Upper Middle Petrol Head:

  Once upon a time - six or seven years ago, actually - there was a lovely pale yellow GC Galant station wagon getting around Hobart.  It was totally nanna-spec; its paint was umarked, the chrome work and hubcaps were immaculate, and its very original interior was pristine. Then someone stuck feathers in its dashboard.  Next, the windows were adorned with Tibetan prayer flags.  And a hubcap went missing.  And the the rear bumper was pushed in, mangling the bodywork behind it.  And a mudguard got dented.  And rust set in.   I fear for this sweet, innocent KE36 Corolla.  Somebody please save it before it's too late.  Nanna needs you to do it. Hello, reader! I've noticed that this seems to be a particularly popular post.  Something to do with Google's algorithms, I guess ... .  But it's not my best piece!  Sure, it's ok, but there are so, so many more interesting classic, sports and performance cars on this site - as wel...

  This classic hot rod has me intrigued.  For starters, I don't know what it's been based on - other than an pre-WW2 Ford - and, secondly, it has what I might've thought was a fairly out-there choice of engine, having been fitted with some sort of   twin-cam Ford four pot. Don't get me wrong - I'm not suggesting for a minute that the donk's not up to the job!  To the contrary, the open belt-driven-assembly, twin side draft Webers and sweeping extractors suggest it's one of Ford's very, very best fours and likely to be very quick, but it does seem a little incongruous in the sort of car you might more commonly expect to see  sporting  a highly chromed V8. Admittedly, it's not a big car; the power-to-weight ratio would almost certainly make this a mightily potent machine.  The motor's also mounted well aft of the front wheels, and the body's low and wide, so it's likely to handle well, too. But if someone could fill in the blanks, that'...