1958 FORD FAIRLANE 500 INTERCEPTOR 

The maker of the new electric DeLorean – the modern reboot of the Back to the Future movie time machine – has cut production by 60 per cent two years before the first car is built. And none will come to Australia.

The US company bringing the DeLorean name back to the future says it is "going to production" with its first new car – but has slashed production by more than half nearly two years before the first example is built.

The DeLorean Alpha5 electric car – built by the firm that purchased the DeLorean name rights after the original company went bankrupt – revives the legendary badge made famous by the car that starred as a time machine in the 1980s Back to the Future movie series.

DeLorean announced plans last year to produce 9351 examples of the Alpha5 over six years, with deliveries due to start "no earlier" than late 2024.

However, in an email to customers last week, the company said it would slash the planned production run to 4000 cars over five years – due to claimed "supply chain bottlenecks".

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One-off convertible

If one-off and relatively obscure cars are your thing, this is likely to have some appeal. Studebaker's fourth-generation Champion is known well enough, however the several body styles offered did not include a convertible.

There was however a prototype soft-top, the history of which is reasonably well recorded, and yes it was eventually 'rescued'.

This car is listed as having a body by Dale Fisher, which if correct makes it a bit special.

It's also running what's listed as a 4.5lt V8 when Champions typically ran sixes and that's matched to a five-speed manual transmission.

The seller lists the paint condition as fair, and the shape of most other components as good.

It's offered with what sounds like a good history, including copies of appearances in Super Street and Custom Rodder magazines.

Located to the west of Sydney, it’s on the market at $33,000.

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Built by Mitsubishi, available with Dodge or Plymouth badges.

Chrysler Corp. began selling rebadged Mitsubishi Colt Galants with Dodge Colt badging in North America as 1971 models, eventually adding an identically priced Plymouth version. For 1985, the Mitsubishi Chariot minivan was brought over and given Dodge/Plymouth Colt Vista badging, and soon a four-wheel-drive version was added to the lineup. Here's a magazine advertisement for that car, emphasizing its Japanese birthplace.

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At the Départ en Vacances exhibit in the Grand Duchy.

As a proud Luxembourg-American who heads back to the old country for the occasional road trip, I'm always on the lookout for interesting automotive stuff while in the Grand Duchy (a 1,000-square-mile nation located between France, Belgium and Germany).

The Conservatoire National de Véhicules Historiques is located in Diekirch, an ancient baking and brewing town in Luxembourg's northeast. It's about five miles from the German border and a three-hour drive from Frankfurt (Paris and Brussels are within easy—by American standards—driving distance as well). Because some of the pivotal action of the Battle of the Bulge took place in the area, the Musée National d'Histoire Militaire is also in Diekirch.

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230 of Australia's quickest street cars have turned out at Heathcote Park Raceway in readiness for a week of drag-and-drive action

Street Machine Drag Challenge 2022/23 is finally on! After three years of delays, we're stoked to finally welcome 230 entrants to Heathcote Park Raceway for registration and scrutineering. Racing starts at 9am tomorrow, before we pack up and motor to South Coast Raceway in Portland.

Here's a small taste of what rolled through our sticker zone today. This crop is mostly Holdens, but fans of the Blue Oval and everything else shouldn't despair; we'll bring you boatloads of those tomorrow morning!

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Lots of horse power in the high country this Saturday at Mansfield.  Come along, show you car and enjoy the food and live music.

Also see the CarTorque People's Choice voting system in action.  $400 in cash prizes including $100 in cash to one lucky CarTorque member who votes for a car on the day.  Vote via your phone.  See details:

https://cartorque.co/car-shows/horsepower-in-the-high-country-show-br-shine-vic-12594

Bidding for this one-of-800 Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Roadster has already surpassed its 2020 price of $1.04 million, with the auction set to run for six more days.

The online auction of a rare Lamborghini Aventador convertible supercar – listed without a reserve price – has attracted bids of more than $1.3 million, with six days remaining before the hammer falls.

Listed by Lloyds Auctioneers and Valuers, this Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Roadster is one of 800 examples built worldwide, powered by a 6.5-litre V12 which produces up to 566kW and 720Nm.

When the Aventador SVJ Roadster arrived in 2020, it became the most expensive Lamborghini model sold in Australia to date, with prices starting from $1,042,286 plus on-road costs.

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Rotary engine fans holding out for a successor to the RX-7 and RX-8 sports cars will need to temper their enthusiasm – despite the return of the iconic engine as a range-extender in an eco car.

The rotary engine may be back in Mazda showrooms in 2023 after a decade out of production – but a new RX-badged sports car with the iconic engine design is no closer to reality.

As reported last week, Mazda has revived its unique rotary engine design for a range-extender, plug-in hybrid 'R-EV' version of the MX-30 small SUV – 11 years after it was killed with the end of RX-8 production in 2012.

Now Mazda executives have told UK magazine Autocar there are no plans for a new rotary-engined sports car to succeed the RX-7 and RX-8 – although it remains on the personal wish lists of the company's engineers.

"Rotary is our symbol. It’s a dream of engineers at Mazda to have a sports car with rotary. Now is not the time for that," assistant manager of Mazda's powertrain development division, Yoshiaki Noguchi, told Autocar.

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The twin-turbo stormer cleaned up at Saturday’s presentations

The unveil hall at Street Machine Summernats 35 was an absolute bonanza of mind-blowing metal, but Matt McIntosh’s twin-turbo small-block-powered HQ Statesman was unmissable, and not just thanks to its enormous rose gold Simmons!

Owen Webb and the judging team seemed to agree, bestowing the Stato with the Top Judged gong alongside Top Engineered, Top Bodywork, Top Undercarriage/Driveline, Top Engine Bay, and Top Pro Custom.

