Australia!

A smoke bomb on the rear axle?

Reason enough to emigrate!

Except for my loan, the missus, and getting allowed in!

well thats a 671 supercharger sticking out the bonnet so it would have to be a small block ford or chevy at the very least

That Cavalier Estate would have probably been a Holden Camira. Shitbox.

The top car in the first post is a highly modified Holden Monaro HG GTS350 and would date from 1970.

The silver coupe is a HQ Monaro and would be from 1971 to 1974. I learned to drive in a beat up HQ ute with a 2.85 six and a 3 speed manual box. At 45mph the front end started shaking ;D Good thing it only cost $500 We did a lot of work to it before we sold it though, including the front panels from a Statesman.

The black coupe looks like a HX Monaro. Identical from the windscreen back to an HQ monaro (unlike the HX sedans) but with different nose panels.

That Cortina is a post 1973 Mk3 called a TD here and was oricinally a six cylinder, judging by the 4 headlights and power bulge (both only on sixes here) and was not a top of the range or it would have square lights. It almost certainly has a Ford smallblock "Windsor" motor like Will Holman's Capri. I knew somebody with one of these in a wagon. It went like stink, even without a supercharger.

The orange Toyota Corolla almost certainly has a modern twin cam Toyota engine like a 4AGE 20 valve or something of that sort. This is very common here, as there are a lot of Japanese cars that come here after their time expires there, but due to our stupid laws, a car under 15 years old is very difficult to import unless that model was never sold here, so they are cut in half and imported as parts and the engines fid their way into all sorts of old J iron (or is that tin?).
Also if you build a car from scratch like the "Locost" from the book by Ron Champoin ( we have a chassis out the back, was going to be MX5 powered) you must use an engine that meets current emmisions requirements, currently Euro3 so lots of J import engines go there.