Yeah guys we had a great day and celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Bellett in Australia in adequate style, I think.
We were a week late, however we had to have it on the 23 August simply because we weren't able to get as many people together the previous week and a run isn't a run without people (and cars).
I discussed the possibility of visiting Laurie who lives out near Mannum on the River Murray. He and his wife Margaret are members of the Murray Mallee Auto Club and he was able to organise one of their club members to open up his shed for us to poke around his collection of Holdens and caravans. Sure, they weren't Belletts, but it was nice to have a destination and they were all top-notch restos.
We met up at Mount Torrens outside the pub, as you can see from the photos Chris has already put up.
We then met Laurie and his wife at the main shop at Walker Flat. We ordered our lunch to pick up in a couple of hours, then headed out to John and Chris' house, their nice big front yard accommodating out little six-car cruise!
We also had a couple of guys from the club come for a look; Ron with his mostly-original AP5 Valiant and Tom, who was driving his daily driver, but has a couple of six-cylinder Nissan Cedric wagons at home. Rare!
I only took a few photos of the Belletts at John and Chris' house as I was too interested in their Holdens!
John and Chris' FJ sedan was nice; I'm fairly certain it was unrestored although I didn't think to ask. I did notice a cool 1975 rego sticker still stuck to the window!
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Holden FJ sedan - with Wayfarer caravan - 01.JPG [ 309.22 KiB | Viewed 32477 times ]
They often go away towing their vintage vans; these vans are made to be used!
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Holden FJ sedan - with Wayfarer caravan - 02.JPG [ 237.32 KiB | Viewed 32477 times ]
They had two nice vans. This Rowvan was awesome.
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Rowvan vintage caravan - 01.JPG [ 124.58 KiB | Viewed 32477 times ]
And exceptionally nice inside!
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Rowvan vintage caravan - 02.JPG [ 187.45 KiB | Viewed 32477 times ]
John had a nice LJ Torana GTR. I didn't think to ask if it was genuine. It didn't have the GTR badges under the rear quarter windows, but by the same token it didn't have the spoiler nor the XU1 decals, so who knows? I should have asked!
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Either way, nice car!
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Holden LJ Torana GTR - 02.JPG [ 253 KiB | Viewed 32477 times ]
One of my favourites was a surprise; I'm not that interested in HD and HR Holdens, but John's was a pearler AND it was a rare 186S version. The old twin-carb X2 option Bathurst homologation option was discontinued in favour of the 186S which, although it ran a single, twin throat carburettor instead of twins, was a faster unit, apparently.
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Holden HR Premier 186S - 02.JPG [ 134.8 KiB | Viewed 32477 times ]
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I was also greatly impressed by John's FJ Holden panelvan. It was windowless, like they all should be! Turns out I've crossed paths with this car before, although I didn't meet John at the time; his van was at the 2014 Van Nats at Mildura!! He got a Top 10 gong in that competition and so he should have; a very nice van and one of the few at the Nationals that didn't have some crazy airbrushing of a barbarian stabbing a serpent while being eye-banged by a blond woman in a metal bra!
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Holden FJ panelvan - 01.JPG [ 296.09 KiB | Viewed 32477 times ]
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Holden FJ panelvan - 02.JPG [ 154.4 KiB | Viewed 32477 times ]
I did take a few pics of the cars there; I'm not sure why I didn't snap George's nice GT now it's on the road! I must have been distracted! Sorry George!
Here's Josh's auto sedan.
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Bellett sedan - Josh's Isuzu Bellett auto.JPG [ 294.69 KiB | Viewed 32477 times ]
Laurie has a near-identical auto as well.
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Bellett sedan - Laurie Stanton's auto Bellett - 01.JPG [ 362.47 KiB | Viewed 32477 times ]
There was some talk that someone spied a 'build plate' on Laurie's car. We were wondering what it was, but now I've seen his car up close I can verify there are no build plates and nothing is amiss under the bonnet...except...
