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Euro Car Club Tunnel Run - 3/3/23

I rarely get a weekday off at work, but when I do, I go carspotting. This time wouldn't be the usual dealerships though, as I had a few friends to visit in the CBD. Though I didn't see many supercars bar this Mclaren GT in Orange, I still did manage to find a few cars I did like.


This Suzuki Jimny was decked out in this cool black & white scheme with a G-Wagen light bar and a Land Rover Defender side mounted luggage compartment, which I found super awesome. There was also this old shape Jeep which I just had to take a picture of, since you don't see these often this central!

I was at the arcade playing Wangan Midnight with some old colleagues, when my good friend, Ann, asked if I was going to the Euro Car Club. As I wasn’t driving, I gladly accepted their offer to take me to the run.

Having never been to an ECC event before, I didn’t know what to expect. I also hadn’t carried camera with me that day, so please enjoy some flash photography from my phone!

My friend pulled up in what I think is the coolest looking, non-JCW, new (BMW) Mini. It had a full Good Smile Racing livery with Hatsune Miku as the character. This form of livery originated in Japan and is called Itasha, with cars plastered in Anime-themed wraps…but more on that topic in another article!

When we got to the meeting location, a few other cars were already there. And as per usual, a plethora of Volkswagen Golf GTi’s and R32’s were present, as well as multiple BMW M3 models, mostly consisting of E36 and E46 models. 


 

There were a few notable examples though: a classic red Mini Cooper (which we parked next to, given we were a Mini too) which belonged to the photographer for the night, a Fraser-based Lotus 7 in purplish-blue mated to an F20C (which comes in the Honda S2000), a Megane Renault Sport II RS250 Cup, which was differentiated from the standard RS with Red calipers instead of silver, 235/35R19 tires instead of 225/40R18’s; and most surprising to arrive was a Ferrari F12berlinetta in Grigio Titanio Metallizato (thank goodness it wasn’t red!)





Overall it was a great night, we did 2 laps of the Waterview Tunnel there and back; and though they removed all manner of speed cameras, we were still sticking under the speed limit, just in case a cheeky undercover police car was there! There was also this awesome Nissan Skyline GTS Type S Series 2.5 (HR33)! It was painted white, but was originally KN6 Dark Grey Pearl, which meant it that if it was kept in its original state, it'd be 1 of 29 Automatic Coupes of its trim level ever made!


Again, many thanks to Ann for taking me along for the ride! Here's their Instagram if any of you guys want to check out their account!

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