Classic Cars

Brocky’s Opel Monza

[youtube 5CYTaj2zRXo]

Any full blooded Aussie can tell you that the Holden Commodore of the 80’s was based on an European Opel, they will also tell you how much of a legend the late Peter Brock was and how much he loved Holden’s. In about 1984 Brocky saw the potential in the Opel Monza, a two door hatch based on the same car the Aussie Commodore sedan was based on, Compared to the Aussie version it had a few good bits like a independent rear end that Brocky liked the idea of so he come up with a plan to import them down under and whack a decent V8 under the bonnet. At the time the concept got a lot of publicity, but it was never to happen. Brock did import one over for evaluation and kitted it out with an array of hot bits including his infamous Energy Polarizer, today the car is in the hands of a collector who has decided to part company with it. So if you got an endless bank balance and want a piece of Brock history check out the full story. The video above is of a Opel Monza from a similar era, if you are from down under would have you bought one back in 1984? let us know in the comments field.  

Read more

MOTAT Museum of Transport & Technology

motat.gif

MOTAT is the largest transport and technology museum in New Zealand with over 40 acres of exhibitions. Opening in 1964 the centre is built on a site where a pump station pumped water from Western Springs to the centre of Auckland. The centre has hours of educational entertainment for all ages, there’s an activities centre with over 20 displays including a huge Hand’s on Science Centre. There are all forms of road transportation, trams, railway stock, aviation, military, busses you name it- if it moves they have it. Some of the more notable items in their collection include the only Solent Mark IV Flying Boat in the world and one of only a handful of WW2 Avro Lancaster Bombers in the world, the first chilled beer tanker in the World and Billy T James’ 1954 Chevrolet. MOTAT also has one of the largest fire engine collections in the world. A very impressive collection indeed.

Read more

The Cadillac Eldorado

The Cadillac Eldorado was built from 1953 until 2002 but the classics were the early years up to the early 60s which feature huge amounts of chrome and fins. It was in a 1954 Eldorado Convertible (not too much dissimilar to the one in the video above) that Sammy Davis Jnr ran off the road and poked his eye out with chrome centre of the steering wheel. These were the days when car manufacturers built cars for looks alone, today the wheel would be made of soft foam not steel and contain an airbag, he probably would have been held in by his seat belt something people didnt worry about in the 50s. Back then you could mount huge spikes on the cars bonnet and it would of been OK. Today car manufacturers are even designing their cars to be safer for pedestrians as well, we thought pedestrian safety was fitting a horn to every car. 

Read more

Borland Racing Daytona Sportscar

[youtube pcVPToyoTaY]

The Borland Racing Daytona Sportscar is a replica of Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe built in 1964. The Borland version features a body that sits space frame with mechanicals from the Holden SS Commodore, but at 1100 kg the 6.0 litre LS1 Gen III V8 certainly packs a punch. The car has been in limitated production since 2001 with only a handful of them built, one of them going to Aussie legend racing driver Peter Brock, he crashed his into a tree killing himself during the Targa West on September 8 2006. The video above is of the last lap recorded before that fateful day, as you can see it takes great skill to keep the thing on the road and unlike Bathurst where you can bounce off the concrete barriers you can easily wrap yourself around a tree. Interestingly the body of the original Shelby Daytona was designed by a guy named Pete Brock, no relation to the Peter Brock of Oz. 

Read more

Citroen GS Bi Rotor

[youtube 3WwlgalVH7A]

When you think about the Wankel Rotary engine you instantly think about Mazda, some of you may also remember NSU the German car company that went broke after sinking a lot of money into the Rotary. There also was a third company who thought Rotaries would be good under their bonnet and that was Citroen with their GS Bi-Rotor. Between 1973 and 1977 a luxury version of the Citroen GS was sold with NSU’s rotary engine under the bonnet but when NSU fell in a heap Citroen were left with 847 cars on the road without a source of spare parts. Citroen’s solution was to recall them and buy them all back to be crushed and never mention the Rotary again. A few still survive as some customers loved them to much to sell them back to Citroen, the video above is a Citroen promotional video showing how Citroen did love the Rotary once too. It’s in French but the animations of how the rotary works is pretty cool if you don’t understand the language of the cheese eaters.

Read more

Citroen 2CV

[youtube 0FRovouOLyQ]

Today we feature an ad for the Citroen 2CV that makes it look like a quite attractive car. The 2CV is right up there with the Mini and the Beetle in the cult classic car category. Like the Beetle and the Mini the 2CV was produced long after every other manufacturer had moved on to producing more modern cars but people keep on buying these cars despite them having ergonomics designed in the 40s. The last car ran off the production line in 1990 after 42 years of production.

James Dean’s Porshe 550 Spyder

[youtube DcTnCX6oJ2E]

Today’s video is a bit of a long one from a TV program that used modern forensics to piece together James Deans last moments. Dean famously loved fast cars and he traded a Porshe 356 in on a Porshe 550 Spyder that got nicknamed “little Bastard”, Alec Guinness told Dean he would kill himself in the car within a week, ironically a week before his death. The car went on to hurt and kill several others after the wreak was bought and parts of it like the engine, wheels and drive train were sold off. Considered cursed the wreak of the 550 was put on display by the California Highway Patrol but the garage it was stored in burnt down with the car escaping unscathed. The car was last seen in 1960 when it was lost in transit while being shipped back to its owner.  

JFK’s Lincoln Continental

jfkmotorcade.jpg

The first in our series of car of the dead stars is the SS-100x, it was the secret service name of the Presidential limo that JFK got shot in. Based on a 1961 4 door Lincoln Continental the car was modified to a convertible (probably not a great idea looking back) and also featured an array of high tech gadgets including a radio link back to the White House. The car featured a variety of tops that could be popped on when needed and by the time the car was finished being modified a 1962 grill and bumper assy was fitted to keep the car up to date. Following Kennedy’s assassination the car was modified again returning it to a closed in sedan, but this time with bulletproof armor. The car continued as a presidential limousine until 1967 and was finally retired from goverment service in 1978 to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

Read more