I figured I would write a wee introduction about me and the cars i have owned.

I owned a 1984 Toyota Starlet, followed by a Civic, Sentra and a Cordia

Then one day kyteler posted a link on oldschool.co.nz to a trademe auction for my first Volvo, a 1978 Volvo 264. I managed to buy it for $215 and never actually did anything with it due to it blowing a headgasket and some idiots biffing rocks through the windows

but now i was hooked, two 1982 244′s followed in quick succession

Which I bought for $700 and $150

next came a 1985 360 which i bought for $200

both of these 240s and the 360 have taken me on 600km round trips and been pushed around racetracks and gotten me home again with only a few minor problems.  These cars have all been unbelievably reliable and solid for a dirt cheap price.

the milage on these 4 cars have ranged from 275,000km to 340,000 miles

My latest purchase is a 1988 Volvo 480ES.  Its a 1.7 litre manual fwd, and has just ticked over 120,000km

These are one of my dream cars but I never thought I would find one for sale. So when this one turned up on trademe i had to have it. I sold my boring toyota and flew up to rotorua and drove it home

It cost me $1400, I drive it to work 5 times a week and have taken it around taupo racetrack and plan to do it again

For those that don’t, I’m Cameron, I’m 23, I live in New Zealand.

Without going into a long winded history of what I’m into, what I’ve owned and what I’ve failed at, I’ll just chuck up a couple of pics of my current fleet and give a summary….
I’ve been into cars since day dot. First car was an oldie, then I started getting into newer stuff…. something was missing… character. Buckets and buckets of character… My current fleet shows how I’ve been trying to make up for this ever since.

Currently I’ve got:
1972 Toyota MS65 Crown

1990 Peugeot 205GTi

1960 Citroen ID19

1990 Peugeot 405Mi16.

Most are undergoing some kind of refurb/work/modification, all of which can be seen on www.oldschool.co.nz in the project section.

Looking forward to posting further ramblings here in the future…

cheers
Cam

Chief En-gnear kyteler has asked for some voluntary contributory services to his blog-thing, so here I am all ready to roll.

1983 DR30 Skyline coupe

for those fortunate enough to not already know of me: I collect junk from the ’80s, and said collection of junk happens to contain a car or two (or three… or four) – see above for one such example. “Oldschool” technology has always fascinated me, and the ’80s Japanese sports car combines the best mechanical, electronic, and aesthetic finesse of that particular era into one neat package.

anyway… over the coming weeks I’m hoping to start a series of posts detailing how to import yourself a “classic” vehicle of at least 20 years of age from Japan into NZ. This will be a continuation of various tangents on my other blog (which hasn’t been updated in some time – see: writer’s block) including but not limited to this entry and, to a lesser extent, this one.

of course, with the way our dollar has nosedived against the yen in the last couple of months, I’m betting no one in their right mind is currently planning such a venture – but through some random stroke of fortuitous timing I was able to whisk my latest acquisition into the country literally days before the bottom dropped out of the world’s economies. So while the process remains fresh in my mind I’m fairly eager to start documenting the process, shitty economic climate or otherwise.

stay tuned for moar…

This blog section will eventually be a contributing (though currently the only) part to a website that I hope will cater for cars and talk about cars, and other automotive related things of a retro and classic nature (as the title suggests). Though I love all things automotive, I do inparticularly enjoy the aesthetics and characteristics of cars from a pre-1990 era.

From the wooden spokes of the first powered carts, to the large crazy fins and chrome of 50′s, to the digital adventure that was the 1980′s and everything in between. Every car has potential.

I grew up amongst Australian steel in my early years. My father went through a rift of Holden’s and a Chevrolet or two, some of which before I was born. If he’d hung onto his 1959 Chevrolet Impala sedan, who knows what kind of cars I might have at the moment instead of the classic Japanese steel that has come into my ownership.

A direct rival of my father, was my uncle, whose cars came from the Ford stable. 70′s Falcon’s were generally his weapon of choice, one of his more memorable cars was a XA GT351 replica that he tore down and built from scratch. It was a beautiful car once completed, sporting a deep blue with silver accents.

Something that these early years of GM vs. Ford taught me, was that there was actually very little difference between these manufacturers, at least in the Australian aspect. It really came down to what you liked the look of. Neither were inherantly mechanically more advanced or better by any means, than the other. Just slightly different.

I guess that could have been the catalyst (well, that and the difference in pricing) to my parents buying Japanese vehicles in the 80′s.

We had such fantastic contraptions as Toyota van’s of both Hi and Lite Ace variety, a Datsun utility and a few diesel Nissan sedans.

Long story short; I’ve owned a 1978 Chrysler Alpine Avenger, a 1976 Ford Escort MkII, a 1985 Holden VK Commodore, 1973 Datsun 240K Hardtop (C110), 1981 Nissan Bluebird ZX (910), 198x Toyota Celica Hatch (RA63), 198x Toyota Carina (AA60), 1985 Nissan Silvia (S12) 2 of and my latest acquisition which I got this year is the pride of what I’ve owned thus far, a 1963 Prince Skyline Super (S21).

1st Generation, Prince Skyline (s21)

Not a typical car to come across and one I couldn’t pass up when given the opportunity to own.

I’ll be trying to get a few other people I know who share a similar passion, to add to this blog site. Whislt this is happening and between my own posts, you’re best to visit some of the websites I frequent. I’ll attempt to create a list of them that should appear on the right hand side of the main page (though perhaps not on individual post pages).

-Michael