Upper Middle Petrol Head:

MGBs are still a fairly common sight, as evidenced by the many examples that grace the pages of this 'blog.  What makes this one interesting, though, are its Superlite -style alloys, made to fit the splined axles that the car would have originally been fitted with. Superlites would easily be the most popular aftermarket alloy wheel for MGBs.  However, this is the first time UMPH has seen them manufactured to suit a spline and with knock-off spinners like those that are normally used to secure wire wheels. U M P H (uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.) All iPhone images.

Classic British cars look good in just about any colour.  However, some hues really do set them off and add a big dose of class, as this magnificent British Racing Green (BRG) MGB roadster shows.   Nice.  Very nice indeed!     BRG may be just about the most well-known of the international racing colours, possibly because its very name incorporates the country, sport denoted and the hue itself (Britain, racing and green) but other countries' own signature colour schemes are quite familiar to many people, too.  Take, for example, Italy's  Rosso Corsa  (red, made famous my Ferrari and Alfa), blue for France (think Bugatti, Matra and Alpine, to name a few examples) and the silver of Germany's Mercedes, Porsche and Audi. Rossa Corsa Classic German silver French blue Pretty much every nation involved in international motor sport also have their own racing colours.  For those i...

This Lotus Elan Sprint is a truly magnificent car!  It looked an absolute treat with its red, white and gold colour scheme, knock-on Superlite wheels and snug, sporty interior.  A genuine classic British sports car!  U M P H (uppermiddlepetrolhead.blgspot.co.au.) All iPhone images.

This straight, clean and very tidy MGB GT a ppeared to be completely original.  It's unlikely - no, nigh on impossible - to imagine a time when you can't get parts for the venerable MGB, either in four-cylinder of V8 forms, thereby ensuring that cars like the one shown here will be a continuing sight on our roads, even as cars become blander and, even worse, possibly even electric!   However, a British company, Frontline Developments ( http://www.frontlinedevelopments.com/ ) , has gone that little bit further to ensure the on-going presence of the marque, having developed and manufactured a brand new MGB GT , using genuine shells courtesy of British Motor Heritage, fitted with 2.0 litre Mazda MX5 ( Miata ) motors and a six-speed 'box from the same source.  They're a little bit exxie, coming in at a whopping 49,900 British Pounds (a bee's penis over $87,000 AUD at the time of writing).  For further information, please go to:  https://jalopn...

Sometimes, designers get it right the first time and then put increasing effort into stuffing their work up in subsequent iterations.  The XR and XT Falcons are a case in point, although it may be going a bit far to say that later versions - the XY s and XY s - are exactly horrible.  However, UMPH does reckon there's an arguable position that the former have a cleaner, more integrated look than the latter and that the XR 's and XT 's round tail lights suit the cars' overall design better than the XW 's and XY 's squarish versions.   What isn't in dispute, however, is that the V8 XT featured here looked great!  It was clean, straight and tidy with all original features, other than the Bathurst Globe styled mags, which were pretty much period-appropriate, anyway.  The Tilford Motors sticker on the rear window suggests that it was originally sold here in Hobart. U M P H (uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au....

Many people regard the car photographed here - a TR4/A  IRS  (standing for independent rear suspension) - as the pinnacle of the Triumph sports car line-up.  They would argue that those models that preceded it lacked grunt and the three TRs that followed, the TR5, TR6 and TR7, lacked the style and charm that made Triumphs special.  This is especially true of the often maligned TR7 and its V8 twin, the TR8, which are only now really gaining acceptance. UMPH won't comment, for fear of offending legions of Triumph fans!  However, he will hazard to admit to being a bit of a TR4 fan and will stick his neck well out and confess to having always loved the wedge-shaped TR7 and TR8! U M P H (uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.) All iPhone images.