Loving my beast...again!

I haven't been very busy on the model front lately and this is why...

Last week Paul and I went to see the new Eric Bana movie Love the Beast. The movie was great - far exceeding my expectations in both quality of story and production. It also struck a real chord with me and inspired me to get back to my passion for amateur motorsport.

This is my beast. It's a 1974 E33 Charger (factory 265 Hemi, 4 speed, 770 trim) that I have had for about 15 years. It was my P-plate car, so I have a lot of memories and sentiment tied up in it. And like Eric, loads of my friends and family have helped me over the years to resurrect what was a $1000 rust bucket into a pretty tidy and versatile street car.

Back in 1995 I went up to Winton with a friend who had a Windsor small block XE Falcon and we raced our cars in a club sprint day (truth being, we raced on the road for three hours all the way up there, raced around on the track all day and then raced all the way home again...those were the days!). Anyway, I can't believe they let me out on the track - the bonnet was tied down with fencing twine, I had no tailshaft loop and I had more rust in the car than one of Andy's models. I think they took pity on the poor kid who drove his rust bucket up from Melbourne. The car was a piece of shit and handled like an obese walrus - I had chest bruises from the seat belt and actually got told off for having my right arm out the window (it was the only way I could stay upright) but I had an absolute blast and have been chasing the amateur motorsport dragon ever since.

Over the next decade I pumped lots of money into a new engine, new suspension, LSD diff, etc. but it was never as much fun as that first time. Mainly because it seemed that everytime I fixed something, something else would break.

Back in 2004 I competed in a club sprint at Sandown and through no fault of my own (racing drivers always say that, don't they...) collected the Armco railing coming out of the Dandenong Rd corner. And so my beast sat in my garage, along with my shattered ego, until last Tuesday. Work is pretty slow at the moment so I've been working away at this every day since and am pretty stoked with the result. Should be able to get some colour on tomorrow and be back on the road by the weekend! And hopefully back at the track not too long after.

Looks sweet!! How bout a scale version??

nice mate, if the movie inspired you to fix up the ol' dust collector It might even convince me to start pluggin away at mums kingsy!

Looks much better when it's not crinkled!!.....lets not take it to Tumut though as I think we would go broke feeding the green machine

Can't wait to hear it when your done!!

Good to see the old girl getting some lovin`.

It's about time!

Inspires me a bit as well to get the old P76 out of storage but that's another day and another story, on yea by the way Shoey that's the Marathon car I was talking about in U'r thread.

Dingo

Good to see!! Get it back on track, maybe we can run together soon!

Good on you Bryce. You're doing something I always wanted to do but never got around to (racing). I've restored cars before and believe me it takes lots of time and money just to get them back on the road in good nick, but to race as well was out of my league.

Go for it mate - I wish you every success.

This (along with the crap weather) has been keeping me away from the model bench a bit lately. Repairs are all finished and painted - just need to give it a buff and put it all back together. Should be back on the road this weekend I hope...




And here's what I've been spending my hard earned money on - a set of Yokohama Advans. Just look at those gorgeous big chunks of rubber. Can't wait to get these babies on the track...



RS2000 - I'm planning to make it down to Phillip Island at the end of next month - will you be there...?

Nice work, and the tyres look sweet but what happened with the rims? those ones look a tad more modern then what you were going to get.

Paul wrote:Nice work, and the tyres look sweet but what happened with the rims? those ones look a tad more modern then what you were going to get.

Thanks - the rims are gay I know, but they were less than half the price of American Racing Torq Thrusts and I decided to put the money into new front brakes instead of bling. I can get new heat treated 300mm slotted and drilled rotors and twin spot calipers as a bolt on kit - happy days!

I don't blame ya! those brakes will be great, plus you have the jelly beans for street duty if need be.

Paul wrote:I don't blame ya! those brakes will be great, plus you have the jelly beans for street duty if need be.

Nope - new brakes need minimum 15 inch wheels, so need new street wheels as well if I want to keep it on the road. Might be in the market for new wheels after all...

Yeppum, it could be a good excuse to get another set for street duty!!

Due to fitting bigger front brakes, I'm in the market for some new wheels but want to keep some retro style. I really like the look of the old American Racing Torq Thrusts but I am a little concerned about spending my hard earned money on new 15" rims as they may well stop making decent tyres at that size soon. Let's face it, 16" is pretty much the minimum wheel size for large cars these days...

Found these on the net this morning - anyone know what they are, who makes them and where you can get them?

Bryce wrote:...Let's face it, 16" is pretty much the minimum wheel size for large cars these days...

Tell me about it.
I've got a set of 14" VK fitment Globe lookalikes i'm trying to shift (admittedly i'm not trying very hard).

zenrat wrote:

Bryce wrote:...Let's face it, 16" is pretty much the minimum wheel size for large cars these days...

Tell me about it.
I've got a set of 14" VK fitment Globe lookalikes i'm trying to shift (admittedly i'm not trying very hard).

Good luck mate - gonna be a hard sell seeing as you can't get any decent tyres any more...

Great to see the Beast on the road Bryce

....can't wait to see it with some bigger hoops

Nice car but can you do some thing about the mirror. Looks wrong to me and spoils the look of the car.

I think he only just broke it, hence the duct tape holding it together!!

Mirrors are for looking back - I'm too busy going forward!

mmm green... green is nice.

Bryce wrote:

zenrat wrote:

Bryce wrote:...Let's face it, 16" is pretty much the minimum wheel size for large cars these days...

Tell me about it.
I've got a set of 14" VK fitment Globe lookalikes i'm trying to shift (admittedly i'm not trying very hard).

Good luck mate - gonna be a hard sell seeing as you can't get any decent tyres any more...

It probably doesn't help that they are not a set. 3 are polished and one is lacquered.
Worst case scenario is I keep them and then HAVE to buy something to fit them on. They looked pretty good on the VK wagon they came off. Especially with fat tyres on the back and skinnies on the front...

Charger looks seriously good there. You can't believe how jealous I am.

Bastard.

Bryce wrote:Mirrors are for looking back - I'm too busy going forward!

I'LL pay that one.