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Nice cars and great pics. Thanks. You must have  pretty tough fender laws over there.

Yes indeed we do and that is certainly a very big issue at present! Australia has NEVER had fender exemptions and Hotrods way back in the day here mostly had cycle guards at front (so many 36 spare wheel covers used!) and 'bobbed' guards at the rear. They did come off at times for events, hill climbs etc. but you would not drive around for long without them unless you wanted a lot of attention! In the present day a 'blind eye' is sometimes turned to fenderless Hotrods but it depends where and how you drive. At this stage no Australian state legally allows fenderless cars.

I have put the below posts up on our own site over at Ozrodders but will repeat them all here for all our friends in the U.S. and elsewhere to see how it is done 'downunder' and show some of the unique Aussie cars that we have that some may never have seen. There were many U.S. visitors there again, Tex Smith (of course!), Corey Coker and many others who I did not catch up with, along with some from N.Z. and Japan. There were about 1350 Hotrods, small by your Nationals standards but one of our larger events. Anyway on with the pictures and I hope you all enjoy! The Australian Street Rod Nationals were held in Geelong, Victoria over the Easter Weekend 2011. For those that may want to plan a holiday, the next Nationals will be in 2013 in Queensland.

We only went to the Nationals for a day and chose Sunday to go. We had other things on leading up to the Nats so a day trip was the best we could do. We did have quite a few visitors drop in prior to the Nats and had a mob staying here on Wednesday that left for the Nats Thursday Morn after bacon and egg breakfast. Sunday morn we were up bright and early to head down to Geelong, arrived and got a park right out the front of the Showgrounds at about 20 past 9 but had to wait till just before 10 for the gates to open. Entry price was very fair I thought, good value and I was happy they had kids as being up to 16! (Katie is 15 so only $5 for her!)  While we waited for the gates to open quite a lot of rods went past heading for the main gates so managed to snap some pictures. I have added only a couple of these below. Someone asked for a 37 Chev Sloper, closest I saw was a 38!

Justin's 32 coupe looked great!

Anyway we headed into the gates and saw a few rods randomly parked around the place as the oval filled up slowly, such as Phil McNally's super tough Clevo power A sport Coupe.

Found quite a few other interesting vehicles scattered around the grounds such as the 52 Ford COE

Graffiti style coupe

Neat WA T bucket.

32 Roadster cruising

Kids tired already and they had just gotten there!

The we found a pink coupe on the Dyno but it was running lean and they shut it off early.

The oval had a lot of very good cars and quite a lot of variety if you cared to look! Yes there were a huge number of 32/33/34 Ford Coupes and Roadsters but there was plenty of eye candy of other years and breeds too. I saw very few 'rough' cars and the vast majority were neat and tidy drivers. I did not notice any particular trend, there was a good cross section of all build styles, though Hemi engines (the real V8 versions) were extremely popular and if there was a trend they were it! Also saw a few Buick Nailheads, W Chevs, etc. plenty of Flattys and the occasional Y block. Not many 'billet' style cars but there did seem to be an increase in 'sleepers' (cars that look not too far from stock but have very tough engines). Anyway onto more pics! I just loved the 36 Delivery with 'Fender Custom Shop' signwriting and ZZTOP plates!

Snooze was there in his Willys coupe. I said hi but he was busy with Peter Eames and never got to chat with him, next time!

A contrast in Willys styles, 41 and 44 with a slight 'attitude' difference!

Donna found a strange looking Easter Bunny all the way from Castlemaine giving out chocolate easter eggs to the kids

Another COE, this time a 54.

I loved this 46 Ford Coupe.

Closed Cab pickups always look great.

37 Pickup was neat

One of the many Hemi powered cars!

Another neat pickup

Plymouth Roadster was neat and rare.

Old timey Hemi A roadster

Donna loved this A woody that was for sale. Hmm, well if we had money it would be in our shed by now! Alas not to be.

Joe's (QQ Moon!) Hemi A coupe is one of the toughest hotrods you will ever see or hear and goes as hard as it looks.

Chappy's A roadster from Castlemaine

31 Chev Roadster is a rarity and we showed some pics of this in the build a long time back. Looked great.

How many Cabriolets do you ever see? There were a few different years to choose from!


After that it was time to head onto the oval, which had filled up nicely with a huge variety of cars, mostly Pre 48 Hotrods, though there were quite a few Custom Classic pickups. The number of Custom Classics seemed well down on previous years and there were only a few Holdens (Aussie GM cars!) that I saw. I have tried to put up photos of some unique 'Aussie' vehicles and a few that have not been shown already, though I will repeat some that were standouts! There were a few tough cars there, including Jude and Dexter Taylor's A coupe all the way from W.A.

