Queanbeyan Swap Meet 2014 - General Motors and Holden's

The Queanbeyan Swap Meet is held in conjunction with two car shows - the Ford, GM, Chrysler Day and the American Car Day. This post is mainly about the Holden's that were on display on the Saturday. I will post about GM cars that appeared on the Sunday, in the near future. The focus of this post is mainly on Aussie GM cars.

Very nice two door convertible 48-215 conversion

 

 This Pontiac sounded great, rumbling around the oval

 Classic 56 Buick

Queanbeyan Swap Meet 2014 - Fords

 Only Falcon XABC Coupe on the day - but it was a ripper

The Queanbeyan Swap Meet is held in conjunction with two car shows - the Ford, GM, Chrysler Day and the American Car Day. This post is about the Ford's that were on display on the Saturday. I will post about Ford cars that appeared on the Sunday, in the near future. The focus of this post is Aussie and English fords (OK, a few US cars as well).

Interesting profiles. Only the front panels and floorpan are interchangeable between the sedan and coupe. Even the windscreen glass is different. 

Queanbeyan Swap Meet 2014 - the crap people sell and that some people buy!

The Queanbeyan Swap Meet is a Canberra car show fixture, and now it has been moved so it doesn't clash with the AFL Grand Final, it is increasing in size - more vendors and more buyers. They hold it in conjunction with two car shows - on the Saturday a Ford, GM and Chrysler show and on the Sunday an American Car Show. This post is all about the crap that people cart to the Swap Meet to sell, with only a few car photos. They are coming in separate posts.

German Autofest 2014 - Mercedes Benz

The last of a series of posts from the German Autofest 2014. Mercedes Benz was by far the largest marque represented, maybe just slightly more Mercs than Volkswagens. There was a strong mix of modern and historic vehicles, although the nature of time and the way people relate to their cars, always favours modern cars over antique vehicles in volume. It is pretty obvious that the two door Mercedes tend to live longer than their four door brethren. Zero station wagens on display also. 

A most intriguing car. The most highly modified Mercedes I have ever seen I would like to know more about this car. 

This might not buff out

You know a car is too far gone when the parts UNDER the bonnet are rusted away. here is a Ford inline six in an XY. No amount of 'Start Ya Bastard' will work on this. 

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Audi, Smart and Karmann Ghia at German Autofest

The German Autofest was a big car show, but there are always a few orphans. here are a few of them A nice gold Karmann Ghia.

Classic 1980's kit car VW convertible porsche replica Volkswagen. This was a thing at the time. You don't see too many still on the road.

NSU Ro80 at German Autofest

The NSU Ro80 is an iconic car. The first commercially available rotary engined car made, well before Mazda, it was sadly not a sales success. It is powered by a 995cc rotary engine driving the front wheels. The Wankel design was not robust enough for everyday driving and mechanical failures blighted the cars reputation. This was the last design built by NSU from 1967 to 1977. 

Cars of Canberra in the early 70's

This is a postcard from the John Sands company, dated from the early 70's based on the cars featured. The photo was taken from the corner of Northbourne Avenue and London Circuit, facing east.

The cars! From left to right - EH wagon, Chrysler Charger, HQ Holden wagon, BMC Mini, BMC Mini, a Volvo (I reckon) HT Holden and an FB Holden. In the background is a bus that I cant quite identify.

Did I get them right? Are your eyes better than mine? Can you ID the tiny cars in the background? Leave a comment.

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Overtime rates on a Sunday - council workers patch Mt Panorama racing circuit during Bathurst 1000

Bathurst 1000 is an annual event, with months of preparation. It therefore came as a surprise when on lap 60, officials stopped the race for 45 minutes to effect repairs. True to Australian workplace conditions, there were 6 guys watching 2 guys doing the work (it's not like it needs to be done quickly). Note that there is even a guy leaning on a shovel! 

This being Bathurst (where in a previous year, a kangaroo jumped into one of the cars racing), other whimsical incidents of note included the light bar on the medical car flying off at about 120km and a spectator punting a white football onto the track. 

ABC Canberra carried this brief report.

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Amphicar at German Autofest on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin

Boating on Lake Burley Griffin in an Amphicar

It was inspired thinking to hold the 2014 German Autofest on the Patrick White Lawns (between the National Library of Australia and Lake Burley Griffin). It meant that people attending the car display, could also watch an Amphicar drive to the lake, enter the water, do a lap or two from bridge to bridge, and then drive out - switching from car to boat to car - and impressing us all. 

How the Amphicar works

The Amphicar is a fascinating piece of engineering, and has been on my 'must see' list for as long as I can remember. Designed by an engineer that worked on the German Schwimmwagen program during WW2, the interesting amphibian used an 1147cc Triumph engine to power itself on land and water. The 43 HP engine provided a top speed of 7 knots in the water and 110 km/h on land. First appearing in 1961 production ceased in 1965, with around 4000 made. 

