Upper Middle Petrol Head:

We have a winner!  This awesome RS2000-themed Mk1 Escort, photographed at Sandy Bay's first Sunday of the month cars and coffee, is at least as good as any other example of the marque that I've ever seen, thereby taking out the coveted UMPH Car of the Day Award*!    Not only were the body work and paint perfect, so too was the interior.  The iconic RS2000-style bubble arches would seem to be metal, rather than fibreglass (I had a sneaky feel underneath), while the side- and bonnet-stripes, Superlite wheels, split front bumpers and chromed bullet mirrors were all model and era appropriate.  It was simply stunning!    Alex's second-owner-since-new Fiat 131 Mirafiori was pretty slick, too!  It has around 95,000 genuine Ks on the clock and is straight and rust-free, having been garaged all its life.  It was purchased with a few minor scrapes that have since been sorted and now wears a set of very, very tasty 15" Davide Cironi Signature   alloy  wheels by Maxilite,  bought

  It's taken far too long to finally get one of the Upper Middle Petrol Head team up to George Town, in Tasmania's north, to cover a Don Mario's   cars 'n' coffee event.  It's not just the distance from UMPH HQ in Hobart that had held us back; the  extremely popular  northern show is always held on the same day as Sandy Bay's Classics by the Beach - the first Sunday of each month - creating a bit of a dilemma for our staff who are all a bit keen on sleeping in of a weekend.  Until now, that is.  Our newest recruit - he prefers the term intern whereas we call him  Work Experience Kid - has no life and was, therefore, not too hard to cajole into a very early start and a sortie to the other end of the state.  As a sweetener, we paid for his petrol and coughed up extra coin for a pie and Coke along the way! WEK tells us that, unlike Classics, Don Mario's is almost exclusively Aussie and American muscle and classic chrome bumper territory.  None of ya poncey