A Bolwell at Birdwood.

Even the Mark 4 is too modern for the Birdwood run this year but at least Trevor took his Overland and Immanuel took the Willys Knight. The little yellow car enjoyed the brisk run from Kapunda over to Birdwood as much as the two people in it. In the background you can see the Mark 7s of John, Ron and Peter. Anyway, the reason for the post is that the Mark 4 is now for sale and at a little under $13,000 applicants can form an orderly queue. 0413 226009 or vidstud@gmail.com

A few other cars - same day.

A bit of an assortment.

Corrie's giant Ponti with appropriate number plate.

Takes you back. Just about every kid in our neighbourhood had a Morris 8 except maybe Boorman who had a top heavy Prefect and Marshall with his FJ.

I recognise this model Rugby. Over 40 years ago this old bloke wanted to leave his beloved Rugby that he'd owned from new to the VSCC. Hardly sporty but a good old bus nevertheless. I don't know if he was on his last legs at the time but he died soon after and we went down to meet his wife and take delivery of the Rugby. It was subsequently referred to as the "Club Rugby" and was stored in my Nanna's garage in Henley Beach. It was handy for members to use when their own vinti was off the road and one year when the Buick was out of action I took it to one of the early Mt. Gambier rallies with John and Fred Chapman I think. I don't know who looks after it now but it's still in the club and lo and behold it turned up at Birdwood on Sunday with 4 blokes on board and proudly wearing the number 1 club plate. It's had a coat of paint since I knew it.

A nice Packard sedan. Gee, those blue dot fog lights were popular back in the day. Wouldn't have minded the manufacturing rights to them. Someone must have made a fortune. There have been Packards everywhere last week and this - there was a National Packard rally on too. And Dodges! The following day (Wednesday) there must have been 50 Dodges in Kapunda. There was a Dodge rally as well, based in the Barossa.

Finally, this beaut old '29 Chev roadster, the very first of the Chev 6s, is a Gawler Club car.

Some Chryslers on the day.

That same Tuesday

This blue sedan is owned by a couple with taste. They had an AHOC sticker in the back window.

These two Chryslers from Victoria had covered a lot of miles. They'd come the long way that's for sure.

And this Chrysler is a bit newer.

Kapunda - week 9

Tuesday was a good day. It was my day for a stint in the gallery so I was right there when this rally rolled into town. It was organised by the Gawler club as part of the fortnight of Motorfest and included a visit to the jet fighter museum at Parafield, lunch in Gawler and finally a tour of the Kapunda museum. Here are a few of the cars that caught my eye.

I was pretty excited to see this 30/98 over from Sydney. Isn't it grand. The owner was enjoying the drive, but someone else was going to drive it in the B to B because he'd also brought over a couple of motorbikes. Come B to B day and there were 2 thirsties over from NSW. What a smorgasbord! The other one you needed sunglasses for as it had a polished body not just the bonnet.

Another source of joy is also a Buick 6, this one from Victoria.

A Fiat 501C from Queensland with an obvious South Australian connection in the form of the body by Holden and the very old AA of SA badge on the front would make you think Gympie's Ralph and Joan Richardson were in town. Then again the hood was up so I decided it must have been somebody else. That theory could have been blown to bits when it arrived at Birdwood on Sunday with the top down but I was right anyway. They knew each other though of course.

Talking about Holden bodied cars this is a 1936 Oldsmobile sedan. All 4 doors are "suicide" jobs.

This is where you find the Holden badge - just in front of the left hand front door.

Back on the market again

Colin's health is still not going in the right direction and he's decided to clear the decks of his remaining Bolwells starting with the V8 Mark 7.  As you know it's no ordinary V8 Mark 7, it's an absolute rocketship, its specifications have been listed in previous posts. That huge horsepower has recently been realised and it's a nice feeling. So serious is Colin about finding an appreciative new owner that he's dropped the price from a reasonable $29,500 to $21,000. It's sitting here in Andrew's shed with another year's registration on it. Call me on 0413 226009 with any queries or email to vidstud@gmail.com

What's happening at the mill?

Recently I asked Immanuel what he's working on at the moment and discovered that Tom Kruse's old Leyland Badger was getting an engine overhaul to get it running again for another tribute to Tom.

For his 96th birthday there was an unveiling of yet another bronze bust.

Well, they must have finished the job because last week I was watching Landline and sure enough in rolled the Leyland under its own power at the celebration.

And here it is yesterday back in its place in the Museum.

Look at this big engine. It's a 4 cylinder and it's a diesel. Is that unusual for 1935?

Now that the B to B is over for another year and Immanuel got his Willys Knight to the starting line (not sure about the finish line, there was the suggestion that a left turn to Williamstown might have taken place) the next job is to get the Leo Geoghegan Bathurst Charger firing.

Yesterday the nose of the car was noticeably higher than I remember it. e.g. the motor is out. Now here's a question. Does anybody know anything about valve sizes on these Valiant engines? The exhaust valves on the racing Chargers (well, this one anyway) are actually smaller than those in a normal 265 (but bigger than the 245 ones).

