No doubt you will be pleased to know that I’ve just finished
rebuilding my turbo fastback from the ground up. All the bodge jobs that were done to make
the Nations took three weeks of long service leave to fix up, but now the cars running
great. I've got the gearbox and engine solid mounted now, so all that mongrel box breaking
axle hop has gone, and it can actually be driven now.
During April I succumbed to pressure and had my wings clipped by getting
married. The honeymoon took me back to the Northern Territory outback. Unfortunately I
couldn't repeat the 200kph run of the Kombi as this trip had to be economical (Hammo drank
too much at the reception) So we took Kerry's Nova (rebadged Toyota Corolla) and maxed out
at 165 kph (while she was asleep). Possibly could have hit 170 except for poor
aerodynamics caused earlier in the trip when Kerry discovered that emu's can fly, when
launched off the front bumper that is. $3,500 damage the result, fortunately we narrowly
missed further attempts at the other side of our coat of arms.
At Port Augusta I
met this older bloke (60?) on this mad trike. VW powered trikes are nothing new but this
one's different. Take a 70's vintage fastback and go berserk with a gas axe. From the B
pillar forward is fiberglass on a steel flame. It has almost all the original floorpan.
The handbrake and auto trans stick sticking up in their original positions on the tunnel
between the drivers (riders) legs. The back seat is still complete and was packed chokas
with this guys gear, it even has a tow bar! Apparently there was quite a few made by a
company in Adelaide but mostly beetles were used, this one being one of six Type 3's.
Next shots are of
a beetle guarding an opal factory at Coober Pedy, and this awesome turbo that I found
lying by the road outside Darwin. I'm having a bit of trouble fitting it behind the back
seat of my Oval.
A short update of the Wollongong Huntley Hill Climb, held November 2nd
. Peter Gumley (runs low 22s), (NSW, Queensland, VIC hillclimb champion I think) has begun
a rebuild of his supercharged open wheeler and is aiming for 500 horsepower from his Type
4 engine so he wasn’t running. Mark Pimmer 29.58, (come on my Kombi did a 29.05) has
ditched his sports sedan beetle and gone to a Toyota powered open wheeler (which was
intended to be VW powered) built by Albion Park's Hank Von Bonsted. Mark Patty who runs a
rotary powered Beetle (28.55) was outgunned by both Rod Bryant and Jeff Unwin from HELLBUG who debuted Rod's 2.1 turbo Beetle. Rod ran a
27.51 in his first time at Huntley and the more experienced (i.e. aging) Jeff did a 26.58
for a class and out right win
Trent from Wayne Penrose VW ran at the street drags Eastern Creek and
after an awesome burnout ran a mid 12 pass to blow away a couple of 351 Falcons.
Well this may be the end of my travel and rambling for a while as I
have a son (better be a boy) due mid next year. Maybe he'll help me fix up the oval?
Until next time,
Chris Fraser.
Home
During April I succumbed to pressure and had my wings clipped by getting
married. The honeymoon took me back to the Northern Territory outback. Unfortunately I
couldn't repeat the 200kph run of the Kombi as this trip had to be economical (Hammo drank
too much at the reception) So we took Kerry's Nova (rebadged Toyota Corolla) and maxed out
at 165 kph (while she was asleep). Possibly could have hit 170 except for poor
aerodynamics caused earlier in the trip when Kerry discovered that emu's can fly, when
launched off the front bumper that is. $3,500 damage the result, fortunately we narrowly
missed further attempts at the other side of our coat of arms.
