[Car And Classic, thanks to Justice Loverman for the tip]

Having recently moved north from my home town of Adelaide, South Australia to Brisbane, Queensland, I thought my days of seeing old beaters being used for daily transportation might've been over. Adelaide has a dry climate similar to Murilee's description of Alameda, and a lack of emissions testing or even regular roadworthies meant that I was able to drive around in almost anything I cared to pay a registration fee on, seemingly regardless of physical condition, provided it didn't prove a clear and present danger to other road users.

My old Sweeney-brown Mk I Grenada was a classic example. We'd stripped out the mouldy carpets and ratty door trims, and I drove it around for a month with a bare-bones steel interior, the cherry bomb on the RS2000-sourced four-pot reverberating all through the car with no NVH padding to muffle the noise, and brown gaffer tape that gave a close paint match covering up the more obvious rust around the base of the rear window.

I had been told by coworkers up here in Brisbane that Queensland has reasonably rigorous roadworthy inspections as part of their registration process, but to my pleasant surprise I've found that this may have been an exaggeration. Yesterday while I was having breakfast at the Northy Street markets in the city's inner north I spotted two beaten old survivors, both striking me as being DOTS:BE-worthy, even through I only had my cameraphone to hand.

In the 1970s before the introduction of bulk containerisation of shipping, Australia had a thriving industry in assembling CKD kits from other countries. Citroen, Renault and Peugeot all sold locally-produced versions of their vehicles, as did British Leyland. You could even buy Pontiac Parisiennes and other North American GM muscle through your local Holden dealership. I'm no expert de Citroen, but I believe that the smooth headlight covers mark this DS out as a post 1969 model. If this is actually a surviving Australian production model, it was kitted out with all sorts of niceties that were weren't even available as options to our Euro-brethren.

Based on the pattern of dropped berries surrounding it and the seriously underpressure front right, this 1960 Holden FB wagon might be better described as Broken Down On The Street, but these old 'Oldens are built in such a basic fashion that a hammer and a length of bailing wire are probably all that are needed to get it running again. In terms of styling, this generation of Holden was basically a 4/5 scale shoebox Chev. Note that at the time it was built these weren't called wagons - they were station sedans. These old FBs came standard with a fairly mild inline 'grey' six (named after the color the block was painted), but parts interchangeability is so broad within the Holden family from 1948 through to the mid 70s that there could be anything from a 68hp 2.1L grey six to 135hp 3.3L red six.

In the background of one of these shots you can see Ilsa, my 150hp Ford Fiesta XR4 (the local name for the outgoing Fiesta ST). She covered 2100 miles over my trip up north without skipping a beat, and every single one of them was a complete blast. But that's another story. I'll be keeping an eye out in the future for more DOTS:BE vehicles up here in the subtropical north, but I'm also wondering - do we have any other Brisbane-based Jalops?

Here's Franzouse's report:

For my birthday I went home this weekend to my quaint little southern french town of St Geniez D'olt (yup try pronouncing that) in the beautiful Aveyron region and got a real nice present: race day! They wouldn't let me enter the mehari in the "course de cote" (road climb, 46 turns in 6 miles of beautiful asphalt with guard rails...), but I did get to see the vintage racers that were parked on the plaza during the racer's big sunday lunch. It being bastille day, so here are the French cars

I was scoping out local junkyards, when I found this Citroen. I didn't know there was a coupe model built, but it looks most like this was made by the coachbuilder Ricou. The short wheelbase proportions are just weird, but with the engine from a Maserati Biturbo, it'd make an interesting bastardized sibling to the SM. It's out in the west end of Toronto (Old Weston and St. Clair), although Google maps shows the location as auto body place (either way, the car's been there long enough that it shows up in the satellite view).

Yep, that's a GM LS1 V8. The new mill pumps out around 400 HP to the rear wheels via a GM 4-speed automatic transmission. That's a great setup for doing 'merican-style donuts. Which is perfect, since the French love to smoke, right?
[Winding Road]

Those postwar Jag saloons sure are pretty, aren't they? For most of us, ownership of such a rare and valuable cat has seemed so far out of reach that we've never even contemplated it. It turns out we've all been too pessimistic! You can get a 55-year-old Jaguar saloon for the price of a 15-year-old beater Civic! Can't believe it? Take a gander at this 1953 Jaguar Mark VII, my friends, and witness the easy attainability of your classic-Jag dreams! The seller is asking for $1,500, which means there's plenty of negotiating room when it comes to the wheeling and dealing. The car will need some TLC, no denying it. There's rust. Oh yes, plenty of rust. The upholstery is "petrified cracked and can be used possibly as a pattern." Not very shockingly, we find that the XK engine doesn't run. You could attempt a full restoration, and we have nothing but admiration for anyone insane devoted enough to take on such a task. Or you could swap in a V12 out of a junked XJ-S, head down to Tijuana for a diamond-tucked purple satin interior job, and leave the paint looking just as it is now. Add some Cherry Bombs and some rusty wire-spoke wheels and you'll be lookin' good on a budget!

When you're talking serious Hell Projects, two not-so-little words come to mind: Hydropneumatic Suspension! That Jag is pretty sweet, we'll give you that, but it rides on plain ol' harsh springs! Your backseat passengers will be liable to spill their champagne every time you hit a pothole, and that just won't do in a fine European luxury sedan. Those geniuses at Citröen put a very effective hydropneumatic suspension setup in their DS, and you could benefit from their brilliance by handing over 22 Benjamins to the seller of this 1969 Citröen ID19. I think the description of this car works best if laid out like a poem:

Project car.
Lost interest.
The best thing about this car is that it runs great.
Needs TLC with the hydraulic leaks,
upholstery
and paint.