Classic Car Show, Whiteman Park 2012

The Classic Car Show was held at Whiteman Park on Sunday 22nd April 2012. This is the largest classic car event in the West Australian calendar with about 1000 cars on display. It's normally held in March but for the first time was pushed out to April on account of the milder weather. All the usual club displays were there. I didn't take photos of everything of course, only the cars that interested me, so some of the clubs that attended aren't represented here. This year there were fewer unusual and American cars. British cars were very heavily represented.

This was the Deek's public debut. We attended the show - which is by club invitation - with the Special Interest Vehicle Association (SIVA). SIVA is a small club whose members have an eclectic collection of vehicles. Attending the show were two Renaults, an NSU, a Messerschmitt, a Morris, a Lotus and a Willys Overland.

The proud custodians. We can take little credit for the condition of the car, which owes its outstanding preservation to Marcelo and the original owner in South Africa. The DKW ran extremely well, very smooth with almost no smoke. She easily ran up to 60mph on the Tonkin Highway. We ran the engine a couple of times during the day for the spectators. Everyone was amazed how quiet she was.

I think every South African and German who visited the show came past to share some nostalgic stories about DKWs. DKW is an acronym of many meanings - some of them not complimentary!



A French Amilcar sails past SIVA row


Richard's NSU Prinz III. This is an Australian built example. In the 1950s Prinz' were exported to Australia in pieces and then reassembled here. Unfortunately they were not able to compete with other small cars, such as the Mini Minor and, of course, the ubiquitous Holden. NSU were also unable to keep up a steady supply of parts to keep the cars on the road. http://www.nsuprinz.com/

Peter's Renault CV4. A marvelous little French rear-engined car. http://www.renaultfan.org/renault-4cv.html.

Zig's Messerschmitt KR200. Zig has two Messerschmitts - a bubble-top and rag-top. This bubble-top has an Australian customized vinyl hood. The Perspex bubble was very poorly suited to the harsh Australian sun and owners quickly complained about the sauna-like conditions inside the car. The importers responded by manufacturing a vinyl roof that could be attached to the dome. Apparently 25 Messerschmitts were sold through a dealer in Perth in the late 1950s, of which about a dozen survive. Sadly, when the dealership closed almost all the spares, including some bodies, were scrapped. The Messerschmitt was certainly the biggest drawcard of the display, attracting hordes of amused adults and children. http://www.messerschmitt.co.uk/


This 1968 Saab 96 Monte Carlo was on display by the Saab Car Club of Australia. http://www.saabclub.org.au/ Saab cars were originally powered by two and three cylinder two stroke engines derived from the DKW. This car is powered by a 1498cc four stroke Ford Taunus engine during the transition period away from two strokes.

Shelly tries out Alistair's Honda S600 for size. It's a sweet little machine. http://www.hondas600.com/

British Cars


An Australian bodied Morris 8.

The Historic Commercial Vehicle Club Ltd had a display of interesting trucks and vans.
http://www.hcvc.com.au/ Here is a Mercedes-Benz Diesel and a Fordson van.

The Classic English Ford Club of WA always put on a good display. Here's another Fordson van and the ubiquitous Ford Prefect.


A fine display by the Austin Motor Vehicle Club of WA. http://carclubs.shannons.com.au/austinmotorclubwa

I'm always surprised at the numbers of Austin 7's in Perth. The Austin 7 Club of WA put on a good show. http://www.austin7club.org/forum/index.php

I'm a big fan of the little Austin 7.

Austin A30

1957 Austin Metropolitan. Released in the US as the Nash Metropolitan.

The elegant Riley. http://www.rileywa.org.au/

Display of old and new by the Bentley Drivers Club. http://www.bdcwa.com.au/

Daimler Straight 8 limousine

A fine display by the Daimler & Lanchester Owners Club. http://www.dlocaustralia.org/

A fine pair of 1955 Daimler DJ254s

The Drophead version

The Austin-Healey Club of WA display. http://www.austinhealeywa.org.au/

The display of the Rover Owners club. http://www.waroc.org.au./

The Vauxhaul Owners Club again put on an excellent display. http://www.vauxhall.org.au/

Vauxhall Wyvern

Vauxhall Velox Vagabond

1937 Vauxhall DX MkII roadster

Vauxhall Velox

1935 Vauxhall DK


1910 Deasy. A very rare and unusual British car. http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Deasy_Motor_Car_Manufacturing_Co The company went on to become Armstrong -Siddeley and later Wolseley.

French Cars


Delage were a French luxury car maker. http://www.delage-world.co.uk/delage.htm

French Amilcar roadster. There is another 1920s Amilcar in Perth too. http://www.amilcar.co.uk/

There were a number of cars displayed by the Vintage Sports Car Club. http://www.vsccwa.com.au/cms/This Bugatti racer had a successful career in the 1930s. http://www.bugatticlubaustralia.com.au/

This Ford racer was also on display at Big Al's Poker Run this year.

