A drive in the countryside.

Last Sunday's run to Charleston began at the coffee shop in Burnside Village and wound through the hills on a scenic tour to the final destination. Jane and I live on the other side of the Barossa so elected to meet everyone at the pub rather that go down to Adelaide and then come back out again. We had a nice drive too, a very nice drive. There is so much to see on the way and there are so many ways to go. I don't think we will ever run out of alternatives. Might be time for a President's Trial soon. We travelled from Angaston to Eden Valley to Springton to Mount Pleasant to Birdwood to Mount Torrens to Charleston which is not surprising but getting to Angaston saw us going through Ebenezer, Stockwell and Penrice and going home we went via Moculta and Truro. This is the Charleston Hotel. It's a good little pub and our hosts were very nice. We'll have to go there again I reckon.

And here is Norm getting a charge.

New link.

You might notice a link to the Bolwell photos on Photobucket which is worth a look because on page 2 is the Mark 7 roadster that just sold on ebay arriving at its new Brisbane home.

At last!

I can't let last weekend's F1 win go by without expressing my delight. We've all been expecting it and at last it's happened. Mark Webber's first pole and first win as well. Now that the ice is broken, there'll be more where that came from.

It was a big weekend for Queanbeyan as Mark's classmate from schooldays, Brad Haddin was hitting up a century at Cardiff at about the same time as Mark was qualifying - Mark being glued to the TV watching the test match before stepping into the car.

Anyway, it seems to me that Mark certainly has his head screwed on the right way whether it's F1, mountain bike riding or arranging his finances that he's applying himself to. Switching his driving contract from US dollars to Euros is a good example. His 8 or 9 million dollar deal is middle of the road for Formula 1 I believe. Maybe it'll go up next year. Mark realises that the career of an F1 driver is short (like a footballer) so he is into saving. He no doubt thinks about the tough times in 1996 when he first moved to the UK. Van Diemen recruited him from Australia but in order to race he had to find his own sponsopship. His road car then was a very secondhand 1.1 litre Ford Fiesta. These days he doesn't need to buy his own road car, he is supplied with a Renault Megane Renaultsport 230 Team R26.

He does own a motorbike though, a Yamaha. This is despite his dad, who owns a motorbike shop, declaring that while he's alive Mark's not to get a motorbike. He doesn't want him to hurt himself. I've been through that when one of my boys got his first motorbike despite my protests. His comment - "Dad, you had some pretty good bikes when you were my age". My answer - "Well, that's different". Not a very good argument is it?

Ultimate road car

Remember a few posts ago we talked about a Veskanda for the road? This is actually car number 3 leaving the house of Clemente after a fair bit of chassis and body work.

Spycam 2

Here's the latest at the Clemente 2 secret workshop. I wonder if that sign under the car has a message.

1935 SS1 Airline saloon

When I was really young, like in my teens, there was a wreck of a car way down the back of a large block of land and under a tree that sat there for years and years. It was on Sunnyside Road, up in the twisty end, the Glen Osmond end. I bet there's no vacant blocks around there these days. The car was an Airline bodied SS. I'm sure others would remember it. Anyway I really loved the shape and went to the trouble of tracking down the landowner who wasn't all that aware of the car's existance and didn't want the old wreck anyhow. Unfortunately I didn't have the wherewithall or the determination to get it out of there I guess. If I remember correctly it had bushes growing up through the chassis and it wouldn't have been too easy towing an old car with flat tyres on my bike anyway. Over the years I managed to get over it all but the car sat there for a very long time. What got me thinking about it was this car below. Rainsfords have it for sale for $150,000. I wonder if it's the same one. Could be. They didn't make too many with the Airline body.

Mark 7 pictorial

Here are a few more shots of Phil and Rita's Mark 7 taken outside the Charleston Hotel yesterday. This is, of course, "the car that Sam built" in NSW. Sam's dad bought it for him when he was eight years old I believe and the meticulous build took 18 years. Eventually, with Sam now in his twenties, the Bolwell reluctantly had to go to provide a deposit on "the first home". Sam's loss is Phil and Rita's gain and they're loving it.
Picture 1 shows Rita, Sarah, Norm and John (L) behind the car. 2. Front view shows the low stance of the car.

3. I recognise that spoiler. It was actually designed to fit the exact shape of the Nagari front but it doesn't look too bad on the Mark 7 either. I almost fell over the mould for it in the shed when I got home.

4. Attention to detail is just as amazing under the bonnet as well.

5. The leather upholstery has a nice feel to it.

What's in a name?

This article in "The Age" on the upcoming MX2 has sparked that "age" old question regarding the similar Japanese and Aboriginal words with exactly the same meaning with the reference to the Mazda Nagare coming from the Japanese phrase "to flow".
Peter Garvin writes:-
"John & Tony,
I know this has been discussed before, just what are the origins of the name 'Nagari', was it Aboriginal or Japanese or purely coincidence? Just what is the origin of the name, and how did Campbell and Graeme arrive at the name?
Peter."
Campbell is really a bit vague about it but reckons they found the word in an Aboriginal phrase book that happened to be lying around the house and thought it sounded pretty good but can't recall where the book has got to. Over time, various Nagari fans have rushed about looking for books of Aboriginal terms with what success I'm not sure. The reference to "Aboriginal phrases and words" is fairly vague to me anyway, as there is no one Aboriginal language but literally heaps of them. The debate continues.

