- For the first D-List that we ever made,
we covered a bunch of cars that are awesome,
but we never got in America, and it hurt.
But what hurts even more is that there are awesome cars
made by American car companies
that were never sold in America?
Today, I'm gonna be talking about Mexican Jeeps,
Chinese Buicks, and a whole lot of Fords.
So hire a dog sitter
and try to remember where you put your passport.
This is the D-List.
Ford is the daddy of some of the best American cars
to ever be made.
But Ford also makes some of the best British cars
of all time.
Sacrebleu, mate.
And starting off this list is...
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] Le Ford Escort.
- Now, I know what you're saying?
Yeah, we got the Escort, but here's the thing.
We didn't get any of the cool ones.
Cool Escorts? Yeah.
Ford started making the MK1 Escort in 1968,
12 years before the first American Escort.
And there've been a ton of super sick versions
along the way.
But if you ask me and by clicking that title,
you did ask me in a way,
the Escort that tops all other Escorts
came in 1984 with the RS Turbo.
Ford made 5,000 of these turbo charged baby boys.
They came with Recaro seats and LSDs.
Of the 5,000 ever produced, 4,999 were painted white
and only one RS turbo being painted a different color.
Black.
It was a special order for her Royal Highness,
the Princess Diana.
Rest in peace, GOAT.
Great taste in cars and the originator of normcore.
Shia LaBeouf would not have his signature swag
if it weren't for Princess Di.
Swag.
What are you lookin'...
What do you look for in a car?
Do you want a car that's reliable?
Fast perhaps?
Maybe bulletproof?
Well then, look no further, my friend
than the Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Armored.
Jeep launched this rolling panic room with tow hitch,
exclusively in Mexico earlier this year
to offer a solution to the ongoing threat
of kidnapping and violence
in certain areas of that country.
The car has Bulletproof glass and body paneling.
It's capable of stopping anything up to a .44 Magnum round
in case you ever get cut off by Clint Eastwood
on the freeway.
Underneath this Jeep is a grenade proof belly pan,
run-flat tires and reinforced suspension.
Making sure that you have the means to escape
if you ever find yourself in a tricky spot.
What are you? Brad Pitt?
Who needs this?
Other than that it's business as usual.
Napa leather seats, Apple CarPlay.
It's got a Hemi.
Every bit, the refined ride.
But then again, it should be.
With a price tag of 1,850,900
pesos.
That's like $80,000.
That's really not bad for a car that is bomb proof.
We've talked about it before.
The US ain't the only muscle car-loving nation
on this fat, green earth.
Down Under, they're about that life too, mate.
Australia loves muscle cars.
And then in the '70s,
when American cars were losing muscle mass,
Australia cars were getting ripped, like that big...
Picture, that big, old buff kangaroo.
And one of the coolest-looking Australian muscle boys is-
- [Narrator] Chrysler Valiant Charger.
- Now, let me tell you guys, this thing is a looker.
I'm a big fan of that rear window.
Imagine pulling into a Cars & Coffee
in your right-hand drive,
Australian market '70s Mopar.
Speaking of Australia, I wanna give a quick update
on Nolan II.
As a symbol of my humility,
I have adopted this kangaroo.
He is hopping.
It's very cute.
And I got my official card that says I own him.
Now, the one you're gonna wanna get
is the Charger 770 SE E55, which really,
really is a poetic name for a car.
This one came with a 340 cubic inch V8
with 295 kangaroo power.
And it came in a bunch of really, really cool colors,
like fuchsia and two different colors of pee.
- [Narrator] Dodge Ramcharger.
- The Dodge Ramcharger was an American legend.
And sadly, this thuggish brute was taken away from us
far too soon just like Andre the Giant.
Production here in America ended in 1993.
However, you might be surprised to know,
that between 1999 and 2001,
a third generation Ramcharger was built,
only this one was hecho in Mexico.
The name alone conjures images of an outlaw.
A "Mad Max" desert grad, a weapon on wheels.
Can you picture it?
Can you see its muscular body,
its harsh lines, its unforgiving bad-ass style?
