From 1979 to 1983, the Australian-built Toyota Corona also adopted the Starfire (rebranded as the 1X), as regulations at the time required cars produced in Australia to include at least 85 per cent locally-sourced parts.
Holden’s Starfire was killed off in 1986, with the Commodore exclusively powered by six-cylinder and V8 engines until 2018 when local production ended.
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