Upper Middle Petrol Head:

Team Roberts' car du jour (file images from the UMPH archives https://uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com/2016/11/random-72-fiat-2300s-coupe.html?q=2300 ) If memory serves correctly, the Roberts family are CMI's most consistent cryptic triallers of late, having taken out first and / or second place in  August   2020's Bothwell run and in the Tasman Peninsula event during November the same year.  It looks like their top of the table position will be consolidated in 2021, too, with Tristan, Emily, Jasper and Stella crewing an uncle's beautiful Fiat 2300S coupe to secure another podium finish in Graham Mitchell's latest installment of the popular social competition, which was  held in the Huon and Dover areas in May. Fun for the whole family:  Jasper accepts Team Roberts' third place prize.     However, relative newcomers Juanita and Alastair Watson ('75 Galant hardtop) - who scored a third in the Tasman Peninsula round in their X1/9 - are threatening the overa

I don't love my Fiat X1/9 at the minute.  To be honest, I'm not sure that I even like it.  It has a malevolent spirit, you see, beguiling me with its Italian good looks, symphonious induction noise, sweet exhaust note, and crisp handling.   My Exxie lets me believe that it reciprocates my affections and appreciates the time, effort and abundance of cash that's been lavished upon it.  My X1/9 has all the depth of character of a cat! So, what's brought us to this nadir?  A silly thing, really: a tiny, cheaply cast alloy part broke, rendering the driver's window winder inoperative, the handle no longer able to mesh with the mechanism.  It was 43 years old.  No cause for complaints there. This ordinarily inconsequential part broke within minutes - seconds, actually - of me having backed the X1/9 up onto ramps, ready for me to replace the speedometer cable.  The final thing on the list, that mythical "last job" that was within my own limited abilities to fix, b

Finding a suitable adjective for this 1986 Zimmer Quicksilver is proving to be harder than I thought it'd be.  I was considering "villainous" and possibly "sinister," not because it's reprehensible, but because it strikes me as a having a sort of shady Manhattan vibe about it.  I mean, if you were waiting for Lou Reed's man, "... all dressed in black, beat-up shoes and a big straw hat," this is what he'd be driving, right? ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yPXBjVYLYA .)  Anyway ... .   According to a handy plaque the car's owner provided, the Quicksilver is powered by a mid-mounted 3.8 litre V6 which car guru Graham M tells me is the same Buick-sourced engine that powered the Commodore range from the VN to the VZ .  He also explained that the Zimmer Motorcars Corporation belongs to the same family that  manufacture the eponymous  walking frames.   Live long and prosper The underpinnings are based on a  lengthened  Pontiac  Fiero  pla