Rare 36 Tourer

Not many true 'Kustoms' at all, though this Hudson had some neat lace paint.

Nice Oldsmobile.

55 Ford Crown Victoria

Sandra Horne (Roddess 1932 on here) spent a lot of time cruising in her 32 Roadster finally back on the road and pulled some huge numbers on the dyno! This car doesn't just look good.

Not as many Aussie Slopers as I have seen previously but there were a couple of nice examples there.




Some rare cars there, some just unique Aussie stuff that the rest of the world didn't get, also but plenty of cars that we never got, such as this 38 Chev Coupe (my personal favourite fat fender Chev).

Someone mention a Flatty in an A model?

32 Roadster being checked out by Ian (Ram-Rod)

Aussie body 40 Convert

34 Roadster pickup

Loved this 33 coupe and could have taken it home!

32 Coupe with a Tripower 409

Never heard this Chev Coupe run but it looked like it was fresh off a strip.

32 Coupe was a standout and I couldn't help but show it again!

So many Hemis but any wonder when they look like this!

Have I told you previously that I LOVE 36 3 windows?

I did not see many early Holdens at all. This Humpy  was one of the few. To be honest I would have liked to have seen a few more (as in non stock ones!) and they were very prevalent during the early Hotrodding days in this country but that is a whole other argument! Will they ever be accepted as part of the scene?

Kustoms were few and far between!

I have always loved this truck but the gooseneck trailer just took it to a whole new level!


Live bands entertained the crowd most of the day. Jump and Jive sounded great and had a few up dancing, though during the go whoa most of the crowd were lining the track! I did not take any pics at all of the go whoa, could not get near the track and to be honest I would rather listen to some nice tunes!

Back to rare Aussie bodies, 32 Sports Coupe!

Buick powered A coupe

All steel chopped 34 3 window is rare here!

38 Dodge from Tassie was a neat family rod.

37 Ford Roadster pickup is another rare Aussie beauty!

Or you could own a piece of Aussie history. Channeled all steel Aussie 34 Coupe was for sale for 65K and despite a few modern touches has a genuine documented history (unlike some supposed 'historic' cars where people seem to write their own fictional version of history!) This is truly a beautiful example of where Aussie Hotrodding started. Not sure if Rod sold it, though I know he had been offered very close to the mark prior to the Nats. Not expensive at all, really though it would probably be worth 100K back on the rails so whether it will stay as is once sold will be interesting. All depends who comes up with the money I guess? Genuine early steel channeled cars are slowly disappearing and there are only a few left. If you want to 'save' it then buy it!

Don't get much more Aussie than a Mainline ute either! You don't see many of theses any more either.

29 Chev hiboy Roadster was a bit different. (we have one of these also!)

GMC pickup had done Sherrif's tour down to the Nats.

I kept missing this car and it was the only shot I managed to get but this fairly mild looking 34 3 window sounded like a pro stocker when running. I heard it went very well on the dyno but don't know the figures. Kosta's new car?

Gary the Ghosts A bucket has been around a while but still looks great! He dropped in on the way home but unfortunately we were out.

Not a lot of Mini Rods there this year but I really liked this little T! I did not see any Kid's dragsters at all this year and to be honest I did not see a lot for kids there though there was a minrod track set up away from the oval and also kids rides over the other side. Nobody at either if them when we went past (though it was very early in the day)

38 Studebaker Coupe is something you rarely see.

41 Chev Coupe was nice too

The last pic is for Carps! I saw these Humpy models over at TC's. Now perhaps if Carps cut a nice big hole in the bonnet and shoehorned a V8 into the engine bay he would finally get enough points to make 'mild custom' and have his FJ accepted! Or he could just go out and buy another neat old early Pontiac, and just change the wheels or take his 33 sedan!

Overall I thought the Sunday was  a great day, we did buy some food on site and it was a little expensive but was at least good quality. We could easily have taken our own but chose not to have the hassle of preparing and carrying it. I have heard mostly very good reports from the event but the old saying about not being able to please everyone certainly applies. We did manage to catch up with many old friends, though quite a few old faces did seem to be missing and there were not a lot of 'young' people there in cars that I saw. The venue was pretty much at capacity though and a larger venue would be better. If there had been an influx of younger car enthusiasts I doubt they would have fitted anyway, but it is an area that the ASRF needs to consider for the future. There were certainly plenty of public there though, which was a good thing. Personally I thought it was a job well done to the organisers, no complaints from me!

