"Barn Finds" still happen.

They sure do! Take a look at this 1952 Cunningham that turned up in America.

Check out the carbies.

This all reminds me of a sports car that turned up in a shed in Truro, just down the road. The owner, many years ago, ditched an ultralight into St. Vincent Gulf and was never seen again. His daughter thought she had inherited a Bolwell Mark 4. It turned out to be a KM300. I must post some pictures. Or have I already done that?

Saving the best til last.

Young Tom made it on to the Podium this year at the final round for the season in Atlanta.

On to bigger and better things next year!

Gawler Swap Meet

Last Sunday the Gawler Swap Meet happened and it was HUGE. In the short space of time that I've been going to them I've seen them at the trotting track, then at the thoroughbred racecourse and now at the showgrounds. I wasn't prepared for the enormity of the event but it became evident by the cars parked in the streets right down to the caravan park almost. Yes, it makes the Kapunda Swap Meet look small by comparison but it seemed much bigger than previous Gawler events too. Maybe it's a sign of the times which is bringing out the bargain hunters or perhaps a celebration of the proposed swap meet and garage sale squad not getting off the ground (which didn't stop one t-shirt vendor doing good business with one style depicting Mike Rann with toothbrush moustache and hair parted down the middle). Talking about the caravan park, there is an area out the front where you can park your car with a for sale sign on it and attract the notice of everybody who comes in to Gawler from the North. Well, that stretch of bitumen was chockers with HRs and so on, quite a smorgasbord. Probably just as well, there might not have been room for them all inside the showgrounds. Yes, inside there was just row upon row of "stuff". In my opinion, the "buy" of the day was an unrestored but very complete, very straight, rust free 1948 Chev ute on a trailer. The owner wanted $950 for it. It sold almost immediately to a cheeky buyer who stole it for $900. I can't talk, I paid $10 for a "Hillman" tail-light assembly marked $15, my only purchase. Don't know what happened to the other one. Same goes for a very tempting 240K tail-light set - yet again one side only. Beven and Duncan had their usual book stalls inside in the comfort of the Roller Derby Hall. Gawler members seemed to be everywhere of course. Some were vendors selling everything from coloured licorice to sales brochures to Triumph instruments while a more articulate member could be heard making announcements over the P.A. I saw a few Kapunda chapter members, Dale had his usual collection of bits and a certain other Eudunda bloke was vainly searching for Herald/Spitfire bonnet catches for his Italia. There were even a few Bolly members from places like Birdwood and Eden Valley. It would be nice restoring a T Model these days, there's reproduction everything. Not much Jap stuff although I did see a Datsun 1600 that had the roof crudely hacked off and just as crudely tacked on again. Don't say "why would you bother?", they're getting harder to come by now. A stroll through the display cars was good, lots of nice Chevs and GTs and Toranas and Monaros and early Holdens and in particular, a very striking Landau coupe. This lovely looking "Mark 7" motor was in an historic speedway vehicle. I don't know whether you call it an early sprint car or sportsman or hot rod. Different speedways had different types of cars. This was evident to me years ago when I moved to Mt. Gambier and they had hot rods and things at Borderline that we city-slicker Rowley Parkers weren't familiar with.Out in the street was another car show among the visitors vehicles. I noticed a Mark 5 Jag, lots of '55 to '57 Chevs, a Targa Florio, Mustangs and GTs everywhere, a Sunbeam Tiger etc. etc.

50th Anniversary of the Mini.

For the Mini anniversary, this year's Goodwood Revival featured the Mini in addition to the Stirling Moss celebrations. There were heaps of Minis in all forms. Mr. Bean made one of his rare appearances with his green example. Unfortunately it was a bit full so he had to drive it from the armchair on the roof.

1957 Jaguar XK150 FHC

Talking about New Zealand, I couldn't help noticing this Jag for sale on the net. With my usual bias I'm drawn to the XK150 coupes a bit because I had a nice burgundy example when I was fairly young. At least I thought it was nice. I don't like the roadsters much, they look a little like blimps, but the coupes are good. If you had to have a Jag these are the pick of them, better than 120s, 140s and E-types I think. This one is in New Zealand and is described as "a modified street car which has been optimised for weekend track days." It was on an American site and priced at $55k USD.

