Ben’s Car Blog

Over at AusRotary there’s a great thread with a few pictures of 1960s and 1970s Japanese cars, most of which never made it out of Japan. Go on, have a look.

A couple of the cars in that thread are what I’d call “big iron”. More than 4 cylinders, fast and, well, big. In Australian terms most of the cars that we didn’t get (or at least didn’t get the interesting versions of) would be XP Falcon or EH Holden sized and intended for the top-end of the market. Things like Toyota Crowns, various big Nissans and so on. In the US these would be classified as “compacts”, I think.

At the other end of the scale are the things like the Cosmo Sports, the various Celicas (probably running interesting engines like 2TGs and 18RGs), the Belletts and the Lancer GTOs.

Oh, yeah. Ignore the first picture of the Alpine as that’s French.

Just thinking about a few things:

• Tarmac rallying, as currently implemented in Australia is a Bad Thing.
• What makes a car a “classic”?
• What gives a car “character”?

Oh, yeah. The thesis is with my proofreader and my supervisors for final checking.

I love stuff like this.

DATSUN.ORG presents the “bible” of preparing your Roadster for the track by veteran racer Bob Sharp. While over thirty years old, the manual is still a wonderful resource chocked full of schematics and photographs of the 1500, 1600, and 2000 Roadster.

It really is awesome. I’ve geeky enough that I even like the typesetting.

Converting Bob Sharp’s Datsun Competition Preparation Manual into Adobe Acrobat format took just over 50 hours.

I love that there is so much passion for the Roadster that someone took the time to re-produce a classic manual. Modern technolgy and techniques had probably surplanted what the manual describes as possible but that doesn’t really matter, does it?

If you like your Yankee Iron big, badass and primered, Billetproof is the car show for you.

It calls itself the “worlds least important car show” (which I love) and it features pre-64 hot-rods and customs done the way they used to be. Of primary importance is the first rule of billetproof: no visible billet, especially wheels.

I have a thing at the moment for red primer so I really liked this (which might actually be satin instead of primer). And again. I don’t think I’m rockabilly enough to get away with this, though.

Many more pics at 50 Chevy.

Last week, Jalopnik was holding a competition to compose a mix-tape for the Mercedes Benz of your choice. This is the entry I sent in:

Here’s my playlist for the fabulous 1955 190SL roadster. It’s a playlist for cruising through the city on a Friday night after leaving a restaruant and heading into the hinterland before spending the weekend sleeping late. It ends on a high because all Friday nights should end on a high. It’s just a little bit kitsch but, I think, only in a good way, much like the 190SL.

1. Bobby Darin - More
2. Tony Bennett - Top Hat, White Tie and Tails
3. Kurt Elling - The Best Things Happen While You Dance
4. Ella Fitzgerald - Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
5. Marcos Valle - Os Grillos (Crickets sing for Ana Maria)
6. St Germain - Land of
7. Frank Sinatra - Come fly with me
8. Sam Butera - French Poodle
9. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass - A Taste of Honey
10. Lalo Shifrin - The Mission Impossible Theme
11. James Taylor Quartet - Mrs Robinson
12. The Brian Setzer Orchestra - As Long as I’m Singin’

I didn’t win or even get mentioned. Sigh.

Unique Cars magazine is giving away a 1965 Mustang Fastback done up as a Shelby replica. It’s worth about AUD$60,000 and comes with insurance and rego. Nice.

More pictures and details at Unique Cars