There was a distinct lack of Isuzus at the All British Day. I have no idea why, although I did see Duane Degruch there who had his beautiful GT in the car park; I didn't think to take a photo tho!

These are vaguely alphabetical. Check it out!

I've never been THAT enamored with Astons. Over-rated! But the more I looked, the more I liked them. These DB4s are the over-rated ones I was talking about; they're kinda goofy looking and butt-heavy. But who would have thought they'd ever be worth half a million bucks each or more?



Nobody crash a bulldozer into this area!



This was my personal favourite out of the Aston Martins, because it looks like a proper muscle car!

This is an early-build Vantage; one of 16 built with a bolt-on bonnet scoop blank...



...and a bolt-on rear spoiler. After the first 16 were built, the scoops and spoilers were fully integrated into the body. Bah! Factory bolt-on stuff is awesome; like an A9X!



I wasn't overly interested in this 1988 Virage; the model suffers from that post-classic issue of being too awkward and 90s to be classic, but not modern enough to be truly modern, especially as it's teetering away on those tiny wheels and tyres. THEN I spoke to the owner. This Virage was the fourth 1988 Virage prototype built and the LAST prototype to be sold by Aston Martin; these days, like with any volume manufacturer, the prototypes are crushed for possible liability reasons.

It was also the main press car, the car used in the brochures AND a drive car for Victor Gauntlet, the awesomely-named then-boss of Aston Martin.

The owner also pointed out some major differences between this and regular production car (he also owns the LAST one built!) although he didn't have it there. Here's the prototype car:



And here's the a production example for comparison; the main difference is the grille and bumper combo, with the grille surround on the prototype finishing square with the lights and the bumper, while the production item included headlight surrounds.



There were other things, but I forget what they are!

Here's another land crab Austin 1800; not very rare or unusual in classic car circles, but I've got it here for comparison purposes! Read on!



Because HERE is a totally different car, the Austin 3-litre, featuring a (very muchly 2.9 litre, 2912cc) straight six engine mounted longitudinally, rear wheel drive, but strangely, a full set of Austin 1800 doors! This car is for sale in Unique Cars or something for $25,000. A bit rich, although it is pretty rare. I loved it, simply because it was super-rare in Australia and utterly confused.



I've seen this Austin Champ radio car before; my colleague and I were tasked with finding the "Car of the Show" and we almost chose it because it's super-restored, radios and all.



There were two of these rare Ford Consul Capris at the show; I've only ever seen a handful. I seem to remember reading somewhere they were a dog of a car! They were hard to build and suffered frequent crankshaft (read: catastrophic) failure! But they LOOK amazing!



We never received the Hillman Avenger in Australia, so this one has made it here somehow. I do like the car though; some old-school forum members may remember the thread where we compared the Avenger Tiger's paint scheme with that of a Bellett GTR!



This one is not so GTR-like though. Just awesome.



This one rocked the establishment a bit; the owner was getting around with massive lobe-rings, trucker cap, cross-tattoo under his eye and massive tattoos up his neck. Many, many monocles were dropped into cups of Earl Grey Tea, let me tell you.



A mate of mine overheard some oldies saying "That's what happens if you don't look after your suspension". I don't think they were kidding. It's awesome, but with a survivor car like that, I just couldn't do it to it...



Don't mind a good Jensen, but I do get bored with the Interceptor (unless it's an AWD/ABS Jensen FF, which I've never seen before ever), so I took some pics of this 541.



The Jowett Javelin is truly a bizarre car, water cooled flat-four nestled deep in the engine bay, the owner told me that it's tradition for Javelin owners to take off their grilles so people can actually FIND the engine! The grille comes off with a pair of thumb-screws, by the way.



Access an issue? Drive a Jupiter instead!



We awarded this Lotus Esprit Turbo the Best Vehicle at the show; it was immaculate, ran original paint and look like it rolled off the production line yesterday.



The organisers did query our choice, stating they'd prefer and old car... I mentioned that the Esprit is 24 years old this year, so it's not exactly new!



I took precisely zero photos of the MGs because they're so common, but I had to take some photos of this one;



This was bought by my wife not long after we got together; she sold off her AE71 Corolla and chased her dream of MG ownership (despite me suggesting a Datsun Fairlady or a Honda S600/S800). She couldn't afford a B, so this Midget was it.



It was a white car and she really wanted British Racing Green, so she took it to a workshop and looked at the colours. Needless to say, this ISN'T green... but it's a cool colour and she loved it. She just didn't like the things that went wrong with it...snapped accelerator cable, burst radiator, snapped leaf spring, busted clutch (engine out job, too)... you name it!

I met the owner (two owners after Sarah) and asked him if we could put our lad in the car for a photo later when he and Sarah arrived and he agreed, which was really nice of him. I didn't see him when we did the photo, but we had it all pre-approved, I assure you!





