Ralph Savelsberg is a sensible European and the first to find a prime parking spot with his sensible European first generation Volkswagen Golf GTi, also known as the granddaddy of hot hatches. Customization makes no sense to the likes of Ralph when purist, unmolested sensibilities are really the true path to enlightenment.
This is a sensibility often shared by Peter Blackert as evidenced by this restored "minor classic" in the shape of a lime green 1970 Peugeot 504 Cabriolet. Most Peugeots are a bit boring to look at, but the 504 Coupe and Cabriolet, both styled and assembled by Pininfarina, are a classy and subtle choice for a car enthusiast to enjoy. Even you, Ralph.
This US-version 1963 Ford Falcon Sprint Convertible can be said to be a forerunner to the more famous Ford Mustang. All the basic elements that make it a Mustang were there. While the Falcon platform died out here in the states after a very short run, the name continued in Australia right up until earlier this month! Gasp! What will Peter do if his job goes?
Perhaps he'll be a bellhop, a Walmart greeter, or a topless barista. On second thought, they might better appreciate his Ford engineering experience over at Fiat. This 1969 FIAT Sport Spider Convertible with a clean, rust-free body would make a great project car to get him started. He'll just have to learn to engineer everything smaller and more Italian-like.
Peter, can you become really passionate about wine, sex and pasta and fake an Italian accent? No? Then perhaps your straight-laced engineering sensibilities would go well here in the US, where engaging in all of the above could get you drunk/arrested/bloated and labeled as insensitive, respectively. Here is a 1961 Custom Ford Thunderbird Hardtop apparently from my photostream.
Seems Peter takes a lot of inspiration from my photostream and car shows I've been to. This says nothing about the dozen or so car shows I've been too lazy to post. Anyway, here is a 1950 Chevrolet Styleline Convertible from my stream sporting what Peter calls "a nice saggy arse". No, my dad didn't accidentally get into the shot, however what you see is a fig of an older, wiser Lino with an accurately depicted graying beard.
I may be older, wiser, and my IQ is considerably higher than average. However, this doesn't preclude me from doing some intensely stupid shit, like setting paper planes on fire or driving my Fiat 500 down the wrong way of a one way street. Celebrating the very embodiment of stupidity and youthful exuberance is this custom Toyota Celica SX Liftback.
Another gem pilfered from my photostream is this 1956 Chevrolet 210 4-door Hardtop & Cargo Trailer built by this proud father and son team. Tan and olive green make this (I would assume) a period correct restoration suitable enough to appease Ralph's unmolested sensibilities.
Right in the middle of Peter's usual deluge, Lino Martins chimes in with a Team Oz entry that he calls the Holden Brute. Apparently I missed the memo about unmolested sensibilities being the path to enlightenment. Surely there is a place in car-guy Valhala for people who gut out a classic Ute and cram it full of giant bits that make it go fast.
Proving once and for all that there is no unmolested enlightenment for most Australians (after all, those people invented Mad Max) is Peter's Ford counterpart for Team Oz; this Ford XA Falcon Super Ute - a Mad-Max Supercharger 1972 Ford Coupe-Utility. Witness me!
Many Americans will pay extra for hoity-toity free-range, shade grown, certified organic, fair-trade, kindly killed food. But what if you'd rather save a few bucks on some lettuce that was guaranteed to have been abused? This Ford 1932 V8 Coupe Rod is like that. With a rear window rake, beefy racing tires and a flaming paint job, this coupe is the epitome of modified and molested.
Sometimes life is all about pairing the old with the new as evidenced by this retro restored 1950 Chevrolet COE Pickup and its modern customized buddy, the Harley Davidson Lowrider Motorcycle. It makes me miss that Two of A Kind challenge we had. This would fit also under generation Gap. Such fun challenges!
Viddy well, O me little brothers at this lovely RANZ MOTORSPORTS RX4 rightly called Clockwork Orange. Oh, it is gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh! It was like a bird of rarest-spun heaven metal or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now. It preps the gulliver for a bit of the ol' ultra-violence, O me brothers!
It was a real 'orror show, O me droogs, me brothers...viddy...uh...tomchick...uh....hmmm. Wait, I don't have to talk like Alex anymore? Phew! I figured I was good for about one entry, but having to do it over and over might be a burden on the ol' Gulliver. There, I did it again! Anyway, here's a rare OSI-Ford 20M Coupe.
When I was an impressionable young man, my mom gifted me a VCR and a Polaroid camera back when both of those things were all the rage. With them she said "now you have all the makings of a porn empire." A porn empire. My mom said this, no less! Looking back years later, it seems I've built a car empire instead in which Peter uses freely. Here is a 1960 Buick Invicta 2-door Hardtop Coupe that I apparently photographed at a car show.
Where would I be today had I have taken my mom's advice instead? Probably filthy rich and Peter would have no automotive inspiration to pilfer from my photostream. Where would Peter be if he were born to my parents instead? He would have spent his early childhood in the backseat of a '70 Pinto instead of a 1969 Toyota E10 Corolla Sprinter Coupe similar to this one.
Also he'd be American, I'd be Australian. I'd probably be a family man and he'd likely have a strange affinity for black sheets and creepy doll heads all over the house. Maybe history would have changed completely. Here's a 1970 Datsun Fairlady Z432R with the exact same girl figure from the previous entry proving, without a doubt, that parallel universes do exist!
