The small central Victorian town of Castlemaine is well known amongst locals and automotive fans alike as the home of hot rodding and, in a way, I guess last weekend was no exception…except for one small/ large difference! These hot rods are usually found pounding the highways and freeways of our wide land carting all manor of necessities from town to town!
It was the one weekend of the year Victorian and interstate truck drivers gather together with all the paint and bling of big time customising that goes with these big rigs, the kings of the road! Thanks to the effort of the local Lions club and major sponsors such as Adtrans Used Trucks, everything from old time road haulers through to the latest in creative customising can be found on show including those who construct and complete these highly detailed rides. Read More →
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure…..and our amusment
I came across this artistic creation on a recent trip to the States. The story is the owner, who had spent most of his life building elite show cars and all the high detail that goes along with that scene decided he wanted to do something fun! He let his imagination loose and came up with this cool looking pick up and teardrop trailer! The more you walk around it the more you see and make you chuckle! Read More →
Wild days, wild nights!
Wild days and wild nights is one way to describe this old school hop-up revival from the fifties and sixties! Thousands of eager rockers and racers converge on the small country racetrack of Newstead in Victoria, Australia keen to take in three days of rowdy music, wild race action and all night partying with sleep coming in a distant second when weighing up priorities!
This year saw the camp site widened and a new track built in anticipation of the influx of numbers allowing campers to spread out and negotiate their vehicles safely around the grounds. Perfect weather leading up to and including the festival meant no bogged van or cars except for those who chose to run the gauntlet on the only stretch of mud to be found on the grassy grounds much the delight of onlookers. Aside from the all-day drags and multitude of bands belting out their repertoire from morning till, well, the following morning, other forms of entertainment this year came in the fashion of a stunt rider taking on a burning ring of fire (although going by the smell of cooking coming from some of the campsites, others may have been doing the same!) Read More →
Classic speed in an FC!
What do you do with a racing pedigree engine when you’re no longer in the sport? Sitting it in the corner is a sin and selling it is bad economics! Well Dave Graham’s solution was to shoe horn his 350 Chev into his favourite classic ride, an FC Holden Special. The problem is though, that these match ups are like putting a square bung in a round hole, it won’t just happen!
Dave Used to race speedway 20 years ago when he was a much younger man but these days he’s more content to cruise around in a tough street car for entertainment. As previously mentioned, Dave’s choice of street car is an FC and loves the flowing lines of the classic Holden. “I had an FC previously, about 15 years ago but it was someone else’s build and everyone used to say to me, that’s so-n-so’s car and it used to annoy me so I decided to build my own.” The running gear in this car was out of his speedway machine and he wasn’t about to part with that so he ripped it all out and sold the rolling body. He hunted around and found himself a ride to call his own, complete with grey motor and all. The floors were gone and had rust in the usual places but the vision was there. Read More →
Lisa and the Bluick
“I wanted a fifties Chev, always liked 57s and 55s but people already have them, I was always looking on the internet, American Ebay, looking, looking. I punched in Buick and this thing came up. I thought gee I like the look of that!” says Danny Engel, owner of this cherry looking 1955 Buick!
It’s a familiar story these days, we find ourselves perusing the internet, looking for ideas to customize our rides or keen on purchasing a cool classic for sale, here and abroad thanks to this ever growing digital global community. Read More →
Bringing culture to the cultured
St. Kilda in itself is a stand-alone tourist attraction. With its beautiful beach and stunning esplanade bringing together two major St. Kilda shopping strips of Fitzroy St and Acland St complimented by an array of bars and eateries drawing together the quirky and the eclectic mixed with Melbourne’s reknowned fashion and style. Most weekends, it’s the place to be! It’s alive, it’s the vibe, and the hum of the trams mixed with the thrills and shrills of Luna Park’s visitors riding the attractions.
Father’s Day this year brought a new thrill to St. Kilda by filling Acland St and surrounding lanes and car parks with the vibrant colours and shiny chrome of all things automotive! With the street blocked off to normal passenger motivation, Elvis and his team from ShowcarsMelbourne set about filling the street with some of Melbourne’s best custom rides accompanied by a cacophony of custom bikes, drag cars, cool classics through to your modified modern rides. Read More →
Tough Love!
Tough love; yep, another love story. You know how it goes; boy meets girl, boy gets girl pregnant and so on. We’ll not this one! This one is between man and machine. Man being a car enthusiast and the machine is a 32 three window coupe. This romance started back over in the west. The purchase of a fabricated chassis and fibreglass body with widened rear guards from Rods Bods combined with a garage full of parts and dreams and he was in his element. Unfortunately, love never runs true and the marital mat was yanked out from under the rod’s first builder seeing the unfinished vehicle ending up in the classifieds.
Along comes our next enthusiast and second owner of this love scorned rod as a new romance blossoms seeing further dreams brought to fruition through late nights and a consistent cash flow. Once again the hard luck of life steps in. Torn between his thirst for his dream and the realities of life, our luckless rod owner has no other option but to part with his mechanical love. Read More →
It’s good to be bad to the bone!
1964 Galaxie. Andy’s own ride, this cool daily driver has had the lace work and custom metal work completed by himself, further honing his skills. Air bags are to be added when time permits.
Nestled in the backstreets of Brunswick, this small but efficient workshop retains that old school feel about it. There’s a flathead in the corner, weird contraptions and metal art adorning the walls, while classic and custom rides reside awaiting their turn for maintenance and modifications. Aiming to be the one stop kustom & restoration shop, Andy undertakes nearly all work in house. He works with the moto “oldskool style – new ideas”. So what mods are done in the motherland? Read More →
Are you Vegas enough?
This was the question put to us leading up to the event and, by the look of the turnout, I guess many people said “YES!” KingPin Kuztums in conjunction with Melbourne Old School Cruisers were the combined force behind this indoor/ outdoor rockabilly come car show inspired event!
Although the start time was 11am, perfect for a Sunday morning, many fired up early with their cool custom rides and classic muscle cars and headed out to Dandenong South to grab a park and a coffee and take in the sights and sounds old school V8s and classic sixes rocking up for the jaunt!
The greatest show on earth!
This year, the show came to Melbourne, the Meguiars MotorEx auto show to be precise! For many years it spent its time at Homebush in Sydney but this year, event organiser, MotorActive Managing Director Bruce Morrison decided to give Melbourne a go and he wasn’t disappointed! Over 28,000 auto mad enthusiasts and curious onlookers came through the gates to check out what all the fuss was about. Read More →
Caprice Photography Automotive Art 