Pouring money and love into a car: The $500000 ute comes out at Summernats - The Canberra Times
Mick Lear reckons he has spent $500,000 on his pristine 1953 Ford Mainline ute and is the first to admit he will never get that money back. "You do it for the pleasure it gives you," the Brisbane-based transport company owner said. The 44-year-old said that while the classic "single spinner" ute had been fitted with a side-valve Ford V8 when it was delivered to its first owner, the Gympie Post Master, in 1953, a lot had changed since then. I wanted something I could drive to church on Sundays (part of the original brief for the first Australian Ford ute) and use at shows and for display. "We estimate the power at between 780 and 850 horsepower, it has a 671 blower, a C4 gearbox and a nine-inch Ford diff. The back tyres are monsters, 15-inch by 20-inch donuts designed to plant the power firmly to the road. "It doesn't matter, they are worth it. ". George Grivas's golf cart-based "woody" pickup represented the other end of the spectrum in the cars picked to contest the "supreme entrant" competition at Summernats on Sunday. The 40-year-old construction worker from St Mary's has been working on the Suzuki-powered machine for more than a year. "George is absolutely obsessed with cars," his wife, Josephine Grivas, said. The couple's children, Kosta aged two-and-a-half and Ria, 1, love the diminutive machine that combines Ford styling with a Chevy badge. Source: www.canberratimes.com.au
