Winter in America is cold--very cold

Scott Ferrier ex-pat Aussie working at Ford HQ in Dearborn sent me this photo of his trying to get to work after the snowstorm last Monday.
Scott -you are welcome to it. I hope that they are paying you well.Very well.

A few years ago I was on business in Milwaukee with an Australian colleague in January and we decided to walk from our hotel to a restaurant which as just 20 mins walk away for dinner.We were well dressed for the conditions-or so we thought-but nothing could have prepared us for the wind coming off Lake Michigan.We were only a couple of blocks from the hotel when we had to go into Borders-which was still open into the evening.It was full of homeless people apparently taking a keen interest in magazines such as "Model Railroad Constructor" and "Advanced Quilting".After we had warmed up we headed for the restaurant and made it without getting frostbite.We took a taxi back .We subsequently found out that with the windchill the temp was minus 24ºC that night.
I refused to visit Milwaukee on business in the winter again but my daughter and her family lived in Montreal for 5 years and I did visit her in winter once and after that decided that winter visits there were also off the agenda.

Air cooled

Some photos taken in the last few days here in Terrigal and on a Porsche run upto Kulnura.All air cooled.Or should that be oil cooled.

How about that "Kennedy for President" sticker in the back window of the superbly restored LHD 356C.The sticker was purchased off the internet -but of course.I should have got some better photos of the car because it is beautiful-even down to the Hollywood Motors number plate surrounds and a NSW Australian rego number which is identical to its original period Californian licence plate number.The effort some people go to for originality never ceases to amaze me.I don't have the same motivation but each to his own.
My 1971-back silver car in photo 7-on the slope-ran beautifully as usual but after 6 years of ownership I am still cursing that 901 gearbox at some point on every drive.There's a piece of originality I could do without.

For those who don't understand my frustration the 901 gearbox was originally designed for racing and as racing drivers only use 1st gear when starting-first gear is located away from the mainly used gears on the LH side of the gate and above 1st gear is reverse.To change from 1st to second you go up and then sideways and up.The other 4 gears are laid out in a conventional H pattern so below 2nd gear is 3rd and then 4th is above 5th.

The big issue is changing up from 1st to 2nd without touching reverse (crunch) and downshifting from 4th or 3rd to 2nd without touching reverse (crunch).Also sometimes 1st is difficult to engage.I have a Rennshift quickshifter fitted which did improve the change but it is still a challenging gearbox and the 1st to 2nd shift has to be deliberate and just cannot be rushed.I'm not sure if the layout really helped Porsche's race drivers.To totally confuse me my other car has a 915 gearbox with a 5 speed conventional shift pattern.

I do appreciate classic motorbikes and particularly Italian twins. I am sure vintage Ducati riders have the same feelings about their bikes as classic Porsche owners -we know that modern machines do it better but that's not the point.At Jerry's in Kulnura on a Sunday morning you see the whole spectrum of motorcycles-Ural (as Russian and as primitive as Putin) to the latest Beemers.Ditto for the riders-vintage to young hot shots-well they think that they are hot shots.Old leathers to Kevlar reinforced suits.
Leica X1 photos.

Bored

We've all wandered around a gallery and seen the bored attendant sitting on a chair in the corner.I'd rate being an art gallery/museum attendant as being a most undesirable job-I would not be able to stand it for a day.
After I left this art gallery in Munich I looked up and saw this attendant looking out of the window of one of the galleries like a prisoner taking in a glimpse of freedom.Poor man.I felt for him.

Alfasud Giardinetta and related ramblings

See previous story.John Crawford (driver above) and Steve Cropley travelled to the Monaco Grand Prix in an Alfasud Giardinetta (wagon)-presumably loaned to them by Alfa.The Alfasud wagon - like many wagons of its era-does look like a delivery van with the sides cut away and it is not  appealing like the saloon which was a really great little stylish car. I have never ever seen a Giardinetta presumably because it was only made in LHD and was pretty rare in any case.

I say that the Alfasud was a great little car but I say that with a caveat  - if you ignore the quality.The Sud was styled by Ital Design and sold between 1971 and 1983.It had a flat horizontally opposed (boxer) 4 cylinder engine .It had great performance and handling for its size.Its achilles heel is that at a time when Alfa's quality was awful the Sud was the worst of all their cars.It was built in a new factory in the south of Italy ( hence the Sud in the name) to give employment to unemployed rural workers.The switch from picking olives to screwing Alfas together was not easy for many and combined with a serious corrosion problem the result was that an otherwise outstanding car was destined to get a deserved very bad name.

I remember the Alfasud fondly because in 1972 I was working for British Leyland International and I went on a product evaluation day in the Midlands of England where a small group of managers compared  the soon to be announced BL Allegro (a truly awful car - see Wikipedia  ALLEGRO for details) against its competitors one of which was the Alfa Sud.I cannot remember what the other competitors were although I am sure one must have been a Ford of some sort.

