Christmas 2017

Well Christmas 2017 has been and gone and the year has all but vanished! As is quickly becoming the tradition we all met at Changz Canteen and thanks to Tom we had the big Christmas cook up!

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This started last year on Christmas eve but this year it was decided to do it on 23rd December! We were all much more organised and everything went smoothly. Tom then had the opportunity to get the deserts organised on Christmas Eve! He has really brought us all together far more, in making this possible, what a fun day it is!

Christmas day 3 of us went to Changz to collect the food and Tom then over to Andrew and Rita’s newly renovated home. There was about 30 of us who assembled there family and some friends of family across the day there were people coming and going! One thing that is very good to see is the next generation is keen to keep this going in the future and include an Easter get together as well as had been done by the generation before!  It would be so good to see that happen!

356 Parade 2017

This was the first 356 Parade I had attended for some time, and the first that I know of held on a Saturday! The forecast State wide was for rain and plenty of it, we had become used to 30 degree days for the previous 10 days, which just had to come to an end for the Parade! In fact across Victoria there had been many events cancelled due to the expected weather! It was fortunate the majority of the weather by-passed Melbourne and Como Park which was not completely covered in mud, the rain was steady but never got really heavy, thankfully!

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The threat of floods and storms kept the numbers down to 40 356’s and 8 early 911’s, previous years had seen 190 356’s of all types and conditions and 30 or so early 911’s! So numbers were well down but the enthusiastic owners still came from all over Victoria and interstate!  There were some real gems that came out on the day including coupes, cabriolets, and speedsters as well as unique one off cars!

This is a 356 B originally built by John Gregory, founder of Spyder Automobiles as attribute to the 356 Carrera Abarth Carrera Abarth this particular one has a 2.0 litre 911S 6 cylinder fitted instead of the quad cam 4 cylinder engine! It now lives in South Australia  with an old friend of our family!

Overall the day was very good if not wet and the cars were well presented and as always good to look at and talk with the owners and people attending. It was good to see friends I rarely get to see other than at these events! The standard of cars was better than ever and those who made the effort had a very enjoyable time. I am looking forward to the next event which apart from Breakfast Club in Warragul will be the Phiillip Island Historic Races in March!