The Alfa Romeo Duetto Spider was prominently featured in the movie The Graduate. The film, starring a young Dustin Hoffman and an older Anne Bancroft, made most theatre goers uncomfortable, while a smaller percentage realized (possibly for the first time) that they were into something different. And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson!
Here is a sweet black and red 1965 Ford Mustang GT Fastback. They epitomized post-war US optimism - though rather oddly, in the midst of the Vietnam era turmoil.
Finally, the aforementioned meathead shows up at this Saturday Morning Show N' Shine in this 1999 Honda S2000 Roadster! You'd think he'd show up in the previous '65 fastback, but no, the Honda Roadster. He seems confident in his ability to be a meathead. Let's not tell him the car came standard equipped with a lipstick holder.
Peter says this 1965 VW Type-3 Fatstback is the lamest car he's built this whole entire challenge but his photostream proves it to be among his most popular of all time, proving once and for all, people just like weird things. With that kind of logic we should then all go gaga for some crystal meth and a leather clown suit.
And what's with all the creepy clown sightings on the news, anyway? Do you have this problem in Australia? Anyway, hoping lightning will strike twice, Peter re-rendered an old Ford 1949 Woody Wagon from eight years ago and this time did it up in "gun metal" or what I like to call "prosthetic limb tan."
After seeing Peter do some Ranz Motorsports thing twice now, I had to log onto their website to see what it was all about and man, oh man, do I highly recommend checking out their projects! Like right now. Go ahead, I'll wait. See what I mean? They do some highly innovative customizations to some odd automotive choices. No exception is this RANZ MOTORSPORTS 1974 Toyota Corona MkII Coupe aptly named The Hulk.
If you like cars with a circa 1970's Matchbox sort of feel then by golly you're gonna go ape poopy over this 1968 LMX Sirex. Peter says its a "what the hell were they thinking" sort of car. I'll just have to take his word for it. I'm rather distracted as I'm still looking at the Ranz Motorsport stuff.
Peter says there is some poignancy in posting this 1982 Ford Fairmont Ghia ESP 351 V8 today (October 7th, 2016), as this was the final day for production for Ford Australia. With it, the 56-year legacy of the Ford Falcon, and the 91-year automotive manufacturing history for the city of Geelong. According to my Timex it is now October 19th. What is Peter doing? Is he now retired? What will he do? Inquiring minds want to know.
But before answering that question, Peter shows us that there is no end to my photostream in terms of what inspires him to build (or render) Here is a tri-tone 1956 Nash Ambassador Sedan that I apparently photographed at some point. But he does show an end to his entries this month, finally.
So that puts John Marshmallow under the microscope for inspection. What has he contributed to the Show N' Shine? This 1996 Toyota Supra Custom called "JZAE86", a Supra with an AE86-inspired paintjob ( I didn't know they were all white) and a twin-turbo-and-supercharged inline-six putting out 750 hp.
Next the human marshmallow submits for your approval, an insanely fast yellow dragster called Chatty Cathy...uh...I mean,"Ratty Caddy". Remember Chatty Cathy? No? Neither do I. That was before my time. I don't even know why I'm referencing it. Lets move on, then.
It seems John suddenly learned how to render half way through this challenge as evidenced by this classic 1930's Ford hot rod pickup truck. He tells us it has enough space to haul your groceries from the store, (as opposed to from the communicable disease clinic) and it'll still be able to win best in class at car shows every once in a while. (but not always cuz that would be greedy.)
This 1955 Mercedes-Benz Renntransporter, otherwise known as "Blue Wonder", was inspired by something Firas built awhile ago. Apparently Firas is currently attending his first ever LEGO convention in Dubai. Wish I was there but its hard enough to get me down the road to Seattle.
If you like your trucks fast, loud, and silly, John says he's got something-something-something rendered kinda like what Peter does-something. I don't know, I'm barely paying attention as I'm thinking about what it would be like to be in Dubai right now. Hot tub full of Champaign and a gold plated Lamborghini, anyone?
If Senator Chinchilla is like most senators he'd be a Republican and, in spite of efforts to the contrary, would poop in his food dish occasionally. Go ahead, look it up. I have spoke no untruths of senators, nor chinchillas. Anyway, here's his Chevy C/K dually lowrider, built to drive low and slow.
I suspect low and slow was not the motive when Brick Flag built this '41 Willys hot rod. He parks it a little late for the Show 'N Shine but it is still a welcome addition and a stellar end to our friendly neighborhood car show.
That's all of them, folks. How'd we do? My opinion? It got a little stale with a few jokes there but admittedly there were some gems written in and the entries themselves left a much sought-after single malt with the massive peat-smoke aftertaste but they also offered a dryness and an intense, smoky-sweet caramel with seaweed flavors and a huge finish, aged in oak casks for at least sixteen years. Yep, I'm going with that! So what does the future hold for the subtle caramel and seaweed flavors of this blog? Well, as of next roundup, LUGNuts would have been aged in oak casks for a good nine years now. It'll be our birthday challenge called simply, LUGNuts Turns Nine. It'll pretty much be a free-for-all excuse to build whatever the hell you want. So please join us in celebrating our birthday and thanks for making us the most successful LEGO car club in the history of the world ever. Now if only we can get a blog readership to match. Who knows, with some dedication and hard work, we can get into the double digits of readers by next century. Here's to progress. Peace out, mother truckers!