Anyway the Allegro was the result of British Leyland's policy of regressive product development where each new model was worse than the one it replaced.So the Mini Clubman GT was worse than the Mini Cooper and the Allegro was woeful compared with its very succesful predecessor the Austin/Morris 1100/1300.This policy was pursued in its purest form in BL's sports cars which all progressively got worse with each new model or update.
It's difficult to describe in words how bad the Allegro was -but one tale is suffice.There is a tunnel which carries a road under the River Thames at Dartford in London.The AA ( the UK roadside recovery organisation) had to pull stranded cars out of the tunnel because there was only a single lane in each direction They blacklisted the Allego because if they jacked up the front wheels of an Allegro to tow it the body twisted and the windscreen cracked.True story.So if you drove an Allegro in those days it was best to avoid the Dartford Tunnel - or indeed any road where you might need to be towed with the front or presumably back wheels jacked up.

Anyway on the product evaluation day we were all lining up to drive the wonderful Alfasud on the test fleet.The Allegro - our shiny new product - was shunned.I often wonder who set that evaluation up and what they were thinking.The test route was on town and country roads over a rectangular course and included a very steep humpback bridge over a canal.I remember taking that bridge at a very rapid pace in the Alfa and actually getting the wheels off the ground.I also remember that after an hour or so of lunatic young men in suits racing around the country lanes the locals must have complained because Police Constable Plod in his Morris Minor Panda car appeared in a pull in close to the canal bridge and he had a notebook in his hand.Happy days.Today we would have all been arrested.

Monaco Grand Prix 1976

John Crawford dug deeper into his archives after finding the shot of the Renault 16TS in the previous post and has come up with a great selection of shots he took of the 1976 Monaco Grand Prix.
John had the benefit of a media pass and he made full use of it to capture some great atmospheric scenes from the race including a shot of motoring journalist,Motor Sport magazine's Continental Correspondent Denis Jenkinson who signed himself as DSJ.

Now "Jenks" as he was affectionately known was more than a little eccentric and more than a little mad.He was very short and sported a bushy beard.Quoting from Wikipedia :-
"He spent his summers touring Europe and his winters in a succession of 'digs' in England; Jenks eventually settled near Crondall in Hampshire in a tiny run-down house with no mains electricity or water, largely full of his archives and of parts of vehicles he was 'fettling'. He was legendary in the sport for the lack of basic domestic amenities in his home; to Jenks nothing mattered but racing. He became accepted as the 'elder statesman' of British racing journalists due to his closeness to the teams and drivers, his conversational writing style and his obvious and enduring passion for the sport."

Jenks navigated for Stirling Moss in the 1955 Mille Miglia road race in Italy in the winning Mercedes.This was an extraordinary drive-they averaged over 160kmh for the 1000 miles over public roads.His account of that drive is considered a motor sport classic.Before that Jenks had been passenger for Eric Oliver when he won the 1949 world motorcycle sidecar championship.Being a pasenger in a racing sidecar on the unsafe tracks of 1949 required a special kind of madness which made Jenks an ideal navigator for Stirling Moss on that epic Mille Miglia.

Jenks was a great journalist and he played a key part in developing my personal enthusiasm for motor racing.He definitely triggered my enthusiasm for Porsches as he had a 356 as his company car and he used it to crisscross Europe during the F1 season visiting the tracks.What a wonderful life.He wrote about his travels in his monthly Motor Sport columns which I devoured with an enthusiasm which it is difficult to appreciate today.And they were long,detailed columns in a very small font-not a few paragraphs.He also wrote a number of books including the very readable "A passion for Porsches" and "A passion for Motorsport".At the time Porsche was almost unknown in the UK and Jenks' advocacy of the brand did much to put it on the map-not least with me.I even went and bought a 356 at the time-although regrettably it was only a Dinky model.

I met Jenks at the 1996 Goodwood Festival of Speed where Stirling Moss was driving the Mille Miglia winning Mercedes up the hill.Jenks was sitting in a secluded shady spot well away from the action and I came upon him quite by chance.He was very frail and obviously not at all well but we chatted for a few minutes.It would have been crass to take his photo so I did not.Sadly he died later that year.

One of the photos below shows three times F1 World Champion Jackie Stewart who had retired from F1 in 1973 and was in Monaco as a commentator for US ABC and for mixing with the rich and famous.
Now he is rich and still famous and is still mixing with the rich and famous.Along the way he has made a serious amount of money including the masterstroke of selling the struggling Stewart F1 team to Jac Nasser's Ford in 1999 for a very large wheelbarrow load of money.The team then became the struggling Jaguar F1 team before being sold to....but that's another story.I'm sure Jac Nasser is still on Jackie's christmas card list.