Canberra Times photo of the Amphicar driving out of the lake

The car in this article was imported in non-running condition by a Cooma based collector. It was bought at auction at a lower than expected price, as according to the owner, they are very difficult to repair and source parts for. He looked at it when it finally arrived in Australia and discovered that the polarity of the electric's had been

Summernats 2014 - Photos coming soon

Although I visited Summernats 2014, I didn't post any photos at the time. My stats tell me that Summernats posts are very popular, so I will post  a few sets of photos over the next few weeks.  

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Plastic coated coat hanger v 1974 Leyland P76 anti-theft technology

Yes I am an idiot who realises in that 'ohnosecond' (the time between realising you have made an error, and the error occurring) that I have locked the keys in my 1974 Leyland P76 Super V8. The ohnosecond occurring as the car door slams shut and I see the keys in the ignition, instead of my pocket. 

How to get them out? After looking at various methods, I decided to use a plastic coated coat hanger and bent it into this shape so I could latch onto the interior door lock and jiggle it up. A complete success. I figured that a wire coat hanger might scratch the paint, so I went with a slightly thicker plastic coated wire hanger. It took about ten minutes and I was closely observed by the postman, several people walking dogs, people driving past etc. 

Yes, the car has an immobiliser. 

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Newstead rods and Chopped

I recently visited Newstead in Central Victoria. While walking around, I noticed this very nice 32 Ford roadster. I wandered over and saw a few people in the front yard of the house it was parked in front of. It turned out that these two cars are owned by Ryan Ford, who is incredibly busy running Chopped this weekend. On the way up the Hume I saw dozens of rods and customs heading the other direction. I will definitely go in 2015.

Nice Flathead with twin Strombergs

German Autofest 2014 - BMW

The BMW area had a few bikes as well as cars. I prefer the BMW coupes to the sedans, I think BMW just get it right. This unusual motorcycle towing a motorcycle also caught my eye, and was very popular with people all day. 

 

 BMW K1200 LT

 BMW R26

 BMW 3 Series - JPS special

 I feel like a cool refreshing John Player Special for some reason.

German Autofest 2014 - Porsche

Part two of several posts from the German Autofest. I do not know why I took so few photos of Porsches. Maybe because they are just so common? I really like the Panamera and  it reminds me of the 928 in many ways (except the Panamera has 4 doors). Enjoy! 

Porsche Panamera

1973 XY Falcon 4 Wheel Drive Utility

What do you do when you have a car that you developed for an Army contract, that you didn't win? You look at selling it to the public. That's what Ford Australia did in the late 1960's. using the Australian designed and built Ford Falcon, mating its six cylinder engine to Jeep 4WD mechanicals, and offering it to the public. 

Unfortunately, the development time on the XY Falcon Ute 4WD and importing some parts such as the special order front axles, took so long that the XA ute was being sold as it was coming to market. In fact it also carries XA parts, such as steering columns. 

As the only Australian designed and built 4WD until the Holden Adventra, it was a groundbreaking car, that should have been the start of bigger things - but sadly died almost stillborn. Only 432 were built. That makes them rarer than a Phase 3 (of which there are more today than when built...).  

German Autofest 2014 - Volkswagens

On Sunday September 20, on a glorious Canberra spring day, i went to the Patrick White lawns between the national Library of Australia and Lake Burley Griffin, to look at a few hundred German cars owned by Canberran's. 

Over the next week or two I will post quite a few great shots of stunning german cars. Today I start with Volkswagens!

classic Volkswagen

New Beetle

(yes, that is a flower in a dash mounted vase)

NSW Police Highway Patrol XB GT Falcon Coupe

NSW Police Highway Patrol XB GT Falcon Coupe 351 V8 

from the NSW Historic Patrol Vehicles Facebook page

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Canberra in spring - the aroma of a 1000 flowers is in the air!

It is Canberra in spring, and the aroma of a thousand flowers fills the air, except for this single flower in a dash mounted vase. Can you identify the car?

Hint: it was at the german Autofest.

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1914, 1948 and 1968 FIAT - random mini car show

This morning I set out on my way to the German Autofest (report coming soon) and as I was driving through Kingston, an old FIAT caught my eye. I pulled into the carpark in Telopea Way, and saw three old FIAT's. The FIAT owners were deep into conversation, so I couldn't ask them why they had three FIAT's in a carpark, on a Sunday morning. Still, here they are for us all to enjoy. 

They are a 1968, a 1948 and a 1914 (yeah, that's right 100 years old) trio. 

 

 

1968 FIAT

1948 FIAT

 

 

 1914 FIAT

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