Monday, July 9, 2012

York Motor Show 2012


Sunday 8th of July 2012 was the York Motor Show. The town of York is situated in the Avon Valley, 120 odd kilometres east of Perth. York is home to a well known auto museum and it used to host the York Flying 50 'round the houses' classic car racing. My dad took my brother and me to watch the races when we were kids sand I recently found a box of the photos we took in the 1980s. The races have since moved to nearby Northam and are run every year in March. http://www.vsccwa.com.au/cms/index.php?page=northam-flying-fifty-and-hillclimb

We set out a little after 8am and the Deek ran really well, even managing to get up over the Darling Ranges in third gear. A couple of weeks ago we took Daisy for a drive to Mundaring and she'd struggled terribly to make up Greenmount Hill. I think we were down to 30kph in second gear and I really thought we'd have to stop and drop it into first, but this time she sailed up, teetering on 60kph (the speed limit is 80kph!). On the flats, she easily runs up to 65 miles per hour (105kph) so can keep up with modern freeway traffic.

1960s photographic effects with Instagram.

Two sleek backed beauties.

Popping the bonnet always draws a crowd. Where is the motor? Once again we met a couple of South Africans who came over to reminisce about DKWs.

A row of Rileys and other British marques beside the Avon River.

A trio of Rileys ranging from 1946 to 1955.

The big Austin Six

MG TC

1955 Daimler DJ254

The elegant Ford Zephyr Mark II station wagon. The Zephyr was built by Ford Australia based on a UK design. They were in production between 1954 and 1962. At this time Ford Australia was building a strange mix of UK and US models. The Ford Falcon was an example of the US designed product.

The Zephyr was towing a vintage caravan. It's great to these preserved.

Caravan interior.

1954 Chevrolet Bel-Air

1948 Mercury two door coupe. There were two of these in York.

1948 Buick Eight

I think this is a 1954 Chevrolet Impala



1929 Triumph Super Seven Sportster

Perry & Amanda's 1929 Essex

Wolseley Super Six

1936 Chevrolet Master Deluxe Sedan

French Delage

1923 Ford Model T

We played around with a few Instagram photo effects.

John's 1910 Maxwell

An incredible rarity - 1910 International Harvester Corporation auto buggy. http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=206940

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Arthur Grady Ride Out 2012


Saturday 2nd June was another glorious sunny day and officially the second day of winter (!). As part of the Fremantle Heritage Festival a motorcycle ride out and display was held at the Fremantle Town Hall.

Last year a ride out and display was held to commemorate Freo lad Arthur Grady's 1924 circumnavigation of Australia on a Douglas motorcycle. That was a pretty rough and rugged trip in those days through country without roads or facilities. The trip took 5 months.

Here is a link to some details of his trip along with photos from last year's display. http://www.vmccwa.com/clubruns/grady/Arthur%20Grady%20Run.htm The display was organized by the Fremantle City Council and involved several motorcycle clubs.



This isn't Arthur's actual bike of course, but a later model 1925 Douglas with suitable props.

At the Town Hall end was a display of pre-30's motorcycles.

1920s BSA



Matchless

Ariel

Gents from the Vintage Motorcycle Club of WA (photo Jon Whiteman)





The display was very well attended.

I was running very late, arriving just on 11am when the run was setting out. Over the past six weeks I've been all about the car and the bikes and scooters have been neglected. As a result the Leader was running terribly. I'll need to give her some TLC over the next couple of weeks.

There was a good display by the Early American Motorcycle Club.

http://www.earlyamericanmotorcycleclub.asn.au/ride-calendar---2012/2ndjune2012-arthurgrady-fremantleheritagefestival

1916 Harley-Davidson board-track racer

Indian

A greasy Harley-Davidson

Indian

Busy traffic all morning.

Classic British - Royal Enfield, Triumph and Matchless

Riders, start your engines!





1951 Ariel NH and an NSU behind

1971 Jawa Californian, my Ariel and a 1940s Indian

There was a lot of interest in the Ariel and I was kept very busy talking to lots of people.



1955 NSU Max 250cc four stroke

HRD-Vincent

Chinese Chiang-Jiang outfit

A truck engine on two wheels.

Links to some more photos:-