Upper Middle Petrol Head:

  It would be easy to scoff at a car as seemingly prosaic as this late 1970s' Corona,  labelling it a boring family hack and  dismissing it as unworthy of classic-status.  Wrong!  Today's example is in excellent, apparently unrestored condition, which is no mean feat seeing it's more than forty  years old, and the desirability of any given car is based on the personal experiences of those who have memories of them. I got my licence towards the end of the shaggin' wagon era when panel vans and curtain-equipped station wagons were all the rage.  My own Escort van saw zero action as a bonk-mobile but it did make a pretty handy place to sleep off boozy beach party excesses, as well as serving well as accommodation for kayaking and other outdoor expeditions, as did many of my mates' Cortina, Falcon, Mazda and Toyota station wagons. My mate, Mark D, had a white Corona wagon almost identical to this one but slightly earlier, featuring the bonnet-lip gril...

The condition of this lovely old girl, a EJ Holden from the early 1960s, probably says something about Canberra's relatively car-friendly climate.  Sure, the Australian Capital Territory has summers hotter than Satan's digestery tract and winters that have resulted in a disproportionately high population of squeaky-voiced brass monkeys, but that's just a consequence of being an inland location.   However, the flip-side of being 150 kilometers or so from the nearest salt water - in this case,  the Pacific Ocean off Australia's east coast - is that heavy corrosion seems to be less prevalent on local vehicles.  The Canberra Correspondent notes that this particular car's paint has taken a battering from the harsh sun, exposing some of the metal and resulting in some light surface rust, but the body's otherwise straight and rot-free.  Its condition very much mirrors that of the EH ute he sent in a couple of weeks ago.    It's pretty clear th...