America: f**k yeah

What's doing. This post follows on from two others - one of mine where I went on and on and bloody ON about my thing for old-school US and Australian muscle cars of the late '60s and early '70s; and one of YDog's where he took his camera through an Iowan antique car museum and snapped a bunch of cool old stuff vintaged up to the 50s. As a response I thought I'd dig out this lot of photos of some more recent American iron from earlier in the year.

But first let me introduce you to a friend of mine.

This is Monster version 1.0. He's the good looking one.
Back on the first weekend in March, on a sunny Saturday afternoon (back when there WAS SUN in Dunedin, for fuck's sake), he and I rocked up to the the 20th annual USA Day, a showcase of American muscle cars and the like, held at the Tahuna Park showgrounds near St Kilda beach. Never been before and was astonished by the scale of the thing. Fill a football ground to bursting with rows of parked, gleaming US iron from throughout the 20th century - but mostly from the US muscle car heyday of the 60s/70s - turn on the sunshine and the BBQ, and there's your prescription for a Good Day. (Going to the Super 14/Shihad double-bill at Carisbrook after dark was a pretty epic, if deafening, ending - but that's another story entirely.)

First-gen Camaros are my pick of the US muscle car oeuvre. Dunno why. Maybe it's because they're something of an American equivalent of the same-era HK-HG Monaro GTS, my favourite out of the locals (apart from maybe the LJ Torana XU1... or the A9X hatch... or one of the early Brock HDT Commodores... or a VH Charger R/T...)

Or maybe it's just 'cos I've got the shirt to match. The MC5: Detroit's other great fire-breathing, high-octane export of the late '60s.

Couple more Gen I Camaros, early and late vintage. This gives a hint of the scale of the thing - here we're about midway across the paddock and the scene stretchs right to the edge of the dunes. Not bad for a town of a hundred thousand. Car clubs from all over the land contribute to the festivities, of course.

They weren't exactly short of Camaros, anyway.

Or 'Vettes.
Or 'Stangs. Or GTOs. Or Mopars. Or even the odd AMC Javelin.

Fair representation of Dodge Challengers too. To be honest I reckon the Challenger would have been largely forgotten by the passage of time had it not been for two things - one, the movie Vanishing Point (and the Audioslave music vid tribute which came out a few years back), and two, Dodge releasing a fucking awesome remake of the thing, in line with Ford exhuming the Mustang and GM the Camaro.

It's Deep Purple, it's from 1972 and it's heavy metal. Would that make it Machine Head?

Plymouth Superbird behind M1 there - best known these days for its role in Pixar's Cars. You can't tell I'm a parent yeah?

'Starsky and Hutch' Ford Torino. A God-awful fugly lump of shite, but still cool. In a God-awful fugly kind of way.

Generation II Camaro. Not as cool as the first gen, but this particular one was pretty tidy.

Original Pontiac Goat (as distinct from the Monaro-based thing they were selling more recently). Though M1 more interested in something over THERE.

Or over THERE maybe? '78 Corvette Stingray (not really as painfully shiny-white as this, M1 just kindly smeared his fingers across the lens at some stage before the day's proceedings) with a early '70s Plymouth GTX.

Plenty of Ford stuff of course, just didn't photograph it because (a) Fords are ghey and (b) there's only so many pristine '65 Mustang Fastbacks you can look at before going 'How much for one again?' There's a dealer in South D that seems to specialise in them, the bastard. Anyway, two alternative takes on Blue Ovaldom - a Shelby Cobra and a NASCAR Thunderbird from the late 80s. Both probably replicas but who cares.

Original 1970 Challenger R/T in Hemi Orange. Just like M1's favourite Hot Wheels car (though technically that's a newbie.)

Bit over the 'Vettes now.

Plymouth Barracuda with a 383 Hemi and a plutonium-green paintjob. See this one around town occasionally. Numberplate reads 'SAVGAS' (suffixed in small text with 'FOR ME TO USE')

This was our (my) favourite - a '68 Camaro SS 350, gold with black GT stripes. Want. Now. That or the shiny black Z28 from the T-shirt photo.

Time to go now. Bye bye!

The Doctor is OUT.