Okay, now, forget everything you just imagined
and look at this guy.
Yeah.
The third generation Dodge Ramcharger
also called the Plymouth Trailduster,
was essentially a Dodge Ram upfront
and a Chrysler town and country minivan out back.
Could be had with a 5.9 liter Magnum V8
and rear wheel drive.
It's basically a two-door, two-wheel drive Durango.
But even with only two doors,
it still had third row seating.
And the third row was side facing.
So you and your little sister
can kick each other on road trips.
I'm not touching you.
Don't touch me. I'm not touching you.
If you kids don't calm down, I will turn this car around,
drive back home, duct tape you to the banister
and burn the house down.
Americans love nothing more than cramming
huge old V8s into dainty, little British cars.
I'm talking about Jensen Interceptor, the Sunbeam Tiger,
the Shelby fricking Cobra, ever heard of it?
All these cars perfectly married European looks
and handling with American HRSPR and noises.
However, one of the lesser known
yet most excellent examples
of this marriage of style and substance
is rarely ever talked about.
I'm talking about the awesomely named...
- [Narrator] Chevy Chev Firenza Can-Am.
- This is one of the cutest looking muscle cars.
Period!
And we got South African touring car legend,
Basil van Rooyen, to thank for its creation.
He was eager to put an end to the Ford Capri's domination
of the South African production car championship.
So he took two regular Chevy Firenzas
and dropped big block Holden V8s under the hood.
Chevy executives loved what they saw
and decided to build 100 of the cars
as homologation specials in 1973
so that Basil could go out and race them.
But, the little Chev never got to achieve racing glory.
As the 1973 season eventually got called off
due to our old friend, the 1973 oil crisis.
If you wanna show your friends how deeply knowledgeable
you are on this subject,
head to our store donutmedia.com
and get yourself an official oil crisis T-shirt.
- [Narrator] Buick Park Avenue.
- You may actually have seen the Buick Park Avenue
on American Streets.
Since way back in 1975, Buick has used the name
for their most executive trim levels
across their entire range.
In the '90s, it became its own model
built on the C platform, which was the sister car
to the effortlessly cool Buick Roadmaster,
but don't get it twisted.
The Park Avenue was Buick's most luxurious flagship car.
A second-generation ran from '97 to 2005
when Buick retired the name everywhere except China.
Because in 2007, along came this.
The third gen Park Avenue.
But spoiler alert, it's really just an Australian-made
Holden Caprice with Buick badges.
That's right.
American car named after a famous New York City street,
sold only in China and built by Australians.
It's like a Peking duck, hot dog with Vegemite on it.
Now, despite the somewhat underwhelming LY7 motor,
the Park Avenue sold relatively well in China,
a country where style and class
outweighs out and out performance.
The reason? Buick Park Avenue looked and sounded expensive.
It was an American luxury car.
The interior was covered in leather and wood.
And most importantly, it was 204 inches long.
That's almost as long as nine German shepherds
sniffing each other's butts end to end.
We're talking S-Class levels of longitudinal opulence.
And it's funny to me that Americans were sick
of the Park Avenue, but to the Chinese market,
it was a real slice of luxury.
Just goes to show you one man's trash
is another man's Buick Park Avenue.
- [Narrator] Chevy Calibra.
- If you're of the European persuasion,
the very mention of the word Calibra
might cause your heart rate to skyrocket,
and for your mouth to begin uncontrollably drooling.
If you're from America,
you won't know what the heck I'm talking about.
What is that?
Is that a place where you do your gap year?
The Opel Colibra was a car built
on an unspectacular chassis,
but with rather spectacular looks.
In fact, at one point,
it was the most aerodynamic production car in the world.
GM, who owned Opel, loved the look.
So they decided to rebadge it as a Chevy
and sell it in South Africa.
And it sold so well
that for a brief time, GM were generally considering
putting a bigger engine in it
and selling it here in the US.
Now, obviously this never happened,
but can you imagine this beaut with a V8?
Talk about a genuine Mustang rival.
- [Narrator] Chevy Montana.
