Day 20 8/4/19 National Rally Day 1 Around Albury

Day 20

Today is the first day of the National Rally.  The group has now swelled to just over 100 people and 45+ Alvii!  What a wonderful turn up for our centenary celebrations.   This morning is warm and sunny.  It s to be a quiet day today whilst everyone recovers from their various journey’s to get to Albury.  Our tour group are most grateful for the chance to rest up a little - and catch u on washing!

After breakfast, a short drive took us to Brad Jones Racing, a local team involved in V8 Supercar Racing. The team and cars where away having just raced in Tasmania and currently on the road to a big meeting in Phillip Island.  In some ways this was fortunate because if  the workshop was in full operation we probably wouldn’t have been able to visit. The team has about 50 employees so it can be pretty crowded with people, race cars, transporters etc. This was a fascinating insight into what is involved in a front line racing team and is quite an operation even though they are a small team on a small budget.

 

Some of the Alvis cars parked outside Brad Jones Racing

Red Ruby, 4.3 litre, at the front with 12/50's behind

"Old Smokey" (12/50) parked in front of a new comer to the National Rally..one of two Silver Crests...welcome!

Silver Eagles, 1929 SA 16.95 on left, 1930 TA 19.82 on right

Interesting wall ornament....old supercar chassis

Roller rocker bases for the supercar. Each unit takes 3 days to machine, this is after 2.5 weeks to programing and machining the first one.

Speed 25

More Alvi Eagles again (see above)

12/50 discussions (Jill and Dons new acquisition)

Lovely to see the Firely again

Old Smokey (12/50) which travelled from Sydney to London in the 1960's

From there we travelled about 15 minutes to Gateway Island, just over the border into Victoria to St Ives pub for lunch.

Heather brought Rough Red (12/50) to the rally.

A fine example of a TA21

The group gathers for lunch.

When leaving after lunch Heather and her 12/50 (Rough Red) had the misfortune to run out of petrol, however we had been carrying some for the extended tour so could come to the rescue. This resulted in Dale being offered a drive in the 12/50 which he naturally without hesitation accepted and abandoned Maritta in the Navara. So now driving a proper car, accompanied by Heather to provide instruction of course, we made a short stop to top up the tank and then travelled to Monument Hill for a photo shoot.

Dale gets to drive Rough Red with Heather closely watching the gear changes!!

Parking 40 or so Alvii was quite a challenge in the confined space but it was managed ..... eventually. Part way through this exercise a large tourist bus appeared expecting to be able to turn around. As this was obviously not going to happen anytime soon, with some help from various Alvis members, the driver managed to reverse the bus and continue on their way. We think the passengers were entertained even if they didn’t get the expected view of the Monument (one could suggest they got more than they bargained for).

Neatly lined up ...

We all watch on as the line up continues.

Albury's Monument Hill

Birds eye view of group on Monument Hill impressively taken by a local professional photographer with a 6M Monopod

Plenty of time to get our photos. 

We think the bus expected to be able to turn easily, not with 40 odd Alvii cluttering up the carpark

The moderns had to be relegated to the side lines!!

A great picture even from behind.

Every one is mustered to stand by their cars

Once the many photos had been taken we moved off on another short drive, Dale once again in the 12/50, took us to the Historic Railway Station for another photo opportunity. From there it was back to the Motel for a light dinner and a visit across the road to a practice session of the “Flying Fruit Fly Circus”

An impressive line up at the railway station...even though one local Patrol owner refused to move!!

Several wise men and women contemplate the situation ...... David and Kay, Margret, Doug Liz and Mike.