Chrisco 1

They say that history can be scarier than fiction, and I am one to belive that. Here’s an extra spooky story of a real life event that happened in my state, quite possibly the scariest one in Tasmania’s history. There’s only a handful of people in the world that can truly say that their transmission have saved their lives. And I mean the sump on the bottom of your automatic transmission was the only thing stopping you from certain death by, say, falling 45 metres off a bridge. Two such people are Frank and Syliva Manley, and this is their story.

With the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb taking place this weekend, I thought it’d be a good idea to share with you one of my favourite cars to ever grace the mountain. I chose this not because of its success, but for its story. And what a tale it is. This is the tale of an ex-Pikes Peak, ex-RE-Amemiya 4WD ‘88 Mazda RX-7 FC3S, restored to its former glory and terrorising circuits in New Zealand.

After a number of years, Shingo Shoji is back with a vengance to try and defeat the King of the Downhill, Takumi Fujiwara on the streets of Adelaide, a rather different setting to the usual mountain roads of Gunma. NOTE: The Japanese characters spell out Rematch. At least that’s what Google Translate tells me

Cast your mind back to the late 70’s, and you wanted something that could be driven around town during the week and able to tow your boat along the dunes on the weekend. What would you get? You’d probably be looking at something like a Range Rover, Chevy Silverado, Ford F-Truck, Nissan Patrol or a Toyota Landcruiser. Depending on where you live, some of these might not be available without bags of money. For the average Australian, a Silverado or F-Truck fully imported and converted to RHD would cost upwards of $120 000AUD in today’s money!

Hello and welcome to my first #MyBuild! What I want to do with this is to create my ideal Nissan 300zx, looking at parts such as body kits, wheels and other parts, as well as what’s under the bonnet and the interior. DISCLAIMER: I do not own a 300ZX unfortunately, but I will talk as though I do have one. Exterior First off, the bodykit. The front bar would be either a Stillen bar (shown in the opening image) or one from Greddy Trust (below)

This blue on blue beast has been in the family for around 15 years, with the past 5 years spent sitting patiently in the backyard for somebody to bring some life into it. That somebody is me, with my decision a couple of months ago to get it on the road and driving again. Since then, I’ve fitted new tyres on it, and got a new battery. Things to do in the near future include a roadworthy inspection and give it a major service, with a new air, fuel and oil filter, new spark plugs and new brake pads.

Cars like Supra’s, Skyline’s, RX-7’s, Evo’s and Impreza’s are all capped at 280PS (~275BHP) because of the Gentlemen’s Agreement. So, if they abolished that rule, how much power do you think you’d those cars would come out of the factories with?

Using a 4-cyl 1.2L Yamaha engine that revs all the way to 12k RPM, these 450kg cars race on the same weekends the V8 Supercars race. An absolute pleasure to watch, and the battles are intense.

It’s so 80’s!