What a blast! Great to see old friends, new friends & members. The weekend seems too short.
I washed the car on Saturday for the cruise & couldn't find a chamois. Up at 5 am on Sunday morning to wash (& chamois) it again but the frost was on it. As soon as i took the frost off it re-frosted. lol. Stuff it! I'm not ever going to get 'best paint'. lol
I took no cleaning products with me. I had never filled the droptank to capacity before & i wanted to travel light. I now know the fuel gauge actually works correctly (Thanks BD). I also need to fit the rear bumpstops. I've also learned that Purple won't cook in traffic. The cooling system is spot on. 
The rear end feels very solid & planted.
My trusty navigator Fiona was posting FB updates on the way down. There were several comments like ... Still waiting to drive Col's Torana ..... & a gif of a skeleton saying, "Still waiting" etc so i figured it was time for her to have "Her turn Mike". lol.
Just out of Ballina i handed her the keys. I should mention that Fiona has a stock LX SL that was her first car, so she knows her way around a Torana. But a blown SLR? ..... Not very often does she drive them. Anyway, we had been stuck behind a caravan for 20k's with a semi & a motorcycle in front of us. When she was passing them the motorfkwit decided to slow down & the truck indicated into our lane while we were 1/2 way passed. That was her first experience of throttle. lol.
Soon after we were motoring down a 4 lane divided road with a 100k zone when we came across 2 or 3 cars & another caravan holding up traffic (as fkn usual) so she pulled out to pass & gave the gas a stab just in time to see a member of NSW best pointing a radar at her from behind the grassy knoll. BAM! 119 in a 100 zone. Normally i would be like .... Yeah m8, you are near 20 k's over, no excuse! But the difference between 100 & 120k's is a twitch of the go pedal & maybe a little difficult to understand if you are used to a stock 186 auto & the lag associated with an overtaking manevour. It was dead set unlucky & not a reflection of her driving.
Then a short while later driving thru Coffs in dual lane bumper to bumper traffic we were pulled over again for a 'random' breath test. Random my ass! lol. Fiona was freaking because she hadn't done anything wrong. lol. She gave me the keys back at Kempsey. We had lunch at a cafe on the main drag. We hadn't eaten since the night before in Ballina. The burger bun cut my lip open & caret was dribbling down which turned both of us off our food. lol. While we were eating (me mopping up blood) i saw a 4WD thingy loaded up with 4WD bits towing a Totmota FJ45 loaded up with parts on a trailer. About 100k's from Newy i was behind them on the freeway & i remember thinking .... Man that shit looks suss! Fiona was having a rare nap in the copilots chair.
I passed them & looked into the rearview mirror to make sure i had room to slide left when i saw them swerve right at speed. I didn't remember seeing a road there? They took out 50 wire divider posts when i screamed an expletive & woke the co-pilot up. I instinctively pulled over to watch the tow car try to climb its way over the wire ropes while taking out another 50 posts. I'm guessing the wheel fell off the trailer just after we passed. I saw the 2 occupants get out & walk around before we drove off. That could have been worse!
Absolutely an awesome weekend! It's a long trip but worth every mile! Purple went faultlessly. Thanks to all those who made it happen. Another thing crossed off my bucket list.
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