Upper Middle Petrol Head:

Notice anything missing?  This, sadly, is the current state of the Upper Middle Petrol Head Galant:  a big, shiny red expanse where the beautifully restored dash-pad should be. And, yes, there is a beautifully restored dash-pad that could be covering all that red you see before you.  The only problem is, the xxxxing thing doesn't fit!  It's shrunk, you see, and so far all efforts to rectify the problem have failed ... .   Those of you that have read Parts I & II will remember that the first dash-pad that was sent to Melbourne for restoration - at not inconsiderable cost, it has to be said - had shrunk and warped to the point that it wasn't considered usable.  Therefore, a second dash-pad was retrieved from a secret cache in Tasmania's deep south.   This second dash-pad wasn't perfect, either, but the Dashboard Doctor reviewed some emailed photos and said that it looked OK (please refer to Part II).  It was d...

One of Tasmania's main Italian car clubs, Club Motori Italia (CMI - http://cmitas.org/blog/ ), stages an annual hill climb that kicks off from the Lufra Hotel - at Eagle Hawk Neck, between Hobart and the once notorious penal settlement of Port Arthur - on the beautiful  Tasman Peninsula .  'The Lufra', as it's simply known to southern Tasmanians, sits just above the  Tessellated Pavement, a natural rock formation  that bears a remarkable resemblance to a cobbled street and forms the northern end of the Pirates Bay beach.  It was against this magnificent backdrop that CMI hosted its third such event on a changeable Saturday in mid-August, 2017.  The weather was, as is so often the case in Tasmania, sunny and warm, rainy and wet, and still and windy, all within one short morning.  This made for some interesting motor sport, to say the least!   The Lufra hill climb is more than just a race, though ; the event is a regularity tria...