B8/11

This car belongs to Kim in WA. Barry Currie has been assisting with getting it ready for the Denison foreshore sprint this weekend. What's under the bonnet certainly looks impressive.

It roared back into life about a week ago. Barry says it looks and sounds serious.

I remember the car being Sebring Orange. It belonged to Alan Blackney in about 1974 and had come to WA from the East. Alan was the WA state manager for Mullins Wheels. Perhaps the orange paint washed off when Alan's stepson took it to the bottom of the Swan River. The rebuild took about 6 years and following that it was sold to someone in Pt. Hedland and later it was sold to someone in Perth. More recent owners have been Dave Moltoni, Errol DuBoulay, who was responsible for the current blue colour (from metallic green) and then Kim.

The future of drag racing?

 This EV digger uses a clutch from a Top Fuel Harley, a big ass electric motor, an oversized drivechain, and four battery backs stuffed full of laptop batteries.

Gti-R coming back?

I hope so.

Midlife crisis Kevin?

Another Perentti for sale.

Perentti Holden Kit car

$5,000

Moonta, South Australia

This is an opportunity to buy one of the 97 Perentti’s that were made back in the 1980’s. The Perentti that I have is a series one and there where only 25 made with a T-Top and utilizing a Corvette windscreen. ( no windscreen with vehicle ) Very Rare and has a lot of bits and pieces that I have collected since 2011. Comes with some paperwork and Australian car parts that it is needed. Jaguar wheels.

No Motor or gearbox but is a rolling vehicle. Body is still in raw form with a coat of primer. In as is condition as pictured in photos. Can send more photos and info if required.

Car is located in Moonta South Australia.

No swaps

The ultimate.

The only thing I can think of to upstage this would be if Pat Ryan used one of the Thirstys to tow the Mk.3/Elgaram to Phillip Island.

With a bit of imagination.....

,,,,,,my 280C could be a race car too.

Back home they were called Nissan Cedrics in 1983.

Little cars No.14

This is a 1962 Dinarg from Argentina.

It's 8' long and 4' wide with a 2-stroke motor that's just adequate, like the Zeta but even less powerful. So, like the Zeta, to reverse, you stop the motor and reverse the rotation, giving you 4 reverse gears.

Now, talking about the Zeta, the Birdwood Museum have been refurbishing the Zeta moulds.

Since they were given to the museum they had been languishing in the open. I remember looking at them some years back when we were looking at an electric car project and couldn't find a suitable Mighty Boy and we were talked out of using them. Probably just as well because the doors were steel I think. When production stopped, they had managed to get ahead of themselves with the bodies and there were a lot left over. I remember a place down at Wingfield where they were selling them for dog kennels. Anyway, there are plans for a sizeable Zeta display so that's what this resurrection is all about. Full marks to the latest curator, lots of good things have been happening since he has arrived. He's doing an excellent job for a Pom. By that I mean, what he doesn't know about Australian motoring history, he's willing to learn.

This Sunday.

Thanks to Maras Group this Sunday you can get a taste of the Bay to Birdwood. Head to the bustling East End of the city as Rundle Street goes back in time with 80 classic vehicles on display and a DJ spinning your favourite tunes of the 50s, 60s & 70s.

Nice try.

This is a Pantera 2.

This is a replica.

Might have been good if it wasn't scrunched up to squeeze onto a Pontiac Fiero.

This is what I'm afraid of when I get mine.

Rare little cars No.13

Facebook.

There's a Facebook page called "We grew up in the 50s, 60s and 70s" and tonight someone threw up a picture of that red wine coloured Nagari that Col restored some years ago.

Well, did that bring out the "experts"? The types you meet at service stations when you're trying to put petrol in the car.

On Gumtree in South Africa.

A gullwing hardtop for a Cobra.

How could this be?

Never mind, a big job but with the value of the original Cosmos, it could be worth restoring.

1967

It's a BP ad and life was good back then. Decent fuel was readily available. Then came the time when AvGas was restricted to being only available from certain places - O.G. Auto Shop and Parafield Airport. Next thing you couldn't buy it without producing your CAMS licence. Now they have banned or are banning leaded fuel altogether. Does that spell the end of us seeing these lovely old historic racing cars out on the track? I hope not.  I'm in favour of clean air as much as the next bloke but for the small amount of historic vehicles compared with motoring as a whole, what difference would it make to make an exception for this little corner of society?

I'm a bit dubious about ethanol too. I know it was about 12 years ago, but we had a nasty experience with the stuff. Holidaying in Queensland went to fill up and found you could only get petrol with an ethanol blend up there. It didn't suit our camper van that's for sure. In the middle of NSW was where the dear old Toyota gave up which meant driving back to SA in a rental car and the camper coming home on the back of a semi. A long time ago I know but I'm still nervous.

Favourite 3-wheelers No.24

The practical side.

But many years ago, 50s, I reckon, Lambretta were producing these.

Going back to the 30s, Dr. Borgward was producing the Goliath 3 wheel truck.

Following WWII, Dr. Borgward was jailed for 3 years for producing surveillance remote control drones for the German army. At the same time Dr. Porsche made hundreds of these imitation tanks to make the allies uneasy.

He kept out of jail. The difference was the Borgward factory was in Bremen which became part of East Germany, the Porsche operation was in the West. Different minders.

Incidentally, talking about the practical side, here's one produced by the Scimitar mob, the 1950 Reliant Regal.

That's stretching it a bit!

Well, maybe not "Australia's Lamborghini"but here is yet another grey powered Aussie special from the 60s

11 years ago today....

.....that the great man left us. Time flies. I'm told that everybody knows exactly what they were doing when they heard that Elvis had passed away.That has faded from my recollection but I can't imagine that the shock of PB's death will ever fade.

Tailem Bend.

Concrete by the kilometre.

Concrete barrier installation. 150 metres per day.  #adelaide #southaustralia #tailembend#motorsport #racing #circuit #supercars #construction #thebendmsp #racecar @ The Bend Motorsport Park

Well, what DO you do with a beetle body when you've used the bottom half for a kit car?