It looks really tough without its bumpers and with the louvered bonnet and 8" wire wheels. The car is used in NZ Vintage Racing Club events, must be regularity events as there is no roll bar or cage.

The low back racing bucket looks good and that steering wheel is a Moto-Lita.

The engine is a 3.8 litre and has a C-type head, D-type ground cams, a baffled alloy sump and twin 2'' SUs. Behind it is a 5-speed Supra box and limited slip diff.The owner suggests coming to New Zealand to take delivery and running the car in the BRUCE McLAREN REVIVAL and the SOUTHERN FESTIVAL of SPEED in January and early February 2010. These are big-deal events and as well as the big-banger sports car races, there are F5000 races and Historic F1 races. Trevor is taking the Elfin over. There are races at the new Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, Pukekohe Park Raceway and Taupo Motorsport Park. Bruce McLaren died in 1970 while testing a new Can-Am McLaren in the UK and this year is the 40th anniversary of that tragedy and very special to Kiwis in particular and motorsport fans in general so the 2010 Tasman Revival Series is going to be big. Take a look at the NZ Bruce McLaren site. http://www.bruce-mclaren.com/

Anyway, my own XK was an XK150S which was a high performance version of the XK150. It did not have the optional 3.8 litre engine, being a 3.4 but was still good for well over 130mph. It had a 4-speed with Laycock de Normanville electric overdrive. They were made from 1958 to 1961 in roadster form with the FHC coming out in 1959.

Tom's finale (for this season anyway)

Photobucket

In the "Bolwell photos in Photobucket" (see links) there is (so far) only one "old school" Nagari. It's B8/21 and is one of two actual running "international" examples. It's Simon Peryer's car in New Zealand. The other one is in Europe of course. There is also a body/chassis kit in New Zealand. Last time I had enquired it had not progressed to a complete car.

This photo was contributed by Leetra who has quite a collection on Photobucket mainly of model cars including a number of New Zealand rally cars. The occasion was the annual Ellerslie Concourse D'elegance in Auckland two years ago when the car first arrived in NZ. Simon was invited by NZ Classic Car magazine to have it on show. The magazine at the time did a comprehensive article on the car and those collectors who don't already have a copy can view the article on the NSW Bolwell Club website, I think it's still there. From time to time the magazine comes up on Ebay.

Problems with chemicals

Peter Marr alerted me to an article that I'm glad I've read and would like to pass it on for anyone else who cares to take a look. It's title is "Common Cleaners Can Turn Into Poison Gas" and can be found at http://www.brewracingframes.com/id75.htm

Last weekend

Last weekend lots of things happened around our way and here's a few of them. It was the weekend of the Celtic Festival in Kapunda for a start, kicked off on Friday night at the Clare Castle with a couple of bands and the odd beer and the roast of the day. Next day was the mega garage sale which we checked out in the morning before getting down to Hill Street to be entertained. There were over 80 places in town having garage sales. We managed to pick up a couple of items. Anyway, down the street it was all happening. Below is my favourite group on the day, a bluegrass band and lots of banjo. That bloke, second from left, on the mandolin, actually made the mandolin I'm told.

Later in the day we went to the Sir John Franklin for the singing competition. Can't tell you the winners because we weren't able to hang around the bush dance up there road, where the results were announced, long enough to find out. This group below are RedCat from Victoria in the front bar of the Sir Sidney Kidman (a fancy new name for the North Kapunda).

The next day was Beven Young's big 65th birthday bash down in the big smoke but before we headed off we hung around for the Celtic Festival parade which, apart from the archers and whole bunches of jousting angry looking Mel Gibsons with big sticks, included all the local fire appliances, dogs on leads from the obedience club which were relatively well behaved until almost the end when the fight broke out, this year's crop of calves from the high school and the pedal prix vehicles etc etc, but here's the highlight, a collection of P76s. The third one in the group (and I didn't get a photo because I was still recovering from taking one of Sandy Deuter driving the cream one) was a chocolate coloured example with 20" wheels and a sound not unlike a F5000 every time the driver blipped the throttle, making the ground shake. There are a few P76s around, I even saw one of those blue and silver Targa Florios today, parked outside the Gawler Swap Meet.

