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An Aussie Road Trip

This road trip that I’m going to share with you came about as a result of an accidental internet find.

I was looking through some websites of Australian Car Museums and noticed that one I particularly wanted to visit (sometime) was going to close down in a few months!

Lost in the 50’s would be lost FOREVER! I had to photograph it!

The Lost in the 50’s Museum

The Lost in the 50's Museum

So I started thinking seriously about it, initially getting in touch with the museum owner (Glen) to ask if he’d mind me coming in and taking a bunch of photographs. He didn’t mind in the least – so it’s on!

Initially I considered flying to the museum, which is situated about 1500 kilometers from my home in Adelaide, South Australia.… Click Here to Read More

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Kilgarvan Motor Museum

Before you enter the sheds that house the museum, there are some very pretty gardens, and bits and pieces strewn around. Like this! So, I started walking around, and the first car I saw was this brand spanking new Porsche 911GT3!! What? It’s not a GT3? Sorry.. they all look the same to me.. Niiice! Ye Olde English Triumph Stag! I’ve never seen one of these before, a German Adler. This Rolls-Royce Corniche (in a MOST unusual colour!) was the result of a ground-up restoration by the Museum. A very nice Model T Ford! And a beautiful Gold Riley. Here’s a nice old Rover! This Hillman Special was most likely something in it’s day! And a STUNNING Rolls-Royce Phantom. And her Flying Lady emblem.… Click Here to Read More
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Coffee & Chrome, Adelaide – June 2018

It was very busy, people everywhere, and the cars were parked right on top of each other, so it was hard to get decent shots. Here’s a 59 Caddy to start with – LOVE those fins! More Cadillac Finny Goodness! A 1960.. A Nice Z28 Camaro And a really nice 1955 Chev 1973 Chev Corvette I don’t think they made 356’s in RHD, possibly a replica.. but nice, nonetheless. Extremely sweet Engine Bay of a Camaro SS. Very pretty 1929 Ford Hot Rod I am about as far from being a Ford Fan as is possible, but I really liked this Falcon 2-Door GT.. Hawt!! Pimpin’ Chrysler Convertible! A bit out of place was this Ferrari 430. Most unusual had to be this Ford Falcon Hearse conversion.… Click Here to Read More
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A look around the Carl Lindner Jaguar Collection

Google took us to the spot, but the outside of the building showed little indication of the rumoured treasures within… Apart from that XK maybe? This is a pretty good indicator that we’ve found the right place! What an amazing piece of art! In we go, and are immediately offered a coffee by the young Lady (Karen) who was (wo)manning the fort! How hospitable! Karen showed us where we would find everything, and left us to look around and take some pictures. This 1932 SS1 was the very first Jaguar bought (by accident!) by Carl, and has pride of place immediately inside the door. This car started it all! The ’32 is very original and in amazing condition for a car that was used – daily – for many years.… Click Here to Read More
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American Muscle Cruise

As the cruise participants milled around I wandered in and out taking pictures of their cars, starting with this VERY nice Dodge Challenger! And here’s another shot of the Challenger – Too nice! Next was another Dodge, a Charger. And another shot. It looks just as good from this angle! Nice bum, Charger! Not sure if they had these Ford Fairlanes in the USA, but we sure got them here in Australia. There are still a few of these being raced in Historics – the famous Ford Galaxie 500! These Ford LTD’s were sold in Australia too, I think. MASSIVE car.. THis one is DEFINITELY Australian – a Holden Kingswood! Love those wheels, they really suit. I really liked this Plymouth RoadRunner too..… Click Here to Read More
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Early Model Holden Spotting!

There is also a very famous institution here in Adelaide called Vili’s Cafe de Wheels, where you can buy (and consume) really great meat pies and other food. This morning I went out for a coffee at Vili’s with my buddy Steve, and co-incidentally just after I arrived people started turning up in the very first model Holdens, the 48-215 (or FX) and it’s successor, the FJ. I had my DLSR in the car, so took advantage and some pictures, a few of which I have here for you today! First to arrive was this very original (apart from the paint, I think) 48-215. I had a quick chat with the owners, and the engine is the original 132cubic inch (about 2 litre) in-line 6.… Click Here to Read More
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British Classic Tour at Victor Harbor. S.A. 2018

