Holiday Observations

So for the past week I've had the luxury of being on holiday with my girlfriends family. I didn't have any intentions of doing a post while away but sitting in the departure lounge going through my camera roll there is some stuff worth sharing. Starting with this Toyota Vienta to set the pace...

We were having lunch during an ebike ride to some waterfalls when I spied this setup. While it's a given that the tank is empty, the twisty roads still make this strap-down-success very impressive. I can just imagine the shit eating grin on whoever ghetto rigged this up as they drive past those who said it couldn't be done.

It was on the same ride I came across a Holden VC commo stationwagon. Stickers indicating it had sat since 2019.

Definitely a bit tired.

 

Note the padlock on the automatic shift control

 

 

I cant say I'm a fan but as time goes on I am beginning to warm up to the early Commodores. Maybe I just feel sad for them, like an extreme empath? Continuing on the theme of feeling bad for cars I also stumbled across someones Subaru graveyard.

 

I see time & time again people stab at the value of L-series wagons, and at the end of the day they're only worth what someone will pay. But with that said finding a clean wagon regardless of price is actually impossible.

A day later a slight organization fail - my girlfriends brother forgot to return the key for the bike lock which meant we had to go back to return it. The upside was seeing this Ford Cortina and having a milkshake at the Moo Moo Roadhouse.

 

The roadhouse seemed corny but eventually won me over. Mainly because I found myself facing a difficult decision; pick Zoom magazine and read about a supercharged Toyota Sprinter and 13B 180SX or Street Machine with a phat looking VL Calais?

 

I probably chose incorrectly but with Summernats footage all over my Youtube feed I decided to see what Street Machine was up to in 2002. I won't recount someone else's content but the ads alone are worth a squiz.

 

The magazine was hot rod focused as you'd expect. But it had elements of the second coming of kaido sneaking in; aka sexual specification...

 

Seeing images of scenes before my time undoubtedly created a sense of jealously. I don't want to be peers with people who suck vapes and spend their savings on culturally insignificant bullshit. 

On a different day we decided to visit some op shops in close proximity of each other. Walking to one we passed a respray business with some eye candy. I decided to help myself to a quick inspection.

As I had a quick look the bloke working came out for a chat. All the cars are for sale. Envious Spraypainting does cheap resprays as well as importing and cleaning up a small rotation of desirable Japanese cars as a side gig. My guess is the Silvia is yet to have any treatment seeing the body has rust and the rim on front left wheel was totally fuct. So after that we continued on. Just past the Op shop an Antiques & Collectables business caught my eye.

My family was still off holidaying in Japan so I decided I'd pull out my pipe and smoke some copium. Maybe it will be like Up Garage?

For an antiques store it was actually pretty cool. I didn't buy anything but it certainly had entertainment value.

I thought this miniature dragster was a pretty killa toy. 

 

Street Machine Summernats 5 & 6 on VHS, I'm sure both are on Youtube.

 

And lastly this Electronics Australia magazine which I regret not buying. While the colour scheme is epic, coupon enticing and image amusing, the yellow text at the bottom; ARTIFICIAL VISION - SOON? is the real reason it's a winner. Even typing this I'm annoyed at myself for not forking out five dollars to have it with me now. And while this blog is actually about cool machines I'll bring it back to regular broadcasting by writing about another car, the Nissan Juke.

 

 

You see this was the rental car I had the luxury of driving around. I told myself to make light of the situation and that I would pretend I'm a car journalist that has been given the car on test to write about it. I spent the entire time trying to find something I liked about it only to come to the conclusion that I didn't mind the headliner being black. So instead I'll tell you about the KE70 next to it.

Super lucky for me the owner was sitting with his gf on the park bench next to it so I was able to get some background. The car was purchased from an old lady with less than a hundred thousand kilometres on it. Aside from some very minor rust around the boot that was immediately dealt with the car is perfect. It legitimately did not have a single trolley ding or car park incident visible. The owner put on some new wheels and a steering wheel but everything else was factory like the very sophisticated marketing badges. Minter.

 

And that's what I think about the Nissan Juke. As for the rest of my holiday it was very pleasant and holiday-like so I think I'll limit sharing my glamorous life to my family. Cheers for reading.