Jamie

video @ translogic.com ... and for those that haven't see it, the official 1/24/2011 revision of the Chevrolet CAPRICE Police Package PPV technical manual.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI3atOJhDvw Here's the current Thunder Ute TV advert.

Have to admit, the coolest van I ever encountered looked totally stock from the outside. This particular Ford van was put together in the late 70s by the government department I worked for, and designed to test airport runways. It was fully set up with all the optional performance parts (351 Cleveland, tied-down suspension, biggest brake option, biggest factory wheel and tire option), plus a definitely non-factory half roll cage. The van was designed to tow an instrumented trailer down runways at standard jet landing speeds so they could measure wet and dry runway skid performance. In the back of the van was a rubber bladder that they could fill with water, coupled up to a high performance pump and a set of spray bars that were mounted on the tow-bar assembly. Once they got the van and trailer up to speed, they'd remotely lower a wheel in the trailer that was angled to the direction of travel, and measure the forces on the wheel. For wet testing, they'd fire up the pump and spray the runway just in front of the angled wheel.

link to web page and video direct link to the FLV video here.

read the rest of the article at The Sydney Morning Herald.

I saw one in person in 1970 or 71. Officially two were built but there are stories about a third and possibly as many as 5 being built, but not all were completed. The most recent information I have is that one of the prototype GTR-X cars has been recently restored back to its original white paint finish and remains on public display at the Salmon Street offices of Holden in Melbourne, Victoria. Supposedly another is at the National Motor Museum in Birdwood, South Australia. There is some conjecture that both of these may actually be the same car. At some stage (late 70s/early 80s), the one at Birdwood was refinished a metallic grey or similar paint and received a set of the alloy wheels that were options on the UC series Torana. There are numerous older photographs of it at Birdwood with the metallic grey finish. Photographs taken in mid-2008 at Birdwood show that the GTR-X on display at that time was white. Interestingly it is no longer listed in the Birdwood Collection.

No worries. Computer problems and house renovations have kept me away from much of the stuff online. 40 years later the Torana still looks stunning. It broke many hearts when it was canned. I know of a couple of people that were ready to place deposits. It's small (94 inch wheelbase and 44.7" high), light weight (2300 lbs curb weight), and powerful (a planned 180HP inline 6 as the base engine that replaced the concept's 160HP inline 6, with a 240HP 5 litre V8 as a proposed option). It was intended to be a direct competitor for the Datsun 240Z.

I'll add the Holden Torana GTR-X from 1970. It got as far as the sales brochures being printed before management killed it. More pictures here.

We're in the middle of house renovations, so I'm not getting much time at the moment to post here.

A Melbourne based customizer has developed a Camaro conversion for VE utes. It's generating a lot of positive comments on Australian forums, but the general consensus is that it needs some rear end reworking to finish the job.

AFAIK, Speed is running highlights of all the V8Supercar races. I've been in Newfoundland now for 2½ years. I got married to a Canadian back in 2006, and 2 months later, we packed everything up and relocated her stuff from Manitoba to here so she could take up a job offer. 3 days later I had to fly back to Australia, and it took close to 16 months to get my house in Australia prepared for sale, pack things up, get the immigration paperwork sorted out, and get back to Newfoundland. Currently, I'm trying to set up a home based business based around the LASER engraver that I bought a year ago.

The race was run on Sunday, Oct 10. Those of you with access to Speed Channel will be able to see a 2 hour presentation on October 17 at 3PM ET. I won't give away any spoilers, but here's an incident from the opening lap of the race. Fabian Coulthard suffers a tire failure and rolls through the gravel several times. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2j1Ra1wDl4 "I knew it was missing some panels when I got out without opening the door." Fabian Couthard. From Friday's Practice session: Craig Lowndes Record Breaking Lap (Bathurst 2010 Practice) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IocxcHPsgs Craig Lowndes breaks Greg Murphy's lap record around Bathurst with a 2:06.8012

Anyone watch the race? I got to see a bit before I gave up due to being continually called away and shut it off. So much for my promised 2 hours of peace to watch the telecast. I'll watch the recording later. Dunno what it was like on your cable service, but the bits I got to see had via our Rogers digital cable feed had audio synch problems.

