Modern Melbourne Home

Robson Rak Architects is fast becoming another Australian architecture firm that I am regularly admiring (see this previous post of another stunning Melbourne house they worked on).
This time, they collaborated on this residential renovation and extension with interior designer, Susie Cohen of Made by Cohen. This modern home is in the line up for Houses Award 2014 and was in the  Residential Design short list for Australian Interior Design Awards 2014. It is not hard to see why. Read and see more here.

Photographs by Shannon McGrath via yellowtrace.

Modernist Beach Home

We have been having lovely, sunny and calm Wellington weather at the start of our winter season, so it doesn't feel so bad to share this modernist beach home from Sydney, rather than a cosy cabin today. It's no surprise that this home is so stylish as it is the home of interior stylist and buyer, Karen Kelly Tarasin and her family - and it has made the cover of the latest Inside Out magazine. I like the warmth of the timber, vintage Danish furniture and shots of blue throughout. Read more here.

Photographs by Prue Ruscoe via Homelife.

A Beautifully Restored Sydney Home

Recently featured in the latest Vogue Living magazine is this beautifully restored late-Victorian terrace home in Sydney. A collaborative effort between interior designers, Juliette Arent and Sarah-Jane Pyke of Arent & Pyke and architect, Tom Ferguson of TFAD, who worked together to make the most of the wide frontage and high ceilings that this former boarding house had to offer.
The house has been beautifully composed with a mix of modern and vintage pieces used throughout, as well as a rich palette of colours and textures. This property has made the shortlist for the 2014 Australian Interior Design Awards for both the Residential Design and Residential Decoration sections.

Formal sitting room

Formal dining room

Kitchen and dining space

Home office

Main bedroom

Dressing room and ensuite

Bathroom

Updated steel windows and doors which open out to a courtyard

Photographs by Anson Smart via Vogue Living.

Ford Kills American Ranger after 2011, New Global Ranger Still a Go

Due to the impending death of the American compact truck market, Ford has officially decided to not sell the next generation Ford Ranger in the States after 2011. Instead, the Blue Oval will concentrate on making its half-ton F-150 an all-around contender with a broader engine range. Apparently Ford doesn't think the compact pickup truck market in the States is too important (and at 2%, it really isn't).

Ford's decision to kill its American compact pickup has a couple reasons behind it: competitors offer better options that would cost too much to compete against, and more importantly, the segment is simply dying and not worth investing in. By canceling the US Ranger, Ford will be shutting down its St. Paul, Minnesota assembly plant.

The bottom line is that Ford can and has justified spending its money elsewhere. One example is moving some of its former Ranger fleet purchases to Transit Connects, which makes a lot of sense.

For all those compact pickup fans, there is an upside: markets that make use of small trucks will be getting a new Ranger very soon. The next, more efficient compact pickup will debut at Sydney's Australian International Motor Show. The truck was designed in Australia, which has been on a roll lately with great designs and ideas (e.g. the new Falcon GT and Cruze Hatchback).

The world's next Ranger should come with EcoBoost power and four and six-cylinder gasoline and diesel engines. As soon as we get some more info closer to its debut, you know where to come.

By Phil Alex

Source: USA Today

Ford to Unveil All-New Ranger Pickup Truck and FPV Falcon with Supercharged V8 at Sydney Motor Show

This year's Australian International Motor Show in Sydney, which runs October 15 -24, will see Ford taking the wraps off an all-new generation of its Ranger compact pickup truck. The new Ranger will be joined by Ford Performance Vehicles (FPV) first-ever supercharged V8 Falcons, and the Aussie debuts of the current Focus RS and Fiesta Sedan.

The new Ranger, which has been developed in Australia and will go on sale in 180 global markets, is a sister model to the new Mazda BT-50 (also set to make its world premiere in Sydney). Ford said that the new compact pickup truck will be offered with a new family of engines with "impressive gains in power and fuel economy". More intel and photos will be released closer to the Sydney motor show.

Continuing with the rest of Ford's debuts, the 305HP Focus RS will be offered in the country in a limited number of 315 units, while the new Fiesta four-door sedan will be available in both diesel and petrol versions.

As for FPV's Falcon-based performance models, both the GT and GS cars get a new supercharged engine based on the Mustang's 5.0-liter V8 unit kicking out 449HP and 422HP respectively (read more here). According to Ford, albeit the base of the new FPV V8 engine is imported from the USA in component form, each unit is hand-assembled locally by FPV in Melbourne, using Australian-made components.

Australia: The Pricey World of Right-Hand Drive Conversions

Car buyers in Australia and other RHD countries have long got the short end of the stick in terms of American muscle cars. The reason is quite simple: they drive on the "wrong" side of the road.

Most manufacturers are unwilling to do right-hand-drive conversions on what are essentially specialist models: cars like the Chevrolet Camaro, Dodge Viper, Ford Mustang and the like. There just aren't enough buyers to rationalize the cost.

Fortunately, a cottage industry (or rather a man-in-a-shed industry) has popped up offering RHD conversions of American muscle cars for eager buyers in countries like Australia, the UK and Japan.

In Australia, for instance, you can get just about anything from a AU$359,990 Corvette ZR-1 (or around three times as much as it does in the U.S.) to a AU$139,000 Chevrolet Camaro (or the same as an Audi S5 Cabrio in Australia).

Want a 2011 Mustang GT convertible? Be prepared to pony up AU$142,500 (the same as brand new Porsche Boxster Spyder) for that Pony. And it becomes even more laughable when you look at the U.S. prices for these same cars:

We do not claim to know the full details involved with importing a car and converting it to RHD, but it can't be so difficult as to demand the of a new entry-level Porsche 911...

So the next time you harrumph at some foreign nobody, whining about, "How good you bleedin' Yanks have got it" – spare a thought for the poor, cash-strapped Aussie... selling his 911 to buy a RHD Corvette ZR-1.

By Tristan Hankins

Here's where we found pricing information for the RHD conversions:

Corvette Clinic - makers of the RHD ZR-1
Mustang Australia - builders of RHD Mustangs
Performax - makers of the RHD Camaro and other cars

And Top Gear Australia magazine's August 2010 issue.