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The organisers of Clayton’s Summernats Classic and Muscle Car Cruise over the weekend were pleased with the turn-out and the behaviour. In contrast to Friday and Saturday night’s burnt rubber shenanigans, which closed off Lonsdale Street and angered police, the Saturday event was as smooth as a greased-up chevy. “We don’t have to rev our cars to get noticed, that’s the difference,” Andrew Dale said. “You would have thought you were at a church meeting,” he added, referring to the grand parade of 300 spectacular vehicles up and down Northbourne Avenue. He and his pals (Andrew Toy, Billy Lefty, Stephen Moore and Paul Grech) got together to organise the event when the annual auto-festival of Summernats was prevented from happening because of the COVID-19 restrictions. In contrast to the unregulated breakaway event on Friday, the morning parade was sedate. “We go less than the speed limit,” Mr Dale said. There was full cooperation with the police and other authorities. The police love us. “We’ve got cars which have 1000 horse power. It’s about the feel of the car. It’s not about how fast they go.” He drove a white 1964 Holden EH panelvan, something of an iconic vehicle in Australian industrial history. It had – and has – a distinctive look with its higher roof line compared with other versions of the General Motors vehicle. But there was competition for stardom from Heidi Pritchard’s 85-year-old Austin 7, built in Australia in 1935. The Austin 7 was meant to be the answer to the Ford Model T. Ms Pritchard calls her turquoise open top “Jane” – Jane Austin, you see (though the novelist spells her name differently). She said it took some driving. “It hasn’t got brakes the way we recognise brakes today,” she told The Canberra Times as she drove. “If something stops in front of you, you have to be aware of all your surroundings. “You can’t relax the way you do in a modern car and turn the radio on and turn the air-conditioning on.” It’s hard to imagine the Austin 7 burning rubber even if the driver had wanted it to. Its engine did overheat slightly. It had to be taken to a nearby McDonald’s to cool down under a tree.
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Clayton’s car cruise as gentle as a ‘church meeting’
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Three-hundred cars parade in peace through central Canberra.
news, latest-news, summernats
2021-01-11T05:00:00+11:00
https://players.brightcove.net/3879528182001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6221461442001
https://players.brightcove.net/3879528182001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6221461442001
Going for a spin in an Austin 7
The organisers of Clayton’s Summernats Classic and Muscle Car Cruise over the weekend were pleased with the turn-out and the behaviour.
“We don’t have to rev our cars to get noticed, that’s the difference,” Andrew Dale said.
“You would have thought you were at a church meeting,” he added, referring to the grand parade of 300 spectacular vehicles up and down Northbourne Avenue.
Heidi Pritchard, of Fraser, with her 1935 Austin 7 Roadster before the start of the Clayton’s Summernats Classic and Muscle Car Cruise down Northbourne Avenue. Picture: Keegan Carroll
He and his pals (Andrew Toy, Billy Lefty, Stephen Moore and Paul Grech) got together to organise the event when the annual auto-festival of Summernats was prevented from happening because of the COVID-19 restrictions.
In contrast to the unregulated breakaway event on Friday, the morning parade was sedate.
“We go less than the speed limit,” Mr Dale said. There was full cooperation with the police and other authorities. The police love us.
“We’ve got cars which have 1000 horse power. It’s about the feel of the car. It’s not about how fast they go.”
Heidi Pritchard and her Austin 7. Picture: Keegan Carroll
He drove a white 1964 Holden EH panelvan, something of an iconic vehicle in Australian industrial history. It had – and has – a distinctive look with its higher roof line compared with other versions of the General Motors vehicle.
But there was competition for stardom from Heidi Pritchard’s 85-year-old Austin 7, built in Australia in 1935. The Austin 7 was meant to be the answer to the Ford Model T.
Ms Pritchard calls her turquoise open top “Jane” – Jane Austin, you see (though the novelist spells her name differently).
She said it took some driving.
Andrew Dale’s EH panelvan.
“It hasn’t got brakes the way we recognise brakes today,” she told The Canberra Times as she drove.
“If something stops in front of you, you have to be aware of all your surroundings.
“You can’t relax the way you do in a modern car and turn the radio on and turn the air-conditioning on.”
It’s hard to imagine the Austin 7 burning rubber even if the driver had wanted it to.
Its engine did overheat slightly. It had to be taken to a nearby McDonald’s to cool down under a tree.
