I struggle a lot with the issue of work and income, having been sick for so many years and not physically capable, but having hopes, aspirations and dreams are important for your mental health, whether or not they're going to make you piles of money.
A tasty new Ferrari F12 shreds some rubber around Anglesey Race Circuit, piloted by Chris Harris, whose job is envied by roughly 99.5% of males who have a pulse. Skip the first 5 minutes if you're not interested in hearing about the car and just want to see a Ferrari being thrashed, the sideways shenanigans start at 7:50: http://jalopnik.com/how-to-kill-five-sets-of-tires-step-one-get-a-ferrari-1450894562
A few weeks ago, the publisher of Fuel magazine, Luke Ray, dropped into Auto Transformers in Adelaide, celebrating the launch of Issue 10 of Fuel, as well as a DVD documentary film.
I went along to have a look at some of the fine machinery gathered for the launch party, and here are some photos of the cool rides that showed up. It was a great opportunity to break in my my new Nikon D700 and 50mm f/1.4 combo.
While Fuel mostly focuses on hot rods and customs, there are always some motorbikes thrown into the mix, with a few tidy examples turning up, like this classic Ducati.
A couple of blue Fords with a few decades between them.
One thing I love about hot rods is that quite often most of the engine is visible, something you can't enjoy in most other cars.
However, there's a plus to having a bonnet on your car, with plenty of interesting statuettes gracing the bonnets of American cars from the 40s, 50s and 60s.
As well as the hot rods, some clean and restored American classics lined up outside the workshop.
This 1930s Ford Anglia looked a bit menacing with its matte black paint and hefty rear tyres, and turned out to have a 327 Chev V8 in the engine bay.
It's not going to break any land speed records, but I really like the style of this 1920s Ford pickup, tastefully customised with whitewall tyres, pin-striping and open headers poking out from the engine black.
Buick certainly knew how to design beautiful cars, as this gorgeous 1951 coupe shows.
This custom Ford two door looked quite nice, with an antiquated car phone inside.
As well as the standard road bikes, there were a few heavily modified choppers and cafe racer style motorbikes amongst the cars and throngs of people.
I loved this Ford lakester style rod, very cool look with the red paintwork and white top.
While I was snapping photos of the Ford, this absolutely stunning Chev delivery van pulled in. Again, not exactly a speed demon, but one of the most beautifully restored and clean vehicles there.
I've always had a thing for 1950s pickups, and this tough Ford F-Series is a good example of the style.
While the cars attending were largely American hot rods, classics and customs, a few other nationalities showed up, like this Australian Ford Falcon.
From Europe, a funky looking BMW 2002 coupe.
Buicks certainly changed a lot between the 1950s and 1970s.
Again, apologies for the blog being very quiet lately. After getting married, moving house a couple of times and settling in without a proper internet connection, it's been difficult to make many posts!
I recently visited the oncology doctor about my blood and CT scan tests, to make sure there were no more cancer cells remaining after the surgery. There's a swollen lymph node I need to keep an eye on, but as it stands I'm cancer free now! Which is great news, and obviously a big weight off my mind.
My portfolio website isn't too far away now, so keep an eye out for that in the next month or two!
In the meantime, I'll be making more regular posts on the blog, starting with continued coverage of the Adelaide All Japan Day from a few months ago. I'm not certain, but it's pretty likely I had a cancerous tumour growing at this point...I just didn't know it yet.
If you missed the first two posts with photos from the 2012 Adelaide All Japan Day, you can see them here:
There were quite a few tidy JZX100 Toyota Chasers in attendance, including this neat and subtle silver example.
A little more rough around the edges, this bee coloured Toyota KE70 Corolla still got attention with the slammed ride height and dished rims with flared arches.
This earlier model Nissan 180SX was looking nice with a tasteful kit and rim choice.
This more recent Type X definitely looked tough.
There were a few smaller cars, like this Mazda MX-5...
...as well as a Suzuki Jimny with a decent lift and big tyres, the ride height in stark contrast to the ground-hugging black S13 Silvia in the background.
White on white is always a good look.
This Mazda RX2 Capella was stunning inside and out, with superb attention to detail obvious from a quick look at the interior, engine bay and body work.
This Toyota Cressida looks pretty tame from the outside...
...but they certainly didn't come out of the factory with this going on in the engine bay!
It was at this point that the owner of a new Ferrari 458 Italia decided to give his car some stick, showing all the Japanese cars what an Italian thoroughbred can do. With a very low tolerance for speeding around lots of people and kids, one of the police officers took off in pursuit, catching him a little further up the road.
After dropping some friends at the airport, he was given the choice of returning to the AJD show for a fairly generously low speeding ticket, or go elsewhere and have his Ferrari impounded for hooning.
The police officer took him aside for a bit of a chat about times and places for such things, giving All Japan Day attendees a chance to admire the new prancing horse model. The yellow and black rims looked a bit odd to me, but they're a very aggressive looking bit of machinery.
He was cruising with another friend who also owned a 458, this one wearing the more traditional Ferrari red paintwork, which got plenty of looks amongst the much cheaper Japanese cars.
I liked the look of this S15, with some subtle body additions like a small roof spoiler and duck-tail spoiler.
At the other end of the spectrum was this race-spec Mazda S6 RX7, with an enormous rear wing that wouldn't look out of place on a plane.
Just for comparison, here's a normal one. Despite the original shape being nearly 20 years old, the Series 6-8 RX7 models still don't look dated in my opinion. Compared to Australian models of a similar vintage, say a Holden VN Commodore, they have aged very well indeed.
This JZX100 Chaser would have been in the running for the Most Stickers award, but the 180SX in the first post, covered chassis to roof in stickers, was well ahead of anyone else for sheer numbers.
With adjustable airbag suspension, this Datsun lowrider ute was literally sitting on the ground, garnering plenty of attention from spectators and police alike.
The original 1965 Nissan Silvia CSP311 is a beautifully designed bit of gear, with nicely balanced curves and lines. Only 554 were ever made, so they're a very rare sight, especially on Australian roads. Take a look at a standard Nissan S13 Silvia in two-tone brown in particular, and it's clear that the aesthetics of the next few generations of the Silvia lineup took a big backseat in comparison. You can read more about Silvia heritage here if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Silvia.
While the S14 was ok style-wise, it was rather bland. Only with the most recent S15 model did the sleek and attractive curved lines come back into play, albeit a few decades later. Tastefully modified S13s and S14s can look awesome, and I really like the look of some, but as a standard model from the showroom, they really aren't much to look at.
With a distinctively different engine sound to the Jap stuff, this mean 1969 Dodge Charger R/T caught my attention as it rumbled past, a big block V8 lurking under the deep black bonnet.
This Nissan Cefiro looked quite striking in a vivid green hue, for some reason parked away from the actual show itself.
Many of the 80s Toyotas can look quite cool with a decent set of rims and a few inches taken out of the ride height, as this Toyota Cressida shows.
This 1977 RA28 Toyota Celica is far from standard, as you may be able to tell from the tough stance and intercooler hiding behind the grille, and a little the worse for wear.
It's running a fully legal and engineered Nissan SR20 turbo engine, among countless other meticulous additions and modifications, and I actually shot this as a feature car for Zoom magazine a couple of years ago.
There was an unfortunate incident at the 2010 Mt. Alma hill-climb event, where the owner lost control on a tricky off-camber corner
near the finish, sliding into a bank to the side of the road, damaging
the front and rear. There's an in-car video of the crash below. Knowing how much time and effort it took to create such a beautiful car, it still makes me cringe and feel sad inside when I watch it.
The car is currently being rebuilt to come back
bigger and better than ever.
