Break out the vegemite and bog in, mate. Hear that didgeridoo? It’s time for a pair of posts from the land down under. First up, a couple of weekends ago, the Gold Coast held its annual WinterSun Festival (the southern hemisphere is on winter time right now), which includes a car cruise and drag race. Of course, jet-setting proprietor of Mooneyes, Shige Suganuma, was there to witness the madness and has it all covered on his blog.

In addition to some truly bonzer drag cars like this bitumen-walloping Mitsubishi Arrow (Lancer Celeste), he also visited a Toyota Australia “Toyota Day” held at a dealer training center where heaps of Coronas and Crowns, including this roo-bar wearing kujira, came to celebrate.

They don’t call it the Lucky Country for nothing. Will our raging jealousy over their well-preserved crop of RHD nostalgics ever subside? Not bloody loikley.

Check out Suganuma-san’s blog for more pictures of Wintersun drag cars and Aussie Toyotas. Stay tuned for part two of our news from Oz, but until then we’re off like a bucket of prawns in the sun.

To coincide with the arrival of the 2008 Lancer, Mitsubishi has a new microsite devoted to its AWD rally beast, lancerproject.com. Click on “Lancer Heritage” to see some footage of the East Safari Rally car tearing it up at the hands of the Flying Sikh, as well as some shots of street-going Lancers of yore. For coverage of the actual 1974 jungle machine shown at Detroit earlier this year, click here.