retro-classics - automotive blog

Retro video: Let’s go for a long drive…

Orion — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 11:24:08 +0000

The inimitable Paul Newman extols the virtues of caning a HR30 sedan across the beach.

Also, I want me some of those shades!

Random retro snap: My dish is a bit much?

Orion — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:32:11 +0000

And to answer the unasked question: 3 degrees negative camber, thank you very much.

225/50R15 Toyo T1-R, on 15x8.0J -3 Work Ewing III

Though I must admit, it’s far from practical on the average New Zealand road.

Author’s Cars; KPB310

kyteler — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:16:07 +0000

Firstly, I apologise for the lack of updates, I had a lot of time invested in trying to get a job at the local Honda dealership. Unfortunately after two interviews they found another more worthy of the position. Both depressing and annoying but that’s how things roll. Speaking of things that roll though. A car recently came up for sale on local auction site trademe.co.nz, the interesting thing about this car being for sale on trademe was mostly the price that the reserve was set at given that several months prior the owner had tried to sell it on the Datsun forums with little luck because of the (what I would call) exorbitant price. I made contact back then (Dec. 2009) and was told a price several hundred over and above what it was bought for and was essentially denied the chance to look over it. I guess occasionally time passing can be beneficial however as now once my brother has finished using it for daily duties whilst his VB110 is in the panelshop, this little beasty will come into my possession;

Datsun Sunny 1.5ZX

This was taken just as we got it, I’ve already removed the side mouldings and polished the sides (it was too sunny (OHPUN!) and bright to polish the top surfaces that particular day. I’ll get onto them at some stage though. So it needs that finished off and some different wheels and a healthy but not ridiculous dose of slam. I wanna be like Rob, eg;

Rob of RIVERSIDE during a subtle slam period.

All in due course. Priority for me is still to sell the H230 and use that money to fix the C110.

-Michael

Authors’ cars: blowing the cobwebs out

Orion — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:26:02 +0000

This little kamera thing on my iph-phod is starting to come in useful!

First run of squid in 3 months; had to put in 95 out of an old jerry can I had lying around and didn’t want to rev it due to the oil pump making a horrendous whining noise. I’m pretty sure the pickup is blocked thanks to the dent in the sump, which is a common problem on FJ20s.

Especially ones that were super-lowdown configured in Japan, as squid was.

Nevertheless, the sump shall come off and then we will see exactly what’s going on. Onward and upward as they say!

Random retro snap: Okayama Nostalgic Race

Orion — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:24:07 +0000

More information and a bunch of videos can be found here. Nothing quite like watching a field of done-up old classics duking it out.

TE27 leading the pack

also – if you ain’t got overfenders and a front lip kit, you are NOBODY!

Authors Cars; 80% of the Fleet

kyteler — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 21:42:06 +0000

H230, MC21, C110, L38

I took this photo the other night as a snapshot of the current state of my projects. It’s shows all but the S21 Prince which is stored elsewhere. Now if only I had the cash to finish these damn things off!

-Michael

Event: RR invitational trackday

Orion — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 11:05:22 +0000

This guy clearly needs a haircut.

Once again Taupo put on some magnificent weather for the RR invitational trackday this past Saturday… (cue Tui ad). OS regulars Philip Weston LMVD, Tomstament and myself were fortunate enough to attend, with Phil the only one willing to brave the elements and partake in a full day of unintentional D1s around the extremely wet track (resulting in Lard developing a BHG later that afternoon… bugger!). One of my mate’s mates even showed up in an Alfa 75 TS which he proceeded to give absolute death, resulting in the diff eventually welding itself together.

also in attendance was suspension guru and Targa co-driver Chris Alexander, showing the Evo/4WD/new car “cheaters” how it’s done in a Mk2 Escort panelvan:

WITH LEAF SPRINGS.

All in all, an interesting day – and I even got to take the freshly complied and road legal banana for a victory lap or three, during which it consumed roughly the same amount of fuel as an open road cruise from Hamilton to Auckland (a shade over 9 litres). Smooth rotary power, indeed.

Banana vs. lard; battle of the food groups

RR trackday, 7th Aug ’10 – a set on flickr »

External Projects; Toyota Corolla TE51

kyteler — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:32:34 +0000

Perfection.

Solid

16" Panasports are perhaps a little too big.

SSR MkII's however, also look magic.

Witness

Love it.

You can see a few more pictures on 3TC Garage

-Michael

Random Retro Snap; Mazda RX5

kyteler — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 01:27:46 +0000

Mazda RX5 @ 1977 ETCC

This and many more photos available at Racing Sports Cars.com

Events; Opel Club Meeting, Sweden

kyteler — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:17:06 +0000

Browsing of the oldschool.co.nz forums has once more netted some amazing photos of vehicles, this time around it’s from Swedish member “Hot Rod Nisse”. I’ll let the pictures do the talking as they’re beyond description.

Opel "Rat"

Probably my favourite of all the cars shown in the photos is this early 4th Generation Opel Kapitän. Beautiful. I would go so far as to say I would even take one over a 1949 Mercury Eight. Which for me, is a pretty huge thing as the Mercury Eight is one of my most adored cars of all time.

Opel Kapitän

Opel Kapitän (rear)

Opel Rekord

Opel Kadett

Opel Rekord "Sprint"

Opel Rekord "Sprint" (rear)

Opel Admiral

Opel Admiral (rear)

Simply beautiful, well kept cars. To check out more photographs from the meeting, have a look at Hot Rod Nisse’s Photo Gallery here;

http://photofile.ru/users/gaz_v8/: from pg. 22 – 33

-Michael