Gypsy

 Me Want!

In the late 60's and seventies the van scene in OZ was on fire.

Drifter, Sandman, Sundowner in Falcon and Escort form were the rage. But somehow the little Gem had my attention.

I like the TX~TD models best with the round front headlights. My father had a TF that we swapped a 5 speed and a 1800 into, added a lip spoiler and red velour but it never progressed.

These days they are pretty much all rusty, but restoration is always an option.

Love the Gem.

My TA23

As the first car I bought with my own money, this was a POS. I won $1700 in the lottery and this was the result.

I used to drive gently and smoothly through the forests around Canberra in 1992~3 maybe.

Fun Fun Fun.

Car History

First. I can show my cool ass TA23 celica.. This was paid for with lottery winings.! yay! 

Larry the Laser. This car was a replacement for my Celica and it was my first near new car. I got a loan and everything! I couldn't afford the TX3 4wd version so I settled for the front wheel drive version. It had quite good torque and was faster than other more powerful cars.

I was really getting interested in Rally around 1994 so I sold it and bought a Datsun 1600 510.

It was a DOG parts car for a second rally car. However, the DOG car needed fixing so I never bought my rally car.

Next was this lemon NA 13b RX7. to me in 1995 it was no Series 6 fd3s but it would start my long appreciation of the rotary.

a few days after I took it off the road to install a turbo. It was stolen. Grrrrr. I had a front cut sitting in the driveway.

Anyway, I took the insurance money, and a loan and bought a WRX. Fast and superb.

But too much grip... no fun.

I just got 17" wheels and exhaust tune and it too was stolen.

I bought this MR2 turbo import. But I couldn't get insurance after the last two were stolen in entirely different cities and circumstances. I drove it for a while actually but I worried too much and had to let it go.

It was a nice car.

I bought this cheap and nasty FC turbo. It was quickish but never really went fast. The car was a rebirth as I found out later. I kept the car for a short time. It was loud and intoxicating but I wanted something I could run everyday and not upset my neighbours/girlfriend.

Fun and simple was the answer. NA mx5.... just make sure it's straight. I am the worlds worst car buyer. I must be an easy target cause I always buy lemons. This car had been in an accident and cowl shake was bad. In retrospect I could have tried harder to keep this one, but I didn't want any car hassles.

By the way the chromies were ditched in favour of the stock rims.

The Laser was the most reliable car to date.

So a return to practicality in the form of this EK4 1.6 civic. Very reliable and awesome car. I had a small accident while I was watching a girl get out of a pool! haha. Anyway it was serving me well in canberra but I decided to come to Japan. That meant I could sell it and get an FD3s RX7 !!!!! yeah!

Realise the dream!

Her it is. 1996 FD3s RX7. I got screwed by the buyer in Japan in the end. He bought a cheap car that turned out to need a new engine. I should have walked away from that guy there and then. But this one was good. It just had high Klms.

Eventually I transformed it into....

This...

But somehow I couldn't chose the colour I liked. I don;t know why. If I had painted it white. I probably still would have it. Anyway, with power increases came reliability problems.

So off it went to a new buyer.

And back to reality and reliability. Toyota Vitz is awesome! You can thrash them and they simply wont break.

I came back to Japan and had brain lapse and bought an accident repaired car because I wanted the body changed completely. I never learn.

Anyway. I spent a lot of money... The car became too good to thrash as was my initial intention. Gas rose to insane prices and many other things.

Sell it.

Practically reality is where I am now. But somehow. a New car with few mods. has cost me in reliability. The NC Roadster MX5 I have at the moment is an unreliable car for me. While all my friends are trouble free.

Anyway. It's time to sell it again and return to NO car.

For a while at least...

see what happens from here.

I think I need a new hobby.

My First Car

I might as well reveal my first car. $1800 worth of cool! My 1976 model TX Isuzu Gemini was the best car in the world!!!!

I don't have any pics of it in digital format, so I did the next best thing. This one was the same rusted faded colour, so photoshopped it to the best I could. I added the blackout head and tail light treatment like I did to mine.

I had some of the awsomest Cheviot Turbo wheels in 13x6JJ, that I later colour coded to be yellow. Everyone else was running hotwires at the time so my car was pretty unique. I installed a moderate stereo that I thought was great, but in reality was pretty bad.

This car spent plenty of time atop springbrook on the dirt. I learned to drift on the dirt and I drove it very hard.

As my daily university beast, it was probably a little neglected. Unfortunately after an engine blow from damaged rings. The car was never the same. I sold the wheels and later, My brother rebuilt it, but it was full of rust and eventually went to car heaven.

Found some pics in as bought condition. ...

Check out http://www.ozgemini.com/ for heaps of gemini pics. They are still a popular car in OZ. I dreamed of something like this below. I loved my car. Maybe I'll build another one. NOT!

Russ.

The Aussie Panel Van

WOW. I can remember droooooooling over my brothers "Van Wheels" magazines back in my childhood. In Australia the Panel Van scene in the late seventies was great. V8, Airbrushed Murals, Usually naked ladies, mirrored ceiling interiors with beds great for "Shagin!"


My older brother ended up with an XB GS 6 cylinder, with American Racing 5 Slot rims not unlike this pic below but he maintained the light blue hood. The rear was vinyl and velour. I really loved my brother's Awesome van!

Around that time I went to many Van Shows (see photo page) and there were some amazing rides. Ford Australia built a very special one with the same front as the Mad Max interceptor.
This history page is great and showcases all.

My father also had two Holden "Belmont" Panel vans he used for work. I later drove his mini Gemini and Corolla Vans a lot. I really wanted to tune the Gemini. So we started with engine. 1.6->1.8 and the rear became red velour. We added a front air dam, but thats about as far as it got. I then got my own Gemini Coupe and started tuning. (another post)

I'm remembering where all my tuning influences came from.

Russ.