Upper Middle Petrol Head:

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

If UMPH were an American, rather than an Aussie, he'd refer to the magnificent beast of a Valiant Charger featured in the following photos as a bad-ass of a car.  But he's not, so he'll use the local vernacular and call it for what it is:  a bad- arse example of one of Australia's best ever, but arguably least appreciated at the time, muscle cars.  It isn't that there's not a huge fan-base for Aussie-built Chargers.  There is and deservedly so.  However, the Australian Chrysler line of vehicles was always less popular than their Ford and GM rivals, meaning that the Charger probably didn't sell as well as performance orientated Falcons, Toranas or Monaros of the era did, or as well as it should have done, considering how great a car it was.  Beloved Aussie sit-com character Ted Bullpit's  ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingswood_Country )   entrenched distaste for Valiants, in which he ascribed what might be euphemistically termed 'un

There's probably not much to note on this tidy example of an HQ Holden Belmont , spotted recently in North Hobart.  However, it's been included to round out the set, as it were, because it is one of the few four-door sedan versions of the HQ not already featured on this 'blog. There are already examples of the Kingswood , which sits above the Belmont in the Holden range, as well as the next-ranked Premier and a sporty GTS Monaro .  That only leaves the Belmont -based SS performance model (the Monaro , which is also a performance orientated version, is Kingswood -based).  There is also a stretched variant - the Statesman - but the body style of that model is sufficiently different to be treated as a separate product line. As the base-model of the Holden line-up, the Belmont  missed out on basic creature comforts like carpets and an A.M. radio but still shared the three-speed column change and six cylinder motors available on its more upmarket siblings.  

According to Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden_Special ) , the  Special started out as the top specced variant of the Holden line-up, sitting above the Standard and Business versions.  However, by the time the EJ came along, the Premier had become the top of the tree specification, relegating the Special to the middle tier of Holden's offerings.   Top of the tree or not, the EJ featured here is very definitely special.  Other than a minor ding in the rear bumper, it is in excellent condition with glossy paint, unmarked chrome and a great interior. Yes, it is! There are still a few very tidy EJs getting around Hobart, with local architect Steven Last's one-previous-owner blue sedan being a great example.  There's also a very nice gold Premier on display in an auto-electrics business at the top end of Liverpool Street, more or less opposite the Police and Citizens' Youth Club. U M P H (uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogs

Rounding off Morris Minor week are these blasts from the past from earlier UMPH posts: This historic racing 1000 can be found at  https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7165367970551834236#editor/target=post;postID=377536526271448757;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=145;src=postname . Please go to  https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7165367970551834236#editor/target=post;postID=1617012699862649091;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=141;src=postname  to view the chop-top sedan shown above. https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7165367970551834236#editor/target=post;postID=2214422603185860812;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=127;src=postname  will take you to more pictures of the lovely 'low-light' sedan depicted here. There are several more photos of this beautiful four door sedan available at  https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7165367970551834236#editor/target=post;postID=

Welcome to this, the third installment of Morris Minor Week ... It's true that this custom-built Morris 1000 flat-tray ute, now doing duty as a mobile barista's work-horse and promotional vehicle, has seen better days.  It's also likely that serious Morrie fans will be horrified to see that a sedan was sacrificed in its making. Whilst it is looking a bit knocked about, UMPH prefers to think (hope, even) that it may have been salvaged from a damaged sedan that might otherwise have been scrapped.  He can't help but be impressed by the ingenuity shown in its construction and design, too. Please see this coming Sunday's post for the final installment of Morris Minor Week ... U M P H (uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.) All iPhone images. 

Morris Minor Week continues, with today's offering being ... Well-spotted to readers that correctly identified that Morris didn't actually produce a Low-light version of their Quarter-Ton utility!  That didn't bother Vic, the owner and restorer of this lovely, and quite possibly unique, flat-tray ; the only thing that matters to him is that he likes it.  UMPH does, too!  It seems that Vic might be a bit of a restoration wizard, having completely rebuilt this car from the ground up, as well as having been responsible for Nigel's excellent Mk I Sprite (please see: https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7165367970551834236#editor/target=post;postID=3155192261352050345;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=1;src=postname ).  He's currently doing up a Morris Traveller which, if the standard of his ute and Nigel's Sprite is anything to go by, will also be first rate! In addition to the Low-light front, the car features front dis