Anyway, it was then off to the Somerton Girl Guide Hall for the birthday show which was great. I'll leave the photos for the next Slipstream but here's a couple of others. If I had managed to get both doors open in time, Norm and Sarah cuold have driven straight in. They were a couple of hours late because they were lost again as usual. Fortunately this time they didn't end up in Strathalbyn. This is even with the NavMan sitting on the dashboard, how could you go wrong?

And here's a couple of beaut looking little kids learning about Clementes out the front.

Goodwood Revival

Tomorrow is the first day of this year's Goodwood Revival and the main feature is going to be Stirling Moss who is turning 80. There are going to be over 80 of the actual cars he has raced over the years including this Aston Martin DBR1.

2010 Lotus Evora Type 124

Just introduced at the Frankfurt Motor Show which began yesterday, the latest step in the evolution of the Evora is the Type 124 (pronounced One Twenty Four) Endurance Racecar.

It will make its 24 hour debut at Nurburgring. It too has the Toyota V6 mid and transversally mounted and putting out 400bhp, gearbox is 6 speed sequential. Doesn't it look great?

Just to prove nothing is new in the world of cars, it has very nice running boards just like my old 1926 Buick.

Devin sports cars

I've been collecting pictures of Devins and putting them away for future reference because I'm working up to a post on the sports cars of Bill Devin. Bill had been building fibreglass bodies and complete cars from about 1950, continuing into the sixties. He only passed away in 2000. He began racing sports cars in California and was a mate of Phil Hill and all those other guys who raced the sporties back then. In addition to the bodies for various chassis, he made a variety of his own car models. Everywhere I look in American historic sports car events I find Devins or Devin based specials. Bruno in Switzerland has a Devin TR as well. Anyway, tonight I discovered these old ads in Road and Track dated 1956. Read the text, doesn't this look like the JWF Milano/Italia beginnings on the other side of the world?

Rules and Regulations : Headlight height.

Early plans for the Ikara had the headlights incorporated into the front guards but unfortunately that made them just not quite high enough to satisfy regulations in Australia on headlight height. Therefore the headlight pods were developed as a separate item and bolted to the front guards at the correct height to get around the problem.

Just take a look at this similar situation. The current little Fiats that have just gone on sale in the US as a result of the FIAT/Chrysler entanglement are not the first attempt to sell the baby Italians in that country. This is the "USspec" Fiat 500 made for that market between 1958 and 1962. Look at the headlights.

Tom in Canada

Good taste

Here's a smart looking MGA. Smart owner too.

Look what's under the bonnet. 6 cylinders.240Z no less.

This is not an ad.

But I just wanted to let everybody know that Custom Kitcar magazine just keeps getting better and better. This latest edition is so full of "how tos" I'm going become an expert by the time I get through it, and I'm still trying to get to the back cover of the previous edition. Congratulations Robert.

I'm writing this because you don't see this magazines on the news stands any more. A subscription is a good investment.

B8/61

Bob also sent me some photos of the next Nagari he and Kerryn had after B8/5 with the comment:- "As for the yellow sports, we sold it about 7 years after moving to the Gold Coast, must have been around 1995, to help pay for a new house. It was sold by Gilltrap's Auctions (before they absconded overseas!) and sent to Perth. It was possibly bought by Errol Du Boulay according to another WA Bolly owner Charlie Stone."

I've always been fond of this car. I think it was an advanced kit and very well built at the time. One of the things I recall was the smart looking Jaguar rocker switches. In the early Nagari days I remember original owner, Howard Ellis, who lived in North Melbourne, bringing it along to the odd Easter. Next to own it was Bob and Kerryn Hampton, also Victorians at the time. Bob grew up in SA and began his working life there, managing to escape before they closed the gate. Subsequently they moved to Queensland. On 29/9/1991, the car was sold on their behalf at Gilltrap's Auction. The publicity on the car told us that there was a reserve of $40,000 to $45,000, that the owners had owned the car for 7 years, that it had been restored three and a half years ago, it had covered a mere 6,700 km and was in good condition. The purchaser was a Mr. A. Gould. It ended up in WA, being owned by John Illig and then Errol Du Boulay. It is in the process of changing hands yet again. I wonder if that Victorian registration number in these pictures would still be available should that be where the car settles.

