Upper Middle Petrol Head:

  April, 2024's, instalment of Classics by the Beach - held at Sandy Bay, 15 minutes' drive from the Hobart CBD - wasn't an event for quiche-eaters, with cold, wet weather seemingly having reduced the attendees list to only a handful of the  heartiest of  souls!  Of course, that also affected the number of cars on display but there were some extremely nice ones, nonetheless.         Take, for example, this lovely 1962 Type 14 Lotus Elite .  According to Wikipedia ( https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7165367970551834236/6534627791194892006 , accessed 07 APR 24) , the Elite was constructed using a   " stressed-skin glass reinforced unibody  ... for the entire load-bearing structure of the car," unlike the Lotus  Elan , Europa  and Esprit , all of which featured a fibreglass body on a rigid central "backbone" steel chassis.  It was powered by a 1,216 cc Coventry Climax FWE - the FW standing for feather weight ...

  Sadly, the Holden Gemini, a darling of the Aussie small car set during the 1970s, '80s and '90s, has become a bit of a unicorn.  The gorgeous coupe version is even rarer and might just be the automotive equivalent of a zebra-striped unicorn - so rare, they're almost nonexistent .   This one - bought to you by GlamRock - is either a TC or TX, hailing from from circa 1977.  It's an absolute treat with great paint and chrome, a bang-on for era front spoiler and a nice set of alloys.  It also appears to be running a 2.0 litre donk. Noting the transplanted heart of today’s example, it’s a pity that Holden never did a GT/E version of their take on GM's T Platform car, as Opel did, as by all accounts they were real screamers with their 1973 cc fuel-injected engines and other performance upgrades (inset).  That's not to say that Aussies didn't extract more grunt from the local 1.6 litre versions, though; there were plenty of quick Geminis in the day with twin sid...

Hands up everyone who thinks the Subaru-powered 86  was Toyota's first foray into boxer-engined cars.  Wrong!  (This includes me, by the way.)   Turns out their 700 - or Publica or Paburika (model code UP10), depending on the market into which it was sold - was powered by a horizontally-opposed  two cylinder engine waayyy back in  1961.  Not only that, various versions of the 700 - sedans, wagons, vans, and utes - were offered packing flattie two pots until 1 972.   ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Publica ).   As a 1964 edition, this 700 - photographed in southern Tasmania on a glorious Autumn day -  is from the very early stages of that fairly long production run.  It looks pretty basic, featuring an auto 'box and what looked like an after-market heater / demister, but was in excellent, possibly even unrestored, condition.   Its party-piece (other than being cute, obviously!)?  According to it...

Info on the John Goss Special version of Ford's XB Falcon hardtop is a bit sketchy when it comes to production numbers, with Wikipedia suggesting that there may have been as many as 800 built in two runs of 400 each ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Goss_Special ) .  However,  Survivor Car Australia magazine reckons the total was 700, as follows: Thanks, Jon! And then there's this excellent Tasmanian Featured in Five video - also courtesy of Jon, as is the black and white image that follows - that supports the final figure being 700 cars:   https://youtu.be/gG8zUyJ8hTQ?si=yGlQD9lCOZpJHea6 .  It's really, really well produced and is definitely worth watching! Most fans of Aussie muscle know the rest of the story:  Built to celebrate Goss's 1974 Bathurst 1000 victory, as well as Ford Australia's 50th anniversary, they were based on a Falcon 500 shell and equipped with a 302 cu Cleveland V8, either a four speed floor shift or a three speed T-bar auto and fe...