HISTORIC CAR FEATURES

The iconic Vegemite spread has now been around for 100 years and has some historic motoring affiliation.

Yes, we know the title of this website indicates its ‘classic’ raison d’être, but the scarcity of true classics and their climbing prices puts many machines out of reach. Enter the Alfa Romeo Tipo 158 look-alike: the Tipo 184.

The Cobargo Classic Vehicle Rally was held in this NSW South Coast town in early November. As usual, HV’s Sapphire Coast representative, Mick W, was on hand to take happy snaps of the wide variety of cars, trucks and bikes on display.

In September 2023, some 300 Model A Fords descended on the historic NSW town of Gulgong, to celebrate the model’s 95th Aussie birthday. 

The 2023 Bega Machinery & Classic Vehicle Rally was held in October and Historic Vehicles’ NSW Sapphire Coast representative was there to take some happy snaps of the displays – mainly cars, but some interesting trucks, bikes and farm machinery as well.

On 31st August, 1967, the 33 Stradale made its debut at the Monza GP. On the same date and in the same place, some 56 years later, the latest 33 Stradale was launched.

The famed Rubicon Trail in the USA is the pinnacle off-road travel experience in the Jeep Jamboree calendar and the event had its 70th anniversary in 2023. We scored a drive across the Rubicon back in 1998, making this a 25th anniversary year for us.

Some of our Historic Vehicles website visitors were curious to know what vehicles Jim Gibson and Allan Whiting have owned as daily drives over the past 60-odd years, so here they are.

HK Engineering is the only company worldwide that is dedicated to the restoration and maintenance of Mercedes-Benz 300 SL cars. It also sells other makes of collectible cars.

The 19th Falcon GT Nationals event was held in Bathurst, NSW,  in May 2023. Some 430 cars were exhibited and we’re privileged to have the accompanying video of the occasion.

Cummins is synonymous with diesel engine power for trucks, earthmovers, boats, mining equipment and generators…but not passenger cars. That wasn’t Clessie Cummins’ fault, because he tried his damndest.

Surviving prototype cars are scarcer than hens’ teeth, so we were pleasantly surprised to be told of one that not only survived the past 60+ years, but was in regular use until relatively recently.

A recent European court case has highlighted the shaky ground on which replica car makers set up shop. Some original vehicle makers (OEMs) don’t seem to mind their designs being replicated, while others forbid the practice. We try to sort out the liabilities.

The annual National Motoring Heritage Day promotes and displays Australia’s strong motoring heritage.

When Porsche enlarged its range of post-2022 electric cars, from the Taycan and Macan to other models in the range, it was déjà vu for the German marque, because Ferdinand Porsche’s first design effort was an electric car, back in 1898.

On a 2023 visit to the Apple Isle we came across many interesting vehicles, including some in the most unexpected places. Here are the highlights.

In 2017, on the 20th anniversary of Japanese movie star Toshiro Mifune’s death in 1997, an exhibition entitled The World Famous Mifune was held at Tokyu Department store in Shibuya, Tokyo. Star exhibit was Mifune’s beloved MG TD.

Old car freaks, who are also Netflix series watchers, have asked us what is the make and model of the latest Addams Family vehicle. In a departure from previous movies, it’s a 1938 Pontiac, but with extensive modifications.

The ‘X’ configuration attracted a number of engine designers, including – most notably – Henry Ford. We’ve chosen X-8 initiatives with some automotive applications for this report, but all of them were fated to fail.

The Goulburn Car and Motorcycle Show was the sixth such annual event, held at Wakefield Park Raceway in November 2022. The Show was proudly supported by the Rotary Club of Goulburn, in NSW.

A Commercial Trip in Central Queensland and the Northern Territory, reprinted from The Australian Buick Bulletin, December 1916 issue.

The decision of Chicago, Illinois-based car dealer and accessories vendor Stanley H ‘Wacky’ Arnolt to market his own series of imported sports cars in the early 1950s had far-reaching consequences that affected important players in the automotive industry.

We ventured along to cover the above event at this hamlet on the NSW South Coast, in October 2022. A couple of the Shannons’ crew  – Sheena and Neville – were there to support the event, and were busy all day at the tent, fielding enquiries from many car owners. 

Barry Sainsbury was the second and last manufacturer of the Aussie designed and built Mazengarb overhead valve conversion kit for the post-War Morris Minor’s side-valve engine.

To the old maxim that there are only two certainties in life: death and taxes, there’s a third element: fuel prices continue to rise. Right from the early days of the motor vehicle came inventions that claimed to reduce the size of the hole in motorists’ pockets.

In many lists of little-known automotive historical facts is a tidbit about the engineer who invented cruise control: he was actually blind. Yeah, that seems pretty incredible, but that’s where the info about Ralph R Teetor begins and ends for most.

The annual Shannons’ sponsored classic car show was organised by the Council of Motor Clubs and hosted at the Eastern Creek Motorsport Park by the Australian Racing Drivers Club. 

The tiny Daimler Motor Car of 1892 looks even smaller, standing beside two magnificent Mercedes-Benz 770 ‘Grand Mercedes’ WO7 models from the 1930s. However, it fits in this picture perfectly, because, like them, it was the prestige vehicle of its time.

Vicki W is a blue-blood Ford groupie. As a young girl she loved going to the Castlereagh Drag Races in western Sydney. That led to a lifetime of Ford V8 ownership.

Those of you of a certain age who visited or originated in the UK will be familiar with the chain of shoe shops called Lilley & Skinner which were a common sight in the High Streets of most towns. This shoe business was started in 1835 by one Thomas Lilley.

The 21-month crime spree by legendary US villains Bonnie and Clyde – Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow and their gang – in the early 1930s, is the stuff of legends and has inspired two major movies. Their preferred getaway car was Henry Ford’s then-new V8.

Here’s a poem written about the release of the first Holden in 1948. Ron Williams wrote it for the 48 215 50th Anniversary when he attended the celebrations at Lang Lang, Fishermen’s Bend and Albert Park.

Eagers Automotive Limited is the leading automotive retail group in Australia and New Zealand, with a long and proud history of more than 100 years, including an attempt on the Australian land speed record.

In 2013, Rolls-Royce was looking for an appropriate way to introduce the new Wraith that the company billed as the most powerful, dynamic motor car in Rolls-Royce Motor Car’s 109-year history. R-R chose the timing to coincide with the centenary of the 1913 Alpine Trial.

Automotive innovations don’t always meet the test of time. Here is what we hope will be a growing collection of yesterday’s good ideas. Please send in any others you come across.

“A company is like a human being: as long as it goes in for sports, it is fit, well-trained, full of enthusiasm and performance,” so said Robert Lutz, BMW AG board member, back in 1972. Thus was christened the youngest subsidiary of BMW AG at the time, BMW Motorsport GmbH. 

The world’s most expensive car in 2022 was a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR that was reportedly sold from the company’s Stuttgart museum stock for a staggering 135 million euros (US$142 million).

In 1887, Russell Stewart Begg was born in Columbus, Ohio, in the USA and grew up in the horse-and-buggy and bicycle era. He went on to have an important influence on early automotive engineering and was pivotal in the development of the original Holden.

There was never an official Ford Speedster, based on the ubiquitous Model T, but various forms of ‘Speedsters’ were produced by ‘hot rodders’ in the post-Word War I period, as alternatives to the much more expensive Stutz and Mercer performance two-seaters.

The Longford Circuit was a temporary motor racing course laid out on public roads at Longford, 23 kilometres south-west of Launceston in Tasmania, Australia.

There are contesting claims as to the origin of the first ‘ute’ and some people reckon it’s an Aussie invention.