I had several Datsun 610s, including a bunch of SSS coupes. The SSS models had a tach, the basic sedans and wagons had a blank gauge face in that spot or sometimes an optional clock. But the cluster was well designed to allow adding a tach. Despite looking like a one-piece unit, if you took the cluster out you could…

Years ago I worked as a security guard in a complex that had a 2 level underground carpark with a shopping mall and 2 office towers above. I was in the security control room, which was right next to the carpark entrance when we heard a huge BANG, clatter, lots of scraping and screeching noises, then the sound of 2…

2 of my all-time favourites are Mazda R100, and Subaru XT/Vortex:

Kas have almost completely disappeared around here, but a few months ago I saw one sitting in a field, seemingly abandoned to its fate, and it reminded me of a fantasy I had years ago - to built a roadgoing Ka Sports Sedan, which is a racing category in Australia similar to Transam in the USA. I love the way the…

Our 1976 Microbus used the same mechanical valve in the steering column operated by the wiper stalk, except in the Microbus there was a thick walled washer bottle with a Schraeder valve to pressurise it with an air line. A line blew off the valve in the steering column one day when my dad was driving, and it was…

My previous work van had a vent from the A/C feeding into the glovebox so you could keep snacks and drinks cold in there.

I’ve just started a bike ‘project’ too, having just inherited a 90's Proflex 755 mountain bike from my father in law. It’s from the early days of full suspension mountain bikes, with ‘elastomer’ springs that (like the bike in the pic, which is not mine) ‘melt’ with exposure to UV light. Fortunately the elastomers are…

The heater system in VW buses wasn’t as ineffective as you might think - sure, it did take longer to heat the interior of the bigger volume, but it did get it hot eventually. Only problem with our ‘76 Microbus heater was we had to eventually blank off the vents and do without it, as the insulation in the shrouds…

I was born in 1969, and there was PLENTY of good stuff built that year. I’ve got a copy of Motor Trend’s World Automotive Yearbook from 1969, and a quick flick through reveals various choices such as:

Painting every vehicle I owned matt black with a crappy masking tap/rattle can flame paint job.

A friend’s dad had a Toyota Corona that came with that same shitty Starfire 4 engine (no idea why Toyota Australia thought that was a good idea instead of a Toyota engine, maybe just happened to up the ‘local content’ of the car to meet some regulation). He borrowed it one night, we managed to piss off the driver of a…

I wasn’t named after the British car company, but it did come in handy because the boot badges are quite cheap to buy as a spare part, and are a fine way to put a monogram on my tool cabinet!

Funny how as soon as I read the title of this article, I knew EXACTLY what you were talking about! Nissan fitted this feature to earlier wagons , at least as far back as the 240C (early 70s).

I disagree. My work van is the old style Hiace (up to 2019 version) which has the reversing camera image displayed on the left side of the rear vision mirror. The perfect spot, since you can see both the camera image and the mirror image without having to look down at a screen, and the display does not take away any…

I got locked behind a boomgate  in my work van once, by the same people who had originally opened the gate to let me in to deliver equipment. But with plenty of tools in the van, I just unbolted the boom, drove out, and politely bolted the arm back on before leaving.

The flange joint bolt pattern on the back of a early 60s Chrysler pushbutton Torqueflite that bolts up to the ball and trunnion style driveshaft is identical to the flange joints on a Datsun 510 diff centre. And the bellhousing bolt pattern on the Datsun 510 engine block is common to so many other Nissan engines that…

Nothing very memorable happened when i got my car licence, but my bike licence was a different story.

Meh.

I’d go slowly insane trying to acquire one of every Kei class car ever built (at least you could fit a lot in a small space), a big selection of Morgans, a Monteverdi Hai, one of every Mitsuoka model produced, a Miura, a Stratos, and for a daily driver, a Bentley Turbo R with a horribly cheap looking rattle can flat…

The Manx dune buggy design was so iconic to me that meeting Bruce had the same sort of surreal effect that you would feel if you were introduced to the person that invented that feeling you get after a long fun day at the beach with friends, when you’re young and beautiful and a bit sunburned and your hair feels…