Motorex is Australia's biggest custom car show, and so it was a bit surreal to be asked if my car would like to be on display (to which the answer is yesyesyesohgodyes).


It has its roots very firmly planted in the street rod and custom (with a "K") scene, and so this is what greets you as you walk into the main hall. It's a 1960 FC Holden van, the FC being GM's family car offering at the time in this part of the world


Then you get to the main part of the hall, which is where the sleds and rods are. This incredible creation is a Borgward Goliath, believe it or not!




The thing in the main dome that really sucked in my attention were the sleds. There were so many!


Including this amazing baremetal 50's Styleline Chev


Check out the file-finished bodywork

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Then there was this amazing Chrysler Imperial with a fadeaway paintscheme (apologies in advance to my american friends if I am getting any of these model names wrong)


But my favourite sled was this one. I like the suede/flat paintschemes too, but to me, I prefer shiny...and this was VERY shiny!


Just period-correct and perfect




This won a prize for best custom execution I think...




Not all of them were sleds though, this one looked pretty concours stock


But then you move onto the street machines, and this Falcon coupe caught my eye. An Australian model Ford from the early 70s, you might recognise this as being the basis for the Mad Max Interceptor.


Huge wheels and tubs, suicide doors...


...a half chassis with airbagged pushrod suspension


...and dimple dies!




This one is an LC Holden Torana. GM's compact-car offering here it's smaller than say a Nova or Dart, and is pretty much Hako-sized.


Almost like a real-life Hot-Wheels toy with its stance.


And supercharged 202cube straight six...not often that you see the forced induction hardware being bigger than the engine itself


GM's full-size offering in the 70s was the Holden Kingswood, and its coupe sibling is the HQ Monaro...I'm sure she'll get off the engine if you fire it up and take the car for a drive.


The trend for really, really big rear rubber is obviously a strong one

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Yes, definitely


That emerald HQ Monaro again...I really do thing that the coupe shape is an underrated design classic from the era. So neat and clean (and you might recognise it as the black coupe being chased at the beginning of Mad Max). Quite a few of the elite cars had this sort of extreme rear tub and wheel combo. Certainly makes an impact!


Now this custom Eldorado, was tying with another car for my favourite in the show.


It looks...sectioned to me? As in, there is a 2in section of cut out all the way around from the middle of the car, so make it more low-profile. And then the stainless roof has had a mild chop too. But all the mouldings and lights etc look in proportion (except where they are deliberately out of proportion!). Amazing...how on earth does one section a 20ft long car


But in the end, my favourite was the car parked next to it, a lovely nostagia-style 32 highboy roadster. All the perfect little touches, and of course it takes a hell of a lot of work to make something like this actually look so simple and clean.


Then we move onto the really ridiculously overpowered drag cars. Like this Mustang...


Obligatory metal mountain under the bonnet, with the hp in the thousands


Got dish? Oh yes, yes we do.


Parked next to that, was Killa-B, a new Camaro with a 632.


Drag cars were quite a feature of the show, easily outnumbering their circuit cousins.


From the sublime to the slightly ridiculous...


Yup...Niki 650 (ie Russian-made Fiat 600) with a twin turbo 308ci V8




And where the engine used to be is chock full of wheeltubs and radiator


But it was not all US iron, and there were quite a few JDM examples, like this RX-3


With twin turbo LSX motivation!
\



Hmm....I don't think that's the standard A-series anymore...

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And speaking of drag cars, here's a Mustang Cobra Jet


With proper "mother of god" soundtrack when it started up and idled


Oh and before we move on...this car got "Best JDM".


The scene for Japanese show cars over here is still pretty much rooted in what you would consider to be a "donk" style. Things are slowly changing though, with more of a JDM influence now.


Only in slightly less bad taste was this chrome LF-A, thankfully it is a vinyl wrap


And for Motorex, there is as always a heavy representation by the muscle car clubs






Check this out...Chevy Nova SS...


BALDWIN MOTION Nova SS...hey, this is an amazing rarity over here


There was little in the way of nostalgic JDM...except for this Celica


And this tastefully slammed Crown


There were also some circuit racers from the Muscle Car Masters series




But the Hako was parked in with 5 other cars from the local JDM club scene, courtesy of All-Stars and Zen Garage (warning...sometimes Zen Garage is a little NSFW).




With Sergio's widebody S15 and the 800hp TRD widebody Supra that we saw a few weeks ago at the Showcased show


Nice Porsche 930 for auction...(price guide $70-80k). Le sigh

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There were also a few other JDM cars, from Built To Order


Hendra's widebody WRX.


And the Very Nice FD that's quite a mainstay of the local scene here.


All in all, a great show and an awesome experience. The Hako drew a lot of attention all weekend, and it was great to chat with the guys and answer questions. Pretty exhausted now, but weekends don't get much better than this Apologies for the blurry pics by the way, I only had an hour or so right when the show closed, to run around and take pics

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Cool looking show Kev. I really think its cool being able to see how similar the US and Australian rod and custom scenes are.

And just a minor correction, as it was your favorite car of the show. The highboy Ford roadster is actually a '28 body on '32 frame rails, a classic hot rodding combination.

Ah, 'learn something new every day

But the grille is a 32, right?

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It was a very good weekend. After next year it will alternate between Sydney and Melbourne apparently.
I saw your Skyline on set up day Friday. It was the best Japanese car there IMHO. I own the Crown that is in the photo.




Cheers, Greg.

Great stuff! Thanks.

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The Black Cat - S800M Coupe.

Great event report Kev! Yep it's a '32 grill shell but a Model A body. Oh and Mario Colalillo's van is actually an FB not an FC.

Some amazing metal at that show. I agree the HQ shape is a timeless classic but I really like the re-vamp of Adam LeBrese's XC hardtop too... looks great in white, more of a modern feel almost.

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1971 1300 Wagon Deluxe
1973 1300 Wagon

thanks for sharing

my mind just blown away

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http://bruneiclassiccelica.com/