CORNER STORIES

Like the plates say in German, Bug. 911 alloys, for flatroddin style. Autotechnica race harness belts to backwardly announce secret performance. Classy wood-grain shifter and steering wheel, sporting a Wolfsburg horn button to add Volkswagen motherland respect (and maybe German engineering superiority complex) . The early beetles look the best.   Prime for a run around, past the Adelaide vineyards, and all to sounds like Dancing On My Own by Flight Facilities & Drama .

January   has inadvertently become a month of eyeing off chrome-cars. A side-effect of this being alot of interrupting errands or running late. So when I clocked this so, so obviously yank machine, I deferred my Bunnings visit for a sec. There's two components to when I look at a car - the first being initial impressions, often informed by influence. So in this case the preprogramming of watching the hosts of Top Gear mock American cars. So naturally I think to myself, fuckin hell this things ridiculous. But ignorance and dismissal doesn't last long and curiosity then appreciation takes over. How lucky to be me, getting a can of WD-40 and having the opportunity to see a machine that has no business rolling around Adelaide. I was so heavily distracted by what can only be labelled as coach built elements that it wasn't until I crossed the road to get some angles I realised it's a coupe. Mental. Designed with a notion that size plus detail equal grandeur. And it works, the...

Continuing on with another chrome bumper. I was running late for a dinner date down south when I decided to double down and stop to take some pics of this charming Toyota Corona. Looking past a bita body character here & there it was actually pretty minty.  The orange sang in the sun - the chrome bumpers, arches, dress up rings, the lot, all shining. When was the last time you saw dress up rings on factory steelies. Not a bad look nowadays. All though amidst taking pics, the cars owner - a young fella, Will came and had a chat informing me the machine would had some SSR Mark3's coming. It's always such a massive bonus when I run into the owner. You get all these extras like geeking out on the odds-against-it uncracked dash.   And far out how good is that interior? Will was a good lad, just loved the car, and had good intentions for it. The whole interaction was a great reminder that even though the amount of this stuff getting about is shrinking, young headz still yearn ...

CROME BUMPA VH SL/E - very trick, Maranello Red, recessed headlights, and the lion made'a iron. Back when the Commodore was kinda grand but simultaneously technologically archaic. That said I've always found this generation of cars - ones phasing out of chrome and towards plastic confused me visually. Elements like the design language of the wheels seem out of place or trying to jump ahead of the curve only to look more dated in a way.   Such a tidy car. I caught it in the corner of my peripheral shining in the sun and had to loop back to investigate.     Glad I did. Had the car not been so mint I doubt I'd have documented it. I gave it the time of the day and began to appreciate the finned grille, taillights, striping & badging. Between that, the brown interior and touch of chrome it made me admire the sharp lookin sedan.   Very basic on this one but I'd pop into town for long business lunch, making sure corporate Adelaide knows what a real winner looks like. ...

Some years ago I made a friend out front the Adelaide museum. I was skateboarding with mates when the cross over of headz led to two crews just kicking it together. Conversations were financed over the cheapest ciders from the BWS buried in the back corner of the Rundle Mall Woolies. We used to call them fruit beers to make us sound less pathetic. We were all having a great time. Warm nights, I was drunk, we were younger. I would very occasionally see the bloke around. He was younger but cool, and I knew in my bones worth keepin an eye on. More time passed and our direction in life moved circles of the Venn diagram further apart and possibly off the same page and into different books. But there was still social media interaction and mutual cross over. But for me the critical ingredient was the spaces in which he moved. His transition from one incredibly normative environment to straight up no where. Then later back to reality, which fascinated me dearly. I could recognise this bloke wa...