Classics by the Beach: April, 2022

April 2022's Classics by the Beach features, as far as I can tell, an entirely new fleet of cars, with none having to my knowledge appeared on uppermiddlepetrolhead before.  This is likely due to an influx of mainland vehicles - like this striking 1930s’ Ford - touring the state and dropping in for the monthly get-together at Sandy Bay, before attending a hotrod festival later in the month.   

AJ sticking his head out of a nonexistent sunroof!

There were also a heap of local cars, many of which I'd not seen before.  The 109" Landy, featured immediately below, a lovely Bug Eye Sprite and a nifty but quirkily French Citroen station wagon were particularly interesting, as were a couple more cars and a motorcycle you'll see further down the page.

Here's the Citroen I mentioned before.  As best as I can tell, it's a GS hailing from the 1970s and was more commonly seen in hatchback style.  Its owner tells me that it's powered by a small air-cooled flat-four cylinder engine - a boxer, as they're commonly known - driving the front wheels.  It also features Citroen's famous hydro-pneumatic suspension that permits the driver to raise or lower the car, depending on the terrain to be negotiated, as well as Alfasud-style inboard front disc brakes.  

Yes, this is bird poop!  Apparently, the spare wheel spent a few days outside the car, the owner wasn't keen on leaving home without it, and this was the result.  

The occasional motorbike sneaks onto this site but only if it's very, very nice.  This one - a twin-cylinder Honda 450 - was about as cool a bike as I've seen in ages, combining late-sixties / early-seventies styling with the most magnificent condition imaginable.  It was just perfect!

In reality, the Holden Rodeo was a badge-engineered Isuzu that almost certainly sold in other markets as a Chevrolet or other GM name-plate, as did the once ubiquitous Gemini and a host of other vehicles (Isuzu Belletes come to mind).  This one has all the hallmarks of having been simultaneously a proper work-truck and a trusted, well looked after friend, its duco proudly wearing a few stone chips here and there but showing no signs of sun damage or neglect.  The interior was also perfect; it looks like it has been kept spotless since it was new.

It's confession time:  a month or two ago, I photographed a heap of Mustangs on the lawns of Hobart's Parliament House, only to accidentally delete the images from my card before doing my intended write-up.  Oops!

One of the cars photographed and subsequently discarded was this one - an early 289 cu V8-powered coupe, owned by Andy and Katie McB - that fortunately is not uncommonly seen at Classics.  I think I remember the salient bits of its history ... .  If I c*ck it up too badly, I'm sure Mr McB will set me straight! 

The car was bought brand new in 1965 by an American naval pilot, from a Ford dealership on the Coronado Navy base, San Diego - part of a “PX” network of retail outlets, as they're known in US military parlance - and originally wore Californian registration plates MNG 356.  It remained registered in the US until 2017, when it came to Tasmania, Australia, where Andy's father-in-law assumed custodianship before passing it down a generation to its current owners.  

Since Andy and Katie took the car over, they’ve had Tasmanian custom rego plates made, in the same gold on black as the car wore when it was first registered in the California, and bearing the exact same number - MNG 356.  They also have the originals and proudly display them whenever the car’s on show. 

This is Dex, faithful companion of Andy and regular passenger in the ‘stang.  

That's it for now.  I hope to cover the Shannons car show at the Hobart Regatta Grounds at the end of this month and, if I get the chance to head north, will also try to follow a stage of Targa Tasmania.  

U M P H

(uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.)