Upper Middle Petrol Head:

This very tidy VW Beetle was spotted outside the excellent Small Fry cafe and bar in Bathurst Street, Hobart, on a pleasant Autumn morning.  According to its friendly owner, it's all original but has been recently reupholstered.   It's not the owner's only VW ;  he told UMPH that he's also got a number of engine-less Kombis that he hopes to get back on the road some day.      U M P H ( uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com .)

UMPH thought he'd stumbled across something really special when he saw this sleek Giugiaro-styled coupe in Hobart.  Turns out  out h e was both wrong and right ; what he thought was a Fiat Dino ended up being an Isuzu 117 coupe and that was no disappointment at all. The grill badge: not all that Italian. Absolutely classic lines. No need for decals - Giugiaro's signature is in the actual design. Admittedly, UMPH didn't know that Isuzu ever made the 117 .  But, now that he does, he's a big fan. A double (twin) over-head cam was quite advanced, and fairly rare, for a Japanese car of the 70s. Only here, in the rear-end treatment, does it depart from a more European look. This particular car featured flawless metallic silver duco and an unusual, but not unattractive, red vinyl roof.  The interior was very tidy while the exterior was finished off with a set of five-spoke alloys that would have looked at home on any Italian classi...

Right place, right time!  On this occasion, UMPH was fortunate to have happened across these two NSW registered Stingrays fuelling up in Sandy Bay.  According to the friendly Canadian driver of the silver car, both are 1964 editions and are pretty much stock.  They're touring Tasmania in company with another NSW registered Stingray - a 1968 homologation special - also in silver. The Canadians are buddies of the NSW owners of the cars featured here.  Next year, the Aussies are heading to Canada where they and their mates will be crossing the US border and embarking on a tour of New York State.  What do you reckon they might be driving?  Stingrays, of course! Please enjoy the attached video.  It may not be worthy of George Miller, but the sound the two cars make driving off is hard not to enjoy! U M P H ( uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au .) (All iPhone images.)

One of UMPH's mates - known thirty-odd years ago as Waxy - held a particular disdain for  summer surfies .  For readers unfamiliar with the term, summer surfies aren't hard-core enough  to surf during Tasmania's cooler months.   Topiaries on the edge of Oatland's Lake Dulverton. UMPH has never surfed - during summer, let alone winter - so he's clearly at least a rung lower than a summer surfie on Waxy's cred-o-meter.  The imputation has obviously affected him ; it occasionally leads him to a harden-the-xxxx-up moment, as occurred on a wet and blustery Sunday morning in mid-May when he almost didn't go to the Post Vintage Car Club's annual Picnic at Ross.  So that's how UMPH, Mrs UMPH, B-Rigid and the G-Man found themselves heading up the rain-slicked, wind-raked Midlands Highway, en route to Ross.  UMPH wasn't going to be accused of being a summer petrol head (even if it was an accusation levelled at himself, by hims...