Project Heinkel

DKW Repairs and Spares

2012-02-12T20:10:00.006+08:00

I organised a temporary movement permit (http://www.transport.wa.gov.au/licensing/20779.asp) which allows you to drive an unregistered vehicle on the road for the purpose of repair or registration with the intention of taking the straight over the pits on Wednesday morning, but after I'd reviewed the car and taken it for a short drive I changed my mind. The brakes felt a little weak so I thought

The DKW Arrives

2012-02-07T23:25:00.016+08:00

The Tijuca arrived in Fremantle in the early hours of 2 February 2012. She stayed in port long enough to unload her cargo before setting sail for Melbourne that very day. I was quite surprised at the speed of the turnaround as I see plenty of cargo carriers parked dockside for days. I had intended to ride down and see the ship unloading but it wasn't to be.Cargo Online handled all the import

Das Auto Kommt

2012-01-16T23:40:00.014+08:00

After almost three months the DKW is finally on its way. The lengthiest part of the process was obtaining the import approval from the Commonwealth Department of Infrastructure. The usual timeline for processing an application for import approval is between four and six weeks. In my case it took slightly longer at seven weeks, but I guess that's within an acceptable margin.http://

Happy New Year 2012

2012-01-12T21:12:00.012+08:00

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Welcome to 2012. I'm looking forward to an exciting year ahead. The long awaited DKW is due to arrive at the beginning of February. Importing the car has been a long and tiring exercise - not least for the seller - but its almost over now. I'll write up a summary of the process and its challenges shortly.Outside the iconic Dingo Flour building in

Tempo's, Munga's and Haflinger's

2011-12-23T20:31:00.036+08:00

In the US and Britain two stoke engines have always been seen as something of a second rate engine, suitable only for power tools, snowmobiles and small motorbikes. The Germans and other Europeans however were never so reticent about two strokes and for a time they were used by dozens of companies to power everything from motorcycles, cars, trucks and aeroplanes. This article explores three

Tatra's Streamliners - Yesterday's car of tomorrow

2011-12-16T10:34:00.024+08:00

The Great War resulted in quantum leaps forward in a range of technologies; none more so perhaps that the motorcar. The demands of total war saw the automobile transformed from an expensive and unreliable novelty of the very wealthy into a reliable, and essential, mode of transport. The world was now moving much faster. There could be no going back and everywhere the world was being redesigned

Blue Haze Ride 2011

2011-11-26T16:20:00.026+08:00

The Japanese Bike Show organised a ride for two-stroke bikes on Saturday 26 November 2011. The Blue Haze Ride started at Burswood Casino carpark at 9am before heading off to the E-Shed Markets Fremantle, where the bikes were displayed as part of the Fremantle Festival.The Ariel on arrival - for once I was mostly on time! A photo by Graelin.Although organised by the Japanese Bike Show it was

Planes of Fame Museum

2011-11-20T12:18:00.020+08:00

Planes of Fame Air Museum was founded by Mr Ed Maloney in Claremont, California in 1957. From an original collection of only 10 aircraft, the collection now comprises over 150 across two locations in Chino, California and Grand Canyon, Arizona. The museum aims to keep these vintage aircraft in the air and have many restoration projects underway. We visited the Arizona museum on our way to the

Langley Park Fly-In 2011

2011-11-13T23:40:00.029+08:00

Langley Park on the Perth foreshore was once the site of Perth's first aerodrome. Passenger services were offered in the early 1920s before a formal airport was established at Maylands. As Langley Park was built over reclaimed marshland it was never built over and has remained a strip of green parkland alongside the Swan River. In recent years Langley Park's heyday as an airfield have been

Tabi-Safari

2011-11-05T15:25:00.011+08:00

In 2009 and Shelly and I drove around most of Europe for a couple of months. We'd encountered Trabi-Safari in Dresden & Leipzig, in Germany and Krakow, in Poland but we didn't get to take a tour until we reached Berlin. Trabi-Safari Berlin is situated near Checkpoint Charlie. There are plenty of signs around to direct you.There was a wide selection of cars available to choose from.A pink

British Auto Classic 2011

2011-11-04T20:10:00.029+08:00

Sunday 23rd October was British Auto Classic day in Waroona, south of Perth. Shelly and I popped along to check it out.The oldest car at the show was this 1911 Star limousine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Motor_CompanyThe owner mentioned that he had not managed to source appropriate headlamps. Replicas could be manufactured but at an extravagant cost of around $2000 a piece.This cute

Importing a South African DKW

2011-10-23T11:28:00.010+08:00

As will be quite apparent from this blog, I'm a big fan of DKW cars, bikes and scooters. Very few DKW cars were ever exported to Australia. There were about 20 DKW F7s imported to Melbourne in the 1930s and 10 3=6 Sonderclasse were imported by Standard Motor Company in 1958. Consequently they are extremely rare in Australia, most of the examples being fairly recent private imports. This is not

The Auto Collection, Las Vegas

2011-10-22T12:25:00.028+08:00

In the parking garage behind the Imperial Palace Casino, Las Vegas is the Classic Auto Collection. It advertises itself as "The World's Largest Classic Car Museum" but as with most Vegas' claims that seems a bit of a tall claim. It's not so much a museum as a collection of classic cars available for sale. A small number are permanently on display but most are for sale. Entry is officially $5

