Upper Middle Petrol Head:

It’s time to come clean, acknowledge the big fib and embrace the truth:  the uppermiddlepetrolhead team does choose a Car of The Day  at Sandy Bay’s monthly Classics by the Beach get together!   We tried to deny it but, in the end, we knew we were only kidding ourselves.   So what, you might ask, was the catalyst for our new found policy of transparency and honesty?  It was this, a beautiful, literally one of a kind 1973 XB Fairmont survivor car that tipped the scales from our dogged denials to singin’ like a bird.  Well, the car and it’s knowledgeable, generous and enthusiastic owner! Original, right down to very windscreen that was fitted at the factory! First things first:  It's a completely original, matching numbers car with only the very, very tiniest few nicks and scrapes - what in more fancied publications would be called patina .  Second, it has only a small number of era-appropriate mods and they do nothing to detract from its ...

It's no secret that I love Momo Vega wheels!  In fact, it's such a not-secret that Hobart-based purveyor of Italian car parts Norm recently offered me four, having learned of my not even slightly disguised appetite for them whilst reading an UMPH article showcasing an Alfa Spider wearing a set.   How could I say no?! https://uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com/2022/06/from-canberra-correspondent-alfa-spider.html Is there a '70s or '80s Italian car that Vegas don't suit?  (Hint:  No! )  They are to Fiats - especially the X1/9 - and to Alfa 105 coupes and Alfettas what Minilites and Superlites , and the the wheels that they inspired - Panasports, RS Watanabes or other clones - are to '60s and '70s British and Japanese cars.   A grubby but otherwise sexy A-F Galant wearing Rota brand Superlite replicas. I received a lot of advice regarding suitable tyres sizes from the very knowledgeable members of the Australian X1/9s Facebook group, especially wi...

This was, until circa 2004, my Mk III/A Austin Healey Sprite.  Or as Mrs UMPH would have it, the car that tried to kill her.   Not just once, mind you; the allegations levelled against my former pride and joy include poisoning via paint fumes wafting off its then new  exhaust extractors, AND hypothermia.  Personally, I think it’s a little harsh to blame the Sprite’s heater-less state for my dearest nearly freezing to death during a late autumn drive around the foothills of Hobart’s Mt Wellington, sans roof!   But anyway … . Since then, the car has belonged to relief teacher Tony, who, for the first few years of ownership, also lived in Tasmania but now calls Queensland, on Australia’s mainland, home.  Now it’s for sale.   For those of you scratching your heads over the Mk III/ A part of the model designation, it’s a unique Aussie thing.  The British Motor Corporation offered one car under two nameplates: the Sprite and its 99% identical twin, the ...

We're back!  After an IT-related hiatus, the UMPH engine room - that's to say the office MacBook Pro - has had its screen replaced and the slow, aged iPad has been put out to YouTube-viewing and social media-checking pasture.  That means that we'll hopefully be able to put a bit of content out again, on an at least semi-regular basis. Kicking off our renewed coverage is this classic Pininfarina-designed Fiat 124 Spider , which is timely considering how popular recent Fiat- and Alfa-related posts have been.  It's not a local car, though, coming to us courtesy of the SEQ correspondent and having been captured at a cars 'n' coffee in Brisbane, Queensland, several months ago.   It’s a recurrent UMPH theme but the less-fancied Fiat Spider  really, really is a more than adequate alternative to Alfa Romeo’s equivalent rag top sports car.  B oth manufacturers’ roadsters - based on their respective sporty coupes (please see:  https://uppermiddlepetrol...