Can we help?

Tammy, Ashley, Barry, John, Peter, Dino and Rick help this lady find the Oldsmobile's steering wheel.

Another South Aussie Champ

Congratulations to Mt. Gambier's Scott Pye on winning this year's British Formula Ford Championship. He's 20 years old and on a roll. F3 next year?

Swiss hillclimb

The 2010 Arosa Classic Car is the largest classic motorsport event in Switzerland and is a hillclimb of 7.8 km with 78 turns. This took place the weekend before last over 4 days and Bruno was there in his JWF Milano GT. Here he is in the company of a Falcon Sprint.

And this is a very quick Porsche 906.

Holy Jupiter, Batman! What a coincidence!

Last month we talked about Jowett Jupiters a bit after Neil T picked up a JWF Italia bodied jupiter to go with his original one. A lot of people have said "I don't really know what a Jupiter looks like". Lo and behold when we all rolled into Burra for the President's Trophy Trial, so did this Jowett Jupiter from Sydney, on its way to Perth for the National Jowett and Bradford Rally.

Casper

That was the name given to the ghostly undercoat grey Mark 7 of Ken Sratton. I heard from Steve Medlen tonight and he still has Casper. He sent over a couple of pictures. The first one was taken not long after Steve acquired it, still in its ProdSports guise.

The second one was taken at the Wagga Easter organised by fellow Wagga resident, Darrell Hunt. The hatch is the first one produced by Fibrecar while Steve was away in Malaysia with the RAAF.

Kapunda - week 8

Well, week 8 has been and gone really. And lots of nice cars have been and gone too, including a swag of Bolwells passing through Kapunda on their way to Burra and here's me with no camera. Well, I did have my phone I guess. So here's a couple of Nissans. They seem to be breezing through town on a regular basis.

Japanese version of the Giocattolo?

This is an early 80s Civic with a mid-mounted Legend V6.

I think it's a one-off.

Espana

This is our Nagari owning Spanish member. The other weekend he competed in two races at Jarama in his red Leon, coming second in each. As Mark Webber would say, "not bad for 79".

Quit Targa West 2010

Well, the Targa West has been run and won for another year, check the link. I'm just pointing out that the documentary will be shown on 7TWO at 2.00pm Saturday, October 2nd across Australia.

6 Hour

Today was a great day for the President's Trophy Trial, lots of Bolwells and the odd Clubbie, Cobra, Scimitar, 124 Spider and MX5, and a good lunch in Burra. However, I just happened to leave my camera on a table in the beer garden next door to the Indonesian restaurant so can't show you any photos until I can get it back. So, meanwhile, I never did show you our team for the 6-hour a few months ago. Nobody took any photos but Barry took a movie. Here's some stills straight off the TV screen.

It was a really wet day and our team of novices did well to to finish mid-field. 51 is Peter, about to go under a Sprite or Midget, 52 is John, 53 is Colin and 54 is Norm of course.
More details on the Pres' event as soon as I get my camera back.

Exclusivity

Apart from a love of red wine, what do these two men have in common that makes them unique and exclusive in the whole world?

Stewart Warner guages

Rob W from Launceston, with his very original Nagari coupe, is looking for a Stewart Warner battery guage and temp guage to make it even more original. Can anybody help?

930

Hey you Banana Bending Bolly owners. If you see this rather nice Porsche out and about, say g'day. It's my old friend Paul Tolcher.

McArlus Cars - 8

The new trailer.

I feel a little guilty with this update, because it has been designed by me, I didn’t make the trailer. 

I am however quite pleased with it.

Ken had given me an old enclosed trailer that I stripped down, but it really need a lot of work to get it going and registered, especially to the standard now accepted as minimum at McARLUS CARS!

As the cars get closer to completion, the last thing I was fancying was a spending a few months of spare time building a trailer.

I came across these people on ebay (again!) and ended up buying from them.

If anyone is interested it came from TrailerTec in Wodonga and cost me $3800 delivered to my door in Melbourne.

I’m really pleased with the result

Regards,

Simon

Kapunda - week 7

Storm damage, a giant red gum came down in our street. Even the mighty stobie pole is no match for the river red if it lands on it.

And this is an ACCO Inter. How often do you see one of these nowadays? Not too often unless you travel on the Freeling to Templers road where you'll never miss this one. Andrew and I had to go over to Owen the other day which takes us past this ACCO. Between here and Owen we could have bought 3 Bedfords all still with their grain bins but this is the only ACCO I've seen in ages. By the way, there was a nice '54 Chev in Owen and a beaut red TR4 in the main street through Hamley Bridge. All wheel drive ACCOs were very popular with the Australian army and later they were converted to camper trucks and primary producers' trucks. There's still this special kind of died in the wool International person in rural Australia, usually ex Inter salesmen and service people. There's even at least one Scout in Kapunda. What must they have thought when the European truck company Iveco bought International Australia in 1992? AND then in 2001 when they dropped the International name altogether.