The Tour was set up with a Start/Finish Line for the leisurely drive around the picturesque Fleurieu Peninsula. No breakdowns were reported. And when the Tour finished the cars were parked on the Victor Harbour Oval for display. This is when I arrived, to take some pictures! First up were some stylish Mark 2 Jaaaaaaaaaags, like this one. The colour really suited it, I thought. And White always looks great, of course. This is another Mark2 Jag. Moving right along, here is a very nice XJ6. These never seem to look old. do they? Timeless styling. Not QUITE so sure how I feel about this one.. Different?? 🙂 Very well presented though. A very nice XJ-R.. I really like these, the ultimate XJ… And a gorgeous XK-R..… Click Here to Read More
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My visit to the Geraldine Motor Museum in New Zealand

The Geraldine Motor Museum didn’t look like too much from the outside, but we had a couple of hours to spare, and the entry fee was very reasonable….so.. in we go! First impressions : The museum is crowded, and definitely built and run on a budget. But there are some nice old cars here, and there are no pretensions or salesmanship at all. This 1912 Overland looks very nice in Yellow. This 1910 Bianchi must have have been quite the thing when it was new. Lot’s of Horse Carriage influence here still. And look at the lovely polished chest on the back! And the gold-plated door handles. I bet this cost a small fortune back in 1910. This Rolls-Royce really took my fancy, to the point I tried to buy it.… Click Here to Read More
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List of The Best Car Museums

In my quest to visit and photograph every Car Museum IN THE WORLD I thought I’d better find out where they all are. In my over-achieving style I have starting building a database of museums, sorted by country/region. Early days yet, I’ve hardly touched the USA for instance, but you can find the list at This Spot. If you know of any I’ve missed, please let me know as I’d love to keep building the list.
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The Enzo Ferrari Engine Museum

This is a companion article to a previous one I wrote, where I visited the Ferrari Enzo Museum in Modena, Italy. In that article, I mentioned that I’d taken pictures in the Engine Hall. I kept them out of that piece because I figured most people wouldn’t be overly impressed by an engine sitting on a stand. For those brave few who ARE interested, here we go! The other article is HERE if you haven’t seen it already.
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Drivetribe

A couple of months ago I started spending a bit of time on Drivetribe.com, which is the website owned by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May – formerly of Top Gear fame, and the hosts of The Grand Tour. As well as finding the moderators and (most) users extremely welcoming and hospitable I have really been enjoying my interaction with the site, to the point I have started writing some articles based on my visits to car museums and local (South Australian) events. I’ll most likely start to reproduce and expand upon the theme here, but if you’d like to view my work, go join up to Drivetribe. It is a very different site from what you are used to, as it is very social media like, but without the inane and mindless drivel that is the norm on other sites.… Click Here to Read More
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2018 Jaguar National Rally – Display Day

The Jaguar National Rally was held in South Australia this year. Sunday 15th April had most of the entrants displaying their cars at the amazing National Motor Museum in Birdwood. As is my wont, camera on the ready, and off we go. I got pictures of *most* of the cars, but the weather wasn’t very co-operative and I had to take pictures between showers.
I also took advantage of one of the newest additions to the museum, and so got some pictures of the AMAZING Bugatti Veyron. Also look for the XJ13.. it is just brilliant. Enjoy! 2018 Jaguar National Rally – Display Day – 8th April 2018
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Austin 7 Club Funkhana

8th April 2018, and the Austin 7 Club held a FunKhana on Houghton Oval.  Events included Delivering a rolled up newspaper into a tyre, catching balls, driving around in circles maintaining tension on a string, and describing a 360 circle with a cardboard box over your head (see the pictures!) Austin 7 Club Funkhana – 8th April 2018
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Back from Holidays!

We have arrived home from another holiday – The United Kingdom this time..

Lot of photos at : United Kingdom 2017

And I managed to squeeze in a few Car Museums that rev-heads might like :-
Kilgarvan Motor Museum 2017
Bo’Ness Motor Museum 2017 Lakeland Motor Museum 2017
The British Motor Museum 2017
Donington Motor Museum 2017

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Cross-Flashing a Fujitsu D2607 RAID Controller

I recently picked up a few Fujitsu D2607 RAID Controllers (cheap off eBay!) to replace the Rocket RAID controller in my NAS, which I have come to distrust as it has at times been a little flaky (plus, they have never provided a single firmware update, and support if asking anything is non-existent). The Fujitsus use the popular and well-thought-of LSI Controller chips.

  As I really like ZFS on Linux I really had no need for the RAID functionality on the cards, and in fact found the RAID BIOS (and the need to configure each drive as a separate Virtual Drive in order to be presented to Linux) to be a real PITA. My testing showed that replacing a drive in the inevitable event of a drive failure would almost certainly result in loss of the whole array.… Click Here to Read More