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Random # 336: 1975 HJ Holden Panel Van

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This gorgeous green machine - a 1975 HJ Holden van photographed in southern Tasmania during February, 2026 - says a lot about today's classic car market.  And what it really, really tells us is that prices are out of control!  Seventy grand is a lot of moolah.  Yes.  $70,000 for an HJ! (According to its publicly available Transport Tasmania registration data, it is an HJ, even if it's wearing an HX grille.) It has GTS front mudguards, a set of very tasty five-spoke alloys and a classic bubble rear window in the very best of custom van tradition.  However, it doesn't appear to be a Sandman - it lacks the stripes and decals - and there's no indication whether it's a straight-six or a V8. None of this is to say that the car's not worth every cent of its asking price.  The paint and panels are great, older Holdens in decent condition are getting harder to find, and the prices of genuine Sandmans and other models with cult followings - performance Toranas, Monar...
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Classics by The Beach: February, 2026

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The term "unprecedented" has become a bit of a trope, being used ad infinitum to describe our planet's ever-deteriorating climate - be it hotter, windier, wetter or drier than ever before - and the antics of one particularly unhinged world leader whose petulant attempts at world domination seem set to unravel eight decades' of relative global peace and economic prosperity in the Western world.    All of which seriously diminishes the word unprecedented’s utility in describing something for which there truly isn't any precedent.  Like the existence of vacant parking spaces at Long Beach, Sandy Bay, on the first Sunday of any month of the year.       That said, even if February, 2026's, Classics by the Beach wasn't particularly well-attended, the quality of cars on display was still excellent, with a couple that had, until now, not been seen by the UMPH team.  This lovely 1970 Lancia Fulvia coupe   hasn't featured on our 'blog be...
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Classics by the Beach 2026 New Year's Italian-only Edition

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The culprit. It all started with James' immaculate 1982 Bertone-spec X1/9.  Next there was a Fiat Polski 126 - we won't let a minor geographical technicality spoil our theme - a classic Fiat 500 and Rino's Series 1 Fiat X1/9 making its second consecutive appearance ... .  A quick look around the Long Beach car park quite revealed there were enough Fiats, Maseratis, Alfas, Lancias and Ferraris to devote today's coverage of Hobart's regular first-Sunday-of-the-month  Classics by The Beach entirely to Italian marques, so that's what we're doing!   James hasn't had his fuel-injected X1/9 for long - it's not his first example of the model, though - having bought it in Melbourne in a fully restored state.  The paint and bright work are superb, the engine bay is surgically clean and the predominantly leather interior is great nick, too.  It's wearing a lovely set of Cromodora CD-16s that set it off perfectly.       Being a Polski*  Fiat, t...
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