Upper Middle Petrol Head:

  You'd be hard pressed to find a better example of a mid-'80s Commodore than this ripper VL, photographed at February, 2024's, Classics by the Beach at Sandy Bay, just fifteen minutes' drive south of Hobart's CBD.  The two letter, four numeral Tasmania - Holiday Isle rego only added to the car's appeal, with the plates likely to have been with it since day dot.  It's running some serious rubber and has upgraded stopping power, too, courtesy of some big red Brembos.  However, the owner told UMPH that the wheels have gotta go, as the rubber band tyres wrapped around those gorgeous alloys don't always fare so well on southern Tasmania's less than ideal roads.  He also said that the car's not as quick as people might imagine, being powered by the non-turbo 3.0 litre version of Nissan's RB30E in-line six, as also fitted to their Skyline of the day.  So not outrageously fast but not really a slow coach, either.   Another TR4 by Italian master-styl...

At the end of 2022, I fitted a set of Vick Autosport Prima front brakes to my mildly worked 1.5 litre Series 1 Fiat X1/9 . I was fortunate, having picked them up at a very, very reasonable price, brand new but surplus to the needs of a fellow X1/9 Australia member who had imported them from the US. The kit included: New single pot callipers , new vented rotors (standard X1/9 front rotors are smaller, non-vented items), DOT approved stainless steel brake hoses, and all the necessary mounting hardware. They are a value proposition, being particularly well priced compared to other manufacturers’ packages - even at RRP - with everyone I’ve spoken to saying they’re made to a high standard, too. Here's a link to a piece that I wrote about them at that time, including some costings: https://uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-x19-gets-prima-brake-upgrade.html . Initial Assessment: I was a little underwhelmed by the brakes' performance, finding that although they had a tiny ...

We've got a bit of an Italian theme happening for the first Classics by the Beach of 2024, starting with Darren's lovely 1980 Fiat Spider and ending, somewhat ignominiously, with some yobbo's*  scabrous Fiat 128 3P.  There's also a recently restored Alfasud and two classic Fiat 500s, before moving on to some other countries' marques:  Lucky 13 Garage's magnificent Chevrolet truck, a  fast-back GT 350 Mustang, a genuine ZZ/R Gemini and a beautiful XW Fairmont, plus a few other cars thrown in for good measure. Darren's rightly proud of his Fiat Spider.  So proud, in fact, that he's owned it twice, having sold it and then spent sixteen regret-filled years searching for it Australia-wide via Fiat forums, on-line car sales sites and through word of mouth, only to find it listed on GumTree a few years back.  So, where was it all that time?  Not twenty minutes' drive from his Eastern Shore home, tucked up in a collector's shed in Moonah!  ...