CORNER STORIES

Oh the smile on my face. I continue to repeat myself with the whole notion of a survivor car. What I really mean is, when I see a car on the street existing normally instead of a solely weekend driver I get excited. And while I know this Volvo (it belongs to my mate Nick) it's cool seeing it parked up, awaiting its next drive, even if it is just to the gym/work/home etc. So maffian . So viktig . The R badge is the real cause for lust. Cars with unconventional engine setups have become extremely appealing to me. I think its why despite owning three cars with naturally aspirated four-bangers I love my Subaru the most. And to top it off it has the worst motor of the three.  The 850 R , however, has two things about the engine that make me want one even more;  five cylinders & a turbo.  A unique combination that powers the wrong-wheel-drive setup I really enjoy in the Adelaide hills. And I'll die on those hills (probably because of understeer) but it won't change my m...

Not too much to say. I've seen this car parked on my way to school and uni for a number of years. Its parking position changes but I've never seen it getting around. Just another Adelaide survivor car. Doesn't look too rough from a distance While personal plates can be funny, I much prefer period issued plates to know if it's an SA car.     Taking this photo I felt a sense of appreciation for the engine/drive layout. Something about seeing the filler cap at the front of the car makes you grateful for the break from SUV-normativity.    Absolute must have sticker.   Long live this Type 3. I didn't check, but had it been treated with a radio from a dealer 104.7 Triple M should do the trick.

It can feel like the days of cheap modified Jap cars is wrapping up so it's nice to see the P-plates on a fun first car. I quite like this gen of CRX although admittedly I prefer the eighties one. I also suffer from liking wrong-wheel drive. After my mate & skipper , Tom gave me a dose of VTEC I quite like the idea of it in a small package like this.  Towards the back end of 2022 I decided it would be a goal of mine to get on track. This meant trying to find a car that would satisfy my ambition but on a budget and during some all time high post-COVID car prices. The CRX was in consideration. But the examples for sale were grim. This car was quite nice. I'm sure in years to come the owner will look back on it fondly.    

I never had any intention to write about food or the venues that serve it. So this post snuck up on me, and will likely be the only of it's kind. Eggless , a dessert-cafe on Goodwood Rd , is the subject of this observational yarn. The business was celebrating it's 15-year birthday since opening in 2009 . The reason for my attendance was a quick shared dessert with my girlfriend on the way home from dinner (also my 23rd birthday) .  So what made me compelled to write about the experience/venue?  Nostalgia... But not mine.  I've only dined at the joint twice, and while the food is good the aesthetic and vibe scratched my brain. The reason I claim nostalgia is because no place in Adelaide feels so frozen in time - when it comes to the 20-tens . This place is 2009-2013 at its absolute finest.  Machine learning could produce images of the customer base with just the term hipster . I felt my total lack of indie sleaze as I sat there like some sort of time-period nark (un...

As I claimed in my previous MX-5 street sighting , are any of these left just run-of-the-mill models? Because again & again I come across some sort of special-this, special-that version. Even my own MX-5 which sat neglected in a front yard for over a decade is a special version. I'm so spoiled with special strange editions of the MX-5 that I've become complacent. In honesty, I almost didn't stop to take photos of this one, and I was in no rush to get home. But I'm glad I did. Because one day these cars really will be rare (they already are). Right now it's the price that deters buyers, not access to cars. Eventually that will change. I had to Google this one. Sure I could've bothered my neighbour and learnt from an expert, or asked in a Facebook group and received an even bigger lecture, but Google was easy enough. So what is this burgundy NB with chrome wheels, tan roof/interior, and a wooden Nardi (shift knob & wheel)? It's a heritage edition ...

       Nope, wrong car...   Not this one either...     Cool, but not quite.    Yep, that's the one.   I always keep an eye out for a KE70 . I'm told that they’re everywhere but it doesn’t seem like it. One time I stupidly tried to explain why they've become cool to my old-man who basically told me 'It's a boring grandma car' and bugga off. Nowadays the kesev is a Japanese hot rod and sought after. And that's why they're not common anymore (plus they're old and rusty) . Anyway, I saw this one on my way to dinner (Vietnamese restaurant) and took some pics. It was pretty crusty and looked to have been sitting for a minute.      I love U-plates   A very sun-faded club rego logbook (expired) Cool Volvo 850R toy car got my attention  

I was on route to drop the girlfriends Toyota Rav4 at her mechanic ( near where I work ). Leaving her neighborhood I spotted the Celica sitting street side, warming up. This lovely all original, very mint, survivor Celica is known to me. It belongs to my girlfriends neighbour; Peter - or really his wife.  Walking around and annoying people is one of my past times, so when they have a cool car and a story to tell I'm all ears. The story of Peters wife's Celica is very Australian. Bought new, it was to be the smaller, reliable, run-about second car. And she fell in love with it. Eventually Peter would follow and they chose to hold onto it at every opportunity to upgrade. The second small car story is a classic Aussie dynamic that has led to many cars surviving in Adelaide. In fact only recently I was chatting to an older lady still getting around in her seventies Celica . Seen on my way to Bite Mi to get a Bahn Mi.   Her story was very similar. Bought the car new, loved it...

When you think of Bruce Willis no doubt films like Die Hard, Pulp Fiction or maybe even Red come to mind. And that's fair enough. Bruce Willis has done five Die hard films alone, but this isn't about what he's known for, this is about his forgotten Legacy...   That's right Bruce did some advertisement work for Subaru Japan which included press shots for relevant brochures and some strange but very Japanese video commercials.    I tried my best to research why Bruce Willis may have been appealing to the Japanese market and came up with nearly nothing. Nearly nothing, because after all he does save Japanese businessman Yoshinobu Takagi from losing millions in bearer bonds in Die Hard .        Have to admit it, he does make the wagon present more suave. Or maybe that's just two-tone doing its thing. The internet unfortunately led me a astray, with rumors of a special Bruce edition Legacy. But after digging up as much as possible I found no evidence su...

Call me old, because I really do love all original cars. Don't get me wrong I love modified cars too, but there's something so intriguing about a stock survivor.  I was grabbing some fast food before returning to a mountain of uni work to bid farewell to my Sunday night when this beaut rolled up. At first I assumed it was the recent 200SX Street Sighting . It wasn't. Even better it was an all original, older gent driver, S14. I took a few pics and gave him a thumbs up before watching him peel off. It was a wonderful distraction.

Adelaide is certainly unique, in that the variety of cars getting around is quite incredible. Rarely do I spot a car that I don't recall ever seeing. The third gen MR2 falls into that category. But not anymore.   In terms of opinions on the MR2 I'll fess up; other than the first generation I haven't really done my homework. So for simplicity I'll stick to writing about this specific example (I won't). But just before I do that I will add that the first generation MR2 is in my opinion the best sports car of the eighties. Unfortunately my Toyota~mate informed me we received less than a thousand AW11 's with most on the road at present being grey imports. But back to this MR-S ...     Even in reverse the MR2 looks like a sports car. The styling is oh so Japanese but in the best way. With this example sporting the right choice of dress from the Techno Pro Spirits kit to the Rays TE's it's a class look.     And the less is more effect really comes into p...