Studebaker power - 2

A Bathurst start - nothing like it!

Os & Al

I'd forgotten about the Bin Laden connection until Tamerlane posted this photo with a comment along the line of Alan Jones possibly being sponsored by a terrorist.

It was probably the Bin Laden family and not necessarily Osama who was most likely off somewhere saving the world at the time anyway. They were making so much money in their construction business they had to spend it helping Alan to a world championship.
Here's a model of Clay's FW07, complete with the Bin Laden logo.

and Alan's no.27 likewise. (Tamiya).

and Alan in action.

Here's a modeller's patch of stickers (decals) including the Bin Laden ones.

But here's another set without.

Here's a recently restored FW07 without the logos (and topless), but was there a period without the Bin Laden connection?

Probably, this was the Leyland time.
This is the FW07 owned and restored in Melbourne, at Docklands.

and at the Phillip Island Classic.

I'm confused a bit. I thought when that car came to Perth it had a different livery to this. Maybe I'm wrong. And maybe the 1979 and 1980 sponsorships were different.

Studebaker power!

Yeah!

Brooksfield

Meant to show you this one as well, parked at the Brooksfield drags.

And talking about Humpy Holdens and Brooksfield, remember this?

and this FJ?

a couple of rails.

a push back to the pits.

and out with the push car.

Middle Beach

Last week we had to go over to Middle Beach.

This is Middle Beach with the tide out. See the gap in the mangroves? There's another nice sandy beach out there. For the right price, I wouldn't mind a shack at Middle Beach although it's just as well I'm an old bugger. It'd probably be OK in my lifetime but in my young grandson's life it's likely the shacks will be gobbled up by the rising sea level.

Anyway, as many recall, Brooksfield Dragway was on Middle Beach Road and I've been told that there is the remains of a viewing stand still visible down there. I looked and I looked but I couldn't see anything. Brooksfield opened in 1965. The Highways Department laid down two parallel strips of experimental bitumen alongside the road, giving South Australia its first two lane dragstrip. There were already one car at a time sprint meetings at WRE and Gawler Belt.  I guess Highways weren't to know you needed a run off area at the end of the strip so they didn't provide one which made braking a bit hairy.  Brooksfield closed in 1969 when everybody moved on to the more sophisticated AIR. The dragstrip was dug up and the area reverted to pasture again which was the agreement made with the land owner. Thanks to Outlaw Speed Shop's archives here's a few pictures from back then. Just goes to show how long Outlaw have been going, they certainly have outlived Aunger's and Indianapolis.

Graham Withers Hemi powered AA Fuel dragster.

Brian Hutcheson's altered. There were heaps of those Topolino bodied altereds. Even Colin Lucas ran one.

Jeff During's Buick straight 8 dragster. Jeff's still around. He runs a 260Z at the Supersprints at Mallala.

Remember Brutus the 100E with the supercharged slant 6 Valiant?

V8 powered dragster.

Dragster with side valve Ford V8.

Pontiac powered.

The Dave Gale crash. He survived.
I have a few photos of my own but they're colour slides. I'll get around to transferring them one day.

Triden road registered.

 just thought I'd let you know that TRIDEN is now Registered (Conditional/Club) & it's maiden voyage should hopefully be to Winton - Festival of Speed next weekend!!! :) 

Wayne's been busy as you can see. One way to deal with a too high roll bar is take it out completely if you don't need it.
Here's proof of Wayne's dad, Ron's, involvement with Elfin. That's him on the right, below.

This was the front page of a SCW in 1963 on the release of the Elfin Clubman. 

I give up.

Remember this?

It's Bruno Carosi racing in Tasmania back in the day. I've been trying to track that Mark 5 down for ages. Recently I've discovered it was destroyed in a fire. I guess that's it.

Dinky progress.

Here's some recent pics of Dinky (the Peter Jones Mk.4B version) as Steve progresses with it.

This restoration will be 70s style and "it will end up very similar to how it was when it was last run." Plans are also under way and parts are being gathered to do a "Chandler Mk4A-GT version" as well.

Latest arrival.

Andrew's new car. It's a series 5 but it looks a bit series 4ish. Runs very nicely. Needs a bit of work. As you can see  the front bumper isn't on yet. Lots of spares and a bit of a bargain.

Kapunda - week 31

How's this for a Morris Minor? Don't know what it's got in it. It was outside the Clare Castle yesterday.

Butts and Butts.

That's a Kiwi talking about the shoe store chain.

This appeared on the cover of the latest WA Slipstream. They can't possibly be talking about the car. Must be  the ugly backsides of a couple of those blokes. Butt is an American word for bum and probably has come to our shores via the B-grade American TV programs on Foxtel. Similarly they call an arse an ass. By the way a fanny is not what it seems either. That also means bum over there. We have bum bags, they have fanny bags. So a kick up the fanny is not nearly as distressing as you might think.

Day trip to Renmark

Last week Jane and I slipped up to Renmark to have a look at Peter's 300ZX (which, incidentally, we've shaken hands on and we'll have to go back up and get it when the funds come through).

The Sturt Highway is in pretty good nick these days and we could charge across the floodplains almost unhindered by semis, only the occasional grey nomad getting in the way. The river is pretty full and the only other observation to be made is that compared to where we are, ALL of the vines seem to be machine pruned. They look like they are done by an award winning hairdresser. It may well be that there is a shortage of casual labour in the Riverland compared to what we have in the Barossa.

After a burst around the blocks in the car and a cuppa with Peter we cruised into town and had lunch at the Renmark Club followed by a stroll along the river bank where Frank's barge happened to be tied up.

A bit further on was the PS Industry.

It still has its steam engine. I remember the Industry being derelict years ago and it's good to see it restored and providing rides up and down the river. Back in the day it wasn't a trading or cargo or passenger boat. It was owned by the State Government and used for dealing with snags in the river to enable the safe passage of all the other paddle boats.

We chose to go home the other way, going through Berri and Loxton and down that very fast road to Sedan. It was amazing to see the large number of ring necked parrots.......

....and to a slightly lesser extent, mulga parrots.......

.....picking up grain on the side of the road.

We recrossed the river on the punt at Swan Reach.

When we got to Kyneton we did a right turn, going home via Moculta and then Truro. On the track into Moculta we noticed a large family of white winged choughs. On the ground or sitting in a tree, the chough doesn't look any more spectacular than a crow really, but in the air you get to see the white feathers on the underside of their wings.