- I think it's fair to say that trucks today
are ridiculously big.
I mean, bigger is better. That is obvious.
But do you ever find yourself lying awake at night,
staring up at your ceiling fan,
wanting to confide in someone, anyone?
Speak your truth and admit
that you actually miss small trucks.
I know I do.
Well, take a look at this one
and you might begin to think again about that
because it's ugly.
This is the Chevy Montana.
This truck is sold exclusively in Latin and Central America,
and is based on the Chevrolet Agile?
Agile?
The hatchback roughly the same size as a Volkswagen Golf.
This isn't a truck, it's a truckito.
It's like a Bill Maher joke.
This thing is only 177 inches long.
Compare that with a double cab F-150, which is 251 inches.
And yet this plucky little Montana
has a payload capacity of 1,671 pounds.
That's not half bad for a truck
that's literally half the size of other trucks.
To any Australians watching,
one, please check in on Nolan II.
Two, is this thing a ute?
Let me know in the comments.
- [Narrator] Ford Sierra Cosworth.
- Probably the ultimate economy performance car
to come out of Ford of Great Britain is in at number two.
The Sierra Cosworth.
Introduced in 1985,
it was as I'm sure you've already guessed,
a regular Ford Sierra,
given a little boost from the good folks at Cosworth.
This hot hatch has one of the weirdest-looking,
most sickest spoilers of all time.
It's like one of those biplanes
from the '30s or '20s or '10s.
I don't know.
We didn't google it.
Max won't let me use Google, 'cause I get in trouble.
As soon as I figure out my location,
I will tell you guys my coordinates,
and please come break me out.
Fun fact.
With its notoriously weak door locks
and enviable performance figures,
the Sierra Cosworth became one of the most stolen cars
in British history.
And as a result, after a couple years,
it became over four times as expensive to insure
as it was when the car was first launched.
So like the Acura Integra GS-R of England.
♪ If we've met ♪
♪ We've finally reached the end of the list ♪
♪ What is the best car ♪
♪ That we didn't get in America ♪
It's the Ford Falcon.
Now, you might be saying, "James, we got the Falcon.
You did a dang Bumper 2 Bumper
back when you hosted that show, you freaking dingus.
It's the daddy of the Mustang, you said.
Remember that?"
I do.
But, the Ford Falcon you all love and know
is nothing like the one that we didn't get.
'cause we're talking about an American spec family hauler.
We're talking about the most famous
Aussie muscle car of all time.
The Ford Falcon GTHO 351.
GTHO? G-T-H-O.
Stands for get the heck outta here.
Don't you know how to knock?
What Ford managed to do so successfully
with the Australian spec Falcon was give a four-door sedan
genuine muscle car performance credentials.
Came with Ford's 351 V8,
plucked beneath the gnarly shaker hood.
It also had big ol' brakes and good ol' suspension.
In stock form, it produced a tasty 300 HRSPRS,
but Ford was smart and offered the power-loving Aussies
engine upgrades right out of the showroom.
Up to 350 horsepower to zero to 60 in like six seconds.
This is the original.
It's like BMW M5 or some crap.
And this isn't even the only cool Falcon
that Ford Australia produced during its...
Wait for it.
56-year run.
There was the Mustang-bred Falcon XR,
the '80s nostalgia bomb.
There was the Falcon EA, get in the game.
They even made a Falcon Ute,
in case you gotta carry some lumber
while you're doing a burnout.
The Falcon GT really was a family car
with psycho levels of pony power performance,
not unlike the Dodge Charger Hellcat
that sells so well today.
Only this thing came a long time before the Hellcat.
So not only is the Falcon GT
the coolest American car never sold in America,
but it might just be one of the coolest American cars ever.
Thank you guys so much for spending
the last 15, 20 minutes with me.
Make sure you hit that like and subscribe button.
It really helps us out.
If you wanna watch that video
that I was talking about in the intro,
check out this episode of the D-List.
You ever wonder why cars are getting so big?
Check out this episode of Nolan's show Wheelhouse.
I love you.
I love elephant shoe.