Motorclassica 2012 :: Where Super Rare Cars Come To Play

Grant — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 04:19:17 +0000

Yes it’s that time of year again, Motorclassica is back and bigger than ever! My plan was to get in early and avoid the crowd! but the crowd beat me.
The first thing to WOW me was this Australian built land speed jet car from the seventys, unfortunately it was never run to its full potential because of flooding on the salt lake but it still holds unofficial high speed records within Australia.

The usual cars were out on show, plenty of MG’s and e-type jags, yet the thing that caught my eye was this Citoren chaperon convertible, the same legendary DS goddess but with no roof.. love this!

What a killer project car / investment, imagine finding this in a garage and scoring it for a low price.

Even the classic Lamborghini’s have big bums! it seems to run in the family, when you have a v12 in the trunk you need all the space you can get.

Styling! all car manufacturers take note! this is how it is done! every part of this dash is its own work of art! plastic sure did kill the stylish look.

I can honestly say i have never heard or seen one of these before, get this a “V8 VL Commodore” known as the Brock HDT Commodore VL Director. This is one of 12 ever made! it’s the last model Brock made with HDT.

I’m not even going to try to identify what car this is! because i know i will get it wrong, the unique shape of it is what attracted me to this crazy little red car.

The royal exhibition building is one of the most grand looking buildings in Melbourne and there is no better place to host such a classic car show.

Formula 2 is where it is at! light aerodynamic and nimble. This 1960 type 18 Lotus is one exciting little machine.

1960 Lotus Elite Series II Super 95 looks very square from the back but up the front it very similar to the e-type jag.

Seems legit! road registered ! why not, i think they should remake these and only allow them in the city! this will fix Melbournes traffic wows.

Simple yet effective ! with a steering wheel from a bus and a bench seat this old MG would be really fun to drive in the mountains!

I never realized how crazy the doors on the GT40 really are, they are massive and have half the roof attached to them.

This has to be my favourite car of the show! Holden why didn’t you produce this? Torana Coupe concept.

Bold yet sharp, with body curves like a Swedish tennis player this concept car truly has style and an elegance that no Holden before has ever possessed. I just cant believe they have had this locked away in a warehouse of failed concept cars never to see the light of day, well im glad this one has relived its moment in the spotlight.

The show was not all inside there were twice as many cars on display around the royal exhibition building as there were inside.

The fiat Abarth, “what a crazy little scorpion of a car” imagine owning one of these back in the day, probably the fastest 500cc car of its time.

What is this you may ask? a Lamborghini Jarama the sportier version of the Espada and the much pretty looking version.

A big crowd gathered to admire the huge amount of cars on display outside of Motorclassica.

The Lamborghini Aventador, love it or hate it, it is a true piece of art and completely pushes the boundary’s on car design, like a supermodel it is both beautiful and ugly at the same time.

Nothing better embodies 70’s car design like Dodge, gone are the days of big heavy tuff cars with large loud engines.

Lambos for days! each model has a style of its own, it’s just hard to pick which one to go with!

The classic Ford Cortina, these things are just plain cool, lots of style, compact and fun to drive.

Factory fresh! look at this paint! this Ferrari looks like it has just rolled of the line.

So many prancing horses! so much red! so much money!

The classic 911 the car that i think really made Porshce stand out at the time and today it still looks and exudes speed.

I can’t go past this Austin Healey 3000, it is the ultimate sunday driving car! 11 seconds to 100kph and it was built-in the 60’s, there are modern hatch backs that are meant to be sporty” that struggle to hit the same speed in 11 seconds.

Why so much positive camber? i don’t think i will ever know the answer to this question!
With such a huge range of cars from many different eras it is not hard to appreciate this event and the amount of work that goes into it. Year after year the show just keeps getting better! i only hope that next year they bring along more old school concept cars.
Thanks for looking,
Grant

Vicdrift :: GK Tech Round 3, 2012

Grant — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 07:52:26 +0000

The forecast for the weekend was looking pretty grim, yet seeing as how this is the final event of the VicDrift championship for the year, so the weather was not going to put me off and hopefully the car folk of Melbourne would feel the same. As I got out of my car on that Saturday morning, the pro-class group were already lining up for their first run on the track.