Niki Lauda won the 1976 Monaco Grand Prix in a Ferrari.A few months later he he suffered horrific burns-including losing both ears- in a fiery crash in the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.Amazingly he recovered enough to race in the Italian GP six weeks later and only lost the World Championship by one point to James Hunt after he pulled out of the rain deluged final race of the championship,the Japanese GP, due to the conditions.

The 1976 Formula 1 season was the subject of the film "Rush"- by far the best motor racing film ever made.It is definitely better than Steve McQueen's "Le Mans" because it has a storyline.

What a contrast that era is to today's highly contrived and controlled F1 circus.
A year ago I read a story on Australian F1 driver Daniel Riccardio which made a big point of how approachable and personable he was and how he chatted to fans and journalists without a PR spin person at his elbow.What a difference a year makes because this weekend I read a very tedious story on him based on a recent interview where a PR person sat in on the interview.Au revoir Mr Natural hello Mr Wooden PRspeak.Why do they do it? Jenks would have hated it.
Thank you John for these great photos and for stirring some personal memories.

Niki Lauda on his way to taking the chequered flag.It's been a long time since a Ferrari has seen the chequered flag in F1 in recent times.They have Seb Vettel on the team for 2015.Best of luck-they will need it.

The start.Look at the lack of protection for the photographer and the officials .One touch and a car or debris would be into them.

What an atmosphere and what great weather.

View from an apartment towards the swimming pool .

James Hunt walking back to the pits after retiring on lap 24 with an engine problem.He looks pretty deflated

Louis Chiron.Veteran racing driver.Monagesque and Chief du Corse for the Grand Prix.He died in 1979.

Nikki Lauda -complete with ears -interviewed after winning.The interviewer seems bored.

Motor sport journalist extraordinaire Denis Jenkinson.And how about those high waisted pants on the guy standing next to him.Let's hope that they never come back into fashion-if they ever were in fasion that is.

Jackie Stewart.I've heard of a wing collar but never heard of a delta wing collar.Knowing JS it was very fashionable at the time.

On the street Monaco -1976

The recent blog post mention of the Renault 16 prompted motoring sage John Crawford to dig into his files and find this wonderful atmospheric photo taken in Monaco after the 1976 Monaco Grand Prix.John was then editor of Modern Motor, an Australian car magazine, and was travelling with Steve Cropley another esteemed Australian motoring journalist the one time editor of UK Car magazine and now editor-in-chief of UK Autocar.They were walking to Monaco station to catch the train back to Menton where they had left their car.
The Renault 16TS is in the centre and it is in that very typical of the period eau de nil colour.It looks right at home in this setting.
Of particular interest to me is the yellow Porsche 911S.A supercar of the era.What a fabulous car to be driving on those wonderful roads in the south of France in 1976-before there were speed cameras.
The red car on the left is a mystery.John reckons that it is a Morgan but I am not convinced-the wings,streamlined tank and the wheels do not look right but it is impossible to tell.Note since posting Roger has suggested probably correctly that it is a Panther J72 - a replica of the SS100.
The whole scene is just wonderful and so is the light and it is so obviously shot on film.John tells me that it was shot on Ektachrome film on a Yashica FX-1 SLR camera-a great camera with a beautiful Zeiss lens.Where is it now John?.
In those days Monaco was still charming and classy.Today the charm has long gone along with the class.Much of the Victorian and grand Belle Epoque architecture has been demolished.Streets such as that pictured are lined with tower blocks of bland modern apartments and the place is now populated by dodgy types,sleazy Russian oligarchs,rich arabs and people from countries with names ending in stan.And the streets are full of blingy supercars.Crass sur le Med.Seedy by sea.
The 1976 Monaco Grand Prix was won by Niki Lauda in a Ferrari by the way.More photos of the race from John's archives to follow.
Thanks very much for the photos John .

Since posting Toby has commented as follows
An interesting piece of information you can also pick up from this beautiful shot is that the Renault 16TS is from Paris...Until 2009, the plate format bore a "number" of the following formats: either nnnn LL dd, or nnn LLL dd. With the last two numbers telling you where the car was registered.
The '93' on the Renault tells you it is from Bobigny a suburb in the NW of Paris. Whereas the Porsche with it's '83' digit is from the South of France Var/Toulon.
I learnt this information when I drove a borrowed Rover in the south in 1998 and copped a lot of agro as the locals thought I was from Paris.
This system no longer exists and another fun thing to do when driving long distances in France has been lost forever!

