1988 Nissan A31 Cefiro

[79cord]

Got to say I much prefer the currently pictured grille to the generic chrome one, it matches everything else so much better.
But you have to buy such rare options to play with when you can ;D

[DutyFreeSaviour]

Having never heard of the 'Cefiro' before - I'm strangely attraacted to it..... it has really nice lines and you've made it an extremely clean example.
Cracking work....... and the photo's are very well done.


John

[rohan]

Oct 27, 2011 8:37:37 GMT 79cord said:

Got to say I much prefer the currently pictured grille to the generic chrome one, it matches everything else so much better.
But you have to buy such rare options to play with when you can ;D

Pretty much, they're very thin on the ground. I'm not sure whether I particularly like one grille over the other, just something a bit different. It looked a bit odd to me at first when I swapped them over, but after getting used to the chrome one I prefer it as looking a bit nicer/classier in a way.

[rohan]

Oct 27, 2011 9:08:20 GMT DutyFreeSaviour said:

Having never heard of the 'Cefiro' before - I'm strangely attraacted to it..... it has really nice lines and you've made it an extremely clean example.
Cracking work....... and the photo's are very well done.


John

Thanks John. It is looking a lot nicer now than when I first got it, here's a rear end comparison.

April 2010.




August 2011.

[rohan]

One pleasant Sunday afternoon my girlfriend Sally and I went for a bit of a hills run up to Hahndorf in my Cefiro, to go to the Beerenberg Strawberry Farm.

You can see more details about it on their website here: www.beerenberg.com.au/

Going for a bit of a southern route, we first went up through Windy Point, and stopped for a few photos. There aren't many ways of taking a photo next to your car which don't make you look like a bit of a tool, but here's one Sally took of me with the Ceffy anyway.



There's quite a nice view from the carpark.

[rohan]

We then stopped at Belair to fill up on the way to Hahndorf, with the recent hills runs this was becoming a fairly common occurrence.

[rohan]

Trundling down the main street of Hahndorf, a beautiful white 1950s Jaguar caught my eye, parked on the side of the road all by itself. I considered stopping for photos but as it was getting close to 5pm, getting to the Beerenberg Farm store before it closed was more of a priority.






After getting to the shop and picking up some jams, we jumped back in the car and headed back through the main street towards the freeway. While I was planning to get back to the Jaguar for a few photos, a startlingly orange Audi TTS stopped me in my tracks, so I pulled up to get a couple of shots.

All photos taken with a Nikon D90 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens.

[rohan]

While I was taking photos of the rear end of my car, this very tidy green Jaguar Mark 2 rolled into my viewfinder. You can see it in the background of the photo above, just on top of the right hand side of my roof line.











The driver looked to be an older chap in his 70s. After making a u-turn, he went back the way he came, and I got back into the car.

[rohan]

As soon as I plonked myself down into the driver's seat, a sizeable white vehicle loomed into view, an American model Ford F250 pickup. I quickly raised the camera back up to my eye and fired off a few shots. It looks kind of funny, as it completely dwarfs the Hyundai station wagon and Ford Fiesta hatch alongside.






By this point it had been quite a while since we'd passed the old white Jag on the way into town, so I was hoping it was still there as I started the car and headed back toward the freeway. After passing through the busy section of little shops and restaurants, I was relieved to see the Jag still parked in the same spot on the side of the road. After Sally handed me the D90 again, I looked in the side mirror to check for traffic before opening the door, and saw a nice old Mercedes trundling along with headlights ablaze, which was worth a quick snap. I'm not a Mercedes expert, but I think it's a W108.

[rohan]

So once again I got out of the car, and walked over to the Jag for a closer look. It was an absolutely stunning piece of machinery. It had clearly been lovingly restored, with the paint, trim and interior looking as it would have fresh off the showroom floor. At this point I wasn't quite sure what year and model it was; my first thought was an XK120, but the body styling was fairly distinctive as being a 1950s era car, with the smooth, rounded and elegant flowing lines, panels and general body shape. It's one of those classically stylish cars where some people with no interest in cars may well be able to appreciate it as a piece of automotive art.








After spending a couple of minutes admiring and taking photos of the Jag from the rear, I heard a woman's voice behind me say 'Hello?'. I turned around to see a nice looking couple in their 50s, and asked if the car was theirs. After answering yes, I complimented them on what a beautiful car it was, and spent a couple of minutes chatting about it, cars in general and the fact I do some professional automotive photography. The man who owned the car said it was a 1959 model, I can't remember if he mentioned the model as well, but after a bit of research I'm pretty sure it's an XK150 Fixed Head coupe.

I quickly grabbed a couple of shots of the front of the car as well, so the owners could be on their way.






After a few more photos of the Ceffy, we headed back to Adelaide.

[rohan]

Another effort-free carwash was in order after some of the driving around, while Sally and I bought a few things at the shops.

[rohan]

Then I decided to have a crack at sailing (can you sail a boat without sails?) my radio controlled warship, which had been sitting in the backseat for a while, so we stopped at the Delfin Island duckpond a few minutes down the road.

[rohan]

It was good fun for about 30 seconds, until I made the discovery that the duck pond was not the best place for propeller driven watercraft. It got caught up in some reeds and refused to budge, despite mashing the controls in every direction in a vain effort to free it. Short of venturing into waist deep water that would probably give you typhoid, the only option was to wait for the gentle and very, very slow current to carry it to the other side of the pond.