There were plenty of new cars that I had not seen before and it is really awesome to watch how the scene has changed and grown in the short year GSS has been online. There are many more interstate drivers that have had made the trip down to Melbourne for a chance to battle the finest Victoria has to offer.

The insane drifters were out to play and they never fail to impress! I was able to get in nice and close on the first corner to get some shots of the morning action.

Not everyone got it right on their first go, with some coming very close to the sand trap.

It is very easy to build up too much speed into the first corner and this appeared to take many by surprise. Cat looked pretty bummed that she misjudged this one.

Peter Vouyoukas and his shmick looking R33 had some very clean runs and was about to keep up his speed too.

It was great to see Matt Russell getting his Ae86 sideways again. He was in good form and worked his way into the top 16.

Leigh Pidwell was killing it all day long in the trusty onevia. After the events of the weekend, it is now sporting more battle scars.

One of the best parts of drift practice was seeing the pro boys go in 3 or 4 strong with minimal distance and maximum proximity.

Unfortunately there was little to no crowd. It seems they just couldn’t compete with the lure of teh AFL Grand Final and the traditional BBQ’s and parties that go with it. Only a small handful of 100 or so people got to see some of the weekends best action.

After a wild scando on the straight, Team Chaulkin’s s13 was cutting the grass and chewing the dirt.

With such a long straight leading into the first corner, many chose to wipe off some of the speed and warm up the tyres with a little flick.

I am really liking the workmanship under the front bar here. The oil cooler looked like it had been built in straight from factory.

The speed in the dry was amazing, I was just hoping the rain would hold off…

Even the pro boys drop in the dirt from time to time. This track official is just lucky he has some fence in front of him to stop some of the mud.

The only thing I hate about this car is the fact that it has no sponsors! All of the drifters need more sponsorship, it feels as though there is no money in drift within Australia, but plenty of heart.

The sky threatened to rain all day and eventually the heavens opened up and it continued to rain for a good 30 minutes or so, at which point the rain turned into hail, followed by more rain!

These true fans stood out in the pouring rain to witness some of Victoria’s superstars of drift.

The only good thing about the rain is that it helped to save some tyres for the drivers. The bad part of course being that the track developed patchy levels of grip that did tend to catch out some of the drivers unawares.

As the afternoon went on, the rain cleared and the sun briefly showed its face. This seemed to give the teams some time to inspect the cars.

Don’t worry, it was just a small flesh wound, it’ll buff out!
For drifters not accustomed to drifting along walls, it is a hard lesson to learn.

No panel was safe!!

Nigel’s 180sx always looks mint! I didn’t think it was possible, but it looks even better after it has just rained.

Did someone say epic front camber?

This car didn’t end up seeing too much track action. I’m not actually too sure what broke in this instance. It was a shame because over the course of the day, at least 30% of the cars broke something.

No more front bar! That means its time for lunch!

Some of the best touch parking I have ever seen! Sure beats using a brick or bit of wood to stop the car rolling.

This little Ae86, had a V6 Camry engine under the bonnet, not your normal choice of engine swap!

It is always a pleasure to see Jarred back with his KE70 Wagon, as it is one of the most unique cars on the scene at the moment.

Nothing could stop Leigh Pidwell! He is so fearless and has such crazy, high speed entries, he was definitely one of the favourites of the entire weekend.

After lunch it was time for the battles to start!

Nigel started off a bit rusty, but as the afternoon took hold he went from strength to strength, getting into the top 8, only to be beaten by Michael Prosenik.

Another crazy wagon that was out on track and it really showed the sedans how to drift!

Final results for round 3 of the GKTech Championship:
1st Place: James Abbott
2nd Place: Andreas Paraskevas
3: Leigh Pidwell

The overall winner of the VicDrift 2012 series was Andreas Paraskevas from insane drifters. With an outstanding performance all year, Andreas was not afraid to celebrate and later stood on top of his car’s roof with trophy in hand!
The weight of him and his trophy put a sizeable dint in his roof that was soon fixed by a swift punch to the inside roof.
With more action expected on the Sunday, there was no time to relax. Drivers and crew soon headed back to the pits to get the cars ready for the next day of competition.
Thanks for looking
– Grant.

2012 – Gripshiftslide

Motorclassica 2012 :: Where Super Rare Cars Come To Play

Vicdrift :: GK Tech Round 3, 2012