Ford vs Ferrari Movie Review 08 April 2020 08:21 Rare Spares General, Rare Spares (0) SharePolitics. When you read the word you would normally go to Liberal v Labor, Republicans v Democrats...for those that have and do work in the fields of motorsport and car sales, the word is just as applicable.The 2019 film Ford vs Ferrari is about politics in those fields. Yet, the title is largely about the sub-plot of what happened between Enzo Ferrari and Henry Ford the second. [More]
Supercars Abroad 26 February 2020 07:08 Rare Spares General, Rare Spares (0) ShareSupercars, as they are now known, and previously as the V8 Supercars and Australian Touring Car Championship, have had a strong presence in this country for quite some time now. Followers have seen Falcons, Commodores, Skylines, and more, pound the circuits of Australia.However, there were occasional excursions to places other than Sydney or Perth or tracks in Tasmania. And for the sake of prudency we’ll also include New Zealand as we’re looking at locations such as Europe or Japan. [More]
Electric Manual Mustang 12 February 2020 09:07 Rare Spares General, Rare Spares (0) ShareThe Ford Mustang Lithium is an “ultra-high-performance battery electric Mustang fastback prototype” says Ford, and packs a high voltage punch. In equivalent terms, power and torque are rated at 670kW and a truly staggering 1355Nm of twist. Remembering that electric motors produce maximum torque at zero revs, this amount of torque is on tap as soon as the go-button is pressed. [More]
SEMA Wrap Up 01 January 2020 07:25 Rare Spares General, Rare Spares (0) Share There are car shows, and there are car SHOWS. We’ve used capitals in this case as we’re talking SEMA. The Speciality Equipment Market Association holds a massive get together once a year and has done so since 1963 after a number of automotive aftermarket parts makers, including Dean Moon and Vic Edelbrock saw a niche that needed filling. [More]
Summernats 19 December 2019 01:58 Rare Spares General, Rare Spares (0) Share It’s regarded as Australia’s biggest horsepower party and was once famous for BBB. Beer, boobs, and burnouts. Summernats has gone hard in recent years to make the BBB more bbb. There are still boob, beer, and burnouts, but the reliance and focus on those as what made it Summernats has been changed. [More]
Round 6 Super 2 Series – Sandown 500 Race Report - Adam Marjoram 20 November 2019 07:38 Rare Spares General, Rare Spares (0) Share Round 6 of the Championship, the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 has been run and won, but for me it was a tough weekend in the office. They say motor racing is character building, and if you can’t take disappointment don’t go motor racing. Well last weekend proved those statements to be true, especially after ending Bathurst with a blown engine. My strong performance during the year has taken a battering in the last two rounds. Stick with me and I will let you know how it unfolded. [More]
Rare Spares Top Five Bathurst 1000 Races 13 August 2019 06:22 Rare Spares General, Rare Spares (0) ShareMotorsport in Australia, as a topic of conversation, is one that’s up there with like/dislike Ricky Gervais, should pineapple be on a pizza, is Peter Helliar actually funny, for dividing people’s opinion. Who’s the greatest driver, was the 1978 Torana the best car, which was the greatest of the great races at Bathurst? Given the history of the yearly event that is “Bathurst”, pinning down a top five most exciting races from over fifty races is always going to be fraught with danger. We don’t expect our list to be yours. But we would love to know what you think your top five are. [More]
The technical side of the Mustang in Supercars 30 July 2019 05:17 Rare Spares General, Rare Spares (0) ShareSports have rules, regulations, guidelines. Sometimes they’re easily interpreted and implemented, sometimes they’re not.Motorsport is a great example of this, and in 2019 there’s been a measure of controversy about a new entrant to the category now known as Supercars.Ford’s Mustang is the new kid on the block, and it’s been greeted with both open arms and raised eyebrows. The main cause of its mixed reception has been to do with the regulations that Supercars run and this has affected the aerodynamics of the car that’s been built. [More]
Super2 Mid-Season Recap 17 July 2019 11:37 Rare Spares General, Rare Spares (0) ShareSuper2 is the name given to the second level of Supercars racing in Australia. It’s undergone a number of name changes in recent years, but the level of entertainment and gripping racing hasn’t. It’s provided a home for superseded top tier Supercars, and is a place for drivers aiming to enter the big league to test themselves in close quarter racing. Naturally there is some big money being moved around on track in the form of Commodore, Falcon, and Nissan shaped cars. All of these are draped in sponsorship logos and proudly representing Rare Spares is Perth born Adam Marjoram. The West Aussie is no stranger to high performance racing. The Saloon Cars category and Porsche GT3s have felt the Marjoram touch, before finding a place in the biff and barge that was V8 Utes. The talented Marjoram quickly caught the eye of Erebus Motorsport and the dynamic Betty Klimenko. After rapid growth in racing stature here and almost winning the V8 Ute Championship in 2015, Marjoram entered the Super2 category and raced the Ford FG Falcon in a tough competition in 2016. 