I was particularly clever in choosing a large and open body of water for the maiden voyage.






So we sat down and talked for a while, and I took photos every now and then as the ship inched its way across, looking a little out of place amongst the bird life.




After waiting nearly an hour, it was finally close enough for Sally to fish it out of the water with a stick.




So that's why it wasn't moving...




After removing the aquatic vegetation wrapped around the propellers, we rinsed it off with fresh water so as not to stink out the car.

[rohan]

This may come as a shock, but as the next afternoon was quite warm, and I was feeling srt of ok, it was up into the hills again. While the car was clean I took a couple of photos near some cool looking graffiti near home.

[rohan]

'm sure I've mentioned this in previous posts, but after months of being trapped in hospital and home too sick and weak to sit up, simply having the freedom to go for a quick blat in the hills with Sally was awesome. At the same time last year, I wasn't sure if it would be something I could even do again.

With the jejunostomy stoma site located just where the lap part of the seatbelt rests, it can make driving a bit uncomfortable sometimes. But due to the Bride bucket seat, with plenty of side support, I don't really move at all while taking corners in the hills. Driving a normal car would certainly make things more painful. The tube wound site is more sensitive on some days than others. Sometimes I won't really notice it much, but on bad days I can't really walk very far without it hurting, and sneezing really hurts, as you involuntary tense those muscles.

Just as the sun was bathing the windings roads and trees in nice golden light, I pulled over on a side road to take some photos. I think this was off Gorge Road, but I'm not quite sure.













The rays of sunlight made for some nice back-lighting.

[rohan]

Once the sun had dipped below the hills, I took some more photos in the even dusk light, with Sally helping out by posing and taking photos of me.








After syringing a fair bit of water through my jejunostomy tube before we left, I needed to make a 'comfort stop', and pulled up on a dirt side road.






Sally took a photo of me while I was taking a photo of her.




I usually keep both eyes open when shooting for safety reasons, but I seem to look a bit creepy when I do it judging by this photo.

[rohan]

After having some fun on the cliff-lined Gorge Road twisties, we stopped in at the Cudlee Creek restaurant so Sally could have something to eat. Food is so irrelevant to me by now I don't usually think about it that much, it's something other people do.




Gorge Road is a very popular bit of tarmac for motorbikes. They probably account for half the restaurant's business, and there are plenty of bike posters and old pictures plastered all over the walls.








In case riders missed the road too much while they were eating, there was a Manx TT Superbike arcade game in one of the corners.




If you don't know what the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy race is, it's probably best described as one of the most suicidally dangerous motorbike events in the world.

Held on the small island in the UK since 1907, and taking place on closed public roads, fast riders can *average* speeds of over 200km/h on the 60 kilometre circuit. The current outright lap record is held by John McGuinness, who averaged a speed of 211 km/h on his Honda CBR1000RR in 2009.


A staggering number of deaths have occurred since the event began in the very early 1900s. Between 1907 and 2009, 237 riders lost their lives on the course while competing or practicing. The incredibly high speeds, combined with a road course lined with trees, rock walls and buildings, leave little room for error.

You can read more about it on wikipedia here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Man_TT


There was a sinister looking poor quality wobbly children's play pony on the other side of the room.





After Sally had finished, we went back out to the car.






The temperature had dropped a bit since we went in, but being Gorge Road, having the windows open to maximise the induction and exhaust noise between cliff walls is always worth cold ears. For me anyway; I'm not sure Sally gets as much enjoyment out of it as I do.

Coming up in Post #25; browsing parts and rims at Japanese Import Spares.

[rohan]

With the exterior largely taken care of with the repair and respray, I started thinking about some different rims for the Ceffy. While I wasn't always a fan of them, lately I've found the look of certain mesh rims quite appealing on the right car. Not that I needed much reason to drool over performance parts, but after looking at the wheels available on the Japanese Import Spares website, I decided to go in with Sally for a closer look.

A couple of days previous when going past the Japanese Motorsport workshop, I'd noticed a well-loved white Cefiro amongst the cluster of imports out the front.






Pulling up outside Japanese Import Spares, there were a couple of interesting vehicles in the carpark. There was this rather rare Toyota AE86 Trueno coupe, minus rims and tyres, sitting next to a Nissan R33 Skyline GT-R. There are a few GTS-ts getting around with GT-R badges, so it can be a bit hard to tell sometimes unless you know what you're looking for. Which I don't always, not to the extent of a mad GT-R enthusiast anyway.

[rohan]

Stepping inside, my eye drifted over to the smorgasbord of rims stacked all over the side of the warehouse, enough to make any genuine J rim aficionado a little weak at the knees.










Moving to the right, there were loads of various performance parts lining the walls and shelves of the shop area.

[rohan]

These BBS rims were certainly tasty looking, but for $2600 they were staying put, cool as they are





I grabbed an Option drift DVD while I was there. Despite being in Japanese, there are some words and numbers in English, so between that and the drift run scores, it's fairly easy to get the gist of what's going on in the events. That said, I'm now annoyed I didn't pay more attention in Japanese class back in primary school. So much for my protest at the time that I would never use it.



While I was having a look around, a couple of guys turned up in a nice S14 200SX and van with a car trailer, picking up a 180SX shell, likely for a track car project of some sort.