The Austin Healey Sprite Drivers? Club which is based in Melbourne, organised an early morning run down to our Breakfast Club gathering this month. When they arrived their cars were joined by four local Spridgets in an impressive display containing a cross section of the model range, including a rare US Export rubber bumper model with the Triumph Spitfire motor. ?It was fortunate that an area had been reserved for the Sprites because parking space was certainly at a premium. The fine weather attracted about 70 sports and classic cars into Warragul, quickly filling the southern section of the car park and spilling out into the supermarket area as well as onto Victoria Street.
As always, there were several ?new? cars showing up this month. A very original Type 3 VW Wagon drew my attention as did a serious sounding Shelby 500 Mustang replica. There was also a very tidy, early ?Porsche 911 and a late model Austin Mini that at a first glance looked just like our Australian Minis until you noticed the bigger windows, lack of exposed door hinges and a myriad of other small changes that never made it Down Under. ?A red Mini 850 with flared guards and P plates made an appearance and found a park next to a classic Falcon GT ? two more contrasting vehicles would be hard to find; but a very tidy, blue ?67 Mustang on a set of Minilite-style wheels was my pick of the debutantes.
Ray Gymer and Ray Youlden brought along their 6-Hour Relay cars still emblazoned with competition numbers on the Porsche and track grime on the unwashed M3 BMW. Gus Luke?s MGA which featured on the front of last month?s IDLE CHATTER, has had its oil leaks fixed and this time left behind a clean parking space on departure. Occasionally a commercial vehicle or 4-wheel drive will show up to our gathering, this month an early International Scout wagon on Club Permit plates stood tall alongside a late model Renault Magane.
As usual there was plenty of variety in the vehicles on display and people hung around until quite late in the morning before heading off to enjoy the drive home.
Photos?from?Malcolm Irwin and your editor.
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