I do love the Morris Marina.



How's this Morris Six? I think it might be the grandfather of the Austin 3-litre up there, because I'm certain those doors are from a Morris Minor!



Correct me if I'm wrong, people! Wait, I am wrong; they are Morris Oxford doors (I just looked it up on Wikipedia...)



I remember seeing the odd Reliant Scimitar around; they were Australian-delivered unlike the Robin and Kitten. There were two different models there, the earlier model;



...and a less attractive, but still awesome, double-brown 1976 model.





I have a mate who has just moved from Manchester with one of these; he was most disappointed to find out there will be another one... the same bloody colour!



Think Florian rear-quarter glass is weird? This one has an opening section in the rear cargo-area glass!



Ok we're getting to some of my favourite cars of the show. Anyone know what this is?



If you said, "Austin Allegro" contragulations! You're less wrong than you could have been!



This is actually an Vanden Plas 1500, the luxury-spec version of the Allegro! There are two very awesome quotes about the Allegro I have to share; somewhat paraphrasing...

"The Allegro was a better car than the Marina, because the Allegro was a horrible car in a more original way than the Marina."
- Jeremy Clarkson

"It is what I call the 'British Leyland' model – you put a lot of money in at the top, and an Austin Allegro comes out at the bottom"
- Sir Digby Jones

It was quite well appointed; nice dash, for instance:



...and how about this rear 'in-flight' table? I pointed out to the owners that if you were important enough to warrant owning a car that you could sit in the back of and use a table in, you could afford a better car than the Allegro-based Vanden Plas! They agreed, but were justifiably proud of this car.



So anyone recognise this:



Perhaps it's better from this angle:



The Vauxhall Cavalier was GM Great Britain's version of the GM J-car world car; otherwise known as the Isuzu Aska in Japan and the maligned Holden Camira in Australia!

This wagon 'estate' version had a closer tie with Holden than you'd expect; while each manufacturer built their own local version, the Australian Camira, the Japanese Aska, the German Ascona and the American Chevrolet Cavalier, Chevrolet Monza, Buick Skyhawk, Oldsmobile Firenza, Cadillac Cimarron and Pontiac Sunbird (there are more...), Holden's Camira was the only wagon. I remember reading that Holden had the money to build a coupe or a wagon, and wisely chose the wagon as they figured it would be a volume seller, even if they had to design it themselves.

Obviously Vauxhall thought it was a bit of alright, as this Cavalier features rear panels that were pressed by Holden in Australia and exported. This car has, essentially, come home! Well, the back half at least.

I've been seeing that red Cavalier around for some time, but this Vic club-plated sedan was a total surprise and in excellent condition!



The rear is markedly different to the Camira, but the profile and detail is there, right down to the vents in the c-pillar.



You might notice the rear fog-lights in the estate; they're normally all-white reverse lights in the Aussie wagon.





And herein ends the sermon!



Cheers,


Dave

Amen.

The block out grill on the Aston wouldn't work up here in Darwin so I better not get one thanks.

fantastic pics and especially, info, Dave

as usual dave allways great shots and details about the car to go with it keep up your good work ...(( dave notice im using lower case I have my glasses on )...................cheers davo

Dave,
Thank you for the totally AWESOME series of pictures, what a great Show it must have been.
You must have one of the best jobs knowing where all these shows will be!!

Well done!
Dave M.

nice pic . still pommy shit ....ha ha

Easy Rod....play nicely, or we won't let you have Kylie back

Sadly missed out on both those shows, Dave, either working weekends or crazy busy. Sarah and J-Man looking good as are you my beardy freind , but not as good as the little red Healy Sprites in the background

I made it to "the little Gazza Nats" in our suburb last weekend but missed out on all American Day just across the road..... cos' i GOT THERE TOO LATE
Needless to say the streets were full of big American steel, most of which their drivers didn't acknowledge a little jap steel buzzing around their massive fenders.

Check out "Little Gazza Nats" thread for something a little different.

Cheers, B.

Speaking of Jensens remember the one you seen dumped on the highway?? Aparently it was purchased by a guy in Grafton. Who had hired a trailer down there but suffered wheelbearing trouble... dumped the car went back and got another trailer

Absolute perfect shape on those early capris

saw the allegro driving through the hills in the morning, it looked like it handles like a boat! saw quite a few of the other british cars driving through too!

Surprising what you DOO see cuising throuh the hills of A, Flibbs. Like today must have been a muscle car show somewhere, cause there were sh@!$ loads of them around.

yep, the amount of different cars that i get to see cruising through our little town is great everything from little blue gt belletts to a gaggle of porsches, and everything inbetween!