First published 2011-05-14 It was always our intention to keep our featured vehicles wide and varied. We didn’t want to get too bogged down with one style of vehicle or another, so as long as the vehicle had a tangible level of awesome, it was in. However, the appearance of two heroically AWESOME Jap-spec utes within a few days of each other means we can either: a) not feature this mild custom Toyota Tiara ute because we already featured that…
First published in 2011-05-05 You’re the head of the local arm of a multi-national automotive corporation in the hedonistic late 1960’s. You’ve invented a muscle-car sub-genre that is going to prevail for decades. You need a daily driver. What to do? Chicago-born Bill Bourke was deployed to Ford Australia from 1965 to 1971 and during that time, not only became Managing Director of Ford’s local arm, he also invented the Ford Falcon GT. Not in that order. The story has entered…
First published in 2011-05-02 If everybody thought like us, the appearance of this advert on Gumtree would cause a mass panic of Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World proportions, with people streaming from all over the nation to find the treasure in Tasmania, possibly under a large D-shaped palm tree, if palm trees didn’t just die where they stand because Tasmania is colder than space. This 1964 Datsun U320 dual-cab ute is one of the most amazing, rare and bizarre time capsules…
First published 2011-05-01 We love Yank Tanks here at Garage of Awesome but if we see another Mustang, we might just die of boredom. They seem to be starting to outnumber Camry’s and this is a bit sad, because the USA hath brought forth so many freakin’ awesome cars over the years that were NOT Mustangs, yet here we are. Don’t get us wrong; the Mustang was a good car, based off simple, hard-wearing Ford Falcon mechanicals, it looked tuff and…
First published 2011-04-27 We’re not normally that excited about Rolls Royce’s. They are generally driven by the retired elderly at an annoyingly slow pace. Often, they reek of impending death. When this one passed through our inbox though, it piqued our interest. We bar up hard for un-restored survivors of anything really, and while the 1977-build date isn’t exactly vintage, the Silver Shadow pretty much look the same as it did at release in 1965, so who cares? Obviously…
First published in 2011-04-21 As detailed in a previous Gleaned item on the Ford Econoline Yank-tank-boogie-van-mystery-machine, sedan based-panelvans were always the SHIZ for Australian tradesman and surfies alike. Much like in the States though, the Big Three manufacturers noticed the pungent smell of bong smoke wafting from their commercial products and decided to cater to the developing market. While the Yanks came up with lairy variants like the Econoline Super Van, the Australian youth market was provided with much more…
First published in 2011-04-19 Australia’s van market has always suffered from a lack of big, Yank-style, bonneted vans, which makes this item Gleaned from Gumtree a real pearler. The Aussie van scene has always forged its own path; for both tradies and surfies from the 1950’s right through to the 1980’s, the only real choice (aside from the ubiquitous VW Kombi) was a ‘sedan delivery’-style panelvan. Based off the popular Holden or Ford sedans (or more correctly, their commercial coupe…
First published in 2011-04-16 You know, we all love cars here at Garage of Awesome. More than that, we love all cars. OK, that’s not entirely true. We love all cars with chrome. Hmm, maybe that’s not true either. Can anyone say ‘Daihatsu Sirion’? Some things are best left unsaid. Some cars are famous for their beauty; take the beautiful Lamborghini Miura. Often lauded as one of the most stunning cars of all time despite their Clockwork Orange eyes, the…
First published in 2011-04-11 Adelaide’s annual All Japan Day usually throws up the random oddball machine, but none more AWESOME than one of only 351 Toyota 2000 GT’s ever built. Jeff Grandsden has been custodian and caretaker of this machine since the day the Smoker family brought it brand-new in 1967 although it has only been used sparingly since day one, having 23,000 miles on the clock and still sporting the original tires. One of only two delivered new to…
First published in 2011-04-08 We can start the name and shame area with the vehicle that first piqued our interest in vehicle names. It was the Chrysler Valiant. For those NOT familiar with the vehicle in Australia, the name Valiant was for many years synonymous with Italian immigrants. The market gardeners of the 1960s and 1970s loved these things and would race into their local dealerships with a box of cash pulled from under their bed yelling at the salesman…