Upper Middle Petrol Head:

Everything that I know about French cars could easily be written on the side of a pack of  Gauloise 20s, still leaving plenty of room for the obligatory health warnings.  Therefore, I've had to resort to Wikipedia to discover that the 203 - as featured here, photographed by our Canberra correspondent - was manufactured in Peugeot's Sochaux  factory between 1948 and 1960, during which period some 700,000 examples were produced.  During the period 1949 to 1955, it was the only model that Peugeot produced, although it was available in four door sedan and wagon, two door coupe and two- and four door cabriolet variants ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peugeot_203#:~:text=The%20Peugeot%20203%20is%20a,Peugeot%20between%201948%20and%201960.&text=The%20203%20was%20Peugeot's,assembly%20line%20in%20Sochaux%2C%20France ) .  I was surprised to learn that the 203 is classified as a small car, which, to my mind at least, is at odds with its large car styling, especially whe...

  How's this ripper circa-1980 Corolla station wagon?  It comes from a time when Toyota built cars, rather than the soul-less hybrid buckets of pus that they're making now.  It was straight and rust-free, with glossy paint, good chrome and a very tidy interior.  There was a nice set of 13" Hot Wires , a very tasteful 3-spoke sports steering wheel and was fitted with a five-speed 'box.  Other than those few mods - and a roof-mounted bike rack - it looked to be pretty much stock.  U M P H (uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.) All iPhone images.

Don't ask me why, but this stylish old EK looked particularly at home parked by the beach.  It could've been that its unmistakably mid-1950s styling lent it an air of US surf movie fun (for the logical amongst you, the lack of roof racks and boards is noted!); it might've just been that the colour scheme was evocative of lazy summers and, in Australia, that usually equals being beachside.  Either way, it was a joy to behold! U M P H (uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.) All iPhone images.

  The red 1983 Series 2 X1/9 on the right has an interesting history and is a little less standard than it may first appear to be.  According to its current owner, it's an ex-Launceston car that was written-off in a front-end bingle only a short time after it was sold new.  It was then bought by a well known Hobart-based Fiat aficionado, who had plans to turn it into a rally car, but ended up rebuilding it for road use. Although the car looks quite stock, the front-end was actually re-engineered with an entirely new space frame.  All the forward panels were repaired and a new bumper was added, following the Series 1-style, but covering the full width of the nose.   A cut-down Commodore radiator was also fitted.   However, everything aft of the front windscreen remains standard, even retaining the original duco.   As a Series 2, it came standard with a 1.5 litre motor and a five speed box, both of which remain, having only amass...

  It would be easy to scoff at a car as seemingly prosaic as this late 1970s' Corona,  labelling it a boring family hack and  dismissing it as unworthy of classic-status.  Wrong!  Today's example is in excellent, apparently unrestored condition, which is no mean feat seeing it's more than forty  years old, and the desirability of any given car is based on the personal experiences of those who have memories of them. I got my licence towards the end of the shaggin' wagon era when panel vans and curtain-equipped station wagons were all the rage.  My own Escort van saw zero action as a bonk-mobile but it did make a pretty handy place to sleep off boozy beach party excesses, as well as serving well as accommodation for kayaking and other outdoor expeditions, as did many of my mates' Cortina, Falcon, Mazda and Toyota station wagons. My mate, Mark D, had a white Corona wagon almost identical to this one but slightly earlier, featuring the bonnet-lip gril...

The condition of this lovely old girl, a EJ Holden from the early 1960s, probably says something about Canberra's relatively car-friendly climate.  Sure, the Australian Capital Territory has summers hotter than Satan's digestery tract and winters that have resulted in a disproportionately high population of squeaky-voiced brass monkeys, but that's just a consequence of being an inland location.   However, the flip-side of being 150 kilometers or so from the nearest salt water - in this case,  the Pacific Ocean off Australia's east coast - is that heavy corrosion seems to be less prevalent on local vehicles.  The Canberra Correspondent notes that this particular car's paint has taken a battering from the harsh sun, exposing some of the metal and resulting in some light surface rust, but the body's otherwise straight and rot-free.  Its condition very much mirrors that of the EH ute he sent in a couple of weeks ago.    It's pretty clear th...

There's zero doubt that Holden has been a revered Aussie brand ever since the marque's first car, the 48-215 or, as they are unofficially known, the  FX .  That said, there's a bit more reverence for certain models,   1963's EH and 1966's HR being two that stand out in particular. It's be hard to find a better example of an HR than this outstanding wagon but, to be fair to some of the others, there are a surprising number that are its equal.  And that, I suppose, confirms the reverence with which HR s are regarded ; it seems that their immediate predecessor, the HD ,   isn't quite as well loved and they aren't as many of them about and, generally, they don't seem to have as much attention lavished upon them. And today's car - a 1966 version, according to the cleverly selected number plates - has had a whole lotta love lavished on it, as evidenced by the immaculate duco, chrome and interior.  It really is totally unblemished and sits on what appe...