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Bellett sedan - Laurie Stanton's auto Bellett - 02 - mystery oil & tyre information in Japanese not English.JPG [ 105.45 KiB | Viewed 32477 times ]
That's right! His tyre and oil information is all in Japanese! Does anyone else have this under the bonnet of their cars (not counting myself, Geoff, or Glenn in Vic with the JDM Sport?)???
For comparison, I snapped the same placard on my Ratter. In English, as they normally are!
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Bellett sedan - Dave's Bellett sedan - sedan oil and tyre information in English.JPG [ 88.19 KiB | Viewed 32477 times ]
I also grabbed a photo of Bruno's car.
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Bellett GT - Bruno's Isuzu Bellett 1600GT.JPG [ 340.43 KiB | Viewed 32477 times ]
And also Chris' early model Roman Red sedan.
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Bellett sedan - Chris Browning's early sedan.JPG [ 315.95 KiB | Viewed 32477 times ]
The guys from the Murray Mallee Auto Club put on some cakes and some coffee for us; they could not have been more accommodating and I thank them again... and I must thank my guardian angel Laurie, who bought me some chocolates to give to John and Chris to say thanks! Derp! I didn't even think of that! Thanks Laurie!
We thanked the guys and headed back to the main shop in Walker Flat to pick up our lunches, then continued on to the (very) small riverside township of Wongulla. Laurie took us to their main reserve/BBQ area right on the waterfront, but the weather had turned on us and it had started to get cold.
Still, we needed to get photos from many angles. Here is Ross alighting the outhouse.
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02 - Wongulla - Ross.JPG [ 177.06 KiB | Viewed 32477 times ]
Bruno parked his car away from us because I think he was spooked by the spoon drain coming in; I tried to get a vote together to query which of us thought it was lame, but I was speaking into the wind and barely anybody heard me!
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01 - Wongulla - Bellett run guys - not looking as my voice blew away in wind.JPG [ 266.39 KiB | Viewed 32477 times ]
Bruno did move his car though, so it was in Wongulla that we finally got the cars lined up for a few photos.
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Wongulla - Bellett line up - 02.JPG [ 342.17 KiB | Viewed 32477 times ]
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Wongulla - Bellett line up - 03.JPG [ 277.29 KiB | Viewed 32477 times ]
Laurie had to depart back home and get organised for something he had on later in the arvo. Our original plan was to cross the river on the ferry for something different, but with the weather whipping up, we make the call to go home.
We got the Birdwood and broke the cruise up there; some continued to their homes in the North East of Adelaide, while myself, Ross and Rob turned South; we had an escort though as a couple of guys elected to visit Paul (Mr Flibbles) at work in Lobethal.
Still, we got one more photo opportunity before we took off.
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Birdwood - Bellett line up.JPG [ 193.26 KiB | Viewed 32477 times ]
And dammit, I put these cool Watanabe alloys on and they caused me grief all day! I've had them on before and they don't ever rub despite their close proximity to the wheelarches. However, the night before the cruise I got a bit, uh, enthusiastic with the handbrake (aka being a smartarse) and something's shifted, ever so slightly, in the rear geometry. And now they rub! Rubber for everyone!
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Birdwood - Dave's rear tyre being gently shredded.JPG [ 147.91 KiB | Viewed 32477 times ]
It was a great day and I was able to connect people to their 50th Anniversary badges too!!
Thanks to those who made it!!! Bummer to those that didn't! Maybe next 50 years (not really we'll have another cruise before then).
Cheers,
Dave
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. How about you keep coming up the hill and we all meet at the TTG Hotel car park? Chris will also head that way I bet. It's real popular for classics and bikes to assemble before heading up Chain of Ponds. Lets say 8:00am. Gives us an hour to get to Mt. Torrens and we should do it easy 
That's not fair and not right, like a ginn's left.... 
Are you still at the gas station in Lobbie ?? If so, we'll drop in to give your boss Sh%t 
There will be a next time, Xmas run for sure.
And Yep, they all seem to protest a bit on a cold morning. Tho i think the forecast isn't for icy cold. You've got a bit of time to warm it up before you get there. Or is Roman doing something he shouldn't 