Posted by Daniel Strohl on July 18, 2009 under Australian cars, Daniel Strohl, Hemmings Classic Car, dream cars, show cars and prototypes, junkyards and abandoned vehicles, road trips and cruising, snowmobiles, tractors | 
* Automotive historians generally pay less attention to assembled cars of the 1920s than they do bespoke cars of that same era, but the Gardner is worth more attention than other assembled cars for a variety of reasons, not excluding its attempt to build a front-wheel drive car toward the end of its existence.
* Our SIA Flashback on Norman Bel Geddes’s automobiles neglected to show a picture of his flying car concept, shown here (thanks to the photoblog x planes) as a model “in flight.”
* Of all the holidays that one would normally associate with snowmobiles, the Fourth of July comes in dead last, but in Crosby, Minnesota, vintage Scorpion sleds (and other Trail-A-Sled products) paraded down Main Street to celebrate the products that made the town (somewhat) famous. VintageSledders.com has the pics.
* Most Americans, even American tractor enthusiasts, probably have never heard of the Chamberlain Champion tractor, an Aussie implement built between 1955 and 1966. That’s not why a bunch of blokes from Down Under shipped their Chamberlains to Baltimore and began a cross-country trek in them. Nah, the group started driving their tractors around Australia a few years ago and decided it’d be a grand adventure to see the States in their tractors. They’re currently somewhere around Kentucky. (via)
Posted by Daniel Strohl on March 12, 2009 under Australian cars, Daniel Strohl, Hemmings Classic Car, March Military Campaign, military vehicles, snowmobiles |
A few days ago, we brought you some photos that Mike Eldred’s father, David, took while stationed in Antarctica on the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Eastwind in 1962 and 1963. Mike has since then managed to find a few more photos from that time which show an even wider variety of machinery built to handle the deep freeze.
In the photo above, Mike notes that the Eastwind is in the background and that Nodwells like the one pictured were used to tow cargo from the ships’ offload point back to McMurdo base.
Another Nodwell track truck. Nodwell is apparently still around, still building tracked snow vehicles.
These two unidentified tracked vehicles apparently served as parts vehicles. The one on the left appears to be a Weasel. Without a parts store right around the corner, gotta imagine the mechanics who serviced these vehicles got rather creative when it came to repairs.
Operation Deep Freeze was an ice breaking and resupply mission. This weasel and the other vehicles were ready to be unloaded. Pretty sure the ship is the Mirfak, a Navy cargo ship.
Finally, a couple photos taken on the way to Antarctica. The first, a Whippet, was taken in Port Lyttleton, New Zealand. The photo of the service station was taken in Fiji.
Blowing up the photo to see the car doesn’t reveal much detail. What kinds of cars were abundant on Fiji in the early 1960s?
UPDATE (12.March 2009): Intrepid identifier Kit Foster appears to have correctly identified the car as a Standard Vanguard, Phase II, and UK reader John Robins concurs:
Today’s blog slows a car in a Fiji petrol station and asks what kind of cars were available in Fiji in the fifties?
Phase 2 Standard Vanguards, that’s what. Early to mid 1950s 2,088cc wet liner pushrod ohv engine as seen in many TR2s, 3s and 4s, plus an American inspired column change and handling like a cream puff on a water bed.
Thanks, guys!