Upper Middle Petrol Head:

The UMPH team certainly weren't looking for Japanese cars when they attended Auto Italia in the NSW town of Queanbeyan, just outside of the Australian Capital Territory.  However, the example shown here - badged as a Datsun 1600  SSS  but known in the Japanese domestic market as a Violet - was too good to pass by. Stylistically, this car’s an interesting critter; it sort of looks like a prototype to the 180B which, in reality, it probably is.  1600 SSSs also feature independent rear suspension, as did the classic boxy Datsun 1600 that Aussies and the rest of the world know and revere, and the 180B and first series 200B lineups that followed. Reference to Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Violet#:~:text=Introduced%20in%20January%201971%20the,simply%20as%20the%20Datsun%20710. )  reveals that the Violet - a name that was never going to sell in the Australian market - also goes by the moniker of Datsun 710, as well as the 140J, 160J, 160U and U180U, depending on its spec

This magnificent Valiant Charger - captured by the UMPH chief photographer during a recent team-building excercise with the Canberra Bureau staff in the ACT - is exactly the kind of car that the senior writer and editor both particularly like!  It was ostensibly stock-standard, other than a set of cross-drilled four wheel disc brakes with after-market PBR callipers and a five-speed 'box.  Very subtle!  But if the owner went to the bother of upgrading the anchors and adding another cog, it seems pretty likely that there's more to the motor and probably suspension lurking beneath its otherwise unmolested and very, very original exterior!   Coming soon:  Coverage of the Rally of Canberra staging area and several installments of Auto Italia. U M P H (uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.) iPhone images.

  Forty odd years ago, nearly all my mates' girlfriends drove Geminis or Corollas.  Mrs UMPH had a Gemini, too:  a light blue TE .  A lot of blokes also owned hotted-up versions, usually fitted with a dash-mounted tacho, a dished SAAS steering wheel, a scorpion or eight-ball gear knob, a louvre, a set of fat  Hotwires shod with Goodrich T/A s, and a loud exhaust.  Sadly, they're so rare these days, the bloke who bought this ripper TX in 1975 - when it was just three months old - says he only knows of one other in the greater Launceston area and there wouldn't be many more than that down south, either.  U M P H (uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.) iPhone image. 

The April '21 installment of Classics by the Beach kicked off bright and early, possibly due to the disparity between the indicative post-daylight savings time and the reality of attendees' sleep patterns!  It may be that lots of people are commonly there at 9:00 am but, personally speaking, I doubt that I've ever fronted up that early in the six or more years that I've racked-up as a semi-regular attendee.   As usual, there were a number of cars that knocked me sockless, not the least of which was the beautiful HR Premier shown above and below.  Chris' Bentley also shone, as did the amazing S series Valiant (the model after the push button transmission version) depicted further down the page, plus an EH, a World War 2 Jeep and a number of other rippers. The uppermiddlepetrolhead editorial team don't generally theme their offerings, preferring instead to present what they find, where they find it and not to focus too much on anything specific.  However, if there