Picked up the car yesterday ... odometer reading 115527 km. I'll run the car through a car wash when I fuel it up some tomorrow. It's still intermittently raining, so the cut and polish will have to wait. Starting to sort out the electrical gremlins. Lucas, The Prince of Darkness, has a reasonably good grip on this car ... but so far the problems just seem to be due to really bad quality connectors and/or dirty switches. The RH low beam appears to be the only blown bulb, but the hi/lo beam switch on the indicator stalk is erratic (worked about one time in 20). I suspected dirty contacts in the switch, and after a lot of wiggling of the indicator stalk, it's almost fixed. RH headlamp bulb (H4 type) has now been replaced. There was no mention in the owners manual about having to take the headlamp wipers off so the trim surround could be removed. That was made even more challenging when our 2 dogs decided to help me. Headlights are Cibie, and appear to be Euro spec. Over the Winter I'll probably pull both headlights out and repair the cracks I found in the plastic trim. At that time I'll fit high output bulbs. Looks like there's something funny with the handbrake system. I suspect it's stuck partially operated, and that's the reason for the permanent handbrake warning light on the dash. Checking the brake end of the handbrake is made more difficult by the fact that the rear brakes are inboard. The radio keeps asking for the security code, and refuses to accept the code that I have been given. I might have to talk to the local Jaguar dealer and give them the serial number so they can look up the correct code in their database. The passenger side external mirror is properly attached now. The glass assembly had popped off one of the two ball sockets that hold it securely. Both external mirror adjusters seem to be stuck. I don't know if it's an electrical adjuster or a cable style adjuster. If it's cables, then the cables are probably frozen or rusted. If it's electrical, then the problem is Lucas (again).

At last. I've been going through withdrawals.

The big Jag is my present to myself for Christmas. I've always wanted one, and one at the right price turned up a week ago. I'll only get a couple of weeks use before it has to go into storage until winter (and the salt trucks) have gone, but it'll mean I have 4-6 months to work on it before the snow melts. Been just a bit busy over the past few months. Got a big Laser cutter/engraver a few months ago (VersaLASER VLS4.60) for the business I'm setting up, and I'm just starting to learn how to use it. The Laser is very temperature sensitive. Exposure to prolonged temperatures below 15 degrees C deteriorate the O-ring gas seals and this will result in a $1200+ gas recharge/rebuild cost much earlier than expected. This means I finally have an excuse to heat the garage, so I'll be able to work in there during winter.

That particular rebuild costs £35,000 ... just a bit much for my budget.

Yesterday afternoon I placed a deposit on this fine piece of "British craftsmanship". It's an auto, but as it was only CAD$5200, and has only got 115,000 km on it, I wasn't going to pass it up just because it had a slushy transmission. For a 20 year old it's in damn fine condition (a plate on the console says it was a concours event entrant in 2002), but it currently needs a bit of a tidy up and a good polish. It's hard to tell under the road grime, but it appears to be a charcoal gray metallic, and the interior is gray leather. It's got a few minor problems ... the glass in the passenger rear view mirror is loose and needs to be re-glued, the handbrake light is on all the time, the wood on the console needs refinishing, the radio antenna needs replacing, and the hood gas struts need replacing or re-gassing. The body is straight, there's no visible signs of rust and the motor seems quite good (although the engine bay looks like it'll need a few bits and pieces and a bit of detailing work done to bring it back to an as delivered state). The one thing that is wrong and really can't be cheaply fixed is that someone has added a Jaguar leaper mascot to the hood (E-Types and XJ-S models didn't come with one) and if it's removed, there'll be a couple of holes to patch up. I know it'll cost a lot to keep maintained, and it'll have a serious appetite for fuel, but I don't care.

One of my contacts within the auto manufacturing industry in Adelaide says that all G8 exports were put on hold in January, and there is a large stockpile of them sitting in a holding yard near the port.

You need to see if you can find somebody to do you a steak Chicago style medium or medium/rare ... medium or medium/rare inside with the outside charred. The best of both worlds.

One of the problems I see with starting with a Ute and adding G8 parts, is a question of the vehicle documentation. You're starting with a vehicle that's never been documented in the US. Start with a G8 with body damage and repair the damaged body with an unserialed Ute "body in white" ... Yes there are grey areas. I think some places require that the firewall from the wrecked vehicle (and any places that are serialed) be transferred to the replacement body.

You'd need an unmolested G8 and an unmolested SS Ute to find out what parts you'd need from the Ute to do the conversion, then order a "body in white" Ute body plus any Ute exclusive parts directly from Holden.

When I looked at shipping Utes to the US about 10 years ago, it was going to require 3 cars just for the crash tests. I gave up at that point. I suspect you may be able to build one out of a body damaged G8 and a Holden Ute with a stuffed engine/transmission. It really depends on what level of body repairs you could make to a wrecked G8 before it's classified as a totally different car.