Off to Oz

[Petrolhead]

hi ya Bill, Chris and any other Aussie Squarebirders

I'm heading your way 7.00am tomorrow, doing the Winternational drags at Willowbank in Brisbane Thurs through Sunday, Monday I'm on the train down to Sufers to catch up with my oldest son who i haven't seen for a year or so, then flying home ex Brisbane Tuesday morning.

I may get chance to duck away from the drags for a day to go to Wintersun at Coolangatta, we'll see how it goes.

Make sure you crank up the fine weather!

Cheers

Alistair

[Coral]

I'm jealous Alistair, need anyone to carry your luggage by any chance?

well, wait, I've to go to work....
please take some pix of your journey!

[scumdog]

So who's running the magazine eh?

And Wintersun was on the plan for this year but stuff got in the way - next year eh!

[Penelope]

Hey Alistair, I read this sitting in Qantas Club in Sydney, on my way to the Gold Coast for the next 3 days. It will be the last contact I have with a computer whilst I "conference" (read eat, drink, eat,drink etc etc). My mobile number is 0438921081, give me a yell if you around the Gold Coast.

cheers

[bird 60]

Wintersun

Hi Alistair,
I was looking into going to the Wintersun this year but circustances haven't allowed.
For anyone outside Australia who isn't familiar with Wintersun, it's the Big Moma of all Car & music Festivals.
Around 1,500 Classics heaps & heaps of '50s &'60s Rock Bands, & quite a few U.S. entertainers. The weather is around 75F & it's pretty well a must. People from all over OZ go there on a yearly pilgrimage & some from Kiwiland.
Keep an eye out for my '61 Champagne H.T. White interior the Guy bought it from me 2 years ago.

Chris....From the Land of OZ.

[Petrolhead]

Hey Alistair, I read this sitting in Qantas Club in Sydney, on my way to the Gold Coast for the next 3 days. It will be the last contact I have with a computer whilst I "conference" (read eat, drink, eat,drink etc etc). My mobile number is 0438921081, give me a yell if you around the Gold Coast.

cheers

Hi Bill, sorry, i missed your post, didn't have access to a computer while in OZ. Thanks for the offer of a catch-up, would have been good.

i did get down to Surfers, but not for Wintersun. We had a free day Monday June 8 so i took a train down the coast, then a bus from nerang to mermaid beach where my oldest boy lives.

Spent a few hours with him which was awesome, hadn't seen him for 12 months. We had swim in the surf, did the Hard Rock Cafe lunch and beers thing, then I had to leave to be back in Brisbane for a 6pm farewell dinner.

The drags was amazing, seeing Top Fuel again was so cool, side-by-side 4 second passes at 325mph. We haven't had top fuel in NZ for more than a decade.

here are a few pics

Cheers

Alistair

[Guest]

Great pictures Alisair, can I ask what kind of camera you were using?

[Petrolhead]

Great pictures Alisair, can I ask what kind of camera you were using?

Thanks. It's just an old D60 Canon digital SLR for the moving shots, and a point and shoot canon for the crowd ones. I just use shutter priority, around 1/60 to 1/250 of a second depending on how fast the car is going, and 'pan' (pressing the shutter while the camera's folowing the car).

They were taken from the stands with a basic canon 80-200 zoom, some of the photos I cropped tighter in Photoshop.

These worked out okay, but there were a lot more 'misses' than 'hits'. (:

the top fueller with the engine blowing was just a lucky shot while I happened to be following it with the the camera in action mode.

I think three of four fuellers blew their engines, they're always good for an action photo


Cheers

[Penelope]

Cool shot's Alistair, and by the way for all here, Alistairs' magazine "Petrolhead" just had its 10th anniversary. My congratulations to you, it IS a great read.

I always thought Kiwi's had no brains - swimming in that weather you gotta be kidding me.

We will catch up next year at Big Al's in Perth eh?

[Coral]

Those pix are so clear and crisp they don't seem real!
the black one and the truck...they look like toys on a stage, LOL

Absolutely amazing!

[Petrolhead]

Cool shot's Alistair, and by the way for all here, Alistairs' magazine "Petrolhead" just had its 10th anniversary. My congratulations to you, it IS a great read.

I always thought Kiwi's had no brains - swimming in that weather you gotta be kidding me.

We will catch up next year at Big Al's in Perth eh?

Thanks Bill!

I tell ya, I don't why I'm in NZ in winter (:

It was 11 degrees C at home in Auckland on Monday, in Surfers it was 25 which is normally where our summer's at. I did think it odd that I was the only bod in the surf...

Perth does sound tempting...

Here's Surfers beach in the middle of an Aussie Queensland winter

[Anders]

Must go to NZ & Australia some day...
Have been in USA, South Africa and around 40 times in Japan, but never "down under". One of my sons have been there a few times and love it.
Great pics! Love the black Falcon, but hey, that engine looks funny

[Petrolhead]

Yeah Anders, that Falcon is too cool

The engine's a Brad Anderson 511 cubic inch V8, supercharged and injected. It looks a bit odd cos it has a blanket over the supercharger, so if the blower explodes it contains all the shrapnel.

The body is all carbon fibre. It does 6.4 seconds over the quarter mile, at 225mph

[Guest]

and by the way for all here, Alistairs' magazine "Petrolhead" just had its 10th anniversary. My congratulations to you, it IS a great read.

I went to Petrolhead website and I see Alistairs name as editor of New Zealand Rodder too. Very cool.
Congrats on the 10 year anniversary.

[Penelope]

My apologies here, I got the name wrong (age is my defense) Alistairs' magazine is NZ Rodder, but he also has a newspaper style publication called Petrolhead. It was NZ Rodders 10th birthday. Nice to see that he managed to squeeze in a pic of his Bird in the anniversary issue too, good work!