Australia Day W'end, Nostalgia Drag Racing 2019

While celebrating this great country of ours on a 3 day long w’end what better way to add to the festivities than at The Nostalgia’s for some old school drag racing!

With clear skies and a cool westerly breeze it was a perfect morning for the show and shine and to see some of Perth’s finest go up against each other on the 1/4 mile. 

The racing was based around the ‘Chicago Shootout’..win, loose or draw you get to race again with the 2 cars with the most wins contest the final.

Happy Australia Day!

Happy Australia Day!

Hot Summer Nights, Perth

The first big event for 2019 was Hot Summer Nights brought to us by the Cranksters, one of W.A’s Hot Rod and Kustom Car Club.

With the ØG356 undergoing surgery, time was spent getting the ’64 XM Hardtop rolling after a very long hiatus for the meet. We cruised down with Brad in his immaculate ’58 Vette to the Claremont Showgrounds on a perfect Perth afternoon…

Hot Summer Nights exceeded all expectations with over 500 of Perths coolest pre 1978 cars cruising down and parking on the perfectly manicured lawn. The show ran like clockwork and seemed effortless, which can only mean a lot of thought and work had gone into the event. The mix of era’s and styles was great to see in the warm and friendly environment and we can’t wait to be part of the next one!

Thank you to the Cranksters (and associates) for all the work that we get to enjoy.

Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Cars, Perth

The Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Cars were in town and we were there to witness these amazing machines haul down the 1/4 mile in speeds that are hard to comprehend.

The sub 5 second 1/4 mile times (400 meters) that these drivers run and the deafening sound that rattles your bones is amazing to witness. Some of the other brackets where just as entertaining which included the Nitro Bike, Top Comp, Outlaw Radial and Super Street to name a few. We also got the opportunity to walk around and observe the teams first hand preparing the cars in the pit area.

A few friends were also racing including Kevin Boulton in his street driven Camaro(which does 9’s with wheel spin!), Norbz & Vanessa Claite and Crew in their beautifully presented Kandy Jag and Dean & Janine Dawes ‘Pertho Rican’, a freshly built RX3 that made its debut and licensed to race so congratulations for that achievement and a big thank you for the tickets too, DD!

Classic Cars & Coffee_Nedlands, Western Australia

We’re seeing the tail end of 2019 this morning with the last Classic Cars & Coffee at the picturesque UWA grounds in Nedlands. 

With an estimated 600+ cars it was a great morning to walk around and enjoy the mechanical eye candy while running into friends along the way for a quick chat…

Thank you to Paul, Natalie and Deryck for organising this great event and we’re already looking forward to the next one.

HPNY2019!

Jebel Jais

Jebel Jais is the tallest mountain in the UAE, measuring 1934m above sea level. The road leading up to it is very popular with supercar owners and today was going to be very special.

We initially organised the drive for aircooled cars only, cars signed up ranging from a selection of beetles and buses to a full range of Porsche’s including Matt’s 356 which he kindly leant to Graham from Dubai Drives for the day.

Interest in the drive soon spread and having already establish a great range of aircooled cars, we opened up the invitation list.

The vibe in Dubai has really grown this year with regard to classics and anything automotive in general and the experience of driving in the UAE.

Airwerk Garage kindly jumped onboard to support the drive along with our friends at Carculture.ae, Flat12 and Dubai.Drives. The support here is more than welcomed and very appreciated.

The drive was to begin at 6am from the Airwerks garage where hot coffee and banana bread would kick us into life.  We were very nervous about how the day would go, we really had no idea how many people would actually turn up….

As we arrived the street was already starting to fill up, we can’t explain how this made us smile with amazing cars everywhere.  Such a wide variety of people and cars, from a Clio to a Daytona, trucks, GT cars, a bagged Cadillac, BMW’s, a Morgan, Viper ACR, a range of Alfa’s and mini that had driven all the way from Abu Dhabi to take part.  Just an amazing sight!

After a caffeine fix and Flat12 getting fuel after running out at the start (sorry to mention this guys) we rounded everyone up to start.

We lead the group in our 930, a total of 50 cars rolled out to Jais and the adventures ahead.

It’s at this point we noticed some holes in our planning. We had a route but this however may not have been communicated as clearly as it perhaps should have been.

The group soon split into two and the chase began.  With the power of Whatsapp we could share live locations and it was clear to see Carculture were leading the cheating pack (or the “We are not lost pack”).  Now to be clear this wasn’t your usual chase where people are going as fast possible. We had a wide variety of cars in the group, the mini couldn’t actually do over 90kph with the 120 km/h speed limit.  This was clearly a tortoise racing a tortoise and one of them was clearly lost!

The 2 groups rejoined at a petrol station just outside of Jais to refuel and swap notes.  Oil checks where done on the older cars, tires changed but no one had broken down.  The enjoyment of these drives is about staying together and supporting each other, enjoying the scenery while being in the company of fellow car enthusiasts.

We set off again as a group, this time managing to stay together, massive thanks to Ahmed in his G Wagon for directing traffic for us so we could all stay safe and together.

We arrive at the bottom of Jais to take a breath and to organize groups for the final part of the mountain drive.

The drive is fantastic with twists and turns and sharp winding roads with a truly beautiful backdrop.  We tailed a few cars up the winding road but watching the Daytona do it was something else.

Whilst in cruise mode a number of cars zipped past us (all clearly under the speed limit of course) and when you are in a 930 that just isn’t acceptable, so we down shifted, spat flames from the exhaust and set off.  Now this was our first time up the mountain in the 930 so we were a little cautious on corners conscious not to let the Window Maker claim another victim.

The edge of the mountain is protected by concrete blocks but it is still a long way down.  We darted up and just caught the group heading into the carpark at the top.  Special mention should go to Graham in the 356. He clearly has been driving his RS PDK for too long and slipped a gear and had to push the 356 into the carpark as apparently he couldn’t start it. Good job we were there to help him with the car but not is pride.

Once everyone had a moment to chat and laugh about the drive we had some small gifts to award:

• Spirit of the Drive – Matt for lending Graham his 356 for the day as Matt was out of town for work.

• People’s Choice Award – This award went to the Arabian Bison’s (Ahmed and Ali) for their spirited and entertaining drive in the Chopard rally, well done guys!

• Winner of the Jais Adventure Drive – This had to go to Naser and his Mini for the epic drive from Abu Dhabi to participate in the event.  Turns out the trophy only just fitted in the car for the drive back!

We’d just like to say thank you to a few people that we haven’t already mentioned: Sami, all the air-cooled guys and girls and everyone that came from Abu Dhabi.

 Same time next year.