Tallahassee Motor Museum

2011-10-06T21:19:00.031+08:00

While traveling in the US we visited the Tallahassee Antique Car Museum, Florida. We arrived first thing in the morning at 8.30am and had the whole place to ourselves. It was an impressive and eclectic collection covering mainly US cars, motorcycles, guns, memorabilia, boats and even trains. http://tacm.com/carmuseum/thecars.htmA Harley-Davidson and the motorcycle collection.A collection of

Retro Bicycles

2011-09-25T18:10:00.011+08:00

When we were in Lake Tahoe, California, we came upon Rosie's Cafe. It featured an interesting collection of vintage US bicycles. It was a popular stop for motorcyclists too.In the 1930s through to the 1950s US bicycle manufactures created some interesting and stylish bicycles that had almost as many curves and fins as did US cars. http://www.nostalgic.net/ These are very collectable these

Hemmings Auto Museum

2011-08-15T01:37:00.019+08:00

In the main street of Bennington, Vermont is a little old petrol station - the Hemmings Garage - home of the Hemmings motor publishing empire. Hemmings produce a range of classic auto magazines and blogs. For anyone interested in classic and unusual autos, the Hemmings Blog is a must read - http://blog.hemmings.com/ A 1960s Harley-Davidson is parked in the garage window.A wall of license

The Need For Speed - Red Bull Hangar 7

2011-06-19T18:26:00.016+08:00

What do you do if you are the multi-millionaire Austrian owner of a high energy sports drink with a fetish for speed? Well, you build yourself a state-of-the-art hanger complex at Salsburg airport and fill it with everything that interests you. Dietrich Mateschitz' Hanger Seven complex is certainly very impressive. It has a great collection of aircraft and a fine restaurant. Here is a link

Lithuanian Vintage Car Rally

2011-06-16T13:43:00.011+08:00

We happened to be in Vilnius in September 2009 and saw a classic car rally. The cars had travelled through the Baltics, Finland, Russia and Poland. The classic cars were primarily ex-Soviet machines and came from Germany, Russia, the Baltics and Scandinavia.The rally progressed down Gedimino Prospekto, the main thoroughfare of Vilnius.Gaz21s & Moskvitches were very popularThe finish line!

The Percy Markham Collection

2011-06-13T15:21:00.001+08:00

After Shelly and I visited Whiteman Park Motor Museum and saw the remnants of the Percy Markham Collection on display back in April 2010 (http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2010/04/whiteman-park-motor-museum.html), I set out trying to find out what happened to the rest of the collection. That search led me to the Nazarro (http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2010/05/felice-nazzaro.html) and Percy's

Brussels Aeromuseum - part two

2011-06-10T21:33:00.010+08:00

Here is a selection of photos from the WWI and pioneer aircraft section of the Brussels Aeromuseum.Pre-war Farman boxkite (France)Taube? (Germany)Cauldron biplane (France)Voisin bomber (France)Farman biplane (France)French Spad VIII fighterBritish Sopwith CamelSopwith 1 1/2 StrutterNieuport XVIIBristol FighterHannover ground attack aircraft (Germany)De Havilland Tiger MothThe remains of two

Brussels Aeromuseum part one

2011-06-05T22:13:00.018+08:00

Here are a selection of photos from the wonderful Belgian aero museum in Brussels. The collection is extensive so I've posted here pre-WWII to jet age aircraft.WWII Douglas Invader (US)British trio from the Battle of France. On the far left is the Fairey Battle light bomber. A fast and modern plane when it was first introduced in the mid 1930s, it was totally outclassed in 1940. Every Battle

Belgian Royal Military Museum

2011-06-05T21:09:00.009+08:00

Here's a collection of photos from the Royal Military Museum in Brussels. The collection was extensive, starting with a large gallery of Belgian Napoleonic relics, including uniforms. Unfortunately all the galleries closed at 12pm for lunch so we didn't get a full look through the World War One section.Napoleonic uniformsArtillery from World War One.A wonderful WWI Renault light tank. It's one

Brussels Autoworld

2011-05-25T13:53:00.021+08:00

In the centre of the Parc du Cinquantenaire 11, in Brussels, Belgium stands the Arc du Triomphe. Construction of the Arc commenced in 1880 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Belgium's independence but it wasn't finished in time however and a wooden substitute was used during the celebrations. Construction resumed in 1905 and was finished in 1910.On each side of the Arc there are two massive

New windscreen

2011-04-25T12:18:00.008+08:00

About six months ago I bought a repro windshield from Draganfly. I was surprised to find that not one of the fixing holes in the windshield actually aligned to the bolts in the front shield so I abandoned the idea, at least temporarily. Over Easter I pulled the windshield out again and recut all the holes. Once recut the windshield slipped in quite easily. I couldn't get the upper fixing

VEB Sachsenring - East Germany's People's Cars

2011-04-11T22:15:00.006+08:00

To the Victor goes the Spoils!The Allies had no grand plan to divide Germany after the Second World War, but as relations between the Allies degenerated through 1946-47, the defacto occupation zones began to take on the shape of separate regimes, sponsored according to the wishes of the respective occupiers. By the fortune of war the Saxon auto conglomerate, Auto Union, found itself in the Soviet