In the Far North Queensland motorsport scene there are very few names that are known to everyone.  One of those names is Hunter Automotive.  A long standing mechanic business run by brothers Glen and Cliff Hunter, Hunter Automotive pride themselves on providing reliable maintenance of vehicles but enjoy cutting loose at the track on weekends.  Before Christmas I dropped into the Cairns workshop to chat with Glen and take a tour of the facilities.  Read the full story here.

Join me in the front seat of the Belmont wagon with Carolyn O'Brien as we talk cars, Summernats and more cars.

She is a 25 year Summernats veteran and will be a part of the Meguiar's Pavilion judging team at Summernats 33.

This lady is a rock star drag racer who gets hand on on the tools building her own cars.
Carolyn started drag racing in 2006 and won the first event she entered.
She competed in the Australian Pro Street Association (APSA) series in “true street” class and travelled the whole East coast of Australia to events. As far North as Benaraby and south to Portland drag way. Carolyn came runner up at the Sydney meeting in November 2013 and got runner up in the series that year also.
2014 she competed in the first Drag challenge event run by Street Machine. Drag week style involves driving to 5 different tracks over 5 days and competing without assistance from a tow vehicle or anyone outside the event, totalling 1500 kms. Got runner up at that event in the radial tyre aspirated class. Raced that car for another 2 years with a PB of 9.77 (full weight air conditioned street car, aspirated.)
Since 2016 she has been building her new car.
“I’m very hands on with my cars. I love working on them myself and have a hand in building my engines, with supervision from Mark. Tuning and data acquisition is what I’ve been working on learning the last 3 years with Marks race car and I’m loving the challenge of learning it all.”

Join me in the front seat of Erika Armstrong’s 1940 Ford Hot Rod to chat with her about her first visit to SummerNats. She will be road tripping down from Sydney so be sure to wave and say hi if you see her on the road.

My friend Jack recently went hunting for his first car. Jack is not mechanically minded.  He is a very fashionable chap who likes the nicer things in life.  He is not a man who will enjoy getting his hands dirty.  For him a car is very much about getting from A to B while looking his best.  As Jack is a wise man he asked me for my advice as he hunted through the bowels of Facebook marketplace.

Join me for a tour of a tiny shed where Lucky Keizer flies under the radar and builds his crazy machines.

This is the story of my 3 current cars and how I love them.
I have to post this story now because next weekend I will be driving home a new favourite toy.

This weekend I am off to Springmount Raceway for the Far North Queensland Motorsport Club Bitumen Khanacross. A great opportunity for people aged 14 years and older to safely have fun in their car and improve their driver skills.

I love the weather. I love my little house. I love my reasonably sized shed. I love that I am within an hour of gorgeous beaches, crystal clear creeks, luscious rainforests, moist waterfalls and the Great Barrier Reef.
I don’t love that the people here think this Camry is ok. If you ask my neighbour what car she has she says the silver one. She doesn’t even know it is a Toyota. Or that the spare needs changing. Or that the front guard is suffering. Or that cars should sleep inside. Or that they need washing with something more than rainfall.
On the upside almost every house is for sale so I can hope that one day soon car loving people will move to town.
Imagine a community of automotive addicts who lobby for and get great roads. Who don’t complain about loud cars. Who stay up late visiting each other’s shed to help out on a build. Who talk cars instead of football over the back fence. Where all of the driveways are designed for low cars.
A girl can dream.
Do you live in a car loving community? If so please tell me all about it.

So disappointing to see such an iconic venue being demolished. Motorsport venues teach our children many things and support our community in many ways. Please voice your opinion

http://chng.it/mrrnD5bxQH

Valvoline Raceway, an iconic tourism, entertainment and sporting icon in Sydney’s West for over forty years has been rocked by a phone call today that revealed Sydney Metro will compulsory acquire the land as part of a billion-dollar rail development between the city and Sydney’s West.
“Almost 120 properties will be forcibly acquired for construction of a $20 billion-plus metro rail line from Parramatta to the central city, which is now slated to be opened by 2030, about two years later than expected,” it was reported in The Sydney Morning Herald today.
The speedway at Granville will be demolished to make way for the new Sydney Metro West's stabling & maintenance facility says the NSW Government.

Excited to see my latest article about OCD Mechanical in the Motor Trader magazine for Motor Traders Association Queensland
For the full story head to https://www.mtaq.com.au/motor-trader-magazine/

Last week I told you the story of how I came to own a Chev.  This week join me as I tell you how I came to fall madly in love with my Audi A5.

Join Lara Wilde in the front seat with Megan Butterworth as we go for a drive in her GU Nissan Patrol and talk about cars.

Andrew Lister and I had a chat in the front seat of the Caddy at Springmount Raceway about Motorsport commentary.