“We wanted a good, clean street car but as we were going, we turned it into an elite car,” Matt says of the build, which was completed almost entirely in-house at Matt’s Echuca Service Centre.

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FORD XA FAIRMONT - TODAY'S TEMPTER

By: Guy Allen, Unique Cars mag

Ford XA Fairmont - today's tempter

Family cruiser

Built before many of our readers were born, this early 1970s XA Fairmont comes from a generation of cars that still deliver a lot of owner joy, 50 years after they were made.

Find a solid example and you'll discover they have more than enough performance to keep up with modern traffic, are surprisingly good highway cars and can be simple and surprisingly cheap to maintain.

This was a pivotal series for Ford Australia, as Mark 'Higgo' Higgins explains in our feature:

"As Australian as the Outback was one description of the XA Falcon when it rolled onto our roads in March 1972, a dozen years after the Falcon nameplate first appeared on an American-based sedan in Ford showrooms among the Customlines, Zephyrs and Anglias.

"The third-generation Falcon was significant as it was successful."

This V8 example in Copper Bronze is with Motorvation Garage in Melbourne, priced at $51,888.

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The annual four-day festival of tyre smoke, mullets and noisy engines that don’t fit under the bonnet properly is returning to Exhibition Park in Canberra (EPIC) for its 35th iteration.

Co-owner Andy Lopez said Summernats 35 will be the “biggest ever”, starting on Thursday, 5 January 2023, with a cruise up and down Northbourne Avenue.

“We have 2700 cars booked in – we actually had to put up the ‘sold out’ sign for car entries for the first time,” he said.

“It’s a great indication of the strength of the event and the love for it.”

Summernats returns with a roar, bigger than ever before

1 January 2023 | James Coleman

Start the conversation

Summernats 35 Fringe Festival Braddon media launch, 2022. Photo: James Coleman.

The annual four-day festival of tyre smoke, mullets and noisy engines that don’t fit under the bonnet properly is returning to Exhibition Park in Canberra (EPIC) for its 35th iteration.

Co-owner Andy Lopez said Summernats 35 will be the “biggest ever”, starting on Thursday, 5 January 2023, with a cruise up and down Northbourne Avenue.

“We have 2700 cars booked in – we actually had to put up the ‘sold out’ sign for car entries for the first time,” he said.

“It’s a great indication of the strength of the event and the love for it.”

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Tens of thousands of visitors from interstate and overseas are expected to descend on Canberra over the four days to watch all things fast and furious – not to mention the music line-up – bringing millions of tourism dollars and “life and colour of a different kind”.

“One thing about Summernats is it shows off Canberra in a completely different light,” Andy said.

“For that one weekend of the year, it becomes Australia’s capital of cool.”

Summernats was founded in 1988 by the late Chic Henry, who died in April 2022. Andy and his wife took it over in 2010. They began moving it away from its chequered past of strip shows and wet T-shirt contests and towards a more family-friendly event designed to showcase the effort and money Australia’s petrolheads pour into their cars. Think burnout competitions, noisy cruises and static car shows.

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The best-selling car in America in 1986 was the Chevrolet Celebrity, which found its way into 404,883 homes. To this day, no other General Motors vehicle has achieved such a title since then.

“The heartbeat of America is today’s Chevrolet,” was Chevrolet’s slogan at the time.

There was little to get excited about when it came to the Celebrity, but it was arguably the most important car for General Motors that year. My parents were among the many people who made a Celebrity part of their family.

On April 19, 1986, they traded in a 1982 Chevrolet Cavalier and drove home in a brand new 1986 Chevrolet Celebrity Classic from Axtell Chevrolet in Logan, Utah. The car was well-equipped for its time, offering amenities like whitewall tires, wire wheel covers, bumper guards, a vinyl roof, and 60/40 split bench seating up front which made for a total cabin occupancy of six passengers. Above, I am in the bowtie, standing with my brother Bentley.

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The last Ford Falcon to be built with an Australian-built V8 is set to be auctioned for the second time in less than two years – but will it overtake its previous result of $355,000?

In May 2021, this Ford Falcon XE ESP V8 was sold for $354,759 in a Grays Online auction – not including a 7.5 per cent auction fee.

The historic Ford Falcon – a Ford Fairmont Ghia ESP by its formal name – was the last to be built with an Australian-made ‘Cleveland’ V8 engine, and was fitted with a gold plaque on its dashboard documenting its significance.

When it sold last year, its odometer had recorded just 60km since it rolled off the Broadmeadows production line on 25 November 1982.

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But Shannons says Australian examples are unaffected… for now

MIXED messages are coming out of the US enthusiast car market where inflation – which is currently running at over nine per cent – is starting to slow sales and soften prices of classic and collectible cars.

According to US-based auction houses, buyers have less disposable income and are being charged higher interest rates on debts which, coupled to the effect of a softening stock market, are making investors “think twice” before buying raising a paddle at auction.

Exacerbating the problem is the high price of fuel that is making potential buyers nervous, and the ever-increasing cost of living.

For now, the Australian classic and collectable car markets appear to be buoyant, but similar cost-of-living pressures may see the market here dip over the coming 12-24 months.

The COVID-19 pandemic saw the prices of classic and collectable models spike locally over the past two-end-a-half years as buyers unable to travel invested in desirable models. Prices for Australian muscle and other desirable cars have remained high since the pandemic began, but the US market shows that such heady prices may not be sustained.

Speaking to GoAuto this week, Shannons national auctions manager Christophe Boribon said the local market will need to wait at least six months to see if the price falls witnessed in the United States will impact classic car prices Down Under.

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