The following is a bit on the long side, so you may want to hit the
delete key, especially Hillman people since the Hillman link is a bit
tenuous. I hope it will be of some interest to the lists.
I just got back from the Australian Sunbeam Nationals so I thought I
would put finger to keyboard and give my account. This event is held
annually and this year was in Noosa. Should you be so moved as to try to
find it on a map, it’s on the east coast, about two thirds of the way
between the cities of Brisbane and Maryborough.
Since I live in Brisbane I didn’t have too far to go. I set out on
Friday morning in my 1969 Imp Sport, taking the Bruce Highway out of
Brisbane, then leaving it at Caboolture in search of more interesting
roads and scenery and less traffic and police. Caboolture was a bit of
an ordeal because the road I wanted was not well signposted and I drove
up and down a few times before I found it.
>From Caboolture, I headed to Landsborough. Along the way I encountered a
Subaru Impreza WRX, which I think is some sort of rally homologation
special. We had a friendly dogfight zipping between the large trucks
plying this road. He finally left me behind on the uphill climb into
Maleny where my meagre 930cc were insufficient to keep up.
I turned off before Maleny, and stopped in Montville for coffee and
scones. I then followed the road on to Nambour from where I headed back
to the coast and drove directly north to Noosa.
Upon arrival I was immediately seconded for the registration desk. Once
we had everybody registered the group gathered for a happy hour by the
pool. (Since it’s winter in the southern hemisphere, nobody actually
went in!) A barbecue followed before most of us hit the sack early.
Saturday we had pretty much to ourselves. Most went either sightseeing
or cleaned cars in preparation for the concours. On Saturday night we
headed for a restaurant, in fancy dress, much to the bemusement of our
bus driver and more than a few passers by.
The concours was held on Sunday. Prior to the event we were sent out for
a short drive around the town. We were sent out at 1 minute intervals
with a set of instructions for finding our way to the park. My
navigators were a pair of Uruguayans shoehorned into the Imp. I think
their grasp of English was not so good because we quickly became lost.
At this point I spotted a Series II Alpine, so I followed it, with a
growing suspicion that it was lost too. The Alpine must have figured out
where it was going for it suddenly screamed off into the distance,
making sounds most unlike a Rootes 1600. Methinks a Ford V6 lurketh
underneath. This seemed to me a perfectly good excuse to do likewise, so
to the accompaniment of a Coventry-Climax at 8000rpm we set off in
pursuit.
By the time we arrived at our destination Horacio and Bernardo were
looking somewhat pale and muttering what probably translates as "These
Australians are lunatics!!";-)
The day was spent looking at each other’s cars and spending our hard
earned money on regalia. The lineup of cars comprised 12 Series Alpines,
8 Tigers, 7 Series Rapiers, 3 Sunbeam-Talbot 90s, 2 Fastback Rapiers, a
Harrington Le Mans, an Imp Sport and a Sunbeam-Lotus.
After the concours we retired to a golf club for the final dinner and
prize giving. I came away with third in class in the concours - although
there were only three cars entered in my class!
On Monday morning we said our good-byes and headed for home.
I think the organizers are to be commended for their efforts. Everything
appeared to run like clockwork and I believe we all had a great time.
Russell
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