Ok guys and girls, I am thinking of holding a cruise on Sunday the 26th February.
The cruise will cover some of my favourite "play" roads, as well as offer a bit of a view to the great
region I live in. The cruise covers 211km from Ballan to Daylesford.

It is a Mazda, rotary powered or pre 1982 Japanese chrome bumper vehicle friendly cruise.

Following is the route I am planning. I have left the last section between Daylesford and the Western Hwy
open because depending on the turn up and weather, there are many options available to get back there!



- Meet at the BP roadhouse at Ballan 9.00 - 9.30am
- Time to top up - $1.47/litre at the Roadhouse. (Fuel is a bucket load cheaper in Melbourne at the moment!!! )
- Leave around 9.45/10 am
- Head to Elaine via Morrisons.
- Drive up to Mt Buninyong Lookout get out and have a sqiz(weather permitting)
- Drive back down and head to the Western Hwy driving past Kryal Castle and Mt Warrenheip
- Ballarat Bypass to Clunes.
- Stop at Clunes and and raid the Bakery for coffee and cake. You can even reminisce about your youth
out front of the old garage from Mad Max (the one the bikies hang out at - still looks the same after all this time!)
- Head from Clunes to Mt Franklin via Newstead and Guildford
- Stop at Mt Franklin for a breather and a stretch. Weather and crowds permitting - get some good group shots.
- Head to Daylesford via The Chocolate Mill - for all you chocaholics!
- From Daylesford, we can either head straight back to the Western Hwy or we can go the "long" way to have a play.
There is a Shell servo at Daylesford if you have to top up again!
- Officially when we reach the Western Hwy, the cruise has finished. If low on fuel at this point, the BP Roadhouse is
on your way back to Melbourne.


Hope to see you there!

Philip

Members in, so far:
1. Me
2. RX2-12a
3. Rotarax(maybe)
4. green200b
5. Oowaah
6. Dartboy123
7. psstrx4
8. Graham
9. Douglas
10. series2_13bt
11. juzzy
12. buzwagon

Itl be a big day for my lil car but im in

Sounds Good Philip... i'm in if its on the 12th.... as i work every 2nd Sunday...

cheers Rotarax

I'm there! Nice area to cruise around.

I've just remembered, the 12th is actually the Hanging Rock car show. How long do you envision the cruise lasting for Phil? I was hoping to get to that car show this year as I've missed it the last couple of years. Perhaps the 19th would be better?

Moved to the 26th.

hey im in its a good drive out that way

Ahh Ballarat, that is my home town but I left about 18 years ago. Good to hear the rotor scene is still ongoing. I hope you don't mind me hijacking your thread, but maybe some of you will know these cars and it may give you some stories to tell on the day.

I guess i am now part of the old school Ballarat rotor scene, I often wonder if there are any of those guys still hanging around.

I drove a blue Rx-2 coupe with a ported (extend and then bridge) 13B and a weber, that was a pretty quick street car back i the early 90's! My mate Shane Bridges - cool name for a rotor head hey (now unfortunatley he passed away) he had a really nice Rx-4 sedan with a 13B weber fed extend port, it was a freak of a motor and a ride in that that showed me how quick a ported rotor could be. He also built a 13B turbo powered formula V race car that I drove on the old airport runway (where we also used to do the 1/8th mile drags), man, that was an absolute weapon (like 9 second fast).

Shane used to race the 13B PP rx-7 with mobil sponsorship that a guy in the BLCC owned, I think his name was Phil Coghlan, that guy was really cool and he couldn't drive it at 10/10ths anymore because his health wouldn't allow it but he always helped us out with parts and advice.

Shane also had a 13B bridge in his 929 wagon that was rusty and multi coloured but it would pull up the front wheels on a launch off the Sturt street lights with 4 of us in it, that gave a lot of people who thought they had tough cars a big fright, especially when they originally thought the 929 was driving with the choke on

I remember stirring all the V8 boys up in the carpark as we used to slide through the bends at the mall and give our rotors a bootfull side by side - fun times, I am sure you can't get away with that stuff in this day and age.

There was a bloke named Drew who bought (as far as I know) the first 13B turbo to Ballarat, in a yellow rx3 coupe he bought off Chris Dalton, with 20psi sucking through a sidedraft weber, it smashed everything in the early 90's, and ran an 11 flat at Calder. He came around the corner at the bottom of the Hot Gossip hill (is that place still there?) while I was waiting in a big line to get in and boosted so hard up the hill it was on the back wheels until 2nd gear and got airborn off the top round about, now I am sure you can't and should not do that these days (pretty bloody lucky to get away with it then too).

There was an immaculate (and I mean amazingly perfect) orange rx-2 coupe in a shed I knew about, I am sure that guys name was Shane too, I think he worked at Mars, I hope that car is still about.

Another guy had a yellow Rx-2 drag car he bought from one of Dalton's mates that ran 10's.

Added to that is a guy named Andrew who had an awesome R100, he had 2 infact as he found a full complete one behind a farm shed with a blown motor and bought it for $100, I watched him strip the 2nd one for bits and I only wish now I had known and bought it off him for $150!

There were others too, a red Rx-3 coupe (the guy worked in maccas), a chick that had a turbo 12A rx-4 coupe, it was a pretty healthy scene back then.

All in all Ballarat was an awesome place to grow up driving rotors, hope its still fun there.

Have fun on your cruise,

Andy

Very rarely see any old school rotas up here now!
There's a nice Teal green RX808/3 floating
around but i'm never close enough to say hello.

There needs to be more local cruises organised!

You would be talking about Peter with the yellow
RX2. He bought my weber fed, big extend port 13B.
Pulled it out of my old RX5.