A modified Ford V8

A Willys Overland. Part of the SIVA display.

A Whippet. Manufactured by Willys Overland.

Cadillac Car Club display. http://cadillac.carclub.com.au/home.php



I don't know what the model this Cadillac is but I must say it was the best looking car at the show.


Another Cadillac, this one parked in the Vintage Car Club display.

Another fine display by the Studebaker Car Club. http://www.studebaker.asn.au/





The Cobra Car Club http://www.cobracarclubwa.com/

Australian Cars

The Holden Car Club http://www.holdencarclub.org.au/

EH Holden Car Club http://ehcarclubwa.org.au/

Holden GTR Torana XU-1 Club. http://www.gtrtoranaxu1carclubinc.com/ This is my friend Stuart's car, Christine, which has just been completed after a three year restoration.

Motorcycles

There was a much larger display this year by the Early America Motorcycle Club. http://www.earlyamericanmotorcycleclub.asn.au/

The Harley-Davidsons and vintage Indians were very popular and drew quite a crowd. The bikes were periodically fired up and ridden around the display area near the SIVA stand. Disappointingly there were no other motorcycle club displays. Where is the Vintage Motorcycle Club representation? Maybe next year SIVA will pull out some scooters for display.

DKW Crunch Time

The wait for the tie rod ends and gauges seemed interminable but they arrived on 13th April. Over the weekend I installed the gauges and on Monday dropped the car off at Auto Masters Fremantle for them to install the tie rods.

Tuesday 17th April I took the DKW to the vehicle inspection centre at Welshpool. It's first come, first served so its best to get there before they open at 7.30am. I arrived at 8 and there was already a huge queue. By about 8.30 they were turning away cars.

The Deek was inspected just before 12. The inspector was also into vintage cars - he owns a Riley - so we had an interesting discussion about Wartburgs and Messerschmitts. Who knows about the Wartburg in Perth?? I even got to walk under the car when it was on the hoist and look at the underside. It is at least free from rust but you do get a different view of the car from there. Then the inspector took it for spin around the block. I was really worried what he would say but he seemed pretty happy.

Sadly though the Deek did not pass. But all is not lost! The list of defects are pretty straightforward to fix and that is all in hand now. I'll book a re-inspection for Friday and - touch wood! - we'll be on the road in time for the Classic Car Show at Whiteman Park on Sunday 22nd. If we do make it, we'll be parked with the Special Interest Vehicle Association.

Update - the car was reinspected and passed: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2012/05/dkw-is-licensed.html

We attended the Classic Car Show, which  was a real success. Here is a link to our photos: http://www.heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/classic-car-show-whiteman-park-2012.html

Richard's Garage

On Easter Saturday I caught up with fellow collector Richard for a bit of a chat. Richard has a fine collection of interesting German and British machinery and his handsome Durkopp Diana is often seen around town. It was a nice ride out from Fremantle and the Troll ran really smoothly.

The Durkopp and Troll. Although from different eras - the Durkopp is from the late 50s and the Troll is from the mid 60s - both share many similarities. Like all German scooters, they are much heftier than their Italian counterparts, feature foot gear-changes, fan-cooled two stroke engines and are fine cruising machines.

Like the Troll, the '58 Durkopp has easy access, pop-off panels to allow access to the 250cc engine.

I love the little dancing girl decal.

I had heard a number of rumours that there was another Leader around town and here it is. This is a later B model from 1963. It has a number of different features to my early 58 model. These include a ridge atop the headlamp, additional suspension arm on the front wheel (visible in the picture above), an 'A' embossed on the steering cover, and key-lock ignition. No expense has been spared on this restoration, which includes correct indicators, panniers and the rear bumper bar. These are all extremely hard to find parts.

Richard saved this gorgeous Golden Arrow from the scrap heap in New Zealand, picking it up for $40 many years ago. This is the first Arrow I've seen in the flesh. They are a fine looking sporty bike and it would be great to see this one out on the road.

Three two-stroke twins together. The Ariels are fine bikes but their workmanship doesn't match the precision and quality of their German equivalents.

A DKW 350S.

Germanic perfection - the Maico Taifun (Typhoon). Maico started building two-stroke motorcycles after the Second World War. They produced some extremely interesting machines, such as the Maicomobil and Maicoletta scooter and the split twin Taifun. These brilliant bikes were only built in small numbers between 1953 and 1956. In the 1960s Maico went on to specialise in the off-road bikes, competing successfully with their Japanese rivals until they finally went bankrupt in 1983.

http://berniesbikeshed.wordpress.com/maico-taifun-1956/

The Taifun was powered by a very unusual split twin two-stroke engine in either 350 to 400 ccs capacities. I'll be very interested to see this bike restored (update 2019 - the bike was sold on).


And his microcars - an NSU Prinz and Goggomobil Coupe



The Goggomobil is a Buckle built car with a fibreglass body