ToyotaFest is Coming.... Sunday October 2nd 2011

[mrduke]

Thanks for organising a great show guys. Loved my first toyotafest. Shame about the weather though. Unfotunantly the exhaust on my car decided to part ways with the manifold on the way home so was a little noisy. Can't wait till next year.

[Joshstix]

So many great cars and the people were even better.

I hate judging because I feel like deciding one car is the winner is telling everyone else that their car is no good when honestly for most trophies there were many cars that could have won it. A classic example would be the best engine bay award that had two cars so close that the decision one way or the other came down to the winner having slightly brighter polished alloy, they were just too close to call.

Stoked to see some cars I hadn't seen before that grey JZA80 in Koffee's pics above is sensational, Al's Sport 800 almost made me fall over when I saw him pull in and the KE20 that got best of show was spectacular (I might be able to listen to criticism on the colour scheme but thats just a personal taste question, the workmanship was brilliant).

A big thanks to everyone who entered particularly for nit having a go at me when I was hauling my fat ass along he line of people waiting to try and get people their entry forms and get the line moving.

Thanks to all of our sponsors most of which I'm sure I forgot to mention on the mike so I'm not going to try and list them again here.

Note to self my dodgy old thongs are not appropriate wet weather gear unless I want to do the splits

[esskay]

A few pics...

4E-FTE from that mini


the stout


a rather mental 'rolla







flat twin from the Sports 800

[TheStitt]

Sounds Like an awesome day, will have to get home to see pics damm work internet

grey JZA80 sounds like Natetts from ACT its a tuff thing

[Koffee-Black]

Yeah the S800 was very cool, but I know Ill get hate for saying this, but it needs some wide ass rims to fill those huge guards!!!

Huge brakes on RONA's Caldina

WTF Award?

I love this 185

[SilverRA23]

Awesome event folks.. we Victorians had a great time and felt very welcome.

koffee-black you have good taste.. dave's TE27 is a fave among our members too.. he was a bit worried it wouldn't make the haul up from Melbourne but it passed with flying colours and should be well and truly on the way home again now.. he only came up on Saturday so it's a top effort!

My photos are here

https://picasaweb.google.com/adamlaw...eat=directlink

My camera skills are left wanting in those light conditions, so some of the cool cars are too blurry too post... oh well.

Thanks again, and hopefully we might make the pilgrimage again next year.

[Koffee-Black]

Tiring day for some!

Kevs sweet Corona

Someone is angry at someones CAT!

Only 1 AE86!!

[Koffee-Black]

I wanted to hear this

Very cool

This sounded different to your normal RA

Cool RT104

[esskay]

the Porte


and some Adub luv:

[SilverRA23]

LOL at my old man having a sleep in his old man Corona...

[MR22ZZ]

yeah, I laughed when I was taking the picture, should have got a close up

Shane's picture shows the serious snore face he's got going much better though.

[RHINO145]

got home at around 7, ill try load some pics before i pass out

[1JZ-Rolla]

Great social catch up thanks guys, and great turnout even with the pi$$-poor weather! The quality of the cars just seems to get better and better every show, hats off to all the builders!

Tiring and uncomfortable drive home in the panelvan, but much better on reflection with a beer in-hand now

Cheers
Phil

[JoJo]

Really enjoyed my first ToyotaFest....... Even with the 5am drive up from Canberra.....

I still can't believe I was the only AE86 Sprinter there.......

[Hiro]

Yet another great day out that refused to be spoilt by the weather - typical October Long Weekend torrential downpour made the F3 trip down a bit slower than usual, and a slightly late departure meant that we missed out on grabbing a prime parking spot, but that didn't really bother us, plus it meant that Lexi sat next to the only other Z30 there (Soarer Central where were you guys?) and Charlene was bracketed by a Porte and Aristo.

Show as usual was a great time to catch up with old faces as well as meet a few new ones which had made the trek from interstate, plenty of checking out of rides, swapping mod stories and general shooting the breeze and chewing the fat was had by all. Congrats to the winners, they were all deserving (and to be frank it was nice to see someone other than Marty win a trophy for a change ). Special head-turner moment goes out to Al Palmer and his S800, we were sitting outside Gloria Jeans watching it go back and forth a few times wondering if it was in the show or just pure good luck to be going past. Looked like a miniature E-type/2000GT in person, although I reckon I'd struggle to get my shoulders and knees inside, let alone head and feet.

The return journey home proved a little eventful however. After an aborted attempt to install my new UR rear swaybar yesterday (couldn't get the stock one out past the fuel tank and didn't have the tools or environment to drop the tank) Charlene had developed a slight knock from the rear end. Harking back to a previous trip to Sydney a few years ago told me that this was quite likely the sway bar link ball joints coming loose (they have an annoying internal hex so you can tighten the nut and keep the joint locked with an Allen key, however I didn't have a spanner handy so had to make do turning a socket by hand), figured I could leave it until I got home to properly tighten up. Anyway, leaving the show it appear again, sounding a fair bit worse this time, so I pulled into the BP at Thornleigh to check things out. Felt both links by hand, and indeed the passenger side was loose. Lacking the ability to easily jack up the car in a servo forecourt in the rain, I nipped it up by hand as best I could. At this moment I recalled hearing a "pinging" sound earlier in the day (couldn't remember if it was before or after show though), only to look down at my right rear wheel and see that I was missing a wheel nut.


Shit.

Seems like I forgot to torque a nut up when putting the wheels back on. That could have been fun indeed if a wheel decided to come off at 110 on the freeway in the pouring rain. So I grabbed the tyre iron out of the boot, pulled a spare wheel nut from the bag (the advantage of getting wheel nuts from a 5-stud car is that you have a full spare set of 4 on a 4-stud ), popped it on the barren stud and gave the other 7 a good reefing to make sure they were tight. The rest of the trip home was then spent in silence with my ears on radar-mode for further clunking, but assumed the all clear by the end of the freeway and breathed a big sigh of relief. Home safe and sound after another long Toymods day (12 hours start to finish), and thank the firetruck for long weekend Mondays...