Teretonga; Southern200

January 19, 2009

Most people go to this national event to look at the family cars pretending to be race cars.  Not me though, I go for the supporting categories and the cars in the car park.  Though today, I didn’t bother even taking more than a dozen photos of the cars racing and when I did it was only because I was on my way somewhere else around the outfield car-park.

The day itself was decidedly average, with scattered showers putting perhaps a few of the non-dedicated car enthusiasts off coming altogether.  I waited until at least 2pm before I spent my thirty dollars on buying a ticket to be allowed into the grounds.

Expensive!

Expensive!

I drove in, turned left, parked the car amongst the many others and began my journey of everything that wasn’t the racing.  Solely for you people!  Well… and for me, afterall there’s always something interesting to see.  Though from the moment I got in the gate I noticed that the turnout of older cars was a lot lower than it has been in previous years.  I assume most people had come on the Friday or Saturday when the weather was more inviting.  However, I was there to take pictures and that’s exactly what I did.

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retro-classics wallpapers

January 17, 2009

As a celebration of getting the WordPress software and the website itself hosted on it’s own server, I thought I’d provide for download a small selection of photos that I’ve taken over the last few years at various events & locations.  Enjoy!

For Internet Explorer users, Right click on the photograph that you like then click “Save Target As…”;

For those with Firefox, Right click on the photograph and click “Save Link As…”;

Jaguar & Imp, Teretonga 07

This was a favourite of mine due to the fact that the SIDCHROME Imp, as once piloted by Jim Richards, was there.  The presentation of the MkII Jaguar was also simply amazing.  I do have a few more pictures of each car, if you’re interested in them just let me know.

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Classic Plastic?

January 13, 2009

Nowadays, there’s so many FRP (Fibreglass Re-inforced Plastic) and Carbon Fibre panels, components and different styles of bodykits available, it’s seems almost commonplace and it can be hard to remember a time when all these things weren’t really a concern for most.  Afterall there was a time when having the car was enough, but of course, with affordability and access to cars becoming so much greater over time, in order for people to maintain some form of individuality over their friends and co-workers who had bought the same car. If you had no fabrication or mechanical skills to speak of, what on earth would you do?!

You’d buy something from manufacturer’s of body-kits and styling products such as this…

Mk 3 Ford Escort with Kamei Body Stlying

Mk 3 Ford Escort with Kamei Body Stlying

They became the thing to have, they could be ordered from many local “speedshops” and/or where a local automotive or bodywork retailer had managed to snaffle the distribution rights.  Generally, as it is now, they were able to be bought in pieces for you to affix yourself or bought as a kit and installed by the retailer.  As you can see by that picture with it’s colour coded wheels as well as kit, taste is a fine thing and you can almost taste that car just by looking at it.

Of course, Kamei wasn’t the only manfacturer of bodykits during the earlier days, there were plenty of others…

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Skyline History, Part 7.

January 12, 2009

Continued from “Skyline History, Part 6.

The C110 series and 4th Generation of Skyline was released for sale in September of 1972.

1972 Nissan Skyline 1600 (4th Generation Skyline)

1972 Nissan Skyline 1600 Hardtop (4th Generation Skyline)

The lineup was very similar to that of the previous generation, with both 4 and 6 cylinder options in a range of either Coupe/Hardtop, Sedan or Wagon/Estate.  The engines were again the G16, G18 in 4cylinder and L20 in 6cylinder form for the Japanese Domestic Market and as with the previous C10/3rd generation Skyline…

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The great facelift face-off

January 11, 2009

what’s better than one DR30 Skyline? Why, two DR30 Skylines of course!

after four years of logistical nightmares, various states of disrepair, and a distance of over 150km separating each vehicle, I finally got the chance to photograph ‘em together in running condition with a suitable backdrop.

As they say, a picture tells a thousand words – so I’ll stop greasing now. Click on the photo below to view the entire set :D

facelift face-off

Getting all darth vader up in yo' grille.