And out in the street......

Out in the street a small selection of some of the arrivals. My apologies if your car isn't here.
1. Brian and Deanna's Sunbeam Talbot.

2. Two Simca Aronde station wagons in the same place at the same time. Must be a record. Behind is a sleeve valve Falcon Knight and behind that again is Dale and Dianne's Mark 5 Jag.

3. Ray and Jean's Prefect from Riverton.

4. A Torana from another Holden fleet.

5. Chook's Marina and Noel's A30.

And Fords too

Just to show Chris and Darril are not totally biassed here's a couple of Fords.
Firstly Chris' Mustang.

And secondly Darril's 1926 T-model.

Some nice Holdens in Kapunda.

Last week the Kapunda Chapter of NARCs (Northern Automotive Restorers Club) celebrated their 20th birthday and, as former members, Jane and I were invited along. It was at Chris and Darril's and among other things it was a good chance to see Darril's collection of Holdens. Here are just a few of them. He seems to have restored examples of most of the early ones and is now working his way through the Torana and Commodore range. His everyday driver, apart from the V8 BrUTE, is a gutsy VE GTS. I recall a huge cloud of tyre smoke and lots of noise in Baker Street one morning and thinking when is Darril going to grow up, he's almost my age. But apparently the throttle had jammed open and he catapulted into Dutton Park before he could shut it down. Just as well the gates were open. Anyway, enough of that. Here's a HD and an FJ. The wider wheels on the FJ look good and they're 15s. We used to always get 13s made up if we were fitting widies when we were kids. But the 15s look far better and more authentic, don't you think?

Here's an FC ute that's pretty well finished.

And this EK wagon is original and has only covered 30,000 miles.

And finally here's the EK's bog standard grey motor. I love 'em.Terry was there too and as a long serving GMH employee was full of interesting stories like how they got the doors to fit and how they got the crappy old red motors to run.

Insurance on classic cars.

From a FHMC meeting the following was noted.
It has been reported that the Australian Insurance Council (for whatever reason!!) is moving to remove the clause for the owner of a vehicle to retain the right to keep a written off vehicle after an accident. Check your new or renewal policy.
This is for real. Shannons has reported that it does not support such action and will not comply. Once again, check your policy.

New Nagari update 2

The subframes seem very well built and I've heard the uprights described as a work of art.

Two new cars are being built, one Ferrari red and the other yellow.

New Nagari update 1

Last night the Vics took their monthly meeting to the New Nagari "Skunk Works". Campbell wanted to know people's reactions to the proposed new rear spoiler.

Personally, I reckon it improves the car immeasurably, but you know me and spoilers. I think Panteras look naked without the rear spoiler.

This is the VicRoads rego label. The make is an "Indcon". Don't ask me what that is. Probably stands for Independent Constructor or Individual Construction. I guess it's better than SA where we are all driving around in "Other Makes". And how about in Queensland where every time the computer sees the word "Bolwell" it tells you you are a scooter rider. Recently when I went to register the Mark 4 and quoted its stamped chassis number as B4/54, the woman assisting me told me that it was an impossibility because that chassis number was already on a 4-wheel trailer in another state.

The Hartley V8

John Hartley, in America, spent 4 years developing this engine. Now he's producing them and they are in demand. In answer to Glenn's query about an Australian distributor, I would say that there probably isn't one because John builds them to order and there's plenty of orders. I could be wrong, Skelta are using them. They would be a good start in asking the question.

John is not from an automotive engineering background, but a clubman racer looking for more power. His V8, the H1V8 3-litre is a 32 valve unit weighing less than most 4 cylinder engines. He began by looking at watercooled motorcycle engines and settled on the Suzuki Haybusa from which it is derived by mating two of these 4-cylinder units into a V8, casting the block and heads in alloy. These are not the usual 90 degree V8s but 75 degrees to make them compact enough to fit in the same space as a 4-cylinder engine. The target market is for track cars and other lightweight race vehicles which are limited for size and weight reasons.

