A timber jinker.

das auto .... mit VW mythology

Outer suburb. Still life with retro car, take-away - burgers, fish and chips etc (with 'non-traditional', whatever that is, shop keepers,)  and remnants of a post office site. Fish and chip shops were often operated by people of Mediterranean descent but those older generations have retired, or by Anglos. 

We begin April in this town frozen in time. Retro ville. Up to date ideas have very little impact. Visitors are conspicuous.

Peace. A classic 1980s pop-top van. The message still stands. Always known as a VWKombi hereabouts. 

Classic and Muscle cars Chevrolet Pontiac Buick Cadillac Oldsmobile. Lincoln, Mercury, Ford.  How many are out of production?
Yank-tanks have their followers who import used cars. The bigger the better. Strangly, this is more than a hoot, the cars are serious toys. Mustangs are really 'big' but they are a bit special.
Mainfreight transport and shipping ex-USA, customs brokers, left to right hand drive conversion specialists, parts, panels, rims, engines - the lot - all in the game.
 
Department store retailers and the big names are 'up in arms' about unfair on-line shopping - they want a 'level playing field',  they want off-shore retailers to charge shoppers the taxes we all pay here.
Said Mr Big Name retailer, in interview - down to his last quid - his wife was shopping in the big apple where a dress was heavily discounted for her.
Can't she frock-up in Australian clothes?  Her example is unAustralian like all the other shoppers!

Its a man's world...man's world...man's world...man's world...man's world...man's world...man's world...

Fully imported car, unknown make, owned by an enthusiast 'sheriff' of this village. Dukes of Hazzard style? 

Anything is possible and I have learnt more tolerance due to media reports where Mrs Hillary Clinton was seen in  conversations during a visit to our shores and seemed to really communicate rather than offer too much rhetoric. The US Ambassador is pleasant and not over-the-top either. He collects Elvis memorabilia!  As to content of the conversation - too complex but we won't be set-up and overly aligned with the US.  

As well, SBS One TV took us to the rally in Washington where Jon Stewart offered a  meaningful address to suit the occasion  and nailed the issues and, overall, restored lost credibility.  

 

Mornings are getting warmer.

Below: North Americans going feral, Cairns or bust, setting out after a car service at K Mart. Surf boards in tow. I guess that surfers get well informed about the best surfing destinations for while classic waves are found all along the north coast, I don't know about the far north tropics and Cairns, but there, the Barrier Reef islands and the lifestyle is sweet. Summer is the rainy season. 

This is a simple photo largely of the art work on the van- probably one of the oldest these kids have ever driven. I hope they keep the oil and water well topped up even when Toyota is very reliable. Total milage is most telling. 

Add engine oil? On the early models this means clearing the passenger seats and the space behind, some feat, undoing the locks on the seat, raising and tilting it back, finding a handy little strap with a certain clasp that holds the seat suspended while you peer down to find the dip stick and so on. Easy enough for a truckie.

Motor homes: a location that looks perfect also needs to be level parking, an incline makes quite a difference. Small and lower vehicles have far more options when it comes to city parking stations or any overhangs.

Sunday driving. Red Ranga working on the rail line at Newcastle station. Is this a sign that the rail line will be removed in the future when the current upgrade is finished?
Lower, the big intersection had troubles what with road/drain works and a collision.

All day the marshalls waited for this moment. High drama on the rally track? Finally an excuse to start up the tow truck.

'Yellow' had been going like a blur before a mechanical failure meant it was towed back to the 'pits'.

All wheel drive supercharged are hard to beat. This could be one of them. West Lakes Auto Club, Awaba.

Rally event yesterday.

 c smart 
From a Swatch Watch idea, a long story evolved about the car. Swatch Mercedes Art or Smart has variations and has been know to form leaning towers. But then, this was Canberra!

Das Auto. Some distance is seen between two cars after a collision, in Canberra.

Grasshoppers met this car as a result of travel across the south west of the state from Adelaide.
Van in lower photo has unique paint work with or without grasshoppers.

Have Syncro will travel. From Austria to sand and surf. Overland from Europe to Australia and back again in the footsteps of old hippies. (Shipping the VW (diesel) on one leg)

The Lister  - a steam driven oldie.
Mr Motor-Watcher observed that the Toyota recall seems to apply to vehicles produced in North America where they have naturally done some of their own thing with the cars.  To overcome trading sanctions against the Japanese, Toyota opened their plant in America and adjusted to suit the American market, where, for example, small cars were not in demand while a Lexus might be more appropriate and the market diversified.  In Australia the small Toyota Corolla had been very popular for years and years then the smallish Echo and so on and Lexus has some followers.

Love and marriage. May happiness be theirs forever. Wedding party just dropped in to the Ocean Baths for photos on the boardwalk - where else? Then whisked away in white stretched Hummer.
Refined yet restrained elegance is so 'Newcastle'.
White strapless gown, de rigueur,  and bridesmaids in solid dark coloured dresses with pure white ribbon ties says it all.

Chinese Year of the Tiger. About to leave the old city walls of Xian is a bus, many of which will be part of the homeward treck by vast crowds at New Year. Some taller buses seemed to be entirely set up with bunks and  considering the very long distances in China, bunks would be the go. 

While travelling south on the Pacific Highway, today, two accidents were a problem. In one, a B Double went all over the road before ending up on the median strip facing the wrong way. The truck facing us is a rescue vehicle.

Some say they'd rather be sailing.

In a flash, this was flung some distance off the car in the accident yesterday. Toyota vehicles are our best sellers and they are very reliable cars.
But hey, in the southern oceans, the Japanese whaling fleet is a disgrace.

Japanese Story is having a rerun this week and the 'Toyota leap', from the ads, is made by the Japanese visitor when the car gets free of the sand in the outback. The starkness, the silences and the mundane, as someone said, are very memorable sequences and the corny parts don't stand in the way of the quirky, unexpected insights in the film.