2017 and Marjoram moves into a Holden VF Commodore, where he remains but now with the Image Racing/Erebus Motorsport team. There have been two rounds of the Super2 with Adelaide and Perth having seen the cars on circuit so far. Qualifying for the Rare Spares backed driver wasn’t kind for his first 2019 race, starting from 11th, but did manage to make his way up through to 9th. Race 2 was a better result, with Marjoram getting good pace on the tight Adelaide street circuit and finishing in 6th. Round 2 saw the category head to Barbagallo, a circuit that Marjoram knows well. Up against some serious competition, and just weeks away from his 26th birthday, Marjoram’s first race was forgettable, with no result against his name after reaching 7th. Brake failure took him out of a top 8 finish on the last lap and took him out of serious points contention. Race 2 saw Adam climb from 10th to 6th off the start, only to be muscled off the track on lap 3, dropping to 12th and driving back through to 10th. Round 3 was held in rainy conditions in the normally sunny town of Townsville. Race 1 Adam qualified 13th and was in contention for pole but a last second error took that out of his hands. The race itself saw him finish as high as 6th. This would be where he would finish in Race 1, and in Race 2 just had nowhere to go. Most of the second race was held under safety car conditions due to the inclement weather. A second 6th will be in his history books for the third round of Super2s in 2019. Adam says of Rare Spares that he aligns with them due to their passion for motorsport, and enjoys their like minded attitude when it comes to cars and the aftermarket automotive industry. For the rest of the year he says a podium is well and truly within sight, and by continuing to harass the top five, he’s certain that a podium finish and a chance to spray the champers is his! Are you a follower of Super2 and/or Adam Marjoram? Let us know your thoughts on the category and this talented and engaging Perth born driver via our blog feedback section.
1970s Aussie Street Machines 19 June 2019 12:17 Rare Spares General, Rare Spares (0) ShareStreet Machine. Two words that, for a slowly diminishing band of brothers, mean a lifestyle, a form of rebellion, a chance to self-expression via changes to sheetmetal, shoehorning into a tight engine bay a donk that shouldn’t fit but does, or layers of luscious custom “kandy” pearl paint. Although largely a forgotten scene in the eyes of the public, street machine aficionados will be happy to tell you the cars and the lifestyle are alive and well, and that there are names as revered in the field as McCartney is in music or Hawking in science. One particular magazine, born of the era, and still living in an age of electronic media, was originally called Street Machine and Van Wheels. That second part provides an echo of the past, with panel vans from Holden, Ford, Chrysler, and a smattering of others, part of street machining history. One such entry was the 1977 HZ Holden panel van of Greg Mercer. Starting with a clean sheet, Mercer and his dedicated team reworked every aspect of the humble HZ. Gull wing style doors, flares, a TV in the interior watched whilst one relaxes on shagpile carpet and an enlarged rear window in the tailgate, plus a huge mural on the rear flanks, mark this one as having history in both the panel van era and as a street machine. Rodney Neal cast his eyes over the coke-bottle flanks of an 1973 XA Falcon “tudor” in bright yellow, liked what he saw, but thought to himself it’s lacking in.....big rear rubber, a lowered road scraping stance, and a “Clevo” fitted with one of the biggest “huffers” available at the time, breathing through a scoop big enough to catch whales. Rodney dreamt, and his dream came true in the form of the eyeball searing “Lethal Weapon”. Kevin Monk etched his name into street machine history with a car so good, its American based body has many thinking it was modified in the States. Nope. His 1970 Dodge Challenger is a work of art and all homegrown down under. Slammed to a floor meets tarmac stance, coated in a red paint so deep one could drown in it, Monk’s epic work was powered by an engine Thor was scared of. Packed with all of the proper go-fast good bits, the alloy 426ci monster churned out a massive 1000 ponies in its time. Sometimes a street machine can look for all the world like a car that’s had some big tyres melted on to the rims and not much else. Craige Wood had a Falcon XW/XY ute that looked a little like this, with the addition of a pair of oil refinery draining carbies bolted to the top of a meaty 429ci engine. A resprayed body hides hundreds of hours of painstaking work underneath, chromed bumpers were filed and straightened to look like new, and huge Cragar 15x12 alloys at the back add up to a noticeable yet subtle looking piece of street machine history. Our final pick is one that Australia had never seen the likes of before, and has not seen since. Allan Cooper had a philosophy that mirrored the two “O”s in his name. Cooper took a Holden HQ ute, painted it black and called it Blo Bak. He added an extra pair of tail lights for a 2x2 look, filled in the tailgate’s gaps and added a spoiler to crown the tail lights, added fins from the ute’s roof down to the spoiler and that was almost enough. No sir. Clad in silver paint and slotting in a 253ci up front, Blo bak 2 was born. Out back, slap bang in the middle of the ute’s tray, is a heavily reworked and blown 350ci Chev carried over from the first version. Power goes to the ground via a TH425 transaxle “tranny” and the rubber wraps Moon wheels. Are you a street machiner? Own a car that is a street machine? Tell us your story via our blog comments or drop us a line via our social media links. (Pictures courtesy of Which Car and Street Machine)