More on B8/5

Remember a few months back we talked about B8/5? We traced it through SA, NT, Vic. and finally NSW. It was more than a few months ago now that I think about it. Bob Hampton recalls that I had mentioned his crashing the car and says:- "Actually I was having a great drive through the Dandenongs near home when the bolt holding the RHF upper wishbone snapped! It appeared to have an old stress fracture in it, possibly as a result of being driven from Darwin to Melbourne to sell it. Luckily I had just turned from a "T" junction and was not travelling too fast, otherwise the end result would have been much worse.

Attached are a couple of photos that I managed to find. The 1st one was taken on the beach at Robe at one of the very early get-togethers with the SA club over Easter. It has been blown up from a section of the original photo so is a bit blurry unfortunately. It is in its original colour 'Vermillion Fire', the one used for GTHO's. If you look carefully you'll see that it had side vents behind the front wheel arches where the top 3 dummy ones normally are. These look like they have been removed judging from the photos on your blog, although the openings are still there. The other 2 photos show the car after the accident and the offending wheel."

That was a long time ago. You can't drive on the beach down there at all now. It's probably a good thing. Some of the rarer sea birds are coming back as are some of the creatures in the sand. Really, they should close off Aldinga and Moana for the same reason I think. That probably sounds funny coming from me as I've done my fair share of tearing up the beach in my youth, towing brave people on a tyre on a rope behind the TR2. I've grown up now. When I was married, Robe was home territory for us and Long Beach went for miles around Guichen Bay, almost around to Kingston so you could drive out of sight and swim nude without bothering anyone. I believe there's all beach houses right around there now.

I don't think Bob was the Lone Ranger with collapsed front ends from broken wishbones either. Bernie Van Elsen was another and you hear of others occasionally. There wouldn't be too many standard wishbones around. That's another story perhaps.

Funny old air filters.

Sorry to keep flogging old B8/10 photos but here's some that might be interesting in a way. The modern owner of an old Nagari probably hasn't seen one of these air cleaners as better ones came on the market, but this is how the early Nagaris came with their snorkel air filters way back then.

AutoPuzzle.

I found this photo on a website called AutoPuzzle. The object of the exercise was to guess what car it was. Someone was certain it was a Ginetta, someone else a Rochdale, we read that it was English, then European. Eventually somebody came up with the JWF Milano GT but I don't think anybody got the powerplant right.
It is of course the Supercharged Zephyr powered Milano of Peter Goers in the pits at Collingrove for a historic event.

Another shot of Coxy's 7.

Another image has rolled in of the ex-Alan Cox Mark 7 when it was a coupe. This time from the newspaper "The Hamilton Spectator".Still nothing of the Peter Schmidt example so far.

All I know about B8/10 which isn't very much.

B8/10 sparked a bit of interest the other day in conversations about red coupes in Brisbane and my effort to put a photo on the forum was only mildly successful. So with a bit more luck here's some.
B8/10 was purchased new by a lady in Surfers Paradise and Peter Cowen of Yeronga was its second owner, buying it in 1977-78. In 1980 he passed it on to a car dealer, presumably this one below.

From Dave Bruce I have discovered that another owner was Mark Murphy in Queensland and Peter G tells me that in 1990 it was owned by Keith Hosking in NSW. Does anybody know where it is now?

Family resemblance

Noticed this 1974 Opel Manta Rallye adverised in Washington state for $1500 a couple of days ago. It's minus its bumperbars but can't you see LH Torana in the front bit? The back half looks Vauxhall Vivaish. Apparently powered by some funny little 4 cyl. they reckon it goes pretty well.

Coxy's tail lights.

A couple of posts ago (red Mark 7 convertibles) a comment was made about the car in the bottom of the 2 pictures once being the red coupe of Alan Cox and that the tail lights were from a later model Crown than usual. These are the best photos we could come up with although you can click on them and bring them up to something quite large. In the first photo, Alan's car is fourth from right.

This is a very nice shot of Pete Garvin's Nagari but behind it is the Mark 7 in question. That's Alan himself in the white t-shirt with his back to us proudly showing Kevin and others what's under the bonnet.Peter Schmidt's Mark 7 has similar tail light treatment but I can't put my finger on a picture of that one at the moment either.