UK appreciation of an Aussie icon

[Nick Short]

Just took my Cobra in for its annual UK roadworthiness test, and the other mechanics immediately downed tools and wandered over to have a gawp at it. None of them had seen anything like it before, although several clocked that it was the same body shape as the Mad Max Interceptor. They were amazed to know that Australia had cars of its own, so I went home and got a few issues of AMC to show them Toranas, Chargers, older Falcons etc. Blokes started turning up in their cars from businesses in the area, as the mechanics were on their mobiles to them to tell them to come down! Other customers' cars that were in for testing were being neglected as the blokes poked around under the bonnet etc. So it seems that despite Mad Max being so popular over here, and despite the Monaro coming over as a Vauxhall, and despite Fords and Holdens being imported for over 30 years, there is still a universal ignorance of Aussie cars, even though when people see them they go crazy over them! How strange is that? Biante could sell a lot more models if there was a bit more knowledge over here. A guy called Sandy Mercer has done a lot to raise the profile of Aussie Fords, and there are other enthusiasts doing the same for Holden, HSV and Chrysler, but there's still less knowledge than there is for US cars.

[Kiwiracing]

Nick can you catch any rounds of the V8's on TV up there at all?

Cheers
Kiwiracing

[moxo]

Go about 3/4 of the way down the page!!!!



http://www.sniffpetrol.com/issue049.html


Moxo

[timbo333]

Very funny that sniff petrol publication..............:D

Cheers Moxo.

Timbo.

[Nick Short]

We get the V8 Supercars on at 4am, a couple of weeks after the race, on a channel that just buys coverage of any old motorsport to fill its schedules. I doubt more than 6 people watch it! You'd think with the attention Aussie cars get that SOMEone would think "I'd like to find out more". But no. I guess it's only recently the Americans have cottoned on to Aussie cars, perhaps because before now they assumed they were American......and certainly at the car show last year I heard people saying they'd owned a Cobra "years ago" (when mine was the first to ever get to the UK), or that it was a type of Mustang. And the Interceptor parked next to me was apparently a Ford Torino. Amazing ignorance!

[ferrari fan]

25 years ago, I also did not know ANYTHING about Australian cars, and always been a car(mad) kid this can only be explained in No Info Available!
There was a strip in the PEP magazine called Michael Valliant, racing in Le Mans, I thought that a Valliant was an imagination of a carricaturedrawing publisisor, imagine my supprice on arrival in this Sensational country, not only Marsipials on 2 legs , but also real cars on 4 wheels,fat ones at that, with serious cubic capacity !!, 2000 cc is BIG in Europe, a startermotor here for a real engine:D
First car I did buy was a VALLIANT Regal station wagon!! Mint Machine