Lunch at the Charleston Hotel

What a great day it was. So many people turned up. It was good to see new members Rita and Phil with their very smart looking Mark 7 V8. Jenny Young won the raffled Bolwell boxed keyring. I hope she puts it to good use. Maybe she'll get her own Bolly if she can't wait for Beven to finish his. Here's a few photos from today. 1.Phil in the Mark 7 looking pretty pleased with himself.

2. Same car, different angle.

3. The Mark 7s of Ron and Brian respectively.

4. You'd think this bloke would buy a new battery wouldn't you?

5. A couple of gangsters off to hold up a road house in an unmarked car.

B8/107 part 2

Ray Gulson was the ACT agent for Nagaris. B8/107 was to be Ray's crowning glory, purchasing the "very last factory produced Nagari" (although I've heard that title given to a few other chassis in my time). Anyway, Ray went down to the factory to personally "drive the car off the production line" in October 1973. He kept the car for a few months then sold it to a professor who used it in Canberra for 2 years before moving with the car to Goulburn for another 2 years, finally returning to Canberra and selling it back to Ray Gulson Motors. Gulson's advertised it for sale from their Fyshwick premises in August 1979 for $9,000. It was bought by Allan Davey, an ecologist, who lived at Red Hill ACT. In June of 1982, Allan was moving with his job to Perth and decided to sell the car before he went. It was still very immaculate and I really wanted to buy it. However, I had an earlier one that I needed to sell in order to do so. It wasn't easy to do at the drop of a hat and finally I stuck my neck out and got it while I still had the other one. Leah and I drove up to Canberra in the red one and stayed with Chris and Bronwyn (they were living at Queanbeyan then) while we did all of the necessaries to purchase the car. With Chris being a hotshot salesman, we decided to leave the red car there for him to sell on our behalf. This didn't happen and we later went and got it, took it back to Adelaide and sold it on to Perth. We were then able to enjoy the use of the silver car. Later, it got a bit hectic because we were minding the GTHO powered B8/59 for Max and then Ikaras came on the scene and we had B9/001 and B9/002 to contend with as well. To lighten the load we decided to sell B8/107 and Andrew Daff came over from Melbourne to buy it. Andrew was more into surfing than fast cars and some time later while competing at an MSCA sprint meeting at Sandown or Phillip Island he left the track backwards and wiped out the back of the car rather badly. Roycey bought the wreck and turned B8/107 into a Fibrecar sports. I presume this is the car that Dennis Oste has now. As most people know, Royce was later killed in a road accident and the remains of the silver car sat around the farm for ages until Richard took it up to Queensland and made a new car from it using a new chassis and a new body. He gave me the slightly bent steering wheel to remember it by when I was up there once and it's still hanging in the shed. I do remember the steering wheel in particular, it was one of those flat ones with the Valiant centre. What I remember most was when you took the car out for a good workout in the hills the wheel would be out of shape when you got home. Then you bent it back into shape ready for next time. About this time, Peter Ingram-Jones had his big prang in the Targa Tasmania. Richard sold him the front half of B8/107 for the repair. I remember Peter saying that eventually all these cars return home and when B8/76 came to live in SA, the front half of my beloved silver car had returned. Recently I was telling Ned McGovern (the Milano man) that I had picked up a UC Torana and that I planned to salvage the front and rear ends for a Nagari project and throw away the rest but I wondered if that was a good idea as the big bodied Torana track was wider than the Nagari track as stated in the famous Nagari brochure. He said that Dennis had one of those front ends in his Nagari and he had done a bit of work on it. Small world isn't it.
Anyway, here's a few photos of B8/107 when it was a silver coupe. 1. 107 and 43 at the Clearihan's.

2. Same 2 cars at a Healey Club concours at Bonython Park. That's a cheeky young Andrew Low standing alongside the silver one which is by then sporting the familiar JL-0000 plates.

3. A picnic at National Park. The people in the photo are Wendy (seated), Rose, Garry, Gus and Leah. The other Bolwells were the black Chev powered Mark 7 coupe of Tony Opie (before it was a blue roadster), the yellow B8/37 of Garry and Rose and Gus's 351 powered B8/75 which was the Alex Tsakmakis racecar.

4. B8/107, B8/59 and B9/002 at Scott Street, Parkside.

Log books

Just a little bit of housekeeping. Those who are going to the lunch at Charleston tomorrow, could you remember your logbooks. It might save me a bit of work later in the month.

B8/107 (1)

Both these cars below are B8/107. Doesn't look like it really. Full story tomorrow.

I love this shot, looks like a 3-wheeler. Must be the angle.