1962 Chevrolet Belair 409 c.i. "bubbletop"

Ever since the dawn of time, man has had a fascination with speed, constantly trying to out run his fellow man, even if it was just to make sure he didn’t get eaten! This love affair with speed would see the invention of the wheel, then the invention of the motor and finally, the invention of the muscle car. Man had now reached his pinnacle and there was nothing left to do but make improvements. Such improvements can be seen in the 1961 Bel Air Sports Coupe, which became affectionately known as the “bubbletop” due to the shape of the roof and glass at each end. The idea was to cut down on weight by using less metal in the vehicle, seeing the full size Chevy 100lbs lighter than its counterpart.

1962 would see Chevrolet take another leap forward in the muscle car race with the addition of the 409 c.i. big block as an option. The combination of these two improvements to the Bel Air Sports Coupe would see it become a very popular car among drag racers as it was now capable of reaching a top speed of 115 MPH over the quarter mile. Brakes, what brakes? They were unassisted drums all round, so you’d better make sure there is plenty of run-off after the finish line!

Later in 1962, Chevrolet went one step further in lightening its new kid in town by offering its fans the Z11 package, which consisted of an aluminium hood, and aluminium inner and outer guards. Only one hundred Bel Airs were produced with these additions and could be purchased for $2,668.

Murray owns this beautiful example of the 409c.i. bubbletop Bel Air and it has been a three year obsession to locate a good original one that hadn’t been tampered with that saw Murray travel to North America. It was located in a car yard of all places in Canada and, after a full going over and satisfied that it wasn’t a Mexican resto, the search was finally over.

While the engine bay is currently home to a 409 c.i. big block, it is not the correct one but have no fear, Murray has the correct 425 HP donk tucked away safe in his possession ready to go in when he finds the time. The rest of the muscle car is as it was when it came from the factory, 4 barrel carby, points ignition, 4 speed manual, drum brakes and a 3.5:1 Positraction differential, just to guarantee both tires are sticky off the line! The only change is the wheels which are hard-to-find Daisy old school alloy mags which suit the car to perfection. The fronts are 15x7 while the rears are 15x8.5 and shod in Cooper Cobra Radial GTs all round.

American Breed muscle car show, Ringwood, 2010

The American Breed muscle car show is put on by the 60s American Muscle Car club. It's an annual event and always draws a great eray of cars with the Manhattan Holet as a great backdrop. This is just a small selection of cars seen at this years event.

BMW M3 drag car

BMW M3 drag car, originally uploaded by Caprice Photography.

This BMW M3 is the creation of Queen St Customs in Adelaide, Australia. The power plant of this beast is a Mazda four rotary engine. As you can see, this is no stock rotary and it has an impressive aria of internal and external hardware built into it, which consists of a custom bridgeport using a billet eccentric shaft and lightened Series IV rotors. There are twenty 1600cc injectors to work with the giant GT 60 turbo, giving this show/drag car a tire smoking 1600HP at the rear wheels. The spent gases exit via a 75mm wastegate and 5 inch dump pipe. To give this donk some bling, nickel plating and 23 carrat gold plating has been used extensively on the motor and through-out the car. The whole lot sits atop a chomoly full tube chassis, while a large percentage of the interior is taken up by two carbon rear tubs and a five speed Lenco transmission. To give the Beamer its finishing touch, lashings of House Of Kolor black with gold pearl has been layed over the body.
While the car is currently been shown at the moment, we have been informed that it will see track time later on and that will be a sight to see!

Daimler's Double Six Limousine

                                            1928 Daimler Double Six 50 Limousine
This impressive pre-war limousine was produced by the Daimler Motor Car Company, a British based company at the time.

The Double Six, as seen here, is the most famous of the pre-war Daimlers thanks to its luxurious interiors and whisper quiet 7.1 ltr V12 engines delivering the driver an impressive150 BHP. These impressive statistics would see it a competitive adversary to Rolls Royce who were offering the luxury market the Phantom I at the time.

What made it so impressive was the whisper quiet engine which was designed by chief engineer, Laurence H Pomeroy. The Double Six engine was basically two six-cylinder engines in a vee-configuration, sharing an alloy crank, each with its own intake, exhaust and ignition system.

While the quality of the Double Six was exceptional, Daimler would produce less than 500 of these over a nine year span seeing the last one completed in 1935, although there would be one final one assembled in 1937 to use up surplus supplies.

Virtually no two limousines would be the same as they were built to customer specifications right down to the body length and height.

  Today, most reside in museums or private collections.