Happy Australia Day

It's January 26th.Australia Day.Australia's national day.Happy Australia Day to all Aussies wherever you are.It would have been nice to tell you that it is a beautiful sunny hot day here but after a long vey hot spell today is cool ,overcast and wet.It's a relief from the heat and humidity but it could have waited one more day.
It would also have been nice to include a good photo taken today - I took one of the flag on our house but it is pretty gloomy-see below.I was out early this morning trying to find a suitable photo opportunity and there was no one around.Perhaps they were all sleeping in relieved to get a cool night's sleep at last.
Anyway an Aussie photo from way back.Taken at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney on my Leica M6 and Ektachrome film.
And to those of you reading this from other countries yes it is the British Union Jack on our flag and yes it is odd and it's time we had a purely Austraian flag.Maybe it will happen in my lifetime but most definitely not whilst we have the current right wing government.

On the street -Chicago

I just found this photo which I had previously overlooked.It was taken with the Leica X1 on a Chicago street on a very hot day in 2012.It was very much a grabbed shot and there was no time to think about the composition.The X1 is slow to start up and was slow to autofocus-it is faster now as there has been a firmware update- so getting this shot in focus was just pure luck.
The old guy panhandling on the fire hydrant is watching the world go by as he shakes his cup and he should not be complaining about the view of the world at this instant.It's a pity his interesting expression is not more visible.
I often/usually make this style of street photograph black and white but as it is high summer on this shot colour adds to the atmosphere.I tried it in black and white and it does not work.

Porsche 911 3.8 Turbo R Monster

Porsche enthusiast David lives part of the year in Australia and part of the year in Paris-lucky man.He is currently in Paris and he sent me the email with the photos below

"I joined the Vincennes en Anciennes multi-marque car club www.vincennesenanciennes.com  here in Paris but have not attended any of their gatherings until this year.

Amongst other things they run a twice-a-year 'Traversée de Paris' from a starting point at the Chateau de Vincennes (7am!!) via stopovers at various well-know Paris sites. On Sunday morning 11th January we visited the Esplanade d'Invalides and Place de la Concorde as well as the Esplanade du Chateau de Vincennes to see some of the 100s of vehicles taking part."

At the Esplanade d'Invalides we saw this fluorescent green Porsche 3.8 Turbo R monster amongst all the vintage vehicles.

I don't know what this Monster is but I suspect that it is is one of Gemballa's more extreme creations.I have Googled it without success.Does anyone know?Also what's the story on the rearwards visibility ?
I would not be game to be driving it around the Arc De Triomph-Place Charles De Gaulle.What would the insurance premium be for it in Paris? Mon Dieu-it does not bear thinking about.Anyway not to my taste but each to his own.
I do like the look of the Renault 16 beside the Porsche in the second shot.The 16 was an advanced car when it was launched and Lotus used the engine in the first model of the Europa.A fact to be memorised for the next motoring trivia night.The link to the club's website above is worth clicking on just to see a wide selection of unusual cars.The site has that chaotic look and functionality which French website designers seem to love.
Thanks for the photos and the story David.

A taste of France

 I reckon that French tourism will need all the help it can get in 2015 so I'm chiming in with my contributions in the hope that someone in the French Tourism Office will notice and thank me in the usual fashion-a return air ticket to Sydney to Paris will be just fine.Nothing fancy-I'll be happy to take the back of the bus if the budget is tight.Dream on.
Anyway some photos of French food -all taken on my meanderings in Paris.French food is just special.Enjoy and plan your trip to France for 2015.

And still they turn up

The February edition of UK Octane magazine carries a story about what they are calling the barn find of the century-90 incredible cars found at a French chateau:Ferrari,Maserati,Bugatti,Facel Vega and more.
The Ferrari is a very valuable 250 California Spyder.Most of the cars are very dilapidated as they were stored in open sheds and barns but the Ferrari was protected in a garage under enormous piles of car magazines.The photographs of the collection in Octane are superb-well worth grabbing a copy of the magazine for.
Most of the collection is being auctioned in Paris on 6th February.You can find details of the auction with some of the Octane photos of the cars on
BARN FIND

You would think that by now every barn,chateau,shed and outhouse had been searched but still long forgotten cars keep turning up.

The Porsche 356 in the photos below had been missing for about 40 years until found in Maitland NSW recently.
It's the last 356 T1 made and was built in September 1957.It was the second ever Porsche sent to New Zealand and now it is on its way back  there to undergo a complete restoration in the hands of its new NZ owner-a 356 expert.
It had been disassembled by the most recent owner who had abandoned the restoration.Prior to that it had lain stored somewhere in Newcastle NSW for 30 years.
Many restorations are abandoned.I personally know of a couple of cars which have been restorations of abandoned restorations.Owners start on a restoration full of enthusiasm but circumstances change,they lose heart or they run out of money and the car remains just a sad pile of parts.
I am told that this 356 is complete and all the hard to find parts-ashtrays and pieces of trim etc are still with the car.That's so important.
The first part of the car's return to NZ started last weekend when 356 guru David Nicholls,who took the photos,was part of the rescue team who manhandled the car onto the trailer on a very hot day.