As promised, finally a brief run report.
Wednesday morning, leaving from various parts of NSW and the ACT we made our way to Holbrook with a quick stop off at Yass (for some) where I jumped into Keiths car. The trip to Holbrook went as planned and we all met up there a little after 11:00am.
Gary struck a wee problem at Holbrook and had to a problem with the top radiator hose. Nothing major just a bad fit where the temp sender went inside the hose.
Next stop the twin BP's just outside Melbourne at Wallen. This was a welcome break where we all took a chance to stretch our legs and buy some cold water. We no sooner pulled up when Gary had caught us up, nice going Gary.
The procession of Torrys, two Commodores and a Magna following Garys TomTom made its way around Melbourne close to the docks where we found ourselves in the wrong lane and on the wrong road... The satnavs were of little help here so we followed our noses to where we thought Port Melbourne should have been and bingo, we found it at the next left turn. The Spirit of Tasmania looked terrific in the distance tied up at the Wharf.
We parked the cars and proceeded to take photo's. We noticed that every cyclist who passed us muttered and mumbled obscenities at us and we could not work out why. Eventually I snapped and challenged some cyclist with a barrage of abuse and asked him to get off of his bike so as we can sort this out - he kept on cycling and muttering while shaking his head. Then the penny dropped! One of our party discovered we were congregating on a dedicated cycle path, red faces all round and we quickly moved off of it.
My heartfelt apologies to that poor cyclist but I doubt he will be reading this.
Just as well we arrived at the ferry early because loading the cars took a good couple of hours, you have to experience it to fully understand. 4 lanes of traffic and no matter what lane we jumped into seemed to be the last to move lol
The journey across Bass Straight was smooth according to the ships crew, we beg to differ! The ship rocked and rolled then lurched and leaped out of the water coming down with an horrific bang and thump. It did this several times but the worst one was around 2:00am, people sleeping mostly woke and many came into the lounge area asking what did we hit lol I was in the lounge with a few others who could not sleep.
We shared the trip over with many bikies (Harley Owners Group) HOG and God Squad who seemed to be ok to wear colours.
Upon arrival we were met by local SLR5000 owner Brad, what a great man he is, he and his good wife Debbie both took time off work to show as around. The first stop was just up the road at Maccas for breakfast and another photoshoot.
I will skip a few days here because I cannot remember all the facts and left some notes in Keiths car but Barry has offered to add to this report and fill in the many blanks I have left
Whilst in Hobart we had a BBQ and were lucky enough to have 3 A9X turn up, one was owned by Lee and the others I somehow failed to get their names - apologies for that guys.
We had now been traveling for about a week and it was time to head for Symmons Plains. What a day that was, as we arrived we saw a procession of local Torry's entering the gates 17 local cars in all joined us for a day of fun on the track. We had the track to ourselves!
Here are the names of those locals who joined us at the track.
In no particular order.....
Brad and Debbie, Gerrard, Wayne and Kathy, Brad (HR), Roger and Sandi, Pete, Craig and Hayley, Garry and Kiera, Mitch, Rick and Dianne, Crystal, Keli (Rana Girl), Natasha, Marty and Paul. Sincere apologies if I left anyone out, I tried very hard to get all the names
After Symmons plains we were joined by a couple of other guys whose names I had but unfortunately I cant find the paper I wrote them down on. One name I do remember is Rodney who has a hot and I do mean hot L34... very nice...
Rodney took us back to his house to show us his other toys, a couple of nice SLR's, one yellow and one red.
I asked Rodney where the chairlift was to get up his driveway, it has to be one of the steepest driveways I have ever seen!
Time passed and it was time to queue up and get on the boat, two weeks had flown.
As it happened the bikies were attending a HOG rally in Tassie and we saw them everywhere we traveled, turned out there was about 2000 of them touring the land. Many of them were on the return trip home with us and commented everywhere they went they saw our Torana's.
The voyage home was extremely smooth and the water must have been like glass.
Problems encountered...
Top radiator hose - Gary.
Clutch adjustment - Trevor.
Points replaced - Keith.
Minor tuning - most, if not all.
Keys locked in car - Keith.
Chipped windscreen on the way home - Keith (many thanks to the trucks who threw up stones) NOT.
Considering the age of the cars that is a very minor list indeed. The cars were all a credit to their proud owners.
Barry over to you mate to fill in the detail.
Cheers
Herne
