Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
We would like to wish all our friends, customers and visitors a Merry Christmas and a safe, happy and prosperous New Year. Please be careful on our roads if travelling and we trust that you enjoy time with your families at this special time. Greg and Dave can both be contacted over this time. Please feel free to email us with suggestions to improve the site in 2001 to suggestions@hot-rod.net. We are looking to continue adding to and improving our site next year.

Flat Attack Racing
Welcome to the newest member of Hot Rod Internet, Flat Attack Racing Flat Attack make performance equipment for Ford "flathead" V8's. Ranging from modern fuel injection, programable 2 and 3 bolt crab distributors, to transmission adaptors and a host of other items. Plus Director Mike Davidson is author of 2 fantastic books about high performance flatheads.

Dream Rod
We had a computer altered picture of a 1940 La Salle project we have for sale at Bendigo Swap. (see the Cyber swap for more!) We managed to upset some of the restorers who could not believe that we could really chop up such a rare car (only 10 RHD ever made!) You should have seen some of the horrified looks! The car is actually still original and unrestored at the moment but really does look good rodded. Amazing what you can do with Adobe PhotoShop and lots of patience.  It came up so well we decided to do a 'Dream Rod' feature. We intend to do some more of these mock ups soon and put them up on the site. If you have some suggestions for Dream Rods let Dave know by email to dreamrod@hot-rod.net or send in some pictures. We will chop and drop almost anything!

Cyber Swap Meet
Now that we have mentioned the Cyber Swap Meet for a limited time we are offering completely free advertising at the Cyber Swap Meet for your car or parts. Strictly pre '65 cars or Hot Rod related parts only.

Bendigo Swap Meet
Once again held at the Bendigo Showgrounds on Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th November. There were more sites this year and much site re-numbering which caused some problems for vendors. This year Dave and Donna were on sites 77 and 78 with Donna's '59 Cadillac Fleetwood, which had lots of lookers and potential buyers (No it is not for sale!) Greg kept busy looking around on the Saturday.

Lots of Hot Rods and Kustoms at the cruise night Friday night, most were parked though. Saturday saw a very hot and dusty day which made looking around very draining. Crowds were huge as usual but wallets remained very tight. Many of our member sites had stands and most reported fair sales. Sunday was very quiet and even hotter! Sunday definitely needs some work from the organising committee if the Swap is to retain its reputation. There are apparently 300 people on the waiting list for sites. Why not let them in on the Sunday when at least that many sites have packed up and gone home? This could boost it back to a proper 2 day swap again. As it is now Saturday is the only day worth going. (Start at 6 a.m. if you want to see it all.)

There was a good car show this time around (smaller than previous years though) but not a lot of good project cars for sale. We saw a real nice 36 Chev Sloper (all original) and a 37 Ford sedan (old resto) for sale which seemed like good deals. Have a look at Greg's photo's of the show and shine. There were a number of finished cars for sale but prices are getting very high for nice cars. Steel bodies are getting harder to come by and cars that would not have been given a second look a few years ago are now being restored (or rodded!).

Pedal Cars
We were very impressed with the reproduction pedal cars at Bendigo as shown left. (see www.pedalcar.com.au) What a great Christmas present for the Hot Rod kid and quality was very good. They have a range of nice cars. These come from W.A. and we hope they will become a member site so stay tuned!

Willys Heads
Another new product spotted at Bendigo were these Australian made reproduction Willys 4 cylinder performance heads from Willys enthusiast Ted Robinette. These heads suit all 4 cyl 134 cu. inch Willys L head engines (including 145.7 cu. inch 96A engine) from 1926 to mid '60's Jeeps. Called a 'Willy Willy' (an Australian Cyclone) these heads can be drilled to suit pre or post '39 engines and adapters are available to fit early thermostat housings. Bosses can also be tapped for various accessories. They are said to improve performance and reduce overheating and have already been tested on the street and in racing applications. Some have already been exported to the U.S. For more info see Ted's Web Site. Will an 'A' Model Ford head be next?

John's Picnic
Check out the heaps of photos from this years coolest event or read about the Hot-Rod Internet sponsored trophy presented to the Coolest "Real Hot Rod".

Updates
Antique Tyres now have a new range of Excelsior Tyres in stock

Lots more updates
Recently we have updated many of the pages on Hot Rod Internet. More specifically the events page and the tours pages, which continue to grow. The links pages have an additional feature this week, you can add and classify your own links on the NEW! links page, so you no longer have to wait to get your site listed. Every so often I'll be moving these into the main links database. We will also be adding a site map soon. If you have any suggestions email Greg or Dave.

New Staff Car
Dave has recently purchased a 1946 Ford Sedan, black with blue flames. We hoped to have it at Bendigo but we are waiting for our engine re-build (302 windsor) and some new red and yellow flames. This is one of the cars that will be used to promote Hot-Rod Internet over the upcoming rodding season, so look out for it at some of the events that you attend. The picture shows it as purchased. The 289 Windsor fitted was lunched beyond repair! The car has a Holden front end and 8" diff.

Welcome!
Welcome to our newest member site, Simon Muntz's Street Rods and Accessories at http://www.streetrod.com.au, Seven pages at the moment but a lot more to follow. We are very pleased to announce that we have been able to negotiate a very attractive virtual hosting deal, just $150 per annum! Saving our existing clients $125 as they change over from our old package. This new service offers all the features of the old at a much reduced cost. Email us now for more information!

