Upper Middle Petrol Head:

  Once upon a time - six or seven years ago, actually - there was a lovely pale yellow GC Galant station wagon getting around Hobart.  It was totally nanna-spec; its paint was umarked, the chrome work and hubcaps were immaculate, and its very original interior was pristine. Then someone stuck feathers in its dashboard.  Next, the windows were adorned with Tibetan prayer flags.  And a hubcap went missing.  And the the rear bumper was pushed in, mangling the bodywork behind it.  And a mudguard got dented.  And rust set in.   I fear for this sweet, innocent KE36 Corolla.  Somebody please save it before it's too late.  Nanna needs you to do it. Hello, reader! I've noticed that this seems to be a particularly popular post.  Something to do with Google's algorithms, I guess ... .  But it's not my best piece!  Sure, it's ok, but there are so, so many more interesting classic, sports and performance cars on this site - as wel...

  This classic hot rod has me intrigued.  For starters, I don't know what it's been based on - other than an pre-WW2 Ford - and, secondly, it has what I might've thought was a fairly out-there choice of engine, having been fitted with some sort of   twin-cam Ford four pot. Don't get me wrong - I'm not suggesting for a minute that the donk's not up to the job!  To the contrary, the open belt-driven-assembly, twin side draft Webers and sweeping extractors suggest it's one of Ford's very, very best fours and likely to be very quick, but it does seem a little incongruous in the sort of car you might more commonly expect to see  sporting  a highly chromed V8. Admittedly, it's not a big car; the power-to-weight ratio would almost certainly make this a mightily potent machine.  The motor's also mounted well aft of the front wheels, and the body's low and wide, so it's likely to handle well, too. But if someone could fill in the blanks, that'...

Upper Middle Petrol Head semi-regular contributor and chief of on-line-research-using-the-smart-phone-he-used-to-disparage - aka GlamRock - has determined that this unusual little critter is a Formula 600 racing car ( http://www.theformula600challenge.com/about /).  Admittedly, the construction differs slightly  from the ones featured via the attached link - having been fitted with what looks like a filleted Fiat Topolino  cabin - but it does follow the the 600 cc motorcycle engine, six speed sequential gearbox setup of the 600 Series cars. Either way, it certainly tore up Hobart's Baskerville Raceway during the July, 2021, installment of Club Motori Italia's popular hill climb series.  The sound it made - a sort of banshee squeal - also made it very, very hard to ignore!   The makes and models of the majority of other cars featured in today's post - with the clear exceptions of Rod Bender's Radical SR3 and a Scorpion  Formula Vee driven by ...

There are stacks and stacks of GT Falcons on the Upper Middle Petrol Head site.  So, despite all evidence to the contrary, this isn't just a Phase I'm going through. Seriously, though, there's a really great selection of GTs, GSs and hardtops scattered throughout the site, along with heaps of sports, performance and classics cars.  There are vehicles from all corners of the Globe, by manufacturers large and small.   So why not take alook around?  There's a search option - the magifying glass icon in the top right corner - to help you find vehicles that might take your interest.  And if you like what you see, please feel free to share or leave a comment. U M P H (uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.)

There was a largish contingent of cars from the USA at July, 2021's, installment of Classics by the Beach, including this big-as-a-whale Chevrolet  Impala .  My limited understanding of US engine designations is that the 327 cubic inch GM V8, as fitted to this car - is what's known as a "small block."  Everything's relative, I suppose.   The car was no minnow, though.  And its wheels - at least 18, if not 20" (I looked, was amazed and promptly forgot their actual size) - were  h u g e  relative to just about anything that I've ever seen short of having been fitted to a big 4WD or a medium-sized truck.  They looked fabulous on the car with their chrome finish perfectly complementing the rest of the abundant bright-work.  Nice!     This KE20 Corolla is a work in progress, says its owner.  It's recently had an engine upgrade - from 1200 cc to 1300, with a single Weber carbie - and he recently bought an unobtanium re...