Upper Middle Petrol Head:

It's a Shelby Cobra replica, it's very, very cool and it's a local car.  That's all UMPH can tell you about it.  If you can enlighten him, please feel free to leave a comment below.  U M P H (uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogpot.com.au.) All iPhone images.

A survivor. North Hobart's Elizabeth Street restaurant strip is a happy hunting ground for UMPH, with many interesting vehicles found there over the last year or so.  Take, for example, this tough as boots early 60s Falcon ute.  It would appear to be an XK or more likely an XL version, as the grill differs from those of the later XMs seen elsewhere on this 'blog. The owner has no pretensions about the vehicle, having greeted UMPH's photographic efforts with "haven't you seen rust before?"  Rusty it may be but no worse than a lot of newer vehicles still in regular use.  What's more, it started easily and drove down the road quietly and smoothly, without issuing even a hint of smoke.  Hiluxes aren't the only unbreakables!   This is a workhorse. Original Tasmanian rego plate. U M P H (uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au .) All iPhone images.

MMW had barely ended when UMPH came across this excellent Morris Minor ute in Burnett Street, North Hobart, and had a chat with its owner's son, Scott.   Scott's father, Darrel, built the car over a twenty-five year period and only fully completed it recently. Being a mechanically-minded sort of bloke, Darrel did pretty much all of the work himself, including fitting the Datsun 1400 motor, four-speed gearbox and front disc brakes.  Darrel also manufactured the custom extractors that can be seen above and fitted the Weber 45 DCOE carby that Scott says gives the car a bit of oomph and makes a fabulous induction noise under acceleration. One of Scott's brothers did the paint job at the beginning of the restoration and made the front spoiler, while it was Darrel that was responsible for the tray and rear mudguards. The interior also looks a treat with its wooden steering wheel and colour-coded bucket seats. One of the few jobs that Darr...