John was farewelled today with a great turnup of Hotrrods and Kustoms to say goodbye on his final journey. Chopper's boys burnt the midnight oil to get his Y block powered channeled 32 coupe there as well. Sounded awesome! It was great to see so many of John's friends attend the service and join the cruise to celebrate his life.

Frank and Frank what can I say? I think I can understand better than many here of the frustrations that you feel. We have suffered similar problems over on our Aussie Forum (Ozrodders) in recent years with many regular members leaving or no longer posting, then followed by other members telling you how you should be running your forum, that is when they are not * and moaning about people behind their backs! Then you have those who * and moan that there are not enough posts about Hotrods and Kustoms and too much later stuff, yet those same guys with the knowledge rarely post what they preach about!

Not always very welcoming for new members without the wise old hands speaking honestly but with gentle guidance. Lets make no mistake if we don't welcome the newcomers, including the younger age group, our chosen hobby will slowly fade away. There is always a challenge there and when we opened up our board to Pre 72 we lost quite a few 'hard core' rodders in the process. There can only be one HAMB though. Always hard to get the balance right but IMO getting those young guys to build a Pre '48 Hotrod as their next car starts with welcoming them when their current car isn't what we would normally look at too much.

Us Aussies will always appreciate your help and temporary home when we lost our initial HRI Forum and you will always be welcome to come visit in the land of Oz in person or in cyberspace and we thank you for your continued input with us. I am probably one of those who has not posted here in a while myself and for that I apologize. Will get over and see you in the coming years and have a quiet few drinks. It's okay, I wont drink as much as Andrew and Scooter!

Hopefully we will be around for a while longer yet and hope to see many of our U.S. friends over on the Aussie Forum. If nothing else you still get to catch up with Enjenjo over there! Best of luck my friends.

Next time I've got nothing to do at 5am my time I'll stop in.  

Gee Denise, you want to be careful fraternising with a bunch of Aussies at 5 a.m!

Us Aussies are usually on at about 9 pm every night our time, normally around 10 people. Trouble is that is some real weird hour of the morning there! It is 2 a.m. in Los Angeles Ca when it is 9 p.m. here!

Did Carps fly in via New Zealand?

Hi Zzebby, long time no hear! Do what we do down under, find an old XJ6 or XJ12 Jaguar from 1970 - 1985 (though after 75 they have better brakes) at a local scrap yard or dismantler, unbolt the entire front end out of it including power rack and nice discs (ventilated with 4 spots on post 75) and then drop the entire front end out of the pickup and bolt in the jag with some simple fabricated mounts. Depending on clearance you may have to fabricate upper shock mounts (most here use VW shocks)

You then just have to adapt your steering column or grab the Jag one as well. Nice ride, nice handling, nice brakes and nice steering for probably less work. You won't believe how ell they drive! The only disadvantage is that you end up with 5 x 4 3/4" (Chev) wheel stud pattern, but with 1/2" studs. Later XJ40 etc. Jags are no good as the front end doesn't just drop out with a few bolts like the early ones.

I particularly like the tailgate bracing that runs down to the tow hitch, anyone know where I can get me one?

Not a prototype but a one off show car, built in Aussie by the GMH factory on a Corvette chassis but designed to look like a modern day version of a 1953 Holden (General Motors Holden).

Carps isn't joking either! You need to ask Choco about his grille!

I would like to see the RRT split into sub sctions to make finding articles easier. Having General, Tech, Events and Off Topic in seperate sub forums makes it easier if you are looking for something specific. If someone has a prticular 'lean' toward tech they can concentrate their time there. Of course this can go overboard and get split into too may areas but the advantage is that you can make new areas if required. The Ozrodders forum for example has grown considerably and is easier to manage this way. I still visit here when I can!
Dave Petrusma
www.ozrodders.com/board

did it start around the time you met frank?

later jim

I think it started when he met Carps and started hanging around with us Aussies!

Denise see if you can arrange it so that next time they come down to Australia and cruise down here too! So who won what or is that still a secret?

Crosley they still use that engine In Australia, though modified somewhat since the original Falcon we had in 1960 (I don't think anything is interchangeable now). In its current guise it is available in the 2005 Falcon (yes we still have them here!) as a factory produced 4.0 litre engine with 550Nm of torque, the highest torque output of any Australian built production engine, and 270kW of power from the turbo-charged and intercooled straight six-cylinder. You can find out about the car here  http://www.fpv.com.au/index.asp?target=index.asp&link_id=2.440&type_id=60 or just the engine here http://www.fpv.com.au/index.asp?link_id=2.455