Classic Japan 2019
Have been really looking forward to today! The previous weekend the RX4 had been out in the rain on the Club cruise to Numurkah "Show Us Ya Wheels" and this weekend we headed to Classic Japan 2109 held at Birrarung Mar in Melbourne. It was the first time the rotor had been wet by choice last weekend and this was the first time driving in the CBD of Melbourne in 30 years I've owned it. A little daunting.
No rain this weekend though , so should be a good day weatherwise. It was an awesome cruise down to Melbourne, windows down, the smell of R30 two stroke fumes - nothing better. I'ts a fairly easy car to drive, and despite the expected traffic bottlenecks after the Bolte, then the exit to Power St, we had a good run to Birrrarung Mar. Very cool driving in and parking with a couple of hundred other JDM muscle cars - apart from the Toyota official parking man that thought we were all idiots and was yelling parking instructions to every driver. We parked as people walked around looking at the rotor. Got talking to a guy that saw the SelecMaz sticker on the rear window and said that his dad had worked there in the 80's / 90's and might have been the one that built the motor. Good job!
I'd invited Greg - the original "builder" of the RX4 back in the mid 80's - to come along and he turned up with his son James. It was very exciting for him to be seeing his old girl that he'd built, and then had sold in 1986 to help fund a new house for his young family. The car still looked pretty much the same as he remembered it. New air cleaner - filter socks were gone, electric fans/shroud replacing the seized viscous fan, new tyres and new exhaust. Everything else was as he remembered it. That was good moment. He was excited and we talked for over an hour.
Tash had also came - with her camera - which Tom soon grabbed and started taking multiple shots of everything! Budding photographer for sure. We wandered around for several hours admiring everything from stock Japanese vehicles through to wild customs and drift cars.
All too soon it was over and we were leaving. I reckoned the easiest way out was straight up Batman and onto Exhibition then Flemington Rd. Wasn't counting on it being so busy on a Sunday night and it took quite a while, but we eventually got through and after a short stop at Keilor we hit the open freeway for home. We didn't quite make it home on a full tank of fuel and had to top up in Kangaroo Flat, but not a bad job on 50ltrs.
It had been an awesome day, with the Rotor now covered in dust and hundreds of bugs , but home safe and sound and tucked away until the next time. There has been some conversation about taking both the RX4 and the RX7 to Classic Japan next year.....
No rain this weekend though , so should be a good day weatherwise. It was an awesome cruise down to Melbourne, windows down, the smell of R30 two stroke fumes - nothing better. I'ts a fairly easy car to drive, and despite the expected traffic bottlenecks after the Bolte, then the exit to Power St, we had a good run to Birrrarung Mar. Very cool driving in and parking with a couple of hundred other JDM muscle cars - apart from the Toyota official parking man that thought we were all idiots and was yelling parking instructions to every driver. We parked as people walked around looking at the rotor. Got talking to a guy that saw the SelecMaz sticker on the rear window and said that his dad had worked there in the 80's / 90's and might have been the one that built the motor. Good job!
I'd invited Greg - the original "builder" of the RX4 back in the mid 80's - to come along and he turned up with his son James. It was very exciting for him to be seeing his old girl that he'd built, and then had sold in 1986 to help fund a new house for his young family. The car still looked pretty much the same as he remembered it. New air cleaner - filter socks were gone, electric fans/shroud replacing the seized viscous fan, new tyres and new exhaust. Everything else was as he remembered it. That was good moment. He was excited and we talked for over an hour.
Tash had also came - with her camera - which Tom soon grabbed and started taking multiple shots of everything! Budding photographer for sure. We wandered around for several hours admiring everything from stock Japanese vehicles through to wild customs and drift cars.
All too soon it was over and we were leaving. I reckoned the easiest way out was straight up Batman and onto Exhibition then Flemington Rd. Wasn't counting on it being so busy on a Sunday night and it took quite a while, but we eventually got through and after a short stop at Keilor we hit the open freeway for home. We didn't quite make it home on a full tank of fuel and had to top up in Kangaroo Flat, but not a bad job on 50ltrs.
It had been an awesome day, with the Rotor now covered in dust and hundreds of bugs , but home safe and sound and tucked away until the next time. There has been some conversation about taking both the RX4 and the RX7 to Classic Japan next year.....
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We'll see you on a cruise somewhere!
