Upper Middle Petrol Head:

  Do you reckon the owner of this slightly worse for wear Mazda Capella ,   photographed in suburban ACT, is sick to death of fending off unsolicited offers to buy it?  Seriously, when was the last time you even saw a piston-powered Capella , 808 or 929?  What scarce stock there was has pretty much been gobbled up by RX aficionados desperate to build a screaming Wankel-mobile, and even they're pretty thin on the ground!   There's no doubt that today's car would make a great starting point for an RX2 replica, even if it is a little sad and is the less desirable end-of-run model with the slightly bulgy taillights and fussier grille (easily replaced, I'm sure).  However, I like it largely because it's not a rotary, and for its rather svelte, Coke bottle styling.   I also like it because it's not an 808 / RX3.  Controversial, I know, and don't get me wrong - I'd very definitely love to have an RX3 coupe in my garage - but to my mind the...

This XM Falcon hardtop might've featured on UMPH before, possibly matched with a left-hand-drive convertible Falcon of the same vintage and in a similar hue.  That doesn’t matter, though; it's such a lovely car, it deserves a second showing!     It seems to be that there's a bit of a resurgence in early Falcons, especially from the 1960s.  As recently as the beginning of May, 2021, I saw two XPs that I'd not seen before - a very cool white hardtop and a quite distinctive green sedan, both viewable via the following link: https://uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com/2021/05/classics-by-beach-may-2021.html .    Why not take a tour of the uppermiddlepetrolhead site?  There are stacks and stacks of classic, sports and performance vehicles of all makes and models, as well as car shows and motorsports events.  If you like what you see, please 'like' and share.  Cheers! U M P H (uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.) iPhone images.

I've already confessed my ignorance of most things Lancia (please see  https://uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com/2021/05/auto-italia-2021-part-3-lancias.html ).  Whilst I don't profess a deep knowledge of Alfas, I was at least able to recognise and name with a fair degree of certainty most of the examples of the marque that I saw at Auto Italia in Queanbeyan, New South Wales, in the early autumn of 2021. This is a Berlinetta , which is just as well, because berlinetta is Italian for sedan but Alfa Sedan lends no cachet to the model at all.  Neither does four-door, incidentally, which is probably why Maserati sedans go by the far sexier Italianesque moniker of Quattroporte !  Everything sounds better in Italian!  Even Scottish names, apparently. As far as I can tell, this 105 series is probably a 1300 cc GT Junior .  I'm not sure where it fits within the 105 timeline - whether it's before or after the "step-nose" version -  but to my mind, it's by...