We would also like to welcome those new member companies who currently have sites under development. These include, Bob Fisher Automotive & Superchargers, High Performance Coatings, Special Interest Autos, OZX, ididit Chassis and lilow Front Ends, Bill Thompson Auto Rubber, Victorian Performance Warehouse, Hot Rod Hardware and Lewis Chassis Works. These sites will be completed over the coming months.

Hot Rod Tour
With the hot rod season just around the corner here in Oz we've been getting a few enquires from international and interstate visitors about what to see and where to go. So we've started a page of Hot Rod Tours. We've begun with Victoria and will extend this to the other States over the coming months. We'd certainly be interested in your comments or anything we've left out. So drop us an email and tell us what you think. The next development is to provide some maps to compliment the lists of places to go.

More New Sites!
Rod Frames - Specialises in replacement chassis rails for 1928 -1931 A Models Fords
Simota - Air Intake systems and aluminimum wings.

New Sites, Hot Rod Heaven & Automania
Hot Rod Heaven specialise in Hot Rods for hire for Weddings and Special Occassions. You can find them at www.hotrodheaven.com.au

Automania can be found at www.automania.com.au They sell a huge range of gifts hobbies and collectables for the Hot-Rodder and car nut.

Recent Sites, Hi-Tech Hotrods & Antique Tyres
Hi-Tech Hotrods is one of our latest member sites. Based in Castlemaine, Victoria, they specialise in manufacturing the sweetest '34 Standard and Deluxe grilles you will ever see. They also cater for most aspects of hot-Rod building. Check out Hi-Tech Hotrods.

Antique Tyre Service are another business to get online at www.antiquetyres.com.au. They are based in Melbourne and specialise in whitewall and classic tyres for restored cars and hot-rods.  Hot Rod Hardware, a Melbourne based business specialising in Repro Hot-Rod parts is nearly ready and will be up soon!

HyPerformance Car & Bike Show
Greg was there and snapped off 60 photos of some of the action. With very little mainstream media this event still managed to pull a reasonable crowd. Interestingly there was a lot of older (40ish) people coming to have a look. A few Hot Rods, lots of Harleys and more Commodores and Falcons than you could poke a stick at. If you missed the Summer Nats this was probably the next best thing.

ASRF Web Site Archive
The National Library of Australia have requested from Greg permission to archive the ASRF website, as they consider it to be of National significance. "To be selected for national preservation, a significant proportion of a work should be about Australia or be on a subject of social, political, cultural, religious, scientific; or economic significance and relevance to Australia and be written by an Australian author; or be written by an Australian of recognised authority and constitute a contribution to international knowledge."
This is very much an honour and a privledge as "Organisational and personal sites are selected on a very limited basis." and is fantastic recognition of the work put in not only buy Greg as Webmaster but also the ASRF National Secretaries and all those that have contributed to the newsletter.
You can check it out at http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pandora/

Events Page
The Events page has just received an major update. Now featuring a full twelve months of events. As we become aware of more events we'll be adding them.

Nostalgia Drags
Held on Sunday 14th May at Calder Park Raceway for Rods, Customs and Nostalgia Drag Racers. Greg was there, check out his over 100 pictures!.

The 24th Australian Automotive Trade Fair
Greg was there and here's some details and photos of rods from at the show

Victorian State Rod Run
Greg did make it to the Run for the Sunday, here's a bit of a report and some photos of the rods at the Show 'n Shine on the Sunday

Dry Lakes Racers
The DLRA held their annual speed week at lake Gairdner in South Australia between Monday 6th and Friday 10th March. Greg has put up some pictures and information at the DLRA site.Click here to see it.   From all accounts it was another successful week of racing with a few new records set.

Hot-Rod Vendors Page
We have added a 'Vendors' section, listing as many of the Hot-Rod related businesses and contact details as possible. We have included those who do not have a web site also, with normal phone and snail mail details. If you contact any of these vendors please make sure you tell them where you found them so that we can convince more businesses to get onto the net.

Australian Street Rodding column.
Greg is now writing a regular column for Australia's only specialist Hot-Rodding magazine Australian Street Rodding. He will be listing some of the many great web sites from Australia and around the world, as well as introducing and explaining the benefits of the Internet to the average Hot-Rodder who may not understand what the Internet can do for him. You can help by inviting your friends and clubmates around to show them how easy it is to use the Internet and introduce them to cyberspace or email Greg with any suggested sites to review.

Coming soon
For information on how to join Hot-Rod Internet see our join page. In the  future we will be constantly expanding the site.  If you have any further ideas or suggestions please email us. We will soon be available as free "Guest Speakers" for car club meetings and events to explain how the internet can benefit Hot-Rodders. At the present time this will be in Victoria only. More details to follow soon.

Make Hot-Rod Internet your start page
You can make Hot-Rod Internet your start up page by following the directions here. We have included links to popular search engines and email providers along with a list of Hot-Rod Internet Members. If you are a Hot-Rodder our home page is a great place to start surfing from! Contact us and let us know if there is anything we should add.

General News
There are so many events on at the moment (see our events page) that it is impossible to get to all. We also have our club list up. Please see if your club is listed and let us know if it is not, or if details are incorrect.