Upper Middle Petrol Head:

How could you not love this fun-as EK wagon, captured recently on Queensland’s Gold Coast?  It’s in great nick and has just the right amount of faux patina and gothic accessories to keep on the right side of wacky without being tacky.   U M P H (uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.) iPhone images. 

  Well played, sir or madam!   Not only is your immaculate Charger - featuring what I believe to be the “Drifter Pack” trim option - a credit to you, it’s also a fabulous nod to 1970s Gold Coast culture.  Long may she grace the Goldie’s beachside roads! U M P H (Uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au) iPhone images.   

  Today’s post is sponsored by the letter F , standing for Florian. Coincidentally, it could also stand for fire truck - or a contraction thereof - as it’s being written on an iPad, my MacBook currently being f*cked, seemingly having not benefited from being left switched on, unattended, for the better part of a fortnight. If a frozen laptop’s the only damage incurred for a couple of weeks’ driving holiday along the south coasts of Victoria and South Australia - routes known as the Great Ocean Road and Southern Ocean Drive, respectively - then continuing on to Kangaroo Island, so be it.   It was worth it! Spectacular as all that scenery was, it wasn’t the only thing to take my eye.   I am a car bloke, after all; no jaunt would be complete without some car porn and a good chat with a like-minded dude! The vehicular centrefold of this coastal odyssey came in the form of Dave Carey’s late 1960s’ Isuzu Florian , a model taking its name from the Greek god of road trips*. ...

  Nice ol' truck, I hear you say.  But is it?   There's zero doubt that it's nice!  I'd say awesome, actually.   I'm just not so sure that it's old.  Or maybe that all of it's old. Why?  As best as I can tell, this is a J40(ish) - also possibly known as a "40 Series" - 'Cruiser, or at least looks like one.  Our friends at Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Land_Cruiser , accessed 24 JUN 22) tell us that the J40 was built between 1960 and 1984 and - as an amusing side note - that they were called the "Macho" in Venezuela.   As macho as this 40 Series is - and it truly is quite the hairy brute - there was never to my knowledge a coil-sprung version, as this one clearly is, during its near quarter century of production.  It's almost certainly possible to modify the vehicle to take coils all 'round.  However, my best bet is that this one's a J40 cab sitting atop a much, much newer chassis.   Eithe...

Two things made me fall instantly in love with this super-sexy Alfa Spider , recently captured by the Canberra Correspondent in suburban ACT:  its fabulously 1970s' green paint job and those Momo Vega wheels.  I concede that the duco could be contentious, being as it is almost hi-vis, but no one drives a classic Italian sports car to fly under the radar, do they?  And red's probably a bit of a cliche, eh?  I wouldn't hesitate to add it to the UMPH garage!       The Vega was made for cars just like this Spider, as well as really suiting Alfa 105 and 115 Series coupes, and the subsequent Tipo 116 Alfetta GTVs .  They also look outstanding on Fiat X1/9s, quite likely because the eccentric hexagonal "holes," or as my architect mate refers to such voids, "negative spaces," complements the X's side profile angles, especially those of the integral roll-over structure.   The Canberra Correspondent reports that our feature car has has been o...