Skelta goes international

The Queensland Skelta sports car is now available in UK and Europe with the formation of Skelta Racecars Europe.
Is everyone familiar with the Skelta? Just in case there were a few "nos", here's a little potted description of these "super-light, ultra-tough" Skeltas. Their chrome-moly steel spaceframe is reinforced with a centre tunnel and sidepods made of carbonfibre/aluminium sandwich. The body is made entirely from carbonfibre composite. The result is a dry weight of only 720kg.
Power comes from either a supercharged 2 litre 4 cylinder Honda of a mere 340bhp or the 3 litre Hartley V8 of 460bhp, both engines driving through a Honda 6-speed. Suspension comprises rose-jointed double wishbones front and rear with inboard spring/shocker units, fully adjustable for track, camber, caster and toe-in. Brakes, front and rear, are four-pot calipers on ventilated discs.
The Skelta is available in 2 styles, the Spyder and the G-Force. The Spyder is a wide-bodied open two-seater and the G-Force is a 2-seater with detachable gull-wing targa top. Both styles have heavily finned front air intakes and large rear wing and diffuser, which exerts 200kg of downforce at 90mph. Couple all this with the 50/50 weight distribution, it's no wonder that the cornering power is described as phenomenal.
These cars were born out of former Australian rally champion, Ray Vandersee's determination to win the Targa Tasmania outright. His first assault was in a cleverly modified Westfield that was almost as quick as the dominant Porsches and Nissan GTRs. However, for outright victory, it was going to take something more than a clubman no matter how modified. Starting with a clean sheet of paper, he created the Skelta. Since that creation, Vandersee and his customers have won countless events across Australia and New Zealand and Vendersee himself is getting closer and closer to that elusive outright Targa win, with class wins and many quickest stage times to his credit. An even faster Skelta is under constant development and Targa 2010 can't come soon enough.

Now I feel compelled to tell you about the Hartley V8.

Bufori BMS R1

Earlier in the week I mentioned the release of the Bufori sports. The R1 version has now had its race debut on Sunday at the Macau GT Cup. Driven by Alex Yoong, this Malaysian carbon-fibre and Kevlar bodied sports car completed only 4 laps before an accident caused by debris on the track.

Starting 28th on the grid, the car showed plenty of potential to immediately work its way into 23rd when a piece of debris got caught in the throttle linkage causing it to jam open. It's now back to Malaysia for some repairs and refinements before its next outing. Despite its short time on the track, lots of useful data has been gathered for use in the road cars and for future race outings. All looks good for the release at the Beijing Auto Show in April 2010.

Opel GT

Remember the 1973 LHD orange Opel GT that Noel from Mooroopna took to the Bay to Birdwood this year? His mate, Graeme, in Adelaide, imported a white 1970 example from America too, sight unseen. Well, it's arrived and hasn't presented any disappointments. A bit of a tidy up and it'll be on the road and he'll be able to bring it out for a run. This is it.

3 different places, 3 different times, same car (I think)

Below are a couple of shots taken at Calder in 1979 when the Ikara was released. Tony G. brought this black sports along. He had built it while working at the factory.

This shot was taken in Sydney by an exotic car spotter, not sure when, but the car lived in NSW at this stage.

Now, here it is back in Victoria in the custodianship of Tony B. at this year's recent Show'n'tell.

I have a feeling this is the same car. Please feel free to correct me. Not too sure about the chassis number so can't work from that.

A Datsun/Nissan post

On behalf of all of our Road Closure officials on the Stafford Ridge Stage I really want to thank Jack Monkhouse for their entertainment with the well executed drifts on each of their corners in the drift car. This photo is not at Stafford Ridge (looks similar) but was taken by Jim McGough at Ironbank earlier in the day.

No wonder Neville Whittenbury is looking so pensive at stage start. And, by the way, is that really a carbonfibre door skin?

What a great rally car this Pulsar GTI-R is. I presume that's why the aforementioned Jim McGough rallies one. Congratulations to Sammy and Simone, a good result. They're a couple of hard chargers.

Zs were everywhere and no wonder. Everyone who doesn't own one would really want to. 1, 2, 4 and 5 in the Classic Section.

There were 3 of these monstrous new Godzillas.