Upper Middle Petrol Head:

Regular readers may recognise this uber-cool Morris Major from the Upper Middle Petrol Head Classics by the Beach series ( https://uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com/2022/09/classics-by-beach-september-2022.html ).   And those of you that do follow this 'blog would know that we try very, very hard not show cars that have already been featured. But in our defence, today's car has received a nice upgrade since we last saw it and now sports a set of "jelly bean" alloys, as well as wearing a number 6 decal that's an artefact from its recent successful run at Club Motori Italia's Lufra hillclimb.   Woof! That and the fact that the former Chief Correspondent's are just so damned good! U M P H (uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.) Photos by former CCC Lt Dogwash, RANR.

1970s Aussie utes don't get much better than this immaculate Valiant - possibly a circa '74 VJ, as best as we can tell - featuring flawless paint, straight, unblemished chrome, and a perfect interior.  The ultra-clean engine bay - home to a straight six-cylinder hemi - is testament to the car's overall condition, being an absolute credit to its owner. The big workhorse appears to be stock, with the only obvious departures from standard being a pair of Cibie Oscar driving lights, some extractors, a set of five-spoke pressed steel wheels - as also fitted to the Charger and possibly the Pacer, too - and what may be after-market cloth inserts on the vinyl front bench seat.  If there's anything else, whatever it might be has been done super-subtly and doesn't detract from the ute's originality one little bit.      Of course, the Valiant load-lugger that leads today's piece wasn't the only vehicle to grace the 2023 Fathers' Day edition of Classics by th...

Our South East Queensland correspondent, PeteR, has ditched Australia for a holiday in equally sunny Lisbon, where he spotted this lovely Fiat Spider.   It looks like it might be a  BS , with the B denoting a second series car and the S standing for Spider (the AS   preceded today's example while the CS was the follow-up model in the same way that the 124 Sport Coupes were designated AC , BC and CC ,   but   with the C standing for coupe). This is only a guess, mind you; the car's wearing 1600 badges which, in Australia at least, was the engine capacity most commonly fitted to  BS and BC 124s. It's also fitted with the much nicer - read not fat, ugly US federally-mandated - bumpers that blighted later versions of the Spider. If you'd like to see a bit more of PeteR's automotive work, here's a link to his 'blog chronicling the transformation of his Alfa 147 into a track day weapon:  https://aureliatheitalianproject.blogspot.com . Should you wi...