2018 National Hillman Rally - Victor Harbor, South Australia

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johnh875
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2018 National Hillman Rally - Victor Harbor, South Australia

Post by johnh875 »

This time around the 14th National Hillman Rally was hosted by the Hillman Car Club of South Australia (it runs biennially, rotating between the 3 Hillman clubs) and they had chosen the town of Victor Harbor for the rally. It is about 50 miles south of Adelaide, and is a former whaling town that long ago made the transition to a coastal holiday resort town. Many of the Victorian club traveled across in convoy across southern Victoria via Hamilton to Portland and along the coast from there. Only 1 Imp at this stage, shown at the lunch stop at Hamilton heritage museum, and on the road through the sand dunes flanking the coast.

There were five Imps altogether at the Rally, 3 from Victoria and one each from NSW and SA, for the display in Warland Reserve. This was a great location, between the town centre and foreshore, and with the horse-drawn tram running alongside. There were plenty of visitors to the display, and of course the Imps were doing their usual people-magnet impression. Most of the cars were standard or Super Imps, with one GT.
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Re: 2018 National Hillman Rally - Victor Harbor, South Austr

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The oldest car is the green/white 1964, which is a bit of a 'survivor'. It has a Weber downdraught carb, an oil cooler and a set of 4.5" rims but I think is largely standard. Most of the owner's work is going to restoring a Californian he brought back from the UK with him - would you believe there is some rust?
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Re: 2018 National Hillman Rally - Victor Harbor, South Austr

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Next is a 1965 Imp that has been owned since the sixties, although it spent many years off the road before being restored about a decade ago (I think). It was driven across from Sydney - about 700 miles! This Imp is really well-sorted, and check out all the neat interior additions.
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Re: 2018 National Hillman Rally - Victor Harbor, South Austr

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Next we have a Mark 2 Imp Super from 1967. You can see from the GT (aka Sport) engine lid that there have been a few changes here, but I'm not so familiar with this car.
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Re: 2018 National Hillman Rally - Victor Harbor, South Austr

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Next is a 1967 Mark 3 Imp from Melbourne, which is a local update still using the Mark 1 body shell, and it has a GT (Sport) engine.
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Re: 2018 National Hillman Rally - Victor Harbor, South Austr

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The final car is a 1967 GT, the local version of the Sunbeam Imp Sport. This car was restored a few years back near Geelong, Victoria, and has had a few upgrades such as twin Webers, a dash-mounted tacho, 6 & 7" Superlite wheels etc. The yellow oval sticker on the door is one made up for the "Tour to Victor Harbor".
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Re: 2018 National Hillman Rally - Victor Harbor, South Austr

Post by johnh875 »

There were about 40 vehicles on the rally all told, including some from Commer, Humber and Sunbeam. The more the merrier! The 1968 Hunter GT is an Australian model that I gather uses a lot of Humber Sceptre parts (mostly the interior) with an Alpine style twin carb engine.

The other red Hunter is a 1972 - the last year of Hillmans in Australia. Another Australian model was the Series 6 Gazelle, which was a more plush version of the Minx using some Singer parts.

The Commer Superpoise has a Knocker display engine on the back, which was regularly fired up through the day.

The Valiant is the type that was exported to the UK after the Super Snipe went out of production, I wonder if there are any left?
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Re: 2018 National Hillman Rally - Victor Harbor, South Austr

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Finally here are some photos from the runs. The first two are from beach lookouts a few miles out of town, while the others are from the trip to Hindmash Island which is adjacent to the mouth of the Murray River. This is the outlet of a river basin that stretches to Queensland, and drains an area four times the size of the UK.

We also spent some time in the river town of Goolwa, including a visit to the small but impressive car museum there.
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Re: 2018 National Hillman Rally - Victor Harbor, South Austr

Post by colimp66 »

Hi John,

Thank you for sharing some great photos of Hillmans in fantastic scenery and blue skies. Must be good driving around with weather like that all year round. 8)

Must surely help to keep them rust free.

Cheers
Col.
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Re: 2018 National Hillman Rally - Victor Harbor, South Austr

Post by johnh875 »

colimp66 wrote:Hi John,

Thank you for sharing some great photos of Hillmans in fantastic scenery and blue skies. Must be good driving around with weather like that all year round. 8)

Must surely help to keep them rust free.

Cheers
Col.
You're a funny guy Col! :P That was before winter, and we were very lucky to have a few days of sunshine. Since then there has been some liquid sunshine (although many areas further north are currently in a pretty serious drought).

A few weeks ago I posted a photo in the "one photo, one line" topic of a rusty Imp I recently disposed of that would probably challenge those in your part of the world. Luckily the shell was basically sitting the ground (on a couple of pieces of timber) because my foot went through the floor. Made cutting it up easier - just go from rust hole to rust hole! I think our CKD Imps probably got as much rust protection as yours (only painted where you can see it) so they still rust from the inside, but at least we don't have salt to speed things along (except on the coast, I had one Imp from there that rusted through inside under the side windows)
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Re: 2018 National Hillman Rally - Victor Harbor, South Austr

Post by 617sqn »

Fantastic thread. Thank you :D

More ! More !

Andy G
Member No. 7500, and Stan's best mate.
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Re: 2018 National Hillman Rally - Victor Harbor, South Austr

Post by bazzateer »

Great stuff! My two fave Rootesmobiles, Imps & Arrows
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Re: 2018 National Hillman Rally - Victor Harbor, South Austr

Post by johnh875 »

Cheers all. Because I have been slack my Imp was not running, so another club member gave me a drive of a Series 1 Minx (albeit with a 1600 or 1725 engine, not 100% sure). This was a fair change of pace from an Imp to say the least! I dare say there are mods and tweaks that would improve things (including gearing!) but I prefer an Imp.

Here some more photos, the 1937 14 on the ferry across the Murray River (there are still 13 ferry crossings, most in SA), a Commer ute, the oldies of the rally - 1936 Minx, 1937 Hillman 14 and 1935 Minx doctor's coupe. Also a scenic shot from the section of coast called the Coorong - it is about 80 miles of a chain of lakes separating a large sand dune along the coast from the 'mainland'. If you know the book/movie Storm Boy it was set in this area.
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