Sun shines on hot cars, bikes at Lake Pertobe show

Mr Dumesny treated himself to an early Christmas present, driving to Adelaide last Tuesday to pick up the 1979 classic car.

"I always wanted one so I decided to buy one," he said.

"It's a nice looking car, who wouldn't want a Corvette."

The red-on-red Corvette with removable mirror roof only has 38,000 miles on it. "It drives like it's brand new. I absolutely love it," he said.

"It's a fresh import."

The pre-Christmas splurge set him back $47,000, which was reduced from from $54,000.

Mr Dumesny has owned other collectable cars in the past such as GTO Torana LC, HR and HD Holdens. "They weren't collectable in the day but they are now," he said.

Allansford's Tony Read found his 1963 Beetle parked under a Cypress tree in about 2009 and got it on the road about four years ago.

"It gets a lot of attention being that it's all rusty and original," Mr Read said.

The eye-catching VW comes with a range of accessories that are period correct for the car such as roof racks and an air conditioner that sits outside the window.

Mr Read said he had now finished restoring the car and was "leaving it as is".

"Patina it's called. That means rusty - how it's sort of been left from day one," he said.

Mr Read said he had always had a soft spot for VWs since he was a kid when his father owned one which they used to take on family trips - the longest drive being to Halls Gap.

"There was five of us in it. We did have a few trips at Christmas when we tried to stuff as many as we could in there which is the usual thing with a Volkswagen back then," he said.

"I've had a lot of elderly people come and say they used to have their bassinets in the back with their kids and drive them around with no seat belts."

Restoring a 1947 McCormick Farmall tractor became Koroit's Barry Brody hobby during the COVID-19 lockdowns after he found the derelict machine next to a shed in Ararat.

"During COVID-19 there was no so much to do," Mr Brody said.

"Years ago we used to have one on a farm and the kids used to always say 'why did you sell that tractor?', so when it came up I thought we'd buy it and do it up.

"We spent a lot of hours on it.

"It's marvellous how the time goes."

Mr Brody stripped the tractor right back and unbolted the whole thing which looked like "just a heap of junk in the shed".

With a bit of restoration and a new paint job which probably added up to $5000, the tractor now runs "beautifully", he said.

Mr Brody said he had now sourced old milk cans which he has restored for the milk wagon that attaches to the back which he will put on display at the next car event.

Having worked as a spud picker at a potato and onion farm until 1987 when machines took over, Mr Brody said they used to use similar tractors.

He recalled busy Boxing Days in years gone by where they used to get up at 3am and pick spuds until dinner time to get fresh potatoes to markets in Melbourne.

"There could be 30 or 40 blokes in the paddock picking," he said.

"There was some hot days there."

Dozens of classic and muscle cars were on display at the Warrnambool and District Drag Racing Association's annual car and bike show'n'shine on Tuesday.

Association president Paul Cleaver said it was a great turn out for a hot day with a couple of thousand people walking through the gold-coin-donation event.

"Tourists are really happy that there is something different to do," he said.

Mr Cleaver said there was about 120 cars from Hamilton, Portland, Colac and Mount Gambier and Warrnambool district on display.

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