Club Run to Emerald Bank, Shepparton
19th April, 2015
19th April, 2015
We always seem to get lucky with the weather for our cruises, and once again the "Gods of Sunshine" were kind to us. Saturday night - cold, windy and misty rain, Sunday - clear skies and a sigh of relief from man and machine.
We met at Huntly at 9.30am for a 10am departure to Emerald Bank Leisure Land, just south of Shepparton. A lot of the usual suspects turned up for this outing, but it was also pleasing to have several previously unseen vehicles attending. Around 20 of us headed off out through Goornong and on to Rushworth for a morning tea break. The roads got a lot rougher after Rushworth and several of us got shaken up considerably (like me) due to lack of suspension travel. Might need shorter bump stops? Brendan (Pedders), got anything for me? Although it would be fair to assume I wasn't the only one that needed a kidney belt. It was then onto the smooth freeway and a nice run north into Shepparton.
The Motor Museum turned out to be much better than we all thought. Not only an array of classic muscle cars - Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Plymouth, Dodge, Ford and Chev - but also a huge range of motorcycles, some open wheel race cars, bicyles, trucks, tractors, ploughs, Furphy water tanks........ Amazing.
Everything in the Museum is donated or on loan and the main exhibits are changed regularly to create another different theme. A very well run business and well worth visiting again.
An absolute highlight of the museum visit was towards the end there were only 6 of us still inside when Graham, the Manager began talking to us. Someome asked what would be the most expensive vehicle on display - the black Shelby Mustang or perhaps something else? Well, parked right in front of us, and worth three quarters of a million dollars, was the un-assuming white '69 Boss 429 KK code Mustang. Impressive. Here's a link - some interesting facts on this Wikipedia site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_429
He opened the bonnet for us to have a closer look and as it opened we stood in awe of this machine. That is one huge engine. He explained some history of the vehicle, and how he could hear it coming from a kilometre away as the owner drove it to the Museum recently. He said the raw, mechanical noises that this factory original vehicle made, had the hairs on his arms standing up.
What a rare and unique opportunity to view this classic muscle car. Checkout the photos below - how about the size of those heads. Graham asked if we would like him to start it up. We liked. It took a few cranks before it fired. Like a dinosaur coming to life, the metalic, raw and powerful sound was amazing. It was like you could actually hear what was going on - the individual pistons sucking and the explosions. After a couple of blips on the throttle it eventually settled into a very rough idle. Although these things were built by Ford primarily to race, this is a completely factory original engine in factory original vehicle that you could easily buy ($4798) and drive on the street.
What were the Americans thinking in the late sixties........ Just crazy. Many thanks to Graham for giving us the opportunity for this unique experience.
After a huge lunch at the Peppercorn Inn, we said our goodbyes and split up. Six of us hit the road in a close convoy back to Bendigo. It seemed like there were a lot of slow cars in our way - that we just had to pass. Think of Adrian in the left hand drive Charger who needed to pull out a long way to check before passing. Hats off to you mate! And the sight of a 351 Fairmont, 440 Dodge, 460 Ford Coupe, RX4 Coupe, Mustang convertible, Pontiac Trans Am and XE Ford cruisin' down the highway. Cool.
Pulling in to the Goornong pub for a debrief we got the usual looks from the old locals out the front.........
From here we all went our separate ways, thinking "that was a hell of a lot of fun"!
Thanks to Hoota and the Events Committee for organising this cruise and also to Wayne for putting together and running the animal naming competition for the kids. Well done guys! Also thanks to Faye for supplying the "on the move" photos.
And to those that missed out and had various reasons and excuses, this is one you probably should have been part of.
We met at Huntly at 9.30am for a 10am departure to Emerald Bank Leisure Land, just south of Shepparton. A lot of the usual suspects turned up for this outing, but it was also pleasing to have several previously unseen vehicles attending. Around 20 of us headed off out through Goornong and on to Rushworth for a morning tea break. The roads got a lot rougher after Rushworth and several of us got shaken up considerably (like me) due to lack of suspension travel. Might need shorter bump stops? Brendan (Pedders), got anything for me? Although it would be fair to assume I wasn't the only one that needed a kidney belt. It was then onto the smooth freeway and a nice run north into Shepparton.
The Motor Museum turned out to be much better than we all thought. Not only an array of classic muscle cars - Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Plymouth, Dodge, Ford and Chev - but also a huge range of motorcycles, some open wheel race cars, bicyles, trucks, tractors, ploughs, Furphy water tanks........ Amazing.
Everything in the Museum is donated or on loan and the main exhibits are changed regularly to create another different theme. A very well run business and well worth visiting again.
An absolute highlight of the museum visit was towards the end there were only 6 of us still inside when Graham, the Manager began talking to us. Someome asked what would be the most expensive vehicle on display - the black Shelby Mustang or perhaps something else? Well, parked right in front of us, and worth three quarters of a million dollars, was the un-assuming white '69 Boss 429 KK code Mustang. Impressive. Here's a link - some interesting facts on this Wikipedia site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_429
He opened the bonnet for us to have a closer look and as it opened we stood in awe of this machine. That is one huge engine. He explained some history of the vehicle, and how he could hear it coming from a kilometre away as the owner drove it to the Museum recently. He said the raw, mechanical noises that this factory original vehicle made, had the hairs on his arms standing up.
What a rare and unique opportunity to view this classic muscle car. Checkout the photos below - how about the size of those heads. Graham asked if we would like him to start it up. We liked. It took a few cranks before it fired. Like a dinosaur coming to life, the metalic, raw and powerful sound was amazing. It was like you could actually hear what was going on - the individual pistons sucking and the explosions. After a couple of blips on the throttle it eventually settled into a very rough idle. Although these things were built by Ford primarily to race, this is a completely factory original engine in factory original vehicle that you could easily buy ($4798) and drive on the street.
What were the Americans thinking in the late sixties........ Just crazy. Many thanks to Graham for giving us the opportunity for this unique experience.
After a huge lunch at the Peppercorn Inn, we said our goodbyes and split up. Six of us hit the road in a close convoy back to Bendigo. It seemed like there were a lot of slow cars in our way - that we just had to pass. Think of Adrian in the left hand drive Charger who needed to pull out a long way to check before passing. Hats off to you mate! And the sight of a 351 Fairmont, 440 Dodge, 460 Ford Coupe, RX4 Coupe, Mustang convertible, Pontiac Trans Am and XE Ford cruisin' down the highway. Cool.
Pulling in to the Goornong pub for a debrief we got the usual looks from the old locals out the front.........
From here we all went our separate ways, thinking "that was a hell of a lot of fun"!
Thanks to Hoota and the Events Committee for organising this cruise and also to Wayne for putting together and running the animal naming competition for the kids. Well done guys! Also thanks to Faye for supplying the "on the move" photos.
And to those that missed out and had various reasons and excuses, this is one you probably should have been part of.
'69 Boss 429
We'll see you on a cruise somewhere!