If the weather holds out I'm in. Need to give my old girl a run. I came to your last cruise a couple of years ago. Richard - RXBOSS

[quote] Shane used to race the 13B PP rx-7 with mobil sponsorship that a guy in the BLCC owned, I think his name was Phil Coghlan, that guy was really cool and he couldn't drive it at 10/10ths anymore because his health wouldn't allow it but he always helped us out with parts and advice.


I remember stirring all the V8 boys up in the carpark as we used to slide through the bends at the mall and give our rotors a bootfull side by side - fun times, I am sure you can't get away with that stuff in this day and age.

There was a bloke named Drew who bought (as far as I know) the first 13B turbo to Ballarat, in a yellow rx3 coupe he bought off Chris Dalton, with 20psi sucking through a sidedraft weber, it smashed everything in the early 90's, and ran an 11 flat at Calder. He came around the corner at the bottom of the Hot Gossip hill (is that place still there?) while I was waiting in a big line to get in and boosted so hard up the hill it was on the back wheels until 2nd gear and got airborn off the top round about, now I am sure you can't and should not do that these days (pretty bloody lucky to get away with it then too).

There was an immaculate (and I mean amazingly perfect) orange rx-2 coupe in a shed I knew about, I am sure that guys name was Shane too, I think he worked at Mars, I hope that car is still about.

Another guy had a yellow Rx-2 drag car he bought from one of Dalton's mates that ran 10's.

Added to that is a guy named Andrew who had an awesome R100, he had 2 infact as he found a full complete one behind a farm shed with a blown motor and bought it for $100, I watched him strip the 2nd one for bits and I only wish now I had known and bought it off him for $150!

There were others too, a red Rx-3 coupe (the guy worked in maccas), a chick that had a turbo 12A rx-4 coupe, it was a pretty healthy scene back then.

All in all Ballarat was an awesome place to grow up driving rotors, hope its still fun there.

Have fun on your cruise,

Andy[/quote]

Hey andy.

I can fill you in a little. I think phil Coglan is dead now ( I could be wrong). The chick with the rx4 sold that car to one of my mates, then he sold it to another mate. Shane's rx2 coupe got sold for 10k, he regrets selling that car cause the young guy that he sold it too is looney!

I dont know when you were last in the rat, but there is no carpark any more, there is a big w there. The S's going down sturt street is now single lane so no more crazy side by side drifts. Hamburger cart is over near coles/safeway too.

There is pretty much no car scene in ballarat. You would remember the old days when the geelong cars would come down friday night and we would go to geelong on the sunday night?

Cops are bigger cunts now, and now they know what a BOV is they will ping you for anything!

So many nice cars locked up in sheds, i'm just glad I got to see the good days ( i'm 31)

cheers, ash

Gday all...im from Ballarat and i have a green rx2 12at. If the weather permits ill be there for sure. The rotors seem to be coming back in Ballarat (thank god). Theres mine, another yellow rx2, a teal green rx3 sedan, an orange s4 rx7 and im sure theres a few others floating around that i dont know about. It would be good to catch up with other rotor enthusiasts.

Hey andy.

I can fill you in a little. I think phil Coglan is dead now ( I could be wrong). The chick with the rx4 sold that car to one of my mates, then he sold it to another mate. Shane's rx2 coupe got sold for 10k, he regrets selling that car cause the young guy that he sold it too is looney!

I dont know when you were last in the rat, but there is no carpark any more, there is a big w there. The S's going down sturt street is now single lane so no more crazy side by side drifts. Hamburger cart is over near coles/safeway too.

There is pretty much no car scene in ballarat. You would remember the old days when the geelong cars would come down friday night and we would go to geelong on the sunday night?

Cops are bigger cunts now, and now they know what a BOV is they will ping you for anything!

So many nice cars locked up in sheds, i'm just glad I got to see the good days ( i'm 31)

cheers, ash[/quote]

Hey Ash,

Yeah I'm 38, there were some serious races when the Geelong boys would come down to town back in the day.

Not suprised to hear about Phil Couglan, but its a shame.

I have remembered more names since I posted. Shane with the 2 coupe, it was Shane Mende if I remember correctly and Drew Maynard hard the T04 13B in the Rx-3 coupe.

Hope the hamburger cart still does those mad jam donuts, that place was quality!

Good to hear there area few decent rotors getting around again. I havent been to the rat for years, pretty suprised to hear there is no car scene, it was huge back then. There were loads of quality V8's too.

Cheers Mate
Andy

From memory shanes old rx2 coupe is still in town...but yeah he sold it to a guy that knows very little about rotaries. I remember back in those days, there used to be a blue rx4 coupe, an orange rx4, a blue rx2 (creeps), a dark blue rx3 coupe, shanes old rx2 and a dark green rx2 which is my ride now. Those were the days cruisin in geelong on a Sunday night.

Bump any else

G'day

I am interested, just have to see how things are closer to the 26th.

Cheers
Graham

I have broken down the cruise route into 8 maps so that if for some reason
the group gets broken up, you can see where the rest of the group is going.

For the computer illiterate -
1. Right click over a map
2. Select "Print picture"
3. Click "print" ( and awaaay you go! )

Map 1 - Ballan BP Roadhouse to Elaine


Map 2 - Elaine to Mt Buninyong


Map 3 - Mt Buninyong to Bungaree

Map 4 - Bungaree to Clunes


Map 5 - Clunes to Newstead


Map 6 - Newstead to Mt Franklin

Map 7 - Mt Franklin to Daylesford, including a stop at The Chocolate Mill.
Here's a link - http://www.chocmill.com.au/location.html.
Their chocolate is YUMMY, but it does cost some coin!



Map 8 - Daylesford back to the Western Hwy

Phil, you can put my brother down as attending the cruise in his RX-7