Just a few more shots from last Monday.

This young Celica driver shared the driving with her dad.

Most of these Commodore utes had a go.

You know I love Chevs from the 50s.

This is a 1954 model. It mainly differs from the 1953 version by having a different grille and a bigger back window.

And here's some of the Gawler cars (and bike) in the carpark.

There was actually a hillclimb.

Just in case you were wondering. "Come and try" turned out to be better than expected especially for the young ones and bodes well for the future. It was an "enter on the day" situation and nobody knew how many would turn up. As it turned out there were that many they were starting to wonder if they could fit them all in. I think everybody got 3 runs though so that's not bad. This is Doug Lehmann with his recently acquired Evo IX showing everyone how it should be done.

And this is a very quick XF Falcon ute. A very noisy one too.

This is why. It's a 351 Windsor out to about 383. Not as big as a certain orange 427 but I bet it'd give it a run for its money.You can't have an event without a Datto in it so here it is, a 2000 sports. See that little white Mk.2 Escort just disappearing behind the big tree? There were 2 15 year olds sharing the driving, a young lady and a young man. They improved their times with each run.

You certainly knew when this RX4 was going to make a run. It's a PP job and the blap-blap-blap was enough to wake up the dead.I would have shown a picture of Daryl Siggs' campervan going up the hill but he was too quick for me.

More Gawler Club sporties at Collingrove

Here's Allen Rowley's Morgan-Fiat heading off up the hill in the "club parade".

....and here it is in the car park afterwards. The Buchanan connection is obvious.

From Trevor's camera comes this beaut little Singer special. There's at least a couple more sporty Singers in the club as well.

Here's another shot of that Kestrel.....

.....and this is that Weber we were talking about.

A run with the Gawler Club

Today was come and try day at Collingrove Hillclimb. The Gawler Car Club organised a run to the hill. We met at the Gawler TAFE car park and were all given a map and running sheet and we travelled to Collingrove via Sandy Creek, Cockatoo Valley, Williamstown, Springton and Eden Valley, over some very nice roads and through some really good countryside. The club boasts a wide variety of cars and motorbikes and there was quite an array of them today including this Kestrel clubman. Don't be fooled by the Lotus badges, this is the very first of a number of Kestrels built by Greg Mobbs and still appears to be exactly as it was made in about 1974, even down to the Globe wheels. If the owner was thinking about historic rego I'd put my hand up to vouch for it, as would Smeetsy, I reckon (he once owned it as he has with most interesting sports cars in South Australia). It's even got the same old Weber sticking out of the right hand side of the bonnet.

I bet you all thought the Commodore came out in 1979. Well, this is a 1949 Commodore, a Hudson in fact. We travelled behind it for much of the way and it has a reasonable turn of speed. From behind, it looks just like a Mark 10 Jag but by the time Jaguar came out with the Mark 10, Hudson were well and truly finished with the shape.

The little Zeta was there again, it goes to everything. The unoccupied seats came out for the parade run up the hill, they get serious, some of these people. Or maybe it needed all the weight loss it could get. When we were young, Josie Gale had one down in Kingston and one of its features was the ability to whip the seats out in a flash. There's a lady in Blackwood who uses a similar Zeta regularly so they're still around.

This one has a speeding fine proudly displayed in the back window.

I'm fairly keen on the old Model A Ford. I wish I still had some photos of my old A Model mud plugger with the overhead valve conversion. Anyway, the lady that owns this one has done some pretty heavy duty trips around the country which probably accounts for the mesh grille over the radiator and the 1932 wheels which would make life easier.

Just a bit more on the Farm Fair

Here's that Lanz Bulldog again.

Among other things, the Gates mob had a couple of their sprintcars there and they took this one out on the trotting track and fired it up. What an incredible amount of horsepower they put down on relatively loose surfaces.

This must be the spare car as it had no engine in it. I took this photo to show the attention to detail in chassis construction compared to what I remember years ago. Not that long ago Port Adelaide Constructions had their fabrication facility in Kapunda where the fodder store now is.

This is the other one complete with engine and everything else.

.....and this is Carter and Carter (Golden Guitar winners at Tamworth) entertaining a packed grandstand.

I was mainly there to help promote the upcoming Kapunda community shed (to be called "The Shed") but did manage to get around a bit.

Talking about the Farm Fair........

Remember the KL Bulldog? The Historical Society took it down to the farm fair, its first outing on its new tyres. Here it is in the grand parade.

But in a case of one-upmanship, this bloke from Waikerie brought along his great big LANZ Bulldog.

Here's Bob Tilbrook and Malcolm Johncock (no relation to the Crows' Johncock I'm told) in the Morris hearse, the restoration of which has been described in a previous post. Peter Windebank wanted a ride but the only spare spot was in the coffin. However, the lid was securely screwed down. Can't remember if anybody was in there when that was done.

This is Bob (another Bob) feeling very proud of his White Super Power. He's a White fanatic and he's done a great job on this truck. He's my source of information for getting everything correct when organising Historic Rego on the odd truck.

And just look at this steam tractor. In it's past life it pulled logs out of a forest in Tasmania. Now it's part of the Ahrens collection in Sheoak Log. The only non-original item is the steam whistle which has been nicked off the locomotive in the playground in Gawler.

New products

Here's a polution free ride-on mower. This was at the Farm Fair at the trotting track last week.

Still in the land of the living.

Thank you everybody for all of those emails checking if I am still alive. Thank you for your concern. That's what happens when you slow down on the blog. I'd better get my finger out. There's been some on-going family issues (thank goodness it's only a small family) but in addition to that I've been down in Adelaide at a workshop and instead of doing heaps of driving, stayed overnight at the (formerly Levi) caravan park at Hackney, walking distance (even for me) from the Hackney pub. And when you wake up in the morning and look out one window there's this nice park.....

.....and out the other side there's the Torrens. It's a nice part of the world, right in the city. And everybody's friendly, the Queensland dragon boat racers staying in the park, the people riding their bikes and walking to work along the river, everyone at the pub etc. etc.

And just across the road is the corner deli. That's a dying breed. It reminds me of the little bottle shop on another corner near to there that used to be run by the Deckert family many years ago if I remember rightly. Another great bottle shop was just near the Mt. Lofty Railway Station. You could catch the train into the hills and go home with all sorts of wonderful wines you'd never see in other places. I wonder if either of them are still there.

Real Estate

Yesterday I went and had a look at a church that might be coming on to the market. I'm mainly putting these images on the blog for Jane to see because she's down in town at a seminar. But anyway, what a great little church. It will make an ideal art studio and a bit of a home away from home, don't you think? You might recognise it from a BCCA calendar a couple of years ago. The bell has gone - flogged off to a church in another country town that broke theirs - might be just as well.

It's complete with organ and pulpit and a roll of red carpet, all of which could come in handy I guess.

Look at the timber in the roof, that's what I like.

It has its own graveyard and this is the back of the church from the graveyard.

....and this is the dunny. It's a longdrop of course. There's lots of nice spots for BBQs and lots of room for parking.

Could somebody in Western Australia please explain?

Another Bolwell badge

Here's a couple of shots of the latest Bolwell badge produced by the South Australian club. They're $12.00 each. Order them via here, or give me a call (0413 226 009), or use your credit card and order through Beven Young.

Nagari badges will be next. I'll let you know when they're ready.

Farewell old friend.

Here's the SR6 loaded into its container and strapped down so it can't move. It's off to the West for a new life in Historic Racing. In the morning it'll be on the train and should be in Perth by Thursday. Look after it John. I'm sure you will.