The mostly annual and occasionally occasional York Classic Car Show had just enough Sixties and Seventies Australiana and Americana for those yearning it. That’s the machinery. It was a feast for people watchers’ sore eyes, made sorer by day’s end by the rich kaleidoscope of fraggle-toothed Bon Scott wannabes, 11 year olds with Poppy’s mullet, Mums and Dads – neither terribly yummy – ambling along with ice creams. And us.
As usual at these sorts of events, the star attractions are not necessarily those on display. A turquoise HQ Kingswood was quietly parked in a side street, still within view of its heavily restored contemporaries. This HQ was having none of it. Notwithstanding the patina of age, it was exactly as it left the factory. Better still, its bumper overriders, colour and heavily frayed herringbone cloth seat trim identified as a limited edition Vacationer. It was Holden’s first, and the formula proved so successful, only subsequent Vacationers earned themselves an identifying badge.
The lone Ford Thunderbird exemplified everything glorious about Sixties Amercian car design. Its vinyl seat trim was a metallic olive that would curl lips in 2021 on a modern car. Up front were dramatic chrome rocker switches and, to share the drama with those seated in the back, Ford gave it a wrap around effect on the rear lounge seat.
From Ford’s Australian stable, there was an LTD Landau couple, possibly with the widest C-pillar ever designed onto an Australian car and a really lovely XY Futura. Future was the seldom-specified product grade between the mainstay Falcon 500 and Fairmont. It took Ford another 5 years to give up on the idea.
Lunch in Toodyay beckoned, via a quick sortie on the outskirts of Northam. Toodyay’s Victoria Hotel attracts visitors from far and wide nowadays, with generous serves of traditional pub tucker with a modern flourish. I and good pals Norman, Guy and Nigel ate our way to Paradise. The place was nothing like this when it was the last hotel in my fortnightly traveller’s round when I was working for Atkins Carlyle.
But Toodyay’s biggest secret is an utterly outlandish, overscale Christmas store called Christmas 360. Intially, we were peering through the windows, then inspecting the merchandise with guffaws of incredulity, before realising this was an extremely serious business venture of someone’s and we’d better the heck be cool. Soon enough, our boyish snickering gave way to awe. This is an essential part of the Avon Day Tripper’s life-enhancing experience.
