This stuff kinda grabs me by the short and curlies as well..

[DR]

I grew up in a street where I was blessed to have neighbors who built and raced midgets just like in the vid below back in the 70's. Glynn and his lady friend at the time Leone both raced short circuit at Tivoli on methanol burning TM and TS125's and I suppose it stands to reason if you bought your methanol in bulk you would run it in everything including the ol' toecutter Victa as they did They also owned 1 of the first genuine HO's in QLD which was used as a push car on Saturday arvs in the warm up for the Ekka speedway Saturday night. Saturday night speedway followed my Sunday at Tivoli. The midget was run on the black stuff at Surfers a few times also but it tended to fall over at speed with lots of bent and broken bits..now these people knew how to live!

I was surrounded by this mechanical stuff and through people like my Father and Glynn, his wife Leone and brother Russell (he had Neville Sutherlands old Sprintcar engine in his HT uterunning thru a 2 speed glide and 9 inch ) I was in the thick of it all as a kid and how could any kid not be influenced bigtime.

I stumbled onto this little video the other night of a Holden Grey powered midget pretty much the same as Glynn's and also crossflow falcon powered midget which has the history of being the first ever built with this type engine. Just seeing a little of this stuff brings the memories the sounds and the smells flooding back. Why in all the dust and fumes I even shed a tear from my eyeball but then again maybe that was shed for the nostalgia trip it took me on. What I'd give to turn back time or to have one of these vintage racers gracing my space. I find them as cool as any vintage bike period and I HATE cars! no reason for this post other than sharing the sounds of these classic 60's 70's pieces of Australian enginuity

http://vintagespeedway.homestead.com/AVIDSPEEDMASTER256K_Stream001.wmv

V8 are nice but there's nothing like a screaming Aussie inline 6 be it a Ford, Holden or Valiant

[TT]

there's nothing like a screaming Aussie inline 6 be it a Ford, Holden or Valiant

At first I thought it was crap, but obviously they were just tooling around warming up at the start.
Once they got going though.............. 

I can see it now........ The "Inline 6 Supercars Series"? 

[mainline]

sounded like me on the way to work in the FX

[KB171]

Yep that does it for me Doc,    the note reminds me of my HR ute i had,with a home brew straight through muffler and twin side pipes,    the neighbors hated it, 

[Yamahaha]

The old sixes have a distinct note thats for sure. I have an xu1 that i do some club days in and it sounds nearly identical with the open exhaust on it.

                Remember V8s are a tow car 6s are a race car!

[oldfart]

And I bet they run a hose clamp on the holden 6 oil filter to stop it spinning off 
 Yama,   Ah but theres no subtitute for horse power than cubs 

[pancho]

my brother kerry very successfully raced an xu1 in Q,land [ask dick johnson what its like to be beaten by your own old car] cheers wally

[David Lahey]

Thanks Doc that was fantastic.
It reminded me of the battles at the Brisbane Ekka on Saturday nights. My favourite racing was the sidecars and remember clearly the two top teams at one stage in the 1970s were riding Ducati vee-twin and Suzuki waterbottle powered outfits and the memory of the noise of them racing close together still makes the hair stand up on my neck
 

[Yamahaha]

my brother kerry very successfully raced an xu1 in Q,land [ask dick johnson what its like to be beaten by your own old car] cheers wally

Wouldnt of been the Zupps of Mt Gravatt yellow  torana would it wally?

[DR]

in the era I frequented the Ekka speedway the saloon car heroes were Alan Butcher in his Camaro, Mal Hulme in a 'yellow XU1' ,Barry Harrison, Merv Dixon in the big Falcon, the late Phil Jackson and Ian Marshall in the little mini coopers, Rob Hennessey in the XU1 and many others. The main local solo stars of the day were, Brian Loakes, Steve Reinke, Jack White, John Titman, Bob Gourlay, Kev Torpie, Ron Henderson etc. The speedcar guys wereRob Gardner, Alf Stanaway, John Booth, Gus McClure, Danny Davidson, John Baldcock, Cec Steinhardt, Eric Mitchell and Aurthur Sollitt to name a few. The super moddified heroes were Ron Wanless, Bob Kelly, Nev and Bruce Sutherland, John Bell and Eric Davidson. The sidcars were also one of my fav and the guy I really looked up to (literally!) was big Ron Johnson on the black Vincent and the father and son team who wore matching blue and white leathers but unfortunately their names elude me at present. Peter Tokesi, Ray Warnes, Alan McVinish were also local sidecar names. It was mainly the bikes we went to see and I got to witness many many world champions and great riders. If I were to start naming solo names the list would be a mile long and from near every continent on the globe. Those were the days alright and best part..kids were admitted FREE!!

Oldfart, the old greys never had the oil filter problem cause they never had an oil filter though Glynns sideplate used to run a remote oil tank due to the next to non-existant modified sump it still wasn't filtered except for a piece of metal gauze on the pickup. I loved the simplicity

[Wombat]

Yeah Doc, I remember the Ekka Speedway!
As a kid you want to be close to the action so I'd stand against the fence.
Learned quickly to duck when the roost came over the fence, but eventually settled for watching the whole thing from the safety of a few rows back.
My faves were the bikes though - both the solos and the sidecars.

And do you recall Speedway was shown on the telly every week?
Only the World Champs series is shown on the 'pay telly' nowadays... pity.

[lukeb1961]

My Liverpool years are still glowing in my brain  We trundled out there no matter how cold it was. The whiff of methanol and the plop of dirt onto your shoulders sitting down in the front rows meant another great night!
Sid Hopping,Gary Rush,Patterson,Brian Callaghan,Peter Graham,Peter Crick
Ivan Mauger,Ole Olsen,Billy Sanders,Torpie, John Boulger, John Titman.
Maybe a bit obscure was Russell Amundsen - lived around the corner from me at the time and I recall being wide-eyed at a tough green/yellow XU1.

[Hoony]

Like Doc and others i too have a fond memory of speedway in that era and was introduced to it my my dad a year or too before he passed away. i lived in a small town near Ipswich called Mt Crosby just a few K's down the road from Tilovi in 1970' - 72' when i was 7 years old. he used to take me to the Ipswich speedway (anyone remember that one? was it at ipswich showgrounds? ) as he was a bike fan and loved the sidecars, these early memories is what started it for me.

later on after many years i used to go to the ekka when on holidays in Brisbane in the Troy Butler era. Do they Still Run at the Ekka or is it like Melbourne and gone for good?

[albrid-3]

that was great, my brothers back in the 60`s had a TQ, Noton 850 engine in it, its a shame its not around anymore.

[mainline]

they do a special vintage demo event when the EKKA itself is on, no actual racing though. There was also a demo at the Mt Gravatt show last year.