Drew's Toy Cars

My Life in Cars: 2010 to 2020 We moved from Bardon in Brisbane to Chapel Hill in 2000, spent 3 years from 2007 in Abu Dhabi UAE then to Helensvale on the Gold Coast on our return. Mitsubishi Pajero Series IV 2007 V6 silver LPG Our third Pajero, again the V6 but dual fuel with LPG and secondhand. Again a nice car. Good on the highway and a deceptively small footprint and tight steering for round town and parking. When we bought the car it had an engine error of no gap on an exhaust valve from the hot-burning LPG. Under warranty, it took the dealer 6 weeks and thousands in spare parts before they found the problem. The car was set up for 4WD touring but we didn't do much in the 8 years we had the car. Toyota Kluger AWD KX-R 2010 new Not long after returning from UAE Judy leased a Toyota Kluger AWD KX-R. A VS with 185 kW, it needed AWD rather than 2WD for high-speed commuting from Gold Coast to Brisbane on the M1. While quite powerful for a big SUV, handling was a bit like a barge. ...

My Life in Cars: Queensland 1985 to 2000 We moved to Brisbane in 1985 taking HX van from Victoria plus an auction car. We sure go through a lot of cars! Commodore VC station wagon light green Bought at govt auction in Melbourne and transported to Qld unregistered; seemed like a good idea at the time. Mistakes: Manual not auto for Brisbane's steep hills, No air conditioning but I did install it. 2850 engine. Nice enough in the end Toyota Corona auto gold We replaced the Commodore wagon in 1988 when Judy had trouble with the clutch while expecting our second child. Pretty ordinary car. Turned out to be a bit of a cut and shut with the roof being replaced. Commodore VN sedan white auto We replaced the Corona with an ex-police VN Commodore auto sedan from the government auction for $12k in about 1990. Nice car but expensive. Replaced with first of our Pajeros. Mercedes 220S 1956 Roundie Ponton; Hobby car I bought a 1956 Mercedes 220S Roundie as a hobby car. I liked the look of them. Th...

 My life in cars: Victoria 1975 to 1985 This post covers the cars I owned from my first in late 1974 up until we moved to Queensland in 1985. We lived in Bayswater in Melbourne for most of the time. As well as cars we used as daily drivers, I bought and sold some damaged cars that I repaired and repainted. It was fun at the time. In hindsight, I should have kept all these cars as they are worth a fortune now, especially the Escorts and Datsun. Probably old blokes like me blowing their super on reliving their youth! Ford Escort Mark 1 Van My first car after coming off my motorbike at high speed in early 1974. Dad found the 1972 Escort van at a dealer in Bendigo, from memory it was $1900 as it was not very old. I had the van until the early 1980s, a long time and did over 100,000 km in it, including trips from Melbourne to Western Australia and to Cairns. I remember being very ripped-off when fuel had been hiked to 19 c/litre on the way to WA! There wasn't much I didn't do to th...

My life in cars: Motorbikes I bought my first motorbike in late 1972 to get to high school rather than ride my bike. Trouble with sore knees was the excuse. I went through them in pretty quick succession until a high-speed accident quickly convinced me to buy a car. Yamaha 100 Trail My first bike in late 1972, licence at 17 in NSW vs friends in Victoria at 18, was a secondhand early 1970s Yamaha 100 two-stroke. It had been a farm bike and had knobbly tyres; not good for riding on the street. A good little bike but a bit small as I was 185 cm and 95 kg at the time. I used to ride out to my friend's dairy farms about 20 km from Moama. I burnt the rings while riding home one night at speed. I fixed it with a new piston and rings but upgraded the bike in 1973. Honda CB250 The next bike was a secondhand early 1970s Honda CB250 twin four-stroke in late 1973 my last year at high school. Nice bike. Good for touring. No baffles in the muffler so a bit noisy on a long trip. I used it to get ...

 My life in cars: Family cars A bit of nostalgia, the family cars I remember. My family was 2 adults and 3 kids. We had two cars as my father had a butcher shop in Echuca, Victoria, so one was for deliveries. The photos are from the web, not actual cars we owned. Colours may be different. Armstrong Siddley Ute-Coupe 2+2 The first car I can remember that my family had in the early 1960s. Unusual that it had front and back seats in a ute. Morris Isis The larger, 6 cylinder Morris Isis rather than the smaller, more common Oxford. On occasions we would have 2 adults and seven kids in the car; my family of 5 and 4 cousins. All before seat belts. The mid to late 1960s. EK Holden Panel Van The first of the shop cars. It had the shop's details sign written on the back of the van. The mid-1960s. Kids in the back. Mazda 800 Estate, the little green Mazda The car I learned to drive in 1972 and used until I left home to go to university in Melbourne in 1974. Great little car. 800 cc engine wit...

Mercedes and Classic Car Magazines and Books Magazines and general books relevant to all Mercedes models and classic and custom cars in general. Mercedes specific magazines Mercedes Enthusiast Mercedes Tuner (German) Mercedes Driver Mercedes Owner Mercedes Performance (single issue) Buy and read at https://pocketmags.com/  Classic Car Magazines New Zealand Classic Car Classic & Sports Car Hemmings Muscle Machines Classics Monthly Hemmings Motor News Classic Cars UK Classic Sports Car France Unique Cars Australia Just Cars Classic Motor Auto Plus Classique Classic & Sports Car Practical Classics Practical Performance Car Autoretro France Engine Builder Old Cars Weekly Motor Klassik  German Car Mechanics Sources for magazines Most current and back issues of the magazines listed above can be found in these sites. https://pocketmags.com/  Paid per issue or series, paper and pdf https://www.pdfmagaz.in/  Free Can filter by language, English  Novafile https://...

 USA Custom and Classic Car Streaming TV Shows in Australia An easy-to-use system for watching USA or UK streaming TV in Australia on a TV that defeats geo-blocking. The Roku remote controls the whole system. Wife-friendly! I use an Nvidia Shield box for local TV and streaming on a Panasonic TV downstairs, and a Sony TV upstairs. Specific streaming services for custom and classic cars/trucks and motorsport include Motortrend (USA) and Lucus Oil TV (USA). Both have dozens of shows. Other channels of interest are Britbox (USA not UK), Hulu, and the Roku channel. All are paid subscriptions for the full service at ~$10 per month each. UK TV includes the BBC and ITV plus many others. The components are a Roku streaming box (~$100 plus ~$10/month subscription), a secondary VPN router (~US$150), and a VPN service (~$10/month). Not cheap but way less than car bits! I have tried about every other way possible to do this and the Roku with a secondary ExpressVPN router is by far the best...